I want to talk about trusting God today. Trusting Jesus. You have heard me preach this topic many times. But there comes a time in all of our lives when we truly question our trust in God. More than likely it has happened to every person in this room.
Maybe it was a child of yours who ended up in jail. You didn't know which way to turn. All of your energy was sapped from your body. All of your thoughts were totally involved in the situation. You begin to wonder why God is putting you through all of this. Why is God allowing you to suffer from this situation? And in it all, your trust in God fades a little bit.
Or maybe in your family you are expecting a child. You begin preparing or helping to prepare a special room for the baby. You have baby showers with your friends and your family and many gifts are given. Your excitement is more than it has been in a long time in your life. But then you get the tragic news that there is a problem. There is a miscarriage. And your heart drops to the floor. You begin asking again, why would God do this to me. Why is he allowing me to suffer so? And again, your trust in God begins to fade.
I could go on and on and give scenario after scenario of times in our life when we question our trust in God. We question if He is really there for us when we need Him the most. Am I wrong? We begin to wonder. What is God doing? Where are we going in this? Can God really take care of us?
Let me tell you that whatever season you have been through in your life, it more than likely will not be the last time that you have struggled to trust God. Thankfully, the work of Jesus is more powerful than our questions and our doubts. Jesus is for us. We can trust that He is with us, bringing us to the Father, no matter what situation we might face. So today, let's talk about living a life of trust. Prayer
We have talked a lot about Peter. A lot of us can identify with Peter. He was a lot like us. In last week's message, Jesus had just delivered a profound statement about loving one another in John 13:34-35. But Peter was more interested in what Jesus said before that.
He pushed right past the command to love and asked Jesus where He was going, which led Jesus to talk about His Father's house. Peter was more focused on what He wanted to know about God than on what Jesus wanted him to do for God. That, too, might sound familiar to us as well.
John 13: 36-37 – ““Lord,” Simon Peter said to him, “where are you going?”
Jesus answered, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later.” 37 “Lord,” Peter asked, “why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”
Here, we also see Peter was like us in another way. He, on impulse, asked, “Why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Peter was so confident in his conviction to Jesus, or at least he thought he was. Peter believed that he could hold firm to his faith no matter what, but Peter was wrong. We, too, often think more highly of ourselves and our strengths then we ought to.
When I was a student at Texas Tech University in Lubbock Texas, our dorm had its own gym. I would go regularly several times a week and lift weights. One day, even though I had been working out for most of the year, I made a rookie mistake. I thought that I could max out the weight on the bench press without anyone around to help me as a spotter. I was certain I knew how much I could lift. I loaded up the bar, lifted it off the hooks and down to my chest. And guess what? It stayed right there. Thankfully someone walked by and I hollered for help and they got the weight off of me. If it wasn't for that guy, I would probably still be in that gym trapped under a bench press weight that I was 100% certain I was strong enough to lift.
That's what Peter was like, except he didn't overestimate the strength of his chest and arms. He overestimated the strength of his trust in Jesus. He says, “I will lay down my life for you.”
Who hasn't been there? At some point, I'm sure we've all believed we were strong enough, good enough, brave enough, or wise enough, only to find ourselves trapped under the weight of our sin or fear when we were challenged. Our abilities and efforts aren't enough. We have to learn, as Peter did, that we can't trust in ourselves, but we can trust in Jesus.
John 13:38- 14:1 – “Jesus replied, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly I tell you, a rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times. “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.”
Jesus gave Peter's self-confidence a good shaking. “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly I tell you, a rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times.” Wow! That's brutal! Peter honestly believed he would fight to the death if someone tried to take Jesus from him. But Jesus knew that when the pressure came, Peter would deny even knowing Him.
Peter believed he was strong enough, passionate enough, experienced enough, and dedicated enough to hold on to his faith in Jesus, no matter what. Jesus knew otherwise. And Jesus was right. When the time came to stand up for Jesus, Peter fell down. He denied, denied, denied, and when the rooster crowed, he remembered that Jesus had told him this would happen. Matthew records that Peter went outside and wept bitterly.
So what should Peter have done? He should have simply trusted Jesus. Yes, Peter thought he was certain that he would have laid down his life for Jesus should the need arise. But Jesus knew better. When Jesus told Peter “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow me later,” it points to the idea that Peter's faith wasn't strong enough to follow Jesus to death at that moment. He would, however, do so later. Why? Because Jesus would soon take Peter's sin on Himself, He would die Peter's death on a cross, and raise Peter to New Life through his resurrection. Jesus was strong enough to defeat death for Peter and everyone else. Jesus made it possible for Peter to follow Him to heaven later.
So what was Jesus's message for Peter? Trust him. Jesus had just delivered an unsettling prediction to Peter, but Jesus also called the apostle to trust. Peter would fail in his own self-confidence, so Jesus says in John 14:1, don't let your heart be troubled, believe in God, believe also in me. Our hearts don't need to be troubled, even when we don't understand, we can believe in God. Why? As I said last week, God's got this.
John 14:2 – “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”
Jesus, once again, shared that He would soon be leaving. And yet as He was preparing His disciples for His departure, He gave them another reason to not be troubled. He promised believers a permanent residence in His Father's house.
Now, I want you to understand fully what Jesus is saying here. He said His Father's house contains many mansions, many rooms. The phrase translated “rooms” in several translations is “mansions.” When we think of the word mansion, it makes us think of huge houses with an emphasis on wealth and riches. But really this misses Jesus's true meaning and what He was trying to tell us. Listen closely.
The emphasis that Jesus was placing was on the location of the Father's house, and that location is in God's presence. God has an eternal place for believers with Him. That should be all that matters. The grandeur of heaven is the presence of God! God is that mansion.
So, let's not fix our minds on receiving a mansion, as if some glorified version of a brick-and-mortar castle is what will make heaven special. Jesus is preparing a place for us to dwell with Him, to be in His presence for all eternity, and that is the ultimate benefit of heaven. Again, we try to picture heaven in human terms. But the Bible tells us that our eyes have not seen anything here that corresponds to heaven.
I think of the guy who died and went to heaven and found a stack of gold and thought that he had it made. When Peter came along the guy showed Peter his riches. Peter explained to him that was nothing but street pavement in heaven.
John 14:3 – “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
These statements that Jesus made in verses 2 and 3 summarize his upcoming death, resurrection, ascension, and return. All of these events are essential in making heaven a reality for us. Jesus promised to come back for His followers, and accompany them beyond death, and bring them into His presence as their eternal reward. No mansion that we can even imagine, no matter how nice, could possibly be better than dwelling in the presence of Jesus. That is our reward.
Jesus told Peter that he would prepare a place for him. Preparing a place does not mean Jesus is busy working as a heavenly carpenter, trying to finish a house before a construction deadline comes along. Preparing a place has nothing to do with levels of reward in heaven. It has nothing to do with styles or sizes of houses based on our spiritual devotion. Jesus's redemptive work through the cross and resurrection was the way He was preparing a place for us. Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection from the grave was His preparing a place for us.
But Jesus also promised that He would come again. Jesus likely meant His second coming, but it's not unreasonable to think He may have been speaking of coming for every believer at a moment of death. Again, timing is not the main issue.
The focus is on the person who accompanies a believer through death, not the place where they are going or the time when they arrive. Hear me on this. No servant, angel, or anyone else comes for believers in the moment of death. Jesus Himself will come for His followers. Jesus would make it possible for His people to be with God the Father. And that was His mission from the very beginning.
Someone once told me that when someone here reaches the point of death that it is not Jesus that comes for them but the angels that escort them into heaven. I beg to differ. Jesus says that if He goes away and prepares that place, He will come again and receive you to Himself so that where He is there you may be also. He did not say He would send someone to get us. He said that He will come and receive us. And then, some of my favorite verses in the Bible.
John 14:4-6 – “And you know the way where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going; how do we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Verse 6 is one of the more well-known passages in the Bible, but it is also one that causes a lot of conflict. When Thomas asked how the disciples could know the way, Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” Is that clear enough? No one comes to the Father except through Jesus. That means that no one finds full satisfaction except through Jesus. No one finds ultimate hope except through Jesus. No one finds his or her way to heaven except through Jesus. That’s precisely why I say over and over again that you can’t get to heaven without Jesus as your Savior.
Jesus's words were very significant to the disciples but they are just as significant to us. “No one comes to the Father except through me,” Jesus said. Unfortunately, not everyone accepts that truth. I have friends and family members, and you may also, who believe there are many ways to come to God.
And then there are those who don't believe they need a way to the Father, because they don't believe there is a heavenly Father. In fact, some believe that there is nowhere to go after death. Isn't that sad? For them, this life is all there is.
And then of course, you have those that believe that this, right here, right now, here on earth, is heaven. They believe that this is heaven. Poor souls. Deep down, for these people, there is an emptiness because they believe that life simply ends. Jesus says we have only one way for that emptiness to be filled. We have only one hope for life beyond this life. Only one truth gets people to the God they were created to enjoy.
I am sure that we all know someone that refuses to believe. That truth weighs heavy on us as we think of those that we love who don't have a relationship with God through Jesus. But it is a comfort when that truth is aimed at ourselves. Jesus made this statement to His disciples to encourage them. For them, as it is for those of us in Christ, this is a promise that we have what we most want and truly need. Jesus says if you know Me, you will also know My Father. And in that statement, there is no better news for any heart.
We're talking about living a life of trust. In today's world, it often feels like trust is hard to gain and harder to keep. We often doubt what we see online, in the news, and even in our own hearts. But as we've been reminded in today's passage, Jesus is trustworthy in every way.
If you haven't already trusted Jesus with your life, would you think about doing so now? I encourage you to read this passage that we've covered today and let it sink in.
Make a list of the promises that Jesus made. Allow these truths to encourage you to trust Jesus even when you feel unsure. As Jesus Himself told us, He is the only way to God the Father.
I hope that you believe this. I hope that you trust in God all the way. I hope that you make a decision for Him if you have not already done so. As we stand in a moment for your response to God’s Word, remember that Jesus told us, “No one comes to the Father, but by Me.”
