Sermon: A Calming Word For Troubled Hearts
Scripture: John 14:1-8 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.[a] If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?[b] 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. 7 If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is.[c] From now on, you do know him and have seen him!” 8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”
Introduction: John 14 opens with Jesus and his faithful disciples gathered around a supper table. Judas has dismissed himself and now Jesus comforts the rest of his team. Even in the hard moment of life, God always provides a word of comfort. They are grieved to think that one of team will betray Christ, they could imagine Peter denying Christ and they could hardly imagine this being their last evening with Jesus. What would life be without the physical presence of Jesus? Who would lead them, feed them, protect them? So the departing Jesus using these moments to calm their troubled hearts with trust and hope in God.
It seems that are more than enough worries to go around. Each day we can hear 8 hours of bad news. All those negative reports are enough to trouble the heart. Yet the passage is a command, not a suggestion. A command to calm the troubled heart. “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.” Our only remedy for a troubled Heart is Faith in God and our relationship with Jesus.
1. (Believe)Trust In God and in Me. Let not your heart be troubled: The disciples had reason to be troubled. Jesus had just told them that one of them was a traitor, that all of them would deny Him, and that He would leave them that night. All of this would legitimately trouble the disciples, yet Jesus told them, let not your heart be troubled. Jesus never promised a life without trouble, but He promised that we could have an untroubled heart even in a troubled life. This was a command to ‘stop being troubled’ or to ‘Set your heart at ease.’ Jesus didn’t say, “I’m happy you men are troubled and filled with doubts. You’re doubts are wonderful.” “He takes no delight in the doubt and uneasiness of his people. When he saw that because of what he had said to them sorrow had filled the hearts of his apostles, he pleaded with them in great love, and besought them to be comforted.” His disciples felt His departure like a torture. And it was then that He consoled them with such simple and glorious message that all Christians will need. His remedy was “You believe in God, believe also in Me:” Instead of giving into a troubled heart, Jesus told them to firmly put their trust in God and in Jesus Himself. This was a radical call to trust in Jesus just as one would trust in God the Father, and a radical promise that doing so would bring comfort and peace to a troubled heart.
2. (Believe)Trust That the Situation is Under Control. Trouble, worry, and doubts seem to increase when there is uncertainty. Jesus wanted the disciples to know that he was in total control. “What distinguishes Jesus and separates Him from all other religious teachers was not only his clarity and tenderness with which He taught the truths about the Father’s love, morality, justice, truth, and goodness; but was His call to the world to ‘Believe in Me.’ The coming situations are down My control. You must believe in God, you must also believe in Me. I am on mission from God. And these things are happening according to a divine plan. “Jesus’ solution to perplexity is not a recipe; it is a relationship with him.” Reasons for calming the troubled heart is that these are leading a future reunion in the Father’s house.
3. (Believe)Trust that I am Going to My Father’s House to Prepare a Place for you. “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. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
Let not your hearts be troubled because your faith will not be disappointed. In My Father’s house are many mansions. Jesus spoke with complete confidence about heaven, here spoken of as His Father’s house. Jesus didn’t wonder about the life beyond this earth; He knew it and told His disciples that there was room for all in heaven (many mansions). Mansions is better translated “dwelling places.” There will be many such dwelling places. Jesus could see what the disciples could not see – millions upon millions, even billions from every tribe, language, nation in His Father’s house. He may have even smiled when He said, many mansions! I go to prepare a place for you: Love prepares a welcome. With love, expectant parents prepare a room for the baby. With love, the hostess prepares for her guests. With love, Jesus prepares a place for His people because He loves them and is confident of their arrival. Jesus speaks of His own planning and initiative. He wasn’t taken to the cross; He went there. “They thought that His death was an unforeseen calamity. Christ taught them that it was the path of His own planning.”
4. (Believe)Trust That I am Coming Again and That You Will Be With Me. I will come again to receive you to Myself: Jesus promised to come again for the disciples. This was not only in the sense of His soon resurrection or in the coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus also had in mind the great gathering together of His people at the end of the age. “They were not to think of Him as having ceased to be when they could not see Him. He had only gone to another abiding-place to prepare for their coming; and He would come back to receive them.” “This was a very precious promise to the early Church, and Paul would later echo this message to Thessalonians, “by the word of the Lord’ that Jesus will descend from heaven and gather believers unto Himself to be with Him forever.” That where I am, there you may be also: The entire focus of heaven is being united with Jesus. Heaven is heaven not because of streets of gold, or pearly gates, or even the presence of angels. Heaven is heaven because Jesus is there. We take comfort in knowing that even as He prepares a place for us, and Jesus prepares us for that place. I know this text is a challenge to many because Jesus said, that He is the exclusive way to the Father.
Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Lord, we do not know where You are going: Thomas should be praised for honestly and clearly explaining his confusion. He thought Jesus was simply going to another place, as if it were another city. Notice how Thomas speaks to him naturally and so much easy. Jesus talks to them in full sympathy with their weakness, teaching them little by little as they can learn. They ask questions as a boy might ask of his father. Often, they show their limited knowledge, but never do they seem timid in his presence, or ashamed to let him see how shallow and hard of understanding they were. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life! Jesus didn’t say that He would show us a way; He said that He is the way. He didn’t promise to teach us a truth; He said that He is the truth. Jesus didn’t offer us the secrets to life; He said that He is the life. If you are wandering about where to go? Jesus is the way. If you are confused; and don’t know what to think. Jesus is the truth. If you feel dead inside and don’t know if you can go on. Jesus is the life. Knowing what was ahead, this declaration seems like a paradox. Jesus’ way would be the cross; He would be convicted by blatant liars; His body would soon lie lifeless in a tomb. Because He took that way, He is the way to God; because He did not contest the lies, we can believe He is the truth; because He was willing to die, He becomes the channel of resurrection – the life to us. “Without the way there is no going; without the truth there is no knowing; without the life there is no living. I am the way which thou must follow; the truth in which thou must believe; the life for which thou must hope.”
No one comes to the Father except through Me: Jesus made this remarkable statement, claiming that He was the only way to God. In this He set aside the temple and its rituals, as well as other religions. It was a claim to have an exclusive way, truth, and life – the only pathway to God the Father, the true God in heaven. I understand plainly, this is one of the most controversial things Jesus said and the Gospel writers recorded. Many people don’t mind saying that Jesus is one legitimate way to God, but other religions and even individuals have their own legitimate ways to God. Many think it isn’t fair for God to make only one way. Yet God offers that way to all. It is the only way to calm a troubled heart in a troubled world. Can you really believe in the economy, or politics or social justice? Everyday, we see economic struggle, crooked politics, abuse of the justice systems, and the misuse of authority. Everyday, we witness so much worry, anxiety, and depression. The world has no lasting answers, yet Jesus I know the way! “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. “Just follow Me!
The late Walter Hawkins said it this way: “I have a friend indeed, One who supplies my ev'ry need. Follow me I'll show you the way, To turn your darkness into day, To turn your darkness into day!
If there's some questions in your mind, If they're disturbing your peace of mind, Follow me I'll show you the way, To turn your darkness into day, To turn your darkness into day!
If you want some need some peace of mind, If you need some joy divine, Follow me follow me, I'll point you to Jesus, I'll point you to Jesus, I'll point you to Jesus, I'll point you to Jesus, I'll point you to Jesus and He’ll show you how to turn, To turn your darkness into day, To turn your darkness into day, To turn your darkness into day!” (Believe)
