As it may please Almighty God
to bless us together this morning, I will speak to you from the
Gospel of John, chapter 14, and we'll read verses 1 to 3. The
Gospel of John, chapter 14, and reading the first three verses.
Let not your hearts be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also
in me. 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 unto myself, that
where I am there ye maybe also. We are thankful that we have
a record and a detailed record of the words or at least some
of the words that Jesus spoke to those eleven disciples in
that upper room on that Passover night. And as we observe this
first statement, let not your heart be troubled, we can perhaps
understand why the Lord spoke in those terms. They had already partaken of
the Lord's Supper, something completely new unto them. The
Lord Jesus there had told them what it represented, his broken
body and his shed blood. And then he had spoken about Judas, but not
in a direct way. He said that somebody would betray
him. They weren't sure who he was. And then Judas had left
them. And again, they didn't seem to
realise why that was. And then the Lord Jesus had spoken
and said, now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified
in him. And he told them that he would
go away. Had a response from Peter. Peter
said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? And Jesus answered
him, Whither I go thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt
follow me afterwards. So there were all these things
which had come upon them. And no doubt their hearts, their
minds were in a turmoil. And yet the Lord comes now and
speaks these words, Let not your heart be troubled. And it may
be, in our lives, sometimes we find things seem to flood in,
one thing after another. And sometimes we are perplexed
and we don't understand what things mean. Situations which
have developed, why have they come and what's the purpose of
them? The law doesn't always reveal
to us the reasons for certain things which come into our lives.
The Lord brings before us and therefore as we find ourselves
in a troubled and a perplexed situation, to find that there
are words of comfort in the Word of God. The Lord Jesus here spoke
words of comfort to those disciples, those troubled, those perplexed
disciples. And he came and he spoke these
words, so simple and yet so true, let not your heart be troubled. Again, he doesn't just refer
to a mere thought in their minds. They were much more deeply affected
than that. It was their heart We might say,
well, what really was it? Well, I believe it was really
their spiritual life. Things were being churned upside
down for them. And they weren't able to really
comprehend them. You know, we can look back, can't
we? And we know the things which were accomplished and the things
which were fulfilled. But just ponder the disciple
situation here, which may be perhaps an encouragement to us,
perhaps in our life, As we don't see the future, we only see the
situation which has developed and we find it a troublesome
time. And therefore, to hear a word
like this, let not your heart be troubled. And as that word
was spoken on this occasion by the Lord himself, Almighty God,
to these disciples, how important it was How wonderful it was,
and may it be so to us today, that we may be encouraged, let
not your heart be troubled. Troubled as perhaps it may seem
to be, the word of God then to us is, let it not be troubled. And you might think, well, that's
alright, that's a wonderful statement, but why should my heart not be
troubled." The Lord Jesus goes to considerable
lengths to demonstrate to those disciples why their heart should
not be troubled. And may we, as the Lord helps
us to go through some of these points this morning, why our
heart should not be troubled. Indeed, why we should be encouraged,
and why we should be strengthened, and why we should be helped.
So as we have this word before us, let not your heart be troubled. Let us follow these words through
as the Lord spoke and he first of all directed them to belief
in himself. He said, believe in God. Now, again, we might think it
was very obvious that they should have believed also in the Lord
Jesus Christ, but quite clearly it was not so. You remember,
here was the Messiah and the great Saviour, but the disciples
were only natural men, and it was only as the Lord opened their
eyes, their spiritual eyes, to observe the great truths that
they came to know. Those things which had been spoken
of and prophesied were now coming to pass, were being revealed.
And so the Lord speaks in this very personal way. Ye believe
in God, believe also in me. How relevant that is to us, isn't
it? to believe in God the Father,
to believe also in God the Son, and also of course to believe
in God the Holy Spirit, one God, the Trinity. What a great and
wonderful mystery that is. So then the Lord comes and having
established this point and instructed them to believe in this way,
He then tells them, in my father's house and 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 unto myself, that where I am there, ye may
be also. And of course, immediately here
then, are some truths which would have been difficult for the disciples
to understand, to think that what the Lord was describing
here, a wonderful picture, and he speaks to them and tells them
that there were many mansions in his father's house, in glory,
many places to abide, and those were permanent dwellings, They
weren't something which would pass away. It wasn't like the
places they lived in at that time, temporary dwellings. There
was a permanent mansion which the Lord had prepared in my father's
house. There are many mansions. And
he tells them, if that wasn't true, I would have told you. Now let us believe today. that
the Lord has therefore in glory that prepared place for a prepared
people. And the Lord Jesus is indeed
gone to glory. He's ascended up. He's now seated
at the Father's right hand. And he says, I go to prepare
a place for you. And he then says, really he's
not going to leave them altogether. He is going to leave them, but
they're not going to be left altogether. Because he says,
and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself. Now this truth is for all of
God's saints, all the Church of God. As the Lord has gone to prepare
a place for his people, he says he will come again and he will
receive us. Receive us unto himself. Surely it is a very special and
a very wonderful truth, isn't it? That this almighty God will
come again and receive us individually, you and me. We are individual
people. We each have a number or a name. And the Lord knows where we are
and who we are. He knows intimately all about
us. He knows all the things that
are troubling us. He knows all the things that
are perplexing us. And so he speaks in this way
to encourage us with the assurance that there is an eternal inheritance
which is to be possessed by all of his people and not one will
make shipwreck but all will get safe to land. Here we have then
this statement the Lord telling them he was going to repair a
place and he would come again and he would receive them unto
himself. And then with this promise, that
where I am, there ye may be also. It's a wonderful thought, isn't
it? To think that one day, by the
grace of God, we shall be found in glory with the Lord Jesus
Christ. We might think, perhaps you young
people, perhaps you children might wonder, what heaven is? The Lord said he's gone to prepare
a place and that he will come and receive us to himself, that
we will be with him forever. We might think, what is heaven?
Well, I think it can be described very simply. Heaven is to be
where, with and where Christ is. Christ is heaven to the Church
of God. Without Christ, it would not
be heaven. People today paint a very foolish
picture of what they imagine heaven might be. But heaven is
to be with Christ. Now, if we are troubled, if we
are perplexed, may we be encouraged to look forward then to that
time when we should have finished our life. And our life is very
fleeting and it's very quickly passing away. Very soon we should
have passed out of time into eternity. And then to be found
in that great and glorious position with Christ. Now the Apostle
Paul, you may remember he'd been lifted up into the third heaven
in the Spirit. He had a wonderful spiritual
encounter, a wonderful blessing, spiritual blessing, which he'd
seen things which he wasn't allowed to declare, but he'd seen them. And he tells us some great truths. He wrote to the Philippians,
he said, for me to live is Christ. What he meant was that on this
earth, his life, It wasn't just to do this and to do that. His
life was. For me to live is Christ. Christ
was his life. Christ was so important to him. Because Christ was his Saviour.
Christ was his hope. Christ was the one he wanted
to be with. He tells us, but if I live in
the flesh, This is the fruit of my labour, yet what I shall
choose I want not, for I am in a strait betwixt two." He had
two paths, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ,
which is far better. That is true, what the Apostle
says is true, and often of course we are very Earthbound, aren't
we? We're taken up with the things
in our lives. And to think of having to leave
everything here on this Earth might not be perhaps as pleasing
a thought as it should be. We might not want to leave this
Earth. We might not want to leave our
families. we might not want to leave the comforts of this life. Well, we need to ask ourselves,
is that a right condition? Is that a truly spiritual condition? And I'm sure we will realise
that it's not. And we therefore need the Lord to come and bless
us with wonderful grace to look forward to this glorious inheritance. So he says, he had a desire to
depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. But he also
says, nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful
for you. It was more needful that the
apostle should continue in his life to do the work the Lord
had given him to do, than at that time to depart and to be
with Christ. Nevertheless, we see there his
concern, and that desire, and that realisation, what the Lord
was saying, that he'd gone to prepare a place for him, and
that he would come again and receive him to himself, where
the Lord was, there the Apostle would be also. And when he also
wrote to the Thessalonians, he wrote similar words, which are
instructive for us to recognize. He tells us, he looks forward
to the end of all things when the Lord would return. And the
Lord will return in all his glory. He wrote to the Thessalonians,
the first epistle in the fourth chapter. He said, for the Lord
himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice
of the archangel. the trunk of God and the dead
in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the
Lord. Well he's just reiterating This
truth, the Lord says, that where I am there ye may be also. Well, the Apostle tells us, wherefore
comfort one another with these words? They are not morbid things. They are not miserable things
to the true Church of God. They are comforting things. And
why are they comforting? They are comforting because we
find ourselves troubled with many things. Let not your heart
be troubled, because there is this great prospect of glory. There is this great blessing
to come, to be found with Christ indeed, which is far better. Remember what the Apostle wrote
when he spoke, or wrote rather, to the Hebrews. And in that last
chapter of the Hebrews, he tells us, for here have we no continuing
city, but we seek one to come which is a continuing city. It is a place of eternal continuance. It is a place that will never
be destroyed, which will never be destructed. It is an eternal
inhabitation, a place of glory, a place of favour. And so, how
encouraging it should be for us, as we think of these great
truths, as we travel on, with troubles surrounding us and perplexities. Again, into the Corinthians,
there's one final reference, he says, the second epistle of
the fifth chapter, for we know, how often the apostle is able
to demonstrate this, he says, for we know. My friends, great
blessing, isn't it, that we know These things are true. They are
not figments of our imagination. They are not falsehoods. They
are true. They are the Word of God. For
we know that if our earthly house, this tabernacle, were dissolved,
we have a building of God. A house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens. A mansion prepared by God. where we shall live and reign
eternally with the Saviour. But he just again tells us our
natural condition that we live in this world for. In this we
groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house
which is from heaven. So the apostle speaks clearly,
doesn't he? of that situation in which he
existed, but that his hope was looking forward. So let not your
heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Realise that there is a sure
and certain eternal blessing to come for the people of God,
and a place where there will be no trouble and no perplexities,
Everything will be unfolded, all will be clear. Our minds
will see everything. In all its perfection, in all
that the Lord has ordained from before the foundation of the
earth should come to pass, that all his church should be with
him around that throne of God in heaven to praise him forever
and ever, to be with Christ, which is far better. Now the
encouragement words then that the Lord Jesus follows with in
this chapter. And he speaks to them, he says,
and from verse 4 to 11 he tells us of this certain way, a certain
way. Whither I go ye know, and the
way ye know, Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither
thou goest, and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him,
I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the
Father but by me. If ye had known me, ye should
have known my Father also. And from henceforth ye know him
and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord,
show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus said unto him, have
I been so long time with you? And yet hast thou not known me,
Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. And how
sayest thou then, show us the Father? Believest thou not that
I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak
unto you I speak not of myself, But the Father dwelleth in me,
he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father,
and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very work's
sake." Now, the Lord here is very clearly showing to disciples
that certain way. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
way. He is the way. Let not your heart
be troubled. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
is the way. Oh, that we might be able to
look to Him, if we are troubled. The Lord's the way, and He's
the truth. Yes, and the life. He is the
one that gives us life. He gives us one, that life to
follow, the way. The Lord sets before us in his
word, and to know that his word is truth, thy word is truth. Now, remember, don't lose sight
of the perplexing situation which was here on this Passover night,
with these disciples in this upper room, that there they are
sat round with the Saviour speaking to them of these words. And as we view that scene, to
think of it in our own lives. Yes, perplexed perhaps and troubled
by many things. Not being able to understand
perhaps God's purposes. Understand the way that the Lord
is leading and directing us. And we're troubled. Here we have
an encouragement. Here we have the certain way. God's ways are true and they
are certain. And if we're following this right
way, we can be sure that what it will do is to bring us safe
home to glory. Surely the reason that we gather
here is to hear about these heavenly realities and to be encouraged
as we travel on through this wilderness journey in which we
live, with all the trials and temptations of the way. We're
not promised an easy life. We never were, we never will
be. But we are promised a good end. We are promised an eternity of
bliss, an eternity of happiness. We are told that the Lord is
that way which leads to eternal happiness. We are encouraged
then to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, we see
this is a certain way. And then to know then, that as
we travel on, the Lord's works continue to be revealed. He says
here, verse 12 to 14, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that
believeth on me, and remember he was encouraging them to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, believe on himself. And now he comes
and says, believe me that verily, verily I say unto you, he that
believeth on me, the works that I do, shall he do also, and greater
works than these shall he do, because by God's and my Father
And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that
the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything
in my name, I will do it." Well, that's an encouragement, isn't
it? But remember here, the Lord speaks to us about asking in
his name. We have the picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ showing here the disciples that he was their great
and glorious high priest. It was only through him that
their prayers would be accepted. The only access at the throne
of grace was through him. The only way to the mercy seat
was through him. So here was an encouragement
to them. The door was to be taken from
them. What were they to do? Well, to have faith in the Holy
Spirit that he was a risen Christ and that this Lord Jesus Christ
was the way. Yes, he says, verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do. We know that great work of salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ completed
on Calvary. Wasn't it an amazing work, was
it not? The Lord Jesus completed the
work that His Father gave Him to do. Yes, He did not fail. What a work it was. And here
was His encouragement, let not your heart be troubled. And here's
the encouragement, This work that I have to do will be performed,
it will not fail. And then to come to me in this
way, and whatsoever you should ask in my name, that will I do. That the Father may be glorified
in the Son. Perhaps we should just say that
if we come to our God in prayer, to our Father, through the merits
of our Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we may say, well, I prayed
for something, and it hasn't come to pass. And here, the Word
tells us that whenever we ask, it will come to pass. I will
do it. And that may be sometimes perplexing
to us. Well, I believe the Lord will
bring and grant everything that you and I will need in our spiritual
life and in our natural life. But it may not be what we think
we need. And that can very simply be demonstrated
by the life of the Apostle Paul. Remember, he had a thorn in the
flesh, and we're not told what it was. But it was irksome and
it was painful, and he wished he didn't have it. And he prayed
to God on three specific occasions that it might be removed from
him. We may therefore think, well, surely the Lord will hear
the prayer of the apostle. Well, the Lord didn't see fit
to answer that prayer. in the way that the Apostle anticipated. He did answer it, but it was
in this way. He said, my grace is sufficient
for thee. And what he was to prove was
this. He wasn't to lose that form whatever it was. But the
Lord was going to give him grace to bear it. to sustain him in
that time, in that trial. And as we know, the Lord did
give him grace. He did sustain the apostle. He
wasn't left. He wasn't forsaken. He journeyed
on and got safe home to glory. So perhaps, if we may ask, well,
why hasn't that specific prayer been answered? Look at it carefully. Was it that if that prayer had
been answered, as the Word of God tells us, we should have
consumed it on our lusts? It wouldn't have been for our
spiritual good. It wouldn't have really done
us any good. And you might think, well, now, I'm sure what I was
asking was going to be for my spiritual good, because it was
a spiritual prayer. Well, again, we have to analyse
it and look carefully in our hearts. because our heart is
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." And that
spiritual prayer which we thought we were asking in a spiritual
way, if it had been answered in the way that we wanted it
to be answered, would it have brought exclusive honour and
glory to God? Or would we have claimed some
of the glory ourselves? You'll find sometimes the Lord
doesn't answer in the way that you and I expect because of that
difficulty, because our pride would take hold of part of that
blessing. We would claim some of it for
ourselves and the Lord would lose some of his glory. Again, we need to examine that
very carefully in our own lives. But be encouraged. Let not your
heart be troubled. Here, the Lord says, you will
hear and you will answer. And then, he tells us, he will
send the Comforter. If you love me, keep my commandments. Surely that's a very simple statement,
isn't it? A statement which must be true and really is obvious,
isn't it? If you love me, keep my commandments and I will pray
to Father And he shall give you another comforter, that he may
abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the
world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him. But ye know him, for it dwelleth
with you, and shall be with you." An encouraging word again. Let
not your heart be troubled, but just follow it through in the
way that the Lord spoke it. If, the question is, you love
me, keep my commandments, and if that is done then, and it
follows that he will pray the Father, who shall give you another
comforter, even this spirit of truth. But it does follow this
pattern. It doesn't follow a reverse pattern. It doesn't say, well, the Lord
doesn't say now, I will send the spirit of the comforter to
you, and then You love me and keep my commandments. It's the
reverse. The Lord graciously speaks in
this way. Because what it does, it demonstrates that the Lord
has given us faith. Faith to believe the truth of
God's word. Living faith to believe. to believe that what God has
said is true, he's told us already, he is the way, the truth and
the life. And now he's saying, if therefore
you believe these things, and if therefore you love me, and
if you keep my commandments, then I will pray to Father, and
he shall give you another comforter, even the spirit of truth in this
comforter will abide with us forever. We shall never lose
the great and glorious benefit of this. Because it saith him
not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him. For he dwelleth
with you, and shall be in you." What a wonderful promise that
was. Remember here, the spirit hadn't been revealed, it hadn't
been given to these disciples. And here it was, therefore, promised. As we know, it came to pass.
as we've been speaking in prayer meeting evenings and the day
of Pentecost, the wonderful promise fulfilled when the Holy Spirit
came upon those people. And so the Lord speaks here about
the Holy Spirit being sent. And then he tells them, he tells
them about his returning. I will not leave you comfortless.
I will come to you. I will come to you. Yet a little while And the world
seeth me no more, but ye see me, because I live, ye shall
live also." Yes, it was indeed a great blessing, wasn't it?
The Lord told them that he would come. The Lord told them that
he would come again and receive them. And here he is, he is reiterating
it, a little while, and the world seeth me no more, but ye shall
see me. My friends, when we see the Lord
by faith, We view him by faith as our Lord and our Saviour.
The disciples would view him still with that living faith,
and then they would join him in glory. He that hath my commandments
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth
me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will
manifest myself to him. Well, Jesus answered Judas, not
Iscariot, and said, if a man loved me, he would keep my words,
and my father would love him, and we will come unto him and
make our abode with him. Encouraging, isn't it? The Lord comes and makes his
abode with us. Let not our heart be troubled.
What a blessing it is to know the Lord comes and is with us,
and goes with us. He that loveth me keepeth not
my sayings, and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the
Father which sent me. The Lord then speaks and says
that he will send the Comforter. These things have I spoken unto
you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter which is the
Holy Ghost, the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father
will send in my name. He shall teach you all things
and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have
said unto you." And what a great blessing that is. We think of
the disciples, you know, they had those three years with the
Lord, and when the Holy Spirit came upon them, those things
that they heard, you see, that was brought to their remembrance,
and they remembered the great and glorious truths of the Gospel
and how they were a comfort to them, how they were a strength
to them. I believe that sometimes it's
just the same with us today, that we may be troubled with
many things. Lord graciously then comes and
opens our understanding and brings to our remembrance words perhaps
that we'd heard, things that we'd seen, and how encouraging
it was and is to our souls, that we can indeed be strengthened
and encouraged. And the Lord then says, peace
I leave with you. Now we don't have peace, do we?
When we're troubled and perplexed, everything's in turmoil. When
the Lord comes and directs us then to these great and glorious
truths, and we're able to ponder them and to take them to our
hearts, what does the Lord then say? I leave with you. My peace I give unto you, not
as the world giveth give I unto you." And then he carries on
and says the same words, let not your heart be troubled, neither
let it be afraid. So take this from the first verse
here, first verse is 14th chapter, down to this 27th verse, and
we have in both as it were the beginning
and the end. Let not your heart be troubled.
Let not your heart be troubled. And between them is all those
reasons, all the encouragements the Lord gave his disciples and
gives to us today so that we may be thankful and bless God
for these great and glorious truths that the Lord sets before
us. And of course it really is because
we come today to a risen Saviour. a great and glorious High Priest,
who is entered into the heavens. And the Apostle Paul, when he
wrote to the Hebrews, he encouraged them with this, and just to conclude
this morning with these words, which the Apostle wrote, for
Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands,
which are the figures of the true, it wasn't just the temple
or the tabernacle, but into heaven itself. now to appear in the
presence of God for us. Ponder that. Nor yet that he
should offer himself often as the high priest entereth into
the holy place every year with blood of others. For then must
he often have suffered since the foundation of the world but
now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself, ponder that and as it is appointed
unto men once to die but after this the judgment so Christ was
once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look
for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation
Let not your heart be troubled. Amen.