John chapter 14 is where we are
today and it is a very simple text of scripture in many ways. It's given to us from the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. It was in the context of the
greatest sorrow, and it was therefore the greatest possible comfort
that the Lord could give. He gave it to his disciples,
but not just to the 11 who were with him, but to all of his people. And so this is a very, very significant
text of scripture. And I have decided to only cover
the first three verses in this text of scripture because it
is so important. And Lord willing, we will go
on to cover a larger portion next week, but I wanted to focus
just on these first three verses of John chapter 14. And I struggled
for a title for the sermon, but I've decided to title the sermon
Comfort for Troubled Hearts. Comfort for Troubled Hearts.
Okay, so let's begin by looking at the context here that the
Lord is addressing. He is with his 11 disciples. Judas had gone out And this had
occurred in John chapter 13 in verse 30, having received the
sop, what Jesus dipped and gave to Judas, Judas immediately went
out as the Lord told him to do. Go do what you're doing, do it
quickly. None of the disciples knew why
Judas left at that point. They thought, according to verse
29, that he had gone to give something to the poor because
he took care of the money for all of them. But they didn't
know, and they were all puzzled because the Lord had told them
one of the saddest things he could have ever said, that one
of them would betray him. And there's nothing sadder than
to think that I might betray the Lord. I know it's possible. I know that if He doesn't keep
me from betraying Him, I will. And it makes me urgent and earnest
for grace to not betray Him. And all of them must have been
thinking along these lines. And they also had a very physical
a problem that they were about to face, not just heart trouble,
but the soldiers that would come and take Jesus were clearly powerful. They had no strength against
being taken by them. And they feared for their lives.
Many times they had expressed that fear. In John 11, Thomas,
who later doubted that Jesus had risen from the dead and seemed
doubtful, but in John 11 he said, let's go to Jerusalem with Jesus
that we may die with him. He understood that following
Christ was going to lead to their death, most likely. And so they
were thinking about that. So were they going to betray
him? Would they die soon? Was this the end? And so not
only that, but the Lord also told them in Verse 33 of John 13, he said,
little children, yet a little while I am with you. So they
knew now that he was going to not be with them shortly. A little
while, and he's talking about a little while. Because this
conversation took place two days before the Passover, and yet
it It flowed into the time he had the Passover with his disciples,
and it was the very next day. They had the Passover, and the
very next night, which was, I mean, that night of the Passover, he
was taken, and the very next day, the Jews condemned him to
death and turned him over to the Gentiles, who did what they
did. They mocked him, and they They beat him, they did all sorts
of things, and they finally crucified him. So the time was very short,
and he's talking about that, yet a little while I'm with you,
just a day or two, and he would be crucified. And he said, you
shall seek me, because he would be dead and in the grave, and
they would go to the grave looking for him. But as I said to the
Jews, whether I go, you can't come. Now that would give them
trouble of heart, trouble of heart. The Lord, they had left
everything, everything. They had left their mothers,
their fathers, their brothers, their sisters, their towns, the
people that they were friends with, they'd left those people.
They were following Jesus and he was the object of the hatred
of the religious rulers. All the rulers were against him.
The Pharisees were against him and the scribes were against
him. The elders of the Jews were against him. And they would soon
find out that the entire crowd that had just given praises and
sang his praises when he rode into Jerusalem, that crowd would
turn against him too. And there were a number of people,
thousands in Jerusalem who came to the Passover, they would be
against him. There were just a few of them, 11. And soon the
whole world would be against them too. And Jesus told them,
not here but in other places, that the scripture had said that
the shepherd, the Lord would strike the shepherd and the sheep
would be scattered. And he told them, every one of
you are going to forsake me. You're going to leave me. And
so all this was bearing down upon them. And these were real
men. It wasn't just a lesson as we
have the comfort of hearing now. They were really there. They
really experienced this. They tasted and smelled and heard
and felt it. And these grown men who had left
their occupations and their families and their friends, and were with
Jesus, they expected a great deal from Him. He had spoken
to them of everlasting life. He had spoken to them of His
Father, of eternal things. He had revealed the meaning of
Old Testament Scripture to them. He had healed. They knew that
He could give them eternal life. There was nothing that He couldn't
do for them, so they expected a great deal. And they were now
facing what he just said, you're not going to be with me any longer.
I'm going to be taken from you and you can't follow me. Very
little time. They didn't know how long, but
they sensed it was happening soon. So there was a reason here
for their trouble, wasn't there? You could say, and fairly say
this, there was never a time when anyone was more troubled
than these disciples were troubled. And I think what is interesting,
as I mentioned in the bulletin, that in the land of Israel, in
the wilderness, when God appeared at Sinai, and the people heard
the Lord speaking, and they saw the mountain smoking with fire,
and they felt the earthquake, and they heard the voice of God
and the trumpet exceeding loud, and they knew that if they came
near the mountain, they would be killed, that God had commanded
Moses, even if a beast touched the mountain, it would be stoned
and thrust through with a dart. And what they cried, what they
asked more than anything, what troubled them most then was the
voice of God. We want to not hear this anymore.
But here, what troubled the disciples most was that they were not going
to hear the voice of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. This was real
trouble, wasn't it? But the fact of the matter is,
is that the Lord himself was troubled. And I think that there's
nothing more troubling than to know that the one you're looking
to for strength and knowledge, wisdom, and safety, that that
person is troubled. Isn't that the greatest trouble?
And he says in John chapter 12 and verse 27, now is my soul
troubled. So the Lord was troubled. And
what shall I say? And notice here, he asks himself
the question, but he's asking himself in the context of the
disciples, what shall I say? Shall I say, Father, save me
from this hour? That would be what the disciples
would be thinking. Lord, save us from this time.
But he wasn't going to save them from that time, was he? They
were going to go through it. They were going to see Jesus
betrayed. They were going to see the soldiers
take him and beat him and accuse him. The Jews would accuse him
and condemn him to death. It was almost surreal that then
he was handed over to the Gentiles, who then stripped him and spit
in his face and hit him and whipped him in the back. and hit him
with a reed, and mocked him, and put a purple robe upon him,
and made him look powerless, humiliated him. And they didn't
just do this once, but many times. And then the highest council
of the Gentiles, Pilate, they stood before him, and before
Herod. And then they took him, and they made him carry his cross,
and they hung him on the cross. They nailed his hands and his
feet, and they put him there. And there he was. And they were
afraid. They left. They were afraid for
their lives. They didn't know what to do.
The master is troubled. And that troubled them. And he
said, should I say, Father, save me from this hour? No. No. For this cause came I unto
this hour. You see, this wasn't something
they would get out of. This was something God ordained
for him to go through. And it was for them. So their
trouble would also be, by the will of God, used for their good,
and yet they didn't see it. They couldn't see how, and that
troubled them. And so that's what leads up to
John 14. And not only that, but Peter
was told, the Lord Jesus told Peter, you're going to deny me
three times. And he didn't say one of you.
He said, Peter, you are going to deny me three times. That's
troubling. And Peter was the leader. I'm
pretty sure he was the leader. So now we have the Lord who was
troubled. We have Peter who's going to
deny him. Someone else is going to betray
him. And they're all going to be scattered and left alone. And they feel this trouble. We
often feel trouble, don't we? Job chapter 5 verse 7 says, man
is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. We know what trouble
is, don't we? We have it every day. Even when
the sun is shining and the grass is growing and the flowers are
beautiful, there's something that keeps us from fully enjoying
it. There's always this background.
Denise was telling me the other day, there's something bothering
me. I don't know what it is. Something in the background. I just don't
know what it is. I don't either. But those things are there, aren't
they? We don't know what's bothering us. Something's bothering us.
The Lord says, man that is born of woman is a few days and full
of trouble. In Psalm 22, the Lord Jesus,
under the suffering and death of the cross, he said to his
God and to his Father, be not far from me. for trouble is near
and there is none to help." No one else would help. When the
Lord Jesus was troubled, It's amazing to think about this.
We can't imagine what this is like. But you know as a father,
you're troubled by many things, and you're bearing the weight
of your family, your wife. You're trying to keep her encouraged. And the children are looking
to you. You don't want to fail them. You don't want to fail
your wife, your family. You want to provide for them,
and yet you're troubled. Maybe work is troubling you.
You feel inadequate. You've messed up. or you can't
do what they've told you to do. Your job is at stake. Maybe you
don't have a job. There's no money. You don't know
what to do. You feel powerless. That's trouble,
isn't it? And here the Lord Jesus Christ,
the master, was sent into the world to undergo trouble. He was a man of sorrows. He said, now is my soul heavy. He was amazed in Matthew 26. Read these words. He says in
Matthew 26, in verse 36, Jesus comes with them to a place called
Gethsemane. This hadn't happened yet, but
here you can see the Lord's trouble. He knew it was coming. And he
said to his disciples, sit here while I go and pray yonder. And
he took with him Peter and the two sons, Zebedee. And he began
to be sorrowful and very heavy. And he said to them, my soul
is exceeding sorrowful. And he didn't stretch the truth. We do that. Oh, I'm in so much
pain. Yeah, I know you're in pain.
But really, how big is it on a scale of 0 to 10? It's a 10.
But you're still talking. Yeah, it says it's the maximum.
The Lord didn't do that. He didn't use hyperbole. He said,
my soul is exceeding sorrow. There was no sorrow like his
sorrow, he says in Lamentations. No sorrow, no one suffered like
him. And yet, as he said in John 12,
27, now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father,
save me from this hour? No, this is why I came to this
hour. Father, glorify thy name. That's why he came, to glorify
his father. Here he submits himself as his
father's son, serving him in love. And he says, Father, glorify
thy name. Now, he told his disciples, now
is the son of man glorified. He's going to the cross. He's
going to be glorified there in his work of the cross. to submit
himself in obedience and humility and suffer such humiliation and
suffering, soul suffering. And yet, while he's doing this,
his concern is for the trouble of heart of his disciples. Can you imagine it? Even when
the Lord in the Psalms prayed for himself that the Lord would
save him and redeem him and deliver his soul from death, it was because
he had come under the sentence of death for our sins in order
to deliver us from our sins and from death and to bring us to
God. So his prayers for himself were
really prayers for his people even then. And so he looks at
his disciples. He knows the hearts of men. He
knew their present troubled hearts. And he knew the trouble that
would come upon them. And he designed what he said
to specifically comfort his troubled people by what he says here in
John 14. Peter, you're going to deny me.
You all, you're going to forsake me. You're going to be scattered.
I'm going to be taken. I'll be taken from you in a short
time. You won't be able to follow me. No one will be able to follow
me. I'll be taken from you. And now
he pours out. Judas is gone. This is the message
to those he loves. He says in John 14, verse 1,
let not your heart be troubled. That's amazing, isn't it? That's
amazing. You're looking at trouble, you're
troubled now, you're going to be troubled later. Don't let
your heart be troubled. It's a statement. He's giving
you by his authoritative word. He does not, he cannot lie. You have no reason for heart
trouble. How? How can that be? Look at
what he says. You believe in God, believe also
in me. What is he saying here? Faith. Faith. Faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. In your trouble, believe Christ. Believe his words. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. You believe in God, believe on
me. And if he was not God, it would
be blasphemy. Jeremiah 17, 5 says, cursed is
the man who trusteth in man. If he was a mere man and not
God, then he would be telling them to do something that was
wrong, sinful, idolatrous. Don't trust a man, trust in the
Lord. But he tells them, believe in
me also, because I am God. God is about to enter into battle. There's no reason for fear. See,
look and see the salvation of the Lord. Stand still, remember?
The sea is gonna split apart. You're gonna go through on dry
land. Judgment will fall, but you're not going to be judged.
I will be judged, but not you. You'll be judged in me, you see.
The whole thing here is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
all kinds of things that trouble us. Every trouble is answered
in what Jesus said here. Don't let your heart be troubled. Believe me. What a wonderful
word that is. I find that exceedingly comforting. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that what it says? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Trouble comes, and we were watching
a program the other night, and this man was reciting this mantra
in the face of whatever he was facing. But the Lord gives us
something. It's not a mantra, but it's the
truth. Believe Christ. Look to, he said
in Isaiah 45, 22, look unto me and be ye saved all the ends
of the earth for I am God and there is none else. You believe in God, believe in
me also. Believe also in me. So that's
the first thing we see here. What is the answer? What's Christ's
answer in his trouble to his troubled disciples? Believe me. this cause, for this cause, I
came to this hour. Believe me. Believe me. Go to him. Say, Lord, help my
unbelief. I believe you. Help my unbelief. Help my unbelief. I want to believe
you. I know in my heart I do, but
I don't. So help my unbelief. I'm full
of trouble. Doubts arise within. Help my
unbelief. I'm looking to you. I'm actually
looking to you to give me what you tell me to do. Help me to
believe on you. This is your commandment that
we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and love one another.
Help me to do that. Give me this grace. Don't leave
me. Don't leave me. So he says, don't
let your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. And then the next point he makes to the troubled soul,
he says, in my father's house are many mansions. My father's
house. There are three times in scripture
where the Lord mentions his father's house. One was in John, the book
of John, where he says, where he drove out the money changers
and he says, don't you make my father's house a house of merchandise? because it's a house of prayer.
This temple, where God's people come to worship the Father, is
my Father's house. So we understand that my Father's
house is the place where God is worshiped by His children. My Father's house is the place
of worship, the worship of God. My Father's house. And then here,
He speaks about His Father's house. But also in Luke chapter
15, remember the prodigal son? Remember the parable? There was
the lost sheep. Jesus said there was one, only
one, that was lost out of the hundred. One was lost, 99 in
the fold. And the shepherd left the 99
and he went to find the one sheep that was lost. And when he found
it, he put it on his shoulders and he brought it back. And he
said, this is what happens when the Lord saves a sinner. And
all the angels in heaven rejoice because this sheep of the Lord's
that was lost is found. And he says, rejoice with me.
I found my sheep. And then the woman who lost the
coin and swept the house and got a lantern to sweep it and
found the coin. And she told her friends, rejoice
with me. I found the coin that was lost.
a picture of Christ in the first case and the Holy Spirit in the
second. And then he gives the picture
of the father when this son who said the younger son of the two
sons of his father said, Father, give me what's mine. His father
was sad. He gave him all his living and
he left and he went to a far country and he wasted all of
his father's substance on riotous living, profligate life. And
when it was all gone and he had nothing, he went and made himself
a servant to a stranger of the land who put him out with his
pigs to feed the pigs. And he thought about filling
his belly with what the pigs ate, but he couldn't do it. And
then he thought, servants, my father's servants have enough
to spare, and they're never hungry. I will arise. I will go to my
father and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against
heaven and before you. I'm not worthy to be called your
son. Make me as one of your hired servants. And so he arose while
he was in that far country and he went. And when he was a great
way off, his father saw him because he was looking for him. And when
he saw him, he ran to him and he fell on his neck and he kissed
him much. and held him a long time. And
his son said, Father. And he started to tell him, I've
sinned against heaven and before you, and he says, bring the best
robe and put it on my son and a ring for his finger, shoes
for his feet and kill the fatted calf and let us make Mary. This, my son, was lost and is
found again. He was dead and he's alive. And
they had dancing and rejoicing in the father's house. And Jesus
says, in my father's house, the home, your home, this is your
place. This is where this is where the
father has a place for you. Many places, many abiding places,
permanent residencies. This is your place. That's what
he's talking about. Faith in Christ and the assurance
that God is your father and your place, your home is with him. I didn't set your expectations
high. for no reason, he goes on, he
says, if it were not so, I would have told you. Your expectations
are high, and I set them high, but you haven't seen the half
of it. The Queen of Sheba comes to Solomon to see the wisdom
of Solomon, and when she gets there, she says, I didn't believe
it in my country. I didn't believe it. And when
I got here and heard, the half wasn't told me. And in 1 Corinthians
2 he says, I has not seen, ear has not heard the things which
God has prepared for them that love Him. But God has revealed
them to us by His Spirit, for the Spirit takes the things of
God and shows them to us, the things that are freely given
to us of God. And so here we have it. My father's
house is your home. My father's house, there's many
dwellings, many abiding places, many permanent places, because
this is not your home. With my father, that's your place. You're citizens of heaven. You're
not citizens of this world. Who was it? Hank Williams. My dad used to like to listen
to Hank Williams Sr. when I was a kid. when I was
eight or nine, and he sang that song, This World Is Not My Home,
I Am Just Passing Through. Accurate words, accurate words
from a country singer. Heaven is my home and the angels
beckon me. Don't they? This is your place. This is not my home. We're not
here long. So he says here, first faith,
then be assured that my father's house is your home. And know
this, I would have told you if it weren't so. Your expectations
are far too low. They need to be set higher. I
go to prepare a place for you. What could be more comforting?
Look to me. My father's house, that's your
home, and I'm going to make your way there. I'm going to prepare
it for you. The work is mine. The way is
me. The truth, that's me. The life,
I'm the life, and I'm going to bring you. I'm going to go to
the cross, I'm going to lay down my life, I'm going to enter heaven
with my own blood, and I'm going to sprinkle that blood, and I'm
going to obtain for you eternal redemption. And then you're going
to come, while you live in this world, as you're traveling through
it, looking for glory, anticipating this house where you're going
to be received in all the acceptance of God Almighty, in all of His
holiness. You're going to be received in
Christ and you're going to come by his blood while you live in
this life boldly because it all depended upon Christ and God
has received him and he's seated now in glory making intercession
for you. Heaven is being prepared for
you. Christ entered there with his blood. God is propitiated
and you're being prepared. The blood is sprinkled in your
conscience. You're being prepared for this.
God has given you faith to believe in me, to know your place is
with the Father and with me. So I'm going to prepare a place
for you. First, faith in me, believe my
words, know that my Father's house is your home. And second,
I'm going to do what's necessary to bring you there. And verse
three, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
again. Yes, I'll be taken from you in
a little while, but in a little while, I'll come again. I'm going
to come again. And notice what he says here,
something very wonderful. I will come again. He's not going
to send an angel. He's not going to send a prophet.
He's not going to send my mom and my dad, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord of glory. The Son of God, God Almighty
in human flesh, is going to come for me and for His people. And He's going to be glad. He's
going to be glad. Because the Father sent Him into
the world to accomplish this will. This was the reason He
came. I went to prepare, and now I'm
going to come again, and I'm going to bring you. I'm going
to come again. And he says, and receive you
to myself. Now, that word is a very interesting
word. Look at Matthew chapter 1. I
want you to see this. I'm going to receive you to myself. I was reading a commentary, and
the man said, notice it says receive. It doesn't say take.
I thought, that's interesting. Look at this in Matthew chapter
one and verse 20. He says, this is about Joseph,
the man who was engaged to Mary, promised himself to be her husband
and she to be his wife, but he found out that she was with child
in verse 18. And verse 20 says, while Joseph
thought how to deal with this situation, On these things, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph,
thou son of David, notice these words, fear not to take unto
thee, marry thy wife. That word take, that's the word
receive here. He says, I will come again and
receive you to myself. I'm gonna take you. my bride,
my people, in love, in all the spotless beauty of my own beauty,
to the delight of my father, having accomplished your salvation
and brought you to myself, prepared a place, and now I'm coming in
person to take you to myself. What could be more wonderful?
And then he says that where I am, There you may be also. The Lord
is not going to ever leave his people again. He's going to receive
them forever. He's going to bring them to his
place. And where he is, we will be also. Now, you know, as we've
talked many times, that whatever God does, he determined to do
it before eternity, well, before time began, in eternity. Known
unto God are all his works from the foundation of the world.
I declare the end from the beginning, from ancient times of things
that have not yet come. And here he says, where I am,
there you may be also. In the end, we're going to be
where Christ is. And what that means is that in
the beginning, before time, in eternity, we were there with
Christ, doesn't it? If He determined then everything
that would come to pass, that He would bring to pass, then
what happens at the end was already done in the purpose of God from
eternity. We were with Him then. We'll
never be separated from Him. And this is what Romans 8 is
all about. There is nothing Not your sin. You can't lay anything
to the charge of God's elect. God has justified them. No condemning
person on earth, no one can condemn one for whom Christ died. Nothing
can be held back from them because God is going to give all things
to them with Christ for whom he gave, delivered Christ up
and gave him and didn't spare him. And so nothing can separate
us from the love of Christ. Not things present, not things
past, not things to come, not height nor depth, no creature. And there isn't any but God except
what he's created. So nothing can separate us from
his love. And so we were with Christ in
eternity. Nothing can separate us. And
he's saying here that we shall be with him where he is. And
this is the son of God. Face to face with his father
from eternity and we'll be there. We'll be there. Revelation 22
verse four says, they shall see his face. They shall see his
face. All of his people, we're gonna
look upon the face of the son of God in our nature, glorified
because he saved us from our sins. And we're going to worship
him forever and ever. And we're gonna be glad. But
we were also with him from the beginning so that when he engaged
with his father and said, father, I will be surety for them, we
were there. And when he came and we were
under the condemnation of the guilt of our sin and facing the
wrath of God, he stepped in and said, take me. instead of the
lad, if you seek me, then let these go their way. You see,
this is the reason he came into the world. For this cause came
I into the world, to save my people from their sins. And he
did that. And so they get to be with him
where he is. Because we were always with the Lord. In his
life, in his death, in his sufferings, in the grave, in his resurrection,
when he ascended, now seated, we're with the Lord. and he's
going to come again and bring our physical bodies transformed
into the likeness of his glorious body. From corruption to incorruption,
from dishonor to honor, from weakness to power, and glory,
all of it in the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll be with him. And that's
what he's saying here to his troubled disciples. Believe me. My father's house is your home.
I'm going to prepare it. I'm going to do the work. And
if I go and prepare it for you, I'm going to come again. Those
he loved, he loved to the end. And those he loved to the end
in life and in death, he loves to all eternity. I'll come again
myself, and I'm going to take you as my bride to myself. And
then having taken you, you'll be with me forever. Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for this comfort that exceeds all trouble. The Lord Jesus Christ
himself speaking to us, give us this faith. Lord, this grace
that you give for your people, that you've given your all, we
pray above all things that we would be objects of your saving
grace. We deserve nothing. We deserve
to be punished forever and ever. We ask, Lord, that You would
be gracious and take away all of our sins and receive us, take
us to Yourself graciously. In the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that we would be enabled to look to Him that we would
hear our Father from heaven speaking by His voice for us to come. And we would hear in that call
Him running, Him coming to us, holding us and kissing us because
of Christ our Savior, the one who was sacrificed and preached
to us. The one who took away all of
our sins against our father to bring us to God. The just for
the unjust to bring us to God. Lord, bring us to yourself even
now in our hearts. Remove the trouble that troubles
us by allowing us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
look to him only. In his name we pray, amen.