John 14 and verse 1, Let not
your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in Me. Now we can read four or five
chapters that are basically in context with this Scripture,
but we're looking at this one this morning, and then it'll
bleed over a little bit, you know, that before and that that
goes behind. Believe in God, believe also
in me. Now, the Gospel of John, as you
know, having been Christians a long time, hearing many preachings
and been in church quite a while, is very unique. Even among the
Gospel, John is unique in that, as it were, it, quote, fills
up the measure of Christ, unquote. It emphasizes, like no other,
His divine Sonship. It begins with His eternality
and His divinity in John chapter 1 and verse 1 and 2. It presents Him all the way. in his glory as the only begotten
Son of God. And the Gospel of John, as A. W. Pink wrote in his book, Why
Poor Gospel?, that leading theme of the gospel of John, or should
I say the leading theme of the gospel of John, is the deity
of our Lord Jesus Christ. That He is very God come in the
flesh. Now, let me quote Pink, the fourth
gospel is more elevated in its tone, its viewpoint is more exalted,
and higher glories are revealed, touching the purest person of
the Savior, unquote. That, the gospel of John. This gospel was also, most believe,
the last one of the four that was written. And some see its
major purpose in John writing it is to put down and to destroy
the heresies of Ebion and Cyrenthias in denying, even in that early
time, the deity of our Savior. Thus the gospel opens with an
unequivocal declaration of the deity of the Lord to show that
Christ was also very God and the only begotten Son of God,
and that the eternal Word of God, Christ the Son, was made
flesh and dwelt among men in the world and that there is in
him or was in him the manifestation of the deity of our blessed Lord
and Savior. Now here in this we might get
our contextual bearing. We almost need to have a special
introduction to this section of the Gospel of John as it contains
our present text. Now, the section runs from chapter
13 and verse 1 through chapter 16, and some refer to these things
as the upper room discourses or, as we might say, the valedictoria
discourse, the farewell discourse, of our Lord unto his inner circle. It is the longest section in
the Gospel of John, yea, some measure it all the way into chapter
18. One cannot help but notice the
fact that the Gospel of John is not synoptic. That is, it
does not give the same or the exact parallel account of the
life and the ministry as do Matthew and Mark and Luke in their Gospel. Due of the Lord Jesus, in that
John leaves out some things which they include, such as the Olivet
Discourse. John does not record the actual
institution of the Lord's Supper. And John includes not the many
parables that are found in the synoptic gospel, and he includes
only a few miracles which are recorded by the other gospel. One, on the other hand, John
writes some things which the other gospel do not include in
their account, one of them being this farewell or this valedictory
address or discourse and the Lord's Prayer in John chapter
17. Now, J.C. Ryle wrote, in John's
account of the last six days of our Lord's life, things included
in Matthew, Mark and Luke are not included here in the Gospel
of John. However, this is not to pit one
gospel against the other. They are all equally inspired
by the same Holy Spirit of God. Now, for the layout of John's
gospel, his account of the public ministry of our blessed Savior
is complete in chapter 12 and verse 50. That's John's end of
the account of the public ministry of our Lord. And then he records
this very long session wherein the Lord speaks to his own about
his soon to come death by crucifixion and that he might prepare them
for life without him. that he would be going away.
Though, at the end of the Gospel, John does come back and include
an account of the betrayal, of the arrest, of the condemnation,
the crucifixion, and the resurrection of the Holy One of God. Now,
this text of Scripture, where we are this morning, is a fruitful
harvest of truth unto us. Here we may quickly fill our
twelve baskets of fruit with truth and overflowing, and then,
like Ruth, lean about the corners in here and there and overflow
our basket with divine truth from this passage of the Scripture. Now, as for the time of this
event, and the occasion of this event, and of Christ and the
disciples coming to Jerusalem, it was that time of the season
of the Passover. It had come around again. And
in John 13 and verse 1 we see that that is true. And Jesus
knew that His time had come, this hour had come for His death. That hour meaning the time of
His death, that hour or time appointed in the everlasting
counsel for which our Lord actually became incarnate and came into
the world and tabernacled among men." John 12 and verse 27. Now, we cannot, we must not dismiss
the connection between the Passover and the death of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. It was by divine design and by
God's ordered providence that the Lord die His death on the
cross at the time of the Passover. Now as we remember, the Passover
was instituted back in Exodus chapter 12. God said to the people
in Exodus 12 and verse 13, when I see the blood, I will pass
over you and I will not destroy you by the plague. Then in Exodus
again, chapter 12, verse 14, it was made a standing ordinance
to and in the successive generation. And so we are not surprised to
read in Luke chapter 2 and verse 41 that from his youth, from
his time as a child, Jesus grew up under the parentage of Joseph
and Mary as a regularly yearly celebrant of the Jewish Passover. We read there in that chapter
that even at age 12, he spoke of being about his father's business. And of course, he was not referring
unto Joseph. During his public ministry, our
Lord did observe the feast. and the ordinances of the Mosaic
economy, and he led his apostles and disciples also in doing so,
and especially the Passover. Now, just for what it is worth,
it is a question among expositors of old and of our day how many
exactly of the Passover's our Lord observed during His public
ministry with His followers. And the opinion ranges all the
way from two by some, up to five by others. A thing probably impossible
for us to definitely settle. It would seem that John's Gospel
mentions distinctly three Passover's that our Lord attended. You have
John 2 and 13 when He cleansed the temple for the first time. You have John 6 and 4 in connection
with the feeding of the multitude. And you have this one here in
John chapter 13, which is the lead-in to these farewell discourses
that our Lord is delivering. And the point being, the apostles
had been to Jerusalem to observe the Passover with their Lord
and their Master on other and previous occasions. And then
after the Passover ended, They went back to their regular routine
as the Lord ministered about in this place and that, and this
they did year to year. But it would not be so with this
particular Passover in our text today as seen in John 13 and
verse 1. For this would fill up the time
that the Son would die as the fulfillment of the Old Testament
Passover and what it signified and all that it typified and
all that it pictured. And in chapter 13 we have some
rather unique events. Let's recall them just quickly. Number one, in chapter 13, with
his own, Judas is exposed and is outed as the betrayer of Christ. Number two, The Lord, in great
humility, unguards Himself and washes the feet of His disciple. And thirdly, something interesting,
you have Simon's boast, which is turned into a forecast of
his fall and denial of the Savior. But then coming to John 14 and
verse 1 and working from it. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God or some render
that trust. You trust in God. Believe or
trust also in me. Both words are They say from
the same Greek word, whether translated belief or translated
trust. Now, here we see the shepherd's
heart of our blessed Savior. In John 13 and 1, we read of
Him loving His own and loving them unto the end. Here in chapter
14 and verse 1, he comforts them concerning the things about to
occur, the great changes in their circumstances that now even was
at the door. and soon to come to pass. Now,
in order to help us get a grip on this, let's reach back to
chapter 13, verse 31 through verse 35, for the departure of
Judas to betray the Lord set in motion a chain of events that
would lead to our Lord's arrest and death. One of their own. would prove to be a traitor. The Lord would go where they
could not come at that time, where they could not follow and
they could not find Him. And what had they heard? Not
only that one of them would betray them, but Simon, one of the strongest
and boldest of their number, should betray the Lord before
morning before the rooster crow. So, let us especially reconsider
chapter 13 and verse 33. Little children, yet a little
while I am with you, ye shall seek me. And as I said unto the
Jew, Whither I go ye cannot come, so now I say unto you. He stood on the verge are being
glorified, but that through His death. Only a little while longer
would He be literally bodily present with them. He would then
go away and be glorified. He would go where they could
not follow Him, at least not then at that time. Peter's response
is interesting. Chapter 13, verse 36 and 37,
It shows that he did not yet understand the meaning of the
Lord's words, where are you going? Why can I not follow you now? The impetuous apostle asked. Why? I would lay down my life
for you. all this talk of leaving and
all this talk of dying. Now, coming to John 14 and 1,
as the Lord begins to comfort His own in the face of His death
and their coming circumstances, He said, Let not your heart be
troubled. One expositor wrote, that the
Greek word here for troubled is very picturesque, that it
pictures a body of water which is agitated and swirled and tumbled
up by the tumult of a storm or of a great wind, and is a picture
of the feelings and of the emotion which enter into the heart and
mind of some of them present, or at some anticipated evil or
trouble that might fall upon us. The word seems to mean to
agitate, to stir, to roil. That is R-O-I-L. In fact, it's the word used in
John 5 and verse 7. of the troubling of the waters
of the pool of Bethsaida. And they were troubled at the
words of the Lord, that he would go away and that they would see
him no more for a while. And do we wonder at this? For
the Lord had called them. They had left all their worldly
callings, family, friends and all. They had left their vacation
and become followers of Him and itinerants with Him, moving from
place to place, being His disciples. They had heard the ire of many
of the Jews. And they loved Him. They loved
their Lord. They believed in His work. They
had devoted themselves full time to the cause of our Lord by His
divine call. They had confessed Him to be
the Messiah, the very Son of God. And now He speaks of leaving,
of going away, even of dying, of being put to death. How can
they, in their minds, reconcile this with Him being the Messiah? Several things there were that
agitated and troubled them, not the least of them being their
hope and expectation that Messiah would deliver them from the yoke
of Roman bondage, that he would deliver Israel from that bondage
and exalt them. J. B. Lightfoot thought this
a major part of their being troubled, seeing their Jewish expectation
of a temporal kingdom set up by the Messiah at that time failing
and failing to develop. And if you remember, This hope
was yet in them and was revived again after His resurrection
in Acts chapter 1 and verse 6, as they there fanned again the
flame of hope that had all but died in them. that the kingdom
would be restored to Israel at that particular time. John Brown
was very perceptive to point out that they, the apostles,
anticipated for themselves, or they hoped for themselves, a
high position in the kingdom of the Messiah that they hoped
He was about to establish and make them high officials. You
see that in Mark 10, verse 37. To quote Brown again, these things
plunged them into a depth of perplexity, of anxiety, of fear,
and of sorrow, and they were gripped by it. And their gentle
shepherd speaks words to assuage their sorrow, to ease and to
lessen their troubled hearts upon this occasion. Let not your
heart be troubled. Do not let your heart be troubled. Do not be swallowed up in trouble
and perplexity at the thought or the reality of my going away. Linsky says that the tense in
the Greek is present imperative and forbids what had already
begun. It was already in progress. Stop letting your hearts be troubled,
might be the way that we might express it. And it proves that
the Lord knows the thought of every heart. Now His next words
are very important and interesting. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Now, if you read different commentators,
different expositions of the Scripture, it can be confusing,
as some see the words as being indicative. Others see the words
as being imperative. Still others see one of each. in the words of Christ that is
our text. Those who hold the words to be
indicative see the Lord as saying, you believe in God and you will
believe in me. Those who think that the words
are imperative see the Lord saying, if you believe in God, then believe
also in me. And some, since you have, or
do, believe in God, then believe in me also, or believe in God,
and you will, as a consequence of that, believe in me. Now these
words, much like the burning bush seen by Moses are worth
our turning aside to consider them at length and consider them
further. When we have caught their meaning
and we share the sentiment, the reaction of that man Moses, that
we ought to put off our shoes or we stand here upon holy ground. I agree with John Gill in writing
that the words in which the previous ways they are taken, since they
are a declaration of the true deity of Christ because of two
things. Number one, he is saying that
he is of the same nature and the essence of God. Number two,
he is saying that Christ is as surely the object of saving faith
as is the Father. These two things are here in
this verse of the Scripture. But then, let's let us back up
just a little bit, work our way again upon this wonderful and
consolatory text in the Holy Scripture. And especially, I
want us to do something. View it, first of all, from the
Jewish perspective. View it from the Jewish perspective. And then I add, especially at
that time. And then also view it from the
Christian perspective. Now please consider this thought
carefully. I want you to not be quick to
jump one way or the other. Consider very carefully this
thought before agreeing or disagreeing. It comes from the pen of one
long ago gone out of this world, and he wrote this on the words
of Jesus in John 14 and verse 1. Listen carefully. Jesus teaches
here that the Jewish faith was somewhat distinct from the Christian
faith in that, of old, the Jews held strongly to the idea of
the unity of God and that God was one. And though they believed
in a Messiah sent from God, yet they had not yet as clear a revelation
of the Trinity as we have in the New Testament. Nor did they
have so clear a revelation back then that Messiah would be of
the same nature and essence of Jehovah. They did not have that
clear of a revelation. And now a quote from the Puritan
Thomas Goodwin, found in his treatise, The Objects and Acts
of Justifying Faith. And he wrote this, and I'm quoting,
These apostles, though living under Christ's ministry, yet
their faith had acted a long while on God, Now let's think
about that for a moment, for I believe it certainly is true. Far more than unto Christ, whom
they had but Old Testament notion and conception of. Oh sure, they
believed that He was the Messiah. They believed that He came from
God. They believed that He was the very Son of God. They believed
it and were sure, as Simon Peter confessed in their behalf, in
Matthew 16 and 16 and John 6 and verse 69. But the Jews at large
in that day, or I'll say the greater majority of them, while
professing a strong belief in God as a divine being and a reverence
for the law and for the Scripture, did not accord the same divinity
to the Lord Jesus Christ, the carnal Jew, the unregenerate,
the unconverted. In fact, they called him a blasphemer,
an imposter, when they heard him claim equality with Jehovah
God. And because of that, they sought
to put him unto death. Thus, the carnal Jews, by that
I mean the unregenerate, the unconverted, made a deadly, fatal,
miscalculation, thinking they could have God without Christ,
thinking they could have the one and not the other. They would
cleave to God, but reject Christ and put Him even upon a cross. And, as you know, they remain
under this deadly delusion even unto this day. Methinks also
that there are those in Christendom, and their number is not small,
who also are weak in this area as well, even if not to the extent
of the Jew among whom Christ appeared in the flesh. And they
think their salvation is more or mostly or entirely in the
hands only of God rather than in the hands of Christ who is
the mediator of the everlasting covenant. And so they look almost
exclusively to God the Father for pardon of sin and salvation. And Goodwin said in that aforementioned
article, Though they do it with an intermingled knowledge of
Christ, yet not so much applying themselves unto Him as they ought."
Even when we were unregenerate, let's illustrate it. When we
were unregenerate, when any conviction seized upon us because of our
sin or we had a fit of conscience. It was usually thought by us,
reckoned by us, that our sin was first and foremost against
God. Did we at that time in our unregeneracy
think of the death of Christ as a means of the forgiveness
of our sin? We felt that our guilt was against
God if we thought of it at all. And we believed in God, but did
we also believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Now, is there to be a
distinction made between faith in Christ and faith in God? and ought the distinction to
be between the first and the second administration of the
covenant of grace, if there is a distinction. That is, the old
and the new economy, or as we call it, the old and the New
Testament, even under the old economy in the Old Testament,
we see the promise, we see the promises, we see abundant types
and shadows of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer and Savior. The
Old Testament Scriptures speak of Him freely. Abraham, the father
of the faithful, saw by faith his day and rejoiced. There were
those who waited for the consolation of Israel when Messiah would
come, the very hope of Israel. Then, as Thomas Manton wrote,
In one of his volumes, Volume 11, page 18, I'm quoting, Since
the Incarnation and since Christ came to exercise the office of
Redeemer and Mediator, there is a distinct faith in Him because
in him we see God in our nature. We have a mediator who partakes
of both God's nature and ours, and so is fit to be a mediator
or a go-between between God and us." To put it another way, Christ
is to be as much the object of our faith as is God the Father. Yet, it's not double faith, one
in God and another, or another sort, in Christ. Or as the Puritan
Owen wrote, faith rests upon them both. You believe in God,
believe also in me, and it is the same faith exercised at the
same time and in the same manner." Now why does Christ tell his
little flock? You believe in God, believe also
in me. Yes, to show that faith is to
be as equally upon him as upon the Father. Dare we not miss
the intent of these words, for they amount to a claim of the
divinity and equality of Christ with the Father. It was meant
to be both a claim and an evidence of Him being of the same nature
and essence as the Father. And He would firmly solidify
this thought or truth in their mind before He left them and
went away in death. He wanted this firmly planted
in their mind, and believe it, before He went to the awful death
on the cross and be put to death like an ordinary common criminal
of that day. And in their minds, it might
seem inconsistent for him to be treated in such a manner as
the Messiah. And could it be that words look
both to the past and to the future, and that his going to the cross
in no way, no way at all diminished His deity. It in no way at all
took away from the essence of His deity and His divine nature. Though this would prove to be
their greatest trial that they would have, the leaving of their
Lord Messiah put unto death. As His great works already done
proved His divinity, so His death did not disannul that claim,
nor could it signify that the Father was in any way distancing
Himself from the Son of His love. And this marvel we can't drink
in, but that union, that hypostatic union, that eternal union between
Father and Son was not severed either by the incarnation or
by the crucifixion of the Son. But don't ask me to explain it. And it seems little to be doubted.
The words of John 14 and verse 1 were spoken to His chosen ones
in response to the public sentiment of the majority of Jews in that
day concerning Christ. Remember what they did when the
Jews heard Christ's claims of deity and of equality with the
Father. such as John 10.30, they considered
it blasphemy. And they sought to stone Him
to death. They gathered their stones together.
Some said, This man is not of God, in John chapter 9. Some mocked Him upon the cross
and said, If Thou be the Son of God, save thyself." Most of
their countrymen, most of their fellow Judaists did oppose the
Lord's anointed, and yet we must never let public opinion or popularity
choose our religion or guide our spiritual beliefs. We must not let public sentiment
or popularity decide what is true and what is false. It is not so that the more people
that follow a thing give it credence as being more true, while the
few have no credence as unto the truth. Because consider the
many and the few that we read about in the New Testament, particularly
in the Gospel. Many go the broad way, few there
be that find that straight and narrow gate. And I think that
we ought to close this study by showing that the Lord Jesus
Christ here is claiming a full equality and full authority and
full sovereignty with the Father. Yea, He is claiming to be the
Son of the Father. He is the eternal Son of the
Father. We know this is true because
the Father oftentimes owned Him as His beloved Son. As in John
5 and verse 18, the Jews understood the Lord to be making Himself
equal with God. And in John 10, verse 33, they
justify their attempt to stone the Lord to death by saying,
it is for blasphemy, because you, being a man, have made yourself
out to be God. He had said in John 10 and verse
30, I and my Father are one. In John chapter 5, 20 through
27, is a marvelous defense by the Lord of His equality with
the Father, and especially in that place, verse 22 and 23. The Lord claims in verse 22 that
the affairs of God are put into the hands of the Son, and that
all should equally honor the Father and the Son. He declares
the Father quickens whom He will, and the Son has authority to
quicken whom He will. He says the Father hath life
in Himself, and He hath given to the Son to have life in Himself. That life, the principle of life,
dwells within them. So in that chapter, he proves
his divinity. The Lord answers Thomas here
in chapter 14, he that has seen me has seen the Father. They say, where are you going?
Thomas said, show us the Father and it will satisfy us. Thomas,
have I been so long time with you, yet you have not known me? He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father. With these words, the Lord comforts
His troubled, anxious disciple. He has not misled them, He said. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I would have dealt with you honestly.
Their allegiance to Him is not misdirected. They will not be
a loser that they have left all and followed him even though
he is about to be put to death. Their allegiance to him is not
misdirected. He will go and prepare a place
for them and will come again and receive them unto himself. For in my Father's house are
many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have
told you." And on the eve of his death, he sums it all up
by saying, You believe in God, believe also in me. Even though
I'm about to leave, even though I am to endure the awful death
of the cross by crucifixion, believe in me as you believe
in the Father. Believe everything the Scripture
said about the Father and believe everything the Scripture says
about me as the Son. You believe in God, Believe also
in me." It was a wonderful, wonderful experience in the Christian life,
almost too marvelous for us to put into words.