“The Way To Trouble
Free Living” John 14:1-14
Intro.: How many times have you come to worship and gotten little out of it because your mind was preoccupied with the worries of life, going a mile a minute over the possible consequences of what you did yesterday and the uncertainties of what you might do or fail to do tomorrow? The disciples of our Gospel can certainly relate. Their minds were swimming with questions, thoughts, and fears. I know that this week is no different for you. We all have a lot going on, a lot going wrong, and a lot of things coming our way that we don’t know about. It’s so easy to let these things overwhelm us and suck the joy out of living.
But
let us remember that while the words of our Gospel were first spoken to Jesus
disciples on the night before His crucifixion, they are also directed to
us. Even now the Lord says to you, “Let
not your hearts be troubled, trust in God, trust also in me….” These are not the empty words of some gnostic, pseudo-evangelist or motivational speaker trying
to sell his latest book; they are the words of the One who is by very nature
God. Jesus offers all of us “The Way To Trouble Free Living” when He says, “Trust In Me!!” First, ….
I. Trust That I
Am Preparing For You To Live With Me In Heaven.
Often times our hearts are troubled
because we deceive ourselves into believing that Jesus has abandoned us and
left us to battle this hostile world on our own. I can’t even begin to know all of the things
that trouble your heart: Broken
relationships and broken promises, sins against you which you cannot seem to
forgive and sins against God for which you fear there is no forgiveness, worries
about money and family, feelings of frustration with yourself and bitterness toward
others, uncertainties about life now and a loss of any hope for eternity. Life in this world is sometimes so burdensome
and difficult. But Jesus promises His
disciples and us that He will deliver us.
A. He Promises Us
That We Will Live With Dwell With Him In Heaven.
For many in Jesus’ day heaven and
everlasting fellowship with God were not real.
Some, like the Sadducees, believed heaven was a myth, just foolish talk
about nonsense. Others, like the
Pharisees, believed there was a heaven, but that it was attained only by those
few whose works made them worthy. Still
others saw heaven as just a state of mind like Eckhart
Tolle and other modern mystics.
Christ, however, tells us not to let our
hearts be troubled...Heaven is real!
Heaven is His gift to us! And He,
Himself, will bring us to live body and soul in everlasting communion with our
Heavenly Father!
Jesus sets our hearts free when he says, “In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
On Good Friday, Jesus left His disciples
and went to His Heavenly Father with the perfect offering for the sins of the
world. Through His suffering, death and
resurrection He has prepared a place for us in heaven. We now have a permanent, yes eternal, home
with our Savior.
Isn’t it
amazing that Jesus, who came into a world that had no room for him, who came to
His own and was not received, now promises us that He is preparing us for
heaven and heaven for us. Jesus is inviting all of you, here today, to
come and live with Him. As with the
disciples He says, “Where I am
going you cannot come yet, but you know the way to the place where I am going.”
Maybe like Thomas, some of you aren’t yet
sure of the way. Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know
where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Jesus answered, "I am
the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through
me.” Some of you have been living with a troubled heart because you have
been worried about the way to heaven.
You may be worried that some of the things you have done will bar the
way for you or you may be fretting over the things you have failed to do that
leave you falling short. That is not the
life for which God created you, and for which the Holy Spirit recreates you. Jesus invites you to let go of such troubles
and to simply trust in Him.
B. He, Himself,
Has Prepared The Way For All Of Us To Come To The Father And Live With Him In
Heaven.
Jesus is the one and only way to the Father and
to heaven. There are many world
religions, some of which are comfortable saying that we are all going to the
same place in different ways. But our
God will not allow such a claim.
The Bible clearly teaches us that “Salvation is found in no
one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." (Acts
Only Jesus has opened the way to God and heaven through His holy life, and innocent death as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Our hearts do not need to be troubled over whether we have been good enough to make it into heaven. We don’t have to worry about the path we have taken. Jesus simply says “Trust In Me!” The writer to the Hebrews says:
“Therefore,
brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of
Jesus, by a new and living way opened
for us through the curtain, that is, his body,
and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart
in full assurance of faith.” (Hebrews 10:19-22a)
Jesus calls to you today brothers and sisters, saying: “Trust In Me! [And have confidence to enter into the
"I
tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes
him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over
from death to life. I tell you the
truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of
the Son of God and those who hear will live.
For as the Father has life in himself, so he has
granted the Son to have life in himself.” (John 5:24-26)
So don’t let
your hearts be troubled any longer, but trust Jesus to by your certain way to
the Father, to tell you the truth that will set you free, and to be the One who
will give you abundant, eternal, heavenly life.
And...
II.
Trust That Through Him You Can Know God.
Today Jesus
calls you to turn your hearts from everything that burdens you, from all your
fears and doubts, and from all the uncertainties that lie ahead. He calls you to fix your eyes on Him, and in
Him you will see your God in all His glory and grace.
A. We want to see
God don’t we? We want to know that He
cares for us, that He walks with us, that He will support and defend us. With Phillip we may find ourselves asking
Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for
us." To ease our troubled hearts Jesus has truly
shown us God with all His boundless love.
In Himself, Jesus has shown us God, in the flesh. He is the exact representation of the Father
and the One in whom the fulness of God dwells.
B. Jesus tells us that peace of heart does not
come from looking at the qualities of God hidden behind the wonders of creation,
such as sunsets and thunderstorms. Nor
does it come from the partial and fearful memory of Him that lurks within us, the remnant of the law in our hearts that at one moment
affirms us and the next condemns us. True
peace of heart comes only in knowing God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
If you really knew me,” Jesus says, “ you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me”
Jesus has
come so that we can see God and know Him as He wants to be known. Not as a cold cruel judge, who punishes us
according to our sins, but as the one who has loved us from eternity, the one
who patiently bears all our sins, takes on the form of a servant and willingly
suffers torment and death to pay the debt we owed. Look at your God, there
He is with His brow scarred by thorns, with wounds in his hands, feet and side
as everlasting testimonies of His love and mercy. Listen to your God as He pleads with Himself
for your forgiveness. When you see
Jesus, you have seen the Father, because the Father and the Son are One. Today Jesus
calls to us, “Trust in God, Trust also in me...”
III.
Trust Him To Give You Power To Overcome The World.
“I tell you the truth”, Jesus
says, “anyone who has faith in me will do what I
have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going
to the Father.
A. Like the disciples we often worry about our weaknesses
and let our hearts become troubled. We
know ourselves only too well. We know
our propensity toward sin. We know all
our frailties and our faults. We know, that like the disciples we have often deserted, and
even denied, our Lord. But Jesus calls
us again to trust in Him.
B. Christ Has Ascended To The
Father To Send Us power from heaven. He
sends us the Holy Spirit. Think of those
poor frightened disciples who had barred themselves in, afraid of the whole
world. Look what happened to them on
Pentecost when they received the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit that comes
to us through the water and the Word.
What a transformation, as they continued the work of Christ in spreading
the Gospel of salvation. Paul reminds
young Pastor Timothy,
“God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life-- not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.” (2 Timothy 1:7-9a)
That is what Christ offers each of us. You and I have the spirit of power to
overcome our fears...and by faith to overcome the world.
Concl.: A story has been told of a dying man who
asked his Christian doctor to tell him something about the place to which he
was going. As the doctor fumbled for a reply, he heard a scratching at the
door, and then he had his answer. "Do you hear that?" he asked his
patient. "It's my dog. I left him downstairs, but he has grown impatient,
and has come up and hears my voice. He has no idea of what is behind the door,
but he knows that I am here. Isn't it the same with you? You don't know what
lies beyond the Door, but you know that your Master is there."
Whether we are facing death or simply the fearful uncertainties of another day, there is great wisdom and comfort for us in this doctor’s analogy. The season of Easter is all about the victory of Christ that belongs to all who believe in Him. Today the Lord directs troubled believers, like you and me, to claim our victory over fear. Christ invites us: “Trust In Me, and your hearts will be trouble free!” Amen.