Strathalbyn Church of Christ

Heart trouble is a common problem, perhaps indicated by the number of by-pass and stent operations. But there’s another type of heart trouble too - the sort of heart trouble that we hear about in today’s reading in John.

Jesus said to his disciples, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” And so, his disciples had troubled hearts.

Troubled hearts are hearts that are not at peace, hearts that are anxious or agitated. Heart trouble is sometimes caused by our anxiety, or fear about the future, and what might happen.

Now why did these disciples of Jesus have troubled hearts? The most obvious reason is that Jesus has just informed them he is about to leave them. (13:33) “Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me; and as I said to the Jews so I say to you, where I am going you cannot come”. “Where I am going you cannot follow me now; but you shall follow afterward.”

Because their whole world had been wrapped up with Jesus over the last 3 years, the prospect of his departure must have been devastating and perplexing - maybe something like a child contemplating the loss of its parents.

How did Jesus help their troubled hearts? What he said to them, can help us as well.

Firstly, Jesus says, “Let not your hearts be troubled” - that is, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled any longer”. “Believe in God; believe also in me.”.

In other words, “continue to trust in God,” or “keep on trusting in God, also in me keep on trusting.”

And so, Jesus doesn’t just say, “Don’t worry, she’ll be right!” Instead, he urges us to continue to trust in God and in himself. And so faith is the cure for this sort of heart trouble.

“Believe in God, believe also in me.” Trust in Jesus the Son of God is the second dimension that gives faith a new quality. Trust in the Lord Jesus and his word - and particularly his word here about what he’s going to do. And what is that?

“In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?”

And so, Jesus is telling his disciples why they should not be troubled. In effect he says that his going away will mean great blessings for them.

“In my Father’s house are many rooms.” The older version of the Bible used the word “mansions” - “in my Father’s house are many mansions.” “Mansion” originally meant “a place to come home to”, hence the word “manse”, “mason” in French.

Basically what Jesus is saying is - “There’s more than enough room in my Father’s house.” When the Saviour was born there was no room for him in the inn, but here at the end of his life, he says there’s plenty of room in his Father’s house for us. God’s eternal home is a very roomy place. In it there are permanent dwelling places for all God’s children.

“I go to prepare a place for you.” In other words, I’m going on ahead to get a place ready for you.

When Cheryl and I were in the Parish of Victor Harbor, the Mt. Compass church used to have an annual camp at Mannum. One of the ladies in the church had organised, arranged, a cabin for us near the river. It was all ready when we arrived.

Jesus told them, “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” but he also added, “if it were not so, would I have told you I go to prepare a place for you?” Well, would he? If there is no such house as God’s house, with plenty of rooms for us, then we can be sure that God’s Son Jesus wouldn’t tell us that he is going there to prepare a place for us!

Jesus isn’t the kind of person who deceives, nor lets others live under a delusion.

Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us in his Father’s house or home. There’s an old saying, “There’s no place like home”. You may have said that after going on a holiday. If that’s true for us now, how much more for our heavenly home!

And so, “if it were not so, would I have told you I go to prepare a place for you?” Jesus certainly isn’t the kind of person who tells lies or says things he knows are not true.

“And when I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

“I will come again.” How often he has told us this! No wonder it was included in the two ancient Christian creeds or statements of belief, namely the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed.

Do you know what the second to last verse in the Bible says, and who is speaking? It is Jesus who is speaking, and this is what he says, “Surely I am coming soon.” From his time perspective he is coming “soon”, for “a thousand years is as a day to the Lord.” 2 Peter 3:8.

Our future is to be with the Lord. He doesn’t just say he will come again and take us to our place. He says he will take us to himself.

A dying man was fearful, even though he was a Christian. He expressed his feelings to his Christian doctor. The physician was silent, not knowing what to say. Just then a whining and scratching was heard at the man’s door. When the doctor opened it, in bounded his big beautiful dog, who often went with him as he made his house calls. The dog was glad to see his master.

Sensing an opportunity to comfort his troubled patient, the doctor said, “My dog has never been in your room before, so he didn’t know what it was like in here. But he knew I was here, and that was enough. In the same way, I’m looking forward to heaven. I don’t know much about it, but I know my Saviour is there. And that’s all I need to know.”

Lord Baden Powell was a Christian and founder of the Scout movement, and on his gravestone there’s a very simple inscription - just a circle with a dot in the middle - which is a tracking sign for “Gone home”.

In writing to the church at Corinth, Paul used the expression, “at home with the Lord” for departing this earthly life. 2 Cor 5:8.

Jesus ‘going away’ was not to be a permanent separation, but it was to make possible a permanent reunion! - “to be forever with the Lord.” 1 Thess 4:l7

Jesus told them “And you know the way where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”

Thomas didn’t think he knew the way, even though Jesus said, “you know the way where I am going.”

Thomas did what perhaps many of us do - he underestimated his knowledge. A Christian might say, ‘I don’t know enough to witness’. But if we know Jesus, we do know enough.

Jesus then said to Thomas one of the great statements about himself:

“I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me.”

Other great men or religious leaders might say, ‘I’ll show you the way’, but Jesus says “I am the way”.

A traveller engaged a guide to take him across a desert area. When the 2 men arrived at the edge of the desert, the traveller, looking ahead, saw before him trackless sands without a single footprint, path, or marker of any kind. Turning to his guide, he asked in a tone of surprise, ‘Where is the way?’ With a smile,the guide replied,” I am the way.”!

So too, our Lord says “I am the way - no one comes to the Father but by me”.

Other great men might say ‘I will tell you the truth’,

but Jesus says, “I am the truth.”

Other great men might say ‘I’ll give you the life’,

but Jesus says, “I am the life”.

“I AM” - that’s the name of God given in the OldTestament book of Exodus - “Say this (Moses) to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you’ “ Exodus 3:14.

“I am the way.” Jesus is the way, not a way.

“I am the truth” Jesus is the truth, not a truth.

“I am the life” Jesus is the life, not a life.

“I am the way”, which means the only way.

“No one comes to the Father but by me.” “No one” means what it says.

But why can Jesus say he is the way?

On another occasion he said “No one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” Matthew 11:27

Jesus goes on to say in this passage in John “I am in the Father, and the Father in me.” And he said to Philip “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; henceforth you know him and have seen him.”

A little boy, frightened by a thunderous lightning storm, called out one dark night, ‘Daddy, come; I’m scared.’ ‘Son’ the father said, ‘God loves you and he’ll take care of you.’

‘I know God loves me’, the boy replied, ‘but right now I want somebody who has skin on.’!

Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied.” Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.”

Jesus is God with skin on!

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth, we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father.” John 1:14

“No one comes to the Father, but by me”. Some people think that it doesn’t matter what you believe so long as you are sincere. But sincerity can’t cleanse us from our sins - but “the blood of Jesus, God’s Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7

Some people think all religions are just different ways of climbing up a high mountain to God at the top. But inJesus, God came down to us!

“Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel (which means God with us)”.

Matthew 1:23.

We don’t have to climb up to God; God has come down to us!

Some people may argue that if Jesus the Son is the only way to the Father, then that way is too narrow. But in reality it is wide enough for the world - if the world chooses to accept it.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

“whosoever” is very wide and inclusive!

Jesus said to Philip, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” Jesus is saying that the Father and himself are so close

that they are inside each other. They are two Persons, but they are “in” each other.

How do we get to know someone? How do we get to know what a person is like? By listening to what they say, and by looking at what they do. And Jesus tells Philip that by listening to his words and by looking at his works, Philip would know the Father; and that’s because, as Jesus tells Philip, “the words that I speak to you I speak not of myself, but the Father who dwells in me, he does the works.”

And finally, in today’s reading from John, we hear Jesus tell his disciples: “he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father. And whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” John 14:12,13

The works that Jesus did were born out of love and compassion The works that the believing ones shall do are products of sharing in his ministry of love and compassion.

Are the “greater works” the works of the mission to “the end of the earth”?

Before he was taken up from the disciples into heaven, Jesus told them, “and you shall be my witnesses to the end of the earth”. Acts 1:8. The salvation of people is a great work! And salvation is for eternity.

Professor Christian Barnard, the pioneer of heart transplant surgery, once remarked, with some satisfaction, that some of his patients had lived for a further 18 months, and one had survived for 3 years. He was thrilled to have saved a person’s life for 18 months or 3 years.

But when God saves, he saves for eternity!

We read in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians: “……our Lord Jesus Christ will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” 1Cor 1:8,9

And in Peter’s letter we read “the God of all grace has called you to his eternal glory in Christ…….” 1 Peter 5:10

To encourage his disciples in his mission, Jesus says, “Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” John 14:13

A father took his son Stephen to the show one day and bought him a number of tickets so he could go on different rides. At one ride, another boy came up and asked the father for a ticket. ‘It’s alright dad’,Stephen said, ‘he’s my friend and I’ve told him he can ask you for one’. And so the father gave the boy a ticket ‘in Stephen’s name’.

Jesus said we, who are his friends, can ask his Father in his name. That gives us confidence in prayer; but even more so when we know that because of Jesus, and ‘in Christ’, you and I are totally accepted by God the Father, by his grace and not by our performance.

We are encouraged to ask in the name of Jesus for what he would be happy to put his name to, so that his Father may be glorified.

Friends, this morning we have heard Jesus tell us things that will help troubled hearts; so let’s take them to heart!

Series: John

Topics: #John