The Sure Cure for Troubled Hearts John 14:1-7
We look again at Jesus’ teachings to His disciples from the Upper Room to the Cross from the book of John. We saw that Followers of Christ are to SERVE each other, even as Christ stooped to serve us: You DO the same. Last week we saw the Glory of God the Love of Christ, and that, we are not to avoid one another or tolerate each other, but to love each other as Christ has loved us. Jesus’ disciples are known by their love toward one another.
Today we read John 13: 36-John 14:7: 36 “Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, where are You going ?" Jesus answered, "Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later." 37 Peter said to Him, "Lord, why can I not follow You right now ? I will lay down my life for You." 38 Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.
John14:1 "Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. (A Better translation might be: Do NOT be troubled. Let your heart BELIEVE in God, also in ME BELIEVE.) 2 "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; “If it were not so, I would have told you; (rooms, mansions: In Jesus’ time, when a son got married, many times the Father would attach as living quarters onto the side of his home and the families would share a rear courtyard. Where is the house of Jesus’ Father? Heaven, where Jesus came from.)
1. Finding comfort in the Presence of Jesus
Imagine the disciples’ disposition at this point: They had been so proud and so selfish that they didn’t show love to each other and when it came time to wash each other's feet, they wouldn't do that…and Jesus finally did! They had wanted to show HIM love and then didn’t. Judas had just gone out into the night after Jesus pointed him out as the betrayer, Jesus had foretold His death, He prophesied Peter’s denial, and now He says He’s leaving: What are we going to do now? We’ve forsaken all to follow Him; They didn’t have to explain to Jesus how troubling all of this was because HE knew their hearts!
We know what it means to be “troubled”: It’s the opposite of being peaceful, calm, serene, at ease, or comforted. To be “troubled” is to have inward commotion which causes you to become agitated and restless. I’m sure Peter had a heart FULL of trouble with what Jesus had just told Him. Jesus’ own SOUL was troubled in John 12:27- "Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour '? But for this purpose I came to this hour.” Then at the supper table, Jesus had said this in John 13: 21- “He became troubled in spirit, and testified and said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me."
Yet here Jesus turns His loving compassionate heart to THEIR sorrow, rather than toward His own and says: “Do NOT be troubled. Let your heart BELIEVE in God, also in ME BELIEVE.” To eliminate troubled heart syndrome, a sure cure from your present heart problems and anxieties is to turn to God in BELIEF, in Faith, and find comfort in the very Presence of Jesus. The presence of Jesus means the presence of God. Jesus puts Himself on equality with God: You trust in God whom you cannot see; Trust in me whom you CAN see…and KEEP ON trusting Me, even though soon I will NOT be visible.
Trust God. Trust ME. (Last week we looked at the Glory of God and the Glory of the Son!) Jesus is saying: “You can have full confidence in my presence when I am gone, just like you trust in me as the Son of God while IN your presence. Don’t be comforted by my POWER but by my PRESENCE, because MY Power is IN my presence. You already believe in God whom you cannot see; believe in Me NOW and when I’m gone, even though you can’t see me: Trust in the very presence of the living God.
Jesus had just predicted Peter’s impending denial of even KNOWING Jesus, but Peter later (In 1Peter 1:8) he would encourage other believers: “Though you have NOT seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.”
2. Trusting Jesus’ Promises
Look at the second half of verse 2: “For I go to prepare a place for you. 3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way where I am going."
Another SURE CURE for troubled heart syndrome is Trusting Jesus’ Promises: You can ALWAYS trust what He promises. Do you have any problem “TRUSTING” people? It used to be that a man’s word was as good as getting a promise on paper; You used to be able to trust what people said. A person’s word was binding. A man (or woman), without his trusting word, was nothing. It used to be said that “a man is only as good as his word. Trusting people seems to constantly be problematic, but not Trusting Jesus.
If you are trusting Jesus, you are trusting in God. If you're worried, anxious, perplexed, confused, or stirred up, ARE you being comforted by Christ’s presence and trusting His promises? Remember that Jesus came and made His home with us for 33 years so that we could spend eternity in His Father’s House, in His Home, His Heaven. In a short while, Jesus promises His disciples that He will send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit of the Living God, who made many visits in times past to people of God, but He would now come and take up residence in believing Heart so that they would no longer BE troubled about this life; by His Spirit, believers implicitly trust their God and Savior: God with us. He COMFORTS and sustains us, walking with us until Jesus’ trustworthy promises are fulfilled.
I thought about this personally: I am already positionally IN CHRIST and Christ is in me, the hope of Glory. He assures me that I am a child of God. Jesus is already in My Father’s house and I am hidden there in Christ, my prepared eternal home is there, my name is written there, my life is there, my affections are there, my heart is there, my inheritance is there and my citizenship is there…what am I still doing here?!?!?
I am waiting and working: Waiting for the time that God takes me there…and working as hard as I can, NOT TO GET THERE, but BECAUSE HE HAS PROMISED to one day take me there…by His Grace and sacrifice, and so I am overwhelmed with pleasing my Savior and God who died for me. Jesus promised: “For I go to prepare a place for you. 3 "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”
Jesus prays in the same night, in John 17: 24: “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory (My “I AM” Glory) which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” Jesus is just as anxious to have me arrive HOME as I am to go Home: His promise and His prayers for me are the greatest comfort, and motivation to obey God, trusting the very Presence and the Promises of Jesus.
3. Believing the Person of Jesus
Look at verse 5: “Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?" Verse 6 “Jesus said to him, "I am the way, (the ONLY exclusive way) and the truth, (I am absolute truth: There IS no other truth beside me) and the life;(There is no life apart from me!) No one comes to the Father, but through Me. 7 "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him."
The Sure Cure for Troubled Hearts is believing the person of Jesus Christ. He is the Great I AM, the everlasting self-existent one, who exists eternally in every single way that God exists. Listen to these verses throughout John: John 6:35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. John 6:51 "I am the living bread.” (Jesus says: FEED ONLY ON ME!)
John 8:12: Again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life." Verse 58 “Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am."
John 10:9-11,15 "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. "The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly. "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. verse15: even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
John 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies
John 14:11 "Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. Verse 20: "In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”
John 15:1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser”. (Life in me alone.)
John 18:4 So Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to them, "Whom do you seek ?" 5 They answered Him, "Jesus the Nazarene." He said to them, "I am He." And Judas also, who was betraying Him, was standing with them. 6 So when He said to them, "I am He," they drew back and fell to the ground.”
John 6:26: Jesus answered them and said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 "Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal." 28 Therefore they said to Him, "What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?" 29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." What is the work of God? That you believe in Him whom He has sent. “BELIEVE” is used 85 times in the book of John (“pist-yoo'-o”,“Pisteuo”: far more than in any other book).
“Believing” or having faith in Jesus is a turning to God. It is believing Jesus, accepting His Words, trusting who He is in order to accomplish what HE ALONE can deliver. BELIEVING or FAITH is far more than a vocal declaration. Heb. 11 stresses that to believe God is to obey God. Faith constitutes obedience to God and removes the stress of trying to “WIN” salvation but faith does not remove fear before God but causes us to realize more than ever that we can do nothing of ourselves to please God. Jesus said what? “Jesus saith unto them, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”
When Jesus says to LOVE ONE another as I have loved you, that’s what we strive to do, because we are people of faith IN CHRIST. We don’t disregard God’s commandments if we are in Christ, we strive to obey them: It is what people of faith do! We don’t disregard each other or tolerate each other as members of His body, we work at building each other up in the Lord, because that’s part of exercising faith and being faithful to God as people of faith. Faith, BELIEVING IN JESUS, will reveal itself in being FAITHFUL to Jesus, and being faithful to each other because JESUS IS FAITHFUL.
Are you trusting and believing Him in Life? Then you know you can trust Him in death. If you are trusting Him, you are living FOR HIM, and that is evidenced in your life. Are you ready to die and know that He'll just take you? He says to his disciples, "Trust Me, I'll bring you where I am going."
Closing: If you really trust JESUS, what do you have to be agitated about? The reason the disciples were so stirred up is that they were NOT trusting Jesus’ Presence, His Power, and His Promises, and actually, had yet to SEE the power of God in the Person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. BUT WE HAVE. Jesus says: "Believe in me! Trust in Me! Live in Me! Live FOR Me!"
The SURE-CURE for Troubled Hearts
1. Finding comfort in the Presence of Jesus
2. Trusting Jesus’ Promises
3. Believing the Person of Jesus
