It's still the upper room. Jesus continues to share His
heart with these men with whom He has already shared His life for the last
three years. In the section that we are going to look at today Jesus tries to prepare
them for what is about to happen. Our text is John 14.1.
Jesus said, 'Let not your hearts be
troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.'
Let's start with this question. What prompted Jesus' words?
Why is He saying this to these men? We can be misled by those chapter
divisions. Jesus' words are at the beginning of chapter 14, and so you might
think that He is starting a new topic. He's not. While having chapters and
verses can be helpful, you need to remember that Jesus didn't speak in chunks of
chapters and John didn't write using them. They were added much later to make
it easier to find things in the Bible. What Jesus has to say here is tied to
what He had been saying. Earlier in His conversation with the eleven He said,
Little children, yet a little while
I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also
say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.'
And you will recall from last week how Peter found that so
upsetting.
Simon Peter said to him, “Lord,
where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow
me now, but you will follow afterward.” Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not
follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”
That was at the end of what we call John chapter 13. Jesus
continues with the same topic in what we call John chapter 14. In talking about
going where Peter and the rest cannot come, Jesus is referring to His death. Jesus
knows that watching that happen is going to be very difficult for these dear
friends of His. Peter is already expressing some of that. So, Jesus tries to
prepare them for what is to come. The next three days are going to be very hard
on these guys. They are going to be deeply troubled by all that is going to
happen. So, Jesus talks about how they should deal with it.
And His counsel is quite simple. 'Don't let your hearts be
troubled by what you are going to experience. Don't let it happen.' Before I
explore what Jesus is getting at I want to quickly point something out. To be
sure, these men are going to have a hard time. Their best friend is going to be
arrested, beaten to a pulp and then slowly killed. They are going to have a
hard time understanding that and accepting it. But who is going to have it
worse? It's Jesus who's going to suffer all of those things. And He's the one
who's going to endure the eternal hells of an untold number of people while on
that cross. But who is He thinking about here? He's not in a corner giving in
to self-pity. He is taking care of His friends. That is the love of Jesus for
His own.
Now, let's explore what Jesus said. 'Let not your hearts be
troubled.' Why did Jesus say that? Is being troubled just wrong and that all
the time? Well, it can't be. And I have a really good reason to say that. Jesus, Himself, was
troubled at times. John has already told us that. Listen to how he described
Jesus' responses to some upsetting situations.
First, Jesus at Lazarus' tomb.
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the
Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and
greatly troubled.
Then, as He considered the cross, Jesus said this.
Now is my soul troubled. And what
shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come
to this hour.
Then, when He tells the men about Judas' coming betrayal.
After saying these things, Jesus
was troubled in his spirit, and testified, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, one of
you will betray me.'
Jesus was troubled and more than just once. So, it can't be
that simply being troubled by something is sin. There's something more going
on. And Jesus tells us what. Listen to what He told the men at the end of this
part of His conversation in the upper room.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I
give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be
troubled, neither let them be afraid.
The problem isn't that we are troubled by the evil we
encounter. That only makes sense. It's what we do with that. It's how we
respond. Jesus was troubled when He stood at the grave of a dear friend. And,
in response, He got angry. Good response. These eleven men will be troubled by
the events of the next three days. Fine. But how did they respond to that? They
became fearful. 'What's going on? We don't understand. And what's going to
happen to us?' They were troubled, and their world suddenly became chaos which
was quickly filled with fear. Remember that when Jesus appeared to them that
first time on Easter Sunday they were hiding behind locked doors. They were
hiding because of their fear. But there was no reason for them to give in to
fear. That's not the right response. That's where the problems come from. And
that's what Jesus was talking about. He is trying to prepare them to respond
well to what is going to happen. 'Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let
them be afraid.'
Now, did you notice that this isn't advice? I called it
Jesus' counsel earlier. That's not exactly right. This is a command. Please
understand that Jesus isn't acting like some marine sergeant shouting commands
at his platoon. He's not like that. But He is giving them a command. And so,
it's something that they not only needed to do but something that they could
do. They could choose not to let their hearts be troubled. They didn't have to
give in to those fears. It was something that they could do, and it is
something that you can do. That, of course, leads to this question. How? How
could they - and you - avoid falling into the sin of responding to the troubles
of life with fear and all that goes with it? Jesus tells us.
Believe in God; believe also in me.
Now, someone might respond to that by saying, 'But don't
they already believe in God? And haven't they been believing in Jesus for the
past three years?' That kind of question misses an important point. In every
situation we face we have choices to make. And one of them is whether we will
believe. Or to make that plainer. In these situations we choose to trust God or
not. Believing is an ongoing sort of thing. So, Jesus is telling them, 'The
next three days are going to be very troubling to you. But listen. Trust God,
and trust Me. If you do that you'll be okay.'
Let's press into this a little. Trust God for what? The
eleven were to trust God as the wise sovereign whose good and wise and loving
plan is being played out. Let's face it. There are parts of His plan that are
more than troubling. They are shocking. I think that Lazarus' sisters would
agree. When someone finds himself in those very troubling situations this is
what he needs to ask himself. 'Do I still think that God knows what He is doing
as He runs this universe? Do I trust Him now?' A person might be confused and
even greatly troubled - in the way that Jesus was - by what is going on around
him. But as long as he can still say, 'Yes, I still trust Him now', he will not
be given to fear and his confusion will not overwhelm him. Being troubled is not
a sin. It's how you respond to it.
I find it interesting that Jesus doesn't just say, 'Trust
God.' He also says, 'Trust Me.' I'm not sure, but I think what's going on here
is that He is dealing with the friendship that He shares with those men. It's
helpful to remember that at one point Jesus' family thought that He was crazy.
I could see someone like Peter hearing about what Jesus was going to do and
saying, 'Jesus, no! Doing what you propose is nuts. I won't let you.' In fact,
that's pretty much what Peter did say when Jesus talked about going to
Jerusalem to die.
And Peter took him aside and began
to rebuke him, saying, 'Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to
you.'
Peter really did love Jesus, but with an immature love. So,
Jesus tells him and the others, 'You're going to have to trust Me on this. I
really do know what I'm doing.'
So, Jesus tries to care for His friends. He tries to tell
them how to respond to what is going to happen. Did they heed His words? No,
they didn't. Could they have? Oh, yes. And how much better it would have been
for them if they had. They would have been troubled by what they witnessed.
They might have been confused by what was going on. But they would not have
been afraid, and they would not have experienced the internal chaos that they
did. They would have been trusting God and trusting Jesus.
Now all of this, of course, leads to you. You will
experience troubling things. You already have. And that should not be a
surprise. The world is filled with evil. We have been warned that we will enter
the Kingdom only through much affliction. So, coming face to face with
troubling things is just part of what it means to be a Christian. The key issue
has to do with how you will respond.
Let not your hearts be troubled.
Believe in God; believe also in me.
That doesn't mean that you shouldn't be sad or pained or
sometimes even angry at the evil that troubles you. And that doesn't mean that
you're supposed to be able to understand everything that's going on. But it
does mean that you don't need to become fearful. You can avoid feeling as if
your world is suddenly completely out of control. You can avoid all of that.
And the key? 'Yes, Lord, I really do trust You.'
Now, why will that work? Why will choosing to believe make
it possible for you to deal well with life's troubling times? It will work
because of what Jesus said.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I
give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be
troubled, neither let them be afraid.
Jesus responds to those who trust Him in those situations.
By the Spirit, He gives them peace. And it won't be that phony peace that so
many in our culture settle for, peace as the world gives, a peace that actually
doesn't work. Jesus will give us His peace, a peace that passes understanding.
And that's why this works. Jesus responds to your trust. He always does.
So, what do you do now? How about this? Don't wait for some
big crisis to hit so you can try to trust Jesus. Trust Him in the little crises.
These are things that are a part of everyday life. Your well-laid plans for the
day are completely upended when one of your kids comes down with a stomach bug
or someone you were depending on doesn't come through, or any of a multitude of
things that make your life that much more difficult. And there you are in the resulting
chaos trying to figure out what Plan B might be. You have a choice. 'Do I trust
Him now?' Choosing to trust Him will lead to peace, real peace, the peace that
only Jesus can give. The situation may still be troubling, but you will be able
to make your way through it. So, this is what you do. Pray. That is always key.
Pray that you will be able to trust Him in the little, everyday crises so that
you will be prepared to trust Him when some big crisis comes along.