Hope for the Troubled Heart

Introduction

What do you do when you are troubled by something?

“I know, I know, we are in church, so the right answer is something like pray and trust God, right?”

Well, while that advice is sound, I’ll admit that I don’t always do a great job of following that truth.

I dwell; I complain; I get grouchy; my stomach turns in knots; I don’t get adequate sleep; I make plans and alternative plans...

All that usually doesn’t do much for me, since things are rarely as bad as I think they will be, and even if they are as bad as I fear, my response doesn’t help the situation at all.

Going back to the context of our passage this morning, Jesus is sitting with His beloved disciples, celebrating the Passover, and has said some very troubling things to them:

One of them would betray Him; He was going away where they couldn’t go; that their desire to be great in the kingdom to come depended on them being servants not lords.

Then at the beginning of John 14, Jesus encourages them to not be troubled, but instead to believe.

Last week we saw that Jesus told them to believe that He is the way, the truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father except through Him.

This morning, Jesus tries to help them understand more fully what it is that they were to believe and some of the benefits of that belief.

Body: John 14:7-14

Verse 7

The disciples knew Jesus, but they really didn’t know him in his full significance.

Jesus is the reflection of the Father, so a relationship with him is a relationship with God.

Understand, this is a mysterious union, so if you find it hard to wrap your mind around, join the club.

But, that’s kind of the point. If God is truly God we will never be able to grasp Him in totality...

Illustration: Do we know every color that is possible in all creation? Of course not. We know all the colors that we’ve observed, but it is possible there is a color or multiple colors that we’ve never seen and our eyes can’t even comprehend.

The point is, we are, even at our best, limited creatures who cannot understand all things.

This verse doesn’t teach that Jesus and God are the same Person. There are three distinct Persons in the Godhead, but there is only one God.

And Jesus point is we don’t have to wait until we get to Heaven to know the Father. If we know Jesus, we will know the Father as well, because Jesus is related so closely to the Father that they are one in nature, essence and being.

Verses 8-9

Building off of what Jesus just said about knowledge of the Father, Philip asks Jesus for a special revelation of the Father.

He was probably looking for a theophany like in the OT.

Theophany: a visible manifestation of the Father’s glory to man.

Philip and the disciples faith has been shaken. Philip believes that a special revelation of the Father would strengthen their faith.

Little did he realize that he already had it!

In his tender rebuke, Jesus tells Philip that He is the perfect reflection of the Father, the perfect revelation of the Father, the perfect theophany.

Understand, Jesus is not denying the distinction of Persons in God. He is reminding Philip that He is the one who reveals God.

He goes on to say:

Verses 10-11

This is a concept we will need to unpack a bit.

Understand this, Jesus is talking about the mysterious and glorious connection between the Father and the Son.

The “three-but-one” theology of the Trinity is one of the most controversial of all Christian beliefs because our minds can’t truly comprehend it.

Some faith groups and cults have in fact either rejected the Trinity outright, or tried to explain it away.

Many say that since the Trinity is not expressly laid out in Scripture, then it should be rejected.

However, the clear teaching of the Bible is that there is one God who reveals Himself in three distinct Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

But, that’s a hard concept to understand! You are correct. But just because it’s hard to understand doesn’t mean that it’s not true.

See, through Scripture God has shown us just enough of His glory to drive us to praise Him.

He doesn’t attempt to tell us everything about Himself.

He knows our minds couldn’t comprehend it any way!

But he tells us exactly what we need to know to seek Him, to be in relationship with Him, to love Him, to praise Him.

The words ‘I am in the Father, and the Father in Me’ describe the closeness of the union between the Father and the Son.

They are separate Persons, yet They are One in their attributes and will.

Thus, Jesus words and works are those that the Father has given him to do and say.

As I once read: “The Son speaks the mind of the Father because this is also his own mind.”

This might be challenging for the disciples to understand (and us too!), but they can believe it because Jesus says so and because they have seen the miracles with their own eyes.

Their faith (which was small) was wavering. Whatever faith was present in their hearts must be kept there and strengthened as now the Master was about to leave them.

It is far greater to take Jesus at his word, but at least they could believe the miracles which they had seen with their own eyes.

All this to make this incredibly important point:

Jesus is to be trusted as the Father is to be trusted: completely!

A lot of people call themselves believers. Good.

But a true believer’s life is about trusting the Lord completely, in all circumstances because: He is One with the Father.

Too many people today call themselves believers, but they don’t trust Jesus in the everyday circumstances of their life.

Too many say Jesus can be trusted, but then whine because life isn’t going their way.

Too many say they have a strong faith, but never rely on that faith when times get tough.

Beloved, we are to be a people of faith.

Not just faith that we will go to Heaven when we die, or faith that Jesus is God’s Son, but active faith.

The disciples were about to begin a path that would call for active faith.

They would have to leave their comfortable places, their lives would be in danger, they would be called to boldly testify to something that their neighbors believed was blasphemy.

How many of us live a faith like that?

Verse 12

Now Jesus shows what those who truly trust in him can expect:

First, that He who is in us will do “greater” works.

This passage can be confusing because none of us want to think that we would do things more incredible than what Jesus did.

But that’s not what he’s talking about here.

This “greater” has to do with number and territory, not significance.

Jesus ministry was confided to about 100 miles of roads in Israel. And he focused his attention on the Jews.

But his followers would reach more people (in fact, they reached more on the day of Pentecost than in all of Jesus ministry) and even the Gentiles.

Verses 13-14

This isn’t a holy Santa Claus (just give him your list). Jesus says that we must ask in faith. But notice the ends “that the Father may be glorified”.

Adding “in Christ’s name” or “your will” does not guarantee that all of our prayers be answered. In fact, many have used this to try to manipulate God, as if He could be manipulated!

Prayer really should be about our attempt at identifying the purposes of Christ.

The key to this passage is “in my name”. This means asking in accordance to his will. It is to ask for that which brings glory to God’s name. It should be a reflection of God’s calling to us to love God completely and love people correctly.

The closer we are to Jesus, the more our prayers will reflect his will.

“Live in the center of His will, walk in fellowship with the Lord, ask for anything that the Lord would desire, and your prayers will be answered.”

Big Idea: Hope for a troubled heart is found in belief in God; His revelation to us and promises for us.

Our hope is found in His revelation to us

The perfect revelation of God to man is Jesus Christ.

The answer to the question: “What is God like?” is “He is like Christ Jesus.”

You will have a troubled heart at times. We all do. But, Jesus instructs His disciples then, now and forever, to look to the Father by looking to Him in the midst of your troubles.

If you are not Jesus disciple (His follower), then there is no hope in this revelation.

In fact, in many ways, it should be more troubling…in fact, downright scary. Because the implication is that to reject Jesus is to reject God the Father.

My only response to that is this: You better be sure.

If you have put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore His follower, then you have a great hope, knowing that you know God the Son, therefore you know and are known by God the Father.

The Greek word γινώσκω means “to know.” It’s used 141 times in John’s Gospel. But, it’s used in different ways.

Simplest = Knowing a fact

Next = Understanding truth

Deeper = To be in relationship

Deepest = To have a deep relationship and communion with

Because we have that third level of knowing with Jesus (to be in relationship), we also have this with the Father. And, we look forward to having the deepest level of knowing someday in glory.

Thus, the hymn writer was correct when he wrote: “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus name!”

Our hope is found in His promises for us

Look at what Jesus promises His followers here:

If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father…in His works and His word...

We talked about this at length, but it’s a fulfilled promise.

You will do greater works than these because I’m going to the Father...

How can we do these “greater” things?

Because of the coming of the Holy Spirit, which we will look at in detail next week.

The basic point here is that Jesus, through the HS, will do greater things through His people.

And it’s not about the physical works, but the spiritual ones.

And the greatest spiritual “works” are when we take part in helping someone come from spiritual death to spiritual life.

It’s been said: “It is greater to save souls than to heal bodies.” And it’s true.

Additionally, one of the truly amazing things, greater things, if you will, is that God can take a bunch of wet dirt like us and use us to bring glory to Himself.

As Lawrence Richards aptly wrote: “It’s not surprising God expressed Himself through the sinless Jesus. But for the Spirit to take sinful human beings, and use us as agents of God in this world, is a greater wonder indeed.”

Whatever you ask in my name, I will do, that the Father may be glorified...

Another hymn writer wrote this: “O what peace we often forfeit; O what needless pain we bear; All because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.”

Do you pray knowing that God not only hears prayers, but answers them?

Matthew 21:21 ESV

And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.

This isn’t a call to landscaping, this is a call to have greater faith in the One you pray to than in your ability to understand the One you pray to.

But the question is: Am I glorifying the Lord?

God cannot be manipulated through prayer. But, when we genuinely pray that His will be done for His glory and purposes, then you’ll find that your prayers go far beyond anything you could have hoped for or imagined.

Look one more time at verses 12-14...