The Cure for a Troubled Heart, Part Three

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Nine cures for troubled hearts (John 14-16)
An Imperative – Believe in God – John 14:1.
Big Idea: A troubled heart is soothed through confident belief in God.
Security - A Permanent Place with God– John 14:2-3.
BIG IDEA: Jesus promises security, access, and purpose for our troubled hearts.
Access - An Always Open Door – John 14:4-11.
Purpose - A Meaning in Trouble – John 14:12-14.
Belonging - An Eternal Community - John 14:15-31; 16:4-11.
Big Idea: Jesus promises an eternal community as a cure for our troubled hearts.
Jesus us promises us community with the Trinity - John 14:15-17, 20.
Benefits of Divine Community
We have love for God that motivates obedience - John 14:15, 21-24.
We have a forever helper - John 14:16.
We have an ever present helper - John 14:17.
We have truth - John 14:17.
We have a family - John 14:18.
We have life - John 14:19.
We have a teacher - John 14:25-26.
We have peace - John 14:27.
We have hope and joy in separation - John 14:28-31.
​

Introduction

Review:
Nine cures for troubled hearts (John 14-16)
An Imperative – Believe in God – John 14:1.
Big Idea: A troubled heart is soothed through confident belief in God.
Security - A Permanent Place with God– John 14:2-3.
BIG IDEA: Jesus promises security, access, and purpose for our troubled hearts.
Access - An Always Open Door – John 14:4-11.
Purpose - A Meaning in Trouble – John 14:12-14.

Belonging - An Eternal Community - John 14:15-31; 16:4-11.

Big Idea: Jesus promises an eternal community as a cure for our troubled hearts.
What does it mean to “belong” to someone or something?
Besides the idea of being the property of, or being owned by someone or something else, it has the idea of be attached to or bound to another in intimate or close relationship.
It means to have the right and privilege to be included, to enjoy the perks and benefits of the place that you belong to.
It means to be accepted by someone or some place.
To have a sense of belonging is to have a sense that it is where you were meant to be, it is to have a sense of closeness and attachment to a person or place.
Why do we all long for a sense of belonging?
We all want to know we are wanted, desired, included. We all want a sense of community.
This is why clubs, frat houses, etc are so huge. They give people a sense of belonging, of being wanted.

The fifth cure is that of belonging, of having an eternal community.

Jesus us promises us community with the Trinity - John 14:15-17, 20.
John 14:15–17 ESV
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
​
John 14:20 ESV
20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
How are love and obedience connected? What connects them?
John MacArthur
John 12–21: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Chapter 10: The Legacy of Jesus (John 14:15–26)

Obedience is a hallmark of genuine saving faith and love for God. Those who are truly saved, by grace alone, will invariably respond with a life of submission and service. With their hearts regenerated (John 3:5; Titus 2:4–7; cf. Eph. 2:4–10) and their minds renewed (cf. Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23), genuine Christians cannot help but outwardly reflect who they are on the inside—new creatures in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17).

If you love me, you will keep my commandments
If you love – conditional, subjunctive (possibility)….IF
Love for God is the condition upon which the next words will be true.
IF you love me, if you REALLY, TRULY, AUTHENTICALLY love me....
IF you are “unselfishly choosing for my highest good…”
THEN
YOU WILL…Future, active indicative
YOU WILL keep my commandments.
Love is proven/revealed by keeping /obeying commands.
Obedience reveals TRUST; FAITH
Obedience reveals our love and devotion to another.
I might add, obedience is exemplified through a heart of joyful submission and surrender.
In fact, I would argue that it is not true obedience if the heart is grumbling all the way. It is compliance, yes. Obedience, no.
Obedience is done willingly and joyfully out of love for the person you are obeying.
Throughout his ministry, Jesus repeatedly emphasized that faith is displayed through submission and obedience.
Luke 6:46.
Luke 6:46 ESV
46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?
In other words, how can you claim to love me AND STILL BE DISOBEDIENT?
John 3:36.
John 3:36 ESV
36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
Do you see the shift here...
Belief - eternal life
No Obedience - Wrath
Goes from speaking of belief to obedience
BECAUSE BELIEF will result in obedience.
Obedience, or the lack therefore, exposes the presence of absence of true belief.
Those who evidence saving faith WILL in fact evidence a life of submission and obedience.
Not perfectly, of course.
BUT, as we grow in Christ, it will show itself in increasing measure.
John will later write....
1 John 5:2-3.
1 John 5:2–3 ESV
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
Love for God will result in obedience.
Joyful and willing obedience.
FAITH will result in obedience, joyful and willing obedience.
Obedience flows from trust and love, desire to please.
Opposite also true…disobedience reveals lack of love and faith.
WITH THE REALITY of faith present...
Jesus makes a promise.
I will send another helper, the Spirit of Truth.
He will be with you.
He will be IN you.
Furthermore....
I am in the Father
You are in me
I am in you
AND by extension, we are in the father.
THUS, with the SPIRIT of TRUTH living in us....
WITH US being IN Jesus
AND Jesus in the Father, THUS making us in the Father...
We are ONE with all three members of the divine Godhead.
We are given an ETERNAL COMMUNITY with THE community of the ages.
We are brought into ONENESS with God in every way imaginable.
We all want to know that we belong. We all want to know that there is a place where we matter, where we are wanted.
How could it possibly get any better than this? It can’t.
The Divine Godhead invites us in to know community with their perfect community, for all of eternity.
We do not know it perfectly or full yet, but one day, we will.
WE DO NOT become one with God in essence.
We don’t become PART of the Trinity
But we enter into community WITH the Trinity.
Something to note....
Unlike IF conditional statement of verse 15, this promise here is a different tense. It is an assured promise.
God WILL send his Spirit to us....
WHEN our faith is revealed, when it is authentic, Jesus acknowledges that by SENDING HIS SPIRIT to us. This promise is not dependent upon our works but is a response to our faith.
It comes, flowing out of the reality of our existing relationship.
One commentator noted it this way..
The Spirit’s gift in these verses is controlled by verse 15a, “if you love me.” The gift, then, is an outgrowth of the loving relationship between Jesus and his disciples, not an entitlement earned by the disciple.
This helper that Jesus sends will be with us forever. It is helper that the world cannot see, cannot receive because their lack of repentance and faith prevents it.
This gift of the Spirit is only for those who put their faith and trust in Jesus through repentance.
Again, acknowledging this is not a works based gift, but one given in response to a relationship with God that has been restored.
If we stopped here…this would be enough to feast on for eternity. But there is more.
Reading here, we begin to glimpse the depth and enormity of this....
What are the implications, the benefits to being ONE with God, being ONE with the Trinity, to being IN God?
Thanks for asking.... :)

Benefits of Divine Community

The three benefits that we will see today(we will consider more next wee) have already been at least alluded to are that we have a motive for obedience, we have a forever helper, and we have an ever present helper.

We have love for God that motivates obedience - John 14:15, 21-24.

John 14:15 ESV
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
John 14:21–24 ESV
21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
If you love you....you will....
Whoever has my commandments…and keeps them…he loves me...
UNDERSTAND, these are not statements indicating the means by which we EARN God’s love.
These are not the conditions under which we prove ourselves worthy of God’s love.
These are not the conditions under which we achieve God’s favor.
THESE are statements of reality.
WHEN YOU LOVE GOD, the fruit, the outward manifestation of that will be....joyful and willing obedience.
WHEN LOVE FOR GOD IS PRESENT IN YOUR HEART, it will be shown through your actions.
Obedience to the father is NOT the way in which we EARN God’s love. God responds to our obedience (and the love and faith that it is driving it) by welcoming us into intimate fellowship with Him.

Their obedience is not the cause of their salvation, “because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in [God’s] sight” (Rom. 3:20; cf. v. 28; 4:13; 5:1; Gal. 2:16; 3:11; Eph. 2:8–9; Titus 3:5), but rather the inevitable result of it. Obedience, flowing from a heart transformed by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit (cf. James 2:14–26), marks the one who truly loves Jesus Christ. Such obedient love is the outworking of the love the Holy Spirit pours into the redeemed heart at salvation (Rom. 5:5; Gal. 5:22).

As we have noted, obedience, true obedience is motivated by love.
A willingness to “unselfishly choose for another’s highest good” because we value, appreciate and care for another.
We want to please them.
We want them to prosper and grow.
We want their best interests to be accomplished.
Obedience is motivated by love.
Listen, this a statement of relationship.
This is a statement of belonging.
THUS, when we are ONE with God, our motivation for obedience is a desire to please Him, a desire to make much of Him, a desire to put HIS highest good over our own.
And we do this with joy and delight.
Whoever has my commandments AND keeps them....
This is the one whose love for God is authenticated and validated.
ESPECIALLY when they love even when it hurts or costs something.
So important is this truth, so deeply does he want to get it across that he says it again, in reverse in verse 24.
Whoever does NOT love me, does NOT keep my words.
BUT if you do keep my words, if you do obey me, you evidence the authenticity of your love for me.
Certainly, it is true that someone can fake it....for a while. But eventually, or in private, that “obedience” will be broken.
Truth is, this is true, in public or private. It is generally true of someone who loves God. Again, this is not perfect obedience, but it is obedience driven by love. SO when disobedience happens, we will be obedient in HOW we address that disobedience.
God the Father responds to such love, repentance, and faith. When we come to him in such a way, he reciprocates it by loving us and making his home with us, by engaging us in intimate fellowship with him.
Truth is, fellowship with God is disrupted when we are living in sin and disobedience.
But when we are loving God, we enjoy the full extent of his love and fellowship with us.

We have a forever helper - John 14:16.

John 14:16 ESV
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
Another – besides Himself. A different helper but of the same kind, same sort.
Jesus has been fulfilling that role of helper but is about to go away and send another.
Helper...

Paraklētos (Helper) is a term the meaning of which cannot be exhausted by any one word. It literally means “one called alongside to help” and has the connotation of a helper, comforter, counselor, exhorter, intercessor, encourager, and advocate (defense attorney).

And does not the Holy Spirit do all these things?
He helps
He comforts
He counsels (convicts) (John 16:8)
He exhorts (convicts and admonishes)
He intercedes (Romans 8:26).
He encourages
He advocates.
Truth is, I believe, especially in our baptist circles, we sometimes fail to understand the role of the Spirit, we downplay it, we minimize Him.
Due to some overly charismatic denominations that have drifted into mystical and unbiblical expressions of the Spirit, we have tended to drift to the other extreme with a very conservative role for the Spirit. Truth is though, the Spirit is VERY much active and involved and we do not do Him or His role any favors when we fail to acknowledge His presence and working.
Yes, we have to be careful. The Spirit would not say or do anything that contradicts scripture.
We cannot parade Him about and simply use “his leading” as an excuse for all sorts of unbiblical actions.
No, the Spirit did not lead you to divorce your spouse.
No, the Spirit did not lead you to stage that rebellion against your boss.
No, the Spirit did not lead you to extort that money for His kingdom.
No, the Spirit did not lead you to engage in a relationship with a married person.
HOWEVER, the Spirit does move, does lead, does work in our hearts if we would but be ready to hear.
In my own life, I have often been walking, praying, even complaining to God about life, circumstances, and trouble. SO OFTEN as I am doing so, the living word of God comes to my mind unbidden, undrawn, unsought for.
SO OFTEN as I am praying, I have been given a sense of God’s presence, of His will, of his comfort, of his conviction, of his admonishment. BUT ALWAYS IT AGREES WITH THE WRITTEN AND PRESERVED WORD OF GOD.
But I am convinced that in those moments, the Spirit of God and his helper ministry has been active and working.
Years ago, I would have simply attributed that to my own mind and memory. And perhaps to some degree it is, but when those words of life come to mind without my seeking them, I believe it is more.
BECAUSE the Spirit of God, the helper is WITHIN me and he is close by. He is FOREVER within me.
To be with you forever…This one will not go away or leave. SAME word as eternal. (AN ETERNAL ABIDING PRESENCE WITH US)
This helper, once given, is here FOREVER.
That concept of eternity is one that frankly, we struggle to understand. It is fathomless.
Everything we know has an end.
Eternity does not.
Eternal life does not
The Eternal presence of the Spirit with us…does not.
We are NEVER alone
We are never abandoned
We are never forgotten
We are never overlooked
We are never NOT cared for
We are never without help
We are never without....

We have an ever present helper - John 14:17.

John 14:17 ESV
17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
The Spirit dwells WITH You and WILL BE IN YOU.
Not only is our helper an ETERNAL one...
HE IS A NEAR ONE. He is never far away...
The helper is given to us to indwell us.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20.
1 Corinthians 6:19–20 ESV
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Consider also 1 Corinthians 3:16-17.
1 Corinthians 3:16–17 ESV
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
What benefits come from having a helper this near?
One note here…just because the Spirit did not permanently indwell believers until the NT times, does not mean he was not active and involved throughout the previous times.
The Spirit STILL had to convict, save, and sanctify those who were saved, who believed. One author explained it like this...

Old Testament saints had to be regenerated by the Spirit to experience their spiritual blessings. The Spirit effected this regeneration when the person placed his or her faith in Jehovah God and became a genuine part of the covenant community. Regeneration essentially involved a “circumcised heart,” which demonstrated itself in heartfelt participation in the sacrificial system, plus a life of obedience to God’s revelation.… Theologically, it would seem that some ministry of the Spirit had to be constantly applied to the old covenant believer. To distinguish it from the intimacy of new covenant indwelling, perhaps this ministry is best designated “abiding.” In the words of the prophet Haggai, “As for the promise which I made you when you came out of Egypt, My Spirit is abiding in your midst; do not fear!” (Hag. 2:5 NASB). The Spirit dwelt “with” the Old Testament saints through the community but would not be “in” them individually and intimately (John 14:17) [since] the Old Testament saints could not have enjoyed the benefits of the new covenant before it had been inaugurated. (Larry Pettegrew, The New Covenant Ministry of the Holy Spirit [Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2001], 27–28)

Point is, the Spirit has ALWAYS been active and involved, but the means and method by which he has done so, had changed.
For us, as NT believers, we are indwelt with his presence.
Does is stagger you to realize that as one who has confessed their sins, repenting of them, and who has placed your faith in Jesus, that His Spirit lives within you?
Does it stagger you to realize that YOU ARE A TEMPLE for the very presence of God?
Does this change the things you watch, the things you read, the things you listen to?
Does this change the way you spend your time, energy, and resources?
Does this change the way you view yourself?
Does this change the way you steward your body?
Besides the reality that you and I have the Spirit of God living within us, a staggering truth....
We also have this implication…Every other believer ALSO has the Spirit of God living within them.
Every action we take and every word we speak, we not only speak to another follower of Christ, but we make to the living Spirit of God that resides in them.
How would this change our words and actions to other believers if we truly embraced and understood this?
Would we be more loving, more gracious, more kind, even when we are forced to rebuke or admonish? Would we do it MORE in grace and love than in hate and anger?
Would be cherish the more knowing that they too are bearing the Spirit of our God?
Would we respect and value them more…even though their actions may outwardly annoy us?
Church, how are we striving to live in the reality of God’s nearness to us?
How is His nearness affecting your day to day life?
In what way(s) are you aware of it, reaching for it, striving to live in light of it?
We have a forever helper who is ever near to us.
We also have a helper who is truth and who speaks truth into our lives.

Conclusion

Nine cures for troubled hearts (John 14-16)
An Imperative – Believe in God – John 14:1.
Big Idea: A troubled heart is soothed through confident belief in God.
Security - A Permanent Place with God– John 14:2-3.
BIG IDEA: Jesus promises security, access, and purpose for our troubled hearts.
Access - An Always Open Door – John 14:4-11.
Purpose - A Meaning in Trouble – John 14:12-14.
Belonging - An Eternal Community - John 14:15-31; 16:4-11.
Big Idea: Jesus promises an eternal community as a cure for our troubled hearts.
Jesus us promises us community with the Trinity - John 14:15-17, 20.
Benefits of Divine Community
We have love for God that motivates obedience - John 14:15, 21-24.
We have a forever helper - John 14:16.
We have an ever present helper - John 14:17.
​
Church, God has not and will not abandon his own. We have a place to belong. Our repentance and faith is met with His indwelling Spirit and we FOREVER have an indwelling Helper who brings us into eternal community with the divine Godhead Himself.
This community, this belonging, this love and intimacy IS the motive for our obedience to Him, which God responds to with increasing intimacy and oneness.
Let’s not get it backward and think we must perform in order to earn his favor and love. All that is required is that we repent, believe, and trust in His work to save us.
It is my prayer that as we press into Christ, as we walk in the Spirit, as we rest in presence of the divine community that God has invited us to, that we would be ever growing together to become more like Jesus for the glory of God.

Application

How does CS Lewis define love?
Unselfishly choosing for another’s highest good.
Why is this definition of love critical to understand as it pertains to obedience?
In this definition, it is about a purposeful act of the will. It is an act of volition. The world defines love as a feeling, as an emotion. This makes it purely self focused. We do what do because we FEEL a certain way. This could also make obedience an act of feeling for one’s own benefit (or the act of not obeying for the same reason) and thus it makes it about self. Having a proper understanding of biblical love will better help us to see the connection between love and obedience.
What other motives do we tend to substitute for love to compel our obedience?
Fear
Personal gain
It makes us feel good
To avoid negative consequences
Why are these motives not sufficient?
It is not true obedience. We are complying for selfish reasons. We are not putting the highest good of God above our own. As long as it serve us to “obey,” then we will. BUT using our own personal gain and interest as the motive for our “obedience” will not hold up when obedience to another conflicts with our strong personal desire. Unless we are willing to put the need of another ABOVE our own, we will not obey when it hurts. Unless we decide to put the highest need of another above our own, we will not serve another.
What comfort do we have from the fact that we have a FOREVER helper?
We are never alone. We always have help. We live in perpetual community.
How does this truth encourage you this week?
What implications for our daily lives rise out of the fact that the Helper, the Spirit indwells us?
We go NO where without Him.
We think no thought he is not aware of.
We desire not desire that he is not aware of.
We commit no action that he is also not involved with.
We endure not trial that he is not with us through
We are never without a source of strength to obey
We are never without truth to guide us
We are never abandoned or alone.
We are never our own. We must ALWAYS consider the will of Him who abides within.
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