John 14:1-6

We want to welcome the everyone to this service today as we remember the life of Ms. Beverly and celebrate her entering into the presence of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Her family is grateful for your love and support over the last few days and weeks as Ms. Beverly has been battling cancer.

Ms. Beverly Jean Gazaway Laney, age 64, of Villa Rica, Georgia passed away Friday, June 19, 2020. She was born February 27, 1956 in Douglasville, Georgia, the daughter of the late Mr. William Lanier Gazaway and the late Mrs. Betty Jean Cotton Gazaway. She worked for and retired from OldCastle as a procurement specialist. Ms. Laney loved to bake, especially desserts. She enjoyed traveling and spending time at the beach and the mountains. Ms. Beverly was an avid reader. She adored her grandchildren and their company. She loved her church family at Pray’s Mill Baptist Church in Douglasville. She also loved her pets.

Ms. Beverly is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Anthony and Elizabeth Laney; her brother and sister-in-law, Tony and Susan Gazaway of Murphy, North Carolina; two grandchildren, Lydia Laney and Elias Laney; and several cousins, aunts, uncles and extended family.

Mrs. Beverly was a blessing and encouragement to her church family and her Sunday School class. We were all amazed at her faithful attendance in the midst of pain and discomfort she battled as she fought through cancer. She always had a smile on her face. For good reason as well, from the day she was diagnosed with cancer, Anthony told me Psalm 46:1 was placed front and center on their refrigerator. This verse reads,

Psalm 46:1 ESV

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

As one of her pastors she always brought joy to my heart as I watched her engage with the preaching and teaching of the Word.

As I met with the family this week they said that Mrs. Beverly was like a mother to everyone. She had a servants heart and wanted to help anyone she could. Which I would heartily affirm.

I also learned that when she was younger that Mrs. Beverly enjoyed hiking as Sweetwater and wasn’t scared to jump on a bicycle and go on a long ride!

The thing I believe all of us who knew Ms. Beverly would say that the thing that stood out the most was her testimony of Christ’s transforming work in her life and heart through the gospel! I would be willing to be that this is what she would want us to remember more than anything.

Pray

Amazing Grace - Pastor Matt

Today we have gathered to not only remember the life of Beverly Laney, but most importantly to celebrate her hope she had in the Lord Jesus Christ. Anyone who knew Mrs. Beverly, knows over the last few years she has fought an intense battle with cancer. But there is one thing that she made plainly obvious, that her faith in Jesus is what helped her keep battling.

Even though she was in the midst of this painful, season of physical suffering she constantly remember the One who suffered for her.

The thing we can all learn from Mrs. Beverly was when she was going through rough times she could always find comfort in the Scriptures, the inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word of God. She always would be open and receive counsel and comfort from the Scriptures. So as we seek to honor Mrs. Beverly and Exalt Christ let’s look together at John Chapter 14 and consider the words of Jesus to Thomas and his disciples. This passage is a familiar passage, but for good reason. These words of Jesus, provide Peace, Hope, and Encouragement to the believer. These words of Jesus also provide a clear call to unbelievers to turn to Jesus who is the exclusive way of salvation!

John 14:1–6 ESV

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 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 if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

There are three truths regarding the believer’s hope Jesus makes abundantly clear in these verses.

The first truth is,

I. The Peace for Those Who Believe (14:1)

Notice how Jesus opens up this paragraph, we see that,

A. Jesus Calls for Peace

14:1a Let not your hearts be troubled

This is an imperative command, from Jesus. Another way to say it is don’t let your hearts be troubled, in a positive way he could have said, “let your hearts rest. Jesus’ desire is for those who believe in him to not have restless, distressed, anxious hearts. He calls his people to peace.

He wants those who have come to him in repentance and faith to be able to have a peace a calmness of the soul even in the midst of the anxieties and troubles of this world.

This is the peace Mrs. Beverly experienced. Even in the midst of her battle with cancer, her pain, and yes even times when she was wrestling with assurance she could be pointed to the truth of the Scriptures and you could see her peace return in the smile that would come upon her face. This is the peace Mrs. Beverly would want each one of us to have.

Now, Jesus does not just call for some generic, peace that everyone can experience by thinking the right thoughts or doing the right things. Jesus provide two more exhortations or commands that are the only source of this real peace.

First,

B. Jesus Calls for Belief in God

Notice what he says,

14:1b Believe in God

In other words true peace does not come apart form believing in God. He does not say believe in a god, or a god of your own imagination. Jesus is specifically calling for belief, faith, and trust in the One True God revealed to us in the Scriptures.

The God who is revealed to us as;

Creator in the opening pages of the Scriptures, giving him creator rights over us as creation.

The God who is revealed as provider as he provided a perfect garden for his people to live.

The God who is revealed as a just Judge who mercifully banished Adam and Eve from the garden after their rebellion against Him.

The God who flooded the earth, due to sin, who reigned down fire on Sodom and Gomorra because of their sin and rebellion.

The God who Isaiah cried out is Holy, Holy, Holy!

The one in whom Paul writes of in the book of Romans we have all sinned against and fallen short of his glory. That the wages for sinning against him is death.

You may be thinking that that does not bring me much peace. That is the point. When we as lost sinners recognize who God truly is, we should become restless, anxious, worried, and fearful. But we cannot forget that a God is perfectly, holy, just, jealous, and a God of wrath. He is also perfectly, good, gracious, merciful, and abounding in steadfast love.

Therefore God sent his own Son into the world that whosoever would believe in him might not parish but have everlasting life.

Paul writes to the Romans,

This is why Jesus not only calls for peace for those who believe in God,

C. Jesus Calls for Belief in Himself

14:1c Believe also in me.

The reasons Mrs. Beverly had this peace as she passed through this world, is not only because she believed in God, but she believed in the work of Christ on the cross on her behalf.

She believed in Jesus the God-Man, who was both truly God and truly Man.

Mrs. Beverly believed that her sin had to be paid for and like the rest of humanity their was only One Person who could pay for our sin. It was the sinless Lamb of God.

Mrs. Beverly knew that if she or any of us looked at our own lives and thought that we had sinned against this holy God and their was no way that on our own we would ever be able to earn our way into heaven. Our only hope was in the One the Scriptures call the Prince of Peace.

Let me give you an example. A few weeks ago Mrs. Beverly and I were meeting and we were discussing the assurance of salvation in Christ. And here is what happens, the more you grow in your faith and the knowledge of God, the more you begin to understand the holiness of God, the righteousness of God, the more of a light is shines on our sin and we may think at time why and how would God save a sinner like me.

18th century preacher George Whitfield explain it this way, "A sense of my actual sins and natural deformity humbled me exceedingly; and then the freeness and riches of God's everlasting love broke in with such light and power upon my soul, that I was often awed into silence and could not speak."

This is what belief in Christ does for the believer.

As Mrs. Beverly and I were discussing this we turned to,

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 ESV

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

In these verses Paul explains to the church at Corinth, look all of you were sinners of all kinds. But you are not anymore. And why is that,

You were washed,

You were sanctified (set apart from you sin),

You were justified (declared not guilty for your sin),

How you may ask?

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

By the Spirit of our God!

As Mrs. Beverly and I talked over these truths a smile came over her face. Her countenance changed and you could see the peace of God come over her because,

she did not let her heart be trouble,

she believed in God,

she believed in Jesus!

Do you want to honor Mrs. Beverly today? If you are a believer, if you are a Christian, let not your heart be trouble, believe in God, and believe also in Jesus.

If you are an unbeliever, turn from your sin, trust in Christ, call out to God for mercy and you can experience this same peace!

Here is the second truth in this passage, Jesus provides peace through,

II. The Prepared Place for Those Who Believe (14:2-4)

A. There is a place prepared in the Father’s house

14:2a In my Father’s house are many rooms.

Jesus says, look you don’t need to worry even in the midst of what is about to happen. Yes, I am about to go to the cross. I am about to go through a violent, cruel, ignominious death.

But there is a place prepared for those who are mine. Those who believe in me. It is like nothing you have ever seen.

As perfect as the garden was this dwelling place will be even better.

As beautiful as Solomon’s temple was this temple will be ever more beautiful.

As great as God’s creation of this earth is, the new heavens and new earth will be even more amazing.

He goes on to say, look you can be sure what I am telling you is true because,

B. The Son has gone to prepare this place.

If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you,

One thing you learn in the Scriptures is that God cannot lie, Jesus, cannot, will not, tell an untruth. Therefore he says, look I told you there is a place prepared for those who believe therefore as you watch me go to the cross,

as you watch me be beaten,

as you watch me be scourged with a whip,

as you watch me have a crown of thorns pressed down on my head,

as you see nails driven in my hands and feet,

as you watch me hang from that wooden cross until I labor to take my last breath,

remember, let not your heart be troubled believe in God, believe in me. I have prepared a place for you, I promise....

Not only have I prepared a place for you,

C. The Son is coming again to bring those who believe to this place.

John 14:3–4 ESV

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.”

This is why Mrs. Beverly had peace and hope even as her body begin to shut down. As the cancer continue to take a toll on her she believed that Christ was coming again to get her. To take her to her heavenly home. To take her to himself.

Mrs. Beverly believed,

Romans 8:18 ESV

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

The only difference is she went to him before he came to get her. She left this world where her body was experiencing the effects of fall and the second she took her last breath, her soul left her body to be present with the LORD!

Her body will be buried in this casket until the day when Christ returns and gathers his bride the church. At that time those who have believed in him will be caught up with him in the air and be with him forever.

The apostle Paul describes this coming of the Lord in this way to the Thessalonians,

1 Thessalonians 4:16–18 ESV

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Do you see that even though we grieve because Mrs. Beverly has left this life she left with a peace of God because of her belief in the Son of God. She left with assurance of eternal life with God because of the Place Prepared for her by the Son of God.

We now come to the final truth that Mrs. Beverly knew and she would everyone here today to know. The reason she had this peace with God, the reason she rested in the promised place God provides the believer, is because she knew,

III. The Particular Person in Whom You Must Believe (14:5-6)

As we prepare to leave here today we all must understand if we desire for our souls not to be troubled and to enter into the place prepared by Jesus himself there is only one way to get there.

A. Jesus is the only way to this place.

14:6a I am the way....No one comes to the Father except through me.

Either each one of us will face death and enter into the presence of the Father and the Son. Or we will face death and enter into the judgment of God. If you do not enter the way of salvation through Jesus Christ the Bible says, the unbeliever, the one who rejects this way and takes the wide and easy road instead of the narrow path is headed for destruction. The bible over and over explains that those outside of Christ will be cast into the lake of fire and spend eternity in a place called hell where they will be under the wrath of God forever and ever.

I am pleading with you, as we rejoice in the fact that Beverly has been reconciled to God through the only way, repentance and trust in Jesus Christ and him alone, I urge you follow this exclusive way of Christ.

He is the only way of salvation, and

B. Jesus is the exclusive truth in which you must trust.

14:6b I am the way, and the truth…No one comes to the Father except through me.

Do not be deceived by the lies of the enemy, do not be deceived by the lies of this world, and do not be deceived by the lies of your own heart.

Jesus Christ is the truth, the truth of who he is and what he has done is revealed in the pages of Scripture. If you are trusting in any other way of salvation than faith alone, by grace alone, in Christ alone then you are believing a lie.

Jesus was born of a virgin, being fully God and fully man, lived 33 years on this earth sinlessly, preached the gospel of repentance and faith for three years, was hung a a tree, crucified for the sins of all who would believe in him. He rose from the dead three days later, 40 days after that he ascended to the right hand of the Father where he is ruling and reigning ready to return and gather his bride for whom he died!

Will you trust in him today?

Do you desire this eternal life that Mrs. Beverly is experiencing as we speak?

Here is the final truth as we close,

C. Jesus is the exclusive life in whom eternal life in God will be found.

14:6c I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

If Mrs. Beverly could speak to us right now, she would be able to tell us of the glories of being with Jesus. She would tell us how she loved being here with her son and daughter in law, how she loved her grandchildren, but she would tell us that being with Christ is much better! As much as we may love some of the earthly blessings from above, there will be nothing that compares to the spiritual blessings in heaven as we worship and serve King Jesus.

Anthony and Elizabeth, we mourn with you over the loss of Mrs. Beverly, but was also rejoice with you knowing that because of her belief in Jesus we know she is resting in peace with Him! I urge you to remember the faith of your mother, teach your children of the faith fo their grandmother, and continue in the faith granted to you by the grace of God in Jesus Christ!

We love you and are praying for you.