"DO NOT LET YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED"
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 45 viewsNotes
Transcript
OPENER:
LIFE’S DIFFICULTIES: Life is full of difficulties and things that trouble us. That’s undeniable. Some years seems to be full of difficulties as we have seen in this year that seems like it has lasted much longer.
What makes a difficulty even harder is when we do not fully understand why things are happening the way they are. What is equally as difficult is when there is uncertainty about the future and what is going to happen. FEAR often creeps in with uncertainty.
Sometimes there is a combination of confusion and uncertainty as they often go together. We can have a really hard time not worrying during these times.
Can you relate to that? I think after this year we can all relate to that. There has been a lot of both of these things this year in our world besides things in our personal lives.
ILL:
When our story doesn’t go how we expect and we are uncertain about the outcome and it doesn’t seem to be clear as to what God is doing is can be really troubling.
THE APOSTLES TROUBLED: The Apostles on the night Jesus was betrayed and they shared in the supper together became troubled. Confusion and uncertainty, were wrapped up in how they felt. Things were not going as they thought they would, they were confused about what Jesus was telling them and they were afraid.
We know that because of what Jesus said to them in the first verse of chapter 14 and what He say to them afterward to help them.
Jesus has just told them that one of them would betray him and more than that what would have troubled them most in 13:33 that he was going away from them.
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.’
We know from what they said to him, they did not understand much at all, they were confused as and did not understand how things were going in a way they did not expect. Think of the uncertainty it would have caused. Why did Jesus have to go away? Where is he going that we cannot come! Is He going to die
Even though they did not understand and it did not seem like it things were going exactly as God planned.
Jesus could likely see on their faces but He also knew their hearts. And as we highlighted last week; loving them completely, He responds and speaks to them to comfort them, prepare them and help them with the mission they would have and give them perspective through telling them why He sad to go!
He knew that they didn’t understand everything and told them exactly what they needed to hear. (The most important, powerful and encouraging things.)
We are going to focus on these things and AS WE DO LET’S CONSIDER A FEW THINGS ABOUT OURSELVES;
JESUS COMFORTS THE APOSTLES AND HE COMFORTS US
Just as Jesus knew how troubled His Apostles hearts were becoming and how they were afraid; JESUS KNOWS YOUR HEART AS WELL.
HE knows the moment your heart begins to be uneasy and and your mind worried. HE KNOWS when you are trying to keep it together on the outside (and not show it) but on the inside your scared, disappointed, worried about the things you do not understand, are uncertain of, or can’t see the fix.
He knows when anxiety begins to rise in your mind and heart. He knows what you are feeling when your awake at night when your mind won’t stop and shut off because you have been so stressed. He knows how tired, hurt, lonely, unloved you feel. He understands when you feel like the burden you are carrying is too heavy.
So as we read the words of Christ to comfort, prepared and help them in their time of distress. WE CAN READ THEM KNOWING THAT HE tenderly and confidently speaks them to us. As we follow Christ these words apply to us just as it did to them on that night.
So as we read this first verse, really read it yourself internally as I read it out loud as if Jesus was speaking directly to you knowing what is troubling your heart.
“DO NOT LET YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED”
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
How did that feel? I don’t know about you but I have needed this and thought about this verse a number of times this year, and many times in my life. We didn’t need a pandemic to have troubled hearts, We did not need a pandemic to be troubled…we already struggle with so many things... It just made it harder. WHAT IS YOUR HEART BEEN TROUBLED BY?
WHATEVER IT IS, JESUS CARES AND ENCOURAGES YOUR TO BELIEVE IN, TRUST HIM!
This is an incredibly powerful and encouraging word. But I am sure YOU CAN RELATE when I say it can be really hard to follow as times. (I love the phrasing “do not let your hearts be troubled, because we really have to keep our hearts from being troubled because they seem to be drawn to be troubled.)
Jesus tells them to not be troubled, but it is not an empty encouragement because after saying this He is going to give them the greatest reasons they can be comforted and have peace.
The things that He tells them HE ALSO TELLS US! We can read these words and study these things and take these truths in as we live our lives. THESE THINGS HELP US NOT LET OUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED!
TRANS: I WANT TO GO THROUGH THIS CHAPTER AND HIGHLIGHT THE PROMISES AND TRUTHS JESUS GIVES THEM, SO WE KNOW THAT THESE THINGS SPEAK INTO OUR LIVES (I encourage you to highlight them literally, and if you are struggling, remember to go back and study John 14 and these phrases…)
“IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE ARE MANY ROOMS…I GO TO PREPARE A PLACE FOR YOU.”
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.
THIS IS FIRST AND THAT IS AWESOME BECAUSE THERE ISN’T ANYTHING MORE COMFORTING and exciting than the fact that IN OUR FATHER’S HOUSE (IN HEAVEN) THERE IS A PLACE FOR US (if we are in Christ) AND WE WILL BE WITH CHRIST FOREVER!
Jesus is talking about one of the most comforting things that we can ever know; THAT HE HAS A PLACE PREPARED FOR US. But He is also pointing to His greater mission and why He has to leave. HE HAD TO GO SO THAT THEY COULD HAVE A PLACE AND BE WITH HIM!)
[THE APOSTLES DID NOT UNDERSTAND WHERE JESUS WAS GOING AND WHY? But we know Jesus was going to prepare a place for them but before that He had to die for their sins and defeat death so that they could be there with Him!)
IT IS INCREDIBLE TO THINK OF IT FROM THEIR PERSPECTIVE AND GOD’S: they were confused, disappointed and afraid because it seemed like it was falling apart. But from God’s perspective it was coming together perfectly and what HE WAS DOING WAS SOMETHING INFINITELY GREATER THAN A WORLDLY KINGDOM.
WHEN YOUR HEART IS TROUBLED AND YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND “DO NOT LET YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED,” GOD MAY BE WORKING SOMETHING IN YOU AND EVEN FOR, THAT YOU COULDN’T IMAGINE HOW GOOD IT IS. AND IT’S NOT GOING AS YOU EXPECTED BUT IT IS GOING JUST HOW HE KNEW IT WOULD]
GOD DOESN’T ALWAYS GIVE US THE ANSWERS TO THE REASONS THINGS ARE THE WAY THEY ARE, OR why He allows things or does things the way He does! BUT He has given what we need to know to come to HIM!
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
The Apostles don’t understand what He means by saying in verse 4 “You know the way to where I am going.” He as He clarifies, He is going to back to the Father in Heaven. After He died to make sure we could come with Him!
THEY KNEW THE WAY BECAUSE THEY KNEW JESUS AND THEY FOLLOWED HIM! SO AN IMPORTANT QUESTION AT THIS POINT IS “DO YOU KNOW JESUS?” (He wants to bring you to the Father. If you haven’t come in repentance and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and you can certain that no matter what...
THE MOST INCREDIBLE THING IS That Christ wants us to to live with HIM forever. That THE FATHER’S house never runs out of room (JESUS MADE A WAY FOR ANYONE) but also that there is a special place there assigned for you (a room).
WE GET SO WRAPPED UP IN THIS LIFE AND OUR TEMPORARY PLACE HERE THAT WE FORGET THAT THERE A GREATER PLACE PREPARED! THAT IS OUR HOME! WE SHOULD WANT TO GO!
Keeping our eyes on this promise is so powerful in helping us keep everything in perspective. (Especially when our hearts are troubled…)
When we get overwhelmed with the difficulty in our lives and our world we can remember that as DARK AND DIFFICULT THIS WORLD CAN BE SOMETIMES, WE AREN’T STAYING HERE ANYWAY. (When you get wrapped up about where our country, our world is going don’t forget we going somewhere else anyway! Home with Christ!)
Instead of letting the troubles you face bring overwhelm you let each difficulty remind of what God’s got prepared for you. eVERY TIME!
It is a place prepared that is just the opposite of this broken world, a perfect place beyond our imaginations. BEYOND ALL COMPARISON!
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
DURING THE MOST difficult and dark times in my life, knowing that it isn’t forever but HEAVEN WILL BE…HAS HELPED ME SO MUCH! NOW EVERY TIME...
Instead of getting wrapped up in all the troubles in our nation and world as if this its all there is let’s get wrapped up what what GOD HAS FOR US! LET YOUR HEART GET WRAPPED UP IN THAT. DAYDREAM ABOUT, READING IN SCRIPTURE ABOUT IT! GET EXCITED AND OBSESSED WITH BEING WITH CHRIST AND EACH OTHER, TOGETHER WITH NO BARRIERS OR RESTRICTIONS, OR DISTANCE!
Start living to here God say this...
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Even though they didn’t understand this at first they would later but Jesus was going to tells them more things that would help them understand later and prepare them.
WE CAN TRUST CHRIST TO WORK IN US AND THROUGH US!
THEY COULD BELIEVE JESUS BECAUSE HE WAS GOD AND DID HIS WORKS AND THEY WOULD DO HIS WORKS AS WELL. (IN THE MIDST OF OUR STRUGGLES)
JESUS TELLS THAT THEY KNOW THE FATHER BECAUSE THEY KNOW HIM AND THAT WHAT HE IS SAYING COMES FROM THE FATHER! THEY CAN BELIEVE THAT BASED ON HIS WORKS!
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
THE APOSTLES HAD SEEN JESUS DO SO MANY MIRACLES AND INCREDIBLE WORKS THAT COULD NOT HAVE BEEN DONE UNLESS HE WAS GOD’S SON!
APP: We can trust EVERY WORD AND PROMISE CHRIST HAS SPOKEN. WE HAVE READ OF THE WORKS THAT HE DID, AND WE HAVE SEEN HIM WORK IN OUR LIVES!
IF WE TRUST HIM WE WILL NOT ONLY BE ABLE TO FACE LIFE BUT DO INCREDIBLE WORKS THROUGH CHRIST! SO THAT WE ARE NOT JUST SURVIVING BUT GLORIFYING GOD AND THROUGH THE WORKS GOD DOES THROUGH US!
(THE APOSTLES WOULD DO INCREDIBLE MIRACLES (WHICH MADE A TEMPORARY IMPACT) BUT MORE THAN THAT THEY WOULD (ALONG WITH THE CHURCH SPREAD THE GOSPEL ACROSS THE WORLD AN IMPACT THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS ETERNALLY).
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
AS WE LIVE TO GLORIFY GOD AND FACE DIFFICULTY JESUS PROMISES THAT WE CAN ASK FOR WHATEVER WE NEED IN HIS NAME! ARE WE PRAYING LIKE WE BELIEVE CHRIST WILL DO WHAT WE ASK IF IT IS IN GOD’S WILL? (THIS SHOULD BE ONE OF THE MOST COMFORTING PROMISES OF CHRIST…) HE IS GOING TO GIVE US WHAT WE NEED…WE JUST NEED TO ASK. (And when He answers we can glorify Him in it!)
In there is so much in the things that Jesus is about to say. It really puts in perspective the incredible plan that God had.
GOD WOULD GIVE THEM ANOTHER HELPER , THE HOLY SPIRIT
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 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.
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO MAGNIFY JUST HOW INCREDIBLE THIS IS. Jesus would go back to the Father but they would be given another Helper.
We will look at this more in chapter 16 as Jesus says more about the Holy Spirit’s being given. We know that God’s plan all along was for us to not only be saved but to have His Spirit living with us Helping us live for Him! (And when we are baptized into Christ we are given the gift and He comes to dwell in us (Acts 2:38).
Jesus said that it was good that He goes away so that the Spirit could come to dwell in us. What He says next about the Spirit gives an idea of just a few ways He helps and the peace that will come through Him!
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 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.
They would have what they need to know and remember and would have true peace. If we will believe it and be aware of Him the Holy Spirit is our helper as well!
JESUS LET’S THEM KNOW THAT HE WILL NOT LEAVE THEM AS ORPHANS, BUT WILL LIVE!
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
While they did not understand in the moment but Jesus was hinting to His resurrection. He would die on the cross and the world would not see Him but they would see Him resurrected. They would not be orphans. Then there is the this incredible phrase:
“BECAUSE I LIVE, YOU ALSO WILL LIVE!”
THINK ABOUT WHAT JESUS MEANT BY THIS! The disciples would have likely not understood at this point exactly what Jesus meant.
In John 16 we find Jesus saying the same thing and the Apostles saying “What does he mean by ‘a little while?’ We do not know what He is talking about.” (Jn 16:18) This is what He tells them in John 16:20 and then verse 22.
Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.
So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.
They would weep and lament at Jesus’ death but in a little while (just a few days) but Jesus would rise from the dead and their sorrow would turn to joy, and their hearts would rejoice and no one would take their joy away because Jesus was alive to never die again.
Jesus is preparing them and telling them that they would see Him again in just a little while.
In saying “Because I live, you also will live” Jesus must be referring to the fact that because He will be resurrected and live, they (and we) could live eternally (and would be resurrected) to be with Him.
Because He lives, we could be raised to life spiritually when as we are saved from sin, we could have abundant life and being raised being dead in our sins. We also will live eternally in heaven, in the Father’s house because Jesus after Jesus died He came to life!
APP: Because He lives now we have hope and can really live now because we know that we are alive in Christ and have a place prepared for us and a joy that cannot be taken away. (No amount of worldly trouble can take Jesus’ promise away! (Nothing in this world can change the fact that Jesus is alive never to die again.) As long as He lives we can live because we believe in His promises and the future He has in store for us!
JESUS IS TELLING THEM ALL THESE THINGS TO COMFORT THEM BUT ALSO SO THAT THEY WILL BELIEVE WHEN THEY HAPPEN.
And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.
We have these same powerful things that grow our faith and relationship with God.
One final thing that Jesus says to them that I want to look at: Jesus tells them the close, love relationship that those who follow Him would have.
AGAIN, THESE THINGS ARE TRUE FOR YOU AND ME:
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.”
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.
THERE ARE TIMES THAT WE ARE TEMPTED TO BELIEVE THAT GOD IS NOT WITH US! WE CAN BE TROUBLED ARE FEAR BEING ABANDONED. IN THOSE TIMES KEEP OBEYING CHRIST AND TRUSTING THAT HIS SPIRIT IS LIVING IN US AND IN INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP WITH US.
THE APOSTLES WERE NOT GOING TO LOSE THEIR CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST THEY WOULD COME TO KNOW HIM IN A DEEPER WAY THAN EVER.
WE MAY LOSE A LOT THROUGHOUT THIS LIFE BUT AS WE LIVE FOR HIM HE WILL NEVER LEAVE US OR FORSAKE US!