Sermon Tone Analysis

*“Let Not Your Heart be Troubled”*   

*John 14:1-6 *

 

Often when we come to a time such as this, we wonder where is God when we hurt so badly and need Him most.

Is God near when we go through such a time as we are going through now?

Often we ask why does it hurt so much?

The pain of grief can become overwhelming for us.

Mary, Martha, & Lazarus knew Jesus personally, they had become very close friends with Him.

The Bible tells us that Lazarus got sick.

His sisters sent for Jesus, but he did not come immediately.

In fact, it was not until after the funeral that he came to them.

In her grief, Mary said to Jesus, “If you had been here my brother would not have died!”

Don’t you think she was hurting to say that?

Yes she was.

Perhaps you have thought that in the last few days or weeks or even months as you have watched our loved one slowly slipping away to the point that nothing would help her.

Perhaps you have wondered, “Why Lord.

Can’t you help her?  Won’t you help her Lord?”

Does God abandon us when we face such difficult times.

Why didn’t Jesus come right away for Lazarus?

God is very much concerned about each of us individually, but He does have a greater purpose than just saving one life, as important as that one life is to Him.  Jesus purpose was to provide salvation for all mankind.

Jesus knew that Mary & Martha were not alone in their time of sorrow and grief.

He knew that God was there for them during their sorrow just as He is present here with us today and has been with us for the past months, weeks and days.

*Where is God at a time such as this?*

God is to be found among friends during times of sorrow.

Proverbs 17:17  /“A friend loves at all times,  And a brother is born for adversity.”/

Proverbs 18:24   /“A man who has friends must himself be friendly, /

/But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”/

Friends have offered us words of comfort, hope and encouragement during these difficult day.

God has been right there for us through our friends.

God is to be found in our personal relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, “I and my father are one.”

“If you know me, you know my Father.”

“If you have seen me, ye have seen my Father.”

How do we come to know Jesus Christ in a personal way?

Yes, we have all been raised to know about Him, but there must come a time in our lives when we say to Him, “Lord I need you in my life.”

When we are willing to admit that to Him, then He can come to us.

I like to read the words of Jesus in the gospels.

In John 10:7-18 He says,

/“...Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep....“I am the door.

If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved...

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

“I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep....“I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own....“As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep...and they will hear My voice.”/

/ /

Jesus offers us words of comfort and hope all through the gospels.

His words recorded in John 14 are especially meaningful for us today.

Listen to what John records for us: 

*READ JOHN 14:1-6*

Jesus began by saying, “Let not your heart be troubled”  This is the foundational statement for the whole passage.

Lazarus had just been raised from the dead, and now there was talk going around that Jesus himself would be put to death.

He was a threat to some.

He even spoke of his death.

Jesus knew the hearts of his disciple were troubled, just as He knows of your troubled heart today.

To settle the emotions of the disciples, */Jesus told them why their hearts should not be troubled/* (Gr trassoµ, stir up, disturb, throw into confusion).

Grief does that to us.

It throws our lives into a turmoil.

It disturbs us and throws us into confusion.

Yes our grief certainly will be heavy, but we have a hope that is real because of Jesus Christ.

Our loved one, Du, had that hope.

*/ /*

*Why shouldn’t our hearts be troubled at a time like this.  *

* *

*I.* *Believe.*

The word believe means to have faith.

It is more than just saying we know about Him, It is saying we know Him in a real and personal way.

Jesus Christ stirs both our faith in God and our faith in Him.

This settles a troubled heart.

*(V.1)*

 

*II.*

The disciple should be comforted with the fact that *Jesus Christ is going to prepare a place, a home, for them in heaven* (my Father’s house).

*(V.2).*

* *

Some of you have heard me tell this story before, but it is a beautiful picture of what Heaven will be like.

*ILLUS:*  A pastor from Alabama shared this story of his life.

In south Alabama he grew up as the son of a sharecropper.

Dirt poor and no place to call their own, they lived on this huge farm in a little shack along with all the other sharecroppers.

The man who owned the huge farm lived in a big white house with white columns up on a hill surrounded by trees.

As a boy he often looked up that hill and wondered what it would be like living in that mansion.

One day the owner of the farm died and left no heirs and the farm went into the hands of an insurance company.

They did not move anyone into the house.

One day a man in a bright shiny automobile drove into the yard of their little shack, got out and said to the boys father that they were not going to bring anyone in to move in the house,  but they needed a farm manager to run the place, would his dad do it since he had been there a long time as a faithful sharecropper?

They asked him to be the manager.

As manager, he would try to keep the other families on it and work the cotton and so forth.

His dad agreed.

Then the man said, “Since we are not going to move anybody into that house on the hill, we need somebody to go up there and look after it and keep it from being vandalized.

I wonder if you would like to move your family up into that house?”

His dad said “Yes.”

As he told his story, tears rolled down this face.

The pastor said, “I will always remember that wonderful experience of moving into that house up on the hill; that mansion on the hill.

We gathered all our belongings together and loaded all we had on two wagons drawn by two teams of mules.

That morning when they got out of the old shack, and as they were leaving it behind, they started up to that mansion on the hill to live, the boy said to his dad, “Wait a minute, what if some of our friends come here looking for us and they don’t find us.

Do you reckon we ought to leave some word for them?”  “Well, write a note and leave it.” said his dad.

He got the top of a shoe box and wrote a message and stuck it on a nail in the fence post by the gate: “Gone to live in the mansion on the hill.”

You know that this is what our loved one has done now.

She has left this old sharecroppers shack and gone to live in that mansion our Lord said he has prepared for us.

I can hardly wait till I get there to be with her.

She has left this old diseased body, to inherit a new one in heaven.

That is our hope in Jesus Christ.

* *

*III.

I will come again.

(V.3)*

This is the promise that brings hope to troubled hearts.

The emphasis of His coming is not so much on the dwelling places but on the prospect of being with the Saviour.

The Greek literally means “face to face”.

The way to heaven is through Christ Himself, and when He comes for us we will see Him face to face and be with Him for all eternity.