Sermon Tone Analysis

John 14:1-6, 26-28

14 “Let not your hearts be troubled.

Believe in God; believe also in me.

2 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?

3 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.

4 And you know the way to where I am going.”

5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going.

How can we know the way?”

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.

From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

26 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.

27 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.

28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’

If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.

Big Idea of the Message

The desire for peace is something God has planted within all of our hearts, but there is much more to peace than an absence of conflict.

Through the gospel we learn about God’s heart for peace in his creation.

Application Point

God’s peace is about the complete restoration of our souls rather than the removal of all obstacles; he calls us to partner with him in it.

The key to finding peace and security in this life and the next is perfectly summed up in Jesus’s words to his disciples at the Last Supper.

“Let not your hearts be troubled.

Believe in God; believe also in me” (John 14:1).

These were meant not just to calm the minds of the men who’d learned Jesus had been betrayed by one of their own; they are words of power and authority that guide and direct us to this day.

“World Peace”

In the film Miss Congeniality, less-than-graceful FBI agent Gracie Hartis sent undercover as a contestant in a beauty pageant to prevent a bomb threat from being carried out.

During the pageant, each contestant is asked the same question: “What is the one most important thing our society needs?”

Unsurprisingly, the answer each contestant gives is the same: world peace (directed by Donald Petrie [Warner Bros., 2000], 1:04:42–1:05:17).

Though the predictable scene is meant as a joke, there is a note of truth that rings through that idealistic dream.

When one year slips into another, the wish for peace on earth is on many people’s minds.

But more than world peace, most of us long for peace in our own lives.

When we think of peace, we tend to think of lack of conflict, but in the gospel we discover that it means something much more fulfilling.

#PeaceInTheMidst

Context of the Scripture

In contrast to a number of scholars, including Segovia, Beasley-Murray, and Carson, who view 13:31–14:31 as a unit, I regard chap.

14 as clearly divisible after 14:14.

As I indicated above, I consider 13:31–38 to be a major summation or conclusion of the first part of the Farewell Cycle (13:1–38), but I also think that it serves as a preface to the discourses that follow.

Since Jesus was going away and since Peter and his colleagues could not follow, at least for the present (13:36), the stage was set for a critical separation of Jesus from the disciples.

Separation naturally raises a sense of loneliness, and all sorts of questions flood the minds of those who are left behind.

People experiencing the loss of a loved one and the bereavement that ensues often have difficulty integrating their state of loss with their questioning sense of what comes next.

The disciples are pictured in these verses as being very human.

Thus the words of Jesus that John indicates were intended to calm their anxieties turned out for the disciples to be difficult to synthesize with their earlier experience of relating to Jesus as the expected King (cf.

1:49; etc.).

It is not very different for us humans who have difficulty imagining living life on planet Earth without those who mean most to us.

How do we go on in life without them?

We humans do not even like to talk about death.

Many people, who know better, even shy away from setting up their testamentary documents and making their wills.

But death does not go away, and the potential of loneliness does not delay simply because we resist discussing it.

Death is a reality we must face forthrightly because this world is not the ultimate reality.

The Farewell Cycle is intended in part to deal with our anxiety concerning such loneliness.

Indeed, 14:1–14 confronts this issue squarely.

As a result there is scarcely a Christian funeral conducted without some reference to John 14.

The fourteen verses in this segment break naturally into three subsections: (1) preparation for the ultimate reality (14:1–3), (2) perplexing questions concerning getting there (14:4–11), and (3) the power of believing in Jesus for our life of discipleship now (14:12–14).

God prepares us for peace when we trust him with our heart trouble- The Father’s House

Jesus instructing his disciples to not have a troubled heart was not a suggestion, it was a prohibition for them and Christians today.

This was very strong language from Christ, who is preparing his disciples for his impending death at the hands of the Romans driven by Jewish hate.

Why would Jesus tell his followers not to fret about his own death?

Jesus claimed he was the Son of God, then, in the disciples’ mind they wondered how could “God” die.

Jesus did tell his disciples before now that he would be betrayed and denied by friends, tried and accused by the church and crucified by the the Romans.

This kind of news is unsettling, akin but not the same as this portion of Martin Luther King Jr’s speech “I’ve Been to the Mountain” and I quote:

Well, I don’t know what will happen now.

We’ve got some difficult days ahead.

But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop.

And I don’t mind.

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life.

Longevity has its place.

But I’m not concerned about that now.

I just want to do God’s will.

And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain.

And I’ve looked over.

And I’ve seen the Promised Land.

I may not get there with you.

But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

And so I’m happy, tonight.

I’m not worried about anything.

I’m not fearing any man!

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

On April 4, 1968 on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis Dr. Martin Luther was killed by an assassin’s bullet…was his speech prophetic?

Jesus’ declaration to his disciples seemed inappropriate considering the circumstances of the conversation that Jesus was having with them.

I could imagine that this first sentence caught the remaining disciples(Judas was dismissed by this time) as prohibits them from being troubled.

The Greek phrase is me parassestho, meaning “Do not let your hearts be overcome with turmoil, or “Don’t allow yourself to be intimidated by the situation.”

Jesus knew that his little band could and would be shaken not only by his words concerning his departure but also by the fact that he would soon become the crucified Lamb.

Jesus did not ask his disciples not to trust not in the power evident in the world but in God and in himself (Psalm 146:3-5).

This direct linkage between God and Jesus has been a fundamental assertion of John, since he identified the Word with God (1:1–2) and later Jesus with the Father.

The force of this verse is, in fact, a call to the disciples to follow the pattern of “trust” exhibited by Jesus (cf.

Phil 2:5), who faced hostility and, indeed, abandonment by the disciples including Peter (18:17, 25, 27), though the beloved disciple does not ever seem to come in for criticism.

The familiar cry of dereliction that is a climactic point in Mark (15:34; cf.

Matt 27:46) is not present in John.

Instead, there is a serenity in Jesus’ words “It is finished” (John 19:30) similar to Jesus’ dying declaration in Luke (23:46).

πιστεύω (pisteuō).

vb. to believe, trust; entrust.

Describes the act of believing or trusting something on the basis of its truthfulness and reliability.

“We trust people based on their actions.

We trust God based on his Word.”

The reason the disciples should be able to evidence trust is because Jesus was going to provide preparation for them.

That preparation is outlined in the metaphor of the “Father’s house” (oikia), which undoubtedly refers to the domain of God.