Do Not Let Your Heart Be Troubled

We're going to get started in the 14th chapter of John.

! Just in case someone in here may have missed it, and looking around I don't think any of you have, we live in a fallen world.

We live in a world that's full of sin, it's cursed, and the direct result of that is that we are surrounded by a world of suffering and of death.

You know that sin is universal because the wages of sin is universal. And the wages of sin is what? Death. Death. And no one has beaten that.

No one has beaten that. So, this has been around since the Garden of Eden. Genesis chapter 3. The version I tell when Diane's in the room, even the serpent had a conversation.

Adam was in the next county working. Came back. She said no. She stops me at that point and says, Adam who was with her. Why did he step in?

And that's why I think we call it Adam's sin. He didn't step in to protect his wife. And the human race. And the human race was cursed. Everything that has flowed from the wellhead of the human race from the first Adam has been tainted with the poison of sin.

Save only the Lord Jesus Christ. Save only the Lord Jesus Christ, who of course had an earthly mother and a divine father. The Spirit of God. But the word of God doesn't soft pedal.

The fact that we live in a sin-cursed world. A fallen world. And that we are born sinners. It addresses it head on.

Let me read a few verses. Job 14. Man who is born of woman is short-lived and full of turmoil. Well, I get people, even unbelievers, sometimes believers, complain about how hard life is.

And I'll say, yeah, life's hard and then you die. I mean, you know, that's what happens at the end. Short-lived and full of turmoil. Man is born for trouble as sparks fly upward.

Again, Job. Jeremiah said this, Why did I ever come forth from the womb to look on trouble and sorrow so that my days have been spent in shame?

And we could go on and on on Old Testament verses that deal with this fact. But let me move into the New Testament. Matthew 6.34 Do not worry about tomorrow.

Jesus speaking. Do not worry about tomorrow. For tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Every day has its own amount of trouble. Jesus said, and we'll get to this when we get to John 16. In this world, you will have tribulation.

And we're probably, I'm confident every one of us are living testimony of that. We're living truth of that. And then Dr. Luke in the book of Acts said, Through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God.

And that is really and truly but a small sampling. The trials, the travails, the tribulations that we experience in this life.

I see it all the time, of course, through the police department. I mean, and a lot of people we deal with are unbelievers. I'm sure there are some believers. But, you know, we see this all the time.

It's tough. It's tough. So what is God's answer to the afflictions? What's God's answer to our sufferings, to the tribulations that we experience in this life?

Well, we could go to a number of passages, but the Spirit of God had this to say through Paul in Corinthians.

He says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. You know, when I was reading that, I guess, Saturday, my thoughts turned to Richard Wurmbrand, founder of Voice of the Martyrs, 14 years in a Romanian prison, most of it in solitary confinement, never once felt like God had abandoned him.

I thought of a Chinese man named Alan Ewan. I had the opportunity to meet him twice. He's with the Lord now. 22 years in a Chinese prison for preaching the gospel.

Finally, he got released and spent 10 years under house arrest. Under house arrest in China, you can't go outside. You're not supposed to look out the window. At the end of that 32-year period, the next week he started a church and baptized like 300 people.

He and his assistants. I got to be with him twice. It was quite something. I've told you the story, I'm sure, but in his 22-year sentence about year 12, he was near Mongolia and it was extremely cold, pretty much the year around.

You've been to Mongolia, right? No. Okay. You've been to northern China. And he told me about the cold and they were working at hard labor. And he told the Lord, every day they'd say to Alan, Pastor Ewan, and they'd say, if you will just sign a statement that you deny Christ, we'll let you go.

Six kids at home, you can go home to your family, your wife. He wouldn't do it. Year 12, he told the Lord, you've got to strengthen me. I'm getting ready to sign. I can't take this anymore.

Do something, Lord, to strengthen me. Went out and worked all day. Very little food. Came in after dark. Cold. Low freezing. The guard said, we've had to double sell.

We're overcrowded. You've got a roommate. I mean, the sell, you couldn't get that table in. Now you've got, there's two people. And he walked in and the guy stood up and stuck out his hand and he said, I guess we're going to be roommates.

My name's Watchman Nee. I mean, we might as well go to prison with Billy Graham or John MacArthur or he was, those in China.

God strengthened him. We know that our God is compassionate and gracious. When we speak of grace, I like to talk about the two graces.

He extends general grace to all people. It rains on the just and the unjust. Unbelievers right now are enjoying gravity.

They're not flying off into space. They're enjoying oxygen that the Lord has provided. He feeds people. But that's a general grace for all humans.

There is a specific grace grounded in the Lord Jesus Christ that He bestows upon His beloved children. So we are recipients of that specific grace through the ministry, birth, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and intercession of the Lord Jesus.

God brings comfort to us by granting us forgiveness, by granting salvation to His children. He sends the Holy Spirit referred to in Scripture as the Comforter to take up residence in us.

The Lord made a promise in the Beatitudes. He said this, Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. He promises comfort. And the comfort that the Lord gives us in this life is one day going to culminate in a perfect peace and in an eternal comfort with the Lord in glory.

Eternal comfort. Quite a promise. Now, the Bible is filled with promises of comfort in the eternal state.

But that was future when John was writing his Gospel and it's still future today. 2,000 years later that comfort in the eternal state.

Can we expect comfort during the trials and difficulties of this life? Well, David, no stranger to tribulation, some of which he brought on himself.

We've all done that, haven't we? David said this, Psalm 23. Very familiar. Verse 4. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for you are with me.

Your rod and your staff they comfort me. He was comforted by both the rod and the staff of the Lord.

Paul, again, no stranger to discomfort, sort of legendary when you look at him after his conversion. he wrote about the Lord bringing him comfort in several of his epistles.

He told the Corinthians that God would provide comfort through their depression. You can read about that in 2 Corinthians 7-6. He told the church at Thessalonica that God would bring comfort to their hearts so then that they could go out and engage in every good work and word.

2 Thessalonians 2-17. So the God of the Bible bestows comfort on his people. And I think this is especially true when we cry out to him in prayer.

this is not true concerning the gods and that's a little g. The gods of imagination. The gods of Islam.

The gods of Hinduism. The gods of Buddhism. And of course we can go on and on and on. A lot of isms around. In the Christian era God the Holy Spirit had this to say through the pen of Dr. Luke.

chapter 9 verse 31. So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace being built up and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit it continued to increase.

Baby church increasing and being comforted by the indwelling Spirit of God. So here we have the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is with His disciples all 11 of them and you may say wait a minute there were 12. Well no one was a devil and he's been dismissed.

He's out at that very moment that this was being spoken plotting against the Lord to have him arrested and murdered. So he's addressing his true disciples in the upper room.

As I said Judas is busy consummating his evil plan of betrayal. Now soon and I mean within hours Jesus is going to have to endure the illegal trials six of them all illegal by the way under Jewish law law and under Roman law.

We have our laws based on English law. English law is based on Roman law and Jewish law. The two laws that condemn Jesus indirectly are our law.

But here Jesus is going to endure six illegal trials arrest torture suffering and ultimately death at the hands of sinful men.

I think Don I think you said yesterday about the highest ranking individual in Israel declared him innocent and sentenced him to death. Well what a system of justice that is. Find him not guilty and sentence him to death.

The Lord when we talk about the torture the ultimate torture I think was for the first and only time in eternity he would be separated from the God head.

And again all this was imminent it was mere hours away and Jesus knew to the minutest detail what was going to transpire.

He's the omnipotent God. Of course he knew everything that was going to happen. But I find it interesting that the Lord with all that knowledge perfect knowledge was not focusing on his own trials he wasn't focusing on his own tribulations that he's going to have to endure instead we see the Lord turning his attention to his disciples he looks to the eleven he knew something about those disciples and we know it through the inerrant word their world is about to be turned upside down their world is going to come crashing in on them and so the Lord seeks to bring comfort to his children and he's going to do that in the following fourteen verses beginning in John 14 1 and may

I say that these verses have brought peace and comfort to countless millions of God's children down through the ages and we're all familiar with them verse 1 do not let your heart be troubled believe in God believe also in me I think it was Dr.

McGee who said anytime you read where the Lord says don't let your heart be troubled you can mark it down they were troubled that's a way of saying look I know you're troubled here don't let this trouble you hear me out but Dr.

McGee said they were troubled Jesus speaks those words in the midst of a weak W-E-K that was an emotional rollercoaster for the disciples now remember back they had entered Jerusalem with heightened with at the zenith if you will of messianic hopes their hopes in the Messiah was at an all time high and you have to always need to remember we're dealing with Jewish guys right remember the messianic vision of a Jew was the Messiah comes he overthrows whoever is enslaving us at that moment in the case of

Jesus and when he came to this earth the Romans he kicks them out he sets up the kingdom the kingdom of God on earth we learned about that in Revelation of course Revelation hadn't been written at this point he's going to establish his kingdom rule and reign and excited the disciples to think we're going to have little thrones next to him and rule and reign they like that idea that was their messianic hope they did not see the church age they had no mechanism to see it now there were things in the Old Testament that troubled them they would read for instance in Isaiah and other of the prophets where it said it talked about the lion of the tribe of Judah and the lamb how could it be a lion and a lamb it talked about that the messiah would rule and reign the messiah would suffer and die how can that happen some of the old teachers in Israel back in the

Old Testament they even concocted a scheme maybe there are going to be two messiahs one that suffers and dies and one that rules and reigns they came up with all kinds of mechanisms trying to explain this trying to explain it but they couldn't come up with an explanation so their messianic hopes are at an all time high and then they start hearing Jesus saying that he didn't come this time I guess I should say that time past tense to sit on the throne he came to suffer and die he's going to be executed for the sins of his people and I'm telling you there was a disconnect I mean I think the first time he said that I think that's when Judas said I'm not going to have any part of this I'm not hitching my start of this guy the Jewish view of the messiah had been dashed on the rocks of truth they thought he had come to rule and reign not suffer and die and then it was even magnified when they began to get a clear view that his method of death was going to be the cross the Old

Testament is very clear cursed is he who hangs on a tree anyone that was hung on a tree was obviously cursed of God how can the messiah be cursed well brothers that's our hope for eternity isn't it the fact that he took our curse he himself didn't do anything to be cursed he took our curse but the scriptures were very clear and the disciples knew this that only a sin cursed person would meet death in such a manner as hanging on a tree it was abhorrent to them stone him that was the prescribed method of course in Israel and in the Old Testament law and I think being men these guys weren't superheroes they're no different than any of us they were all probably in their hearts even if they didn't want to they all began to question their wisdom of hitching their wagon to such one as

Jesus that had to be going through their heads even if they didn't want to do it even if they didn't want to voice it it had to be on their minds what's going on here I don't understand this they had forsaken everything to follow him they'd left the only life they knew most of them fishermen they'd left families and now it appears to them that in perhaps one form or fashion he was actually forsaking them he's going to abandon them he's going to die they had refused to wash one another's feet they learned that one of them was a betrayer they would learn that the strongest among them Jesus said the very strongest among you Peter is going to even deny that he knows me to say at some point in that dark night that they became unsettled is an understatement all this is crashing in on we have to put this in context of what's going on in their world and it's all starting to crash in and it doesn't make sense anymore doesn't make any sense and Jesus knew all that he knew he knows every thought of all of us doesn't he sometimes that doesn't bring me peace and comfort but he knows and he knew what was on their hearts he knew what they were wondering about and questioning and so he says don't let your hearts be troubled wow what a statement what a statement they were already troubled so in effect

I think what Jesus was really telling you is stop being troubled knock it off you don't have to be troubled by the way that's a Greek word meaning shaken or stirred up don't be shaken like a reed don't be don't be shook up here don't be stirred up and the Lord then adds to this two commands he says believe in God believe also in me two commands that is an affirmation of his deity that he is affirming his deity he is putting himself on an equal level with God the Father believe in God the Father believe in me also and I'll tell you you find this so much the woman is a great example we studied that not too long ago she said I know Messiah is coming and he said I who speak to you am he you know the liberals say

Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah what a blasphemy not only did he claim it he proved it he proved it how can they be anything but troubled with everything that's transpired hey no let's be honest Judas was not this ogre that they all hated and wanted to be kicked down he was part of their band and now they're learning he's the betrayer I mean remember what happened when Jesus said one of you betray me and what all of them say is it me would any of us have been asking him that I would have is it I Lord am I the betrayer they all saw within themselves the capacity to be the betrayer probably

I think humanly speaking based upon their thought life that is this guy really who he says he is we've put our trust in this we gave up a lot to be here my wife's really mad at me she's writing me letters I haven't responded you know so they're troubled so Jesus comes up with a solution he tells them what is awaiting them he says there's something down the road that you're going to experience and he in effect tells them to trust in the preparation that is going on for them and for all who would believe as a result of their testimony in verses 2 and 3 he says this in my father's house are many dwelling places if it were not so

I would have told you for I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am there you may be also now we're all familiar with that aren't we and we grew up hearing about in my father's house are many mansions I remember as a kid I had that picture because my grandmother and my great aunt they lived in a mansion in Dville Texas four stories while I was a little kid I'm being this high exploring that I think I found rooms they didn't know existed I dream about that I'll be 69 in January I dream about that I start saying I know this guy in this room I look over and there's Oscar sorry brother Oscar and I are almost the same age but I grew up did you grow up hearing about the mansion in the sky and all that it's a dwelling place

I heard one pastor say it's an apartment you we have you know when I did your dad or helped your dad sooner Don and I I think I said in there you know Brother Ralph's not in his mansion he's he's got a room two doors down from God it's brother Ralph Jesus and God the father you know we've got a we've got a room in the father's house that's better than any mansion and it speaks of a time that we're going to be reunited with him in glory and you know he told him he said I'm going to prepare a place well of course he's a carpenter he's a carpenter can you imagine preparing that for two thousand years what's it going to look like what's it going to look like this is a place called heaven and is referred to as the father's house and then we always heard about that mansion in the sky but they're dwelling places and you know this happens to this day in the middle east and in india and other places where man and woman get married and his father builds some rooms on for them and then they have children they grow up they build rooms on some of you guys know vasu here and his son dr.

vasudevan dr. vasudevan had rooms added to his father's house that's a very middle eastern thing jewish and arab jewish and arab and it's done in some places to this very day we studied years ago i don't know if it was here or on sunday morning but we went through revelation the book of revelation and we learned that what we're speaking about is a cube it has a base it's about two million square miles it's a cube 1500 miles this way that way every way you can imagine the bottom line is there's plenty of room for every believer there's going to be some space left over plenty of room Jesus then tells his followers that he will come he's going to come back that's another thing the liberal church will let them say oh you're not coming back says he is he's going to come back and he's going to pick us up and take us to that place when's that going to happen maybe today before bedtime maybe 5,000 years from now

I don't know I don't have a clue he tells us then something rather unusual in verse 4 to 6 and you know the way where I'm going you know where I'm going kind of a matter of fact you know why would there be any doubt for you guys to know where I'm going and then the guy that I suppose I'm ultimately named after Thomas and remember his title what people call him the doubter you know I think that's a bum rap I think Thomas was a questioner which can be a good trait can be a good trait Thomas says Lord we don't know where you're going how do we know the way you know he's being honest he's brutally honest and that's when

Jesus said and we've all memorized this looks right at him I am the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the father but through me I remember the first time I ever saw that I'm not sure I was a true believer at that point I was under conviction I read that and said wow that's pretty exclusive isn't it no one can come to the father but through me I'm told in the Greek language which I don't know anything about that the little word the there the way the truth the life means the specific search the universe there's no other way you're not going to get there through good works you're not going to get there through being pious or religious or giving a gaggle of money it's not going to happen it's very specific way very specific truth and very specific the life it's all

Jesus now Jesus had already told them that he was going to the father apparently he expected the disciples to know the way but they were so rattled they weren't sure of anything anymore Thomas speaks up and tells the Lord they don't have a clue as to where Jesus is going and they didn't know the way to follow him after he departed now they understood death surrounded by death but they didn't comprehend what lay beyond the grave I mean the leading rulers in Israel the Pharisees and the Sadducees the Sadducees didn't even believe in a resurrection they didn't know the way and Jesus tells them he's the way the truth and the life no one would be coming to the father but through him the bible is very clear the father can only be approached through the son and if there's any doubt this is exclusive and may I say it is rejected by the vast majority of the world including people that will be in church

Sunday not necessarily this church I'm not applying that but there are churches in this town I mean my my boss Ed Gordon who's a pastor Trinity he was talking to one of the associate pastors of one of the leading churches in this town not a Baptist church and he asked me he said seminary graduate he asked me he said how do you all deal with the atonement in your church he said I've never heard that term I mean Ed almost fell out of his chair Ed almost fell out of his chair people accuse us of practicing an exclusive religion I was touched by Don yesterday morning talking about how so many churches have taken mention of the blood I always remember when Penny Ferris before she got married I can't remember her maiden name it'll come to you you can call me at midnight when you think of but she was a family in our church that later got married she was a pianist and organist she got invited to a church

I won't mention that domination but a Methodist church down in Norman and she met with the committee which was all women and they said don't play any song that mentions the fatherhood of God that mentions Jesus as son or that mentions blood that is abhorrent and I asked Penny I said what did you do she said I played a catholic mass and they loved it they didn't know what it was to them it was like classical music they loved it they loved it but we practice an exclusive religion post-modernism teaches that there are many ways to heaven in truth there's only one there's only one I have people tell me all the time oh there's a lot of pathways up the mountain I said so Jesus had to die the son of God had to come and die so the Christians go up there we could have just stepped over and got on the Jewish path the Islamic path

Hindu path and Jesus would not have had to die and they don't know how to deal with that they don't know how to deal with that at all Jesus tells his disciples that they can have comfort and assurance through trusting in his person trusting in who he is and what he was accomplishing even that very night and into the next morning verse 7 and on if you had known me you would have known my father from now on you know him and then he adds this and I gotta confess it's even confusing to this day but he says and you've seen him he says you've seen the father well Philip another questioner says Lord show us the father and it is enough for us now remember who he's talking to

Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead made eyeballs out of mud you know spit in dirt made mud ball intricate eye 2020 vision probably 2015 he says show us the father and it will be enough for us and Jesus said have I been so long with you and yet you have not come to know me Philip he who has seen me has seen the father how can you say show us the father do you not believe that I'm in the father and the father is in me the words that I say to you I do not speak on my own initiative but the father abiding in me does his works believe me that I'm in the father and the father is in me otherwise believe because of the works themselves and they were mighty works weren't they and Benny

Hinn's not duplicating them I hope that doesn't offend anybody Joel Osteen's not duplicating those anyone who fully grasps who Jesus is who Jesus is knows the father again we see Jesus making a full claim to deity and equality with the father Jesus is the way to God and he is God he is God the fact that he is God incarnate is the watershed among the world's religions you know what a watershed is right the rain falls on a watershed and some of it goes this way and some goes that way they have watersheds in the country of Chile Chile I guess but Chile falls in the Andes range snow comes down two snowflakes they land on the peak spring sun comes out they melt the snowflakes this drop goes west this drop goes east they landed on top of the watershed one went west into the Pacific

Ocean one goes east into the Amazon River which flows into the Atlantic Ocean they started right here but they were on the watershed and the watershed took them to two different hemispheres this was a watershed moment and Dr.

Schaefer said the watershed of the evangelical churches are our view of scripture how we view scripture is going to determine where we end up where we end up so again we see the Lord making this full claim of God incarnate and that is the watershed of the world's religions it is what sets us apart and may I say antagonizes the rest of the world including the liberal church we antagonize folks guys that's what we're called to do we're not called to be you know mean spirited not by a long shot but our stance on who Jesus is is salt in an open wound to a lot of people we are called first to be disciples to follow him to believe him and to depend on him he then tells philips that if you've seen him you've seen the father now

Jesus is not calling for a blind leap of faith here I don't know that there are any blind leaps of faith in the bible I know kierkegaard wrote and said that Abraham had a blind leap of faith when he agreed to authorize it and dr.

schaefer wrote said he think blind about it he met with God he heard from God he had been given promises by God that came true so there was no blind leap of faith at all and he already determined well he said Isaac's going to be the father of many nations I believe in a resurrection I'm going to sacrifice him and God is going to raise him from the dead he believed that all the way up not that he wasn't in agony this is his son when he tells Philip you've seen me you've seen the father God has been seen God has revealed himself in Christ there's nothing blind about Christian faith even the works Jesus did were a testimony concerning the father and then the Lord makes a really great and astonishing promise truly verse 12 truly truly I say to you he who believes in me the works that

I do he will do also and greater works than these he will do because I go to the father boy I struggled with that for a lot of years oh man how can any believer possibly do greater works than Christ he made blind eyes see he healed he raised dead people but this is not speaking of greater works in power now there's some of the extreme charismatics leaders who are trying to make trees walk and you know elephants bark and stuff like that think this is saying that but this is not greater in power it's greater in extent Jesus never preached outside of

Palestine and as far as I can remember he only really left that region one time when he was a little boy a little baby and he went to Egypt and got called as did the Hebrew people out of Egypt he never got over 200 miles from his place of birth well look at Christianity today it extends globally and I've said this before wherever I've gone in my travels you find believers I found them and the guys at VOM you find believers and my great friend brother Andrew in Hong Kong great man of God he taught me this he said the gospel is so powerful it will find a way to penetrate the darkest places on earth and there are some dark places that have believers dark places North Korea dark places in the

Arab world I found believers in the Arab world I found them in China Vietnam wherever we go we find believers Christianity extends globally and it's growing and this was made possible by Jesus going to the Father he's going to depart he's going back to the Father he will send his Holy Spirit to indwell his church the Spirit of God will come in and indwell his church and that's why he calls him the comforter again we have that word and then we're going to close tonight and believe it or not we've been going for 45 minutes pretty amazing where's time go we're going to try to explain this in 25 words or less whatever you ask in my name that will

I do well Lord let me talk to you about my bank account right now or lack there of well it doesn't end there there's not a period there there's a comma whatever you ask in my name that will I do now here's the condition clause so that the father may be glorified in the son if you're going to memorize any of that memorize that is what I'm about to engage in going to glorify the father through the son and Jesus again says if you ask me anything in my name I will do it while he was on earth Jesus supplied every need the disciples had and please understand note I didn't say every want have you ever prayed Lord let me differentiate between wants and needs because there can be poles!

apart can't they? He fed them watered them cured their sickness he paid their taxes at one point to Rome and so forth after he was going he was about to leave he's going to continue to meet the needs of his children by and through the coming of the Holy Spirit so it begs the question why are we not all millionaires well we have to ask according to his will for our lives I don't think it's God's will that I become a millionaire because if I did I wouldn't be one long you know I'm afraid I'll be like that 20 year old black kid that graduated he didn't graduate but he got out of college great football player got a 40 million dollar signing bonus he was 20 years old he didn't know what to do with it he bought 40 cars

Lamborghinis and Corvettes and Jaguars he didn't know what to do with it wish he had come to me so aren't we all millionaires we must ask according to God's will for our lives everything we ask must be aligned with the father the father's will to bring glory to his son and you see it's a two way street the father glorifies the son the son glorifies the father and he does it through the church and the church is not brick and mortar church is people Christ is preparing the disciples for his departure and it's imminent and he's readying them for difficult days that lie ahead and they were going to be difficult and he's going to meet their needs and he met those needs 2,000 years ago and he's still in the business of meeting needs today still in that

Thank you.