Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

Introduction

By the time we get to John chapter 14, really John chapters 14, 15, and 16, which constitute the farewell discourse of Jesus to his apostles. By the time we get to this section of Scripture, the anticipation is almost palpable. Thirty-three years of this man’s life have been leading to this moment. Three years of his earthly ministry of preparing these sadly now just eleven men have been spent getting them ready for taking up the torch and finishing the commission that Jesus came to fulfill. But we’re not just talking about three years. We’re not just talking about thirty-three years of anticipation. Literally thousands of years of anticipation have been leading up to this moment. Really, it would be an impossible task to calculate how much time has been building to this moment, for the scriptures tell us that before the foundation of the world, this plan was put into place.

And now’s the time. When we get to John chapter 14, Jesus has already observed that last Passover with his apostles. And in it instituted the Lord’s Supper. Judas has already left and is about his dastardly business. Jesus has already predicted that Peter would deny him. And the rest of these men would flee in fear. When he assembles them for the last time and says, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me. I think that phrase could just as easily be translated this way. Let not your heart be troubled. You trust in God. You’ve got to trust me. The next few days, or really the next few hours, are going to be some of the most trying of these eleven men’s lives.

Though Jesus has been predicting it, it will still come as a shock to them that he will be betrayed and arrested in that garden. He will be taken by lawless hands and beaten and spat upon and then finally nailed to a cross. And his lifeless, bloody, beaten body will be laid in a tomb. And so Jesus says, you’ve got to trust me. Let not your heart be troubled. You trust God. Trust me. And in this section of Scripture, he is going to, for the last time, try to get through to them and to understand that he must die.

The language that he uses, he starts off with the metaphorical language by saying simply, I’m going away. Are you there in John chapter 14? He says, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, 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 you may be also, and where I go, you know, and the way you know. Throughout this section, numerous times, Jesus is going to say, I’m going away. Which was a euphemism for his death. Why he was saying, you’ve got to trust me.

When I go away, when I die, trust me. Because I’m coming back. And so he will say throughout these three chapters numerous times, I’m going away. But then every time he says, I’m going away, he couples that with the reassurance for which they would need to trust him, but I’m coming back. I will come to you. A close analysis of this text, I believe, reveals that when Jesus says, I’m coming back to you, that he means that in four different senses. Not just one way he would come back to them, but four different ways that he says, I’m going away, but trust me, because I’m coming back. And I want us to look at those four ways in which Jesus said he would come back to these eleven apostles.

1. Coming Back in the Resurrected Body

And see if we can make an application for ourselves, in the sense in which we should not let our heart be troubled. The first way, and maybe the most obvious to us, is when Jesus says, I’m going away, but I’m coming back. He’s simply saying, in one sense, that I’m going to die, but my death will not be permanent. I’m coming back in the form of the resurrected body. Look when he says that in chapter 14. Look at verse 19. Chapter 14 of John, verse 19, he says, A little while longer, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. Jesus there’s talking about his resurrection. The world won’t see me because I’ll be dead, but you will see me.

And because I live, although I have died, because I live, you will live also. He’s speaking of his resurrection. Look over in chapter 16. Two verses in chapter 16, he speaks of his resurrection. Chapter 16, verse 16. A little while, and you will not see me.

Chapters 14, 15, and 16 are this farewell discourse to his apostles. Chapter 17, he prays a prayer to his father. Chapter 18, he’s arrested in the garden. And so he says, A little while, and you will not see me. But finish verse 16. And again a little while, and you will see me. Because I go to the Father. You see what he’s saying? Just a little while, you’re not going to see me, I’m going to die. And then another little while, and you will see me. Skip down to verse 22 of this same chapter, chapter 16. Therefore, you now have sorrow. When I die, you’re going to be full of sorrow, but here’s where you’ve got to trust me. A little while you will have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.

2. I Will Dwell With You

Trust me. These next few hours, these next few days are going to be rough. They’re going to be full of abject sorrow and confusion for you. But trust me, because that sorrow is going to be turned to joy when that tomb is found empty. And so when Jesus says, I’m going away, but I’m coming back, in one most immediate sense, he means that is that in his bodily resurrection. But there’s another sense in which he says that. When he says, I’m going away, but I’m coming back to you. Because even in that resurrection, that would not be a permanent, not even really a long time solution to the problem, because he will ascend to his father and go away again. But he also will tell them in this context that I will be with you in the sense that I will dwell with you.

I will be in you and with you. Go back to chapter 14, verse 18. He says, I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. Not in the bodily resurrection in this context, but he says, I will come to you. I will be with you. Skip down to verse 23 of chapter 14. Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves me, speaking to Judas, 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. Do you see that other sense in which Jesus says, I’m not going to leave you alone? My Father and I will come to you and we will make our home with you. In other words, we’re going to live, set up permanent residence with you.

That can’t be talking about the resurrection, because that was just going to be a short few days that he would be with them again in that bodily form. But Jesus is saying in a second way, on a second level, I’m not going to leave you alone. I’m going to come with you and stay permanently with you. Skip down to chapter 15. Very familiar text to talking about the vine and the branches. So much misunderstanding in the religious world about what the vine and the branches are. But if we understand the immediate context, the vine is Jesus Christ, the branches are the apostles. And he says this to them in chapter 15, verse 5, I am the vine, and you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing.

3. I’m Going to Send the Holy Spirit

Jesus is going to send them out on that all-important great commission. But he’s going to say, you’re not going to be alone. Because I’m going to be with you. Not in the bodily form of the resurrection. He will ascend back to the Father before sending them on that great commission. But he still says, I’m going to be with you. I’m going to abide in you. I’ll be with you. You won’t be alone. There’s a third sense in which he says, I’m going away, but I’m coming back to you. When he says, I’m going to send the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit, who will be sent in my name, who will take my place, will be with you. And in that sense, I’m coming back. Again, chapter 14.

Look in verse 15 beginning. John chapter 14, verse 15, he says, If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper, that he may abide with you forever. Even the Spirit of truth, whom even the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. Now, this time when Jesus says, I will come to you, he doesn’t mean I’m going to come back in the bodily form in the resurrection. Doesn’t exactly mean I’m going to come back and dwell in you and be among you. But this time he says, I’m going to come back in the sense that I’m sending the Holy Spirit, who will be that second helper.

Your translation may say, another comforter who will come to you. Look what he says of this sending in chapter 14, verse 26. But this helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name.

And so when the Holy Spirit comes, it’s going to be as if Jesus is there with them still, because one, he is another helper, much like Christ. And two, he’s going to be sent in my name. He’s going to be sent to fulfill and to finish my mission of sending you into all the world and preaching the gospel. Now let’s talk just a little bit about this work of this helper, of this comforter. Jesus prepares them here in these three chapters. It’s important for us to understand the number one key of Bible study is to understand who is speaking and to whom they are speaking. Here in this context, Jesus is speaking to the apostles and says, I’m going to send another helper to you. And here’s what this helper is going to do.

If we read these three chapters, he says basically he’s going to do four things. Number one is he’s going to guide you into all truth. The implication there is, is that Jesus is saying, he’s going to send you additional information that I have not imparted to you. Not because of the inability of Christ to teach them, but because of their inability to be able to absorb it. They haven’t been able to even fully absorb what he’s taught them so far. Much less the additional information. And so the Holy Spirit’s going to come and guide you into all truth. And when he does that, he’s going to be doing that, Jesus says, on my behalf. Read from your mind the concept that the words that Jesus verbally spoke while on this earth carry greater weight than the words that the apostles would impart after he left.

There’s no validity to that at all. The words in black that Peter and Paul and John spoke carry absolute as much heavenly weight as the words that Jesus Himself spoke. Don’t let anybody say, well, homosexuality is not a big issue because Jesus didn’t address it. Yes, he did. He addressed it in Romans chapter 1. I even had somebody say, baptism’s not that important because Jesus only talked about it once. Well, two replies to that. How many times did you need to mention it for it to be important? And number two, he mentioned it many times. He talked about it in Romans chapter 6. He talked about it in Colossians chapter 2. He talked about it in 1 Peter chapter 2. And so he says, I’m going to send my helper, who will be sent in my name.

He will guide you into all truth. He will declare things to come. Chapters 14 and 16, he says, He’s going to tell you about things which are yet in the future. He is going to convict the world in regard to sin, righteousness, and the judgment. He would do that through the persons of the apostles. You ever notice made this observation? That the Holy Spirit, even when he was at his most active in human history, that the Holy Spirit never worked directly upon the heart of the sinner.

The Ethiopian eunuch driving back home to Ethiopia. And there’s the Holy Spirit.

You go, and you tell him the truth. Saul of Tarsus, who would be chosen as that apostle born out of due season, the Holy Spirit, God Himself is going to intervene into human history to teach this man the gospel. But how does he do it? He finds a messenger and says, You go, and you tell him what to do. That’s what he does through the apostle. Convicts the world of righteousness, judgment, and things to come. And then lastly, he says he’s going to bear witness. He’s going to be where it bear witness of me. These men are going to spend and be spent telling the story of what they saw and what they heard. John would say, and we beheld his glory. The glory is the only begotten from the Father.

But Jesus says, you’re going to need some help. The validity of eyewitness accounts is important. We have the eyewitnesses of men who were there, who saw him walk on water, who heard him say, Arise, and Lazarus’ dead bodies rose up. Of men who were there when he spoke that great treatise of the Sermon on the Mount. The eyewitness account is very important, but eyewitness account’s not enough, is it? Because our memories are faulty. Thirty plus years ago, I have a vivid memory of Deedra and I going on a picnic.

Don’t look for it on a map, you won’t find it. Beautiful little park. I can remember us going. It was a spring day. Weather was perfect. We took a little picnic along and we hiked through this park and we found a clearing and we had the best picnic you’ll ever have. Gathered up all of our trash, walked out of that park with a memory I would cherish forever. The only problem is, Deedra says that never happened.

To this day, she says, I’ve never been to that park. She says, That must have been some other girl you took.

4. I Will Come Again and Receive You

Well, you see the problem with human memory. One of us can’t remember it right. And so Jesus is not going to send these eleven, soon to be twelve again men out and say, tell them what you heard. Because John would say, I remember when Jesus, he was there by the Sea of Galilee, and Peter said, No, that wasn’t on the Sea of Galilee, that was in the mountain. And Matthew would say, No, no, that’s not happening. And so he says, I’m going to send you another helper who will bear witness, who will bring to remembrance all the things that I said. And so Jesus says, I’m coming back to you through the Holy Spirit. But there’s a fourth sense in which he says, I’m going away.

But I’m coming back. Are you there where our Bible reading took place this morning in John chapter 14, verse 1? He says, Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. 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. Question. Was Jesus talking about his resurrection? When I come back on that third day, I’m going to take you with me? No.

Is he meaning it in just some kind of ethereal metaphorical sense? When I come and abide, my Father and I come and we’re going to live with you. Is that the whole sense in which we’re going to spend eternity with Christ? No. Can’t be the Holy Spirit that he’s talking about. And so he has to be talking about even another way in which he says, I’m going to come back to you. Here he’s obviously talking about his second coming. I’m going to prepare a place for you. And I’m going to come back, not on the third day, not through the person of the Holy Spirit, not in the sense that I’m going to abide with you and dwell with you, but I’m going to come back yet again and take you with me.

Conclusion

So Jesus says, You trust God. I’m going to need you to trust me. Don’t let your heart be troubled. Because I’m going away. But I’m coming back. Now he spoke this in the immediate context to these apostles. Because the next few hours and days was going to be very trying for them. And he needed them to be prepared. But there’s an application to you and I. In all four of these senses. Obviously, the resurrection holds great meaning to us as it did to them.

Just as powerful to us today are the words, Because I live, you will live also. We speak of his death understandably. We commemorate it, remember it every first day of the week as we’ve been commanded. But we also understand that that death loses its impact, if not for his resurrected life. Preachers are sometimes criticized if they preach the same sermon over and over again. The apostles did that throughout the book of Acts. You look at those early sermons that they preached, it was all the same outline. And the outline went like this You killed him, but God raised him up. There was the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ that was preached. Look over, you remember this text in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, where this apostle speaks of the power of his resurrection.

Remember, Jesus said, Because I live, you will live also. Paul put it this way, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 20. But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. Because I live, you will live also. Those words, let not your heart be troubled, should ring in our ears when we talk about the resurrection of Christ. Because it foreshadows and guarantees our own resurrection. We’re such short-sighted people. Death will devastate us. But Jesus is saying, let not your heart be troubled. You trust God. You’ve got to trust me. This isn’t the end. There’s meaning for us in the fact that he says that he would come and abide with them and dwell with them. Those same promises are made to us.

That Christ would be in us and through us. In fact, look over in Romans chapter 8. This removes the veil of confusion about the Holy Spirit dwelling in us when we consider that all three members of God are said to dwell in us. Romans chapter 8, beginning in verse 9 says, But you’re not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of the sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Sometimes we read that phrase, the Spirit dwells in us, and we just freeze up. I don’t know what that means. But if we read a couple other verses, it also said, Christ dwells in us. It also says the Father, him who raised him from the dead. That’s the Father dwells in us. It’s high time that we take the Holy Spirit back. We’ve allowed the Holy Spirit to be stolen from us by the false teaching of what the Holy Spirit does today in working upon the hearts of Christians, and so that we just shy away from it. It’s high time we take the Holy Spirit back and put it in its biblical context, and as Christians, unashamably say that we are led by the Spirit. That the Spirit dwells in us.

As the Father dwells in us, as Christ dwells in us. As Paul could say, it’s no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That means that whatever good that I might do, whatever light I might shine, is not because of my own goodness, it’s because I’m following the direction of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They’re directing me. As I read and study the Word and integrate that word into my life, it’s no longer I who lives, but it’s Christ who lives in me. Obviously, there’s benefit to us of the Holy Spirit coming. The Apostle Paul would say in Ephesians chapter 3 that I was led by the Spirit to give you this revelation so that when you read, you may have my knowledge of the mystery.

We know what Paul knew. We saw what John saw. Because of the work of the Holy Spirit in inspiring these great men. And lastly and not least, we have the hope that He’s coming again. That He has prepared a place for us that where He is, we may be also. Let not your heart be troubled. When I was a kid, giving away my age here, when I was a kid, one of my favorite television shows was Leave It to Beaver. Remember that show? Every episode was the same. Little boy would get in trouble. There was no way out, you think, and by the end of the show, all was right with the world again. Maybe that was my favorite show because I could relate to a little boy always getting in trouble.

But I caught on to the pattern pretty soon. Because I’m the type that if I’m reading a book, watching a movie or television show, I’m fully engrossed in it. And so I’d get a little anxious. Oh no. He’s in trouble. I don’t know how this is. But I’d have to remind myself. It’s a 30 minute show. The kid’s got to be alive for the next episode. And so everything’s going to be alright. I don’t mean to trivialize it. But that’s the life of a Christian, isn’t it? We have the blessing that we’ve read the last chapter of the book. We know how this story ends. Does it get rocky and rough and difficult? Do we say, I don’t know how this is going to. But let not your heart be troubled.

Trust him. We know how the story ends. So let not your heart be troubled. Would you join me in a word of prayer? Our dearest God and Almighty Father who art in heaven. We’re thankful that you’ve loved us so much and sent your only begotten Son to come to this life to endure the pains and the travails to give us hope. Help our hearts to not be troubled, Father. Help us to trust in you and to trust in him. And most of all, Father, come and come quickly. Bless us in our work, bless us this day that your name may be honored and praised. And comfort our hearts in the full assurance of faith and hope. Christ’s loving name we pray. Amen. We’ll be dismissed to our classes.