I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life

The remedy to our troubled hearts is to believe in Jesus

Intro

When your house has a leak you turn to a plumber. When your car breaks down you turn to a mechanic. When you’re sick you turn to a doctor. When you want a fact about the size of Blessington lake you can turn to me.

But what about when your heart is troubled?

Do you turn to friends? Vices? Distractions?

In our passage this morning we’ll see what Jesus says is the remedy to a troubled heart.

Many of you probably know that I appreciate Charles Spurgeon, the 19th century preacher. And Spurgeon preached or exposited John chapter 14 more than 13 times on the section that we’re looking at alone. So as we begin this morning I’ll let him introduce this passage to us.

We have often read this chapter, both in our private meditations, and at our public worship; but we cannot read it too often. It is sweet as honey and the honeycomb. It contains the very quintessence of consolation. Every word in the chapter is rich, and full of meaning. Perhaps they understand it best who cannot read it quickly, but are obliged to spell over every word of it, and so are like those who feast upon marrow and fatness.

We only have one sermon to consider this section of John’s gospel, so let’s look toward our passage this morning with anticipation and eagerness to be fed from God’s word.

1 - The Problem – Troubled Hearts (14:1)

And as we come to our passage, let me just set the scene of where we are in John’s gospel for context.

Jesus is teaching the disciples in the upper room the night of the Last Supper, the night that he would be betrayed and arrested before being led to the cross. In the previous chapter Jesus has told the disciples that one of them will betray him. He’s told them that he will be leaving them and they won’t be able to follow him immediately. And he’s told them that Peter will deny Jesus. Look with me then at the beginning of our passage in verse 1 of chapter 14: Let not your hearts be troubled.

Let not your hearts be troubled.

After hearing that Jesus would leave them, be betrayed by one of them, and that their spokesperson Peter would deny him, how could the disciples’ hearts be anything but troubled? And as we consider this command for us this morning we should also consider why Jesus tells us to not let our hearts be troubled.

Because God doesn’t guarantee us a life free from troubles. In fact, the opposite is true. We are told time and again throughout scripture that we will face opposition, persecution, the troubles and strifes of living in a fallen, sinful world, of our need to take up our cross as we follow Jesus. We’ve all experienced countless sufferings in our lives. And yet here Jesus still commands us not to be troubled in heart.

The question for us then becomes, how do we not let the troubles of our lives become troubles of our hearts. This will sometimes be easier than others. But when the relative dies, the friend hurts you deeply, the sickness continues to ail you, the persistent sin haunts you – then what?

But before we look into the remedy for how we avoid troubled hearts, I want to just briefly think about why we shouldn’t have troubled hearts. Now, we could probably have a whole sermon just going through that alone so we will by no means be exhaustive here, but there are just a couple of things that in the context of the passage I think it will be helpful to draw out.

The first is that we need to remember that Jesus is saying these words to comfort his disciples – let not your hearts be troubled. We’re going to find it impossible to have peace in this life if we have hearts that are in turmoil. If our hearts are troubled, then even if our lives are stable and secure because of wealth, friends, family, job security or whatever else, then we will not know the peace of God which surpasses understanding.

The second is that a troubled heart neither honours nor glorifies God. When the storms of life come, the degree to which our hearts are troubled reveals how much we really trust God. A troubled heart is a heart which is distrustful of the God who has given you the greatest gift of all, a heart which thinks it knows better than the creator and sustainer of the universe, a heart which makes itself god above the one true God. This not only dishonours God through the pride and arrogance of our hearts inwardly, but dishonours him outwardly to the world as we bear his name in vain. The witness of the Christian who though they are beaten down by the troubles of this life shows faith, hope, peace, and joy – is a vastly different witness than the same Christian who in their circumstances displays despair, despondency, and hopelessness and shows themselves to be no different than the watching world.

The writer to the Hebrews takes this so seriously that he says to them: Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

A troubled heart is not an insignificant thing.

But Jesus doesn’t just see us lying, stuck in a pit and yell at us “get out of there” as he walks on by. No, even as Jesus tells us not to have troubled hearts, he reaches down into the pit to pull us out, and teaches us the remedy to our troubled hearts.

2 - The Remedy – Belief (14:1-11)

Look with me again from verse 1:

John 14:1–11 · ESV

¹Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. ²In 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? ³And 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. ⁴And you know the way to where I am going.” ⁵Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” ⁶Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” ⁸Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” ⁹Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. ¹¹Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

Here Jesus gives us the remedy for a troubled heart.

Notice how Jesus bookends this section in verse 1 and verse 11: Believe in God; believe also in me. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.

Jesus tells us nine things that we should believe in this passage – because it is belief that is the remedy for our troubled hearts.

First: We are to believe in God. Verse 1: Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. This may sound obvious right? We’re Christians, of course we believe in God. But this is not about belief as opposed to unbelief, but about varying degrees of belief. Of weak faith as opposed to strong faith.

When Jesus says first of all to believe in God his assumption is that the disciples already do. But that isn’t an assumption that we can make in 21st century Dublin. Even in the church, many Christians have a small view of God – which leads to a weak faith. People tend to think of God as basically just like a human, but maybe better in some or every way.

This is wrong.

Though we are like God, created in his image – God is not like us. A god who changes is not one who can keep our hearts from trouble. A fickle god is not one who can keep our hearts from trouble. A weak god is not one who can keep our hearts from trouble. A small god is not one who can keep our hearts from trouble. The god we invent in our head of who we want god to be, or who we think he is or should be is not one who can keep our hearts from trouble. No, our God is independent, self-existent, incomprehensible, ineffable, simple, eternal, immense, immutable, impassible, infinite, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, perfectly Holy in and of himself.

And this is the God we must believe in – because this is the God who can keep our hearts from trouble. And though it is true that the weakest of faiths can cling to Christ for salvation, a truth to which we should all say “Yes and Amen!”, that does not mean that those with weak faith will enjoy or glorify God to the same degree as those who have a strong faith, a strong belief. The remedy to our troubled hearts isn’t to draw away from God, but to press in further, to cling tighter, to trust more deeply.

For many Christians it can be somewhat “easy”, in a sense, to believe in God for salvation. They rightly recognise that they are completely incapable of saving themselves, and truly repent and turn to God. But that doesn’t make it then “easy” to exercise that belief in God in all situations because we feel like we have more control over other areas of our lives. Jesus is exhorting you this morning to press into that belief in all aspects of life. To trust God with your child’s salvation. To trust God with your finances. To trust God with your friendships. To trust God with your marriage, present or future. To trust God and believe in him, just as you did when you first believed, in all troubles of our lives, that though they affect us outwardly, they would not penetrate our hearts.

Second: We are to believe in Jesus. Verse 1 again: Believe in God; believe also in me. This again, may seem obvious to us. Of course we believe in Jesus. And we’ll see further on how Jesus teases this belief out in the rest of the passage, but for now we should consider how Jesus places this belief in him, not in contrast to, but alongside, or equal with belief in God.

Because the grace and mercy of God, aside from Jesus, cannot save us. God’s mercy, a perfect mercy from himself, not grounded in us or in anything we have done or could do, can’t be shown to us without Jesus. He could show temporary mercy – delaying in judgement – and common grace to all, making the sun shine and the rain fall on the righteous and wicked alike, but there would still have to come a satisfaction of his justice. A judgement must come, a price must be paid, justice must be meted out.

And Jesus is the only one who could pay that price. Believing in God in the abstract isn’t enough. There are some people who say that everyone worships the same god. Christians, Jews, Muslims, as well as any other pagan religions and mysticists. And even if what they said was somehow true, to believe in that “god” would still not be sufficient for salvation, because there would be nothing to turn away God’s wrath against us. “Believe in God; believe also in me,” Jesus says.

We have to have faith in Christ. There is no other way. Paul says in his letter to the Galatians that if anyone preaches a gospel, if anyone preaches good news, hope for the world, and that gospel is anything other than Christ – let them be anathema, let them be accursed. Because they are driving people away from Christ, the only hope of salvation. There is no worship of God, there is no belief in God, without belief in Christ. Proper worship of God is not divorcing God, divorcing the Father away from Christ, but is rather worship of the Triune God – Father, Son, and Spirit, equal in glory, equal in majesty. None in this Trinity is before or after, none is greater or smaller; in their entirety the three persons are coeternal and coequal with each other.

If believing in Jesus you still are troubled, believe in him again yet more thoroughly and heartily. If even that should not take away the perturbation of your mind, believe in him to a third degree, and continue to do so with increasing simplicity and force. Regard this as the one and only physic for the disease of fear and trouble. Jesus prescribes, “Believe, believe, believe in me!” Believe not only in certain doctrines, but in Jesus himself—in him as able to carry out every promise that he has made.

The remedy of our troubled hearts is not simply to believe in God abstractly, but to believe in Jesus as he commands us.

Third: We are to believe that Jesus is preparing a place for us in heaven. Verse 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? Jesus tells his disciples not to be troubled in the present tense, because he is going to prepare a place for them in the future. There are many rooms in the Father’s house and Jesus has left to prepare them.

And brothers and sisters, we can be comforted to know that Jesus does not prepare rooms in vain. If he has prepared a room for you, then you will surely live in it. Even for those with the weakest of faith, with belief hanging by a thread, their room is just as prepared, and just as secure as any others. This is why Jesus encourages us with this good news as he tells us not to be troubled in our hearts. We can have full assurance that if we believe in him, we are certain to live with him forever.

What is the preparation that Christ has gone to make then? Well, while some of it may be mysterious and unknown to us until we get there, there is some of the preparation which is clear and revealed to us. That is that Jesus has prepared the way for us as the firstborn of the dead, our frontrunner. We certainly would not be able to enter into God’s presence under any circumstances ordinarily, but Jesus has paid the price that we may enter in.

He has washed us whiter than snow, removing every stain of sin from us which would keep us from entering into God’s presence. He has torn down the veil which kept us from the Father. He has stood before the Father, interceding on our behalf as our Great High Priest. He has united us to himself in his death and resurrection, that we may be sons and daughters of God, co-heirs with Christ. And having prepared heaven as a place where we can enter through his work he also prepares it as a groom as a place fit for his bride.

Whatever this entails we don’t know, but Jesus wants us to be comforted that it is worth him leaving to do – and that our hearts shouldn’t be troubled. He has not left the preparation to angels to do, or left us to do it ourselves, but has gone himself to handle the preparations. The very word of God through whom the whole world was spoken into existence and prepared for us to live in, is now preparing a place in his Father’s house for his bride to live in. When your heart is tempted to be troubled, look forward as Jesus bid the disciples to, to that future reality.

And we must also remember and believe that just as Jesus is preparing the place for us, he is preparing us for the place. Jesus promises that even though he will leave his disciples, that they don’t need to be troubled because he will verse 16: 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. The Holy Spirit indwells us and communicates Jesus’ presence to us even though he is absent from us in the body. He also prepares us through our sanctification to be made ready to enter into heaven to live with God forever.

At Christmastime, people – especially, though not exclusively, children – look forward to Christmas day. They anticipate it. They sing about it. They plan for it and get ready for it. They might buy presents, make food, send out Christmas cards, give invitations to friends and family for parties. On Christmas day we left church and Okiki prepared food for the meal that we would have, getting the place ready for those who would arrive. Eden prepared herself by having a nap in order to be ready for the gathering. We might get a bit more cynical as adults, but if you remember being a child, or have seen any children, you know how excited they are to get to Christmas day and open their presents. This is the excitement and anticipation and preparation that you should have for heaven. Children who know they’re getting presents on Christmas day aren’t downcast on Christmas Eve, but are eagerly awaiting that which they know is coming. Those going to a Christmas gathering prepare themselves just as they know the host will be preparing for them. Abraham, we’re told in Hebrews, when he obeyed God, wasn’t even looking forward to his earthly inheritance or land, but was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. He was looking forward to the new heavens and earth.

The remedy of your troubled heart is to believe that Jesus is preparing a place for you in heaven.

Fourth: We are to believe that Jesus will come again. Verse 3: And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself. This is a certainty. Jesus has gone, but he is coming again. He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! Jesus has said that he is coming soon, so we should pray for him to come soon. Rather than letting our hearts be troubled that he has gone, the remedy to that trouble is to believe that he is coming again, to place our hope in his coming again, to tell others of the great joy we have that he is coming again.

Fifth: We are to believe that Jesus will bring us to himself. Verse 3 again: I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. As Christians we don’t desire heaven for heaven’s sake – but because we will dwell with Jesus.

Jesus here gives us the promised hope that the psalmists longed for when they said: I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. When Jesus leaves to prepare us a place in heaven he does so in the Father’s house. This isn’t merely somewhere in heaven, as amazing as that would be, but in the very house of the Father. Not down the street, or even next door. No, as honoured sons we are to live in the same dwelling as our heavenly Father.

Jesus could have said that he would come and bring us to heaven, and we would be free from sin, and live eternally – but instead he gives us the remedy to our troubled hearts which is the greatest hope of all – to live with him forever and ever.

Sixth: We are to believe that Jesus is the way. This truth is the very centre around which all the other truths hinge or point towards. Verse 6: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

The claim that Jesus makes is I am the way, and the truth, and the life. Not – I am a way, and a truth, and a life. He says No one comes to the Father except through me. Not – Some people come to the Father apart from me.

This is an exclusive claim. It is, to many, an offensive claim. It is, if he is wrong, an evil claim.

If Jesus is not the way, the truth, and the life, then he is leading people away from God, away from truth, and away from life. And the offensiveness of this claim has not lessened as years have gone by. Even in our so called “tolerant” world in the post-religious west, the Christian claim is intolerable precisely because of its exclusivity. There is no one way to God. There is no absolute truth. Life is whatever you want it to be.

And if this statement of exclusivity was from ourselves, it would be arrogant. If I were to say that because I say that Jesus is the only way, then he is the only way – that would be arrogant – because it would imply that Jesus is the only way because of whatever I think. But if the one who is the truth himself says that he is the only way, then it is not arrogance but fact. The reason that the world finds Jesus’ statement so offensive is because it requires them to admit that they are wrong, they are weak, they have sinned, they can’t help themselves, they are not in control.

The irony in those who see this as offensive is that they claim to seek God, while they reject the very, and only, means that he has provided to actually have reconciliation with him. How often have you seen others presuming that they know the way rather than what Jesus has said? How often do you hear people say of those who lived as atheists their whole lives – “Oh he’s in a better place now”, or “she’s an angel looking down on us”, or “I’ll see them again in heaven”? These people, their friends, and family, wouldn’t dare to go to a party they weren’t invited to, or walk into someone’s house off the street, and yet they dare to presume that they know the way to God better than God himself who said that there is one way and it is through belief in Jesus.

Because when Jesus says that he is the way – he means it, and he wants us to believe it. He doesn’t even mean primarily that he shows the way, or that he goes the way before us, though those are true, but rather exactly what he says – that Jesus is the way. We all start from the same place, every one of us. We start dead, in our sin, without life, and without hope. And the only means for us to be reconciled again to God is to follow the way. To follow Jesus. To believe in him. We do this when we cast our sins upon him, recognising him as our only hope in life and death, asking for his forgiveness. And we know that doing so will allow us to reach the end of the way which Jesus tells us of.

Look again at verse 6: No one comes to the Father except through me. The end of the way is the Father, it is a return to relationship with God in the new heavens and earth. It is living with the Triune God in a room prepared for us that Jesus is returning to come and bring us to.

So if Jesus is the way, then how are we to walk in the way? We know our starting point, and we know our destination, and if we’re Christians here then we have already begun walking in the way. So we should remember that the way we walk, which we do so by belief, is not an unknown, foreign way. Jesus says verse 4, look with me, And you know the way to where I am going. The way that we follow is one walked not only by Christ, but by all the saints who have come before us. We are walking in his, and in their footsteps.

Even when we experience suffering and trials and the troubles of the heart we must remember that there is nothing new under the sun. We’re not experiencing anything unique that no one has before. Our continual walk along the way should bring glory to God and so we must be careful to distinguish what we mean when we think about the necessity of works on the way. We do not do good works as a separate way, a separate path to lead to the Father, there is, as we’ve already considered, only one way.

Nor do we do good works to present them to Jesus as if he’s barring the way to himself and will only let us on the way if we’ve done enough good things. And yet, if we are walking along a path we should absolutely help those we meet along the way. Just like the good Samaritan had compassion on the man he encountered on his journey, we are to do the good works prepared for us by God. If he has prepared good works for us, and has instituted laws for us to obey, and if he has set us on this path by giving us faith that we would turn to Jesus in repentance, then we must do works as we walk along the way. The works don’t lead us to our home, but if we’re walking on the road and ignoring everything on our way, then perhaps it is a sign that we aren’t on the right road at all.

Similarly, if there are no obstacles on the road then perhaps it is not the right way. We should experience opposition. We should have a temptation to have troubled hearts. The world doesn’t like people travelling on this road. The devil hates people who take this way. Other people who are blinded by their own sin hate people who have chosen to travel this path. It isn’t an easy road, and so we should examine to see if we are still on the right path, like checking a map or a GPS to see if we are still on track to our destination.

Maybe for you this morning you’ve travelled down, or are travelling down another road.

The way of sex.

The way of false-religion.

The way of career.

The way of family.

The way of hedonism.

The way of apathy.

The way of self-pity.

The way of power.

Let me tell you this morning that you are not so far gone down those paths that you cannot come to the way, to Jesus, if you turn back now. Those ways, every other way, only leads to death, and many reach the ends of those roads. But if you turn back now you can trust in Jesus, the Son of God, and walk in his way. A way which does not lead to death, but to life.

Or maybe you’re here this morning and you’re really good at making other people think that you’re walking on the road with them. When you’re around others you run over and walk beside them, but when you’re alone in the quiet of your own head, or with others, you know deep down that you’re actually walking a completely different road. You don’t want your family, or your friends, or your church to know that you’re walking a different road, so you keep up the charade – while actually walking to your own destruction.

*TURN BACK.

That is what the word to repent means. To turn around. To change direction. Turn back, repent, run to Jesus. He will receive you with open arms. He is the only way.

And in the same way that there are those who think that they can come to God apart from Christ, there are some who think that they can walk on the way apart from the church, the very bride of Christ whose order and government and ordinances he instituted. Jesus is the truth, and the church is the pillar and buttress of that truth. Jesus is the way, and the church are those who walk in that way. You cannot hope to walk along the way without walking with those whom Jesus has placed there alongside you. Jesus is the life, the head of the church. The body is nothing without the head and cannot survive without it. But likewise, each part of the body cannot say to another that it doesn’t belong or isn’t needed, or that it can go it alone. The eye cannot see without the brain. The hand cannot grasp without the arm, the bones, the muscles, the blood sent from the heart. Cutting yourself off from the rest of the body is cutting yourself off from the head as the head is attached to the body. The remedy to our troubled hearts is to believe that Jesus is the only way, that he has set us on the way, told us of our destination, and equipped us to walk the path that he has laid down for us.

Seventh: We are to believe that Jesus is the truth. Verse 6 again: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. We live in a culture where truth is relative, personal, and subjective. Where anyone can decide their own truth on the one hand, while also ensuring that those who don’t tow the party line on whatever new cultural truth appears are punished on the other. This isn’t new. In fact, this is how things have been from the beginning. Humans haven’t believed God, haven’t trusted him and his wisdom, but have sought to do what is right and good in our own eyes.

In the garden Adam and Eve had the choice between believing God or deciding what was right themselves, and chose to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil to decide themselves. We continue to have that choice. Do we trust and believe God, or do we decide what is right and wise on our own. Jesus says earlier in John’s gospel to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

The truth is found in the word. If we want to know what is true, then we must turn to the word, to scripture, to God revealed in the person of Christ. Look with me at verse 10: Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? If we want to know the truth about God we look at Christ because he reveals the Father who is unseen. Believe in God, believe also in me. The remedy to our troubled hearts is to believe that Jesus is the truth, which frees us from trying to declare what is true ourselves, frees us from slavery to sin, and frees us from our troubled hearts.

Eighth: We are to believe that Jesus is the life. For the last time, verse 6: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”

Jesus is the source of life. The source of all that is good. This is how John begins his gospel account, declaring of Jesus, the word of God, that in him was life, and the life was the light of men. As Jesus says in Matthew’s gospel: [God] is not God of the dead, but of the living.

How then are we to become the living in order that God may be our God? It is only through belief in Jesus as the life. Because Jesus is the only way to the Father, he is the only way to life. If you’re here this morning and you don’t believe this, again let me warn you: Whatever is going on in your life, whatever things you value – friends, family, experiences, “doing good”, money, fulfilment – none of these things can give you life.

You can’t earn life. You can earn death. Death is the wages of our sin against God. But you can’t earn life. Life is something you can only receive as a gift. By believing that Jesus is the life. Again hear Jesus’ words as he says: Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. The remedy to our troubled hearts is to believe that Jesus is the life; to remember that we are dead without him, but alive through him.

Ninth: We are to believe that we know God. Look with me from verse 7:

John 14:7–11 · ESV

⁷If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” ⁸Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” ⁹Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. ¹¹Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

We should be encouraged and comforted by Jesus’ words in verse 7, look again with me: From now on you do know him and have seen him.

To understand more clearly Jesus’ point in this section it can be helpful to turn to the original Greek text to determine what exactly Jesus is getting at. In verses 7 and 9 when Jesus says seen he is using the word ὁράω (hor-ah-oh) which means to experience, to comprehend, to discern or understand. And when Philip asks Jesus to show in verse 8, which Jesus repeats in verse 9, they are using the word δεικνύω (dike-nu-oh), which means to show or demonstrate.

So then the flow becomes something like this: Jesus tells Thomas and the disciples that if they know him, they know the Father. They know the Father, and have experienced and understood the Father. Philip then asks Jesus to show, or give a demonstration of the Father. To which Jesus then gets exasperated with Philip who has been with him as he has taught with authority and performed miracles all around Judea. And he says to him: “Do you still not know me? If you have experienced me, you have experienced the Father. How then can you ask for a demonstration of the Father.” He then asks Philip verse 10: Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Jesus then finally tells him to either believe that his words are the truth, that they are from the Father, and that therefore if Philip has witnessed Jesus he has witnessed and understood the Father – or to believe based on the evidence of the works that he has seen already. How could he ask Jesus for another sign or demonstration when he has already seen and experienced so much.

This is the greatness of the mystery of Christ. That we know that no one can see the Father and live. Yet Jesus says not only that he is the life, but that if you have seen him you have seen the Father. The Son and the Father are one. Jesus is the perfect imprint of his nature. As we see Jesus, we see God. As we experience Jesus, we experience God. As we know Jesus, we know God. So as we see, experience, understand, and comprehend Jesus in scripture – we truly know God. We know the God who is not fully knowable. He has revealed him to us. And this is the final remedy to our troubled hearts – to believe that we do know God, that we have seen him in Christ, and that we can continue to know his character and will as we see him shown to us in his word.

3 - The Outcome – Works (14:12-14)

And so finally let us briefly consider what the outcome to having the remedy to the problem of our heart troubles should be. Look with me from verse 12:

John 14:12–14 · ESV

¹²Truly, 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. ¹³Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

Jesus begins again by specifying exactly who he is talking to – those who we have been considering this morning – those who believe. Our passage this morning calls us not just to believe God in the abstract, but to experientially trust in, enjoy, and glorify Jesus. We do this through the word which reveals Jesus, the comfort of the Holy Spirit whom he sends us, and continued communion with Christ through prayer as we have faith in Jesus as God, the way, the truth, and the life.

And so as we experientially believe God we are told that we will do greater works than Jesus. Does that mean that we will somehow complete Christ’s work as if it wasn’t sufficient, or perform miracles to a greater degree than he did or something? No, rather greater in this case is in terms of the scope and breadth rather than the potency. Jesus was one man who lived and performed ministry in one small area in Judea for a few years. For the past 2000 years on the other hand, the church has performed Christ’s ministry across the whole world, preaching the gospel to millions of times as many people. Nor is this pitting Christ’s work against the church’s, but rather Christ’s earthly ministry against his heavenly one now, where he is seated at the right hand of the Father. It is all Christ’s work for God’s glory.

And so this was also another reason for the disciples’ hearts, and for our hearts too, not to be troubled. Jesus’ departure would not result in a lessening of the kingdom of God, but of a vast growth instead as Christ worked in his church by his Holy Spirit whom he would send to his people.

And so as we believe in Jesus we must follow in his way, taking up our crosses as he did, dying with him in baptism as he died, rising again as he rose, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God even as he did. And we do so, not for our own sake, but believing in Jesus and trusting, verse 13: that whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Jesus continues verse 14: If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

How do we believe and trust in Jesus to do the works he has set on our way for us to do then? Through prayer. We don’t have time to consider the full scope of prayer, which could be a whole sermon series on its own, but Richard Phillips’s remarks in his commentary on John are helpful for us to consider briefly:

For some believers, praying “in Jesus’ name” means nothing more than appending the words “in Jesus’ name” to the end of their prayers. This is a good practice, so long as we are serious about what it means. When we pray “in Christ’s name,” we are coming to God the Father through the mediation of his Son, relying on his shed blood for our acceptance and his intercession for our admittance to God’s throne. To pray in any other name, or simply to pray in no name at all, is to have no legitimate reason to expect God to answer your prayers. This means that we should never expect selfish, petty, worldly, foolish, self-glorifying, self-pitying, or, especially, sinful prayers to be fulfilled by our Lord. But on the other hand, when our prayer coincides with the known will of Christ, with his character, purposes, and attitude—that is, when we are praying in a way that Jesus would pray for us—then we should be confident to offer all kinds of prayers to our risen Lord. Such prayers would include Christ’s blessing on his Word as it is preached and witnessed.

As we soothe our troubled hearts through belief in Jesus the Son of God, we must rely on him in prayer in order to do the works that he has prepared for us, that we may glorify God through our lives.

Conclusion

John 14:27–29 · ESV

²⁷Peace 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. ²⁸You 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. ²⁹And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.

Just as Jesus departed, we will depart. We will die. Our friends will die. Our family will die.

For those of us who follow Jesus we can be excited and have hearts free from trouble as we fix our eyes on Jesus, on him seated in heaven, preparing us rooms and readying to come back to bring us to himself, where we will live with God – Father, Son, and Spirit eternally.

The opposite of a troubled heart is belief, and the solution to a troubled heart is to double down on belief, to remember who we believe in.

But for those who don’t believe in Jesus you don’t have this hope. If this is you, my prayer is that your heart would be troubled. That it would trouble you so much that it would drive you to your knees to turn to the only hope that any of us can have in life and death.

There is only one way. One truth. One life.

Let me finish with these words from the end of Psalm 45:

Psalm 42:5 · ESV

⁵Why are you cast down, O my soul,and why are you in turmoil within me?Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,my salvation and my God.