LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED
Sermon Of The Week #200907 – March 1, 2009
The Lord Jesus said in the first verse of John fourteen; “Let not your heart be troubled.” The first six verses of this chapter have probably been used in more memorial services as much as any other text in the word of God, and for the Christian rightly so. John informs us in Revelation 14:13: And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth: yea, smith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; for their works follow with them."
But I would be remiss in my duty as a preacher if I did not remind you also that there are two ways to die. One way is to die in the Lord; and the other as Jesus said to the Pharisees in John 8:23, “Ye are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for except ye believe that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.”
However what we have said may be a little out of the context. There is more to consider in that statement “let not your heart be troubled,” than a good text for a funeral service. Let not your heart be troubled, is the first verse of John fourteen, and is a continuation of a speech Jesus was making in John thirteen. The last few verses of John thirteen give us the real reason for the Lord’s statement; “Let not your heart be troubled.”
There are at least three reasons that caused the apostles to have troubled hearts. For one thing Jesus had just said, “One of you shall betray me,” and a second thing was when he declared that although he had chosen the twelve, the scripture would be fulfilled that predicted one of them that ate His bread would lift up his heel against Him, and for Peter the worse thing of all was Jesus had just told him that very night he would deny Him three times before the rooster crowed.
When it happened Peter remembered the words of Jesus and that moment the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter, and he went out and wept bitterly. We might wonder if at that time Peter remembered the words of Jesus: “Let not your hearts be troubled.” Perhaps he did, however I cannot spend too much time in concern about Peter, because I have my own personal rooster, and I have heard him crow many times. Whether taken out of context or not, it is always assuring to remember the words of Jesus saying to us, “Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me.”
IN MY FATHERS HOUSE THERE ARE MANY MANSIONS
Let not your hearts be troubled because in my Father’s house are many mansions. Perhaps we sometimes think the song is more appropriate, and we would be satisfied just to have a cabin in the corner of Glory Land. Others may say they would settle for a mansion over the hilltop. Actually both songs are a little out of sync. It is the Father’s house, and those mansions are many rooms. Every Christian will have his own personal room in the Father’s house. I surely would like to see what kind of a room has been reserved for Paul.
There is something very comforting to the thought; “I have a room in my Father’s house.” Most adults can remember the days when you lived in father’s house. As I look back in memory, I recall that I had a room in my father’s house. It was in the days of the great depression, times were really hard, many people lost all they had, and committed suicide. I wore patches on my pants, and I cannot help looking down my nose at people today who pay a premium price to buy faded clothes with patches, and holes in them. I was in style all the time and did not know it.
However I had an advantage over many today who worry and fret about hard times. My advantage was, I had a room in father’s house, I came to the table three times a day, never missed a meal in that ten year decade, and was not the least bit concerned about hard times, or where the money was coming from. Someone asked me, as I looked back over the several decades of life what was your favorite time. Without thinking I said the 1930’s. Later I thought why did I say that? It must have been because it was the time of greatest security, I had no worries about hard times, or anything else because I had a room in father’s house.
That room that Jesus told us about in His Father’s house is a room that Jesus wants us to have. He said in his prayer in John 17:24, “Father, I pray that they whom thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory, which thou hast given Me: for thou lovest Me before the foundation of the world.” And that is totally beyond our comprehension. And it is guaranteed, because He said, “If it were not so he would have told us.” We can be just as sure of that room in the Father’s house as we can be sure that Jesus told us the truth. Let not your heart be troubled.
I GO TO PREPARE A PLACE FOR YOU
Another reason for the untroubled heart is because Jesus said that He has gone to prepare a place for us. God always prepares a place for His chosen people. In Genesis 3:8 it is written: “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed. And that was not all. Out of the ground made the Lord to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, the tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden.” What happened after that we will leave for another time, but for now we will content ourselves with the knowledge that God did in fact, prepare a place for Adam and Eve.
But not only did He prepare a place for Adam and Eve He also prepared a place for the Israelites when they crossed over the Jordan into the Promised Land. In the farewell address of Moses in Deuteronomy 6:10 he instructed them: “And it shall be when the Lord thy God has brought you into the land that He swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give the great and goodly cities, which they did not build, and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and wells dug which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees, which thou planted not; when thou shall have eaten and be full.”
When they crossed over the Jordan all of these things were waiting for them. No mortgage to pay, and no rent, just move right in and enjoy. Actually there was a catch to it. Moses told them, “Beware lest you forget the Lord; which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.” In both places God prepared for His people their continued happiness depended on their obedience to God. Sounds like a good deal, obey the Lord and you can have it all.
Now remember Jesus has said, “I go to prepare a place for you.” There is a similarity in ancient Israel and the Christian. Like Israel Paul reminds us in 1st Corinthians 10 that we were also baptized in a similar way as Israel baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Then they passed through forty years in the wilderness, and finally came to the banks of the Jordan to cross over the river.
Joshua chapter three tells us that Joshua rose up early in the morning, and told the people it would be three days before the crossing. They looked at that river for three days and were told to sanctify themselves because you have never been this way before.
Is it not true, that when we think of passing over the Jordan that we take care to sanctify ourselves. One method of sanctification is in the advice Paul gave the elders of Ephesus in his farewell address to them in Acts 20:32: “And now I commend to God, and the word of His grace which is able to build you up, and give you the inheritance among them that are sanctified. Sanctify yourself daily for none of us know on what day we will pass over Jordan.” Joshua said, “You have never been this way before.”
The Lord had parted the waters of the Red Sea to bring them out of bondage, and now the same power parts the Jordan to lead them into the Promised Land. This seems to be a shadow of the Christian life. The power it took to save us after a faithful life is the power that can lead us across Jordan. The gospel song declares: “When the darkness I see, He will be waiting me; I won’t have to cross Jordan alone.”
Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you.” Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people, sanctify yourself, and remember in Amos 4:12 the prophet said, “Prepare to meet thy God,” and until that day we can sing:
“On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand and cast a wistful eye;
To Canaan’s fair and happy land where my possessions lie.”
Let not your heart be troubled.
IF I GO I COME AGAIN
Another good reason for the untroubled heart is the promise of Jesus when He said: “If I go I come again, and will receive you unto Myself that that where I am there you may be also.” All eight writers of the New Testament speak of this glorious promise regarding the Second Coming of Christ. Matthew. Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul, James, and Jude; all speak of the Lord’s return.
Matthew said, “Therefore be ye also ready; for in an hour that ye think not the Son of man cometh.”
Mark said, "And then shall they see the Son of man coming on the clouds with power and great glory."
Luke said, “For as the lightning when it lightenth one part of the heaven, shineth unto the other part of the heaven; so shall the Son of man be in His day.”
John said, “Behold He cometh with the clouds and every eye shall see Him, yea, and they that pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn because of Him.” Paul said, "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
Peter said, "In the last days mockers shall come with mockery, walking after their own ungodly lusts, and saying, 'Where is the promise of his coming?’ For, since the days when the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”
James said, "The judge standeth at the door."
And Jude said, “Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied saying, ‘Behold the Lord came with ten thousand of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all the works of ungodliness which they have ungodly wrought, and of all the hard sayings which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.’ These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their lusts and their mouth speaking great swelling words, showing respect of persons for the sake of advantage.” All of these things are guaranteed by the promise of Jesus to the redeemed: “If I go, I come again.” Let not your heart be troubled.
I AM THE WAY AND THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE
And now the fifth reason for let not your heart be troubled is the question of Thomas, "Lord, we know not whether thou goest, how know we the way?" Jesus saith unto him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no one cometh unto the Father, but by me."
Jesus said He is the way; but there is another way, you can find it in Proverbs 16:25: "There is a way that seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Then there is another way in the same chapter verse two, “All the ways of a man are right in his own eyes.” And how about the wrong way Jesus mentioned in Matthew 7:13? “Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many are they who enter in thereby.”
The way of Jesus was prophesied in Isaiah 35:8: “And a highway shall be there and a way, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; and it shall be for those the wayfaring men though fools shall not err therein.”
Then in the same chapter verses 5 and 6 is a description of the fulfillment of that prophecy. “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, the lame shall leap as the deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing.”
All of these prophecies were fulfilled when Jesus came. The eyes of the blind were made to see, and in John nine a man born blind was given sight. But the greatest example of healing of the blind was the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. That was a case of a spiritually blind man who met the Lord on the road to Damascus and was struck blind, and then he saw what he had never seen before, when he could see. I know one such man-a man who could see and was blinded in the service of his country, and told me when he could see he was blind, and now that he is blind, he can see.
The lame were made to leap like a deer like the man in Acts 14:8:: And at Lystra there was a man impotent in his feet from his mother’s womb, who heard Paul preach; who seeing he had faith to be made whole said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on his feet and leaping up he stood and began to walk.”
The ears of the deaf unstopped, and the dumb made to sing was fulfilled in Mark 7:32-35: "And they bring unto Him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech Him to lay His hands on him." And He took him aside from the multitude privately, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, He sighed, and saith unto him, “Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.” And his ears were opened, and the bond of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. And they were beyond measure astonished saying, He hath done all things well, He maketh even the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak. Jesus said that He is the way, and the truth and the life
Isaiah said, “The way is so plain that a wayfaring man though he be a fool need not err therein.” Since Jesus is the way, and the way is so plain, anyone should be able to understand such simple terms as Peter gave in response to hearing the gospel: “Repent ye, and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Jesus said, “I am the way,” and that is the way. Let not your heart be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me.
