Promises for Troubled Hearts

Do you feel peace?

And do you feel all is well?

We live in a troubling world,

and it's hard to find peace where there's so much suffering.

Horatio Spafford was a Christian in the late 1800s,

and he knew a lot about suffering.

He was a lawyer and a property owner.

He had a wife and five children.

And tragedy struck when their four-year-old son died of scarlet fever.

A year later, a great fire devastated much of his property.

And then two years later,

deciding to take his family on a holiday to England,

he sends his wife and his four children ahead of him on a ship.

And their ship sunk, and only his wife survived.

His four children drowned at sea.

And so later on, as he journeys to be reunited with his wife,

his last remaining family,

he wrote the lyrics to the song that we sung this morning.

When peace like a river attendeth my way,

when sorrows like sea billows roll,

whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,

it is well, it is well with my soul.

Amidst his suffering and grief,

Horatio finds the peace to say,

it is well with my soul.

This is unlike peace that the world knows.

It's peace that nothing can shake.

How do we find peace like this?

Horatio found his peace in the promises of Jesus,

and we too can find that peace in his promises.

Morning all.

If you don't know me, my name's Dan,

and I'm a regular here at St. Paul's.

It's a real pleasure to bring you the word this morning.

What we read in John 14 so far

is a small part of a farewell speech.

This is the last night

that Jesus and the disciples would spend together

before Jesus' death.

They'd gathered in a room to eat the Passover meal,

and it's a disturbing start to the night.

What we read last week

is that right at the beginning,

Jesus stoops down to wash the disciples' feet.

It's a deeply uncomfortable, offensive experience.

Jesus then goes on to tell his disciples

that one of them is going to betray him.

And then the most disturbing part of the night

is this bit.

Have a look with me at chapter 13,

verse 3 in your Bibles.

Jesus says,

So Jesus tells his friends that he's about to leave.

He's about to go somewhere they can't follow.

He's about to go to the cross,

to his death.

And the disciples are distinctly troubled

by the way Jesus is acting.

Here is their Savior,

the secret to their salvation,

the fulfillment of all the Scripture's promises,

and he's about to leave?

This is not what they'd expected.

And so this week,

we pick up in John 14.

Halfway through the farewell meal,

and Jesus speaks words of comfort.

In verse 1,

he says,

Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Believe,

you believe in God,

believe also in me.

The words Jesus speaks,

the words Jesus is about to speak,

they're words of comfort

to troubled disciples.

And they're trustworthy.

Jesus asks them to trust his words

just as they trust the words of God.

It's a claim to deity,

a claim that Jesus is God.

And so these words are of immense importance.

Jesus speaks truth to troubled disciples.

So before we move on and read and think about it,

please pray with me.

Father,

as we read some of the final words of Jesus,

would you help us to see

that they are comfort to us

as they were to the disciples?

And by your Holy Spirit,

would you help us to understand these words

and to be renewed by them?

Amen.

So as we crack into the passage,

into Jesus' words of comfort,

I want you to see two really important promises today.

That is,

that Jesus promises his disciples an eternal home,

and Jesus promises his disciples an ongoing presence.

So keep your Bibles open and ready,

and read with me from verse two.

My Father's house has many rooms.

If that were not so,

would I have told you that I'm going there

to prepare a place for you?

And if I go and prepare a place for you,

I will come back and take you to be with me,

that you also may be where I am.

Where is Jesus going?

Well, after Jesus dies on the cross,

he's going to his Father's house.

That is something to rejoice.

It's the Son returning to the Father.

But what is this house?

The Father's house,

it's a reference to the Old Testament temple.

It's the place where God dwells.

The house is an image of the presence of God.

And so Jesus is returning to the presence of his Father.

How many rooms are in this house?

Have we got one for the Father,

one for the Son,

one for the Holy Spirit?

Not at all.

It's got many rooms.

Jesus says,

my Father's house has many rooms.

There's no limit given,

no scope to the size of the Father's house.

This is a house for an ever-growing family.

And so yes, Jesus is going away.

He's going to be with his Father.

But he goes with a purpose.

Jesus goes to prepare a place for his disciples.

He's preparing rooms,

and he's going to come back and get his disciples

so they too can live in the presence of God.

Now this is an immense promise.

It's a promise that any first century Jew

would jump over joy hearing.

This picture of the house of God

uses the language of the Old Testament

to describe an eternal home.

Listen to this prayer from King David in Psalm 27.

He says,

One thing I ask from the Lord,

this only do I seek,

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

all the days of my life,

to gaze on the beauty of the Lord

and to seek him in his temple.

The writer earnestly asks

that one day he would dwell in the house of the Lord.

He longs for the day

that he would live there forevermore

so that he might gaze on the beauty of the Lord,

seek him in his temple.

So Jesus' use of the phrase,

the Father's house,

it sparks a lot of these thoughts and emotions

from the Old Testament.

This is heaven that Jesus is talking about.

He's inviting his disciples

to live in the Father's house forever

in the wonderful, glorious,

overwhelmingly loving presence of the Father.

But the disciples don't jump with joy,

not as you would expect.

Notice they respond with shock and confusion.

In verse 4, Jesus says to his disciples,

you know the way to the place where I'm going.

Thomas said to him,

Lord, we don't know where you're going,

so how can we know the way?

Thomas doesn't get it.

He's really confused,

and that's quite understandable really.

He doesn't grasp that Jesus is talking about heaven.

He's wondering,

where is this house, Jesus?

I'd really like to follow,

but I don't know how.

Perhaps you could share an address or a map,

perhaps a compass,

because we don't know how to get there.

And so Jesus tells them the way

in verse 6.

Jesus answered,

And this is the way to the Father.

Jesus claims that he is the way to the Father's house.

The disciples don't yet understand this,

but they would soon see.

Theologian Don Carson puts it like this.

Jesus would go the way of death.

Why?

Because currently no human can enter the presence of God.

No one can reach the house of God,

and no one is worthy of heaven.

Our sin and our brokenness

will not allow us to live in the presence of God.

But God always planned to make a way.

The Father wants to offer us eternal life in his house.

And that's why Jesus has to go.

That's why Jesus goes the way of death.

Jesus takes our punishment on the cross

so that we might enter the house of God.

And so Jesus is the way.

No one comes to the Father or his eternal house

except through Jesus.

Jesus is the truth.

His words are reality,

and there's no other truth that can guide us.

And Jesus is the life.

He died so that we might live.

He died so that anyone who believes in his name

would enter the Father's house.

Jesus' words of comfort are to the 12 disciples.

But there are also promises recorded

so that every disciple since can find comfort in them.

If you are a follower of Jesus,

don't be troubled about your place before God.

You have an eternal home.

You can look forward with hope and joy

to life in God's house.

And that's promise one.

Jesus' disciples can look forward to an eternal home.

But Jesus does far better

than just promise us something in the future.

He actually promises us something right now.

Jesus is concerned with giving comfort

then and there for the disciples

and to us right now.

And so that's where we come to promise two.

Jesus promises an ongoing presence.

So what we're gonna do is

we're gonna move on from the first half

which we read this morning,

and we're gonna delve into the second half.

In there, we see the next big promise.

Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit.

So read with me at verse 15.

If you love me, keep my commands.

And I will ask the Father

and he will give you another advocate

to help you and be with you forever.

The Spirit of truth.

It's clear that Jesus cares about his disciples.

He tells them in advance.

He's not leaving them alone.

Jesus promises to send an advocate,

a helper, the Spirit of truth.

These are all different names

for the one person.

That is the Holy Spirit.

So to understand this properly,

I think it's important that we pause

and consider who is the Holy Spirit.

And we've gotta consider

the concept of the Trinity,

which is all over chapter 14.

It's all over there.

The Trinity is the understanding

that God is one,

but also that God is three.

God the Father, God the Son,

and God the Holy Spirit.

But they are the one true living God.

It's evident from earlier in the chapter

where we read that God the Father

and God the Son are one.

So when the disciple asked Jesus,

when the disciple Philip asks Jesus

to show them the Father,

Jesus answers like this in verse nine.

Anyone who has seen me

has seen the Father.

How can you say,

show us the Father?

Don't you believe that I am in the Father

and that the Father is in me?

The words I say to you,

I do not speak on my own authority.

Rather, it is the Father living in me

who is doing his work.

So the Father and the Son are one.

Though the disciples only see Jesus

in front of them,

Jesus tells them

they're actually looking at the Father.

To see the Son is to see the Father.

And the same can be said of the Holy Spirit.

Notice the strangeness of this.

Jesus has just been saying

that he's leaving

and that he's leaving them

with the Holy Spirit.

But then he says this in verse 20.

Read it with me.

On that day,

you will realize that I am in the Father

and you are in me

and I am in you.

Now that is a confusing statement.

Jesus shares that

just as he is in the Father,

he will be in us.

But he's just told us

that he's leaving.

You can't go and stay.

You can't leave us

and be with us simultaneously

unless you consider

the impossibility of God.

Jesus and the Holy Spirit

are one.

When the Holy Spirit

comes to his disciples,

it's Jesus too

who dwells with them.

And the New Testament writers

often speak like this,

using the name of Christ

and the Holy Spirit

interchangeably

to describe God dwelling

in humans.

Far from being just theoretical,

the conclusion I want you to make

is that the Holy Spirit is God.

Both Jesus and the Holy Spirit

are God.

They're one.

The Holy Spirit is no less God

than Jesus is.

Because a common misconception

is that the Holy Spirit

is some impersonal force.

Some people think of the Holy Spirit

like we think of the force

in Star Wars.

A force that we can manipulate

and push to our will.

It's a force in the universe.

But not at all.

The Holy Spirit is a person.

When referred to in this passage,

the Holy Spirit is not an it.

It's a he.

The Holy Spirit is one of the three persons

of the true God.

This is an immense comfort.

For it is God the Holy Spirit

who comes to live in his disciples.

His personal presence.

Always it is God with his people.

When God the Son leaves,

God the Spirit comes.

Let's read verse 17.

The world cannot accept him

because it neither sees him

nor knows him.

But you know him

for he lives with you

and will be in you.

I will not leave you as orphans.

I will come to you.

Before long the world

will not see me anymore

but you will see me.

The Spirit will not be recognizable

or visible to the world.

He is with us in a different way

than Jesus was.

But Jesus does not leave his disciples

as orphans.

He leaves us with the presence of God.

Look further with me at verse 23.

Anyone who loves me

will obey my teaching.

My Father will love them

and we will come to them

and make our home with them.

Life now is not just a matter of waiting

to be home with the Father in heaven.

God makes his home in us

here and now.

In heaven we'll experience

the full presence of God

like nothing we've ever seen before.

But right now

God is with his people

by the Holy Spirit.

And not only is the Holy Spirit

a comfort and a presence

but the Spirit helps the disciple.

The Spirit actually does work

in the disciple.

So look further

at verse 26.

But the advocate

the Holy Spirit

whom the Father will send

in my name

will teach you

all things

and will remind you

of everything

I have said to you.

So the Spirit serves

to teach

and remind the believer

about all that God says.

This is a crucial role

of the Spirit.

Without the Spirit

Jesus' words

are worthless

to our ears.

The Spirit gives

these words meaning.

He grants understanding.

The Spirit allows us

to see the glory of God

in the Bible.

It is by the work

of the Spirit

that we can have faith

in Jesus' death

and resurrection.

It's by the work

of the Spirit

that we can have

eternal life.

But not only

does the Spirit teach

in the sense

that it grants us

this understanding

but according

to the passage

the Spirit

will remind

the disciple

of everything

Jesus has said.

That is

that anybody

with the Spirit

will never forget

the truths

about Jesus.

It's written

on their heart.

Anyone who has

the Spirit

will be reminded

of the truth

to the end

of their lives.

This is such

a comfort.

God keeps

His disciples

secure.

His presence

in our lives

right now

means that

by His promises

we'll remember

His words

until the end

of our days.

Thank you

Holy Spirit.

Let's draw

these two ideas

together.

Jesus gives

two promises

to His disciples.

A promise

one

is an eternal

home.

The disciples

wait for the day

where they'll live

in the full presence

of God the Father

in His house

forever.

And promise

two

is this

ongoing presence.

Jesus promises

that the Holy Spirit

would come

and dwell with

and inside

His disciples.

And both

of these promises

only come about

because

of Jesus'

death

and resurrection.

Verse 6

again,

Jesus answered,

I am the way

and the truth

and the life.

No one comes

to the Father

except through

Me.

These promises

are attainable

because they're

a free gift

of God.

Anyone

who believes

in and follows

Jesus Christ

will receive

these promises.

And so

if you're not

a Christian

in the room,

I would really

encourage you,

investigate the

person of Christ

for He freely

offers you

life in the Spirit

now

and an eternal

home in heaven

forever.

And if you are

a Christian,

these promises

are to mean

something to you.

They're to mean

something to me.

They are to be

comfort and

guidance.

Words for

troubled hearts

in a troubled

world.

Look with me

at verse 27.

Peace I leave

with you.

My peace

I give you.

I do not

give to you

as the world

gives.

Do not let

your hearts

be troubled

and do not

be afraid.

These promises

mean peace

for the troubled

heart.

Jesus

shares His

peace with us.

But be very

careful in your

understanding of

peace.

For the world

says to us,

peace is an

avoidance of

trouble.

I picture the

kind of peace

I feel on a

holiday.

day.

When there's

no work

to do.

Not much

to be anxious

about.

Books to

read.

Time to

talk and

walk.

Now that

is a good

kind of

peace.

But that's

not the

peace that

Horatio

Spafford

felt when

he wrote

it is well

with my

soul.

As he

wrote that

in the

aftermath of

losing five

children,

the peace

he felt,

the peace

that Jesus

gives is

different.

Jesus does

not give

peace like

the world.

He gives

peace that

transcends

understanding.

Peace that

coexists with

suffering.

Don Carson

puts it like

this.

This peace

is no

escape from

reality,

but a

courageous

serenity,

even in the

midst of

troubles.

Some people

don't want

this kind

of peace

because the

peace that

Jesus gives

doesn't remove

trouble.

It's for

those who

are troubled.

The peace

that Jesus

gives is the

peace that

comes from

knowing that

Jesus has

prepared a

place in

heaven for

you.

We don't

earn our

place in

heaven.

We don't

work for

it.

Jesus has

freely given

it.

Jesus

promises

us that

we can

have hope.

We can

have

assurance.

Faith in

Jesus means

life forever.

This is a

promise of

peace that

goes beyond

our

circumstances.

No matter

what happens

in an

uncertain life,

we can have

absolute

certainty in

the future.

Jesus has

prepared a

place for

us.

peace of

knowing that

we have the

Holy Spirit

in us.

He will

not let us

forget his

words.

He will

teach us

and grant

understanding

so that we

might have

salvation.

He will

remind us

these promises

again and

again through

his word of

our certain

hope in

him.

That is a

promise.

A disciple

of Jesus

will be held

firm all

their days.

A disciple

gets to

live in

faith and

trust for

the rest of

their lives.

So as we

go out into

the rest of

our lives,

into morning

tea, I'd

really like to

challenge you.

Let's explore

this question

together.

How will

the promise

of the Holy

Spirit's

presence and

of an

eternal home

change the

way you

live now?

Let's anchor

our lives on

these promises.

Let them

shape us,

change us,

transform the

way we live

our lives.

They're

promises of

peace for

a troubled

disciple.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.