The Answer for the Troubled Heart

Tom Shrader walks through John 14:1-6 against the backdrop of the disciples' fear, betrayal, and impending loss, showing that Jesus does not promise the removal of suffering but promises His presence through it. He explores Jesus' words about heaven as a personally prepared dwelling place, arguing that a hunger for heaven steadies believers in earthly trials rather than making them escapist. The teaching concludes with a close examination of Jesus' exclusive claim — 'I am the way, the truth, and the life' — calling listeners to place their faith in Christ as the only One whose promises have the power to fulfill what they trust Him to do.

“However big your problems are, God's bigger. However big your disappointment is, God's bigger. However deep your failure is, God's bigger.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: John: The Essence of Life (2007)

Recorded: 2007 at East Valley Bible Church

Duration: 44 min

Themes: fear, heaven, hope, suffering, comfort, faith, presence of god, eternal life, grieving a loss, facing uncertainty, struggling with anxiety, doubting believer, new believer, questioning faith, going through trials, feeling abandoned

Scripture: John 14:1-6, John 13:21, John 13:22, John 13:36, 2 Corinthians 4:7, 2 Corinthians 4:14, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, 2 Corinthians 1, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18, Acts 4:12, 1 Timothy 2:5

Theological Themes: eschatology, the way the truth the life, christology, exclusivity of christ, soteriology, salvation through christ alone, incarnation, divine promises

Full Transcript

Setting the Scene

Open your Bibles to the Gospel of John, chapter 14. We have just completed an eleven-week study titled "God's Plan for Growing in Grace." I have more I wanted to cover, but I have decided to wait until John chapter 17, where I believe we can return to those themes more fully. Today we are going to look at verses 1 through 6. Let's read them together, and then we'll come back and work through them carefully.

John chapter 14, verse 1: "Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house, there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you. For I go to prepare a place for you. 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. And you know the way where I am going." Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we don't know where You're going, how do we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me."

The Troubled Heart

Before we get into the context, I want to pause on that first phrase of verse 1, because it has the power to speak directly to you and me today: "Do not let your heart be troubled." My suspicion is that some of you came here this morning with troubled hearts.

During the first service this morning, a gentleman arrived a minute or two late. The men greeting at the door told him there was no room inside and offered to take him to another facility where we also hold church. He said no, and walked away. He looked like a cool guy — Hawaiian shirt, shorts, flip flops, the kind of person you'd want to spend time with.

My first reaction was how sad it must have been: to get yourself ready, to get cleaned up and drive over, only to turn around and leave. And then I began to wonder what would make someone respond that way. It may be that he didn't want to sit in what he thought of as overflow, though our conference center is not overflow — it is simply another place where we do church on Sunday morning. But what struck me most was this: I think that man was deeply troubled.

What is a shame is that he went away. I hope he comes back. You never would have detected it just watching him walk up. It was only when a circumstance didn't go exactly his way that we saw it surface. And then I started thinking: there are likely many people sitting in here right now who, under the right set of circumstances, would have some similar response — not because anything is wrong with them, but simply because they are troubled. We just cannot see it yet. You mask it well, or perhaps more gently said, you simply do not allow others to see it. You think of yourself as a strong person. Or you believe that Christians don't get discouraged or troubled.

But look at chapter 13, the chapter right before this, verse 21: "When Jesus said this, Jesus became troubled in His spirit." There are simply times when life seems to almost overwhelm us, and these words are profoundly important.

Stress and the Search for Answers

It is a scary world, loaded with uncertainty and danger. Our response to that pressure is what we call stress. Stress is one of those words that has changed in meaning over the years. It originally was a term used in physics to measure pounds per square inch — pressure per square inch. That, by the way, is everything I know about physics. I found it a very difficult class, so I moved on.

I searched the word "stress" online and in 0.05 seconds received 199 million references. I began to go through them, which was, of course, stressful. I found definitions, explanations, and ultimately advice on how to cope with or manage stress. Some of it was genuinely helpful — getting enough sleep, exercising, and so on. And then there were suggestions that made me smile, such as closing your eyes, visualizing the stressful situation as a piece of paper, rolling it in your hands, and seeing yourself throwing it into a fire that burns the stress away.

The greatest stress management tool available to us, however, is the one that points us to God, who has filled us with His Spirit. And notice who is speaking in this passage. This is Jesus. This is Jesus Himself saying to you: "Do not let your heart be troubled."

About 170 years ago, J.C. Ryle wrote these words: "Heart trouble is the commonest thing in the world. No rank, or class, or condition is exempt from it. No bars, or—"

The Trouble That Comes from What We Love and What We Fear

No bolts or locks can keep it out. Partly from inward causes and partly from outward, partly from the body and partly from the mind, partly from what we love and partly from what we fear — the journey of life is full of trouble. Even the best of Christians have many bitter cups to drink between grace and glory. Even the holiest saints find a whole world of veiled tears.

Consider those phrases: inward and outward. There are things that come from within us, and there are things the world brings around us — circumstances, people, body, and mind. But listen to this phrase: partly from what we love, and partly from what we fear. We don't always understand that distinction.

We understand how the things we fear would trouble us. The anxiety of tomorrow — some of you are already anxious about tomorrow. It's a job you don't like, didn't want to be at, or you haven't made quota, or you haven't produced, or you have done all these things but still can't quite pay the bills. We understand that the things we fear trouble us.

But the things we love also bring trouble to our hearts. Those we love most — maybe a spouse, maybe children, maybe parents — when we love them and then watch them go through something, that love becomes the source of pain. If you listen to Colleen's parents talk about Colleen, they are watching their daughter go through this. That is a painful thing. Someone once said that once you have a child, it is like a piece of your heart is taken out and is walking all over the earth. That love for that child produces trauma and difficulties.

When they are doing well, that is wonderful. When they are doing poorly, that is a challenge. The kids were over last night for St. Patrick's Day — a little corned beef and cabbage — and we were standing around in the room when you just hear this smack. It was Brayden's head hitting the tile. He had a knot, and thirty seconds later he was laughing again. But it goes from those little things to the big things in life. My whole point is this: whether it is disappointments in ourselves or in others, failures in business or school or relationships, or outward circumstances, you are not exempt from pressure.

We Are Afflicted, But We Do Not Give Up

Keep your finger in John 14 and turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 4, a passage we have used several times in this series. Verse 7: "We have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God, not of ourselves." We have this treasure — this message, this gospel that we preach — entrusted to us, just common earthen vessels. We are common people, nothing special, so that when God begins to work, people will see the power of God and not see us.

Then Paul continues: "We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not despairing, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed." How can that be? Verse 14 tells us: "Knowing that He raised the Lord Jesus and He will raise us also." God raised Christ from the dead, and He will raise us as well.

Therefore, look at verse 16: "We do not lose heart, though the outer man is decaying, the inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen, for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal."

Here is what Paul is saying: we are perplexed, we are afflicted, we are struck down — but we do not give up. Why? Because of the gospel. Do you understand that you have to preach the gospel to yourself every day? It is not only that you believe and there is a moment of repentance and salvation and celebration — as true as that is — but I have to come to that gospel day after day after day and see it again and again and again.

Do Not Let Your Heart Be Troubled

Look back at John chapter 14: "Do not let your heart be troubled." Why? "You believe in God, believe also in Me." Do not let your heart be troubled, because you know God's promises. You know God, you know who He is, you know what He is like, and He can be believed. You can believe Him, and you can believe Me.

Now let me remind you of the context. In chapter 13, verse 21: "When Jesus had said this, He became troubled in His spirit and testified and said, 'Truly, truly, I say to you that one of you will betray Me.' The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking."

We have such a picture of Judas in our minds — he is so bad, so evil. We were talking the other day about names. If Haley has a boy, she doesn't yet have a name picked out, so I was trying to be helpful. With a last name like Johnson, I suggested Washington Jefferson Johnson — just naming presidents. Then I remembered there is Andrew Johnson and Lyndon Johnson, so we could name him Johnson Johnson Johnson. I also heard my brother named his son Yale, which is a great name. But I have never once heard anyone say, "I have the perfect name for my baby — Judas." Every other character from the biblical narrative somehow gets mentioned as a baby name at some point, but never Judas.

Setting the Scene at the Last Supper

We have such a sinister view of Judas that we would think at the Last Supper, when they were all gathered around and Jesus said one of you is going to betray Me, eleven pairs of eyes would go right to him at that moment. That is exactly our picture of this. They had been with this man three years, so it had to be clear. The probably opposite is true, however, in that they didn't have much money, and the man they entrusted with the finances was likely the shrewdest among them — and also the most trustworthy. That man was Judas.

So in verse 22, they are at a loss: which one is it? John tells us that one of the disciples, the one Jesus loved — John himself, the one writing this account — was reclining on Jesus' bosom. Peter gestured to John and said, tell us who it is of whom He is speaking. Leaning back on Jesus' bosom, John said to Him, "Lord, who is it?" Peter was trying to get a message to Jesus and essentially said, hey John, ask Him for me.

Jesus answered, "It is the one for whom I shall dip a morsel and give it to him." When He had dipped the morsel, He gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. After the morsel, Satan entered him, and away Judas went.

Peter's Bold Claim and the Coming Denial

Then look at verse 36, where Simon Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, where are You going?" Jesus answered, "Where I go, you cannot follow Me now, but you will follow Me later." Peter said to Him, "Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You, I will do whatever it takes." Jesus replied, "Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you have denied Me three times."

Consider what is happening in this condensed period of time. There is a foreboding sense that Jesus' ministry is coming not necessarily to an end, but to some level of suffering. He has been talking to these men a great deal about suffering, dying, and going to Jerusalem, and now He is speaking about betrayal from one of the twelve.

He is also speaking about Peter — certainly the most vocal disciple in the account we have — and saying that Peter will deny Him. The clouds are gathering in the form of the Pharisees, the scribes, and the high priests closing in on Jesus, and He is talking openly about His departure. Beyond all of this, there is now also a sense of the coming loss of His very presence.

"Do Not Let Your Heart Be Troubled"

Let that sink in and get a sense of the feeling in that room. It is against that backdrop that He says, "Do not let your heart be troubled." He does not say none of this is going to happen. He does not say don't worry about it, I'm going to take care of it — don't worry, there will be no crucifixion, no trial, no persecution. Tradition tells us that of the eleven remaining after Judas, ten are martyred. He does not say don't worry about the humiliation, the suffering, or the pain. He does not say I am going to take all of that away.

He simply says that in the middle of all of it, He will join them. That is what He says. When He tells them to believe in God and to believe also in Him, He means trust in God, trust who He is, trust in His promises — and you can trust in Me the same way.

The Two Extremes of Counsel

There is some incredible counseling wisdom here. When I talk to people, I find myself with a flinch in one of two directions. The first is to minimize the problem: don't worry about it, it's no big thing, have you met Bob, he's got it worse. The other extreme is treating everything as an insurmountable catastrophe. I have met so many people who seem to say, my life is a mess, my life is in chaos, look at this, what about that — and I find myself wanting to say, let me introduce you to people with real problems. Those are the two extremes.

Jesus comes along and takes neither of them. He says yes, there are going to be problems, and it is going to get difficult out there — but don't lose heart. Not because the problems are going away, because they are not going away, but because He will be right there with them. He promised He would never leave them or forsake them. He promised He would strengthen them in the midst of all of it, and He gives His word on it.

The Promise Is Only as Good as the One Who Makes It

Now there is something about a promise. It is only as good as the person giving it. I can promise you something, but if I don't have the ability or the capacity to pull it off, the promise is of no good. I was watching an infomercial and I cannot remember the product, but it came with — and there is an attorney somewhere who came up with this — a limited lifetime warranty. How can you have that? It is either a lifetime warranty or it is not, and by the way, it does not cover whatever your actual problem is.

I could have Ginsu knives with a lifetime warranty, but if I cannot find Bob Ginsu, that warranty is worthless. I could build a pool for you and stand behind my work, but if I am out of business and you cannot find me, the guarantee is of no value. The promise is inseparable from the one making it.

God Is Bigger

Jesus says, here you go — do not let your heart be troubled. Why? Because He is right there. I may not know your problems. Jesus does, but I may not. I may not understand the depth of them or see how large they really are. But I know this: however big your problems are, God is bigger. However great your disappointment is, God is bigger. However deep your failure is, God is bigger. That is what He is saying.

The Foundation: Trusting in Who God Is

When Jesus says "you believe in Me," He is talking about trust. When He speaks of His name, He is talking about all that He is — His attributes. He is all-knowing, all-powerful, omnipresent. No maverick molecule escapes Him. He is in absolute control, and nothing is outside His oversight. So He can say, "Don't let your heart be troubled."

He is not saying everything is going to be smooth. He is not saying simply, "Don't worry." He is saying that in the midst of the hard things, when circumstances begin to unfold and your instinct is to be troubled in your spirit — to move beyond normal concern into something that becomes sin — don't go there. Why? Because you know who God is.

When Jesus speaks to these disciples, He is taking them back to the story of God's faithfulness. They saw that story. God was faithful to them, and Jesus is saying: that is exactly how faithful I am to you as well. Don't let your heart be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in Me.

The Promise of Heaven

Jesus then moves into a remarkable discussion about heaven. He says, "In My Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you." He is talking about dwelling places — literally a place to stay. Some translations carry the idea of a place of lasting, permanent, eternal comfort.

He is not saying: when the going gets tough, adopt a new form of escapism, thinking about heaven and pie in the sky and the sweet by and by. What He is saying is that when we begin to think rightly about heaven and understand its promise, we become so heavenly minded that we are of great earthly value. Our understanding of the next life transforms how we face this one.

How bad can it get? If they are going to kill you — you want to talk about death? You are prepared for death because you have heaven in your future. That makes not only dying easier, but living easier. "I go to prepare a place for you. If it were not so, I would not tell you. I would not lie to you about this."

The Return of Christ

Verse 3 continues: "I go to prepare a place for you, and I will come again and receive you to Myself." There could be two things Jesus has in mind here. One is what Paul writes about in 1 Thessalonians 4, when he talks about the Lord Himself coming down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, with a trumpet and the call of God. The dead in Christ will rise first, and after that, those who are still alive and left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall be with the Lord forever.

Notice the very next verse — 1 Thessalonians 4:18. What does Paul say? "Comfort one another with these words." The thought of heaven is meant to be a comfort. The Bible uses the word "heaven" in three ways: the atmosphere where birds fly and clouds gather; the firmament, the universe; and then heaven itself, the dwelling place of God. It is that third heaven Jesus is pointing to when He says, "Don't let your heart be troubled. I am going to prepare a place for you, and I am going to come again and take you to that place."

A Place Prepared for You

There is a phrase in this passage that I love. Look at it carefully. He does not just say He is going to prepare *a* place. He says He is going to prepare a place *for you*. I get the sense from that phrase that it is home. I am finally going to feel at home, because I will finally be at home. That is an incredible truth.

Two television shows come to mind that help me think this through. The first is a show called *Sell This House*. They bring in experts to help someone sell their home, and almost inevitably the first thing they say is: get rid of all the pictures. You have wedding photos, souvenirs, trophies — here is a baseball signed by Ernie Banks — all of it has to go. You have pets? The pets have to go. The point is that the people coming to buy are not interested in your house with your stuff in it. They want to buy the physical property and then make it theirs. The first thing they will do is clear out everything you put there.

The second show is the extreme home makeover program. It works in exactly the opposite direction. They interview the family and personalize everything. They sit down with the kids and ask what they love. If a boy loves baseball, his room gets a baseball rug, baseball wallpaper, and baseball glove light fixtures. Every detail is built around who that person is.

I think that is what Jesus is saying. He is going to prepare a place so perfectly suited to you that when you walk in, you are going to say: this is perfect. This is home. There is no noise. There are no dogs barking next door. This is it. I get carried away here, and I understand this may not be exactly how it happens — but I am going to die, and I am going to go home.

Heaven as the Anchor for a Troubled Heart

All of that is to put in your heart a hunger for heaven. One author writes this: "Our passion for God and our passion for heaven are inseparable. The more I learn about God, the more excited I get about heaven. The more I learn about heaven, the more excited I get about God." In this life, part of our time of thinking and meditation should be consumed with thoughts of heaven. Not so that we become so heavenly minded we are no earthly good, but it is what quiets our heart in the midst of trouble.

It helps us remember the phrase we say all the time: no matter how bad it gets, it can only last a lifetime. No matter how bad this thing gets, it can only last a lifetime. I am going to be absent from this body. I am going to be present with the Lord.

These disciples were facing some real tough circumstances. You may have some tough stuff on deck for tomorrow, but these men were facing a great deal. And Jesus says to them: I am going to leave you, I am going to prepare a place for you, I am going to come and get you, and you know where I am going.

Honest Thomas and the Question of the Way

Then Thomas speaks up. I prefer to call him Honest Thomas, not Doubting Thomas. He says, "Lord, we don't know where you are going. How do we know the way? We don't know where you are going, so we would not know the way."

Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through Me." Thomas asks a genuine question — one you might ask when we begin to talk about heaven. When you say you are going there, how do I get there? How do I know I am going there? Jesus answers: do you know Me? Because I am the way, and I am the truth, and I am the life.

He could not make this any clearer. Verse 6, second part: "No one comes to the Father but through Me." Jesus does not say He will show you the way, or teach you a truth, or point you toward life. He is the way, the truth, and the life. The moment Jesus introduces the definite article, He eliminates all the other options. Buddha described himself as the way shower. Muhammad is a teacher. Jesus does not say He is a guide who will point you in the right direction. When He speaks of truth, one author writes: without Jesus, the wisest man in the world gropes in darkness and knows nothing of God. When He speaks of life, He says, "I am life." It is very narrow.

What Jesus Restores

Here is what happened. Adam sinned, and when Adam sinned, he changed everything. Reading through Genesis chapters 1 and 2, we see that Adam was in perfect communion with God — he knew Him, and he was spiritually alive. Adam sinned, broke communion with God, became lost, did not know where he was or what was going on, and became spiritually dead. Jesus says, "I am the antidote to that whole thing."

That same condition is the one every one of us comes into the world in — alienated from God, ignorant about Him, and spiritually dead. And we begin to concoct in our minds all the things we think will make us happy or get us to God. Some of us pursue it under the guise of religion. Some of us pursue it through the way we try to construct a life.

The Illusion That Things Will Satisfy

Last Friday I was watching Oprah. Now, why do I watch Oprah? For you. I do not do it for myself. I had the DVR recording because I missed it, and the episode featured people who had experienced a huge windfall of money. There was a young woman who came to New York City with a dream and started making scarves. Within two or three months she had $60,000 in cash. She opened a boutique, eventually had millions of dollars, was flying all over the world, and got married. Then she developed a cocaine habit, then heroin. A few years ago she was living in the sewer system of New York City. She had all that money, and she said she would not want that again. She thought if she had it she would have everything — and she did not.

Then they interviewed a woman who went to the store to buy milk and bought lottery tickets instead. She won fifteen and a half million dollars. She said there are days she wished it had not happened, that she was simply not prepared for it. I am watching this in the family room when I hear Susan in the kitchen saying, "I could handle it." I tend to think, like you might, that I am the exception — that I could handle it. But the story was never just about handling it. It was about thinking it would bring happiness, and instead it brought misery. People lost their friends, lost everything.

Jesus is saying: you think you are going to figure life out and find it in a person, or a thing, or a place — but you are not going to find it there. At breakfast with a young man the other day — I say young man, he is thirty-one, which is sobering — he was describing his life, and he said one of his passions would come along and consume the next passion, and every passion would consume the passion before it. And all at once I realized what has to be understood: a passion for Christ must be developed, because He —

The Way That Absorbs Every Passion

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." He is not showing you a path — He is the path, and that path leads singularly to the cross, to Christ's death. So in life, whatever issues begin to arise, the answer is always Jesus.

If you are here this morning and you are not a Christian, your fundamental, essential problem in life is a sin problem. All the education, the money, the stuff, the relationships — you know the list — none of those things will ever do for you what you want them to do, because what you have is a spiritual problem, and spiritual problems have spiritual solutions. Jesus says, "I am the solution. I am the way."

So if you come with a heavy heart today, what is the answer? The gospel is this: Christ died for you. He rose from the dead, He loves you, He did not leave you or forsake you, but He sent the Holy Spirit to indwell you. We come to those promises of His again and again and again.

No Other Way

As though that is not specific enough, verse 6 summarizes it plainly: "No one can come to the Father except through Me." When Jesus says "I am the way," that eliminates all other ways. When He says "the truth," that eliminates all other truths. When He says "the life," that eliminates all other sources of life. And then He summarizes: no one — not you, not me, not any of us — can come to the Father except through Him.

This is, of course, the charge against biblical Christianity — that it is very narrow and very exclusive. That is true. But God made it that way; we did not. We tend to think of narrow-mindedness as a bad thing, a narrow way as a negative thing, but it is often a good thing.

My phone rang the other day. I said hello, and the caller asked if Bill was there. I said there was no Bill here and he had the wrong number. About fifteen seconds later the phone rang again — same question. I told him again, no Bill, wrong number. About sixty seconds after that the phone rang once more, and he asked, "Bill's not there, is he?" I told him no. Then I asked what number he was dialing, and he read it back to me. I said, "Here is what has happened — you are dialing 2-1, and Bill is at 1-2, that would be my guess." It occurred to me that I could call the phone company and complain that their system is really narrow. If you do not get exactly the seven digits in exactly the right order, you cannot reach who you are looking for. But that narrowness is precisely what makes it work.

When I dropped off our taxes, the man preparing them did not say, "What were your medical expenses last year? Just round them off." There was a very specific level of detail required. When I fly, I appreciate the virtues of a narrow-minded pilot — wheels down, locked, everything confirmed. He does not look at the ground and say, "There are a whole bunch of runways down there; I'll try that one." He says, "No — five is your number."

Here is what God says in His Word. Acts 4:12: "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2:5: "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

The Two Great Mistakes

When Jesus says "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through Me," what is He saying about everything else? He is saying everything else will not do what you are trusting it to do.

There are two great mistakes we encounter with people who reject biblical Christianity and yet want to be spiritual. The first is this: they say that all that matters is having faith in something — "I'm glad that Christian thing works for you; I found something else." The second is the appeal to sincerity: "Why are you being so judgmental? This person is really sincere about his faith." Those are two things that come up over and over again, and both deserve a careful look.

It matters deeply that the object in which you are placing your faith and trust is actually able to perform the task you are trusting it to do. If I board an airplane trusting it to get me to Beijing, but there is only enough fuel for three or four hours or there is some mechanical malfunction, I may have enough faith to climb aboard and put my life on the line — but the plane cannot perform the task I am asking of it. What Jesus says is: put your faith and trust in Him, and He will do for you exactly what you are trusting Him to do. He will go and prepare a place for you in heaven. He will be with you on earth.

The second mistake is the appeal to sincerity alone. When we consider the 9-11 hijackers, we cannot imagine what their heart rates must have been in those final moments — flying the plane, seeing the Twin Towers, knowing what was about to happen. Whatever was driving them, they were fully committed. But if sincerity is the only measure, if it does not matter what you believe as long as you are sincere, then you would have to applaud those men's effort. Clearly, it matters deeply what you believe. What Jesus is saying is that any other path, any other religion, will not accomplish what you are trusting it to accomplish.

The Sufficiency of Christ for a Troubled Heart

Every form of spirituality or human achievement and striving is empty and doomed to failure. It cannot do what you are trusting it to do. "Do not let your heart be troubled" — why? Because you believe in God, you believe in Him. Heaven is certain for those who believe, and Jesus goes on to unpack this truth across the chapters that follow.

He says He will not leave you as an orphan. He will give you the Holy Spirit, and God will come and dwell within you. That does not mean life will be free of difficulties, because difficulties will come. What it does mean is that God will not abandon you in the midst of them. He will be right there with you.

Suffering for Your Good and the Good of the Kingdom

God will oftentimes allow you to go through difficulties, challenges, disappointments, hurts, and pains for your own good and for the good of the kingdom. Consider this: if you are someone who has never really been able to identify with people who are hurting, the best way to develop that capacity is to have a little hurt of your own. That is precisely what 2 Corinthians chapter 1 is about — you have experienced suffering, and now you are able to comfort others.

So if someone asks you what the message was, here is the answer: we do not have to be worried about anything that comes to us in this world, because if we know Christ, He will take care of it. That does not mean there will not be challenges. It does not mean there will not be times when you are so burdened that you weep and cry — all of that is okay. A godly Christian is not a robot. You are going to hurt; there is going to be pain, sorrow, suffering, disappointment, and agony.

But when the dust settles, you understand that He is in control and that heaven is in our future. Those of us who believe are as certain of heaven as the saints who are already there. That is an incredible truth.

Theology That Changes the Way You Live

There is a great deal of theology contained in all of this, and we need to get it right. We need to understand it correctly and hold it with precision. But once we have it right, what difference does it make? It changes the way you live.

The disciples themselves did not grasp this immediately. Peter went on to deny Christ. In the time between the death and the resurrection there was confusion, and even afterward Jesus was still working in these men's lives. Yet within a couple of months, the very man who denied Christ was standing up preaching Christ, saying he could not be silent. If anyone wanted him to stop, he simply could not do it, because all he was going to do was preach this. Why? Because it is true, and it transforms lives.

Closing Prayer

Father, thank You for this Word. "Do not let your heart be troubled" — sweet words to us. Father, for those of us who would call You Lord, I pray that this would sink deep inside our minds, our whole lives. For those who are here saying they are not sure, I pray that today would be the day they come to You.

Help them understand that on their own there is nothing they can do. There is no achievement they can gain, no improvement they can make, no lesson they can learn that would change who they are. They need You. They need to believe Your claims — that You are the way to God, the truth about God, the life of God.

Thank You for the wonderful truth You lay out before us. I pray that we would take it into our lives and preach the gospel — to those who have never heard, but also again and again to ourselves, reminding ourselves who we were and basking in the beauty and glory of who we are now, entirely because of what You have done. You saved us in spite of us, not because of us. As we leave this place, may it be with a sense of joy even in the midst of hurting. Let the words of Jesus be true in our lives: "Do not let your heart be troubled." We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.