Traditional Choral Service

First, THE PROBLEM OF A TROUBLED HEART

It has been said by a leading psychiatrist that although the majority of people in this country are much better off than they ever have been, there are also more people who are anxious and depressed than ever before. They struggle to cope day to day and are fearful of the future. Plenty does not equal peace of mind. Yesterday the press reported claims that a third of the 'Cold Feet' generation, named after the TV series about 'thirty somethings', are experiencing a mid-life crisis. They feel that they are not making the most of what life has to offer and are panicking. Their anxiety is fuelled by boredom and a sense of being trapped in 9-5 jobs. Apparently 33% of people aged 31-40 are now at panic point. Also more teenagers and people in their 20's take illegal drugs and drink alcohol than ever before to calm their fears, blot out the future and to give themselves a short-term thrill.

Tonight we may not be depressed, we may not be having a mid life crisis but our hearts may be troubled. We may have what is commonly known as spiritual heart disease. We may be lonely or fearful of being left alone. We may fear death. Many people fear death. The French philosopher Rousseau once said that 'he who pretends to face death without fear is a liar'. We may be very ill. We may have just received some disturbing news. We may fear the future. From this week's news and stock market crashes we may be concerned about our investments and our pension provision. I discovered this week that if I want a reasonable pension I would have to save two thirds of my present income to achieve it. Or we may be troubled in our faith and doubting the reality of heaven.

In chapters 13 and 14 of John's Gospel Jesus' disciples were troubled. They were troubled about their future after hearing disturbing news from Jesus that he was going to die, be raised from the dead and leave them (13:33,36). They were worried about being left on their own, without the person they had left everything to follow, and about the fact that Jesus said that for now they could not go where he was going but only later. The disciple Peter was troubled and anxious also because Jesus told him that he was going to deny him, not just once but three times.

So how does Jesus comfort them? What did he say to them and what does he say to us today? Well that brings me to my second heading:


Secondly, THE PERSON WHO COMFORTS US

Look at Jesus' words in v1. He says:

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.

Jesus addresses these troubled hearts by urging them to have faith, faith in God, faith also in him. Perhaps you're a committed Christian but your heart is troubled and full of fear - Jesus says trust in God, trust also in me. Look to him and, as it is written in the Authorised Version of Isaiah 26:3,

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.

In v27 of John 14 Jesus says:

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.

Jesus' peace is real and present for those who trust in him.

If you're still thinking through the Christian faith Jesus says that the remedy to a troubled heart is faith in God, faith in him. Trust in God; trust also in me, Jesus says. Who needs to do that for the first time tonight?

You see the answer, antidote or remedy to a troubled heart is trust – trust in God, trust also in Jesus. Have faith in God, have faith in Jesus, Jesus says here. Jesus says he is God. He presents himself here unambiguously as the object of faith. For John there is only one faith and that is in Jesus and God at the same time. Do you believe and trust in Jesus Christ – God the Son – who is the only way to God the Father and to his Father's house – heaven? The Son of God who became man – fully God and fully man - and who was obedient to death, even death on a cross where he died in our place taking the punishment we deserved for our sin, our sin which separates us from God, on himself. So that if we believe and trust in him we can be forgiven, have peace with God, eternal life, the power of the Holy Spirit (who Jesus talks about in this chapter as the Counsellor) and a peace and a strength which deals with our troubled hearts. Jesus here gives us the promise of present comfort and future hope through faith in him.

Yesterday the Jehovah's Witnesses called at my home – you may have had them too. They were also offering a message of hope to troubled hearts – but please do not be deceived – their message of hope is false. They do not believe that Jesus is God and their bible called the New World Translation is a subtly different translation to the true Christian Bible. To them Jesus is not the only way to the Father and to heaven because salvation is by works. Whether you get to heaven or not depends on whether you've been good enough. But Jesus tells us in this very passage that:

No-one comes to the Father except through me.' (v6)

The Apostle Paul in Romans 6:23 says:

The wages of sin is death [eternal death in hell], but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In his letter to the Galatians (2:16) the Apostle Paul says:

'A man is not justified [declared not guilty] by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.

One of the biggest lies still around today is that we get to heaven by doing good works. No. Only by faith in Christ. The letter to the Ephesians says this:

We are saved by grace [which simply means undeserved favour] through faith in Christ and not by works so that no-one can boast.

Yes, as Christians we are to do good works as Ephesians 2:10 goes on to say, but they do not save us from our sins and hell. Nor are they a remedy for troubled hearts. The answer to troubled hearts is trust in God and trust in Jesus. Have faith in God, have faith in Jesus. Believe and trust in him and continue to trust him – he is in control. Romans 8 reminds us that:

In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.'

Thirdly, THE PLACE HE IS PREPARING FOR BELIEVERS

Jesus Christ, as we've been seeing, is the only hope. He is the only sure hope in the face of death. There is no hope from non-Christian philosophies and although other religions say something about the future after death they offer no assurance. But Jesus offers real and certain hope to those who trust in him. He is the Resurrection and the life says John 11. And here he tells us that he has gone on through his own death to prepare a place for those who trust in him.

Look at v2-3 of John 14. Jesus says:

In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am 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.

Heaven is my Father's house, says Jesus. Elsewhere Jesus says, 'I go to my Father and your Father.' Therefore heaven is the home of Christ and of true Christians. It is a helpful and comforting picture. Home is the place where you are (or should be) loved for your own sake and not for your gifts, material possessions or achievements; the place where you are (or again should be) loved to the end, never forgotten, and always welcome. In this world believers are in a strange land but one day we will be back home.

And at home in our Father's house are many rooms or eternal dwellings; or as the Authorised Version translated it 'many mansions'.

That reminds me of the story about the minister who read this verse to his morning congregation using the modern translation. His version read: 'In my Father's house are many dwelling places'. Immediately an older lady stood up and said sternly: "Young man, I want you to read that Scripture again – from my Bible. I've lived in an old run down house all my life and I'm looking forward to that mansion!"

Whatever the size of the room what is clear here is that there will be room for all believers – for the strongest believer and for the weakest believer. Only unrepentant and defiant unbelievers will be shut out.

So if any of us are thinking, "Does heaven really exist?" or "My faith is too weak to get there," then be encouraged by Jesus' words here. 'In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.'

Trust in him.

But perhaps some of you are thinking – but I don't believe heaven exists, it's all 'pie in the sky', it's just escapism. C.S. Lewis wrote this in his book 'The Problem of Pain':

"We are very shy nowadays of even mentioning heaven. We are afraid of the jeer about 'pie in the sky', and of being told that we are trying to escape from the duty of making a happy world here and now into dreams of a happy world elsewhere. But either there is 'pie in the sky' or there is not. If there is not then Christianity is false for this doctrine is woven into its whole fabric. If there is then this truth, like any other, must be faced."

Jesus then says:

I am going there to prepare a place for you.

As Bishop Ryle put it:

"Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people: a place which Christ Himself has made ready for true Christians. He has prepared it by procuring a right for every sinner who believes to enter in. No-one can stop those who trust him and say we have no business there. He has prepared it by going before us as our Head and Representative, and taking possession of it for all the members of his mystical body. He has prepared it by carrying the names of his followers with him as our High Priest into the holy of holies, and making angels ready to receive them. They that enter heaven will find they are neither unknown nor unexpected."

Yes those who trust in Jesus have a true friend in him while in this world and a true home when they die.

Also heaven is where Christ is. As he says in v3:

I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

Jesus is coming again to take those who belong to him to be with him in heaven. If we die in the faith before Jesus returns we go to be with Christ as Paul states in Philippians 1:23. When Jesus returns those who have died in Christ will be raised and will be with the Lord forever as Paul states in 1 Thessalonians 4:17.

Will you trust him with your death?


Fourthly, and finally, THE PERSON WHO IS THE ONLY WAY

How do we get to the place where Jesus is? You may still not be clear about the way there. The disciples weren't.

Look at v4-6. Jesus says to the disciples:

You know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me."

Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father and to heaven. There is no other way. He says:

I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.

One of the other biggest lies today is that all religions lead to God and heaven. But Jesus says no-one comes to the Father except through me.

Someone might be asking why should I accept what Jesus says and trust in him? The answer is in v6. Jesus is the only way to acceptance with God and heaven because he is the only one who really knows and can really show you the truth about God; and then he is the only one who can give you new life because he is the life. Why? Look at v7,9-10 of John 14. Jesus says:

If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well… Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father… I am in the Father and the Father is in me… The Father, living in me, is doing his work.

Jesus is saying that he is God. He is God incarnate – God come in human form. And he fully God and fully man came to die on the cross to pay the price of our rebellion against God and then rose from the dead so that we might have eternal life. That is why he is the way, the truth and the life. None of the other founders of religions rose from the dead. Mohammed did not do that and Buddha did not do that.

John's Gospel tells us that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, that whoever believes in him, whatever you've done, might not perish but have eternal life. Billy Graham, the well known American evangelist, said in an interview on Australian television:

I know I'm going to heaven, not because of what I've done but because of what Christ has done for me.

The agnostic interviewer was so stunned by this statement that he went out interviewing people on the streets asking them, 'Are you sure you're going to heaven?' Eventually the interviewer trusted in Christ and became a street evangelist!

Will you put your trust in Jesus as the only way to God, as the one who is the way, the truth and the life? You won't necessarily have to become a street preacher although all Christians are called to share their faith. Someone once put it like this:

"Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Without the way there is no going. Without the truth there is no knowing. Without the life there is no living."

He is the life. He came to bring life in all its fullness. Many people today still think of the Christian life as a sort of living death with God as a cosmic spoilsport. Yes, Jesus never said that following him would be easy but he is the only way and he promised to be with us as follow him. He says:

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions… My peace I give you. Do not be afraid.

Will you trust him? It may be that you're ready to put your trust in him for the first time, to trust Jesus as the only way and receive his peace. Ready to repent and believe and trust in him. If so you could pray this prayer:

Dear God, I know that I am not worthy to be accepted by you. I don't deserve your gift of eternal life. I am guilty of rebelling against you and ignoring you. I need forgiveness. Thank you for sending you Son to die for me that I may be forgiven. Thank you that he rose from the dead to give me new life. Please forgive me and change me, that I may live with Jesus as my ruler. Amen.