A New House

Let Not Your Hearts Be Troubled – 3 Sermons

Part 1: “The Gift of a New Home”

(John 14:1-10, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, October 11, 2009)

John 14:1-11 "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 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? ³ And 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. ⁴ And you know the way to where I am going." ⁵ Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" ⁶ Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." ⁸ Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." ⁹ Jesus 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'? 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.

What did Jesus teach His disciples about the way to our new home?

A: “I am the way.” (John 14:6)

My Father’s House (1-3)

This morning we begin three messages from John 14 under the general title, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” Perhaps I should begin by saying that I recognize that the advice that is inseparably included in the words of the Lord Jesus in this title are not always easy to hear. When you face a very deep trial in your life, you may first have to let your heart feel some trouble for a little while if you want to be able to feel the full comfort of what Christ is saying to His disciples here as He goes to the cross. Maybe you are in such a position now where your heart needs to feel the trouble of the moment for a while, maybe even for a few years. That is not unusual. If you need someone just to listen to you through that period, I will do that, and I know that there are others here who will be willing to do that too.

We can listen with the confidence that you will eventually have an ear that is willing to hear better news than what you seem to be able to take in at the moment. Eventually we all do want to know something more than our own troubles. We want to hear the reasons why it is that in a world full of trouble (Job 14:1) Jesus is able to say, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” If you cannot receive all that at the moment, tuck this message away in your heart for a sunnier day. What we have in John 14 is at least three reasons for you to be full of joy. Each of these reasons is tied into a gift of something new for you from God. Next week we will look at the gift of the new love of your life. The following week we will listen to what the Lord has to say about a new peace that He has for us. But this morning, I won’t seem spiritual. This morning is like the end of the ultimate game show, where you are called forward to find out that you are the winner of a brand new beautiful home, with no taxes, no utility bills, no problem of having too much to clean, and no embarrassment from your friends hearing that you live in the most amazing place. Jesus has a new home for you in His Father’s house.

Jesus says that His death can be viewed in this extraordinary light; that He is going to prepare a place for you. I remember when the church helped our family during a time when we foolishly found ourselves to be the owners of two houses, one of which needed some work. Mike mostly wanted me to stay out of the way as the church worked together to do beautiful things in our house so that it could sell (which it did). It was such an amazing feeling to go there when everything was done, and to feel like we had just received a home through the sacrifice of others who loved us. God has a new home for you on the grounds of His heavenly estate.

This kind of declaration, that we have a new home, will not cast the trouble out of our hearts unless we believe it. The only way we will trust this announcement to us if we believe in the trustworthiness of the Father and the Son. This is why Jesus says, “Believe in God. Believe also in Me.” If you do not believe in Him then you are missing out on something that could help your heart to feel better. Let not your hearts be troubled. Jesus has a new home for you on the grounds of His Father’s estate. There is something that He is doing there now. I suppose that He would be using all the means of men and angels in heaven to do this thing that He talks about here: “I go to prepare a place for you.” Then He adds this warm-hearted encouragement: “And 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.” He wants to be with you, and He insists that He will be the One who will come to take you Himself. When you die, Jesus will take you to heaven.

The Way There (4-6)

The idea of going to heaven, going to the Father’s house, finding our place there on His land, it is such a wonderful thought, but we get worried. We sing, “Swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home!” That’s a plea for help for the lowly. We worry with Thomas, when he hears Jesus say, “You know the way to where I am going.” We raise our hand however sheepishly and say, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Isn’t that right? We don’t know heaven. We’ve read a few verses. We’ve sung some songs. But we cannot organize a VBS and take everyone on an exposition there.

But Jesus answers in such a way that we suddenly remember that we know more about this than we realize. We just get frightened a little bit, like a person taking a test that they studied so hard for, and then they blank out for a moment and forget the obvious things. Jesus is not beyond giving us a hint here to help us out. He is whispering to You now, “Pssst. You know this one. I am the way.” At first we think, “Huh?” But then it clicks in our hearts. “That’s right! I do know this one! Jesus is the way to heaven. The answer is not spatial, but relational. Knowing Jesus is the way to the Father’s house.

This is a test that He will make sure we pass. He loves us. He has been preparing a place for us, a place that will eventually descend from heaven with angels and all the redeemed brothers and sisters. It’s not just that God’s chariot is going to swing low. The whole of the Father’s house is coming down and renewing the earth. It’s like the beginning of the Wizard of Oz in reverse. Instead of Dorothy’s house landing on Oz, the whole world of Oz is going to land on Dorothy’s house in Kansas. And she is going to say to her dog, “Toto, Kansas isn’t Kansas anymore in a way, but then again it is Kansas, just a better Kansas than I could have asked for or imagined, an earth without sin or decay. My Father’s house has arrived from heaven.”

Jesus is the way. Jesus is the truth. Jesus is the life. He is the fullness of all these things as if the whole of heaven resided in His heart, and from the fullness of truth and life and light in the heart of Jesus come blazing forth a whole new creation in the perfection of the holiness of God. The world that springs forth from the bosom of Jesus is solid, full of all that is true. Thank of the most delicious, wholesome, colorful, and fresh gifts of earth, and recognize that the heaven that pours fourth from the throne of God is far more wonderful, and eternally solid and praiseworthy. Let not your heart be troubled, brothers and sisters! You have a piece of land in that place with a new name on, and it is your name. There is home there for you.

Do you know why you have been granted such a happy future? Jesus is the reason. His obedient suffering in this world and his death has made Him so perfectly fit to be the way for you to heaven. You will want to thank Him forever when you see what He has done for you there. The sufferings that you face now are not worthy to be compared to the glory that you will see in the Father’s house one day. Even those sufferings have been purposeful, as trophies of something that was meant for your good, and for His glory. You will know that in the fullest way in the day that is coming. Now there is one more thing thought that you must consider when you think about Jesus being the way. Apart from Jesus there is no such world for you. If you want to get to heaven without Him, if you want to take some other bus of whatever sort of false god you may think would take you where you want to go now or forever, just remember that whatever high such idols promise, or even deliver, they have this way of crashing you down to the ground so that you have nothing left at all. That is what is before you this morning: Jesus as the way to heaven, and every other imposter as No Way. Do the only sane thing. Turn away from No Way, and come back to the only Way, the true Way, the Living Way; the only Way to that land of truth and life that springs forth from the throne of God in heaven and from the loving heart of a Savior who died for you.

Seeing our Home through the Words and Works of the Son (7-10)

Do you see Jesus today? Do you hear His words? He says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give them eternal life.” Do you see His works? He raises the dead. He makes the blind see, and the lame man leaps for joy. If you see Jesus in His words and works in the Bible, if you see that as being for you, then have seen the Father.

This is what Philip wanted, to see the Father. He said, “Show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” That is all he wanted. “Open up heaven so that I can see my Father’s house there. Let me see the Father.” Jesus said, “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.” If you see Jesus in His words and works in the Bible, and if the God of heaven and earth has given you faith to believe these things, then you see God with the eyes of faith. You see Him, and He surely sees you. He sees your tears here this morning, and He loves you, and He can be trusted. He will take you through a moment that you think is more than you can take, and He will turn it into your finest hour. This you will know experientially when you enter your new home. Let not your hearts be troubled.

1. What does it mean that Jesus is preparing a place for us in His Father’s house?

2. Why is Jesus the only way to the Father?

3. How do the words of Jesus show us the Father and the Father’s house?

4. How do the works of Jesus show us the Father and the Father’s house?