Comfort Before You Need It • John 14:1-6

Notes

Video teaching begins 20:26

One thing that people are losing sight of in this pandemic is that there are real limits to government. The State can’t keep us alive forever.

We obey the state, we self-isolate, we wash our groceries, social distance. But we are still going to die. We cannot depend on the government to make us safe and keep us alive.

Do you know what’s going to happen to you after you die? That’s more important than staying alive because you know you can’t live here forever.

It’s especially important to know where you’re going when you die if you know you are a failure. Where do failures go when they die?

The good news is that we can know where we go when we die. We can be confident that we are known and accepted by God, especially when we are failures.

I’m reading in John chapter 14.

1. We are picking up the context from the end of chapter 13. Jesus knows that His disciples will forsake Him.

A. Peter has just declared his devotion to Jesus. Why can’t I follow You now? I will lay down my life for You!

B. Jesus says here, will you lay down your life for Me? No you won’t. You’ll deny Me three times tonight. Before the rooster crows. This night.

John 14:1-6 2

C. We know from the other gospels that as they are going to Gethsemane Jesus says you all are going to fall away from Me tonight. They all say, even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!”

D. We know the rest of the story. Jesus is not guessing here. Scripture says they will be scattered like sheep. He knows they will forsake Him.

2. Yet, even as Jesus predicts Peter’s failure and knows all of the disciples will forsake Him, Jesus comforts them before the time.

A. Do not let your heart be troubled. That’s more than saying, don’t worry.

1. We can look at our hearts and see them being troubled, discouraged, depressed. We can hear what they are saying: I failed! It’s too late for me now! It’s hopeless! Our big problem is that we listen to our hearts when we should be talking to them.

2. Now, Jesus says, don’t let your heart be troubled. You can say to your heart, stop talking like that. Be quiet.

3. Then you talk to your heart. You tell your heart the truth. Listen up, heart. Listen to the truth. Listen to the words of Jesus.

B. He says: You believe in God, believe also in Me.

1. Not just believe that I exist. The demons believe that there is a God. It doesn’t do anything for them. Biblical faith is begins with this: That God is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Just like you depend on God, depend on Me.

2. There are people like the Muslims who say that Jesus never claimed He was God. Evidently those people don’t read the Bible. Notice that Jesus is putting Himself on the same level as God. Depend on Me as you depend on God.

3. What biblical faith also means is, do not trust in yourself. Do not take comfort in your strengths, do not be discouraged by your inability.

4. Depend on what Jesus does alone.

C. Because He says, you are going to make it all the way to the Father’s house and live there forever. Just like Psalm 23, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That’s not a wish! That is what you can expect when the Lord Jesus is your shepherd.

1. There is a place to live there for you. There is enough room, but Jesus is also going to reserve that place for you.

2. Jesus Himself is going away to prepare it. He’s been talking about going away, He means His death, but this is the reason He will die: so that a place in the Father’s house is reserved and ready for you.

3. Jesus is going to make personally sure that you get to where He lives. He says I will come again and receive you to Myself. That where I am there you may be also. That means living in the presence of the Father. There is fullness of joy, in His right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Security, love, acceptance, joy. Life eternal.

3. Jesus then drops another bomb that shows how little His disciples know Him, and how much they need to know Him.

A. And you know the way, where I am going.

B. That’s a little sentence, but it blows all their minds. Thomas says what they all are thinking: Whadda You mean? Know the way? We don’t even know where You’re going! How in the world do we know the way?

C. Jesus says where He is going: I am going to the Father. He means He is going to die, but when you die you go to the Father.

1. There is no other destination. You don’t go to another god, you don’t vanish in smoke. You don’t go to paradise, or get reincarnated. You go to only one place, and that is to the Father.

2. When you go to the Father you go to judgment. Does the Father accept you? If He accepts you, good. He says, “Hello there! Glad to see you!” You’re home. What if He says, “Who are you? What are you doing here? You barely allow that I exist, you use my name to curse with. You lie, cheat, steal, you kill, you are sexually immoral, you dishonour your mother and your father. Why in the world should I let you come in My house?” You say, well, I was nice to people and I paid my taxes mostly. “I have no relationship with you whatsoever. Go away from Me.” Now where do you go? The only place for you is away from the Father forever, into eternal punishment.

D. Now, how is Jesus going to the Father?

1. Hebrews 9:11-14 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

2. He is going to the Father on His own merits. He is not going through any substitute. He is not trusting in anyone but His own character, thoughts, actions, and His obedience to every commandment of God. He offers Himself as a sinless substitute in our place, for our sins, to God, but there is no substitute for Him. He stands or falls on His own merit before God.

3. The record of Scripture is that Jesus offered Himself without blemish to God. He was a perfect sacrifice. God accepted that sacrifice. This is proven in that God raised Jesus from the dead. If Jesus hadn’t been acceptable, the Father would not have raised Him. He would have stayed dead. So the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead is proof that Jesus has come successfully to God, He is accepted by God. He comes into the holy presence of God and lives there. He is approved by God. Jesus is worthy.

4. We find confirmation of this in Revelation chapter five, which we’ll be studying in a couple of weeks.

A. The Apostle John has been taken to heaven. In Revelation 4 he sees the worship of the Father.

B. In chapter 5 he sees a book sealed with seven seals in the hand of the Father. A mighty angel calls out, who is worthy to take the book and open its seals?

C. Nobody is worthy. Amazing when you think that no angel is worthy, no living person in 7 billion is worthy, and no one who has ever lived is worthy. Those persons renowned for their intellect, their knowledge, their accomplishments, their inventions, their conquests, their developments, they are not worthy. There is no one whom God will recognise as worthy, who has enough value as a person so that God says, okay, here’s the book.

D. John weeps greatly. He cries like a baby. It must relate to him personally, to the world, to God’s purposes. Things stay the way they are. No judgment, no solution, everything stays blemished, corrupted, futile, and pointless.

E. The angel says, stop weeping, the Lion of the tribe of Judah has overcome so as to take the book and open its seven seals.

F. And Jesus, the Lamb of God, takes the book out of the hand of the Father, and all heaven blows up with praise, because Jesus is worthy. Revelation 5:9-10 And they *sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”

5. What we get from this is, Jesus is exclusive. No one comes to the Father but through Me. That means a couple of things.

A. The only destination there is, is the Father. When you die, you face the Father. You do not get a choice. You don’t go to the god of your religion. You can’t say, well, I’m a pantheist so I’m becoming part of everything. You can’t say, well, I’m an agnostic or I’m an atheist, so I’m just vanishing. You are going to face the Father. That is everyone’s destiny.

B. The only way to be accepted by the Father is through Jesus. He only accepts those who submit to Jesus as their Saviour, who are redeemed from their sins by Christ. There is no one else in all the universe who is worthy like Jesus. If you come in the name of the Virgin Mary, the Father will not accept you. The Virgin Mary did not purchase men for God with her blood. If you come in the name of the Prophet, the Father will not accept you. If you appear before the Father without Jesus you will be naked and defenceless and you will face the wrath of God. God sent Jesus to redeem you from your sins, and you rejected Him. God will then reject you.

C. This is what the Bible says: 1 John 5:9-12 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son. The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.

D. So all the Christians plead with all men everywhere: please come to Jesus, receive Him as your saviour. Be saved from the wrath to come.

E. For the believers,

1. Have you ever failed Jesus? Here’s the amazing thing, that we can know with Peter, that we will make it to the Father. You believe in God, believe also in Jesus. You get to the Father because only Jesus is worthy.

2. Think about this: Peter hadn’t failed yet. Jesus knew already that Peter would fail. But He doesn’t hate Peter. He gives him encouragement before it happens so that Peter would know, God knows everything, and He still loves us. Jesus is going to save us completely, to the uttermost.

3. God has also spoken to us what we need to hear, before we need it. It’s all written down before we need it. As we continually read the Bible we will find these words that give us encouragement straight from God. And they are all true. Encouragement doesn’t encourage unless it’s true. God gives us encouragement in a true way, not just pumping us up with nice slogans. Be of good cheer, says Jesus. Why, because we’re cheerleaders, jumping up and down and getting emotional? No. Jesus says be of good cheer, because I have overcome the world. That’s true no matter how devastated you feel. You can talk to your heart, and say, now be quiet. Stop multiplying anxious thoughts. We are going to think on what is true. Jesus said I have overcome the world. Therefore we are not going to focus on how we have failed. We are going to focus on how Jesus has overcome so that we can overcome as we trust in Him.

4. Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. So read your Bible and listen to God.

Let’s pray.