Faith in Jesus

And Jesus says, I'm leaving you now. After three years. And Peter says, well, wherever you're going, I'm going to go. I will lay my life down for you. Jesus, in a heartbreaking moment, says to Peter, you won't even get that far.

You will deny me three times instead of laying down your life. It's in this context where we sense the distress, the confusion, the pain that's starting to build that Jesus gives these words in John 14:1-11. So we're going to read that together now. Jesus said to them, verse one, do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God.

Trust also in me. In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. 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 so that you also may be where I am.

And 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 him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.

If you really knew me, you would know my father as well. From now on, you do know him and you have seen him. Philip said, Lord, show us the father and that will be enough for us. Jesus answered, don't you know me, Philip? Even after I've been with you such a long time, 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 are not my own. Rather it is the father living in me who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the father and the father is in me.

Or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. So far, our reading. Three things that Jesus says in this passage that is bookended with words of comfort. Jesus says to his disciples who have troubled hearts, who are afraid of what lies next, who don't know what is about to happen, Jesus says that faith in him, faith in him, putting your hope in Jesus, will comfort any troubled hearts. Firstly, because we can trust in him and know what lies ahead.

Now faith is only as good as the object that it's placed in. If you are sitting on a tarmac in a plane that has no engines, no amount of faith is going to get that thing to fly. You can know all about how planes work and the aerodynamics of planes, but no amount of faith that you place in that plane will have any effect. Just as Jesus has now said comfort to his people. Comfort.

Do not let your hearts be troubled. He says and he gives them the reason why they can be comforted. He says, believe in God and believe in me. Do we understand the significance of this statement? Here, Jesus is claiming to be on exactly the same level as God.

To these Jewish men who have grown up all their life believing in God, believing that there is no one other to be worshipped than God and whose character is worthy of our faith and our dependence, Jesus says in the same way that you believe in him, believe in me. Me. Trust in me in the same way as you trust in God. Alexander McLaren, in his exposition of John, he writes this. He says, the peculiarity of his call, Jesus' call to the world is believe in me.

And if he had said that, then one of the two following things occur. Either he was wrong, and then he was only a crazy enthusiast, only acquitted of blasphemy because he was convicted of insanity, or else he was God in the flesh and worthy of belief. In this sentence, Jesus is saying that you can trust in him whatever overwhelming situation you may face. Why? Because you cannot separate him from God.

You cannot separate him from the Father as he'll eventually say in verse 11 that we also read because he and the Father are one. Now us on the other side of the death and the resurrection of Jesus understand that Jesus is the eternal Son of God who created all things. That snapshot that John the Baptist had when he said, there is the Lamb of God whose sandals I am unworthy to untie. In Him is control over all events that will surround this death that He goes to, that will surround the events of His resurrection. He has just said before, no one will take my life.

I lay it down of my own accord. I have the authority to take it back up. This is no accident, friend. This is no tragedy, brother. He is the sovereign God and no one can thwart His sovereign will.

Why should the disciples have their troubled hearts be comforted? Because Jesus is God, and He is God on a mission. He says it in verse two what this mission is. I am going to prepare a place for you. Jesus begins telling us that God the Father has a home.

God the Father has a place, an intimate dwelling where the most personal and the most profound personal relationships happen. Our homes. Imagine that. Our homes. And God has a place like this, and Jesus is making space for us there.

Now the picture here again might just need a little bit of explanation, but imagine an oriental home, an ancient Near Eastern home. A father, ahead of the house, built his house. And as his family grew, as his sons and his daughters married, they would move in with him. And he would just build another granny flat onto his house. And if he had three daughters, he would have three extra rooms.

And if he had five daughters, he had more rooms. And the more they got married, the more family units would join together, the bigger the complex became. And Jesus says, I'm preparing a place like that. You will be added to my father's house. Why is this comforting for us?

Because heaven is like going home. If you've ever travelled long periods overseas, you know that feeling of what it's like to come home. Flying back, landing in familiar places, hearing the twang of the Aussie accent at the customs, driving home up the familiar streets, seeing the familiar trees, old Sandy's home across the road, the dog that's always barking around the back, and the familiar feel of the driveway as you drive up. You've come home. Place is comfortable and safe.

It is familiar. That is what heaven is like. It is familiar. It is home. Going to be with God is not like travelling to a foreign country where you don't know the language, where you don't know the lay of the land, you don't know the people or its customs, it is like going to that familiar comfortable place and you'll be welcomed not by a judge, but by a father.

Jesus goes on to say that He Himself is the one who brings us home. He is the one waiting at the airport for us. He is the one that drives us through the familiar streets, past the familiar trees. Jesus is waiting to bring us home. The journey home will be more familiar and safe because He is the one that fetches us.

So faith in the Lord Jesus will comfort our troubled hearts because we can trust in Him, and we can trust and believe and hope for what lies ahead of us, this home that is familiar. The second thing that Jesus points to so faith in Christ will comfort troubled hearts because we will find all that we need in Him. Jesus said, you know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you are going. How can we know the way?

Jesus answered, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And I'm so glad for Thomas, and I'm so glad for Philip in this discussion. They have absolutely no idea, and they ask these profoundly dumb questions that I would have asked. How can we go where you are going if we don't know the way there, Jesus?

The word way is emphasised many times. Verse four, verse five, and verse six. But this way refers to the channel towards God, the Father. A missionary many years ago hired a man to go and show him the lay of this beautiful new country that he had come into. And it was a dry desert country.

And he arrived in this place and he hired a man to go and show him the desert. When they arrived at the edge of the desert, the missionary saw before him a trackless sand without a single footprint or road of any kind. And he asked his guide with a tone of surprise, where is the road? With a reproving glance, the guide replied to him, I am the road. Jesus says to his troubled disciples that all who will put their hope in Him can do so with the hope of having a relationship via Him with God.

Throw our minds back to the Old Testament where the way to have relationship with God was made or enabled through a high priest, who once a year could sacrifice a lamb, sacrifice a cow or a bull to gain access to the dwelling place of God in the temple. Temple. The one place where God met face to face with His people, but it could only be one man as a representative of all His people. And Jesus says that He will enable this to happen. Jesus presents us by His sacrifice as the Lamb of God, blameless to His perfect Father.

Blameless through His ultimate final sacrifice. Notice that Jesus doesn't say, I know the way. There it is. Follow that way. Jesus says, I am that way.

I am providing that way. Jesus also claims that I am the truth. Again, didn't say I can teach you the truth. I can explain to you some of this truth. He said, I am the truth.

He alone is the manifestation of the eternal God of truth. Do you want to know what the meaning of life is? You will find it when you consider Jesus. Do you want to know what the purpose and the final destination of this universe is? The answer can only be found in considering the purpose of Jesus for this world.

But that truth is also far more than something that is just the opposite of what is false, fact, or evidence. To be true in the Greek also means to be faithful. It means to be dependable. And we have some use of that word in the same way. When someone has been unfaithful in marriage, we say that they have been untrue.

It is faithfulness in that deep relationship that Jesus is also referring to. Jesus is the truth because He is dependable, friend. He is faithful to us. We can find comfort for troubled hearts because we can trust in Him, and He will always remain dependable. And then Jesus, thirdly, claimed to be the life.

I am the life. And again, He doesn't tell us, I can tell you how to have life. I can tell you how to have a great life, but rather I am the life. Friends, true life can only be found in Christ. If He is the way, then Him being life is the destination.

And every human being desires this life. Every human being desires to live. Even someone who commits suicide because they cannot go on living does so because they know that there is something more that they were made for. There is a life they were meant to live, and they don't have it. Every one of us wants this life.

Every deep longing you have in one way or another will be satisfied by the life that Jesus offers. And this gives every Christian incredible hope. Even if you don't experience the full extent of that wonderful life now, you have the assurance and the incredible hope that you will have that. Everything that our hearts desire, we will have. It's like a prisoner who in his prison cells has a little window that overlooks a great big lawn and a wonderful old tree in the middle of this lawn.

And every day, looks over this lawn at this tree, and he finds peace and he finds hope rising in himself. Why? Because he knows that one day he will be free. And one day he can go and sit under that tree. And one day he can bask in his wonderful shade, and one day, he might be able to play with his kids in the branches of this tree.

His freedom is represented by this tree, and that gives him hope even in that prison cell. The three articles, the. An article is the, the definite article, the way, the truth, the life imply something else as well. It implies exclusivity. It is not a way.

It is not a life. It is not a truth. But then Jesus clinches it in his final statement there in the second half of verse six. No one comes to the Father except through me. He is the only way to God.

And we see this coming and dawning on his disciples only a few weeks later after the death, after the resurrection of Jesus, Peter stands up before thousands of people and proclaims this to them in Acts 4:12, salvation salvation is found in no one else than Jesus. For there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. There is no other name. There is no other way. And Jesus claims to be the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to the Father.

And this, friends, deeply troubles and challenges our post-modern sensibilities. Because it says that there is such a thing as an absolute truth. This week in Brisbane, it's been the World Science Festival. I don't know if anyone sort of lives around Brisbane or has seen part of that. It's a wonderful celebration of all the good that has come from the scientific pursuits.

Last night, I went to a panel discussion on can faith and science coexist? And there were represented a man by the name of AC Grayling, a prodigious author, an atheist, very intelligent, with a Christian, a Buddhist, a Muslim, and an agnostic, someone that doesn't believe or doesn't know. And the whole thing took an hour and a half, was moderated and led by a wonderful lady who actually has a program on the ABC, and it ended so nicely. Everyone said, well, yes, we probably can have faith in science coexisting together. There's no incompatibility.

But the funny thing was everything was so superficial. Nothing got into the nuts and the bolts of what each person believes. And if you were to really boil it all down and then compare them, they contradict. They cannot sit side by side. There is no one way for the Muslims and one way for the Christians and one way for the atheists.

There is only one way if you compare this, and we have to make a choice. RC Sproul in his book Table Talk points out this logically astounding position that we sometimes hold to in our current era. He points out that the notion that all religions and all world views can be valid equally is logically impossible. He says because if all religions are valid, then Christianity must be valid. But if Jesus said that He is the only way to God, then it eliminates all the other ways.

So either He was right and all world religions have it wrong or He was wrong and someone else is right. Sproul concludes, if He was wrong, then Christianity has no validity today at all. But if Jesus was right, then there is no other way. Faith in Christ comforts troubled hearts because in Him, we find all that we need. The way to God, the truth, the stability, the faithfulness to make sense, to build a life on, and the life that we all desire.

If we believe that Jesus is the way, our troubled hearts are comforted because you have access to the perfection of heaven and of God through Him. Believing that Jesus is the truth will comfort troubled hearts because all else is shifting and subjective and uncertain, but Jesus is secure. Jesus is faithful and His character will never let us down. Believing that Jesus is the life will comfort troubled hearts because trusting in Him gives hope of eternal life and satisfaction for all the things you know aren't completely right in this life, in this world. And then finally, faith in Jesus will comfort troubled hearts because what He said has final authority.

Jesus said to his disciples, if you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and you have seen Him. To know Jesus is to know God. There have been many prophets in our history. Men and women who have come and gone, who've had a special revelation of God.

Each member there at that panel last night spoke of a prophet, spoke of an interpreter for what the truth of God is. These are people who have come to claim to know the way, but Jesus says, I am the way and I am the destination of that way. In majestic words, Jesus is saying that He alone reveals the Father to us. Jesus' words from now on, when He says from now on, you know, refers to the events that will unfold very, very soon. The death and the resurrection and then the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that confirms this in believers' hearts as truth.

But Jesus' comment that the disciples have seen the Father prompts Philip to ask another frustrated question. Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough. He may have been thinking that Jesus is about to leave and maybe Jesus can just pray that we can have some vision of God to give us comfort, to make us understand that what Jesus is saying is true, to have another prophetic insight of another revelation. But Jesus says to Philip in a sharp rebuke, don't you know me, Philip? Even after all this time, anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.

What does this mean for us? If God seems distant we need only to reach for this to see His face, to hear His words. If you turn to Jesus you will find a God. The book of Hebrews says, was tempted in all the things we are and yet was without sin. In Jesus, we see the face of God.

Now, in this statement that ends in verse 11, it brings us all the way back to verse one. Doesn't it? Believe in me as you believe in God. To believe in Jesus is to believe in the Father because the two are inseparable. God is one God existing in three equal eternal persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus says that He reveals the Father.

He says in a few chapters' time that the Holy Spirit that will come from the Father will reveal Jesus to His disciples. To know Jesus is to know the Father. To know the Father is to have the Holy Spirit that testifies to the Son. In verses 10 and 11, Jesus gives two reasons to believe that Jesus is God. He says, firstly, by His words and by His works.

Jesus says that He hasn't made up what He has taught. It's been words that have come directly from God the Father. This is a repetition of Jesus earlier claims in John 8:28. He told His enemies, when you lift up the Son of Man on that day, then you will know that I am He and I do nothing of my own initiative. But I speak these things as a father has taught me.

Jesus' words will confirm that He is in intimate union with the Father and He speaks on the Father's behalf. But also Jesus' works, His works, His miracles proves that He is in intimate union with God as well. This refers to all that He's done, but especially His miracles. Now sceptics, of course, will challenge Jesus' miracles because they claim that they have never seen a miracle happen. But we know and we believe as Christians that the events of Jesus' life has been recorded by credible witnesses so that we can have confidence in these things.

At the heart of a sceptic's rejection is not science, but rather rebellion against a living God. A refusal to submit to Jesus as their king. We can believe and we can trust and we can have comfort for our hearts because we know what Jesus has said, what He has taught, what He has done has final authority because it is the authority of God Himself. So friends, over the next two weeks, as we come to the cross, our hearts cannot be troubled. Our hearts will not be troubled because we know what lies on the other side of that cross.

We know that in Him, there is life. In Him, there is faithfulness. In Him, there is access to God, to the hope that He has created us to have, to hold, to taste, and to see. Let's pray. Lord, we ask if it be Your will that we may taste and see this life.

This life that You offer us. Father, even this morning, some of us may be like that prisoner looking out over the courtyard to see a hope of something that has not been reached yet. But even in our prison cells, Lord, we have great hope because we know that there is a time of freedom coming. That there is a release Lord, when this release is not foreign to us, it is familiar. It will be like going home.

Lord Jesus, our great High Priest, mediating for us even at this minute. You are the one that is preparing this place. And we thank You, Lord, for this great hope. Holy Spirit, we thank You that You are working in our hearts even now as we speak. Even now, Lord, as we listen, even now as we reflect on these words, You are confirming these things in our hearts.

And by this, we know they are true. Oh, God, help us when we doubt. Oh God, help us in this week when we are not here anymore, when there are a hundred thousand things running through our minds and hearts and we forget these words. Lord, our hearts are not troubled. They cannot be.

They will not be, Lord. Our hope is firmly in You, and You do not let go, God. Lord Jesus, You do not fail. You are true. All other ground is sinking sand.

But on You, oh Lord, we build our hope. Father, for those of us who do not know You, for those of us who are new to this whole thing, I pray, Lord, that You will be working in each of their hearts. Show them, oh God, who You are in wonderful ways. Confirm these words that we have read today in their hearts. Lord, add them to this great home that You are building.

And Father then, for the rest of us, may we live lives so happy and joyful for what we have received, that there is nothing that can frustrate this plan of Yours, this hope that we have. Thank You, Lord, for what You have given to us. Thank You, Lord, for what is secured for us, that waits for us, and we look forward to it with great anticipation. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.