“About Having a Heart Not Troubled – Jesus Said”
The sermon slides are available here.
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God;[a] 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?[b] 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.”[c] 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.[d] 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. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
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Pastor Thom Rittichier:
This morning we’re going to turn to a passage that is a heart tug passage. And as we talk about this, I want you to know that the Lord is clearly going in a direction for us with it. And it was a direction for his immediate followers as it is to us. Let me start here with this. I want to talk about a strange experience I had this week. It’s so strange how in an experience, and with the communication that follows, you can have a change in your outlook about something. And I’m going to get us thinking about what the Lord is going after in this passage by talking about the experience that I had. And then an experience that a woman, Jennifer Rothschild, had. This past week on Wednesday morning, I was out running along a country road. I was running south. And at an angle or bend in the road, there was a SUV coming toward me going north. I had just gone up a hill and was descenting, on the down side of the hill. And this SUV is coming towards me as I’m heading south. Now at this same moment I hear the sound of another vehicle, sounded pretty big, coming up behind me. So being somewhat experienced at running in traffic, I was watching this car very closely, attempting to cut out if I needed to. You kind of need to do that when you bike and you run, you have to be somewhat agile. And as I was coming down the hill, this car coming toward me and the vehicle, which sounded very large, coming up behind me, this SUV, in front of me, stopped. And they waited until the other vehicle, behind me, had come up over the hill and took a wide swing and went around. And I kind of like that, that was thoughtful, very appreciative of that. So the thing is, I don’t like that particular model of SUV. But as it went by, I kind of started to like this model. And as I continued to run I thought, this is so strange how my attitude towards this vehicle, which has nothing to do with the event that just happened, has changed. A bit interesting how an experience and a communication, changed my attitude. Because when the driver went by, they waved and they smiled. An interesting event. Strange, it had nothing to do with the make and model but with the experience and the communication.
Let me share this one from Jennifer Rothschild. She had been blind from age 15 due to a genetic issue. And she has, as a believer, written a great deal of very encouraging things. This is a note about an experience and a communication that she had. “I sat in front of a little girl and her daddy on one of my flights. We’d been sitting on the tarmac for 45 minutes when the captain’s voice pierced our collective irritation, ‘folks, this is your captain and we appreciate your patience. Maintenance assures me that we should be ready to roll in about 15 minutes’. 15 minutes! At that point, it might as well have been 15 hours, fellow passengers moaned and groaned, and I agreed. For the past 15 minutes, I have been compiling a mental list of all the things I don’t like about this particular airline. I had been dwelling on all the bad experiences I have had. We’ll just see, I thought. It’ll be a miracle if this plane takes off in 15 minutes. But I really wasn’t looking for a miracle.” What she says she was doing was pulling out of the corners of her thought closet, ugly, ill fitting and thoughts that were making her tense. Funny how that happens. But don’t we want maintenance to be taken care of, on the ground, before you’re in the air? It’s interesting how experience and the communication can change your outlook on something. As she was sitting there, she heard the little girl behind her say, Daddy, I spy something blue. And he, wanting to be cheerful said, Is it that bug? And started to play her game. Daddy, she said, I spy something good. And he laughed. And he began to guess, Is it a bag of M&M’s? And Jennifer Rothschild said as she heard that voice, eaves dropping on their exchange, “the words cut through my complaining, frustration, anger and reminded me to fix my thoughts on something good.” Have you ever have that pleasant experience, of waiting and waiting and waiting?
How about this one? Here’s one that could well happen this afternoon. You see the Kansas City Chiefs, which undoubtedly are the best team in the NFL, will be playing the Buffalo Bills. And it’s interesting how when you’re watching this game and suddenly there’s a pass interference called and it’s against the Chiefs, And if you are a Chiefs fan, you might say, ‘Oh, come on! How is that interference? You gotta let ’em play!’ But if you are a Bills fan, you might say, ‘That was a justice call, that stopped touchdown from taking place! Yeah, you gotta call that, definitely.’ And it’s amazing how that changes. Strange, how an experience and a communication, and where your commitments your investments lie, can change your outlook.
Jesus goes after changing outlooks. This morning, in John, chapter 14, we come to a passage that is well worn in many Bibles and needs to be because it’s a very cherished and valued passage. It’s a passage that Jesus definitely, intentionally goes, with a promise to change an outlook and a conversation. We’re going to see how Jesus talks about having a heart that is not troubled. That’s the outlook he’s going after, having a heart that’s not troubled. And what he says goes like this, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am there you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going. Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through me. If you knew me, you would know my father as well. And from now on, you do know him and have seen him. Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and that is enough for us.’ Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long Philip? And yet you do not know me? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say to me, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you 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 initiative. It is the Father working in me who’s doing the work. Believe me, when I tell you that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me. Otherwise, believe on account of the works themselves.” In this passage, Jesus is looking at changing an outlook. He’s going in a particular direction with it. And we’re going to see these three points about having a heart that’s troubled, and how Jesus is going in a direction to change that outlook. First, in their present distress, then we have this call for the foreseeable future, where He delivers his promise. Remember that our series is titled The Over The Top Promises of God. This is an over the top promise that Jesus delivers to take troubled hearts in a different direction. And lastly, a change in outlook and the way some objections are voiced. And that way of objections is the reality, our reality that we live with.
Over the years, this passage has been well recognized as one of the most valued, it has become well worn in Bibles and it should be. To follow the experience and the conversation, to change outlooks, is where Jesus is going here. So, first off, in the present distress. The Apostle Paul, in First Corinthians, chapter seven, talks about believers living in the present age, he describes it as being the present distress. There are things there, that caused distress. It was present. Distress is not unique to the 21st century. It was talked about at the inauguration this past week. They talked about all the converging things that are coming on the present administration. They talked about preserving the union. They talked about the distress of the attack on the Capitol, about the effects of a pandemic, the economic woes, the strength of a nation that’s needed in unity. And as this was being talked about, there was rioting going on, due to this president not moving forward on the defunding of the police. There is a present of distress. There’s masks all around here, and rightfully so. Because there is a present distress. Jesus issues a call in a present distress there. Thier distress was also present. They had just been informed that one of the 12 was going to betray Jesus, a trusted friend. They had just been informed, that in connection with this, Jesus was going to be leaving them and they couldn’t go with him any longer. They had just been informed that Peter, a very front and forward kind of individual, was going to deny Jesus three times. Look with me at John, chapter 13, verse 38. The last verse before chapter 14 begins. “Jesus answered, ‘Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly”… his formula for emphasizing a noteworthy fact….”Truly, truly I say to you, the rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times.” It was their present distress, the breaking up of their group, betrayal internal and Peter’s denial. All coming down, when there seemed to be a rising tide to take Jesus out of the picture. It was a present distress. Jesus call was, let not your heart be troubled. Don’t let it be stirred up.
Do you know that in a conversation I had this week with a friend of mine from outside the state, he’s up in the north country. He talked with me about the ongoing campaign, and martial law ongoing even after the inauguration and the destroying of America. There’s a present distress. Let not your heart be troubled. The heart is referring to the center of your emotions, your thoughts, your choices. Interesting what Jesus is saying here is stop allowing your heart to be troubled. I have a quote that I want to share with you from William Kistemaker. He talks about Jesus words here and states this, “First, the meaning, for the thought is not, ‘Do not begin to be troubled,’ but ‘Stop being troubled,’ or ‘Do not be troubled any longer.’ Jesus is not merely telling the disciples that they must not be sad any longer; he exhorts them not any longer to be troubled, to be tossed, to be agitated, thrown into a state of” emotions, thoughts and choices where the heart is stirred up. And what about QAnon? The other day, my wife read to me a post about an individual, Lieutenant General Thomas McInerney of the US Military and his speaking “the truth”. “Patriots, pleased could send you to share this information”. “Nancy Pelosi’s laptop reveals the truth….Vice President Pence committing treason…dishes out details.” And even things by believers, who’ve known for years the Scripture, and a Hope that is true. Is that troubling? Jesus statement, to the believers, is to not let the heart…the center of your thoughts and emotions, from where your choices come…get stirred up. get agitated, get carried away. Now that’s the Lord who’s talking here.
And as he talks about the heart, Proverbs refers to the heart very, very often. This is where you think, where you feel, from which you make your choices, the inner man of the heart the hidden man. And it’s very interesting that there are 81 proverbs that talk about the heart. And if you’d like to get a picture of what the Lord’s talking about, the heart and the direction of the heart, a study in Proverbs is a really good one, Proverbs 4:23 says, “…out of it are the issues of life.” It’s what you’ll face, your life, issues out of your heart, what your taking in, what your dwelling on, what you’re covering. And he says in Proverbs 4:23, “Guard your heart above all else”, watch it, keep a guard on what you let into it. Because out of it come the issues of life. Life comes at you with its issues by what you’re letting in your heart, and where you’re at, and what’s going on, and how you’re stirred up. Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as a person thinks in his heart, so is he.” The way we are, that’s what comes out in our behavior, our actions.
Jesus statement was, don’t let your heart be troubled. In the present distress, it’s his call. It’s his call and his sheep hear his voice. Now, I want you to know that being troubled…the world has its troubles, there are issues on the right, there are issues on the left, there are political matters, the world will give you troubles…Jesus said that in this world, you will have trouble but right after that he said, be of good courage, be encouraged, be fortified. Be forward with your courage because I have handled the world. I’ve handled it. Listen to me, he said, I’ve handled it. John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” So don’t let your hearts be troubled in the world’s troubles. There are troubles. And it doesn’t mean we don’t need to face and address those issues of troubles that we have. In Matthew 6:34 Jesus said these troubles come out on a daily basis, “Each day has enough troubles of its own,” And you will have to, in that present moment, handle the trouble. But the issue is stirring up the heart to agitation, duress, distress, because that’s how to not to go along with the Lord, that causes your heart to be trouble. Each day has enough troubles. You’ll have troubles tomorrow. One of my troubles is how cold it is out right now. Especially because my daughter is having car troubles. And it’s the coldest time here, we have troubles. And we get to face the troubles that are sufficient for the day. The idea is that we’re not carrying it over. And we’re not generating any troubles. Let not your heart be troubled. And by the way, he gave us the antidote for dealing with this…belief in God, commit to trust God, trust yourself to God, and what he’s doing. God is doing something, he’s been doing something since he said, Let there be light. And he’s doing something today, as he raises up and takes down rulers and authorities and kings. He’s doing something and commit to trust to God.
Now I want you to know that I’ve been working on something for our church, primarily for the men but as I’ve been going over this and in my interactions with others, I think we need to expand it out to everyone. And what I would like to do is, during February on Tuesday, is take a look at what God has been doig since He said, Let there be light. And also where He is going with this. I’m grateful for Nate’s help on this as we work to do this with some kind of a video thing for those at home also. So we can look at the present age and do this, trust in Him, commit to Him. I’d like you to pray about that, starting in February. To begin to do this, for the heart not to be troubled, stirred up. Do we have brothers and sisters in the faith who are stirred up? This person from the north that I was talking to, I was kind of shocked at this. Yeah, we do. And I didn’t manufacture this for the particular time we’re at. I’m just dealing with the passage and applying it to our situation. God’s doing something. And he’s asking us trust him. “For we know, God works all things together for good to those who love Him. To those who are called according to His purpose. For whom he did for know, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.” Romans 8:28,29
And so what is God doing? God is conforming us to the image of his son. Now, if you’re a believer, committing to believe in God is kind of essential, right? I mean, isn’t that the very essence of what a believer is. Jesus said this, “believe in God, believe also in me.” And he’s going to talk more about believing in him, here in a little bit. But if you’re a believer, you believe. The problem is we become unbelieving believers. Meaning, Yeah, I’m glad that this takes me to heaven. But what about my here and now, and trusting Christ in my here and now, trusting The Lord with my here and now? It’s kind of like the situation in Mark 9:14-29. There is a guy who’s in a situation that’s here and now, he’s in a dire state of affairs with his family, and he comes to Jesus and he pleased with him concerning his son. And Jesus said, verse 23, “If you believe”, and the guy responds, verse 24, “I do believe, Help my unbelief”. That’s where we live. I do believe in this, for eternity. It’s essential, as a believer that I believe this. But do I believe with the here and now? Do I believe it there? Do I believe that God is going somewhere and he has been going somewhere since he said, Let there be light? This is about having a heart not troubled, like Jesus calls us to. Believe also in Me, Jesus said, in what Jesus can do in the here and the now. You see, folks, Jesus, in the here and now, is a very present help, just as He was for them in John, chapter 14. And that’s why it was such a distress that he was going away. He is now for us, a great high priest, who is touched with the feelings of our infirmities, our weaknesses. The Bible says, “Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we find grace and mercy to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:16. We have this more often than I think we realize there is a need. Believe in me, Jesus said, believe in me, that I’ve handled this world, and I’ve taken care of it. Be of good courage. Believe in me, that I’ve got a direction for you to go. Believe in me. And this is the way that a heart is not troubled. In committing to trust or entrust yourself to him.
I know the way our media works, both the social media and the widespread media, it works in a way that stirs up the heart. News has to be gripping, to grip people’s attention, and they have to have ratings. Let me give you an illustration of this. Do you remember during 911? Do you remember the planes hitting the Twin Towers? Do you remember how many times that was played over the TV, over and over and over and over? It was days, it was weeks, every time you turned on the TV, you would still see it going on. And I want you to know that is the biblical description, the very essence of, anxiety, to go over and over and over and over something that you can do nothing about. That’s what anxiety is. It’s being divided between the daily troubles that you have to face and handle and what keeps occupying your mind, over and over and over. It’s the very biblical definition of anxiety being played out in the social media. And when you choose to engaged in that, in a personal way, it will stir up your heart, it will. So Jesus statement, the Lord has a direction, an alternative to having a troubled heart. It’s commit to trust in and entrust yourself to God in what he’s doing, and in Jesus and what He can and is doing, in handling the world and then be of good courage. Jesus says, I’ve overcome that. I’ve handled it. It’s a troubled place. There are troubling things. There’s always going to be trouble sufficient for the day. It’s the trouble you have to face, don’t borrow, don’t dwell.
Now point two, his call, the foreseeable future. I want you to know that the future that Jesus lays out here, he makes intentionally foreseeable. This is the future and it is foreseeable. His envisioning here is for us. What he envisions here is for us to take the heart to a place that it can indeed participate with him in not being troubled. In chapter 14, verse 2 Jesus said, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places”. It’s a big house. As a matter of fact, the book of Revelation, chapter 21, verse 9;and following, describes the size of this house. This house is 1380 miles on one side. It’s laid out in a square. So on every side, it is 1380 miles, which makes about 2 million square miles at its base. That’s the size of his house. And that’s the house that Jesus is referring to. It’s my father’s house, this house, John describes, is coming down from God out of heaven. This is the Father’s house, it’s presently in heaven, it will, as Revelation decribes, come down because of his intent from heaven to us. And it’s not only square miles, it’s also cubic miles, because it says, its width, and its length, and its heights are all the same. It goes up 1380 miles, which gives us a tremendously big house. And in that house, there is provision for everyone who trust, everyone who’s his, because he says, there are many places to dwell. Let me assure you, in Christ, that your dwelling is secure. You are provided for, it is a foreseeable future, and it is a assured. His envisioning is for us, many dwelling places, and the idea of the vision is that you look to and invest in what lasts. The apostle Paul, talking about this present time, says that we’re looking at the temporal and it causes us to look at the things that are eternal. He says it like this, as we look not at the things that are seen, but the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are temporal, are temporary, the things that are not seen are eternal. And the call is that we factor that into what’s going on in our hearts. John 14:1 & 2, “Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.” The vision, “In my Father’s house are many places to dwell”, to be secure, “If it were not so, I would have told you”, trust me. Trust me.
It is so difficult. Because we live so much in the present. We were born here. We lived here, all our life is here. It makes it difficult to put your heart there, like he’s telling us, in heaven. It’s difficult. In Matthew 6:20-21, Jesus talks about being able to have your heart in heaven, to be able to bridge this difficulty, because we were born here and we were raised here and this is always in our face. You know what he says to do? He says, “lay up treasure for yourself in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal.” Where it’s not lost, it’s not stolen, it’s not crumbling if the economy does, your treasure does not. And then he says why. Because “where your treasure is, there your heart is also.” A heart not troubled has to have investments that are being made now, in heaven. It’s the only way. It’s the only way to get the vision that he’s talking about is to invest there, is to invest, investing in prayer, investing in people, investing in ministry, investing in service. That’s how. You’re laying up treasure in heaven and suddenly your heart is there, and the grip of this place, the here and now, becomes not so strong. This isn’t my ideology. This is what Jesus said.
As believers we’re called to believe in Jesus, to commit, to invest in opportunity. This Thursday, we have an opportunity to come together, and we’re going to learn how we can invest in people who are incarcerated, by helping to prepare Bible courses that they can enroll in. Thursday, 10 o’clock to 12 o’clock, at The Chapel. And also for the men, an opportunity for prayer that afternoon. We have opportunities to give. Do you know we have an offering box in the back to invest in heaven. I know we don’t push that much. We probably should. Jesus foreseeable future is this heaven, and he’s going there to prepare a place for you. That’s why he’s not here right now, by the way. He’s preparing a place there for you. The idea is then, that we faced with endurance, this present time. By the way, that is an excellent passage, if you would like to take time to look that it. Hebrews 10:36-39, says, “We have need of endurance,” so that as we are doing this will of God, we don’t lose heart. It’s what he’s talking about, you have need of endurance, so that after you’ve done the will of God, you don’t lose heart, because “he who is coming will come, and he will not delay.” And we are not to shrink back from him because of not having invested. But if invested, we’ll see him. This is Jesus words concerning the foreseeable future. Now I want you to know that this is not intended to say, don’t handle your present troubles, just look to heaven. No. It’s to handle your present troubles with endurance by investing with him in heaven. You know, I have been a believer since 1975, that’s when I came to Christ, May 15 1975, 45 plus years and I’ve been in ministry 40 plus years. Of those 45 years, initially with young people and then progressively with all ages, I have never yet seen any person who was so heavenly minded that they were no earthly good. What I have seen is some folks that were so earthly minded that they were damaging their heavenly good. I have seen that quite frequently. And Jesus vision is that we handle the daily dose of trouble today with this look of handling it, investing in heaven, we have need of endurance. And we do.
I want to wrap this thing up by saying, there are objections to this, what I just laid out to you, there were objections to this. Thomas objected. Thomas objected to this. Look at how in verse five, “Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going.” He has just told them. It’s the Father’s house. It’s the Father’s house, that’s where I’m going. I’m going to the Father’s house to prepare a place for you and then I’m coming again. But Thomas said, we don’t know where you are going. So how can we know the way. He voiced the objection because he was so focused on what was going on for him, here and now. He was so focused that he didn’t hear the direction that Jesus was given. Jesus answers him in verses six and following. “Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you would know my father also. And from now on”, he says, to encourage him and to stir him on, “you do know him, and you have seen him”. You’ve seen him, you’ve seen God live in the flesh, making his appearance. And the only answer that Thomas gets… by the way, what was Thomas known for? He was Thomas, the doubter…the only answer the doubter gets is this, trust me, trust me, trust me in this. Philip raises an objection, beginning at verse eight, “Philip says, Lord, show us the Father and that’s enough for us.” Lord, give us a Moses experience, like when the Lord passed before him and made his skin glow, give us one of those. Then we’ll be able to handle our present distress, show us him. The objection was, we really need more than what you’re saying here. Jesus answers, you know what, Philip? It’s about trusting me. Verse 9, “Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long and still you don’t know me, Philip? Whoever 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 the Father is in me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own. It’s the father who lives in me doing his works. Believe me, trust me, that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves.”
Folks, I want you to know that our whole year is about trusting I AM and helping others to trust I AM, to trust I AM as we come out of this pandemic and get together and get back to are stirring one another up, face to face, with love and good works, stirring them on to that. It’s about trusting him, with a new administration…but I don’t agree with the present administration! This is America!…Been a lot of disagreement lately. But one thing we can agree with is Jesus, for handling this present distress with our foreseeable future. And way laying the objections by saying, I trust you. But there is a requirement. It all depends on you being able to do this by your investment.
You know, today, as Matt and I have already talked about, there’s a football game. And hopefully, I’ll be able to catch some of that football game. And I’ll have investments. You know, my dad used to watch football, and there were some of the games that he used to be so verbal about while watching them. And I remember my mom and I’m sitting in the kitchen while he was watching the football game in the living room. And she’d look at me and say, he must have placed a bet. It’s amazing how much more engaged he became, when he was invested. With my sons, we kind of play out how this game will go too. I don’t bet, even though there’s lots of opportunities, I don’t bet. But I did invest myself in playing out how this is going to go. And it’s amazing where my emotions go when my team isn’t winning. For this heaven thing, it’s the investment, so that our passion matches His for this.
Father in heaven, help us to invest at this point in time. Thank you by your grace that you’ve put us here to face this. Let us be invested so that we’re investing with you, in what you’re doing. In Jesus name I pray amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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