John 14:1–6 - Do Not Let Your Heart Be Troubled

Jesus' comforting words mark a huge development in the Biblical narrative.

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Gospels: Week 10 — Jerusalem, commandment, service, and Supper

SINCE WE LAST LEFT OFF... After washing the disciples' feet in the upper room after the Last Supper, Jesus explained to them that He would be betrayed by one of His own, and that even Peter would deny Him three times before the morning came. John, who opened His gospel with the announcement that the Word was the Light of all men, describes this extended conversation between Jesus and the disciples in a hauntingly profound way, simply writing immediately after Judas left, "And it was night."

John 14:1-6 (NASB95)

14 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. ² In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. ³ If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. ⁴ And you know the way where I am going.”

⁵ Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do 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 but through Me.

Belgic Confession

Article 26: The Intercession of Christ

We believe that we have no access to God

except through the one and only Mediator and Intercessor:

Jesus Christ the Righteous.

But this Mediator,

whom the Father has appointed between himself and us,

ought not terrify us by his greatness,

so that we have to look for another one,

according to our fancy.

For neither in heaven nor among the creatures on earth

is there anyone who loves us

more than Jesus Christ does.

Although he was “in the form of God,”

he nevertheless “emptied himself,”

taking the form of “a man” and “a servant” for us;

and he made himself “completely like his brothers."

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What more do we need?

For Christ himself declares:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life;

no one comes to my Father

but by me.”

Why should we seek

another intercessor?

Summary

The opening words of John 14 are but one of many times in the Bible that God tells His frightened children not to be afraid. But Jesus' encouragement to His disciples - and, of course, to us - to not let our hearts be troubled shines into one of the darkest moments in history. Jesus has been explaining to them that He would be with them only a little longer and that where He was going, they could not come. It would seem that the disciples had every reason for their hearts to be troubled; their entire world was quickly caving in.

So Jesus, in an effort to calm our hearts, tells them a bit more, explaining that He was going to prepare a place for us in His Father's house. This little insight from Jesus marks one of the Bible's most important developments.

We've been working through this grand story now for nine months as we've read the Bible each weekday together, and it's so easy to become enamored with all of the fascinating trees we've come across along the way that we lose sight of the forest. But let's increase our literary altitude here so that we can once again see the entire forest, and not just a few particular trees.

Man began in the Garden living in the very presence of God Almighty, who would come for fellowship with them in the cool of the day. But after exchanging the truth for a lie, we were evicted from God's presence, and one of His most powerful angels was sent with a flaming sword to keep us out. Ever since that fateful moment, God's people have been wandering - always figuratively, and often literally - longing to return to the way things were.

Now here in John 14, Jesus announces that He would not only be going to prepare a place for us in His Father's house - that is, back in the immediate presence and peace of the God who evicted us - but that He would be coming again and receive you to Himself, that where He is, you may be also!

So do you see the amazing reason that you have to not let your heart be troubled?

  Dig Deeper  

John 14:6 has been under attack ever since the moment that Jesus told Thomas that He is the way, and the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father but through Him. Critics decry Jesus' words here as being abusively exclusive, because it flies in the face of the pluralistic worldview they cling to that there are many ways to God, and that Jesus is only one of them. Sadly, many of these critics fill pulpits in mainstream churches.

D.A. Carson explains well the significance of Jesus' amazing claim, and how it summarizes so much of John's gospel:

Jesus is the way to God, precisely because he is the truth of God and the life of God. Jesus is the truth, because he embodies the supreme revelation of God—he himself ‘narrates’ God (1:18), says and does exclusively what the Father gives him to say and do (5:19ff; 8:29), indeed he is properly called ‘God’ (1:1, 18; 20:28). He is God’s gracious self-disclosure, his ‘Word’, made flesh (1:14). Jesus is the life (1:4), the one who has ‘life in himself’ (5:26), ‘the resurrection and the life’ (11:25), ‘the true God and eternal life’ (1 Jn. 5:20). Only because he is the truth and the life can Jesus be the way for others to come to God, the way for his disciples to attain the many dwelling-places in the Father’s house (vv. 2–3), and therefore the answer to Thomas’ question [about how we can know the way to where Jesus would go].

AAA Prayer (About)

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who through His Son Jesus, now welcomes us back in His House;

• ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will cling to Christ Jesus, who is the only way, the truth, and the life;

• ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

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