Jesus Wants You To Trust Him | Wayne Massey
John 14
Jesus Comforts His Disciples
14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Jesus the Way to the Father
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority.Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 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 works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
28 “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30 I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, 31 but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
Summary
In this conversation during the Last Supper, Jesus tells his disciples not to let their hearts be troubled, but instead to trust. It is good to imagine the impact these words had on them at the time, but when we read those words for ourselves, we hear them in the context of Jesus’ dying, rising to new life and sending the Holy Spirit. In that light, what can we do when we feel troubled?
Firstly, we can trust in Jesus’ promise that he is going to prepare an eternal place for us and that he is the way to that place. In his culture, this would sound similar to a marriage proposal - the man would go and build another room on the family home for his bride-to-be. In our culture, we can picture people living in a mobile home while their new house is being built.
The mobile home represents our day to day lives as Christians. The house is what Jesus is building. It’s now and not yet. Jesus is with us in our mobile home and is preparing a place in eternity for us. We might be troubled by the sight of the four walls and all that’s wrong with the place. We might feel defined by all that is wrong with our life. But how much better to look at what Jesus is building for us – keep turning our eyes to him and holding on to the promise that he has our lives and our future in his hands.
Secondly, we can trust in the power of Jesus within us. Jesus said that whoever believed in him would do even greater things than he had done, because his power would be theirs. His handful of disciples grew into a worldwide Church: giving their lives to Jesus and drawing others into belief, as they aligned themselves with God’s work of reaching out to save the lost. Better than looking at the house being built from the shelter of the mobile home, is to go and join in. Prayer is the basis for releasing that power and reaching out to others. The more we do that, the more trust grows and our relationship with God deepens.
Thirdly, we can trust Jesus’ promise that he is in us and with us, through the Holy Spirit. Until we believe in Jesus we are orphans but God wants to make all of us his children. The Holy Spirit helps us see how Jesus dealt on the Cross with our sin, and transforms our lives. We become able to love, pray for and speak to people about Jesus.
So where are you? Are you sitting in the mobile home, constrained and troubled by the stuff of this life, or are you helping to build the house: aligning your life decisions with what you know of God’s eternal purposes?
In this life you will have trouble – it’s inevitable. But when it comes, don’t disconnect from your church family and hide away. Let your friends pray with and for you – and pray with and for them when they themselves are troubled. Trust in God and bring it all to him.