John 11:25 - Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,"
- There is a PEACE that Jesus PROVIDES (Jn 14:1)
- There is a PLACE that Jesus PREPARES (Jn 14:2-3)
- There is a PATH that Jesus PRESCRIBES (Jn 14:4-6, Jn 3:16)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-01:14
There's some things to be stressed out about, isn't there? Well here, Jesus, look at this. This is an imperative. Jesus actually gives a command here by saying, "Let not your hearts be troubled." Jesus is saying that you need to take charge of your heart, of your mind, and of your emotions. And the question is, "Well, how do I do that?" Well, he tells you, very next sentence, "Believe in God, believe also in me." So how do I let not my heart be troubled? Well, I do that by doing this. I trust God with the things that I don't understand. I trust God with the things that I have no control over, and I trust God even with the things that could drive me to despair. I trust God with them. Honestly, of that list that I just read you, how many of those things are you capable of even fixing? How many of those things?
01:14-01:49
Hold up the universal sign. How many of those things can you fix? The answer is none. Right? So if your heart is troubled, let me ask you, how much have you been trusting? And I mean, I mean really trusting Christ. I don't mean, well yeah, I trust Christ. I go to church on Sunday. I mean, there's a settled rest in your heart that says, I know no matter how bad things look, no matter how hard things get.
01:52-01:53
It doesn't have to trouble me.
01:56-02:02
Because my faith isn't in myself, my faith isn't in my ability to try to fix this.
02:03-02:06
Jesus said, believe in God, believe also in me.
02:08-02:26
Actually, that sentence could be better read, Jesus was saying, "You believe in God, you must also believe in me." Not some generic, "I believe that the big man upstairs is looking out for us." It's about Jesus Christ, okay?
02:30-02:32
So how much have you been really trusting?
02:32-02:37
How much have you, whatever's stressing you out, Let me ask you, how much have you been praying about that?
02:40-02:47
How much have you been in God's word and resting in God's promises concerning whatever's troubling you?
02:49-03:08
Or as I heard a friend of mine say recently, do you say, "Oh God, I got big problems." Or do you say, "Problems, I got a big God." So first of all, Jesus tells his disciples and he tells us there's a peace that he provides.
03:10-03:14
But secondly, there's a place that he's preparing.
03:14-03:15
Look at verses two and three.
03:18-03:23
Jesus said, "In my father's house are many rooms.
03:25-03:29
If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
03:30-03:43
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself that where I am, you may be also." Wait, wait, wait, you're leaving Jesus?
03:44-03:45
Where are you going?
03:46-03:48
But see, Jesus is saying, "I'm not just leaving.
03:49-04:00
It's not just adios." Jesus is saying, "I'm going somewhere to prepare a place for you." And what does he call this place?
04:01-04:09
Actually, he says in verse two, "In my father's house." You know, there's a lot of words in the Bible that describe heaven.
04:11-04:11
This is my favorite.
04:13-04:17
He describes heaven as his father's house.
04:20-04:21
Why house?
04:24-04:30
Because home is not a place that is weird or unfamiliar.
04:31-04:36
Home is the place where you can sit back and say, this is where I belong, right?
04:37-04:39
Home is a place where your children feel safe.
04:40-04:45
And even as an adult now, my mom still lives in the house that I grew up in.
04:45-04:49
And when I go visit mom, it's not weird walking into that house.
04:49-04:50
It's not weird.
04:50-04:51
Like, you know, what am I allowed to touch?
04:51-04:52
What am I allowed to...
04:52-04:54
When I walk in, I just flop down.
04:55-04:57
I help myself to whatever's in the refrigerator.
04:59-05:00
Why do I do that?
05:01-05:02
'Cause that's home.
05:03-05:05
This is a place of comfort and it's familiar.
05:05-05:29
And Jesus said, "I'm going to prepare a place for you in my Father's house." Now, some of you are like, "Oh, question, Pastor Jeff, my Bible says mansion, and I've always been raised to learn that I'm going to get my own mansion in heaven." We have this idea that heaven's like sprawled out, right?
05:30-05:36
Like it's so spread out that you're gonna get to heaven someday and like, where's your mansion?
05:37-05:40
Well, I actually live 189 blocks from God.
05:41-05:47
You're gonna go down East Street there and then you take a right on Broadway and then it's pretty far down there.
05:48-05:51
But my mansion, I didn't get a real close one to God.
05:52-06:03
Actually, in Jesus' day, when He would have been speaking these words, you see, the father would have built a house.
06:05-06:13
And then many times the son would get married and they would come back and actually add a wing onto the father's house.
06:14-06:17
And then another son gets married and guess what he does?
06:17-06:20
Yeah, we're gonna build a wing on the dad's house.
06:20-06:51
And they would build these wings ended up circling a central patio. So they were like all in their own places, but they were all attached, but they all shared a common patio. And Jesus here is saying that's what heaven's like. But instead of a central patio, what's going to be in the center of heaven? Better question, who's going to to be in the center of heaven.
06:52-06:52
It's God.
06:53-06:54
It's God.
06:54-07:01
So understand, it's not gonna be like, I'm going to go visit God today in heaven, in his Father's house.
07:02-07:04
You're always going to be in his presence.
07:04-07:07
You're always going to be home.
07:09-07:11
And you're like, seriously?
07:13-07:13
Seriously?
07:14-07:15
Seriously?
07:15-07:16
Is that really what it's like, seriously?
07:18-07:19
I love what Jesus asked here.
07:21-07:28
He said, "If it were not so, would I have told you?" Like, I'm not here to blow smoke.
07:29-07:39
I'm not here to give you some kind of a fairy tale and spin you some kind of unbelievable yarn, you know, like this boogeyman, you know, tooth fairy thing.
07:39-07:43
"In my Father's house are many rooms." Oh, that was so poetic, Jesus.
07:43-07:45
He goes, "No, this is for real.
07:46-07:46
"This is for real.
07:47-07:48
I'm really going somewhere.
07:48-07:51
I'm really going to be preparing a place for you.
07:51-07:54
And if it wasn't so, I wouldn't have told you that.
07:56-08:03
And then verse three, he says, I'm going to come and I'm going to take you that where I am, there you may be also.
08:04-08:05
I love that.
08:06-08:07
Do you know why I love that?
08:08-08:09
Do you know why I love that?
08:10-08:11
Because I hate going to Walmart.
08:13-08:14
That's why I love that.
08:14-08:15
You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, back up.
08:16-08:24
"Is there Walmart in heaven, what are you saying?" No, what I'm saying is this, my wife is the shopper in the family for sure.
08:25-08:34
And the rare times that I'm out and she's like, "Can you stop at Walmart and pick something up?" It turns into like the next installment of Indiana Jones.
08:34-08:55
I'm like, "Where in the world is that?" And then I look for one of the employees and I'm like, "Excuse me, can you tell me "where I can find the Stevia or whatever?" and they're like, "Oh yeah, you need to go back to this aisle and you need to, and then you're gonna see the..." And then I'm just like, I have no idea where I'm going.
08:57-08:58
But do you know what I love?
08:59-08:59
Do you know what I love?
08:59-09:08
Do you know what warms my heart is when that Walmart employee says, "I will take you and show you where it's at." Come on, let's be honest.
09:09-09:12
How many people you're like, you're the bomb, employee of the month, right?
09:18-09:21
Well, notice this is exactly what Jesus is saying.
09:23-09:28
I'm going to come back and I'm going to take you there.
09:29-09:30
Yeah, where's heaven at?
09:30-09:31
Jesus is somewhere over there.
09:31-09:35
Now, Jesus says, I'm going to take you because your place is with me.
09:39-09:41
And then thirdly, I want you to see that there's a path.
09:42-09:44
that Jesus prescribes.
09:44-09:47
Just look at verses four through six with me.
09:47-09:50
Jesus, I love this statement.
09:51-09:58
Jesus is talking about like, you know, building these rooms in his father's house and I'm gonna take you.
09:59-10:02
And then here comes something like completely out of left field.
10:02-10:12
Jesus said, "And you know the way where I'm going." And then in verse five, Thomas draws a blank.
10:13-10:14
Can you see the picture?
10:14-10:16
Jesus is like, "Okay, you know where I'm going, right?
10:16-10:22
"You know the way to where I'm going." And Thomas, all right, I'll speak up if nobody else will.
10:22-10:27
Thomas said to him, "Lord, "we do not know where you're going.
10:28-10:30
"How can we know the way?
10:33-10:38
"Can you like help me look it up on MapQuest "or Google Maps or Jesus?
10:38-10:44
"Do you have some kind of a supernaturally empowered GPS that you can give me?
10:46-10:57
How can we possibly know the way?" And Jesus said to him, verse 6, here it is, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
10:58-11:12
No one comes to the Father except through me." You have to notice that Jesus didn't say, "I'm a way." You know, there's a big swing even in evangelical Christianity.
11:13-11:14
There's many paths to heaven. Did you know that?
11:15-11:16
You're going to be hearing more about that.
11:17-11:31
More and more conservative preachers are standing up saying, "Oh yeah, there's many paths to heaven." I don't understand that line of thinking, to be honest with you, because that doesn't work in any other realm, does it?
11:31-11:40
If you come up to me and you say, "How do I get to Zillion Opel?" Like, any road will take you there, really.
11:41-11:41
Any road.
11:43-11:44
Like 279?
11:45-11:45
Sure.
11:47-11:48
What about 51?
11:48-11:49
Will that take me to Zillion Opel?
11:51-11:54
If you believe in all your heart that it will, sure.
11:56-11:56
Right?
11:58-12:04
You're like, "That's crazy." Jesus didn't say I'm one of many ways.
12:04-12:06
He said, I'm the way, I'm the way.
12:07-12:10
I am the way, I am the only way.
12:12-12:13
And then he says, I am the truth.
12:14-12:17
You're like, oh, Pastor Jeff, that sounds so intolerant.
12:17-12:19
Well, truth is intolerant every time.
12:19-12:22
Truth is intolerant, isn't it?
12:23-12:24
What's two plus two?
12:25-12:25
Four.
12:28-12:30
Intolerant, that's not up for debate, is it?
12:31-12:32
Is that up for debate?
12:32-12:34
Jay, would you like to contest that?
12:36-12:39
Well, I got news for you.
12:39-12:40
It is not.
12:41-12:43
And do you know when it will be three?
12:43-12:46
Never, because truth is intolerant.
12:48-12:57
And Jesus says, "I am the truth." And it says, "I am the life." We're all dead and dying in our sin.
12:58-13:02
Only the author of life can give us his life.
13:03-13:08
And then Jesus makes the most controversial statement ever spoken at the end of verse six.
13:10-13:18
He said, "No one comes to the Father except through me." And really, when you look at this verse, you have two choices.
13:19-13:25
Either Jesus was telling the truth, or Jesus was not telling the truth.
13:26-13:28
Those are really the only two choices that you have.
13:31-13:38
And as I wrap up, I want us to think about why can Jesus make a statement like this?
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How can Jesus make a statement like this?
13:47-13:59
Understand that every single person on this planet, including yourself, was born with a terminal disease, and it's called sin.
14:01-14:17
Sin separates you from God and causes your heart to be prideful, self-centered, and rebellious. And sin disqualifies you from heaven. But the good news is this.
14:19-14:25
The Bible tells us that despite our rebellion, despite our sin, God loves us.
14:28-14:55
In fact, John 3:16, the most well-known verse in the Bible, says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." So from our perspective, it looks like a dilemma for God. I have to punish sin, but I love these sinners. So change my holy and righteous judgment about the sin?
14:56-15:00
Or do I abandon my love for my creation?
15:01-15:03
To us, that looks like a problem.
15:03-15:06
That God's going to have to compromise somewhere.
15:09-15:14
But His answer came in the form of Himself, actually.
15:15-15:17
He came to this earth as a man.
15:18-15:36
Jesus Christ, who laid down His life on the cross, bearing the full wrath of God for your sin and for my sin, and rose from the dead to give us eternal life, and now says to us, "Turn from your sin.
15:38-15:42
Turn from your self-centered ways and believe in Me.
15:42-15:56
Receive the gift of eternal life that only I can give, because only I took God's punishment for you on myself." So who are you trusting?
16:00-16:01
Who is your king?
16:03-16:04
Like, what do you mean by that?
16:05-16:07
Here's the issue at the end of the day.
16:10-16:29
On your heart is a throne. And by nature, who's sitting on that throne? I am. I sit on the throne of my own heart. Nobody tells me what to do. I'm my own king.
16:32-16:44
Well, then we run into a crisis because Jesus Christ comes along and he says, "Excuse me, but you're sitting in my chair." So who's ruling your life?
16:46-16:47
Who are you trusting?
16:50-16:51
Who is your king?
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read John 14:1-6
How does “believing in God, Believing also in <Jesus>“ keep your heart from being troubled? (Jn 14:1)
How does Jesus calling heaven “My Father’s House” make you think about heaven? (Jn 14:23)
How would you respond to someone who says, “There are many ways to God.” (Jn 14:6)
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.