John 13:36 - 14:4

[0:00] The passage today is John 13, 36 to 14, 4. So, Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going?

[0:10] Jesus answered him, Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow me afterward. Peter said to him, Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.

[0:22] Jesus answered, Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times. Let not your hearts be troubled.

[0:35] Believe in God. Believe also in me. 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?

[0:46] 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. And you know the way to where I am going.

[1:03] This is the word of the Lord. Father, we come before you in neediness, and because we want to hear you speak, just as Brad prayed before this, Lord, God, we ask that your word, that your word would be the thing that we hear today, and not just in our minds, Lord, but in our hearts.

[1:26] And that's a work that only your spirit can do in us. And so we ask you, Father, to send your spirit from on high and fill our hearts, fill our minds, and comfort us today.

[1:40] Comfort us in Christ, I pray, for your glory. Amen. Well, good morning, church. My name's Mike, and so glad that you guys are here this morning.

[1:53] And I was just thinking, as Brad was praying, we pray because it's really good. We pray here, and we specifically pray here, because we have a God who hears our prayers, and we're his children, and we get to fellowship with him, and to express our trust in him, and we get to participate with him in the advancement of his kingdom, which are things we've been learning about.

[2:14] One of the other reasons we specifically pray here, and not just five-second prayers, but long, robust prayers, is to model how to pray. Like, the way that Brad prayed is a way that you can pray in the quietness of your own space.

[2:30] If you ever don't know what to pray, turn into the Word of God. Go to Psalm 138, or any passage of Scripture, and pray through it. And we've been using this term to wrestle the text of God's Word into your own.

[2:43] And we're going to practice that again, tomorrow, well, the email will go out tomorrow for the month of prayer. That's something else I want to mention. We've been doing a month-long focus on prayer. And on Tuesdays, we're dedicating to fast and to pray.

[2:58] And specifically this Tuesday, we're going to be focusing on lament, and we're going to have psalms that you can wrestle into your own words and go before the Lord. And that's great that we get to do that.

[3:11] Today, we're going to talk about John 13 and 14, as Phil just read for us. And just to give some context to where we are, we've been walking through John for a while now. In John chapter 13, it marked a significant transition in John's Gospel, right?

[3:26] Jesus was doing public ministry for basically all of John's Gospel. And in John 13, there's a great shift where Jesus leaves the public eye, and he goes into the privateness of his closest followers before his arrest, his trial, and his death.

[3:43] Now, in the first part of the chapter, we looked just a few weeks ago at Jesus washing his disciples' feet, right? Modeling the kind of self-sacrificial love that he then called them to go and show to others.

[3:56] Now, this foot washing, we saw that it also symbolized something. It symbolized a spiritual cleansing, as did the subsequent removal, departure of Judas, the betrayer from the room, right?

[4:08] Jesus announced that he was going to betray him, and then Judas leaves, which is also a cleansing that occurred. And now Jesus is with his 11 disciples who have chosen to follow him.

[4:21] And we also considered last week, as the upper room discourse began, which is the next four chapters of John, we considered sacrificial love, which Brad referenced to earlier.

[4:33] Sacrificial love glorified as both Father and Son would be glorified in the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. Sacrificial love exemplified, right? As the cross of Christ, it would put on clearest display the loving heart of God.

[4:49] And sacrificial love identified as this Christ-like sacrificial love would then come to identify or to mark the followers of Jesus.

[4:59] But in the laying out of that new commandment for Jesus' disciples to love like him, Jesus also spoke something quite troubling to the disciples. If you have your Bibles open in John 13, look at verse 33.

[5:13] Jesus said there in verse 33, Now imagine for a moment, even close your eyes if you want to, but imagine for a moment that you are one of the 12, now 11, disciples.

[5:38] You have given up everything to follow Jesus, right? For three years, you've been going wherever Jesus goes. You've been listening to his every word. You've been watching him perform miraculous signs before your eyes.

[5:51] At one point, Jesus asks you, Do you also want to abandon me like these other followers have? And you respond, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.

[6:07] That was Peter's response. At first, Jesus was just your rabbi, your teacher, but now he has become your Lord. And you have placed all of your hope, all of your confidence in him, in your Messiah.

[6:22] But then he starts talking more and more about his hour and how it's now here. And he seems to be connecting this hour to his death, but you're not sure.

[6:34] And then he starts talking about how one of his disciples is going to betray him. It feels ominous, right? It feels heavy. But it's Jesus, you know, and you're just not really sure what he means.

[6:46] And then he says this, that he's leaving and you can't follow him. Imagine you tell that to one of your kids. Like, hey, sweetie, I'm going somewhere and you actually can't follow me.

[6:59] Like, what look of terror, of horror, comes over your kids' faces? What? I can't follow you? What are you talking about? Because we always tell our kids when we leave, like, mommy and daddy are going to come back.

[7:10] Don't worry, we're only gone for a little bit. Now, this is where we pick up the story today. And the first part of this, part one, is trouble.

[7:24] See, Jesus' disciples are deeply troubled by their circumstances. Like, all the disciples, they're no doubt grieved, they're confused by Jesus' statement and they're wondering, where is Jesus going?

[7:36] Right? Like, why can't we follow him? What is he going to do? And what's going to happen to us? And naturally, the first disciple to ask a question is, Peter?

[7:49] Peter, the bold one? Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? Like, who knows if Peter even heard the new commandment, right? Like, he's so fixated, and rightly so.

[8:02] He's so fixated on that ominous statement that Jesus makes about his departure. Jesus, you just kind of dropped a bomb on us, right? You said you're leaving us. And we'd really like to know, for starters, where are you going?

[8:16] And Jesus answered him, where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow me afterward. If you're taking notes, jot this down.

[8:26] Jesus has a path to walk that no one else can walk. Jesus is telling his disciples, he is about to head somewhere that they are unable to follow.

[8:37] He is about to walk a path that they cannot walk. It is for him, and for him alone. And what is that path? What is that path, church?

[8:48] The disciples didn't know it. Yes, the cross. The disciples didn't know it at the time, but we know now it's the cross. It's Jesus' death, and his resurrection, and his ascension. That's the path that Jesus was about to walk.

[9:00] Only Jesus could die for the sins of the whole world. Only Jesus, God in the flesh, could drink the full cup of God's wrath for sin, taking every sin upon himself.

[9:16] Nobody else could do that. Nobody else could walk that path. He had to do it. I want to clarify, it's not something Jesus needed to do, you know, only in the sense that's something the Father sent him to do.

[9:32] I guess I'll say that again. That was confusing. It was only something Jesus needed to do insofar as the Father had told him to do that, right? But actually, it was something that we needed Jesus to do for us, right?

[9:46] It's something that we could never do for ourselves. And God did not need to redeem us from sin, right? God did not need to provide a way of escape from hell.

[9:57] But in his infinite love, he chose and planned our redemption through Christ. Amen? Amen? And then after Jesus' death, he rose triumphantly from the grave, clearly a path that we could not walk, right?

[10:12] And then he ascended back to the Father's right hand, which was necessary for his glorification, for confirmation of his identity, and also, as we're going to see in two weeks, which I'm really excited to get to, but we're not there yet, for the outpouring of his spirit.

[10:28] I think the kids are actually talking about Pentecost today. So parents, if you didn't know that, ask them about it later. No, the disciples could not follow Jesus on that path. At least not now.

[10:40] Because look what Jesus actually says. But you will follow me afterward. What? Jesus' disciples will follow him later.

[10:52] Death, resurrection, ascension, this will be the path that the disciples also walk. Now this is true on multiple levels.

[11:06] This is true in a very near-term spiritual sense. Because the disciples would experience the death of self, right? The death of the flesh, the inner man, and resurrection to newness of life in Christ.

[11:21] Paul says in Romans 6, verse 4, we were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

[11:35] The disciples would experience a kind of ascension as their souls would be united to Christ. Paul, again in Ephesians 2, he says that God has made us alive together with Christ and he's raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

[11:54] Their souls would be ascended in a sense to join Christ. Now this is the path that all of those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus for the last 2,000 years have also walked.

[12:05] Now this is also true in a future physical and spiritual sense because one day the disciples would experience another kind of death and resurrection and ascension.

[12:19] Now each of the disciples would go on to die physically, of course. Most of them actually became martyrs for the faith. History records that Peter would actually go on to be crucified like Christ.

[12:33] That was under the Roman persecution of Emperor Nero. And Jesus actually predicts this at the end of John's Gospel we're going to see in a few months. And after their physical deaths their souls would be immediately united with Christ and glory in a superior way.

[12:53] And one day their bodies will be resurrected from the grave. Their bodies will be raised to newness of life into a glorious and an imperishable state.

[13:04] Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 when death is fully and finally swallowed up in victory. And this too this is the path for all those who put their faith and trust in Jesus.

[13:18] See it's a path of suffering but it's also a path of glory. Right? It's a path of submission to the Father's will but it's also a path of endless delight. Kyle had us read Psalm 16 before.

[13:31] In your presence there is fullness of joy. It says at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. That's the path for the saints. If you're not walking on that path I hope I hope and pray that you will even by the end of this service.

[13:53] But Jesus tells his disciples you can't follow me on that path now. Why? Why? He says in different words because you're too weak.

[14:06] Jesus' disciples are too weak to follow him now. Let's read the next two verses. Peter said to him Lord why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. Jesus answered will you lay down your life for me?

[14:21] Truly truly I say to you the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times. So Peter makes this bold heroic assertion right?

[14:38] That he is willing even to die for Jesus. And Peter is speaking far better than he actually knows because Peter will like he will actually lay down his life for Jesus but not yet.

[14:50] Peter's zeal for Jesus is inspiring and the Lord will later wield Peter's zealous heart for the advancement of the gospel will he not?

[15:01] Read the book of Acts. On Pentecost Peter is the one speaking before thousands of Jews from all over the world but right now Peter lacks the ability to do two things.

[15:14] To understand the mind of God and to withstand the misdeeds of the flesh. To understand the mind of God to withstand his own flesh the misdeeds of the flesh.

[15:25] See Peter does not understand that God is weaving together an epic story of cosmic redemption and that the climax of that story involves the suffering of Christ.

[15:37] Peter does not understand that. Can you hear the irony in Jesus' question? Wait Peter who is laying down his life for whom now? Right? No no Jesus must first lay down his life for Peter and for the world.

[15:53] Only through the death of Christ for your sin and for mine do we have any hope of salvation, any hope of reconciliation and relationship with God, any hope of eternal life.

[16:08] Peter lacks the ability to withstand the misdeeds of the flesh for though Peter would lay down his life for Christ he would first betray him. His flesh would cave right to the intense pressure and then three times in a row three times in a row Peter would deny any relation to Christ.

[16:27] No no Peter is simply far too weak to follow Christ into suffering. D.A. Carson writes And what are the rest of the disciples thinking?

[16:52] Man, if Peter's faith is going to falter then what hope is there for mine? Like Peter was the leader of the pack he was the bold one, the zealous one, the one ready to take up arms even and we'll see that too in a little bit but we should be asking ourselves the same thing.

[17:11] I want to just think about ourselves for a minute. See very often like Peter I overestimate my devotion to Christ. I overestimate my spiritual maturity.

[17:25] I overestimate my ability to fight sin and I overestimate my own understanding of the ways of God do you do these things too? Now the stark reality church is that we are weak and foolish and not nearly as spiritual as we think.

[17:47] Now you might say yes Mike but we have the Holy Spirit and I would say amen! Like that is the point.

[17:57] That is the point. We must daily rely on the Holy Spirit. Peter becomes a vastly new man after Pentecost happens and he is filled with the Holy Spirit of God and he preaches boldly and then he eventually goes to martyrdom for the sake of Christ because he was filled with the Spirit of God.

[18:17] And I'm getting ahead of myself because that's in two weeks when Jesus talks about the Spirit. We need to be asking God to fill us. We looked at Luke 11 not that long ago. Jesus says if you ask the Father for the Spirit he's going to give him.

[18:31] He's going to give him to you. So ask. Ask him for the Spirit. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

[18:42] Like that's got to be our daily request because you can't withstand evil on your own. I can't. Church, we can't. We need the Holy Spirit.

[18:55] Now there's another application of this text for us to consider. And that is not only must we rely on the Spirit in us but we must rely on the Spirit in others.

[19:08] You all are also filled with the Spirit. If you're a believer in Christ you are indwelt with the Holy Spirit of God. Now what I mean is this. We need to allow our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ into the nitty gritty details of our lives so that they can help us so that you all can help me battle my own weaknesses.

[19:28] Now this takes humility does it not? Which we lack. So we should ask the Spirit for humility to do this. The elders just started well we read it last year but we're working through it together again.

[19:39] Paul Tripp's book called Lead. And just this past week we were talking about this. Paul Tripp says this humility means knowing that as long as sin still lives inside you which side note it does until glory as long as sin still lives inside you you will need to be rescued from you.

[20:02] It means always being committed to listen and to learn. Humility is always being ready to consider the concern of others for you. Confess what God reveals through them and to commit to personal change.

[20:15] Humility is about firing your inner lawyer. Do you guys have an inner lawyer? I do. Do you? It's where you replay those courtroom scenes where you're every, we just talked about this from Good and Angry Guys, right?

[20:28] Where you're every, you're the judge, you're the defendant, you're the prosecuting deterrent, like you're all the roles. And it always plays out exactly how it goes, I'll tell that person this and this and this and justifying all your behaviors and your attitudes, that's what Paul Tripp's talking about, the inner lawyer.

[20:42] Humility is firing that person, saying you're out, and opening yourself up to the ongoing power of transforming grace. There's a lot for us there, but let's go back to Jesus and the disciples here.

[20:59] Now remember, remember, Jesus has announced that his hour has come, he's announced his imminent betrayal, he's announced his imminent departure from them to a place they cannot follow, right?

[21:12] The disciples are troubled, they're troubled by these things, as voiced by Peter, right? And then Jesus' response, do you think it helps? No. It does nothing to allay the disciples' concerns, it intensifies their concerns.

[21:27] Jesus is basically saying, yeah, yeah, Peter, you're right, oh, and also, you're going to deny me. But, the very next words out of Jesus' mouth are words of comfort.

[21:40] And that's part two of this text for today, comfort. Jesus' disciples have deeper reasons to be comforted. And Jesus says, let not your hearts be troubled.

[21:56] Let not your hearts be troubled. Now, this verb is an imperative, it's a command. But, when you command someone to be comforted, surely it's with tenderness and love and compassion in your voice, right?

[22:11] And, surely the disciples would have heard in this command an echo of all the former commands of Scripture that sound so similar. Like when the Lord told Joshua, have I not commanded you?

[22:25] Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Or, when God says to Israel through his prophet Isaiah, fear not, for I am with you.

[22:41] Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Fear not, do not be afraid.

[22:52] That's actually the most repeated command in all of Scripture. There's something like essentially one for every day of the year. There's like 300 something commands. God does not want his children to be afraid of anything.

[23:07] Now, the word troubled, Jesus says, let not your hearts be troubled. It's a little different than fear, but there's certainly very, very closely related. And I'm not even sure that you can have one without the like, can you fear and not be troubled or can you be troubled and not fear?

[23:20] I don't think so. But the word troubled, it means agitated, disturbed, distressed, restless. And does it look familiar to you from John's Gospel?

[23:31] We've actually seen this word three chapters in a row. 11, 12, 13, now 14, four chapters in a row. The difference is the first three instances, they were all talking about Christ.

[23:43] Jesus was troubled, right? When he was weeping with those gathered after Lazarus' death, Jesus was troubled. And then when he announces that his hour has come, he says, now is my soul troubled, right? And then when he's announcing the imminent betrayal of Judas, he's troubled yet again.

[23:59] Now how could Jesus command us not to be troubled if he himself was troubled? My answer is because Jesus was troubled.

[24:20] Now let me explain. Jesus, the creator God, who rules the cosmos, right, all things, he became troubled by his own sovereign choice so that we would not have to be.

[24:38] Jesus, he took on the burden, the yoke of our sin and shame. Church, he did this for us. He took on our burden of sin and shame, right? He defeated our greatest enemies, sin, Satan, death itself, so that we could instead take on his yoke that is what?

[24:57] What is it, Carl? His yoke. Light. And we find rest. Carl and I were talking about that passage not too long ago. Finding rest for our souls.

[25:12] Now the other thing is that Jesus, he modeled for us what to do when we're troubled. Because in his troubled state, he went trustingly to the Father for help.

[25:23] And that's why he says this next thing, believe in God, believe also in me. Now a sub-point here is the object of their faith.

[25:35] The object of the disciples' faith is God. Believe in God, believe also in me. See, just like in those Old Testament passages that I quoted above, why should Joshua Israel, why should Israel, why should Israel, why should Israel, why should Israel, when they're in the midst of exile, why should they not fear?

[26:01] Because the God of steadfast love and faithfulness, the God of power and of might, the Lord of hosts, is their God, is with them.

[26:14] And their God, their God who is with them, he walks with them into the battle and through many waters and through the fire and even in the valley of the shadow of death.

[26:26] So believe in God, Jesus tells his disciples. If your translation says, you believe in God, believe also in me, it is possible Jesus is making a statement, but in the context it seems more likely he's telling them to also believe in God.

[26:42] believe in God, believe also in me. Now this is another one of Jesus' claims to deity. Believe also in me, right? He is claiming oneness with the Father, which is a big theme of John, it's going to be a big theme of the Upper Room Discourse.

[26:58] Believing in God means believing in Jesus. Believing in Jesus means believing in God, right? Jesus is the incarnation of God himself, the word made flesh.

[27:09] Jesus has revealed and is going to even further reveal in human form the glory of the everlasting God, Father. The disciples' faith, if it's in God, they need not be troubled.

[27:25] They need not be troubled. Now John, the Apostle John would later write in 1 John, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, right?

[27:35] Yes, if you believe in God and in Christ, then you are enveloped in a relationship, of perfect, steadfast, triumphant, undying love in which fear is cast aside.

[27:50] It's cast aside. I want to ask, are you troubled this morning like the disciples? Well, there are all sorts of reasons to be troubled, are there not?

[28:05] Are you troubled this morning by relational strife? maybe children who persist in rebelling, whether they're 5 or 25?

[28:17] Perhaps your own failures, your own sin. Maybe you're troubled this morning by health problems, by acute or chronic health problems.

[28:28] We just witnessed another shooting in our country? That's troubling, is it not? the drama of American politics, maybe you're troubled by that. Matters of social injustice, which abound.

[28:43] Wars overseas, which don't seem to stop. What about the increasing hostility, even in our own country, against Christianity? Does that trouble you? And the persecution of the saints all over the world?

[28:56] Now maybe it's something more mundane than that. Maybe it's just house repairs. Sometimes I'm more troubled by the mundane stuff than the big stuff. It's like less obvious that I need help, and it troubles me.

[29:10] A car repairs. Maybe it's pressures at work. Maybe it's a stubbed toe. I don't know. Whatever it is that's troubling you today, I want you to know something that the Bible teaches us.

[29:24] This text shows us. True faith in God is not something theoretical. Now some of you in this room might think that. True faith in God is just a theory, it's a concept. No, no, no, no, friends.

[29:35] True faith in God is extremely practical, and that's because God is not a theory. God is not some vague life force in the air or in the sky, right?

[29:46] God is a person. He's the person. God is the creator and the sustainer of all things. He is the true reality. Like, he's more real than you and I even this morning.

[30:00] Because he is from everlasting to everlasting. To those who believe in God, he brings comfort to their souls.

[30:10] Real comfort, actual comfort to your soul in the midst of any and every troubling circumstance. circumstance. I can say that, not because I'm walking in your circumstance or I've walked through all the circumstances, but because God says so, right?

[30:26] I can say that. You guys are dealing with stuff that I'm not. Like, I'm not in your shoes in a lot of things. We're certainly not enduring the persecution the saints face across the world. My father-in-law, Randy, when he goes overseas, do you think he feels that sort of humility of like, well, I'm not facing this.

[30:43] Can I even bring this difficult word to you? Well, he can. He can. Because it's God's word. This isn't my word. It's not his. It's not Randy's. This is God's word.

[30:54] And God is real. And he brings comfort to the troubled soul. If you're not a believer this morning, you don't believe the words that I'm saying, you can experience this comfort, though, if you put your faith in Christ.

[31:14] Like, maybe you came into this room troubled, and you've never felt a deep comfort in the midst of your troubling circumstances. You can actually experience true comfort and everlasting comfort if you put your faith in Christ today.

[31:30] All right, now, here's the next thing. We should probably keep moving, huh? The destiny of their faith is heaven. in my father's house, Jesus says, are many rooms.

[31:46] If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? Okay, why is Jesus talking about how many rooms are in his dad's house?

[31:59] All right, like, is this one of those, like, my dad can beat up your dad moments, like, on the fourth grade playground? Did you ever experience those? I always knew my dad would lose, but that was just me.

[32:13] No, like, this is not one of those my dad can beat up your dad moments, right? Jesus is speaking a word of comfort to his disciples, so he's saying something that is intended to bring comfort to their souls.

[32:24] Now, the word translated rooms, in my father's house, so many rooms, it means dwelling places or abodes. Now, the King James Version, we don't really use that anymore, but it translated it as mansions, right?

[32:38] And that actually made sense based on how that word was used in the 1600s when the translation was made, but in modern times, it's actually led to a lot of misunderstanding about this text.

[32:49] See, we envision Jesus, the carpenter, like, up in heaven, like, laboring away to build us our American dream home. That is not what Jesus is talking about here.

[33:00] See, one commentator writes this, the idea is not mansions in the sky, but spiritual positions in Christ. See, Jesus is going to his death, resurrection, and ascension to make ready the way for his disciples to be brought into the family of God and to be able to dwell with and abide with God forever.

[33:23] And the fact that his father's house has many rooms, it's an indication, as D.A. Carson writes, that such ample provision has been made that there is more than enough space for every one of Jesus' disciples to join him in his father's home.

[33:40] Yeah, so Jesus promises that he will ready a place for his disciples. Now, what a great comfort this is to the disciples, right? Jesus just said he's going away, but he's going away for them, right?

[33:54] For their eternal good. That is a comfort to their souls. Now, the second thing, Jesus will return again. He says, I will come again.

[34:05] He will come again for his disciples. Now, I want to ask this, though. So Jesus says, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself.

[34:15] Now, why does he say if? If I go and prepare a place for you. If. Is it to cause us to doubt whether he really will prepare a place and come again? See, I think it's actually the opposite because, church, Jesus has prepared a place for us.

[34:32] He has done it already. Jesus has died and rose again and ascended on high. So the condition, if I go, is actually a certainty. It's happened, right?

[34:44] Therefore, the promise is certain. It's certain. Jesus will come again. And while we don't know the timing, right, for that is only the fathers to know, the second coming of Jesus is a guarantee.

[35:00] Now, this too, this is a great comfort for the disciples, right? This is speaking directly to their troubled hearts that though Jesus is leaving them, yet he will come again.

[35:10] He will come again. And this is a comfort today for us, right? That though this world and all the chaos and the trouble it brings, it just tarries on, right?

[35:21] More trouble, more trouble every day, but it is not going to tarry on endlessly because Jesus is going to come again for his children, for his disciples.

[35:34] And what will Jesus do when he returns? I want us to zoom in on that last phrase in verse 3. He says, will take you to myself. He will receive his disciples unto himself.

[35:47] I will take you to myself. And what does this remind you of? A wedding, maybe? Does this remind you of a wedding? It sounds kind of like a wedding, taking someone unto themselves.

[36:01] And if you've ever been at a Christian wedding, you should have heard these words from Ephesians 5. Husbands, love your wives as Christ, as Christ, loved the church and gave himself up for her.

[36:15] Now Paul's talking about the church. He's talking about Christ and the church. That he, Jesus, might sanctify her, the church, right? Having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish.

[36:35] And further down, Paul's quoting from Genesis 2. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.

[36:50] And he says, this mystery is profound and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. Jesus is going to take unto himself the disciples, right?

[37:01] His bride, the church. The apostle John later writes in Revelation 19 about this future marriage supper of the Lamb when the church, right, made pure, made spotless in his robes of righteousness is presented finally, fully, perfectly to Jesus, the bride, I mean, Jesus the groom.

[37:23] Are you troubled this morning, disciples of Christ? See, we can take comfort in knowing that our groom, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, he will surely come again.

[37:39] He will surely come again and he will receive you and us and all the saints unto himself. So let not your hearts be troubled.

[37:49] Now, in case the reason for all this, the readying, the returning, the receiving, in case the reason isn't clear enough, Jesus makes it explicit.

[38:03] He says, that, so that, right, that purpose statement, where I am, you may be also. See, the reason he's doing all this is for relationship, never-ending relationship, fellowship, communion, intimacy, different words that we use.

[38:23] I mean, why are husbands and wives joined together after all? Is it not to be together? Right? To be together? So Christ's readying, returning, receiving, it's so that he and his bride, the church, can enjoy everlasting relationship and intimacy with one another.

[38:43] and that is going to be the best part by far of heaven. That, unhindered fellowship with Christ.

[38:57] Will heaven have mansions in glory? Like, I don't know, but who cares? It doesn't actually matter. Will heaven literally be paved with gold and decked out with every kind of precious metal?

[39:10] I don't know. I don't think we know. I think John in Revelation 21 was attempting to describe something indescribably glorious, right? And he was confined by the limits of our language, our human language.

[39:23] The point, though, the point, the true joy is that the Lord God will be in our midst, right? The dwelling place of God will be with man. That's the point.

[39:35] Are you troubled, weary disciples of Jesus? Jesus? Are you burdened by the evil of this world? Have you been the subject of mistreatment or abuse?

[39:51] Have you been misrepresented, falsely accused? Are you fearful of an uncertain future? If you're in the Navy, your future's always uncertain.

[40:03] Are you overcome by tragedy or loss? Life's troubles, they're never ending, right? They're never ending.

[40:15] But what we see here in this text, there is a deeper, a deeper reservoir still of comfort to be found in Christ. Your friends, this is comfort.

[40:27] 2 Corinthians 4, 17, that one day this light momentary affliction, is Paul saying that the sufferings are just easy? No, no, no.

[40:37] He's doing a comparison. There is a weight of suffering upon us. There is a weight of trouble. But he says in comparison to the eternal weight of glory that we're going to have, that it's light and momentary, right?

[40:49] He says something very similar in Romans 8, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that's to be revealed. No, this light momentary affliction will give way to an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

[41:08] That's comfort for our souls. This is comfort that one day death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore.

[41:20] For we will all finally be in the unveiled presence of the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb. Let not your hearts be troubled.

[41:37] Jesus gives one final reason for the disciples not to be troubled. He says this, and you know the way to where I am going. You know the way.

[41:50] The path of their faith. Follow me. So Jesus' statement here in verse 4, and don't look ahead to verse 5 and 6 yet, his statement here in verse 4, it indicates the disciples already know the way.

[42:06] They already know it. It's a hint that Jesus has already told them in the past. Now if we flip one page back two chapters earlier, Jesus had said in John 12, 26, if anyone serves me, he must follow me.

[42:20] Right? And where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. The way to heaven is the path that has already been traveled, right, by the teacher, by the master.

[42:34] The route is marked by the footsteps of Christ. And more than that, recall one of Jesus' I am statements from John 10, verse 9.

[42:44] Jesus had said, I am the door or the gate. If anyone enters by me, he will go in, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

[42:57] See, the way to heaven, it's not just following Christ, but it is Christ himself. Now this is a theme we will take up again next week when Jesus declares in verse 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life, right?

[43:11] So I ask again, are you troubled this morning, disciple of Christ? Take comfort in this, that the way to heaven, it's not obscured, it's not hidden, it's actually been clearly revealed in Christ.

[43:27] So you don't need to question the way, you don't need to doubt that your future in heaven is secure, you need simply trust in Jesus and follow him.

[43:38] Let not your hearts be troubled this morning. I like to rock climb, I don't do it anymore, because I have small children, but I used to do it more often.

[43:53] I'm still kind of into watching things about rock climbing, we were just talking about this, community group. So recently Brittany and I watched a three part documentary called Arctic Ascent.

[44:05] It's got some cheers, I guess someone else is watching. In this documentary, Alex Honnold and a small team embark on a trekking and climbing quest across the rugged icy terrain of Greenland.

[44:18] Now if you don't know Alex Honnold, he's the crazy dude that climbed up the 3,000 foot granite wall of El Cap in Yosemite without any ropes. He's nuts.

[44:29] But he's very exciting to watch. So in Arctic Ascent though, he actually uses ropes, which is good, a little less scary, but he's climbing up these never before climbed walls of rock in Greenland.

[44:44] And as he's lead climbing up, he's setting gear in the rock wall to attach to, so his rope can go through this gear that he's setting in the rocks, and then those coming up behind him can attach to that gear that Alex Honnold has already placed.

[45:01] And man, I was just hit with that analogy. It's so similar to the Christian life. Because Jesus, he's like the lead climber. He has forged a path that nobody else could possibly have forged.

[45:13] Nobody else was going up that wall if Jesus didn't go up that wall first. By his death, his life, I mean, he lived a perfect life that we could not live. And then his sacrificial death on the cross, and then his mighty resurrection from the grave, and then his ascension back to the Father.

[45:30] He walked that path. We could have never walked it. And now we follow in his steps, right? We follow up the gear that he's set, trusting that the rope is strong, the gear is sturdy.

[45:45] And friends, many have gone before us, and they've found these things to be so, right? Like millions of saints, and you probably know some of them personally. They've climbed up that arduous ascent, finding that rope to be sturdy, right?

[46:01] Finding the gear to be trustworthy. And when they've fallen because their strength failed, or they placed their weight on loose rock, he held them secure.

[46:13] No one's going to snatch them out of my hand, right? Jesus said. His power, his love, it held them. And even when they were deeply troubled by the dangers, by the uncertainties of the climb, they were comforted by his presence, and the hope of what awaited them at the top.

[46:30] Right? And they knew that he had prepared a place for them, that he would receive them into glory. And how delighted Christ has been every time one of his saints has reached the end, and he says, well done, good and faithful servant.

[46:50] How delighted will he be when you and I reach the end? How delighted will he be when he comes back and at once takes all of the bride, his church, to be with him in endless glory.

[47:03] Let not your hearts be troubled, disciples of Christ. The comforts of Christ run far deeper. They persist infinitely longer than any of the troubles that we face in this life.

[47:20] Now as a final exhortation, I just want to say, brothers and sisters in Christ, if you, if we have experienced everlasting comfort in the midst of our troubles, if we have experienced the comfort of Christ through any circumstance, then let us beckon still more sinners to Christ that they might experience the same thing.

[47:44] This is something we cannot keep for ourselves. This beckons us to preach the gospel, to share the gospel, to call the lost into this comfort.

[47:57] I want to close by reading the words of the hymn, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. O soul, are you weary and troubled?

[48:08] No light in the darkness you see. There's light for a look at the Savior in life more abundant and free. And the refrain sings, turn your eyes upon Jesus.

[48:22] Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Through death into life everlasting He passed, and we follow Him there.

[48:37] O'er us sin no more hath dominion, for more than conquerors we are. His word shall not fail you, He promised. Believe Him and all will be well.

[48:50] Then go to a world that is dying, His perfect salvation to tell. Heavenly Father, what glory belongs to those who put their faith and trust in Your Son, Jesus Christ?

[49:10] God, this world is a troubling place. God, we know that this world is run by the prince of darkness, one who masquerades as an angel of light.

[49:25] We know that this world has placed upon it a curse that affects every corner of the globe and the universe and every corner of our hearts. There is so much trouble to be had, and yet we see from this text, we see from Your Word, from the life of Christ, that there is comfort.

[49:51] There is comfort. It is so much greater, it is so much deeper, it will outlast any light and momentary affliction that we face in this life.

[50:03] Lord, let Your saints be comforted in Christ this morning. And God, I pray if there is someone here that is facing the troubles of life but doesn't know You and hasn't experienced this comfort.

[50:16] Oh God, would You lead them to the waters of joy, the waters of salvation, that they might be comforted by the God of all comfort, which is You, Lord.

[50:27] We pray this in matchless name of Christ, our King, our Savior, the One who has gone before us. In Jesus' name, Amen.