John 13:36-14:4 - The Farewell (for Now) Discourse: Do Not Be Troubled. Believe!
Preached on May 24, 2009, by Eric Schumacher.
Topics: Gospel Of John
© Eric M Schumacher – Preached May 24, 2009 at Northbrook Baptist Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
One of the things that we ought to remember on Memorial Day is not only the sacrifices that soldiers made for our country, but the sacrifices they were willing to make for each other. One of the mottos that soldiers live by is “leave no man behind.”
I thought of that motto this week as I read Edward Treski’s recounting of his experience as a prisoner of war in a Japanese internment camp. He and 750 others were crammed into the hull of a Japanese ship, to be hid from the U.S. That ship would be torpedoed. As soldiers swam out of the hole in the side of the ship, the Japanese were waiting in their lifeboats to kill escaping prisoners. Treski was able to swim toward shore, though his ankle was shot through by Japanese machine gun fire. When he reached shore, his groin cloth was the only clothing he had to bandage his ankle. Then he fled into a cornfield on the shore of the island.
You can only imagine how frightening it would be to be all alone, running naked from enemy soldiers on a foreign island. Eventually, he was able to connect with other 81 who survived. They were eventually rescued by a U.S. submarine and able to come home.
The history of war is filled with heroic stories of soldiers going back to save fellow soldier, such as the one told in the film “Black Hawk Down.” It would be a terrible feeling to be left all alone on the battlefield. It would be a comfort to know that your brothers in arms were committed to not leaving you behind.
Few things are as frightening as the prospect of being left alone. And that is the situation that Jesus’ disciples are beginning to fear.
A Unique and Necessary Departure
Jesus had just stated that he will soon be going away, going somewhere that they cannot come. He followed that by beginning to explain what he expected of his followers in his absence, particularly the “new commandment,” that they love one another as he has loved them.
Peter, however, is so distracted by the thought of Jesus going away to a place that they cannot come, that he must interrupt with a question—“Lord, where are you going?”
Jesus’ answer will only further provoke Peter’s concern. Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.”
There are two things that Jesus establishes in this statement that are important for us to grasp. First, Jesus’ departure is unique; only he can do this. Jesus says, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now.” Jesus must take this trip alone, because it is a departure that only he is qualified to make. This “departure,” you remember, is the return to the glory he shared with the Father. The path of departure is through death by crucifixion and then resurrection from the dead. And what he accomplished in that departure via crucifixion is the perfect glorification of God. We saw last time that Jesus said that the hour of his crucifixion was the time when “the Son of Man [is] glorified, and God is glorified in him.”
Jesus glorifies the father by dying as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He glorifies the Father by living a perfect, sinless, absolutely obedient life. He glorifies the Father by bearing in his body on the tree the wrath of God against sin. The Father glorifies him by raising him from the dead and exalting the Son to his right hand in power.
This is why, when Peter says, “I will lay down my life for you,” Jesus responds, “Will you lay down your life for me?” In other words, “Peter—who is dying for who?” Peter has still failed to grasp the reason for Jesus’ departure. He has not grasped what Jesus said in John 10:15, “I lay down my life for the sheep.”
Peter cannot follow Jesus because Peter (and the rest of the eleven) are sinners, who are not capable of perfectly revealing and glorifying the Father or of dying as sacrificial lambs to take away the sin of the world.
Second, we see that Jesus’ departure is necessary, if his disciples are to follow him. Notice the time indicators in Jesus’ statement. “Where I am going you cannot follow me now.” Peter is not capable of following Jesus, at this time. But, that will not be the case after Jesus has departed. Jesus says, “But you will follow afterward.”
Peter will follow Jesus and lay down his life for Jesus, quite literally. The Gospel ends with Jesus telling Peter (21:18-19):Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”For Peter, following Jesus will literally mean being crucified. Peter will not die as a lamb that takes away the sin of the world. But, he will follow Jesus into glory and will glorify Jesus by suffering for his sake and the sake of the Gospel. Indeed, all the disciples will suffer to follow Jesus.
But, this sort of “following”—both suffering for the Gospel and entering into the Father’s glory—are only possible as a result of Jesus’ prior work. It is only because Jesus’ goes it alone first that Jesus’ followers can follow. What Jesus’ accomplishes in his unique death and resurrection, his departure to the Father, makes it possible for his disciples to live bold lives of fearless suffering on their way to glory.
That is something for us to remember. The only reason that we can be bold and not fear and suffer for the Gospel and find entrance into the glory of God is because of what Jesus has done in his crucifixion, resurrection and on-going ministry at the Father’s right hand.
This is something that Jesus illustrates in the on-going conversation with Peter.
The Necessity Illustrated
Peter replies to Jesus boldly, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” His response is a mixture of confused loyalty and self-sufficient pride.
Jesus replies by noting the irony—“Will you lay down your life for me?” At this time, the case is anything but. In fact, Jesus points out to Peter that just the opposite is about to happen—“Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.”
Apparently, roosters crowed in Palestine at about 12:30, 1:30 and 2:30am, leading the Romans to call the watch between midnight and 3am the “cock crow.” Jesus is saying—“Peter, you will not lay down your life for me tonight. In fact, you will do quite the opposite. Before the night is over, you will actually deny me three times!” That, in fact, will happen. In John 18 we will read that when Peter denies Jesus for the third time a rooster crows.
What is going on here? What point is Jesus getting at? Peter obviously will go through a transformation. He will go from being a man who denies Jesus three times to being a man who will be crucified for preaching Jesus’ name. The key to that transformation is what happens in-between—and that is the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus.
What Jesus’ ministry provides is what we need in order to follow him in a hostile world. And that—what Jesus’ provides for his followers in this world—is what the Farewell Discourse in John 14-16 is all about.
Perhaps you are a person who struggles with fear, anxiety, timidity as a follower of Jesus. I would encourage you to spend time in prayerful study and meditation on John 14-16. These three chapters are all about what how Jesus’ followers are able to live with peace and boldness while Jesus is away and they are left in a hostile world.
Let Not Your Hearts Be Troubled
Jesus immediately follows his prediction of Peter’s betrayal with a command, “Let not your hearts be troubled.”
Amazing, isn’t it? Jesus is the one who is going to the cross and has every reason to be troubled. In fact, he has been “troubled” at the thought of his approaching death (12:27; 13:21). And yet, he is the one who is doing the comforting.
The disciples just heard that Jesus is going away to a place that they cannot follow. They’ve already heard that Jesus will be betrayed by one of them. And now, they learn that Peter is going to deny Jesus three times. If Peter’s faith is going to fail, then what will become of their faith? It probably seemed like the world they knew was about to fall apart. They had left everything to follow Jesus—and now he is going to leave them!?
In light of all this, Jesus commands, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” The heart represents the center of a person’s will and emotions. To “not be troubled” is another way of saying not to be afraid. The most frequent command given in Scripture is “do not be afraid.”
Jesus is stating that his departure from them should not cause them to be troubled and afraid. But, why not?
We should notice that Jesus does not stop after merely giving a negative command. Rarely, if ever, does God give us a command to not be one thing, without balancing it with a statement about what we should be.
So, Jesus gives two more commands—“Believe in God; believe also in me.”
The means to overcoming fear in the Christian life is trust in the God of the Bible—believing in God the Father and in his Son, Jesus Christ.
Why we ought to trust in God and how belief in God must be connected to belief in Jesus will be unpacked in the following verses. Before we move on, however, let me note two things:
First, you should note the level on which Jesus places himself. He puts himself alongside and equal to God as an object of faith. Jesus here and in the verses to follow is doing nothing less than making a claim to be God.
Second, notice that a life free from fear but without faith in Jesus is less than what Christ commands. Anxiety is a major problem in our culture. Fear paralyzes people. And there are many ways in which to deal with anxiety through medication and psychological steps. However helpful those things may be, the ultimate place to which we should be moving in our fears is to faith that rests on what God the Father has provided for us in Jesus Christ—which is what this passage is about.
The key to conquering anxiety is learning to be satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus Christ—which you cannot do unless you know what God has provided in and through Jesus Christ. And you cannot know that truly apart from prayerfully studying and meditating on what Scripture teaches about that.
A Four-fold Foundation for Faith
The reason that those who believe in Jesus need not be troubled is four-fold. Believers in Jesus need not be troubled because:
1. His Father’s house has ample provision to accommodate them all.
Jesus says, “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” The “Father’s house” refers to the place where the Father dwells. It speaks of heaven. In this house there are “many rooms.” William Tyndale translated this “mansions,” after the Latin word. That has often led people to focus on how elaborate the heavenly dwelling place will be. But, Jesus’ point is not that our heavenly dwelling place will be elaborate, even though it may be so.
The word “rooms” is the word for “dwelling place.” The point is—there are enough “dwelling places” to accommodate all who believe in God and in Jesus.
This confident expectation through Jesus can be contrasted with the sad example of the Jews in chapter 11 (48). The Jewish leaders said of Jesus, “If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” The Jews, wanting to keep “their place,” rejected Jesus. And, in the year 70ad, the Romans came and destroyed the Temple, “their place.” Rejecting Jesus, they lost both their place in this world, and their place in the Father’s presence. But the one who believes in Jesus, though he lose house and home in this world, has the confidence of abundant accommodations in the Father’s house.
That thought should comfort us. No matter what this life may bring or take away, there is abundant provision for us in the Father’s presence. One anecdote to fear and anxiety in life is confidence that God has provided a dwelling place for you in his presence.
This should also cause believers to have a different perspective on our dwellings here. I would encourage our graduates this morning, as they head off into college or careers, to consider what they are pursuing and why. I would encourage all of us who have faith in Jesus Christ to think about how we view our earthly house and possessions. If the Father’s house has many dwelling places, then we ought to live like the saints in Hebrews 11, who were “looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God,” as saints who “desiring a better country, that is, a heavenly one.”
As Paul quotes in 1 Corinthians 2:9, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.”
2. Jesus himself prepares a place for those who believe in him through his departure.
Jesus follows this statement about his Father’s house with a statement of reassurance. He states that if there were not many dwelling places in his Father’s house, then he would not have told them. Then he tells them, “I go to prepare a place for you.” The dwelling places for those who believe in Jesus are prepared by Jesus himself.
In Jesus’ time, multiple generations lived together. Many dwelling units were combined to form an extended household. When a son was married, he would build onto his father’s house for his new household to live in.
Now, as Jesus’ followers, we are members of the Father’s household. Jesus is still the servant, preparing the place for his bride to live with him in his Father’s house.
What does it means that Jesus “prepares” this place? Some have interpreted this to mean that this is what Jesus is doing right this moment, as we speak. He went into heaven to literally build us some heavenly accommodations and once he is finished with his heavenly development project, then he will come back for us. All we are waiting for now is for him to put the final touches on our “condo in glory.”
I think that there is a better interpretation. Twice, Jesus connects his “going” with the “preparing.” “I go to prepare a place for you.” “I go and prepare a place for you.” I think that we should be understanding Jesus to teach that his actual going, his departure, is the preparation of the place for us.
So long as we are sinful and unclean, we are not fit to dwell in the Father’s house, and its rooms cannot receive us. In order for us to have a place in the Father’s presence, then we must be clean, washed, sanctified, justified, we must be righteous, we must be adopted as sons and made heirs of the promise, and we must have the Spirit poured into our hearts so that we cry, “Abba! Father!” We must become the bride of the bridegroom.
For all of that to happen—for such preparation to take place—Jesus must die on the cross, bearing the penalty for our sins. Jesus must rise from the dead, conquering sin, death and the devil. Jesus must ascend to the Father’s right hand. Jesus must be given the promised Spirit, which he then will pour out onto his people to apply the work of the Gospel.
And so, that is why Jesus goes away. If he did not go away, then none of these preparations could be made. Jesus goes away to prepare a place for us.
But what good is all this, if Jesus is there and we are here? Jesus next reassures his disciples that he will return for them.
3. Jesus will come again and take those who believe in him to be with him forever.
Jesus assures them that if he goes to prepare a place for them, then he will surely come for them. He says, “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.”
The first thing that you should notice in this statement is the shift in focus. Earlier Jesus focus on preparing a place for his disciples. You would assume that Jesus would say that he will come again to take them to that place. Instead, the focus shifts from a place to a person.
Jesus says, “I…will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” Though this includes a place, “where I am,” Jesus emphasis is on the fact that those who believe in him will be with him.
The great longing and desire of God’s people is to be with and have God. What was lost in the Garden of Eden was not simply paradise—man lost the presence of God! What God graciously gave Israel in the promised land was not simply a abundant land, but his presence dwelling in their midst through the Tabernacle and later the Temple. What Israel lost in exile was not simply their homeland, but God’s presence dwelling in their midst.
What God’s people desire more than anything else is to be with God. And, what Christ’s people desire more than anything is to be with their Lord, their God, their Bridegroom.
The great promise that believers possess is that of eternal, personal fellowship with God through the person of Jesus Christ.
The question that we must answer is what Jesus means by “I will come again.” Jesus actually speaks of “coming again” to his disciples in various ways in these chapters. For example, in John 14:18-19, Jesus says, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me.” There, Jesus is referring to appearing to his disciples after the resurrection.
Later, in John 14:23, Jesus says, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” So here Jesus coming to his disciples is through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Now, neither of those is what Jesus is speaking about in our passage. In both those instances, Jesus is speaking about coming to where his disciples are. In our passage, Jesus is speaking about taking his disciples to where he is.
Nevertheless, I want us to notice this great theme running through all of this—Jesus is always, in some sense, with his people. When we are saved, we are united with Christ and filled with his Spirit, and though we are not with him bodily yet, we are indwelt by his Spirit. That means that we are never separated from Christ.
What Jesus speaks of here is his return at the end of history to rescue his people and consummate their salvation with the longed for promise of a resurrection to be with him personally and bodily forever. That is the vision that Paul encourages the Thessalonians with in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18:For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.The most encouraging words that believers can speak to each other are these: “we will always be with the Lord.” And that is what Jesus promises here.
It is interesting that in this passage, Jesus says so little about the nature of the place to which he will take us. All those inquisitive and curious questions will have to wait. But that is okay—the important thing is that we will be with Jesus, where he is. That is sufficient for the saint.
4. Believers in Jesus know the way to where he is going because they know him.
If Jesus is going to come and get his believers and take them to be with him, that is sufficient to comfort them. Still, Jesus adds one more reason not to be troubled. He tells them that they know the way to where he is going.
“Where he is going” is back to the Father. We saw that in John 13:1 – “his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father.” And now, Jesus tells his disciples that they know the way to the Father.
The disciples still are not understanding, which prompts Thomas’s question, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know they way?”
Jesus’ reply constitutes one of the most rich and beautiful passages of Scripture—“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Those sentences contain more truth than we have time to unpack. We’ll look at them next week, Lord willing.
For now, we should note this—the way (and the only way) to the Father and to the Father’s house and its many dwelling places is through Jesus Christ. He is the perfect revelation of the Father; to know him is to know the Father.
And what “way” does Jesus take back to his Father? He goes through crucifixion and resurrection.
And so how do we follow “the way”? Through his crucifixion and resurrection. By faith, we are united with Jesus Christ, so that if he has died for sins beneath God’s wrath, then we are counted as having died beneath God’s wrath for sin. And if we have died with him, we shall also live with him.
Conclusion
Do you know the way to God the Father? Are you repenting of your sins and trusting in Jesus Christ?
Do you know Jesus Christ? For the only way to know the Father is to know the Son.
Christian, is your greatest desire and your ultimate hope to be with Jesus Christ where he is?
Christian, will you let go of your hold on this world and live boldly and confidently, by resting in the assurance that Jesus has gone to prepare a place for you?
Christian, will you study and pray and meditate on what Jesus has said so that you can find freedom from your worry, fear and anxiety? Will you learn to rest in the promise that Jesus has done, is doing, and will do everything needed to fulfill the greatest desire of your heart—personal, intimate fellowship with him.
Christian—go this morning and live in the confident hope that because he has gone away, we will always be with the Lord!