Let not your heart be troubled

I'll read a passage that has already been quoted, so we'll read in John's Gospel, Chapter 14. The 14th chapter of the Gospel of John. And we'll read from verse 1. John Chapter 14, verse 1. Let not your heart be troubled.

You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you.

I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Whither I go, ye know, and the way ye know.

Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? It seems like Thomas is repeating the statement that Peter made back in verse 36 of the previous chapter when Peter said to the Lord Jesus, Lord, whither goest thou? That's all that we will read. And we trust God will add his blessing just to the reading of the word of God. Just for a few moments this morning, I would like to notice with you three simple thoughts.

I want you to think with me for a moment of a word for the troubled heart. The Savior said, let not your heart be troubled. Then I would like you to think for a moment about a word about the Father's house.

He said, in my Father's house. And then finally, a word about the rapture. I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

A word for the troubled heart. A word about the Father's house. And a word about the rapture.

The Lord Jesus Christ himself speaking here. Notice that he said, let not your heart be troubled. Very clear, very simple statement.

That word heart is in the singular. And that's significant because he is speaking to a group of his disciples. Two of them are mentioned here, Peter and Thomas.

They are surrounding him. He's speaking to a group of them. But the words that he is speaking are deliberately for each one individually.

So he's speaking to each of these men. And he has a word for each of them. And then, of course, that word comes to us as well this morning.

So he says, let not your heart be troubled. That word troubled means disquieted. It has the thought of distressed.

It's the thought of being agitated. These men would no doubt recall the words of the Lord Jesus Christ as their life would continue. Shortly, they will see one of their own betray the Savior.

One who had accompanied them for three years. They would watch while Judas planted the kiss of betrayal and led the rebel throng to arrest the Lord Jesus Christ. They would witness that.

That would be troubling. That would concern them. They would experience their own failure.

Peter would deny the Lord. That troubled Peter. They all forsook him and fled.

Not just Peter. But they would all leave the Savior. As far as we know, only one of them stood at the cross.

One of all of these men. One stood at the cross. That was John.

John stood beside Mary at the cross. John himself saw the suffering of the Savior upon that cross. But the rest of them had forsaken him.

And in the short time that followed, I'm sure that that would be troubling to them. Peter had seen the Lord mocked. He had seen the Lord scourged.

Or at least the results of that. Peter had said that he was an eyewitness of the sufferings of Christ. He saw some of the things that men did to the Lord Jesus.

He never saw everything. Peter says when he was reviled, he reviled not again when he suffered. Peter saw that.

And as Peter meditated a little in the time to come on that, that would be troubling to Peter that he not only saw that, but he had denied the Lord. It would be troubling to Peter. And then after the resurrection and after they had seen him alive, and they were surrounding him on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, thinking that he was going to be with them, thinking that perhaps he was going to restore the kingdom, and they watched while he went back to heaven.

He left them. It would be troubling. That's why the angel would say to them, you men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven so? This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go up into heaven.

As far as we know, historically, not from the Bible, but historically, that perhaps with the exception of John, all of these men looked into the eyes of an executioner. They were all going to face death, and they were going to face a violent death. There would be a moment in the experience of these men when there would be trouble.

And no doubt they would go back to the words that they heard the Savior say, let not your heart be troubled. It's kind of hard, isn't it? I'm certain that every one of us here have faced times in our life that have been very troubling. Perhaps illness, the uncertainties of employment, one thing or another.

And we have been troubled. And it's difficult, isn't it? So let not your heart be troubled. And yet, that's what the Savior said.

He gave a remedy for the troubled heart. He said, you believe in God. That really is an imperative command for the troubled heart.

The Savior is giving a remedy. He says, believe God. I know a man very well who had an expression that I have heard him repeat a number of times.

He said, there is nothing that is out of control. Do you believe that? That everything is under the hand of God. And so the Savior is reminding his disciples here and reminding us.

Believe God. God has his hands on every detail in the life of a believer. And we'd be confident that he has a purpose for what comes into our life.

Even though we may not grasp that purpose, we may have difficulty seeking to understand it. But with our God, there is nothing out of control. And so the Savior gave them a remedy for the troubled heart.

Believe God. But then he gave them a second remedy for the troubled heart. He said here, not only believe God, but he said, believe also in me.

There's a man in heaven who knows every detail of our lives. Every experience that we are passing through. He was at all points tempted like as we are, apart from sin.

There's nothing that comes into the life of a believer. But what there is a man in heaven who can sympathize with that problem, with that difficulty, with that illness. And so he says, believe also in me.

Beautiful statement in the Old Testament, Isaiah 53. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee. The writer to the Hebrews, no doubt quoting the words of the Savior, gave us a beautiful statement.

I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. In every detail of life, there is one who is with us, who sympathizes with us. He said, not only believe God, but believe also in me.

Interesting that when Stephen was facing death, a violent death, he wasn't forsaken. When Stephen looked up to heaven, he saw Jesus standing. I think that is an impressive statement.

You know that the Bible says, reminds us thankfully, that when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. That he sat means a finished work, it was completed. All was finished.

But when Stephen was facing a violent death, God knew every detail. The Lord Jesus sympathized with his suffering servant upon earth. And when Stephen looked up, he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God, a work that was not complete, a work that he is doing today.

He draws near to a suffering saint. He says, let not your heart be troubled. Can I rephrase it just another way? I am with you.

I understand. I know what you're passing through. I know all the details.

I know how deep the suffering is. I know your experience. But I'm with you.

As a great high priest, who sympathizes with every moment of our life. And so when he said here, let not your heart be troubled. Well, I would agree with you that that is difficult.

Because sometimes we can be so occupied with the circumstances that we forget. That there's a man in heaven who knows every experience that we are passing through. And he made this statement, let not your heart be troubled.

You believe in God, believe also in me. And then he had a word about the Father's house to encourage, in my Father's house. Twice the Lord Jesus acknowledged his Father's house.

You remember in John chapter 2, in the temple, he referred to it as my Father's house. They made it a den of merchandise, and that touched his heart. But when he referred to his Father's house here in John chapter 14, of course, it's a different location.

It's an entirely different scene. He said, in my Father's house. The Father's house is occupied at the present moment.

Thankfully the Lord is there. Received up in glory, crowned with glory and honor, given the highest place in heaven. But there are multitudes of believers presently in the Father's house.

That is those who have passed from the scenes of time. Whether in the case of these men that he is speaking to, as we have said, most of them are martyrs death. They're in the Father's house.

Those that we hold dear are in the Father's house. I stood at the open grave of my mother. Thankfully, that she was absent from the body, but that she was present with the Lord.

So the Father's house is occupied at the present moment. She says, in my Father's house are many mansions. Now, I heard a brother in a recent conference, and if I mention his name, well-known.

Brother Alec Driver was present at the same time. And the brother was speaking, referred to this passage of scripture. And he very, very neatly skipped around the many mansions.

And the other detail that I'm going to mention in a moment, Brother Driver and I were kind of smiling because he never told us much about the mansions. But notice what the Lord said. That's the present tense.

He's standing upon earth, and he said, are many mansions. Whatever he was referring to, they were already in existence. He did not go to heaven to repair mansions.

I would have to confess to you that I'm not just certain about the mansions. But I am certain of this. That whatever the Lord was referring to, he wasn't referring to himself going to heaven to build mansions.

I'm just not too impressed, really, with the words of the hymn, I'm satisfied with a mansion just over the hilltop. I'm just not satisfied that that's absolutely accurate. I think perhaps, as a suggestion, that there were little rooms relative to the temple in Solomon's day for the service in the temple.

I would rather relate the mansions to service in heaven than we are going to render to the Savior in heaven. So he said, are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you.

And now here's another issue that brethren that are in front of me right now may not agree with me, but that's all right, we're going to be agreeable. I go to prepare a place for you. I don't believe the place was heaven.

I don't believe he's going to heaven to repair mansions. I'm satisfied in my soul that the place that he was going to was a cross. He was going to suffer.

I think he was going to Calvary. He was going to prepare a place of acceptance where we would have an acceptance with God because of the finished work of the cross. I go to repair a place for you.

I wonder if Peter and then Thomas, the two passages that I referred to at the beginning, if they were wondering about that. That where was the Savior going? Not immediately to heaven, but he's going to suffer on the cross. Going to prepare that place whereby they would have an acceptance eternally with God.

But you'll notice a word about the rapture. If I go, and you know, I'm sure that everyone here understands that the word if does not always imply doubt. In fact, it implies the opposite.

And so the meaning of the word if here is since I will come again. Now, maybe I'm speaking to some, like the speaker. And for a long time, I wrestled with statements in the synoptic gospels and tried to apply them to the rapture with some difficulty to discover that the rapture is not in the synoptic gospels.

So when you come to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the word synoptic means similar gospels. In those gospels, you don't find the rapture. You do find the Lord's return to earth, that is coming back to the earth.

For example, when you come to Matthew chapter 24, if you read the chapter, I think if you would choose to count in that chapter, you would likely notice that there are 24 signs in that chapter. There are signs that you're not going to see upon this earth if you're saved. That is, you're going to be caught away.

Those are signs that the ungodly that are left behind upon this earth are going to see. They are signs that will take place before the Lord comes back to earth, but they are signs that will occur after the rapture. And so I satisfied my own thinking that that's not the rapture in Matthew chapter 24 and in Matthew chapter 25.

But when I come to John, John is occupied with the rapture. And so he's giving to us the words of the Lord Jesus Christ here where the Lord promised these men, I will come again. That is, he promised her that he is going to come to the air above the earth, that he is going to receive his own, that they are going to meet him in the air.

Of course, when I said that the Father's house is occupied, that's the souls of those who have gone on before us. Bodies in the grave upon earth. And every body of every believer is going to be raised.

That's no difficulty with the Savior. There may have been many that have gone down to the oceans of this earth and their bodies are what was left or the remnants of their bodies have been carried to the corners of the ocean by the currents of the ocean. They're going to be raised.

The God of creation who created this world by the word of his power is going to give that word, the Lord Jesus will give that word and every saint is going to be raised. That is the body of every saint. To be reunited with the soul and to be in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, going to meet him in the air.

He says, I will come again and then notice and receive you. What a reception to be received by him. He's longing for that.

He was at that wedding in Cana of Galilee. We might assume perhaps that it was a young couple and they're getting married. Whatever that ceremony entailed, whatever there was to go through in that wedding ceremony, the Lord was there.

And as he watched a couple being united in marriage, I wonder what he was thinking. I don't think we have to wonder too much. He too would have a bride.

But his bride would be somewhat different because his bride would be purchased by precious blood. She would be blood-bond. She would be purchased at tremendous cost.

The sufferings and the shedding of his precious blood at Calvary to purchase a bride for himself I would have little doubt that in the thinking of the Savior at that marriage in Cana of Galilee, he too was thinking, I'm going to have a bride. He says he's going to receive her. He says, I will receive you.

And so the heavenly bridegroom is going to receive a bride. What a reception to meet the Savior in the air. There's a man in heaven and there's one satisfaction that at this present moment, he does not have.

Doesn't have his bride yet. And there's altogether likely that he is longing more for that moment to come than you and I are longing for it to come. That is, are we really waiting for the coming of the Lord? Are we really in anticipation of that coming and in anticipation of what it will mean at that moment to be received by him, to receive by the heavenly bridegroom in the air.

I will receive you. He says unto myself, what a fellowship, what a reception to enjoy eternal fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ himself. I will receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also.

I would gather that the Lord is giving a word in these verses for troubled hearts. And so for troubled hearts, consider heaven, my father's house, for troubled hearts. Consider that we are soon going to meet the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are going to be with him. Well, his face answers to face in waters. Yes.

The present speaker passes through times when there are troubling moments, difficult times. Life can be very difficult at times. But then when we come again to the verses that we have read in John chapter 14, we are reminded by the Lord himself as he gives a word for our troubled hearts.

Whatever the circumstances are, however deep the waters, he says, let not your heart be troubled. Believe God, believe also in me. A word about the father's house, the future that is before us.

And then a word about the rapture. I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also.