The Way Home

What do you do when your heart is troubled by life, loss, or deeper questions about meaning? In this message from John 14, we’re reminded that Jesus doesn’t just give answers. He gives Himself as the way, the truth, and the life.

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See ya. Turn with me on this fifth Sunday of the Easter season to the Gospel According to John, chapter 14.

The Gospel of John, chapter 14. And you may remember that in year A, which is what we're in, that primarily focuses on the Gospel of Matthew, right? So you're A, B, C, but Matthew, Mark, Luke, right, you get the Synoptic Gospels. However, all throughout all three of those years, there are certain times where we turn to the Gospel of John and kind of live there for just a little bit. And we've been there, as you noted, the past few Sundays.

And so here we are at John, chapter 14. And when you found that, go ahead and stand with me for the reading of God's word this morning.

Notice these words in John 14, starting with verse 1.

Jesus said, do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in Me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know Me, you will know my Father also from now on. You do know him and have seen Him. Philip said to him, lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied. Jesus said to him, have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in Me does His works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.

But if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in Me will also do the works that I do and. And in fact will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in My name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

Lord Jesus, thank you for this beautiful, challenging word this morning.

Would you come to assist us? We find Ourselves, like Thomas and Philip, asking more questions after we've heard your truth.

So send the spirit of truth this morning to speak to us in this room. We pray in your name. Amen. And you can be seated.

One of the. If you've ever read the Gospel of John, one of the things that you'll note in studying this Gospel is John, for whatever reason, likes to highlight confusion about Jesus. You know, this is often. Right. You must be born again.

How can I enter into my mother's womb again? Right. No, buddy, come on, keep up. We're talking spiritually now. Oh, okay.

Yeah. You know, and then on and on throughout the Gospel, we could sit here and talk about his I am statements and how confusing they are, perhaps. And this text this morning, well, it's no different. And I'm so thankful for Thomas, aren't you? Sometimes we kind of give him, you know, oh, well, doubting Thomas, you know, kind of make fun of him, jab at him a little bit.

He's probably not going to like that, by the way, when you meet him one day.

But we kind of give Thomas a hard time. But here he's doing what really we should all be doing, which is asking questions. You know, sometimes when you're, like, in a lecture or whatever, you know, you want to appear like you're getting it. You know what I mean? Like, you're in a room full of apparently smart people, and you're in there, so you're like, oh, no, no.

Mm. Yeah. Mm. But you ain't got it. You know, you don't have a clue.

And it's good at that point to actually ask questions. But many of us are afraid. Afraid we won't understand or afraid of how we'll look, will look stupid, right? But a lot of times when, you know, I had a buddy of mine in seminary who would always do that. Like, he would always ask the question that everybody really wanted to ask but just felt dumb asking, like, oh, I'm sorry, what does parakresis mean again?

I forgot, you know, and he would ask and. Oh, that's right. Okay, good. Thanks, Billy. Appreciate it.

You know, I'm saying this morning. Thanks, Thomas. Thanks, Philip. We actually get two of the disciples here that are asking questions about what Jesus is saying, because quite frankly, this is some of the deepest, if you will, richest material we have on the very nature of who God is and likewise, who then we are and what we are to become. This is like ground zero down at the bottom of the whole foundation, like, first principles kind of stuff, which means everything Else is built on them.

But getting down there is like going to the deep end. It's hard for us to see all the way down, and it's hard for us to live down there, quite frankly.

But that's okay because we have the spirit of truth who Christ has sent to us because he's ascended. He did say he had to go away, but that he would send a helper. And I'm praying that helper is with us today as we just take a moment to reflect on this critical passage. Now, just to drop us into the context real quick, this is on the very night when Jesus broke the bread, washed the feet, and was ultimately betrayed, prayed in the garden, and so on.

And the last words to his disciples. This is them now. Just told you that I've been traveling a little bit the past few weeks. When I leave the house and I'm giving someone instructions, like whoever's the oldest child, right? If Jessica and I both are, then I'm like, hey, there's some things that you need to be doing, right?

Anybody ever done this before? Like you're leaving and it's like somebody's gonna be taking care of your house or whatever. You're gonna give them instructions, right? Because you're about to leave, you're not gonna be available, whatever. And my instructions are very practical.

You know, lock the doors, cut on these particular lights outside for security measures and so on and so forth. It's mainly security stuff. That's typically what I'm concerned about. So the house doesn't burn down, you know, things like that. So my kids don't get kidnapped or something, or the dogs run the place, you know, that's the kind of things I'm worried about.

Jesus, in his last words, doesn't give a lot of practical advice. It's very interesting. Instead, he does a deep dive into the very foundation of who God is and likewise, again, who we're supposed to be in God. It's mind blowing. Dr. Kinlaw put it this way, regarding chapters 13 through 17 of John, which is all one conversation in John, it seems like in a couple different locations, but nevertheless, one long.

And if you got a red edition, you know, red letter edition, it's all read just about, okay? And he says this. Jesus, in his last words to his disciples, gave a dissertation on the Holy Trinity, which is shocking. Like, the last thing you're going to leave them is kind of the hardest thing, theological point we can ever come to. He doesn't just say, oh, guys, by the way, remember to read your Bible.

Every day, fellas, come on now. You know, put that on the checklist. Remember to pray. Oh, shoot. Remember to be good to each other.

You know, remember to forgive. No, it's none of these kind of practical checklist things. He goes to the heart of the matter, the center of reality. Who, who is God himself. And God is in front of them.

And God is pointing to God who is in heaven and pointing to God who's about to descend after he ascends. It is a wild journey. We get more about the Holy Spirit in these few chapters than anywhere else in the Bible period. It's insane and awesome, but hard to understand. Just be real.

My hand goes up. Lord, how is this going to help us notice? Jesus begins this text saying this, do not let your hearts be troubled. Isn't that an interesting way to say it? Number one, it assumes our hearts are troubled.

And don't we find our hearts to be troubled, often troubled with things of this world?

Some of those things are things like the house or the car or we've got finances or a job or you name it. Other things are what we kind of call existential. Or they're like right at the center of our existence, where even if we have the car and the house and our health and this and that, if we're not doing well on the inside, none of it even matters.

Isn't that wild? You can have it all materially, health wise. But if you're filled with anxiety, what's it for? If you're filled with doubt or meaninglessness, there's a great void inside. It says, what is it all worth?

What does it all mean? These are essential questions. These are good questions. Anytime you bump into these questions, these questions lead to those fundamental principles again, right down at the base of reality. Who is God?

We should be asking those questions. We shouldn't always just want the smaller things in life taken care of. It's good to have a running car, trust me, not a flat tire or a house that's operable and livable. Health, those are great things.

But if we don't know God and have his life in us, what does it all matter? What's it all for?

It assumes our hearts are often troubled by the questions and circumstances of our life. Death has a way of interrupting life, doesn't it? It troubles us. It troubles us deeply, even long after the fact. It's troubling.

It just doesn't sit right. The fact that we cannot find meaning anywhere in this life, that's troubling.

That's concerning.

But it's a troubling that ought to lead us to the one who is life and light, the One who is the truth, as Jesus says.

Yes, we find our hearts to be troubled. Fear, uncertainty, loss. These things plague us as humans.

And, you know, if that's not enough, we find this sort of principle at work in us where there's this interior life, right? And there's this exterior life. You know, it's not all about just taking care and making sure you're bathed and looking appropriate today. There's a lot of interior stuff to us as well that's not seen. It's the soul.

It's the interior life, the spiritual life, as we might call it. And I think Psalm 8 captures this quite well when asking the question, what is man like? Why would you even think about us, this tortured, wonderful, this creature that can know the truth, like angels, and yet has an animal existence unlike angels, we're sort of hanging between heaven and earth. We're earthly and from the earth and heavenly because we can participate in God himself.

There is no other creature like man. And yet we're troubled. And in our fallen state, very troubled. Troubled not just with the cares of this world or desire. We don't know always what to do with or whether to follow or not, but also sins that grip us and chain us to this life.

We start grasping for our own and turn into this vortex of selfishness. And all of us, given our own way, with enough power and ability, would destroy our lives and the lives of others. We would. Every single person in this room has that kind of capacity. And there's been times, perhaps in your life, where you realized great fear that if I go down this road with a couple more decisions, it's death for me inside, not just external.

It's a type of darkness that ought to scare us.

And so Jesus begins with, do not let your hearts be troubled. Notice that, in other words, we are troubled, but don't let it be troubled, which means we have some sort of agency or authority to do something about it. Look at the structure of the sentence there. It's very. Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Okay, well, what do we need to do then? Jesus? That's the next question. And he goes into this whole thing about mansions.

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Instead, mansions, now in our translation, doesn't have man. King James Version, if you're familiar with it, it has mansions, which actually is not a bad translation. It's just different dwelling places, rooms, but spacious rooms. And typically, when we talk about spacious dwelling places, we think of, well, that's a mansion, right?

You're driving down through a certain part of town. You're like, that's a mansion, you know. And, you know, mansion is a little relative, I guess, because even in the past, like, if you just go look this up because it's wild. The past hundred years, our houses have gone from very small to very large in America. You know what else has gone from very small to very large?

Loneliness. The bigger the houses and spaces, the lonelier we are. It's very interesting. Now that's a whole other side project there. That was for free.

Jesus says, I have a mansion that I'm going to prepare for you. There's been a couple songs that dealt with this, right? Does anybody remember, like, anybody. Church maybe is in their 40s perhaps, and above might remember, you know, I'll fly away, right. One glad morning when this life is over I'll fly to where a mansion prepared for me, right?

And then you got the other one. I forget who it was. Somebody can help me out here. Newsboys. Yes, newsboys.

Right. Okay. See, I knew there was somebody else out there, you know, that knew where I was in my father's house. A big, big house, right? It's my father's house.

Right. You know, okay. So that has captured our mind in some way in past generations. It ought to capture our mind today. Like, let's revive that idea.

But let's not just think of it as a material place. When I was younger, that was the only way I thought about it was just, you know, I'm living in this house, which was a parsonage at the time, right across the parking lot from the church, and I would like to live in a bigger house. And that's what Jesus is going to build me. It's a bigger house. Okay?

I mean, you know, you take it at face value, that's exactly what's going on. But as we can tell from this text, there's probably a little more to it than that. And I'll just spill the beans now. It's this. Mansions in the father's house.

Not separate mansions. There's yours, there's mine. Ha ha. We get to live apart from each other. I finally don't have to worry about neighbors.

No. Finally don't have to worry about hoa. No. If you don't want to live with people, you won't go to heaven.

Is that worth saying again? If you don't like people and love people and want to live with people, you won't like heaven.

Now, I Know, people are difficult, but if you look inside, don't you think you're just a little bit difficult at times too? Like, I'm so difficult that I get mad at myself because I'm difficult. It's like, why did you do that? That was dumb. Why did you wait this long to do that paper?

You know, something like that. I don't know. You ever had that problem with yourself? Well, welcome to being human. Okay, welcome to being human.

And let's just as much grace as we show ourselves. How about we show that to others? Doesn't Jesus say this love as I have loved you, and that's the impossible part. Then he says this love your neighbor as yourself. That's a good starting place, isn't it?

Love your neighbor as yourself. So the same way that you forgive yourself, I mean, you know, for the things that I've done wrong, I've forgiven myself and moved on for the most part.

How about we do that with others? In fact, it's not just a how about Jesus commands it.

In fact, newsflash, if you don't forgive others, you won't be forgiven. So if you want forgiveness, you must forgive. You want God's grace, you share grace. In fact, the Bible has this kind of principle. As much grace as you want.

Show that to others. That's how much you'll receive. Now imagine if how much. Just think about, like, just think about our life real quick. All right?

Okay, got it. Now think about this. The measure of grace that God's going to give me is based on the measure of grace that I give others. Now that's not a fast principle. Okay?

So just understand. Oh, that's a works thing. I get it. Calm down. Okay, Calm down, everybody online.

I don't want an email or a bad comment, but here's the point. That's a good kind of thing to live by. Look at what he's done in my life. Shouldn't I do that to others? We shouldn't be like the guy in Jesus's parable who goes and grabs the other dude and says, pay me, buddy.

Remember that parable? Let's not do that. No, no. He's got a mansion that he's preparing for us, which is a dwelling place in God. In other words, it's the Father's house.

What is the Father's house? The short version here, It's God's inner life. It's the Holy Trinity. He's welcoming us not into a physical place, but into the nature of God himself, who Jesus makes a way for Us by becoming man. It's the only way we get in.

He comes down to rescue us and becomes a man. And then where does he go? He returns to the Father's house and is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he welcomes us in, prays for us, right? Now, he, the scripture says, continually makes intercession for us. Now, of course, it's at this point that Thomas is like, hey, listen, we don't know the way, and we ain't got a clue where the place is.

We don't know where you're going. And how could we know the way if we don't know, right? Jesus says this, I am the way, and the Father is the place. That's the simple version here. When we get down to it, spiritually speaking, the Father's capacity, his mercy, his love, it means this, that when he becomes our Father, we now have a home in him.

And isn't that good news?

You know, I was just thinking, and I was going to share it with the kids, but didn't, because we got to move today.

But your first home, physically, was in your mother. And she carried you everywhere that she went, which is a crazy cool concept that we're not going to explain any further than that. Even though you're not kids, but it's just wild that God would create us like that, right? Then you get, like, this home that you realize is like your home because you just keep returning to it over and over again. And even when you go on a trip, you long to be in your bed.

You know how it is. Even if it's a nice mattress, wherever you're at, you're like, I don't know, it just smells funny in here, or the air's not right, or the mattress is bad, or the pillow's terrible. I want to be in my bed with my pillow, you know? Cause it's home now. And when we built our house, people ask us all throughout the process, like, oh, this is your forever home.

Huh? I was like, forever home? No, no. There's only one forever home, and it's God himself. We can say this like the Bible does.

It's heaven. Because the Bible means by heaven, where God is and wherever he is, that is heavenly.

And that's his house. That's where our mansion is. He has prepared a place in God for you. You have a home. Even when it doesn't feel like this is home.

That's okay. That's a true thing. You say, I don't really feel at home. Maybe in my body, I Don't really feel at home in my house or with this family or where I am right now. Yeah, because we have a home in God.

And until our heart is resting in God, we'll be restless, will be troubled. But here's what the scripture is saying. Here's what Jesus is saying himself.

Don't let your hearts be troubled. You got a home. You got a home. You got a home in me. And the way is not complicated.

The way is Jesus. Thank God we don't have to take a test to get into heaven.

I thought I'd get more amens than that. We're right here at the end of the semester. For many of you, you don't have to write a paper to get into heaven. Praise God. Right?

You don't have to read a book to get into heaven, per se.

I mean, let's be real. The Bible's important, right? But you know what? For people that can't read, but can hear the gospel, that's enough. It was for the guy on the cross.

It's enough. Because Jesus is enough. And where he is, that's where heaven is. That's where the house of God dwells. I am the way.

I am the truth. I am the life eternal. Life is Jesus Christ. The truth of reality is Jesus Christ. You know, every other world religion teaches something about Jesus.

And it's quite nice a lot of times, the things that they say about him. Only Christianity believes he's not just teaching truth or living truth, but he is truth himself.

Every other teacher of religion teaches the way, a way, many ways. Jesus says, I am the way.

And that's why he's better than a book or a test or a map. Because when we meet him, it's a personal encounter.

Have you ever went on a trip and, like, you looked at Google Maps? Because we don't look at real maps anymore. And you're looking at Google Maps, you're like, okay, well, that's cool. And somebody had to put it way out here because you can't see. But I still have mine, like, midway.

And so I'm looking at the map, like, okay, I can envision most of what there, you know, but, like, looking at a beach, even through a satellite image, and standing with my toes in the sand with the waves coming in, that is a very different experience. Who would settle for the map?

We've got the map. We preach it every single week. We got the map. We're describing it. Come on, come on.

Until, listen. Until you encounter the person, you haven't gone far enough. It's not that the map's not right. Oh, it's right. Never pass away.

But how much greater the encounter if you have not encountered Jesus Christ? Keep going.

You draw near to him. What does the Bible say? He'll draw near to you. Personal encounter.

You see the goal of all Christianity. I want to sum it up, which I know you want to do. I want to do that. It's this, to live in God and have God live in us. Nothing less than that.

It's participating in the divine nature. Many of us have been sold some sort of form of the gospel that just talks about forgiveness of sin. Jesus died on the cross to forgive us of our sins. We get forgiven, we wait until he comes back.

That's a sleepy, boring Christianity. No, he died on the cross so that we could be drawn into the very life of God himself. The Father loves the Son, and the love between the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit. And so when Christ comes and grabs our human nature and joins it to Himself. Two natures, one person, remember, he then ascends back into, so to speak, the Holy Trinity's center.

And now at the very center of God is a man, Jesus Christ, who is both God and man. The one mediator between God and man. Here we are, these tortured, right? He draws us into oneness with God. If you stopped at forgiveness, dear brothers and sisters, there's a whole life to live.

And all the good things that we enjoy now. Eating and friends and being able to work and feel accomplished. Just like I cut my grass. And just like man. That grass looks good, even if nobody else comments about it.

I feel good about it. These desires, they all culminate in God. He gave them to us. You understand? How could heaven be any less than that?

That's my point. Remember, we're not just floating around bodiless. No, because of the Resurrection, we can have a glorified body. We will be reunited with. With our body.

But not a decaying body, but a spiritual, physical body. Just like our Lord. We'll be able to see him and see each other and enjoy the same sorts of things, but on steroids. If I could say it that way. I know they're illegal, but you know what I mean.

Like maximally. That's the way we say it theologically, right? Like whatever desire we have for love or for companionship, all of the goods are maximally in Christ. Your happiness, your meaning, your purpose.

You'll only be groping until you find the truth, who is not abstract, but personal, bodily. In Jesus Christ. He is the living stone. And we are living stones in his house.

And the last one for the road is this. Greater Works Jesus. Are you kidding? Greater works than you? How could that be possible?

One, by extension, he's the cornerstone and the foundation upon which this great building called the church has been built. And it is great all over the world. The most diverse religion that mankind has ever seen. And the diversity comes from the exclusivity of the gate, of the door. Jesus Christ himself, who says, no one comes to the Father except through me.

Extension, but also transformation. The works that Jesus does are primarily seen. And there are lives changed, of course, but the works that he gives to us are more spiritual than physical. It doesn't mean that he doesn't do miracles. We've seen them, we've noted them.

Looked all throughout church history or through the history of this church. I've got a couple. I can tell you right now that we have no other explanation except God intervened. Great. But you know what God wants the most is not just our physical healing, but our spiritual healing.

He wants a trance. He can take that hardened, bored, jaded heart and give us a heart of flesh, which means it's malleable. It's open to new things.

If you've had some sleepy Christianity, then the enemy has rocked you to sleep. It's time to wake up and understand he has only good things for you. For us Christians, the best is always yet to come until we see him face to face.

And through instrumentality. Be another way. Jesus works direct because he is God. So it's God directly doing the work, but through instruments or instrumental causation, we could say, right, Just like a surgeon uses instruments and is not the instrument. Same with us.

We are his hands and feet. He is the head. And he uses these secondary causes to draw us into his very life. You can become that secondary cause that leads someone to the first cause. Who is God?

That is our calling as Christians. In fact, we are to be his holy instruments, holy people. We are his chosen instrument.

So today, is your heart troubled? Well, believe in God. Believe also in Jesus, because He has gone away. It means that he will come again and bring us into the Father's house for all eternity.

We have not just an earthly dwelling, but a heavenly dwelling. Dual citizens we are. And it's time for us to entrust our life to God. Because only in him will we find rest. Do you need rest today from the troubles?

And for some of us, we're living in that rest, but we're not sharing it. So it's time to wake up. It's time to share his good news. May it be so. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, amen.