LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED

IN THE DAYS OF HIS POWER SERIES.

TOPIC: LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED

COMPILED/EDITED BY-:
Rev. Innocent Chukwudi Peace-Udochukwu President Living Fountain Ministries Int’l LIFOM

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.”
John 14:1

“We are living in troubled times.” This is a phrase I hear often. It is usually followed by “Lord, come quickly.”
These statements are not false. But I’m not sure if our desire for the Lord to take us out of these difficult times is what Jesus meant when he told his disciples, “Let not your hearts be troubled”

Jesus’ words, both now and then, were intended to gird and strengthen the faith of his disciples.

WE may well feel glad that God’s people, whose lives are recorded in the Old and New Testaments, were men of like passions with ourselves. I have known many a poor sinner pluck up hope as he has observed the sins and struggles of those who were saved by grace, and I have known many of the heirs of heaven find consolation as they have observed how imperfect beings like themselves have prevailed with God in prayer, and have been delivered in their time of distress. I am very glad that the apostles were not perfect men; they would then have understood all that Jesus said at once, and we should have lost our Lord’s instructive explanations; they would also have lived above all trouble of mind, and then the Master would not have said to them these golden words, “Let not your heart be troubled.” It is, however, most evident from our text that it is not according to our Lord’s mind that any of his servants should be troubled in heart. He takes no delight in the doubt and disquietude of his people. When he saw that because of what he had said to them sorrow had filled the hearts of his apostles, he pleaded with them in great love, and besought, them to be comforted. As when a mother comforteth her child, he cried, “Let not your heart he troubled.” Jesus saith the same to you, my friend, if you are one of his downcast ones. He would not have you sad. “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people; speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,” is a command even of the old dispensation, and I am quite sure that under this clearer revelation the Lord would have his people free from heartbreak.

Trust in God,” he says. What is going to happen is demonic and dark, yet behind the demonic is the hand of God.

They had to trust God even when they couldn’t see his reasons; and we can be sure that the arguments Jesus presented to the disciples were the very arguments he presented to himself. He, too, “the man, Christ Jesus,” had to trust God, laying down his life (to all human appearance an unfinished life), risking all on the “sure and certain hope of the resurrection”

Those were dark hours that night before the Lord was betrayed, abused, tortured, and ultimately crucified. In a very short time the world of the eleven disciples was going to collapse into unbelievable chaos. Jesus, for whom they had forsaken all, was leaving. Their beloved Master, whom they loved more than life, the One whom they had been willing to die for, was going away. Their sun was about to set at midday, and their whole world was going to fall in all around them. In fact, the pains had already begun. The ramifications of all that Jesus had told them must have staggered their minds, and by John 14 they were undoubtedly bewildered, perplexed, confused, and filled with anxiety.

Martin Luther called this passage “the best and most comforting sermon that the Lord Christ delivered on earth, a treasure and a jewel not to be purchased with the world’s goods.” These verses become the foundation for comfort, not only for these disciples but also for us. If you ever get to the point in your life where you think you’ve run out of escapes and there aren’t any more places where you can rest, you’ll find a tremendously soft, downy pillow in John 14:1-6:

“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In my Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.”
Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?”
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”

If there is a single, central message in Jesus’ words, it is that the basis of comfort is simple, trusting faith. If you’re discontent, worried, anxious, bewildered, perplexed, confused, agitated, or otherwise in need of comfort, the reason is that you don’t trust Him like you should. If you really trust Christ, what do you have to worry about? The reason the disciples were so stirred up is that they had begun to focus on their problems, and they didn’t seem to be able to put their trust in Christ. So in these verses He reminds them of the importance of trusting Him.
“Do not let your heart be troubled,” in the original Greek literally means, “stop letting your hearts be troubled.” He knew that they were already troubled. In fact, they were probably terrified. They had been fully convinced that He was the Messiah, but the only real concept they ever had of the Messiah was as an illustrious conqueror, a kind of a super hero, a sovereign, ruling king. Their hopes had risen even higher just a week before this, when Jesus had come riding into Jerusalem and everyone had thrown palm branches down and worshiped Him.

Jesus’ assurance is hard to hear and often we don’t hear it. On the lips of anyone but Jesus it can sound sentimental or too much like a nervous attempt at consolation by someone who can’t bear the silence of anguish. We’ve all experienced the simple and well meaning “don’t worry” as less than comforting when the person offering it has no clue of the actual reason for the worry that is presently eating up your stomach. When you are holding on to a “memo of termination” at age 52, without a job in sight, it doesn’t help when your securely employed buddy pats you on the back and says, “Don’t worry. It will work out.” He may be right, of course, but it’s hard to hear it at the moment.

Oh, brave Master, shalt thou be followed by a tribe of cowards? No, we will not lose heart through the trials of the day. Oh, holy Master, thou didst meet thy death with song, for “after supper they sang a hymn:” shall not we go through our griefs with joyful trust? Oh, confident Lord, bidding us believe in thee as in God himself, we do believe in thee, and we also grow confident. Thine undisturbed serenity of faith infuses itself into our souls, and we are made strong. When we hear thee bravely talking of thy decease which thou hadst to accomplish at Jerusalem, and then of thy after-glory, we also think hopefully of all the opposition of ungodly men, and, waiting for thine appearing, we solace ourselves with that blessed hope. Make no tarrying, O our Lord! Amen.

SHALOM!

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