Sermon Tone Analysis

We've been going through the Gospel of John, a series we've entitled /The Word Became Flesh/.

Today we come to a portion of Jesus' communication with His disciples in the upper room on the night in which He was arrested where He is trying to, I guess, bring them down to street level, to show them both that there are things that are going to take place that they don't understand and that will not only confuse them, but will tend to bring fear into their lives, while at the same time, telling them again and again to simply trust, and that "These dark events are actually the proof that I am the Messiah and the proof that your faith has not been misplaced."

We end chapter 13 of John by seeing Peter make that bold announcement.

He says, "Lord, I'll lay down my life for You."

And Jesus says, "Your faith has not come to that level yet.

Your head knowledge is not quite where your spiritual maturity is.

And in fact, Peter, you'll deny Me three times.

Every time you're put at risk for saying you believe in Me, each and every time you will in fact deny Me.

And there will come a day when you'll follow after Me, when you will do the very things I am about to do, but tonight will not be one of those nights."

Well if Peter, the leader, the outspoken one, is shown to not be as strong in his character or as strong in his faith as he thinks he is, what about the remaining disciples who are there?

Judas has left.

Already doubts have come into the hearts and minds.

This Paschal meal has turned into something that is very confusing to them.

And so as we transition into John 14, Jesus, again in light of the prediction of Peter's denial, wants to reassure not only the disciples that night, but all of us, that what we simply need to be assured of is our faith and our trust in Jesus.

We live in a world…Really I guess for our era it began back in the Sixties when the petals were flying off all the flower children, the cry that all religions are the same became the mantra.

It's not a new one, by the way.

Really that phrase came back from 1795 when a British poet, William Blake, uttered those words that all religions are the same.

We live in a day today when we try to reconcile Islam and Hinduism and Confucianism and Christianity and Buddhism as all different paths to the same God, all headed to the same place.

The differences, they say, are only in the foothills of this one mountain, and that whatever path one chooses, they'll all arrive at the peak.

It's the world's way to try to simplify and try to make same all of these different religions.

It's interesting to me that we don't do that with economies.

We don't say that Communism and Capitalism are really just the same thing.

We don't try to reconcile those two.

We don't need to even argue about it.

We're quite aware of the differences in those different economic systems.

Or politically, we don't just say that Socialism and Democracy or Marxism and Monarchy that all of those are just really the same thing.

They're all governments after all, and they're all headed in the same direction.

No, we understand there are fundamental differences between all of those forms of government.

Oh, there are similarities, and yes there are similarities in the different religions.

There are some ethical similarities.

All the religions teach not to kill your brother.

There are some similarities for sure, but my friends, they're not all headed in the same direction, and they're not all the same despite what the philosophy of today suggests.

No more than you would say, "Well language is language.

All languages do the same thing, don't they?

They all have nouns and verbs and pronouns and adjectives, and they're all just communicating.

It may sound different, but really languages are all the same."

Well that's abstract, but try just generally talking about language when you go down to Mexico, or you go to Moscow, or you go to Beijing.

You're going to find out that there are fundamental differences in language.

And you can't just say, "Well I have a language, and you have a language, and we'll just all speak together, and we're all going to be communicating the same thing," because no that doesn't happen!

The difference between abstract and reality is a stark difference.

And as it is with language, as it is with economies, as it is with political systems, so it is with religions.

My friends, they're not all headed to the same place.

They're not all headed in the same direction.

If there were two religions that were closely aligned, we would say that it would be Judaism and Christianity, but Jesus is telling His Jewish disciples on that night that not every direction is the same direction, that in fact, there is only one direction.

And my friends, the startling and revolutionary and politically incorrect thing to tell you this morning is that there is only one way to God.

There is only one way.

John writes this gospel toward the end of the first century.

It's the last of the gospels written.

He has spent many decades after Jesus made these words, after He said these phrases we're going to study this morning.

And John, after many decades of reflection, still has this same conclusion that Jesus is the only way, that Jesus is the only correct and proper way.

In fact, John so writes his gospel, it is as though…and I'm serious with this…that you would have to be an idiot not to read the Old Testament, and not see Jesus in it, that that is exactly what Judaism was pointing to, that that is what the true Scriptures were saying, that Jesus is simply the revelation, the manifestation, the culmination of /all/ the Scriptures have ever spoken of.

And that is what Jesus says on this night.

That is how He chooses to try to calm the hearts of His disciples.

They're confused.

Their religions have taught them that a Messiah would be an earthly Messiah, that He would come riding on a white horse.

He would overthrow Rome.

He would set up Israel in its secure borders.

And they're discovering that their Messiah has quite a different agenda.

And so Jesus, in John 14, says, /"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me."/ Now both of those words, /believe/, there are in the same verb tense, and basically what Jesus is saying…They both should be taken as imperative commands.

He is saying, "Believe in God.

That is what you're to do.

Your hearts are troubled.

The cure to a troubled heart is to believe in God.

And believe in God, believe in Me! Believe in the things you have believed in, and let that faith settle your heart."

The word for /troubled/ here is the word for agitation, like the agitator on a washing machine.

Their hearts, their minds, their souls, their consciences are just being agitated with the events as they are unfolding.

And Jesus knows how agitated they will be over the next few days.

And Jesus says, "Don't let your heart get so stirred up.

Don't let it be so troubled."

My friends, when we allow the events that happen to us in life, the inevitable traumas and tragedies and difficulties and disappointments that happen to us, let's not let our hearts get troubled.

You're a mother here this morning, and you have that one child who didn't come with you, wouldn't come with you.

Maybe you don't even know what they're doing this morning.

Don't let your heart be troubled.

You're here today, and you're thinking, /I don't have a picture-perfect, Norman Rockwell family at all.

This day is quite different in the way that it approaches me than it seems to be approaching everyone else./

And Jesus says, "Don't let your heart be troubled."

You don't know what you're going to do because you don't have another paycheck coming.

You weren't able to buy your mother anything because you can't even pay your light bill.

Don't let your heart be troubled.

Believe in God!

The only time when it matters for you to believe in God is when the storms come.

It's when times are difficult.

That is when you need to realize and discover that your faith is genuine, that it is real.

"When the immediate, physical things seem to be destructive in your life, when it seems that your Messiah is being arrested, when it seems that all you have given up is all for naught, don't let your heart be troubled.

Believe in God, and believe in Me," Jesus said.

"Believe in Me."

And Jesus gives them such a powerful reason for that.

In verse 2, He says, /"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."/

The word /mansions/ there comes from the Latin Vulgate translation of the Greek, mansiones, which means rooms.

And the Greek word, which is mone, is the word for rooms.

When He speaks of the /"Father's house,"/ we like to think of acres and acres of trimmed lawns and everyone having their own home because that is our version of the word mansion.

More likely, what the Greek is telling us is that the Father has a large home, and we all have rooms in His home.

It's not that we're going to be on a street a half a mile away from God, or 50 miles away from God.

We have a home with God, and our home is with Him.

Jesus says, /"I go to prepare a place for you."/

Now I've heard many sermons…I've preached a few of them myself.

I think naturally when I hear these words that Jesus today is up in heaven with hammer and nails, and He is building and preparing, and it's taken 2,000 years.

Man, what a fancy house that is going to be!

But that is not what He is saying.