Let Not Your Hearts Be Troubled
Discover Jesus as: Son of God John 14 Read on Bible Gateway (HCSB)
Lesson
Audio Only
Teaching Notes
INTRO
At the end of John 13, Jesus told His disciples that someone would betray them. On top of that, Jesus predicted Peter’s denial. But that wasn’t all! Jesus also told the disciples that He would be leaving soon. All that bad news troubled their hearts.
TEACHING
John 14:1: By believing in Jesus, we can help prevent our hearts from being troubled. Believing in Jesus means we have salvation and we are going to Heaven. This helps our hearts to not be troubled.
John 14:2: Wiersbe says, “Heaven is not a product of religious imagination.”1Heaven is where our Father dwells. Heaven is where Jesus lives and intercedes on our behalf. That fact alone should take care of your heart trouble. Not everyone goes to heaven. Only those who believe Christ is the Messiah will get into heaven (Acts 4:12). When we have this salvation in Christ, we have a place in heaven. Heaven is also:
- A kingdom—“For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly supplied to you.” (2 Peter 1:11)
- An inheritance—“and into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” (1 Peter 1:4)
- A country and a city—“But they now desire a better place—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.” (Hebrews 11:16)
- Heaven is a home—“In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if not, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2)
Robert Frost said, “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”2For your heart to get you through times that are troubling, focus on the eternal.
John 14:3: Our job with Revive School is to prepare you for the return of Christ. Acts 1:11 tells us that just as Jesus left, He will be coming back. Daniel 7:13 says that Jesus will come back with the clouds of heaven. Jesus is coming back!
John 14:4–5: The disciples didn’t know where Jesus was going, so Thomas’s question was reasonable. They didn’t know if He was going to Bethany or Jerusalem, much less to heaven.
John 14:6: Jesus spoke another “I am” statement in response to Thomas’s question, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (v. 6). Thomas didn’t know the way to where Jesus was going. He didn’t know how to keep his heart from being troubled. Jesus told Thomas and the disciples the way: the way was Jesus!
The American church sometimes picks apart verse 6 and then we pick what we like best. We like Jesus being the truth. We like Jesus being the resurrection and the life. But we dislike following the narrow path. We dislike when Jesus asks us to take the little dirt path, of faith. But no one comes to the Father except through Jesus. We can become so concerned with being politically correct that we never tell lost people about Jesus, who is the only way to heaven. The earliest followers of Christ were known as followers of “the way.”
John 14:7–11: Knowing the Father right now helps our hearts to not be troubled. If you know Jesus, you know the Father. You can experience the Father right now. You don’t have to wait to experience Him in an eternal state.
John 14:12–15: You can keep your heart from being troubled because you have the privilege of prayer. We have the privilege of coming before the Almighty God because of what Christ has done for us.
John 14:16–17: You can keep your heart from being troubled because you have the Holy Spirit. Think of the Holy Spirit as the one who comforts us to bravely face life. He is the Spirit of Truth. He will never remind us of anything that is untrue, and he will strengthen us.
John 14:18–24: You can keep your heart from being troubled by enjoying the Father’s love.
John 14:25–31: You can keep your heart from being troubled by having God’s gift of peace. If you are in Christ, you have this peace.
CLOSING
To recap, Warren Wiersbe gave us five ways we can keep our hearts from being troubled:
You are going to Heaven (John 13:36—14:6).
You know the Father right now (John 14:7–11).
You have the privilege of prayer (John 14:12–15).
You have the Holy Spirit (John 14:16–18).
You enjoy the Father’s love (John 14:19–24).3
Warren W. Wiersbe, Wiersbe Bible Exposition Commentary: New Testament (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2007), p. 272.
Robert Frost, “The Robert Frost Reader: Poetry and Prose,” ed. Edward Connery Lathem and Lawrance Thompson (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1972) p. 24.
Warren W. Wiersbe, “Be Transformed: Christ’s Triumph Means Your Transformation” (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 1986), pp. 34–46.
Questions
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In John 14:5, Thomas asked Jesus how they would know the way to where He was going. Why did Jesus respond, “Iam the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but throughMe”? (v. 6).
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In John 14:14, Jesus said, “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” Could there ever be a time when God chooses not to answer your prayer, even though you ask in Jesus’ name and, if so, why? (Romans 14:23b, James 4:3).
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How does keeping God’s commandments show that you love Him? (Amos 3:3; Hebrews 11:5).
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In John 14:8-9, how was it possible that Phillip, after three and a half years, didn’t comprehend that Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in Him?
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What did the Holy Spirit highlight to you in John 14 through the reading or the teaching?
Daily Word
Laura Martin John 14:1, 6
“Your heart must not be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me . . . Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
FURTHER SCRIPTURE
- Acts 4:12 – “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people, and we must be saved by it.”
- Romans 10:9 – “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
- 1 Timothy 2:5 – “For there is one God and one mediator between God and humanity, Christ Jesus, Himself human.”
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