Blake Hickman: Good morning, everyone. if you are new or are visiting, my name's Blake. I'm a friend of Harvest, been around here a long time. If I haven't met you, I'd love to meet you today. If you have your Bible open to John chapter 14, that is where we are going to be today. We're going to be looking at more than the verses that Mike just read, but a few more than that. But before we get there, have you ever stopped and asked yourself, just like paused and stopped and kind of reflected, how in the world did I get here? And i i I don't mean that like deep philosophical existential like crisis of faith kind of thing, although I find myself asking myself in those moments quite often. But I I I just mean in the regular rhythm of day-to-day life, seeing and sensing things that may be going on in your life, and you ask yourself, How in the world, me, individual, little, tiny me, how did I get here? In Psalm 8. David has some things to say to us about that. He says, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens, out of the mouth of babes and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. And then he says in verses three and four, When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him? And the son of man that you care for him. I I think about those verses in Psalm eight often, and it causes me to think and evaluate my life quite often. last week, week actually two weeks ago, I was able to go away on our annual retreat, high school retreat at Grace with our students. We go to Camp Oak Hill, it's up in Oxford about an hour from here, and I love going up there because you're away from city lights, you're away from distractions, you're away from a lot of things. our ninth and tenth graders come up for Tuesday and Wednesday, and then our eleventh grader and twelfth graders come up for Wednesday and Thursday. And one of those two nights is I'm walking around making sure everybody is where they need to be so that I can actually sleep at night. there's a path that I can take to go out to a field and there's there's no lights and there's nothing and I can just look up and I can see the expanse of what looks like to be all of heaven and it takes my breath away. And it takes my breath away because here I am, that this tiny little speck in this immense universe, and yet God is absolutely mindful of me. He absolutely cares about me and what I'm thinking and feeling and sensing in that moment. And it's not just when I go to Camp Oak Hill that I do this. I I do this oftentimes at my own house. I I get up earlier than everybody in my home and I'll go out on my back deck and There are a couple of little street lights there. And for whatever reason, Orion just is right above my neighbor's house as I look out at my deck. And it's there is almost as if like it's slapping me in the face. And I see these stars and they're bright and they're beautiful. And I just think, and how in the world did I get here? Like, how in the world did I get here? And I think about so many things in my life. I think about mistakes that I've made that God has bailed me out of. I think about Miracles that have happened in my life. I think about how in the world a young man that grows up in Birmingham, Alabama, ends up at college in Lynchburg, Virginia, and there's a young lady from Loveland, Colorado, who ends up at college in Lynchburg, Virginia, and they meet and they get married. And then how in the world does God give us five sons? And I think about that one a lot. I actually had a friend one time thinking he was doing me a favor when I was thinking about That this seems impossible that out of five they would all be boys. And he tried to tell me, Yeah, if you really do the math, and I stopped and was like, Bro, you're not living it. I'm just being real. This feels kind of impossible. And I'm so very grateful for them. And and I think about how in the world do I end up in the triangle? How in the world have we ended up here for 26 years? How in the world just so many things that I think about, all these tiny little finite things. Things that seem minuscule aspects of my life. And I always come back to something that is going to seem so simple, but I assure you it is 100% true. And it is all because of Jesus. Every bit of it is because of Jesus. There's not a chance that I'm able to be here today with you. There's not a chance that I've made it to almost 50 years of living. There's not a chance that I have a wife and five sons and know so many people. There's no chance of that without him. And in these verses that we're going to look at in John chapter 14, this is what we're going to see today. As you guys know, if you guys have been working through this gospel together this year, that this is Jesus coming to the end of his time with his disciples, and he's he's telling them all the last things that he needs to tell them. And he's trying to comfort them, and he's trying to assure them, he's trying to give them confidence, he's trying to steal hope in them, he's trying to do so many things for them. But In this passage, the one thing that we see that is crystal clear is that none of this would be possible without him. None of it would be possible without him. And so I'm going to pray for us today, and I'm going to ask that that we would see that in this text today. And as we look through these 14 verses, that we would see and we would understand some very specific things, but an overarching thing is that it is because of Jesus that we can be here and have hope today. So let me pray for us together as we look into his word. Father, I thank you so much for. This word, I thank you that you have given all of us in this room eyes to see and ears to hear. I thank you that our bodies moved enough to be able to get us here today. Our brains are functioning enough for us to be able to somewhat understand what we're talking about today. And Holy Spirit, I pray that you would move in the hearts and minds of everybody here today. I pray that if there are any here who spiritually have blind eyes and deaf ears, that you would open them, that they would see clearly and hear clearly. I pray if there are any here that have hard hearts and clouded minds, that you would soften and break through the concrete that is there and you would lift the fog that is trying, trying to harass people and not allow them to think clearly about what your word says. I pray that you would work through great weakness in me. I pray you would work through weakness in every one of us here. And Jesus, I pray that you would be magnified and glorified as you say that was your purpose as we look in these verses today, and ask all of this in. Jesus' name. Amen. In John 14, beginning in verse 1, we see right there one of the things that we have because of Jesus, and it's because of Jesus that we have hope. Look there with me as I read verses one through seven for us. Jesus says, Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father's house are many rooms. 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 will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also, and you know the way to where I'm going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. In these seven verses here, Jesus is giving us hope. He is giving us great hope. And he gives us some very tangible things that help us to see this hope. Our hope gives us a reason to believe. Jesus begins by talking to his disciples about their troubled hearts. And we have to ask a question: why would their hearts be troubled? Like last week, when you guys were in this text together, he ends by having a conversation with Peter and then immediately moves. And the first thing he says is. Do not let your heart be troubled. So why would their hearts be troubled? There's a few reasons. One, Jesus is now one night away from the cross. He's one night away. And he's just told one of them, as they've been gathered there together, that is going to betray him. And he's just told Peter that Peter is going to deny him. I want you to imagine this. This is a group of people that have been together very tight knit and close for about three years now. They've lived life together, they've done ministry together, they've loved Jesus together. And now their things that Jesus has been telling them for a while are about to come true. Jesus is absolutely about to leave them. And then one of them, one of this group that has been so close with Jesus, they've just heard is going to betray Jesus. And then at the very same time, Peter, kind of one of the leaders of the group, is going to deny Jesus. I don't know about you, but I know if I was there, that my my heart would begin to be troubled. There's a lot going on here that would trouble their hearts, and then in the middle of this, Jesus tries to calm their fears. Now, John has told us twice as he writes this gospel since chapter twelve that Jesus was troubled in his heart. So he knows that the disciples are facing trouble in their heart. He's told us that Jesus is troubled in his own heart. These are intense moments that are happening. And now the disciples are beginning to feel it. But these are not idle words that Jesus is speaking here. Like sometimes we, well-meaning, may want to speak to someone that is facing a time of difficulty. This is not him telling them to buck up or take courage. He's not telling them fear not. He in his humanity is battling the same human emotions that they are battling. And he's telling them to not let their hearts be troubled. And he gives them the remedy immediately after giving them this instruction. He tells them, believe in God and believe in Jesus. Have faith in him. Have faith in what he came to do. Have faith in what he has said he will do. When your heart is troubled, do not fall into unbelief. He tells them to double down on their belief. It's not just You believe in God. It's you believe in God and you believe in me. There's a double thing there. I don't know about you. I can only speak for myself. I can't imagine to think or to speak for you in any situation that you may find yourself in. But when the times come that trouble my soul, those are the moments when my unbelief is at its highest. And I can say that it isn't a lack of belief in the gospel. I could sit there with you if you were trying to comfort me and counsel me and tell you my hope is in the gospel, my hope is in Jesus, my hope is in the resurrection. I could sit there and tell you, no, that this is just a lack of belief in my own self, it's a lack of belief in my circumstances, it's a lack of belief in the people that are around me. But it's those moments that actually reveal that that is a lack of belief in the gospel. That is a lack of belief in who God is. That is a lack of belief in the finished work of Christ on the cross. And I can say that it isn't a lack of belief, but those moments in my life reveal that I have been placing too much hope in myself. And too much hope in my circumstances, and too much hope in people around me, and not enough hope in God. And that is when the trouble comes into my heart. Something that I'm learning to ask myself in those times of trouble is, Lord, where in this moment, right here, right now, where am I not believing you? Where am I not trusting your sure promises? Where am I not resting in the hope that you and you alone provide for me? There's always something there. There's always something else that I'm putting more belief in than I'm believing in Jesus at that moment. There's always something that my heart is absolutely wanting to give itself to more than it is wanting to hold on to the sure hope that I have in the gospel. In Jesus here. Jesus isn't trying to like cloud them or play a shell game with them about what belief looks like. No, he's trying to ground them in real, true hope that finds itself in belief. Jesus is going to tell them later in this same discourse, that this three to four chapter thing that Jesus is working through with the disciples here. He's going to tell them some more truth about trouble. He is going to let them know that trouble is a sure thing in life. It's not a might, it's not a maybe, it is a guarantee. John 16, 33, in this world you will have trouble. It is going to happen. But the hope that he shares with them in John 16 is grounded in this little encouragement here at the beginning of John 14. Yes, in this world we will have trouble. But Jesus tells us in John 16 to take heart. Don't lose heart. Don't let your heart be troubled. Take heart. Because he's overcome the world. Believer here this morning. If you are here today and you are in Christ, if you are placing your faith and trust in Christ alone to save you, do you believe that? Do you believe that here today? If you claim Christ, do you believe that? It is hard at times to believe that. We see the circumstances of our lives. We have sick loved ones. We may have marital trouble. We have parenting trouble, may have financial trouble, lingering sin struggle, addictions, betrayals. And that's just us. That's just our individual lives. That's just a pure look inward. But then we look outward. We see our city, we see our state, we see our nation, we see our world. We see a complete and total dumpster fire. So much strife, so much unrest, so much injustice, so much lack of awareness of sin, so much false teaching, so much apostasy, so much heresy. In this world we see trouble. And if we are not careful, we will lose heart. And when we begin to lose heart, we might start to question and doubt the only thing that is good. The only thing. I cannot begin to imagine what the disciples were thinking and feeling this night. I would venture to say, as difficult as times in my life have been, and there have been some very, very difficult times. I have not tasted. anything like they were facing this night with Jesus. But the same thing I need when trouble is heavy upon me is the same thing that they needed. And that's why Jesus tells them this. Believe. I know it can sound trite to say because Jesus said it, I believe it. I know that seems simple. And if you feel like your life is going through the middle of the gates of hell right now, that may not sound comforting, but Jesus is telling us this is where the comfort is found. Believe him. Believe him. And don't let your heart be troubled. The next thing that Jesus tells us that helps us see the hope that we have here, he tells us that we have a home. We have a sure dwelling that is waiting for us. And for us to know we will access this dwelling, Jesus must go and prepare it for us. And for him to go and prepare it for us, he had to finish his earthly task first. That task would include his suffering later that very night, his death, his resurrection, and then forty days later his ascension. The disciples do not like this. They don't like it. They don't like Jesus having this death talk. They don't like Jesus having this going-away talk. They don't like this, he's going to be absent from us. And what might this mean for him? And therefore, what might this mean for us? They don't want Jesus to leave, and this has them confused, as we're going to see in a minute. But Jesus is giving them hope, not just for eternity, but hope for what they are about to witness. He wants a home for them just like he wants a home for us, but first must come the cross. And after that must come a parting. But he's telling them, and this is the hope, and it's the hope for us, that there will come a day when he will be with them again. Just like he will be with us if we have believed and trusted in him alone to save us. And the beauty of this is not that we will get a dwelling again. Place. The beauty of this is that Jesus is telling us that we will get to dwell with him. When I memorized this passage in third grade at my Christian school, I memorized it in the King James Version, which doesn't say rooms. It says, in my father's house there are many mansions. Growing up, people talking about heaven and talking about how they couldn't wait to go there because they would get their mansion. And friend, I say this in love. Deep, desperate, heartfelt love, forget about the mansion. That's not the point of what Jesus is saying here. He's saying, In me, you will have a home. And that home will be with me. A forever home where I will never have to leave again, where Jesus will be there forever. Do you think the disciples on this night were thinking about a mansion? Do you think they were thinking about a physical place where they were going to hang pictures and put up all these different? No. The only thing on their mind is their friend is leaving them and they don't want him to go. They didn't want to be without him. And we shouldn't want to be without him either. And Jesus is helping us understand here that because of him, we have hope that he has a home for us and we will be with him forever. And the next thing that we see here by way of hope is that because of Jesus we have salvation. In verse 5, Thomas is the first to show that there's a lot of confusion in what Jesus is saying to them. Thomas, dear, doubting Thomas, as he is known, who would later need to put his fingers in Jesus' nail-pierced hands and feet, and would need to put his hand in Jesus' spear-pierced side. He's hearing Jesus and he's like, Bruh, look, we don't have a clue what you're talking about. Like this is like Way over our heads. In essence, Thomas is saying we don't have a map, we don't have instructions, we don't have a clue, like none of this is making sense. And this is why Jesus begins with belief. There will be times that it appears that we don't have a clue, but we do have him. We have him. And Jesus' answer in verse 6 is well known. He's saying, Thomas, you do know because you know me. I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. And no one comes to the Father except through me. As I mentioned a little bit ago, I memorized this passage, just the first six verses, not all fourteen, when I was nine years old. And this passage, John fourteen, one through six, was key in my coming to faith in Jesus. Now a nine year old being saved is not that shocking, but if you had known me at nine, it was very shocking. My mom and dad had put my older brother and me at a Christian school after my first go in third grade. my sister was starting first grade and they wanted us to be in a Christian school, and so they put my brother and I away from our public school into this school together. And it's a long story, there's no need to get into all the details here, but at that same time of school starting, my mom started taking me, my brother, and my younger sister to church each Sunday. My dad was slow to come, but within a year he would too. And I had never been exposed to real teaching about Jesus. Now I grew up in the buckle of the Bible belt. And so I knew about Jesus, just like everybody did. I knew enough about him, but I really didn't know what the gospel was about. And I really couldn't articulate or make sense of why in the world these things that I knew were facts about Christmas and Easter, why they mattered, especially why they mattered for me. And through memorizing these six verses, and through a flannel graph Bible class lesson about different colored hearts, God used that to show me my sin and my need for Jesus to save me. And and as I've grown up, this verse, verse six of John fourteen, which causes so many to question God, and causes so many to resist the Christian faith, it it was a balm to me. It it was exactly what my heart needed to find healing. And why? Because I knew that I was lost and I couldn't find the way. I knew that I was a liar and I did not like the truth. I knew that I was dead, really dead, and that I needed to be given life. And this verse showed me that this was, in fact, possible. And it boggles my mind why people outside of the faith think this is a hate-filled, narrow-minded verse. I really can't understand it. As a nine-year-old, this verse saved my life. All I know is that for me, I would not be here today saved by God's grace and standing here if it were not for God using this verse to break my nine-year-old heart and show me his grace. And the beauty of this verse is that this grace is still available to anyone who by faith would accept it and believe it today. And yes, Jesus is the only way to the Father, but there is a way. And yes, Jesus is absolute truth, but He's made that truth known to us. And yes, Jesus' death and resurrection are what give us life, but it is freely offered to all. I pray that we would see the preciousness of this and trust in this today. Because of Jesus we have hope. But it's not just that we have hope, because of Jesus we have assurance. Let's look at verses 8 through 11 there. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. Jesus said to him, Have I not, have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? 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 don't speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe in me, that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. In this passage, it's not just hope that we have, we also have assurance. The text continues here, and we now see Philip, one who had been with Jesus from near the beginning of Jesus' ministry. And Philip hears what Jesus says. But it's not enough for Philip. It's not enough. He needs more. Jesus, I hear you, but I need one more thing. I need my eyes to see. Show us the Father, and it is enough for us. And if I'm being honest in this admission, I have a lot of sympathy for Philip. Because I think we have all been there at different times in our own lives. We need faith to believe, but we need just a little more info. We feel the Spirit moving and stirring us to do something, but we need just a little more confidence or maybe one more sign of confirmation. And this is true for the times when the Spirit stirs and it does make sense what we're being asked to do, but it's very true for the times that we're being stirred and asked to do things that make no sense at all. With both of the disciples mentioned in these 14 verses, with Thomas and Philip, we should be able to see ourselves in them. With Thomas, he lacked understanding. Jesus, I don't know what you're saying and where you're going. He just didn't understand. With Philip, he lacks confidence, assurance, and trust in who Jesus is and what Jesus came to do. And I'm sure that you, like me, have wrestled with and battled with these things as well. And that makes Jesus' response to Philip so tender of a rebuke. It is a rebuke, though. I need to let you know that. He is going to push against what Philip is thinking, but Jesus handles it with tenderness. What Philip needed was assurance. But look at Jesus' response in verse 9. Have I been with you so long, Philip? Have we not been together so long? All these years, all the things you've seen, all the things you've heard me say, all the ways you've seen me work, and you still don't know me. You still don't know my character, you still don't know my ways, you still don't trust what I'm doing. We've been together so long. You still don't know. That verse hit me like a million pound weight this week. It it was heavy. Has Jesus been with me so long and I still don't I still don't know him well enough to trust him as I should. Forty years this September. Saved in September of nineteen eighty six, almost October of twenty twenty six, forty years. Do I still not know him that well? Believer here this morning, where in your life right now? What situation of your life right now do those words from Jesus to Philip need to convict you of unbelief? Listen, it's a loving rebuke what Jesus says there. He's reminding Philip, Philip, you're mine, but you still don't know me. Not like you should. Where in your life right now do those words from Jesus need to convict you? And this is incredibly difficult, believe me, I know. Jesus is inviting Philip to be assured of who he is and to let that be enough for him. To let that grace comfort him. And we need to let it do the same for us. To let it comfort us, to let it move us, to let it stir us. And Jesus' answer to Philip is beautiful. He doesn't just end with the question. He lets Philip know that Philip can have the assurance of seeing the Father because Philip has seen Jesus. All the assurance we need, we have because of Jesus. You see, what Philip is asking for is comfort. This isn't a test like others have come to test Jesus and to try him and to challenge him. This is not what Philip is doing at all. He's asking for what Moses saw in Exodus 33. He's asking for what Elijah saw in 1 Kings 19. He's asking for what Isaiah saw in Isaiah 6. He's not asking for something that is putting Jesus to the test. He's asking for something that is going in his mind to be just enough to finally have assurance that Jesus is who he says he is. But Philip also didn't understand. He didn't understand that what he had in front of him is better than what Moses, Elijah, and Isaiah got to see. Moses could not look on God and live. Moses was only allowed to see the back portion of him as he passed. Were he to look on God, he would have died. Elijah, who is absolutely despondent and depressed and wanting his life to end, begging to hear and see from God, sees all of these loud, amazing things and knows God isn't in them. He hears a gentle whisper and he covers his face before he goes out to experience the presence of the Lord because he knew if he went out with eyes open, he was a dead man. And Isaiah was sure he would be struck dead for what he saw in Isaiah 6. What Philip was asking for would mean his death. And Jesus here tells Philip, what you need to see, you can see in me. Everything that you are asking for right now, you can see by looking at me. And additionally, he tells Philip, you get to look, and through faith in me, you get to live. All these other men that you want to be like and what you want to see that they wanted to see, if you look at me, it doesn't mean death. If you look at me, it gives you life. See the assurance that Jesus is offering Philip here. Philip, Jesus is helping Philip understand that through faith in Jesus he gets to live. And although Philip doesn't have to die, Jesus would. And Jesus lets Philip know that Jesus' own words and testimony about who he is should be sufficient. But to finish the section, he tells Philip, Philip, if you need more. If if my words aren't enough, if my present is enough, presence isn't enough, if what I've said to you isn't enough, you have three years worth of things that you have seen. Three years worth of visible testimony, three years worth of audible testimony, three years worth of participating in it with me. And if me standing here in front of you isn't enough, then let that be. Friend, if you were here today and you are struggling with assurance in the gospel, I want to encourage you to rest in Jesus. And if not in what he says, then you should rest in what he has done. The amazing thing is that all the things that Philip had seen Jesus do up to this point in his time with him would pale in comparison to what Philip was about to see over the next forty three days. Every miracle, every teaching time, every everything, what Philip was about to witness through the cross and the resurrection and what Jesus would do the forty days after before he ascended to the right hand of the Father, all of that would blow out of the water anything he had seen for those three years. Friend, if you were here and you were struggling today, rest in what he's done. Rest in the fact that he will be patient with your doubts and questions just as he was patient with Philip. Rest in the fact that he has given us his word to give infinite comfort to us. And if that still doesn't help, rest in the fact that his finished work, that he worked to save sinners like me and like you is enough. This is great assurance. And it's for us, all because of Jesus. And the last thing that we see here is that because of Jesus, we have confidence. Look at verses 12 through 14. Jesus says, Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I'm going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. These final three verses, Jesus is telling us where our confidence is found. Now, in a couple of weeks, when you guys do this last section of John chapter 14, you're going to see why we have this great confidence. It it almost feels like it's just kind of like a we get there and then have to pause, like mid mid-movement. Jesus is gonna tell us when he gets to the end of this chapter that the confidence that we have comes from the Spirit. Who will be given to us. Great gospel confidence we have in the Spirit coming. Jesus is going to say, It is better for you that I leave. I wouldn't have thought that. I'm sure they're not thinking that. But we get the benefit of something greater than they got. We have the Spirit, it gives us confidence, and that we have to understand the Spirit coming to give that confidence for us to make sense of what Jesus is saying here. Because many over the years have taken these verses that Jesus says, they've tried to twist them and move them and cause them to create things that are 100% not true. Jesus is saying two very clear things here. Number one, he is saying that we have confidence to do bold work for the kingdom. And the second thing he's saying is that we have confidence to pray bold prayers for the kingdom. He is not saying that you can jump off of a building and automatically become Superman before you make it to the ground. That's not what he's saying. He's not saying that you can close your eyes and wish really, really, really, really hard and go out the back doors of the church and there's going to be a Bentley sitting out there for you. He's not saying that you can pray really, really hard and whatever your favorite sports team is magically going to start winning football games. Like that's not what he's saying here. No, he's he's grounding our confidence in two very clear things, praying according to his will and praying for God's kingdom to advance. This is what he wants us to understand. And when we pray those prayers, we can have boldness and confidence that God will move and work and answer them. And we can have boldness and confidence to know that as we are praying for that to happen, that there will be something in us that God will stir in us that will want to cause us to be bold and work for the kingdom. Not sitting passively, but actively working on behalf of the kingdom. And when Jesus says greater works, he's not talking about a greater work than the cross and the resurrection. Please, please, please, please do not for an instant believe that or think that. But he's talking about the multiplication of so many people doing so much work for the good of the kingdom that overall it is a greater work in numbers. He's wanting us to understand this. This is not prosperity gospel preaching and teaching. This is not health and wealth, name it and claim it theology. No, that this is Jesus helping us understand what it looks like to ask him for his blessing and the work that we do to advance the kingdom. For his glory and for the good of the church. And we trust him to do his work. When we work in Jesus' name for God's glory, we can work confidently. When we pray in Jesus' name for God's glory, we can pray confidently. And we can do all of this because of what Jesus has done. Let me pray for us today. Father, thank you so much for these verses here in John chapter 14. Thank you for Jesus, for what he shows us about himself, what he shows us about his ministry, what he shows us about what life with you looks like. Father, thank you that because of Jesus we can have the hope of life with you. Pray that we would remember that. That would move in our hearts, that that would change our lives today. In Jesus' name. Amen.