Sermon Discussion Questions:

1. In what ways can Christians today subtly begin to live like “Secular Sam”? What practices or habits might help keep the hope of Christ’s return real to us?
2. Which of these kinds of troubles do you most resonate with right now? How do those troubles affect your trust in God?
3. Which aspect of the new creation described in Revelation (newness, satisfaction, safety, beauty, culture, God’s presence, etc.) most stirs your hope? Why do you think that aspect resonates with you?
4.Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” Why is this claim both exclusive and inclusive? How might you explain this truth graciously to someone who believes that all religions lead to God?

“Allow me to introduce you to Secular Sam.

Secular Sam is very successful. He has a good job, a nice girlfriend, a beautiful apartment, a new car, and excellent health. He’s humorous, intelligent, and personable. Secular Sam is also a Christian, and actually quite an active one. He has an evangelical background (though he’s chosen to leave behind some of the embarrassing bits of it), is theologically conservative, and believes in the authority of Scripture.

Indeed, he’s even come to see Scripture as the most satisfying explanation for all kinds of phenomena, from the origin of the world to the meaning of life. Sam, being a student of Scripture, can realistically examine humanity’s sinfulness. He can even confute his secular friends with historical evidence for the resurrection. He knows that all of life is under the scrutiny of God’s Word—not just religion, but also business, philosophy, ethics, economics, and law.

What is it, then, that makes Secular Sam so secular? Sam is secular because he expects to wake up in his bed tomorrow morning. He’s never even heard of what his grandparents called the “blessed hope.” Sam’s hopes and concerns, even about his own spiritual life, are all contained in this seculum (the Latin word from which we get “secular”)—that is, this age and this life. Sam assumes tomorrow will be just like today, which has some serious implications for the way he thinks about today.” - Mark Dever, Coming Home

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“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 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? 3 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. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” - John 14:1-6

The answer to our troubles, A place made for us, A way home

The Answer to Our Troubles

Big Idea: Jesus has an answer to your trouble. Our troubles are not the exact same as the disciples, but when we see how serious their troubles are—and Jesus still comforts them—it shows us that we can find comfort too, whatever our troubles are.

Let not your hearts be troubled. - John 14:1

Why are their hearts troubled? A number of reasons:

First, Jesus just told them He is leaving them. “Where I am going you cannot come” (John 13:33). The disciples have been following Jesus everywhere for three years now. Wherever He goes, they go. Whenever you say goodbye to a friend, it is a sad thing. And is there any friend as good as Jesus? The disciples are saddened at losing a friend.

Second, they were expecting—as most Jews of their day did—that the Messiah would be establishing a permanent, physical kingdom on earth, centered in Jerusalem. And here they are in Jerusalem and there has been a palpable sense of excitement, a buzz in the air about the kingship of Jesus. Earlier that week, Jesus was welcomed into the city like a king, with everyone shouting out their belief that Jesus was the Messiah. The disciples certainly had come to believe (minus Judas) that Jesus was the Messiah; everything in Jesus’ ministry had been building to this moment, where He would be crowned a king in Jerusalem, establish His rule, and lead the true Israelites into a glorious new age, free from oppression and foreign rule. But now…? He is apparently leaving, but not just leaving Jerusalem, but leaving somewhere that the disciples cannot follow. The disciples are disappointed at unmet expectations.

Third, perhaps they are troubled because they think that Jesus is leaving and telling them they cannot follow because He doesn’t want them to. If you have ever been in a friendship or relationship with someone who is so clearly above you—a better person than you are—you fear that at some point they are going to realize that you are beneath them and move on, find a new friend, a new partner. And how would the disciples have felt when the person they are comparing themselves with is…God. Maybe the reason that they are troubled isn’t just that Jesus is leaving, but the ghost of a fear that He is leaving them. He just told them (1) one of you will betray me, and then (2) Peter, you think you will stick by my side forever…but you won’t, you’ll deny me three times by tomorrow morning. Did you notice when Jesus told them that one of them would betray Him, they didn’t say, “Are you referring to Judas? That guy has always been a little dodgy…” No, they were shocked and didn’t know who it was, and in Matthew’s gospel, we are told that each one of the disciples’ begin to ask Jesus: “Is it I?” (Matt 26:22). The disciples are wounded by their own weakness.

Finally, as Jesus tries to comfort the disciples, He isn’t only responding to their initial sadness at this moment, but is looking forward to the shock they will receive in just a few hours when He is arrested. Jesus isn’t just leaving Jerusalem…He is about to die. We are so familiar with the death and resurrection story that it is hard for us to fully appreciate how discombobulating this would have been. Nobody expected the Messiah to die. That is precisely why the Pharisees and priests have Jesus crucified—they think this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is NOT the Messiah! So, for Jesus to tell them He is going away…and then in a few hours (maybe not even that) Jesus is arrested and taken away…this would not have just been sad or disappointing, this would have felt like their whole world had fallen apart. The disciples had left behind everything in their life to follow Jesus around, they had come to believe He was the Messiah, and were expecting everything that entailed.

So, what are the sorrows they are experiencing?

1. Sadness at losing a friend
2. The disappointment of unmet expectations
3. The shame over their own sinfulness and weakness
4. The unraveling of their worldview

And Jesus says to them, in that kind of existential collapse and says:

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. - John 14:1

We will return in a couple of weeks to what exactly is implied by the second half of that statement, but for now we can see that Jesus is simply suggesting for His friends to trust Him. Don’t worry, don’t be troubled, trust God, trust me.

Now, we don’t have the exact same troubles the disciples have here. But Jesus as He speaks these words to His troubled disciples, speaks them to us as well. Which invites you to pause for a moment now and reflect: What is troubling you? What weighs on your mind? What worst case scenario seems to haunt you?

1. Has circumstance taken a friend, a loved one out of your life?
2. Has life been marked by disappointment and unmet expectations?
3. Have you been embarrassed by how marbled your integrity is with self-seeking, weakness, compromise? When you look within do you find darkness, not light?
4. Or, has something happened that has led you to fundamentally doubt what you assumed was true about God, about life?

Jesus’ word for you this morning is: Let not your hearts be troubled, trust in me…I have an answer. What is that?

A Place Made for Us

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? 3 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. - John 14:2-3

Jesus responds to all of the disciples’ biggest fears: He is not leaving them forever, only for a time. He will come again and will take them with Him to be where He is. This is the “blessed hope” that Christians have held onto for centuries—Jesus shall return. Either we shall die and be gathered with our Lord in heaven, or He shall appear suddenly and gather all of His redeemed to Himself and establish the New Heavens and New Earth.

But, I want to meditate on this hope for a bit. Jesus assumes that this truth is the comforting balm we need to endure the troubles of this world. How does this hope help us?

What is the “Father’s house” that Jesus is referring to? God’s “house” in the Old Testament referred to the Temple or Tabernacle, which is an earthly representation of God’s heavenly abode (Heb 8:2; 9:11, 23-24). That is God’s house—where God dwells in heaven.

And Jesus promises that He is returning there “to prepare a place for” us.

What does that mean? It means that heaven will correspond to you. It will not be a chilling, alien experience. It will not be ethereal energy beams or chubby babies plucking harps for all eternity. What does the Bible tell us heaven will be like?

1. It will be new “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more…the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”” (Rev 21:1, 3-5)

We will have new physical bodies, glorified and upgraded to be untainted with the effects of sin and death—death and pain will be no more. But not only physical pain—all pain. And your deepest pains from this life will be personally attended to. God will stoop down and listen to your hurt. And after one, final, cathartic release, all of the knotted up pain and numbness and confusion will unwind, and tears of pain will flow out for one last time. And God will be there with you, and will gently rub his thumb across your cheek, and wipe them away forevermore. All will be new. 2. It will be satisfying It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment…Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations…And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. - Rev 21:6, 22: 1-2, 22:17

Your deepest longings that nothing on this earth can satisfy, will be sated. We will drink from the very fountain of life and what we will drink will be rapturous delight, healing, joy itself. The water flows directly from God’s throne because the water is the very life of God—a small foretaste we now experience in our indwelling of the Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39). And, wonder of wonders, we will drink of that elixir for free. 3. It will be safe 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” - Rev 21:7-8

We will never lock our doors, never worry about entering a bad part of town, never fear for our lives or the lives of those we love. Evil will be permanently expunged from the universe. 4. It will be beautiful And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband…The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. - Rev 21:2, 18-21

The city is indescribably and achingly beautiful (see 21:11), meaning that it is the city of dreams, a city that fulfills every longing of the human heart. - Schreiner 5. It will be cultured And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. - Rev 21:23-27

The New Creation will be a material creation. Not only will we have glorified bodies, but we will exist in a glorified material world. We will not only have the “enlightenment” of human reason to guide us, but the very light of God shall illuminate our intellect. And by that light, the various nations shall walk and shall bring their unique cultural glories into it—the glory and honor of the nations, but all of it scrubbed clean, renewed, free from sin. So, whatever art, dance, song, cuisine, technology, literature, dress, customs, architecture—any good thing of this world that we loved, shall be there to be enjoyed. And new meals, new music, new books, new technologies, new scientific inquiries will be created and discovered! 6. It will be God-centered I could keep going—it will be communal, it will be eternal, it will be exciting, etc. But did you notice the main theme in almost all of the verses from Revelation? God is there!

The critical question for our generation — and for every generation — is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there? - John Piper, *God is the Gospel*

What was Jesus’ promise? Not only that He prepares a place, but that He prepares place *in His Father’s house.* In the very presence of God. We will be with Him—the source of all goodness and all beauty.

Tomorrow, our family will leave on a family trip to Disneyworld. To say that my boys are excited is putting it mildly. But all this past week, the hope of Disneyworld has become much more real. Need to do extra homework because you’ll miss a week of school? It’s okay, we are going to Disneyworld. Have a bunch of chores to do around the house? Soon, we will be in Disneyworld. We are all hope-shaped creatures, looking forward to sustain us through today. But, sadly, you can’t live forever in Disneyworld. You come home, and the trip ends. Maybe the trip turns out to be a little less exciting than you hoped it would be? But there is a future hope that will never disappoint, never end.

This is the place that Jesus is preparing for us. And He will come soon and take us there. In C.S. Lewis’ final book in the Narnia series, The Last Battle, which is a quasi-allegory for armageddon and the new creation, at the very end the characters enter into the new heavens and new earth—a new Narnia, and we are told:

The new [Narnia] was a deeper country: every rock and flower and blade of grass looked as if it meant more…“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that is sometimes looked a little like this.” - The Last Battle, Lewis

Later, the last words of the book read:

for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before. - The Last Battle, Lewis

Does the hope of heaven feel real to you? Do you think about heaven often? Or are you bound up in the troubles of this world, trying to overcome them with the hopes of this world? Jesus offers you more.

A Way Home

How do you get there?

And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. - John 14:4-6

This is one of the most famous verses in John’s gospel for a reason. It is exclusive and inclusive.

Exclusive

Jesus says that no one can come to the Father but by Him. Meaning, you cannot have communion with God the Father, unless you have communion with God the Son. There is no alternative. Our culture is very attracted to the idea of “all rivers flow into the ocean,” there are many paths up the mountain, many truths that see a part…and if you claim to see the whole or believe that your path is the only path, then we find that distasteful.

This misses two things:

1. It doesn’t realize that it’s perspective that “all religious perspectives are essentially the same” is itself a diverging perspective that (ironically) disagrees with most religious worldviews and claims to have the kind of absolute Truth that it claims no one can have.
2. It assumes that the path to God is a path we can walk. If it is popular to claim that Christianity, and Islam, and Buddhism, and Mormonism are all just different paths up the mountain towards God, then it is assuming that this is a path that we can accomplish to get to God. But Christianity is distinct from every other religious worldview in that it claims that nobody can climb that mountain. Your sins have created a separation between you and God that is so vast, so insurmountable, that no amount of good deeds or Bible reading or prayers or church attendance will ever get you there. The Bible claims that left to ourselves, we are dead in our sins—that even our best religious attempts are as effective as a dead man trying to climb Mount Everest.

The reason that Christianity insists that you must put your faith in Jesus—rather than just a vague trust in God in general—is because Jesus is the only hope of salvation. Did you notice that Jesus did not answer Thomas’ question about the way to God by saying, “I will show you the way…I will teach you the way…I will model the way,” No, He said, “I am the way.” Why? Because Jesus did not come to give you another path up the mountain. He came down the mountain, to you in your deadness, and He offers to take your sins, suffer the death that they deserve, so that He might pick you up and bring you to God.

This is where this message is radically inclusive. Thomas says, “I don’t know where you are going, I don’t know how to get there.” And Jesus replies: You don’t need to know everything Thomas, you just need to know me. What did the thief on the cross know? He knew that he was a sinner, that Jesus was a Savior, and that after Jesus conquered death, He could save him. “Jesus, remember me.” And what does Jesus tell him? “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” The man knows virtually nothing else about the intricacies of theology. He has had no time to do any good works, gone on no mission trips, funded no charities. He hasn’t been baptized or taken the Lord’s Supper. But he knew the Way because he knew Jesus.

Life is full of trouble and pain. Jesus knows. And he wants to help you today by extending the promise and offer of eternity with Him. And He has shown you the way. If you confess that your sins have separated you from God and that you cannot save yourselves AND confess that Jesus is the Son of God who died for you and can bring you to God, then you can live with “strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.” You can live with the hope of heaven. The glory and beauty and wonder of heaven is not too high for you, not too wonderful you.