“Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled…”

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 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. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (Jn. 14:1-6).

In this Scripture text, Jesus, during His personal ministry, spoke words of comfort to His disciples. Some commentators refer to this address (Chapter 14) as Jesus’ final address before His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. The disciples had every reason to have troubled hearts. One of their number had departed to betray their Master (Jn. 13:26-31); Jesus told Peter that he would deny him thrice (Jn. 13:38); and Christ would be going where they could not go at this moment in time. Also, they had a mission to complete, a mission that would require them to toil and labor for the Savior’s cause.

These words spoken by Jesus should also comfort us. Why? Because in these first few verses of John 14, Jesus assured us, as He did His disciples, of several important truths:

First, Jesus affirmed that He was the One sent from God–the Messiah (Lk. 4:43; Jn. 3:17; 4:34; 5:24; 4:24). Said He, “Ye believe in God, believe also in me ... I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” The apostles had been raised in Judaism, and they believed in God. Yet, Jesus urged them to believe in Him, and accept the fact that He was the Messiah, “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (Jn. 1:29, 36). In verse 9, Jesus told Philip, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” Further, in verses 10 and 11, Jesus said, “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.” In other words, Jesus was a perfect image of the Father. The Hebrew writer tells us that Jesus is the “express image of His person” (Heb. 1:3).

Jesus further asserted that their only means of access to God the Father in Heaven was through Him. These truths remain in effect today. Our only access to God is through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the “light of the world” (Jn. 8:12); He is the “bread of life” (Jn. 6:35); He is “the door of the sheep” (Jn. 10:7); He is “the good shepherd” (Jn. 10:11); He is “the resurrection and the life” (Jn. 11:25); He is “the vine” (Jn. 15:1, 5); and He is “the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn. 14:6). Jesus is the “one mediator between God and man” (1 Tim. 2:5) and the “mediator of a better covenant,” the New Testament (Heb. 8:6; 9:15; 12:24). No man can come to the Father, but by Him (Jn. 14:6).

Second, Jesus affirmed that there is much room in His Father’s house when He said, “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.” This place, His Father’s house, which has many mansions, is the place where Jesus said He was going. Based on this truth, the place must be Heaven, because he was preparing His disciples for His eventual ascension into Heaven to reign at His Father’s right hand (Mk. 16:19). Further, it contains ample room for as many as are called by the gospel because, “the Lord…is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).

During the Christian age, the Father’s house likely refers to the church. As Christians in the church, we become partakers of numerous spiritual blessings. As Christians, we are “partakers of that one bread” (1 Cor. 10:17); we are “partakers of the sufferings” and “the consolation” (2 Cor. 1:7); we are “partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel” (Eph. 3:6); we are “partakers of His holiness” (Heb. 12:10); we are “partakers of Christ’s sufferings” (1 Pet. 4:13); and we are given “exceeding great and precious promises that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4). These blessings and favors are only a few of the many blessings and favors that we experience in the Church, “which is His body” (Eph. 1:23), to which the Lord Jesus adds obedient Christians (Acts 2:41, 47).

Third, Jesus promised to “come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” Jesus assured His disciples and all faithful saints that they will eventually see Heaven. These are most comforting words that support what the two men in white apparel told the apostles after Jesus ascended into Heaven. The men said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). The apostles affirmed Christ’s second coming. For example, Paul assured the Thessalonians when he wrote, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:16-18). Hence, we can be comforted by the words of the apostles concerning Christ’s second coming on the last great day.

Finally, Jesus told Thomas that He (Christ) was the only way to the Father. In answer to Thomas’s query, Jesus replied, “…I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” Presently, all access to God the Father is through Christ the Son–the mediator between God and man. Jesus fulfilled the “law of Moses” (Matt. 5:17). When Jesus was transfigured on the mount, “Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him” (Matt. 17:3). Moses symbolically represented the Law; Elijah symbolically represented the prophets. And the voice from Heaven exclaimed, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him” (Matt. 17:5). Jesus was the proper fulfillment of the law and the prophets. And Paul wrote, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4).

These are only a few of the many words of comfort contained in the Holy Scriptures. Let not your hearts be troubled, believe in God and Christ and obey the inspired words of instruction written in God’s book by “the apostles whom He had chosen” (Acts 1:2). – tgmc 

Cookstove Apostasy
Author Unknown

The early church prayed in the upper room, the twentieth century church cooks in the supper room. Today, the supper room has taken place of the upper room, play has taken the place of prayer, and feasting the place of fasting. There are more full stomachs than there are bended knees and broken hearts. There is more fire in the range in the kitchen than there is in the pulpit.

When you build a fire in the church kitchen, it often puts out the fire in the pulpit. Ice cream chills the fever of spiritual life.

The early Christians were not cooking in the supper room the day the Holy Spirit came, they were praying in the upper room, they were not waiting on tables, they were waiting on God, they were not waiting for the fire from the stove, but for the fire from above. They were detained by the command of God and not entertained by the cunning of men. They were filled with the Holy Ghost, not stuffed with stew and roast.

Oh, I would like the cooking squad put out and the praying band let in, less ham and sham, and more heaven, less pie and more piety, less use for the cook book, and more for the Old Book. Put out the fire in the kitchen and build up the fire in the pulpit. – Gospel Advocate, May 30, 1935.