Would you pray with me?

Father, this Easter, we don’t want to, we’ll just be excited about

sometimes the man-made pomp and excitement we give to things

where we want to truly dwell on the goodness

and your goodness that we see in the cross and in the empty grave. We want to be fully conscious and believing. So let it not be a passing holiday, but let today be just a memorial to who we already know you to be and who you’re going to be to us tomorrow and the day after and all the days in between. We are resurrection people because of your son. So we worship you and just celebrate you and trust that your word will

all the more

excite and enable us to believe and to obey. And we pray that in Christ’s name. Amen.

Well, happy Easter. I’m going to be in John chapter 14. If you want to turn there, John 14. And I know we have all of our little kids in here too, so don’t feel so distracted if it’s your kid talking. I’m going to talk a little louder than normal, at least try. I’ve got a little bit of a head cold, but we’ll see if my voice holds out to the end. John chapter 14. Verse one, Jesus says, let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.

I’m grateful that Jesus is talking about quality, not quantity, because I don’t know about you, but my faith feels like it ebbs and flows. My faith, oftentimes it feels small. I often feel like I’m hanging on perhaps by a thread. And so Jesus is not calling us to a perfect faith as we will have in eternity when we see what we believe. So it’s not an issue of quantity, how much, but it is certainly an issue of quantity, or of quality, not quantity, I should say, because everyone believes something about Jesus. Most folks believe Jesus was a good person. Most folks believe Jesus gave some good pointers. Even Muslims would say there’s a lot of good things to glean from Jesus. But that’s of a quality and kind that just won’t do. Jesus is calling us to a certain kind of faith to believe in him as he would have us believe. So I know you believe in something, but in some sense in Jesus, you’re sitting in this room. So I guess you perhaps are believing, but do we believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ as he would call his disciples to believe? I think we see the kind of faith that Jesus was talking about when we go throughout this passage. Jesus says, don’t be troubled. Don’t be troubled. Don’t be troubled. And that seems, like the most insensitive thing that Jesus could have just said to them, don’t be troubled because this troubled here means to be like shaken, kind of like the core and foundation of your life. It doesn’t just mean like you’re sad about something. We all get sad about things or discouraged. This is to have, you know, your whole life thrown in an upheaval, your whole framework for life brought to nothing. It’s it’s it’s distress in your soul. Oh, what has happened is a triumphal entry. Jesus was the Messiah and he was going to come and free the people and everyone was excited. But since the triumphal entry, Jesus has hinted at that he’s going in a way and where he’s going, they cannot come. And Jesus has been cryptically saying throughout the Gospels he’s going to be killed. Jesus says that someone’s going to betray me. Then Judas does betray Jesus and goes away. And then Peter, who thinks he’s really something special. Jesus foretells Peter, Peter, you are going to deny me three times. So these fellows have given three years of their life to follow in Jesus and even have recently made a profession of faith that he is the Messiah. And then he says it’s all going to unravel. But then he says, don’t be troubled. That doesn’t make any sense. It seems like the perfect thing you should do is be troubled. That seems to be the appropriate and reasonable response. And for you and I to choose this one day out of the calendar. Year to get all pastel colored up and to do some Easter eggs. It cannot. It cannot address the internal troubles that we often have. They’ll be there tomorrow when you wake up. Just like these disciples, you and I have a spiritual enemy at work to discourage our faith. You and I have different sins that sometimes it seems like we can’t overcome like a ball and chain and we despair of God’s presence. And work in our lives sometime. And we certainly live in a world that is collapsing morally and does not fear God. And Orthodox Christianity is quickly becoming a minority in the West. So it would seem again, there’s always a good reason to be troubled. And much like the disciples caught in the storm out on the boat, you and I are we were so ready to give in to this fatalistic, hopeless outlook. And it seems reasonable, does it not? A lot of times. In the Christian life to be troubled, to be distressed. But Jesus says, don’t. How can he say that with so much disaster getting ready to ensue the disciples, so much spiritual assault? Here’s why. Here’s why. It’s because Jesus not only invites us, Jesus commands us to believe that in all of life, Jesus is just as trustful. He’s just as trustworthy as God. In fact, trusting Christ is the very same thing as trusting God. Even Jesus wants us to believe if we don’t trust him, we are not trusting God for they are the exact same. Jesus is that exclusive in what he thinks about himself. And Jesus wants you and I to be that exclusive in our belief that this Jesus is the only way to God. And all of life’s hardships are not. There’s one way to access God, and it’s through only him. So I want to say to you, if we believe in Jesus, we can be sure whatever troubles this life brings, he’s prepared, not just a better place for you and I than what we experience now, but Jesus has prepared a perfect place. Verse two. Jesus says 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. So where is Jesus saying he would take us over the troubles of life? He says to the father, the God of the Old Testament, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God that they associate with, with, with, with, with everything that it is in the created world. Jesus is saying that’s the only way is through me. And he and he doesn’t say I’ll take you to the vicinity. You know, if you like ever go to D.C., like they put up the fence and you can like see the White House, like way off and take a picture. You know, it’s like I kind of went to the White House. That’s not it. Jesus doesn’t say he’ll drive you through God’s neighborhood. What better place can we hope for at the end of this troubled life than such proximity to the father and the son that Jesus would say we will live. We will live in the very abode of God. I want to ask you a question. What is your idea? Heaven.

You ever thought about it? What if heaven was everything you could imagine from rolling hills and snow top crested mountains and in this big, beautiful house and perfect architecture and blue skies and crystal clear oceans and your favorite food of the highest quality and ample supply and all your favorite people are there and you fellowship all the time. And it’s just it’s just exactly what you could imagine. But God and Jesus were not there. Friends, for the Christian, that would not be a sort of heaven that would assuredly be a sort of hell. Because heaven, according to Jesus, is to be with the father, it is to be with the father. The son, the psalmist says, you make known to me the path of life in your presence. There is fullness of joy. So our desire in the Christian life should not just be and it’s tempting. Oh, if only I could get away from my problems. If only I could get away from my troubles. That’s not heaven. The absence of bad things. No one wants to experience trials and suffering. Absolutely. But but our desire is not just to get away. Away from what’s bad. Our desire is to be in the presence of what’s good. And the only kind of thing that’s good for the Christian is to be with the father and it is to be with the son nearness to him. And notice, Jesus says, there are many rooms in my father’s house. So, look, if you’re elite and you do really good in the Christian life, there’s these three rooms and maybe one of you can get those rooms. You know, I got a handful of rooms up there and we’ll have a wrap up. And if, you know, if you if you do well enough in the Christian life and believe good enough, you can get the raffle and maybe the raffle. God’s house has room for all who believe in Christ. Despite all the hardships that would suggest it is not so. So see the wisdom and power of the cross of Jesus, then that object of death and sorrow, that object of defeat and shame. The cross is exactly how Jesus prepared a place for his disciples in heaven. I think we get the image sometimes that Jesus meant when he goes back to heaven, he’s going to put it on his utility belt, get his hammer out, and he’s got like the angel who contracts out for drywall and the angel who contracts out for, you know, electricity and the plumbing angel and he’s going to go and prepare a place. That’s not what Jesus is saying. That’s not what Jesus is saying. It’s through defense. Feeding sin and death. It’s through his glorious resurrection and then sitting on the throne to the right of the father that Christ prepared a place for us. Had the distress of the cross never happened, the ascension wouldn’t happen and the victorious sitting on the throne wouldn’t have happened. And if that didn’t happen, friend, there would be no place for you and I. The only reason there’s a place prepared for you and I is because Christ is the very way Christ is the place. If Christ isn’t in heaven. You and I have no business there. He’s our only place to go. It’s believing in the cross and the resurrection. That’s the manner that Christ prepared a place. It’s only because of that that you and I could gain entrance into the father’s house. It’s wise. I guess it’s my favorite verse in the Bible. John 17, three. Jesus says, and this is eternal life. That they know you. The only true God and Jesus Christ whom you’ve sent. That’s life. He doesn’t say life is a 10,000 square foot mansion. He doesn’t say it’s the absence of illness. He doesn’t say it’s grade a, you know, stake. He doesn’t say a lot of things. I think we could foolishly and simply hope to find in the next life. Jesus says this is the best thing. It’s the presence of the father and the son. Christ. Christ’s victory on the cross and the empty grave and ascending to the father. That is how he prepared a place for you and I. It’s only in him we could be there.

So don’t let the hardships of this life. So shake your faith that you think Jesus isn’t on the other side because he is just like the night can get dark. Really dark. The sun’s always going to come up the next morning. Friends believe Jesus. Jesus has prepared a place in the very end. And he did that through his death. And his glorious resurrection and his ascension. To sit at the right hand of the father. That’s what makes Easter. Easter. Whatever happens here below. Christ is reigning on his throne above. And soon he will return for us. And the empty grave proves it. He’s prepared a perfect place for you. But Jesus says also. He is the perfect way. If we believe we don’t have a perfect place to go, but Jesus is a perfect way. John chapter 14 again. Verse four. He says, and you know the way to where I’m going. And Thomas said to him, Lord, we do. We do not know where you’re going. How can we know the way? And Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.

Jesus shows us the way in himself. What is what is John chapter one tells? It tells us that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. I don’t, I don’t know about you, but I really identify with Thomas. I don’t, he’s always called doubting Thomas. I think it’s a little unfair. I think he’s just like particular Thomas. Like I want it. I want to make sure I get it right. Can you give me like bullet points here? Like I need to know so that I know I’m doing it right. You know, I always, I feel like I identify with Thomas in that. Like it’s not that I don’t think it’s true, but can you just spell it out for me? Jesus doesn’t always want to spell it out, does he? He just kind of wants us to believe. It’s like when he said, eat my flesh. Eat my flesh and drink my blood. And his disciples are like, what? And he’s like, you can leave too. He doesn’t always care to explain himself in the moment. He just wants us to believe. For instance, in Jesus’s earthly life, that all perfection was manifested. Jesus failed in not one point of the law. His way was truly perfect among men and before God. Only Jesus. Every other religious leader, every other spiritual guru, has to take a sideline. Because only Jesus of Nazareth can say, I did everything the Father called me to do and I accomplished it. Only Jesus can say, I’m going back to the glory I had before. It’s only of Jesus that the people said he does all things well. And it’s only Jesus of Nazareth who hanging on the cross said, it is finished. Friends, it’s this son of God. It’s this son of man who is the only way. And again, I want to say to you, if you cannot be so exclusive, if you cannot be so exclusive and so immovable in that doctrine, then you have no doctrine. Because the whole of the Christian life, the whole of Christian doctrine hangs on this Jesus. And this Jesus not being one of God’s ways, but God’s one really good way from spiritual death and damnation to life and righteousness. Without Christ, the whole of the Old and New Testament unravel. They all hinge on Jesus. Jesus was the one that the prophets talked about. Jesus is the one to fulfill God’s promises. Jesus is the coming seed to defeat the serpent from the garden. Jesus is the great high priest to take us into God’s presence. Jesus is the last and greatest prophet to teach and manifest truth. Jesus is the final king to vanquish every enemy of God and set up a kingdom that will have no end. Jesus is the light to every nation. It’s just Jesus. It’s just Jesus. If Christ isn’t the only way, then I say the Bible is a literature of lies. And the father was cruel to have his one perfect beloved son suffer so much for so little for nothing. But this is not so, is it? We believe because Jesus said it. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. And what does the father say about this son? The father says, this is my son. My chosen one. Listen to him.

So hear me this Easter Sunday. Jesus is the truth. Jesus is the life. Jesus is the way. And we all have to put a big period at the end of that sentence. No semicolon, no comma, no dash, no nothing. It’s just this Jesus. One commentator said, if you want something apart beyond Jesus, you want something apart and beyond perfection. You can get no higher and you can get no better. You can get no better than Jesus. This world would offer you many ways and assure you whatever way you take will make you happy. But every voice that says that dies in the grave and your heart is deceitful above all things. Friends, it’s only Jesus who is alive. So it’s only Jesus’s words in a way that can stand. You know, and often we’re like the prodigal son. We think there’s happiness out there. Surely there’s a better happiness out there. And it’s only by grace. We come to our senses and realize, no, there’s only happiness in the father’s house. It’s only in the father’s house to which I must return and hope that somehow the father would bring me in. And friends in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are brought back to the father’s house. I found an old English poem anonymous. The title’s conclusion of the wanderer. Conclusion of the wanderer. Everything is troublesome in the earthly kingdom. The turns of events change the world under heaven. Here wealth is fleeting. Here friends are fleeting. Here man is fleeting. Here family is fleeting. The whole foundation of the earth turns to emptiness. So spoke the wise man in his spirit as he sat alone with his thoughts. Good is the one who keeps his faith. It will be well for him who seeks mercy. Consolation from the father in heaven where all security stands for us. Friends, Jesus is our security. In this life, Jesus is our security and the one to come. So cling to Jesus who is the way, who is the truth, who is the life. Commit your way to his way. And in that way, you will alone find eternal life.

Verse seven, Jesus says, If you had known me, you would have known my father also. From now on. You do know him and have seen him. Which is an amazing thing to say, isn’t it? I think that shoots a hole in a variety of so-called Christian cults who want to maintain Christ, but they don’t want to elevate him to the very divinity of the father. Yet here, plainly, the Lord Jesus says, If you have seen me, it’s just as good as if you have. If you have seen the father. So again, Christ asks us, what’s the quality of our faith? Jesus says, believe against everything you see. Believe against everything that seems inevitable in the greatest trial of life. Certainly believe against everything you feel. And if we see with faith, then we’ll see this perfect end to which Christ takes us in glory. The father’s house forevermore. And if we see with this faith, we’ll see that Christ is our one perfect way by which we live in no truth and no life. In Jesus, fullness of God and true rest and a true home and true peace is found. Jesus, the way, Jesus, the truth, Jesus, the life. The word of God says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Let’s pray.

Father, it is your word that stands forever.

Not the opinions of man.

Not the experimental religion of man.

Not the vain impression. Not the empty philosophies of man.

Not our deceitful feelings.

But father, it is, it is your word that stands. So father, we.

We find ourselves in a position of surrender to your word and to your word made flesh, Jesus.

Jesus. Jesus. Jesus, who lived. Jesus, who died. Jesus, who was raised to new life and in whom there is only life. In whom alone we’re justified. In whom alone we’re made new by faith alone. So we believe. We don’t believe perfectly. But by your grace, we believe. And we say, Lord Jesus, rule our hearts. You are our resurrection. You are our life.

This morning as.