An un-troubled heart, conclusion

 

Another compelling reason to trust Him is found in verse 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.

 

We're shifting our focus from a place, our Father's house, to a person, Jesus. Where Jesus is, that is where we find heaven. In His presence we will find the heavenly dwelling place that we are hoping for. He's telling them that He is not yet prepared to receive us there -- He must die, and rise, and be glorified. Then He will intercede for us and come for us. I Thessalonians 4:16-17 is a familiar passage that reminds us of the future reunion we will experience:

 

              For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud

              command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet

              call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we

              who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with

              them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will

              be with the Lord forever.

 

Is anyone besides me praising right now? (Grin)

Jesus is telling them (and us) to have un-troubled hearts. Don't worry, because you can trust that I am coming for you. I will come and take you to myself.

Maybe right now you are thinking that this all sounds wonderful, but right now my heart is troubled because of what I'm facing here on this earth. Maybe you are worried about what is best for your children. Or you are worried about what is best for your parents! Perhaps you are fretting because of your job, or your health, or you are depressed and lonely.

Perhaps you are thinking, if He doesn't want my heart to be troubled, isn't there something He can do to encourage me, to bolster my faith -- do I have to wait for heaven, or for the second coming?

 

Don't feel badly if you are thinking that way . . . Phillip did, too! Look at what he said to Jesus in verse 8:

                 Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.

 

Phillip didn't say, "That's great that we'll see the Father someday." What he said was, "We want to see the Father now! And if we do, that will be enough." (By the way, the word used there is the same word that Paul uses in II Corinthians 12:9, where he proclaims "My grace is sufficient for you."

So Phillip is asking if Jesus will show them the Father now. He seems to be saying that it will satisfy their troubled, anxious hearts. And in the next verses (7-11) Jesus will repeat that He and the Father are one, and that His presence is the presence of the Father.

 

              “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.”

              “From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

              “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?
              “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”

Jesus is asking Phillip, is it enough? I have showed you, and He is here. I am here.
Perhaps you are asking Jesus in your own life, "Where have You been? You used to be with me. I could feel You here. And I felt like the Father was here with me. But now it seems You are gone." It is for you that He tells us "Trust Me." And, "I am always with you."
All we have to do to find that is to look down the page at verses 16-18 . . . and we'll cover this again in our next study, but here it is:

                 I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be
                 with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot
                 receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know
                 Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave
                 you as orphans; I will come to you.

Remember when you were a young child, and you were sick? You would be lying in your bed, the covers all rumpled and mussed from your kicking them. Your fever would be making you feel so hot one moment, and so cold that you shivered, the next moment. Your mom would come in and gently pull up the covers, and give you a sip of juice, and before she left, her hand would rest on your forehead or face. Her hand felt cool and comforting to your feverish body. For a moment, all was well. All was better.
The comfort that our Savior gives us is so much more satisfying; it lasts so much longer. He is with us always, as He promised. That Spirit of God is dwelling is us as Christians. The Spirit of Christ. He has gone away physically, yes. But He has not left us as orphans. He has come to us.
Right now, He is much more interested in our marriages, our loneliness, our health, our jobs, and our parenting that anyone here on earth is -- He is more interested and cares more than we can imagine. He's not just a spectator; He is our Helper.

Why are our hearts un-troubled?
There is a place for us in our Father's house; Jesus opened the pathway to that place. Jesus and the Father are One, and are worthy of our trust and worship. Jesus is with us always, and forever.

Let not your hearts be troubled . . .