1. Our Lord says in John 14:1, "Let not your heart be troubled" (John 14:1). And then He says it again in verse 27.
2. John 13--17 is the last recorded discourse of our Lord.  Right after He had spoken these words He was betrayed, arrested, tried, and crucified.
3. Spurgeon said our Lord's "face was towards the Cross. He was hard by the olive press of Gethsemane. He was about to be troubled as never man was troubled, and yet among His last words were these, 'Let not your hearts be troubled.'”
4. The apostles knew our Lord would soon be leaving them (cf. John 13:33), and so they were very troubled. Their hearts were agitated and disturbed, and so this final discourse was designed to comfort them and to encourage them.
5. And it should comfort and encourage us as well.

I. LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED BECAUSE GOD IS IN CONTROL (14:1).

1. Our Lord said to them, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me" (14:1).
2. It has been pointed out that John 14:1 and 14:27 are identical -- "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me," and these two identical statements constitute a refrain.
3. Between these two identical statements reasons are given why we should not be troubled.  First and foremost: God.
4. God is in control...so let not your heart be troubled.
5. One day Charles Haddon Spurgeon noticed a weather vane that a farmer had on his barn. It was an unusual weather vane, and on it the farmer had the words, "GOD IS LOVE."  Spurgeon asked him, "Do you mean by this that God’s love is as changeable as the wind?" The farmer shook his head. "No, I do not mean that God’s love changes like that. I mean that whichever way the wind blows, God is love.”
6. Tempestuous winds are blowing -- and our country is on the verge of falling -- financially, morally, and literally. But God is in control, so let not your heart be troubled.
7. I love that old song...

   "Let not your heart be troubled,” His tender word I hear,
   And resting on His goodness, I lose my doubts and fears;
   Though by the path He leadeth, but one step I may see;
   His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
   His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me. (Civilla D. Martin)

8. When we carefully read through the Bible, we are greatly encouraged by the emphasis on faith.
9. Our Lord spoke often of faith -- "Believe in God" (John 14:1).
10. Our Lord said in Mark 5:36, "Be not afraid, only believe."
11. He said in Mark 9:23, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth."
12. He said in Mark 11:24, "Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."
13. And here in John 14:1, just a few hours before the cross, our Lord told His worried apostles, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me" (John 14:1).
14. "Believe also in me" (John 14:1b).   Not just believe in God, but believe in the Son of God.
15. Many people claim to believe in God, but they do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (John 14:4-9).
16. In John 8:24, our Lord said to the Jews, "I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins."
17. This warning is not be limited to Jewish people who reject the Lord Jesus Christ.  It applies to all Christ-rejecters: Unitarians, Jehovah's Witnesses, atheists, Muslims, and all those who do not believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven (John 14:6).
18. I have heard people say they are Christian, but I have observed that their lives do not line up with their profession (cf. John 14:15, 21-24).
19. Our Lord's promise in John 14:1 is for those who are genuinely saved.  Those who are not genuinely saved cannot claim this promise of peace and assurance (cf. John 3:18, 36).
20. Another great blessing for those who are genuinely saved is the promise of answered prayer (14:13, 14).

II. LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED BECAUSE YOU HAVE A HOME IN HEAVEN (14:2, 3).

1. The NIV and the ESV translations say, "In my Father's house are many rooms."   But that is not what Jesus said.  He said, "In my Father's house are many mansions..."
2. The NASV says, "In My Father's house are many dwelling places."   That is not what Jesus said.  He said, "In my Father's house are many mansions..."
3. We have plenty of rooms and "dwelling places" down here.   Jesus promised us a mansion up in heaven.

   I've got a mansion just over the hilltop
   In that bright land where we'll never grow old
   And some day yonder we will never more wander
   But walk on streets that are purest gold -- Ira Stamphill

4. If you are saved you will be going some day to a beautiful place called heaven.
5. Many years ago, evangelist  Charles E. Fuller announced on his radio program that he would be speaking the following Sunday on "Heaven."
6. During that week a beautiful letter was received from an old man who was very ill, and the following is part of his letter.

   "Next Sunday you are to talk about Heaven. I am interested in that land, because I have held a clear title to a bit of property there for over fifty-five years. I did not buy it. It was given to me without money and without price. But the Donor purchased it for me at tremendous sacrifice. I am not holding it for speculation since the title is not transferable. It is not a vacant lot. For more than half a century I have been sending materials out of which the greatest Architect and Builder of the Universe has been building a home for me which will never need to be remodeled nor repaired because it will suit me perfectly, individually, and will never grow old. Termites can never undermine its foundations for they rest on the Rock of Ages. Fire cannot destroy it. Floods cannot wash it away. No locks nor bolts will ever be placed upon its doors, for no vicious person can ever enter that land where my dwelling stands, now almost com­pleted and almost ready for me to enter in and abide in peace eternally, without fear of being ejected.

   
   

   "There is a valley of deep shadow between the place where I live in California and that to which I shall journey in a very short time. I cannot reach my home in that City of Gold without passing through this dark valley of shadows. But I am not afraid because the best Friend I ever had went through the same valley long, long ago and drove away all its gloom. He has stuck by me through thick and thin, since we first became acquainted fifty-five years ago, and I hold His promise in printed form, never to forsake me or leave me alone. He will be with me as I walk through the valley of shadows, and I shall not lose my way when He is with me.

   
   

   "I hope to hear your sermon on Heaven next Sunday from my home in Los Angeles, California, but I have no assurance that I shall be able to do so. My ticket to Heaven has no date marked for the journey—no return coupon—and no permit for baggage. Yes, I am all ready to go and I may not be here while you are talking next Sunday evening, but I shall meet you there someday."

7. Do you have that assurance?
8. Heaven was real to that Christian.
9. Heaven was real to Jesus and His apostles.
10. Heaven was real to evangelist D.L. Moody.    Right before he passed away he said, "Earth recedes, Heaven opens before me!"
11. His son, Will, heard him and thought his father was dreaming.   Moody said to his son, "No, this is no dream, Will. It is beautiful. It is like a trance. If this is death, it is sweet. There is no valley here. God is calling me, and I must go."
12. And he closed his eyes and went to heaven.
13. Interestingly, there was a scholar named Wilbur Smith who read all of D.L. Moody’s sermons. He said: "Mr. Moody probably preached on the subject of heaven, with different emphases, more frequently than on any other one subject in his long ministry."
14. I heard about a man who was a backslidden Christian, and his only child died unexpectedly and at a very young age. This man had been cold for sometime, rarely attending church, and he seldom read his Bible.
15. But after his son died he started reading the Bible. His wife, who was a godly Christian, saw him pick up his Bible and start to read it. He would read it for a long time, stopping on occasion to mark some verse.
16. Night after night he would read the Bible, occasionally stopping to mark a verse. Sometimes he would stay up reading till the wee hours of the morning. His wife wondered what it all meant but she was so glad to see him reading the Bible she said nothing about it. She was scared that if she said anything he might stop and go back to his old ways.
17. At last her curiosity overcame her and one morning after he had gone off to work she took his Bible and started turning the pages. She soon discovered that he had marked only those verses that referred to heaven.
18. Then it became very clear to her. While their sweet little boy was with him he did not care about heaven. To him heaven was vague and distant and misty.  He seldom thought about heaven.
19. But now that his only child, his darling son was up yonder in heaven, this broken-hearted father was trying to learn all he could about that place to which he had gone.
20. I hope it will not take the death of a loved one to get you thinking about heaven. Heaven is real, and the Bible has much to say about heaven.
21. In addition to anticipation, there is also preparation.  Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you" (John 14:2). But what about you? Are you prepared?
22. During the Civil War a nurse was binding up a soldier’s wounds, and a short distance away she heard another soldier crying out, "Here, Here!"
23. Thinking that perhaps he was in desperate need, she left the soldier she was attending and ran over to him. "What can I do for you?" she asked the dying soldier, who was lying on his back on the battlefield.
24. "Nothing, kind nurse," replied the dying soldier. "Nothing, thank you."
25. She went back to binding the wounds of the other soldier, when again she heard, "Here, Here!" She ran back and again asked, "What can I do for you?" And once again the dying soldier said: "Nothing, kind nurse."
26. She again ran back to the soldier to complete the binding up of his wounds, when for the third time she heard, "Here, Here!" And for the third time, she dropped what she was doing and ran over to the dying soldier and asked what she could do for him.
27. "Nothing, kind nurse," replied the dying soldier.
28. "Then why do you keep on saying, ‘Here! Here!’" she asked. "Oh, nurse," said the dying soldier, with a smile on his face, "they are calling the roll of Heaven and I am answering my name."
29. Just then with a far-away look in his eyes and that smile of Heaven on his face, he looked up to heaven and said: "Here! Here!" and raised his hand to heaven and died.
30. It is my earnest and fervent prayer that every person assembled here today will answer "Here! Here!" when the roll is called up yonder in heaven.

III. LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED BECAUSE OF THE INDWELLING HOLY SPIRIT (14:16-18, 26, 27).

1. The apostles were troubled. Our Lord's words were comforting (14:1). And several times in this discourse our Lord refers to the Holy Spirit as “the Comforter” (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7).
2. The Greek word translated “Comforter” is Paraclete, and it means, “one called alongside to help” or “encourager” or “strengthener.”
3. The Holy Spirit is our helper, our encourager, and our strengthener.  He is the Comforter. He, being the Spirit of God, is infinite in His resources and can therefore never fail in His ministry of comfort.
4. What is more, this ministry of comfort can never be broken for He is given to us “for ever” (John 14:16b).
5. The Holy Spirit is also called “the Spirit of truth” (John 14:17; 15:26).  As the Spirit of truth, He guides us “into all truth” (John 16:13).
6. Here in this Gospel of John, in chapter 8 and verse 44, Jesus said that the devil “abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”
7. Satan leads sinners into a pathway of lies and deceit and error.  But the Holy Spirit leads Christians into the pathway of truth and righteousness and holiness.
8. The things the Holy Spirit is said to do are all somewhere or other assigned to Jesus, such as teaching the disciples (John 14:26), and being with them and in them (14:20; 15:4). This is why the Holy Spirit is called “another Comforter” (John 14:16).
9. Some cults and other false teachers refer to the Holy Spirit as an influence or a force from God.  But this is wrong; He is a person.  That is why our Lord uses the personal pronouns "he" and "him" (14:16, 17, 26, etc.).
10. When we say the Holy Spirit is a person, we do not mean that the Holy Spirit has hands and feet and eyes and ears and mouth, and so on.  These are not the characteristics of personality, but of bodily existence.
11. When we say the Holy Spirit is a person, we mean that He has feelings, intelligence, and a will. Any entity that thinks and feels and wills is a person.
12. For example, Romans 8:27 refers to "the mind of the Spirit."
13. Romans 15:30 refers to "the love of the Spirit."
14. Ephesians 4:30 says, "And grieve not the holy Spirit of God."  You can only grieve a person.
15. In Acts 5:3, Peter rebuked Ananias, and said, "Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?"
16. You can only lie to a person.
17. Then Peter said, "Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God" (Acts 5:4).
18. The Holy Spirit is a Person, the third Person in the Trinity.  And He indwells every child of God.

CONCLUSION:

Anne R. Cousin studied the letters of the great preacher Samuel Rutherford, and in 1856, she composed her great hymn, "The Sands of Time are Sinking," which is based on Rutherford's words.

The sands of time are sinking, the dawn of Heaven breaks;
The summer morn I’ve sighed for—the fair, sweet morn awakes:
Dark, dark hath been the midnight, but dayspring is at hand,
And glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.

I shall sleep sound in Jesus, filled with His likeness rise,
To love and to adore Him, to see Him with these eyes:
’Tween me and resurrection but Paradise doth stand;
Then—then for glory dwelling in Immanuel’s land.

The Bride eyes not her garment, but her dear Bridegroom’s face;
I will not gaze at glory but on my King of grace.
Not at the crown He giveth but on His pierced hand;
The Lamb is all the glory of Immanuel’s land.

I have borne scorn and hatred, I have borne wrong and shame,
Earth’s proud ones have reproached me for Christ’s thrice blessed Name:
Where God His seal set fairest they’ve stamped the foulest brand,
But judgment shines like noonday in Immanuel’s land.

They’ve summoned me before them, but there I may not come,
My Lord says “Come up hither,” My Lord says “Welcome home!”
My King, at His white throne, my presence doth command
Where glory—glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.