Troubled hearts.
We have all experienced what it is to have a troubled heart - a heart struggling to grasp understanding, to find peace in a storm, to see a light at the end of the tunnel… we have each and all suffered from pain of heart, loss, disappointment and grief. We have all been agitated by what we see and hear. We have all been frustrated getting someone to understand or agree or at least be willing to agree to disagree and respect and dignify who we are, where we are, what it is that is troubling us. There isn’t one of us who hasn’t wished for someone to enter in and sooth or troubled, agitated, unrelenting heart…
Oh, to have our hearts at peace. And oh, the joy of that sweet release. And oh, the double joy of being one through whom comes the healing salve of comfort, peace, good news to the soul of another - as if God is making His loving, merciful, gracious and healing appeal, through me… will I be comforted? Will I bring comfort? Will we comfort one another…? Will we receive the comfort our Father offers? Will we…?
John 14:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled …”
● Trouble - to stir up, to trouble, disturb, agitate
● Put in motion, agitate back and forth what needs to remain still (at ease)
● To trouble, to agitate, causing in perplexity, emotional agitation - from getting stirred up inside
● To cause one inward commotion, take away his calmness of mind, disturb his equanimity, to disquiet, make restless
● To strike one’s spirit with fear or dread
● To affect great pain or suffering
● Render anxious or distressed, perplexed
What emotions did the disciples show and how did they respond? Reacting to the moment, forgetting who it is they had known
● Confusion that would lead to resignation - Thomas
● Indignation that would lead to opposition and denial - Peter
● Sadness - Fear - Dread - Grief - all of the disciples
● Disappointment and Anger expressed in utter disgust and contempt - that would lead to devaluing life - Judas
There is a question to be asked: Is having your heart troubled inherently a lack of faith or sin? Some might say, yes, Jesus might say otherwise...
● John 12:27 “My soul is troubled. What should I say - Father save Me from this hour? But that is why I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!”
● John 13:21 “when Jesus had said this, He was troubled in His spirit”
When you have a friend, a partner, a spouse or child who is distressed - whether in a way that you might consider legitimate or not, what is it that you would want for them? What would like to provide for them? What do you want to bring them?
When you have two friends who each have what can be perceived as good or right positions on a subject, but neither refuse to budge, to the point where it is beginning to tear at the fabric of their relationship, what are going to try to do?
When your heart is distressed - whether angry, confused, trouble, anxious, fearful, grieving, what is it you want most?
Sandwiched between these troubling moments…
What emotions did Jesus show? And how did He respond - entrusted Himself to the Father
● John 13:1-3; 31-35 after having experiencing His own troubled heart…
○ “It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for Him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God…”
○ “When Judas was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in Himself and will glorify Him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: where I am going, you cannot come. (So) a new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Even though Jesus knew all of this, he was still troubled in heart… He also had to respond to His heart’s being troubled - he would remind Himself and minister to His disciples
● Knew the Father and what He was doing
● Entrusted Himself to Him
● Loved the disciples - despite their various emotional troubles and feelings
● Served them, yes, but also attempted to console them
How then might we respond when our hearts are troubled - in the many ways our hearts are and can be troubled? Remember, it might not be fear and dread. It might be…
● Confusion
● Perplexity
● Missing and longing - wishing you could have what you had before
● Grief and loss
● Anger or disgust
● Disgust or apathy
This is not a matter of sin, but a matter of growing in belief and trust - being persuaded more and more of the truth of Jesus’ and the Father’s love for us and learning in turn to entrust ourselves more and more in Him and His good and perfect plan.
Now, sin may come in how we react to trouble and (with our) troubled heart or toward the troubled heart of another (in our trouble… )
So, what was Jesus’ remedy for a troubled heart and all the emotions and consternation that comes with a troubled heart? (As we saw in John 13:1-3, 31-35) Jesus believed in His Father, and in Who it was He Himself was - God’s child, His beloved, and entrusted Himself to the Father and the Father’s will - not just the end result, but also the means by which the end, the result, would come.
And we can do the same for the very same reasons!
1John 3:1-2 “1See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Dear friends, now we are children of God”
John 14:1b “You believe in God” “...believe…” or “you believe in God”
It is not that the disciples did not believe and Jesus is telling them that they need to believe, no, every Jew “believed in God”, but what Jesus was trying to get them to do what to believe in the Father, the power of the Father on their behalf, the presence of the Father, the affection of Father, the very real and personal trust they could put in the Father, that they might realize the pleasure of the Father, the will of the Father, to experience being a child of the Father
Believe - have faith, tust in, entrust myself - in, to, with - being confident in the
● One I have trusted
○ Person
○ Workings
○ Will and purposes
○ Outcome
○ The means to the outcome - not just trusting for the final destination, but each moment and circumstance leading to the end of the thing - it is all “good” (Rom 8; James 3)
● To have faith, as to be persuaded, and that by the Lord (by His truth - word and Spirit; experience (Phil 2))
● To believe and embrace what God has made known either through or concerning Christ
● To trust - and in essence - and then to entrust yourself to
Then in essence Jesus is saying, you can trust the Father, just as you have trusted me, as as you have seen me, you have seen the Father
Believe in God, the Father
● Know who He is
● Know what He is about
● Know what He is able to do
● Know what He is doing
● Trust
● Entrust
John 14:1 “...believe also in me.” Jesus, the Son…
● The Father and I are one
● You have seen me, you have seen the Father
● What you have seen and heard in me, you and seen and heart the Father
1Peter 2 - the entire chapter
● 1Peter 2:4-10 -Jesus remedy - remember whose you are, remember who you are - trust and entrust - the end and the means
● 1Peter 2:11-20 - Know that God uses all things to accomplish his sovereign will
● 1Peter 2:21-25 - Remember again - whose you are and who you are and believe, trust and entrust yourself to Him - the Good Father in and for everything...
○ Yes, the end, the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
■ 1Peter 1:8-9“8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
○ But also for the means - even in suffering, confusion, out troubled heart
■ 1Peter 1:6-7“6In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith...may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
○ Trusting and entrusting ourselves to the “Shepherd and Overseer of our souls”
■ Psalm 23
■ John 10
Ending in “entrust” - the matter here is not to entrust ourselves to the government, but to entrust ourselves to our heavenly Father and His will - and not just trusting Him for the end goal, the end result of His intentions - salvation of our souls and eternal life with Him - but to trust God and entrust ourselves to Him even in the means of His accomplishing and who it is He chooses to establish and appoint to accomplish His will
I wonder if we have something confused….
Let us not misunderstand, when the ratings and scripture talk about “obey and honor the government authorities“ they are not asking us to trust ourselves to those authorities, but don’t trust ourselves to the guard who established those authorities. To trust not just the end of his well, but the means by which as well as accomplish.
