Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

by Mike Ratliff

[27] Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (John 14:27 ESV)

My Dad died in 2009 in the Assisted Living Center where he was forced to live because he had Alzheimer’s Disease. It is a horrible disease. I told everyone close to me at that time that we lost our Dad 10 years earlier when that disease took hold of him. My mother suffered a heart attack during that time before they had to go live there and while in the hospital she had a stroke which caused her to lose the ability to drive, to communicate clearly, and so, we as a family had both of them moved to that Assisted Living Center. If Dad had not been there who knows what would have happened to him? He did not know where he was most of the time. He even started forgetting who most of us were. As I said, He died in 2009 while asleep at the age of 86. My mother was then moved to an apartment in the same Assisted Living Center. She lived there for many years until she got to be about 90 then we moved her to be closer to my sister in Houston. It was there that her health started going down pretty fast. She died in 2018 just after turning 91. 

1 Μὴ ταρασσέσθω ὑμῶν ἡ καρδία· πιστεύετε εἰς τὸν θεὸν καὶ εἰς ἐμὲ πιστεύετε. 2 ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ τοῦ πατρός μου μοναὶ πολλαί εἰσιν· εἰ δὲ μή, εἶπον ἂν ὑμῖν ὅτι πορεύομαι ἑτοιμάσαι τόπον ὑμῖν; 3 καὶ ἐὰν πορευθῶ καὶ ἑτοιμάσω τόπον ὑμῖν, πάλιν ἔρχομαι καὶ παραλήμψομαι ὑμᾶς πρὸς ἐμαυτόν, ἵνα ὅπου εἰμὶ ἐγὼ καὶ ὑμεῖς ἦτε. 4 καὶ ὅπου [ἐγὼ] ὑπάγω οἴδατε τὴν ὁδόν.
5 Λέγει αὐτῷ Θωμᾶς· κύριε, οὐκ οἴδαμεν ποῦ ὑπάγεις· πῶς δυνάμεθα τὴν ὁδὸν εἰδέναι; 6 λέγει αὐτῷ [ὁ] Ἰησοῦς· ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωή· οὐδεὶς ἔρχεται πρὸς τὸν πατέρα εἰ μὴ διʼ ἐμοῦ. John 14:1-6 (NA28)

1 Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe in me also. ² In my Father’s house there are many rooms, if not, I would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming and will receive you to myself that where I am you may be also. 4 And where I go, you know the way.
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you go. How are we able to know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:1-6 (translated from the NA28 Greek text)

Genuine Christian Faith bears fruit in those who possess it as they mature, persevering in the fires of sanctification. This fruit is seen in hearts that have joy and remain at peace even when under burdens that would crush most people. Yes, Christians often lament and mourn and deeply desire for those burdens to be lifted, but as they place their eyes on Christ and their perspective moves from the temporal to the eternal then what was troubling their hearts seems relatively trivial. What is the worst this world can do to us? It offers cruelty and death. However, for those in Christ, we have the promise of life in Christ no matter what happens to us in this life.

In v6 in the passage above, our Lord comforts us with the fact that he is “the way,” that is, “the one and only way” to God. There is no other way. Who finds this way? All in Christ are of this way. That is why early “Christians” were not called Christians, but referred to themselves as followers of “the Way.” Jesus is the truth of God (John 1:14) and the life of God (John 1:4, 3:15, 11:25). The exclusiveness of Jesus as the only way to the Father is emphatic in this verse. There is only one way, not many ways that exist to God. This one way is Jesus Christ (John 10:7-9; Matthew 7:13,14; Luke 13:24; Acts 4:12).

To answer the question of who finds the way to Christ, read v7, “εἰ ἐγνώκατέ με, καὶ τὸν πατέρα μου γνώσεσθε. καὶ ἀπ᾽ ἄρτι γινώσκετε αὐτὸν καὶ ἑωράκατε αὐτόν.” Or, “If you have known me, you will know the Father also, and from now on you know him and have seen him.” What does this mean? All who know Christ through his death and resurrection know God through the Gospel. These men, however, knew the Lord knew God because they had come to know Christ in his ministry. To know Christ is to know God. This is the real Gospel not what it has been corrupted into over the last couple hundred years. It is a message of a the completed work of Christ for the Glory of God on behalf of those Christ came to save. Those who believe the Gospel and obey it are those he came to save. They repent, believe, and so are justified by God because of that.

My brethren, let not your hearts be troubled by the rampant apostasy in the visible church right now. Yes, there is a lot of stuff going on there with some teaching that is wrongly emphasized, that is, based in the traditions of men rather than the doctrines of our Lord Jesus Christ. We must be discerning and wise, but let us not become angry and sin, full of pride, refusing to listen to the Holy Spirit. God is in complete control.

Soli Deo Gloria!