Jesus Unfiltered - Week 6 - St. Peter - Pastor Tim Glende
Jesus Unfiltered
Week 6 - St Peter
Pastor Tim Glende
Welcome again to the second to last installment in Jesus Unfiltered the “I am” statements of Our Savior, Jesus. The claims that he made about who he was, unadulterated, in your face. Sometimes very direct one more today and then one more on Easter Sunday, we pray that you’ve been blessed throughout the series because of Jesus. The, I am, who is the bread of life, the light of the world. The gate, the Good Shepherd, last week, the vine. And today, we're going to pack John chapter 14 And before we do, I have a question for you. Is anything troubling you?
Probably a ridiculous question. If you've been watching the news at all this week, right? Like the tragedy that happened in Nashville at the Covenant School.
The video. The pain, the loss, that sadness. I don't know how much of it you've heard about, I don't know how much you've seen of it. What I heard of it was troubling.
Anything troubling you? Maybe it's not the events of our world that we live in today. What? Could be a lot of the things that we've dealt with over the course of the last several months and years. From a political standpoint or an economic standpoint, maybe those things are troubling you right now.
Or maybe what's troubling you is personal? Like, maybe for some of you. It's the news that you just got about your health or something that you're fighting or dealing with a disease, that is affecting you. Maybe it's chronic pain, something. You know what? That, never goes away. What's troubling you?
Or maybe it's relational.
Maybe that relationship that you treasure and cherish is no longer there because that person is no longer here or maybe that person is no longer there and they kind of left and walked away from that relationship with you. Is a relationship troubling you?
Whatever it is, but the odds are pretty good that there's something in your life, something in our world, something maybe that has taken place, or probably something that will come up very soon. That might cause your heart to be trouble. Like the circumstances might change from today to tomorrow the life that you're living, might get turned upside down or the world in which we live, is simply troubling, And I Think Jesus knew that was. A reality in his world.
And not just the world in which we live, can there be things that trouble us? But spiritually. Like what is it? That spiritually maybe is troubling you or has troubled you. Like if you ever been spiritually troubled by your sins, like wondering if Jesus can forgive that one? Like it's so big and so bad. Or maybe you're like a lot of Christians. I've had strong Christians. Ask me like “Pastor, How do I know if if I'm going to get there? Because Jesus really the way there is what I believe, right? It's very easy to get spiritually troubled too, isn't it?
And that's the real struggle. I think that Jesus saw two thousand years ago in his disciples' lives. And what he understands is true because he lived a life for 33 years and saw it in other people's eyes and he knows it's still real for you. And for me today, it's the struggle and the tension. I think that our text unpacks for us, and if this parts, the human heart gets trouble,
So I don't know, what is troubling your heart today? I don't know what circumstance you might be facing. I don’t know it's spiritual issues or questions you have that are out there, but I'm glad you are here. Because God wants. Speak to your heart. He wants to speak to his people who are often troubled will go through troubles, who live in a world that's troubled. And he wants you to have the answer. The solution to that struggle and Jesus understood this, because his disciples night before he died. Here's why they bring John Chapter 13. We're going to go to John chapter 14. Know where we're at. In Holy Week, just has already come to Jerusalem. He's done a lot of teaching in the temple, we're at Thursday night where Jesus was celebrating the Passover meal. That's done in God, he's instituted the Lord's Supper before. What we're going to read in just a few moments, he's just washed their feet in John Chapter 13, the model and example of what servant leadership is like you said to do likewise, he's called out. Jesus has identified him as the betrayer and Judas has left the room. Like Judas was out the door and then Jesus said this, my children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me and just like, I told the Jews, so I will tell you now where I am going. You cannot come. Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going? Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now but you will follow later. Please Lord. Why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”
I got to wonder what Peter's voice inflection was like.
I don't have to wonder what Jesus saw in the faces of the 11 who were left in the room.
But Jesus had did tell them over the course of the week that the son of man must die. The son of man must die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm not going to be with you for a long time and that was hard news, troubling news for 11 men who had dropped everything and stopped their life to follow Jesus. Everywhere he went to sit at his feet every last day. To learn and to grow into. No, The Amazing Love of Jesus. The love that he had for them. And hear Jesus saying I'm gonna be leaving soon.
I guess that's kind of troubling. Really troubling. I just think of in your life when people that you love leave like a part of your heart hurts and aches. Like I know every time my wife sees my son or get to see my daughter and our son-in-law and our grandkids, and they have to leave and go, it's hard.
Jesus knew in the room, he could sense. The troubled hearts. That. The disciples have In fact, one verse later, as we get into John chapter 14, he actually just identifies it. See, here's the thing: chapters in The Bible like sometimes we read a chapter and we stop and then we take a day and then we read the next chapter and we sometimes think a lot of time has passed like a chapter of Mark in the Bible of verse separation is not the way the original was written. So Jesus goes right, from John 13, the disciples like having hearts that are troubled. They say. “Where are you going? We don't know where you're going. We want to go with you. You can't come with me.” Jesus said, he knew what was going on on the inside. You can see it on the outside. And so, he said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Easy for you to say, right, Jesus. Well, actually, I think about it. Like in a few minutes, he was going to go out the door and go to the garden, where only hours later, he would be arrested taken away, put on trial, But his heart had a whole lot going on, on the inside, he saw in their eyes, the troubled hearts that they had because of what he had just said. And yet, right, in that moment. Jesus really says, do not let your hearts be troubled. The Greek verb is actually from that is basically Jesus saying, “Stop it. Stop it right now. Like do not let this go on.”
Because Jesus knew the danger. That could come if we don't address our hearts when they get troubled.
The word heart is the seat of emotion, the spiritual center of who you are in the Bible. So Jesus is really talking about at the heart and core of who you are, your spiritual lingers. Spiritual well-being, do not be troubled. But that word “trouble” is literally the word that describes what took place at the pool of Bethesda. That pool that the waters would move. And if you were the first one to get into water, you got healed, but where trouble literally means to stir, to be stirred up to be distressed. Almost always in the Bible, when the word troubled is used as talking about our emotions. Like so you know what emotions are a lot of times. They're driven by feelings and not facts, they sometimes get affected and cause us to fear as opposed to having faith, right? So Jesus understood this and he didn't want their hearts to be troubled. Their emotions take them down a bad path, their emotions cause them to be paralyzed, their emotions cause them to look to themselves for strength and helping. What you do is often times when you're troubled, like you jump in, you turn inward, you look to yourself for the answers. You said, no, none of those things. Don't be troubled, believe in God.
“Keep on Believing in me” it's literally an ongoing in present action. Continue to believe in me and continue to believe in God. Like right now, your emotions are stirred, your heart is troubled. I know this is a lot to hear and I know it's hard to handle, but, but here's the answer, don't look within don't be paralyzed. Don't let fear Trump Faith, instead. Remember the facts? Believe in God, Keep On Believing in him and believe in me because of who I am.
See, Jesus understood. That those disciples were going to experience a whole lot of troubles. Like in a few hours, they were going to run in fear. But they later, they were all going to be in a room hiding because they thought they were going to be next. This week we're going to talk about it. But before that Sunday that we celebrate and we're going to celebrate that they thought all hope was lost. Their hearts were going to be troubled. Down the road, when they went out into the world, they were going to be persecuted for their faith. Like they were to face things that were hard and difficult troubles.
And Jesus didn't want them to forget where to turn to where, to look, when Hearts get trouble, like ours might be right now whether their circumstances are going on in your life. Whether it's the world, in which we live, whether there's spiritual concerns and questions. Jesus would say, believe in God and believe in me, I'm God.
Which is why I love where Jesus went to next. Like in verse 22, Jesus builds off of what he already says to address the heart that he knew were troubled in the room and he gave them an answer of where he was going. And he gave a beautiful promise of what he does. Or the one who can calm our troubled hearts, do not let your hearts be troubled. My father's house has many rooms. If that were not so I would have told you.
I'm going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me. That you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.
Like what Jesus says, do not let your hearts be troubled, believe in me. He doesn't leave them without fat. She doesn't leave them hanging and cause them to be indifferent too. He goes right to the heart of the matter and shares with them one of the most amazing Promises of God. But Jesus came down and lived on Earth for 33 years. During the week, we call it Holy Week. He taught, and he talked. And he pointed people in the direction of the reality of heaven and God and Eternity. And here in this moment he tells the disciples I'm going back there like my life mission was not to come down here and set up an Earthly Kingdom. My mission was to come down to rescue you and to rescue all and return their Andrew over all things for your good. But here's my promise, Jesus said, I know your hearts are troubled.
I told you that this is going to happen, but I'm going there to get a place ready for you. You for you? For you. For each and every one of us as Christian. That's what Jesus' Promise is.
And in his father's house are many rooms. Like some of you are too young to know this thing called the King James version of the Bible. Ever heard of it? If you're older, you know, and maybe you memorized your passages out of it, you can actually find it on Bible Gateway. But I like the King James version of this verse a whole lot better than this one. I love this in my father's house are many rooms. It tells me there's multiple places and an amazing place but the King James version says in my father's house there are many mansions.
Like, there's some fancy, fancy houses right here around here Saint Peter aren’t there? Like really nice houses. I know some of you live in them. They're beautiful. Like we can see what an amazing mansion looks like when we watch TV shows. That's what God wants you to know. He's getting ready for you….for YOU.
Like, I have a pretty nice condo but it's only two bedrooms and it's got two bathrooms and it's nice. Better than most, it's probably better than 99% of the people in the world have to live in.
But even close to that, I can win this. Life gets trouble when your body breaks down when your finances are. In question when, when a relationship goes bad when your heart is trouble because of spiritual things, Jesus wants you to take your eyes off of yourself, not be consumed and overcome by this world, but celebrate knowing what he is doing right now. For you, is getting a place ready for you. He's gone there. He ascended back there and his promise to you is one day, one day, he will come back and get you. Personally. Like that's Jesus. Like there's nothing you have ever done, no sin, so big and greedy that Jesus did pay for on the cross. And Jesus promised, I won't be followed through on, he will do it. Promises it and he gave the disciples an answer where I'm going. I'm going there and I'm going there because I need to get there ready for you. And one day, I'll come back and take you to be there with me.
And yet, in the moment, the disciples were still Troubled. Like Jesus didn't answer the question the way Thomas wanted him to. And doesn't that happen sometimes in our lives. Like, what we're facing, what we're hearing? What we're going through is so big. And so hard that, sometimes, we forget what God says. Like, I thought Jesus was pretty obvious. I'm going back to the Father. I'm going to heaven. That's where I came from. The disciples knew he came from heaven and made a promise to you. They come back and take them to be in heaven, but Thomas didn't get it. Thomas said, “Lord, we don't know where you're going. So how can we know the way? Look at Jesus gave them a command to go back to Nazareth when he when he told them after he rose from the dead, go back to Galilee, I'll see you by the sea. They knew exactly how to get there. They probably knew the three ways they could get there. Just like you could take out your iPhone and find probably four or five different ways to get back to your house. If you live just up French Road one way or another, there's only probably one way. But outside of that many of you could find multiple ways to your house, you like the scenic route, you like the slow route. You want the fast route. Do you want the city route? You want the route in Appleton. It basically is 15 minutes for me to get from here to my house. No matter which way I go because we live in Appleton.
And the disciples knew the way to a lot of places but they were still confused by Jesus. We don't know where you're going.
How do we know the way? They give us the roadmap, give us the answer. How do we get there?
Which is really the biggest. Most troubling thing that this world can encounter.
How do I get to heaven?
And sadly. There are a lot of people who don't know the way.
Sadly there are some who believe there are just like my iPhone can pull up five different ways to my house, multiple paths to God. And maybe you're one of them. Maybe you're uncertain. Maybe you're troubled about it. Or you're wondering if I can even find the wave, if God will bring me there. If this is the case, Thomas wanted to know more, just tell us. Like, give us the map. Give us the answer. To which Jesus does.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father, except through me. Like this, “I am”, statement of Jesus and I want to talk about it for just a few minutes is one of the most controversial, hard “I am” statements and claims ever made and for you and for me, the most comforting words probably ever said.
Because in a few minutes, he was going to leave the door to make all those things possible. In a few minutes, he was going to leave that door and fulfill all things scripture, it said the truth. So that what he just had promised in verses 2 through 24, could be possible for you and for me the truth,
And so it's so comforting for a Christian to hear Jesus make the fold. Pull no punches statements. Here's how you get there. Here's what. I'll bring you. There it is. It is me.
But it's also one of the hardest statements for others to hear because of the exclusivity that Jesus claims about how one gets to heaven. I can. I want you to see it because a lot of people will push back on it. There are people who actually will say that this Bible verse, it's not really Jesus saying, he's the way. He's A way right? Have you ever had someone argue with you? And say there's other ways, you actually heard. Other religions say what we might believe this and that religion believes that and they really have nothing in common. But they're always to the same place but just believe in a God, and be spiritual in nature. Like at the end of the day, we'll all get there. No. Jesus said, No.
Like the Greek leaves no doubt, it's not a way. It's not possible ways. Like in the Greek language, it's a little bit different than our language but I want you to see the flavor of it. I'm going to crush you a little bit by bringing some Greek ego, eimi. Hey, HUD us, Kai. Hey, all I say, ah, Ty. Hey, Zoe
I know, pretty impressive, right? I paid for eight years of schooling, just to be able to do that. Now here's the really impressive thing. That little letter that you see that looks like an end with a breathing Mark backwards. Jesus said it three times but God inspired in the Bible for it, to be recorded three times this way to emphasize to you that the definite reality. The definite article is listed three times. That little letter means this, I am the way like we would emphasize this by all caps seeing a word, right? Like, give it emphasis emphasize the only singular the way and the truth and thought life. Not one of, not a v One and Only Way V one and only truth V one and only life no other way. Given to men under Heaven by which we must be saved. Salvation is found in no one else. Peter said a few weeks later. The book of Hebrews. There's one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ. The only.
Which is so comforting when your heart is troubled over sin. To know that the one who makes the claim backed up by going to the cross, your sins have been paid for by the way, the truth, and the life.
When the devil tries to get you to doubt, as God cared, as God loved me, look no further than the cross of Jesus. And remember the empty tomb where he conquered death. So that you and I might not just have a good life here, might not just have a few things here but have the ultimate life, the Abundant Life through faith in Jesus Christ eternal life.
In a world that there has so many troubles, how comforting it is to know, that we know the way. And this week is all about the fact that how he made Away by going to the cross and paying the price that we could not pay. And Rising on Easter so that we could know life. See our struggle is our hearts get troubled. But you know what? Jesus said later in John, chapter 14. In this world, you will have troubles. Like, it'll happen. But you only said take heart. I have overcome the world like at the beginning of the chapter Jesus says, don't let your hearts. Be troubled. At the end of the chapter, he says in this life will have trouble, but take heart, don't let your hearts be troubled, but take heart. I have overcome the world, I am the way. And I'm going to make a way by going to the cross and by walking out of the Tomb. And by going back to Heaven, I'll get a place for you and one day. I will come back and take you there. Because I'm the way, don't doubt, don't fear, believe. See Jesus' solution to our struggle. It's simply the statement like Jesus' solution. “It's me. I am.” Jesus said like seven different times. His “I am” statements of Jesus. Have you found and captured the Jesus talks very clearly about key. Is it the only path he is on? The possible solution? He is it. He is the answer. “I am”, Jesus said,
A life. I'm the one who can calm that troubled heart. Your heart.
Martin Luther said this about John chapter 14, huh? I'll read it for you because I think it's one of the most amazing quotes Martin Luther said about John chapter 14. He said this is the best and most comforting sermon preached by Christ while on this Earth it is a jewel and a treasure not purchasable with the world's Goods. Like there is not enough money, not enough things that you can have to offer to buy this precious gift of John 14, the company words of Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life I'm getting Heaven, ready for you. Take heart, I have overcome the world.
And I want to come back to one thing about that answer.
And what do you think about them? Like as comforting as this is for you. When there's troubled troubles in our lives when our heart is troubled to know, Jesus is with us. Know Jesus repaired a place for us. Coaches will come back to take me to be with him that I know the way, the truth and the life.
But I need you to hold on to the reality that he says, I am the only answer to the ultimate spiritual trouble and I need you to think about them. Like the person in your life who maybe walked away from him. Who maybe is even said out loud. It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you believe in something. I want you to think about them. Maybe it's a sibling, maybe it's when your kids, maybe it's a grandkid. I want you to think about them. They need to hear about him. There is no other way. Like I know it's hard and there are people in your life that you would say are good people, God would not send them there. What do you do?
They don't believe in him. They're not going to end up with him.
So, I need you to think about how you might invite them. How you might ask them. How you might show them. Jesus in your life, with your actions and maybe just maybe it's an invitation to to meet the solution to the troubles.
Maybe they're going through them worldly, maybe their heart is troubled by all that they're seeing. This world is broken, this world is hard but we know somebody who's the way, the truth and the life that the solution to our troubles, he's overcome at all.
So, can I convince you to put on your heart? How you might just invite them to come and meet him. Maybe Friday or maybe Sunday or maybe in the weeks ahead so that they know the way. And that they can have the ultimate peace. Which is what John wanted for you. And for me like John, who wrote these words, “I am” statement wrote these in his first letter. I write these things to you. Who believe in the name of the son of God like we know the way so that you may know that you have eternal life that you might know Jesus and what he gives to us because he rose from the dead. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him. Who is true? The truth is known to us through the word and we are in him. Who is true by being? In his son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life, that is Jesus. My friends, he is the way, praise God, that you know it and this week, as we celebrate he made his way into Jerusalem. He walked his way out of Jerusalem and he walked out of the Tomb, so that you and I have might know life and get to enjoy the place He's preparing for you and for me right now. Until then, when your heart is troubled, remember the solution. It's Jesus The One and Only Way truth and life.
