Note: This transcript is AI-generated and may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for the most accurate information and meaning.

Thank you, Jesse. I appreciate that. Turn to our text for today, John 14. It is in the bulletin, online, on a device that you have, or in a Bible in front of you.

As we approach Easter, part of the theme we have been focusing on to give our minds a sense of where we are aiming is looking at the things that were on Jesus’ mind as He approached Easter. As He gets closer and closer to the cross, Passion Week, and ultimately the resurrection, He is telling the disciples about Himself and providing for us what we cannot provide for ourselves.

John 14 is known as the Upper Room Discourse. It is Jesus’ final upper room discourse where, for three chapters, He tells the disciples what is on His mind. We cannot cover it all, but we will look at a piece of it.

Read along as I read John 14:1 aloud:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My father’s house has many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I am 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.”

Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and you have seen Him.”

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus answered, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you for such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; rather, it is the Father living in me who is doing His work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.”

“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have done, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

This is God’s word. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of God will stand forever.

Lord, be with us as we contemplate Your word. Speak to the hurting places, the dark places, the suffering places, and the apathetic places. Speak by Your word to the places of pride and disillusionment, to the places of discouragement and fear. Speak to the center of who we are, even into those anxious, unknown places, that we might find the life You promised. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

I was talking to a friend last week about a job they are applying for in Baltimore. I am from Baltimore, and my son is particularly connected to various community agencies there. I told my friend, “Let me talk to my son; maybe he knows somebody who would be able to give a thumbs up or a word to help.”

Why is that something we think about? Why does my friend hope that is a good thing? It is because if I know someone on the inside, they might be able to give me the inside track. We live in a world that is more reflective of “it’s who you know, not what you know.”

If you don’t know anybody, that system seems unjust and privileged. But it shows how the human heart operates. I want to know the inside. Show me the secret path; give me the secret password; help me get on the inside without having to go through all the red tape.

Jesus says here: if you want to get on the inside and you don’t want to go through all the red tape, it’s about knowing Me. It’s about knowing My Father.

Christianity is about who you know. At its center, the Gospel is about a relationship—a knowing, ongoing relationship with God.

The first words out of Jesus’ mouth to His disciples in this discourse are: “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.” He says, “I know you, and I know your hearts are troubled.”

They are troubled because they don’t know where Jesus is going. Philip says, “Just show us the Father and it’ll all be good.” Humanity has been in a search for a connection with God since the beginning of time. Our stories and mythologies—Greek, Norse—are all about creating this world of gods and goddesses to find a way out of this world into that divine place.

Literature and art tell us more about the human condition than science sometimes does. Science describes what is going on, but literature and art tell me what I want to go on—the motivations of my inner world.

Why do we want this deeper connection? Why are our hearts troubled?

My wife, Becky, and I were having dinner this week. She mentioned she felt a little anxious and troubled. Later that week, I felt the same way. Neither of us could put our finger on why. There is an inner troubledness—a sense of unease—that everyone experiences. Whether it’s a lack of confidence or a question of identity, the human heart has been trying to overcome this since the beginning.

Even in the “theology of Barbie”—when Barbie goes to the real world, she is troubled and anxious. She only finds peace when she finds her connection to her creator and discovers what the creator put in her.

In the beginning, God made everything perfect. But on day six, He said something was “not good”: that man should be alone. Even with a relationship with God, man needed a sense of connectivity where he could know and be known by others.

When that relationship with God broke down at the place of sin, humans didn’t feel like themselves anymore. Adam and Eve hid from God; they became “allergic” to Him. Adam said, “I was ashamed, so I covered myself.” This was the start of the hiding and the shame.

Jesus is saying, “As I approach the cross, I don’t want you to be troubled.” How do we overcome the troubled, uneasy heart? Jesus makes the connection: through belief.

The solution He offers is a person, not a philosophy or a strategy. He says, “Trust me.” The more trust I put in myself or in this horizontal world, the more unease I develop. Our problem is that we put our trust in the wrong place.

Jesus says, “I can give you the secret code. The secret code is Me.”

When my kids lived in Las Vegas, there was a speakeasy called “The Laundry.” To get in, you couldn’t just look it up online. You had to have the password and the location from someone who had actually been there. They gave out these little pins that looked like laundry pins with the password on them.

When we went, we had to go past the main address, into the alley, down the stairs, to a door that looked like a maintenance door. There was only one way in.

Jesus is saying, “I’m giving you the one way in.” People object to Jesus being exclusive, but He isn’t putting it out there like He is “better”; He is putting it out there because it is true.

Jesus says to Philip, “How long have I been with you? If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” Jesus is claiming to be God. He says, “If you want the troubles of your heart relieved, believe in Me.”

The thing about knowing someone is that the more you know them, the more exclusive and intimate the relationship becomes. The more I know my wife, the more I say, “Of all the billions of women out there, I pick you.” If that exclusivity is broken, the relationship breaks.

For some people, Christianity is too personal. We fear that intimacy because of the loss of control. If you want to maintain control in your life, don’t get married, don’t have children, and don’t have friendships. When you enter a relationship, you lose power over your own life.

Jesus wants to go deep. He wants to heal the inner turmoil, the guilt, and the shame through an intimate knowledge of Him—not just an informational knowledge (facts and figures), but a personal one.

The amazing thing isn’t just that we can know God, but that God wants to know us. Jesus says, “I am going to prepare a place for you because I want you where I am.”

He signed that agreement in His own blood. Any religion that tells you that you can be connected with God without a cost or a sacrifice is a lie. Jesus proved His love by laying down His life.

He went down the road of the cross so that He could be abandoned by God, crying out, “My God, why have you forsaken me?” He was abandoned so that you and I could have a way to know God and experience His connection. When you believe that truth, it creates life in us.