Spiritual Confidence

I’ve preached those things in
many different opportunities. The character of young men, the
admonition to hold to sound doctrine. And so given that, and given
really my task at hand, my calling, I wanted to return back to the
Gospel of John this Lord’s Day. And if the Lord gives opportunity,
we may return to Titus 2 again some other day. Titus is such
a great book. We preach that, I think, in the
earliest days of the church, 98, 99. And I realized I hadn’t
been there for many years. And so thank you for indulging
me in that. I want to return to the Gospel
of John. and specifically to John chapter
14. I was pondering a concept a couple
of weeks ago in one of my mountain drives, that of confidence. That
certainly is what seems to lack here. And so during my studies,
I happened to cross a business journal that had an interesting
article in it. 15 things that highly confident
people don’t do. I’m not going to read all of
them, but I’ll point to a few because I think they’ll highlight
my point. Highly confident people don’t make excuses. They find ways to get things
done. They don’t dwell on the negative. They don’t avoid doing
the scary thing. In other words, they’re confident,
which kind which kind of seemed rather simplistic to me because
of course they do the scary thing because they’re confident. It
didn’t tell me where they got their confidence. They don’t
live in a bubble of comfort. They don’t put things off until
next week because they are confident. But it still didn’t tell me where
they got their confidence. These are confident people that,
number five, don’t obsess over the opinions of others. They
don’t obsess because they are confident. They don’t lack resources. They find them because they’re
confident. They don’t make comparisons with
others because they are confident. But never throughout the article
does it tell us how they got this confidence. And the Business
Journal goes on in this article to seem to point to this idea
that we just dredge it up from within, just be confident. Well, Jesus found that His disciples
were lacking confidence. Jesus found that His disciples
were quite bewildered. As we open chapter 14, we find
that the Lord Jesus Christ imparts to them the means of gaining
spiritual confidence. Throughout our lives, we find
ourselves alternately discovering a lack of confidence and then
engaging in trying to build and develop confidence in various
errors. areas rather. As toddlers we
first struggle to apply enough confidence to let go of the coffee
table right and to take our very first steps. As young children
we have many new life-changing experiences. Our first day of
school requires a great deal of confidence to let go of mom’s
hand and to go into a stranger’s room with other unconfident children, taking
the training wheels off our bike. Sometimes people wait until they’re
almost teenagers to do that. Some do it at a very early age. Athletic endeavors challenge
our confidence each new activity each new technique that we learn
Challenges our confidence because we’ve never done it before One of the amazing things is
that one of the most frightening things that people ever do is
public speaking and And I remember the fears of doing that but that
is supposed to be the most fearful thing, the thing that most people
lack complete confidence in even attempting to do any kind of
formal public speaking. Working a math problem on the
board reveals a lack of confidence
actually speaking to that member of the opposite sex that you’ve
had your eye on for a time, that requires confidence. Driving
a car requires confidence. Parenting requires confidence. Starting a new job and a new
life requires confidence. But spiritual life, pardon me,
spiritual confidence is the biggest challenge of all. Whether we
call it faith building or cultivating trust, or hope, developing. Developing spiritual confidence
is one of the greatest challenges that we face. And we’re not alone
in this. Chapter 14 is not a hard break
here in John’s Gospel. Chapter 14 really is a natural
flow from Chapter 13. You remember what happened in
Chapter 13. The apostles were in the upper
room with Christ, and in the midst of a meal, Jesus gets up
to model service, Christ-like service. And we saw that service
is, first of all, self-sacrificing. It is inconvenient. Jesus got
up during a meal, put on a towel, and went, man by man, washing
the disciples’ feet. Christ-like service is not only
self-sacrificing, we saw that it’s self-motivating. Nobody
asked him to do this. Nobody did it themselves. And so Christ, noticing this
opportunity, seized the moment to impart this great lesson to
his own apostles. It was self-motivating. Not only
self-sacrificing and self-motivating, but it was self-denying. This
is the Lord Jesus Christ, the creator of heaven and earth,
kneeling down, washing feet. And he did it alone. He didn’t
solicit any help. He didn’t demand reciprocation. He simply denied himself, knelt
down, and washed his disciples’ feet. The amazing thing is, in
that pool of men, was a man named Judas. And Jesus goes on to point
out, beginning in verses 18, coursing all the way down through
verse 30, that he is going to be betrayed by this Judas. He doesn’t name him by name initially. He merely alludes to the fact
that he will be betrayed. This is a heart-rending revelation,
not only for the disciples, but for Christ himself. He’s going to be betrayed. And
then, astoundingly, it seems to get
even worse because he’s not only going to be betrayed by an enemy,
he’s going to be denied by a friend, a friend named Peter, perhaps
the chief of apostles. Well, the disciples As chapter
13 draws to an end, the disciples are overwhelmed. They’re bewildered. They’re stunned at the news that
Christ has given to them. And Jesus knows that they lack
confidence. And so, Jesus imparts to them
the means Not just some observations of what confident people do,
that’s the material of business journals. But the actual means,
how does an individual who lacks spiritual confidence discover
it and grow in it, become confident? We find it in the first four
verses of John chapter 14. John chapter 14, and just indulge
me in this, go back to chapter 13 and we’ll pick up in verse
36. Where Simon Peter asked Christ a question, where, where are
you going? Simon Peter said to him, Lord,
where are you going? Jesus answered, where I go, you
cannot follow me now, but you will follow later. Peter said
to him, Lord, why can I not follow you right now? I will lay down
my life for you. Jesus answered, will you lay
down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a
rooster will not crow until you deny me three times. Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also
in me. In my Father’s house are many
dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have
told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to
myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know
the way where I am going.” This was a bewildered lot. They had heard some bad news.
They had even seen their own Savior shaken, troubled in His
own heart. If ever there was a group who
lacked confidence, because now they see that this so-called
Savior who they thought was going to be kind of a political Messiah
like the Jews had hoped for, to hear of His death, to hear
of betrayal, to hear of denial by one of their own. Jesus here gives five means to
building spiritual confidence. Jesus wasn’t just going to say
some kind of platitudes that comforted over and glazed over
their Concern Jesus Christ wanted to deal with this once and for
all he wanted to build their faith And so Jesus gives to them the
means of spiritual confidence first of all number one Spiritual
confidence is built firstly on the tenacity to refuse doubt
and You say to me that sounds like the business journal. Just
an observation of the obvious. But this is where Jesus starts. Look at verse 1. Jesus answered,
Do not let your heart be troubled. Now as I’ve already said, they
had great cause to be a little agitated, a little concerned. They had seen their own Savior
agitated, troubled in spirit, as it says in 1321. He denounced
and revealed the traitor, Judas. That had to smart a little bit
that one of their own, one of the 12, was a traitor. Then all
of a sudden, there is this mysterious departure of Judas. That had
to bewilder the disciples. Then Jesus goes on to declare
his approaching departure, that he was soon to leave and go to
a place where they could not follow. That bothered them. Then is this grand boast by Peter,
put down almost immediately by Christ, that not only will Peter
not stand with him, Peter will deny him. These are troubling discoveries
that the men are making. And all of the disciples, not
just Peter, had to have been affected by it because this message
is really for all of them and for all of us. Many, many things
come into our lives that have the potential of troubling us,
that have the potential of rocking our spiritual boat and getting
us to the point where we don’t know how we can go on. We don’t
know whether we can even trust the Lord. And so these men sat
utterly bewildered, perplexed. They were dumbfounded at some
of the things that Jesus had just said. And so when Jesus
says, don’t let your hearts be troubled, literally stop letting
your hearts be troubled. Take control of your hearts. That little word, troubled, we’ve
seen it before. It points to being tossed, almost
like you’re at sea. Your heart just becomes flighty
and driven like the water is driven by the wind. Tempest-tossed
is what one described it as. Agitated, thrown into a state
of confusion. That’s where they were. Jesus knew this sentiment. Jesus
had experienced this sentiment of a troubled heart. Go with
me, just in your mind’s eye. Do you remember when He approached
Mary? When Mary drew near to Him at
the death of Lazarus? When Jesus saw her weeping, and
the Jews came with her weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit
and was troubled. That was one of the clear indicators
of Jesus’ humanity. Tempted in all things, just as
we are, yet without sin. At the revelation of His death,
Christ says in John chapter 12, my soul has become troubled. At the revelation of His betrayal
in John 13, 21, which verse we just mentioned, when Jesus had
said this, He became troubled in spirit. The disciples are
all looking on. They’re bewildered and troubled
and sad and confused. And yet Jesus, who if there was
ever a moment to say, you know what? Look, you’re troubled. Let me tell you about trouble.
I got trouble. There is this Gethsemane thing
where I’m going to fall on my knees and pray and pray not only
sweat, but sweat drops of blood. And all of you are going to go
have a nap. There is this betrayal that I’ve already forecasted
for you, but it’s actually going to happen. There is this denial
where my dearest friend Peter is going to deny me not once,
but three times. There are these mock trials that
are coming. There is this crucifixion, death
on the cruel Roman cross that is coming. And yet in the face
of all of that, Jesus turns to his friends. He doesn’t think
about himself at all. He turns to his friends and says,
do not be troubled. There’s a point in our Christian
lives where we have to resolve We have to come to a resolution
deep in our heart. You know what? Look, I’m not
going to let this rattle me. I’m not going to let this ruin
me. I am not going to be troubled over this thing. I’m not. And Jesus very simply tells them
that the first step in developing a spiritual confidence is to
have the tenacity to have the courage to look challenges and
trials in the face and refuse to doubt. Refuse to doubt. But that doesn’t stand alone.
Spiritual confidence is built not only the tenacity to refuse
doubt, but a dynamic and multifaceted faith. Glance at the verse again. We’re still in verse one. Do
not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also
in me. This is a fascinating verse. Grammatically, you could translate
this any one of a number of ways because in the Greek, in this
word believe, that word could be translated either as an imperative,
believe. You should believe. I command
you to believe. Or it could be translated as
an indicative. You do believe. Either way, it
could be translated justly. And you could mix and match.
You could make the first one an imperative. You believe in
God. Believe in me. Or you could make
Both of them indicative, you believe in God, you believe in
me. Or you could make them both imperatives
and that’s where I see that we probably should land. Believe,
cultivate your faith, shore up your faith, trust God and trust
me. Believe in me. Trust Him, said one, who overrules
all events. He will bring you through the
crisis. These were Jews who had a general
faith in God. These were those who, not like
proselytes, these were those who had been raised in the faith
from their earliest days. They believed in God. They had
a faith. As good and pious Jews, they
believed what they didn’t possess yet was faith in Christ. And Jesus extols his own deity
when he says, Believe in God wholly, fully, completely, unreservedly. Place your faith and live there
in God Almighty. And do likewise with me. Because
I too am God. Place your faith fully, wholeheartedly,
unreservedly in me. Trust me. Have faith in me. And may I point out that this faith
in Christ, this belief in Christ isn’t some truth about Christ. It isn’t just believing that
He existed. Otherwise, there are countless
billions of Christians in the world and we know that that’s
not the case. Many people believe that Christ
existed that have absolutely no faith in Him. What Jesus says
is, Place your faith fully in Me. Trust only in Me. One of
the beauties of the Reformation. Solus Christus. Faith in Christ
alone for salvation. So to believe, said one, is not
to believe anything about Him. It’s not to believe a set of
facts about Christ. That He walked the earth for
30 plus years. That He was born in a stable.
His mother’s name was Mary. That isn’t to believe in Christ. But to have such a spiritual
apprehension of His character, that no matter what they shall
lose, or no matter what, they shall not lose their confidence
in Him as the Messiah. He was calling them to shore
up their faith. And we do that We build our confidence
when we exercise and grow our faith, when we look at the pages
of scripture and we see the promises that are contained therein and
we stand on those promises. We build ourselves up in the
faith. One pastor said, that belief
in God should of itself turn our thoughts to the security
of the future life. It’s hope. It’s cultivating a
hope, not just wishful thinking. That’s what we think of when
we go to describe hope. It’s not wishful thinking. It’s
a settled confidence in the soul that things are going to be okay. God is sovereign. God will see
this through. I can trust Him. He goes on, and then, if they
believed in Jesus, they would recall the promises to them.
The true source of consolation for a troubled spirit is faith
in God. and in Jesus Christ whom God
has sent. That’s our hope. That’s where
we begin to build our confidence. That’s where we begin to manifest
the kind of confidence that God himself expects us to have in
this fallen world. But those two things don’t stand
alone. There is a third. Spiritual confidence
is built not only on a tenacity to refuse to doubt, but a dynamic
and multifaceted faith. And thirdly, spiritual confidence
is built on the hope of eternity in heaven, the very thing to
which faith produces. The hope of eternity in heaven. Look at verse 2. This is such
a well… Don’t you remember even the first
time you read this what a comfort this was? Such a well-known verse,
a well-known saying. In my Father’s house are many
dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have
told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. What a perfectly
comforting verse, and it should be. When he speaks of the Father’s
house, doesn’t that give you a heartwarming feel? More so even than a beautiful
Thomas Kinkade picture, you know, cabin in the woods with the glowing
lights in the cabin and snow falling. It’s home. That’s what
we think of when we think of home, a place of comfort, a place
where there’s love, a place where the smells are familiar and the
people are dear to our hearts. And he speaks of it in such warm
terms. It’s my father’s house and you’re
all invited. This word house really is bigger
than just a building, bigger than just a house as we think
of it, because it really would embrace the area in which the
house sits, the property. My father’s house, my father’s
property on his estate, where he lives, there’s plenty of room. Obviously, he’s speaking of which
is spoken of in many different terms, many different metaphors
are used to speak of heaven. Heaven is spoken of as a country,
Luke 19, a city, Hebrews 11, a kingdom, 2 Peter 1, paradise,
Luke 23. Many different terms are used
to describe the Father’s place, His house, His kingdom. Psalm
33, some of these scriptures will be very familiar to you.
Psalm 33, we take comfort in these. When we think of the father’s
property, the father’s estate, Psalm 33, the Lord looks from
heaven. He sees the sons of men from
his dwelling place. He looks out on all the inhabitants
of the earth. Isaiah says essentially the same
thing. Look down from heaven and see
your holy and glorious habitation. Jesus says, I’m going to my father’s
house. I’m going to heaven where my
father lives. I’m going to his estate which
is vast. And he’s going into the immediate
presence of his own beloved Heavenly Father. He’s going to the place
where He’s familiar and comfortable, where He longs to be. Such is
home, right? But Jesus expands upon, not only
is He going, in my Father’s house are many dwelling places. Now, depending on what version
you’re using, It could really affect the kind of place that
you find yourself promised here. I see some people chuckling because
if you’re reading the King James, you may be looking forward to
a mansion. And you’re already beginning
to strut around on earth. I’ve got a mansion. We sing songs
about it. If you’re reading the King James,
you’re looking for a mansion. If you’re reading the ESV or
the NIV, Prepare yourselves. All you get is a room. The New American is a little
more generic. It talks about dwelling places. The word here
that the King James translates, mansion, really isn’t emphasizing
the idea of palatial residences. That’s not what it’s pointing
to. I mean, just think of it for a
moment. He’s already mentioned his father’s house. And what you have is this picture
of kind of an enclave, a gated community, right? Where there’s
nothing but nothing but mansions as far as the eye can see. Really sounds self-serving, doesn’t
it? The word translated here. by
the King James mansions is found in the Greek Bible really only
one other place. In John 5 23 there it just has
to mean a permanent place of residence, a permanent place.
So it really doesn’t talk about the size of the building at all.
It’s a place to stay. The word was used in common terminology
to speak of the motel room that you stayed at on your journey. I’ve checked into some hotel
rooms, boy, right? Nice ones. You go in and when
you get in there, you just kind of feel the carpet and the bed
smell. Oh, man. You just feel pampered. And then depending on the place,
you get the knock at the door, right? It’s checkout time. You’re
out, right? That’s not the kind of place
that he’s talking about. He’s talking about a permanent
residence. He’s talking about a place that
we check in that is ours for eternity. And when He says many
mansions, He’s pointing to the fact that there is room for all
the faithful. There is no vacancy sign currently
hanging up at the gates of glory. When it says many, you can’t
twist this as if it says that there’s room for every person
ever born there’s room enough for all of the redeemed if you
have placed your faith in Christ you have a place we should also correct one other
historical miss understanding that has been foisted upon this
passage and maintained really from the earliest days of the
church and partly from the mistranslation that ultimately the King James
seized upon there with the idea of a mansion. It’s this idea
that the most faithful people will get the best house. They
get a mansion. The less faithful, they get a
room or a shanty or something like that. There’s nothing about the word. There’s nothing about the verse.
There’s nothing that is said here at all that talks about
the degree of faithfulness relating to the degree of the size of
the building that you’ll get in heaven. Nothing at all. There
are going to be degrees of blessing. There is a reason to follow Christ
and to serve Him wholeheartedly. But there’s nothing about the
size of the building that you’ll stay in when you get to heaven
for eternity. And Jesus just closes with this
simple promise, if it were not so, I would have told you. If
I was leaving and that was the end, I came here for a moral
witness so that we could have good people live on the earth
just as long as we possibly could, 70, 80 years of good and faithful
service, and then they die and they just, you know, go back
to dust. If it wasn’t that way, I would
have told you. What he says. In a very unique way is that, look,
trust me. I’m telling you, there’s a heaven.
I’m telling you, you have a place. I’m telling you that. My father’s house has many dwellings. And I’m going to prepare it for
you. There’s a fourth assurance that
we have in this passage that helps to build our spiritual
confidence. Not only the hope of eternity
in heaven, wouldn’t that be enough? As you ponder it in your own
heart of hearts. and you think of eternity, and
you think of the fact that God has secured a place for you in
eternity, that Jesus Christ Himself has a hand in it, isn’t that
enough? Isn’t that enough to garner confidence
within you? You know what? I am a child of
the King. But there is a fourth. Spiritual
confidence is built upon the tenacity to refuse doubt, a dynamic,
multifaceted faith, the hope of eternity in heaven, and fourth,
the promise of Jesus Christ’s return. I mean, this just, it
just goes over the top, doesn’t it? I am going to personally
come back and get you and take you to this place that I have
prepared just for you. Look at verse three. If I go,
And that isn’t casting any doubt. Jesus knows that he’s going to
go. He’s been predicting it and telling
of it for months now. If I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come again and receive you to myself. That where I am, there you may
be also. And this has generated some curious
images, especially in Sunday school material. You know, right
where you see Jesus in a tool belt and a construction helmet
and he’s going off to heaven to physically build a place. Is that what this requires? I
go to prepare a place for you. Jesus laying out architectural
plans and a great construction project. Here’s one. for little
Billy and here’s one for Mary Sue. The idea is embedded in scripture. First King says, surely I have
built you a lofty house, a place for your dwelling forever. carried
forth in the New Testament, 2 Corinthians 5.1. We know that if the earthly
tent, which is our house, is torn down, he’s talking about
our bodies there, then metaphorically, he says, we have a building from
God. A house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens. What on earth was Jesus going
to do? How was Jesus going to prepare
this place? I think J.C. Ryle nails it. He nails it when he says this.
He enters heaven as their high priest, presenting the merit
of his sacrifice for their sins. He removes all barriers that
sin made between them and God. He appears as their representation
and claims a right of entry for all his believing members. He
intercedes continually for them at God’s right hand and makes
them always acceptable in himself. Though unworthy in themselves,
he bears their names as the high priest on his breast and introduces
them to the court of heaven before they get there. What an incredible
truth. Jesus Christ has already gone
to heaven, seated at the right hand of God, and he has with
him a great host of believers chosen from eternity past that
he is bringing by name. What a Redeemer. I will come and receive you to
myself. Jesus Christ is going to come
again, and He’s going to receive each individual, and each one,
He’s going to take them to heaven for eternity, whether it’s one
at a time, whether it’s some great gathering, just as surely as we could count
on His departure. And we’ve seen that. We’ve seen
it happen. We’ve seen Him depart. We know
historically that it took place, His death, His burial, His resurrection,
and His ascension. We know. And just as surely He
will return. Whether individually at a Christian’s
death or at the second coming, Jesus Christ is coming back.
And when He does, He’s taking us with Him. And when He takes
us with Him, we are with Him forever. And then this idea of how big
our house is or how big our, why didn’t we get a mansion?
You know, King James said mansion. All that fades because you know
what we have? We have Christ. We have Christ
for eternity. Paul said it this way to the
Thessalonians who were quite rattled themselves thinking that
the rapture had already taken place. Paul said, Chapter 4, verse 16,
the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead
in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain
will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. That’s got a permanence to it,
doesn’t it? Always? We will be with Christ in eternity,
regardless of what the dwelling is or looks like, we will be
with Christ forever. 2 Corinthians 5 says it very
similarly. Therefore, always being of good
courage, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are
absent from the Lord. That has a sad, woeful, mournful
ring to it, doesn’t it? While we are at home in the body,
as good as it is, We’re away from the Lord. For we walk by
faith, not by sight. We are of good courage, I say,
and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be home
with the Lord. Paul wasn’t suicidal. Paul longed to live out his life
in full, but when he had the privilege to go to heaven, what
a joy it was to be home with the Lord forever. That’s one of the clearest and
plainest truths in all of scripture, isn’t it? There’s a fifth and
final means that we gain from this passage to help us cultivate
our confidence. Spiritual confidence is built
not only on the promise of Jesus Christ’s return, number four,
number five, spiritual confidence is built on a sure means of salvation. Now this is a fascinating point
that Jesus makes because no sooner does He say it, there’s a question. And I even think that that’s
why Jesus said what He said. Look at verse 4. And you know
the way where I’m going. It’s as if you could say, right?
You know where I’m going. You know the way. You remember
all that I’ve told you on how to get to heaven, right? How’s
your gospel presentation, disciples? You know where I’m going. You
know how to get there, right? You know the address. You know
the directions. It’s interesting in this passage,
I, the word I there is emphatic. You know the way where I am going. All you have to do is follow.
And really that’s what Jesus has been giving them giving them,
rather, for chapters and chapters and chapters here in the Gospel
of John. Follow me. Follow hard after
me. In John 10, he said, I am the
door. If anyone enters through me,
he will be saved. Jesus had given them the means.
He had shown them the way. But what they didn’t know is
that the way for Jesus included death, and that presented a problem. It’s not like Jesus gives this
little bit of encouragement, the very means of building spiritual
confidence. It’s not like he gives this message
and everything’s okay, because as you’ll see, questions begin
to mount. How? Where? Why? The bottom line that Jesus presents
here, though, is that spiritual confidence is not drummed up
from within. It’s not merely embraced or cultivated
from within like a business habit. It’s the result of a vibrant
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s what Jesus wanted
them, more than anything, to cultivate. Let’s go before the
throne of grace. Oh, merciful king, we rejoice
in your goodness and grace. We rejoice that in so many of
us, these words ring so true. We know that we have no confidence
in ourself. We place no confidence in the
flesh. We place no confidence in our
own righteousness. The more we lean on you. The
more we refuse doubt and cultivate faith in Almighty God, the more
we think of and long for eternity, the more we see that you are
the way of salvation, Lord, in that we are indeed not only comforted,
but our confidence begins to grow and swell even within our
own heart. Not a self-confidence, confidence
in Almighty God. our merciful Savior, if there
is even one here who does not know this confidence, who does
not know the Lord Jesus Christ and the confidence that comes
only from Him, to have their sin forgiven, to know that they
stand before a holy God who could strike them down justly in a
moment. To know that they stand before
that holy God in Christ’s righteousness as if they’ve never sinned at
all. Lord, it’s a free offer for all who will come to faith
in Christ. Lord, we pray, by the power of
your Holy Spirit, do your work in those who lack, utterly lack,
spiritual confidence. For those of us on the journey. We know that in many ways, our
confidence must be shored up and built and developed and cultivated
every day. Grant us the grace, Father, to
look to you, to lean on you. To trust our savior. And in his
finished work. In heaven, on our behalf. It’s
in Jesus’ name that we pray, amen.