Rev. Rob Jones
April 28, 2026

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father’s house, there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4And you know the way to the place where I am going.” 5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” 8Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”

The Father’s House

I want to begin this sermon in a deeply personal way. When I open my Bible to John 14 and read, “Let not your hearts be troubled”, I cannot do so without hearing a particular voice. I believe this was my father-in-law’s favorite passage. He often recited it, not merely as a comforting verse, but as a theological point. He returned to it again and again to make clear who Christ is, what He has promised, and why we can rest in Him. Even now, when I read these words, I hear his voice, steady and confident, pointing away from himself and toward Christ.

Today I’d like us to listen again to this text—John 14:1–14—and, in a sense, to join all those saints, including my father-in-law, who have clung to these words.

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? … I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

1. A Troubled Heart and a Trustworthy Savior

The context of John 14 is not calm. Jesus has just spoken of His betrayal, of Peter’s denial, and of His own departure. The disciples are deeply unsettled. In their minds, everything is about to fall apart, even if they are too scared to admit it. Into that storm, Jesus does not first give them instructions, nor does He minimize their fear. He gives them Himself:

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.”

He does not say, “Your situation is not that bad.” He says, “Your situation is real—but I am more real. Believe in Me.” In reformed language, we might say: Christ calls His troubled disciples to the exercise of faith in the sufficiency of His person. The cure for the troubled heart is not vague optimism, but a Person—the incarnate Son of God.

A Short Story: The Child in the Storm

I can imagine my little girl at home, in the midst of a violent thunderstorm. Lightning flashes, thunder rolls; the house trembles. She doesn’t calm down because she understands weather patterns or has learned sophisticated meteorology. She calms down when she feels my arms around her and hears me whisper, “I am here. You are mine.” The storm may still rage outside. But the presence of a trustworthy father changes the posture of the child’s heart. 

So, it is with us. Christ does not promise the absence of the storm; He promises the presence of Himself. These disciples are about to encounter the darkest day in history—the crucifixion of their Lord. And into that darkness Jesus says, “Believe also in Me.” Our comfort in life and in death lies not in ourselves, but that we belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

2. A Prepared Place and a Present Christ

Jesus continues, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” Notice two things: the Father’s house and the prepared place. Heaven is not first described in terms of streets of gold or gates of pearl. It is described as the Father’s house. At the center of our hope is not a place, but a Person—the Father, and the Son who brings us to Him. 

My father-in-law loved to return to this truth: Christianity is not ultimately about us climbing our way up to God, but about God coming down to us in Christ, taking us by the hand, and saying, “I am bringing you home.”

The Prepared Place

“I go to prepare a place for you.” How does Christ prepare this place? Not with hammer and nails, but by His cross and resurrection. He prepares heaven for us by securing, in His own blood, the right for us to be there. The preparation is not interior decorating; it is atonement.

Think of a poor, guilty prisoner, condemned and awaiting sentence. There is no place for him in the palace of the king. But the king’s own son steps forward and says, “I will bear his sentence. Let my record stand in his place. Give him my welcome.” The prisoner is not merely pardoned; he is adopted.

So, Christ has gone to the cross, to the grave, and to the Father’s right hand in glory, to secure not merely our pardon, but our welcome—our adoption.

“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

Do you hear the heart of Christ? The goal is not simply that we be in heaven, but that we be with Him. Heaven is heaven because Christ is there.

3. A Narrow Way and a Wide Mercy

Then Thomas speaks, as Thomas so often does, for all of us, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” This is our question too: “How can we be sure?” How can we be reconciled to God? How can we possibly stand before a holy God with a conscience full of guilt? Jesus answers with one of the most exclusive and yet gracious statements in all of Scripture, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

The Way

Jesus does not say, “I will show you the way,” as though He were a mere guide. He says, “I am the way.” The way to God is not a path of moral improvement or religious performance. The way is a Person. To have Christ by faith is to have the way open.

The Truth

He is the truth—not simply one truth among many. He is the full and final revelation of God. “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father,” He tells Philip. In Christ, we see God’s holiness and mercy meet, justice and love embrace. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus.

The Life

He is the life. All spiritual life is found in Him. Apart from Him, we are spiritually dead—unable to revive ourselves, unable to bring ourselves into fellowship with God. But in Christ, by the sovereign grace of God, we are made alive, united to Him by the Spirit, and brought into communion with the triune God.

A Little Parable: The Only Bridge

Picture a vast chasm between humanity and God—too wide to leap, too deep to cross. People stand on the edge trying to throw across their achievements, their religious observances, their moral efforts, but everything falls short, dropping into the abyss.

Then God Himself lays down a single, sturdy bridge—the cross of Christ. This bridge is strong enough for all who will walk across it. The limitation is not in the strength of the bridge, but in the unwillingness of our hearts to trust it.

As I recite John 14, I believe Christ is reminding us: Do not look for another bridge. Do not trust in your own planks. Trust in me.

Greater Works and the Power of Prayer

Jesus concludes this section with a surprising promise:

“Truly, truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

The “greater works” are not greater in power than the cross and resurrection, but greater in scope. Through the outpoured Holy Spirit, the gospel goes from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. By the Word and Spirit, sinners are brought from death to life—this is the ongoing work of the exalted Christ through His church. And Christ attaches this to prayer: “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do.” To ask in His name is not a magic formula; it is to ask in accordance with His character, His will, and His saving purposes.

Bringing It Home: Hearing the Voice

When I read John 14, I hear my father-in-law’s voice. But, more importantly, through these words, by the Holy Spirit, we hear the voice of Christ Himself:

• To the troubled heart, He says: “Believe in me.”

• To the fearful heart, He says: “I go to prepare a place for you.”

• To the wandering heart, He says: “I am the way.”

• To the doubting heart, He says: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”

All of this is sheer grace. We do not ascend to God by our own reason or strength; He has descended to us in Christ, secured our place in blood, and now calls us to sabbath rest.

A Call to Reflection

So let me leave you with this question for personal reflection, before God, “Where is your heart troubled today, and how does this passage call you to entrust that very place to Christ?”

Do not answer that question merely in theory. Name before the Lord the specific place of your fear, your guilt, your uncertainty. Then, in light of John 14:1–14, bring it under these words: “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.”

And as you do so, may the Spirit impress upon your heart the voice of Christ—even perhaps mingled, as it is for me, with the remembered voice of a beloved saint—calling you to rest, not in yourself, but in Him who is the way, and the truth, and the life. I will leave you to contemplate this in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. AMEN.