Believe

In John 14, Jesus sets down to have his last meal with his best friends.  Jesus' farewell message recorded in John 14-17 is some of the most profound teaching in all of scripture.  He begins this final message with words of comfort and encouragement.  John 14:1 reads, "Let not your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God; believe also in me."

After reading that verse, it begs the question, why were their hearts troubled? In the previous chapter, Jesus Himself was "troubled in His spirit" because He had to tell His closest friends on earth that one of them would betray Him.  We know today the betrayer that Jesus spoke of was Judas, but the disciples didn't know that.  In my mind, I always picture Judas as a shifty looking character that everyone would pick out as the bad guy.  But, in reality that wasn't the case.  The disciples had no clue who Jesus was referring to.  John even records how Peter motioned to John to ask Jesus who He was talking about. So, there is real confusion, fear, perhaps even anger amongst the group after Jesus informs them of the future betrayal. 

After telling the guys there is a traitor in their camp, Jesus also tells his friends that He will be leaving them soon.  And, they can't come with Him.

Lastly, Jesus looks to Simon Peter.   Even though Peter says he would follow Jesus to the ends of the earth, Peter will in fact deny that he even knows Christ three times in the coming hours. 

So, it's clear the people in this room, gathered around a table have a host of reasons to have a troubled heart. 

Fear of losing a loved one.

Worries of a close friend falling deep into sin.

Anger from betrayal.

Self doubt and asking oneself "Is it me?" "Am I good enough?"

Jesus' stated encouragement to a troubled heart is to "believe." Believe in Jesus, and believe in God.

So, how does that help with trouble?

Seven verses later Phillip, one of the disciples, says to Jesus "Show us the Father and that will be enough for us." Almost like saying, "If you could just let us see God then we would have no more questions, no more trouble, and we would fully, 100% believe in you." Jesus responds to Phillip with earth-shattering news..."whoever has seen me has seen the Father."

That statement in and of itself could be discussed for days. For our purposes here, when our hearts are troubled, how does believing in the Father and Jesus, and believing that they are one help and encourage us?

Our Father in heaven is not some remote, distant Creator.  He is a loving Savior that lived life on earth just like us. Our Heavenly Father is working, and healing, and saving, just as we have seen Jesus do.

Think about all we know of Jesus in the book of John alone:

Loving the outsiders (John 4)

Healing the sick (John 5)

Feeding the hungry (John 6)

Lighting up the world (John 8)

Weeping for loved ones (John 11)

Preforming lowly acts of service (John 13)

The acts of Jesus found in the Gospels is exactly what our Heavenly Father does. This is how much our God cares for us.  If you want to know what God is like, look at the life of Jesus. Believe in that.

When you believe, deep in your bones, that our God in Heaven is the same God that was here on earth loving, healing, feeding, lighting, weeping and serving, your troubled heart will begin to settle down, and you will know real peace.