Some years ago when the TWA flight from New York to Chicago was hijacked to Paris
by terrorist, Edward O'Rourke, the Roman Catholic bishop of Peoria, did his best to minister
to his fellow passengers.
He refused an opportunity to leave the plane in Newfoundland, preferring to remain a captive
in order to help the other captives.
However, not everybody appreciated his help.
Two passengers criticized the bishop later for frightening the passengers.
And during the flight, an attendant upbraided him for " depressing" the people.
His offense was in using the plane's public address system to urge the people to get right with God.
That seems like a reasonable thing for a religious leader to do, doesn't it?
Yet, some of the passengers apparently found his words frightening.
Were they afraid of his words or of their own spiritual condition?
If you had been on that plane, would the bishop have offended you?
Would your heart have been troubled, or would you have trusted in God?
" Do not let your hearts be troubled."
This is what Jesus tells His disciples in this well known passage from John 14.
This is one of the two Scriptures that pastors are most frequently asked to read at funerals,
the other one is Psalm 23.
Both passages encourage the believer not to be afraid of tomorrow, no matter what happens
because you can trust the Lord to take care of you, either as the Shepherd or the Way.
When Jesus first spoke those words, His followers needed to hear them.
They were very troubled.
They cannot shut their eyes to the threatening hostility of Jesus' enemies.
In addition, Jesus has just predicted that one of them will betray Him and another will disown Him. (John 13)
He has further upset them with His unpleasant talk about His coming death.
They are troubled.
It is beginning to look as if they have misplaced their allegiance.
Everything seems to be falling apart.
When they left everything to follow Jesus, they thought they were joining a powerful new leader.
For a while, their faith in Him was justified, thanks to His miracles and the incredible teachings
and the great crowds.
Even here in Jerusalem, His entry was something they would never tire of telling their grandchildren
-- palm branches waving, people's garments thrown on the road before their Master.
The spine-thrilling shouts of " Hosanna", as He rode through the streets.
But now it's Thursday, and the cheering has stopped.
They are troubled.
We know what they are feeling.
We have felt it ourselves.
We, also, have given ourselves to the Master.
At first everything seemed to be going our way.
Then trouble came.
Maybe it was the death of a dear loved one.
You prayed and pleaded and bargained with God, and you gave your loved one the best
in medicine and personal care.
You do everything in your power and ask for everything in God's will, but your loved one dies anyway.
Your heart is troubled.
Or word comes that there has been a terrible accident.
Your heart is troubled.
Your children, over whom you have prayed so diligently and for whom you have willingly sacrificed so much,
turn their backs on their childhood faith and follow the prince of this world.
Your heart is troubled
Like those first disciples of Jesus during this turbulent last week before His crucifixion,
we, as Christians today, need to hear His comforting words.
We are often troubled.
What would He have us do?
His remedy is clear and plain as it can be: " Trust in God; trust also in me."
Our hope in adverse circumstances is our faith in God.
Jesus makes this even more concrete: you believe in God who oversees your destiny.
Become more personal with your faith -- believe in Me, the One the Father sent to you.
You can believe in Me -- I would not lie to you.
" In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you." (John 14: 2)
You can understand why Jesus needs to assure them that He's telling the truth here.
If the first century was like ours, and in this respect it was for there were many self-proclaimed
experts on the after-life who made all kinds of promises regarding it.
An ongoing debate raged between the Pharisees who believed in resurrection from the dead,
and the Sadducees, who did not, and claims and counterclaims flew between them.
Today, you can hardly pick up a newspaper without reading some of the arguments or hearing them
on some of the religious television programs.
The height of absurdity was reached some years ago by a patient with a brain tumor in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Doctors had told him that he possibly had four months to live.
So, he advertised this in order to drum up customers for his new business.
Not one to miss any opportunity, he made plans to take advantage of his condition.
He offered to take messages from the living to the dead for only $20.00 a message.
Just in case anyone doubted, he said that he would guarantee in writing that he would locate
the deceased loved one after his own death and " spiritually" deliver the message.
Some people believed him, and sent him the money.
I would not have done so.
But I do believe in Jesus.
The rest of the Gospel record establishes His credibility with me because He worked so diligently
to be certain that He never misleads us
He has been honest with us about all these things:
Persecution: " I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.
Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves… all men will hate you
because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." (Matthew 10: 16, 22)
Loss of comfort: " As they were walking along the road, a man said to him,
'I will follow you wherever you go!
Jesus replied, " Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man
has no place to lay his head." (Luke 9: 57, 58)
Demands of discipleship: " If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross and follow me.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it."
(Matthew 16: 24, 25)
He spoke equally truthful words about the betrayal of Judas and the denial of Simon Peter.
His entire record speaks of His integrity.
When He speaks about life after death, then, we believe Him.
He would not lie to us.
" In my Father's house…"
In speaking of God, Jesus chooses the most accurate human term He can find to express
what God is like.
" My Father has a house of many rooms, with rooms enough for you.
I'm going away for a while.
You'll call my absence, separation; but I call it, preparation, because I'll be getting your room ready for you.
Then I'll come again for you, and take you to be with me.
Believe me. I would not lie to you."
You can trust Me -- I want you to be with Me forever.
"… That you also may be where I am." (John 14: 3)
We want our close companionships to go on and on.
What we have begun on earth, we shall continue in heaven.
This love relationship must never be broken.
Hear Jesus again speaks in very personal terms of God's great desire to bring His own back
into His eternal embrace. " For God so loved ...…" (John 3:16)
" Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples,
which are not recorded in this book.
But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that by believing you may have life in his name." (John 20: 30)
Christians of all ages have held on to these and many other Biblical promises that assure us
of the Lord's desire to keep us with Him forever.
" I know not what the future holds
Of good or ill for me or mine.
I only know that God enfolds
Me in His loving arms divine.
So, I shall walk the earth in trust
That He who notes the sparrow's fall
Will help me bear what'ere I must
And lend an ear when'er I call.
We can trust Him.
He wants us to be with Him forever.
You can walk with Me -- I will lead you.
" I am the way and the truth and the life." (John 14: 6)
I am the way to God, I am the truth about God, I am the living embodiment of the life
God promises and the means by which you can have eternal life.
Jesus still has life after death in mind here, although what He does not say about it
is as provocative as what He does.
He provides no description of Heaven.
He describes no formula for attaining eternal life.
He delivers no set of teachings to be mastered in order to gain entrance into the presence of God.
He offers instead to be our guide.
God knows that we need a guide so He has sent Jesus to be the Way -- the only Way.
He is with us now and will be with us forever.
Bruce Larson tells a story of a first-grade class whose teacher, at the end of what was probably
a very trying day, abandoned her lesson plans and drew her class around her in a circle f
or a sharing time.
She asked them to tell her what they wanted to be when they grew up.
She heard the predictable:
" I want to be a nurse like my mother."
" I want to be a banker like my daddy."
And even, " I want to be a teacher like you, Miss Smith."
But when it came to be the turn of the shyest, quietest little boy in the class,
they were all surprised by what he wanted to be.
He said, " When I get big, I'm going to be a lion tamer."
He told them how he would work in a circus, and would go into cages filled with ferocious lions
and tigers with his gun and his whip and his chair.
He'd make all those animals leap through hoops of fire and obey all his commands.
At this point, he must have noticed the wide eyes in that breathless crowd of first-graders.
He realized what he was saying,
" Well, of course, " he quickly added.
" I'll have my mother with me."
The source of his courage was his mother.
The source of ours is our Father and His Son.
They are with us now.
They will be with us in the future.
The Son is the Way into that future, so we have no need to be afraid.
He is also the truth (what He has spoken is the truth, what He has become reveals the truth
-- about God and man) and the life.
He is our security.
When we believe Him, we believe the truth.
When we live for Him, we live life as God intended it to be experienced.
So we don't have to be afraid of today or of tomorrow.
When Charlie Brown called on his psychiatrist, Dr. Lucy, she assured him that she never thought
about the past nor worried about the future.
But when he asked her about the present, she exploded, " The present drives me crazy."
But the Lord is with us now, and He will be with us in the future.
So, we can have no fear of today and no fear of tomorrow.
The Lord makes us secure.
You can face your future with hope.
It isn't any wonder that Jesus' words in John 14 are read so often at funerals.
For those who are in Christ Jesus, those words are real assurance that we can face our future with hope.
The Lord of Love has arranged for our eternal well-being.
If we have known Jesus, we have known the Father and knowing Him, we have found the way to eternal life.
That is why we have no fear of tomorrow.
The Word of the Lord is of a love that will not let us go, and that hope makes it possible for us to carry on.
Charles Allen tells the moving story of a woman who had received the news that her son had been killed.
She collapsed under the blow and went into her room, close the door, and refused to see anyone.
Finally, she allowed her minister into the room to see her.
He entered the room, and sat silently beside her bed.
After a while, without any other words, he began softly and slowly repeating the 23rd psalm.
" The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."
Phrase by phrase, line by line, he said those well known words.
She listened.
Then, as he continued, she joined in.
" Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil for thou art with me."
Her lips formed a small smile.
" I see it differently now," she said.
She could walk through her valley because she could see her future with confidence and hope
and because the Lord of Life and Love was with her.
He is also with us, so we have no fear of tomorrow.
