5-03-2026

“JESUS: PEACE FOR TROUBLED HEARTS”

Text: John 14:1-14

Sunday May 3, 2026 – Easter 5

Trinity – Creston

       Grace, mercy, and peace is yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

       Our text for this Fifth Sunday of Easter is the Gospel from John 14.

Let Us Pray: Dearest Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to enable us to live in the assurance that only you give peace to troubled hearts and that we are relieved from  our troubles knowing that because of your suffering and cross we will ultimately have relief. Amen.

Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ:

There’s an expression we sometimes use that communicates our inability to see the bigger picture because we’re too busy looking at the smaller pieces. When this happens, “we can’t see the forest for the trees.”

However, when the leaves begin to turn color in the fall and drop from the trees, then we see that there was much more there than our eyes could see beforehand. There’s a great forest!

It’s true, also, that there’s more going for us than what we’re aware of when we’re going through something difficult in life. The night before Jesus died on the cross, as he and the apostles were together in the Upper Room, the apostles had troubled hearts because Jesus was leaving them, and what would that mean for them afterward?

They couldn’t see the bigger picture. When our hearts are troubled and we can’t see the way forward, Jesus has given us a way to make it through:

Jesus Gives Peace to Troubled Hearts.

  I. Troubled hearts can dampen the Christian’s hope.

A. Troubled hearts are our human reality since the fall.

1. Like famous Martha, we are “troubled about many things” (Lk 10:38–42)—some as trivial as whether the house is cleaned up or meals are on time. We’re troubled about what people will think of us, whether our work—at home, job, or school—is up to others’ standards or our own.

2. Like Achan, our sins trouble us and cause others trouble (Josh 7:19–21, 25). Our consciences nag over something we did on a date or how we deeply hurt someone’s feelings or that we hid income from the IRS.

3. In our text, the trouble the disciples are feeling is separation and death—the sense that something terrible will take Jesus from them (v 1a).

4. Separation from loved ones—distance, divorce, death—or what will happen to us after we die trouble our hearts.

B. When we are troubled, we sometimes can see no way out.

1. The demands we place on ourselves or think others are placing on us can be compulsions. We can’t suddenly fix a personality flaw.

2. Our sins can seem too serious to forgive. We can’t see how we can make restitution.

3. Your wife, your husband isn’t coming back. The kids aren’t moving halfway across the country to be with you. Death is the final separation.

4. And those doubts about whether you’ll spend eternity in heaven or hell just don’t go away.

C. When someone tells us there is a way forward, doubt can prevent us from seeing it.

II. Jesus puts forward a better way for us.

A. We place our faith in Jesus and the Father’s plan—“the way” (vv 4–6a).

1. God’s way of putting our troubles to rest is his Son becoming helpless and suffering terrible death? Who could have come up with that plan?

2. Yet that’s exactly what Jesus knows is coming when he says, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me” (v 1).

3. And, weak as our faith is, we do believe in him.

B. We are confident that our prayers will always be answered—“the truth” (v 6).

1. Things did turn out exactly as Jesus said they would: he did die the next day, but he did rise three days later.

2. That, then, means everything Jesus said is truth.

3. So his promise to answer our prayers is true (vv 13–14). We can surely believe as true that Jesus is working to relieve our troubles (v 11b).

C. Jesus has a place waiting for us in heaven and eternal life—“the life” (v 6).

1. These are some of the most comforting words in all Holy Scrip­ture (vv 1–2)! That’s why we so often read them at funerals.

2. This is the complete and perfect resolution of those greatest troublers of our hearts, separation and death. Jesus says he has a place in heaven for you! And in those many rooms we’ll see again all our loved ones who believe in Jesus—even those from whom we’re separated now.

III. We can be certain of a successful outcome in Christ.

A. The Father and Son are of one essence and working for our benefit (vv 7–11a).

1. Even pagans and those only vaguely “religious” want “God” on their side. “There are no atheists in foxholes.”

2. But such a vague “hope” that some “God” might be out there doesn’t calm the troubled heart. What does he think of me? How do I get him on my side?

3. We know exactly who God is and what he thinks of us—because we’ve met God the Son in the flesh. In Jesus, we’ve seen the Father!

4. Because the Father gave his Son for us, and because the Son willingly died for us, we know that God is for us to save us, to lift our troubles.

B. Christ’s crucifixion removes troubled hearts far from us.

1. Here’s what Jesus’ death the next day “finished”: It has forever reconciled God to us by taking away the sin that separated us from him.

2. The remedy for troubled hearts is that, reconciled by Jesus’ cross, God is always with us. When we don’t meet our own standards or others’, he isn’t put off. Our sins needn’t trouble us; they don’t separate us from God anymore.

3. And, yes, we can be certain of heaven! Jesus’ death has opened heaven to everyone! Our sins, our doubts, the turbulence in our hearts don’t keep us out. The tiniest faith receives heaven!

C. The risen Christ will deliver those goods when he returns (v 3).

1. We will enjoy that blessed reunion in heaven.

2. There, we’ll realize that all these troubles we felt here really weren’t worth stressing.

Friends: Jesus has the cure for troubled hearts.

While we might not see the way through to something better when we’re going through difficult times, God always has our best interest in mind.

The Father sent the Son, and Jesus accomplished our victory once and for all through his death and resurrection. Jesus is the answer and gives

Amen.