Transcript - Jesus Will Do It

Text: John 14:11-14

Summary: In this fallen world, there will be plenty of trouble, but God’s will is for your heart to be trouble-free. How can we keep our hearts from being troubled? Every time you feel troubled, stressed, burdened, anxious, confused, or fearful, bring them one by one to Jesus and believe that He will do it.

John 14
11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. 12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

Father, we thank you for these verses that were shared during an intimate gathering of friends. Lord, we ask that you would teach us over the next few weeks from these important chapters, John 14-17, which was reserved for the friends of Jesus. We ask that you would reveal truth today. Jesus, you’re the Head of the Church. We ask that you would visit us and meet with us and encounter us. We want to hear from you, Jesus, our Chief Shepherd and the Head of the Church. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus Name, Amen

Before we go to chapter 14, John 13 is a famous chapter where Jesus washes his disciples’ feet. And what’s interesting is that Judas is there, which is odd. Also the Lord’s supper, Judas is present. He is partaking in the Lord’s supper. I know some churches for the Lord’s supper, they close the table, meaning, if you are not a believer, they highly discourage people from coming to the table. But the fact that Judas is coming to the table tells me that we are not permitted to lead people in that way and to stop people from coming. Everyone is invited to the table.

Jesus loves everybody, even His enemies, even the worst traitor of all time. Everybody is welcome. Jesus washes Judas’ feet, Judas is invited to the table. And there’s so much love for the enemy, traitor, even nonbeliever. At the same time we read in John 2:

John 2
23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

So even those who claim to be believers, those who say I believe in Jesus, Jesus doesn’t entrust himself to all believers. And so while John 13 is a very special gathering of people, including Judas where there is love for the enemy and there’s an invitation to come to the table for all people, whether you’re a traitor or you’re the most loyal follower, everybody’s invited. At the same time, Jesus did not entrust himself to everybody.

And so, starting with John 13:31, after Judas leaves, now Jesus begins sharing a lot more intimate details with his true friends, and He entrusts himself to these friends, and He reveals truth to friends that he would not tell the general crowd of even believers. And I wonder why these chapters are not preached more because, if we are friends of Jesus, we would do well to meditate a lot on John 14-17. We would do very well to meditate on these verses. If these are the only chapters we covered in 2020, it would be a good year. It is that important. Jesus saves His most important teaching in His final days with His most trusted disciples, the 11, everyone minus Judas. And Jesus begins sharing very intimate things to them.

John 14
1 Let not your hearts be troubled…

And He says it again in verse 27.

John 14
27 …Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

“Troubled” can be translated as disturbed or agitated, stirred up. It’s when you shake something violently back and forth. We’ve already covered that Jesus was troubled, and there are times when God permitted Jesus to be troubled. And if you recall one of the times when Jesus was troubled, it was at Lazarus’ funeral. He saw people weeping at the funeral, and He was so troubled because they didn’t understand that they needed to hate this life in comparison to their love and longing for eternal life on. So he was troubled at Lazarus’ funeral.

He was also troubled in John 12 when He says:

John 12
27 Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.

The hour has come. Jesus now sees Calvary. The cross is in view. He knows that this is the time to fulfill the most difficult part of His assignment. And He is troubled, thinking about what He will have to endure. The mockery, the scorn and the suffering, the shame of the cross, and that God permits Jesus in that moment to be troubled. Jesus is also troubled in Chapter 13 when he speaks of Judas, who was about to betray Him.

So there are times that God permits Jesus to be troubled. But when it comes to believers, all of us, it seems, according to John 14 that we are not permitted to be troubled. We’re not permitted to be troubled. When it says, let not your hearts be troubled, this is a command. This is not an optional thing. We’re not allowed in some extreme cases to be troubled in our hearts. We’re not permitted.

Because we are in a fallen world. there is plenty of trouble, but God gives instruction in His word to protect our hearts from being troubled. We will encounter trouble after trouble in this fallen world, but God gives us through His word instruction of how not to let our hearts be troubled. Similarly, if we live in a fallen world, there are plenty of things that can potentially cause fear.

John 14
27 …Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

So there are many potential fears in this life in this fallen world. Yet Jesus says, do not let your hearts be afraid.

With the Coronavirus, there is a growing fear. There’s a storm that is raging already in China, and it seems to be spreading. We don’t know the actual numbers because you get different reports depending on what source you’re looking at. It just seems like it’s a serious concern. The worst case is this becomes a pandemic, right? That’s the worst case, and even Scripture talks about. In the end times, there will be pestilence. If it does become a pandemic, first China will fall. And if China falls, the global economy will fall, and possibly out of desperation, people will start wars.

This is just the possibility of what potential fears and potential trouble are on the horizon. And in my spirit, I just know this next decade 2022 to 2030, I just know in my spirit that it is going to be a rough decade. This is going to be a rough decade. Yet Jesus tells us, He commands us, do not be troubled. He says, do not let your hearts be troubled. Do not let your hearts be afraid. You will experience troubles and potential fears. But you cannot allow these things to trouble you in your heart.

And when Jesus talks about work, He’s talking about miracles. And there are seven miracles that are recorded for us in the Gospel of John. Water to wine (John 2), healing of the official’s son (John 4), healing of the invalid at the Pool of Bethesda (John 5), feeding of the 5000 (John 6), walking on water (John 6), healing of a man born blind (John 9), and raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11).

The one thing that God showed me this week is that there are two purposes in miracles, works and signs. One is in John 20. This is from John’s perspective.

John 20
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

We all have different levels of belief. And one thing GOd promises in His word is that we will actually see works and signs before our eyes, and not just see, but that we will actually do them. And not just do what Jesus did, it says that we will do even greater works than He did. One purpose of miracles/ works/ signs is for the believer’s faith, which is down here, to keep growing higher and higher and stronger and stronger. That is one purpose of miracles and works and signs. And there’s another purpose.

Mark 8
22 And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. 23 And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” 24 And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” 25 Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26 And he sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”

And did you notice that Jesus before performing this healing leads the man out of the village, and he says at the end, do not even enter the village. Hold that thought. And if you look at Luke 10:13.

Luke 10
13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

One purpose of miracle signs and works is for believers’ belief to grow, for our faith to grow, for trust in Jesus to grow. Another purpose of signs, works and miracles is for nonbelievers to repent and to become believers. And if Bethsaida had repented because so many works had been done, then Jesus would gladly go there and perform more signs and miracles. But certain places Jesus does not perform miracles because he already did it in the past and they did not repent. And so Jesus doesn’t give them signs. He actually removes the blind man and he heals the blind man outside of that place, and says, do not even enter there.

And there are many churches and especially charismatic churches and people who are part of the faith movement who never preach repentance. They never preach repentance, and I would say that is like Bethsaida, so you are not permitted to go to that church. Do not go to that church if they don’t preach repentance and if all they talk about is the signs but they never preach repentance. Do not go to that church. It’s like Jesus saying, do not go to Bethsaida. Repentance and faith go together.

Repentance and faith go together. It’s like a marriage. The two are one. You cannot separate it. You have to preach repentance and you have to preach faith. And both for the believer. I think both should be growing, a heart of repentance and a heart of faith.

It says it right there. Jesus did great works, and 7 miracles are recorded for us in the Gospel of John. And Jesus says, you will do even greater works. I don’t know how to read that except to say that we will experience miracles in this life. We will experience healings in this life and deliverance in this life. You can say, well only Jesus walked on water because He’s the Son of God. It’s not for you. It’s not for humans. But what about Peter? Didn’t he walk on water?

All of these signs are available for believers, and we should believe in them. And if people who don’t believe in them and who have determined from their experience that these miracles are not for today, do you think they will ever experience a miracle? No, because they’ve already shut it out. They’ve already said, that’s not for today. Do you think Jesus will come to them and show them something when they’ve already written Him off? We have to see in His word that He says you will do greater works, but actually I want to clarify who’s doing the works. It’s clarified in verse 13.

John 14
13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

Imagine if God gave us all the spiritual gifts in a single moment from 1 Corinthians 12 and we had a healing gift, we have a word of knowledge gift, and we could interpret tongues and we could speak in tongues. And we had all these spiritual, supernatural gifts given to us in a moment, and we started using them and exercising them, and people started flocking to us. We see many people doing ministry this way.

But do they give credit where credit is due? Do they say I am the gifted minister, I will do it for you? Or do they make it clear that I have no authority, and actually only Jesus has authority, and so I may lay hands on you but it’s not because I’m laying hands on you that you’re healed. It’s because Jesus himself is there and He himself is laying His hands on you. That’s why you’re healed. We may go to go to a person and pray a prayer of deliverance over that person. That person may be set free in a moment, but let’s not confuse who’s doing it. Is it the gifted minister? Or is it Jesus Christ?

Jesus says, I will do it. We’re working with Him. Of course, we will do greater works. He has promised it for the believers. But who is actually doing it? It says in verse 13. Whatever you ask, in the context of doing greater works, who’s doing it? Is it the prophet? Is it the gifted healer? Is it the person with with supernatural gifts who is trying to collect your money? No. Jesus says, He will do it. And when Jesus does it, He doesn’t ask for your money. He does not ask for even a penny. Jesus says, I will do it.

Verse 14 is the main verse. I think verse 13 is more about ministry because He just talked about doing greater works in verse 12. So verse 13 flows, that the greater works whatever you ask in Jesus name, when you’re going to help somebody and you’re praying in Jesus Name, you will see greater works. When you’re praying for deliverance over somebody in Jesus Name, you will see greater works. That flows from verse 12.

John 14
13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

Jesus alone will do it. I think verse 14 is a lot broader.

John 14
14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

This is probably one of the most tender things that the Lord has showed me in the last few years. Because if you think about it, aren’t we often troubled in life because it’s natural. There are a lot of troubles in this life. Are we afraid? Many times you look at the news, it’s like story after story, they’re trying to make you afraid. That’s the goal of the news is to make you afraid. You have to see that Satan wants you to be afraid. They sensationalize things and they try to make it seem a lot bigger than it actually is. They want you to be afraid.

Aren’t there many things in life that cause you stress, that cause you confusion, that cause you to be heavy laden and burdened? And if that is you, Jesus’ invitation that he gives only to His best of friends, He says, if you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. And this is Jesus’ invitation to bring all of these things to Him.

And who will do it? Jesus. We may make the mistake that as a husband, it’s my burden to lead my wife and my family and my kids. And it’s all up to me. That is so burdensome. We, of course, cooperate with Jesus. Of course, we’re working with Jesus, but ultimately we release the burden to Jesus and say, Jesus, it’s up to you to lead my family. Can you lead every person in my family starting with me? And you release the burden to Jesus.

How many pastors make the mistake, it’s my burden to protect the flock, and I have to lead. Then step by step, they take on the title of Chief Shepherd and Senior Pastor and Lead Pastor, and they take on all the burden. And you look at pastors and if you interview them privately from an outside counselor, how many of them have marriage problems? How many of them are stressed? How many of them are burned out because they’ve taken on this burden of Senior Pastor, Chief Shepherd, Lead Pastor.

When Jesus says I will do it, He will do it. And that means every time you encounter trouble, you have a choice. You can think about it. That’s not prayer. Thinking about the trouble and tossing it in your mind, that is not prayer. Thinking through all the potential consequences of, if I do this, this might happen. If I do this, this might happen. All the troubles in your life, if you just think about it, then that is not a prayer.

How many of us are troubled and we hold on to the trouble? We think about the trouble. We meditate on the trouble. And then what happens over time is that the trouble sinks to our hearts, and then our hearts are troubled. Same thing with things that potentially could cause fear. It comes to us. We think about it. We hold on to it, we meditate on it and guess what? After a week of doing that, it’s in your heart. It’s lodged there, and your heart has become troubled and your heart has become afraid.

We’re in a fallen world and so there will be many troubles. There will be many things that could cause fear. Many things in life will potentially cause stress and burden and confusion. If we are in heaven, everything is going to be smooth sailing. There’s never going to be a bad day in heaven. But here in this life that we are to hate, there will be many troubles. Many fears, many burdens.

But what do we do? We have a choice in the moment we experience these. If you hold on to it, what you’re saying is that Jesus, you cannot do this. I can handle this. That’s what you’re saying. You’re exercising your pride and you’re demonstrating a lack of faith. It’s two sides of the same coin. You’re showing that you’re a proud person when you hold on to your troubles and your stresses and your fears and your burdens, you’re basically saying I can handle this. I can lead my family. I don’t need anyone’s help. I’m qualified to lead this church. I can lead every single person. I’m going to lead my spouse. I will lead my kids. I’m gonna lead all the people in the church.

And somebody who lives this way, they are proud and they are also saying silently, I can do it, Jesus, you cannot do it. Jesus you cannot. And so the faith is shown to be lacking. But somebody who takes that same trouble, that same burden, that same fear and recognizes their limitations and says, even one of these things if I hold onto it, it will come to my heart and I will be so burdened, so troubled, so stressed, so afraid if even just one of these things, if I hold onto it, it has the potential to derail me.

Somebody who humbly recognizes, I am not qualified for this job title and of carrying these burdens. I am not qualified to handle these troubles. I am not qualified to conquer all fears. I am not qualified, and if you just humbly recognize this and say, I can’t do it, then who are you going to turn to? Only Jesus.

Jesus can do it. Jesus says it twice. He says, I will do it. This is also two sides of the same coin, I can’t do it, but Jesus, you can do it. You humbly admit I can’t do it and you exercise your faith. I know somebody who can do it. Jesus, you could do it. And that means every time you encounter trouble, a burden or fear, something that’s confusing, something that’s stressful, every anxiety, you bring them one by one to Jesus and you leave it with Him.

Let’s say 10 minutes later you feel stressed again. What do you do? You go back to Jesus and you bring him the burden. You bring Him the fear and you leave it with Him. What if 10 times a day, you feel stressed about the same thing or burdened or troubled about the same thing, more than 10 times a day? You bring those things to Jesus each time. That is what it means to live a life of prayerfully surrendering to Jesus, walking with Jesus. This is how Jesus instructs His friends, many believers who were outside of these 11, they didn’t hear this.

Jesus is telling each of us. He wants to grow us as friends because think if you live this way, not only will you be trouble free in your heart, not only will you be courageous in your heart, also if you go 10 times a day to Jesus or 100 times a day to Jesus, about the same issue and you live that way each day of your life, for 50 years, at the end what will the result be? The result is that you and Jesus will be close. It’s designed this way. Jesus wants to walk with us. He wants us to yoke himself with us.

That’s why He says, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. He wants to be yoked to us. He wants us to come to him, and it’s in the very practical details of life, even the small things that we just keep turning over in our head, even the small things, instead of just thinking about it, why don’t we translate it to prayer and leave it to the Lord and then just make decisions based on His leading?

And you might say, well, what if I can’t hear well what God is saying? He has every means at His disposal. And so if you make a wrong decision because God didn’t communicate to you in a way that you could perceive, it’s not your fault. You could say God, it’s your fault. You could have told me in a way that I could understand. But you didn’t tell me. And so I just had to make a decision. I had to. I was confused. But I Iaid this decision before you. You didn’t speak to me. And I said, I’m going this way. And unless you stop me, I’m going to keep going this way.

And you can actually make a lot of decisions that way. And at some point, especially with the important decisions, trust that He will speak. He will speak. And if you make a mistake, He will correct you from that mistake. He will speak. When Jesus says, I will do it. It is His promise that He will save you, that He will lead you. He will fight for you. He will deliver you. He will protect you. He will defend you. He will teach you. He will carry your burdens for you. He will protect you from all fears. It’s His promise that you are His and you just have to keep coming to Him.

And every time you feel burdened, it’s an invitation. Jesus says, why aren’t you coming? I’ve reserved this teaching for my friends. Just come to me, unload these burdens. I’m gentle and lowly at heart. I don’t get frustrated easily.

Like if you talk to your friend because we’re not sanctified and holy or as godly as Jesus is, we might get tired hearing the same thing 100 times in the same week. Jesus is not like us. You can bring the same issue to Jesus 100 times a day for the rest of your life.

But in the meantime, you are growing in intimacy and dependence on Him, and you’re learning that I can’t do much. Actually, I can’t do much at all. I am so limited, but I know Someone who could take care of this. And I give Him these burdens and these are invitations for me to connect to Him. And Jesus has promised. He says it twice. Jesus can do it. Jesus can do it. We can’t do it. We can’t do much of anything of any serious importance. But Jesus can do it.

Let’s pray.

Father, as we think through recent news regarding the Coronavirus, many people are allowing fear to grip their hearts. But Lord, you tell us in your word, you command us to not be afraid in our hearts and to not be troubled in our hearts. There are rare cases, Jesus, when you are permitted by God to be troubled.

But you command all of your friends to not be afraid and to not be troubled. And you give us such a tender invitation. We recognize our frailty. We can’t do it. We can’t fight every virus. We can’t. We can’t insulate ourselves from every tragedy and every sickness. We are in a fallen world where there are many troubles, many potential fears, many burdens in this life.

But Lord, you give us such a sweet invitation that for those friends who recognize that we can’t do it but Jesus, you can do it. And so Jesus, we bring you every fear, every burden, every thing that troubles us, everything that confuses us, every frustration, every burden, every anxiety, every worry.

Rather than thinking we can do it, we recognize our limitations. And you have the words of eternal life. To whom shall we go? Peter knew there was only One Person to turn to. And it’s you, Lord Jesus. And so we turn to you. We bring you these fears, these burdens, these questions, these anxieties, these fears. And Jesus we’re confident that you’ll save us and you’ll lighten our burdens and you will carry our burdens. And you’ll protect us from all fears. And you will defend us from all enemies and wolves and disease and pestilence.

Father, we pray that you will protect every single brother and sister here. We pray that this Coronavirus would be bound and stopped in its tracks. And no one else would die from this. And you would bring a sense of peace and stability back into 2020. Please, we understand that as the end approaches, things are going to get even more turbulent. So we don’t know what 2020 holds. Whatever it is, we know who we can turn to when the storm outside is raging. We know we can turn to you, Lord Jesus.

As we partake in your Lord’s supper, everybody is invited. The traitor Judas was invited. The future backslider Peter was invited. The future denier was invited. All the disciples who had their doubts. Thomas was invited. Lord, we are all invited to the table. No matter what condition we are in, we’re invited to the table and we can partake and meet you at the partaking of your body broken for us, symbolized in the bread and your blood shed symbolized by the cup. This is a new covenant. We are new covenant believers so Lord, we ask that you would meet us as we partake in the Lord’s supper. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus Name, Amen