Believing in Jesus: Your Perfect Assurance in God

Introduction

John 14 is a long, rich, and dense text. Some have said of John's Gospel that it is like a body of water shallow enough for an infant to wade in and deep enough for an elephant to drown in. In Jesus' farewell speech to his disciples, at the very moment he is about to lay down his life for his own, he makes a statement that runs through the whole passage: "Believe in God. Believe also in me." In other words: believing in Jesus is the perfect assurance from God. The assurance of your eternal destination. The assurance of his perfect presence starting today. And this assurance is found in no one else but him.

Message Outline

1. The assurance of your eternal destination (John 14:1-7)

• Jesus speaks to disciples troubled by his coming departure: "Don't let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me." Jesus' call to believe in him the way one believes in God is not arrogance, it is the plain evidence of who he is, confirmed by his works and by all of Scripture.
• The context of this speech is the moment Jesus is about to die for his people and for everyone who believes in him, so that they might receive forgiveness. His death, resurrection, and exaltation to the right hand of the almighty Father are the upward movement that grounds all our hope.
• We were created to be with God forever: his presence is the place we were made for. But the story of humanity is also the story of men and women who came to believe it was better to live far from him. This is the theme of wandering, so well described by Albert Camus: "There is no home for man. The sun has left its mark, and the sea has erased his footsteps. Man remains alone with his longing." When you remove God, you remove the very place you were made for, and you are condemned to wander.
• We try to soothe this ultimate longing with substitute destinations: "once I get promoted, once I'm in a relationship, once I have children, once I retire, then I'll finally stop." May God keep these beautiful but temporary destinations from becoming your final destination.
• Two things stand out in these verses. First, you know where you're going when you place your faith in Jesus: "In my Father's house are many homes. I am going to prepare a place for you... that where I am, you may be there also" (v. 2-3). It is not just anyone preparing that place: it is the one who died for you, the one who made you acceptable and accepted by God.
• Second, you know how to get there. To Thomas, who asks for the way, Jesus answers: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me" (v. 6). Jesus is salvation in a world with no way out, the truth in a world that claims there is no more truth, the life of God offered to us.
• Believing in Jesus is not just the initial conversion. It is staying attached to Jesus, like a rope stretched through a dark cave that leads you back outside. Or, put another way: your faith is a spiritual GPS locked onto Jesus, who has already gone ahead of you to your destination. Whatever happens to you, whatever hard seasons come, the route is secure.

2. The assurance of his perfect presence (John 14:8-21)

• Along the way, we don't see God. That's Philip's request: "Show us the Father, and that will be enough for us" (v. 8). Just a simple snapshot to reassure the disciple before Jesus leaves. The fear of God's absence lives in us even as Christians.
• Jesus answers him with a rebuke full of love: "Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father" (v. 9). To see Jesus is to see God. It is not physical sight that matters, but spiritual sight, nourished by Jesus' word.
• "Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me" (v. 11). The Father is in the Son, the Son is in the Father: there is no better communion than this. And to be in communion with Jesus is to be in communion with the Father himself. Next to that, a simple snapshot of God is a small thing.
• This presence is so intimate that Jesus says: "He who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father. Whatever you will ask in my name, I will do it" (v. 12-14). What the disciples will do will be Jesus himself at work through them, the Church carrying on Jesus' work across the whole world.
• The promise of this presence is the Holy Spirit: "I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever: the Spirit of truth, whom the world can't receive... but you know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you" (v. 16-17). And Jesus goes further: "If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him" (v. 23).
• Believing in Jesus, then, opens the door to God's presence through his Spirit in you. The intimate relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is offered to you: the living, invisible God, whom no one has ever been able to see, comes to make his home in you.
• How do you stay attached? How do you keep your GPS locked onto Jesus, how do you nourish this intimacy? The answer runs through the whole passage: by holding onto Jesus' word, by keeping his commandments. Verse 26 is the crowning point: "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you."

Key Takeaways

• Believing in Jesus is not religious arrogance: it is responding to what Jesus himself claims. What God offers you in Jesus, you will find nowhere else.
• You were created for God's presence the way you're created for a home: without him, you only wander, soothing your longing with substitute destinations. In Jesus, your destination is secure.
• Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life: his offer is exclusive, and the reflex rejection of any exclusive truth is not good news, it is the worst news anyone could receive.
• Don't worry: your faith is a spiritual GPS locked onto the one who has gone ahead of you. Whatever happens to you along the way, you will arrive safely.
• Believing in Jesus is also the assurance of his perfect presence right now: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit come to make their home in you. This intimacy is nourished by keeping and living out his word.

Personal Application

1. What are the "substitute destinations" in your life right now where you're placing your real hope (a career win, a relationship, retirement, a place), and what would change if you put them back in their proper place beneath the destination Jesus promises you?
2. When were you recently tempted to think, like the Muslim man at the community fair, that "all religions say the same thing," and what does Jesus' exclusive claim disturb in that way of thinking?
3. At what exact point in your walk did your spiritual GPS "lose signal" on Jesus (a worry, a doubt, a compromise), and what concrete step can you take this week to lock your faith back onto him?
4. Does the Bible sitting in your home often stay closed? What simple habit could you build to open it every day and let the Holy Spirit remind you of what Jesus said?
5. How did you experience God's presence in you this week (in ordinary moments, not just Sunday worship), and what would a deeper, more nourished intimacy with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit look like for you?

Verses Cited

• John 14:1-27 (WEB)
• John 14:1 (WEB)
• John 14:2-3 (WEB)
• John 14:6 (WEB)
• John 14:8-11 (WEB)
• John 14:12-14 (WEB)
• John 14:16-17 (WEB)
• John 14:23 (WEB)
• John 14:26 (WEB)
• John 6:68 (WEB)

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Jesus insist so strongly on "believe in me" in John 14?

Because what God offers you in Jesus is found in no one else. Among all the founders of religions, Jesus is the only one who claims both deity and exclusive truth so clearly, and he can make that claim because his works, his death, and his resurrection back it up. This moment in his farewell speech comes right as he is about to lay down his life for his people: he insists because everything he promises (an eternal destination, a perfect presence) depends on this trust in him.

What does it actually mean that "Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life"?

Jesus is salvation in a world with no way out: through his death and resurrection, he opens the way to the Father for those who were cut off from him. He is the truth in a world that claims there is no more truth: he reveals God's truth once and for all. He is the life because being united to him is being united to the very life of God. "No one comes to the Father, except through me" (v. 6): there is no other road that truly leads to God's perfect presence.

How do I keep my faith "locked onto" Jesus day to day?

The answer runs through all of John 14: hold onto Jesus' word and keep his commandments. In practice, that means regularly opening the Bible so the Holy Spirit can remind you of what Jesus said (v. 26), putting it into practice through your week, and leaning on your personal time with God, on Sunday worship, and on your weekly small group. Don't stay "on the couch" waiting for God to reveal himself: open his word, he is already there.