Why John’s Gospel Speaks To Chaos And Anxiety

When life feels like it’s coming apart at the seams, I don’t need a pep talk, I need something solid enough to hold my weight. That’s why we camp out in the Gospel of John, written decades after Jesus’ resurrection, when John has watched friends die, the temple fall, and the world shift under his feet. John doesn’t write to entertain or to rehash what others already covered. He writes so we can decide who Jesus really is, especially when our own lives feel chaotic. 

We walk through Jesus’ private, final conversation with His disciples in John 14–16, the moments before the garden, the arrest, and the cross. We hear Jesus speak straight to anxiety: “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” We slow down at the claim that divides every worldview, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” and we talk honestly about the temptation to want the benefits of salvation without the weight of obedience. 

Then we follow Jesus into the promises that make discipleship possible: the Holy Spirit as Advocate and Spirit of truth, the vine and branches picture of remaining in Christ, and the expectation of fruit that lasts. We also don’t dodge the hard parts Jesus includes on purpose, the reality of hatred, rejection, and grief, and the surprising promise that grief can turn into joy. The closing thread is simple and stubborn: trouble is real, but peace is real too, and it’s found in Him. 

If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend who feels worn down, and leave a review so more people can find this conversation. What line from John 14–16 do you need to hear again today?

Transcript

John’s Late And Unique Gospel

When Life Feels Like Chaos

The Upper Room Final Words

Do Not Let Hearts Be Troubled

Who Do You Think Jesus Is

The Vine And Bearing Fruit

The Spirit Comes And The World Hates

Grief That Turns Into Joy

Peace While Trouble Remains

SPEAKER_00 1:05

You know, John when John wrote his gospel, and I talked about this last week, he he wrote it about sixty years, fifty, fifty-five, sixty years after Jesus had already gone back to heaven. So John is in an interesting position. He's he's one of the few surviving disciples who have not been martyred. So he he's witnessed his close friends, these group of men that surrounded himself with, and he's witnessed the death of many of them. He grew up a devout Jew and he watched as the temple was destroyed by Rome in around 70 AD. The sacrificial system's gone. I mean, John's entire life has been turned upside down. He's watched Christianity kind of grow and flourish and witnessed the Roman Empire as it kind of abused it a little bit. He's in a very tense political, religious time. Caesar is being called Lord. There's divine names for other followers, and and so John sits and he and he watches and he he kind of takes in everything that's happening. And right around 8590 AD, he pens his gospel. And he looks at Matthew, Mark, and Luke and realizes those guys pretty much said the same thing three times. I'm not going to do that. John's is incredibly unique. There are so many books written on the Gospel of John, it's fascinating. Because his perspective, his thought process, he's so analytical in his approach. And he even says in John 20 that, you know, I've written all these things that so that you may know that Jesus is the Christ. So John's life is in turmoil. I can imagine what that feels like. I just said it, right? I feel like this last couple weeks, my life has just been chaos. And I don't know why. I can't quite pinpoint it. Maybe it's the anxiousness of everything's starting to open back up. Spring's coming, right? I had this conversation earlier with Billy. You know, you you wear a winter coat on Sunday morning, but then you make sure you have shorts in your office because you just don't know what it's going to be like. Maybe it's the the anxiousness of realizing that here soon I'm going to have to start figuring out how to make my lawn look nice so it doesn't die. Or those projects on the outside of the house that I could easily say, hey, I'm not going to do that in the winter. Maybe it's just the busyness, and you know, Griffin has started playing baseball, and and what is that going to be like? And you know, Easter's coming. Easter is weighty. It's a celebration, but but for a church, it's weighty. A lot of times, you know, those who stand in pulpits like these, you got one shot. One shot to say the gospel, to share the gospel, and pray that it touches and changes someone's heart. And then if you're lucky, they come back. If not, they don't. And then we have all these community events that are going on. And then on top of all of that, the world is just seems to be nuts right now. There's division on both sides of the aisle. No one can agree to do anything. We're in another war, it's chaos. And the world just feels like it's barely holding itself together. So I can imagine when John writes this gospel, he feels as if he is barely holding it together. He's lost everything. The world seems to be crumbling around him. Chuck did a beautiful job of reading John 17. And I'll get back to it, but that's actually not where I was gonna start. So again, this is a private conversation that John shares with us. So we're gonna start actually in John 14. So the feet have been washed. Judas and his betrayal has been foreshadowed. Peter has been told that he will deny Jesus, even though he swears it's not possible. The bread has been broken, the cup has been taken. Jesus has told them of the sacrifice that he's coming to. And so John captures the conversation that happens before they even step out of the upper room. And this is such an important conversation to have. This is like like a deathbed scenario. Like you ever watched the movie where someone's dying, and the those last couple words are like the most important things. So Jesus is is facing his death. He he's aware of it. We talked about this last week. He's not afraid. He's not concerned. He's stepping into it with full obedience, knowing, and he praises this in the beginning of John 17 that God will be glorified through his obedience. He says, God, my father, my hour has come. He he's taking back what Satan has broken. The entire world is about to be changed forever with the sacrifice of one man. But before he steps into the garden, he leaves his disciples with some final conversation. And honestly, I think it's fitting. 14 verse 1. Jesus says, Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, but believe also in me. My father's house has many rooms. If that were not so, what I have told you that I'm going there going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back, and I will take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I'm going. Thomas replies, or Thomas says to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going. So how can we know the way? By the way, if you were in our focus group last night, so we talked about last night. Thomas is one of my favorite people in all of Scripture, because even though he's given the moniker being a doubter, I think Thomas is the most realist I've ever seen in my life. Thomas says, Jesus, we have no idea where you're going. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. What a bold proclamation. No one can get to God except through me. He said, If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. And Philip said, Lord, show us the Father, and that'll be enough for us. And Jesus answered, Don't you know me, Philip? Even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, Show us the Father? Don't you believe that I am in the Father? That the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather it is the Father living in me who is doing his work. Believe me when I am when I say that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these. Because I am going to the Father, and I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. By the way, I love the disciples, because the disciples teach me two things. One, it's okay to ask questions, and two, those men spent three years with Jesus and still don't get it. I should probably give myself some grace when I don't have it all figured out either. Then Judas, not Judas, or sorry, uh I jumped ahead, 13, says, if you love me, you'll keep my commands, and I will ask my father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever. The spirit of truth, the world cannot accept him, because it is either it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for the lives for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. Before long the world will not see me any more, but you will see me, because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my father, and I too will love them, and show myself to them. Then Judas, not Judas Isariot, said, But Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus replied, Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My father will love them, we will come to them and make our make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own, they belong to the Father who sent me. All this I have spoken while still with you, but the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, do not be afraid. You heard me say that I am going away, and I'm coming back to you. If you love me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father. For the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe. I will not say much more to you, for the Prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes, he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me. Come now. Let us leave. We talked about John 17 last week. You know, the question of John 17 is John, as he writes, he's Jesus knows who he is. He's not unaware. It's like I am in the Father. I am the Father of one. I am the one who has come as a servant. I'm giving up my life. I am choosing to lay down for the cross. Jesus is fully confident in who he is. That's what John 17 establishes, that Jesus is 100% known. The question that John's gospel poses is who do you think he is? Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God? That's such a loaded question, but it has to be because our view of Jesus shapes our view of how we live. You know, so many people in the world today, it's interesting, almost everyone believes in Jesus to some extent. Very few people deny that he existed. There are some people that claim that there's no evidence of him historically, and I don't have enough time this morning to go into all of that information because there's tons of it. There's more written about Jesus than any other historical person on the face of the earth. And I'm not just talking about the Bible, like Roman. Like the Romans wrote about this guy because obviously he had an impact, right? So the question is, who do you think Jesus is? Is he Lord of your life, or is Jesus just I don't know how to say this nicely, but but sometimes we like the fact that Jesus has saved us. But we want the salvation without the commitment of obeying the commands. We like the Jesus who died for us. We don't put up with the Jesus who tells us to forgive our neighbors seven times seven times seven to seven. We have a hard time when Jesus makes statements like, I am the way, the truth, and life, and no one gets to the Father through me. And the world in the world says, Well, there's plenty of ways to heaven, and Jesus says, No, no, no. Me. I'm it. And I come across Christians all the time, and they're like, Well, but what? No, no, listen, there's no butts in this conversation. Jesus says plain as day, I am the way, the truth, and life. The only way to know the God, the only way to be loved by him, the only way to be accepted in the family is because of the sacrifice that I'm about to make. The cross wasn't option B. The cross was A through Z. Always. That was the plan. So we'd like being saved, but we don't want to live for him. We don't want to obey his commands. We don't want to share faith with our neighbors. We we don't want to invite, we we'd like we'd like church. It's all nice and comfy and the temperature's right. The music's the right volume. But then when Jesus calls us to lay down our life, when he calls us to give up the things of this world, when he calls us to stop sinning, to work in our marriage, to raise our kids, to, listen, to teach biblical truth. We'd like being saved as long as we can have Jesus our way, and it doesn't work that way. Salvation comes because of the obedience. We follow him. We do what he's asking of. He saved us, and I and I don't, and I want to make sure that I say this correctly because I don't want anyone to think there's nothing you can do to save yourself. I'm not saying that. I realize that salvation can only come from the one who died for me. But those of us who have been saved, the natural response is to live for him, to be obedient to his calling, to be disciples who are making disciples, to go into the world, because he has done everything for us. And he says it in 14. Listen, the Spirit, be glad that I'm leaving you, because the Spirit is going to come, and the Spirit is going to lead you. So Jesus continues on in 15. He says, I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit. While every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself, it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. And Jesus says, Listen, you cannot remain as you are. You cannot remain in favor with my God unless you remain in me. Verse 5 says, I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. There's an expectation that you will bear fruit. Apart from me, he says, You can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you remain in me and my word remains in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is the my father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. By the way, this is just a side note for me. I realize Jesus is repetitious. I have kids. Sometimes you have to say things a couple different times for them to get it right. Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for one's friend. You are my friends. You do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my father I have made known to you. You did not choose me. But I chose you, and I appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, and so that whatever you ask in my name, the Father will give you. This is my command. Love each other. If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belong to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to this world. But I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I said to you. A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me my father, or whoever hates me, hates my father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, as it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my father. But this is to fill fulfill what is written in the law, they hated me without reason. When the advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who goes out from the Father, will testify about me. And you must also testify, for you have been with me from the beginning. All of this I have told you, so that you will not fall away. I wonder if, as John penned that line, all of this I have told you, so you will not fall away. If John hesitated and thought, I needed this. I needed to be reminded as the world collapsed around me, as I felt that we were failing. That Jesus said, We will not fall away if we stay attached to him. Said uh Jesus goes on and said, They will put you out of the synagogue. In fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. I have told you this, so when their time comes, you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning, because I was with you, but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you ask me where are you going? Rather you are filled with grief because I have said these things. But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Lest I go away, the advocate will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, you approve the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment, about sin because people do not believe in me, about righteousness because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer, and about judgment because the Prince of this world now stands condemned. I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth, will not speak on his own, he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive, that he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from what he will make known to you. And again, John is reminding his audience of the significance of this. He will guide you. He will teach you. He will give you everything you need. The world will hate you because of me. It's coming. Some people are gonna kill you, and they're gonna think they're doing God a favor. And then this last part is 16. This is the last few things that Jesus says to his disciples before he prays. In John 17, he prayed for himself, he prayed for his disciples. He he prayed for the future of those who would believe. So I ask you as we sit here, and as I read this last part, because some of you have already expressed, it feels a little off. The world feels wrong. Life feels stressful. There's fear, there's anxiety, there's so many things that make us feel overwhelmed. Jesus sits at the table with his friends before he prays, before he's arrested, before he steps foot out of the upper room, and he chooses his last words wisely. Starting in verse 16. Jesus went on to say, In a little while you will see me no more. And then after a little while you will see me. At this, some of his disciples said to one another, What does he mean by saying, In a little while you will see me no more? And then after a little while you will see me, because I am going to the Father. They kept asking, What does he mean by a little while? We we don't understand what he was saying. They turned to each other and they asked, they don't ask him, they ask each other, What does he mean? Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, Are you asking one another what I meant? When I said, In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me. Verily, truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come. But when her baby is born, she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you, now is your time of grief. But I will see you again, and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my father will give you whatever you ask in my name, until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I no longer use this kind of language, but will tell you plainly about my father. In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and I entered the world. Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father. Then Jesus' disciples said, Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. Now we can see that you know all things, and you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God. Do you now believe? Jesus replied. He says, A time is coming, and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each of you to your own home. You will leave me all alone, yet I am not alone. My father is with me. Verse 33. Jesus says, when we think about how anxious we are. Think about how the world seems to be falling apart. As we enter into difficult times of our life, the disciples are about to do this, they're about to walk into some really difficult circumstances. They're going to be killed and scattered and beaten. And John reflects this. He's lived through it. He has seen it. He pens his gospel with the weight and the burden of knowing that most of them didn't live much longer after these words were spoken. Yes, Jesus died. Yes, he rose from the dead. Yes, he went back to heaven. Yes, the Spirit has come. Yes, the church started in the book of Acts. But it was hard. They have lost everything. And it sometimes feels like you and I have lost everything. The world hates us, it doesn't understand us. We're just trying to bring them to know who Jesus is. Why do they condemn us? Why do they speak so ill of us? Why are there churches all over the world that are being condemned and harassed and persecuted and all of these things are to come? And yet Jesus says, I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble.