Sermon for May 3, 2026, Fifth Sunday of Easter

John 14:1-14 (Fifth Sunday of Easter—Series A)

“So Much Comfort!”

Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer, Enfield, CT

May 3, 2026

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our text is the Gospel Reading recorded in John 14:

[Jesus said,] ¹ “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God and believe in Me. ²In My Father’s house are many dwelling places. And if not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? ³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again will take you to Myself, so that where I am, you also may be. ⁴And where I am going you know the way.” ⁵Philip said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” ⁶Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. ⁷If you have known Me, you will know My Father also. And from now on you have known Him and have seen Him.” ⁸Philip said to Him, “Lord show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” ⁹Jesus said to Him, “Have I been with you so long a time and you do not know me, Phillip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father. How is it you say, Show us the Father? ¹⁰Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words which I speak to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in Me works His works. ¹¹Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. But if not, believe on account of the works. ¹²Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes in me, the works which I am doing he will also do and greater ones than these he will do because I am going to the Father. ¹³And whatever you should ask in My name, this I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

          Let us go with the apostle John into the Upper Room on Holy Thursday, the night in which Jesus was betrayed. During the Passover meal, Jesus went around to His disciples, washing their feet. John records, “When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, ‘Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them’” (John 13:12-17 ESV).

          Then we are told, “After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.’ The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke” (John 13:21-22 ESV).

          Before giving them “a new commandment” that they love one another just as Jesus has loved them, He said, “Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’” (John 13:33 ESV). Simon Peter responded to this, “‘Lord, where are you going?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.’ Peter said to him, ‘Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.’ Jesus answered, ‘Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times’” (John 13:36-38 ESV).

          If you were among the Twelve, how might you be feeling at this point? Confused and unsettled? Nervous and concerned? Afraid and worried? I would suggest that the answer is probably all of the above. The disciples in the Upper Room were confused, unsettled, nervous, afraid, and worried. What was Jesus really saying to them? They didn’t understand. There’s a betrayer and a denier among them? And where is Jesus going!?

          It is at this climactic point that Jesus begins teaching His disciples for the final time before He goes away . . . to the cross, the grave, and the Resurrection. As John 14 opens, Jesus gives the disciples what they now needed most—comfort!

          You are not in the first-century Upper Room. You are here in 2026. When you look at your life’s situation and what is going on around the world, are you perhaps confused and unsettled? Is there something in your personal life that is making you nervous and concerned—a health issue, a relationship problem? Do you face many days afraid and worried about yourself, your loved ones, or how various situations will turn out? At these climactic points in your life, Jesus gives you, His 21^st Century disciples, what you need most—comfort!

          In the 700s B.C., the voice of the prophet Isaiah rang out, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God” (Is. 40:1 ESV). Going back even further in time, David in Psalm 23 wrote the familiar words, “You are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psa. 23:4 ESV). The Good Shepherd Jesus provides in His Word today a wealth of Good News to supply comfort to you.

          The first Good News comfort Jesus gives is the promise of heaven. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God and believe in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places. And if not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again will take you to Myself, so that where I am, you also may be.” Faith alone saves you from sin and death. And that faith or trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior is His free gift to you by the working of the Holy Spirit. Faith is “not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:9 ESV).

Faith is also the comforting assurance that the gifts of Christ given to you by grace alone through faith alone are not dependent on you and your works. There is no need for the baptized child of God in Christ to be troubled in body, mind, or spirit, saying, “I hope I’m good enough to get into heaven.” Because you have been baptized into Christ, you have put on Christ (Gal. 3:27). The perfect holiness and righteousness of Jesus, the Son of God, is credited to you. By grace through faith, YOU are holy and righteous in the sight of God the Father because you are IN Christ Jesus. He went to the cross and the grave, suffering both hell and death in your place to save you. Because of Jesus’ saving work, you have the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. And because of Jesus, you have been gifted a permanent home with the Lord forevermore. As one pastor put it, “There’s a lot of room there, we have a reservation, and Jesus is eagerly engaging in heavenly housework in anticipation of our arrival.”[1] Good News of comfort for you!

And the comfort keeps coming. The way to heaven and the life everlasting is spelled out clearly. Jesus Himself is the way! Again, we don’t rely on our behavior, because, if we did, we’d never ever be good enough. We daily sin much, even as the baptized people of God in Christ. The Old Adam, our sinful nature, still hangs on us. But we are truly saved and redeemed by Christ the Crucified and Risen Savior. He won forgiveness for all our sins and bestows that forgiveness upon us in Absolution, in Baptism, and in the eating and drinking of His true Body and Blood with bread and wine in His Supper. Through Christ and through Christ alone we come to the Father covered in the righteousness of our Savior, at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

          Jesus is not only the Way, but also the Truth and the Life. The truth He provides in the Good News of our forgiveness through faith in Him and the life He gives to us in abundance through faith clearly charts our course to heaven. And that course is Jesus Himself. Thomas à Kempis, a medieval theologian, paraphrased Jesus in his, The Imitation of Christ, saying, “Follow me, who am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Without the Way, there is no progress; without the Truth, there is no knowledge; without the Life, there is no living. I am the Way you must follow; the Truth you must believe; the Life for which you must hope. I am the imperishable Way, the infallible Truth, the eternal Life. I am the most noble Way, the ultimate Truth, the true Life, blessed and uncreated. If you remain in My Way, you shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free, and you shall lay hold on eternal life.”

          Another Good News comfort and assurance is found in the relationship between God the Son and God the Father. Both are equally worthy of our trust—“Believe in God and believe in Me.” Here’s more comfort from Jesus—“If you have known Me, you will know My Father also. And from now on you have known Him and have seen Him.” If you’ve seen and know Jesus by faith through His Word and Spirit, you have seen and known God the Father! The Son dwells in the Father and the Father dwells in the Son, so intimate are they! The words Jesus speaks and the works Jesus does are driven by the Father, so close are the First and Second Persons of the Trinity. As Martin Luther wrote in the Small Catechism, “We could never grasp the knowledge of the Father’s grace and favor except through the Lord Christ. Jesus is a mirror of the fatherly heart” (LC: II.65). And so it is that God your heavenly Father is very present with you in your troubles because Jesus is present with you through His Word and Spirit in all your troubles. As He promised, “I am with you always.” And Jesus comes to you in the most wondrous of ways through His truly present Body and Blood in Holy Communion. At the altar, you receive your Savior who gives you to eat and drink His Body and Blood in, with, and under bread and wine, for forgiveness, life, and salvation. 

          Dear friends in Christ, if you have been feeling confused and unsettled, nervous or concerned, afraid or worried, then Jesus has a Good News word of comfort for you today and always. His Word speaks, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Your Father in heaven has given His Son to suffer, die, and rise again to grant you forgiveness and eternal life. You have a place in the Father’s heaven and in the new creation where you will be forever with the Lord in body and soul because Jesus went to the cross and the grave, rose again, and has ascended to the right hand of the Father where He lives and reigns to all eternity. He is present with you in all life’s situations with His Word and Spirit. He comes to you personally with His true Body and Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. In Christ, there is comfort, comfort for you, the people of God in Christ Jesus. Amen.

     [1] Francis C. Rossow, Gospel Handles (St. Louis: Concordia, 2001), 316.