"My Father's House"
John 14:1-7
My great grandfather’s name
was Fred Robinson, but everyone just called him Pap Pete. He was a
short, hard working, funny man who loved to play practical jokes on
everyone. He was so short that he could barely see over the steering
wheel of his old car. He was great with his hands. He
loved to make kitchen knives, which are still collectible items in the
sleep little town of Mercersburg. He fathered 12 children and
adopted 2. They lived in a tiny little house on Robinson RD near
the campground. He was best known for his faith. He was
a Pentecostal preacher up in horse valley and each Sunday he loaded
up the car (imagine how they all fit in together) to head to church from
Mercersburg. He loved the Lord, was faithful. I want to tell
you the story of his departure.
As my great grand father laid in bed his closest
family members were gathered around his bed side knowing that moment was
quickly coming for him to depart from this world. They began to sing
hymns to comfort him and to be honest, comfort each other too. My family
is extremely gifted musically, sadly a gift that skipped me. As they sang
he sat up in bed talking about what he saw. He was more alive in those
last few moments gazing into heaven then he had been for the last few
days. Shortly after he entered into His heavenly reward and his blessed
rest. Heaven is not real though because of his experience, nor is it real
because somebody wrote about about their experience in heaven. It's real
because the Bible talks about and it's important for us to base the truth of
heaven solely from the truth of God's Word. Let's look at John chapter
fourteen to mine our some rich doctrinal and personal truths about heaven.
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Our discussion of our Father's House starts in John 14:1. Jesus opens up verse one with much needed comfort by saying “let
not your heart be troubled.” The disciples had been on a
roller coaster lately. They hit the peak when Christ entered
Jerusalem just a few days prior to this and heard the people with their
own ears welcoming Jesus as their king, but everything snowballed after
that. They quickly found out
that everything was not going to go as planned. Moments
prior to Jesus saying these words He announced that one would betray Him,
and then He just told them that He was leaving, and finally He told Peter that
Peter would deny Him three times. In
their minds they had left all and now it looked like He was leaving them!
In the minds of the others if Peter, the brash confrontational leader
would fall, then they also would probably fall away. These men were crushed men. Their hopes, dreams, and expectations lay at
their feet dead. Their hearts were broken and their faith was
probably buried below the basement. What now?
I think it is important to remind us that chapter
break downs were
not an original construct of the writer. That means that this
chapter piggy backs in directly where the last ended. This
narrative continues on without a break from when Jesus told Peter he would
deny Him. That resulted in troubled hearts. That word troubled implies an inner anguish and
pain. A pain beyond words. Jesus could see into the hearts of the disciples, He knew their
confusion and pain. And I take comfort in that. While
none of them verbally stated they were troubled He knew it. O’
friends I take supreme comfort in this. There are times when
I’m troubled but I do not always express it, but Jesus knows what concerns
me, what burdens weigh me down. He is a compassionate Savior. Each
of you reading this have some weight on your life, and Jesus knows it, and
He loves you. Rest
confidently in those promises.
Jesus says do not let your heart be troubled. The way that the Greek text would translate
this is “STOP RIGHT NOW LETTING YOUR HEARTS BE
TROUBLED.” He isn’t just saying don’t let your heart be
troubled in the future, but they were
troubled as that exact moment, and Jesus tells them that at that moment
they were STOP being troubled. Guys, that’s words that
only Jesus can offer to them. Their
whole world was falling apart in front of their eyes, I don’t blame them
for being troubled, I would be too, but Jesus says in the face of the most
troubling time ever, STOP being troubled. And it’s not a suggestion or a recommendation, in the
language it is an imperative, or a command. Their hearts were troubled, Jesus calls them to
tranquility. And only He can do this. If I
were to tell you do not be troubled you might say “who are you to tell me,
you don’t know what’s going on in my life?” But Jesus can say
this because He is God, and He does know. He can tell you in
the worst of situations to not be troubled. Don’t be
panicked, have peace.
What is the remedy for a troubled heart? Jesus tells them in verse one “ye believe in God, believe also in me.” The
idea behind this is
that they believe…they have faith but they can not allow all the bad stuff
to effect their faith. Jesus is
saying you presently believe, don’t stop believing. It
implies an ongoing, consistent trust in Jesus. How often have the troubles of this world
shelled our faith? Caused our faith in the Lord’s ability to
care for us to dip. I have been guilty of this guys. Faith
in God is not defined by good times, times of ease…but in times of trial
and tribulation.
There is a huge theological statement here in verse one, He lays claim to Deity. He
says if you believe in God then believe also in me. He asks people to put the same
faith in Him as they do God? That
statement here would be nothing short of blasphemy unless Jesus who He
actually says He is. Jesus continues with this theme of
Co-equality with the Father in verse
seven (read). Here Jesus
says that they have indeed seen the Father because they have seen Him,
meaning that they have seen God because they have seen Christ. If
they have known Jesus then they have known the Father.
I want to make a few very clear statements on this: Jesus IS NOT a manifestation of God: He is God
manifested (JM page 104). To
come to any other conclusion is to fail Scripture and to err in our
understanding and it discredits the words of Christ. Throughout
history many people have concluded that Jesus is a good man, good teacher,
a prophet, etc. But not God. Let me make a very
clear statement here. If someone were to claim to be God
incarnate, but was lying, would that make that person a good man? NO. That would
make them a liar, a deceiver, a charlatan. You cannot reconcile
the statement that Jesus is a good man or a teacher if you do not agree
that He is God. If you say He is a good man but lied to people
about His deity then He cannot be good. The only way to make sense of this is if Christ REALLY
is who He says He is! “How each
person reacts to Christ’s claim determines their eternity (JM
page 104).”
Jesus calls the disciples to have peace, but He goes a
step further by
providing a promise in verse two. Jesus calms their fears by focusing them on
heaven. I have oftentimes found that the worries and storms of
this life stop over-powering me when I focus on glory. I like
what Jesus calls heaven in verse two,
He calls it His Father’s house. I want to take a bit of time
with this. First is that term Father. The
term Father is used by Jesus 53 times in chapters thirteen to seventeen! The
idea behind the term Father shows an affection, a love, attention. I
like that idea of attention. Most of us grew up in homes
where our dads didn’t pay a lot of attention to us. My dad was
an outdoors guy, gardens, lawns, hunting, etc. But dads
today are just as bad. It’s
hard for dads to disconnect from our devices to give our kids attention. Kids
beg for our attention, but our relationship with God is the opposite, it
is God asking for our attention!
Father’s house gives me an image of home, comfort. How many of you have vivid smells,
sounds, and memories from home. One memory that always takes me
home is the smell of French fries cooking. My dad always grew
potatoes and once the potatoes were dug we would cook French fries. Or
the sound of a skillet takes me back to my mom and dad frying green
tomatoes. Or the sound of snapping green beans on the back deck. I’m
safe in those memories of home. But there
is a place that is more home then that, and the strange thing is that it
is a place that we have never been before! Isn’t that a paradox. There
is a place we’ve never seen that will be more home to us then anywhere
else in the world.
Jesus says that there are many mansions in His
Father’s house. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but the term mansions is a poor translation for
that term. It would better be understood as many rooms or
dwelling places. The image that is provided here is
almost as if it were one huge housing structure with individual rooms. Imagine an apartment. Now for some
people that sounds depressing and lesser then what they expect with the
idea of mansions. We give a wrong view that each of us have our
own huge place. We do not get our own home just over the
hilltop beloved, but instead we have a room in our Father’s house. If
that discourages you or distorts your view of heaven then we need to check
our motivation for glory. We don’t deserve a room in glory, let
alone a mansion. But the thought of a room in my Father’s house is
more exciting then a mansion. A mansion could be far from my Father’s
house, a mansion loses it’s intimacy. A room in our Father’s
house provides the image that we are close to Him, like He’s just down the
hall! We aren’t just in the same place, but the same building!
Jesus affirms this as true when He says if it were not so I would have told you so. He
then goes on in verse three to say that He goes to prepare a place for His
disciples. That term
“prepare” is a unique term. The term literally means to make
the necessary preparations, get everything ready. It is drawn from the
oriental custom of sending on before kings on their journeys persons to
level the roads and make them passable. How many of you
have ever arrived a hotel early and found out that they were not yet ready
for your arrival? That is not the case for heaven. They
are prepared for you when your moment comes. They are ready. You could
say the bed is made, the mint is on the pillow, and the lights are on per
say.
The term prepared is also used in Rev. 21:2 to describe the New
Jerusalem. Turn to Rev. 21:2. The
image there is a place adorned as a bride for her husband. This
city is gorgeous. It is adorned with multiple colors, the
streets are paved in gold, the gates are formed from pearl, the walls
are formed from the most precious of colorful stones, there is no sun
there b/c the glory of the light of God shines. There is no
Temple, there is no death, no suffering, not anguish, no tears, etc. But
I want to take a note at the size of this ONE single city which comes
down after the destruction of the old heaven and old earth. Look
at Rev. 21:15-17 (read). The basic image is that the city is 1,500 miles
cubed. I have attached two pictures to show the dimensions of this
massive city. The one pictures shows that
the city goes from Canada into Florida. The square in the
picture touches 34 STATES and seven provinces in Canada! But
beloved the city is also 1500 miles up. If every person who ever lived (EVER) would have live in this
city then each person would have 1,500 square feet of living space! WOW!!! I
believe that this is the ultimate prepared place that Christ is speaking
about.
But Jesus isn’t finished yet. In the rest of verse three Jesus tells us that He
will come again and receive us to Himself, and that we will be with Him!!! There
is only one real sensible
explanation to this, the rapture of the church. Some
point to other areas where Jesus could be referring, but there is an
absence of judgment mentioned here, and the language is very similar to
what Paul wrote in 1st Thess.
4:13-18 (read). So the logical conclusion is the rapture. What
I find as most comforting in this set of passages is that Jesus tells
His disciples, and us that we will be with Him. It is a promise
that you can take to the bank.
We have talked about the peace and the
promise, but now let's focus on the path. The disciples are
perplexed as to what Jesus is saying here.There are a few conclusions that we
can come to, first of all they knew that Jesus was speaking about His death. There
is no denying that. In verse
five Thomas speaks, but I think Thomas speaks for the crowd
when he asks his iconic question.
Jesus then gives one of the most famous verses in the
Bible in verse six. He
frames it with His traditional I AM statement, the sixth of which we have
seen through the lenses of John’s Gospel account. It is worth remembering that the I AM statements
of Jesus point to His deity, they point to His co-equality with God the
Father. The reference goes all the way back to Exodus 3
when God revealed unto Moses a holy, sacred name set aside for God, so
holy that Jews today still do not utter that name for God. I think this I AM of Jesus here stands out
because everything looks like chaos. It looks like Jesus is
losing and the disciples are scared, anxious, and doubting. Jesus
tells them that even in the face of everything that He is still God. I
think we could be reminded of that guys, when life is hard, when we face trials
upon trials and it seems that we are ready to break, He is still God, and
He is still in control.
Let’s break down Jesus’ reply: first Jesus says that He
is the way. The way to where? The way to heaven, the
way to salvation. We are well aware of what Peter said in Acts 4:12 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%204:12&version=ESV ). Jesus is not just one of
many ways, He alone is the way. How many of you have ever been
lost before? Did you have to ask for directions? That’s tough. Imagine somebody saying to you “take the first right,
and the second left. Cross the square and go past the church
and take the third right and the road you want is the fourth one on the
left.” How many of you did not get that? That’s not what
Jesus is saying here. He does not provide directions, He is the
way. Jesus says let me hope in the car and I”ll take you there. O friends
that what Jesus does in our life. He hops into our lives and
takes us to glory. He takes us by the hand and leads us. He
is the way for the world. Do you agree?
But He is also the truth. In a world full
of lies and deceit Jesus alone is the truth. I
have the joy each week of telling you all the truth of the Bible, but only
Jesus can say “I AM the truth.” The idea of truth here
means total truth, without lie or deceit. He is the truth.
Lastly Jesus is the life. He is the life because He alone possess eternal
life and He alone can dispense it to us. I’ll give you
an example. I love Indian Food, there is only one Indian Restaurant in
Martinsburg. I can only find it one place. The same
can be said about eternal life, there is only one person that has eternal
life, and He willing and loving provides it to all who come. “Christianity is not a system of philosophy, nor
ritual, nor a code of laws; it is the impartation of a divine vitality (Tenney
page 215).
But I want to make a point. Jesus does not just
want to be your eternal life, future, He wants in your life now. He
wants to be YOUR life this very second too. He wants you
to commit yourself to Him, to trust Him fully. Most of you reading this would openly say “He is
the life” but can we equally say “He is My life.”
“Without the way there is no going, without the truth there is no
knowing, and without the life there is no living (Thomas Kempis)
