September 3, 2023
Looking Forward To That Day
“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.” John 14:3-4 (NASB)
To repeat a conversation with my mother earlier, she told me she didn’t want to be here anymore. She wanted to be at a place of peace… with Jesus, away from the chaos of society. She said, “So much has changed I don’t know if I want to be around for any more changes.” As I age, I think about how much the world has changed since childhood. During the late 1970’s through the1980’s, so much has changed. Innocence has been lost. Decency is now looked down upon as old-fashioned or naïve. Sex has become rampant in our culture. Different forms of perversion (once thought of as completely disgusting) are all around us. As the world around us continues to denigrate, we as believers have hope. It is found in verses like these.
“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also…” Listen to the comforting words these verses have brought to those who lived hundreds of years ago: “Dr. A. L. Gaebelein used to say that among his family treasures was a German Bible that went back many generations. He said one could open that Bible to some pages and it looked like it had just come off the press, but when opened to John 14, it was spotted, soiled, and worn from the tears of many generations. John Watson, the great preacher, said that if someone in his flock was going through deep waters and was about to die, sometimes he would kneel next to them and whisper, ‘In My Father’s house are many mansions,’ and he said that three-quarters of the way through the river, they would almost turn around and come back, and he would hear them repeating, ‘… Father’s house … many mansions.…’ Henry Venn, a Puritan preacher, was dying and, his biography tells us, ‘The prospect made him so high-spirited and jubilant that his doctor said that his joy at dying kept him alive a further fortnight.’ We derive great comfort from the fact that Jesus is coming to take us to be with him.”[1] These verses bring great comfort to our souls. Even though the world is filled with trials and tribulations, we all wait for that blessed hope- the opportunity to be with King Jesus. Titus 2:13 says we are, “… looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus,” Jesus told the disciples He would take them along with Him, to His own home. “And you know the way where I am going.” According to this understanding, the promise of Jesus in 14:2–3 takes on present significance. Jesus would die, leaving His disciples temporarily alone. But in a short while, He would return to them through the presence of the Holy Spirit. So effectively would the Spirit represent the Father and Son, and so wonderfully would the Spirit mediate their presence to believers, that Jesus could express the result in the imagery of travel in two directions: believers would travel to live in the Father’s house (14:2), and Father and Son would travel to make their home in believers (14:23).[2]
We who know Christ as Savior, one day will be in our permanent home. For now, we enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit. The disciples didn’t have Him until after Pentecost. They didn’t have the divine presence like we do when we experience the new birth in Christ. We are blessed beyond measure because of this. Now can you understand why they were so distraught when Jesus was about to leave. They didn’t have anyone else to lean on in the hard times. We do!
[1] Hughes, R. K. (1999). John: that you may believe (pp. 339–340). Crossway Books.
[2] Dongell, J. (1997). John: a Bible commentary in the Wesleyan tradition (p. 173). Wesleyan Publishing House.