Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; Believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am preparing a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am, you may also. — John 14:1–3
LET YOUR HEARTS NOT BE TROUBLED. I GO TO PREPARE A PLACE FOR YOU.
In John 13:33, Jesus says, Little children, yet a little while I am with you.” You will seek me, and as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you, where I am going, you cannot come. Jesus said to the disciples, Let not your hearts be troubled, to calm the minds made anxious by the announcement in John 13:33.”
John 13:21–27 says that Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” The disciples looked at each other, uncertain of whom he spoke. One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus’ side, so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking, so that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So, when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Then, after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said, “What are you going to do? Do quickly.”
When Jesus said there was a traitor among them, it was enough to make the disciples feel uneasy. Around them, their world was going to collapse into chaos. Jesus would be arrested, tried, and crucified. The only thing they could do was to hold on to trust in God.
The contents of Romans 8 signify that if God is for us, who is against us does not mean we will not have enemies. As Moody’s Bible Commentary says, Paul’s point is that those enemies cannot successfully turn God against us. If God sacrificed His own Son to bring about salvation, then He can be counted on to provide everything else described in chapter 8, including eternal life. Jesus would not go to prepare a place for his disciples, for all his born-again believers, unless he would also come again and receive them for Himself.
BELIEVE IN GOD, AND BELIEVE ALSO IN ME.
When Jesus said, “to believe in God, “ it is a command. What worried the disciples was Jesus’ approaching departure. Jesus told His disciples to remain steadfast by trusting in God and in Him.
Your confidence in God relies on your trust in Christ. If you are a born-again believer, you can be assured that you are never alone. You can always go to Him and can be helped by Him.
What happened after Jesus was crucified on the cross, His own people rejected Him as their Messiah. The Jewish people believed the Messiah would be their conquering hero and that He would deliver them from Roman captivity. The Old Testament says something different. Hundreds of years before Jesus was born, the Old Testament prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 53:3–5 that the Lord Jesus would be despised and rejected by mankind, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed by our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:9 says, “ And they made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.”
Jesus’ sufferings would reveal the consequences that sin brings to fallen humanity, even though He Himself would not sin. Jesus is described as a person of moral purity, the true substitute for sinners.
Jesus’ crucifixion is proof that God is willing to give us everything he has. In Romans 8:32, the apostle Paul says that he did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all. How can he not also give us, with him, all things in his grace?
If we believe that God is as Jesus taught him to be, if we believe in Jesus, to see the picture of God. So, in the face of that amazing love, it becomes not easy, but at least possible, to accept even what we can’t understand, and even in the storms of life to keep a steadfast faith.
The Greek scholar W.E. Vine says that in the Gospel of John, “believe” means “to be persuaded of, to place confidence in, to trust.” It signifies, in this sense of the word, reliance upon, not just an insignificant amount of belief. The Gospel of John 3:16 says For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
HEAVEN IS A REAL PLACE.
Heaven is not the result of someone’s imagination. The Bible tells us that it is the place where God lives. It is the place where Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father.
Heaven is described in Revelation 21:1–4. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
The English Standard Version of Revelation 21:4 says that the removal of the first heaven and earth eliminate the fatal infection of evil in the cosmic order and gives way to God’s creation of a new cosmic order where sin and suffering and death are forever banished.
The Apostle Paul says in Romans 8:21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. He says in Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
Peter describes heaven as the everlasting kingdom. He says in 2 Peter 1:11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. An abundant entrance into eternal Heaven is the hope and reality for a Christian who lives a faithful and fruitful life.
An earthly home can get overcrowded, but not the heavenly home. The heaven the New Testament speaks of is a very spacious place. Revelation 7:9 says something important about that dwelling place. John, in a vision of heaven, said After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.
2 Peter 1:5–7 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
“Virtue” is to join with an essential quality in the exercise of faith. “Steadfastness” is to be stable or faithful. The born-again Christian who does these things will enjoy assurance in the present and a full, rich reward in the future life.
Among the happy people in heaven, Jesus does not overlook you or forget you. If you are not prepared for heaven, you will be missed. You would have your own distinctive, personal, exclusive place in the Father’s heart and house. Nobody else can fill it!
Matthew 7:21 says Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord, ’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. An oral confession of Jesus as Lord does not always indicate a repentant heart.
Matthew 10:32–33 says So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. A Christian can easily avoid persecution by denying that he or she is Jesus’ disciple. A true disciple does not fear death and will publicly acknowledge and confess Jesus. The eternal consequences for those who deny Christ, in fact, will be far worse than the persecution that they sought to avoid.
No One Knows That Day and Hour
Matthew 24:36 says But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. Nobody else has ever been both God and man.
Mark 14:62 says, And Jesus said, ‘I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.
IF YOU WERE TO DIE TONIGHT, ARE YOU SURE YOU WOULD GO TO HEAVEN?
- You will be assured that you will go to heaven someday if you confess your sins to Jesus, and
- You will be assured that you will go to heaven someday if you invite Him to live in your soul. Then His Holy Spirit will dwell within you, and
- You will be assured that you will go to heaven if you make Him the Lord and Savior of your life.
Contributor: C Paul Wooderson
