I Go to Prepare a Place for You

John 14:1–3 and the Promise of Christ’s Return

This evening, so I invite you to turn with me to John 14, verses 1 -3. John 14, and we'll consider verses 1 -3. Let us stand for the reading of God's Word. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me.

In My Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And 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 where I go, you know, and the way you know.

Amen.

Let us be seated and let's pray. Father, as You have gathered Your people this evening, we pray that You would descend and bless Your people with Your presence. We pray that Christ Jesus would be magnified by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, whom You have poured out into our hearts to show us and reveal to us the love of God in Christ.

Father, bless our meditation this evening. Prepare our hearts for the blessed table of the Lord, that we would partake by faith, that we would partake in great hope and rejoicing in Christ's victory for us in our behalf.

We ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Christ the Sweet Dropper and the Comforts of John 14

Richard Sibbes was a Puritan, and he was nicknamed by his people the Sweet Dropper. And that was because his preaching was so uniquely full of gospel comforts that his people said it was like he would drop sweets for them to come along behind and pick up and digest and enjoy the goodness of Christ.

Here in John 14, we see Sibbes' example, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, dropping the sweets of God's comforts to His people, His troubled saints on earth. This whole chapter is a chapter of comforts. The Lord speaks to us about the hope of heaven, Him being the way there, the promise of His Holy Spirit, the efficacy of our prayers, His continuing to be with us by His Spirit.

And He does this to buttress His command in verse 1, let not your hearts be troubled or unsettled. Probably as he looks around this room, he can see on the eleven's faces, they are troubled. They've been told of how they are all going to fail Him.

They've known their own weakness throughout their time with the Lord on the earth and how they don't have wisdom. And they are probably unsettled, upset at the prospect of their Master being taken away.

And so He says to them, let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. The Lord here sets them in the midst of their troubles upon the most unshakable foundation. He says to them, my brothers, trust in my Father and your Father, my God and your God.

Believe, my Father is still in heaven, wise and sovereign, good, full of love, boundless with His care for His children, and He rules the universe still. But then He says, believe also in Me. And He emphasizes there, the nearness of God to them in this moment.

Apart from knowing God through Jesus Christ, even contemplating God is not a comfort, but a fearful thing. But by believing in God through Christ, as Matthew Henry says, he says our belief in God becomes comfortable because we are looking to our Father who lovingly gave His Son for us to deliver us from our troubles.

And having initiated this broader command to trust in God, to believe in God, and to believe in Christ, the first promise He affixes their attention to is that there's another world coming. That there is a place of happiness and joy where this body and soul, even when this body lies in the ground, there is a place whose happiness will know no end.

Heaven itself. And it's this very thing that the saints have used to comfort their hearts throughout church history. That no matter how hard life on earth is, heaven will make amends for it all. He assures them, in My Father's house, there are many mansions or rooms.

If it were not so, I would have told you. Notice He describes heaven as a house. My Father's house. Not a tent, it's not a tabernacle, it's not temporary, it is a house fixed and immovable, built not by human hands, but by the Lord Himself.

You think about our Lord. Our Lord came into this world as a pilgrim. No place to lay His head. Abraham dwelt in a land that was not yet his own. And so also we all as saints know that this world is not our home.

We are all transients in this world. But He says to them and to us, there is a destination you will one day reach that you will call home. And therefore, my brothers, don't be discouraged with a little trouble along the way.

There are many mansions there. And I think His point in saying that is twofold. One, He's telling them this is not just a place I am going to, this is a place where I'm bringing all of my people. But secondly, He's pressing upon them, my Father and me will prepare, are preparing distinct dwellings for each and every one of our saints.

Just as in Israel, every elder had his seat. Every tribe had their plot of land. So also in heaven, each saint has an inheritance prepared for them. And then He presses them to trust Him. He says, if it were not so, I would have told you.

He's essentially telling them to trust His track record. Brothers, have I lied to you? If it weren't so, would I not have told you? If there were no such place, or if you wrongfully thought that you had a place there and you didn't, would I not have said so?

They've just seen how plainly He spoke to Judas, telling Judas that he had no part in Him. Would He not say the same to us if it were not the case? He says, I go to prepare a place for you. A place for you.

These eleven are grieved at this moment by His departure. But He's telling them, I'm going ahead of you to get everything ready for when you arrive. Christian, we need to remember that Christ went into heaven ahead of us on our errand and for our sake.

For our good. To go there to unlock the city by His blood and His righteousness and to sit upon His throne and to prepare our eternal dwelling place. The King of kings preparing our home in beauty and wisdom.

Verse 3, He says,.

And if I go to prepare a place for you, will I not return to you and receive you to Myself to bring you there that you may be with Me? Let me give you an analogy, Christian. Does a soon-husband-to-be build a house for his soon-to-be bride?

And as he's building it, he's adorning the kitchen. He's building the bedrooms that will house their children, Lord willing. And he's planting fruit trees by the way that they will walk and talk. Does he do all that and then at the end of it, forget to go fetch his bride?

Of course not. With every swing of the hammer, every board that goes into place, he's thinking this is for her. This is that she might be here with me to be together with me where I am. Christian, that's why Christ went ahead of us into heaven.

He's preparing our everlasting home so that, not so that He can forget about us, but so that He can return and bring us there to be with Him where He is. So that He can show us this is My Father's city that I have adorned for you, My bride.

And brothers and sisters, I want you just to imagine that day. I understand, we all understand that even right now, Christ is privately summoning His saints through death to go and to depart and be with Him where He is.

But what He's talking about here is more glorious than that. What He's describing here is the last day when Christ returns to earth, bringing with Him all the departed souls that had gone to be with Him.

When He raises the dead, reunites us to our glorified bodies, and then escorts us, His whole church, His bride, to this place, and the multitude of the redeemed that cannot be numbered will stand outside this city, and Christ will unlock the gate, and there will be a grand opening of the celestial city.

And the King of glory will go in first, the builder of the city, and we, the saints, will follow Him and we will rejoice. Finally, we have made it home. Now, let's change gears and turn to our doctrine here.

That was the exposition of verses 1 -3. I want to open up just a few briefer things doctrinally that this text teaches us and informs us about. Things that should shape the way we view our lives right now in light of eternity.

And the first and primary thing I want to press upon all of us Christians.

Heaven as Comfort in Sorrow

Is this.

Heaven is a great comfort against life's sorrows and miseries. Our Lord is the Physician of all physicians when it comes to the soul. He uniquely knows our hearts. He knows our frames, our troubles, our perplexities.

And think about it, the first spiritual ointment Christ applies to His troubled saints is the hope of heaven. The brightness of the world to come. He says to them, my brothers, my friends, let me tell you about my Father's house.

The home that I will build for you and bring you to. Christian, how often do you think about heaven? Let it fill your thoughts. The more our heart is taken up with thoughts of heaven, the lighter and briefer our troubles are going to be here on earth.

Christopher Love was another Puritan. He was a Puritan martyr. And he said to his executioner the morning of his execution, he said, sir, I bless God, my heart is in heaven. I am well.

Amen.

And he said to his wife the night before, he said, as soon as my head is severed from my body, it shall be united with Christ my Head in heaven. And he said, I am persuaded that I shall go up tomorrow to Tower Hill to be martyred as cheerfully as I went to St. Giles Church to be married to Thee.

That's the way the Scriptures speak of the hope of heaven functioning in the Christian's pilgrimage. A couple of texts. Romans 8 .18. Paul says, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.

2 Corinthians 4 .17. He says, for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. Christian, I live in the same world you do. Many are the afflictions of the righteous.

Many, many are the heartbreaks, the crosses and losses and failures and betrayals and inconsistencies and divorces and false brothers and families betraying one another. What keeps the saint from drowning in despair?

It's promises like these. I go to prepare a place for you. And Christian, I promise you, as you step across the threshold into the city of the great King and you look upon Christ Himself in the flesh and you see the land of the living, it will all click for you.

And in a moment, you will know there was no hyperbole when Paul said, these present sufferings aren't even worthy to be compared with this. Notice what Paul says. He doesn't just say that heaven will win the contest.

He says it's a ridiculous thing to even try to put the two on the same scale. And brothers and sisters, I assume, I think, probably, in some perfectly sanctified way, when we look upon the land of the living and we look upon Jesus Christ, we will think to ourselves in a perfectly sanctified way, why did I inflate my problems so much?

Why did I grumble most of my days? Why did I not listen to the Lord and fill my mind and my heart with this place to make my crosses easier to bear? Christian, one of the keys to a peaceful pilgrimage here on earth is to fill our hearts with heaven.

That's how we'll be useful servants here on earth. That's how we'll be cheerful. That's how we'll be at peace. That's why Paul says set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth.

Why?

Because if your mind is constantly set on the things of the earth, guess what's going to overcome you? The troubles of the earth. And your journey, if you do that, your journey will be long. And we'll make mountains out of our troubles.

We'll pity ourselves. We'll grow bitter. And when someone, a good brother, tries to come along and encourage us and remind us and say, brother, and they say, brother, but remember, heaven's going to make amends for all.

We will just shrug as though that means almost nothing. The Lord says to us, if it were not so, I would have told you. I want to say two more brief things in our doctrine section. I'm going to minimize these.

Heaven Prepared by Christ for His Saints

The second thing, heaven is personally tailored by Christ himself for the joy of his saints. He says, I go to prepare a place for you. What that means is that, even though the Lord hasn't deemed wise to reveal to us what all those preparations are, what that means is that it is a place being made ready by the Lord himself who knows us perfectly, and therefore, heaven, we can trust, will be perfect because it's built by Christ.

And not by us.

We would not enjoy the heaven that we design, but we will enjoy forever and ever to endless depths the heaven that Christ builds for his saints. Let me just give you an earthly analogy. Psalm 104, it's the psalm that's about how perfectly God has designed this even fallen creation to work together, and how all the animals, all the weather, rivers, streams, everything, everything works together in God's perfect wisdom so that not one need goes unmet.

If God takes care of even a fallen creation that way, imagine what God has prepared to be his bride's inheritance in heaven. It will be magnificent and incredible. Third thing, doctrinally. Brothers and sisters, let us not forget Christ himself is the heaven of heavens.

He says, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also. Christ is like the diamond of heaven that radiates all the glory that will be in heaven. And seeing him in the flesh is the central focal point of heaven's glory.

Right, Christian, if you're a real Christian, isn't that what you desire and long for? Is not just the temporal, physical blessings of heaven, but that Christ is there. Remember the Mount of Transfiguration when Christ, for a moment, revealed the glory that was to be his when he would ascend into heaven, receive his kingdom.

And his glory is revealed and his disciples look upon him, and what does Peter say he wants to do? Lord, let us build tents, right? I know we laugh at that, but why do you think he said that? Because Peter saw Christ.

He saw glory and he knew one thing. One thing I desire, I want to be where you are, Lord. I want to behold your glory and stay here. And brothers and sisters, that was just a fallen saint who saw glory in heaven.

And Christ will renew and increase our capacities for glory such that we will be able to drink in depths of Christ's magnificence in ways we cannot even imagine for our eternal, everlasting joy. That brings us to our application.

Setting Our Minds on the World to Come

What does that mean for us? What do we now have to do? How do we have to respond for this text to actually practically make a difference in our obedience to God? I've got one overarching point I want to drive home and just some practical sub-points under that.

This is my main point I want to drive home to you saints here. Be of good cheer in this life by setting your thoughts and affections on the world to come. Colossians 3 .2, Paul says, set your minds on things above, not on things on the earth.

Peter says, 1 Peter 1 .13, therefore, listen to this, therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Why do I quote Paul and Peter? We've already heard Jesus' words. It's to show you this is not some hidden secret. This is all over the New Testament. The repeated call of the apostles to the saints is this, Christian, above all, if you want to be joyful and at peace and useful and thankful in living a life of sacrifice to God, keep your mind and affections fixed upon heaven.

Where Christ is seated. The King who dwells there. The righteousness that permeates that place. Fill your heart with it. That means meditate on it. Anticipate it. Look forward to it. Richard Sibbes said, on the subject of heaven, he said, why does God reveal these things in His Word?

His answer, that we should often meditate on them and study them that we may be heavenly minded. Because Christian, a heavenly mind is a joyful and obedient mind. And might I add, a patient mind in suffering.

Baxter said, the heart that is in heaven will be a most excellent preservative against temptations, for it will keep the mind employed, whereas an idle mind is easily enticed. And Christian, let's be honest, isn't that what happens?

Our gaze on the things above for one reason or another loses its intense focus. Meditation goes out the window. Bible reading and reflection starts to wane. And suddenly we find ourselves, we're like sitting ducks for the onslaughts of Satan because the world's troubles have filled my view.

Christian, Jesus said to His disciples, He said, if you know these things, blessed are you, if what? If you do them, right? You know these things, but blessed are you if you do them. But Christian, we are amazing creatures.

We can hear that in our lives. Maybe right now your life is filled with all sorts of trouble and you're thinking to yourself, it would do my soul a lot of good if I thought about heaven. But it's amazing how we can even in our anxiety, our being downcast, whatever, we hear this, an antidote the Lord gives us and we don't change anything.

And some reason we're surprised when tomorrow we wake up troubled again.

And the next day.

It's not surprising though that we're troubled if we're not listening to the good physician. Believe in God, believe also in me. Christ is here like a father when He gets down on eye level with His Son and He puts His hands on His shoulders and He says, Son, you need to listen to me.

I'm gonna tell you the way that you should go. Christ is doing that with you. And He's telling you, Saint, you don't have to live in trouble. You can have peace in this world by trusting and believing in my Father and in me.

You can, just as I, for the joy that was set before me, endured my cross, trembling Christian, believe it or not, by God's help, you too can endure your cross by fixing your gaze on the hope of heaven ahead.

What that means, Christian, practically, is we have to let God's Word and His promises speak louder than our troubles. God's promises are always there. One Puritan said it's like Christ just poured out a bag of gold coins called promises and said, here, take as many of them as you want.

His promises are always there. The problem is that we struggle to actually lay hold of them by faith. And one thing that means, Christian, and I've had to learn this, not perfectly, but I've had to learn this by my own failures, is it means we need to develop and exercise self-control over our own thoughts.

And purposefully redirect our thoughts to heaven and Christ rather than fixating on the world's troubles. I mean, if you obsess over and over about your troubles, you are, in essence, letting them hold more sway in your heart and mind than you are God's promises.

And you're going to be troubled. God, in His Word, even gives us kind of a, what would you call it? An inspired ratio, if you will. When it comes to God's blessings, He says, forget not all His benefits.

Right? Count them one by one. But when it comes to life's sorrows, Jesus teaches us to say, sufficient is the day with its own troubles. And so we need to let God's promises hold sway in our mind more than our troubles.

Last thing that this also means. Not only do we have to strive to keep God's promises central in our heart and mind and in our meditation, it also means we need to carefully guard against allowing sinful and unhelpful things into our heart.

That's often how the devil works, is just inch by inch. And the world has a way of slowly getting into our hearts until all of a sudden we realize heaven has all but been displaced. That happens by the things we listen to, the jokes we laugh at, the things we talk about, the things we watch, the things we read, people we keep company with.

And not only do external things influence us away from thoughts of heaven, we influence ourselves. The grumbler and the fretter is a person who poisons their own heart. They regurgitate again and again all of their troubles, all of their miseries.

But Christian, we need to remember there is no sin that will ever bring us closer to heaven. There are no harmless sins. Sin, even in their most seemingly innocent forms, will slowly but surely erode away the heart's affections for the things of heaven.

And it will numb us until suddenly we're ineffective servants of our king. Rather than being bold, courageous soldiers in the service of the king of glory, we will find ourselves to be those who are dull, caught up in civilian affairs, just lackluster, mediocre Christians.

Which is essentially just another way of saying backslidden Christians. Christian, we need to stoke the fire of faith. We need to stoke the fire of zeal in our hearts. And one of the greatest ways to do that is with glorious thoughts and meditations on the world to come.

Christ and all that He will be for us. I mentioned Christopher Love. I mean, he's just one of so many heroes we could talk about who live courageous, bold, zealous lives. It's not enough to simply imitate the Puritan's doctrine.

We need to imitate their faith. We've got to have heaven in our heart the way they had heaven in their heart. Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. Christian, if we stick close to our shepherd, the great physician, we will do well in weathering life's storms.

And not only in weathering them, but we will actually be more than conquerors in them through Him who loved us.

Amen.

Let's pray together. Father, we pray again. Bless our feeble efforts as we try to preach Your Word, try to hear Your Word with faith. Father, we pray for Your Holy Spirit to bring into our hearts the things that our ears have heard.

Not just in this fleeting moment, but this evening and tomorrow morning and the next day and this following week. Help us to feast upon the bread from heaven. To actually resolve by Your grace and to seek Your help in changing our ways that we would live renewed lives, that we would be living sacrifices for Your glory in whatever You have for us.

Father, when You send troubles, cause us to receive them as Your hand of providence, Your hand of wisdom. But let us also, when You send troubles, let our eyes look to heaven and seek grace from You that we would rejoice and be comforted even in the midst of sorrows.

Father, bless Your people, we pray. We ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.