WWUTT 938 Where I Am You May Be Also?

The Promise to Prepare a Place and Receive His Disciples

Jesus said to his disciples, I am going to prepare a place for you and I am going to receive you to myself that where I am, you may be also. And he said, you know the way to where I am going. The way is Christ when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's word that we may be filled with the knowledge of his will. For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We continue our study of the Gospel of John 14. And as with yesterday, I'll begin by reading verses one through seven. Jesus said to his disciples, 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 go to prepare 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, there you may be also.

And you know the way where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. So Jesus comforting his disciples before he is about to be taken away, arrested, tried, beaten, crucified, and buried.

And before these things are going to happen, he says to his disciples, let your hearts not be troubled. Furthermore, after he rises from the dead, he'll be with them for only a few days. And then he is going to ascend back into heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will no longer be with them, but he has knit himself so closely to them. And they are so incredibly fond of their teacher as well. You see the affection that they have had for one another, that our Lord has for his disciples and that his disciples had also for him.

And so we can know that all of us who are followers of Christ are likewise his disciples and he has deep affection for us as well. Jesus is with us, his Holy Spirit even within us, so that wherever we are, we know that God is with us too.

God’s Presence With His People in the Psalms and Through the Holy Spirit

David in Psalm 139, seven says, where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the utmost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me and the light about me be night, even the darkness is not dark to you. The night is bright as the day for darkness is as light with you. This is David saying there's nowhere we can go from the presence of God.

His spirit is always with us, especially considering that from the day of Pentecost on, everyone who is a follower of Jesus has the Holy Spirit poured into our hearts and he is with us even now. Back in Psalm 23, David prayed, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, yet you are with me.

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. The rod that corrects and the staff that guides. Through the discipline that the Lord gives us, we know that he is with us, shaping us more and more into the image of Christ.

He who began a good work in you, Paul said to the Philippians, he will be faithful to complete it on the day of Christ. Jesus is with us. Lo, I am with you always to the very end of the age, Matthew 28, 20.

And so we have nothing to fear. We have not been left alone. Our God is here. And you can know that when you pray and you call upon the Lord, he answers. He does hear you. And he has given you life in his son.

So there is nothing that the world can take from you. There may be times when in your body, maybe in your physiology, you feel alone. There is a depression that covers you, a darkness that is over your mind that might make you wonder and ask, God, are you there?

But know what he has said in his word. For the word of God, the Bible gives you the answer. He is with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. Paul describes him in 2 Corinthians 1 as the father of mercies and the God of all comfort.

And the most difficult of trials will happen to you because as Paul says in verses eight and nine of that particular chapter, that this has happened to you to make you rely on God who raises the dead, to make you rely all the more on the Lord who has forgiven you of your sins and has seated you in the heavenly places with Christ.

This eternity is guaranteed for you, all who have faith in him. So you know that the Lord has not left you. He is with you. Do not be troubled. Do not fall into despair and anxiety. Jesus is your friend.

He says, believe in God, believe also in me. You trust in God, you know him according to what has been written in his law, according to what the prophets have said, you have come to believe in God through these, then therefore you can believe also in me.

For what Jesus has said had been given to him by the father. He spoke the words of the father. What the prophet said, Jesus has said, and more so and even more intimately for the prophets did not have the association with the father that Jesus does, that the son does.

He came from heaven and revealed a will from his father that was far deeper and even more glorious than what the prophets had been privy to when the Lord had spoken to them. Jesus shows us the way to the father.

So you believe in God, believe also in me who has come from the father. In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? Jesus is explaining to his disciples in his comforting of them.

He's explaining what he is leaving to go and do. He is gonna go and prepare a place for them by Christ's death and his resurrection from the grave. He has prepared a place for his disciples by his ascending back to the father and seated at the right hand of him and is mediating for us on our behalf.

He is our advocate before the father. He is working out in us our salvation, our sanctification, growing us in holiness and in his image. Even in these ways, Christ is preparing a place for us. And he says to his disciples, if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again. And I will take you to myself that where I am, there you may be also. And this is a promise as Jesus gave to his disciples we are still looking for even now, the return of the son.

We can pray with the apostle John. We cry out with him, Lord Jesus come quickly, bring an end to this world. Judge your enemies, deliver the righteous, put an end to all evil, dry our tears, relieve our pain, heal our sicknesses and diseases.

Bring us to where you are. We want to be with you in heaven forever in glory. Is that the yearning of your heart? Or are you still so attached to this world that you dread leaving it? You hate the idea or the prospect that you might have to give this world up.

You know, when Paul was talking about this with the Philippians, he says, I'm kind of torn between the two, whether to go to heaven or whether to stay here. Now, if Paul so desired to be with his Lord, why would he be torn between those two options?

Well, because if he were to stay here, Paul says to the Philippians, that would be better for you. So it's out of his love and his affection for his brethren whom he is growing according to the knowledge of God and his word and the gospel.

He is growing them in the knowledge of these things and that is for them, that's for their sanctification and the spread of the gospel so that others may hear and know and be saved. So that's why Paul would want to remain.

That's the explanation that he gives to the Philippians. But he says, for me to leave and go and be with God, well, I know that's far better for me because then I get to go and be with my Lord and glory.

Which one of these am I going to be between? I'm kind of stuck between the two. So that shows his heart for the fellow saints and also for others, the sake of the faith of God's elect that they may hear the gospel and come to believe that Paul would even want to give up what he knows the father has promised him in glory.

He'd want to give that up for a time for the benefit of the body of Christ, that more may be added to that number and that those who are in the body would grow in the knowledge of God, in righteousness and in holiness.

And I sympathize with Paul in that. I desire to want to go and be with my Lord in glory, but for the sake of my wife and my children, I would rather stay here for this time that I may continue to disciple my wife and raise her up and discipline my kids and teach them in the training and the admonition of the Lord so that they may grow in sanctification and be presented as holy before the Lord on the day of glory.

And my responsibilities as a pastor, giving the word of God to my congregation, that we may all be knit together in love, growing in maturity and holding fast to the head who is Christ. Let me ask you, does this reflect your attitude?

Do you desire to get off this globe and go and be with God forever in his presence? Or does that idea fill you with dread? Are you like, you know what? I don't want to die and go be with God. There's still things on this earth I have yet to experience.

There's stuff I want to possess I don't yet have. Let me ask you this, what can this world possibly give you that's better than being with God? Several years back, there was a woman in my church who had been diagnosed with brain cancer and it was fatal.

It was, she had just a few months left to live. And I remember when I first heard about the diagnosis, I went over to her house to visit with her and she was so bitter about it. She was so angry at God about this diagnosis.

And she said, I'm not yet ready to go. There's still things I want to do. There's people that I want to meet. Why would God do this to me? And it was not what I was expecting going over to her house that that's what I was going to encounter.

And I was so troubled in my heart, wanting to know how as a pastor can I possibly shepherd this woman? What can I do to prepare her for the kingdom, to excite her about going and being with God? I understand the dread of receiving a diagnosis of brain cancer.

I understand how dreading that would be. I wouldn't want that diagnosis and how painful the last days would be up until your body dies and you go and be with Jesus. But I still had to wonder as a pastor, how can I continue to shepherd this woman to prepare her for that day, that she could be looking forward to that day and not bitter and angry at God, especially, but even rejoice in the Lord that she had received a diagnosis as terminal as this.

Unfortunately, the story doesn't have a happy ending. She was bitter all the way to her dying day. And it was more and more difficult to share the gospel with her in those last days because the brain cancer eventually took her vision and her hearing.

And so it was very hard to communicate with her. And I don't know where her soul is. And that really, really troubles my heart. A couple of years later, there was another woman in our congregation who was diagnosed with the same thing.

She had already had lung cancer and beaten it, but then she received a diagnosis of brain cancer. And when I went over to her house to talk with her, I had that same feeling of dread on me. Again, what if this is gonna be the same kind of a situation that I was in with this other woman when she received her diagnosis and she was angry and bitter with God.

So I prayed to the Lord. I was still a pretty young pastor at that time. I was just praying to God, give me wisdom, words that I can speak. And oh, let me tell you, this woman's name was Margaret and she was a dear in our church.

My oldest daughter, Annie loved her, a woman who was born in Korea. She married a man who was a soldier stationed there. They moved back to the States and started attending our church back in the seventies.

So she had been at our church longer than I had even been alive. When I went over to her house, she was so filled with joy. She was rejoicing at this diagnosis that she received. And she even said to me, quoting from the Chris Tomlin song, she said, my chains are gone, I've been set free.

My God, my savior has ransomed me. And she said, Pastor Gabe, I am so ready to go home and be with God. And I tell you what, she ministered to me in those last days, even seeing how much the cancer had ravaged her body.

And she was a frail little thing by the time she died. You know what? She was still in church. Two weeks before she passed away, she was still there to worship God. And I even went up to her when I saw her in church, I was like, Margaret, I can't believe that you're here.

And she said to me, where else could I be than with the people of God before I go home to be with my Lord? It's so touching. My eyes fill with tears now even thinking about it. She was such a dear woman.

And I wept for her more than I had ever wept for anyone else who had passed away in my church. I loved her very much. But I know that I'm gonna see her again in glory when I go and be with our Father God.

And what a beautiful thought that is. So it is certainly dreadful to think about death and the ways that we could possibly die. And it's hard to think of something being good news, to receive some sort of terminal diagnosis like that.

But yet could we also find within our hearts that desire to be with God so much that we would rejoice to receive some sort of diagnosis like that? Because then we've got a date now set on our lives on about this approximate time, I'm gonna be leaving the world to go and be with God.

We do not know when Jesus is going to return, but we have all been promised that he is preparing a place for us. And so all who are in Christ Jesus have nothing to dread of that day that we die. Death has lost its sting.

We know that on the other side of death, we will be with God forever. I remember listening to Chuck Colson one time, some of you may remember Charles Colson, but he was talking about, this was in a sermon in fact, he said, I am not afraid of death.

What I am afraid of is the way that I'm gonna die. I think R .C. Sproul has said something very similar. In fact, he said, I don't know what that's gonna be like. So I do dread that kind of passing over when the body dies and the soul goes to be in the next place, which will be with my God forever in heaven.

But what's gonna happen on the other side of that, I have no fear of that because I have the promises of God that have been given to me here in the scriptures. And Jesus says to his disciples, as he says to us even now, let not your hearts be troubled.

You have trusted in God, you trust also in me. Believe in God, believe also in me. I am going to prepare a place for you. And I am coming back to receive you to myself that where I am, you may be there also.

And he said to his disciples, you know the way where I am going. Why did he say that to his disciples? When clearly they didn't know, Thomas said, Lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way?

Because they know Jesus and Jesus is the way. And that was the answer that he gave to them next. John 14, six, Jesus said to Thomas, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No one comes to the father except through me.

If you know Jesus, then you know the way to heaven. In John 10, verse seven, going back a few chapters to where Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved. It is through Jesus that we get to the father. It is through Christ that we enter into glory and we dwell with God, worshiping him forever. Jesus says, I am the way.

I am the truth. And I am the life. No one comes to the father except through Jesus. It is only by faith in Christ that our sins have been forgiven and we are promised eternity with God. That is the gospel that you have heard and believed and so you are saved by faith in Jesus.

It is that gospel we must also share with others so that they may have the same hope that we have, that on the other side of death, there is nothing to fear. There's nothing to fear of the judgment of God because in Christ Jesus, the price for our sin has been paid and we have nothing but fellowship with God forever, for all eternity.

Eternity does not start the day that you die and you go to be with God in glory. Eternity starts the day that you give your life to Christ and you believe in him and he seals you for that day and your guarantee is an inheritance with him in his father's kingdom.

What good news? And that's why we call it the gospel. Let us pray. Our Lord and Savior, I've had goosebumps all the way through this as I've been talking about my Lord and being with you and being in heaven with you forever and the promise that is laid up for us there and the kingdom that awaits for us if we endure to the end.

Help us to stay steadfast. Help us to fight the good fight, to endure the race, to run with endurance all the way to the end, setting our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus preparing a place for us. Lord, bring us into that place. But until that day, until we go to be with our Lord in glory, keep us faithful here, obedient unto the Lord, caring for your sheep, loving one another, building each other up in love, teaching and admonishing one another according to the word of Christ so that on that day when our Lord comes for us, he will find us good and faithful servants and will say, now great is your reward.

May we do all things to the glory of God, our savior, who has promised us a place forever with you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.