“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 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? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
There is an old saying that we need to be reminded of on a regular basis: Life is hard, but God is good. As we know all too well, this life is full of trials and temptations. Not a day goes by when our faith in God is not tested, and there are times when we feel so overwhelmed by our circumstances, that we feel we are close to, or even beyond our breaking point.
David asked a question in the last verse of Psalm 42 which we have all asked in one form or another, but then he immediately provides the answer. “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.”
And so do we when our souls are downcast. We turn in faith to God. We hope in Him, trusting in His strength, rather than our own. Of course, as Christians, we know all this - this is nothing new, and we have heard it many times, but we do have a habit of forgetting the power and the promises of God, so what Jesus teaches His disciples in the opening verses of John 14 will hopefully be a timely reminder to us all that it is in Christ where we find our hope. As Acts 17:28 reminds us, “In Him we live and move and have our being.”
In the three verses we are looking at in John 14 today, Jesus reminds us of the hope we have here and now, and ultimately into eternity.
Again, trials and troubles in this life are a reality. This sounds like stating the obvious, but it is important to recognise this truth if we are ever to understand how God equips us and comforts us through those times. The setting of John 14 is the Upper Room, just hours before Jesus was to be arrested, and He would not have said, “Let not your hearts be troubled,” if they were not troubled. The remaining 11 disciples were about to undergo a tremendous time of heartache and distress, but it is clear that they were already troubled, when we remember what happened earlier that evening with Judas being identified as a traitor, followed by Jesus’ prediction of Peter’s three-fold denial. They had already been through a lot that evening, but there was far worse to come.
Passover meals were happy occasions, but not for these men on that particular night, which was why Jesus encouraged them to not be troubled. The hours leading up to this point had been stressful enough, but Jesus knew what lay ahead for them, both in the short term, but also of course, there were the promises of eternity, which He reminded them of.
If you think about it, we are able to also take even more comfort from Jesus’ words in verse 1. Even though we live in troubled and uncertain times, we know how the story ends, which means we have more cause to not be troubled, and as we read just the first three verses of John 14, we see at least three reasons for our hearts to not be troubled.
Firstly, we know Jesus. He is God. He knows about us and our circumstances, so we have every reason to trust Him. This is what Jesus meant by saying, “Believe in God; believe also in me.” Other English translations say, “Trust in God, trust also in me.”
What’s important to note here is the Greek verb pisteuo is used in the original text, and it is in the imperative mood, rather than indicative. What this means is that Jesus is in a sense giving them an instruction. A more accurate English translation would be, “You already believe in God don’t you? So now believe in me also.”
Knowing what lay ahead for them, Jesus was encouraging them to put the faith they had in God into action. It’s one thing for us to say we believe in God in the sense that we believe He exists. Many people, including many non-Christians have no problem saying this. This is faith or belief in the indicative mood - it describes something.
But when we use the words faith, belief or trust as verbs in the imperative mood, we are exercising that faith - we are putting that faith into action. You can believe that an aeroplane is capable of flying you to the other side of the world, but you need to put that faith into action by climbing on board before it will take you there.
Spiritually speaking, there is a clear difference between believing that God exists and actually believing in Him.
These eleven remaining disciples had learned so much during the past three years, and now it was time for them to truly believe that Jesus was who He said He was, because they would need that firm belief now more than ever. It was this faith that would carry them through the difficult days that were coming, which is why Jesus stressed that they had to believe in God at this particular point.
It’s always a good thing to be reminded to believe in God, but right now, at this moment for the disciples, they needed to know that Jesus was about to be taken away from them, and this is what troubled them. It is easy for us, all these years later, to criticise the disciples. They’d spent three years with Jesus, so we might think they should’ve known better, but they didn’t really know what was coming, despite Jesus repeatedly telling them what was about to happen. We have the benefit of knowing about the resurrection, and how the Holy Spirit would embolden these men in the early days of the Christian Church, but for now, they just didn’t understand why Jesus was about to leave them, which is why He encouraged them by telling them to keep their faith in Him strong.
James Montgomery Boice paraphrases Jesus’ words when he writes, “Look, I know that you trust God; trust me also, precisely in these circumstances. Believe that I know what I am doing, that I am going away for a purpose, that the purpose will be accomplished, and that I will again return to you so that we can be together.”
This is why Jesus told them not to be troubled. They knew Jesus, and they had every reason to trust Him. This applies to us too. In fact, with the benefit of knowing what was to come, we have even more reason to not be troubled than the disciples did. We know that Jesus was in full control of what was happening to Him, including even His death and subsequent resurrection, so what more evidence do we need in order to believe in Him?
Here, once again, Jesus identifies God and Himself equally as objects of the disciples’ faith. His point is not merely that through faith we are saved, as true as that is, but that by exercising our trust in God the Father and in Jesus the Son, Christians find not only our eternal salvation, but comfort for our troubled hearts in this fallen world.
The cure for the troubled heart is belief in Jesus Christ. The Christian faith is not wishful thinking, nor is it what some call the power of positive thinking. Rather, Jesus in John 14 reminded His disciples that they have a God they can really believe in. Their faith has substance.
So the first reason we have to not be troubled is that we know Christ.
The second reason is that He has promised us a place in eternity with Him.
Verse 2: “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?” Again, this is something we know, but we do need to be reminded of it often: This is not our home. Because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross, and because we have been given the gift of saving faith, we know that a place in Heaven has been prepared for us. This helps us to keep our eyes fixed firmly on the eternal promises we have, which in turn helps us to not be overly troubled by the struggles we face in this life.
Paul wrote in Philippians 3:20-21, “Our citizenship is in Heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself.”
And 1 John 3:2-3, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure.”
This is the great hope and the great assurance we have as believers in God through Jesus Christ. We have the absolute assurance that Heaven is our permanent and eternal dwelling place. This also means that Heaven is a real place. The Bible doesn’t give us too many details of what it will actually be like, but Jesus said in verse 2, “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” The KJV talks about many mansions, while the original Greek text means “lodging places.” We will not be floating around on individual little clouds playing harps for all eternity. Heaven is a very real place where our eternal lodging will be, and the wonderful promise we have from Jesus in John 14:2 is that He has gone ahead of us to prepare that place “for you.”
There has been much speculation over the years as to what Jesus meant when He said He was going to prepare a place for us. Does this mean that Heaven is not yet ready to receive us? Is it still under construction? How can this even be possible for a place which has always existed? This has confused many Christians, but the answer is both simple and profound.
Jesus has gone ahead of us to His Father’s house to prepare a place for us by removing the obstacle of our sin. Sin is that great barrier that denies us access into the presence of a Holy God. The Old Testament temple had a curtain which separated the people from the Most Holy Place, the place which symbolised the presence of God. The temple was actually a picture or a shadow of Heaven itself. The high priest would have to be cleansed by the blood of sacrificial animals before being allowed into the Most Holy Place, where he would offer sacrifices on behalf of the people. Just as the temple was a shadow of Heaven, so the high priest was a shadow or a type which pointed to Jesus, the true High Priest who would enter the true Most Holy Place, which is Heaven itself.
Hebrews 9:12 explains what happened after Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension: “He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.” This shows us again our need for Jesus as our Saviour. For sinners to enter into Heaven unforgiven would mean that Heaven would be defiled by our sin, and that clearly is impossible, so God’s glorious solution to this eternal problem was for Jesus, the one, perfect sacrifice, to go ahead of us, and to prepare the way for us by entering Heaven by His own blood as He sanctified or purified it on our behalf.
That’s what Jesus meant when He said He was going to prepare a place for us. His sacrificial blood is the only sacrifice acceptable to the Father, and God proved this by raising Jesus on the third day. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the key to eternal life. Do you want to enter Heaven for eternity? If the answer is yes, you need to know that it is only by putting your faith in the saving power of the blood of the risen Christ that eternity is yours. You cannot be saved any other way.
We will look at the exclusivity of the Christian faith in more detail next Sunday when we look at Jesus’ words in John 14:6 - “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” but the point He made in verse 2 is just as clear. It is only Jesus Christ who can prepare the way to Heaven for us, and He did so by shedding His blood for us.
Knowing and trusting in our prepared home in the Father’s house is what gives us hope. It is because of what He has done for us that we should not let our hearts be troubled.
The third reason for our hearts not to be troubled is that Jesus will return for His own. He says in John 14:3, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, “The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” In the very next verse he writes, “Therefore, encourage one another with these words.”
Not only has Jesus gone to the cross to pay for our sins, not only has He entered into Heaven to prepare the way for us, but He has promised that He will return for His own. Titus 2:13 calls the promised return of Jesus “Our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ.” We all need encouragement and hope in these dark days, so what better promise to be reminded of that Jesus Christ is our great God and Saviour?
There was a popular bumper sticker doing the rounds a number of years ago: “Stop the world. I want to get off.” We all feel like that at times, because we live in a dark and evil age, but it has always been this way, ever since sin came into the world.
Paul wrote of the despair we all experience, but also the great hope we have in Romans 8:19-25. “The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 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. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
The Canadian theologian Bruce Milne wrote in one of his books, “History is not at the mercy of the whims or passions of politicians or tyrants. The reins are firmly in the hands of the Lord of history, and ‘He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice.’” He quotes there from Acts 17:31.
Notice that Jesus says in verse 3, “I will come again and will take you to myself.” Our salvation is more than us just being removed from this sin-sick world, as wonderful as that is, but the promise goes much deeper than that. Jesus is going to take us “to Himself”. The Christian author William Hendriksen wrote, “So wonderful is Christ’s love for His own that He is not satisfied with the idea of merely bringing them to Heaven. He will take them into His own embrace.”
We’re all looking forward to the day when we will be rid of the aches and pains of this world and the stain of sin forever, not to mention the dreadful sadness we experience all too often in this life when we lose those we love so much. What a wonderful and glorious day it will be when the words of Revelation 21:4 will finally be fulfilled: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
But more than that, an even greater reason for our hearts to not be troubled is that Jesus will take us to Himself. We look forward to Heaven not only to escape our trials today, but to be with the Lord, and we will be with Him forever. “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
No one wants to suffer in this life, but the sad reality of being broken people living in a broken world is that we do suffer, but because of what Jesus has promised us, we know that these things will pass. I’m not saying that we should just pack up our troubles in our old kit bags and smile, smile, smile, because life just does not work that way.
This life is hard, but God is good. He really is, and this is why we live this life with one eye fixed firmly on the promises of eternity. It is in the light of eternity that we are able to make some sense of our lives today.
We do have this great hope, and we have the words of Jesus to encourage and comfort us; “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me,” but we must not miss what Jesus teaches here. We are to believe in Him. We are to trust in Him by putting our faith in Him and the saving power of His blood. If you do not believe in Jesus Christ, you have every reason to be troubled, because without faith in Him and His saving work on the cross on your behalf, you have no hope of salvation and no hope of being reconciled to the Holy God who created you.
The troubles of this life will pale into insignificance when compared to what awaits those who do not confess their sins and turn to Christ in repentance and faith.
The American pastor Tom Buck quoted from Philippians 2:10 on Twitter a couple of days ago when he wrote, “One day, at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Then he added, “You’ll either do it now or in eternity. But the eternal state of your soul depends on when you do it! Today is the day of salvation!”
This is the time for us to trust Jesus Christ. Heaven is His home, and there is enough room for all who believe in Him. The whole point of Jesus’ suffering and death is to prepare a place for His sheep in Heaven, and to take them safely there.
When Jesus said we are to believe in Him, it is an imperative to come to Him in saving faith. The comfort that Jesus promises is only for those who have believed in Him, and this is what we look at in more detail next week.
Homegroup Study Notes
Read John 14:1-3
Remembering the context of John 14, what were the disciples troubled about, and why did Jesus feel the need to comfort them?
What did Jesus mean by saying, “Believe in God; believe also in me?”
What are we able to learn from Jesus’ words in verse 1 when we face times of trouble and suffering?
The Bible teaches us about the eternal nature of God, which means that His dwelling place is also eternal, so what did Jesus mean by saying He was going ahead to prepare a place for us?
Read Revelation 21:4
We hear these words often, particularly at funerals, and they are a source of tremendous comfort during times of sadness and bereavement, but there is an even greater promise for those who put their faith in Jesus.
Discuss this promise which we find in John 14:3