The Promise of Heaven

John 14:1–7 ESV

1 “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. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Main Idea: Jesus is comforting his disciples with the promise of life forever with him in heaven.

When we face death where are we supposed to look for hope and comfort?

The disciples are being faced with the coming death of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The night before Jesus’s crucifixion was set aside for him to prepare his followers for life after the cross. The overwhelming response is not confusion or existence, it is anxiety. Jesus understands that the announcement of his pending death is bringing them great anxiety. Jesus say’s “let not your hearts be troubled.”

Earlier in the Gospel of John the word troubled is used to describe what happened to a pool of water when it is “stirred up.”

Like ingredients in a mixing bowl, doubt, confusion, uncertainty, and fear are being stirred around inside their hearts.

In this emotional trying moment Jesus takes the time to speak tenderly to his disciples and comfort them. Jesus say’s to you and me today, “Do not be troubled.”

Shea, certainly experienced at her lowest moment her Lord and Savior telling her “do not be troubled.” From the moment that Shea closed her eyes this side of heaven and opened them in the presence of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ he was telling her, “do not be troubled.”

*Jesus Gives His Disciples a Command: Trust in Me!

Where do you Look in Difficult times like these?

We may look to other people to bring us comfort and hope. In this time when the disciples hearts are stirred up and confused Jesus reminds them to look to Him.

Jesus is not telling them that for the first time they should believe in Him. He is saying, you have believed in me, now keep on believing in me. The antidote for all of the anxieties and doubts this world has are all wrapped up in these few words; trust in Jesus.

Not emotions, not experiences, not others, but Jesus.

*Jesus Gives His Disciples Confidence for our Trust.

It always struck me every time I went to see Shea that she had such a strong confidence in her Lord.

The Christian faith is not a mindless jump into a dark chasm of confusion. Jesus shines light into the darkness and explains it clearly, providing us with confidence that we can trust him.

Now right after Jesus announces that he is leaving them he promises that they will be with him where he is. Jesus removes their fear and anxiety, by giving them the confidence they needed in the coming difficult days. Jesus is heading home to prepare a place for them. Jesus is preparing them a new better home. Heaven is a real place. It’s not a location from a science fiction novel. Look at how Jesus describes it, it’s a house with rooms, and twice he refers to it as a place.

Heaven is not a figment of our imagination or a state of mind. Heaven is a real place created by God for His people to dwell with Him forever.

I love what C. S. Lewis writes about heaven in his timeless work Mere Christianity:

Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water.

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. (Lewis, Mere Christianity, 136–37).

There is a deep desire that this world cannot and will never fulfill.

God has placed inside of each and everyone of our hearts a desire for something more, something greater.

The writer of Hebrews described men and women of faith as those who were looking for a different kind of city, one whose architect and builder is God. Hebrews 11:10

Hebrews 11:10 ESV

10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

Jesus tells his disciples of such a city, a place designed specifically for them. When Shea closed her eyes to this world she opened them to her place in the Holy City of God that from the foundation of the world He had prepared just for her.

It’s a place with many rooms, which not only how great and grand it is, but how welcoming it is for the weary traveler of this world.

The road for the disciples is about to take them down a long winding deserted highway. Shae’s life took her down a long winding highway this side of heaven paved with many difficulties. But, Jesus promises at the end of that road they will find their eternal destination a room prepared for them by the Masters own hand.

Where is your Citizenship?

We are not citizens of this world we are citizens of heaven.

If you follow Jesus there will be unrest and trouble in this world. Jesus promises us in John 16:33 “I have said these things to you so that you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart I have overcome the world.”

John Bunyan Christian Allegory “The Pilgrims Progress” tells the story of Christian’s journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. He meets a cast of characters, some good, some evil. His travels take him through many difficult places, and he is never at home until that day when he reaches the Celestial City. Don’t waste your life trying to make your home here.

I am quiet confident that if Shae was here today she would tell you not to waste your life trying to make your home here.

Jesus promises that every soul that puts their faith and trust in Him alone will have a room in the fathers house perfectly designed for him or her. No one who enters the Fathers house by Jesus Christ will be turned away. There is room for everyone who would believe.

The promise of heaven was given to protect them from the temptation to feel forgotten. The devil likes to use that against us, saying, “God has forgotten you. If Jesus really cares about you, why is he leaving you all alone in this broken world?”

What Jesus say’s is that is I have a special place designed specifically for you, do you really think that I would not come back for you?

You know what I picture when I hear Jesus say, “I am going away to prepare a place for you?”

I picture Jesus dressed in overalls and a tool belt doing construction on a heavenly mansion. The instruments of its construction are a cross and a grave. The way that Jesus prepares this special place for our home is laying down his life so that our sin’s can be forgiven.

This fact should grow our appetite stronger for our heavenly home. The problem we have is that we can grow so attached and comfortable with the things of this world that heaven seem’s further away or some type of punishment. Our constant consumption by the earths candy and it begins to diminish our appetite for the transcendent feast that awaits us in the heavenly kingdom of God.

A. W. Tozer called heaven “the long tomorrow” and reminded the church to “look to the long tomorrow Many days feel like they will never end.

You wake up tomorrow and you will feel all of the anxiety and stress of this world pressing down on you.

On those days, those never-ending days, we need to remember there is only one day that will never end, and it’s a good day. Only the long tomorrow in heaven with Jesus will go on forever.

*Jesus Gives His Disciples the Promise of the Path to Heaven

This is not a future promise but a present one. Notice that Jesus does not say that they will know they way, he say’s that they already presently know the way.

This entire discussion is based on an understood, yet often overlooked, presupposition. Everyone who’s religious realizes something needs to happen for him or her to get to God, to make it to heaven. Whether their answer is good works, giving to charity, penance, last rites, karma, reincarnation, or martyrdom, all religious people acknowledge what the Bible teaches throughout: the way to God is blocked.

Something hinders us from being with God and it must be overcome. Hanging in the temple was the picture of this think blocking our way to God. The purpose of the veil was to separate man from the earthly dwelling place of God. The veil itself did not separate us from God, it only served as a symbol of this reality.

What really separates man from God is our sin. The abundance of religious veils that people hold onto today make them feel as if they need to do something to break through the veil of sin.

Because of our sin we need a mediator. We need someone who can bring us to God. For the Jews this was the priest, once a year at Yom Kimpurum the day of atonement. When Jesus died on the cross and uttered the words, “it is finished,” the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom.

Being both fully man, and fully God Jesus alone is the only one who can bridge the gap between us and God.

Salvation is more than just saying a prayer, it is putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone for your Salvation.

Shae lived her life for Jesus Christ who she had put her faith and trust in as the only way to salvation.

The exclusivity of Jesus’s statement often angers people. Why is it so offensive? It’s offensive because it strikes a blow to our pride. What Jesus says to you and to me is, “You cannot make it to heaven on your own.” It feeds our proud nature to attempt to save ourselves. To accept the true Jesus revealed in Scripture requires humility.

Jesus doesn’t make this exclusive statement because he is trying to win a popularity contest. He makes it because it is true. We have been preconditioned in our post-Christian culture to believe that we cannot know anything for certain. 1 John 5:13 John writes, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”

CONCLUSION

Remember what Jesus promises:

• You do not need to rely on yourself, for he is the way. • You do not need to live in uncertainty, for he is the truth. • You do not need to fear death, for he is the life.