Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Turn with me in your Bibles to John 14.

We’re going to skip chapter 13 for now and come back to it next week.

(Overview of next sermons)

Prayer for Illumination

Transition: In John 14:6, Jesus makes perhaps his most famous I AM statement: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.”

But what does that really mean?

Jesus is the Way to the Father

Jesus’ death made a way for us to abide with him and the Father through the Spirit

When we read John 14:2-3, we assume that Jesus was promising his disciples and, by extension, us that he would go to heaven to prepare a mansion for each of us.

We read it like this:

In [heaven], there are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you.

I am going [to heaven] to prepare a [mansion] for you.

And if I go and prepare a [mansion] for you, I will come again [at the second coming] and take you [to heaven] to be with me.

While that’s an incredibly comforting thought, and heaven will no doubt be a wonderful place, and Jesus will return to take us there, that’s not what Jesus was trying to say here.

Instead, what Jesus is actually saying is:

There is plenty of room for you all to live with me and the Father.

I’m going [to the cross] to prepare a way for you to abide in me.

And I will come again [through the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit] to abide in you [so that you will have access to me and the Father].

“In my Father’s House...” (v. 2)

This is a symbolic reference to the dwelling place of God and our union with the Father through Christ.

In Ancient Israel, once betrothed to his wife, a husband would go to prepare a place for them to live on his father’s house compound.

He would build a small house attached or immediately adjacent to his father’s house.

The father’s house often was composed of up to three generations and could number as many as 30 people, who lived together in one compound that might have consisted of multiple four-room houses with adjoining walls (Stager, “The Archaeology of the Family,” 20–22)

G. Vincent Medina and Stacy Knuth, “House, Ancient Near Eastern,” ed.

John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).

The point here is not that Jesus is going to brush up on his carpentry skills and build us a house, but that he is preparing a way for us to be brought into his father’s family through union with Christ.

“…are many rooms/mansions...” (v. 2)

The picture here is not of Jesus building us all “mansions on the hilltop” but of him bringing us into his Father’s family.

When the KJV was written, the word “mansion” didn’t have the same meaning it does today.

It simply meant “home” or “dwelling” not “a huge, extravagant house that only rich people can afford”

The word translated “mansion” in the KJV is mone, and it occurs only twice in scripture.

Once here, and once in 14:23 where it clearly means “abode” or “home”

Furthermore, this word is the noun form of the word μένω, ‘abide, remain’ which is used all throughout John, especially in the following chapter (Jn 15)

“...I go to prepare a place for you” (v. 2)

This whole passage is metaphorical and symbolic.

Jesus is not currently in heaven brushing up on his carpentry skills and building you a house.

Remember the original context—Jesus is comforting his disciples as he prepares to go to the cross.

The work of preparation that he has to do is not with the hammer and nails of building a house, but with the hammer and nails of the cross!

Jesus is “going [to the cross] to prepare [a way for us to be united with him as part of the Father’s family.”

“I will come again and will take you to myself...” (v. 3)

Again, not a reference to the second coming but a reference to his post-resurrection appearances to the disciples and the coming indwelling of the Holy Spirit

This promise to “come again” and “take you to myself” is fulfilled when Jesus rises from the dead, appears to his disciples, and breathes into them the Holy Spirit.

Yes, there will be a much greater fulfillment of this when we finally see him face to face, but this passage ought to encourage us to live in light of Christ’s presence with us today!

Christ, through his death on the cross, has prepared a way for us to enjoy fellowship with him and membership in the Father’s household both now and forever in eternity.

Jesus is the Way to the Father.

Jesus is the Truth (vv.

6-13)

Jesus is the true reflection of the Father’s nature.

To know Christ is to know the Father

Jesus’ will reflects the Father’s will

Jesus brings Life

Union with Christ gives us the Holy Spirit who indwells us

Those who do the will of Christ experience the blessing of walking in communion with him and feeling his presence

The Holy Spirit reveals the will of the Father to us (v.

24, 26)

The Holy Spirit gives us peace (v.

27)

The Holy Spirit gives us joy (v.

28)

Conclusion