Our culture is full of ideas about home. Magazines tell us how to have better ones (and gardens), our cliches tell us we can find it where the heart is (behind our ribcage?!?), and websites send us to a home page (though they usually aren’t very good to live in). It’s where we bring the bacon, it’s where we head after rounding third, and we all know there’s no place like it.
But what is home, really?
In this series, we are going to take a journey toward answering that question. The words of Jesus in John 14-15 will be our guide, and along the way God’s Spirit will lead us into a truer, deeper experience of home than we’ve ever known before.
By the time it’s all said and done, we’re pretty sure this summer will definitely be something to write home about.
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Notes Transcript Video Audio iTunesGrace Fellowship Church
Jon Stallsmith
Series: A Journey Home
June 9, 2013
The Promise of Home
John 13:31-38; 14:1-5
It’s a good Sunday to be together worshiping God. Last week was a fun Sunday. We had that choir, and Bob Roberts preached. That was a powerful message, if you were here. I was amazed last week as Bob was preaching how the congregation was just responding, the “amens” and everything else.
I have to learn how to do that, how to evoke an “amen.” See? Just like that. See how everybody was together doing it? I think there’s something about the preaching, like rhythm or cadence or something. You kind of get your voice up, and then come down, and then bring it in soft, and then ramp it up again, and then everybody goes, “Amen.”
We’re starting this series, A Journey Home, in John, chapter 14. If you have your Bibles, open them up to John, chapter 13. If you don’t have a Bible, slip up your hand and we will give you a Bible. If you need a notes sheet, you can slip up your hand also. They are white this week. Things are a little bit different.
Through this summer series, the notes sheet is just going to be a copy from the workbook you do during the week. So if you need one of these workbooks, if you don’t have one but you want to get one, I’d highly recommend it. I’ve been walking through this. We’re doing it with our group a week ahead of everyone so we kind of know what’s coming.
The notes and the things that are happening in this book are so helpful, particularly if you’ve found a group of people to do it with. I cannot commend highly enough that you find a group of folks you can walk through this summer journey with. Even if you’re going to be gone for a week or even two weeks, still do it. Even if you can’t make it to all six small-group gatherings, or whatever, still do it. I think the Scripture is really going to speak to your heart.
I think the Lord is really going to work through this text. It has been working in my heart. If you don’t have a group and you really want one, we can still get you connected right out in the foyer after the service. Talk to some of the folks right there at the greeting area. We can get you connected. You can lead a group. You can do it with your family. Yeah, notes sheets, Bibles, workbooks… The ushers have it all on their Bible carts today.
John, chapter 13. We’re making a little bit of a jump right into the middle of the book of John. John’s gospel is one of the most beloved books in the Bible. It is simple enough that a new believer can come to it and understand Jesus yet so deep you can spend a lifetime studying it and, continually, the words are just more and more profound, and the things Jesus is saying unlock deeper truth for us as we walk with God.
The thing about the book of John is it’s basically divided into two halves. Some have called the first half “the book of signs.” That’s John, chapters 1-12. In there are seven major signs Jesus does, along with teaching and activity and everything else. John has chosen these so that as we’re reading, we’re getting an understanding of who this Jesus really is. Of course, the first sign is changing the water to wine. The seventh sign in that first half of the book of John is the resurrection of Lazarus, such a huge declaration of Jesus, that he has power even over death itself.
The second half some have called “the book of glory.” Things slow down a little bit, starting in chapter 13 through the end of the gospel of John in John 21. Things slow down. You have a zeroing in on not so much the public ministry, but zeroing in on the teachings of Jesus for his disciples before he goes to the cross. Then, of course, the ordeal of the cross itself and the resurrection and Jesus’ brief encounters with the disciples after the resurrection.
The reason it’s called the book of glory is because in the gospel of John, the idea of God’s glory is that it’s the full essence of his character. It’s everything God is. As we zero in on that story of the crucifixion and then, of course, the resurrection, we see clearer than anywhere else in the Bible the glory of God on display, his perfect judgment, his perfect righteousness, his total and absolute love, the peace he makes, the mercy he shows, his power over death. All of these attributes of God are on brilliant display right there at the crucifixion and the resurrection.
So here we are. We’re going to start in John 13. As soon as I start reading, you’re going to know which half of the gospel of John we’re in, the book of signs or the book of glory. John 13, verse 31 (I’m reading out of the New Living Translation this week): “As soon as Judas left the room, Jesus said, ‘The time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory, and God will be glorified because of him. And since God receives glory because of the Son, he will soon give glory to the Son.
Dear children, I will be with you only a little longer. And as I told the Jewish leaders, you will search for me, but you can’t come where I am going. So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.’ Simon Peter asked, ‘Lord, where are you going?'” (John 13:31-36)
I love this moment. It’s like Jesus just gave the new commandment. It’s monumental. It’s for these disciples, and Peter is kind of like, “Pardon me. Did you say you were leaving?” It’s like you’re riding in the car, maybe with your young son, and he thinks you’re going to go get ice cream.
You’re driving along (I don’t know why this scenario would ever happen this way, but it’s just the one I thought of), and you say, “You know, son, we’re not going to get ice cream, but we really want you to know Mom is pregnant. You’re going to have a brother,” and your son goes, “What? No ice cream?” He totally misses the big thing.
That’s what Peter is like. “Lord, where are you going?” Let’s pick it up in verse 36. “And Jesus replied, ‘You can’t go with me now, but you will follow me later.’ ‘But why can’t I come now, Lord?’ he asked. ‘I’m ready to die for you.’ Jesus answered, ‘Die for me? I tell you the truth, Peter––before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.'” (John 13:36-38)
Here’s our key text for the morning, these next five verses. Jesus says, “‘Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.’ ‘No, we don’t know, Lord,’ Thomas said. ‘We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?'” (John 14:1-5)
I love this response by Thomas. Jesus makes this amazing promise. He says, “You have a home. I’m preparing a home for you. I’m going. I wouldn’t even tell you unless it was true. And you know the way,” and Thomas goes, “But we don’t know the way. You just said we can’t follow you, and it’s not loading on my Google Maps. Where are you going?”
Over these next weeks, over this summer, we’re going to let these words of Jesus… We’re going to just create space for the Spirit of God to lead us in the way. Maybe some of us are in that place, like Thomas. “We don’t know the way. How does this work? How do we walk that way?” Maybe some of us feel fairly certain about the way. “Yeah, I’ve been walking the way for a while.” Here’s the truth. Jesus promises a home, a place in his Father’s home.
Over these next weeks, we want to take a journey closer toward that home. No matter where we are, we want to be journeying closer to that place of home with the Lord. This morning we’re going to look mainly at three things, three words Jesus uses here in this passage. First he talks about trouble, then he talks about trust, and then, of course, he talks about home. So we’re going to spend a little bit of time talking about trouble, trust, and home.
The first thing he says is, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Trouble in our culture today, the way many of us use it, has kind of become a soft word. Maybe it’s like from a kid’s taunt. “Ooh, you’re going to get in trouble,” or if you’ve played the board game, the little pop-up die. Do you guys know what I’m talking about? Trouble?
That was my little brother’s favorite game. We would play it driving on road trips. He’d always land on me and send me back to base. “Ha ha! Trouble.” Then there are pop songs. “I Knew You Were Trouble.” I don’t know if you guys have heard that one. I don’t even know if they play it on The Fish, so I’m sure none of you have heard it.
So here’s Jesus. He says, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.” We can hear that or read it and go, “Oh yeah, trouble,” but actually, in the original language, this word troubled is a strong word. It has the connotations of a deep inward turmoil. The word itself means to be shaken up, agitated, stirred up in your deepest place. Inward commotion. It’s to be struck with fear and dread deep in your spirit, to be anxious, to be depressed, to be distressed. It’s a strong word Jesus is talking about here, this idea of being troubled.
In fact, three times in the gospel of John, Jesus himself, it says, is troubled with the same word. He is walking up to the people who are gathered outside lamenting the death of Lazarus in John, chapter 11, and in verse 33, when Jesus sees the people torn up over Lazarus’ death, it says he was troubled. Then just a couple of verses later we know Jesus wept. Then in John, chapter 12, Jesus is telling the people gathered around… As he’s anticipating going to the cross and the suffering that will occur on the cross, he says, “My heart is troubled. I am troubled.”
Even just in the previous chapter, chapter 13, as he’s talking and he speaks about Judas, the one who’s going to betray him to the Jewish leaders and the Romans, he says, “I am troubled.” So clearly, Jesus himself has felt this inward turmoil. If Jesus feels this inward turmoil, we’d better believe we ourselves will probably at some point feel this inward turmoil, and there are times when it’s appropriate to feel the inward turmoil.
But Jesus says in this verse, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.” So what’s the context? What kind of trouble is he talking about here? What’s he commanding us not to do? The context, as we just saw in chapter 13… Remember, in the original text there weren’t chapters and little subheadings, “Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial,” and things like that, to break it up. It all just flows together.
So when Jesus says, “Let not your hearts be troubled,” why is he saying that? Because, first of all, he has just told Peter, the leader of the disciples, who’s clearly ahead and kind of the strong faith guy (at least he talks the most), “You’re going to fail. I know you want to go with me, I know you have great intentions, I know you want to follow me wherever I go, but actually, you’re going to fail.” You can imagine the disciples kind of going, “Uh-oh. You mean our best hitter is going to strike out in the worst fashion possible?”
The second thing that creates the context for this trouble is Jesus also says, “I’m going to leave you.” “Wait a second. Our best guy is going to strike out and you’re leaving?” This is occasion to feel great inward turmoil, fear, anxiety, and distress welling up. The interesting thing is both failure and abandonment, which are the two issues going on here… The reason they’re so discouraging, the reason they’re such enemies to the peace of our souls, is they deal with losing our place in life, our identity, our sense of security where we are.
What’s wrong with failure? Why do we fear failure so deeply? Maybe some of us don’t have that fear. I do. That’s one of my big things. I hate failing. So I was thinking about that this week. What is it about failure that is so discouraging? You know, our culture teaches us in many different ways that when we fail, we lose our place.
I remember when I was playing baseball in college. It was my junior year, and I was pitching. I had a pretty decent sophomore year, and then as I was coming into the beginning of the junior year… I was thinking about this because all of the college baseball has been on TV this week, so I’m remembering those years. That junior year, I had a good spot coming out of the bull pen. I was like the first guy out of the bull pen, which was a good place for me, the first reliever into the game on the weekends, and everything else.
I came in for like the first three or four outings I had that junior year, and I stunk it up terribly. I was giving up home runs. I was walking people. I was failing as a pitcher. Do you know what happened after like my fourth outing? I lost my place. I didn’t get to pitch anymore. It was kind of a long year for me. Fifty-six games in the regular season sitting on the bench. You eat a lot of sunflower seeds, let me tell you.
It’s not just sports that teach us that. In school you fail a class or even you fail a year… I don’t even know if they use the word fail anymore. They might not even use F’s because it’s too discouraging, but everybody knows what an E stands for. If you don’t meet the requirements, you lose your place in the next year’s class.
Work. If we have a big responsibility and it doesn’t come through, if we fail in that responsibility, we might lose our job. We might lose our place. Even our families sometimes are places that teach us failure leads to the loss of our place. If we don’t perform in a particular area, depending on the way your family works, your parents work…
I mean, we all probably have some kind of memory of going back and saying, “Wow, I really blew it,” and feeling like your mom or your dad or your grandpa or your brother or sister are just kind of like, “What are you doing?” Even though you still have the same last name, you feel out of place. Failure is a big thing we’re afraid of.
Jesus is saying, “In the face of failure, when the risk of losing your place is greatest, when, Peter, you’re about to blow it, not just in sports, not just in school, not just at work, not just in the home… You’re about to blow it in your relationship with me in the most terrible denial way possible. Don’t let your heart be troubled.” Whoa. Okay. Jesus is speaking to a very deep place.
Abandonment. This is the other thing. Jesus says, “I’m about to leave. Where I’m going you can’t follow.” Remember, for these guys, these disciples, the reason they’re in the upper room in the first place is because Jesus is there. They have leveraged everything to follow this guy. They dropped their nets. They left their tax collection booths. They’re walking with Jesus. He has been, for the better part of three years, their leader. He has been, for the better part of three years, their sense of community.
I mean these 12 guys wouldn’t have been together. They wouldn’t have been friends. They wouldn’t have been connected apart from Jesus being right at the center. He has been their purpose. He’s giving them direction. “Here’s what to do next. Now we’re going to go on to this place. I want you to go out to the villages.” He has been giving them their identity. Jesus has been the source of all of these crucial human needs that give us our sense of place in the world.
Then he says, “I’m about to leave, and you can’t follow me.” Can you imagine? Not just failure, but now abandonment looking them right in the face. They’re going, “What? You’re going to leave? If you leave, my whole place in the world is forfeit.” That’s what’s in their minds. This is what Jesus says to them. “In that time, in that circumstance, when you feel like you’re abandoned, when you feel like you’re on the verge of failure, or maybe you already have failed, don’t let your hearts be troubled.”
How? How can we not let our hearts be troubled? The truth is, deep down we all long to belong somewhere. We long for a place to connect. We long for a place where we’re known, where we’re led, where we are at home, is the way we talk about it. This is a phrase we often use to describe someone. Maybe you were watching the Olympics a couple of years ago, and you saw Michael Phelps win all of those gold medals, and you could hear the phrase, “Oh, he’s just at home in the water.” We use that phrase to describe somebody when they’re in that spot where things are rockin’ and rollin’.
Or you go over… Who’s the friend? Who do you know well enough that you could just drive over to their house, walk in the back door of the garage without knocking, walk into the fridge, open it up, grab a Sprite, shut the door, come over here, get some Gushers fruit snacks, plop down on the couch, and just relax? That’s called “making yourself at home.” Do you have those places? Do you know where that is?
That word we use, home, is something that connects to our idea of place, our spot in the world. You come up to a door and it says, “Welcome Home” on the mat, and you go, “Yes.” This is what we crave. We long to belong. We want to know our place. Yet there’s abandonment out there, there’s failure out there, things that attack our sense of home. In the midst of all of that, Jesus says, “Don’t let your hearts be torn up, stirred up, distressed, agitated, troubled.” Wow. That’s a pretty bold command.
Before we move on to the next part Jesus talks about… He develops this idea. He talks about trust. Before we do that, in your books on pages 14-15 (this is a little wrinkle, something new to do) there are two columns there talking about this idea of being home, having a place. Just take a minute to think about and then write down where or when you feel at home. Then, on the flip side, think for a minute about when and where you do not feel at home. This could be a childhood memory, or it could be right now. It could be something over the last years. Just take a minute and think about that. Interact with this text a little bit.
This is important. It’s stuff you’ll go over in your small groups. When we were with our group this week going through and we began to share some of the places where we really feel at home and places where we don’t feel at home, man, that is so revealing about some of the stuff we’re believing and what God is doing. It’s helpful.
When I was doing this, I was thinking about when I felt at home growing up. I grew up in Milwaukee. We were just a couple of blocks from the neighborhood park, and they’d always fill the park with water in the wintertime, and it would freeze, and then we’d go out and play hockey. I just remember Saturday afternoons in January in Wisconsin, which, for many people, are like the worst things, because it’s Wisconsin in January, but for me I just thought, “Oh, this is so great.”
We’d go out and we’d play hockey all day. Literally, we’d get there at 10:00 in the morning. They had lights on the rink. We’d play until 7:00 or 8:00 at night. Sometimes we’d order a pizza to the warming house, which was the best. You know, when you’re like 11 years old and you’re ordering pizzas, you feel pretty grown up. So we’re running around playing hockey. I just remember that feeling of being at home there. “This is my place. I have a team. I have a purpose. This makes sense.”
I remember growing up there were some nights, school nights mind you, when my mom and dad would be watching a movie. It’d be something I kind of wanted to watch too. We’d start watching it maybe around 8:30. It would get to be about 9:00, 9:15, kind of bedtime, and I remember on rare wonderful occasions I’d be looking hopefully at my parents, and they’d say, “Yeah, you can stay up.” Yes! Oh, I’m so happy to watch the end of this movie. Sitting around in the living room. That felt like home to me.
There were a number of times when my dad and I had the opportunity to make long drives together in his old Saab. That’s why I drove a Saab until recently. Every car comes to an end at some point. Anyway, I remember riding around with my dad on long drives cross-country. That felt like home. We can connect to those.
Times where I didn’t feel at home… I could give you lots of examples. I do not feel at home in hospitals, which has made the last month and a half… I was really happy when Buddy came home. I remember a couple of years ago (Amy and I are quite different in this) we were going to visit a friend who was in the hospital recovering. We got in, and, I don’t know, there’s something about the lights and the doors and the elevators and everything else. I just began to droop in my spirit, because I don’t feel at home in hospitals.
I know they’re good places, I know a lot of healing happens there, but it just weighs on my heart. Amy, on the other hand, is chipper. She’s like, “Oh, we’re in a hospital.” She’s looking around and smiling and praying. She’s great in the hospital. That’s good that the Lord brought us together. But you know, we know these places where we feel at home and where we don’t feel at home, where we know our place, just locked in, and then other times when we don’t know what in the world our place is.
It’s interesting, because this idea of home… Sometimes when you’re at the skating rink you can feel more at home, and it doesn’t have anything to do with your physical house. There are other times (we know these times) where we’ve been in our house, which is supposedly our home, or in our condo, or in our apartment, or in our tepee, or in our car, or wherever it is we call home at the moment… We can be in that physical location and feel like we have no place at all, almost feel like, “I’m not home even though I am home.”
So here we are beginning to connect… As Jesus is talking here in this passage, we’re beginning to connect with this idea that home is something much deeper than simply where you live. Jesus is telling them, “You’re going to fail. I’m leaving.” He says, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.” “Okay, great. Cool. Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Great. What should I do? What do you want me to do, Lord?”
He says, “Trust in God; trust also in me.” Some translations have believe there. In the original language it has this sense of believing, but it’s not just something that happens in your head, like “I believe the sky is blue.” It’s something you trust in. When Jesus is talking about this, he says, “Trust in God; trust also in me.”
It’s clearly a command, which is interesting, because when we come to those places when our hearts are deeply troubled, sometimes it feels like we can’t trust God. The truth is if Jesus commanded it, we have a choice. It’s not that we can’t trust God; it’s that we won’t trust God. Jesus says, “No. In those times, trust me. Trust in God.”
You read that and go, “Wait a second. What am I doing here? I need to trust God and Jesus? How do I trust both of them at the same time?” Jesus is not emphasizing the difference between himself and the Father. Here in this passage he is emphasizing the oneness. “You know me; you can trust God. You know God; you can trust me.” Trust is the key word. “Trust in God.”
The interesting thing about trust is ultimately it comes down to trustworthiness. If we’re going to trust someone, we need to know how trustworthy they are. Later in this same passage (we’ll read it in a week or two) Jesus will say, “Hey, you know my words. You know my works. You can trust me.” That’s what he’s saying.
So here he is calling us to trust, which sounds great, but the truth is, when your world is falling apart, when you feel like you’re far from home, it can seem like a little bit difficult advice. It’s kind of like, “Whoa. Everything around me is falling apart. I don’t know my place in the world. Trust God?” Do you ever have that, when you feel like you’re in the middle of a pretty deep crisis and you start sharing with your friends about it and they say, “Oh, you just need to trust the Lord”? You’re like, Thank you. That ministers to me in no way whatsoever.
In our family, Amy and I sometimes… Have you guys seen Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, the old version? Sometimes when I’m glum, Amy will try to cheer me up by singing that “Cheer Up, Charlie” song. So I’m kind of having a mopey day, and Amy will go, “Cheer up, Charlie.” Now the truth is that does not really help me. “Cheer up, Charlie? I do not have a golden ticket and you’re not Willy Wonka. Just give me some chocolate. I’m feeling down.”
It’s just like telling somebody, “Oh, just trust in God.” “What? Do you understand the seriousness of this situation? Trust in God? How? For what? Why? What should be the substance of this trust in God?” Yeah, it’s a powerful statement, but if we miss what Jesus says directly after it, then we’ve just kind of resorted to some short little cliché. If we only know the first half of this verse, it’s not going to have the punch, the power.
Here’s what Jesus says. “Trust in God; trust in me.” Why? For what? How? This is when Jesus begins to talk about home. He says, “There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.” (John 14:2-4)
Here Jesus is talking, of course, about heaven. He’s talking about eternity. “My Father’s home.” Some of our older translations say, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” When we’ve read that… You know, the way the original language… The Greek is like dwelling place, and then it made its way to Latin to mansion, and then the original translation into English way back just adapted that word mansions into English.
At the time it didn’t feel like it was a huge house, but as it has made its way through to the present, sometimes we’ve read that and said, “Oh, Jesus is promising me a lovely house in a gated swim and tennis community starting in the low one millions.” It’s like, “Well yeah, I don’t have to be troubled. I mean look at this. This is going to be great.”
That’s actually not the sense of what Jesus is talking about here. He’s not making a promise that we’re going to have these elaborate dwelling places, though that may be the case. He’s talking about that there is always a place for you, there’s always a home for you with the Father in eternity, and that there is more than enough room for you. This is not something you’re going to get squeezed out of. This is not something that if you fail, if you blow it, they say, “Oh, sorry. No more place.”
Even when you feel most alone and you’re like, “God, where are you? Have you abandoned me?” Jesus is saying, “No, you have a place in my Father’s home, and I am preparing it for you. The reason I’m going is to prepare this place. There’s plenty of room for everyone.” As he’s talking about eternity… I don’t want to underplay the significance, the beauty, the power of the promise from the Scriptures about eternity.
This is so powerful. The book of Hebrews in chapter 11 is talking about Abraham, how he longed for this better country. He was journeying homeward. He kept his eyes… It was so powerful that he was willing to leave his earthly home and walk through the desert because he had his eyes on what God had promised.
Paul, in 2 Corinthians, chapter 4, verse 17, talks about our afflictions. The stuff we go through here, he says, is light and momentary compared to the eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison that it’s preparing us for. Sometimes we can get caught up in what’s right in front of us. We see afflictions, we see hardship, we see stuff that’s difficult, and it feels heavy on our shoulders. We walk through life like we have heaviness on us. Paul says, “Man, compared to eternity, it’s light.”
We feel like we’ve been carrying these burdens for years, and it’s true. Some of us, for whatever reason, have walked with disease, have walked with brokenness, have walked with challenges, it seems like for years. It seems like, “I’ve been dealing with this thing for 25 years, for 30 years, for 40 years. I’ve been carrying this. It feels heavy.” Paul says, “Compared to eternity it’s going to feel like a moment. It feels like it’s forever right now, but no, let me tell you. Compared to forever, it’s going to feel like a moment. It’s going to feel light.
Jesus is saying, “Hey, yeah, there’s failure on the horizon. We make mistakes. Hey, I’m actually leaving right now. I’m not going to be with you presently anymore. You’re going to probably feel abandoned when I die on the cross, but do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s home there is room enough for everyone, and I am going to prepare a place for you. If this were not so, I would not even be telling you. I have a place for you. I have a home for you.”
What’s in that place? Well it is eternity, but there’s an interesting thing that happens. In John, chapter 2, Jesus uses the same phrase, in my Father’s house, that we see here in John, chapter 14. He talks about his Father’s house. But in John, chapter 2, he’s not talking about heaven, per se, or eternity, per se. Do you know what he’s talking about? The temple.
In the Jewish mindset, as we’ve been going through the One Story… Maybe you can echo back and remember. The significance of the temple, the significance of the tabernacle, is it is the place where God dwells. This is where God is, in the temple, in the tabernacle. Jesus is saying, “My Father’s house is the place where God is.” He says, “There’s lots of space in the presence of God for you. Don’t let your heart be troubled.”
There is a place; there is a home for you in the presence of God. And it is in eternity, and it is going to be beautiful, and even if we die we can be with God forever in that eternity, but there is a place for you in the presence of God now. You can begin to taste that in the present, to taste that wholeness, that acceptance, that perfection. The identity, the encouragement, the hope, the love, the joy of eternity in God’s presence is available now.
Jesus says, “I’m going to prepare a place for you.” Of course, he’s talking about his crucifixion and after that the resurrection. But it’s not like Jesus is saying, “Hey, I have to go catch the ninth-hour crucifixion train so I can get to heaven in time to make a place for you.” That’s not what he’s saying. It’s actually the act of going itself that prepares the way for us to enter into that place in the Father’s home.
It is the death of Jesus that opens the way. It’s the resurrection of Jesus itself that opens the way for us to walk into that place in the Father’s house where all of these things are true, in a sense starting now, but of course onward into eternity when in those times all of our current afflictions are just going to feel light and momentary.
Jesus says, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.” You never have to fight for your place again when you’re with Jesus, because he says, “Hey, in my Father’s house, we have room for you, room for anyone who wants it. I’ve gone. I’ve made the way.” That’s what he’ll say here in just a few verses.
Maybe you’re thinking, “Oh great, I know that. I know my place. I feel at home. My eternal security with God is good.” That’s great. Okay, excellent. There will come a day when you’ll be looking at maybe failure. Maybe you’ll feel abandoned. Your heart will be tempted to be troubled. Remember these words.
Some of you guys may be in that place where right now you feel like you’re troubled. You walked in here this morning, and you don’t know your place in the world. You might not even feel like you know your own place in your family with your spouse, with your parents, with your kids. Here’s Jesus’ word to you: “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in me. Trust in God. I am preparing a place for you in my Father’s home. I have a place for you.”
If you’ve never walked that way, if you’ve never trusted in Jesus, trusted in God, it’s as simple as this. Paul writes about it in Romans, chapter 10. He says, “Hey, confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. Believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved.” Simple, simple, simple. Jesus says, “Here, come into this place. I have a home for you.”
Last week we did the “Jesus and the Qur’an” training. It’s funny how this happens. It’s usually a Friday night and a Saturday. So with clockwork efficiency, about Thursday, 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon, I began to sort of freak out a little bit. I don’t know if you have this experience, but I’m pretty sure it’s the Enemy or something. It’s just like, “Oh, hey JAQ. Hey, somebody go down to Stallsmith and mess with his head a little bit.”
Thursday afternoon I just started feeling troubled. I was imagining all of these potential negative outcomes. “Oh man, people are going to come. They’re not going to like it. They’re going to think we’re crazy. Oh man, we’re going to mess up. Oh, our team is not ready.” You know, you just start imagining all of these worst-case scenarios. This is how my mind works. I just start obsessing over potential failure until it drives my heart into this agitation of trouble.
Amy and I were going out to dinner that night with some friends. We’re sitting in the parking lot, and I’m clearly troubled, and Amy was like, “Cheer up, Charlie.” I’m like, “Grr!” She goes, “Have you prayed about it?” “No.” This is the verse that came to mind. It just took a little time. She encouraged me. She’s a good wife. She gave me a little space. She said, “Just spend some time with God. I’m going to go in the restaurant.”
I’m sitting there in the car, and I just let those words from Jesus wash over me. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. I have a place for you. In my Father’s home there’s space for everybody.” Those words just began to minister to my heart. I committed them to memory, and I was just repeating them, and I was listening to the Spirit. It wasn’t like they’re magical words. They’re powerful because they’re true.
That just began to work in my heart. I felt like the Lord was calming my heart. He was like, “No, you do not need to have a troubled heart.” He began to remind me, “Look forward to the future. There is a good outcome here. Trust me. I can make this work. I’ve got you. I have a place for you. I have a home for you. Come with me. You’re welcome here. Be at home with me.” The Lord really touched my heart. We had a great weekend. It was a wonderful time.
We’re going to take Communion now and do it all together as a group. Communion in the life of the church for a couple thousand years has been one of the primary ways to remember that reality, that we have a place, we have a home with God because of what Jesus did. So as the ushers are distributing it… You know, Matthew 26 is another account of the same night as this out of John we’ve been reading. It’s the night before Jesus goes to the cross, the Passover Meal.
Matthew 26 gives us another account, and this is where Jesus begins to institute… He gives the instruction about Communion. It says in Matthew 26, verse 26, “As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.'” (Matthew 26:26)
In those words, we remember that as we take Communion and we eat that wafer or that cracker or that bread, it’s a place where we are meeting with the presence of Jesus. It’s a little taste in the present of what eternity will be like. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago. One of the primary things that characterize eternity is that God’s presence will dwell with mankind. Jesus says, “Eat this. It’s my body. Remember my presence. Taste it here with you now.”
Then it says in verse 27, “He took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you.'” (Matthew 26:27) It’s so interesting. They’re gathered around. They have one cup passed around. It’s such an intimate connection, sharing a glass with the person next to you. Jesus is reminding us here that those with him are accepted. There’s a place for them. Those gathered around Jesus… He said, “I longed to have this supper with you. Here, take the cup. There’s a community where there’s a place for everyone. Come into this. Take from this cup.”
Then he says in verse 28, “This is my blood of the covenant.” This gathering around Jesus is not something that’s just temporary. “Oh, we’re just passing through. I’m going to sit here one time and have a little cracker, have a little sip.” No, it’s the blood of the covenant. Remember the language of covenant is the language of a relationship that cannot be broken. Even though we’ve failed, Jesus himself, by dying on the cross and rising again, creates a way for us to be connected to him, that relationship that cannot be abandoned.
Then, of course, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:28) There’s forgiveness for every failure. We cannot earn a place with God. We can’t do enough stuff. We can’t impress him enough. But we can step into the place Jesus has prepared for us. Jesus has gone… In going, in dying, in resurrecting, he opens a way for us to be forever at home with the Father, and we can begin to taste it right now.