Are you looking forward to the weekend? A holiday? Graduating from school?
Or bigger goals like getting married, starting a family, getting that job that you always wanted, or buying a house?
What is it that you are looking forward to?
The things we look forward to always involve a change. We look forward to something that is going to be different, whether it’s a change in current living situation or to possessing something we don’t have right now.
Jesus tells His disciples about an important change in John chapter 14, verses 1 to 3.
Jesus is about to send His disciples out into the world. They will be dispersed throughout the land and even to distant nations. They won’t belong to the places to which He is sending them. Additionally, He tells them that He is about to leave them. Nevertheless, He gives them something to look forward to. There is something special coming. A change!
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (Jn. 14:1-3 NKJV)
Although there are many points which could be drawn from this short passage we will focus on only two. The first point is found in verse 2. In this verse Jesus relates the purpose of His leaving. He says, “I go to prepare a place for you.”
Please note what He doesn’t say. He doesn’t say, I am going because I am being forced to go. Nor does He say, I am going because I am tired of you. Quite the contrary, Jesus says that He is going so that He can do something for us. He says I am preparing something for you. I am getting a place ready for you.
The Lord is very clear that as long as we live on the earth we are strangers. We don’t belong here. Our citizenship is not here.
To a certain degree, we all intrinsically know what this feels like. We recognize in our souls that we don’t belong here. There is something about us that says, you know this isn’t it. While we can find rest and joy while in this present world we also realize that it but a dim reflection of the fullness which awaits us in heaven.
The Lord said that He would prepare a place for us. It would not be just a location for us to visit or a location in which we could see Jesus and the Father. Rather it is a place for us; the place where we truly belong. He said, “I go to prepare a place for you.”
Now the second purpose. Jesus said, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again to receive you to myself that where I am there you may be also.” Jesus emphasizes that the place He is preparing is not for us alone. It is a place for us to live with Him. He doesn’t want us off in an isolated corner of heaven but rather that we may be in His very presence that we may enjoy true fellowship with Him. Verse 3 says “I will receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”
Can you hear the voice of our heavenly bridegroom? Where I am, there you may be also.
That’s what I am looking forward to!
By DB/JH