John 14:1-6


John 14:1-6
1 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 “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. 4 “And you know the way where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do 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 but through Me.

Jesus has given the disciples much information about which they should be very troubled.  He has told them that He is going to be leaving and that they can no longer follow Him to the place where He is going.  He has warned them that they will deny Him.  He has prepared them to go out into the world but told them that they will need a sword.  He has foretold His own death.  There is much troubling news that Jesus has dropped on His disciples.  He now strives to comfort them in this time of difficulty.  He is about to make statements of eternal significance that provide earthly comfort.  Hope is very important, and Jesus reaches out to His disciples with a message of great hope.

JESUS IS MAKING PREPARATIONS: Jesus lets His disciples know that He is leaving and that they will not immediately be able to follow.  He is going to His Father’s house.  He then describes some things about the Father’s house.  First, it has many dwelling places.  There is no lack of room in the Father’s house.  Second, the Father’s house is being prepared by Jesus for His followers.  We don’t know what kinds of preparations are being made.  However, if it took Jesus six days to create the world in which we live, and we compare that to the thousands of years He has been preparing heaven; it is reasonable to conclude that the place He is preparing will be spectacular.  Finally, we learn that the Father’s house is all about being with Jesus.  As spectacular as heaven must be, the greatest thing about heaven, will be being with Jesus.  We will be where He is.  These truths should keep our hearts from being troubled.  However, they will only be effective at comforting our hearts if we believe God and Jesus.  Faith is the key to being comforted now and being with Jesus for eternity in the Father’s house.

JESUS IS THE ONLY PROVISION: The only way to be able to get to the Father’s house is through Jesus.  When He tells His disciples that they know the way to the Father’s house, they are confused and don’t think that they do know the way.  Thomas goes so far as to tell Him that they don’t know where the Father’s house is, so there is no way they could know how to get there.  Jesus then makes three statements about Himself.  First, He is the way.  The only means by which men can be reconciled to the Father is through faith in Jesus.  Second, He is the truth.  His message can be trusted because it is true.  Jesus has never misled anyone and all that He has promised in true.  Third, His is life.  We were all born dead in our sin.  Jesus gave us life through the cross and resurrection.  He gives us a reason to live here on earth.  He gives us the promise of eternal life in heaven.  Our sin separates us from the Father.  Jesus came to reconcile us to the Father.  He is the only way by which this can happen.  Those of us who know the Way, Truth and Life are called to tell others so that they too may know and be reconciled to the Father.

APPLICATION: No matter how difficult our circumstances on earth might become, take great hope in the truth that Jesus is preparing a place for us in the Father’s house.  That is, IF you have trusted in Him as the only way that you can be saved from your sin and restored with the Father.  Those of us who have trusted Jesus know the way to the Father, so we must be faithful to point others to Him because He is truth and life.  Take great comfort in the truth of who He is and what He is doing for us in the presence of the Father.

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