John 14:1-6
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2 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. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. 4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. 5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? 6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Jesus is coming again. It is one of the most often repeated truths in the New Testament. In fact, it is what all Christians have been looking for. We are awaiting the arrival of our Lord to call us home to be with Him. This direct promise is given in the gospel of John. The context of the evening is that Jesus has eaten with His disciples, is about to be betrayed later that evening, and then will be crucified the following day.
John 13-17 record for us the teaching that Jesus gave to His disciples in what is commonly known as the Upper Room Discourse. In John 14:1-6 Jesus gives His disciples a promise that He is coming back to get them to take them to where He is one day. It is amazing that as the cross looms over the evening and Jesus is about to suffer and die for the sins of the world, His focus is not on Himself but on His disciples. He begins by telling them “Let not your heart be troubled.” He proceeds to give them three things that they are to have confidence in as He goes to the cross and leaves them.
First, He tells them to have confidence in His person, to have confidence in who He is. He says, “ye believe in God, believe also in Me.” He tells them that He is God. They are to place their faith in Him in the same way that they have placed their faith in the Father.
Second, He tells them to have confidence in His promise. The promise that He makes to them here is that He is going away to His Father’s house to prepare a place for them so that one day He would return and take them to that place. This is the promise of what is commonly called the Rapture. This is also found in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” The concept is from Jewish marriage arrangements. After an engagement where the groom paid a large dowry for his bride, he would journey back to his father’s house and build an addition or prepare a room in the father’s house or on the father’s estate for his bride. After a period of tim,e when the preparations were complete (usually about a year), the father would determine that his son was ready to go and call his bride. The son would lead a procession to the bride’s house to call her and the wedding party to journey back for the consummation of the marriage. The bride and her wedding party were to always be prepared and ready for the groom because he could come at any time with no warning other than a trumpet being blown when he entered his bride’s town. He would take his bride and the party back to his father’s house where there would follow a week-long marriage feast and the consummation of their marriage. Jesus uses this commonly understood process to describe His return to take His disciples to a place that He would go away to prepare for them. He assures them that there are “many mansions” or many rooms. If you have trusted Him, He has prepared a place for you there.
Lastly, He calls the disciples to have confidence in His plan. After Jesus assures the disciples that they know where He is going and how to get there, Thomas speaks on behalf of all the disciples regarding their ignorance on the matter. Rather than an elaborate explanation, Jesus gives to His disciples the narrow way of salvation, Himself. He says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” It is impossible for Christianity to be true and there to be more than one way to God at the same time. Since Jesus’ words are true, there is only one way to God and it is through Him. The way to know that He is coming back for you is if you have trusted in Him as the only way of salvation. If you have put your hope in anything or anyone else, you are lost. Jesus is the only way to God.
We know that Jesus is coming to call His people to Himself so that they might go to His Father’s house to a place He has prepared especially for them. The question is: “Is there a place for you?” Have you trusted Him as your Lord and Savior? When the trumpet is blown, will you be ready?