In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? ³  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. ⁴  And you know the way to where I am going.”

This week I was made aware of a cartoon in which a man was lying on the couch of a psychiatrist. When the psychiatrist asked the client what his problem was he confided that he had all kinds of fears about the future.

“Doctor,” he began, “I’m worried about the energy crisis, inflation, the situation in the Middle East, political and social upheaval in Africa, our diplomatic relations with Russia and China …” In the final frame the psychiatrist responded, “Shut up and move over,” after which he proceeded to get on the couch with the patient.

A cartoon such as this would be much more amusing if it did not contain so much truth. The problems of the future are almost overwhelming. Those in a position to know the facts are privately saying that things are not nearly as bad as they seem—they are worse. Public officials seem to have taken the same approach to our national problems as many doctors do with a terminally ill patient—keep the unpleasant truth from them as long as possible.

Secular philosophy and ethics have come to assume a fearful future. That is why they are dominated by a note of absolute despair: “The life of man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none may tarry long.”

It is at the point of facing the frightening prospects of the future that we can find a common ground with the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There are certain other great truths within this passage.

1. It tells us of the honesty of Jesus. No one could ever claim that he had been tricked into Christianity by specious promises or under false pretenses.

• Jesus told men bluntly that the Christian must bid farewell to comfort (Lk 9:57-58).
• He told them of the persecution, the hatred, the penalties they would have to bear (Matt 10:16-22).
• He told them of the cross which they must carry (Matt 16:24), even although he told them also of the glory of the ending of the Christian way. He frankly and honestly told men what they might expect both of glory and of pain if they followed him. He was not a leader who tried to bribe men with promises of an easy way; he tried to challenge them into greatness.

He implied that they should believe Him against all odds. Remember, He was doomed to death, which overtakes all men. Yet He promised to prepare a place for them and to return to claim them!

Faith in Christ’s person will comfort your troubled heart.

Faith is only as good as its object. Trusting in a faulty airplane won’t make it fly! As we’ve seen repeatedly, everything in the Christian life depends on the correct answer to Jesus’ question (Matt. 16:15), “Who do you say that I am?”

If Jesus is who He claimed to be and who all of Scripture proclaims Him to be, then He is absolutely trustworthy in every trial that you encounter.

If He is not who He claimed to be, then eat and drink, for tomorrow you will die (see 1 Cor. 15:12-19, 32).  

Reasons why Jesus had to go away:

1. He must go away (die upon the cross) to prepare our salvation. Only His sacrifice is sufficient atonement for our sins.
2. He must go away (by His resurrection and ascension) to take captivity captive (Eph. 4:8) to triumph over principalities and powers (Col. 2:15) and allow us even now “to sit with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6).
3. He must go away (unto the right hand of the Father’s throne) to constantly minister for us.
4. It tells us of the function of Jesus. He said, “I am going to prepare a place for you.” One of the great thoughts of the New Testament is that Jesus goes on in front for us to follow. He opens up a way so that we may follow in his steps.

“In my Father’s house are many rooms.” The traditional interpretation of this phrase teaches that Jesus is going to heaven to prepare rooms or “mansions” (nkjv) for his followers. Based on that imagery, entire heavenly subdivisions and elaborate “mansion blueprints” have been described.

Many think that Jesus was speaking about his Father’s house in heaven, where he would go after his resurrection in order to prepare rooms for his followers. Then he would return one day to take his believers to be with him in heaven. The day of that return usually has been regarded as the Second Coming.

The other view is that the passage primarily speaks of the believers’ immediate access to God the Father through the Son. The “place” Jesus was preparing has less to do with a location (heaven) as it had to do with an intimate relationship with a person (God the Father).

This interpretation does not deny the comfort of heaven’s hope in this passage, but it does remove the temptation to view heaven purely in terms of glorious mansions.

Heaven is not about splendid accommodations; it is about being with God. The point of the passage is that Jesus is providing the way for the believers to live in God the Father. As such, the way he prepared the place was through his own death and resurrection and thereby opened the way for the believers to live in Christ and approach God.

Hope in Christ’s promise will comfort your troubled heart.

The bad news for the disciples (so far as they perceived it) was that Jesus was going away without them. The good news puts all this into perspective: He is going to His Father’s house; He is going back to heaven. He is going there to prepare a place for His disciples, so that they can be with Him for all eternity. Our Lord is telling His disciples and us that there is plenty of room for us all in His Father’s heavenly house.

One of the great words which is used to describe Jesus is the word forerunner. There are two uses of this word which light up the picture within it. In the Roman army the word describes the reconnaissance troops. They went ahead of the main body of the army to blaze the trail and to ensure that it was safe for the rest of the troops to follow. That is what Jesus did. He blazed the way to heaven and to God that we might follow in his steps.

3. It tells us of the ultimate triumph of Jesus. He said: “I am coming again.” The Second Coming of Jesus is a doctrine which has to a large extent dropped out of Christian thinking and preaching. The curious thing about it is that Christians seem either entirely to disregard it or to think of nothing else.

It is true that we cannot tell when it will happen or what will happen, but one thing is certain—history is going somewhere. Without a climax it would be necessarily incomplete. History must have a consummation, and that consummation will be the triumph of Jesus Christ; and he promises that in the day of his triumph he will welcome his friends.

Jesus said: “Where I am, there you will also be.” Here is a great truth put in the simplest way; for the Christian, heaven is where Jesus is. We do not need to speculate on what heaven will be like. It is enough to know that we will be for ever with him.

When we love someone with our whole heart, we are really alive only when we are with that person. It is so with Christ. In this world our contact with him is shadowy, for we can see only through a glass darkly, and spasmodic, for we are poor creatures and cannot live always on the heights. But the best definition is to say that heaven is that state where we will always be with Jesus.

Jesus suggested that the proper approach to the question of human destiny is faith in a personal God. If a personal God exists, who is the judge and redeemer of man, there must be a destiny for man beyond the grave.

The 2nd Coming. Not only here but in Acts 1:11; 3:21; 2 Thessalonians 4:13–17, etc., the doctrine of the second coming of Christ is emphatically taught, the same being one of the foundational teachings of Christianity. Some will go to heaven through the valley of the shadow of death, but those who are alive when Jesus returns will never see death (John 11:25-26). They will be changed to be like Christ and will go to heaven (1 Thess. 4:13-18

1. What Christ will not do upon his return.
2. He will not offer himself a second time for the sins of the world (Heb. 9:26-28).
3. He will not restore any phase of fleshly or national Israel. The Scripture makes it absolutely clear that race is nothing with God (Gal. 3:27).
4. He will not set up a kingdom, having already done that, the church being his kingdom. It has existed continuously since the first Pentecost after the resurrection, and wherever the Lord’s Supper is, there is the kingdom (Luke 22:30).
5. He will not extend a second chance for unbelievers to repent (Heb. 9:27).
6. What Christ will do upon his return.
7. All the dead shall be raised to life (John 5:24-29).
8. The judgment will occur (John 5:24-29; Matt. 25:31-36).
9. The wicked shall be destroyed and the righteous rewarded (2 Thess. 1:7-10).
10. The crown of life shall be given to the faithful (2 Tim. 4:7,8).
11. Christ will stop reigning, delivering up the kingdom to God (1 Cor. 15:28).

III. What Christ is now doing.

1. He is reigning until all of his enemies have been put under foot (1 Cor. 15:25f).
2. He is interceding for the redeemed (Heb. 7:25).
3. He is administering all authority in heaven and upon earth (Matt. 28:18-20).
4. He is providentially overseeing the fortunes of his church on earth (Matt. 28:19,20).
5. He is preparing a home for the faithful (John 14:3).

Since heaven is the Father’s house, it must be a place of love and joy. When the Apostle John tried to describe heaven, he almost ran out of symbols and comparisons! (Rev. 21-22) Finally, he listed the things that would not be there: death, sorrow, crying, pain, night, etc. What a wonderful home it will be—and we will enjoy it forever!

Heaven is the place where God dwells and where Jesus sits today at the right hand of the Father. Heaven is described as a kingdom (2 Peter 1:11), an inheritance (1 Peter 1:4), a country (Heb. 1:16), a city (Heb. 11:16), and a home (John 14:2).

Heaven is “My Father’s house,” according to Jesus. It is “home” for God’s children!

A good deal of the time, the Lord and His disciples may have been camping rather than living comfortably in some spatial home. What Jesus promises His disciples is a dramatic (what an understatement!) improvement.

Biblical hope is closely allied with faith. Someone has described it as faith standing on tiptoe. It looks ahead to the promised, but yet unrealized future.

It’s not like saying, “I hope my favorite team wins their big game today.” You don’t know whether they will win or lose. Biblical hope is like watching the video replay of the game after your team won. You know the outcome, but you eagerly watch the game unfold.

Here Jesus makes two promises that are certain because He is the truth:

First, heaven is a real place, not just an immaterial state of being.

Second, going to heaven is like going home. It’s not like traveling to a foreign country, where you don’t know the language, geography, people, or customs. It’s like going to a familiar, comfortable place where you are welcomed by a Father who loves you and by brothers and sisters whom you know.

Third, Jesus is there right now preparing a place for us. This doesn’t mean that He is working with His carpenter’s tools to add rooms for us. Rather, it looks at His present ministry of intercession for us, of being our advocate, and of keeping us for that day.

It’s always comforting when you travel to know that you have a confirmed reservation when you arrive. Jesus promises that if you believe in Him, you have such a reservation in heaven.

Jesus says the ultimate result is that where I am, you also may be. In Greek it is clear that this is an intentional play upon the “I am” statement. Jesus hints that at his Second Coming believers will share in the “I am-ness” he presently enjoys. They will have unobstructed access to the glorious majesty of God the Father.

The certainty of Christ’s bodily return means terror for those who reject Him, because He will come to “tread the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty” (Rev. 19:15). But His return means comfort for all that believe in Him, because we will always be with the Lord.

Paul concludes his discussion of Christ’s return by saying (1 Thess. 4:18), “Therefore comfort one another with these words.”