A Prepared Place

A Prepared Place

John 14: 1-7 April 20, 2008

This morning I want us to take a look at a very familiar scripture. Jesus has just had the Passover meal with his disciples (his last meal). He has announced that Judas was going to betray him. He has told Peter that Peter would deny his three times. And then he tells his disciples that he has to go away for awhile and they can’t follow him to where he is going.

A lot of things have just happened. The disciples were probably feeling a little down. Their hearts and minds were uncertain about what was going to take place next. And Jesus surely must have sensed this. Because Jesus said to them, “Let not your hearts be troubled…” And then he gave them a word of encouragement. He said, “Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also…” (John 14: 1-4)

These verses have been shared at funerals over and over again.And rightfully so, because they assure us that death is not the end. Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us and he is coming back to take us to be with him.

This morning, I want us to think about that promise of Jesus and the place that he has gone to prepare for us.

First of all, it is a PREPARED PLACE. Jesus said in verse 2, “that he goes to prepare a place for us.” If we take that image that Jesus gives us, what is Jesus doing? He has gone back to heaven to his Father’s house to prepare a place for us.

Jesus is busy preparing a place for us in heaven. When we prepare something for someone, it means that we are getting ready for them. For example, if we prepare a meal for our family, we are expecting our family to get together to share the meal.

When I prepared my sermon for this morning, I was expecting you to be here so I could share it with you. I was expecting you.

So, if Jesus is busy preparing a place for us, that means that he is expecting us to be in heaven one day so he can share the glories of heaven with us.

In fact, in verse 3, Jesus says, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to be with me, so that where I am, there you may be also.”

Church, make no doubt about it, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” If you are a Christian, you have a prepared place in heaven. And one day, Jesus Christ is going to come get us and take us to be with him, so that we might be with him to live forever more.

Illus: One day a preacher was preaching on the subject of heaven and asked the congregation, “How many of you want to go to heaven?” Everybody raised their hands except one ole man on the back row of the church. So the preacher stopped his sermon and said, “Bro. So and So, don’t you want to go to heaven?” The man said, “Yea, I want to go to heaven, I just don’t want to go today.”

Friends, when I die, don’t weep for me! I’ll be honest with you – I’m ready to go to heaven today! I can’t wait to go to heaven. I can’t wait to meet Jesus. I can’t wait to see my loved ones in heaven. I can’t wait to see what Jesus has prepared for me in heaven.

Jesus has promised me that he has prepared a place for me and that he is coming back to get me and I am prepared for his coming. Are you?

But not only do we have a prepared place, but it’s a PRECIOUS PLACE. Do you know how I know it’s a precious place? Because the Bible says that Jesus is the one that is preparing it for us. Our place in heaven is being prepared by the very hands of Jesus. The One that loves us so much, the One that cares for us. The One that loves and cares for us so much that he would die for us. The very hands that were nailed to the Cross are the hands that are busy preparing a precious place for us in heaven. Everything about Jesus is precious, so why would our place in heaven be anything less than precious.