John 14:
Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many mansions. 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.
The disciples, at this point, were facing an uncertain future....a difficult prospect……Jesus was talking about leaving, and they were distraught, perplexed.
And sometimes we are in similar situations.
Let us first look at the general principles relating to what Jesus taught us to do in such cases.
When you’re facing difficulties, GUARD YOUR HEART.
Jesus said: do not let your HEART be troubled.
Paul says: be anxious for nothing.
Peter says: cast all your care on Him.
One of the things you have to guard is your heart….
The bible says: out of the abundance of the heart, the most speaks….
You have to guard you heart...that’s where faith is…See Mark 11:23 and Romans 10:9-10 for example.
Jesus: do not let your hearts be trouble, believe in God, believe also in me….
In other words, we have to protect our faith…we have to trust in Jesus…
when we going through difficulties we have to truth His words, his teachings...his promises
In my Father's house are MANY MANSIONS….
Jesus teaches us here to SEE the bigger picture….
Smetimes the physical trouble can dim the spiritual triumph….
The difficulty of the temporal can obscure the reality of eternity...
Mansions….
In other words, when you are going through difficulties, keep your eyes on the prize.
Learn to change your perspective…
Don’t focus on the problem. Focus on hope beyond the problem. The solution. The salvation we have.
In a few years to come your present problem won’t matter that much.
In eternity your current difficulty will seem like a triviality…
when you’re reunited with loved ones....when you’re talking to Moses...sitting at the feet of Jesus.
That’s the principle Jesus uses here in this passage....
He tries to change their perspective
Now, there’s a lot of things he could have reminded them of....and there’s much he could have turned their attention to, as he did on other occasions.
But this time he gets them to focus on heaven.
He gets them to focus on their ultimate future beyond their imminent future.
He gets then to focus on their eternal home.
So let’s take a closer look at this.
1. It’s LOCATION....
Heaven in the New Testament is described as...
A country...Hebrews 11:46…this speaks of its vastness
A city...Hebrews 11:10…it has many inhabitants
A kingdom...Mathew ...it’s an emphasis on its orderliness
A paradise…speaks of its beauty
A house…Jesus called it: My fathers house….that's because heaven is where God is. The place he has chosen for his house.
And his house becomes our house...our home
This world is not my home...I’m just a pilgrim passing through
This world is not your home...it is a battle ground
This world is not your home....it’s a soul saving rescue mission
This world is not your home...it’s a dress rehearsal for the reality
Greek word….is Not mansion, but dwelling places.
When an Israelite Son got married, the father would add a wing to his house, and so on until in the middle there was a patio…where all the sons with their families lived around...the same house with Father. they were all close to the Father.
I'm reminded of that old Song
Verse: 1
Just imagine heaven, what God's kingdom will be like,
where we will live forever, no more pain or tears or strife,
some folks may think of heaven, just a dream beyond some star,
it's just as real as Jesus promised, just as near as our own heart.
Chorus:
Some call it Canaan land, some say its Beulah land,
it's called peace beyond that old river, a place not made with hands,
it's that great celestial city, with mansions round God's throne,
but for all who know my Lord, they call it home.
Verse: 2
Can you imagine living, in God's new beautiful Jerusalem,
one of these days it'll all be over, our weary hearts will find rest in him,
we'll awake from all our dreaming, we'll meet our Savior face to face,
you know he'll receive us as his children, he'll smile and say your home to stay.
We've looked at its location. Now let's consider:
2. It’s LAYOUT
How big is heaven?
Scientists have not even been able to measure the size of the known physical universe. There is a photo called the XDF (eXtreme Deep Field) that was put together from images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope over the course of ten years. It shows a vast number of galaxies, each comprising billions of stars like our sun. Our sun is 93 million miles away from the earth. And the galaxies are very, very far apart—Andromeda, the closest galaxy to our own, is 2.2 million light years away. To give an idea of how far that is, a shuttle traveling at 18,000 miles per hour would need over 37,000 years to travel one light year. The universe is absolutely huge—and God created it all.
The measurement of the heavenly city described in Revelation chapters 21 and 22 is 12,000 furlongs. A furlong is 1/8 th of a mile. This makes the city about 1500 miles square, or 1500 miles in all directions. The literal land area of the city described in Revelation would be 2,250,000 sq miles.
London is 140 square miles
At the ratio of people in London, the heavenly city could hold 100 billion people.
Its location, its layout...
3. It’s LOOKS....
Rev 21:18-27
18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.[f] 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.
22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
4. It’s LIFESTYLE
Rev 21:1-4
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
No death...suffering...pain...crime
Our present blessings are great....
Christ changes lives, brings peace, joy....
But greater blessings are what await us...
Eternal life, eternal peace, heaven, escape of judgement, etc
I pray that your faith will not fail
Psalm 23 even though I walk ...no evil....and I will dwell in the house…forever.
In light of eternity Jesus taught this parable in Luke 12:15-21
15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
Jesus is saying that an Over-concentration on the present is folly in view of eternity.
We have to live this life in view of eternity
In a certain shooting match, a first rate marksman put very one of his bullets on the bullseye of the target, and yet when his score was announced, it does not amount to a single point. It was 0.
And why? Because he had been firing at the wrong target!
It is better to be a poor marksman firing at the right target than a first class shot firing at the wrong one!
Better it is to serve the will of God for the moment even imperfectly, than accomplish what is not his will with apparent efficiency and success.
