A young boy would often go home from his friend’s house at night and - because it was the shortest route – he’d always walk thru the cemetery. When he was asked if he was ever afraid of going thru the graveyard at night he responded “No. My home is just on the other side.”
He wasn’t afraid because he knew where his home was!
Our passage today is interesting because it starts out with Jesus saying: “Let not your hearts be troubled.” (John 14:1) It’s another way of saying: “Don’t be afraid.” And Jesus said we don’t need to be troubled/afraid because we have a promise: “Believe in God; believe also in me. 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? 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.” John 14:1-3
Jesus was saying – you don’t have to be afraid because I’m preparing a place for you. A place that will be a home for you … a place in heaven.
Over the past few weeks we’ve been talking about THE COLORS of our faith which are represented by something called a “witness bracelet”. The black bead stands for the deep darkness and hopelessness of our sin. It’s this dark sin in our lives that makes it so we don’t deserve to go to heaven. The red bead stands for the blood of Jesus that was shed to forgive us those sins. White represents the purity that God creates in us when our sins are forgiven. The Blue bead is representing the point at which we obtain forgiveness (faith, repentance, confession and immersion into Christ. Green stands the growth we should be experiencing as Christians. And now we come to the GOLDEN (yellow) BEAD which represents our home heaven.
When we get to this GOLDEN bead, even non-Christians know what we’re talking about… when we speak about Heaven. Non-Christians might not fully understand what heaven’s all about but they know – THEY WANT TO GO THERE!
ILLUS: USA Today once surveyed a number of Wealthy Americans, and asked them what they would be willing pay the most for (and they gave them several options to choose from). USA Today found that the wealthiest 1% of American families said that their number one desire was NOT beauty, intellect, power or even love. The one thing they desired above everything else, was a place in heaven. The article said the rich would pay - on average – $640,000 for the assurance of a place in heaven. That was more than they’d pay for anything else on the list.
Now I realize $640,000 probably isn’t a lot of money to a multi-millionaire, but the point is… if they were going to buy anything, the most important thing these wealthy people would want to buy was the assurance of heaven.
WHY? Well, partly because of what WON’T be there: “(God) will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." Revelation 21:4-5
This world is NOT my home. This world is a place where we face tears, sorrow, rejection, pain. Everything we have either gets lost, stolen or rusts away. And of course there’s illness… and disease… and death.
Now I like living in this world… kinda. But Jesus tells us there’s a better place than this one.
ILLUS: I read the story of a little girl who was out on the farm with her dad. It was night time, and the only lights were the dazzling stars in the sky. She turned to her father and (with her voice full of awe) said “If this the wrong side of heaven, and it’s so beautiful, what do you think the right side of heaven will look like?”
Now the book of Revelation TRIES to paint a picture of heaven’s beauty, and it speaks of streets paved with gold, and gates and walls that look like precious jewels. But I’m not sure if that’s exactly what heaven’s going to look like.
But I can tell you this – I think heaven will be one of the coolest places… you’ve ever seen.
I think explaining heaven to us is a lot like me telling my grandson that I’m going to take him to King’s Island or Cedar Point. And he’d ask… what’s it like? And I might say “Do you remember going to that street fair at Peru, IN - and it had all those rides? It’s kinda like that. (PAUSE)
NO IT’S NOT! It’s not even close. But it’s the closest I could get because he’ll not know what massive amusement park looks like until he actually goes to one. And heaven’s the same way. There’s nothing on this earth that even compares to heaven.
But would you like to know what i think heaven’s going to be like? go ahead ask me. Ask me “Jeff – what do you think heaven’s going to be like!” (I’m glad you asked). I think heaven’s going to be a place of excitement and adventure. It’ll be a place where we’ll get to see and touch things that we’ve never seen or touched before.
BUT IT’S MORE THAN THAT.
ILLUS: At the first church I served we had a youth group met on Sunday Evenings. I would lead them in singing and then teach them about Jesus. Then we’d play games for a while. The whole thing lasted about 3 hours, and I had a great time. One of the boys in the youth group was Brian. He was 12 years old and played guitar along with me as we sang songs. We’d baptized him just a year before and he was on fire for Christ. Everybody liked Brian.
But one day, while he was at home, he was carrying his baby cousin down the stairs. He was in his stocking feet, and he lost his footing. And as he fell, his only thought was to protect that baby. But he couldn’t protect himself, and he struck his head … and he died. It shocked the entire community and at the funeral home was filled with mourners, and one of the repeated comments that I heard was this: “It’s such a shame that he died so young. He had so much of life ahead of him.” He was only 12.
As I prepared for the funeral the next day… I thought about that. And when I preached his message, I repeated what I’d heard at the viewing – “He had so much of life ahead of him. It was a shame that he’d miss out on all of that!
Then I quoted from Philippians 1:21-23 where Paul wrote: “For to me - to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. MY DESIRE IS TO DEPART AND BE WITH CHRIST, for that is far better.”
In other words: When Paul died he went directly to Jesus. And I said “Now, here’s what you’ve got to understand. Brian was a Christian. He was a 12 year old boy that loved God. And when he died he went to be with Jesus. Now, do you really think that when he died that God just to set him over in the corner of the room and ignored him? I DON’T THINK SO! I could imagine Jesus sitting down by the river with Brian holding their fishing poles; or riding their bikes down the streets of gold; or sitting around eating Manna like it was popcorn and watching reruns of some of the great event of the Bible.
There is nothing that Brian could have enjoyed here on earth that wouldn’t have been dwarfed by what God would have done for him in heaven. THERE’S NO COMPARISON!!!
Now… a couple more thoughts here. The first is this: Do you remember that old Gospel song – “Mansion Over The Hilltop”? Well, I’d like you to sing it with me.
“I'm satisfied with just a cottage below, a little silver and a little gold. But in that city where the ransomed will shine. I want a gold one that's silver lined. (Chorus) I’ve got a mansion just over the hilltop, in that bright land where we'll never grow old. And some day yonder we will never more wander, but walk on streets that are purest gold.”
I’ve got a mansion just over the hilltop. Do you know where they got that idea of us having mansions in heaven? Well, they got it from the old KJV. In John 14:2 it says: “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.” And when I heard that verse in the KJV I thought… “Cool. I get a mansion!”
But then, along come these newer versions that tell me that what Jesus really said was: “In my Father’s house there are many ROOMS!” You see, “in the early 17th century, when the King James was translated, that word ‘mansion’ meant a dwelling place or a room. Not a large house as it does today.” (AI research)
(PAUSE) BUMMER! I want a mansion! I don’t care if my mansion is smaller than your mansion - I just want a mansion. I DON’T WANT A ROOM! I want something big, and grand and elegant because everything else up there in heaven is bigger than life. So why can't I have a mansion! And that’s has been a real issue for me for the past 40 or 50 years. I’ve never quite forgiven these modern versions for destroying my dream - a dream about living in a mansion just over the hilltop.
But when I started to preparing my sermon on THAT text today I realized I was gonna have to get over it. And the more I thought about it. the more I realized… what do I need with a mansion? I won’t need a laundry room… or a kitchen… or a bathroom. I probably don’t need anything more than just ONE ROOM, and I’m not even sure what I’d do with that one room!!!
But apparently -- it was important for Jesus to tell us that “IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE… (in His mansion) there are many ROOMS. And I’ll get to live there. You see - it’s not about me! It’s about God… He wants us to be with HIM! In Revelation 21:3 John tells us that he “heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, And God himself will be with them as their God.’”
I get to live with God, and He will live with me in a big, big house. His house… not mine!
Now, one last thought… how do you get there??? How do you get to heaven? Well, in John 14:6 Jesus said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” In other words, the only way to heaven is through Jesus. If you follow Jesus… you’ll go where he went. If you don’t… you won’t.
But can’t I get there because I’ve been a nice person? NOOO! Romans 3:23 tells us that ALL of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. None of us are nice enough to have a place in heaven.
Can’t I do enough good things for others so God will let me in? NOOO! Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Even $640,000 wouldn’t get you into heaven, because God doesn’t want your money… He wants you. To get into heaven - it’s not WHAT you have that counts. It’s WHO you know (that’s Jesus).
And when you get to heaven you get a room in God’s big, big house.
A Christian group named Audio Adrenalin wrote a song about that and I’m going to sing the chorus for you now: “Come and go with me to my Father's house. It's a big, big house - with lots and lots a room. A big, big table - with lots and lots of food. A big, big yard - where we can play football. A big, big house – it’s my Father's house.
One of the verses of that song says this: “All I know is a big ole house, with rooms for everyone. All I know is lots a land, where we can play and run. All I know is YOU NEED LOVE, and I've got a family. All I know is you’re all alone… so why not come with me? Come and go with me, to my Father's house.”
So, why not come with me… to my Father’s house. The way isn’t hard - it’s just a matter of accepting Jesus on His terms. All you have to do is BELIEVE that Jesus was who He said He was. Then REPENT of your sins and determine not to live like that again. Then CONFESS that Jesus will now be your Lord and Master – He’ll own everything you are and have. And lastly, be buried in the waters of Christian baptism and rise from that watery grave to walk in newness of life.
