The Lord's answer - I go to prepare a place for you John 14:2

John 13:36 Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, where are You going?" Jesus answered, "Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you shall follow later." 

 

John 13:37 Peter said to Him, "Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You."

 

John 13:38 Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a cock shall not crow, until you deny Me three times.

 

The word “deny” means to renounce.

 

John 14:1 "Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.

 

/John 14:1 is not dealing with heaven, but with anticipated failure. Peter is a believer already. Believe in the plan of the Father and the words that the Lord has already spoken.\

 

He is not asking Peter to believe in Him as his Savior all over again, but to believe in the plan of the Father, the divine decree, and to the words that He has already spoken to Peter.

 

/Troubled = discouraged. The heart is where you do your thinking; where you live. “Do not get discouraged in your heart.”\

 

Peter’s failure is going to encourage him to get discouraged. He’s going to blow it completely, just hours after his sincere promise to die physically on behalf of the Lord.

 

These words are spoken so that Peter will remember. Since it is recorded in the Gospel of John, we will take up Peter’s denial in the future.

 

The contrast between Peter and the Lord is emphatic, just as it is for any of us when we sit in His light.

 

/Peter denied that He even knew the Lord three times, cursing the third time. Moments later the Lord would be asked if He was the Son of God - “Yes, I am!” \

 

Peter said he would lay down his life, and when his life was in danger he denied the Lord in order to save it. Our Lord was asked a question that He knew would mean certain death, “Are you the Son of God,” to which He replied, “Yes, I am!”

 

Peter and the Lord are light years apart. Any of us are light years away from the glory, the righteousness, and the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

You will do for Him? Will you? What do you have to offer? He has come to earth, to hang on a rugged Roman cross while bearing your sins so that He can offer you something.

 

/2 Cor 8:9

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.\

 

Now the Lord provides a glimpse of the richness that He will give to every believer.

 

John 14:2 "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.

 

First we see that:

/Heaven is a home and it is your home if you have believed in Christ.\

 

/HEB 12:23

[But you have come] to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, \

 

/ “enrolled” - perfect passive participle of apographo [apographo] = to be registered. You have a house for which you are registered.\

 

There is a German proverb that says: “Blessed are the homesick, for they shall reach home.”

 

/As we have seen in resurrection, the church is the first to receive resurrection bodies therefore we are the first, after Christ, to start our eternity.\

 

Our eternity begins at the Rapture of the church. We return with Christ as His bride at the second coming and then do the OT and Tribulational saints receive their resurrection bodies.

 

However, we are never earthly. Our citizenship is heaven and always will be. So while Christ rules during the 1000 year millennium and winner CA believer rule with Him, the church’s abode or dwelling place or home is the New Jerusalem.

 

When the Lord returns with His bride to reign, her dwell­ing place is not to be left unoccupied for a thousand years. Rather, the place of occupancy is transferred from heaven to a position over the earth. Thus John sees the “great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.” This dwelling place remains in the air, to cast its light, which is the shining of the effulgence of the Son, onto the earth so that “the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor unto it” (REV 21:24).

 

REV 21:10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,

 

REV 21:24 And the nations shall walk by its light, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it.

 

John 14:2 "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.

 

/Heaven is spacious - there are many dwelling places.

God is not a God of confusion - if it were not so, I would tell you.\

 

He suits our place accordingly. The word that is translated mansion in the AV is a word that means dwelling place or abode. The same word is used in verse 23 for Christ and the Father to make their “abode” within the believer.

 

So although the translation, “mansion,” is not exactly accurate we do see here a place that is prepared for you to live eternally and there are so many of them and so much room that mansion is probably too small a word.

 

For example, think about a home you might make.

 

 

When a gardener is about to receive some rare exotic, he prepares a place where it will flower and fruit to the best advantage. The naturalist, who is notified of the shipment of some new specimen, prepares a habitat as suited as possible to its peculiarities. The mother whose son is returning from sea, prepares a room in which his favorite books and pictures are carefully placed, and all else that her pondering heart can devise to give him pleasure.

 

No imagine you have limitless resources.

 

/So, our Lord is anxious to give His highest and best to us. And He will keep our place ready for our arrival. It will not suit another, and will not be given to another.\

 

/ISA 30:18

Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you,

And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you.

For the Lord is a God of justice;

How blessed are all those who long for Him. \

 

John 14:3 "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

 

“where I am, there you may be also.”

 

/Part of the life in the eternal city is fellowship with Jesus Christ. This is for winners and losers alike.\

 

 

/1 Cor 13:12

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known.\

 

/1 John 3:2

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. \

 

/REV 22:4

and they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.\

 

/Life in the eternal city will also be:

A life of rest, REV 14:13

A life of full knowledge, 1 Co 13:12

A life of holiness, REV 21:27

A life of joy, REV 21:4

A life of service, REV 22:3

A life of abundance, REV 21:6

A life of glory, 2 Co 4:17; COL 3:4

A life of worship, REV 19:1; REV 7:9-12. \

 

John 14:3 "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

 

When the Lord says, “I will come again,” this refers to the Rapture and not the Second Coming.

 

[Dispensations slide]

Gentiles

Israel

Hypostatic Union

Church Age

Tribulation

Millennial Reign

 

We see the principle here:

/The Lord always goes ahead of His people; blazing a trail, leading, and encouraging to follow.\

 

/Ex 13:21

And the Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.\

 

Going into the Promised Land:

 

/Deut 31:3

"It is the Lord your God who will cross ahead of you; He will destroy these nations before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua is the one who will cross ahead of you, just as the Lord has spoken.\

 

/Deut 31:8

And the Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear, or be dismayed." \

 

In the plan of God for the church:

 

/Matt 10:38

And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. \

 

And in going to heaven in a resurrection body:

 

John 14:3 "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

 

John 14:4 "And you know the way where I am going."

 

We have the:

/ “know” - perfect active indicative of oida [oida] - to inherently know. Perfect - they were already taught and they are responsible for the doctrine.\

 

The second person plural means that He is referring to all the disciples.

 

Then we have the accusative of

/ “way” - hodos [hodos] = way, path, road, or route. Here, metaphorically, it pertains to the substitutionary spiritual death of Christ on the cross.\

 

The Lord is stating that on some level they do know the way. This shows us that doctrine metabolized can lay dormant in the memory center of the heart when you are thinking with human viewpoint.