Preparing a Place

It is about a lady at the airport who stopped in the concourse to buy a Kit Kat candy bar to eat while she was waiting for her plane.
In the crowded waiting area she spied an empty seat at the end of one of the rows. Rushing to get it, she quickly leaned her hang-up bag against it, placed her purse and several other small items on the table between her & a rather large man seated there, and then turned to straighten her hang up bag.
With everything finally in order, she was ready to eat her Kit Kat candy bar. But to her surprise, as she started to reach for it, she saw the man in the next seat unwrapping her Kit Kat candy bar, and she watched in utter amazement as he broke off a section and ate it.
She thought, "Well, my goodness, I’ve never seen such gall." She glared at him, and he looked at her, but no words were exchanged.
She was so furious at what he had done that she decided that if he was going to be that brazen about it, she could be brazen, too.
So she reached over to him, broke off a piece and ate it herself. Then he broke off another piece and ate it. It became almost a duel between the two of them to see who would get the most.
Quickly the candy bar was consumed, and she sat there just boiling that someone would be so rude and so presumptuous as to eat half of her candy bar.
Well, after a few minutes of silence, the man got up and left and then came back with another Kit Kat candy bar.
He unwrapped it, broke off a piece and started eating.
She thought, "Well, since he ate half of mine, I’m going to eat half of his." So she reached over & broke off another piece & ate it.
Once again the same scenario was repeated until the whole candy bar was gone. She sat there thinking, "This is the most ridiculous thing that has happened to me in all my life."
She continued to glare at him, and he looked at her, with neither one saying a word.
Just then, over the intercom came the announcement that her plane was ready for boarding.
So she opened her purse to get her boarding pass and, to her utter embarrassment, there was her Kit Kat candy bar. She had eaten half of 2 of his candy bars, and her’s was still in her purse!
APPLICATION:
There are times, I suppose, when things really start to go wrong. Your whole world seems to be crumbling around you and you wonder what is going on.
B. That is kind of the way the apostles are feeling as we come to the 14th chapter of John.
They have been on a roller-coaster of emotions.
Their week had begun gloriously with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and people waving palm branches and shouting, "Hosanna to the King!"
Even the chief priests who had been plotting against Jesus cried out in despair, "What can we do? The whole world has gone out after Him!"
Even Thomas – doubting Thomas – had said earlier that that he was ready to go to Jerusalem to die with Jesus – he was confused as to the type of Kingdom that Jesus would establish.
But Jesus had not come to establish an earthly kingdom, and He refused the crown.
Disappointed and thwarted in their dreams of a Jewish kingdom with Jesus as their miracle-working king, the fickle crowd began to turn against Jesus.
He was not saying the right things or going after the Romans like they though He should.
Now the Disciples had to start wondering what was going on.
This is the Final Discourse- Jesus –is getting his followers ready for what is to come. Jesus is staring down his passion on the cross and his future resurrection.
The apostles will go through some dark moments when this happens – it is into this doubt and despair that Jesus talks.
John 14: 1-14
1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going."
5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" 6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." 8 Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." 9 Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10 Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

I. Don’t Be Troubled or in other words Don’t Be Afraid Why?
I love it that Jesus starts His discourse with telling them not to let their hearts be troubled.
He doesn’t want them to be afraid of what is coming.
We will see this theme all through the Bible of God not wanting us to be fearful
Paul tells Timothy who had a knack for being timid the following:
2 Timothy 1: 7
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.
This theme of not being afraid or troubled by the world is found in the Angel’s annunciation to Mary that she would bear God’s Son in
Luke 1: 30 Be not Afraid
To Joseph her hustband
Matthew 1:20 Be not Afraid
When Jesus calls Peter in Luke 5 Peter is hesitant and reminds the Lord that he is a sinful man but Jesus tells Peter in
Luke 5:10 Be Not Afraid
Throughout the Scripture we see this constant theme that God doesn’t want us to be afraid. This lack of fear is based on the peace that we find in Jesus Christ. In a world of uncertainty.
In a world of financial downturns, loss of jobs, loss of health, death, destruction by tornadoes we can turn to God and just as Paul tells us in
Philippians 4: 6-7
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Paul reminds us that we are not be anxious, to put all of our longings and heartache over to prayer to Christ. It is in Christ that we find God’s peace.
When the world falls apart that is the one constant that we have is to turn to Jesus in prayer and supplication.
So as we look this morning at not being anxious and not being fearful there are a few things that this passage tells us.
II. First of all, a lack of fear is based on Trust in Jesus
We can identify our situation with Thomas.
Every day I think that I wake up and on my own power I am asking
What is the way?
How do I raise my kids?
How are we going to get through?
What do I do when confronted with situations at work that I feel powerless to do anything about?
Sometimes friends and family members do things that leave us at a loss and we shake our heads and ask What is the Way? What do I do.
Jesus gives a resounding answer.
Jesus is the Way – He has the truth.
When so many lies are being told in our culture we need something that is not going to change. As in the time of Jeremiah the prophet the people were crying out Peace, Peace, we have the Temple – Jeremiah was saying no Calamity, Calamity – he knew Jerusalem and his country was in jeopardy- He knew God was going to destroy Jerusalem for their false religion and hedonism.
Jerusalem had become rich and forgotten God, Jerusalem was more concerned with consumerism than the poor and living for truth.
The same is true for our time- our culture is crying out peace, peace !! The economy is all that matters, when the birth pangs are upon us and we know that we are in trouble.
This is when the Truth of Jesus Christ cuts through and reveals all of these lies that the popular culture is foisting upon us.
Folks, if you want peace, if want fulfillment, if you want what is true - Put your trust in Jesus – trust in His truth and He will never let you down.
Plug into His word and trust what the Bible says more than anything else. Plug into the truth and forget what the world has to say.
III. Trust in Eternity – Heaven
Trusting in Jesus leads to our trusting in eternity. Heaven is on many people’s minds
The destruction this last week was something that we will never forget. People started the day as normal and by the end of the day they may have lost their home, the possession or even a loved one.
One survivor from the tornadoes tells the story that they realized how fragile this life really is when the attended the funeral of a family member by candle light.
We realize this façade of a life that we as humans have built to defy that death is real and that bad things can happen all comes crashing down on a day like that.
We as Christians need to be assured that when we die our life is not over.
Christ came to give us life and give it abundantly.
The Greeks believed that the body could die but the soul is immortal. We know from Scripture that both the body and soul can die.
The body can die a physical death and the soul can be separated from God for eternity.
We also know as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that both the body and soul have been offered life by Christ.
Not only will a Christian’s soul live forever with God in Heaven but one day our bodies will be resurrected to a new body, a glorified resurrected body that will be like Christ’s glorified, resurrected body.
Jesus tells us something instructive in this passage:
FATHERS HOUSE
MANY ROOMS
When a 1st century Jew heard the word Father’s House or God’s House what would they think?
Remember that Jesus is speaking to an audience at that time and these words meant specific things. What was God’s House.
The phrase God’s House or the Father’s House goes back to 2 Samuel 7 where David wanted to build a House for God – but there was a play on words with House- God would build David a House- a lineage – a everlasting Kingdom.
God’s House was specifically the Temple.
Now why do I bring this up?
Remember the book of Hebrews tells us that the Tabernacle or the Temple was actually a copy of the Heavenly reality.
The earthly Temple was a copy of the Heavenly reality. Our calling is to be a priesthood of believers. Remember that we are called to Mount Zion – Zion is where the Temple is located. The Hebrew writer put it this way:
Hebrews 12: 18-24
18 For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, 19 and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. 20 For they could not bear the command, "IF EVEN A BEAST TOUCHES THE MOUNTAIN, IT WILL BE STONED." 21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, "I AM FULL OF FEAR and trembling." 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.
Paul is contrasting the experience of Israel at Mount Sinai with our experience as Christians.
Because of the blood that Jesus shed, we can approach God with confidence. And through Christ and what He has done we can come before God – the Mount Zion – Heavenly Jerusalem.
Jesus is going to His Father’s house to prepare many rooms. We know that the original Temple had apartments built onto it for the Levites and priests to stay and do their work.
What is Jesus telling us in the best language people could understand?
Simply, that we are going to be in God’s presence. That consuming fire of God’s love, the fire that filled the Holy of Holies, the God that could not be seen with human eyes-because of the blood and resurrected body of Jesus you will see God face to face-
You will bask in His glory – all things will be made right – all wounds will be healed
No persecution, sickness, tornado or anything of this world can touch or make us fearful because Heaven is waiting and Christ has paved the way.
How do we know there is a Heaven?
You may ask this question and we need to answer it.
1) Your soul longs for it.
Not one of us here wants to get sick, or experience death. I dont think anyone says hey I want my body to break down and die.
We hate the idea of finiteness and time.
How many times do you feel rushed to finish something and feel like you are running out of time. Everytime you feel that way you need to stop and say – that is a spark of the Divine that has been put into me.
We hate time and want more of it- that means that there is something inside of you that wants to live forever. You don’t want to run out of time.
2) Because the soul has always felt there was such a place
. Like the little boy flying his kite and the kite was out of sight and someone asked him where it was and he pointed up to the sky.
They asked him how he knew it was there if he couldn't see it and he said, "I know it is there because I can feel it tug."
We can know in a similar way that there is a Heaven, because we can feel the pull of it, the tug of it in our souls.
We feel it deep in our bones and know that there has to be a Heaven – We see injustice and bad things that happen and want God to put things right.
3) Because God says there is such a place as Heaven.
I'd rather have God's word about anything than the opinion of all the philosophers and scientists in all the world.
With looking at what God has done through Jesus I think I can take that to heart and believe that
As we think about that Promise that God has made let us consider what Heaven will be like.
I think it is sad that today it seems that Christians don’t talk about Heaven much and people don’t dream about what it might be like.
I think this is healthy and good for us to do.
We just cant really try to wrap our minds around it.
Imagine timeless beauty – think about the most beautiful things that you have ever seen.
I think about Newfoundland Gap when it snowed one year, or Cade’s Cover in the Fall, Falls Creek Falls, Little River Canyon,
Gulf shores or destin looking at the ocean.
All Saints Cathedral when the Sunlight is coming through the stained glass windows.
The birth of my children, when someone becomes a Christian – all of these things are event that just move us to the core.
We realize that Heaven will be unbelievable when we consider that all of these things that are beautiful and pure are just a splinter, just a shading of the reality of heaven.
John Bradford was an English Reformer that lived in the 1500’s. He was put to death because he saw corruption in the church of his country and spoke out about it.
Bradford was a man of great faith and looking at death in the face considered his fate.
He knew that he was going to be put to death and he said the following:
I am assured that though I want here, I have riches there;
though I hunger here, I shall have fullness there;
though I faint here, I shall be refreshed there;
and though I be accounted here as a dead man, I shall there live in perpetual glory.
I think that there is great wisdom in what John Bradford said. He understood the permanence of God’s rest versus the temporal nature of this world.
John Bunyan published a book in 1678 called Pilgrim’s Progress and it was about a man that was on the road to Heaven.
In this story the main character is named Christian, he leaves his home burned down with troubles and he is relieved by his troubles and takes on new garments which in this story symbolizes his baptism into Christ – it is at this time he receives his passport to Heaven.
As Christian, in the Pilgrim's Progress drew near to the Heavenly City, he saw the gates opened to receive others.
"I looked in after them," he says, "and, behold, the city shone like the sun; the streets also were paved with gold, and in them walked many who had crowns on their heads and palms in their hands and golden harps to sing praises withal. There were some that had wings, and they answered one another without intermission, saying 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord!' And after that they shut up the gates; which, when I had seen, I wished myself among them."

Paul the apostle says the following in 1 Corinthians 2
"THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM."
Heaven is such a wonderful place that we cant even imagine what it will be like.
What I would ask of you this morning –
Just like Christian in the Pilgrim’s Progress- do you wish to be among them?
Do you wish to be among the heavenly host? Those that have gone on before us to glory?
Do you long to be their with great characters of old like Moses, Paul and others experiencing the glory of Christ.
Would you like to be there to thank Christ personally for what He did for you?
Then we can do something about it. If you are a Christian – then live your life for Christ everyday in anticipation for what is coming –
If you are not you need to enter that joy and knowing that Christ’s blood was shed for you.