Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled: A Study In John 14

 

 

Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 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 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 14:1-3)                                                                                                                                   

 

What do you think of when you hear or read this passage of scripture?                 

 

Of all the words spoken none reach to the heart with more hope and joy then the words of our Lord Jesus. His words transcend time and place, and reach to any heart that will open to His soothing grace.                                   

 

Often times we read a verse or two of scripture by themselves because of the comfort they impart and sometimes miss the greater beauty of the same verses when taken together in their context.                                                               

 

The above is an oft quoted and beautiful passage. The first few verses of John 14 are many times recited at funerals for their comfort, or in messages longing for the final day.                                                                               

 

I would like to pause for a moment and consider this passage in the beauty of its context.                                                                                                                    

This is from a conversation that begins in John 13:12.                                                           

 

It is the night of the Last Supper. It is the night before Jesus is crucified. Jesus has washed the feet of the disciples. He tells them that one of them will betray Him.                                                                                                                       

 

After Judas leaves the room Jesus tells the 11 remaining disciples that where He is going they cannot follow.

                                                                                                                                   

At this point we could say He is going to heaven, but let’s keep the conversation in the context of the night it is spoken and see it as a bit more immediate than that.                    

 

Where is He going?                                                                                                                       

 

The cross.                                                                                                                            

 

He then tells them to love one another.                                                                         

 

Peter asks, “Lord, where are you going?”                                                                       

 

Jesus tells Peter that he can’t follow Him now, but that he shall follow Him afterward. Here again let’s stay with the immediacy of the moment and as we realize that Jesus is speaking of the cross, let’s remember that church history tells us that Peter was also crucified…upside-down.                                                                    

 

Not at this time. That will come later. 

 

Afterward.

                                                                                                                                   

Peter then says, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for your sake.”                                                                                                                                     

What happens next in the text is the unfortunate placement of a chapter break from the translators, following the last verse in John 13.                                 

At the end of chapter 13 Jesus is having an intense and heartrending conversation with Peter. From the last verse of chapter 13 into chapter 14 you will notice there is no change of speaker; no change of conversation.                                   

 

It is still but hours from the cruel death of the cross, and Jesus is still speaking to Peter.                                                                                                                        

Let’s read it as one conversation, which it is, without a chapter break, beginning with the last verse of chapter 13… Speaking to Peter:                           

Jesus answered him, “Will you lay down your life for My sake? Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow until you have denied Me three times. Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 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 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.”                 

 

The conversation is with Peter. Jesus tells Peter, who loves Him, that he will deny Him and then immediately Jesus, who is about to be betrayed and crucified, comforts Peter! After telling him that he will deny Him he says don’t let your heart be troubled! The same way you believe in God believe in Me! Jesus equates Himself with Deity (He is God) and says in His Father’s House are many mansions (abodes, dwellings)! (“..do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” 1Corinthians 3:16)
                                        

He tells Peter, as He has been telling them throughout the night, that He is going, and that he is going to prepare a place for him.                                         

Where?                                                                                                                     

 

The cross!                                                                                                                 

 

Jesus prepared a place for us at the cross! By His sacrifice, and faith in His sacrifice, He made a place for us in the Kingdom!
                                                       

He then tells Peter that once that place is prepared He would come and receive him unto Himself.                                                                                                                

On the day of Pentecost the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, which is the Spirit of Jesus (Ephesians 4:4-5) filled 120 in the upper room and the Church was born. Jesus has been receiving souls unto Himself since that day!                                 

 

Notice the wording; “that where I am” He says, “you may be also”.                           

 

Jesus didn’t say where I am going to be you’re going to be there too, He said where I am there you may be also.                                                                                 

Where was He?                                                                                                      

 

He was in a state of perfect union and sonship with the Father. This is the place that He prepared for us by His sacrifice at Calvary!  Now, by that Sacrifice, we can call God, Father!                                                                                                                     

 

Rather than a statement about our future destiny after this life, Jesus is giving a comforting proclamation of our ever-present condition in Him, through His Grace, because of what He has done for us.                                                                                          

 

Eternal life begins not when we die, but when we place our faith in Christ and receive His Spirit! His Life!                                                                                                                           

This eternal life we receive will never end and will carry us today, and through eternity in Him!           

 

How wondrous is the Love of God!