Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, with all that David the psalmist experienced, his sufferings, his wanderings, the persecution at the hand of Saul and others, it's a beautiful thing that at the end of the most famous psalm that he penned, he was thinking about another place. He was thinking about a place where he would dwell with the Lord forever, in God's house forevermore, we just sang. My dwelling place shall be This morning, as we were celebrating the Lord's Supper, we were considering how the Lord Jesus not only reminds us of his sacrifice, his perfect life on our behalf, but you may recall that he pointed his disciples and us forward to a new day, how he spoke about not taking the fruit of the vine until he would take it new with us in his Father's kingdom. Tonight we want to see one of those beautiful promises that flow out of that verse. One of the beautiful realities that it would do us well to consider daily if possible. We are called by the word of God to be strangers and pilgrims in this world, but to what end? To be a stranger and a pilgrim to pass through this world without a destination is not going to happen. And so, may the Lord bless us with an incentive to pursue a self-denying life with a goal. The goal to which Jesus pointed us this morning and to which he's going to point us this evening. Our text is John 14, verses two and three. 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 unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." Our theme is a place for you. In the first place, a prepared house. In the second place, more narrowly, a prepared place. And then finally, a preparing Christ. A place for you, a prepared house, a prepared place, and a preparing Christ. Boys and girls, where are we in the gospel here? Judas had just left the Passover meal. He did so because he intended to betray Jesus. Soon after, Jesus began a rather lengthy talk which we have on record in John 14, 15, and 16, before his memorable prayer in John 17. During that extended talk with his disciples, what he was doing, he was preparing them for that time when he would no longer be with them bodily, physically. Chapter 14, the one that we read a moment ago, is the first full chapter of this discussion, this dialogue, and it begins with a comforting look ahead. He said, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. And boys and girls, the disciples were troubled because Jesus had just told them he's leaving. He told them he was going to suffer a horrific death. He was going to be betrayed into the hands of sinners. He was going to be mocked, and he's going to be offered up on the cross. How could they not be troubled? He says to them, let not your heart be troubled. What would help them not be troubled? He says, you already believe in God. Believe also in me. In other words, with the same confidence you have in God, Understand that I am he, that I am God, that I am the one who reigns over all things. And so let not your heart be troubled. And Jesus is really teaching every one of us an important lesson here, especially in those times when our hearts are troubled. We believe in God, we believe that he reigns over all things, but we also ought to remember our Lord Jesus reigns. He who gave his life for us is on the throne of heaven. Believe also in me. He's saying you can safely put your trust, you can safely rely on me. I will not deceive you. I will not turn you away. I will not disappoint the troubled heart who looks to me in trust. But then Jesus adds the words of our text, something that the troubled disciples could look forward to. Yes, there would be difficulties coming, but there's something on the horizon. There's something very special. And he 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. Boys and girls, I want to take you somewhere in our imagination. I want you to imagine it's a beautiful, sunny spring morning in Israel. A young man goes around beginning to gather building materials. He gets his tools. He soon begins to set out to work, to build onto his father's house. Well, why is he doing that? Why does a father need an extra room or an addition to his home? Well, He looks around, there's uncle's home, there's my brother-in-law's home with my sister. Why this home? Well, this is going to be his home, the day he's going to bring his bride. But first, a conversation. This young man will speak with his father. Father, I believe I'm ready. Do you approve of my wanting to marry, let's just make up a name, Deborah Tekva? Do you think she is a worthy bride? Well, my son, she seems to be a fine, God-fearing woman and comes from a very noble family. Do you wish for me to engage her father on your behalf? Oh, Father, that would be wonderful. Please do so. Well, Deborah's father, not entirely surprised to see this father coming to him. They arrange to settle on a bride price, a price that shows how precious this man's daughter is to him. And then he comes home and he speaks to his son, this father does. It is ready. It is done, my son. You may begin preparing. And so he does. He begins to build onto his father's house. You see, dear friends, boys and girls, in those days in Israel, it was common for a betrothal, we would call it today, an engagement to take place, but instead of going out on dates and so on, this young man would spend a great deal of his time preparing to bring his bride home. The time would come when the house is finished, and then he would go to fetch his bride to bring her to this place. The father's mansion is growing by another room, another home. This man is preparing, to borrow Jesus' words, a place for her. In my father's house are many mansions. What is Jesus saying to his disciples? They perfectly understood the illusion here, something that perhaps we've lost in our Western culture. I, the bridegroom, am preparing a place for you. In the father's house, there's room enough for all of my brides, my beloved church. Many are there already of my children. taken to be with the Father, each believer a bride of Christ, filling up that perfect number one by one in the mansions above. There right now is Abraham, boys and girls. There in the Father's house is Enoch and David and Daniel and Noah and Elisha. And yet, as Jesus would say in one of his parables, there is yet room. There are still places in the Father's house for sinners today to enter in. For each and every soul that is longing for and looking to and depending on by faith, who are resting in the Savior's love and care, there's a place for you. And you remember Jesus' parable about the prodigal son. There was that boy leaving his father's house, off into the world, we would say, wasting his life, his money, his health. And then he comes to himself. What's the first thing he thinks of? My father's house. There's bread enough and to spare in my father's house. I will arise and go to my father. So my question to you, dear friend, are you looking for a settled place? Are you looking for a place that is secure? A place where we can abide? Are you looking for a mansion in heaven? It's interesting that the Greek word translated mansions has that sense of a place that is settled, a place where you can stay. This is not like Abraham's tent, which moves from place to place. I'm going to prepare a place where you may live forever, a mansion that is settled, a mansion in which you may dwell forevermore, like we just sang. That is the Father's house. You've heard many a time that quote from the book of Hebrews. We have here no continuing city. But Jesus is saying, but I have a continuing city for you. And Jesus assures us about this reality by adding, if it were not so, if this wasn't true, I would have told you. And so let's not be thinking, when we think about mansions or father's house, about physical structures, because this is a place already, when we die, for our soul to come, for our soul to be with the Lord and with all of his saints above. There is a place, many mansions. Surely I have told you, and this place belongs to my father. and it is prepared for you. And so if you are a believer tonight, be assured you are not chasing some airy notion, some imaginary future. Jesus assures you that there is a settled place awaiting you. It's being prepared for you. That living a godly life is not living for nothing. And don't allow the least doubt about your future to trouble you. Don't worry about the afterlife or your assured place in glory, because that place, as we saw this morning, is bought and paid for. The bridegroom is the one who prepares it, not the bride. He has gone before us. He has paid the dowry price. He has redeemed his bride for himself. We simply are awaiting his call to come. If it were not so, I would have told you. And then to prove what he was saying, Jesus himself, boys and girls, ascended up. He went up into that place ahead of us. What a bolstering of faith that is. The place that you are going to is a place that I've already gone to. I've gone before you. And we know that from the history of scripture, while they beheld, the disciples were watching, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And then the angels saying, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. And so he's there. in the Father's house, praying, interceding, reigning, directing all things, not only for the church's good, but for the good of every one of us who is abiding in Him, who's resting in Him, for His bride, each of His people. And then he doesn't just leave us, Jesus doesn't, with some, well, some generalized speaking of a father's house in broad terms, but then he addresses us personally, and that's our second thought, a prepared place. He says, I go to prepare a place for you. Now this is a remarkable statement, especially when you think about the context. He was about to leave them, physically. And yet here he is assuring them why he is leaving. I'm going to prepare a place. I'm going to make ready, and the Greek word lends itself to keep ready. That place is kept. It is reserved for you. So boys and girls, if I can use an example. Imagine you're a businessman or a businesswoman, and you're going on a business trip. So you need to stop here and stop there to go through business. And as you're traveling, you might have to stay in a hotel for a day or two. But you wouldn't even dream of building a home on your business trip. But what you're looking forward to after your business trip is done, after your work is completed, you're looking forward to what? To coming home. Home is where your house is. Home is where your family is. And that's exactly the picture here. We're just passing through. And what Jesus is saying to us, often weary travelers, home will be ready for you. Home is awaiting you. I myself have prepared it for you. And when we think of how much Jesus suffered to make heaven what it is, to make us who we are, we can be assured that that place that he has prepared for us will far exceed anything we could have ever imagined. And then imagine at the first Lord's Supper, he said, with great desire, have I desired to eat this Passover with you. Can you imagine the desire of the Lord Jesus to welcome us home, to be at his table, in his Father's house forevermore? Preparing a place for you. And so you could just picture in your mind, as Jesus ascended, as Jesus sits at the Father's right hand, Father, thine they were, and thou gavest them me. And soon, Father, it will be time for the great wedding feast. Here is the bride price, my precious blood, poured out upon Calvary's hill. My sinless body broken on the cross for them. Father, it's time to prepare for the great celebration, the great consummation. And so another place and another place, each for his born again children, a place readied for the great homecoming. Now from our end, beloved, what is our job? It's not to prepare a place, but it's to prepare ourselves. Remember the peril of the 10 virgins, how they were all invited to the wedding. They were all supposed to wait for the return of the bridegroom. And yet they all slept, five of whom were utterly unprepared, five of whom had to hurriedly prepare and were allowed in. Behold, the bridegroom cometh. That's going to happen to us, dear friends. There's going to come a day, whether we anticipate it because of a long disease or whether it happens suddenly, as we've been reminded in these past days that things can happen so quickly in our lives. Behold, the bridegroom cometh, the day when he calls us out of this life. What are we to do? Well, in Revelation 19.7 we read, his wife, speaking of the church, believers, hath made herself ready. And how? It says, to her was granted that she should be arrayed, clothed in fine linen, clean and white. What was that? For the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. So what does that mean for us practically? Jesus is saying the way you are readied for my receiving of you is to adorn yourself in my righteousness. Adorn yourself in what I have worked out for you, consciously to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. We just saw the other day, didn't we, how Isaiah saw this righteousness of God as his garment. I will rejoice greatly in the Lord. My soul, he said, shall be joyful in my God. He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. It's no wonder that the Apostle Peter admonishes us, seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved. In other words, all the things of this life. What manner of persons ought we to be in all holiness of conversation and godliness looking for, and then this phrase, hastening unto the coming day of the Lord. So in other words, instead of dreading his return, Instead of wanting his return to be delayed, the apostle is saying we ought to be preparing, looking forward to, and even hastening to that coming day of the Lord. If we go back to that metaphor about the business trip, you might certainly see some interesting sights on your journey. You might stop here and there to take them all in. but they're just a faded memory compared to what you find at home. And Peter is saying all the stopping points along the way in our life here below will be but a faded memory when we arrive at home at last. Peter again writes, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which dwelleth righteousness. And what promise is he referring to? Well, again, Isaiah 65, 17, God says, Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, for the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. It would be wonderful to spend this year thinking about a place prepared for us, a Savior waiting for us. Now it's indeed a very personal thing, a place for you, and admittedly you in the Greek is plural. It applies to believers in all times and all places. But it is individual too. It is personal too. It's like God said to Daniel at the end of his prophetic book, go thy way till the end be, for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days. That word in the Hebrew means you will be in your assigned property. There was a place for Daniel prepared by his Lord. Just as your name, beloved, if you're a believer tonight, is written in the Lamb's Book of Life with the precious blood of Jesus, just as certainly Jesus has prepared a place for you in heaven. Once more, the Apostle Peter, an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you. Well, how do we know if this place is reserved for us? How do we know we're going to end up there? We don't need to know that our names are written in the Book of Life. We don't need a special revelation telling us that Jesus has selected you for a place in heaven. We just need to look in the mirror of the Word of God, particularly, for example, His Beatitudes. Do we see ourselves in that mirror? Blessed are the poor and spare, blessed are they that mourn, blessed are the meek, hunger and thirst after righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, persecuted. Now the question is not, are we all of these things in full measure all the time? But the question is, has the Lord taught us about our spiritual poverty? apart from Him? Has He caused us to mourn over our sins? Has He caused us to hunger and thirst after a righteousness that is not from us? And so on. These and other marks of God's children are given to us in Scripture so that we might know there is a place for us. And as we read, for example, in the Psalms, the ups, the downs, the thanksgivings, the failures, the groanings of the apostle, Romans 7, the bitter weeping of Peter after his betrayal of Christ. Still, there was a place for all of them in the Father's house because the blood of Christ is far greater, far more powerful than all our sins. So is Jesus Christ precious to you? I'm not saying all the time and in large measure, but is he precious to you? Can you deny that you know him, that you are leaning upon him? Is he not your refuge, your shelter, the one to whom you turn for forgiveness, for mercy, for strength, for wisdom? Peter says, unto you therefore which believe, He is precious. This is a prepared place for a people He is preparing. Jesus is not only preparing the place for us, He's preparing us for the place. That's what we call sanctification, the paring away of the flesh, the building up of the inner man. Of God's grace has convinced us that what we have earned It's not a place in heaven, but a place in hell. And if that spirit-taught realization has led us to Christ Jesus for mercy, for righteousness, to cover us, then be assured it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom for Christ's sake. This place is an eternal place. It is an abiding place because Jesus is an abiding King. Now you can compare that place to any place on earth. No place, no status, no pleasure here below can compare with that. Jesus made it plain. What shall a profit man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul? And then finally, the preparing Christ. Going back to the Jewish wedding, the groom-to-be speaking with his father, receiving permission to build onto the father's house. The day comes when the place is finished, and the bridegroom goes to the bride's home, and what does he say? All things are ready. And that's music to her ears. That means he has been preparing for her. He has been waiting for her. He's been laboring for her. And he is ready to receive her. And she attends him to this newly completed home. And the marriage is consummated, and then the feast begins. And what does Jesus say? If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again. and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye shall be also." It isn't as though Jesus prepares a place and says, okay, this place is for you and over there is for you and for you. No, he's calling us to himself. I want you where I am. He prayed to his Father that they may behold my glory, which I had before the foundation of the world. The reason we gather for worship every Sunday is because this is the day wherein the Lord was raised from the dead. But just as sure as he was raised from the dead and ascended into glory, so sure he is returning. So every Lord's Day, we should be thinking about he's raised to newness of life and he raised me to newness of life that I may meet him in the new life. In Revelation 1 verse 7 we read, Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him. Jesus himself described this day to his disciples so that we may anticipate it. Then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Even the seventh generation from Adam, Enoch, prophesied, behold, the Lord cometh with 10,000 of his saints to execute judgment upon all. I will come again and receive you unto myself. He receives us in spirit when we die. But when he returns in glory at the end, he will call forth our bodies to be reunited with our spirit and forever to be with the Lord. The bridegroom will come for his bride. Every last believer will come home and God's eternal purposes fixed from eternity past will finally be fulfilled for this world. So now, we're on a journey. We're passing through. We have our callings. We have our work to do as unto the Lord. Beloved, this is not our home. Thank God this is not our home. This is not all that we have to look forward to. The Old Testament saints, they realize we have here no continuing city. We are seeking a city whose builder and maker is God, a heavenly country, it says. They were on a journey. They were promised Canaan but never settled in Canaan because there was another home, home with the Father, home with the Savior, home with the Spirit, home with all of the saints who've ever lived and who ever will live. then it'll be a perfect home. It'll be a splendorous home. It'll be a home of incredible peace and undying security. It'll be a sinless home. It'll be a home full of love and full of joy and full of wonder because it's a home filled with him. He is the light thereof. He is the temple thereof. He is the home to which we are going. And that is, beloved, why we want to be strangers in pilgrims here. We don't want to settle here. We don't want to put our tent stakes so deeply. We don't want to be burdened with unnecessary weights that get in the way of our journey home. We want to set our affections on things above, where Christ sitteth on the throne. I will come again. I will receive you unto myself where I am. You will be. These are gospel truths. These are promises of the Savior. He will do it because he has said. And we want to be ready, don't we? Back to the parable at midnight there was a cry made. Behold, the bridegroom cometh. Go ye out to meet him. And so let's answer that cry. I shelter in thee. I am trimming my wicks. I am watching with one eye on my calling here below, but one eye anticipating thy return. I think I shared with you back in seminary days we had a professor And we were talking about the last days and he said, men, if you awake in the morning and are not disappointed that you haven't heard the sound of the trumpet, something's wrong with you. What a convicting message that was. And yet how true. I'm still here, Lord, how long? before I come home. And yes, we want to, as Paul says, to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better, but remaining may be necessary for our children, for our spouse, for other things we need to do in his time. But if we listen carefully, even now, we can hear his voice. He which testifies these things saith surely I come quickly. And the verb tense in those final verses of Revelation is present. He doesn't say surely I will come. He's saying surely I'm on my way and I'm doing so quickly. What shall our answer be when He comes? One of two things. If we're unprepared for His return, for His calling us to stand before Him, it'll be something like mountains fall on us, hills cover us from the face of Him that sits on the throne from the wrath of the Lamb. Or our response will simply be, Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus. So let us look up. Let us look ahead with longing, looking unto Jesus, not being passive in this matter, but praying, pleading, preparing with the Lord to give us a waiting attitude, to give us a pilgrim mindset, that when the day comes and we hear the sound of the trumpet, we may say with the Church of God, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. So indeed, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen. Let us pray.