John 14:1-4

            Christ’s first provision for us is a promised place.
          Jesus has said He is going away and where He is going they cannot come (13:33).  But now He says He is preparing a place for them where they will be able to be together.  This place is…..

·        God’s dwelling place (my Father’s house).  It is the place also called heaven (Jn 6:51), a kingdom (Eph 5:5), a country (Hb 11:16), a rest (Hb 4:9), Paradise (Rev 2:7), and a city (Hb 11:10,16; 13:14).

·        A resting place (mansions or dwelling places, a place to rest securely, v2). 

·        A bountiful place (many dwelling places, v2).

·        A real place (words make that clear).  The Bible uses heaven to refer to the atmospheric heaven (Gen. 1:20), the planetary heaven (Gen. 1:17), a Paradise (where God is; Psalm 2:4; 2 Cor. 12:2,4).

·        Christ’s dwelling place (where I am, v3).

·        A fellowship place (you may be also, v3).

·                    A prepared place (v3).
          What Jesus is really doing here, at the beginning of His provision, is to give the disciples hope.  They are troubled by news of Jesus’ departure.  He assures them that they will be together again.
          One cannot underestimate the importance of hope as a sustaining quality during times of difficulty.  In his book Man’s Search for Meaning Victor Frankl argued that the loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect on man.  As a result of his experience in a Nazi concentration camp, Frankl contended that when a man no long possesses a motive for living, no future to look toward, he curls up in a corner and dies.  Any attempt to restore a man’s inner strength in camp had first to succeed in showing him some future goal.
          The life that Jesus calls us to has difficulties.  This He promises (16:33).That difficulty involves our pilgrimage here on earth while Christ is physically separated from us.  What will sustain us is the conviction that Christ will return. 
          Paul said it this way:  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us (Rom. 8:18).  John said, Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.  And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (1 John 3:2-3).
          Do not be troubled.  Whether by death or at His coming, Christ will come to take us to the place He is preparing for us.  With an eye on that place we will have an enduring hope that will strengthen us for our life on earth.