Letters to the Prison - Week 160

Hello, everyone!  We’re continuing our study of John.  As we close out chapter 13, we see that Jesus, in the wake of predicting his own betrayal (John 13:21), has asked an extremely challenging question: “Will you lay down your life for me?”  He’s also answered that question with alarming accuracy: “The rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times” (John 13:38).  These are stunning things to say… and what they imply about the state of the disciples’ hearts at this moment is gravely disturbing to say the least.  Jesus, knowing this, has more to say:
  • “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me."  -John 14:1

We just saw how Jesus clearly claimed to be God (John 13:31-32).  Here, he is encouraging his disciples to take heart and believe.  This command to believe is followed by an astonishing revelation / prediction / promise:
  • "In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." -John 14:2-3

So, Jesus is going where his disciples cannot follow… yet.  Specifically, he’s going to his Father’s house --Heaven.  While he’s there, Jesus will prepare a place for those who believe in him.  This reality is so certain that it’s followed by a promise and a prediction:  Jesus will return to collect his people and bring them to the place he has prepared for them.  

As mind-blowing as this little glimpse of heaven and the subsequent promise is, we should take a moment to sit with the language being used here and what that language implies.

First, recall what John the Baptist said about Jesus back in chapter 3:
  • "The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice." -John 3:29

John the Baptist is describing himself as the best man… and Jesus as the bridegroom.  Next, if you read Matthew 25:1-13, you can get a really good glimpse of what a wedding celebration in those days looked like.  Specifically, people waiting expectantly for the return of the groom to claim his bride.  What’s not said in that parable is that the groom has been away… at his father’s house… preparing a place for he and his bride to live together.

Lastly, consider the last two chapters of Revelation and what they say about the bride of the Lamb.  Jesus is the Lamb (John 1:29), and his bride is his redeemed Church:  The entire collection of people who do precisely what Jesus commands in the verses we’ve just been studying:  Believe in Jesus, love God, and love each other.  We need to sit with these thoughts for a while.  Maybe it’s strange to think of ourselves as someone’s bride.  Perhaps it’s unimaginable to think that the God of the universe loves us the way a perfect groom loves his bride.  And yet these are the realities Jesus describes.  From the certainty of these realities come astonishing promises and a glorious future that is so certain that to set our minds on it should encourage us through the worst of trials.  Is that where your mind is set today?  Pray, dear friends, that we would find encouragement in the amazing promises of Jesus.  We love you!

Dean A.

Recent

Archive

 2022
 November
A Day of Celebration?Letters to the Prison - Week 25Letters to the Prison - Week 26Letters to the Prison - Week 27Letters to the Prison - Week 28Letters to the Prison - Week 29Letters to the Prison - Week 30Letters to the Prison - Week 31Letters to the Prison - Week 32Letters to the Prison - Week 33Letters to the Prison - Week 34Letters to the Prison - Week 35Letters to the Prison - Week 36Letters to the Prison - Week 37Letters to the Prison - Week 38Letters to the Prison - Week 39Letters to the Prison - Week 40Letters to the Prison - Week 41Letters to the Prison - Week 44Letters to the Prison - Week 45Letters to the Prison - Week 46Letters to the Prison - Week 47Letters to the Prison - Week 48Letters to the Prison - Week 49Letters to the Prison - Week 50Letters to the Prison - Week 51Letters to the Prison - Week 52Letters to the Prison - Week 53Letters to the Prison - Week 54Letters to the Prison - Week 55Letters to the Prison - Week 56Letters to the Prison - Week 57Letters to the Prison - Week 58Letters to the Prison - Week 59Letters to the Prison - Week 60Letters to the Prison - Week 61Letters to the Prison - Week 62Letters to the Prison - Week 63Letters to the Prison - Week 64Letters to the Prison - Week 65Letters to the Prison - Week 66Letters to the Prison - Week 67Letters to the Prison - Week 68Letters to the Prison - Week 69Letters to the Prison - Week 70Letters to the Prison - Week 71Letters to the Prison - Week 72Letters to the Prison - Week 73Letters to the Prison - Week 74Letters to the Prison - Week 75Letters to the Prison - Week 76Letters to the Prison - Week 77Letters to the Prison - Week 78Letters to the Prison - Week 79Letters to the Prison - Week 80Letters to the Prison - Week 81Letters to the Prison - Week 82Letters to the Prison - Week 83Letters to the Prison - Week 84Letters to the Prison - Week 86Letters to the Prison - Week 87Letters to the Prison - Week 88Letters to the Prison - Week 89

Categories

Tags