Renewing Your Mind is a radio production of Ligonier Ministries. The purpose of Ligonier Ministries is to awaken as many people as possible to the holiness of God by proclaiming, teaching, and defending God's holiness in all its fullness. In order to fulfill that mission, Ligonier Ministries has been producing Christian education materials designed to fill the gap between Sunday school and seminary. For more than 35 years, we've been accomplishing this mission in many ways. The Renewing Your Mind broadcast is one of those ways. To find out more about Ligonier Ministries and how you can help us fulfill this mission, give us a call at 1-800-435-4343. Again, that's 1-800-435-4343. A resource consultant is waiting for your call. Why did Jesus leave his disciples behind in the world? Stay tuned, Renewing Your Mind Weekend Edition is next. Welcome to this weekend edition of Renewing Your Mind with author and teacher Dr. R.C. Sproul. Dr. Sproul is also the Senior Minister of Preaching and Teaching at St. Andrews, a Reformed congregation in Sanford, Florida. On the night Jesus was betrayed, he told his disciples he was going away. And what we know about God, this was all part of his divine plan of redemption. Of all the theoretically possible things he could have chosen to do, leaving the disciples on earth in his absence was part of the plan. So why did Jesus go away? Perhaps we cannot answer that question exhaustively, but one thing we know for sure, He went to prepare a place for them. What does that mean for us? Today on Renewing Your Mind, as we continue our study of the Gospel of John, Dr. Sproul will remind us of the steadfast and precious promise of Jesus to prepare a place for His people in His Father's house. Here now is Dr. Sproul with today's message, A Place for You. This morning we'll be reading from the fourteenth chapter of John's Gospel. Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions, and 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. And where I go, you know, and the way you know.' And Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. And how can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. He who has ears to hear the word of God, let them hear. the fourteenth chapter of the gospel according to Saint John, begins with those words with which we are familiar, let not your hearts be troubled. But I remind you this morning that when John penned this gospel, He did not divide it into chapters and to verses. It was of one piece, one whole cloth. And only later in church history were the Gospels and the Epistles divided into chapters and verses. In fact, in this case, the chapter division is in the very middle of a saying or utterance of Jesus that takes place here in the upper room. And so to understand it, let's back up a little bit. First of all, back in chapter 13, verse 21, we read this, when Jesus had said these things, He was troubled in His spirit And he testified and said, most assuredly I say to you, one of you will betray me. So chapter 14 begins with Jesus' admonition to his disciples that they not allow their hearts to be troubled, where just a few moments before that the gospel writers tell us that Jesus' heart was troubled. And what had troubled him so deeply was not only his impending humiliation and passion, but also that it would come to pass historically through the treachery of his closest friends, and his heart was troubled to have to make the announcement there at the Last Supper to his friends that one of you is going to betray me. Now when the disciples heard that, we are told in chapter 13 that they were perplexed and that they were troubled. And then we follow through the events that are recorded there to the discovery that it is Judas who is the one who is going to betray Jesus, and Jesus dismisses him from the upper room saying, what you're about to do, do quickly, and sends him out into the night. And then chapter 13 ends with the exchange that takes place between Jesus and Peter. Let's look at that. Verse 36. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? Jesus said, where I'm going, you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow me afterwards. Peter said, why can't I follow you now? I'll lay down my life for your sake. Jesus said, will you? Will you, Peter? Will you lay down your life for my sake? Let me tell you something. I say to you, the rooster shall not crow until you have denied Me three times—betrayal, And no sooner does Jesus make this revelation to Peter saying, you're going to deny me three times, He takes a breath and says to all who are assembled, but let not your hearts be troubled. Do you see that? that the immediate context for Christ telling His people not to allow their hearts to be driven to despair is after He has announced His betrayal and His denial. And what our Lord is saying is that what I'm about and what your faith is about is much greater and much higher than this insidious response of denial and betrayal. Let's look further at the text. Let not your hearts be troubled. Now listen to how Jesus reinforces this mandate. He said, you believe in God, believe also in me. Now just for a second, bear with me and my love for the technical points of the text. The structure of the Greek here and the verbs that are found in it can be read either as indicatives or as imperatives, or in one case an indicative and in the other case an imperative, because the structure is the same. And so there are basically three alternative readings to what the text says. One way we can read it is this, where Jesus is saying, you believe in God and you believe in Me, both indicatives. Or it could be taken this way, believe in God as an imperative and believe in me as an imperative. Or it can be taken as our translator takes it for us today, you believe in God, indicative, believe also in me, imperative. And frankly, I agree with the selection of the translator here today, where the translator is saying that what Jesus says to them in order for their hearts to be calmed down, in order for them to have an abiding faith that is not going to be destroyed by the events of human evil. Jesus is saying, you know that God exists. You believe that God exists. And if you believe that God exists, then believe also in me. Now let's back up a little bit in John's gospel here. Do you remember way back in chapter 3 when we looked at Nicodemus who came to Jesus by night and he said to Jesus in this cryptic encounter, he said, good teacher, we know that thou art a teacher sent from God or you would not be able to do the things that you do. Now Nicodemus was not part of the inner circle of the disciples of Jesus. Presumably he was not an eyewitness of all of the things that they had seen with their eyes, but he had seen enough and heard enough to know that this Jesus, whatever else he was, was a teacher sent from God, somebody who spoke the unvarnished truth of God. Now put yourselves for a moment in the shoes of the disciples who are listening to Jesus now in chapter 14. Consider what they had seen. They had seen water turned into wine. They had seen a raging storm on the Sea of Galilee instantly calmed by the command of Jesus. They had seen the blind receive their sight, the deaf receive their hearing. They were there when Jesus walked on the water. They were there at the tomb of Lazarus. They had seen Jesus bring the dead back to life. If anyone in all of history had reason to trust the teaching of Jesus. It was these folks who were with him that night in the upper room. So listen to what he said. You believe in God? Then believe me. And then he gives this magnificent revelation. In my Father's house are many mansions. And if it were not so, I would have told you. Beloved, I don't think there's any text in all of the New Testament that gives me more comfort, that calms the troubling of my own heart, more than the verse that I just read to you. When Jesus is talking now in the midst of this turmoil, in the midst of the fear, not only has He spoke of betrayal, not only has He spoken to them of denial, but the central message that He had given them in the last few minutes had been of His departure. I'm leaving. I'm going. And He's going to the cross, but now He points His disciples beyond the morrow to Sunday. He points His disciples beyond the cross to Easter when He said, in my Father's house are many mansions. It's better translated, many rooms, and even better than that, many suites. And before we explore that further, let me remind you what He said, if this weren't so, I would have told you. I'm going to imagine for just a moment that I had the privilege of walking with Jesus of Nazareth for three years. And I'd like to imagine that I was there when He turned the water into wine, and I saw it with my own eyes. I was in the boat when it was ready to capsize, when He said, be still, and the sea became like glass. I was there. in the fog when I looked outside of the boat and I saw Christ approaching, walking on the water. I was there when He took a handful of fish and a few loaves of bread and fed five thousand people. I was there when He raised the widow of Nain's son. I was there when He raised Jairus' daughter from the dead. I was there when He healed the paralytic. I was there by the tomb of Lazarus, where by divine fiat death was conquered, and I saw it. Imagine that I've been able to see all of those things and hear this, and then I come up to Jesus and I have this conversation and I say, Jesus, your teaching is marvelous and your power is beyond description. But the question that haunts me is the oldest question of the human race. It is the question that Job raised in the Old Testament. Lord, do you remember the question, if a man dies, will he live again? Jesus, I want so much to believe that life goes on beyond death. I can't stand to think that all of my labor, all of my turmoil ends in death. But at the same time, Lord, I know that just because I want something like that to happen doesn't make it happen. That it could be a fancy of my imagination, it could be wish projection and all of those things, just a fantasy to keep us going. And then I hear Jesus as He turns to me in my troubled heart, and He says, R.C., if it weren't so, if this were not true, if this was a myth of human hope, I would have told you. R.C., it would be cruel for me to let you go on living your life in commitment and hope and devotion to something that is not based in reality. But the reality, R.C., is this. In my Father's house are many suites. And the idea is not a cubicle, not a monk's He's talking about palatial accommodations. Many years ago, we were with a tour and somehow the hotel there had misplaced our reservations and they were embarrassed when we got there because they didn't have enough rooms for all of the people who were with us in the trip. And in order to compensate, they gave us rooms that we had not booked and they gave to Vesta and to me the royal suite. And I was thinking of that last night, that that was the most fantastic hotel room we've ever been in in our lives. And let me tell you what, don't even try to count how many hotel rooms we've been in in our lifetime. But this one was far and away the most plush. It was the royal suite. that gave us a taste of heaven. Because that's what Jesus is saying here. In my Father's house are many sweets, many magnificent dwelling places. And you want to know where I'm going? I'm going to my Father's house. And you want to know why I'm going to my Father's house? I'm going to prepare one of those sweets for you. Anyone who knows Ligonier Ministries knows Maureen Bookman, who is my executive administrator. Well, when Maureen books reservations for me in a hotel, those reservations are booked. She's not called Bookman for nothing. And when I get to my destination and come up to the room clerk, you know, they say, oh yes, your room's ready. We know all about you. We've talked to Maureen seven or eight times. I mean, they know her by name. But there's nothing worse for a weary traveler than to come to your destination tired, exhausted, walk up to the hotel lobby, the place of registration, and we seem to have lost your reservation. or, sorry, we've overbooked the hotel, and you were sent on your way to scramble for a place to stay. Well, the best thing that you can have in this world is to have Maureen Bookman make your reservations. But even with Maureen's reservations, I've had that experience that I've just mentioned more than once. But when Christ makes the reservation, there is absolutely no possibility that there'll be no room for you in the Father's house. I go to prepare a place for you. And the reason I'm doing that is simple. that where I am, you may be too." You see, the great news of Easter is not simply that Jesus rose from the dead, as magnificent as that message is. The good news for us is that He rose as the firstborn of many brethren. that He rose as the first fruits, that He rose for our justification, and in His victory over the grave, He shares it to all who put their trust in Him so that His resurrection becomes the final and absolute assurance of our own. Does death scare you? Let me say to you with all sincerity, there is not an ounce of fear in my soul or in my heart or in my mind about death. In one sense, I can't wait for it, for what it means. If you ask me about dying, that's another question. That's where my heart gets trouble because I'm not sure how that transition is going to be made. I don't worry about what happens after I take my last breath in this world. I can't wait to be escorted into my father's house. But the way to it goes through the valley of the shadow of death, which can be a very frightening place. And if all we see is that horrid, pale face of death before us, our hearts will be nothing but troubled. But the sting is gone, because Jesus Christ is risen today. You're listening to Renewing Your Mind Weekend Edition with R.C. Sproul as he takes us through the gospel of John. What do you do when you lose your job, when your spouse betrays you, when the news of the world causes great anxiety? All of us deal with different difficult problems. The question is, how will we respond? Dr. Sproul has put together a six-part series designed to help Christians sort through life's difficulties with a biblical perspective. If you'd like to get a copy of the Dealing with Difficult Problems series, it's available on three CDs for a donation of any amount today. Our toll-free number is 1-800-435-4343. Again, that's 800-435-4343. Or you can go online to rymoffer.com. That's R-Y-M as in renewing your mind. And the word offer dot com. In the Dealing with Difficult Problems series, Dr. Sproul offers wise biblical counsel to help us as we face life's difficulties, pointing us to the sovereignty of God and the sufficiency of Christ. Our toll-free number is 1-800-435-4343. Again, that's 800-435-4343. Or you can go online to rymoffer.com. That's R-Y-M as in renewing your mind and the word offer.com. That web address is for this week's special offer only. That'll bring a close to this weekend edition of Renewing Your Mind. Thank you for being with us. Join us again next weekend as Dr. Sproul continues to take us through the Gospel of John. Until then, you can keep up with us on Facebook at Facebook.com slash Ligonier. Ligonier is spelled L-I-G-I-N-I-E-R. O-N-I-E-R. You're listening to Renewing Your Mind, Weekend Edition, the listener-supported radio outreach of Ligonier Ministries in Orlando, Florida.