Please open your Bibles to the Gospel of John, chapter 14. And while you're turning to John 14, let me just give greetings to you from my church, Grace Community Church in St. Cloud, Florida. We're a Reformed Baptist Network sister church. It's a blessing to be here with you all. And let me apologize, I'm getting over a cold. I'm almost over it, but there's still some congestion. So I hope I will be able to speak clearly. You'll hear me. John 14, verses one through seven. Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 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? 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. And you know the way to where I'm going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. Let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We pray that you would open it to us now, or that you would show us yourself, that you would point us to Christ, that the gospel would be clear, or that you would work in the hearts of all who are gathered here. Lord, to save some, we pray for edification, sanctification, Lord, even repentance, that you would do your work by your Spirit's power, we pray in Christ's name, amen. Now, as a guest pastor coming in, we're just opening to a passage, unlike probably normally working through a book of the Bible, but in John 14, the context of what's going on, we are here in the last week of Jesus' life, This is after the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. So we're talking only a few days before the cross. And Jesus has spoken to his disciples about his betrayal. He's spoken to them about how some will deny him. And so you see in the passage he begins, let not your hearts be troubled. He's just giving them a lot of things that should be very troubling. I'm gonna be betrayed, you're gonna deny me, But don't let your hearts be troubled. Instead he conference his disciples with these words that we see in our passage. He speaks really some of what's gonna come, the death, resurrection, his ascension. There's a problem of sin. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And God's word tells us that the wages of sin is death. And so if all have sinned and fallen short, and the wages of those sin is death, then all of us are deserving of death. There's a problem. And so, again, we're moving to the cross. Jesus is going to the cross, he's gonna die, he's gonna pay the price for those sins. And often when we think of Jesus's work, we think of his work on the cross, but also the resurrection was part of Jesus's work. It was really proof that God the Father had received or accepted the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross. It's a proclamation of Jesus' victory over death. And for all of us who are in Christ, of our victory over death, that problem that we spoke of before, our sin, the wages of sin is death, but Christ has now conquered death. But his work is not done. Jesus' work. Now I want to be careful here. Maybe some of you already are. His work's not done. Let me clarify that his atoning work is accomplished. Christ accomplished that by perfectly living a righteous life that is then credited to our account, but also dying on the cross, the resurrection. He is atoned for our sins. He's conquered death. He is now seated at the right hand of the Father in high. He sat down because his work was done, right? But God's word also tells us that he's working at the right hand of the Father. What is it that he's doing there? He's interceding with the Father on your behalf, Christian. And so we know there's this ongoing work, but here he tells us that he's also preparing a place for us. He's making a place that's for all of you who have trusted in Him. I think there's also a sense in which He, by the Spirit, is preparing a people for a place. So let's talk about this place prepared. Look with me again at verses two and three. He says, 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? 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. Really, in many ways, as we think about what he's describing here in this place we're going to, I wanna take you back a little bit into really all of redemptive history. That's just a short topic to cover. Our church right now, we're going through the book of Exodus. And as we look at the book of Exodus, we see something happening there that is of great importance. Going all the way back to the garden, think of the relationship that Adam and Eve had with God. It says he walked with them in the garden. They had what we might call communion with God, unhindered by anything. And then they sinned. And they're at his, They realize that they don't have clothing, so they cover themselves. And that act itself is, in a way, symbolizing a breakdown in communion with God. They now feel an obligation to hide themselves in some form from God. And then when God does appear in the garden, they actually go hide, right? They hide from God. And the ultimate result of this is they're kicked out of the garden. And the garden's guarded so they can't come back in. And so my argument would be that all of human history, or we might call redemptive history, has been a working toward having communion with God again. Having a restoration of the garden, that unhindered relationship with God. And I would argue, we'll get there, but something greater even than what they had in the garden. So that's what we've been longing for. So you get to the book of Exodus, and you have a people who have been slaves in Egypt, in a polytheistic culture, all these other gods, and God takes them out of Egypt for himself that they might worship him. And in the process of the book of Exodus, we see the establishment of the tabernacle. Here's this place that's a model of heaven itself, which I would argue is also, in some ways, the garden was also a model of. And so you have here this place in the middle of them, and you read about this, we have three tribes on each side of the tabernacle, surrounding the tabernacle, and in the midst of God's people, there's God. And God now is gonna dwell in the midst of his people all over again. This is meant to be the most glorious event after the fall. So far, I mean, tracking with me, we're only in the book of Exodus book two, right? But still, this is a glorious moment. God is here in our presence dwelling among us. But there's still a problem. We begin to see the problem in the book of Exodus even when God appears on the mountain. Anyone touches the mountain, and they die. Well, God's there with us, but not really with us, right? Communion's not exactly happening when I can't touch the mountain. And in fact, when God speaks, the people are afraid, and they draw back, because they're afraid they're going to die in the presence of God. You think of Isaiah when he has that vision. Woe is me, for I'm undone. They see the glory of God and go, I can't get near that because I'm a sinner. But they get the tabernacle, God's there in their presence, and they get to go worship God in this model of heaven itself, his throne room, right? Well, yes and no. They don't get to go in very often. When they do, they go into the outer courts, but they don't get to go into the inner courts, unless they're a priest. They get to go into their courts, but they don't even get to go into the Holy of Holies unless they're the high priest, and then once a year. We're not exactly talking about the Garden of Eden, are we? God's not just coming to hang out with them every day. There's this process, and not everybody can get close to God, and if you're a foreigner, you don't come in at all. Later in the temple, there's the outer outer courts for the foreigner. You can't get that close to God. He's there, he's in our midst, but still they want more. They longed, I thought of the words of the book of Darnia, right? They longed to go further up and further in. They want more than what they have. And so God promises them something more, the promised land. They're gonna enter into a land that will be a place where God will dwell with them. There'll be a permanent house of God. He'll be there amongst them as their God. And so they long to enter this rest. That might be another way that we might speak of this communion with God. They long to enter this rest, this promised land. We read of Abraham then, who's looking for a home. Hebrews 11, 10 describes him. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. So Abraham leaves his home and goes to the promised land, early, early in the promise, but he goes to the promised land because he desires a home. Hebrews 11 is so powerful because you get to the end and it says, and none of these received what they had hoped for, what they had looked for. Abraham didn't get it in his life. What he longed for, he didn't get. He got a land, he got a place, his ancestors will live there, God will be among them, but that's still not really what's being promised, is it? They want something more. And so the promised land itself wasn't even enough. Hebrews 4, six through 11 says, since therefore it remains for some to enter it, that's at rest, and those who formerly received the good news, or the gospel, fail to enter because of disobedience. Now let me pause. Hebrews is speaking of this promise of the promised land, the rest, And you remember the first generation, they don't enter it. Now, that first generation is also those who had the tabernacle. God's with them in their presence, but because of their disobedience, they don't get to enter into that rest that was promised them. Okay, so going back to Hebrews 4. They formally received the good news, but they failed to enter because of disobedience. Again, he appoints a certain day, today, saying through David so long afterwards. In the words already quoted, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by that same sort of disobedience. So Hebrews is speaking of that desire to enter into the promised land and it says, But Joshua didn't give it to them. But he did, didn't he? I mean, really, he did, right? Joshua was the one that led them into the promised land. They got the promised land. What do you mean they didn't get it? If Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken to them another day later on. And so what's being communicated in the Hebrews is, as great as the tabernacle was, and then the promised land, as great as it was, with the temple, that's not what God was talking about. That's still a shadow of the reality. We still want more. The temple's not good enough. We long for something greater. I think C.S. Lewis has done a good job in speaking of this. He calls this the inconsolable longing. So I'm gonna read this quote from C.S. Lewis. Listen and see, is this true for you? Let me get a drink before. C.S. Lewis says, there have been times when I think we do not desire heaven. But more often I find myself wondering whether in our hearts, in our heart of hearts, we have ever desired anything else. It is the secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and unappeasable wont. the thing we desired before we met our wives or made our friends or chose our work in which we shall still desire on our deathbeds when the mind no longer knows wife or friend or work. Now, I said earlier during Sunday school that this is, I would come back to that same idea, but this is that theme that I was sharing about my wife expressing. You know, you're always looking for the next thing, and it's gonna satisfy me, it's gonna fulfill me. He's saying, C.S. Lewis says, sometimes I wonder if we don't desire heaven at all, or rarely ever desire heaven. But the reality is, we're always desiring heaven. We just wrongly attribute that to other things. We look for other things to be that rest, that communion, that satisfaction for our souls. And so we pursue Good things, friends, family, work, marriage, maybe education, accomplishment. We even pursue bad things. We look to sin to satisfy these desires, but nothing satisfies those desires. Elsewhere he says that if there's nothing in the world that satisfies these desires, the most obvious conclusion is we were made for another world. He's saying, so what we've all been longing for all this time is heaven. We just have sought it in the wrong places. We thought that this was what it was and it wasn't. And what I see in redemptive history is they're getting a bit of it, a taste of it. God's saying, here's what you're longing for, in part, in shadow. And as you acquire that, that's meant to make you long all the more for the reality, for something greater. which, let me argue, the passage in Hebrews 4, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Why do we have the Lord's Day worship? What do God's people gather on the Lord's Day to worship? You get to taste a bit of communion with God here, and make you long for heaven all the more. Revelation 21, verse three. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God. Do you realize what Revelation 21 three is? That is the fulfillment of what has been longed for ever since the fall. What do we want? The dwelling place of God is with man. We get a taste of that at the tabernacle, in the temple, in the promised land. But that's not the reality. We long for something far, far more. But now here we see in Revelation 21, God will dwell with man, he will dwell with them, they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. It's the restoration of the garden, but something even greater here. And so there's a work that we see in this passage that Jesus is doing for us, for you. A place prepared particularly for you. He's preparing a place of rest for you. Now as we think about this place, we don't wanna think about it apart from the person of Jesus Christ. There's a desire to be with Jesus. Now I've mentioned already Jesus is talking in this passage. Jesus is shared with them. He's gonna be persecuted, he's gonna die, they're gonna deny him. Now he's encouraging them with this. We think of Matthew 28 20, the Great Commission, Jesus says, and behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. So think about that longing to be with God. And I think sometimes if you have a time machine, imagine you could have a time machine go any time in history, where would you go? Well, for me, it's always, I think I'd wanna be there with Jesus in person to have seen him. And in particular, it's the road to Emmaus. When Jesus is walking with disciples, they don't realize who he is, and he shows them how all the scripture point to Christ. That's all I want, to sit down with Jesus and get a systematic, a Christocentric systematic theology course, how all the Bible points to Christ. Yeah, let him show me that, that would be great. And so sometimes we imagine that the disciples had it better than us. They got to walk with Jesus, God incarnate. Isn't that closer to the garden than what we've had? But remember, again, Matthew 28, 20, Jesus says, behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. And in John 16, seven, so a little bit further along in the Gospel of John from where we are, Jesus says this, nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. Really? Right, can you imagine Jesus is alive, he's walking with you, he's been training you for three years, you've had the best seminary education you could ever have, three years of Jesus discipling you, and he says, it's to your advantage that I go away. You're better off, understand that, advantage. You are better off if I leave you than if I stayed here with you. You guys buying that? But he explains why, he says, it's to your advantage I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. So realize, going back now to that redemptive history, okay? Realize the point that we're at is now a greater point than what was experienced in the incarnation. Christ comes and he walks among people. He's with them. But he says to the disciples, see, eventually I'll go away because I'm sending my Holy Spirit. And so for us now in the church age, we live at a time where if you're a Christian, the Spirit of Christ indwells you. Now this is all tying to union with Christ and what we'll be talking about this week at the retreat. but we have been united to Jesus Christ and Christ now indwells us by his spirit. And so that reality is greater than him being over here beside us walking in human flesh, the spirit indwelling us. Now some of you still aren't buying that, right? You're like, I don't know, I'd kinda like to walk with him. It's because part of that reality is we want more, don't we? Are we content just to have the Holy Spirit indwelling us? Don't we want something more? Don't we wanna be in the presence of God? We, like they before us, long for something more. We long for eternity with Jesus. And so, we're reassured that Jesus is returning. So, another stage in redemptive history. In John 14, three, our passage. And if I go and prepare a place for you, which he did, right, he ascended into heaven, I will come again and will take you to myself that where I am, you may be also. So there's a stage yet to come. Christ is returning. And when he returns, it's so that he can be with us in a way completely unhindered, a way that has not been experienced since the fall. 1 Thessalonians 4, 16 through 17. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command. with the voice of an archangel and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive, who are left, will be called up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. That's what we're longing for. That's that desire in us that maybe we have a hard time expressing. Colossians 3.4 says, when Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. When Christ who is your life, the substance of who you are, what you're made for, that that you've been longing for, not realizing, when he appears and you'll be with him always in his glory. And so we will be with him forever. So for the disciples in this moment in our passage, it appears like they're losing Jesus. But they're in fact gaining him forever. And not just in his incarnation, in an external reality of relating to him, but to spiritually be in his presence forever. To know an unhindered, unhindered by sin, time, even death, an unhindered communion with Christ. That's what they're gaining. So when he says that where I am you may also be, he's offering them something far, far greater than what they have now. It's better. Second Corinthians 5.8 says, yes, we are of good courage and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. Now that's kind of a weird thing to say. Paul's saying I would rather be dead that I would be alive. He's not suicidal. He's saying, "'Cause when I die, I will be at home." Now's not home, right? So if you're experiencing this reality, which I think all human beings do, this isn't home. This isn't satisfying me in this life. Isn't there something more? Where do I belong? Who am I? How do I fit into this world? The whole identity crisis that I spoke about during Sunday school, that our culture's going through right now, that we're attempting to answer with, well, you can be whoever you want to be, and then you'll be happy. But you're not. You're still unsure. You're still longing for something more. Why? Because home for us is with the Lord. That's what we've longed for since the fall. We were at home with the Lord, And then we worked. And ever since then, we've wanted to be home again. We want to be home. And so Paul says that's far greater, even in this life. We have to understand that Jesus's atoning work isn't just to save us from the consequence of our sin, to save us from hell, damnation, death, but God has saved us to have relationship with us. to bring us into his glory. Our passage, John 14, further in verse 23, we read, Jesus answered him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. It's this relationship with God. The tabernacle was a foretaste, but it was incomplete. One commentator, Tim Chester, he says this, like the most holy place, The city that John sees is a perfect cube. He's referring to Revelation 21. This means there's no longer a special sacred space. There's no longer a holy of holies. Now the whole city is a most holy place. We no longer visit God in his tabernacle. We inhabit the tabernacle. The new earth is the tabernacle. We will dwell in the Holy of Holies, all of us. I'm sorry, I'm combining my words and his words. The whole earth is God's house in which we dwell with him. John says, I did not see a temple in the city because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple, Revelation 21, 22. There is no place that is not tabernacle or temple. Everywhere is a temple because God is present everywhere. So in the Old Testament, high priests once a year could go into the Holy of Holies. And that had to be the scariest moment of his year. I'm entering into the presence of God. But now we, not in fear but in joy, will dwell in the Holy of Holies with God in that temple. So as we think about that in application, we might ask ourself, well, how does that happen? If that's what I've been made for, if that's really what me and everyone else has been longing for since the fall, how do I get there? And Jesus gives us the answer. Well, first he tells him, well, you know the way to where I'm going, right? I love Thomas's answer. I think he's so real. I don't even know what you're talking about. I don't know where you're going. How do we know how to get to where we're not, we don't know where we're going, how do we know how to get there? My GPS, what do I even tell it? What's the location, where are we going? Verse six, Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Where I'm going is to the Father. I'm taking you with me. And the way to get there is not with your GPS, it's by faith, it's in me. To believe in him is to have that life. Think of John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. So it's the belief, believing in Christ means to have life. Likewise, John 11, with the resurrection of Lazarus, a picture of our spiritual resurrection. We are spiritually dead creatures, and Christ saves us, brings us into new life. But Jesus says in John 11, 25, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And so the way to the place prepared, first off, is to understand that there's life in Christ. by belief in Him. We also have to understand that we are absolutely dependent upon Christ for redemptive truth and for eternal life. For redemptive truth and for eternal life. Without Christ, there can be no redemptive truth. There can be no eternal life. And therefore, there can be no way to the Father. Right, we live in an age that's pushing more and more toward pluralism. Right, whatever works for you, whatever truth it is, but in a religious sense, that's, how can you say your way is the one right way? What about someone who believes in Allah, and they're faithful in their belief in Allah? How do we address these things? God's word is very clear that there's one way, it's solely in faith in Jesus Christ. And apart from him, there is no way to the Father. Peter in his sermon in Acts 4, 12, he says, and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. And so you know where I'm going, no we don't, going to the Father, okay? How do we get there? Through faith in Jesus Christ. What about if I wanna go a different way? Nope, nope, no other way, this is it. Just this way, only by faith in Christ. And so I wanna encourage you, as we think about this, hopefully you've seen as we've gone through the passage that this is what we're made for. This is what, I think I can say unequivocally, everybody in this room, it's what you're longing for. Whether you realize it or not, you may think it's the next great thing once I graduate, once I get married, whatever it may be, this life achievement, if I get the promotion I've been looking for, then I will have reached the pinnacle of my joy. That's not it, is it? God's made you for something far, far greater. And so, if you've seen that, the encouragement, I'll go back to Hebrews 4 for this, be sure to enter that rest. Hebrews 4, verses 9 through 11. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest is also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. And the reference is back to the people, the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. Earlier, Hebrews 4, I read it said, They had the good news proclaimed to them. They had the gospel preached to them. And yet, because of their disobedience, they don't enter into the promised land. Spiritually, I'm sure you guys are aware, but spiritually, there's this illustration being made that we're in bondage to sin. We pass through, as it were, the waters of baptism, we're saved. We have the Christian life wandering in the wilderness. It's not our home. We're longing to cross over into the promised land, into heaven, to be with God in his presence. And you have this group, they're out there in the wilderness, and they don't make it. They don't enter into the promised land. because of their disobedience. And so we're warned by their example. Don't be like them in your disobedience. Seek, strive, make sure you're going to enter that rest. And so I'm here before you saying, there's this rest. There's communion with God. If you're a Christian, you've tasted of it already, make sure that you're a Christian. Make sure you enter that rest. If you haven't, then you've been seeking this. Strive, make sure that you enter into that rest. I don't know where that rest is or how to get there. I am the way, the truth, and the life Christ says. It's by faith in him. So the striving that we do isn't be as good as you can be. The striving is to be sure that you have trusted in Christ alone for your salvation. Now, if that's true of you, then you realize no matter what happens in this life, however hard it may be, one, we are united to Jesus Christ. Like I said for our retreat, that's where our identity is found in Christ. That defines our reality. But also we understand our destination. And to know your destination should change how you live and how you operate now. Philippians 3.20 encourages us in that way. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that not an application of our passage in John 14? He said, I'm gonna return. And Paul, he takes it and he applies it and he says, our citizenship, my home, where do I belong? It's not ultimately that I'm a Roman citizen or I'm American. I'm a Michiganian, I don't know what you call yourselves. Floridian, okay. That's not ultimately who I am. My citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a savior to come back, to return. Why? Because that's when I'll be at home. I'll be able to dwell in his presence forever. Think of how you prepare for a trip. Everybody prepares for trips differently. When our family goes on a trip, I think our family does a great job demonstrating the two extremes here, because I'm probably the craziest, most particular planner of trips you've ever seen. We went one time on a road trip, and I had a notebook. We were going to national parks. Which part we'd be at, the highest reviewed restaurant that we're going to eat at for lunch, what heights we would be. I mean, it's all in the notebook. It's all there. And my wife and kids are getting on the plane, like, where are we going, Dad? No thought given to it whatsoever. We're just, yeah, all right, we're along for the ride. And so part of my enjoyment, though, in planning for a trip is the planning of the trip, right? Sometimes the trip itself is disappointing. You know, I had all this planned, and it didn't really come off the way I'd hoped to. But that's not going to be the case with heaven, is it? Where we're headed is far greater than anything we've ever planned or thought about, but our encouragement is set our sights there. Focus upon that reality. And when we do so, it changes how we live. We're moving forward to a destination. We're longing to enter into that rest. We're striving to do so. It's not foremost about what happens day in, day out here on earth. We are being prepared to enter into the presence of God forever, to be with our Savior. Let me close with this last verse, Colossians 3, one through four. If then you have been raised with Christ, seat the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. If that's true of you, if you've been raised with Christ, if you're united to him, if your longing is to be his presence, then set your sights there. Longing for Christ's return, living even now, knowing that we've died to ourselves and our life now is hidden with him in Christ. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have given us this desire, this longing to be with you. And Lord, we confess that we have sought to fill that longing, Lord, with the creation, the stuff you've made, rather than the creator who is forever praised. Lord, we pray that you would break us from our spiritual idolatry, that you would give us a heart that longs to be with you in your presence, that we would long for heaven, that even now we would set our sights upon it and live for it. And Lord, we pray, if there are any in this room who have not trusted in Christ, Lord, that they would today, that they would know him to be the way and the truth and the life, that they would know him to be the only way that they can have what you've made them for. eternal life in your presence, communion with you, joy, fullness of joy, and pleasures forevermore in your presence. Lord, we long for that. We pray this in Christ's name, amen.