When Your World Explodes - August 3 Readings: John 14:1-2 – Preparing a Place

John 14-16: When Your World Explodes

Jesus knew, the night before his death, that the disciples' world was about to be blown to pieces. He would be arrested, tried, and crucified. They'd committed themselves to Jesus and he would be gone. In this powerful message, Jesus prepared the disciples to live in peace and spiritual power when the world around them was falling apart.

We will take the next three weeks delving into this passage.

Today's Reading: John 14:1-2 

As time allows, read the entire sermon, John 14-16, to get a sense of the entire thrust of it. Here is the context, John 14:1-7. Our key verses today are verses 1-2. 

 John 14:1-7  

“Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also. 4 You know the way to where I am going.”

5 “Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?”

6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Through the Bible Readings: Job 17-18, Acts 25:13–27, Psalm 89:42–48, Proverbs19:12–14 

If you wish to read through the Bible in a year, follow these readings. 

Devotional:  Preparing a Place     

Jesus, the night he was betrayed, hours before he died, gathered his disciples together and gave them his "Farewell Discourse" (John 14-16) which gave them the spiritual resources needed to handle the turbulent and terrible days that lay ahead. With Romans 8, Psalm 23, 1 Corinthians 13, John 3, and several other passages, it is among the breathtaking Himalayan peaks of Scripture.

The sermon's first words border on the absurd. "Let not your hearts be troubled." In the next 24 hours, they would watch Jesus be arrested, tried, convicted, sentenced, beaten, condemned, mocked, tortured, paraded to Golgotha, and nailed to a cross. Well, to be honest, they wouldn't watch it because they would flee in fear. But their lives would be shattered completely as Jesus died on the cross in agony. Their world was about to explode. For Jesus to tell them not to be troubled by that is ridiculous.

Or it is miraculous. Either Jesus' words were cruel or he had provided all his disciples needed to walk in peace even when their world had been blown apart. The sermon repeatedly offers peace, a supernatural peace that is real even when the world around you is falling apart. That is the theme of the whole message.

The key is in the last half of verse 1. Believe in Christ. Rely on his resources to see you through whatever this world throws.

Verse 2 is one of those misunderstood Scriptures. Jesus said, "I am going to prepare a place for you." We imagine him up in heaven building us "mansions" (an unfortunate idea based on the KJV's use of an archaic word. When Jesus said these words, he was not heading to heaven, but to the Cross. It was there that he finished the work necessary to prepare a place for us in heaven.

 We have an eternal home that nothing in this world can shake because of what Jesus did on Calvary. Take heart, my friend. No matter how bad the storms, we have a glorious future ahead regardless of how difficult the road is that lies ahead.

Father, I thank you for the place in heaven your Son prepared for me when he went to the Cross. 

Think and Pray:

Are you facing difficult days?
Thank God for the resources you have in Christ, those eternal blessings not touched by earthly things.