Home

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. -- John 14:1-3

Heaven would be hell to me without Christ. —Thomas Goodwin

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John 14 opens on the final night before Christ's crucifixion as Jesus shares one last Passover meal with His disciples. The disciples, anticipating that Christ was about to establish an earthly kingdom, began to argue (again) over who should be the greatest in the kingdom. And Jesus responded to their show of pride by washing their feet, including the feet of His betrayer, Judas Iscariot (John 13). On this last night, Jesus also instituted the Lord's Supper that we observe in His remembrance to this day.

Meanwhile, the plans of the chief priests were finally beginning to take shape. They were seeking an opportunity to arrest Jesus privately and Judas agreed to help them, but for a price. This man Judas, this son of perdition who walked with Jesus for three years, this man who saw the wonderful character and nature of Christ, this man who had a front-row seat to witness the miracles of Christ, this man who was given the privilege of walking with God incarnate betrayed Him for thirty pieces of silver. But in the end, Judas sold his own soul as well.

In the meantime, back in the upper room, Jesus was busy ministering to His disciples. Even though He knew those same disciples would soon abandon Him. And even though He knew the chief priests would soon come for Him like a pack of wolves. This is worth taking note. It is not typical for someone who is in great distress and pain to think of others. In fact, pain has a way of causing us to focus on self all the more. But that was not true of Christ. In His darkest hour He comforted others. And the same comfort and grace that He extended to the disciples, He extends to us as well.

The disciples did not really understand the trials that awaited them. But Christ comforted, strengthened, and prayed for them nevertheless. And I will say it again, that same comfort is extended to every believer. We do not know all of the trials that await us either. Even at this moment, many Christians are facing trials of every sort. It has been said that Christians are in one of three places: in a storm, coming out of a storm, or about to go into a storm. And Christ speaks the same words of comfort to us that He spoke to the disciples on that night -- Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

In the coming chapters of John's Gospel, Jesus will say many things to comfort and encourage believers with troubled hearts. But this week, I will focus on just one thought -- home. Jesus reassured every believer that He has gone to prepare a place for us in the Father's house, and that place is our real home.

Exile

There are over six billion people on the planet, and not everyone is fortunate enough to have a place to call home. If you're reading this, you are probably one of the fortunate ones. And, as the saying goes, "Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home." At best, home is the place where we feel safe, comfortable, and at ease. It is also the place where we find rest. But even more than that, home is an idea, and in many ways, it is an unattainable idea.

We live east of Eden and mankind lives in exile from the Garden of God. We have been banished from His presence and the way is closed and guarded by an angel who wields a flaming sword (Genesis 3:24). Because of sin, mankind was evicted from the Garden, from the presence of God, from true rest and from our true home. It has been said that this collective memory of exile is stamped on every soul.

Because of this, even if we are fortunate enough to have a place to call home, we do not always feel completely at ease, nor do we feel completely at rest. In fact, home can be a place of turmoil and unrest. At best, there is always something that needs to be done, something out of place, or something in disrepair. Things are never ideal. At worst, home can be place of stress and strife between family members. It can be a place where we stare up at the ceiling during the night as we eat the bread of anxious turmoil. Life is always disjointed in some way. Whatever home we have, it is just the best we can do. It is our imperfect refuge from a troubled world. But even the best home this world has to offer will not save us from a troubled heart. Where do we find rest when the trouble is in our own soul?

It is into the troubled soul that Jesus speaks -- In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John 16:33). Furthermore, He promised to go and prepare a place for us, our true home that no one can take away.

I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same. -- C.S. Lewis

In reality, Christians are pilgrims and sojourners in this life, and this world is not our true home (1 Peter 2:11). The patriarchs rejoiced in their pilgrim status, and we are admonished to do the same. They looked beyond this world to a city whose builder and maker is God.

For he [Abraham] was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God...

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. -- Hebrews 11:10, 13-16

If that sounds like a trite cliché, it is because so few of us who profess Christ really believe it. We have invested everything we have and everything we are in this life. As a result, we have no true longing or anticipatory joy for heaven, our true home, and that is tragic. How is it that we often invest all of our hopes in the empty promises of this broken world when Christ has promised eternal joy?

Ironically, because we are guilty of seeing our fleeting time in this broken world as more important than eternity, our joys in this life are also diminished. C. S. Lewis said, "Aim for heaven, and you get earth thrown in. Aim for earth, and you get neither."

Two Cities

I'm always amazed when I drive on the freeway past a big city. The tall buildings and bright lights are always an impressive sight. But when I get off the freeway, the picture is very different. I see litter in the streets, crime, homelessness, broken people and broken lives; and this is the best that man can do.

It is just a reminder that, upon closer inspection, the City of Man has an impressive veneer, but underneath it is badly broken and increasingly dark. In stark contrast, the City of God grows increasingly bright and glorious because of the person and work of Christ. It reminds me that Christ has gone to prepare a place for us, the true Shining City on a hill. A place where God, the fountainhead of all joy, will dwell in the midst of His people in unbroken fellowship forever.

In Christ, we find rest for our souls and we find our true home. Paradise lost becomes Paradise found. The angel puts away his flaming sword, and the veil in the temple is torn in two. What we lost in the first Adam is abundantly restored in Christ, the last Adam. Christ has gone to prepare a place for His people, there will be no more sorrow or death, and He will wipe away every tear from our eyes. The exile will be over and we will be home at last. Knowing that my eternal future is secure in Christ gives me unspeakable joy in this life, and great comfort when my heart is troubled and the storm rages...

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, His covenant, His blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,

Oh, may I then in Him be found;

Dressed in His righteousness alone,

Faultless to stand before the throne.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand,

All other ground is sinking sand.

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