Heaven prepared for you

John 14 “Let not your hearts 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 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. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

I would be lost without Google Maps. You just put in where you are, and where you want to go, and it’ll take you there. It'll even tell you the most efficient way to get there. Is the Mitchell freeway better or Wanneroo Rd better? Or Marmion Ave? It depends. Where do you wanna go? It’s no use figuring which way is better if you don’t even know where you want to go.

But of course, most people are happy to live their lives without knowing their final destination. Look, don’t worry about whether there’s a heaven or hell, just worry about being a good person now. But that’s like me telling you to be careful driving along Albany highway. It’s pointless unless of course I know I’m going to Albany.

The same thing is going on in this passage today. What Jesus does is he tells his disciples their final destination. Where are we actually going? And it’s only when you know that, then you’ll be able to find your way.

Previously, in chapter 13 Jesus tells his disciples that he’s going to be taken away from them. That one of them will betray him, and even Peter will run away. It’s like being told you’re going to fail before you even take the exam. I would be worried.

So, Jesus says Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In other words, trust me. Don’t worry, trust me. Why? Because our destination is heaven.

Jesus Prepares Heaven For Us

The big idea is this: Jesus Prepares a place in Heaven For Us. He guarantees it. Firstly, he promises Heaven. Look at verse 2.

2 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.

Jesus says in my Father’s house are many rooms. He’s talking about God, the Heavenly Father. And Jesus says that there is a place prepared for you and me in heaven. If there’s no heaven, no life after death, then what’s the point of Jesus living and dying? If there’s nothing at the end, would Jesus have gone through all that trouble? There must be, and Jesus says, there is.

You might be thinking, that’s cool but how is that practical? After I die, I’ll go to heaven, sure. But what about now? I rather God give me an investment property so at least I can collect some rent. Heaven is an investment that sounds good only on paper. Right? Only if you think of Heaven as just a place. Look at the emphasis in the passage!

2 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?[b] ] 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.

What makes heaven is the Father. And the relationship with God through Jesus. This is so practical.

Anyone here worry about finding a boyfriend or girlfriend? Wonder if you’ll cope being single your whole life and missing out on getting married? Jesus says, I’ll come again and take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. Single? Sure. Don’t worry. I’ll be with you.

Or what about your career? Anyone here worry about finding a job when you graduate?

Just stop and think about this. How different would uni be for you, if you knew you had a guaranteed job after you graduate? If you’re studying to be a teacher or a nurse or business, and you’ve already got offered a contract for when you graduate. How different would your uni experience be? Imagine a boss saying to you, look we really want you here. So don’t worry about how you going to get a job, just enjoy uni and make the most of your time while you still can.

Every worry we have has an expiry date. Best before. And what this passage does is it brings us past the expiry date, into the future, right to the end. Jesus is showing his disciples that they have nothing to worry about. Every worry we have has an expiry date. And they will expire. So don’t let your hearts be troubled.

Jesus guarantees heaven for us. Being with God in heaven is the final destination of every Christian. We know that, but of course getting there is the difficult part right. Jesus goes to prepare a place for us. cool. How do we get there? That’s the second thing.

The 2nd thing in this passage. Jesus prepares us to live in Heaven.

When Jesus says, I go to prepare a place for you, what do you picture? Surely not of Jesus making our beds? I don’t think it’s Heaven that needs preparing as though it’s deficient or missing something and Jesus is going to fix it up. No.

What needs preparing? Us. Here’s a tip for you, don’t ever go to a wedding in speedos. You’ll ruin it for everyone. It’s the same principle. If God lets us into heaven, with all our brokenness and all our worries, we’ll just ruin it.

And so Jesus says in verse 3, 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.

Where does Jesus go? Answer: To the cross! The cross of Jesus is where he sacrificed his own life to pay for our mistakes. Imagine finding yourself at a wedding in your speedos, or actually graduation day but you forgot. You came in your boardies or activewear whatever. They’re not going to let you up on stage to collect your degree wearing that. The cross is where Jesus takes off his robes and swaps it out with ours so we can be received and accepted. Jesus covers us by what he did and so prepares us for heaven.

Verse 4 carries on.

4 And you know the way to where I am going.”[c] 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.[d] From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

What Thomas doesn’t understand is he thinks Jesus is going somewhere to prepare that place. When actually, Jesus is talking about going to the cross and preparing us. When Jesus says, you know the way, he’s saying, you know me and I am the way. Not just the way, the truth and the life.

I will prepare you. I will get you there. I will guarantee heaven for you.

Can you guys see how this is getting us to look at the cross. See what Jesus did for us. And when we see it, we realise that getting to heaven is not something that we accomplish. We will never be able to prepare for heaven. Only Jesus can prepare us by going to the cross. It depends on Jesus. We know him, we know the way, because He is the way.

We always default to thinking that we prepare ourselves for God. That’s what religion is right, all different ways to the same thing. You know, show us the way and we’ll meet you there.

Jesus says no. I am the way. I will get you there. Jesus guarantees heaven for us. So I want to encourage all of us, it doesn’t matter where you are in life, doesn’t matter if you’re lost and can’t find your way. Jesus says I am the way. So lets bring ourselves before Jesus and get to know him. If we know him, we’ll know the way, because He is the way.