Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

Last Wednesday night we studied the text of John 14:1-3 but it is too good to let go. Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God, and 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 also be.” (John 14:1-3.)

Jesus talked about preparing a place for his disciples in His Father’s house. God’s abode is in heaven and obviously heaven existed prior to Jesus coming to the earth. The Lord is telling us that He is going to make it possible for us to go there. All have sinned (Rom. 3:23) and there is no one capable of deserving to go to heaven. But through our Savior’s death and resurrection we have the means of being saved and the hope of eternal life. Jesus said, “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16.) Anyone following the Lord’s command will be saved from past sins and then lives in a “new life” (Rom. 6:4) waiting for the Lord’s return. It is not about looking for “mansions” - just a simple dwelling will do as long as we are in the presence of the Lamb and the Father.

I have stood at many gravesides watching a loved one (or someone else’s) be buried. I have always thought on those sad days, “What an awful day for a funeral,” no matter what the weather was like. Fact is we don’t want to bury a loved one. But we can think back to that awful Friday 2000 years ago when Jesus was buried. They all wanted Him to stay in the tomb. He didn’t! He arose and is coming for His people to take them where He is in heaven. Hear Him say, “Let not your heart be troubled.”

First and foremost each one of us needs to be a Christian for that is the only way to experience the hope of living in our Father’s house one day. We need to make sure that we are all we can be in service to the Lord. Then when our time comes to depart this life, we know that death is gain (Phil. 1:21-23.) But there can be times when our heart is troubled when we see our loved ones rejecting the Lord who died for them as well. Christians with hope need to, and should, be doing all that can be done to encourage them to come to Christ. Many die everyday without the gospel and we must spread our hope among them. Don’t let another soul die without the Lord. That is troubling indeed.