Jesus' discourse in the Upper Room addresses the disciples' troubled hearts by explaining the nature of the Father's house and His own departure. He reassures them that His going away is to prepare a place for them in the many chambers of His Father's house, contrasting this with the temporary tabernacle and Solomon's temple. The sermon emphasizes that Jesus Himself is the way, the truth, and the life, through whom believers can access the Father and find eternal life. The ultimate hope presented is Christ's return to receive believers to Himself, where He is, in the eternal dwelling of the Father's house.
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I should have mentioned that we were in the hospital this week to see our beloved brother Andy in the nursing home at the dock. Now, Andy would greatly appreciate having visitors. Don't stay too long, but he'd love to have you in there. Andy's in a very, very bad way, and it would be nice to have fellowship with him if we could. And Mrs. Demarest is also in a bad way. And she's in the Bradford County Hospital at Stark. That's just beyond the nursing home. And she would like visitors, but please do not stay.
Not more than two minutes. She's very sick. Pray for these people, please. Mrs. Thorny is home, but very weak. Mrs. John Marr is making progress, but slowly. She was at the first meeting. They'll keep praying for these. I had a call just at the end. You've noticed that the two calls came on the phone here. But the second call, just at the end of the meeting, was from Mr. Zerscher. Brother Zerscher said, will you ask Mrs. Norman to come down immediately? So I asked her, and I said, what's the matter? He said, she said, Mrs. Zerscher is ill, taken ill, and they want me down there.
So I've got a lot of things to pray for. I keep telling you what Brother Miller says. It all begins at Timothy. Fourteenth chapter of John, please. Fourteenth chapter of John's Gospel. For those of you that are visiting, we've been studying in John's Gospel. I was looking up some of my notes and I found I started talking on John's Gospel. in June, nineteen seventy-one. That's three years ago. We're still going. But if you don't get bored and tired, we'll keep on going.
John fourteen, verse one. Let not your heart be troubled. How we need this in these days. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also. Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas says unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way?
Jesus says unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. May God bless his own precious word. Shall we pray? Blessed God, our Father, we bow before thee now to thank thee for bringing us together in this way. We thank thee for thy precious word we have in our hands. And we ask thee, Lord, that the Holy Spirit of God might take this word of God and apply it to our waiting heart this morning. Speak, Lord, to each one of us, we pray thee. And may thy name be glorified in our lives as a result of this meeting. We ask it in our Savior's precious and worthy name. Amen.
Our subject last Sunday was in the upper room. Our subject this morning is the Father's House. Not last Sunday, I wasn't speaking last Sunday, two weeks ago. The Father's House. There are two new subjects in this chapter that John has not mentioned before. One is the Father's house, and the other is the words of the Lord Jesus. The words of the Lord Jesus, I will come again. He had mentioned this before. This is entirely new to these waiting disciples. I'd like you to notice in this section in the upper room there are four questions.
I have noticed in reading John's Gospel that it seems on many occasions the Lord just simply answers questions, you know. The talk with Nicodemus, Nicodemus asks him three questions and the Lord answers them. And you can summarize the talk with Nicodemus that way. Master, we know thou to teach a come from God. No man can do these things that thou doest except God be with him, and the Lord answers. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom. Then he says, how can a man be born again? And then later down he says, how can these things be? Three questions. The first one wasn't really a question. And the Lord answers them at length. Now in this talk in the upper room, it seems to develop out of three questions.
Chapter thirteen and verse thirty-six, Simon Peter said unto him, Whither goest thou? Chapter fourteen, verse six, verse five, Thomas said unto him, We know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? And then further down, verse eight, Philip said unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us. And then down in verse twenty-two, Judas said unto him, Not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world. There are four questions. One is hardly a question, but the Lord answers each one of these questions of the disciples.
Now, the one before us this morning is really Peter's question, chapter thirteen and verse thirty-six. Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? I remember once when I was working in an airplane factory in Greece, one of the Greek officers, I think he was a captain in the Air Force, I always noticed when I went into his office he had a large Greek Bible, and the Greek Bible is about so thick. And it's a, he had a modern Greek Bible. Now the Greek Orthodox Christians will not read the modern Greek. They read the, what we call in this country, the Koine, which is the Greek of the Apostle Paul, which is not spoken in Greece today.
Although if you know one, you almost know the other. This officer said to me, I believe he was a born-again believer. I often talk to him, always in his own language, but I believe he was a born-again believer, although he was connected to the Orthodox Church. And he said to me, I noticed on the posters and hoardings and advertising around the city, they're showing a picture called Kovades. Kovades. A Roman, something like Ben-Hur kind of a picture. I've never seen it. Never seen Ben-Hur either. But that kind of a thing about all Roman chariots and the death of the Lord, the crucifixion, and so on.
Kravatis, you might have heard of it. There's a book called Kravatis. And Kravatis in Latin means, whither goest thou? And he said to me, in Greek, he said, that means, Puyapagis, where are you going? Now he said, back in the Bible. Somebody said that to the Lord, to Apakis. You know, I had to think a little while, and I said, let me have your Bible, and I opened it to the thirteenth chapter of John, and here it was. Peter said unto him, and in grief he says, to Apakis, where are going now? Where are going now?
You see, the Lord had told them that he's going to leave them. Verse thirty-three, Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You shall seek me, and as I said to the Jews, whither I go, ye cannot come, so now I say unto you, I am going to leave you. They said, Where are you going? Peter said, Good, Pagish, where are the goings now? And there were three reasons that made their hearts troubled. Let not your hearts be troubled. The one reason was Judas' treachery. They little, little dreamed that Judas was a deceiver. They didn't know that.
They had enough confidence to let Judas hold the bag and keep the money. They didn't know, but they had learned sitting at the table that night after the washing of their feet. They had learned when the Lord said, one of you should betray me. They had learned that Judas was a traitor. And it says very, very clear in verse twenty-seven. After the sop, Satan entered into him. And it says in verse thirty-one, verse thirty, he then having received the sop, went immediately out, and it was night. And I think it was night outside, the darkest night in history.
But I think there was a kind of a gloom that fell over that supper table. He said, don't let your hearts be troubled, but how could it be otherwise? One of their own number whom they loved, and the Lord said at him, we went to the house of the Lord together, my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, he's lifted up his heel against me. Treachery, treachery, and their hearts were troubled. Now the second reason for troubled hearts was the fact that the Lord had just said to Peter, Peter said, I'll follow thee, Lord. He said, Thou canst not follow me now. He said, I'll lay down my life for thy sake. Jesus answered, wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake?
I say unto thee, barely, barely I say unto thee, that cock shall not crow, for thou hast denied me thrice. Peter, they're leader. Peter, the one that had so much to say. The one to whom, on whom they leaned, Peter. The Lord said, Peter, before the cock crows tomorrow morning, you're going to deny me three times. Don't you think they had a reason to have troubled hearts? I did. The Lord says, Judas had turned out to be a treachery. Peter had denied him. He was going to deny him. And the Lord says, I'm going away. No wonder they had troubled hearts.
No wonder they had troubled hearts. What could they do without the mouth? Where could they go? So they said, Peter said, Withergoest thou. Now he begins to tell them something about where he's going and what's going to happen. Live not your heart to trouble. He believed in God. Now there's a lot of argument amongst theologians as to whether this is indicative or imperative. Whether he's saying in the imperative, believe in God and giving them a command, believe in God. Or whether in the indicative, he's saying, you've always believed in God. For my own part, I think that's what he meant. You've always believed in God.
And then, of course, he could apply it this way. You're believing in God. And the Bible says, no man has seen God at any time. You believe in God? Wait a minute. The Lord is kind of saying to them. Wait a minute. You believe in God? You've never seen God. No man has seen God at any time. John tells us in his first chapter, no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who's in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him or revealed him and shown him forth. You believe in God you've never seen. And all down through the ages, down through the centuries of Jewish history, from Abraham, all down through, men of faith believed in God.
Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness, but we can't see God. Now he says to them, I want you to do exactly the same thing with me. You see, you believe me when you saw me, I came here to reveal God and you have seen me and you've seen miracles. You remember the second chapter it says, that they believed when they saw the miracles which he did, but the Lord didn't commit himself to them. For these disciples, I believe they were real, true believers in the Lord Jesus. And Peter, the one who denied him, had made that wonderful statement, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
To whom shall we go? Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. You believe in God. Now he says, Believe in me. Here's the imperative now. Believe in me. Here's the command. Here's the order. Believe me. Just as you believe God, whom you never saw, you believe in me when you can't see me. This is the point when you can't see me. He says, I'm going away, and their hearts were sad. And they say, where are they going now? He says, listen, never mind where I'm going. I want you to believe in me when you can't see me, just like you believe in me now you can't see me. I believe this is the crux and the point of what he's saying.
Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me. How easy to believe in the Lord when they saw him give sight to the blind and raise Lazarus from the dead and so on. But now the Lord, in a little while, a few days, forty days or so, they're going to see him go back to heaven. He said, now this is the time to believe. believe also in me. Oh, beloved, let's apply this to our hearts. It's so easy to believe when all's going well, when everything's taking over beautifully.
We say God is with us, but the time to believe is when things don't go well, when some of you men have got your husbands lying in a hospital. Some of you women here, ladies here this morning, who've got loved ones lying in a hospital. And you can't see. And you wonder why. And it's dark. And you almost ask yourself the question, has the Lord gone? How has it all come about this way? As the Lord left us, don't you feel like saying, where are going so, where are so gone?
He says, listen, You believe in me when you can't see me. That's the time for them. That's faith. I can't see any... In my own reckoning, I can't see any faith in believing in something I can see. It doesn't take faith for me to believe that this thing I'm leaning on here is a kind of a desk or a podium or whatever you like to call it. I can see it. I don't have to believe it. But what I've got to believe is something I can't see. That's faith. I have never seen, and you have never seen, the Lord Jesus. And yet, he that believeth on the Son has everlasting life. That's faith. Believing in the God we've never seen.
And believing in the Lord Jesus, who came down here on this earth and went back, and he says to them, Just as you believed in the unseen God, you believe in me, and I'll be the unseen Christ. For a thief. Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God. Believe also. Also, just in the same way as you believed in God, you believe in me. Now he introduces this new subject. In my father's house. Have you ever heard that term before in this gospel? In my father's house? Yes, it's there. It's in the second chapter, look at it. The second chapter, and he says in verse, he said unto them, Verse sixteen, he said unto them that so doves take these things and make not my father's house and house of merchandise.
My father's house. But he was referring then to the temple and he called the temple his father's house. Now it's interesting here that When the children of Israel were in the wilderness, you read Exodus twenty-five from there on, God very clearly gave instructions that they should build a tabernacle. And the word tabernacle means tent, a tent. Not a house, mind you, a tent. People who live in a tent have a kind of a temporary existence.
Some people, they come here sometimes in the summer and pitch a tent and spend a couple of weeks with them. But I tell you something, they're not going to stay here. They haven't bought a house. They haven't bought an apartment. They've got a tent, and they're going to be here for a little while, and then they're going on their way. That's the whole significance and the meaning of a tent, a tabernacle. It means that we're pilgrims. It means we don't belong. It means we're here for a season, and we're not getting our roots in the ground. An amazing thing to me is that Abraham... He draws in a tent. He never built a house, Abraham. And yet, you know, Abraham was a very rich man. It says so. He was very rich in cattle and silver and gold.
He didn't build a house. He lived in a tent. And that was his way of expressing and God's way to him of expressing that he didn't belong here. He sought a city that had foundations, whose builder and maker is God. but he wasn't going to get rooted down here and he never built a house. All the land was his. God said, all you can see, all south, east and west, that's yours. He didn't go and dig his root. He didn't get a bulldozer down and trench diggers like we've got here digging and getting himself rooted in. He didn't, but now he lived in a tent. And God lived in a tent, in a tabernacle in the wilderness.
Now go over to the first chapter of Kings, the first book of Kings, and this a long, long time after, the first book of Kings, Solomon built a house for God. I just wonder what a kind of a, it was a day of rejoicing. when they pulled the old tabernacle down and rolled it up for the last time. You think of it hundreds of times, crossing the desert. They had to take down the tents and roll them up and cover up the ark and cover up the mercy seat and cover up the tables and so on and carry them on poles on men's backs, on men's shoulders, right through the desert.
All those forty years they wandered in the desert. But here they rolled it up for the last time and Solomon built a house. And I wonder if I can find chapter six. It says, verse two, the house which King Solomon built for the Lord, the length thereof was three-score cubits, the breadth thereof twenty cubits, the height thereof thirty cubits, the porch before the temple of the house twenty cubits was the length thereof according to the breadth of the house and ten cubits was the breadth thereof before the house and for the house he made windows of narrow light and against the wall of the house sitting against the wall of the house he built chambers round about against the walls of the house both round about both of the temple and the oracle he made chambers round about And the nethermost chamber was five cubits broad, the middle was six cubits broad, the third seven cubits broad, for without in the wall of the house he made narrow rests and around about that the beams should
not be fastened in the walls of the house. Verse eight, the door for the middle chamber was on the right side. And they went up with winding stairs into the middle chamber, and out of the middle chamber was the third, and so on. God made them set up a tent, and all the articles were in there, the articles of furniture, the ark, the golden altar, the table of shilbreth, the candlestick, all in that holy place.
There was only one division in there. The veil which came down halfway through the length of that beautiful veil came down and separated God from the priest who went to the holy place. In the Holy of Holies God dwelt, and that's where the ark and the mercy sheet were. There were no chambers there. There were no rooms there. There was one building, split in a half, cut to half by that wonderful And when the Lord Jesus died upon the cross, the veil was split into, from top to bottom. But when Solomon built his house, he built a house with many chambers. Now let's read our verse.
He's talking now about the Father's house. I don't think he's talking about that temple at all. He's talking about the Father's house in heaven. He came down from the Father, and wonder of wonder, he's going to take us back to his home. You know, it's a wonderful thing. I sometimes think of these, of these, of some of these royal people, princes and so on. When they fall in love with a young lady, and the prince takes this young lady, lady into the palace, and is able to show all the chambers in the palace and all the wonder of that great place, and all the expensive furniture and articles and antiques and all the pictures and things they have.
And he's taken her in and saying, when we get married, this is all going to be yours. He's just given her a display of this wonderful place. The Lord's doing something like this. In my Father's house are many. Now the word mansions is a bad translation. We think of a great palace when we think of a mansion. It's not that. In my Father's house are many chambers. That's what it is. You see, a time is coming when you and I, we live in a tent. It says, we groan in this tabernacle. We have an earthly tent which is going to be dissolved. That's the body in which we live. We live in a tent. But there's a time coming when we're going to leave the tent, and the old canvas is going to be rolled up.
We keep on seeing it. Here's part of the problems as we go. up to the little cemetery up the road there and the canvas is rolled up and the tent is is is struck and and pulled down and now what's happened he said you're going to leave the tent and you're going to be in a house you see the Lord came out of that tabernacle and he went into a temple with many chambers and in like figure he said in my father's house there's many chambers Many abiding places. Many rooms. Many apartments, if you like. I don't think we'll be crowded out in heaven. Although there's going to be ten thousand times ten thousand.
There's going to be room for everybody and provision made for everybody. And the Lord says, I'm going to prepare a place for you. I don't know whether there be some gold-lined chambers and some silver-lined chambers. I don't know. But I do know that some were up there in the glory. In that wonderful Father's home. There's a place for your name. And he's getting ready now. A home, a chamber. In my father's house are many abiding places. If it were not, so I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you.
But it got it, beloved, if we really got it, You see, we hang on to life somehow, justly and rightly, we all hang on to life, but one of these days we're going to say goodbye. For some of us, it's getting nearer and nearer. And we'll leave the old tent, and we'll leave the tabernacle. For some of us, it won't be too easy, it won't be too hard. Some who've got their roots well down may be a little more difficult, but we've got to leave it. We're going to live not in the tent anymore, but live in the father's house.
If he'd said we were going to live in a palace or something that we wanted, but the father's house, there's something warm and kind and loving about them. All of us have had... our father's house, someone in this great world. I remember what our trinity used to be to me when I used to travel home from Greece, two thousand miles across Europe. Sometimes we had no airplanes in those days, but sometimes by train and sometimes by boat, but we got home and what a joy to put my feet under my father's table. That was home. And I still talked to that. I wrote to my brother last week and I said, we're hoping to come home.
We got no home over there anymore, but somehow that's home. That's where our Father was. That's home. And somewhere up there, somewhere up there amid all the glory of heaven, there's a Father's house. And the Lord Jesus said, I'm going back to my Father. I'm going back to that home of love and light and joy and purity and holiness. That home which I enjoyed through the countless ages of the past eternity. And I'm going up there, and somewhere up there, I'm going to make place for you in my Father's house. What wonderful words. Let not your heart be troubled. Beloved, we're going through problems down here and sorrows, but look at sorrow.
Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in you. You can't see God. You won't see me. But behind the clouds, I love the thought there in Acts. The clouds received him out of sight. And behind the clouds up there, the Lord Jesus is preparing a place in the Father's house. That's the first new truth he's bringing out to them, our Father's house. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go, verse three, and if I go and prepare a place for you, did he go? Oh, yes, he went.
They saw him go. And if I go, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. I suppose really this is the first direct reference to the coming of the Lord for his church, for his bride. I suppose this is the first direct reference to the rapture. If I go, I'll come again and receive you unto myself. See, this is all foreign to them. How could they understand it? They saw that he was, they believed he was the Messiah. Rightly so. But then they had only one concept of the Messiah.
Someone that would... defeat the Roman Empire and put them all down and set up a kingdom and reign and rule and bring in righteousness, all that wonderful thing we read of, that wonderful kingdom we read of over and over again in the Old Testament. They expected him to do that right then, there and then, set up a kingdom. That's what they looked for. And now they got, you know, it was a terrible blow and a terrible shock to their hearts to learn this. I'm not talking about a kingdom for you people to say. I'm talking about a father's home, something far better, far warmer, far more, what should I say, more beautiful for you than a kingdom.
I'm going to take you home to my home. If I go, I'll come again. And I received you unto myself. Lord, Do you remember what they said in the Acts of the Apostles? They said to him, When they therefore were come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? There they couldn't hear anything else. Will you restore again the kingdom to Israel? Because I'm not talking about a kingdom. There will be a kingdom for Israel, but that's not what he's talking about. I'm talking about a father's house. He called them his own, and he's going to have them amid... in the glory, in the intimacy and the closeness of a Father's home.
I will come again and receive you, look at the words, underline the words, receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. Where I am, there ye may be also. This is what he died for. This is what he went to the cross for. Away, way back. In a past eternity, Proverbs eight says, is delightful with the sons of men, and he wanted the sons of men with him amidst the glory of heaven. And he says, where I am, there you go to the altar.
Beloved, the future for us is very, very bright. This old world with all it's got, all it's got, the possessions and the... and the warriors and the troubles, they don't leave them all. I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go, you know. Did they know? They said, Lord, whither goest thou? Whither I go, ye know. I tell you where I am going. I am going to a father's house. You know where I am going. You know where I am going. Isn't it a kingdom? Father the kingdom. Don't think about the kingdom.
I'm going to a father's house. Whither I go, ye know. And the way ye know. Thomas said unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest. Oh, how six-headed they were. He told them over and over, we know not whither thou goest. And how can we know the way? Now look at the marvelous answer. John fourteen verse six. Jesus did ask him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Thank God I suppose all of us here this morning know the truth of this verse.
I am the way. We know not whether thou goeth, how can we know the way? I am the way, he says the Lord. I am the way. But there be all sorts of theories around, theories about a kingdom and theories about this. Never mind that. I am the truth. I am the truth. I am the way. I am the truth. And I am the life. These lives of ours are ebbing out. But he is the life, eternal life. And he that believeth on the sun has. life. Thank God. Oh, time has gone so fast that thank God for the wonderful depth and truth in these two first verses.
The Lord opens his mouth in the upper chamber when Judas has gone out in the upper room and tells them these wonderful truths. In my Father's house, many men, if it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go, I will come again and receive unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also. May God bless these remarks and draw hearts closer to himself. Thank God we know, we're not like Thomas says, I don't know. We know that he is the way, the truth and the life.
We know he's gone to prepare a place. And we know he's coming back very soon to call us to be with himself. So we pray. Blessed Savior, we thank thee for thy wondrous love. We thank thee for revealing thyself to us. We thank thee, Lord, for these great truths. Lord, our hearts only touch and skim the surface of the depths of these great truths as it's revealed in that upper room to those disciples. Help us, Lord, to treasure it more and more. and help us to be on the tiptoe of expectation as we wait for thy coming momentarily to call us to be with thyself, to say goodbye to this old troubled earth and to be forever up there to dwell in the Father's house.
We seek thy blessing upon our study this morning in our Savior's precious name. Amen.