Join Pastor Ken Kerrigan, Pastor Ron Burr, and Pastor Bill Schott, Calvary Fort Lauderdale/Calvary Chapel Academy for a conversational bible study where we study the whole Word of God, chapter by chapter and verse by verse. Tonight we conclude our study of the Gospel of John Chapter 13, and begin our study of Chapter 14.
In the closing verses of John 13, Jesus drops two bombshells on the disciples. First he tells them that he will no longer be with them “Where I am going, you cannot come” (John 13:33 NKJV). He then reveals to Peter, who claims he will lay down his life for the Lord, that he will deny Jesus 3 times. And we mustn’t doubt Peter’s sincerity at this point. Peter most assuredly felt an unyielding devotion to the Lord in that moment; however, our emotions can be deceiving, and we are imperfect sinners in a fallen world. How many times in our own life have we made emotional declarations, only to find ourselves weak when our resolve is tested?
But the Lords knows us! The Lord knows every time we will fail, and yet while we were still sinners He gave is life for us…knowing we would continue to miss the mark!
The love Jesus shows us is the love Jesus gives us in the new commandment at the close of John 13: “ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (John 13:34 NKJV)
After dropping these bombshells, Jesus, knowing us better than we know ourselves, knew the disciples would be filled with anxiety. So, in John’s 14th Chapter, Jesus gives us these promises: “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 to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-3 NKJV).
This promise is a picture of the Jewish wedding, where the bridegroom would first pay the price for the dowry. The price Jesus paid for us costs us nothing, but it cost Him everything…the price he paid was His blood, and the wrath of God for our sins.
The bridegroom would then go back to his father’s home to prepare a place for him and the bride to live, he would add on to the home. This is the promise Jesus is illustrating to us in John 14, that he must go to prepare a place for us. Then the bridegroom would come for the bride. Jesus will come for His church, either one at a time, or all at once during the rapture, when he meets us in the clouds. Ultimately we will have to face the reckoning of our sins…will we have to pay that price, or will we accept that Christ has paid that price for us, so we can come together and live with Him forever!