1Comments, with editing, on John 14:1-3 from Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on John, vol 3.
These three verses are rich in precious truth. For eighteen centuries they have been specially dear to Christ’s believing servants in every part of the world. Many are the sick rooms which they have lightened! Many are the dying hearts which they have cheered! Let us see what they contain.
A Precious Remedy Against an Old Disease
We have, firstly, in this passage a precious remedy against an old disease. The disease is trouble of heart. The remedy is faith. Heart trouble is the commonest thing in the world. No rank or class or condition is exempt from it. No bars or bolts or locks can keep it out. Partly from inward causes and partly from outward, partly from the body and partly from the mind, partly from what we love and partly from what we fear, the journey of life is full of trouble. Even the best of Christians have many bitter cups to drink between grace and glory. Even the holiest saints find the world a vale of tears.
Faith in the Lord Jesus is the only sure medicine for troubled hearts. To believe more thoroughly, trust more entirely, rest more unreservedly, lay hold more firmly, lean back more completely – this is the prescription which the Master urges on the attention of all His disciples. No doubt the members of that little band which sat round the table at the last supper had believed already. They had proved the reality of their faith by giving up everything for Christ’s sake. Yet what does their Lord say to them here? Once more He presses on them the old lesson, the lesson with which they first began: Believe! Believe more! Believe on Me!
Never let us forget that there are degrees in faith, and that there is a wide difference between weak and strong believers. The weakest faith is enough to give a man a saving interest in Christ and ought not to be despised, but it will not give such inward comfort as strong faith. Vagueness and dimness of perception are the defect of weak believers. They do not see clearly what they believe and why they believe. In such cases, more faith is the one thing needed. Like Peter on the water, they need to look more steadily at Jesus, and less at the waves and the wind. Is it not written, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee” (Is 26:3)?
A Comforting Account of Heaven
We have, secondly, in this passage a very comforting account of heaven, the future abode of saints. It is but little that we understand about heaven while we are here in the body, and that little is generally taught us in the Bible by negatives much more than by positives. But here, at any rate, there are some plain things.
Heaven is “a Father’s house”, the house of that God of whom Jesus says, “I go to My Father, and your Father”. It is, in a word, home: the home of Christ and of Christians. This is a sweet and touching expression. Home, as we all know, is the place where we are generally loved for our own sakes and not for our gifts or possessions; it is the place where we are loved to the end, never forgotten and always welcome. This is one idea of heaven. Believers are in a strange land and at school in this life. In the life to come they will be at home.
Heaven is a Place of Mansions
Heaven is a place of “mansions” – of lasting, permanent and eternal dwellings. Here in the body we are in lodgings – tents and tabernacles – and must submit to many changes. In heaven we shall be settled at last and go out no more. “Here we have no continuing city” (Heb 13:14). Our house not made with hands shall never be taken down.
Heaven is a Place of Many Mansions
Heaven is a place of “many mansions”. There will be room for all believers and room for all sorts – for little saints as well as great ones, for the weakest believer as well as for the strongest. The feeblest child of God need not fear there will be no place for him. None will be shut out but impenitent sinners and obstinate unbelievers.
Heaven is a Place Where Christ Himself Shall Be Present
Heaven is a place where Christ Himself shall be present. He will not be content to dwell without His people: “Where I am, there ye may be also”. We need not think that they shall be alone and neglected. Their Saviour – their elder Brother, their Redeemer, who loved them and gave Himself for them – shall be in their midst for ever. What they shall see, and whom they shall see in heaven, they cannot fully conceive yet, while they are in the body. But one thing is certain: they shall see Christ.
Let these things sink down into our minds. To the worldly and careless they may seem nothing at all. To all who feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of God, they are full of unspeakable comfort. If we hope to be in heaven it is pleasant to know what heaven is like.
Solid Ground for Expecting Good Things to Come
We have, lastly, in this passage solid ground for expecting good things to come. The evil heart of unbelief within God’s children is apt to rob them of their comfort about heaven. “We wish we could think it was all true.” “We fear we shall never be admitted into heaven.” Let believers hear what Jesus says to encourage them.
“I Go to Prepare a Place for You”
One cheering word is this: “I go to prepare a place for you”. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people: a place which they shall find Christ Himself has made ready for true Christians. He has prepared it by procuring a right, for every sinner who believes, to enter in. No one can stop them and say they have no business there. He has prepared it by going before them as their Head and Representative, and taking possession of it for all the members of His mystical body. As their Forerunner He has marched in, leading captivity captive, and has planted His banner in the land of glory. He has prepared it by carrying their names with Him as their High Priest into the holy of holies and making angels ready to receive them. They that enter heaven will find they are neither unknown nor unexpected.
“I Will Come Again and Receive You Unto Myself”
Another cheering word is this: “I will come again and receive you unto Myself”. Christ will not wait for believers to come up to Him, but will come down to them, to raise them from their graves and escort them to their heavenly home. As Joseph came to meet Jacob, so will Jesus come to call His people together and guide them to their inheritance. The second advent ought never to be forgotten. Great is the blessedness of looking back to Christ coming the first time, to suffer for His people; but no less great is the comfort of looking forward to Christ coming the second time, to raise and reward His saints.
Let us leave the whole passage with solemnised feelings and serious self-examination. How much they miss who live in a dying world and yet know nothing of God as their Father and Christ as their Saviour! How much they possess who live by faith in the Son of God and believe in Him! With all their weaknesses and crosses, they have what the world can neither give nor take away. They have a true Friend while they live and a true home when they die.