Heaven

John 14:

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many mansions. 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.

The disciples, at this point, were facing an uncertain future....a difficult prospect……Jesus was talking about leaving, and they were distraught, perplexed.

And sometimes we are in similar situations.

Let us first look at the general principles relating to what Jesus taught us to do in such cases.

When you’re facing difficulties, GUARD YOUR HEART.

Jesus said: do not let your HEART be troubled.

Paul says: be anxious for nothing.

Peter says: cast all your care on Him.

One of the things you have to guard is your heart….

The bible says: out of the abundance of the heart, the most speaks….

You have to guard you heart...that’s where faith is…See Mark 11:23 and Romans 10:9-10 for example.

Jesus: do not let your hearts be trouble, believe in God, believe also in me….

In other words, we have to protect our faith…we have to trust in Jesus…

when we going through difficulties we have to truth His words, his teachings...his promises

In my Father's house are MANY MANSIONS….

Jesus teaches us here to SEE the bigger picture….

Smetimes the physical trouble can dim the spiritual triumph….

The difficulty of the temporal can obscure the reality of eternity...

Mansions….

In other words, when you are going through difficulties, keep your eyes on the prize.

Learn to change your perspective…

Don’t focus on the problem. Focus on hope beyond the problem. The solution. The salvation we have.

In a few years to come your present problem won’t matter that much.

In eternity your current difficulty will seem like a triviality…

when you’re reunited with loved ones....when you’re talking to Moses...sitting at the feet of Jesus.

That’s the principle Jesus uses here in this passage....

He tries to change their perspective

Now, there’s a lot of things he could have reminded them of....and there’s much he could have turned their attention to, as he did on other occasions.

But this time he gets them to focus on heaven.

He gets them to focus on their ultimate future beyond their imminent future.

He gets then to focus on their eternal home.

So let’s take a closer look at this.

1. It’s LOCATION....

Heaven in the New Testament is described as...

A country...Hebrews 11:46…this speaks of its vastness

A city...Hebrews 11:10…it has many inhabitants

A kingdom...Mathew ...it’s an emphasis on its orderliness

A paradise…speaks of its beauty

A house…Jesus called it: My fathers house….that's because heaven is where God is. The place he has chosen for his house.

And his house becomes our house...our home

This world is not my home...I’m just a pilgrim passing through

This world is not your home...it is a battle ground

This world is not your home....it’s a soul saving rescue mission

This world is not your home...it’s a dress rehearsal for the reality

Greek word….is Not mansion, but dwelling places.

When an Israelite Son got married, the father would add a wing to his house, and so on until in the middle there was a patio…where all the sons with their families lived around...the same house with Father. they were all close to the Father.

I'm reminded of that old Song

Verse: 1

Just imagine heaven, what God's kingdom will be like,

where we will live forever, no more pain or tears or strife,

some folks may think of heaven, just a dream beyond some star,

it's just as real as Jesus promised, just as near as our own heart.

Chorus:

Some call it Canaan land, some say its Beulah land,

it's called peace beyond that old river, a place not made with hands,

it's that great celestial city, with mansions round God's throne,

but for all who know my Lord, they call it home.

Verse: 2

Can you imagine living, in God's new beautiful Jerusalem,

one of these days it'll all be over, our weary hearts will find rest in him,

we'll awake from all our dreaming, we'll meet our Savior face to face,

you know he'll receive us as his children, he'll smile and say your home to stay.

We've looked at its location. Now let's consider:

2. It’s LAYOUT

How big is heaven?

Scientists have not even been able to measure the size of the known physical universe. There is a photo called the XDF (eXtreme Deep Field) that was put together from images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope over the course of ten years. It shows a vast number of galaxies, each comprising billions of stars like our sun. Our sun is 93 million miles away from the earth. And the galaxies are very, very far apart—Andromeda, the closest galaxy to our own, is 2.2 million light years away. To give an idea of how far that is, a shuttle traveling at 18,000 miles per hour would need over 37,000 years to travel one light year. The universe is absolutely huge—and God created it all.