In this wondrous scripture, we come much nearer the cross. Just about to offer Himself up the sacrifice for our sins, and, knowing that all who heard His parting words of love would soon forsake Him, He said, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye 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.” What divine love breathed in these parting words. But what do they mean? It is evident the disciples did not at that time understand them: as even after His resurrection they said, “Lord wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” Now every prophecy as to the kingdom of Israel assuredly speaks of it on this earth; the disciples then were in total ignorance of this new announcement. Is it not also a fact, that the real meaning of these precious words of Jesus is not understood by great numbers of professing Christians to this day? Or, if understood once, their meaning was long lost. If disciples then thought they meant the kingdom of Israel, stranger still, disciples now think they mean death. This is evidently equally a mistake; for the Lord makes the distinction plain enough between death, and His coming again. “Jesus said unto him, he shall not die; but if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?” (John 21:22, 2322Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me. 23Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? (John 21:22‑23).) It is then a great mistake to suppose the Lord meant death in this new announcement.
There are also many now, and those students of prophecy, who still, like the disciples then, understand the coming of the Lord to be the setting up of the kingdom on earth; and it is certain from many scriptures that the kingdom will be set up. (See Dan. 7:13, 1413I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. 14And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13‑14); Isa. 11; 59:20.) But carefully read these verses in John, for they cannot possibly mean the setting up of the kingdom on earth, Jesus was about to leave the earth. He speaks these words to comfort our hearts during His absence. He presents Himself as the object of faith, even as God is so. Now when He comes to reign He will be the all-glorious object of sight. Let us then sit down before Him. Let us hear Him speak to us in these words. Do we believe Him? Does He not assure us by these words, that however dark and stormy the path of trial may be here below, during His absence, that home with Him is certain. He points to His Father’s house, its many mansions. He opens His whole heart to us: and what a heart of love! “I go to prepare a place for you.” That cannot be Jerusalem below, the future metropolis of the millennial earth. He was there at that moment. And there He died for us. Can the words of Jesus be untrue? He says, “I go to prepare a place for you.” After His death, and resurrection, where did He go? “And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-119And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. 10And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; 11Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. (Acts 1:9‑11).)
There can be no question where our blessed Lord is gone, to prepare a place for us. It is not the kingdom on earth, but a place in heaven. Is not this quite certain? But then there is something equally certain, for He says it: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself.” What does this mean? Is it not quite new: and altogether unlike every promise that had previously been given? Think of the deep love to us in these words. When speaking of the Jews for the kingdom, He said, “He shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds.” But to us He says, a I will “come again and receive you unto myself.” Why will He come Himself? He tells us “That where I am, there ye may be also.” Hear Him speak to the Father about this, “Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.”
However little then we may have understood these words of Jesus, they speak of an event of intense interest to His heart. He who has loved us and washed us in His own blood, presents His longing desire to the Father for that moment when we shall be with Him. That moment when He will come to receive us to Himself. Oh, meditate my soul on this. It is only as we know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that we can possibly enter into the sweetness of this promise. Is it not beyond all human thought; that that blessed Jesus seated at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, should assure our hearts, that He will come and receive us unto Himself? “Surely I come quickly.” Shall we doubt Him? Awake, awake, to this blessed hope.
The full blessedness of this hope never seems to have dawned on the church, until the Lord was pleased to give a revelation to His servant to explain it. “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1 Thess. 4) The reader will notice that this revelation to Paul is in perfect harmony with the precious words of Jesus which we have been considering. But are they not in direct contrast with the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven, with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on the rejecters of the gospel?
The apostle refers to this special event, the coming of the Lord to take His saints, as the very reason why they should not be troubled; as though the day of the Lord were come. “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand” or was come. These words could have no meaning at all, if it were not for the blessed fact, that before the day of the Lord in fiery judgment He will come, the Lord Himself, and take us away—gathered together unto Him. We are not aware of a single fact in scripture more clearly revealed than this. Yet men will not believe it. We were speaking to a professing Christian the other day—a man of great influence in a large town—and putting before him this very truth from these scriptures. “I do not believe it,” said he. And though we quoted these plain scriptures still he maintained, as Faber did not say so, he would not believe it. Is not this sad, to reject the sweetest promise of Jesus: the most blessed hope of the word of God! No doubt many a similar remark was made in the days of Noah, “I will not believe it.”
If a believer in the Lord Jesus, will you, can you say, “I will not believe what He says”?
Mark, it is the word of the Lord to us in this scripture before us. We are distinctly assured that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent, or go before, them that sleep. Thus the coming of the Lord is a present hope to us. We are taught to expect Him before we die—“We who are alive and remain.” Can those words mean anything else? And, according to the precious promise, “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven.” And now mark the order, “the dead in Christ shall rise first.” It is a great mistake to confound this with the resurrection of the dead, small and great, for judgment before the great white throne. “The dead in Christ shall rise first.” The rest of the dead will not live again for a thousand years. But, oh, the millions of the redeemed that shall obey the assembling call, shall rise first! “Then we who are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” His prayer, His loving desire, His heart satisfied. With the Lord. Ah then, evermore! In the everlasting bloom of incorruptibility. In the unclouded presence of the glory. “Forever with the Lord.” This is everything to Jesus. For this He endured the cross! Is it nothing to us? Shall we say, “I do not believe it”?
Is it not written, a Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing! Will He not then keep His word? Though all unfaithful prove, yet He is faithful still.
Think not He comes to judge us for our sins then. No, “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation.” “We know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him: for we shall see him as he is.” “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”
Is this the sure hope of our readers? Can you say with certainty that the Father hath made you meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light? Are you delivered from the power of darkness? Are you translated into the kingdom of His dear Son; or the Son of His love? Have you redemption in Him, through His blood, the forgiveness of sins? Wondrous record of God to every believer. (Col. 1:12-2412Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 14In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: 15Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. 19For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; 20And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. 21And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 22In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: 23If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister; 24Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church: (Colossians 1:12‑24).) Sure, and only standing of every believer in Christ.
Remember the words of Jesus were given to comfort our hearts during His absence until He return to take us to Himself. Suffering is our portion here; fiery conflict, sore temptation. An evil nature: a powerful though conquered enemy. Winds contrary, billow after billow seems ready to dash the vessel to pieces. But, oh, what a change in that moment, in the twinkling of the eye. “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” (1 Cor. 15:51, 5351Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, (1 Corinthians 15:51)
53For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. (1 Corinthians 15:53).) Glory, victory, and He Himself awaits us. Just think, so soon to see that face of radiant love. Oh that tender heart, that could lose sight of His own untold sorrow and agony, close at hand, to comfort us. Rest, rest, my soul on the heart of Jesus, drink in the words of Jesus. Like Rebecca of old, lift up thine eyes, He comes to meet thee. He who sat once weary at Samaria’s well, now comes in glory. Yea, He who bowed His soul in atonement, darkness, bruised for thy iniquities—comes to claim thee, ever now His own. Fellow Christians, shall we not wait for the Lord from heaven? “The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patience of Christ.” Blessed Lord, may our hearts beat in unison with thine own, waiting for that blessed moment. Amen.