Turn with me to John 14, a portion of scripture that most if not all of us know well, a portion of scripture that many of us have found comfort in, in various trials and circumstances of life, a portion of Scripture as well that speaks to us in such a beautiful way about our Lord Jesus Christ and His ascension, what He is doing in heaven for us on our behalf even at this time. The text is the first three verses, but we read together the entire chapter, John chapter 14. Hear now the Word of God. Our Lord says, Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in Me. In My Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me, that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way? Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on you do know him and have seen him. Philip said, Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us. Jesus answered, Don't you know Me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, Show us the Father? Don't you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in Me? The words I say to you are not just My own, rather it is the Father living in Me who is doing His work. Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me, or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth. Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it. If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever, the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see Me anymore, but you will see Me, because I live, you also will live. On that day, you will realize that I am in My Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. Then Judas, not Judas Iscariot, said, But Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus replied, If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own. They belong to the Father who sent me. All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid. You heard me saying, I am going away and I am coming back to you. If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe. I will not speak with you much longer, for the Prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me. Come now. Let us leave. First three verses. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, it's easy for us to say something like this to someone who is hurting or is troubled for some reason. it's easy for us to say, don't worry, everything will be alright. The problem is that very rarely, if at all, are we able to relieve the hurt or the trouble of another. And when we say to another, everything will be alright, we indeed often say it hoping that it will be. But there's no certainty. But when our Lord said these words to His disciples, and as He says them to us, even in our day from His Word, He says them as the one and only one who is able and who does remove the trouble of our hearts. John 14, as I trust you were able to tell as we read it, is a chapter about comfort. And it is a chapter about our Lord's promise of peace for His believers. And as we consider the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we consider His leaving this earth and returning as the victorious one to heaven, as we consider that with this text, we want to take notice of the comfort of Christ's absence. Now that may sound strange. How can that be comforting that our Lord Jesus Christ is absent? But it's precisely because He went away that He was able to send the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, apart from whom neither His disciples nor we would be able to believe what Jesus says or find comfort in it. But through the Holy Spirit and His work of regeneration and illumination, we are able to find comfort in Christ's absence because of who He is, because of where He is, Because of what He is doing. And because of what He will do. First of all, Jesus calls for comfort in His absence because of who He is. Now, Jesus is not saying to His disciples, do not become troubled. He is not saying, do not let your hearts get troubled. He is addressing something that was already a fact. His disciples were already troubled in their hearts. They were troubled, agitated, confused, disturbed, tossed about on the sea of uncertainty like a ship lost at sea. And the truth is, we, even in our day, we become troubled for various reasons, don't we? Especially when it seems that things are out of our control. If you've ever driven on ice and your car starts sliding, then you know what it's like to not have control and to not really know how things will end up. Uncertainty about the future. Or changes that we didn't plan on a day, a week, or even a year before, like death, terminal illness, persecution, and trials. Things that are happening and you cannot stop them can be troubling. And the disciples were troubled because things were going on that were beyond their control. Things that they didn't understand. Jesus had told them a number of times about His coming suffering and death and His departure from them, but they didn't get it. A couple of days before this, He had triumphantly entered Jerusalem on the young donkey with the people shouting, Hosanna! And we're told in chapter 12, verse 16, at first the disciples did not understand all this, only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about Him and that they had done these things to Him. In Luke 18, after predicting His death to the twelve, we're told in verse 34 of that chapter, the disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them and they did not know what He was talking about. And we know from Matthew 16 that Peter demonstrates this ignorance after he had given that beautiful confession. And Jesus calls him to the rock. We read in verses 21-23, From that time on, Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed on the third day, and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Never, Lord, he said. This shall never happen to you. Jesus turned and said to Peter, again after that powerful confession, Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of man. But on this particular night in question, in John chapter 14, before our Lord's crucifixion and death, this night before His crucifixion and death, His disciples were also troubled. In addition to Him speaking of His suffering and death and departure, they were troubled at hearing that one of their number would betray Him. They were troubled, no doubt, at seeing Jesus Himself troubled in spirit. And they were troubled that He would remain with them only a little while and that where he was going, they could not go. John 13, verses 21 and 33. After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me. Verse 33, my children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now where I am going, you cannot come. And no doubt they were troubled because of the Lord's warning that Peter, the rock, would deny Him three times. You see, beloved, all of this was not according to plan. Their plan. He was the Messiah they had waited for. He was the one who was to rescue them from the oppression of Rome and to establish His earthly kingdom and provide for them prosperity once again, they thought. And if what He said was true, what about all these other things that they thought? were going to happen. And what would happen to them? You see, they had given up all to follow Him. And if He's gone, they would be left surrounded by His and their enemies like sheep surrounded by wolves. Indeed, their hearts were troubled. And what's amazing is that when they should have been the ones to comfort Jesus, He comforts them. He was the one headed for the agony of the cross, crowned with being forsaken by His Father, suffering the punishment of hell for your sins and mine. His disciples should have given Him emotional and spiritual support. But Jesus, being completely aware of all that was before Him, feeling the weight of the awful load laid upon Him, tasting the bitter cup of which He must drink every last drop. With all of this on Him, our Lord Jesus Christ loved His disciples to the end. And when they could not enter into His feelings and experience, and really, they could not sympathize with Him, He, knowing that their struggle as well would become more fierce. And that they would suffer no ordinary temptation as they would see Him hanging on the cross and die. Knowing all of that, He entered into their troubled hearts and comforted them by reminding them who He is. And this is yet another fulfillment of prophecy. Isaiah 61, which Jesus had already applied to Himself earlier in His ministry, He's also fulfilling here. The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. He says, trust in God, trust also in Me. Jesus directs their attention to the Father and to Himself. Now, there's a bit of a problem on interpretation here, because in the Greek, the form of the word trust can be an indicative, a statement of fact or reality, or an imperative, a command. They're spelled the same. The forms are the same. And even Reformed scholars and commentators don't agree. Some say that in both instances they are indicative and therefore Jesus is saying this statement of fact. You believe in God and you also believe in me. That's the fact. Some say they are both imperative so that Jesus is commanding them to believe in God and to believe in Him. Some say that the first is indicative and the second is imperative. So Jesus is making the statement that they believe in God and therefore He commands them to also believe in Him. That's where I lean because of what Jesus says throughout the rest, pointing that He is one with the Father. But whichever way you go, there does seem to be good arguments in support of almost every way. But they all agree, and I do think this is the main point, that Jesus is telling them, as He emphasizes later on, He is telling them straight up that He is God. He and the Father are one. He was holding Himself out to them as the one and only object of faith. Even though they would see Him suffer and die and be buried, Jesus calls them to trust that He is and ever remains the Savior. And we hear the echo of Psalm 42, verse 5, which says, Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God. In His love for His disciples, the same love that sent Him to the cross, He comforts His disciples as only God can do. And beloved, that very same comfort is for us today. We are not to misplace our trust and put it in ourselves or put it in the things of this world. When our sins trouble us, we are called to trust that Jesus has paid for them all and they are all forgiven in Him. When we face death, if we believe in Jesus and we know that we are His sheep, then we are to trust that even though we die, yet we shall live. For those who seek first God's kingdom and trust that indeed all things work together for my good, our God promises comfort for our souls in the midst of the troubles of life, the troubles which are also for my good. We are to be comforted, beloved, and to trust that all of God's promises in His Word are yes and amen in Jesus Christ because He is God. As one minister said, I can trust the Son as much as the Father because He is just as much the God of the promise as the Father. And that He must be worth trusting as well because the Father can trust Him to give His life a ransom for many if the Father can trust Him. So can I. And beloved, even though He would be taken from their sight, they were to believe and trust that Christ was still alive, Busy and active. And He then comforts them in His absence by telling them where He will be and what He will be doing. Do not let your hearts be troubled. In My Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you I am going there to prepare a place for you. Now Jesus is talking here about the reality of heaven. Boys and girls, heaven is real. It's a real place. It's not some sort of an obscure idea that we talk about just to give comfort to those who might be dying. It's a real place. The Bible talks about heaven in different ways. Heaven is called a country. Which might make us think of the fact that it's vast. There's room. It's called a city. And maybe there we should think of a large population who live there or who will live there. That's what the Bible talks about. The multitudes dressed in white robes. As well as ten thousands upon ten thousands of angels who have not fallen. The Bible calls heaven a kingdom. And when we think of a kingdom, we think of a king. We think of order, rule, protection. It's called paradise in the Bible. which speaks of the delight, the glory, the pleasantness, the pleasure of heaven. And it's called, as Jesus says, the Father's house. And by this we are to think of a dwelling place, a permanent dwelling place. And Jesus says there are many rooms, and very simply that means there is ample room. There is room for all of God's chosen people. Beloved, it will not be full before you and I get there. There's no overcrowding. But neither is there any wasted space. But there is room in the Father's house for you who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where our citizenship is. That's home. You see, in our day, home has become more like just a place to bunk down, to eat and sleep. Especially among young people, they seem to prefer being away from home more than being at home. Just a place where I can come home, take a shower, grab a bite to eat, and be off again. But even our earthly homes are to have a special character for moms and dads and children. Home is to be the place where we are loved for our own sake. Home is to be the place where we are always welcome. It's to be the place where we can get away from the strife and the stress of the world and enjoy rest and peace. It is to be the place where loved ones who love each other unconditionally are together. And beloved, all of that is true of the Father's house for His adopted sons and daughters in Christ Jesus. Jesus says in verse 6, He is the way and the truth and the life. And in the text, He says as the truth that He is telling the truth. If it were not so, I would have told you. Pardon me. Our Lord cannot and will not deceive His people. All that He says, including here about heaven and what He is doing there and what He will yet do for us, We can take it to the bank as it were. It's sure. Jesus plainly told His disciples where He was going. The angel did too. He plainly told them He was going to His Father's house. But while they were thinking of separation, He was telling them that His going was for the purpose of a reunion. Oh, we love reunions. Well, most often, sometimes. We love reunions. getting together with family we haven't seen for a long time. This is to be a glorious reunion. But it was His going away, beloved, that would make this reunion possible. They were to be comforted in His absence because of what He is doing. I am going there to my Father's house to prepare a place for you. Understand, beloved, the rooms are there. The rooms are there. And there are enough for all of God's people, for you and me. But it is Jesus who prepares them. He gets them ready. How? He prepares the place by going to the cross. Paying the price in full for our sin and making us righteous in God's sight because nothing unrighteous can stand in God's presence. He prepares the place by rising from the dead as the firstfruits of those who sleep. He prepares it by ascending to heaven, entering the Father's house as our representative and taking possession of it. On our behalf, He has earned the right to stake His claim, our heavenly home. You see, without His death and resurrection, there would be no place for you and me. And without His ascension and the sending forth of the Holy Spirit, we would not be made ready for that place. His preparing a room for us includes preparing us for that room which He does through His Holy Spirit whom He has sent to us as a down payment, a guarantee that He would indeed come again. The Holy Spirit of God gives new life to believe and gives us the assurance of being justified by God for Jesus' sake. And He is the one who sanctifies us, cleanses us, preparing us for glory and for the day of our Lord's return. Beloved, all is being and will be made ready for those who believe. Canaan, for the Israelites, was a picture of and a foretaste of the rooms that Jesus prepares. In Deuteronomy 6, verses 10-12, we read, When the Lord your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you a land with large flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant. It was all there for them. Ready. And there they would be satisfied. And heaven would be the place of perfect satisfaction for God's people in the fullness of His presence. We cannot find or get to heaven on our own. But the Lord laid on Jesus Christ the iniquity of us all, and He alone is the way to the Father as He says. If He was not, He would have told us that too. But through Him alone, we may know the love of God. We may know His rest. We may know His shelter. And we may look forward to it. Even as William said to me, William DeYoung said to me yesterday, it's right there. Heaven is right there. Again, only in and through Jesus Christ do we have the confidence that though we die, yet we shall live in the room He has prepared. And that's our confidence because of what He is going to do. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back to take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. As an aside, think about this for a moment. Does your life reflect that you expect Jesus to come back? Think about that, won't you? Does your life reflect that you expect Jesus Christ to come back? Jesus prayed in John 17, Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. And do you know what that means? It means that every time a believer in Christ dies to this life, Jesus' prayer is being answered. Every time. Now some say that this text is pointing, and these words especially are pointing only to the second coming of Jesus when He comes again in all of His glory to take His bride, the church, to her heavenly home forever. And that may be, I'm not convinced. Because Paul makes it clear that to be absent from the body is to be present at home with the Lord. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And the Lord says, He comes for His own. And notice, He doesn't simply usher His people into heaven and leave them to fend for themselves. He says, I take you to be with Me. That's our comfort. When we close our eyes and say goodbye to our loved ones here, we will be with the Lord. And this is the guarantee that we as believers look forward to because of the ascension of our Lord. Our ascended Lord Jesus Christ is busy now on behalf of His church in general and each believer in particular. He has been exalted at the right hand of His Father. He rules and reigns on our behalf. And until He returns in glory, in all of His glory one day, until that day, one by one, He will take his ransomed home to himself. That was Stephen's comfort even as the stones were pounding him to death. In Acts 7, it says, But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit. And there is perfect peace and comfort in the presence of God. Jesus will come back so that you and I can share in the joys of His Father's house. What kind of joys? Negatively speaking, no more death, no more sorrow, no more pain, no more fighting, no more running, no more tears, no more troubled hearts. Positively speaking, just the bliss and the fellowship and the joy of living forever in the presence of the Heavenly Father in His house. True comfort is belonging to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ. Body and soul in life and in death. Belonging to Him even though we cannot see Him face to face today. Yet knowing that He is God. Knowing that He is busy on our behalf. And that His work on our behalf will not be wasted. He will bring us into the joy of it. Oh, beloved, may our work in this life not be wasted. May it all be done for God's glory. Beloved, this comfort is only for those, yet it's really for those who put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. This truth, you see, gives us a reason to get up in the morning. It gives us a reason to live, even in troubled times. Because Jesus says, in verse 27, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your heart be troubled. And do not be afraid. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, what is it that we can say it seems so often that our prayers to you are the same over and over again yet your word even when we have read it over and over again or have heard it over again is new and fresh over and over again your promises your mercies seem new to us every morning and we do thank you oh Lord for your great faithfulness thank you for the comfort that You give to Your people. The peace that You give. And may that peace belong to each and every one here tonight and all of Your people throughout this world from this day on and even forevermore. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.