In His Presence - Tim King

In His Presence

If I had to choose one passage in the Bible that is probably most read yet least understood, I think I would choose our text for today: John 14:1-3.

We know the text well—it reads as follows: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.”

It’s a pretty safe bet that if you’ve been to a funeral lately, this passage was read and then something nebulous was said about a coming day when Jesus would return on the clouds of heaven, and take us all away to the Father’s house.

Even in the fulfilled prophecy world there are those who believe this passage to be future. But does the text really demand such a reading?

Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 4:1 that there are 4 constituent elements of the ends of the ages that had come upon his generation. There would be Christ’s coming, a judgment, an arrival of the kingdom and the resurrection. Just a few chapters earlier in our study, John testified that the “hour is coming and now is here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live (Jn. 5:25).

This hour present is no different than the coming of Christ in our John 14 text.

The confusion occurs because often times people don’t know, literally, whether they are coming or going by reading the words of this account.

It is usually assumed that this passage is referring to a “place” to which we go. But what if, instead, it is talking about being brought into a “relationship”; a “Presence”?

The place of preparation is not about a space as much as it is about a unification between us and God.

Again, look at what the text says. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.” The literal Greek here regarding the phrase “take you to myself,” is “to be ‘face to face with me.’”

Think of it more as an embrace, rather than a place. It is the embrace of Jesus taking us into the arms of the Father.

Remember how the Book of John begins. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God” Again, the literal rendering is, “the Word was ‘face to face’ with God.” Now, just 14 chapters later, what we’re witnessing is the promise of Jesus of an event that was soon to take place. His time for the reconciliation of the world was at hand.

For too long the world had not known the “face to face,” reunited relationship with the Father that was the entire goal of history. But now, at long last, Jesus was going to embrace us, take us to be “face to face” with himself so that we might be “face to face” with the Father.

No wonder he began by calming the disciples and asking that their hearts not be troubled. This thought takes us back to the words of the prophet Hosea as God promised him concerning his people Israel: “Therefore I will now allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. From there I will give her her vineyards, and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope” (Hosea 2:15).

Achor means “trouble.” The promise that God made to his people was that he would lead them out of the city, outside the camp, beyond their comfort zones, beyond their organized religion, out into the desert to what would look like nothing less than a Valley of trouble.

But from the midst of this valley, from the midst of this trouble, God would provide a door of hope.

That valley was walked by Jesus. He went outside of the camp, laid down his life as he was lifted up, and in that one historical event, drew all people to himself. Jesus, in the valley of trouble, had become our door of hope as all together we were pulled into the embrace of God; drawn into the full Presence of the Father.

The Father’s house is a metaphor about nothing less than being reunited into the fullness of the Father’s presence.

What poetic and awesome language that Jesus uses to tell this story here in John the 14th chapter. I hope that this day you will feel lifted up, embraced, and in a “face to face” relationship with God the Father.

This webcast is the twentienth program in a series on "The Gospel of John." Listeners are encourage to read along in the Gospel as a way to delve deeper into this study.

The "Presence Today" show premiered a year ago and quickly became the leading weekly broadcast of the fulfilled prophecy world. Shows are archived, so viewers can watch them anytime. See full story and instructions.

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The Gospel of John, Pt 20, June 9, 2004