This is Connect with Skip Heitzig, and we're so glad you've joined us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heitzig is all about connecting you to the never-changing truth of God's Word through verse-by-verse teaching.
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That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. I am indebted to a guy by the name of Stephen Langton, who was the Archbishop of Canterbury back in the 1200s. Because in 1227, the year before he died, he decided it would be helpful if we had in our Bibles chapters and verses. Up to that point, there were no chapter and verse markings, but he decided it would be helpful to do that. So he went about, it was his aim to have a way to be able to look up and find a verse of Scripture instead of saying it's on some scroll or on some page, that you could go right to it easily. So he was the one that introduced chapters and verses.
So I'm indebted to him for that. The very first edition of Bibles with chapters and verses was the Wycliffe Bible translated into English in the 1300s, 1382, if memory serves. And so from then on, we were able to look up and turn to a certain book with a certain chapter and a certain verse. As grateful as I am for all of that, sometimes we, because of the breaks, we just sort of think it's the end and then there's a whole new thing happening. And what we fail to realize is that, especially in a scene like this, it is the same scene without any break whatsoever in the upper room when Jesus is sharing a last meal with his disciples. And so there is a break, but sometimes I have to say the breaks are in the wrong places. They don't really follow the subject matter. They just sort of break off when they think, yeah, that's a good place to stop. That's enough verses. Put a chapter in there.
And sometimes they're natural, but sometimes they're not. But I just want you to know that all of this is taking place in one continuous evening as Jesus shares the Passover with his closest friends. This section is called the Upper Room Discourse. I mentioned to you when we were together last, and it's been a while, so I'll refresh your memory, that there are four major discourses that Jesus gave that are recorded in the Bible. There may have been more, but the four major speeches, discourses, teachings that Jesus gave in the Bible are as follows. Number one, the Sermon on the Mount, perhaps his most famous. That's Matthew 5, 6 and 7.
That happened in one setting. The second is the Kingdom Parable Discourse. That's Matthew chapter 13, the kingdom of heaven is like, the kingdom of heaven is like, the sower and the seed parables, the weed and the tare parable. Those are the kingdom parables of Matthew 13, so those are two discourses. The third discourse is the Olivet Discourse. And that is because Jesus was on Mount Olivet, or the Mount of Olives, overlooking Jerusalem, and gave a discourse on the end of all things, the last days. So Matthew 24, also recorded in Luke chapter 21 and Matthew 13, that's the third discourse.
This, the Upper Room Discourse is his fourth. And I'm drawing attention to it because it is the longest of all of them, and the most intimate of all of them. It's especially good for us because we are disciples of Jesus Christ, most all of us. And so some of these things are so precious to our faith. And this discourse, the Upper Room Discourse, because it was given in the Upper Room at the Passover by Jesus to his disciples. That's John 13, 14, 15, and 16.
And if you want to even throw in the prayer of John 17 to his father, it is the most intimate, and it is the longest of all of them. What you need to know, or at least remember, because you probably already know from times before, is that this is not a public meeting. This section here is a private meeting.
It's a private meal. The public is shut out of this discourse. Jesus' public ministry is over at this point.
He has nothing more to say to the nation. That's because the nation has brought their gavel down on Jesus and has, as a nation, rejected him. He came unto his own, but his own received him not. And so the doors are shut, and behind the doors, it's a small group of 13 men, Jesus and his 12.
And what he has to share with them is so precious and so uplifting. A little bit of context will help, because as we get into chapter 14, the disciples by now are agitated. They're restless. They're quite upset. They're troubled, because though it's Passover, it's a time of celebration, it's a time of recollection, Jesus has shared some things with his men that makes them anything but happy and satisfied. They're nervous. So far, Jesus has predicted he's going to die.
Not what they expected. Jesus has predicted he will be betrayed by one of them, and then he broke up a piece of the bread and gave it to Judas Iscariot. And third, Jesus has just announced to Peter, even though Peter said, though all may walk out on you, I will be the faithful one.
He said, well, Peter, actually, three times tonight, you're going to deny me. So Peter especially, but all of the disciples were troubled. They were agitated. They were nervous. They were upset. And so Jesus begins, let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me. Now you'll notice in verse one, Jesus gives a commandment. That's what it is. It's a commandment. It's in the imperative mode. That's a command. Let not your heart be troubled. It's a commandment. It is a present tense.
It is, as I mentioned, an imperative in the mode, the mood, but it's a passive voice. So what it means is Jesus is saying, I want you to stop an action that you're already doing. You are already troubled. You are already agitated. Now stop stressing out.
That would be a probably pretty accurate translation. Stop stressing out. I know you're stressing out. Stop it. Put an end to it. So he gives that command to his disciples. Let not your heart be troubled.
Now let me throw something out at you. Because he gives them a command to let not your heart be troubled, it shows us that we are in control of our emotions. Some people say, I can't help. I'm stressed out, man. I can't help it.
Stop it. Jesus would never give you a command that was impossible for you to keep. So with the commandment comes the capability to keep the commandment because Jesus gives it and he knows all men, the Bible says. So he says to you and I, stop being agitated, stop being troubled, stop stressing out.
How could he do that? Are there any reasons that he gives why or how, what the basis is for that? Yes, there are three reasons and you can apply these to your life. Number one, because of who you know. Number two, because of where you'll go. And number three, because of what he'll show.
I put them in that order so you could easily memorize them. First of all, because of who you know, notice what he says, let not your hearts be troubled. You believe or you trust in God. Believe or trust also in me. Do you think the disciples had any reason not to trust Jesus?
Has he been trustworthy so far up to this point? Whenever there was any need, couldn't they just lean on Jesus and he was there in amazing ways? When there was no food for the multitude, Jesus fed the multitude. When the storm was going to overwhelm the boat, Jesus calmed the storm. When Lazarus died, Jesus raised him to life.
That's amazing. Let not your heart be troubled. You trust God, trust also in me. Because of who you know, you know God by faith.
You know me, you've lived with me for three and a half years. Trust also in me. That's the first reason.
Second reason is because of where you'll go. Verse two, 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. Did you know that the Bible speaks a lot about heaven? I know you knew that. But do you know how much the Bible mentions it?
532 times. It speaks about heaven, speaks about it a lot. But please notice here how Jesus refers to heaven where you'll go, where I'll go because of your faith in Jesus. You trust God, you trust Jesus, you're going to heaven. He speaks of it relationally, not locationally, but relationally.
He calls it my father's house. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, starting the year with a structured Bible study can shape your spiritual journey for the months ahead and help align your life with God's truth. We want to help you do that with Pastor Skip's book, The Bible from 30,000 Feet and Companion Workbook. Journey through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, gaining a deep panoramic understanding of God's word that helps you understand the big picture of scripture with greater clarity. These resources are our thanks for your gift of at least $50 today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copies when you give at least $50 today to reach people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip. And he says, in my father's house, there are many, listen to this, literally rooms. I know it says mansion because of a unfortunate translation from the Latin Vulgate from Greek into the Latin Vulgate into English. So it says mansion. So I know you've always thought that there's going to be like this Hollywood drive, long driveway and maybe statues on the side of you, perhaps.
I don't know. And then this huge mansion. And does it disappoint you when it says in my father's house, there are rooms?
In fact, a most accurate translation apartments. I know you go, Oh no, I hate that thought. I, man, I was banking on that mansion. Hey, don't worry.
It's going to be pretty awesome. I would, I would take God's apartment over the devil's mansion any day. Just saying. Right. Okay. So, so in my father's house, there are many apartments, many rooms. Now a little background.
And again, I could go on and I could take hours, but I do want to get to the communion. So in the Middle East, in ancient times, think of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the patriarchs, they didn't live in houses. They lived in what? Tent.
So when their kids grew up and they married and had kids, you know what they did? They just added onto the tent, a room. And then another room, if they had more kids in another room, they, they would take these tents and you'll see in the Middle East, these sprawling tents that are just divided by sheets of tent material. So in that one family tent, there are many rooms.
It keeps going. So with that motif in mind from the Middle Eastern way of thinking in my father's house, there's room for you. There are many rooms and he can make more and more and more. But now I want you to think of this verse in terms of what you know about the future, where you'll go. You're going to heaven, but when you die, what will that be like? Well, you'll be in the presence of God and we could come up with certain details about what heaven's going to be like. But if you think about way into the future, after you die and go to heaven or you get raptured into heaven, eventually, after a thousand years on this earth, in a millennial kingdom, you know this earth is going to be destroyed, right?
Completely destroyed. And God's going to make a new heaven and a new earth. So the new heaven and the new earth have a very particular oddity to them. There's a capital city of the new earth called New Jerusalem.
See, I knew you knew all this stuff. But what's odd about the new Jerusalem is it's its own planet. Because in the book of Revelation, John sees a vision of the new heaven and the new earth and he says, I saw, Revelation 21, new Jerusalem coming out of heaven, made by God, prepared by God, coming toward the new earth. And then he wanted to know how big it was because obviously it was pretty large and the angel measured it and told him the dimensions. It's 12,000 furlongs in all directions. It's a perfect cube. So its width, its breadth and its height are 12,000 furlongs, or about 1,500 miles cubed, or 2,250,000 square miles, or a city 15,000 times the size of London, England, or about the size of our present moon. So think of a moon, but not a sphere, a cube coming toward the earth.
Pretty wild, huh? A scientist named Henry Morris put pen to paper and he said, a city that size with those dimensions could safely take on 20 billion inhabitants, listen to this, and that's only designating 25% of the city for dwelling places. If you took the square mileage that I just gave to you, that would safely and easily allow 20 billion people to live, occupying only 25% of it, allowing 75% for public works, streets, parks, whatever. And that would give each of the 20 billion inhabitants of that city a cubicle block, 75 acres on each side. That's how big it would be. Now, I am also believing that in our eternal state, in the resurrected body we have, judging from how Jesus was able to travel in his resurrected body from one place to another instantaneously, that we'll be able to move not only horizontally but vertically. So just wanted to throw that, it's fun to think about it in terms of in my father's house, there are many rooms. Can't wait to explore.
And that's only the capital city. Nothing is set of the new earth and the new heaven. So we're going to have a lot of fun finding out what that's all about. Verse three. I know I'm taking up time. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also.
Now that's the third reason. The reason you shouldn't be troubled is because of who you know, because of where you'll go, and because of what he'll show you. I'm going to go and prepare a place for you. Heaven is a personalized place. Your room, your apartment, your mansion is going to be personalized. He's making something for you.
He's preparing a place for you. I always love to think of it. I did two funerals yesterday and I always loved the thought that, you know, when I go out of town or when my wife goes out of town and I'm home, if I know she's coming back, I want to prepare the place for her. I want to clean it up and make it nice. So it's a nice surprise when she comes home. It's like, wow, you were clean.
How did that happen? So I try to prepare it. Now my preparation might be a couple hours, maybe even a day if I have a day off to do that. Jesus made the promise 2,000 years ago. I'm leaving to prepare a place for you. Can you imagine what this place must look like?
If he's been working on that mansion of yours for 2,000 years? Now I will theologically concur that perhaps Jesus, when he said, I'm going to prepare a place for you, is simply speaking of the cross. I'm going to make a way for you. I'm going to prepare a way for you or a place for you by allowing you to go there, by me going to the cross and being the sacrifice to allow you to get to heaven. He could simply mean that. Or he could mean I'm personally going to make something for you. Or it could all be what he means by that.
But that is what he'll show. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also. You probably should write in your notes or in the margin of your Bible 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 Corinthians 15, both passages that speak of what Jesus spoke of first or hinted at first. And that is the rapture of the church. He is talking here not about coming to the earth to judge the earth and set up his kingdom, Revelation 19. But he's saying, I'm going to come back for you.
I'm going to get you. And Paul tells us that will happen at a different time than when he comes the second time, the second coming all the way to the earth to set up his kingdom. It's called the rapture of the church. This is the first hint ever since Jesus spoke these words.
The church has had what Paul called the blessed hope, the blessed hope of Jesus returned for us. He could come at any moment. He could come before the end of this Bible study. Jesus is coming soon.
I'm excited about that. You know, as I look around at the world, I don't have hope in any politician or political party. I'm not holding my breath thinking there's going to be change in four years. I never thought a politician could break change enough to satisfy my heart.
I'm looking for Jesus to take every politician and say, move over. You're doing it wrong. Let me show you the ropes. Verse four, and where I go, you know, and the way you know. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. So how can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me. I love Thomas. You know, he's probably the only honest guy in the bunch. Maybe a few of them picked up on it because after all, Jesus did say, where I'm going, you know, and the way you know.
But at least one of them didn't. And that was Thomas. And he wasn't the kid in class to go, I have no idea what the teacher is saying, but I'm just going to nod my head and look like I'm writing notes down like, this is good.
He's the kid who sticks his hand and goes, I have no clue what you just said. Where are you going? And if we don't know where you're going, how can we know how to get there? And I'm glad he said that because he opened the door for Jesus to give the answer, which is the gospel in a nutshell.
I am the way, the truth, and the life. So I know Thomas had flaws. Thomas had a question mark for a brain. He was always questioning things. Huh? Why?
How? So he had a question mark for a brain, but Jesus was in the process of turning the question mark into an exclamation point. And at the end, before the ascension into heaven, Thomas will be at the exclamation point.
And after Jesus goes to heaven, Thomas will carry the gospel to India and share his faith to transform a nation. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program.
Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resources that will help you gain a deeper understanding of the sweeping story of scripture. Pastor Skip's book, The Bible from 30,000 Feet, and the companion workbook are our thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today. Request your copies when you give $50 or more. Call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. And did you know that you can get a weekly devotional and other resources from Pastor Skip sent right to your email inbox?
Simply visit connectwithskip.com and sign up for emails from Skip. Come back next time for more verse by verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times. Now, we want to let you know about an exciting opportunity coming up soon in Southern California.
Hi, Pastor Skip here. I'm heading to Menifee, California to teach at Revival Christian Fellowships Nuts and Bolts of Expository Preaching Conference in January. I'll be teaching alongside my very good friend and fellow expositor, Pastor John Miller. Join us to deepen your knowledge and ignite or reignite a lasting passion to teach the Bible expositionally.
I hope to see you there. So check out the link and claim your spot. To learn more about the nuts and bolts and to register, visit expositorypreaching.org. That's expositorypreaching.org.
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