Rumble
I Go To Prepare A Place For You
Tim Buck
FOTET.org
John 14:1-3
Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 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. 3 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.
Jesus explains to His disciples that His departure would be for their advantage since He was going away to prepare a heavenly home for them and will return to take them so that they may be with Him. Jesus is talking about the rapture of the church at the end of the age when He returns for the His believers.
The descriptive features in this familiar passage do not describe Jesus coming to earth with His saints to establish His kingdom (Rev. 19:11-15), but taking believers from earth back to live in His Father’s house.
Since no judgment on the unsaved is described here, this is not His Second Coming at the end of the Tribulation when He returns in great glory and power to destroy the wicked (Mt. 13:36-43; 47-50.
Rather this describes His coming to gather His own who are alive and raise the bodies of those who have died to take them all to heaven. This rapture event is also described in 1 Cor. 15:51-54; 1 Thess. 4:14-17.
After being raptured the church will spend seven years in heaven with Jesus staying in the dwelling places that Christ promised His disciples.
While in heaven the church will experience a series of events designed to prepare the church for eternity. Our agenda in heaven will include being rewarded (1 Cor. 3:10-15; 2 Cor. 5:9-10), then we will celebrate the Marriage of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-9). Later we will return to earth with Christ when He comes again to set up His Millennial Kingdom (Rev. 19:11-20:6).
At the start of the kingdom we will celebrate the Marriage Supper or wedding reception in a festive atmosphere with the invited guests (Rev. 19:9) being the resurrected Old Testament saints (Daniel 12:2) along with the resurrected martyrs of the Tribulation period (Rev. 20:4)!
God has great plans in store for the church!
