I Go to Prepare a Place for You

In John chapter 13 we read about the Lord knowing that it was time for His departure from this word. Verse one reads, “Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father,”. Jesus told His disciples that it was time for His departure from them. As expected, the disciples were crushed at the news. Peter wanted to follow wherever it was that Jesus was departing to, but Jesus answered him in verse 36, “Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards.” The disciple’s hearts were greatly troubled. It was then our Lord told them, (14:1-3) “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.”
This passage of Scripture has been preached upon countless times (as well it should). Jesus encouraged the heart of His disciples with these powerful words, and these same words have encouraged the hearts of countless saints since in times of heartache, loss, and despair.
We all have heard sermons preached on this topic and especially the “I go to prepare a place for you…” I believe, because of our sensual materialistic flesh, we make the focus of this verse the MANSIONS. We are strong to preach that we do not have a “room” prepared for us, but a Mansion (AMEN to that). We use the ‘easy amen gett’r “If our Lord created the universe and all that is in it in 6 days, think of how great our mansions are going to be if He has been preparing them for 2,000 years (admit it…you have ‘amen’ed that J). Problem is, it is not Scriptural. Before our Lord said, “I go to prepare a place for you,” He said “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” Problem is, the mansions were already there!!
So that brings us to question, what was to be prepared? Heaven was already there. The mansions were already there. The golden street was already there. So what was to be prepared? I believe the answer to that was also given by our Lord to the disciples in “that where I am, there ye may be also.” Jesus wasn’t there.
Now before you get all super spiritual on me, I know Jesus is omnipresent, but Heaven was not prepared at this time. You see, our Lord knew He had to still go to a cross, He still was to shed His blood for you and I. Following His death, He would descend to Paradise, lead the Old Testament saints from Paradise with His blood toward Heaven. Upon entering Heaven, He would present the BLOOD as payment for all mankind’s sin before a Holy God. We would be declared Justified! NOW, a place was prepared.
That is why in chapter 13, Jesus told Peter that “Whither I go, thou canst not follow me NOW.” But afterwards…after He would die upon a cross, after He would resurrect, after He would present His blood before a holy God, after our sin debt was declared JUSTIFIED….NOW we can follow Him, NOW a place is prepared, NOW we can go to Heaven!!
Heaven is not a mansion or a street of gold; Heaven is an eternity with God and His Son Jesus Christ. The disciples heart was encouraged not in the fact that there were mansions, but in the “where I am, there ye may be also.” We focus on the materialism too much! Praise God His Son prepared a place, through His sacrifice and shedding of blood, so that we might forever live with Him!!

Grace-based or Truth-based Church?

Recently our church was accused as not being a “grace-based church.” I received the ‘criticism’ as kindly as I could and have spent much time reflecting on the statement. My grandfather once said, “If someone criticizes you, think and examine before you react.” I have tried to do so the past few weeks.
First, I want to thank that person for causing me to study and pray and seek out in God’s Word the concept of being “grace-based.” I have prayed and studied God’s Word concerning the topic and asked the Lord to ‘open my eyes’ to the truth and to be willing to follow the truth no matter what. God, as He always does, opened my eyes and taught me ‘wondrous things out of thy law.’ I will also take this time to recommend a book to read on the matter by Pastor Mike Allison (http://www.madisonbaptist.com/) entitled, Who is the Lord?
What is grace-based? Do a google search on “grace-based” and you will get the idea. There are grace-based churches, grace-based schools, books and teachings on grace-based parenting, etc. To what I have read and understood, those who seek to be ‘grace-based’ hold to the following: A “Biblical” belief of how to treat others, self, and our children (in parenting) based upon the “grace” of our Lord and His treatment of us.
Now, I am sure that those who believe such thoughts would have a better definition than that, but I also think that each one would agree that my synopsis is correct as well.
You will notice I placed “Biblical” and “grace” in parenthesis as I do not fully agree with their way of thought. I will give an example: If one is a thief, we should not judge them or condemn them, but love them and accept them as Jesus did the thief Zacchaeus. Thus, we have grace-based theology and practice. Jesus “didn’t judge Zacchaeus, He loved and accepted him and he was won by that love and lack of legalistic judgment and great showing of grace.” Sounds good doesn’t it? Of course to this crowd things like standards and practicing church discipline is ‘ludicrous.’ (as it was put to me last week by a separate critic). After much prayer, I make the following response:

John 1:14 says that Jesus Christ was “full of grace and truth,” and verse 17 reads “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” To many people, the terms ‘grace and truth’ do not go together. We love the Truth and we love Grace, but we rarely use the two terms together; yet Scripture does repeatedly. 2 Peter 3:18 says that as a believer I am to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge (truth) of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ…” Grace and Truth. Colossians 1:5-6 teaches that grace comes from hearing the truth. We all know what grace is: getting what we do not deserve (example Heaven). We all know what truth is: Truth is the Lord Jesus (John 14:6) and Thy Word is Truth (John 17:17).
Facts are: You can have truth without grace, you cannot have grace without truth, and you can only have as much grace as you have truth. Let me expound…You can have truth without grace. If God wanted to, He could have not given grace to us and still been perfectly righteous, holy, and true. You can have truth without grace. You cannot have grace without truth. Truth exposes us for what we truly are. It was truth that told us we were lost. It was truth that told me I was a sinner and condemned me(Rom. 7:7). Why? Galatians 3:24 tells me, “Wherefore the law (truth) was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” When I was given truth (I am lost), then I could receive grace! Amen! That is how any of us got saved, by being shown we are sinners and lost (truth) but we could be saved by grace through faith! Then, I can say, you can only have as much grace as you have truth. As we grow in the truth, we grow in grace.
Now let me bring it home…when we are accused of not being a grace-based church, it is because of our standards, our practicing of Biblical church discipline, and/or our strong preaching against sin. Fact is, we must have those things; for the more truth we get through preaching and practicing of the Truth, the more grace we can experience and offer. We need strong New Testament preaching that “reproves, rebukes, and exhorts with all longsuffering.” There are people that covet and don’t think its bad. Matter of the fact, it is common today for people to covet their neighbor’s wife. Why is that common? We have departed from the truth. Now, when that person hears the truth, “Thou shalt not covet,” he realizes he is wrong and now can experience grace upon asking forgiveness.
People today want the grace without seeking the forgiveness. Read Luke 17:3-4 and you will find the command of God, “if he repent, forgive him.” We should forgive every time someone asks forgiveness. Why? Because God said to.
People say, “But you owe me grace!” NO, grace is something we DO NOT DESERVE! If we get it, Amen! If not, we deserve the judgment. Grace is not an entitlement we have.
I close with this. In 1 Cor. 5 a man was known to be participating in immorality with his step-mother. Paul brought the sin before the church. Paul counseled that they should remove the sin from the church to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. In today’s world, the church at Corinth would have been a “grace-based church.” They knew the sin was commonly reported, but were accepting him and the sin. Paul said this is wrong. The man was confronted with the Truth…that he was in sin. Praise God, the man repented and by 2 Cor. 2 Paul told the church to forgive him and show grace! The man was forgiven and experienced grace after truth! Had Paul not shown the truth, the church would have remained carnal, the man would have continued in sin, and he or the church would have ever experienced grace.
Summary: You can’t have grace without truth, you can have truth without grace, and you can only have as much grace as you have truth. That is why to every preacher who holds standards, practices church discipline, and preaches that sin is sin…keep on keeping on! For when we quit presenting truth, we will cease to experience grace. We don’t need grace-based churches, we need truth-based churches, and the grace then will be there. By the way, Zacchaeus got saved because the Lord told him he was lost—the truth—then came grace (Luke 19:10).

A Lost Art Amongst Baptist

Acts 17:11 reads “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” Here we read of the people of Berea that Paul and Silas spoke to after being forced to leave Thessalonica. The people of Berea are given a great compliment in that they “received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” There is much to be gleaned from this verse of Scripture. First of all, can you believe that the people of Thessalonica and Berea were compared and one was found “more noble?” In our modern church age we love to claim “Grace” as an excuse for our pride in wanting to do things our way. The modern “church” loves claiming liberty to worship as they interpret worship. This is simply not so. There are some churches and some people “more noble” than others. Who is to judge? Scriptures! It was the Scriptures that were being searched and received by the Bereans, and that is what made them “more noble.” I want to be a part of a ‘more noble’ church!Secondly, the people received the Scriptures with all readiness of mind. They came into church expecting to hear from the Lord! Can you imagine if everyone came into church expecting to hear from the Lord? We are so ‘busy’ that we never hear His voice. We have to get to church on time, go to choir practice, take the kids to the bathroom, check our outfit, talk to Brother and Sister so-in-so, get to our Sunday School class, get the quiet seat out of the car, think of what bus game to play, read the bulletin, write out the offering check, find ‘our pew,’ and sign up on the food list for drink before anyone else (because that is the easiest you know), that we miss the entire purpose of church…to hear His voice. God wants to speak to you and I every time the Word of God is opened. Did you hear Him this weekend? While I am not saying that any of those ‘to do’s’ are wrong, we better never forget to stop and listen for His voice; and not just listen, but receive it. And not just receive it, but receive it with readiness of mind. I’m going to live it! Every pastor in the world would love a congregation like that, and God would love every pastor to be that way too!
But thirdly, the lost art I believe is in the final portion of that Scripture: “they searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” I believe in personal devotions. I believe every child of God should spend time every day in reading, meditating, and memorizing of Scripture. But that is not what this speaks of. The people of Berea received the preaching, was willing to live the preaching, but also sought out in Scripture the preaching…thus the lost art. We all love the ‘evangelists’ sermon. Preaching of the Gospel and everything we all agree upon. We all leave happy and excited about Jesus. But what when our pastor preaches a message that we aren’t sure about? For example, the Lord has led me to preach on the proper way of finding life’s mate for our young people. I have preached from Scripture how ‘dating’ is wrong. There are those who are willing to try it out, for which I am grateful. There are those who want to see it before they’ll believe it…and they can. There are those who don’t like it and think it’s foolish…proof’s in the pudding as they say. But, where are those who went home and came back having searched the Scriptures for themselves on the issue? I love when brothers in Christ come to me a week or two after a sermon and ‘add on’ to my sermon I preached. Amen! They searched the Scriptures.
We unfortunately live in a ‘church world’ of dictatorial preachers whose every word must be followed- or else, or of passive ‘keep them all happy’ preachers who will preach the easiest and most unoffending messages. If you have a pastor that is willing to study Scriptures and share the Scriptures in love, you ought to praise God for him, but still search the Scriptures for yourself!
How much stronger would your faith be? How much deeper would your conviction be? How much more perseverance in standing for the Truth would you have if it all was based upon what you have found to be true in Scriptures. When we base our convictions and standards on what the church believes or on what our pastor preaches…they will never last, or the first time there is opposition or what seems to be a failure in them, we will quit. Let us find the truths in God’s Word for ourselves! By not doing so, we have created a ‘belief buffet’ amongst us Baptists. We will take what our liking is and pass on what doesn’t agree with us. We can not continue this! We must search the Scriptures!
I know recently I have preached on the error of dating, our children being in church with our parents and not in jr. church or clubs, God still works miracles, assurance of salvation, bride of Christ, separation, finances, etc. How much did we search the Scriptures for ourselves on our own time on these matters? For it was that which made ‘the people of Berea ‘more noble.’ I definitely don’t want to be like the world, and I really don’t want to be like the typical Christian, but how wonderful for God to look at our families and our churches and be able to say, “they receive the Scripture every time with all readiness of mind, and they search the Scriptures daily, whether those things that pastor says are so; they are not like everybody else…they are more noble.” It’s a lost art, but it can be done!

I Hate Dishwashers

While growing up, my mother had the greatest dishwasher I have ever seen. This dishwasher always cleaned the pots, always shined the dish, and left glasses without spots or debris. This great dishwasher used no electricity and very rarely broke down. Of course, you know by now the brand…Momma’s Hands! She, and eventually my sisters, washed the dishes every night and ever dish was placed back in its place that night, dry and clean. Years later, I married the most wonderful lady on the face of the earth (better have that written due to content of this devotion). My wife though, had us purchase a dishwasher. I had no idea the frustration, smells, and grime that were to come. Soon, I began to notice “crusties” as I call them, spots everywhere, and worst of all…”floaties” in my drink. I began to investigate. At other times, there would be no bowls in the cabinet, no spoons in the drawer, and I continued to investigate. THEN, one day I came home on a late Sunday night to a horrendous smell. I finished my investigation and found the culprit to be-the DISHWASHER. What I have found is this. It can clean up dishes, but not clean them. It needs to get “full” before you use it to save water and electric, so we may run out of certain dishes at certain times. Some of those “waiting periods” are marked by distinct moments of odor emanating from the machine that when finally used does not have the power to clean the hardened left over particles of food. I say all that to simply say this. God expects us as Christians to do the work of the ministry. Our faith, demands our work! Don’t rely on everybody else to do a work that you and I can do. When that happens, things don’t get done, don’t get done right, wastes resources and power, and truly stinks in the eyes of God. Lets do the work!!