Let not your heart be troubled: 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; for I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
And whither I go, ye know the way.
Thomas saith unto Him, Lord, we know not whither Thou goest; how know we the way?
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by Me.
Lord, we thank You because we are gathered in Your name, and we have the assurance that You are in our midst. We are here to bow in Your presence, and we are here to say to You, “Lord, speak; Your servants are listening.”
May the Holy Spirit quicken Your own word. May Your word become light to us and spirit to us. All the glory belongs to You. We pray in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
On that evening, the Lord partook of the Passover with His disciples for the last time. That evening, the Lord told the disciples that He would depart from them.
Even though He had spoken these same words to them in the past, on that particular evening their hearts were troubled. They had followed the Lord for over three years, and now their Lord would depart from them. Therefore, their hearts were deeply troubled.
The Lord told them, “Let not your heart be troubled. You 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.”
When that place is prepared, He will come again and receive them to Himself, that where He is, they may be also. The Lord comforted them.
His comfort was not empty words. His comfort gave them a spiritual reality. He said to them, “In My Father’s house.”
What is this place called the Father’s house? The Father’s house is the place where God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit dwell together.
In that house there is perfect unity. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit share everything together. There is no hierarchy in that unity. There is no greater or lesser enjoyment of their unity. The Father, Son, and Spirit are perfectly one.
In that family there is perfect harmony. The love relationship among Them is indescribable.
But the Lord said, “In My Father’s house are many mansions.” This is the house where the Father, the Son, and the Spirit dwell.
The word translated “mansions” may also be translated “dwelling places” or “apartments.” It does not mean that in the Father’s house there are many individual houses. The Father’s house is one great household, but within this great household there are many dwelling places.
The Lord said, “I go to prepare a place for you.” Originally, this house was occupied by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It was indeed a beautiful house. But because of the love of God, He desired to include mankind in this household, that they might become children in His household.
Therefore, in the Father’s house there are many dwelling places. There is a dwelling place for each one. Even though each one has a dwelling place, we are still in that one great household.
The Lord said, “I go to prepare that place for you.” Our Lord came to this earth, and He came to seek and to save that which was lost.
While He was on earth, He revealed and declared His Father to us. He revealed what kind of Father He is to Him and to us.
He went to the cross and shed His blood for us. Because of the finished work of redemption on the cross, He opened the way to bring us back to the Father’s house.
Now He is departing. His work on this earth is finished. Therefore, He returns to His Father’s house, but He goes with a purpose: to prepare a place for us.
Today He is at the right hand of the Father, where He is our High Priest, continually interceding for us. He has sent the Holy Spirit to this earth to indwell the hearts of those who put their faith in the Lord Jesus.
The Father responds to the high-priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit within us is doing the work of preparation.
The Father’s house is not a material house; it is a spiritual house. Therefore, the dwelling place prepared for each of us is also spiritual.
Strictly speaking, these dwelling places are the people who dwell in them. In other words, the Lord’s preparation of a place for us is actually His preparation of us, so that we may be fit to dwell in God’s house.
What kind of God is our God? His character must be built into us. Otherwise, even if we came to the Father’s house, we would not be comfortable there. We would be uneasy.
Those who dwell with God must be God-like. His character must be wrought into us.
God is a God of glory; therefore, those who dwell in the Father’s house must also be glorious. Our God is a holy God; therefore, those who dwell with Him must be holy, even as He is holy. God is righteous; therefore, those who dwell with Him must also be righteous.
This is what God’s word means when it says, “I go to prepare a place for you.” God is preparing that place within us, for His character to be incorporated into us.
He is continually changing and transforming us. We are being transformed from glory to glory, until we are fully conformed to the image of His Son, so that His Son may be the Firstborn among many brethren. Through Him, God will bring many sons to glory.
The Lord used these words to comfort His disciples. If we truly understand this word, there is nothing that can comfort us more than this passage in John.
The Lord said, “After I have prepared that place, I will come again and receive you to Myself. Where I am, there you will be with Me. Where I go, you know; and the way you know.”
This knowing is an inward knowing. It is not an external or merely mental knowing. It is a subjective knowing—an inward, spiritual knowing.
The Lord said, in effect, “You know where I am going, and you know the way.” The people of the world do not know where He was going, but the disciples should know where He was going and should know the way.
Thomas raised a question: “Lord, we do not know where You are going. How can we know the way?”
This showed that the disciples were still living in the flesh. They were not living in the Spirit. If they were in the Spirit, they should know where He was going, and they should know the way.
The Lord came from the Father. Naturally, when His work was done, He would return to His Father’s house. But the disciples’ hearts were blinded. They did not know where the Lord was going, and they did not know the way.
Then the Lord spoke to them: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me.”
Brothers and sisters, first we must know the destination—where we are going. If we do not know where we are heading, then there is no way we can talk about the way.
For example, if you are going to Los Angeles, then you find a way to get there. But if you have no destination, no object, no place to which you are going, then the way is of no consequence, because you do not know where you are going.
Our destiny, our destination, determines our way. Therefore, if we are to speak about the way, we must settle this question: Where are we heading? Where are we going?
The Lord said, “I am the way.” Apart from Him, we cannot go to the Father.
We know that on this earth we are strangers and pilgrims. Our life on earth is only a few years—perhaps eighty years, perhaps a few more years. Is this all that we live for? Is that all?
We know from Ecclesiastes 3:11 that God has made everything beautiful in its time, and He has put eternity in man’s heart.
All created things have their season and their purpose. When the usefulness of a thing is over, it is gone. It is like planting flowers. You cultivate them, the flowers bloom, and after a few days they wither away. We may say, “How sad.”
My father loved flowers. When flowers withered, he would take them and bury them. Perhaps we all have this feeling.
Recently, a sister had a dog, and the dog died. She was very sad. She asked whether, in the resurrection, the dog would become alive again.
Another sister had a little talking bird that she loved. The bird could say, “Yes” and “No.” When the bird died, she cried and asked, “In heaven, will I still see my bird?”
The answer was that God created all things for their seasons. Whether it is a flower or a bird, each has lived out the allotted span of its life. When that season is over, it is over.
But man is not like that. God has put eternity into us. Even if a man lives to be one hundred years old, he is still not satisfied, because we are not made merely for a short temporal period. God created us for eternity.
In one sense, we are passing through this earthly journey. Our final destiny is not on this earth. Scripture tells us that our ultimate place, our destiny, is our Father’s house.
One day we will all return to our Father. One day we will all return home.
If we realize that this is our destiny, then we have to pay attention to the way by which we get there. How can we reach that final destiny? How can we be fit to dwell in the Father’s house?
The Lord Jesus tells us, “I am the way.” Apart from Him, no one can come to the Father.
In the Old Testament there was a man named Jacob. He used deceit to steal the birthright from his brother, and he also received the blessing of the firstborn.
Because his brother intended to slay him, Jacob fled from home. As he wandered in the wilderness, he became very weary.
In Genesis 28, we are told that Jacob took a stone, used it as a pillow, and slept there. If you used a stone as your pillow today, could you sleep? But if you were extremely weary, even with a stone as a pillow, you would sleep.
As Jacob slept, he saw a ladder set up on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven. Angels were ascending and descending upon that ladder.
God was at the heavenly end of the ladder, and Jacob was at its foot. God gave him many promises.
When Jacob awoke, he was afraid. He said, “Surely this is God’s house. This is the gate of heaven.” He knew he was not worthy or qualified. He called that place Bethel.
When we come to John 1, we read of Nathanael. The Lord said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!”
Nathanael asked, “How do You know me?” The Lord answered, “Before Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.”
The fig tree represents Israel. Nathanael was a lover of the nation of Israel. Perhaps, under the fig tree, he was thinking about the future of his nation and hoping that the Messiah would come soon.
He may have hoped that when Messiah came, He would restore Israel as a nation, the first among the nations. The Lord said, “When you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
Because the Lord knew what Nathanael was thinking under the fig tree, Nathanael confessed Him. The Lord then said that he would see greater things than these: angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.
Nathanael was thinking only about the restoration of Israel as a nation through Messiah. One day our Lord will return, and He will restore the nation of Israel, because His promises to Israel are irrevocable.
But the Lord came to do a greater work. His work is to bring many back to the Father’s house. He is that ladder. Through Him we have our way back to God.
If our destiny is God Himself, if our destiny is the Father’s house, where is the way?
Men have always thought about a way back to God. There is an instinct within us that gives us a desire to return to the Father’s house. If there is no God in our hearts, our hearts are restless.
Augustine put it this way: “God created me for Himself. If I do not find rest in You, I will be forever restless.”
There is an instinct built into us. Men are seeking God; they are seeking their origin, because our origin is our final destiny.
While man was searching, he devised many ways for himself. Consider the religions of the world. All the religions of this world seek a way back to God, regardless of which religion they may be.
The reason for religion is that man finds within himself something that does not satisfy. Man discovers that he is incomplete. He realizes that he needs to seek someone other than himself—someone supernatural.
This religious concept of going back to God is universal. When I was young, I read of a psychologist who, after World War I, surveyed people throughout the world, from the most civilized to the most primitive.
He said that he discovered one thing: no matter how civilized or primitive people are, there is a religious concept. Only man has it; animals do not. No matter how high the animal life may be, there is no religious concept.
Therefore, we have this religious instinct within us. We know there is a destiny, and that destiny is our home. If we can return to God Himself, then we are indeed at home.
The religions of the world arise from this longing. But every religion is man’s way of trying to find God and to find a way back to God.
People say that there are many roads but one final destination. Yet that destination is not God Himself. All the religions of the world are trying to find the way back to the Father, but their way is a way of their own making.
To summarize, they rely on their good works to reach their destiny.
When we return to Genesis, we find two brothers: Cain and Abel. One day these two brothers prepared to offer something to God. They had a heart to worship God.
Possibly Abel went to the gate of Eden, because at the east of the garden of Eden the Lord placed the cherubim and the flaming sword to guard the way of the tree of life. They could not enter the garden and touch the tree of life.
When they wanted to offer something, perhaps they went as close as they could to the gate. Cain offered the best that he could produce from the earth—the fruit of his labor. He offered God the best of his work, thinking that God would be pleased.
But Scripture says that God had no respect for Cain and his offering. Abel, his brother, offered a slain lamb. The blood was shed, and God had respect for Abel and his offering.
What was the way of Cain? It was a way back to God based upon his own work: “I offer God my best work, my good work.”
I remember attending two Jewish funerals. At one funeral, the rabbi was preaching. He spoke of the one who had passed away and said that he had offered to God.
We all think that we must do our best. We do good works, charitable works, and then those works will remove our faults and sins. We think that we have a way back to God. This is religious thinking.
But, brothers and sisters, we all know that we cannot get through by that way. Perhaps some of us have tried that way. We come to a great wall, and the way turns us around.
The way of Cain is not the way that brings us to God.
There is another way: the way of man, the traditions of the fathers.
When the Lord delivered His people out of Egypt and brought them to Mount Sinai, God spoke to them. He gave them the Ten Commandments, the pattern for the tabernacle, and the priestly system.
He told them that if they obeyed His commandments, they would live. They would be His people, and He would be their God.
At that time, what they received was revelation. It was a vision. Their faith was a living faith.
But as the years passed, many traditions entered. Through the centuries there were many rabbis and teachers who interpreted God’s word. They told people how to observe the Sabbath: what work was and what rest was.
One rabbi interpreted the word, and other rabbis interpreted that interpretation. There was interpretation upon interpretation, until eventually there arose the tradition of the fathers.
People became keepers of the traditions of the fathers, while disobeying God’s commandments. The Lord Jesus said that they took the traditions of men and placed them in the place of God’s teaching.
God said, “Honor thy father and thy mother.” Yet their interpretation was that if a person gave to God what should have been given to his parents, then his obligation was over.
The Lord said, “You take away God’s commandment and substitute man’s tradition. You draw near with your words, but your heart is far away from Me.”
Originally, it was living faith. But through man’s interpretation upon interpretation, people departed from God’s word. What began as revelation became merely man’s teaching.
Can the traditions of the fathers bring us back to God? Not only can they not bring us back to the Father; they can remove us farther and farther from Him.
Even in New Testament times, within Christian teaching, we must ask: are we falling into the same condition?
When the Lord finished the work of redemption, ascended to glory, and sent the Holy Spirit, the faith of the early church was a living faith. If we read the book of Acts, we discover that they had an intimate relationship with the Lord Himself.
There was great clarity concerning the leading of the Holy Spirit among them. It was something living. It came from revelation.
But after two thousand years, many teachings of the church fathers have entered in. Church fathers interpreted God’s word; they added something to the word, and they took something away.
Generation after generation, teachers arose to interpret God’s word, and others interpreted the teachings of the church fathers.
Thus, in the church there are many teachings of the church fathers. We see many groups and many denominations. Many groups follow the teaching of a particular person.
Therefore, we are fragmented and divided. Yet the Lord taught that we should be one, even as He and the Father are one.
Where is the origin of all these divisions? There is only one Bible, and we have one Lord. How, then, do we have so many groups and divisions? It is because of the traditions and teachings of the fathers.
We follow tradition and the teachings of the fathers, but we do not have direct revelation from God Himself.
We receive what we have from our forefathers. What they received cost them something, but it costs us nothing. We simply enter into a position and do something, yet we do not know why we are doing it.
We do not bring what we do into the light of God’s word or before God Himself. Many things that we consider Christian ways of life are merely traditions of men.
Some may be closer to Scripture; others may be far away from it. Yet we may think that they are still scriptural because we follow the way of tradition. Can this way bring us back to the Father?
I was brought up in a Christian home. When I was young, I received Christian teaching. I was very zealous for the Lord, but I was not saved.
I had no personal relationship with the Lord Himself. Before I was saved, I preached, and I also led prayer times.
The way I led a prayer meeting would make you laugh. My father was a pastor, and he had many books. When I was appointed to lead the prayer time, I went to his library and looked for a book about prayer.
I found testimonies of how God answered prayer, and I memorized them. Then I went to lead the prayer time and said, “Now, God hears prayer. So-and-so prayed, and God answered.”
After I finished, I would tell everyone to get on their knees and pray. But none of us were saved. No one prayed, and someone even laughed.
I was leading the prayer time, and I was very serious. I said, “When we pray, we cannot act this way.” But that was tradition. There was a form of godliness, but no reality of godliness.
Traditions that merely maintain a form will not bring us back to God. That way will not get us through.
If you are in this way today, remember that I was once in this way. This way is no way. May the Lord grant us repentance, that we may look further.
Consider the letter of the word. We all believe that the Bible is God’s inspired word, God-breathed. It is for instruction, correction, and training in righteousness. It is for perfecting us unto every good work.
I believe that word. I believe every word in this book. I believe that this Bible is breathed by God.
We often hear people say, “Do you have a scriptural basis for this? Can you show me the chapter and verse in the Bible? If you can show me, then I will believe.”
Have you heard this kind of talk? “Is what you do based on God’s word? Show me the word, and then I will believe.” There is nothing more concrete than this.
But if you use the letter of the word out of context, you can prove anything. A text out of context is a pretext.
There is nothing more trustworthy than God’s word. If we do everything according to God’s word, it must be right.
But do we dare to allow Scripture to shine its light into us and show whether everything we do is truly according to the word?
Then we may discover that something we once considered Christian is actually non-Christian.
For instance, what did the Lord say to the Jews in John 5? He said:
Ye search the Scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of Me;
and ye will not come to Me, that ye may have life.
The Pharisees searched the Scriptures. Yet the Lord rebuked them for enlarging their phylacteries and lengthening the borders of their garments. Their outward display made them appear religious, but the Lord called them hypocrites.
The Lord said, “My words are spirit, and are life.” In 2 Corinthians 3, we are told that the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
If today we simply follow the letter of God’s word, even though it is God’s word, and even though we carry it out accurately, it can still become dead. It will not bring us back to the Father.
Several years ago there was a movement to restore the New Testament church. Many said, “We are going to establish New Testament churches.”
What does it mean to establish a New Testament church? It means doing things according to the New Testament. The New Testament mentions elders and deacons.
Suppose there are ten people. Then three may be appointed as elders, six as deacons, and the others as ordinary believers. Then people say, “Now we have a New Testament church.”
I am not saying that we should not observe or keep God’s word. The Bible is God’s word, and it is unchangeable.
But unless the Holy Spirit speaks once again through the written word, it remains dead to us.
God the Holy Spirit speaks through that which He has already inspired in the written word. The Logos is accurate, eternal, and unchangeable.
But unless this Logos becomes rhema to us, it does not help us. In other words, the Holy Spirit must speak once more to each of us personally.
God has spoken once, and now He speaks again to us. He speaks to you and to me. This is what is meant by revelation.
Revelation is not apart from God’s word. Anything claimed as revelation apart from God’s word is heresy.
Revelation is God using the written word to enlighten us and make it life to us. Only in this way are we brought back to the Father.
I am sure we all have this experience. You may read a passage in the Bible many times, and it seems powerless to you. But one day you read the same passage, and the Holy Spirit enlightens that same passage.
Then you are strengthened within. Then you touch the reality of the Lord Himself.
You are not merely touching written words or black letters on white paper. You are touching the living Lord Himself.
The written word becomes a living word to us. It becomes a personal Christ to us. This is the way.
If we do things simply according to what is written in the Bible, but in our spirit we are not in touch with the living Lord, this will not bring us back to the Father.
The Lord tells us, “I am the way.” The way is not a teaching. It is not a doctrine. The way is a Person. The way is Christ.
Unless you are in touch with the Lord Himself, unless you have the Lord Jesus in your spirit and commune with Him, His word will not become living words to you.
The Lord said that if we abide in Him and His words abide in us, whatever we ask will be done. This is what we are told in John 15.
There is only one way back to the Father. We must not think that there are many avenues or many ways back to the Father. There is only one way.
This way is our Lord Jesus Christ. It is more than His teaching. It is more than words. It is He Himself. That is the way.
Many of God’s children, if they love the Lord, are forever seeking that way.
I am afraid that many of God’s people have gone to nowhere. They have gone nowhere. They have walked with the Lord for many years, thinking that their way was the right way.
Then they discovered that it was nothing but teaching. They discovered that it was nothing but letters. In their spirit, they had not touched the Lord Himself.
Therefore, there is dryness in their souls. They hunger and long for that one way back to the Father’s house.
Many of God’s children feel that they have nowhere to go. But there is one way: He Himself is the way.
Follow Him. Seek after Him. Experience Him. He is your way, and He will bring you to the Father.
In John 6, the Lord fed the multitude with five loaves and two fish. The people sought after Him, and the Lord told them, “I am the bread of life.”
He said that unless they ate His flesh and drank His blood, they had no life in themselves. Many said, “This is a hard saying,” and even many disciples no longer walked with Him.
The Lord turned to the twelve and asked, “Would ye also go away?” They were free to go.
Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” Apart from You, we have no way.
Within us there is this feeling. We may have ways for ourselves, and we may choose our own way. But if we want to return to the Father, if we want to have life, apart from the Lord Himself there is no second way.
We must follow the Lord. We must follow Him all the way, because there is no other way. May the Lord have mercy on us.
Lord, we thank You. We thank You that You have told us that You are the way. Unless You had spoken this, we would be confused. We would go our own way and never find the way.
We thank You because You have clearly told us, “I am the way.” Open our eyes, that we may see that apart from You, we have no other way to come to the Father and to return to the Father’s house.
Lord, impress this in our hearts. Raise us up to follow You. In the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.