I WILL COME AGAIN
John 14:1-3 (KJV)
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.
One of the most famous moments of World War II was the escape of General Douglas MacArthur from Corregidor in the Philippines on March 11, 1942.
General MacArthur has retired from the Army in 1937 and take a position as Field Marshall of the Philippine Army.
MacArthur, who was
· The son of a Civil War medal of honor recipient,
· Aide de camp to President Theodore Roosevelt
· Superintendent of the United States Military Academy and
· Chief of Staff of the United States Military
Found himself in what was widely understood to be an unwinnable situation.
American personnel in the Philippines were evacuated but MacArthur, along with his wife and four year old son, chose to remain in the Philippines and to move his forces to Bataan, where he was determined to resist the Japanese as long as was possible.
Americans, reeling over Pearl Harbor and desperate for heroes, saw MacArthur, the most experienced general the United States had at the time as a lone wolf super-soldier.
And he probably was. When asked what he thought about the very real possibility of his little son being captured he replied, “He is a soldier’s son.”
Eventually MacArthur was ordered by President Roosevelt to evacuate. His experience was deemed to valuable to let risk his being captured.
On March 21, 1942, MacArthur gave a speech and said,
“The President of the United States ordered me to break through the Japanese lines and proceed from Corregidor to Australia for the purpose, as I understand it, of organising an American offensive against Japan, the primary purpose of which is the relief of the Philippines. I came through and I shall return.”[1]
· He had left the people in terrible difficulty
· He had left them in the hands of a brutal enemy but
· He had left them to aide in an eventual victory and
· He left them with a promise to return
Though MacArthur did return, at the time he said it, he could not guarantee his promise.
In circumstances similar but much more pressings, Jesus made a very similar and much more certain promise.
John 14:2-3 (KJV)
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.
I. TERRIBLE TIMES
John 14:1 (KJV)
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
Wow – these disciples had reason to have troubled hearts.
Jesus had just told them that they would not partake in the Passover/Lord’s Supper with Him again until they did it in the Kingdom of Heaven.
He was about to leave them, and it was not in a terribly positive way:
· One of the twelve would betray Him and
· He would be led away to death
There were all sorts of promises for comfort, but the fact remained.
· He was about to be executed and
· They would remain on hostile and enemy soil
And it was hostile.
· After Jesus,
· The deacon Stephen was killed shortly after Pentecost and
· The Apostle James was killed not long after that
The Bible does not tells us about the others but Christian tradition tells us that every one of the Apostles, with the exception of John, was executed for his faith.
Paul was beheaded in Rome.
· Before that he was beaten and left for dead,
· Persecuted and chased out of one town after the other
· Hunted by the Jews who had vowed to murder him
· Imprisoned in Caesarea Philippi for more than two years
· Suffered shipwreck on a prisoner ship bound for Rome
· Imprisoned in Rome until
He was finally executed.
The first 1600 years of Christian history was
· Violent,
· Brutal and
· Ruthless
Christians were:
· Beheaded
· Dipped in tar and burned alive to light the streets of Rome
· Thrown to wild beasts
· Wrapped in fresh animal hides and squeezed to death as the hides dried out
During the dark ages the Catholics invented every manner of torture device imaginable to force Christians to recant their faith before death.
In England, Switzerland and the Netherlands Christians were:
· Bundled as families and burned alive,
· Bound to chairs and thrown into rivers and lakes and
· Had their tongues cut out then strangled to death with a fresh leather string
In John 16:33b (KJV) Jesus said,
… In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
Boy, has there been tribulation.
We think of Christians coming to this continent to escape persecution, but that was not the experience of the Baptists.
The famous Puritan John Cotton[2]and Governor Endicott stated in a public trial that he believed Baptists deserved capitol punishment for rejecting infant baptism and “thus, they were soul murderers.”[3]
One list of things suffered by Baptists – just in Virginia reads
Persecutions included (from court records, as compiled by Lewis Peyton Little, Imprisoned Preachers and Religious Liberty in Virginia):[4]
"pelted with apples and stone"
"duncked and nearly drowned by 20 men"
"duncked and nearly drowned by 20 men"
"commanded to take a dram, or be whipped"
" jailed for permitting a man to pray"
"meeting broken up by a mob"
"arrested as a vagabond and schismatic"
"pulled down and hauled about by hair"
" jailed for permitting a man to pray"
"meeting broken up by a mob"
"arrested as a vagabond and schismatic"
"pulled down and hauled about by hair"
"tried to suffocate him with smoke"
"tried to blow him up with gun powder"
"drunken rowdies put in same cell with him"
"horses ridden over his hearers at jail"
"dragged off stage, kicked, and cuffed about"
"tried to blow him up with gun powder"
"drunken rowdies put in same cell with him"
"horses ridden over his hearers at jail"
"dragged off stage, kicked, and cuffed about"
"shot with a shot-gun"
" ruffians armed with bludgeons beat him"
"severely beaten with a whip"
"whipped severely by the Sheriff"
"hands slashed while preaching"
" ruffians armed with bludgeons beat him"
"severely beaten with a whip"
"whipped severely by the Sheriff"
"hands slashed while preaching"
The last official persecution of a Baptist in Virginia occurred in 1778. We’ve had it so easy for the last 241 years that we’ve come to expect it as a Christian right.
I frankly wonder whether most of today’s Christians wouldn’t quit on God long before they experienced any discomfort.
When you have people who will quit a church because they think the colors in the auditorium don’t match – you have to wonder if they have any clue who Jesus is.
In the first 300 years of Christian history the sorts of things they debated was whether a professing Christian who had denied his faith under torture and fear of death could ever be allowed back into the fellowship of the congregation.
It is in that environment Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled.”
Notice secondly this
II. TREMENDOUS TRUTH
John 14:2 (KJV)
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.
I am aware of the interpretations of the modern versions where, instead of mansion, they translate it
· Dwelling places or
· Apartments
Years ago one of the men in the church I pastored in Astoria brought a devotion out of this passage.
He said if, when he gets to heaven, he has an apartment, that will be like hell to him.
The Bible says that the New Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven is 12,000 furlongs – that’s 1500 miles high, 1500 miles wide and 1500 miles long.
Imagine a cube.
· One edge sits on the Pacific Coast
· One edge sits in Colorado
· One edge sits on the Mexican border
· One edge sits on the Canadian border
And it is from the Pacific Coast to Colorado tall.
Now imagine that being one giant apartment building.
Yikes!
I heard about a young family in New York City.
I can’t remember how many years they have been there but so far, they have just one person attending their services.
Everyone there lives in what he called “boxcar apartments.”
You want into the front door of the building where you will find doors on either side with these apartments that are approximately 10ft wide by 70ft long.
There are dividers to transition from one space to the other so that you have to go through living room to go through the kitchen to go through the bedroom space.
This family has three children about the same age as Pastor Caleb and Lisa, and like them, 2 boys and a girl.
The three of them sleep in one space with the three tall bunk bed. The daughter has the bottom bed with a curtain around it. The boys know that when the curtain is closed, they are to give her privacy.
This family also had a Great Dane they kept in a large crate in their apartment. Whenever it was time for the family to sit down to dinner, the table folds down from the wall over the top of the dog crate.
Is there anyone here who thinks that heaven will be 1500 miles long, 1500 miles wide and 1500 miles tall of “boxcar apartments?”
By the way, I would suggest that is not what the Bible teaches, in part because no one in the known world of Jesus’ day lived in anything remotely like that.
Mansion is the right word.
· It will be a mansion compared to anything we have ever known or lived in
· It will be a mansion considering we are joint heirs with Jesus Christ
· It will be a mansion considering who our neighbors will be
· It will be a mansion considering the unlimited resources at our disposal
It will be a mansion considering it is prepared for us by Jesus.
· He was a carpenter the first 30 years of His earthly life.
· He spoke the everything we know into existence and
· He upholds all things by the word of His power
Just imagine the kind of home He can fix for you.
Whatever trouble we face on this earth, Jesus said that the mansion He has prepared for us will make it worth it.
This is why Jesus said, Matthew 6:19-21 (KJV)
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
It just isn’t going to be possible to rightly live out the Christian life in times of trouble unless all of your hope is heavenly.
Notice finally a
III. TREASURABLE TOKEN
John 14:3 (KJV)
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.
And here I just want to focus on the one promise,
“I will come again.”
A. You ask, “Pastor, when will that happen?”
I don’t know.
All I can say is
· That there is nothing preventing Him from coming right now and
· That His coming is an absolute fact
B. You ask, “Pastor, what will happen when He comes?”
Two important things.
1. When He comes for the believers
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (KJV)
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
2. When He comes with the believers
Revelation 19:11-21 (KJV)
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;
That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.
And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.
And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.
C. You ask, “Pastor, what do I do until He comes?”
Mark 13:32-37 (KJV)
But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.
For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.
Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:
Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.
And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
Conclusion
When MacArthur left Corregidor, he placed Major General Jonathan Wainwright in Command of Bataan and Corregidor. MacArthur promised Wainwright, “When I get back, if you are still on Bataan, I’ll make you a lieutenant general.” Wainwright’s response was, “I’ll be on Bataan, if I’m alive.”
It didn’t quite turn out that way.
Having run out of food and supplies, General Wainwright surrendered his 70,000 troops.
When he was liberated from a Japanese POW camp, three years later, the first question he asked was how the people back in the states thought of him. Did they believe he had let them down?[5]
I want to end with this thought for you.
You who are the children of God.
When Jesus comes again, will your first question to the Lord be, “Did I let you down?”
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