About This Message
Sunday morning, and the walk through the Gospel of John reached chapter 14 — verse by verse, the way the church has come through the whole book. Pastor Roy Jones set the scene before the reading: these last chapters are mostly red letters — Jesus in the upper room, in the final hours before His death, burial, and resurrection, and His heart still on the ones He loves. The disciples had just heard the worst news of their lives: the One they'd left everything to follow was going away, and Peter — who swore he'd lay down his life — was told he'd deny Him three times before the rooster crowed. Their hearts were crushed. So before anything else, Jesus comforted them — not with an explanation, but with a promise. From the first six verses of John 14, Pastor Jones preached the topic Jesus Himself set: Jesus makes a promise to His followers — "I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also."
The Word — John 14
36Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward.”
37Peter said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake.”
38Jesus answered him, “Will you lay down your life for My sake? Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times.
John 13:36–38 (NKJV)
1“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
2In 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.
3And 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.
John 14:1–3 (NKJV)
4And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
5Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”
6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
John 14:4–6 (NKJV)
10No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
Psalm 91:10 (NKJV)
11“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.
John 10:11 (NKJV)
5For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
1 Timothy 2:5 (NKJV)
11So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:11 (NKJV)
5For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.
Psalm 30:5 (NKJV)
16For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
17For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
John 3:16–19 (NKJV)
The Message in a Sentence
A wish is something you're hoping for. A promise is something you're standing on — and Jesus, in the last hours of His life, with His followers' hearts breaking in front of Him, made them a promise: My Father's house has many mansions, I go to prepare a place for you, and I will come again and receive you to Myself. The separation is not permanent; the separation is temporary. Everything in the sermon hangs on who made the promise: a Shepherd who loved His sheep enough to lay down His life for them, a Savior who cannot lie — "if it were not so, I would have told you" — the one and only Way to the Father, whose word cannot go out and come back empty. So when He says, "Let not your heart be troubled," He isn't asking you to feel better. He's telling you what you can stand on: you believe in God — believe also in Me.
The Arc of the Message
Opening — Crushed Hearts in the Upper Room
He started where chapter 13 ended: Peter's big promise and the rooster. The disciples had given up their families and their careers for a King they expected to set up an earthly kingdom — and now the King says He's going away, and they cannot follow. Fear set in. Anxiety set in. The spirit of separation came into their lives. Pastor Jones named what separation feels like: a small child when a parent steps out of the room; a child dropped at school for the first time; a child leaving home for college; a young soldier deployed for the first time, and the parent watching them go. And into all of that, the words that change everything: I will be back. The separation is not permanent. The separation is temporary.
Development — A Promise, a House, a Shepherd, a Key
A promise is greater than a wish, and a promise is only as strong as the One who makes it — and this One stood behind His promise by laying down His life: the good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep. In His last hours Jesus could have been off by Himself, praying for strength for the cross; instead He comforted His followers, because the Shepherd always puts His sheep before Himself. Then the house: in My Father's house are many mansions — everything taken care of in Daddy's house, everything in order, room for everybody, and God knows how to add on as the family grows. "If it were not so, I would have told you" — He cannot lie to you. And the access: He is the door, the key, the gatekeeper — the way, the truth, and the life — one God and one Mediator, the Man Christ Jesus. Reject the Man, and you've rejected access to the Father.
Landing — Do You Have a Place?
He closed with the question the whole promise points to: when this life is over and the Lord calls you home, will you have a place in the Father's mansion? And he answered it from John 3, reading it aloud: God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life — He did not send His Son to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. We all have some dirty deeds; we all went astray at one time. Let God expose them. Come to the light. If you have the Son, you have the Father — and you have eternal life.
Key Points
In His Own Words
Illustrations From the Message
Taken — "I Will Find You"
Pastor Jones reached for a movie he watched some twenty years ago — Taken, with Liam Neeson. In it, a man's daughter is kidnapped; she's hiding under a bed, on the phone with her father, and he hears them drag her out. A stranger picks up the phone and says nothing — just breathing. And the father speaks into that silence: I don't know who you are, I don't know what you want. If it's money, I don't have it. But what I do have is a particular set of skills — and if you let my daughter go, that will be the end of it. I will not look for you. But if you don't — "I will look for you. I will find you." And two days later, he did exactly what he said. Pastor Jones set it right beside John 14:3: if a man like that can stand on his word, how much more Jesus? The Shepherd looked at His frightened followers and made them a promise of His own — "I will come again." When He makes a promise, He keeps the promise.
The First Minister's Card
He went back to when the Lord first called him to the ministry, and the first business card he ever made. He thought he was something, he said — but he still remembers what that card said: if you reject me, you have lost nothing. But if you reject King Jesus, you have lost everything. That's the whole sermon in one card. A preacher can be refused at no cost — but Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, the only key the Father ever handed out. Reject Him, and you've rejected access to the Father's house itself. Receive Him, and the promise is yours: a place prepared, and a Savior coming back for you.
SOIL — Go Deeper This Week
S — Scripture: Read John 14:1–3 slowly. List the three things Jesus actually promises: a place being prepared, "I will come again," and "where I am, there you may be also." Which of the three does your heart most need to hear this week?
O — Observation: Verse 2 carries a strange, honest little sentence: "If it were not so, I would have told you." What does that tell you about how Jesus treats His followers — even when the truth is hard?
I — Interpretation: Set John 14:6 beside 1 Timothy 2:5 — "one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus." Why does Pastor Jones press on the word Man — that rejecting the Man means rejecting access to the Father?
L — Life application: Name the separation you're sitting in right now — a person gone, a season changed, an answer not yet come. Pray verse 1 over it by name this week: "Let not your heart be troubled" — and answer the anxiety out loud with the promise: the separation is temporary.
Dig a Little Deeper
1. The disciples heard "you cannot follow Me now" (John 13:36) before they ever heard "let not your heart be troubled." What hard word are you still sitting on — and what promise has He already spoken after it that you haven't picked up yet?
2. Pastor Jones said a promise is only as strong as the love of the one who makes it — and Jesus proved His love by laying down His life. Which of God's promises do you treat like a wish instead of something to stand on? What would standing on it change this week?
3. In the Father's house there is room for everybody, and God keeps adding on. Is there anyone you've quietly decided there's no room for? What does the Father's house say to that?
This Week's Challenge
Every time anxiety over a separation rises this week — a goodbye, a distance, a wait — answer it out loud with the promise: "He said He will come again. The separation is temporary." And find one person who is waiting — on God, on family, on an answer — and give them the words Jesus gave His followers: John 14:1–3, in your own voice.
Closing Prayer
Father, we give You thanks for the promise. Thank You, great Shepherd, that even when we were unlovable, You stayed loving us — and You didn't let us die in our wretched ways, but sent us Your Son. Give us power. Give us strength, even as You gave it to those followers in that room. Make us real students of Yours, real disciples, who believe in You truly. We confess we are just like those disciples sometimes — sometimes anxiety gets us, sometimes fear gets us, sometimes separation gets us, sometimes the cares of this world get us. Let this word encourage us the way it encouraged them: to be strong, to walk in our calling and our purpose. You said You will come again — and we are standing on it. In Jesus' name, amen.