At Home with Jesus
Opening Prayer
Lord, quiet my heart as I come before You this morning.
Read John 14:1–14
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Jesus the Way to the Father
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Read John 13:36–38 in preparation for today’s passage. Why might the disciples’ hearts be troubled?During the three years they were with Jesus, there were many things the disciples didn’t understand. But Jesus has just told them he’s leaving them (13:36) and that Peter, their leader and spokesman, is going to fail spectacularly (13:38). And they’re troubled.
Do you feel that God is distant today? That he’s abandoned you? Or that because you have failed him, your relationship will never be the same again?
Jesus tells his disciples, who have failed and will fail him, that he wants them to be at home with him. This is why he is going to die on the cross. In fact, being at home with Jesus and Jesus making his home with us (23) is a picture of what it means to be a Christian.
Jesus will die for his friends, and for us, so that we can be with him forever. And since salvation is all about being with him, how could
there be any other way (6)?
Thomas’s and Philip’s questions show that they still don’t understand who Jesus is, or how he will save them. And yet Jesus will soon die for them too. He will bring home all who believe or trust in him, despite their failures and misunderstandings.
Apply
You may be very aware of your failures. What does it mean for you to know that Jesus would rather die than live without you?
Closing prayer
Take time to thank Jesus for all that he has done for you.
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