When we go to the chapters of John’s Gospel in chapters 13-17 we are dealing with Jesus’ preparation of the disciples for the worst of times they have once experienced. This Passover supper was to prepare them for this time. I am not sure if any were “awake” concerning what Jesus was preparing them for. He was telling them He was about to be betrayed, and at the end of it all in the Garden of Gethsemane, asleep with sorrow. Jesus fights alone with His own sorrow and terror of what was to come, here we see a human Jesus fearing the pain, the punishment and death. This time of prayer with God the Father, was to humanly see if what was before Him was available to be somehow to be got around or not.

The word “troubled” in the Greek is noted as “tarrasso” or to be AGITATED. There was no doubt that the language is using in the Last Supper is one of endings. The agitation denotes: fear, uncertainty, insecurity. Jesus comes to bring to us the true sum of His Consolation to the disciples and us also. This age in which I write is one of agitation because there are rumours, of war, disease and famine. It seems that we are under some kind of spiritual slumber not recognising the age we are living now, and the dangers of our inaction and apathy. Maybe our inaction belies an inner sensation of powerless. Consolation brings us the context and purpose from history and how we can see that John 13 to 17 is being played out once again. The disciples are being prepared for the worst of times, which would become the best of times, just that the purpose is hid from them, hid because what comes before is personal ambition and their perception of the person of the Messiah. Jesus purposely did things and said things to confound that perception.

The importance of Place

In my Father’s house are many rooms.

 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 14:2.

The King James talks about mansions or rooms, but this translation seems to capture the context of what Jesus said. Jesus is addressing in the Disciples a major issue here. He is preparing them for a very complicated spiritual process. He would within hours be taken from them through betrayal of one of their own, and He would be brought before the Sanhedrin to pin upon Him a charge as a blasphemer. When He is sent backwards and forwards we see political power and religious power activating from their bases, one as accusing Jesus as a law breaker, and from a religious stand point, a blasphemer, a deceiver. When you examine the traits, the scheme that occurs in all the Gospels to bring about the ultimate goal, which is Jesus’ death, albeit in the prophets a revealed purpose of God overall, we see threads in this process that the Church has experienced in times of persecution and in the very end times we will see again. We have established that in the mind of Jesus, there is a matter of urgency, the end preparation of His disciples in how they will react in the event of His betrayal and all what would happen from then on in.

Jesus points first to the House of God. This is not a physical place, rather a spiritual place, and an introduction where they will come to know in this process culminating in the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit would come down. Why does Jesus introduce His Father’s house first? It speaks of inner security. It speaks of family. It speaks of being born into a place where protection, privilege, purpose and power all are sourced out. And right now as I write, there is a crisis across society in many nations where housing is a real issue. The rental sector being such in crisis that many families are suffering mental issues due to insecurity, instability, discomfort, vulnerability because the lack of a stable place to live in. So as we are conscious of this crisis with us now, how much more in extreme circumstances Jesus needed the disciples to understand that the spiritual place in His Father’s House would come to them in the Holy Spirit. We have spoken much in our series’ which we conducted between March and June this year, the process from Passover to Pentecost. We are still walking in that process today.

Crisis can strike at any moment. And our reaction can be key in it. I had a car breakdown situation recently, and I felt panicked, felt fear, as I was in the middle of nowhere. It was that feeling that I noted specifically, which that situation with prayer was sorted, and I was back in safety again. What we verify in the Biblical narrative is how what crisis that beat upon Peter, particularly, led him to deny Jesus 3 times, and him withdraw to the Upper Room knowing he had failed. All disciples except one fled the scene, hid away and only got to hear about the crucifixion through John and the women. Fear and insecurity are strong experiences in the moment of crisis. They are times when our sense of safety are momentarily in risk. What Jesus was to cause the disciples to walk out is the same as we will need to walk out, our safety, our security will need to come from the invisible realm of the Spirit who brings us our Place, our Consolation in Him. This is the crux of this process.

I go to Prepare a place for you

Jesus affirms the purpose of the process He is about to walk out. He is going to prepare a place FOR ALL THOSE WHO FOLLOW HIM. His death brought salvation, His resurrection brought eternal life, and His Ascension brought us the Holy Spirit. This complete work of Redemption gives us access to the Father’s House. Psalm 5:7 also tells us how we get there from heaven’s view:

But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, 

will enter your house. 

 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 5:7.

Jesus Himself prepares our place, prepares our walk to it.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself

This statement from Jesus brings a condition “If I go”, so it is preferable He go, so He may come again. We tie that to what is traditionally know as the 2nd Coming, but it is not. He would return in the Person of the Holy Spirit. They were to be secure that the visitations of Jesus in the Holy Spirit would be a constant. This is so fixed in Peter’s mind that we get these statements in Peter’s Message on the Day of Pentecost:

¹⁹ Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, ²⁰ that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, ²¹ whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago

 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ac 3:19–21.

So Peter grasped this in the Spirit on that day, that Jesus had been sent to him by the Spirit. Here is explicit that Jesus comes TO His Church before He comes FOR Her. So we in this series have established the dimensions of Consolation in the Plan of God and we see that the Holy Spirit is the personification of this Consolation. It comes in various phases. And this phased Consolation will lead to our eternal state of Consolation.

Application

This started out as a part of this Consolation series but in my application I began to see an outworking practically which I believe to be a move of God, maybe not in the sphere of the local Church as one would assume. In talking with some prophetic minded people from Brazil I verified that there are some obstacles which need to be got over first.

• Need to have a full revelation of the Person of Christ, as Lord, King, High Priest, Prophet of prophets and Saviour. We have only majored on the Saviour side of things.
• We need to discern Times and Seasons, the Kronos and Kairos. Without seeking this out we accept vague human traditions.
• We need to have a Biblical Escatology. Without understanding the End Times we will be forever going up dead end roads of tradition.
• We need to prepare Christians that hard Times are ahead.

Conclusion

This message was especially challenging for me personally. I believe we need to prioritise prayer. We need to store foodstuffs. We need to train in knowing the Word, know God’s promises. Let us pray on this message. Let us ask God to assist in our preparation!