John 14: 2 & 3
“2-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.
3-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.”
Jesus is giving words of comfort to the remaining 11 disciples in preparation for His arrest, trial, scourging, crucifixion, death, and the three days and three nights that He would be laid in a grave. Many read these verses in time of sorrow, hardness, mourning, or fear as a means of reassurance that we will spend eternity with Christ and the Father in heaven.
Without a doubt, it is true that Christ has prepared a place in glory for each saint that he saved from sin. However, that is not the only place that Christ has prepared for the believer! When Christ submitted to the death of the cross, became the propitiation for our sin and rose victorious over the grave, He prepared several places that had not before existed and are reserved for those that receive salvation. We have already mentioned he first, the current home of Heaven and the eternal home in New Heaven that he has made for those that love Him.
The second place was Jesus prepared was in the throne room of God. Revelation tells us that Christ made the saint a priest so that we can enter directly into the throne room of God Almighty and pray directly to Jehovah. Yet, In His love, he does not make us share that place with others that seek to speak to God, He has reserved a specific place for you that only you can take advantage of. If there was only one place in the throne room of God designated for prayer then all the saints would have to wait their turn to speak to God. But how marvelous is it to know that God can hear all that pray in complete clarity because each has their own place to offer prayer to our Heavenly Father?
The next place Christ prepared is a place in the Church. The church is fitly framed together by Christ so that it may most excellently conduct the Father’s business in the perfect Will of God. That means that at the moment of salvation, Christ prepares a place solely for you, that only you can be placed into, within His local, called out, body of believers. How many people take church for granted because they see the church as a place they choose to attend? How many never seek the Lord’s direction before joining themselves to a local church? It is hard to take lightly your role in the church when you realize that Christ himself prepared that spot for you, placed you there, chose the role specifically for you, and that the Creator chose YOU as His representative in your area.
The third place Christ prepared for us was on the Rock. When we accepted the gift of salvation Christ took us from the mire of the world and set us upon Himself, for He is our Rock. Yet, He does not treat us as animals that must share their pin with the other sheep. Your place of the Rock will not fit me, for it was prepared for you. Christ wanted a place for each of us to build upon our faith and know that the foundation which He gave each of us was laid solely for us individually and would not wash away with the storms of life.
The last place we will discuss is the place Christ prepared for us at the table of fellowship. When our relation with the Lord was founded at Calvary, God desired fellowship with you. God does not save someone to acquire servants, He saved us to have a relationship with His creation because the creation desired fellowship with the Creator. When you chose Christ as your Savior, Jesus made a place solely for you and the Lord to have fellowship. Whether that fellowship takes place in the Word, in praise, during a worship service, or during a sleepless night of loneliness, that place was prepared for you to know God in a deeper and more intimate manner. Our God chooses to meet with you at the table Christ prepared at Calvary.
We could have gone on with how Christ prepared a place at the wedding feast, a place in the army of God, a place for you during the Millennial Reign of Christ, and others; but God didn’t lead me to expound on those. I hope you spend the rest of the day, and the days to come, appreciating the privileges that are extended to us because of the places that Christ prepared specifically for you because of His everlasting love for you.
Your fellowservant in Christ,
Bro. Jordan Foster
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