Finding Hope in Bible ProphecySample

The Hope of Being Taken by Christ to Heaven—John 14:1-3

Let not your heart be troubled; you 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 to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also (nkjv).

Here we come to a prophecy spoken by Jesus Himself. These words were given to comfort the disciples, who were distraught. The Lord had just announced He would soon leave them: “I will be with you only a little longer…Where I am going, you cannot come” (John 13:33 niv). This troubled the disciples. They grieved at the news that the one whom they loved so dearly would soon be gone. They couldn’t imagine going on without Him. Jesus reassured them by saying, “Believe in God, believe also in Me.”

This was a clear affirmation of His deity. Because He was and is God, the hope they knew they could place in the Father could also be placed in Him, the Son. He was calling them to put their hope in Him, for He could be trusted to keep His every promise. If there was anyone they could count on, it was Him.

After telling the disciples that He was leaving to prepare a place for them, Jesus declared, “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (14:3). He promised that He would personally come back to take them to His Father’s house. Jesus speaks here of the rapture of the church, when He will take all believers up to heaven.

Paul describes this incredible event in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17: “The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (nkjv).

Especially noteworthy is what Paul says next: “Comfort one another with these words” (verse 18 nkjv). In the same way that the promise of being taken home by Jesus was meant to comfort the disciples, it is meant to comfort us too. In the times when fear and doubt strike, when everything around us is falling apart, we can look to the promise of the rapture—of being taken home to heaven with Jesus—as a source of hope.

No matter how difficult life gets, we should not let our hearts be troubled. Jesus has promised He is coming to get us, and we will spend eternity in His presence, never to be separated from Him.

John 14:1-3 is a prophecy filled with compassion, comfort…and yes, hope.