Of all the end time events, the Rapture of the Church generates the most interest and the most controversy. I have a friend who wrote that the Rapture is third in the list of top 10 topics that have most divided the Church—right after COVID-19 vaccinations and the Harry Potter books!
There has been disagreement about both the promise and the timing of the Rapture. When I was a new believer, I thought the Rapture was nonsense. I had never heard of it before in the church I’d grown up in and it simply did not compute. Then I read texts like 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 Corinthians 15, and John 14. I came to believe in the Rapture and got pretty excited about the prospect that Jesus could come at any moment to take His Church with Him.
John 14 is a passage that some people might think has nothing to do with the Rapture. But the more I’ve studied it, the more I have come to realize that it is one of the first mentions or intimations of the glorious Blessed Hope of the Church—Jesus’ promise of the imminent, signless rapture of the Church—in the New Testament.
Known as the “Upper Room discourse,” it is the second-longest sermon Jesus ever preached (behind the Sermon on the Mount). It was delivered to His disciples in private, just before His crucifixion. The first six verses of this sermon are seminal:
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. And where I go you know, and the way you know.
Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:1-6, NKJV)
There are four distinctive features about this Rapture—this coming—that He refers to:
1. Comfort
The first feature of the Rapture is its comfort. Why on Earth would Jesus say to His disciples, “Let not your heart be troubled”? Because they were troubled. In fact, the anxiety among that group was rising minute by minute, because in this setting, at this last supper, He had just announced that He was leaving.
Just a few verses earlier, in John 13:33, Jesus said, “Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek me, and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.'” Simon Peter spoke up with the question all of them had: “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him and said again, “Where I go, you cannot follow me now; but you will follow me later.” In his own anguish and confusion, Peter responded, “Why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for You.”
Jesus’ command to “Let not your heart be troubled” was given in a present passive imperative, meaning to stop an action already going on. They were already worried, already freaking out. So, Jesus said, “Stop it.” The words He offered to comfort them are simply this: “Believe in God; believe also in Me.” Then He said, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places [and] I go to prepare a place for you. If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:2-3).
Similarly, right after he described the Rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Paul wrote, “Therefore, comfort one another with these words.” There is nothing more comforting to those of us alive right now than the assurance that Jesus could come back at any moment for us.
Notice that Jesus described the place He is preparing (Heaven) in four ways:
First, Heaven is a real place. It isn’t a figment of your imagination or a wishful thought to get yourself through this present life. It’s an actual, real place.
Second, Heaven is a relational place. Notice that Jesus calls Heaven “My Father’s house.” Why? Because, when you’re there, you’ll be with your Heavenly Father and your Savior, the Lord, Jesus Christ. You’ll also be reunited with those believers who have died before you.
Third, Heaven is a diverse place. Some translations use the word “mansions,” but the Jewish context suggests that Jesus is referring to many rooms. This conveys the idea of a bridegroom adding a room onto his father’s house prior to bringing his bride home to live. The picture of New Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband in Revelation 21, conveys a huge, beautiful, diverse city brimming with people.
Fourth, Heaven is a personal place. Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you.” Think of it this way: there’s a space and place in Heaven prepared for you. Jesus the Master Carpenter is custom building something just with you in mind!
So that’s the comfort of it. Let not your heart be troubled.
2. Chronology
The second feature of the Rapture is its chronology. Jesus said that He would go and prepare a place, and then “I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3). Some people try to soften the meaning of this promise by saying, “Well, He’s just talking about when you die, He’s going to receive you to where He is.”
But Jesus was speaking literally. He spoke of departing literally, and then He left. So, I expect that when He speaks of returning, He intends to literally return somehow to receive believers to Himself and take them to His Father’s house in Heaven.
The coming to “take you to the place I have prepared for you” cannot refer to the Second Coming of Revelation 19 either, because at that event, He comes to the Earth with His saints to set up His kingdom. It must, therefore, refer to something else. I believe it refers to the Rapture—Jesus’ coming for His Church.
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