Many Rooms in My Father’s House – Johns Eschatology Dwelling Place of God

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

Shabbat Shalom, everybody. We are so excited that you're here today and that I'm excited to be here with you. If this is your first time visiting or your first time joining us online, we are a community of believers with diverse backgrounds, families who love the Sabbath. We find joy in the entirety of the Bible, including the Torah. But most of all, we are a community that seeks first and foremost to orbit the person of Jesus who we call Yeshua. So welcome to Founded in Truth Fellowship.

A Special Moment About Heaven

So I had one of those experiences with your kids—some people are like, I don't have any experience with my kids. I've had many of those too. But those special experiences that you're going to remember for the rest of your life, and no matter how you try to explain it to someone, it doesn't sound that overwhelming, but it's just those little things that happen. And so my son came to me yesterday and asked me what I think heaven looks like. We haven't talked much about heaven. When I talk to my son about the Bible and God and Yeshua, it's usually about what we're doing now—how we love now, and how we show Yeshua now, and how he reigns through us now.

But heaven, so I put him on my lap and thought for a moment how I'm going to plant a good seed and take advantage of this. So I put my hand on his chest and I said, do you feel that? And he said, yeah. And I said, do you feel how much I love you? And he said, yeah. I was like, do you feel how much you love me? He smiled, yeah. And I think that's what heaven feels like. And he was like, that's cool, Dad, but I wanted to know what heaven looks like. And I said, couldn't escape it, right? I was good. You know when you say something and you're kind of proud of yourself because it just popped out? That was one of those moments for me.

But I said, Ben, this is the truth. This is what I believe. I don't believe heaven is about what it looks like. Heaven's more about what it feels like. And it feels like that sense of complete comforting love that is so overwhelming. And I said that you can feel that piece of heaven right now. And I believe that that piece of heaven will surpass death into all eternity. And that's what Jesus calls eternal life. So, special moment for me.

A Child's Picture of the Burning Bush

But then he surprised me this morning with a picture of his favorite story in the Torah. And I know it's a lot of red. Don't get freaked out. It's the story of the burning bush. There's Moses down here, and these are some rocks. And when I first read him this story and then he saw it in that Egypt cartoon movie, he was so excited because he's like, I love the God of the fire. Yes. And it's just those special moments of reflecting on how do we teach our kids about the Bible and the gospel. And we might talk about that today a little bit. I don't know, but let's talk a little bit about the scriptures.

The Gospel According to John

And John—who loves John? I like John. I'm a little biased towards Matthew. But John is kind of the black sheep of the gospel accounts. You have the synoptics like Matthew, Mark, and Luke. They kind of riff off each other, following the same tradition, a little different here and there, but follow the same traditional. And then John comes out of nowhere in the beginning. Like, this is Genesis? No, this is new creation account through Jesus. And it's just amazing. John intentionally puts a lot of different themes in his film—that's what I call it—directing the account of Yeshua and his ministry and how he portrays it and what he wants to emphasize.

And I kind of want to land in John 13 and read through the end of John. So you can join me in John chapter 13, starting in verse 31. And we're going to read through the end of chapter 13, and then we're going to dare pass over this little imaginary line called a chapter line into chapter 14, verse 1. And we'll have it on the screen here as well. Something so beautiful about how the earliest believers, and even before Yeshua, what we know about the Jewish communities is this. When he was gone, Jesus said, now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself and will glorify him at once.

My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now, where I am going, you cannot come. A new command I give you. Love one another as I have loved you. So you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. Simon Peter asked him, Lord, where are you going? This is after the Last Supper, right? So just so you understand the context of where he's fixing to go, right? Where are you going? This is a place I've been trying to tell you I'm going this whole time, my whole ministry. Yeshua replies, where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.

Y'all don't think that? Okay. So Yeshua's like, because where is Yeshua going? I'm going to let the cat out of the bag. Where is Yeshua going next? Yeah, he's going to the cross. He's going to face the ultimate enemy of very good creation, which is sin and death. And he's going to allow it to flex its muscle, to pour everything out that it possibly can, and he is going to overcome it and defeat the thing that is keeping us from experiencing the very good creation with God. And so Yeshua says, you can't come with me right now, Peter, but don't worry. You will come later. Follow your cross. Okay. And Peter asked, Lord, why can't I follow you?

I will lay down my life for you. Then Yeshua said, will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly, I say to you, before the rooster crows, you're going to disown me three times. Then we usually stop there. We close our Bible, and then maybe later we'll drift over to chapter 14. Let's drive into chapter 14, verse 1.

A Word of Comfort

He's speaking to his disciples. If it were not so, I would have told you. For I go to prepare a place for you. Love that. So his disciples are receiving this news, and it's not like great news. I'm going somewhere that you can't come, and then you're going to deny me. And they're just kind of curious, a little anxious. Where are you going? You're going to leave us? What's happening? And he gives them a word of comfort. This isn't a lecture. It's a word of comfort. Let not your heart be troubled. I'm so glad he said that. Because that totally makes everything better, right? Don't you just love it when you're really stressed out and you have a situation going on and someone just comes up and specifically—it's the husbands to the wives, right?—it's like, ah, it's no big deal.

Why are you so stressed out? Just don't worry about it. Relax. Works. Yeah, calm down. Oh. Woo. Woo. Woo. Yeah, some of the guys, no, don't say calm. Yeah, yeah, experience. You've, yeah. You're newlyweds around here. Just don't. You'll learn. You'll learn. Yeah, just calm down. And here Yeshua does a calm down to his disciples. Don't let your heart be troubled. Believe in God and believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many mansions. Love that. You cannot follow me right now. But don't worry, you will. And what is the one thing that we get from verse 2 here in John 14 that we get excited about, right?

And you're going to get a mansion, right? Going to get a mansion. Love that. Love that. We read this, we get excited about that.

The Mansion Question

And this is something that is tough. So has anyone ever read this verse and actually imagined they're going to get a mansion one day? It's going to be built by Yeshua or something. It's going to be a big mansion, right? We get excited about this. And so we begin to imagine what our mansion is going to look like, right? I don't know. That's a good one. Who likes that one? That's what my mansion is going to be like. Let's see here. Do I have control over this? Let me see. No, I guess I don't have control over it, do I? How about that one? How's that a mansion that he's going to prepare for me? Who here likes Minecraft?

Anyone like Minecraft? All right, we got your mansion right there too. You get a mansion and you get a mansion and you get a mansion and I just can't wait to go live in my mansion. And this is the type of theology based on translation. It's the type of theology that has really perverted, I feel, our sense of what Yeshua was actually explaining concerning himself, his mission, and more significant, your participation in it. Instead, we can't wait to get our mansion in heaven. Who loves that? I love the idea of getting a mansion, but we're going to pop that bubble.

The Greek Word for Mansion

So the Greek word—ironically, the Greek word here that's translated as mansion—is mone. Like, show me the... It's mone. It's mone. And it means dwelling place. It means an abode, to dwell with, if you will. Now, it was translated in the King James Version as mansions because that's how it was translated in the Latin Vulgate as well. Mansions. But the word mansions in the time of King James didn't mean Biltmore. It just meant a room, a place that you could go.

The Problem of Modern Translation

Okay. And we do it to ourselves out of ignorance. We don't know. All of us. Like when we read the Bible, sometimes we can't help but pretend like it was written yesterday, right? And so we have translations that, in this case, a translation of a translation. And we see a word, and all we have in our mind is a modern idea of what that word means, so it must be what it means.

Makes total sense that Jesus—the homeless person, unattractive, no-name rabbi from Nazareth, a town that was carved out of rocks that was probably just a little bit bigger than this church building—this Yeshua that taught to give up your possessions, to not idolize money in any way, shape, or form because a passionate pursuit of money will always leave wounded, exploited, and dead in its path. But he's going to build you a house larger than Bezos. And when that's preached, it's enticing, isn't it? But I don't believe that's at all what is going on here. We're going to read from a different translation.

We have John 14, verse 1 here, and it says: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, also in me. Believe also in me. My Father's house has many rooms, spaces to dwell." It's a little bit nicer. So the word mone, mone is used two times in the Bible. Both times it's used in this chapter. And the second time it's used is here in verse 23. When Yeshua is speaking about those who love me, they'll obey my teaching and my father will love them and we will come to them and make our home with them. Not our mansion, our abode, dwelling place, this intimate home in the father's house, a place where you have a space.

I love that. This is a word of comfort.

The Disciples' Confusion

Remember, the disciples are confused. They don't know where Yeshua is going. He's doing that thing that he does where he speaks in these vague, ambiguous phrases, and they're worried. Don't worry. You're going to come with me. It'll just be a little bit later. And what is Yeshua speaking about here? I was always taught this is speaking about Yeshua after, of course, he was raised from the dead, but after his ascension to heaven. So he's going to go to heaven, and of course, the way I was brought up in the church I went to is that he's going to build us a mansion. I want gold trim and a shag-style polar bear skin carpet. And, of course, we now know the mansion thing is an anachronistic idea. But still, when he's speaking, he's speaking about him dying, going to heaven, and then sometime in the end times, he's going to zap us out of this awful, broken, disgusting world, burn it all up, destroy it, and we will abode with him in our mansion in his neighborhood in heaven.

The Hell Doctrine

And, you know, for me, I was taught if you don't believe in Jesus, then you just go to hell then and burn for eternity and suffer and die over and over and over again. But you can't die. That's the issue with hell. So you're just going to be in this liminal state of absolute pain and agony and suffering. And that's the gospel that I was taught to tell others.

And the issue is, the issue with portraying the gospel message—please hear what I'm saying, and I'm not saying, but what I'm saying—the issue with portraying the gospel message as being defined as only: well, you're going to go to hell, burn forever, it's going to be awful. But if you believe what I believe, then you get your own mansion. So what's it going to be? The issue with this portrayal of the gospel is what the Bible actually says. Because the gospel, the good news of the Bible and the story of the Bible and of Yeshua and of God, is not that the moment you were conceived or born, God couldn't stand you and you're destined to burn in hell. But before God could send you there, Jesus stepped in the way to take a beating so that you could be reconciled to God so that God can love you. That's not good news. That's not good news.

My Church, My Childhood

And I grew up, and the reason where this is coming from is I grew up in a large fundamentalist, fundamentalistic Baptist church in Charlotte off of 85. It was on the north side. And the gospel that they taught, the gospel that they taught was that. And that was the full scope of it. That was it. That was it. And I was taught by their dogma that a relationship with God, the God of the universe, the God of the cosmos, those twinkling little stars that we are just now seeing because we have telescopes to read that little bit of photons coming from them—He's familiar with the star intimately. That God.

I was taught that a relationship with this being consists of waking up every day wondering if I really did give my life to God when I went down to the altar last Sunday again. Because if I didn't really mean it enough, and this is eight-year-old me, if I didn't really mean it enough, then I'm going to hell. I'm an eight-year-old processing, brain still developing, and this is the God that I have a relationship with. And I was taught by their dogma that you better be prepared to die too—as a martyr, because the Bible says people are going to come in one day with guns, one day soon, because we're in the end times right now, and they are going to put a gun to your eight-year-old head and ask you if you believe in Jesus. And not only do you need to believe in Jesus enough and mean it, but you need to be prepared as an eight-year-old to say yes and get a bullet in your brain so that you can go to heaven and not go to hell.

Because if you say no, then well, you've denied Jesus, and so he's going to deny you. God forgive us. God forgive us for abusing his little children. God forgive us for taking his holy words and weaponizing them and using them on the littlest of these to structure power and control. Because that's not good news at all. That's not good news at all. That wasn't the good news that was preached to the non-believing world and the Gentiles when the disciples and the followers of Yeshua went out into the world. That's not what they were saying: "You're going to go to hell. I know you don't know me from anybody.

You're going to go to hell. But if you believe what I believe, then guess what? You can have a mansion." It's not good news, nor is that the good news that Jesus preached.

The True Gospel

The good news of the Bible, the good news of the Bible is that the God of creation, the God of the universe, the cosmos, everything, the God who is of all and in all and is the very substance that connects everything all together at once, connects you to you and you to you, through his creative, life-giving, animated Ruach. The good news is despite how we as humanity has abused each other, abused children, exploited others for our gain, make ourselves gods and made God in our image, despite humans violently taking life for the sake of power, despite humans nurturing bitterness in their hearts, not dishing out mercy and grace and everything good, despite taking the very good world that God created and turning it into a hell, God has broken in. Because God has always been on a rescue mission, not a wrath mission. God's always been on a mission to save. That's what Yeshua said.

To bring back his flock. To do whatever it takes to gather his humans back to him. The good news of the Bible is that his reign exists here and now. And he has stepped in to defeat the thing that we created, that we pushed out to separate us from communion with him. The good news is that the king is here, and peace and rest and love and joy and abundance is here as well in the here and now. That's what David preached on a couple weeks ago, living in the hope of the future and grasping onto it as an actual reality right now. Because as Paul said, if you are in Christ... New creation. It's found in the Greek.

New creation. You're there. If you're in Christ, the reality, you've broken through the dimension. You're living under a different reign altogether. And that's good news, that God hasn't abandoned his world. He's broken in, and he never stopped pursuing it. Mark 1, verse 14: John's been put in prison, and Yeshua, he says he went into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God. That if you believe in me, you'll go to heaven and not hell and the mansion. No, it's not what it says. It says the time has come. It's happened now. It's happening now. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.

Well, where's the good news? The good news is that the kingdom of God has come here. The kingdom of God is here and now. The kingdom of God is among you even now. It is right here. The reign of God, the goodness of creation is drawing you in. Participate. Repent. Step in to a new reality of goodness, a new reality that we know is going to culminate at the end of time but exists right now, the here and not yet. That's the good news according to Yeshua. And it's here, and it's only through Yeshua.

Weaponized Religion

The gospel is not about patiently waiting to die so that you can have the right password to give to St. Peter. And it's not about going to burn forever if you don't believe what I believe. That's what we sound like when we make the mission of the life-giving God who is love, according to the Bible, about submitting to religious leaders that have weaponized God's word to structure their own system of power to control other people. And that is a very real thing. And that's a very real thing that has taken place over the course of Christian history in most churches in Christian history because that's what that does.

The Resurrection and the Kingdom Now

Believe what I believe or you'll die forever. Sounds like other radicalized religions in the world that go into other countries and put a sword to people and say, believe what I believe or you're going to die. Doesn't it? Now, I'm not saying, and I haven't said, but I'm not saying that there will be no final judgment. Of course, I can't get around that. That is very clear, very clear. Scripture is clear. There's going to be a final judgment. And going to heaven? No. Or a place of peace after you die? Yeah, I believe that. Absolutely. I do. Whatever that looks like, believe it. I don't think it's mansions.

But in the end, I don't think the earth is going to be simply thrown away and we party in heaven forever. In the end, there is a climactic finality to the enemy of God's good creation. And that's death. That's sin. And a final resurrection takes place. You guys know about that? Man, what is that even going to look like? A final resurrection. Bodily form. Paul is very assertive, very adamant. Yes, it's real. And that final resurrection isn't going to take place in the cemeteries of heaven. It's going to take place here. In the creation that God called very good. It was always the plan. Always the plan.

Creation is reborn into its very good state. And we lead with God and the Son together, forever and ever. That's how John's vision ends in the middle of the last chapter of Revelation. And it's so amazing. And the good news is the kingdom of God is near. There is a king that reigns and is all powerful that is here. And we're part of that kingdom. It is among you now. You can live out the future of a very good creation now because the hope in Christ allows you to time travel. And it comes in belief and acceptance that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the God of all creation who came in flesh in the person of Yeshua, the Messiah, the King, and lived as an example of a new type of human being, showing humanity what it looks like to live out a life that beats with the life-giving spirit of the Ruach.

And he faced the enemy, and he allowed the enemy to pour it all out onto him. And this took place on the cross. And three days later, the king emerges in a new body. The end time resurrection that the prophet spoke about—it was happening. The new resurrection, someone did it. They have a new body. It's not just the old body. This isn't Lazarus. This is something new. This is what the prophet spoke about. The final resurrection. Look, is it happening? Did it happen? It's happened here with Jesus. He did it. We see it, but we're still also waiting on it. It is the here and not yet. It is the liminal space of time travel.

It has taken place, but not yet. And so we're in this space of the here and not yet, the dual reality.

Ambassadors of the Kingdom

And Yeshua, ascended into heaven, now sits at the right hand of God, ruling and reigning through his people right now. Right now. That's you. That's your job. You're an ambassador of Christ, a representative of the king, a royal emissary. That's your mission now. What an honor and a privilege to represent the king. Eternal life starts the moment you believe and receive the Holy Spirit. And the power within that surpasses death forever. It does not start when you die. It starts now. Heaven crashes into earth through Yeshua. Why for so long in Christian history have we not been teaching that to our children?

How to Follow Yeshua

How do we follow Yeshua? By loving people like Yeshua. By following Yeshua. By representing and resembling the reign and kingdom of Yeshua. By standing against the principalities and powers that control the empires and governments, not being manipulated by them. By choosing self-sacrificial love instead of selfish beneficial love. By seeing the good in everyone and speaking life into that to push out the darkness. By not allowing evil and sin to continue to propagate and spread. You, like Yeshua, standing as its finish line by forgiving and not allowing it to continue to grow into the world.

By keeping your eyes on a creation that is very good and not taking the story that celebrates the victory in Christ and weaponizing it to control other people.

Weaponizing the Gospel

The moment you take the words of God and weaponize it is the moment that you've turned your back on Yeshua. I'm convinced of this. That's what Yeshua criticized the Pharisees for. I believe they're the only people he actually condemned. He spent a whole chapter in Matthew 23 raking them, raking them, because they, instead of showing life, they became the gatekeepers of who does and who does not get into the kingdom of God, the elite club. Guys, we need to be very careful and wise today about how we are introducing our children to the calling of God. Because the word hell in the Bible is used on two occasions in the New Testament to describe a reality that is here and now. Matthew 23, remember when he's criticizing the Pharisees? He says, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!" He says, "You travel all over the place on your mission trips and evangelism just to produce another child of hell." Another child of hell. Another child that continues to weaponize the word of God to oppress other people for the sake of their selfrighteousness.

Hell and the Tongue

James 3. James speaks about the tongue. Now, sticks and stones, right? Because that's totally a phrase that is so accurate. James speaks in this passage and he says, listen, your tongue is waiting, waiting for the moment. It is so flammable, flammable that the slightest spark from your heart and the bitterness of it can ignite the fires of hell on your tongue, not after you die, right now. And you can spit fireballs and spread the fires of hell into this world right now. You can be a creator of hell. And I believe it. I believe it. Look outside. I believe it. In a world that does not know the message of God's very good creation and his reign and his king and the love and the reality of who Yeshua is and what Yeshua has done. Hell, now.

Truly Good News

And I'm super passionate about this topic because when we twist the objective of the gospel of Jesus Christ to be self-serving, even unknowingly, we are no different than the rest of the world.

We're no different. We just have our trinkets and culture and t-shirts that we wear. But when we turn the gospel of Jesus into something that is self-serving, we're no different. I don't think so. Just because we do good things or check commandments off of a list doesn't make us any different from the self-righteous Pharisees Yeshua condemned. And guys, it's scary to kind of rant about such a closely held belief because we don't like truth when it threatens an identity of power that we've given to ourselves. We don't. But I'm not going to muffle the proclamation of what Yeshua himself said the good news was.

Because it is truly good news. And if it is truly good news, then it will produce good things. And if it's not producing good things—I didn't say easy things. I said good things. Then maybe you should take a second look at what you proclaim the good news to be. And you should take a second look at what we're teaching the next generation about the gospel. Again, my issue is not with ideas of heaven and final judgment. That's there. In one way or another, that's there. Right? That's all there. I'm not saying anything against that. My issue is making the good news about that instead of about Yeshua inviting you and everyone to come sit at the table with him. That's the good news.

The Father's House

And so, back to it. I'm sorry, guys. We got to go way back. So John chapter 14, I go away to prepare a place for you that you cannot come yet. And it has many rooms because it is my Father's house. Father's house. Well, Father lives in heaven, right? So that's where the house is. That's where we get the mansions. Where else does the New Testament use that phrase of the Father's house? Well, in John, I mean, that's how John presents Yeshua starting his ministry, right, in John 2. And he goes to the temple. He drives people out with a whip and flips tables. And it says right here in John 2, verse 16, to those who sold doves, he says, get out of here.

Stop turning my Father's house into a market. His disciples remembered what was said, the zeal of your house will consume me. And then the next verse says that they remember this after it happened and he was speaking to himself. He was speaking about himself, his own body. What about Matthew? Matthew. When Yeshua evades his parents, as kids never do, and they lose him at the temple. Read a couple of verses. This is one of my favorite stories. Luke chapter 2, starting in verse 47 says, Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished.

And his mother said—and so this is after his parents left. Somehow they didn't know he was there. And then they came back looking for him. And there he is, he's teaching people and they're astonished. And his mother said to him, son, why have you treated us like this? How dare you? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you. Why were you searching for me? He asked. Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house? I love this story so much, especially after I've become a parent, because it's real. I didn't understand what he was saying to them because she was so stressed out and agitated with him.

Now, I don't know. But I believe it's plausible that there is a missing section of the story here left out between verse 50 and 51 where that yellow line is. Mom shows up. She's irritated. He makes this comment about, didn't you know I should be in my Father's house?

The Father's House and the Temple

You should have known where I was. And then the next verse, all of a sudden, he's obedient to them. I don't know if Yeshua ever got a spanking, but if he did, it happened in that yellow line right there. I love this story. John presents a very real emotional scenario and includes it in his gospel account because it's something that at least a lot of us can relate to. So many emotions and dynamics there. But Father's house. My father's house is not a big mansion somewhere. Yeshua's referring to the temple. And this is imagery for Yeshua to make a bigger point of comfort. He's not giving a lecture here to his disciples.

He's giving them a point of comfort. His disciples knew exactly what he was talking about when he said Father's house. That triggered— it's the temple. And the rooms, the moneh, the chambers of the temple, the lishkot. In the temple, especially the first century temple, the Second Temple had so many remodeling projects that took place. First, it was founded by Ezra and Nehemiah. They began building it, and then it was remodeled. The whole Temple Mount was expanded by the Hasmoneans, and then King Herod came along. If you come to us in Israel, you'll see all of King Herod's stuff, and it's really amazing, and you get an understanding of why he was such a big deal.

Still kind of not a great guy, but he wanted to beautify the temple and he made it a spectacle. So many rooms and chambers everywhere. Storehouses that surrounded the temple complex. Rooms and rooms and rooms and treasuries. Yeshua is saying, my father has a big enough house for everyone. Follow me back home. Follow me back home to the dwelling place of God because you're invited to be there. He wants you there. Follow me back to the place of rest. Follow me back to the place of peace—a place where you are not anxious because you know where you are and you know that you are safe no matter what happens or what threatens you.

Not even death can take you. You're safe. Find comfort. Follow me to my father's house. It's a big, big house with lots and lots of room. Big, big table.

Yeshua as the New Temple

Remember, John's biggest theme throughout his gospel account is Yeshua is the new temple. Yeshua is the eschatological temple that was always meant to be, and God has broken through, and it is a reality now. It has happened. That's John's whole theme, and it's climaxing right here. Yeshua is saying, he's the temple. He is the place where God dwells. Do you want to dwell with God? Then we make our dwelling with Yeshua and we follow him. And Yeshua keeps mentioning this place where he has to go. Although Yeshua did ascend to his father in heaven and did send the Holy Spirit that rained down as holy fire and holy wind at Pentecost, when Yeshua speaks of the place where he must go all throughout John, I don't think he's ever referring to that.

He's referring to the cross. He's referring to the cross. In John 13, right where we were just at, when they were asking where are you going to go and can I come—this is right after the Last Supper. He's about to go. When he's speaking about this, his death and victory and through the resurrection. That's why he tells Peter, you cannot come with me right now. But you will, because the cross is what we willingly take up as we follow the king in victory over the thing that represents death.

Comfort in Trials

Be of comfort. Don't be anxious. Because even though you will face trials as people who emulate me, and a reality that is counter to everything the world has become, even though the world will hate you because you forgive the ones that they won't, they will hate you because you give mercy to the ones that they won't, they will hate you because you love the people that they won't—even though they will kill you—know I'm going to prepare a place for you. And that place is in the bosom of God, imagery. And just like the final resurrection, that is a place that will be fully actualized at the end of the age.

But just like the final resurrection echoed and seen in Yeshua when he came out of that tomb, it is also a present reality now. The way to the Father's house went through Gethsemane and Calvary. And the only way Yeshua can lead us there is if he goes first and defeats sin and death once and for all, so that we can now follow. When he calls his disciples, when he heals the sick, when he blesses children, when he tells of God's care and demands that someone give all of their wealth to the poor, when he washes his disciples' feet—it may be at any such point that we who have lost our way can find it in Yeshua's. But it's not always a way that keeps to the sunny hills and uplands and mountains. It also sometimes plunges into the valleys as we make our way.

The Way Through Suffering

Yeshua is the way in a world that causes suffering and pain, in temptation and guilt, in fear and opposition, in loneliness and death. And he's not the way around these things, but he is the way through them. And that's the power that he gives. That's the hope that he gives. And that's the only way that we get to the Father's house. So if you find yourself lost or without hope, if you find yourself in suffering or loneliness, know there is a shepherd running through the dark wilderness who has left 99 behind, yearning and experiencing the same things you are, coming to the same place you are, so he can bring you home.

Isn't that good news? That's some good news. No matter what you're going through, there is a place of peace that can embrace and comfort you right now because you have been raised up with him and you are seated with him in heavenly places right now. Oh, no, I'm not. I'm right here right now. I'm not seated in heavenly places. No, you're seated with him in heavenly places, reigning and ruling over creation right now. No, we're not. What are you talking about? I'm right here right now. No, if you believe and have made the proclamation and given your allegiance to the King of Kings, you have taken this up.

You have been given the Holy Spirit. You have been given that new spirit, that new heart that beats for life. And you have been given the fullness of the vocation back that God gave to mankind to reign and rule over creation with him. That is heresy. It's not here yet. Well, this was Paul's understanding in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 5, when he said, "Even when we were dead in our transgressions, you made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved." And he raised us up with him and seated us with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That's now and not yet. You are sitting with Christ in heavenly places right now.

You are home. At least I hope you are. Unless Paul bumped his head. It's here and not yet.

A Different Kingdom

You do not have to participate in how the world operates. You do not have to play the game that the world says you have to play. No. You can't do that. You can't forgive. You can't love like that.

I mean, you can love extraordinarily, but even we do that, there's a threshold. You can say no. You can say no because I belong to another kingdom. You can proclaim a different king and a different reign. That's what got Christians killed in the first centuries by the Romans. Romans didn't care that they believed in a different God. Everybody believed in different things. The game of empire looks something like expanding and taking over territory and allowing people to keep their culture and religion as long as they benefit the empire. And so you give them the things that they want so that they will still be loyal to you, give money to you, or you can oppress them and have these little states, if you will.

So Rome had lots of different religions, lots of different people worshipping lots of different gods. Now, the thing that got Christians killed was when Christians said, we will not worship Caesar because he's not our king. We will not pledge allegiance to Rome and Caesar. He's not our king. Who's your king? The one who died on your cross and defeated it. The one that's more powerful than your entire empire. That's what got Christians killed. It wasn't proclaiming that they worshiped Jesus. It was following Jesus and resisting the principalities and powers and how they were controlling the nations—and they did it willingly.

That's what Revelation is all about: the encouragement that they can't take anything from you. What are they going to do, kill you? They killed Jesus too. We know the surprise ending. They can't take anything because you're home, because you're safe. Radical, right? Radical. Let's make Christianity radical again.

The New Commandment

How do we do that? Well, in John chapter 13, when Yeshua is speaking to Peter and his followers about where he's going and giving them comfort, he tells them, verse 34: "I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you, that you also love one another." Have this communal bond. Because our God, this magnificent, infinite being— that the best word we can come up with to describe him in our human intellect is God. This God likes to be around other beings. He likes community, right? What are you going to do? I'm going to create an entire world and universe so I can put other things in it so I can reign and rule with them.

I'm going to be around them. God likes people to sit at his table with him. That's what the temple, what the whole imagery of the temple is. When you come to the altar, it's an invitation to come sit at the table. God doesn't have pigs served on this table. Israelites, don't bring the pig. Don't eat the pig. You eat the food that I eat because we are together, right? And notice every time Yeshua wants to approach somebody, he's always just itching to eat something with them, right? Just sitting down. Let's sit at the table. Zacchaeus, I'm coming to your house and we're going to eat some food, right?

After his resurrection, right? After the road to Emmaus, these two guys don't even recognize him. He's like, come on, let's go to your house. We're going to eat some bread because that is the climactic conclusion, at least in Isaiah's vision in chapter 25, when the shroud of death is defeated and all nations gather around the table of God with him. That's some good, good news.

Love

If you love one another, if you look past how the world tells you to look at people and judge people and size up people for your own gain, if you look past wanting to judge someone as soon as you see them, not knowing anything about them, instead of being curious and asking questions. Empathy. Who are you? Tell me about yourself. Why are you like this? Why do you do that? If you can learn not to play that game, here is how you reject playing the game. You just love as your first lens, your lens that you look at everyone through. Love. Man, that's tough. That's tough. That's tough.

Two Realities

And so we traverse through this life, through this world. And there is still resistance. There is still friction from the two realities. The one that is here and not yet. And the one that is here but already gone. New creation and old creation. And I don't claim to know exactly how it works. But the message of the Bible is that if you believe in Yeshua as king and proclaim your allegiance... He will send a new spirit within you that will give you power and authority, that will give you the ability to live as a new type of human being, a birth of a new humanity. And it will continue, continue to push new creation in and old creation out until one day we will see him the way that he left, the way he comes back. And we will see him in his glory. And it will all be here. And that's incredible. And that is the hope that we hold on to that allows us to produce the evidence of what is not yet seen.

Hope

So guys, I don't know where you're at today. Kind of went in a different direction. We went from a mansion to the gospel, but that's always a good thing. Hope. If you're someplace right now in your life where it's very hard, there is hope. If you're at a place right now in your life where you're lonely, there's hope. If you're at a place right now where you're struggling, hope. Where you feel weak, there is hope. Where you feel like you're never going to overcome this burden in your life, there is hope and there is power and there is a testimony that it can and will happen. Will you step out in faith knowing that that reality is right now? Will you step out and understand that there is an alternative and there is good news in the Lamb of God?

A Time of Worship

So please stand with me as we conclude in worship. And this is a time when you can worship, you can sing, you can pray, you can meditate. It's also a time that's appropriate if you need prayer. We'll have a prayer team on either side of the stage. If you want someone to pray with you, we have prayer warriors here and we have an altar here. If you want to leave something here today, if you want to make a proclamation to yourself that there is a new reality that maybe you haven't fully embraced or stepped into, maybe you haven't realized what the good news really looks like, how powerful it is. You can leave that old reality here and you can step into the newness of Christ. New creation is here, whether the world recognizes it or not. And it's among you because that's where the kingdom and the reign of God are even now.

Prayer

Oh, King Yeshua, mighty lion of Judah. That was actually a roaring lamb. We thank you for being the abode that we dwell in, in the house of God. That you give supreme comfort and strength. That you give us the power and the example, the spirit to overcome sin and to overcome the powers of death and darkness. That you give us the strength to say, no, we will not participate in this world anymore because we live in a new kingdom with a new king. That you would give us the power to speak your truth, your love, that you would give us the strength to stand up to the powers and principalities that are still trying to operate.

And when there is sin and evil present, that we would stand in its way always and without excuse, that we would be the bold warriors that you showed us how to be through your examples in your ministry. Allow your Holy Spirit to reign and rule in our lives, giving us the new life, but not only that, that it would give us the divine speech that we would speak life and nothing but life to others in this world, that we would continue to be your ambassadors and proclaiming the truth that everybody is invited to follow you and come home. In Yeshua's name we pray, amen.

Blessing and Sending

Shema Yisrael Adokshan Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. Blessed is the name of his glorious kingdom for all eternity. Now may the God of patience and encouragement grant you to be like-minded with one another. In the manner of Messiah, so that together with one voice, you glorify the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua, the Messiah. And may the Lord bless you. May the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance toward you and give you his peace. In Yeshua's name. Shabbat Shalom, family.