 This passage gets quoted a lot, but I don't think we understand the full gravity of it. There is a beloved passage in John 14 that we quote often, which, like other passages, we ought to quote often, but I'm not sure that we get the full understanding of it. Before I go to that text though, let me just give a little bit of background. Remember, Jesus who is Jewish is speaking to Jewish listeners. Now, it's not just for Jews, it's obviously for all believers, but sometimes he makes statements that it's harder for us as Gentiles, especially 2,000 years later, to fully understand what's happening, what's being said because the culture and the context is just not ours. We don't live in those days. It is a farming and a herding community, things that are spoken of. We're just not really, it's just not us. And so when Jesus makes certain statements, it would register more with them, with us, not so much. For example, in Jewish culture, typically when a man becomes of marrying age, then it's the father who would go to find a bride. Hopefully it's a good bride for the son, but still, he goes to find a bride. There is a betrothal process now, or it also could be that the son may also go and find the bride himself, but that point is not the most important point. There is a bride that has been given to the son. The son, however, in the meantime does not marry the bride. Instead, he goes back to his father's house, either his house, the actual building itself, or the property. The whole point is still taken that on his property or in his house, the son begins to build an addition. In his house, in the father's house, the son begins to add another room to it, or on the property, a house or a dwelling for who, for him and his future bride. The marriage, however, does not take place at that moment once the house is done. It could, but it is up to the father. When the father decides that it's time for the bride and the groom to consummate the marriage to be together, then the father will have a horn blown, a trumpet blown, and then that will signify it's time for this groom to get his bride, his virgin, and to bring her back. When they have this celebration, they are locked away in their house or in their room for a period of seven days. Why that is important is because when we go and look at John 14, there's a passage in there that there's something culturally there that might kind of go over our heads because we're not used to it. Now, we can get the meaning of it, but there might be a fuller meaning that we might miss. And so let's go to it in John 14. Let's start in verse one. This is Jesus getting ready to tell them that he is going to be leaving. Jesus knows that his time is at hand. And so really in John 14, 15, and 16, Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure. Knowing this, he says them to them, do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. Here it is. He says, In my father's house are many mansions or many dwelling places. This word, monai, means different places for you to stay, dwelling places. If it were not so, I would not have told you. For I go to prepare a place for you. Now remember, he's saying that in my father's house are many mansions. Well, who makes that statement? Well, they understand culturally that in my father's house are many dwelling places. I'm going to prepare a place for you because again, this bride that has been selected for the groom, he is going to bring them that bride back to the father's house. Keep in mind that in this culture, being betrothed is the same as being married. Yet the act hasn't been consummated, but should there be any infidelity at this time, it is treated the same as infidelity after the actual wedding feast. And so understand this, because this bride belongs to the groom. The father will announce when the groom will take possession of his bride, because the groom is there getting the place ready. Why? Because the bride belongs to the groom. So in 14-2, when he says in my father's house are many mansions, many dwelling places, they understand the concept that's happening. They understand what's being spoken of here. He says, if it were not so, I would not tell you. So Jesus is saying, I'm not just saying anything. If this is the case, I wouldn't tell you this if it weren't the case, but it is so. That's why he says, for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you in verse three, I will come again and receive you to myself. So he's giving them an assurance. I'm going to leave you, but I'm coming back. Why am I leaving? I'm going to prepare a place for you, but take heart, don't be troubled. I am coming back for you. Why? Because you belong to me. The father has given you to me. We'll get back to that in a second. But he says, going back to it in verse four, I'm sorry, at the end of verse three, he says that where I am, there you may be also. So we will be with him. He says, and you know the way where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know the way where you are going. How do we know the way? And Jesus says, famous passage, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father, but through me. And so to get to the father, you have to come through the son. But how do you get to the son? Well, that goes back to keeping in mind this entire picture of this wedding feast. Remember, all of us who are part of this body, who are part of the bride, the church, we were given. How do we know? Because Jesus made this statement in John 637. It says, all that the father gives to me will come to me. And the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out. Four, I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me. That is, I should lose none of them, nothing, but raise it in the last day. And so us as believers, we've got this picture that we should not forget. It's given to us for a reason. One, this picture of this son who is preparing a place for his bride that was given to the son by the father. This son says he won't lose any. He'll raise them all up. And he says, the place that I'm preparing for you for that very bride that was given to me, don't lose heart. If I go to prepare a place for you, then I'm coming back for you so that you will be with me. And what does he say about it? If it were not so, I would not have told you so. And so there's going to come a point in time when we will be reunited with the son. Jesus kind of loses this. Now he's not playing coy when he says, I don't know, but the father knows because he's still playing on this analogy. And so where the father is the one who initiates the wedding feast. Now the fuller understanding in this is also that the reason why he will prepare this place and the reason why he will come back, because as I said before, the bride that's waiting is called the bride because even though she's not married yet, she's considered to be married, even though the wedding hadn't been consummated, even though the bride in the room hadn't been brought together. But the understanding is that it's still his bride. She is his bride and he is her husband. He is, or in this case, the Lord is the groom of the bride. And there cannot be any separation. There cannot be a divorce. There will not be a broken union. That's why he says, if I go to the prayer place, I'm coming back to get you. That's where we can take heart and be confident that though he is not physically with us, he is coming back for us because we belong to him. How do we become his? We were given to him by the father. Amen.