Today, we will continue with the third part of our ongoing sermon series, “Our Journey from Calvary to the Upper Room and to the Ends of the Earth!”
We would like to take this subject further from the upper room and beyond. As a believer, this journey will always come with challenges. The word of God has affirmed that this is bound to happen, however, we must prepare ourselves. We are certainly living in the end times, however, He is same, yesterday, today and will remain the same for eternity. He is the anchor of our hope during the waves of troubled waters in our lives. Our hope comes from God!
Our God is a promise keeping God and he has made several promises. He didn’t just made promises, but kept them as well. Here are few of the promises that we can read from the word of God.
1: I will be resurrected.
So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
John 2:18-22
But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.
Matthew 28:5-6
2: I will send Holy Spirit.
You are witnesses of these things.
Luke 24:48
Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
Hebrews 13:5-6
3: I will prepare a place for you.
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
John 14:1-3
These promise are giving us a purpose greater and higher than anybody else can even think of.
Here are three words, upon any of which stress may be laid. Upon the word troubled. Be not cast down and disquieted. The word heart. Let your heart be kept with full trust in God. The word your. However others are overwhelmed with the sorrows of this present time, be not you so. Christ’s disciples, more than others, should keep their minds quiet, when everything else is unquiet. Here is the remedy against this trouble of mind, Believe. By believing in Christ as the Mediator between God and man, we gain comfort. The happiness of heaven is spoken of as in a father’s house. There are many mansions, for there are many sons to be brought to glory. Mansions are lasting dwellings. Christ will be the Finisher of that of which he is the Author or Beginner; if he have prepared the place for us, he will prepare us for it. Christ is the sinner’s Way to the Father and to heaven, in his person as God manifest in the flesh, in his atoning sacrifice, and as our Advocate. He is the Truth, as fulfilling all the prophecies of a Saviour; believing which, sinners come by him the Way. He is the Life, by whose life-giving Spirit the dead in sin are quickened. Nor can any man draw nigh God as a Father, who is not quickened by Him as the Life, and taught by Him as the Truth, to come by Him as the Way. By Christ, as the Way, our prayers go to God, and his blessings come to us; this is the Way that leads to rest, the good old Way. He is the Resurrection and the Life. All that saw Christ by faith, saw the Father in Him. In the light of Christ’s doctrine, they saw God as the Father of lights; and in Christ’s miracles, they saw God as the God of power. The holiness of God shone in the spotless purity of Christ’s life. We are to believe the revelation of God to man in Christ; for the works of the Redeemer show forth his own glory, and God in him.
The greek word for room literally means “Permanent Resident“.
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Philippians 3:20
But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Hebrews 11:16
For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
Hebrews 11:10
And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Luke 23:43
John 14 (Full chapter) also talks about God’s house… “In my house are many mansions…”
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
Hebrews 9:27
What happen to people when someone dies? They believe you might become something else, get absorbed and become a part of this universe etc.
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
1 Corinthians 15:54
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16
All these verses points out that God is preparing something very important for us, what is it? Here is a description of what God is preparing for us…
1: Jesus is preparing for us a place.
Few do not believe that heaven is real, rather a state of mind.
But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
Acts 7:55-56
Or I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.
John 6:38
While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.
Luke 24:51
And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Acts 1:10-11
2: Jesus is preparing for us a very glorious place.
But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—
1 Corinthians 2:9
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.
Revelation 21:10-11
Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
Psalm 73:25
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Psalm 23:6
3: Jesus is preparing a place of security and perfect rest.
But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.
Luke 16:25
4: Jesus is preparing for us a permanent place.
Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 4:17
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Revelation 21:4
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
1 Peter 2:11-12
So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
2 Corinthians 5:9-10
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
Ephesians 5:15-16
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Philippians 1:21
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Philippians 3:20
Illustration: Late American Evangelist, DL Moody, in one of his anecdotes, recites the following, “I heard of a man who had accumulated great wealth, and death came upon him suddenly, and he realized, as the saying is, that “there was no bank in the shroud,” that he couldn’t take anything away with him; we may have all the money on earth, but we must leave it behind us. He called a lawyer in and commenced to will away his property before he went away. His little girl couldn’t understand exactly where he was going, and she said: “Father, have you got a home in that land you are going to?” The arrow went down to his soul. “Got a home there?” The rich man had hurled away God and neglected to secure a home there for the sake of his money, and he found it was now too late. He was money mad, he was money blind.”
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23
And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Acts 4:12
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
1 Timothy 2:5
As a believer, if you have not been able to walk His way, now is the time to return and complete the journey. Your journey doesn’t ends from Calvery to the Upper Room, rather you need to keep working towards your Journey to the ends of the Earth. Are you prepared? If not, today is a call for you to prepare for your return toward the journey, assigned for you to be with Him for eternity!
We hope you are encouraged with today’s service. We look forward to see you again next Sunday. God bless!