Because the Father has appointed His Son, Jesus, to be the Saviour of His people wherever they dwell and at whatever time of history they have lived, all that He says has the full support of the Father. 'For I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father which sent me, He gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And 1 know that His commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever 1 speak therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so 1 speak.
The words of our text come to us with all the authority of God the Father and God the Son. Let not your heart be troubled. Jesus was concerned for the upset there would be in those first disciples: hearts when He left them and went to heaven; as He was about to do. That same concern is shown towards us in our individual predicament. Each of us faces death for the first time. Nobody is able to counsel us from personal experience as to what it is like. Jesus alone has been through it.
On His authority He says there is nothing for believers to trouble their hearts about.
He particularly stresses three things Firstly, that there are many mansions in his Father's house. The word does not mean a luxury country house, or a less luxurious town apartment, according to our modern English usage; but a permanent place to stay. In our Father's house there is a permanent place for us, a place of our own. It conveys more than just a niche; it means the ultimate, desired rest for the individuality of our own souls. It cannot be fully described yet, 'for eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him'; but just enough is revealed here to allay fear and create a longing within us.
Secondly, lest the heart in leaping for joy asks if these things can really be true, Jesus assures us that He would have told us if it were otherwise. The half has not been revealed of the wonderful things in glory which await the believer, but Jesus pledges Himself that if these things did not await us, if there were no future reward nor rest, He would have told us so.
Thirdly, He tells those early disciples (and, through them, all of us who trust Him), 'l go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
While we have been labouring here, not least among the Saviour's tasks has been to prepare our individual place. Whether we think of it as a place of abode; a place at that great heavenly banquet: or a place in the heavenly audience chamber; it has been His eternal delight to set it for us. He will personally conduct us to our seat. That the Saviour should wait upon us! That He should reward us! That we should see His everlasting glory! These things are not far away now, so let us fix our hearts upon them today.