Children's Message 5/10/20

"A Room of Our Own"

May 10, 2020

John 14:1-12

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” 8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

Do you have a special place that is your space? Is there a place you like to go to be by yourself? What is that place like? What makes it so special? Do you feel safe and secure?

My special place growing up was my bedroom. I was surrounded by my toys and the things that were important to me. I would close the door so my sister wouldn't bother me. The sheets would be a tent as I pretended to be camping. The blankets of my bed would keep me warm on cold winter nights. The lightning would flash, the thunder would rumble and I would crawl under the covers. I felt good in my room.

Jesus says in our text above that there are many rooms in the Father's house. This no ordinary house. There are so many rooms it is called a mansion. The Good News is that Jesus is preparing a room for everyone who believes in Him in the Father's mansion.

If we're honest, when we think about living in God's mansion, we would have to say that we don't deserve such good treatment. Why don't we deserve to live with Jesus? We don't deserve to live with Jesus because we are sinners. No one deserves to live in the majestic mansion. In fact, every room would be empty if we had to earn our way into it. Sinners like us could never earn our way to heaven.

But the mansion will be full someday! How can that be? Yes! Jesus earned our way into heaven. First, Jesus, who is really God, became a human. That's what we celebrate at Christmas. Next, Jesus obeyed all of God's laws, not only for Himself, but also for us! Then Jesus suffered and died to pay for our sins. Finally, Jesus came back to life. That's what we celebrated at Easter.

When Jesus came back to life after dying on the cross to pay for our sins, He promised that we too would come back to life after we die. Jesus will come back on the last day, as He also has promised, to take us to the heavenly mansion. Hmm, I wonder what our rooms will look like in the Father's mansion.

The Heavenly Kingdom