John 13:37-14:3 says, “Jesus answered him, ‘Will you lay down your life for My sake? Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.’”
“The rooster shall not crow until you have denied me three times.” Now I’m sure that shook Peter, but I don’t think it shook him as bad as when it happened, and he realized that it came true. That was probably a heavy burden that Peter carried the rest of his life. “Let not your heart be troubled…” Would you be troubled if Jesus told you you were going to deny him? Did it ever occur to you that God knew before He created the world every sin that you had ever come in, every single one. There was never a time when you committed a sin and God went, “Oh My gosh! Did you see that? I never expected that from that person.” Not only that, He bundled up every sin that you have ever committed, and He laid it on Jesus Christ at the cross. He took care of it. And this should never make us think light of sin, but it should give us great relief when we feel the guilt and the shame and the consequence of our own sin.
So, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.” This is a very well known passage. “I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” What is He talking about? Jesus is using the stages of a Jewish wedding.
There was first, the betrothal. The groom would pour a cup of wine and he would offer it to the girl. Now, if she turned down the wine, the wedding was off. When she took the wine, that was her agreement to his proposal. From that point on, they were betrothed. Also very interesting is that the groom would bring a bride price. He had to pay a bride price. Jesus paid with His death on the cross. The greatest price. By the way, if you ever begin feeling you’re worthless, you’re unimportant, you’re insignificant, nobody cares about you. You need to remember your value to God is the price of Christ on the cross. That’s what you’re worth. And there is no higher price or value than that.
So this betrothal is what happened in the upper room. You know, there’s no comfort like a wedding, right? Comfort — something that we desperately need in the time in which we’re living. Once we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have been set apart like that young bride. And what are we to be doing? We are to be preparing for His coming and looking. He’s coming again! That was the hope. That was the comfort that encouraged the apostles as they went out and they changed the world. They were looking every day. We should live with anticipation.
Detailed audio lessons and notes are here: https://basictraining.org/rapture/