I Go To Prepare a Place

In order to communicate His deep love for us, Jesus described His love in terms of a family community - terms that His audience clearly understood. He compared Himself to a bridegroom who chose a bride (the church); who paid a steep price for her (His life on the cross); who has gone to prepare a place for her in his father's house (heaven); and who will come again to take her home. This metaphor was familiar to the people of Jesus' day because a bridegroom customarily left his fiancée to build a home for her, then returned to get her. Likewise, Jesus will one day return to take His followers to His home in heaven, where they will experience joyous community with Him forever.

Pastor Barnett explains in this sermon through the lens of Jewish wedding and courting tradition that Jesus who has chosen his bride is preparing a place for us and will come again some day for those that belong to him.