Peter and the other disciples had no understanding of the pathway that was stretched out before the Son of God as they reclined together at the Passover table. They could not follow Jesus on this new journey of agony and triumph. But they would follow one day.

The determined Peter was agitated. And what is this about his denying Christ three times?

Let not your heart be troubled: . . . .

"Do not be upset by the fact that I am going to leave you for a while, that you cannot accompany me at this time."

These men had been with the Lord Jesus constantly for three years. Naturally they were troubled at the thought of being able to follow Him no longer. It would have been strange indeed if they were not distressed at this news.

It is necessary that radical change take place in our lives from time to time. We must keep on believing in the faithfulness of Christ. What he has begun in us He will finish. He will not abandon us at some point along the way.

. . . ye believe in God, believe also in me.

The disciples of Jesus were Israelites. They believed implicitly in the God of their fathers. Their faith in God meant more to them than life itself. Jesus was asking them to believe in Him in the same manner in which they believed in God.

We Christians can look back on two thousand years of church history. We can understand that Christ is God manifest in the flesh. His Divinity shines through the record of world history.

The disciples knew in their heart that Jesus is Christ, the Son of God. But their physical eyes and natural brain informed them that Jesus of Nazareth was a man, a carpenter, a gifted rabbi.

One wonders if these men actually could "hear" and perceive what Jesus was telling them, as recorded in John, Chapters 14-17. If Jesus were not God He would be Antichrist. He would be a man making himself God and demanding that other men give their worship to him. He indeed would be guilty of the worst possible blasphemy.

Jesus of Nazareth either is the manifestation of God in bodily form or else He is the ultimate blasphemer!

In my Father's house . . .

There are at least two keys that unlock the meaning of Jesus' words, as recorded in John, Chapter Fourteen. The first key is that Jesus is speaking of returning to the Father and not merely to Heaven or to the spirit realm. The second key is that the Father's house is not Heaven or the realm of spirits. The Father's House is Christ and the Body of Christ.

Christ has returned to the Father. The Father's House is Christ. These two facts are the keys to the understanding of the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John.

The two concepts are crucial to our understanding of the Kingdom of God.

To be continued.