I Will Come Again, and Receive You unto Myself; That Where I Am, There Ye May Be Also
John 14:1-3 “1Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
At the Last Supper, Jesus said, “Believe also in me,” in order to drive away the anxiety that was in the hearts of His eleven disciples. Through this word, we can know that when there are worries, anxieties, troubles, and fears in our hearts, that is precisely the time when we must believe the words of Jesus all the more. This is because only by faith in the words of Jesus can the worries and troubles in our hearts be driven away.
1 John 5:4 “For whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith.”
Mark 9:22-24 “22And oft-times it hath cast him both into the fire and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us. 23And Jesus said unto him, If thou canst! All things are possible to him that believeth. 24Straightway the father of the child cried out, and said, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”
At that time, the disciples of Jesus were troubled because Jesus would suffer and die on the cross. They were worried that they would be separated from Jesus forever and left alone in this world. To them, Jesus promised both the clear purpose for His departure and that He would come again and be with them.
As Jesus said, the clear purpose of His departure was to go and prepare a dwelling place for those who belong to Him. And the place Jesus has prepared for us is a place where there shall be no more death, neither mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. It is also a place where there shall be no more curse and no more night, that is, no darkness.
Revelation 21:3-4 “3And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God: 4and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away.”
Revelation 22:3-5 “3And there shall be no curse any more: and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein: and his servants shall serve him; 4and they shall see his face; and his name shall be on their foreheads. 5And there shall be night no more; and they need no light of lamp, neither light of sun; for the Lord God shall give them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.”
When the preparation of such a place is complete, Jesus will come again and bring His people, including those who have died in Jesus, to the place where He is, so that they may be with Him forever.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 “16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; 17then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
Amen. Truly, this word becomes a great comfort to us. When Jesus comes again with the clouds (Rev. 1:7), all those who belong to Jesus will be caught up into the air and will always be with Jesus in the kingdom of heaven where He is.
John 12:32 “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself.”
And the Bible tells us who, among the world, are those who belong to Jesus.
John 17:6, 24, 26 “6I manifested thy name unto the men whom thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them to me; and they have kept thy word. 24Father, that which thou hast given me, I desire that, where I am, they also may be with me; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. 26And I made known unto them thy name, and will make it known; that the love wherewith thou lovedst me may be in them, and I in them.”
That is right. According to the testimony of this passage, those who have the Father’s name, that is, the name of Jesus, are those who belong to Jesus among the world. Therefore, Jesus said repeatedly with strong intention that He had made known to them the Father’s name, the name of Jesus, and that He would make it known. Therefore, by the name of Jesus, we can discern whether a person belongs to Jesus among the world or not. This is because the people of Jesus, who are sealed with the name of Jesus, do everything only in the name of Jesus.
Colossians 3:17 “And whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Jesus prayed for His disciples as follows:
John 17:11 “And I am no more in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are.”
And according to this prayer of Jesus, Peter healed the man who had been lame from birth in the name of Jesus, as follows.
Acts 3:6 “But Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but what I have, that give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
Above, Jesus said that He had manifested “the Father’s name which was given to Him” to the people given to Him out of the world (John 17:6). According to that word, Peter also said, “Silver and gold have I none; but what I have, that give I thee,” and gave the lame man the name of Jesus, saying, “In the name of Jesus Christ, walk.” And that lame man was also made completely whole by faith in the name of Jesus.
Acts 3:16 “And by faith in his name hath his name made this man strong, whom ye behold and know: yea, the faith which is through him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.”
Thus, those who belong to Jesus among the world do all things, whether in word or in deed, only in the name of Jesus. And the people of Jesus who are sealed with the name of Jesus, as we have seen through the passages above, will dwell with Jesus forever. The one hundred forty-four thousand recorded in Revelation are a testimony to this.
Revelation 14:1 “And I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on the mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty and four thousand, having his name, and the name of his Father, written on their foreheads.”
We cannot know specifically who the one hundred forty-four thousand standing with Jesus on Mount Zion are. However, what this passage clearly testifies is that the name of the Lamb and the name of His Father were written on their foreheads.
And the name of the Lamb and the name of His Father written on their foreheads may seem like two names, but in truth it is one name, the name of Jesus. This is because the name of Jesus is both the name of the Lamb and the name of the Father (John 5:43). As already mentioned above, Jesus Himself said, “the Father’s name which thou hast given me” (John 17:11). Also, before Jesus ascended, He commanded His disciples, “Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19), and yet the disciples baptized only in the name of Jesus (Acts 2:38, Acts 19:5). Through this, we can know this truth. We can also know through the word already mentioned above in Revelation 22:4, “they shall see his face; and his name shall be on their foreheads,” that not two names, but only the name of Jesus, is written on their foreheads.
In Revelation 7, these one hundred forty-four thousand are recorded as the servants of God who were sealed on their foreheads.
Revelation 7:2-4 “2And I saw another angel ascend from the sunrising, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a great voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, 3saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we shall have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. 4And I heard the number of them that were sealed, a hundred and forty and four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel.”
By comparing this passage with Revelation 14:1, we can know that “the seal of God” is the name of Jesus. Therefore, now all of us must be sealed with the name of Jesus and, like the one hundred forty-four thousand, become final victors who stand with Jesus on Mount Zion. If we, like the one hundred forty-four thousand who were sealed on their foreheads with the name of Jesus, do all things only in the name of Jesus, in word and in deed, then the name of Jesus will preserve and keep us (John 17:12). And when Jesus comes again, He will receive us unto Himself and cause us to be with Him forever where He is.
Matthew 19:29 “And every one that hath left houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life.”
1 John 5:13 “These things have I written unto you, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life.”
Revelation 22:4-5 “4and they shall see his face; and his name shall be on their foreheads. 5And there shall be night no more; and they need no light of lamp, neither light of sun; for the Lord God shall give them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.”
Amen.
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To speak a little more concerning the “one hundred forty-four thousand,” it seems that some groups or people say that only the one hundred forty-four thousand can go to heaven, or they try to interpret what that number, one hundred forty-four thousand, means. However, the numbers recorded in the Bible may differ from the concept of numbers that we have learned and understood in this world. For example,
Numbers 14:33-34 “33And your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your whoredoms, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness. 34After the number of the days in which ye spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my alienation.”
As in this passage, God counted one day as one year. And also,
2 Peter 3:8 “But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
Through such words as these, we can know that numbers and time in the Bible are not limited to the way people count and understand them in this world, but are under the authority and will of God. Therefore, we should not think that only the one hundred forty-four thousand can go to heaven. Rather, what is more important is to know that they were those who were sealed with the name of Jesus, and that they were pure ones who did not compromise with the world (Rev. 14:3). Therefore, as the Scripture below says, it is important for us to believe and confess the word that whosoever calls upon the name of Jesus shall be saved.
Romans 10:12-13 “12For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek: for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich unto all that call upon him: 13for, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
This does not mean that the numbers recorded in the Bible have no meaning at all. However, unless they surely testify of Jesus, who is the central figure of the Scriptures (John 5:39), the word of God tells us rather to avoid unnecessary disputes. Therefore, when we approach difficult passages in the Bible, we must be careful about this point. (*Related post: Our Attitude Toward Difficult Passages in the Bible).
Because God has made it so that man cannot fully search out the work that He does, we must focus only on knowing and believing Jesus through the Scriptures.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He hath made everything beautiful in its time: also he hath set eternity in their heart, yet so that man cannot find out the work that God hath done from the beginning even to the end.”
This is a place to share and meditate on Scripture through various biblical themes. Only members can post comments.
The Passover is a feast that commemorates how the plague of God passed over when He saw the blood applied to the two side posts and the lintel of the door. As the passage below says, “when I see the blood, I will pass over you” was the word of God given at that time to the children of Israel through Moses and Aaron. Therefore, even the children of Israel who lived in the land of Goshen had to apply the blood to their doorposts in order for their firstborn to live and not die. (*Related post: Exodus 12 - Concerning the Blood of the Lamb).
Exodus 12:13 “And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.”
Also, when God saved the house of Rahab the harlot, He had her bind a scarlet thread in the window. Therefore, later, when the children of Israel led by Joshua captured Jericho, Rahab and her family were able to live (Josh. 6:22-23).
Joshua 2:12-13, 18, 21 “12-13Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by Jehovah, since I have dealt kindly with you, that ye also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a true token; and that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and will deliver our lives from death. 18Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by; and thou shalt gather unto thee into the house thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father’s household. 21And she said, According unto your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they departed: and she bound the scarlet line in the window.”
Also, in Ezekiel 9 below, when God judged Jerusalem, He commanded that all be destroyed except those who had the mark upon their foreheads.
Ezekiel 9:3-6 “3And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon it was, to the threshold of the house: and he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn by his side. 4And Jehovah said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry over all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof. 5And to the others he said in my hearing, Go ye through the city after him, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity. 6Slay utterly the old man, the young man and the virgin, and little children and women; but come not near any man upon whom is the mark: and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the old men that were before the house.”
Just as the passages above show signs of salvation, the name of Jesus becomes the sign of our salvation (Acts 4:12). Therefore, in the last days also, as He has shown us through the one hundred forty-four thousand, God will see the name of Jesus upon us and cause us to escape judgment. It is not important who the one hundred forty-four thousand are. What is important is the word that the name of Jesus is written on their foreheads. Therefore, likewise, all of us living in the last days must become those who have the name of Jesus. When we do all things, whether in word or in deed, in the name of Jesus (Col. 3:17), truly we will be saved because of the name of Jesus. It is very important that we know this, believe it, and do it.