And if I go - And when I shall have gone and prepared a place for you - opened the kingdom of an eternal glory for your reception, and for the reception of all that shall die in the faith, I will come again, after my resurrection, and give you the fullest assurances of this state of blessedness; and confirm you in the faith, by my grace and the effusion of my Spirit. Dr. Lightfoot thinks, and with great probability too, that there is an allusion here to Numbers 10:33 : And the ark of the Lord went before them to search out a resting place for them.

And if I go and prepare a place for you,.... Seeing I am going to prepare, and will prepare a place for you, of the truth of which you may be fully assured:

I will come again; either by death or in person a second time, here on earth:

and receive you unto myself; I will take you up with me to heaven; I will receive you into glory;

that where I am there you may be also: and behold my glory, and be for ever with me, and never part more.

If I go (ἐὰν πορευθῶ)

Πορεύομαι, go, of going with a definite object. See on John 8:21.

I will come again (πάλιν ἔρχομαι)

The present tense; I come, so Rev. Not to be limited to the Lord's second and glorious coming at the last day, nor to any special coming, such as Pentecost, though these are all included in the expression; rather to be taken of His continual coming and presence by the Holy Spirit. "Christ is, in fact, from the moment of His resurrection, ever coming into the world and to the Church, and to men as the risen Lord" (Westcott).

And receive (παραλήψομαι)

Here the future tense, will receive. Rev., therefore, much better: I come again and will receive you. The change of tense is intentional, the future pointing to the future personal reception of the believer through death. Christ is with the disciple alway, continually "coming" to him, unto the end of the world. Then He will receive him into that immediate fellowship, where he "shall see Him as He is." The verb παραλαμβάνω is used in the New Testament of taking along with (Matthew 4:5, note; Matthew 17:1, note; Acts 16:33, note): of taking to (Matthew 1:20; John 14:3): of taking from, receiving by transmission; so mostly in Paul (Galatians 1:12; Colossians 2:6; Colossians 4:17; 1 Thessalonians 2:13, etc. See also Matthew 24:40, Matthew 24:41). It is scarcely fanciful to see the first two meanings blended in the use of the verb in this passage. Jesus, by the Spirit, takes His own along with Him through life, and then takes them to His side at death. He himself conducts them to Himself.

Iam

See on John 7:34.

{2} And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will {c} come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

(2) Christ did not go away from us with the intent of forsaking us, but rather that he might eventually take us up with him into heaven.

(c) These words are to be understood as being said to the whole Church, and therefore the angels said to the disciples when they were astonished, Why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This Jesus will so come as you saw him go up, Ac 1:11. And in all places of the Scripture the full comfort of the Church is considered to be that day when God will be all in all, and is therefore called the day of redemption.

14:3 I will come again, and receive you unto myself. The reference is not to Christ's return from the grave, but to a return from heaven, the second coming of the Lord, which is a part of the Christian faith. Compare 1Th 4:17 Php 1:23.

[1] receive you unto myself

This promise of a second advent of Christ is to be distinguished from His return in glory to the earth; it is the first intimation in Scripture of "the day of Christ". See Scofield Note: "1Cor 1:8". Here He comes for His saints 1Th 4:14-17 there Mt 24:29,30. He come to judge the nations, etc.

3. I will come again and receive you unto myself-strictly, at His Personal appearing; but in a secondary and comforting sense, to each individually. Mark again the claim made:-to come again to receive His people to Himself, that where He is there they may be also. He thinks it ought to be enough to be assured that they shall be where He is and in His keeping.

14:1-11 Here are three words, upon any of which stress may be laid. Upon the word troubled. Be not cast down and disquieted. The word heart. Let your heart be kept with full trust in God. The word your. However others are overwhelmed with the sorrows of this present time, be not you so. Christ's disciples, more than others, should keep their minds quiet, when everything else is unquiet. Here is the remedy against this trouble of mind, Believe. By believing in Christ as the Mediator between God and man, we gain comfort. The happiness of heaven is spoken of as in a father's house. There are many mansions, for there are many sons to be brought to glory. Mansions are lasting dwellings. Christ will be the Finisher of that of which he is the Author or Beginner; if he have prepared the place for us, he will prepare us for it. Christ is the sinner's Way to the Father and to heaven, in his person as God manifest in the flesh, in his atoning sacrifice, and as our Advocate. He is the Truth, as fulfilling all the prophecies of a Saviour; believing which, sinners come by him the Way. He is the Life, by whose life-giving Spirit the dead in sin are quickened. Nor can any man draw nigh God as a Father, who is not quickened by Him as the Life, and taught by Him as the Truth, to come by Him as the Way. By Christ, as the Way, our prayers go to God, and his blessings come to us; this is the Way that leads to rest, the good old Way. He is the Resurrection and the Life. All that saw Christ by faith, saw the Father in Him. In the light of Christ's doctrine, they saw God as the Father of lights; and in Christ's miracles, they saw God as the God of power. The holiness of God shone in the spotless purity of Christ's life. We are to believe the revelation of God to man in Christ; for the works of the Redeemer show forth his own glory, and God in him.