Now let us look at the second half of the Gospel of John from chapter fourteen through chapter twenty-one. Starting with chapter fourteen the Gospel of John takes a turn. The center of the first half, composed of chapters one through thirteen, is God’s becoming flesh and coming into man. The center of the second half, composed of chapters fourteen through twenty-one, concerns His “going.” When the disciples heard the Lord say that He had to go, they were troubled. At the beginning of chapter fourteen, therefore, the Lord said, “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe into God, believe also into Me. In My Father’s house are many abodes” (vv. 1-2). From here the Lord turned to the matter of abode.
We now need to address a very important question. What does My Father’s house mentioned here refer to? We know this is not the first time that the Father’s house is mentioned in the Gospel of John. As early as chapter two, when the Lord cleansed the temple, He said, “Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise” (v. 16). Many brothers and sisters realize without difficulty that the Father’s house in this verse refers to the temple at that time. Yet it is strange that when people come to the Father’s house mentioned by the Lord in John 14, they think it refers to heaven. For two thousand years, many expositors of the Bible have interpreted this Father’s house as heaven. Even many hymns in Christianity refer to God’s house as heaven. In the Bible, whether the Old Testament or the New Testament, God’s house and the Father’s house are mentioned numerous times. The strange thing is this: Bible expositors agree unanimously that God’s house in the Old Testament refers to the temple, while God’s house in the New Testament refers to the church, yet the Father’s house mentioned in John 14:2 is considered the unique exception and interpreted as heaven. This is indeed a strange thing.
Brothers and sisters, I wonder whether you still think that the Father’s house is heaven when you read John 14:2. The Lord says, “In My Father’s house are many abodes; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will receive you to Myself” (vv. 2-3). What does the Lord mean by go? How does He prepare a place for us? Where is this place? He says that He will come again to receive us. Does this come again refer to His second coming in the future? We should find answers to all these questions.
When I was young and newly saved, I heard a preacher speaking on John 14, which to this day has left in me a deep impression. He said, “The Lord told us that He would go and prepare a place for us, and when it is prepared, He would come again. This coming again will happen one day in the future. The Lord is now in the Father’s house, and this Father’s house is the heavenly mansion. He went there to prepare a room for every one of us who are saved. This is what the Lord meant by His going to prepare a place for us. When He has prepared the place, He will come again to receive us. The Lord has been gone for more than one thousand nine hundred years but has not returned to receive us, because the place has not been fully prepared. Oh, it has taken the almighty Lord more than one thousand nine hundred years, and yet the heavenly mansion has not been fully prepared! Can you imagine how extravagant and how magnificent that place will be? Therefore, we ought to thank and praise Him. Moreover, we do not need to build a very good house on the earth, for this is not our eternal dwelling place. Now the Lord is building a better house for us in heaven, and that will be our eternal abode.” He spoke quite well and I listened enthusiastically.
Thirty years passed by, and under the Lord’s leading I gradually came to understand the matter of the mingling of God and man. Because of this, when I read the Gospel of John again, I became very clear concerning the Lord’s going to prepare the Father’s house. I realized that “preparing a place” refers to the Lord’s building of the church. Let me ask you brothers and sisters a question. In Matthew 16 the Lord Jesus said, “I will build My church” (v. 18). In John 14 the Lord Jesus said that He would prepare a house. Please consider how many buildings the Lord has in the universe. Does He have two buildings or just one building? Could it be that today the Lord is building the church on the earth and at the same time building a mansion in heaven as the house of God? Or is it that His building of the church is His building of the house of God? In other words, are the building of the church in Matthew 16 and the preparation of a place in John 14 two matters or one?
Those who agree with interpreting the Father’s house in John 14 as heaven have a seemingly clear explanation. They say that the place the Lord is preparing is the city referred to in Hebrews 11 that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob longed for, and it is also the holy city, New Jerusalem, mentioned in Hebrews 12 and Revelation 21. With this we agree. But we have to ask, “Is the holy city, the house of God, something apart from the church? Is it that today God is building the church on the earth as well as the holy city in heaven?” Dear brothers and sisters, can you believe that God has two buildings today? Five or six years ago, I asked the Lord in a serious way if He has two buildings in the universe. The answer I received was clearly negative. God has only one building in the entire universe. God will never build a mansion in heaven as His house. Rather, God is building His redeemed people as His house. God is not building a place; He is building Himself with those whom He redeemed. God is building Himself into man and man into Himself so that He and man can be mingled to become a house.
John clearly tells us that God’s becoming flesh was His tabernacling among men, and the body of flesh that He put on was a tabernacle, which was also a temple. The Jews wanted to kill Him to destroy this temple, but He resurrected in three days, thereby rebuilding this temple and enlarging it to become an eternal temple. In John 2 the Lord clearly said that this temple is the Father’s house. Please consider, in John 14 when the Lord again mentioned the Father’s house, can this Father’s house be heaven? It is very obvious that it absolutely does not refer to heaven. This Father’s house refers to a spiritual house brought about by the mingling of God and man. You should be fully clear about this after you read John 14 through 17.
The Lord said, “In My Father’s house are many abodes...for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will receive you to Myself, so that where I am you also may be” (14:2-3). Where is the Lord? We have seen that the Lord clearly said that He is in the Father. Therefore, when the Lord said, “Where I am you also may be,” He meant that He would cause us to also be in the Father. When the Lord spoke these words, the disciples, including Peter, James, and John, were not yet in the Father. Because of this, the Lord said that He would go to do something, which was to open a way, to prepare a place, to bring them into the Father. Therefore, we see that this preparing a place is to build man into God. The Lord seemed to be saying, “I am in God, but you are outside of God. Where I am today you cannot be. That is why I am going to prepare a place, and when it is prepared, I will come again to receive you to where I am so that where I am you also may be. I am going, and what I mean by going is that I am about to die. My death is to open a way for you and solve the problems between you and God. After I die, you will be able to draw near to God. Furthermore, My death enables you to come into God.” Therefore, in saying that He would come again after preparing a place, the Lord was not at all referring to His second coming in the future.
Brothers and sisters, this is altogether different from the concepts we have received in the past from traditional Christianity. Therefore, we have to ask the Lord to grant us clear light. I also hope that we will read John 14, 15, 16, and 17 more thoroughly so that we all may see the central revelation of the Gospel of John: God tabernacles with man in order to build up the temple and fulfill Jacob’s dream at Bethel so that He may have a building in the universe as the mutual dwelling place of God and man.