In John 14 the Lord said, “In My Father’s house are many abodes;...I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go..., I am coming again and will receive you to Myself” (vv. 2-3). According to these verses, most Christians believe that the Lord Jesus went to prepare an abode for us and that He will come and receive us to this heavenly home when it is ready. A Brethren teacher once said, “After two thousand years the Lord has still not returned. On the one hand, this proves that the place is not yet ready. On the other hand, this means that it must be a wonderful place since the Lord Jesus Himself has been preparing it for two thousand years, and it is still not ready.” However, when we read the Scriptures and consider the depths of the Gospel of John, we see that the house in chapter 14 does not refer to a heavenly home.
According to the context of John 14, the Lord Jesus spoke concerning a mutual abode of God and man. In verses 16 and 17 He said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever...because He abides with you and shall be in you.” In verse 23 the Lord said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” These verses show that the abode the Lord spoke of was not a heavenly mansion. Rather, every believer who loves the Lord is an abode. Do we realize that we are a house? This abode is not only for God to dwell in; it is a mutual abode for God and man. If we can say that God has found an abode in us, we can surely say that we have found an abode in God. Therefore, in chapter 15 John describes this mutual abode, saying, “Abide in Me and I in you” (v. 4).
The house in John 14 is not a heavenly mansion. It is the house of the living God, which is the church in 1 Timothy 3:15. The Lord said, “In My Father’s house are many abodes” (John 14:2). This means that there are many abodes in the church. The Lord’s going to prepare a place for us was His going to bear our sins in order to solve the problem of our sins and to destroy Satan, to terminate the world, and to crucify the flesh and the natural life. His going was His dying, and He returned in resurrection. Everything that the Lord accomplished was for the preparation of a dwelling place.
Therefore, the Lord’s going is His death, and His coming is His resurrection, which is recorded in John 20. The Lord did not wait two thousand years to return. The Lord returned in chapter 20 and stood in the midst of His disciples. He then breathed into them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (v. 22). From that day on, every disciple has become an abode, a dwelling place for the Triune God. Paul even asks, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16). The temple is the house, and the house is the temple. The temple of God is the house of God, and the house of God is the temple of God.
In 1 Timothy 3:15 Paul says that the house of God is the church of the living God. The church is God’s house, and it is our house. Without the church God is homeless, and we also are homeless. Today God has the church, His home, and we have a home. The church is also the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23). The Body of Christ is an organism. Just as my body is an organism that carries out and coordinates my every move, so the church is an organism, the Body of Christ, to express Christ and carry out His every move.
In addition, the church is also a golden lampstand. Revelation 1:20 says, “The seven lampstands are the seven churches.” The Body of Christ is universal, and the lampstands are local. In Revelation 1 the seven local churches are in seven cities, and each church is the lampstand in its city. The function of a lampstand is to shine, to be a testimony. The house of God is for God to find rest, the Body of Christ is for Christ to be expressed, and the lampstand is to shine forth as a testimony of Christ. In this chapter we will consider the church as God’s house.