The Father's House - The Place Of Our Eternal Inheritance ( 2 ).
Different portions of scripture in the old testament, reveals that heaven is God's dwelling place - See Deuteronomy 26:15; 2nd Chronicles 30:27; 1st Kings 8:30, 39.
In the gospels, which represent a transition/bridge between the old and new testaments, we hear the son of God himself, who is the mediator of the new covenant, saying that heaven is God's throne 👇🏼
"But I say unto you, Do not swear at all; neither by heaven, because it is the throne of God"
- Matthew 5:34.
"He that swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him that sits upon it."
- Matthew 23:22.
This is consistent with what God had earlier spoken by the mouth of his prophet saying "heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool" - Isaiah 66:1.
In John 14, Jesus speaks of the Father's house; having severally mentioned that the Father is in heaven & that heaven is his throne, he now speaks of the Father's house as a place he was literally/bodily going to and that he is going to prepare a place for us therein, and return to receive us to be with him literally/bodily, where he is.
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"In my Father's house there are many mansions; were it not so, I would have told you: for I go to prepare you a place, and if I go and prepare you a place, I will come again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am there ye may also be."
John 14:2-3
The word translated as "mansions" in the text, is
'mon-ay' in the original greek and means a staying, abiding, dwelling, abode
a place of staying, that is, residence...dwelling places.
In other words Jesus was saying that in his Father's house there are residences/dwelling places.
The term "Father's house" already connotes the Father's dwelling place, which is heaven as clearly seen in scriptures earlier cited; so Jesus is letting us know that in the Father's house/dwelling place, there are many dwelling places/residences. This gives us an understanding that the Father does not dwell alone, there are many dwelling places/residences in his house/dwelling place.
Now some people read this scripture and try to spiritualise it thereby denying what the inspired texts says.
Some say there are no literal mansions/dwelling places in the Father's house/heaven while others blindly deny that the Father's house/dwelling place is heaven; Well, Jesus foreseeing the days of such gross unbelief in heavenly things/the realities of heaven,
said if it were not so i would have told you.
The unbelieving heart says it is not so and is thus in direct opposition to the words of Jesus who said: "if it were not so i would have told you."
We can't afford to deny that heaven is God's dwelling place and throne where he sits, we can't deny that there are literal mansions in heaven, that the Father's house is a literal place where Jesus literally/bodily ascended to and sat down on the righthand of the throne of God, that there are heavenly things as distinguished from earthly things, that there is a heavenly body and there is a heavenly city with streets made of gold and foundations laid with precious stones.
The Holy scripture copiously furnishes us with the knowledge of the realities of heaven such that we can't afford to deny them.
Hebrews 8:2 & 5 speaks of the true tabernacle and sanctuary which the Lord pitched and not man, and then goes on to say that the tabernacle which Moses was instructed of God to build was a type, representation and shadow of the heavenly tabernacle/sanctuary.
Of the making of the earthly tabernacle, Moses was commanded of God to make all things according to the pattern of the heavenly tabernacle revealed to him on the Mount.
Now if the type & shadow of the heavenly tabernacle/sanctuary was a literal/actual tabernacle into which the priests could go in to minister, how say some today that the heavenly tabernacle/sanctuary is not a literal place above but just a realm upon the earth?
How did Moses build a literal/actual earthly tabernacle after the pattern of a heavenly tabernacle that is not literal/actual?
It takes unbelief and blindness of heart to assert that heaven is not a literal place, that there are no literal heavenly places or mansions in the Father's house.
There in the Lord's words in John 14, we have the greatest promise ever made to us, his bride church.👇🏼
"In my Father's house there are many dwelling places; were it 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 shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be." John 14:2-3.
The ultimate goal of the Lord is to bring us to his Father's house, to the place where he literally/bodily went to prepare for us in his Father's house. Just as he literally/bodily ascended to heaven, he will literally/bodily descend from heaven to literally/bodily receive us to himself, to the end that where he is, there we may be also, with him literally/bodily.
In 1st Thessalonians 4 where Paul, the apostle by the word of the Lord tells us how the Lord himself who went to prepare a place for us in his Father's house, will descend from heaven, he doesn't miss this ultimate goal of the Lord which is to bring us to the Father's house to be with him in the place he has prepared for us.
Jesus had said he will come again and receive us to himself, so that we will be with him where he is and here in 1st Thessalonians 4 the apostle as inspired by the HolySpirit, shows that the ultimate goal of the Lord in descending from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel, the trump of God, the raising of the dead in Christ, the transformation and catching up of both the risen & living saints to meet him in the air, is to literally/bodily receive us to himself so that we shall ever be with him. 👇🏼
"For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For 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: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words."
1st Thessalonians 4:15-18.
It is the coming of the Lord as spoken/promised by the Lord himself in John 14 that the apostle clearly draws and speaks from, thus there are striking similarities. For example in both, the ultimate goal of the Lord is to take/receive us to himself so that we might be with him where he is(to ever be with him). Also, as the Lord's promise in John 14 were words of comfort which began with "Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God, believe also in me", so are the words the apostle wrote by the word of the Lord; words which the apostle urges the saints to comfort one another with..."wherefore comfort one another with these words."
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