It is presumed by many that in John 14, Jesus was promising a place in heaven for his disciples, that the Father’s house is heaven, and that it has many mansions. Hymns have been written about the mansions we will have in heaven. Mansion-huge, magnificent house.
But μοναι means “dwelling places” or “abodes.” sing. μονη. In 1611, “mansion” meant dwelling place or abode.
But do you know of any other place in the whole Bible where heaven is called “God’s house”? I haven’t been able to find one.
Every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our glorying in our hope. (Hebrews 3:4-6) ESV
But when Christ says, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” What else could He have been talking about if not His second coming, and taking us to heaven?”
Τhis whole chapter needs to be read, and linked together. There is another way in which Christ said He would come again and be with His disciples. Verse 18-23
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. “ Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how will you manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.”
But the Father is in heaven and the resurrected Jesus at His right hand. How would they make their dwelling with Jesus’ disciples? By means of their spirit. The Father and the Son can extend their spirit anywhere in the universe, and through their spirit they dwell in the hearts of Christ’s disciples. That’s the spirit of truth (reality) which Christ promised that the Father would send them (vs 16,17). And that spirit was sent to them on that special day of Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2. And from then on, every one who repented and was baptized received the spirit of the Father and of the Son, and had a special place in the Church which Christ established, the Father’s house! Even as the apostle Peter wrote in I Peter 2:5 “You yourselves like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house.” So Peter compared everyone in God’s house to the stones which form the house. There is a place for every stone. Each stone is unique, but fits exactly into the place which Christ prepared for it. No other stone will fit in that place. Each dwelling place in the house has been specially prepared for each disciple. Even in this day, you yourself, have a place prepared for you. I trust that you are in this place in the Body of Christ, in the House of God right now. Jesus Himself dwells in the Father’s house, the Church of Christ, for He has not left us as orphans. He has come through His spirit and taken us to Himself.