John 14:1-3 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. (2) In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? (3) And 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.
Have you ever wondered? What did Jesus mean? “I go to prepare a place for you”? What is that all about? What is this “place”?
Jesus is speaking about the New Creation. The New Eden. The New heavens and earth. This is why the Gospel of John opens with Genesis 1 language – “In the beginning…”. In Christ, God the Father has effected the restoration of Eden. This time there is no chance of it going bad.
This is why the New Testament (and some in the Old as in Isaiah) speaks repeatedly of “new creation” people and places. We are new creations in Christ. There is a new heavens and earth. The Bible opens with man in fellowship with his Creator in Eden and it ends in the same place, only better. No devil. No sin. No death. No pain. None of it will ever come in again.
Christ Himself as Creator (see Colossians 1 and 2 on this) is “preparing” the new heavens and earth. The Temple He is building in which we are “living stones,” is just another picture of the New Creation. All of the new creation will be a temple because the Lord will be everywhere present and thus Revelation says there will be no temple (no localized one as in Jerusalem) because we will be in the new holy of holies wherever we go!
And it is real! Real! Real people with real bodies (resurrected and incorruptible). Real trees. Real animals. Absolutely and forever one nation under God.
And that is what Jesus has been preparing. Custom made – for you and for me. Make no mistake, the moment you arrive there you will realize, I am home. This is what I was made for.
NOTE: If you go to our site at sermonaudio.com/crc and look under the Sermon Series menu, you will find a series I preached called “In My Father’s House.” It is really an overview of the entire Bible in 16 sermons, tracing the Lord’s fundamental purpose from Genesis to Revelation. If you want to truly understand the Bible, this theme is absolutely essential for you.