what did jesus say about heaven

The Father's House. — But whither was He going? That, which He had never told the Jews, He now tells the Apostles. It was to the Father's house, the natural, the proper, abode of the Son. And the Son it is who teaches us about it. Three passages indicate something concerning it. First of all, in John 2 we learn, that the Temple on earth the Lord regarded as His Father's house down here. "Make not," He said, as He purged it, "My Father's house an house of merchandise." If the Temple on earth could be called the Father's house, the sanctuary in heaven in the fullest sense must be that house. It is where God dwells. The second place to which we would refer, is the passage before us in this fourteenth of John, which confirms the thought that the heavenly sanctuary is the Father's house, inasmuch as the Lord speaks in language of the house on high in character with that which was true of the Temple of Solomon, and probably of the Temple each time it was restored. There were many chambers in that structure, three stories of them (1 Kings 6:5-6). In this it differed from the Tabernacle. So we can understand that there can be many mansions in the Father's house on high. And the Lord has gone to prepare a place there for His own. The Tabernacle, we have said, had none. In this the latter corresponds to God's present dwelling-place on earth, that habitation of God, builded together by the Spirit. But as the Temple of old, with its many chambers, succeeded the Tabernacle, so the Father's house will be the abode of saints, when God's habitation on earth will be here no longer. The third passage which speaks of that house, tells us of the prodigal's entrance into it (Luke 15:25) — a foreshadow in its teaching of the fulfilment of the Lord's promise on the night before His death. On each occasion, then, we see that it is the Son who mentions the subject. Fitting it was, all will own, that He should be the One to treat of it.

He tells us the place he is going to take us to — it is the Father's house. And what makes the Father's house of importance to the child — if he has right affections? It is, that the Father is there. … However feebly we may enjoy it now, when we talk of "going to heaven," it is going to the Father.

The Lord Jesus had the Temple-chambers in mind when He said, "In My Father's house are many mansions (abodes)." In John 2:16 He called the Jewish Temple "My Father's house," and in John 14:2 He applies the same title to Heaven. At His coming we shall find ourselves in the presence of God known to us as Father; we shall be in the company of the Son; we shall bear His image; and we shall share with Him the infinite wealth of the Father's love.

With this, the Father's house, for so the Lord Himself connects these: "In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." To know Christ here is to know the Father; to come to Him, to come to the Father: to be with Him face to face cannot be separated from the Father's presence, nor this from the joy of the Father's house. With Him, in the children's place, owned as His in heaven now, — children brought home.

This is also a preview. Christ was still with them. They are still preparatory words. But they show us a special aspect of his absence on earth, or rather, of his presence in heaven: he went there to prepare a place where we can be and see the Father in Him. For this He had to enter the Father's house as a human being. That is what the Father's house is all about. The expression "where I am" occurs five times in this Gospel and each time it refers to the Father's house (7:34, 36; 12:26; 14:3; 17:24). On one occasion the Son speaks to the Father and uses the expression "with yourself" – again, referring to the Father’s house (John 17:5). The Father's house has been called the "home of eternal life" – the place where the Father is and the Son and eternal love is enjoyed.

How blessed, beloved friends, to find, the moment I am free in heart and conscience before the Father, in the knowledge of His grace, that there was an abode in His house on high for me before ever the world was! Why is it that we never find any description of the Father’s house in scripture? You have the heavenly Jerusalem described in her wondrous glory and displayed as His bride — but never the Father’s house. Because you are supposed to be familiar with the Father’s Son, the Father is revealed in Him; and then it is sufficient to know that He is there, and the heart rests content in peaceful joy in the sense that where Jesus is, it is enough! “That where I am, there ye may be also!”

Through Jesus we know heaven truly, as filled with His praise and homage, and in particular the Father's house where He is the object of His Father's delight, and whither He will bring us in His delight to share love and glory with Himself to their fullest.

God's revelation is in the Bible. We get our knowledge of heaven from the Bible, we know nothing of heaven apart from it, but it speaks of hell as well as heaven. If we accept the one we cannot consistently reject the other. Take the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so I would have told you" (John 14:2). If there had been no place and state of blessing beyond this life for us, He would have told us plainly; and if there had been no judgment to come, no retribution for sin, no hell, would He not also have told us? But the strongest language in the Bible as to these things came from His own lips. He spoke of some who would die in their sins and the impossibility of such going where He would be (John 8:21, 23, 24). He said to the proud self righteous hypocrites of His day, "How shall ye escape the damnation of hell?" (Matt. 23:14). He said, "Fear Him which, after He has killed has power to cast into hell; yea, I say to you, Fear Him" (Luke 12:5). He it is who will say to some in the day of judgment of the living nations, "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt. 25:41), and of these He said, "these shall go into everlasting punishment" (Matt. 25:46). He spoke of "outer darkness" and "weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 25:30), and "of their worm that never dies and the fire that is not quenched" (Mark 9:46). Who dares to say that he will listen to the Lord and believe Him when He speaks of blessing, but refuse to hear and believe when He speaks of judgment?

It is out of the lips of the Son of God, who came from heaven to tell us of God's great love, that the most solemn warnings as to hell have come. He said to His followers, "In My Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you." If there had been no heaven to win, He would have told us, and if there had been no hell to shun, would He not have told us? But it was He who said to the self-righteous, hypocritical Pharisees, "How shall ye escape the damnation of hell?" He it was who warned men of "Gehenna, where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched." He told His hearers of one rich man who, after death, lifted up his eyes being in torment. You see, I am not giving you my opinions on so solemn a subject as this, I would not do that, for my opinions would be of no more value than yours. I am giving you the words of the Son of God, and His words are truth. He said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away" (Mark 13:31). Have you believed them? His words are spirit and life, those that warn of judgment to come equally with those that tell of the love that saves.

The disciples of the Lord Jesus looked for the establishment of His earthly kingdom, and could not see anything beyond this, even although the Lord spoke of His death, and directed their thoughts to heaven. When the seventy returned from their mission, and were elated on account of all His power had enabled them to do, their Master said to them, "In this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10:20). This was something entirely new for the disciples. They had no doubt believed in the truth of the resurrection of the dead, but doubtless looked to have a portion on earth after being raised from the dead. Instead, the Lord points towards heaven, where God had in His grace written their names, to give them there a portion with Christ Himself.