John 14
2 In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and welcome you into My presence, so that you also may be where I am.
What is Jesus doing in heaven to prepare a place for us?
As always, please provide scripture you believe to support your answer(s) whenever possible.
God Bless all.
Acts 26:17
I shall deliver you from this people and from the Gentiles to whom I send you, to open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God
I agree with those who notice that Jesus is talking to His Church, the Twelve Apostles, rather than to individual believers. I think Jesus is talking about His Second Coming in John 14. In Jesus' prayer to The Father, in John 17, Jesus asks His Father, for Him to be united with His Church on earth, and His Church protected from 'The evil one'. Jesus asks that,
"so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us"
When God brought His Presence to reside with Israel in the desert, God considered this His Marriage to Israel. In John 17, Jesus is asking for His Church's hand in marriage, on earth. Jesus wants to bring His Presence into His Church as the Father brought His Presence into a stone temple in Jerusalem.
Jesus says,
"I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one." In Jesus', 'The Lord's Prayer', we are praying for God to deliver us from the 'evil one'. If Jesus simply pulls His Church from earth and puts them in heaven, then who is left on earth to build up Jesus' Church with converts?
Upon the Second Coming of Jesus, Jesus will Rule the world. With Jesus, a descendant of king David, Ruling the world, Israel is Restored. Jesus will Rule with and through His Church. The New Jerusalem, in Revelation 19, is the Bride of the Lamb, Christ's Church on earth, with Jesus', as the Lamp, with His Presence, having Come to reside within His Church (in a new and spectacular way), to guide the nations of the earth, to God.
In John 14:2, Jesus is talking about bringing His Presence to earth, in the Second Coming, so that His Church can be with Him. Rather than Jesus taking His Faithful to heaven, to be in His Presence. In other words, Jesus is talking about, 'The Wedding Day of the Lamb', which happens upon Jesus' Second Coming. There are rooms for everyone who is prepared for the Wedding Day of the Lamb, and they will live in Christ's Kingdom Come, on earth.
Concept quoted from:
Jesus is Getting Married
John 17 Prayer of Jesus.
When Jesus had said this, he raised his eyes to heaven and said, 'Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, just as you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to all you gave him. Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are. When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.
I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me. Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.
Revelation 19:6
The Lord has established his reign, (our) God, the almighty. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. For the wedding day of the Lamb has come, his bride has made herself ready. She was allowed to wear a bright, clean linen garment.
Revelation 21:9 The New Jerusalem.
"Come, I will show you the woman who is the bride of the Lamb." He carried me away in spirit to the top of a very high mountain and showed me the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. It gleamed with the splendor of God.