In the last episode, I discussed “where” believers would spend eternity. I surprised many of you because I said we won’t spend eternity in heaven but instead on the “New Earth.” I’ve linked the notes below to the last episode if you want to listen. From the comments I received, I need to clarify one thing: What happens when believers move on from this world? If we aren’t going to heaven and the new earth isn’t here yet, what happens to believers when they die?
First, let’s look at an insight Jesus gave the disciples about what’s next after this life in John 14:1-4. What’s the Father’s house? Is it an actual house? Does God have a house? Remember the audience context. God does have a house, and Jesus cleaned it in Matthew 21. Listen to Jesus from Matthew 21:13. This is after Jesus entered Jerusalem to the crowds waving palm branches and shouting, “Hosanna, the Son of David.” Then he went to the temple and cleaned the money changers from his Father’s house. God’s house was the temple. It was where God met with his people in the Holy of Holies.
When Jesus made this statement, he was quoting Isaiah 56:6-7. Were the gentiles allowed in the temple? No. Were foreigners able to join the Lord and serve him? No, not as foreigners. Did the Jews keep the Sabbath without desecrating it, or did they keep the covenant? No. The Jews weren’t able to accomplish any of these things. So in verse 7 God says he will bring them to his holy mountain. The holy mountain is the mountain where Jerusalem was built. Then, his house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.
The Jews were supposed to be a light to the world, showing the other nations the true God of the Cosmos. The Jews were to bring the foreigners to God by their example of God’s righteousness, love, and joy. Instead, they made enemies of the nations through their arrogance, hypocrisy, idolatry, hostility, and lawlessness. So God sent his Son to fulfill God’s purpose toward all humanity, to bring all to God’s house with the acceptable offering, which was the Lamb of God sacrificed from the foundation of the world.
Jesus told the disciples he would prepare a place for them, not only them but all who believe in God’s Lamb, Himself. And he said he would bring them to that place, in his Father’s house, when it was ready. But the temple in Jerusalem doesn’t exist anymore. Does it have to be rebuilt? No. That temple wasn’t the place being prepared for believers. What Jesus was explaining was shown to the disciple John in Revelation 21.
We’ll start with Revelation 21:1-7;
Then let’s go to Revelation 21:9-11;
Revelation 21:22-27;
What is the place Jesus was going away to prepare? Himself. By the righteous sacrifice of himself, Jesus redeemed all who believe in him from slavery to sin and death, and cleansed all who believe from every unrighteousness, and brings us into his Father’s house, the temple of God, which is his Son (Ref. John 2:19-21).
This is why believers will not live in heaven for eternity but rather on the new earth and be able to come and go from the New Jerusalem, where believers are the temple of God because they are clothed as a bride, as one body in and with the Son of God. What about those believers who have preceded us? Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the throne of God right now. Jesus is already the temple of God, and all believers are temples of God because we are in Christ, and Christ is in us. Therefore, when we leave this world, we go right into the presence of Christ, and we’re kept there with him until God reveals the New Heaven and a New Earth, and we return with God and Christ when the New Jerusalem descends from heaven to the New Earth.
