In the King James Version, the first three verses of John chapter 14 refer to “many mansions” in “my Father’s house”, but “many places” or “many rooms” is better.
“My Father’s house has many rooms: 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 you may be also.”
What exactly does Jesus mean by “my Father’s house”? Earlier, Jesus had used the same expression while cleansing the temple. “And he said to them that sold doves: “Take these things out of here: do not make my Father’s house a house of merchandise!”
Years earlier, after Joseph and Mary had sought him for three days after missing him on their journey home, and finally found him in the temple, sitting among noted teachers of the day, hearing their views and asking them questions”. The response of the twelve-year-old Jesus to his relieved parents was, “Why did you seek me? Do you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49)
It is clear from this that at the time the “Father’s house” was the Temple, and it was there that the “Father’s business” took place. So, when Jesus later says, “In my Father’s house are many mansions (or rooms or places), he is referring to the Temple. But not the Jerusalem temple, because before his arrest and crucifixion he would weep over Jerusalem and the doomed temple, saying: “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”
What Jesus had earlier called “my Father’s house” he now calls “your house” — God was about to leave the house! The Apostle Paul writes of the Father’s house as being distinct from “the Jerusalem which now is, which is in bondage with her children”, meaning the physical temple in Jerusalem. “(The) Jerusalem which is above (the spiritual temple) is free, and is the mother of us all.” (Galatians 4:25, 26)
We are “born from above” through the new birth. The Jerusalem “above” is God’s new “house”. “And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” (Revelation 21:2) In verse 9, an angel says to John: “Come here, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.
And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.” The Bride, the Lamb’s Wife, the Great City, the Holy City, and New Jerusalem are all descriptions of “my Father’s house”, which is the Church, composed of both Jews and non-Jews who are the spiritual descendants of Abraham”, who is the father of all who believe in His Son!
And this temple has room for “whosoever will”! There’s a place reserved for all who surrender their lives to Jesus — so don’t miss out!