Where is the Bride (2)

2 Corinthians 11:2-4

2 Corinthians 11:2–4 NKJV

For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!

Concerned for the modern American church.

Revelation 19:1–10 NKJV

After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.” Again they said, “Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!” And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying, “Amen! Alleluia!” Then a voice came from the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!” And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.” And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

WORSHIP GOD!!!!

Love story - God and His creation

Creation fell in the garden, marred by sin.

Removed from his place of authority and dominion

What the first Adam lost in the Garden of Eden, the last Adam got it back in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Everything Adam lost, Jesus got back. It belongs to all of us who belong to Him.

The sacrifice of Jesus allows us to be reconciled to God and united with Christ.

His love for us shown to us through his death gives us life.

If we are His, we are on our way to heaven.

God calls us everything we will become as though we have already attained it even while we are still walking out the process.

God wanted to demonstrate His love for people and much of the Bible is written as an analogy between a groom and His bride.

You are not just a member of a church, you are a bride in waiting.

The Bible expresses the story of a Father who has a Son who is so committed to the bride that He is willing to give His life for the bride so that one day we could come together with Him and live with Him for eternity in a place called heaven.

Heaven is going to be a great wedding. Eternity will be a marriage ceremony that never ends.

Happy on your honeymoon? Excited for the honeymoon night?

Honeymoons don’t last forever! But this relationship with Jesus will be a honeymoon that lasts for all eternity.

No sickness, no disease, no cancer, no sadness, no darkness, no worries, no heartache, no devils to fight. The devil and his angels will be bound and cast into the bottomless pit never to be heard from again.

We will live forever with the groom and experience eternal bliss with never another worry or care.

Why do so many people who say they are on their way to heaven walk around sad and depressed and woe is me? Hanging around, nothing to do but frown, rainy days and Mondays always get me down?

We are going to a wedding!!!!

American Wedding vs Jewish wedding

Fall in “love” and get married without ever learning about faithfulness and commitment.

Really fall in lust - see the wedding as a means to get to a bedroom. Love is deeper than physical attraction. Why we have so many divorces.

Love and marriage is more than sex. Commitment, Faithfulness, Sticking to a vow whether it is good or bad.

Take vows serious enough to stand when life hits. Love is saying “I do” and sticking to it and saying we are going to make it in the name of our Lord.

Jewish Wedding Process.

(Shidduchim) - Leave His Father’s house, go to the prospective bride and make a proposal. This is the contract I am willing to offer to go into with your daughter.

(Mohar) - the bridal price the groom was willing to pay.

They offered a certain amount of money.

Jesus loved us and wanted to spend eternity with us so much that he did not offer money. He showed us how much he loved us by offering his own life as a price so the bride will know just how much she means to me.

God is not looking to see how much he can get out of us. We could never do enough to earn our way into heaven. We were all lost and hopeless and bound for hell with no way out. We had nothing to offer the King but the King left His Father’s house, left all of the glory of heaven, came down, was born of a virgin named Mary, wrapped himself in the flesh of humanity and gave his life as the price for his bride.

Peter says we are bought with a price. We have not been redeemed by corruptible things like silver and gold but we have been redeemed by the incorruptible blood of Jesus.

REDEEMED

Our problem was never a financial problem. It was a spiritual problem.

Jesus made a proposal on the cross. Where He said, this is the price I am willing to pay to show you how much I love you.

What else could he give?

Many religions say you need to die to please their god. Christianity says the groom died so you don’t have to. He died so that you may have life.

Proposal was made over a cup of wine. If the Father and the Bride accepted the offer, they would seal the covenant by sharing a cup of wine with the groom.

This is why the Bible says the angels in heaven rejoice when one sinner comes to repentance.

(Proposal on a big stage)

Matthew 26:27 “Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.”

Matthew 26:28 “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”

New Covenant - the Law could not do what the blood of Jesus did.

The law just covered sin for a season.

The blood of Jesus takes away the penalty and the power of sin off of your life.

Penalty - you do not have to go to hell.

Power - Sin no longer has dominion over your life.

We might mess up and fall into sin at times but we cannot stay there. To stay there is a breaking of the covenant of faithfulness we have made with our groom.

The groom is coming back.

The wedding is not yet complete.

Jesus Christ will return and make a New Heaven and a New Earth and we will rise to meet our groom in the air just like the procession made in Jewish weddings when the groom comes back to get the bride.

Until then, when we drink the cup, we are saying Yes to Jesus and declaring that we will remain faithful to Him until He returns.

When Jesus left, He did the same thing every Jewish groom did when the bride accepted the proposal.

When she accepted the proposal, they were betrothed. They were not yet married because the ceremony would happen later when the groom returned for her and they would live together and live the rest of their lives.

Betrothal could last a year, 3 years. The groom and the bride would live as though they were married, completely committed and faithful to each other even though they were not yet together.

The groom would go back and build aa new room onto His Father’s house and when the room was ready, He would return to get the bride.

John 14 “I go to prepare a place you. If I go, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also.”

People read Revelation and they think it is all about the antichrist. Some people in the church are looking for the antichrist more than they are Jesus Christ.

Revelation is not about the antichrist. It is about a wedding that is going to take place.

Jesus is coming back.

1 Thessalonians 4:16–18 NKJV

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

When he returns, the wedding ceremony, the crown