Untitled Sermon (26)

Today I want to remind you of your marriage vowels

Good morning church! This week has been a grind for me. I haven’t experienced this much raw emotion, anger, and fear for our country in quite awhile. A friend of mine reminded me of this scripture this week and I thought it was appropriate

Isaiah 59:14–15 ESV

14 Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. 15 Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.

And it is not just a matter of “my guy didn’t win”, I am not that shallow. What grieved my heart more than anything was the way in which it was won. It sure seems like it was stolen, all across the country reports of fraud and underhanded ways, its an affront to a free democracy. A glaring attack against a constitutional republic that has safe-guarded American society from becoming the hell hole of fascist tyranny.

I think like many Americans we can feel an overwhelming onslaught against the values that we hold dearly that has helped turn us into the greatest nation the world has ever seen.

My heart has been grieving like many others, when we see the very fabrics of our civilization beginning to unravel. There is a massive push for the so called Communist utopia that Karl Marx preached about but everywhere it has been practiced it has led to the senselessness bloodshed of millions of innocent people. In the 20th century everywhere that Marxism, or socialism has been practiced, historians tell us that upwards to a hundred million people were slaughtered, countlell others oppressed, Christianity was highly persecuted and free speech censored.

i want to tell you that Communism didn't die when the Berlin Wall came down, it just adapted, the Soviet Spirit is still with us it just repackaged itself and gave itself a face lift. it crept into the halls of Academia, it cloaked itself with with love and a concern for the poor and making sure everyone has a fair share. Its been taught to our school children and University student for the last 50 years.

We are truly about to experience the saying those who do not understand history are doomed to repeat it

The question I am asking this morning is how do you balance righteous anger and wanting to follow through with action and is this the will of God and all I need is to be still...

How do you have hope when everything around us seems so hopeless? This is when your faith will be tested, and this is really when Christianity shines the most when it is in its darkest hour.

I mean we have 200 thousand years of hard core history to test that assumption.

This morning I believe that God wants to remind us that this is not our home. We are waiting for a better country. We are foreigners in a strange land. And the days may be coming upon us when the wheat will be separated from the chaff.

And he Kingdom of God is not tied to any nation creed or people, it is not bound by who sits in the Oval office and it is not restricted by Unlawful laws. The Holy Spirit makes it into the most repressive and dark nations all the time.

So if you came here this morning defeated, I want to remind you to lift up your head child of God. And as we will see today we can have hope when all seems hopeless and we can have peace in the midst of the storm.

We will be in John 14 this morning

John 14:1–7 ESV

1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

The disciples understood a little something about storms, they knew a little something about sleepless nights and having more on them than they can handle. I love when someone quotes that Bible scripture God will not give you more than you can bare!

The problem with that verse is that its not in the bible nor is it biblical. The common thread in the New testament is that God was always giving more than they can bear.

Now let me give you a little background because the events that were about to transpire were completely different than what the disciples thought. Much like many in this country. We had hoped that this would be a turning around of the America that many of us love and know. And these disciples were about to have their worlds flipped upside down because the wisdom and plans of God are often different than what we think.

The disciples had been walking with Jesus for three and a half years. They saw things with Jesus that they had never seen with any other man. They experienced things with Jesus that were never even thought of before. And as they went to Jerusalem they thought they were going to a coronation but instead they got a cross.

instead of liberation from Roman Rule, their dreams would be dashed when the Romans would kill their Messiah. And to add to the confusion of all, Jesus forbid them to fight, And Jesus himself would not even defend himself before Pilate. An oftly wierd way to change world

And Jesus Dropped this bombshell on them right before this passage that he was going to be killed, and not only that but one in their very tight circle would betray them! And then when the Leader the Mighty Peter says non sense I will lay down my very life for you, Jesus said not only will you not lay down your life for me but before the night is over with you will deny me three times

John 13:38 ESV

38 Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.

Careful trusting in your own flesh, because times of testing will come, and your fall will be great.

And so it is in that context fir where we are today in John 14, and listen to how jesus speaks to them. So gentle, so wise so powerful

John 14:1–4 ESV

1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”

Listen his word to them 2000 years ago is the same word for us, let not your hearts be troubled. Now how can Jesus say something like this? How could he have the odacity to assure a bunch of spineless men that everything is going to be ok? Well because God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. God would soon radically change the world through love, radical love gripped by radical obedience.

You see Jesus doesn’t command us to do something that he is not first willing to do himself, and the Bible says that He became obedient to the point of death even death on a cross.

The higher plan was not that he was going to destroy the Romans, He came to destroy the works of the devil. He didn’t come to destroy the establishment, he came to defeat the grave…

THE WEDDING

What is lost to us here in this passage is that the language is actually that of a marriage, a Jewish wedding. And in their darkest hour, when the emotions are high, when they are trying to figure all this out with their mind and human perspective jesus said Let not your hearts be troubled , Believe in God but also believe in me because in my Fathers house are many rooms . If it were not so I would have told you, but now I go to prepare a place for you that where I am there you may be also. Jewish wedding were different than ours are today.

THE BRIDE PRICE

Now when a young Jewish man spotted a young virgin that He wanted to marry. He would have to enter into negotiations with the Brides Father. And the two of them would set down man to man, and negotiate a Bride Price. Now when this negotiation began to take place especially if the bride was exceptionally beautiful, the price would get very expensive for the Groom to be. The Father knew what He had and he had all the leverage. This young man was love sick which made him like a buck in rut season. Do you understand me? The Father is sitting in his stand waiting for this love struck young man so he could take him down. often times it involved life stalk, lots of lifestalk. And when the Father settled on his final offer for the price of his daughter, he would then extend a cup of wine out to the young man, and the accepting of that cup sealed his covenant.

Do you now understand why we take the Lords Supper. Do you understand now when Jesus spoke to his disciples

Let me take you to the garden of Gethsemene. When Jesus is about to be betrayed and arrested

John 18:10–11 ESV

10 Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.) 11 So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”

SHALL I NOT DRINK THE CUP MY FATHER has given me?

What was yours and my bride price? The deal they brokered was his life for our life. His blood being shed for our forgiveness, and Jesus not only receives as a friend, but you become his bride. He purchased you, and what was in that cup? It was the cup of God’s wrath over sin and transgression. Now you will either drink from the cup of the Lord which paid for your sins and mine, or one day you will drink from the Fathers cup of Wrath Rev 14:10

THE BRIDE AND THE GROOM WOULD BE EMMERSED INTO A BATISM CEROMONY

Traditionally, in preparation for the betrothal ceremony, the bride (kallah) and groom (chatan) are separately immersed in water in a ritual called the mikvah, which is symbolic of spiritual cleansing.

Erusin:  The Betrothal

HE GOES TO PREPARE A PLACE AT THE FATHER’S HOUSE

John 14:2–3 ESV

2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

Jesus is again speaking in marriage terms.

Now after the groom took the cup and the covenant was sealed the groom then went back home, to his Fathers house. Now Jewish culture was not like ours. They didnt have 2 billion acres to choose from. A whole nation fit inside of a piece of land the Size of New Jersey. Families were tighter knit. So what the groom did is he went back home and he then began construction for his new bride to be. He would add on to the house....

What is Jesus doing right now? He is preparing a place for us. He is making heaven the absolute best. He has been doing it for the last two thousand years. And we are talking about the one that created the whole world in 6 days. Im telling you it is going to be something

And listen to be he had to remind these frightened disciples that there is something that is coming is much better.

There is coming a day when God will wipe away every tear from every eye

There is coming a day when there will be a great reunion with loved ones that went on before us and died in the Lord. There is coming a day when there will be no more elections no more injustice, no more curse. There is coming a day when all the questions that you thought you were going to ask God will all of a sudden dissipate like the morning fog, by the brightness of heaven when the sun shall rise in our hearts and never ever set again!1 hallelujah

this story of a little girl who was blind and had never seen. But a surgeon believed that he could give sight to that child. The parents were willing. They did the surgery. The eyes were bandaged. There came that time when the bandage was to be removed. Would she be able to see? They unwrapped the gauze, took those pads from those precious little eyes, and the doctor said, Sweetheart, open your eyes. This little girl opened her eyes and blinked. The first thing she saw was the face of that doctor, then the face of a nurse, then the face of her mother. She saw a tear for the first time in her mother’s eye, and she said, I can see. And she looked around at the things in the room that you and I take for granted, and then she went to the window and looked outside. She didn’t see the grass; she saw the green grass. She didn’t see the sky; she saw the blue sky. She didn’t see the flowers; she saw the multi-colored flowers. She ran back to her mother, squeezed her mother, said, Mama, Mama, it’s beautiful. Oh, Mama, it’s beautiful. Mama, why didn’t you tell me it was so beautiful? That mother, through tears of joy, said, Sweetheart, I tried to tell you, but you had to see it for yourself. You know, I think, when we get to heaven, we’ll say something like that to our heavenly Father. Father, why didn’t you tell us heaven was so wonderful? He’ll say, Well, I tried to tell you. I took the things that you value—streets of gold, walls of jasper, gates of gold—those are just symbols of greater glory, greater things, things that eye cannot see nor ear hear nor heart conceive of. What is heaven going to be like? Heaven, friend, is a place of absolute perfection.

THE BRIDE WAS PREPARING HERSELF

Now when the groom went away do you know what the bride was busy doing

We prepare our-self in different ways. We are being sanctified through the Lord.

And I want you to know if the current trend against Christians continues there may

English Standard Version Chapter 4

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.

The MIDNIGHT CRY AND THE RETURN OF THE GROOM

Although the bethrothal time was close to a year, the bride did not know when the Groom would return.

She didn’t know exactly when he would return, He could return earlier. It was the Father of the Groom that gave the Final Approval for when the Son would return for his Bride

Matthew 24:36 ESV

36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

And for that reason theBride kept her oil lamps ready. Just in case he came in the middle of the night. In scripture oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. He is the power of light in the believers life. No matter how dark things get you and I are to keep our lamps full with the Holy Spirit. Walking in the truth

Now heres the thing that so beautiful about the message of Christ and Jewish weddings. That once the Groom made all of his preparations. He would return unexpectedly. Sometimes he would return for his bride in the diddle of the day or it would hapeen in the middle of the Night. But once he came the Wedding then proceeded

THE SHOFUR (SHOFAR)

. The Groom was hear for his bride! When the Groom returned rather in the middle of the day or in the middle of the night the signal of his return was the sound of a trumpet called a shofar!! And when that trumpet blew the wait was over

1 Thessalonians 4:16 ESV

16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

When that trumpet blows there will be the bride taken up into the air to meet the Lord. hes not coming from the woods he is coming from Heaven. And very soon I believe the Father is going to look over at the Son and say Son its time go and get your bride!!

John 14:6–7 ESV

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”