Sermon Title: Jesus Came to the World to Find a Bride
Hearing what Jesus said to his disciples before he died, it’s like proposing to the bride and getting the marriage promise, then going to many mansions in Heavenly Father’s house to get married. It sounds like you’re saying you’re going to have a wedding in heaven.
It is truly a mysterious word. Natural man who knows only physical engagement or marriage cannot understand at all. But Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, proposes to the sinners of the world, becomes to be engaged, and goes to heaven to have a wedding ceremony with the brides who received the propose. Even a physical engagement is like an engagement when a woman who is to become a bride receives a man who is to marry her, so she is a sinner who cannot dare to stand before God. As long as man accepts Him, He wants him to receive His Spirit, marry and become one flesh. Marriage between a man and Jesus, who is God, is a spiritual union, not a physical one.
God spoke of man marrying and becoming one flesh in the Garden of Eden:
Abraham sent his servant Eliezer to have his only son, Isaac to be married. Finally, when Eliezer went from a long journey to the land of Haran, he met Rebekah while meditating and praying to God, and brought her to Isaac, his master’s son, to be married (Genesis 24:1-67)
God had foreordained Abraham’s only son, Isaac, to marry Rebekah in a foreign land, and when he sent his servant Eliezer, he put his hand on his thigh and made him swear. God, who showed the marriage of Isaac as a type, planned to send his only begotten Son, Jesus, to a distant land to the earth to marry the men God had created.
But seeing the world full of sin, death, and curses because of Satan the devil, he first made his only begotten son Jesus pour out all of his water and blood to remove the fullness of sin, death and curses from the world. If anyone believes in Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, he makes them betrothed to become his bride. The Holy Ghost was given as a token of engagement.
Anyone who accepts the proposal of Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, becomes his fiancée. Jesus Himself spoke the words of his proposal to the world:
After God created all things, he appointed Adam as king to rule over them. What He made Eve as a helper was to make him a helper in Adam’s work.
When Jesus was on earth, when He gave the word to His disciples who had left everything behind and followed Him, by betrothed to the disciples who believed and accepted Him, prepared many mansions in the heavenly Father’s house, and promised that He would come again and let them live with Him. Jesus is spiritually engaged to them. Not only that, but Heavenly Father sent the Holy Ghost in his name to testify of Christ, so that all who have received Christ over the past two thousand years may become his brides. The place in the world where people who are betrothed to Christ are gathered is called the Church of God.
If that is the case, then those who have believed in and accepted Christ must receive the Holy Ghost and testify of Christ. In the words of Jesus before he ascended into heaven, he said that those who received the Holy Ghost should receive power and become witnesses unto Jesus in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8). To be a witness means to testify of Jesus Christ through the Holy Ghost, giving many people the duty to preach Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom, and make them betrothed to Jesus.
If so, the Apostle John testified that there will be a wedding ceremony in heaven during the Great Tribulation where those who have believed in and received Jesus Christ and are betrothed to Him will in the future be married and become brides after He appears and takes them to heaven:
That’s right! The wedding of the Lamb will give invitation unto the saved people from generation to generation . John the Baptist spoke of himself as the bridegroom’s friend and full of joy.
As we meditate on what we should do as the helper of Christ, when He comes down to the earth after the wedding ceremony and establishes the millennial kingdom, He will judge the world with His brides and rule for a thousand years. The Apostle Paul testified of this:
When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesian church members, he testified of what kind of place the church of God, which God made the body of Christ, is and what will be the helpers of Christ for all eternity in the future:
That’s right! After Jesus Christ will reign in His Millennial Kingdom, which He will establish on the earth for a thousand years, He will work with His Bride, Christians, to fill all things for eternity to eternity.
On the day of Christ, when Jesus Christ will soon appear in the air, as promised, He will come from heaven to marry Christians. The Apostle Paul testified that this day is the blessed day of hope: