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1-9-2022 Weekly Messages

Meditation of the Week: Psalm 91:1-16

Text: John 14:1-3

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:

“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24).

          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:

“   For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16).

         God spoke of taking one of Adam’s ribs and making Eve:

“And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” (Genesis 2:18).

        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:

” Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.” (Revelation 19:9).

         Of those invited to the wedding of Jesus Christ, the psalmist testified:

” All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.

9 Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.

…. The king’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold.

14 She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee.

15 With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king’s palace.” (Psalm 45:8,9,13,14,15).

         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:

“If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:” (2 Timothy 2:12).

“And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” (Romans 8:17).

         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:

” And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,

23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” (Ephesians 1:22-23).

        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:

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” (Titus 2:13).

        Our Lord will lead us to the mansions promised to His disciples. The Apostle John, seeing these mansions, testified:

“Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;

12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:

13 On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.

And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

15 And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.

16 And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.

17 And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.

18 And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.

19 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;

20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.

21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. ” Revelation 21:11-21)

       The Apostle Paul testified that Jesus Christ and the Church of God are one mysterious body:

“For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” (Ephesians 5:31-32).

Amen! Hallelujah!