But this is a day of celebrating marriage, marriages.
How many of you know when you go to a wedding,
it reminds you of your first love? It reminds
you maybe of your own wedding. And so today I
was just, I kind of freaked Cole out a little
bit. I think when he walked in thinking this
was Marissa's gown. No, Marissa's taste is quite
different. This is a Goodwill special. You'll
be seeing what we do with that later. But today,
the verse as we were preparing for this weekend,
the verse out of Revelation 19, blessed are those
who are invited to the wedding supper of the
Lamb. Aren't you glad you are invited to the
wedding supper? Have you ever known somebody
and known they're getting married and no invite
showed up in your mailbox? Or nowadays it's text.
You know you didn't get a text or an email. And
you're like, I feel a little left out. The good
news today is that we all are invited to the
wedding supper of the Lamb. And we're going to
kind of work backwards from that. Because we
are heading toward this marriage supper of the
lamb. Now, this might be, and I feel for guys,
I feel like guys, this is a little harder. Women,
it's easy for us to identify as the bride of
Christ, right? Some of us that have been married,
we've been a bride. And the word talks about
us being the bride. Jesus is our bridegroom.
And one day we will be with him. Guys, you just
got to get on board with this. that you are the
bride of Christ. And I think of David, King David,
because King David was like the elite warrior,
wasn't he? He was the top of all of the warriors
of the soldiers. And yet the other side of David
was that he was a worshiper and a lover of God.
And he wasn't afraid of that intimate nature
of his relationship with God. So this morning,
we're going to walk through. See, Jesus was a
Jewish man. And so when we read in the Gospels,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we are reading
into their Jewish culture, that Jewish context.
So when we see how Jesus, he was born and the
goal, right, was crucifixion and resurrection.
But when we look at this overall life, we're
looking at it as a Jewish man. So many of the
things that Jesus did has so much significance
when we recognize what his end goal was and when
we recognize... what the ancient traditions of
the Jewish marriage ceremony was. And so I want
to encourage us today as we walk through this.
There were four parts, four main parts of a Jewish
wedding ceremony. And we're going to walk quickly
through those four parts. And we're going to
see it spiritually mirrored in the life of Christ
and what he did for us in this invitation. And
so the first part of the Jewish wedding was the
betrothal. It was the proposal. Now, if you have
not heard of the proposal, see, my husband, I
don't know what he knew about me when we were
getting engaged. But he took me for our engagement
for his proposal. Do you think it was some nice,
fancy place? I'll tell you, it was the nicest
drive -in hot dog stand you could find in Peoria.
And then he took me to a park where he carried
a duffel bag. I'm like, what's up with this duffel
bag? Well, it contained the ring. I look now
on Facebook at all of the proposals. I'm like,
man, it's another day here. Men have to really
like plan out a proposal. What fascinates me
is that they now have to do a dry run for prom
dates. I mean, a prom date ask is like a little
proposal to me. bringing cute cupcakes. I don't
know what they're all doing, but I see all the
mamas posting of these proposals for prom. I'm
like, these guys are just having their dry run
for the real deal. They're going to know what
to do when it comes time to marry somebody. We
didn't have media, online media, when we got
proposed. There was no posting pictures of our
of our proposal. In fact, years later, when Jeremy,
our oldest, was a teenager, I said, Jeremy, because
they were going to tear down Lou's drive -in.
That's what it was, Lou's drive -in. And I said,
I want you to come and I want you to get a picture
of the sign of Lou's drive -in before they tear
it down. And so I have that nicely framed in
our bedroom for him, Lou's drive -in. So proposals
today are a big deal, and everybody sees them.
The proposals in the ancient Jewish tradition,
there's no difference. The groom -to -be would
travel to the wife's family, and when he arrives
at the family home, he begins to negotiate the
bridal price. He's got to pay a price. For this
bride. And so negotiations begin. Once that negotiation
has been accepted. And the bridal price has been
settled. Then he takes the cup of wine. And he
drinks of it. And then he offers her the cup.
And if she says yes. She takes the cup. And she
drinks of it. If she does not drink the cup,
he's out of luck. She said no. So the cup is
the significant question. It's the ask. I'm giving
you this cup. Will you drink of it? Will you
become mine? Will you become my bride? I think
this is such a powerful mirror of Jesus. Jesus
at the last supper, he took the cup and he gave
thanks and he offered it to the disciples to
drink of. Take this cup. Will you drink of it?
Will you become mine? Will you say yes to me?
And you know that he himself drank the cup first.
As he's in the garden, he leaves that place and
he heads out. And his next stop is the Garden
of Gethsemane, where he's in anguish because
he knows he's going to have to go to the cross.
And what does he pray? Father, if it's your will,
let this cup pass from me. Not my will, though,
be done, but yours. Before he ever gives us this
cup to drink, he drinks it of himself. And then
he says here, as often as you drink of it, remember
me. So just as that bride had a choice, yes,
I'm going to take the cup. Jesus is standing
and he's offering it to each of us. Will you
drink of my cup? Will you say yes to me? Will
you be my own? What's interesting here is that
before they enter into the ceremony of becoming
betrothed together, the bride and the groom will
enter into the mikvah. the baptism waters. So
before they come to this ceremony of the cup,
they walk into the waters of betrothal baptism,
a sign of a new life, a new season. And I was
thinking, wow, Jesus, the life that Jesus lived
was just so amazing because before he even came
to the place of offering the cup, what did he
first do? He entered in to the waters of baptism.
Remember, John the Baptist said, Jesus, no, I'm
not going to baptize you. You need to baptize
me. And Jesus said, no, John, you're going to
do this. This has to be done to fulfill righteousness.
I have to be baptized, John. Jesus knew I'm entering
into something. I'm entering into a betrothal
with my bride, and I have to first walk through
the waters of baptism. When I was doing marriage
counseling with Cole and Marissa, some of our
topics, because we talk about having a Christ
-centered marriage. And in order to have a Christ
-centered marriage, what has to happen? I have
to be Christ -centered, and my spouse has to
be Christ -centered, right? Otherwise, it's lopsided.
It's not Christ -centered. So we were talking
about this, and you remember just a few weeks
ago, what did Marissa do? She entered into the
waters of baptism. And we purposefully scheduled
that Sunday. We were talking about you, Marissa.
We're talking about the waters of baptism. We
purposefully scheduled that because before coming
to marriage, she wanted to enter into the waters
of baptism, just like Jesus. Praise the Lord.
And so here in the betrothal ceremony, we have
the waters of baptism and we have the exchange
of the cup. And then we move into the second
stage now of this. And that is the separation
and the preparation. So from this point of drinking
the cup, the man leaves and goes back to his
father's home. And she there in her father's
home begins to prepare for her wedding, to prepare
for her marriage. For a year, around a year.
They are in this separation state. Darren and
I had this because I was a junior in high school
when we became engaged the summer before my senior
year. That's what my mother said, and then she
ran out of the room crying. Darren was left sitting
with my dad all by himself. She loved Darren.
She just didn't think that it was going to happen
that soon, right after I graduated. It was a
lot. You and her are a lot alike, Kathy. So for
that year, I was engaged, and Darren headed to
Missouri for a year of Bible college, and we
have said that was a good thing, right? It was
good for us to be separated for that year. When
you're wanting to live in God's ways, right,
then some healthy boundaries can be good. And
so he spent that year writing me letters, and
I was back at home trying to graduate and prepare
for a wedding. In John chapter 14. Jesus says
this, my father's house has many rooms. If that
were not so, would I have told you that I am
going there to prepare a place for you? And if
I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
back and I will bring you back with me where
I am. You know the way to the place where I am
going. Well, Thomas. And you know, you got to
love Thomas. Thomas likes details. And Thomas
said, Jesus, what are you talking about? What
do you mean you know the way? I need to be sure
that I know the way. Could you just clarify the
way? And of course, Jesus says, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
Father but through me. So here we have mirroring
Jesus. He's saying, listen, I'm here with you
now, but I am leaving. I am going away to my
father's house. I'm offering you the cup. And
so I want you to drink it and say yes, but then
I'm going to go away to the father's house and
I'm going to prepare for you. And this is the
season we are living in, the season of separation.
The season where we're waiting for Jesus to come
back for his bride to take home. And what's interesting
here is that it's not the groom who decides if
it's time to go for the bride. I doubt he would
have lasted a year were it up to him. It was
up to the father of the groom. The father of
the groom would decide and say, okay, son, it's
time. Go get your bride. Do you know that Jesus
himself said, I don't even know. I don't even
know the times. Jesus himself. is preparing a
place for us. And he's just waiting, just like
we're waiting. And we're all waiting and longing
for the Father to look at the Son and say, Jesus,
go get the bride. Go get the bride. It's time.
Go get the bride. And I guarantee you, Jesus
won't be wasting any time. He's coming for his
bride. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. We should
have hearts longing for this moment in which
Jesus comes for us. Matthew 24, it says this,
that no one knows, only the Father. Right? We
just said that. Therefore, because we don't know,
keep watch. Because you do not know on what day
your Lord will come. So you must be ready. Because
the son of man will come at an hour in which
you do not expect him. We didn't know. They didn't
know. The bride didn't know. She just had to
be ready. She just had to be looking for when
the bridegroom would show up to get her and take
her back to the father. There is a readiness.
that we have to walk in. There is a watchfulness
that as the bride of Christ, we have our eyes.
Where? Is he coming? Is it today? My eyes are
lifted to the sky. Is he coming? Is he coming?
The separation is a hard place. It can feel long,
and we're going to see that in a minute. But
there does come, eventually, the third part,
which is the return for the bride. And so the
groom, it is unannounced, and it is usually at
night. It's usually at nighttime that he is showing
up for the bride. His coming would be preceded
by shouts. As he walked toward her home, there
would be around him. the friends of the groom,
and they would be calling out that the bridegroom
was coming. And her bridal party, carrying lanterns,
their lamps, would hear that call, and they would
go out with their lamps to meet him and light
the way to the bride. Beautiful. In this we see...
where Christ returns for the church. And we see
this in Matthew 25. We see the warning of this
in Matthew 25, the parable that Jesus tells.
At that time, the kingdom of heaven will be like
ten virgins who took their lamps and went out
to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish,
and five were wise. The foolish ones took their
lamps, but did not take any oil with them. The
wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with
their lamps. I'm glad to know I have a grandson
who's wise. Our grandson is going to be nine
in July, and in a week, Darren and the girls
are taking him on his first Boundary Water camping
trip. And so Edmund is a planner, and he's been
walking through with Alexandra. Continually he
calls and gets on video call to show his stuff,
to show his supplies. And a big conversation
is, do we have enough fuel? I have, how many
cans do you have? I've got this many cans. And
Alexandra's like, no, no, we don't need all that.
We've got some. Well, just in case, should I
bring this can of fuel? Listen, this is the heart
of the wise virgin. I need to make sure I've
got backup fuel. I don't want to run out just
as the bridegroom is approaching. The bridegroom,
though, was a long time in coming, and they all
became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight, the
cry rang out, here's the bridegroom, come out
to meet him. All the virgins woke up and trimmed
their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise,
give us some of your oil, our lamps are going
out. No, they replied, there may not be enough
for both us and you. Instead, go to those who
sell oil and buy some. But while they were on
their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived.
The virgins who were ready went with them to
the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. Later,
the others also came. Lord, Lord, open the door.
But he said, truly I tell you, I don't know you.
Listen, these virgins, this wedding party, they
lost sight of what they were doing. They lost
sight of their purpose. They lost sight of their
mission, which was to be watching for the bridegroom
ready to attend. They lost sight. This oil is
so important because we're living in this place,
aren't we? We're living in this separation place.
And we have to be people that carry oil. Throughout
the Bible, we see oil representing the Holy Spirit.
And when Jesus left and was ascended into heaven,
he said, now go wait for what? The Holy Spirit
to be poured out. I'm leaving you, but listen,
I'm leaving you with fuel. I'm leaving you with
the power of the Holy Spirit. All through scripture,
we see oil, and Holy Spirit. We see anointing
for service. We see empowerment being set apart.
In fact, even in Acts 10, God anointed Jesus
of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. Always
the anointing. How were they anointed in the
Old Testament? With oil. With oil. And so in
Romans 13, it says, do this, understanding the
present time. The hour has come for you to wake
up from your slumber because our salvation is
nearer now than when we first believed. The night
is nearly over. The day is almost here. So let's
put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the
armor of light. Every generation has longed and
looked for the return of Christ. Listen. We're
one generation closer. The next generation is
going to say we're one generation closer. We're
nearer now than we ever have been before. We've
got to be filled with the oil of the Holy Spirit.
We've got to be overflowing. The virgins obviously
have been using their oil. They have been burning
it, waiting for him to come. The problem was
they weren't refilling. They weren't getting
filled up again with the oil of the Holy Spirit.
And so we are the light of the world. And that
light is not fueled by me. It's not fueled by
us. What is it fueled by? The Holy Spirit. who
was given to us to be a testimony, to share the
gospel of Jesus Christ. We've got to be filled
up as we're awaiting our bridegroom with the
oil of the Holy Spirit. Come, Lord Jesus, come.
Come, Lord Jesus, come. And then finally, the
fourth portion of this wedding. is the wedding
feast, the glorious wedding feast. The bridegroom
has announced his arrival. They have gone to
meet him, and now he is taking back with him
to his father's house his bride. Now here's the,
here's now, I know we got, I think most of our
kids left. I'm going to be very careful in how
I say this, but here's what happens when the
bridegroom takes the bride back. There's a little
room for them that they go to to become husband
and wife, where they culminate the wedding, where
they become one as husband and wife. It's the
first thing they do. Everybody is outside waiting.
I know. How would you like that? I tell you,
it was a little weird when my son got married
and the next morning we all had breakfast together
and they joined us. I don't know, you feel like
you need a little distance from that. No, they
were all waiting outside for the deed to be done
when they came out. Some of you are turning red
in the face. After that followed a seven -day
feast. They had a great big party. Great big
party. This is what we're looking for in the
marriage supper of the Lamb. Now listen, I'm
not being weird about our relationship with Jesus.
When we talk about the bridegroom and the bride,
it is not weird in that human sense. As we have
already partaken of the body of Christ, We're
going to take communion in a few moments. And
we're going to partake of the body of Christ.
And the heart of Jesus was that as I am one with
the Father, I pray that also these children,
these sons and daughters of God would be one
with us. It is becoming one in spirit with Jesus.
It is coming and being united in the Father's
household with him again. So let's not get weird
about that. But what he's really referring to
is a union, a oneness. Just as the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit are one in the Trinity. The fulfillment
will happen when he brings us home. And so we
see this mirrored in Revelation 19. And in this
passage down in verse 7, it says, let us rejoice
and be glad. You got nothing to be glad and rejoice
about in life. Here you go. Let us rejoice and
be glad and give him glory for the wedding of
the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself
ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given
her to wear. Fine linen stands for the righteous
acts of God's holy people. Then the angel said
to me, write this. Blessed are those who are
invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb. The
wedding of the Lamb has come and the bride has
made herself ready. This is our end goal. This
is the prize. The prize of Jesus is why we run
our race. The prize of Jesus. is why we endure
hardship. The prize of Jesus is why when things
are going all wrong, we don't give up faith.
Because ultimately our goal is not to find victory
here on this earth, but to find victory and oneness
with him at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
And so we keep our eyes on the prize, who is
Christ Jesus. This is going to be a joyous celebration,
and I can't wait for it. Back when Jesus first
offered the cup, he offered the cup and he said,
now you take it and drink of it. You know what
he said following that? He said, I will not drink
from the fruit of this vine again until that
day that I drink with you in the new heavens.
He's saying, I'm looking. I'm looking forward
to that day when you are with me in heaven and
we will drink of this cup again. in person together.
It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be
beautiful. But my question today is this. What
kind of fiancé are you going to be? What kind
of fiancé am I going to be in this time of separation
as we are anticipating the marriage supper of
the Lamb? It's said there in that passage, the
bride has made herself ready. We are in partnership
with Holy Spirit of preparing our hearts, our
lives for the marriage supper of the Lamb. The
five virgins who were foolish had a problem.
The bridegroom was a long time in coming and
they became drowsy and they fell asleep. They
lost their sense of expectancy. They lost their
sense of anticipation. This is why Darren and
I tell new couples all the time, we were giving
his brother and his wife a hard time because
she's not coming to family reunion this week
because he can't come. And we're like, hey, separation
is good for you. It's good sometimes to be apart
because you remember again the anticipation of
being together that you had at the beginning.
Those five virgins lost their anticipation. They
lost their expectancy. And you know what happens
when we get drowsy and sleepy? We no longer live
in a prepared state. We're no longer preparing
ourselves. We grow complacent and indifferent
when we grow sleepy and drowsy. You say, yeah,
I've heard it for four decades. Jesus is coming
again. I haven't seen him come yet, though. We
can't grow weary. Can't lose heart. We have to
stay in anticipation. When we grow sleepy and
drowsy, we no longer take care of our garments,
our wedding garments, our fine linen, our bright
and clean clothes. We no longer take care of
them. In the book of Ephesians, it says that
Jesus is going to present. to himself a radiant
church without stain, without wrinkle, or any
other blemish, but holy and blameless. Listen,
no bride. In fact, I saw your dress kind of laying
on the couch, and I thought, oh man, maybe we
need to hang it up. Right? It kind of worried
me a little bit. Why? Because there's a protectiveness
over our wedding linen. Our wedding clothes.
But when we grow drowsy, when we begin to get
sleepy, suddenly we begin to let things creep
in. Suddenly we begin to engage in activities
that stain us. There's no way I would wear my
dress out to do certain things. It's set apart.
But suddenly, when we're sleepy and drowsy and
we lose our sense that he is about to return,
we lose the sense of the imminent return of Christ.
Suddenly, we begin to turn our gaze onto something
that we shouldn't turn our gaze onto. I know,
don't you just feel like I've defiled something?
Suddenly, we're listening, we're allowing music
that is not elevating us. but music that is marring
us. We find ourselves entertaining in our minds
and in our thoughts and in our heart. Negative
thinking toward other people. Unforgiveness to
other people. Judgments on other people. I think
that one of the tools that the enemy most uses
is not some horrific sin that we would never
think of, but it's busyness. Oh, yeah. If he
can keep us busy, he can keep us out of the affections
of Jesus. Suddenly, we begin to entertain other
idols. Anything that would steal our affection
for God. Anything that we would put above our
commitment to God. Our affections begin to move
to others. Suddenly, you can name it for yourself.
What yours is. This is not the bride. That Jesus
is calling for. This is not the bride to be presented
at the wedding supper of the lamb. We have to
be busy about preparing and guarding our lives.
That when the call comes, that when the trumpet
sounds and we see our bridegroom approaching,
we're not saying, oh, wait a minute, I've got
to get ready. No, we're ready. Come look. Lord
Jesus, come. It needs to be our daily cry. Come,
Lord Jesus, come. Because if it's our daily cry,
I guarantee you're living prepared. You're living
prepared. I'm going to ask if the worship team
would come. In a moment, we're going to partake
of the communion table. And listen. This is not
just about an outward appearance. Religion is
about outward looking good on the outside and
going home and treating your family poorly. This
is not that. This here represents the inner life.
The inner life in Christ. This represents the
relationship with Christ. This isn't, we're going
to be singing this in a moment. This really is
not about us living perfect. Sometimes you're
going to just by engaging in life, you're going
to find a little bit. You're just doing life.
And as you're doing life, you know what? Oh,
you got something on that. This is not about
perfection. When this happens, we just have to
come back to the table of the Lord and drink
of the cup and he cleanses us and washes us.
That is part of the preparing for the return
of the bridegroom, being washed by the bridegroom.
This is about a state of the heart. And this
is why we can identify with King David so much,
who God said, he's got a heart after me. And
yet we find him committing adultery. We find
him murdering. When the prophet comes and confronts
him in that moment, he says, that's me. I repent.
And he walks through a season of repentance and
then God restores him. And he goes on. He leaves
his place of repentance and he goes into the
sanctuary and begins to worship. And he writes
Psalm 51, wash me and I will be whiter than snow.
If I had a big old tide stick, I'd just take
it right all over there. This morning, you're
going to be offered the cup. And in this house,
we practice open communion. You do not have to
be a regular attender or member here. You are
welcome to partake in communion if you have said
yes to Jesus, if you have decided to follow Jesus.
And so in a moment, we're going to be giving
you the bread and the cup. And as you take the
cup this morning, you have a choice. And maybe
you have never made the choice to receive the
sacrifice of Jesus. Maybe you've never made the
choice to be a follower of Jesus. You are welcome.
It's very simple. You take the cup and you say,
yes. Yes, Jesus. I am yours and you are mine.
Yes. And maybe you have already been a follower
of Jesus. And you're saying, you know what, though?
I've gotten a little bit of a stain. I've been
maybe doing some things that aren't preparing
me for the return of the bridegroom. Here's your
good news. You partake of the cup and the bread,
and with sincerity of heart, you say, wash me,
Jesus, and I will be clean. I will be whiter
than snow. And so as we partake of this today,
whichever place you are in, as you take of the
communion, you're simply saying yes. You're simply
renewing. You're renewing first love. You're
renewing your bridal place and your bridal commitment.
And you're fixing your eyes on the return of
the bridegroom. Amen. And so I'm going to invite
our ushers to come. And as they come, they're
going to offer you communion. And let's just
as they do for a few moments, we're just going
to worship as they distribute this morning.