When we talk about the church, we usually mean a building where we assemble to sing and hear the Word of God preached. We may have our name written on the roll as a member of that group and become busy in all its activities. But the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is much more than that.
The
Church is the Bride of Christ. That is its position or status. It is not
relegated to one group of people, one place, or at one point in time. The
Church is made up of those who are one with Christ. It represents the kingdom
of God on earth by the same Spirit that Jesus had when He was here. It has the
same power, wisdom and abilities. It is made up of those who have repented and
turned away from sin to do the will of God and to walk in His Spirit. They have
been washed in the blood of Jesus for forgiveness of their sins and never look
back. Jesus loves His Church so much that He gave His life for it.
Ephesians
5:25-27 says, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the
church,” How did Jesus love the church? He “gave himself for it; that he might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.”
Even
after all Jesus did for us, most people couldn’t comprehend it, so they never
found their true place in the kingdom of God. They had no clue Who Jesus was or
why He came because they refused His Light. Did that stop Jesus from His
mission? Absolutely not!
It’s like the
proverbial “rags to riches” stories. We have all heard the fairy tales of a
girl who was poor and had evil influences that held her back from becoming all
she was meant to be.
But one day a prince takes notice of
her. He falls in love and marries her. Suddenly she is a princess and becomes
all she had ever dreamed of being because the prince did everything needed to
make her royalty. He made her his own.
Jesus
did all that for us before any of those tales were ever written. His story is
true and powerful, not a fairy tale. We were born poor and destitute, with a
sin nature that oppressed us and we could not overcome it, yet Jesus loved us
and did all that was necessary to make us into who we were meant to be from the
beginning. We were made to be His bride. We were made to be royalty, ruling and
reigning with Him.
Even now many
will not receive His offer to become part of His Bride. They will not say “I
do” and come into a covenant relationship with Him. Yet there are numerous others
that have entered that covenant and become part of His Bride. They span the
annals of time, place and circumstance. They are the ones who will rule and
reign with Jesus Christ throughout eternity.
Although many rejected Him, He knew many
would become one with Him…part of His Bride!
So,
Jesus loves us and gave Himself for us. He sanctifies and cleanses us by the
water of the Word. WHY? “ that he might present it to himself a glorious
church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be
holy and without blemish."
Jesus
is not returning to claim a bride that is dirty, unfit and unprepared. There is
no excuse for His church to be unprepared, because He has done everything to cleanse
His Church and make it pure. But it is up to each individual to lay aside
anything that will make us unfit to be one with Him.
Isaiah 61:10 says, “I will greatly rejoice in
the Lord, My soul shall be joyful in my God;
For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with
the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as
a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
Then in Isaiah 62:5 it says,
“And as the bridegroom rejoices over
the bride, So shall your God rejoice over you.”
Jesus
rejoices over His Bride! And we are to rejoice in Him. After all, He died to
cleanse us and make us holy so we can be one with Him. He is returning for His
Bride at an undesignated time, so we always need to be ready, always doing the
work of His kingdom.
Revelation
19:7-8 reveals this about the marriage supper. "Let us be glad and
rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his
wife hath made herself ready. And to her
was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the
fine linen is the righteousness of saints." Jesus provides the robe of righteousness, but
we have to put it on and wear it. We have to allow Him to change us to be part
of His Bride.
Brides
look forward to their wedding day. They make sure they are ready, dressed just
right, hair done, everything perfect. But they don’t wait until that day to
start preparing. They plan and prepare for a long time so they will be ready
when the day comes.
If
we want to be part of the Bride of Christ, we will prepare ourselves. Remember
the foolish virgins in Matthew 25? Ten
bridesmaids had been waiting, but only five were prepared with extra oil when
the time came. When the time was announced, “the foolish said
to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying,
‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to
those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were
ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.”
They
had missed their opportunity to go in because they were not prepared. They ran
out of oil. Oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. We need to constantly be filled
with the Spirit, always following the leading of the Holy Spirit, and always prepared
for the coming of Jesus.
There
is another time mentioned in the Bible about God shutting a door. It was after
Noah had preached repentance to a very unrepentant crowd. He told them of the
impending flood, but they refused to prepare. Once the last sermon was preached
by Noah and, as we would say it, the last altar call given, the door was shut, and
no one could go in. They were left to die in the flood they had been warned
about. They had chosen not to prepare.
Preparing
is being separated from this world and the contamination of sin. It also
involves connecting ourselves to Christ, His righteousness and His kingdom. If
we truly want to become holy, we will separate ourselves to Christ and from the
world, just like the vow made in our wedding ceremonies to forsake all others.
We must be faithful to Jesus in that same way, giving ourselves completely to
Him. Flirting with the world is unfaithfulness and is not acceptable. It will
turn our attention from Jesus and cause our oil to run out. Satan wants to woo
us away from our loyalties to the Groom. He is sly, and we need to be aware of
his devices and remember, we do not have to surrender to Satan’s attacks. We
have the power of the Holy Spirit to live a very different life, a life at one
with Jesus Christ.
Jesus has
something ahead for His Bride, and now is the time to prepare. Now is the time
to sacrifice our worldly desires for the things of God's Spirit and for eternal
accomplishments as we work alongside Him. We can be genuinely in love with
Jesus and full of His Spirit, then our worship comes alive, and our works bear
fruit. It happens when we choose to forsake all others and become truly one
with Him. It involves our own interests decreasing and the interests of God
becoming our sole focus.
God has called
the Church, His Bride, to work side by side with Him. Every born again believer
who has forsaken this world and become one with Jesus from every era and every
place on earth is part of his Church where He chooses to dwell. Can you just
imagine that day when all of us who have prepared will be in heaven together
with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Peter, Paul and all the others? You don’t want to
miss it! Those who are not One with Him will be left out. But we can begin now to
prepare ourselves.
Psalm 139:23-24 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try
me, and know my thoughts: And
see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
That prayer
can be a powerful tool to help us stay clean and pure in this world if we pray
it sincerely and follow what the Lord speaks to us in answer to it. If He shows
us something that has caused us to be tainted by this world, we can confess it
and allow Him to set us free from it. We need to consistently give ourselves a
spiritual check-up and allow Jesus to show us our faults. Then He can help us
correct them so we can draw closer to Him.
"And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." (Revelation 21:2)
Be prepared.
Don’t be caught off-guard when
Jesus comes to claim His Bride.
