Let’s pray.
Father, we thank You. We thank You for Your faithfulness. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your voice today, and You are speaking to us, Lord.
I ask, Lord, that You would speak. Lord, give us ears to hear what You are saying; give us eyes to see, Lord, what You want us to see. Lord, give us a heart that we might walk together with You in fellowship, that our joy might be full in You.
Lord, I pray, Father, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
I do not think it is by chance this morning that even Jack was opening, really talking about the bride and the groom. A while back, when I shared some for an opening, I was asked if I might share a little bit more.
Then Jack was asking about a title. What I was thinking about the other day was anticipating the Lord’s return.
I will read first out of Mark 13, starting in verse 28.
Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near.
Even so, you too, when you see these things happening, recognize that He is near, right at the door.
Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.
Take heed; keep on the alert, for you do not know when the appointed time will come.It is like a man away on a journey who, upon leaving his house, puts his slaves in charge, assigning to each one his task, and also commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert.
Therefore, be on the alert, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—whether in the evening, at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning—in case He should come suddenly and find you asleep.
What I say to you I say to all: Be on the alert.
There was a recent poll taken of Christians, speaking of the rapture. It said approximately 36 percent believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, about 18 percent in a post-tribulation rapture, and there were some other categories.
But one alarming fact was that 25 percent no longer even believe in a rapture.
That is believed, in large part probably, because many churches do not even preach or teach anything about prophecy anymore. It is too controversial, so they leave it out. But without prophecy, without the prophecies, what do we have left? The whole thing falls apart.
Jesus spoke 2,000 years before it happened that Israel became a nation again.
But do we recognize the times where we are living, or do we just see it as the day we are living in, not recognizing the prophecies that have been fulfilled?
Jesus spoke many things beforehand. Why? So that when they come to pass, we might believe. We have more fulfilled prophecies than any generation in history.
Yet it seems like we are being encouraged by the world to doubt. We are laying aside those prophecies.
We, as Americans, so often have neglected the Word, even to read the Word. So how would we even know what the Word says, what the prophecies are, what the promises are, unless we read His Word?
I would like to encourage more of you to read the Word more, and probably less of the news. I think we would have more hope.
The news will try to pull us down and weigh us down, and it will if we do not stay in the Word and remind ourselves of what He said—of what He said must happen. Then we will not be caught unaware. We will not be caught asleep and weighed down.
Many of us know that in 1948 Israel became a nation again. That, in itself, is a miracle that we should see as Christians and not forget.
I mean, that did not happen by the will of man. Israel does not even exist by the will of man. Israel is a tiny, insignificant country in and of itself, and yet the Lord said He works all things together to the counsel of His will. Who can change God’s will? No one.
But He says, “Watch and pray.”
Some of the things I want to share are about the Galilean wedding. Just to point out, Jesus lived in Galilee. Think about the disciples—all twelve were Galileans. Galilee is just a small part of Israel in and of itself, and yet the majority of what Jesus did was in that region of Galilee.
When He spoke to them in parables and all that, He spoke to them in words they understood from their culture. He spoke to the disciples about being fishers of men. We know that several of them were fishermen. We know Peter, James, and John worked together as fishermen, even as brothers.
Many things that Jesus said, they understood, but in our culture today we may not understand. Some things have been more recently discovered about the Galilean wedding. You have to remember that Israel was basically empty for 2,000 years, so everything did not carry on as it did then.
But we need to know about the Galilean wedding to be able to understand what Jesus meant, and we will see the connection to the rapture and the end times.
In the New Testament, the church is called the bride of Christ and is waiting and yearning for the Bridegroom. In the early church, they were waiting with anticipation for Jesus to come back.
There is a correlation here because of what they knew about the wedding—the Galilean wedding.
First of all, the father would choose the bride for the son. I know in our culture in America that is not common, but in many other cultures—the Indian and Chinese cultures and others—that is very common. That was the way it was then.
As we read even in the Old Testament, we know of Abraham, how he sent his servant to get a bride for his son Isaac.
But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son, Isaac.
Genesis 24:4.
But in the New Testament, it talks about the bride of Christ.
For many are called, but few are chosen.
Matthew 22:14.
One thing remarkable there in the Old Testament is that Rebekah had not seen Isaac.
Then they called Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go.
Genesis 24:57–58.
In the same way, in the New Testament, even though we do not see Jesus:
Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
1 Peter 1:8.
I think of Thomas. He said, “I will not believe unless I touch the nail prints in His hands and His side.” But when he saw Him, he fell down. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who believe who have not seen.” That would be us. We are included in that.
In the first century, betrothals between a young man and woman would usually happen at the city gates, because that is where the elders were. That is where the big announcements were given. For contracts and all that, you needed witnesses, so you would go to the city gate.
This would be a big deal. A betrothal was not a small thing. The betrothal was not a wedding, but it was very binding in and of itself.
They would all rush to the main gate, whether you were invited or not—it did not matter. The bride received a covenant, or proposal. It was a written agreement that was read to everybody so that all would know and there would be no doubt what the agreement was.
It was followed by an exchange of gifts, including a dowry, which could be property, money, or whatever was brought by a bride to her husband at their marriage.
In the Old Testament, the bride price was negotiable. As I said this morning, even about the rich—the rich American man would not make the rich man poor; it would make the poor rich. The amount of the current husband, the groom, would bring her up in status.
The groom had up to seven years’ time to raise the money or property. You remember Jacob. He worked seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days for the love he had for her.
And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.
Genesis 29:20.
Of course, that was after he had been deceived by Laban, tricked, and given Leah, her sister, instead. But it shows the example.
In the New Testament, Jesus has paid that price for the bride at the cross—the ultimate price.
It also reminds me of Genesis, where it talks of Adam. There was no mate for him, and God said it was not good for man to be alone. So He took the rib from Adam’s side and formed Eve.
But I think also, it was not God’s plan for man to fall in the first place. Yet it was His plan to have a bride for His Son.
During that betrothal, after the gifts were exchanged, the groom would offer what was called a cup of joy. It was a glass of wine that he would give to the bride-to-be.
This is only what the Galileans did—not the Jews per se, but the Galileans did. With this cup, it gave the bride-to-be the power to accept or reject.
If she drank from the cup, that was her sign that she accepted the agreement and the betrothal was on. But if she pushed it back, it was off.
Each of us is offered that cup. We either accept the Lord or we reject Him.
After that, the bridegroom would take a sip from the cup. The groom would say, “You are now consecrated to me by the laws of Moses, and I will not drink from this cup again until I drink it with you in my father’s house.”
I am going to turn now to Luke 22, starting with verse 15.
And He said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer:
for I say unto you, I shall not eat it, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
And He received a cup, and when He had given thanks, He said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves:
for I say unto you, I shall not drink from henceforth of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.
And He took bread, and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and gave to them, saying, This is My body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of Me.
And the cup in like manner after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood, even that which is poured out for you.
This part is only recorded in Luke. In verse 15, it is like that cup which He gives the bride, only it was the twelve disciples at that time.
He said, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” I should say verse 17: when He had taken the cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves.”
Then again in verse 20, after the meal, He took another cup, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood,” speaking of what He was going to do on the cross.
There would be no new covenant without what He did. There would be no wedding without that price that was paid.
Think of the rich man. He died for the bride. He did everything for the bride. The bride could not even do anything. He did it all.
The new covenant is our contract, sealed with the blood of Jesus. It states the promises of God to us and our rights as sons, as the bride, the church.
The betrothal was a legal bond between the betrothed. Think of Mary and Joseph. Joseph was thinking about putting Mary away because she was with child, thinking that something had gone wrong. But the angel told him, “Do not be afraid to take Mary, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.”
The only way to end the betrothal was through a divorce. That is how binding it was—much more binding than even our weddings and marriages today, it would seem.
In the New Testament, the church belongs to Christ. Even though we do not live together yet, we belong to Him.
For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:2. That is Paul speaking there.
It was during that betrothal that they were separated. After the betrothal, there was a space of time, which in Jewish culture was normally around a year.
That is a long time, but it gave them time to prepare. The bridegroom had his things to do. He had to build onto the father’s house, and the bride had to get her dress ready, everything ready for the bridesmaids, and all that sort of thing. Everything was done by hand, so it was a big task.
The Galilean bride would receive gifts to remind her of the bridegroom’s love for her during their separation.
In the New Testament, the bride, the church, receives the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:4.
He gave gifts to men. We have that as a down payment, as the gift to remind us while we are waiting for Him.
After the betrothal, they lived apart for about a year while the groom prepared for his bride. The groom went to his father’s house and built onto his father’s house. He built the furniture, the rugs, the lamps, the oil, and all that was needed. The bride was busy with her preparations.
The period of preparation during the ancient Galilean traditions was a long wait. It aligns with another statement that Jesus told His disciples during the Last Supper.
I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
John 14:2–3.
The disciples understood what He meant because they understood the customs of their time. They knew what He meant. He had to go away to His Father’s house to prepare a place, a room.
I think about my neighbor on one side, the Bosnian. They build onto the father’s house, and his whole family lives there together with him. Still, in some cultures, that is a normal thing to do.
From the European culture I am from, it is not so normal. But we need to see things through the eyes of their culture so that we can appreciate what Jesus was saying and grasp what He was saying. Without it, we are kind of disconnected from it. We cannot take full advantage of what He was saying.
The bridegroom did not know the day or the hour the wedding would take place. This was only in the Galilean tradition.
Other Jewish cultures had a day set. They knew when they were going to have the wedding. But the Galileans did not. It was a surprise wedding.
The bride always had to be ready. It may seem crazy, but it was part of the ancient Galilean wedding tradition. No one in the entire town knew when the wedding would take place except one person: the father of the bridegroom.
Only Galilean weddings had these customs. To them, it was a surprise wedding. The father made the announcement of the day and the hour: “Son, go get your bride.”
To us, it seems like a bizarre thing that Jesus would say, “What do You mean, You do not know when the wedding—the day or the hour?” You are the Son. You are the Son of God. Surely You know.
No. Only the Father. Only the Father made that decision. If we understood their culture, we would understand why He said that.
In the ancient Galilean tradition, scholars have found that the hour of the wedding would be in the middle of the night.
This is why they needed oil in their lamps, always lit, and why the bridesmaids were to be dressed and ready. Then the groom would come for his bride in the night.
The conditions of the bride were always to be pure and to sleep in her wedding gown, with her bridesmaids there to help her when the unexpected hour came. They were always to be ready.
Jesus warned His disciples to be ready for His second coming.
Just as the bride, we are not to fall asleep. Now, this is speaking spiritually, because it said it would be like in the days of Noah. They were eating and drinking, giving in marriage, just going on with life as though nothing would ever change.
One of the big things for the bride was to remain pure. If she did not remain pure, the marriage would be off, just as with Joseph and Mary. That looked like what was going to happen there.
In the same way, our Heavenly Father knows the day and the hour when He will tell Jesus, “Go get Your bride, the church.”
Just as the bride of Christ, like the bride in the Galilean wedding, we should not concern ourselves with a date or when our Bridegroom comes for us.
If we have been in the church long enough, we have seen date-setting for when He would return and the failure of those dates—not the failure of the Lord Himself. If we stay in the Word, it says no man knows the time—no one.
So we should not even be asking, because He is not going to tell us anyhow.
Instead, we should focus on preparing for His arrival as they did then, to make sure we are ready to go with Him when He comes.
From that moment on, we will always be with the Lord, just as a bride with her groom. There will be no separation again then.
Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready.
Blessed are they that are bidden to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Revelation 19:7, 9.
The Lord promises that He will return to take His bride. Where He is, we will also be.
This, I believe, is speaking of the rapture. He does not say He will come to be with us; we will come to be with Him in His Father’s house. His Father’s house is not here.
He promises that He will return for His bride, the church that is here on earth, and some will not taste death. He said some would not even taste death when He returns.
But until the bride is reunited with the groom, much has to take place. The bride must prepare for the hour of the coming of the groom. She has all the things to get ready, and then she must be ready.
The groom would go back to his father’s house and prepare the bridal chamber. I will not try to pronounce the Jewish words for what they called it, but it meant building onto the family’s house, preparing a place for his bride to live with him.
In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.
John 14:2.
It says “mansions” there, but I think a better word would be “rooms.” When I think of a mansion in the United States, I think of a building set apart. But we are not going to be set apart from God or the Father; we are going to be joined to Him.
It is like a room built on together, to be with Him forever.
So you have that parallel there again in the Galilean wedding. The groom never knew the day or the time.
But of that day or that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
Mark 13:32.
In the ancient Galilean wedding, the father made the decision of the time. He would wake up the son in the middle of the night and say, “Go get your bride.”
He would blow the trumpet, the shofar, and it would be announced to the whole village. It was not a quiet event. It was loud. It was to wake up the bride, to wake up the town, and those who were ready would come.
The trumpet woke up the bride and the town, but only those prepared would attend the wedding banquet. After a year of waiting and preparing, the bride and groom were finally together, reunited forever.
The bride was then carried in what was called a canopy to the groom’s house, lifted into the air off the ground and escorted back to the father’s place.
I heard that in the Galilean language, they would say she would be flown to the father’s house. She was lifted up off the earth. She did not walk to the house; she was carried there, much like the rapture, carried to the Father’s house.
All she had to do was be ready, in her wedding attire. The bridegroom would not know, and the bride would not know ahead of time, when he was coming.
She waited expectantly, fully prepared with some of her bridesmaids. When she heard the shofar, she would quickly get ready.
We too are waiting for the sound of the trumpet.
When the father gave the okay to the groom, the groom would arise immediately—possibly at midnight—to fetch his bride. It could be at midnight, it could be later, it could be when the rooster crows, but it was at night.
The bride was taken in procession to her new husband’s house.
With the sound of the trumpet and the announcement made in the middle of the night, in the New Testament Jesus will come to rapture us away, meeting us in the clouds and carrying us to our new home.
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.
1 Corinthians 15:52.
Even in Jewish weddings, the wedding celebration was not just for a day. It would go on for a week.
Remember Jesus. It is interesting to think about Jesus there in John 1. John the Baptist said:
Behold, the Lamb of God!
The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned, saw them, and said to them, “What do you seek?”
In verse 40, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of them. He went to his brother Simon and said, “We have found the Christ.”
That was the first day. Then it says the next day He went into Galilee and found Philip, and Jesus said to him, “Follow Me.” Philip was from Bethsaida, the town Andrew and Peter were from. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth.”
Then it goes on in the first verse of John 2:
And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee.
John 2:1.
That is a familiar phrase there: “On the third day.” There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee.
We know they ran out of wine. Mary said to Jesus, “They have run out of wine.” He said, “What is that to us?” He did not say just “Me”; He said, “Us.” Then He said, “My hour has not yet come.”
But then Mary said to the servants, “Whatever He says, do.”
There were containers there for purification, and those containers could hold between twenty and thirty gallons apiece. There were six of them there, and He said, “Fill them up to the brim.”
Think of that. If there were thirty gallons apiece, that is 180 gallons of wine. That is a lot of wine.
Their wedding celebrations were a lot bigger than most of ours today. Some of those from Indian cultures can relate to the longer celebrations and all.
The importance of the wedding in Middle Eastern culture, even today, is one of the most important things that happens. These are big celebrations.
But I think it is interesting that Jesus’ first miracle was at a wedding. That is not by chance. It was in Galilee, so it was a Galilean wedding too.
It also talks about the ten bridesmaids. Why does it talk about having oil in their lamps? Because it would be at night when the bridegroom would come. They were to be prepared with oil in their lamps, kept burning, waiting for the arrival of the groom.
It talks about Matthew 25, the parable of the five wise and the five foolish, the oil representing the Holy Spirit. The oil in the lamps always needed to be filled. They always needed to have enough oil in their lamp.
I know one of the things that may seem odd: when I was in school, in my freshman year, we had to give a speech. That was probably one of the things I dreaded most in English class—giving an oral speech.
But my teacher was a pastor’s wife. I remember, what may seem crazy, that I talked about the seed and the sower.
I was thinking about that. It talks about the seed that was sown on the path, and Jesus says that represents those who hear the Word but do not understand, and the enemy comes and takes it away.
There are those other seeds. First, it talks about some seed that fell on rocky ground. It sprang up quickly. That is those who receive the Word with joy, but it had no depth of root. Therefore, they died and fell away.
Then there were those that fell among the thorns. It talks about the cares of this life choking them out, and there was no fruit.
Notice, it was only in the last part that it says those who heard the Word bore fruit—some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, and some a hundredfold.
To me, I think that is the working of the Holy Spirit in us. We should be bearing fruit, not just waiting.
It is not our work, but it is our work with Him—what He is doing through us. It is not what we choose to do; it is what He chooses to do.
That is the fruit, and that is the joy He talks about in Him—our joy being full in Him. That is His working through us and that bearing fruit through us.
Remember when He went to the fig tree and it did not have any fruit on it? He cursed the tree because there was no fruit. We know the fig tree represented Israel. They rejected Him, and so there was no fruit.
Some of the bridesmaids were found without oil in their lamps, fast asleep, and so they were shut out from the wedding banquet.
The custom was that those who were ready would go into the banquet, and the doors were locked. Nobody would go in, and nobody would go out after that. They were locked in there for days.
That is why it was important, even like Cana at the wedding. Jesus was there, and it says they ran out of wine. That was a big problem. It would be more like a house, more like a compound. They had water, but they could not just go out and get more wine. You had to be ready.
There again, think about that. The church will be lifted up and escorted to the Father’s house in the rapture. All we must do is be pure and ready for the return of our Groom.
All ten bridesmaids got up, but only five had enough oil and were prepared.
The father’s house in the ancient Galilean weddings is where the marriage supper, the banquet, takes place. All who have heard and heeded the call in the darkness of the night will enter.
Many will be left behind, and the door will be shut. They will be shut out of the feast. When the door is locked, there is no getting in.
I want to turn to Luke 21, starting in verse 29.
And He spake to them a parable: Behold the fig tree, and all the trees:
when they now shoot forth, ye see it and know of your own selves that the summer is now nigh.
Even so ye also, when ye see these things coming to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh.
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all things be accomplished.
Heaven and earth shall pass away: but My words shall not pass away.
And John 14, verse 1:
Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God, believe also in Me.
In My Father’s house are many abiding places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
It is my desire that, by thinking about these things, we might be encouraged and that our hope would be increased because of what Jesus has said here—the promises that He has made.
May the cares of this life not bog us down, because if they do, we will not be ready.
If you feel yourself being bogged down by the cares of life, go to the Lord. Get in the Word. Meditate on His promises. Meditate on the things that He said He will do.
He is not a man that He can lie. If He said He is coming again, He is coming again. If He says He is going to prepare a place for you, He is going to prepare a place for you, that where He is, we may be also.
I know this life may seem so permanent. Unfortunately, in this country, we depend so much on the things that we have. We have such an abundant supply of so many things that it is easy just to put our trust in those things, to rely on those things.
But in the days we are living in, all those things could be taken away just in the twinkling of an eye. The financial world could change overnight.
But Jesus says, “Do not fear. I have overcome the world.”
Our hope is not in this life. We are pilgrims in this life. We are passing through. This is not the last stop.
So be encouraged. The Lord is faithful.