Waiting for the Wedding

Well, good morning again to all of you. Again, this is a sermon. I've given it the feast in Israel in recent years, also in Gatlinburg this year. But I thought, considering the timing of things and the individual circumstances today, as well as the fact we have several visitors here with us today, and also various comments I've heard and going through our series of sermons on the Gospels, a number of people have mentioned this information to me.

So I thought it would be good to give this sermon. So many of you have heard this before, but in light of what we've been going through in our Gospels classes, I think this would be timely and appropriate to cover this. So how many times in our personal Bible study have we come across things in the Scriptures that seemed a little bit puzzling to us, that we realized there had to be more to the story, but we didn't necessarily know what it was and how the different pieces of it fit together. Where we knew the Bible writer was leaving out some of the details, and it just left us wondering what is really going on there.

I think that's probably happened to all of us at some time or another. And there's a very good reason for that, and that is that the writers of the Bible simply did not see a need to give us all of the details. After all, they were writing for the people of their day, people that they knew, different churches, different individuals in some cases, like the Epistles to Timothy or Titus or Philemon. And I doubt that any of them, the writers of the books of the Bible, imagine that people would be reading their letters or memoirs two thousand years in the future, as we do today. So today I would like to talk about other things about the cultural history of the Bible and how that ties in, and helping us better understand the background to a number of scriptures.

And what's interesting about the things I'm going to talk about today is how they apply to us. I'm going to be reading mostly from some of the words of Jesus Christ, words that he said about us, about our role and about our future, and about one aspect of God's Holy Day plan and our part in us that will be fulfilled when Jesus Christ returns. If you'd like a title for this sermon, you can call it Waiting for the Wedding. Waiting for the Wedding, because that's what we'll be talking about here, about some of Jesus Christ's words, about his role in the bridegroom as the bridegroom, about our role as the bride and about the wedding feast to take place in the coming Kingdom of God.

Let's begin back in Revelation 19 and establish what is going to happen prophetically. Chronologically, this is just after the fall of Babylon the Great and just before Jesus Christ ushers in the Millennium in the Kingdom of God here on earth. Read verses 6-9 of Revelation 19. John writes, and I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigns.

Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be a raid in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And then he said to me, Right, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. So this is talking about us, as the bride of Christ, being a part of this wedding feast at the return of Jesus Christ.

And what kind of lesson should we learn from what the Bible tells us about this coming marriage of Jesus Christ to the church? When we understand the background, the cultural background of that era, we find scattered throughout the Gospels and other passages in the Bible a number of references to this wedding and wedding customs and practices and our role and responsibility as the bride of Christ. So let's first go through a quick rundown of the engagement and wedding practices of biblical times and then we'll see what we find in the Scriptures that gives us a deeper understanding of what that means for us.

In our society today, it basically works something like this. Boy meets girl and boy likes girl and hopefully vice versa. And then boy decides that he would like to marry girl. And boy and girl become engaged for anywhere from several weeks to several years while they prepare for the wedding. And then boy and girl get married and girl's parents spend years paying off the cost of the wedding and girl's parents then tell the next girl in line to elope.

Well, it works something like that, but that's kind of a rather humorous look at it. But that's kind of a quick breakdown of the way things work today. But how did it work 2,000 years ago in biblical times and Judea? Well, for starters, many of the marriages at that time were arranged marriages between the parents. And you do find this going back even 2,000 years earlier, 4,000 years ago, parents arranging for spouses for their children. As in the case of Isaac in Genesis 24, we won't turn there, but Genesis 24 talks about where Abraham sent his servant back to Abraham's homeland to find a wife for his son.

And if you remember the story, the servant found Rebecca when she came out to draw water for the animals and so on. And you still find this type of thing practiced there in that part of the world today. It is rapidly disappearing, but it still happens in some cultures in that part of the world. Now, when another difference there is that when a couple was going to marry, the groom or the groom's family was expected to provide the bride's family with a certain amount of money or wealth.

In a sense, this was to repay the bride's family for what they had invested in bringing her up, in feeding her for all those years, in clothing her, providing for her. So she was now leaving her family to become legally a part of the groom's family. So this payment was to help recompense that family for all they had invested in the girl over those years.

This too is still practiced in some of the Arab cultures in the Middle East.

As a matter of fact, at the feast in Israel back in 1998 when we went there, one Arab offered 50 camels for the privilege of marrying one of the young girls who was along on our feast trip there. That was quite a compliment to her because 50 camels is quite a good fortune in that part of the world. For some reason, she didn't seem to appreciate it, but it was a great compliment to her. There are several examples of this type of payment in the Bible. Probably the most notable, if you think about it in this terms, this is why the background, the cultural understanding is important. But what happened with Jacob? What did Jacob do to marry the woman that he loved? If you remember the story, he worked seven years for his uncle Laban for the privilege of marrying Rachel. And then if you remember the story, he was tricked on his wedding night into marrying Leah instead. And then he had to work another seven years to marry Rachel. He provided seven years of labor for each of his brides. He obviously very much wanted to marry Rachel to pay that high a price.

Another example is the one of Rebecca that we just mentioned there. Going back to Genesis 24, again we won't turn there, but we read that Abraham's servant gave jewelry to Rebecca and gave quote, precious things to Rebecca's mother and brother for her. Normally this would have been given to the father of the bride, but the father isn't mentioned, so apparently he is deceased by that time. And the oldest son Laban had become the patriarch of the family. So the precious things were given from Abraham's servant to Laban instead. There are a few places in the scripture where you'll find the term bride price. Bride price. And this is what this term refers to, is this payment to a woman or the woman's family. And these things were practiced as far back as the time of Abraham 4,000 years ago and are still being practiced to this day. Now in our day, when a couple agrees to be married, the groom proposes typically with a wedding ring or an engagement ring, rather. And when the woman accepts the ring, then they are engaged to be married.

Now in Jesus Christ, there was also a similar, well something similar was done, but with a different symbol. In that day, the proposal involved a cup of wine. The young man would offer the young lady a cup of wine. And if she refused it, she was turning down his marriage proposal.

If she accepted it and drank the cup of wine, then she was accepting the proposal and agreeing to marry him. And the young man would then go and prepare a place for them to live, and they wouldn't see each other again until the wedding. And if you've ever seen the movie, you may see it on TV around this time of year, called The Nativity Story that was done maybe six, seven years ago, something like that. And it actually shows this practice of him offering Joseph in the movie, offering Mary a cup of wine. It doesn't explain what's going on, but if you're familiar with the cultural background, you know that's what's happening. He's officially proposing, and she is accepting there by doing that.

Now, once she had drank of the cup of wine and accepted the marriage proposal, even though they had not officially had a wedding ceremony yet, they were considered to have entered into a binding agreement that would only be broken by divorce.

You may remember again a biblical example, that of Joseph and Mary. What happened?

In that story, they had entered into a binding marriage agreement, but had not had a formal marriage ceremony yet. And then Joseph finds out that Mary is expecting. She's with child.

And Joseph knows that he's not the father. So what does the account tell us? Well, it tells us that Joseph was contemplating whether he would put her away, which is the terminology for divorcing her there, when an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, and told him that the child had been conceived by the Holy Spirit. And he should go ahead and marry Mary, and say that five times real fast, and that they would have the Son, and his name would be Jesus, or God saves, where he would save the people from their sins. So this acceptance of both parties of the marriage agreement was a very serious matter. It was a formal agreement, or covenant, a legal agreement between the two parties, as we see with Joseph and Mary. And again, it could only be broken by an official divorce. It was not something to be taken lightly there. So what happened next, after they formally engaged to become married, formally done this agreement? Well, during this time, between the proposal and the wedding, the groom to be would then return to his father's house, and begin preparing a place for the couple to live. I don't know, well, let's see, at that time, a house or household might become more like a small apartment building. And if you've ever been to Israel and know what you're looking for, you can actually see these in a number of places. Some of you have seen the famous synagogue in Capernaum, where Jesus Christ would have spoken there. And right in front of it is a large house that's about the size of this part of the room here, maybe even bigger. And what would happen during that time is that when a son would get married, he would bring the bride back to live in the father's house or household. And the house would be added on to kind of like an apartment building. They would add new rooms as the sons would bring their daughter in law back to live with him. So these houses could grow to be quite large. You can see him at Capernaum. You can see him at Bethsaida. You can see him at Coraz and all of these towns where where Jesus did his preaching there. They've excavated and find these all over the place there. So what would happen is the son, after the wedding agreement had been made, would return to his father's house and start building on this room, this place where he would live with his bride as part of his father's household. And then when that room was ready, and when the father signed off on that, as kind of the building inspector, you might say, that yes, this is a suitable room. Yes, it's nice. It's sturdy. It's going to provide for them well there. Then the father would give his approval and then the wedding could take place after that.

And the next step is considerably different from the way we do weddings today. Today, typically, a date is set months, sometimes a year or more in advance. But it wasn't done that way then, because once the room was prepared and ready for them to live in, the wedding could take place at any time. And typically, the groom and his groomsmen would come for the bride at night. Most of the weddings took place at night. And there was kind of an elaborate charade played out as though they were going to steal the bride away. I'm not sure the origins of this. I haven't been able to find that. But this is what would happen. They would suddenly show up to kind of steal the bride away and the wedding would take place at that time. And there were, however, a number of warning signs. So the bride would know that this is going to be imminent here. Because, for instance, she and her friends could see where the groom is building the room. So they would have an idea when this room is going to be ready for them. And there was that indication that the time was near. And also when the time drew close, the friends of the groom would go through the streets shouting something like, the groom is coming! Get ready for the wedding! So they would be aware of this. And then the bride and her bridesmaids would be ready to be dressed for the wedding there. And the wedding, again, as we talked about in our Bible class last time, would be a huge celebration that typically lasted about a week. We talked about the miracle of the wine of Jesus Christ turning the water to wine there in Kanaah and how He turned somewhere between 120 and 180 gallons of water to wine. Why so much? Again, because this was a long, week-long celebration, and partway through the week the wine had run out. So Jesus miraculously creates enough wine to keep the celebration going for the remainder of the week there.

And that's how much more wine they would need to keep the guests happy during that time.

So it's interesting also how the Bible, or what the Bible, compares the beginning of the Kingdom of God to. It compares it to a wedding feast, to a huge celebration where people are coming and celebrating like a huge family reunion community celebration there. It's not something that is very sober, very somber, very straight-laced, but the most happy and joyous celebration that the people could relate to in that age and in that culture, which was a huge wedding feast, a wedding celebration. So with that background in mind, let's go back and take a look through the Scriptures and pick up on a few references to the marriage of the Lamb that we might otherwise not understand or miss the point of the lessons that were being given. Let's first understand who was in which role in the Bible passages. Matthew 9 and verse 14. Let's turn over there. Matthew 9 and verse 14. Jesus here clearly says that he is the bridegroom. To give you some of the background, the context of this, John the Baptizer has been put in prison. Some of his followers, John's followers, disciples, are puzzled by the fact that Jesus is eating with tax collectors and other undesirable people like that. And they're obviously quite irritated at Christ's behavior.

Matthew 9 and verse 14. Then the disciples of John came to him, to Jesus Christ, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples, your Talmadim, do not fast?

And Jesus said to them, can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. So essentially, Jesus is saying, to paraphrase, I'm the bridegroom and my friends, my disciples, are celebrating with me. We're enjoying our time together. But the time is coming when I'll be taken away. And then they will fast, like you want them to.

Now it's interesting also, so we see from this, Jesus clearly identifies himself, places himself in the role of the bridegroom. But how did John the Baptizer see his role? That's interesting, too. We find that over in John 3, verses 25 through 29. Let's take a look at that. John 3, 25 through 29. And here we read about an incident that happened sometime before the one that we just read about. And notice here what John says about his role in these events and his relationship to Jesus Christ. Beginning in John 3, verse 25, then there arose a dispute between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purification. And we talked a bit about purification last time in our class. And they came to John the Baptizer and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, referring to Jesus Christ, to whom you have testified, behold, he is baptizing and all are coming to him.

John answered and said, a man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven, or from God, in other words. Heaven, you are a synonym for God. You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, or the Messiah, but I have been sent before him.

He who has the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is fulfilled.

So what's John saying here? He's essentially saying, I'm not the important one here. Jesus Christ is the important one. He is the bridegroom, and I'm just the friend of the bridegroom, and I'm just happy to be here and to hear his voice, to kind of summarize what he's saying here.

We might also think back to what is the role of the friends of the groom in this process of engagement and marriage and the marriage celebration. Well, one of the things they did was to go through the street shouting out, get ready, the bridegroom is coming!

Get ready for the wedding celebration! And what was John's role? John's role was to come and prepare a people for the coming of the bridegroom, Jesus Christ, to prepare a people for that.

So I don't know whether John is deliberately drawing that analogy or not, but I think that may have been exactly the point that he's making. That just as the friends of a bridegroom go through the street shouting to prepare the way for the coming of the groom, that that is what his mission was, given by God, to come and announce that the Messiah is coming and to get ready for his appearance. So to summarize here very quickly what we've established at this point is that Jesus Christ is the bridegroom, refers to himself as that, and that John the Baptizer saw his role as the friend of the bridegroom, announcing the bridegroom's coming. Over in Ephesians 5, verse 32, we won't turn there, but you can write it down, but the Bible here gives instruction about the roles of the husband and wife in marriage. Paul here describes the proper roles and responsibilities of husbands and wives, of how they are to love and to honor and to respect one another.

And then down in verse 32, this is what I want to focus in on, of Ephesians 5, and verse 32, Paul summarizes this instruction to husbands and wives about marriage, and then he says, this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

So what Paul is saying here is that all of this instruction he has given for husbands and wives is really about the relationship of Jesus Christ to his church. And marriage is to help us to learn about that relationship. He says that Christ will present the church to himself as a glorious and perfect bride. And he says that marriage is to help us to understand that deep loving relationship between Jesus Christ and the church, that marriage should help us better understand that, the roles of Jesus Christ in the church compared to husband and wife in marriage.

Now, Paul carries on that analogy in 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 2. Again, you don't need to turn there. I'll just refer to it here. 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 2. But he talks about his role as a minister and some of the criticism that he's been receiving for that. And in defending himself, he says, for I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. I have betrothed you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. So what is Paul saying here? He's saying that he saw his role as a minister of the church as one who is preparing the church as the bride to become the bride of Jesus Christ. And that what he is doing is trying to help purify and refine and perfect the church so it can be a proper bride, a cleansed bride, a chaste, and pure bride as a virgin for her husband, which is Jesus Christ. Now all of these references here are pretty obvious, pretty clear cut. So we have the church as the bride of Christ, we have Christ as the groom, we have John the baptizer as the friend of the groom. So what about some of the references in the Bible to this process of engagement and marriage that may not be so obvious to us?

Well, earlier we talked about the custom of the bride price, that the groom or the family of the groom would pay a price to the bride or the bride's family to be able to marry the bride. How did that apply to Jesus Christ? Did he pay a bride price to marry his bride?

The church. Let's turn over to 1 Corinthians 6 in verse 20. 1 Corinthians 6 in verse 20. And the context is interesting here because Paul is talking about the sins and the temptations that were common there in Corinth. Corinth was kind of... I'd liken it to the San Francisco or the New Orleans of the day. And if you've ever been to those cities, you know what they're like. They have the long time history as port cities. And port cities had a lot of sailors coming in from a long time on the ocean. And you put them together with women and you know what happens. And they were very immoral cities. Corinth was a very licentious city with all kinds of sexual vice, all kinds of perversions going on there.

And in verse 18, leading up to this verse, Paul has to tell the Corinthian members, famous passage, flee sexual immorality. Again, because Corinth is filled with this licentiousness and immorality there. And then in verse 20 is what I want to focus in on right after this with this context. What does Paul say? He says, For you were bought at a price.

Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are gods.

So Paul is telling them, essentially, somebody paid a price for you. So don't go and join your body to some slut or some temple prostitute or something like that. You belong to someone else.

You belong to someone else. Now I've read that this phrase, bought at a price, was used of a woman who was engaged in that culture and that society there. In other words, that after the families had agreed on a bride price, it was to be paid, and the woman was then betrothed to her husband to be, that she was referred to as having been bought at a price. The bride price had been contracted there, and she was bought at a price. And this was, in essence, a synonym for somebody who was engaged to be married. I'm not 100% sure that this is... Paul is using that particular analogy here, but I do think that's likely the case. It's also interesting that in the very next verse, verse 1 of chapter 7, that Paul then begins a discussion on what? A discussion on marriage that runs for the whole next chapter there. So I think it may very well be that what Paul is telling them is, look, you are engaged. You are bought at a price. You are engaged to someone else.

That Jesus Christ gave his life for you so that he could marry you. So how then could you even think of having sexual relationships with some temple prostitute? Don't even let such a thing enter your mind. Don't dishonor God. Don't dishonor your husband to be by doing something like that.

And I think the context of sex and marriage, both before and after that, indicates this is probably the exact point that Paul is making here. However, whether or not that's the case, there is no question that we have, indeed, as members of his church, been bought at a price. Someone paid a very dear price for us. Jacob, as we touched on earlier, worked 14 years of his life to marry Rachel. 14 years. Gave up seven years of working for Laban, only to be fooled, and then had to work another seven years. Gave up 14 years of his life to pay for his bride. But what price did Jesus Christ pay? He paid the ultimate price.

He paid with his life. Not because he had to, but because he wanted to. Because he wanted to spend all of eternity in God's family with you and with me. Peter, over in 1 Peter 1, verse 18, you don't necessarily need to turn there. I'll just read this one verse. But 1 Peter 1, verse 18, says, "...you were redeemed, you were purchased, you were bought back." In other words, excuse me, "...you were not redeemed, you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold, like the coins that I passed around in here last time here, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ." With the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

So again, he paid the ultimate price. He paid with his life. Now, with that background that we've discussed, let's take a closer look at a parable over in Matthew 25. We're all familiar with Matthew 24, which is the Olivet prophecy of the signs of the times and things that would take place leading up to the return of Jesus Christ. And Matthew 25 is actually a continuation of that same discussion with how it applies and what it means for us. So Jesus here talks about the things that happen at the time of the end, and then he gives his followers some very pointed warnings and instructions about that. So Matthew 25 in verse 1, Jesus says, Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them. And I've shown the olive oil lamp here before and how it burns on olive oil. That's what this is talking about here. Because when your oil ran out of your lamp, you needed a separate container to refill the lamp there. So verse 4, But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. So who's the bridegroom? Jesus Christ. Who were the virgins? That's obviously us.

What happens when he doesn't come when they expect him to? As it says here, they all slumbered and slept. Not half slumbered and slept. They all slumbered and slept. The difference is half of them were prepared and half of them were not. Verse 6, And at midnight a cry was heard, Behold, the bridegroom is coming. Remember the groomsmen running through the street, shouting, Get ready for the wedding! The bridegroom is coming! And go out to meet him.

So this would happen again. They would prepare and let the bride and the bridesmaids know that the wedding is coming. That's what is being described here. And who were Jesus' disciples? They're young men. Probably some of them have done this very thing. Here his friends or cousins or relatives got married. Some of them had probably done this very thing that Jesus Christ is talking about here. So they could readily identify with that. Verse 7, continuing with the story, Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. This means part of the wick would burn out. It would be just charred material. You'd have to cut that off, trim it off so that you've got fresh wick there to light and use the lamps. So this is talking about making their lamps ready.

In other words, in that day and culture those little lamps were like the flashlight of the day.

The terrain of Judea is very rocky, hilly. You just don't go out at night without a lot of moonlight or your lamp to show the right way there. There are a lot of other biblical mentions and analogies with that we won't have time to get into. But again, most weddings took place at night. So these women would have needed to have their lamps ready and to have a supply of oil there. Because again, this wedding celebration could go on for a long time. You need to be prepared for that. Verse 8, And the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. And without oil the lamps were of no use to anyone. They wouldn't stay lit. They wouldn't give off light. And this oil is symbolic of what? Symbolic of God's Holy Spirit within us. The lamps didn't produce their own oil. The oil had to come from somewhere else, from an outside source. And in the same way, we need to be relying on God for His Spirit. We need to have that Spirit working within us, giving off light and showing us the right way to live, the right steps, the right path to walk on. So spiritually speaking, we need to keep our lamps ready. That's the point of this parable here. Always working, always using the fuel of God's Spirit that comes only from Him, lest we end up like the five foolish virgins of this parable here.

And continuing with the story in verse 9, But the wise answered, saying, No, we can't give you some of our oil, lest there should not be enough for us and you. But rather go to those who sell oil, and get your own oil. Buy it for yourselves. And while the five foolish virgins went out to buy oil, the bridegroom came.

And those who were ready went in with Him to the wedding, and the door was shut.

Afterward, the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us!

But He answered and said, Assuredly I say to you, I do not know you.

I do not know you.

What a sad end!

They're shut out of the wedding feast, because they're unprepared.

And it's too late. It's too late at that point. Time's up. Game over. Too late to change.

What's the point here for us? In the next verse, He tells us the point. Verse 13, Watch therefore. In this word, watch means to be, pay attention to your spiritual condition. It doesn't mean just watch world events externally, but watch yourself more importantly.

Watch yourself. Make sure of whether you're ready. Are you a good watchman? Are you truly on the alert? Are you watching for your spiritual condition? Like the wise virgins here.

Or are instead, you like the foolish virgins who are not prepared and not ready.

And then He says, For you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

And indeed, we do not know exactly when Jesus Christ the bridegroom is coming.

So He tells us to be ready all the time. He's using the same analogy of the groom and the groom's friends coming suddenly to take the bride and the bridesmaids off to the wedding feast.

That's the analogy He's using taken from the customs and the culture of that day.

Now in this parable, the church is not the bride alone, but it's all 10 of the bridegroom.

And only half of them are properly prepared.

What's the obvious implication there?

Obvious implication is half the church is not going to be prepared.

Half are unprepared, and what happens to them?

The doors are shut, and they're shut out of the wedding feast that happens.

There are all kinds of lessons you could draw from this parable.

But we won't for lack of time, but I would encourage you to read through this.

And the rest of the chapter as well, because again, these are the implications, the lessons of the information of Matthew 24 about the events leading up to Christ's return, what it means for us, what we're supposed to be doing with that information.

Not long after this, Jesus used some other symbolism taken from marriage to leave us another important lesson. And that lesson is found over in Matthew 26 and verse 27.

It's found in something every year that we do at the Passover.

I remember I talked about how the groom proposed to his bride to be in that day, in that culture.

How did he do that? He offered her a cup of wine. And if she took of that cup, if she accepted that cup and drank it, then she was accepting his marriage proposal. He was offering her his life, and she responded by giving her life to him. That's what the cup symbolized. The cup symbolized that this is my life. Will you partake of my life? And by her partaking, she said, yes, I will partake of your life and I will give you my life in return. And notice here what happens in Matthew 26 verse 27 on Christ's last evening with the disciples.

Matthew 26 verse 27. Then Jesus took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, drink from it all of you. During a traditional Passover meal or satyr, there were four different cups of wine that were served over the course of that evening. These represented different things. We don't have time to go into all of that right now. What's taking place here is definitely out of the ordinary because they're having this traditional Passover satyr. When he does something quite different, notice first of all there's only one cup that he passes around to people. Since they were having wine with the Passover meal, that was normal. That was traditional.

Each individual there would have had their own cup. But Jesus takes the one cup and passes it around. This is unusual. They wouldn't have done that among the 13 men there at the table. So there's obviously something unique, something symbolic in what he is doing here. So he passes around one cup, apparently his own cup there, and what does he tell them? He says, drink from it all of you. What's he doing? What's the point? How does it tie in with the background that we've been talking about here? He's essentially telling them, I love you. I want to marry you.

I want to spend the rest of my life with you. And I'm offering you this cup as a symbol of that. Offering you my life. Will you give me your life in return? Let's go on and read what he says. Verse 28, next. For this, this cup of wine, is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission, the forgiveness, the removal of sins. So what's he doing here? A covenant. Again, one of the aspects of a marriage was a formal agreement, a written agreement. In some cases, again, this movie I mentioned earlier, the Nativity story shows that, shows them writing out the marriage covenant there. Does again, doesn't explain it, but if you understand the customs, that's what is going on.

So it was the norm at that time for a groom when he proposed to offer a contract to the bride and her family, spelling out what he was agreeing to do for her.

It spelled out the bride price that he would give for his bride. Jesus is essentially saying, this is the covenant. What is a covenant? It is a legal agreement. This is the contract I am offering you, and I'm signing it in blood, in my own blood. Under this contract, under this new covenant, I'm going to offer my life as a sacrifice for your sins. Through my death, I'm offering you life, eternal life. This is the marriage contract I'm offering. Will you accept it?

This is the bride price I'm willing to pay to marry you. Will you accept it?

Verse 29, continuing, But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on, until that day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom.

As was customary in the customs of that day, it was customary for the bridegroom when the marriage contract was signed, sealed, delivered, accepted, there you might say, agreed to, and the cup of wine had been offered and accepted. What would the groom do then? We talked about it earlier. The groom would go back to his father's household and prepare a place for them to live.

And the groom would typically, I didn't mention this earlier, but the groom would typically not see his bride again until the time of their wedding, because he's busy preparing the place for them to live, to spend the rest of their lives together. So Jesus here, verse 29, says, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. So essentially what he's saying is, I'm going to leave now. I'm going away, but I'll be back. And the next time we share this fruit of the vine, it will be in my father's kingdom at our wedding feast. Now, did the disciples understand the significance of what is going on here? I doubt it. They did not have God's Spirit. They would not receive that until Pentecost, quite a few weeks from here then. They weren't converted. They obviously didn't understand the point about foot washing that night. Because that very night Luke records how they're arguing about who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom there. And I think it's at that point that Jesus does the foot washing to teach him it's not about who's going to be the greatest. It's going to be about who is the greatest servant there. I think that's why he did the foot washing myself. So I doubt they understood the significance of what Jesus Christ is doing here either. I think they're probably just puzzled that this is one of the odd things that Jesus does from from time to time. And they didn't figure it out until much later.

Is this what Jesus meant? This may sound a little far-fetched here because it's not something we're used to hearing here. What was he, in fact, symbolically offering them a marriage proposal? Let's turn over to John 14 and beginning in verse 1.

And this is where John records some additional details about this night.

To give us a little bit of the context, in John chapter 13, he says that he's going to go away and that where he is going they cannot follow him. And then in chapter 14 verse 1 he continues, saying, "'Let not your heart be troubled, don't be upset, don't be disturbed,' in other words. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you." And this to me is one of the most confusing translations in the Bible because how do you get many mansions inside a house? Makes no sense in English the way this is translated. You've probably heard, as we've tried to figure out the explanation of this before in the past, that this word mansions means offices or positions. You can look it up in any concordance. It basically simply means rooms or places to live there. So what Jesus is simply saying is, in my father's house are many rooms, many places for you to live. And when we understand the cultural background and context of this, it's obvious what Jesus Christ is telling them. Because again, in that day, the house of a patriarch of a father would, as I mentioned, become like a small apartment building as the sons married and brought their brides back to live as part of the father's household. They would add on these rooms there. And the original house would be added on, and added on, and added on there. So this is what Jesus Christ is referring to. He says he's going to do the same thing. They've understood exactly what he means here. He says, in my father's house are many rooms.

If it weren't so, I would have told you. I'm going to prepare a place, a room for you, that you too may be a part of my father's household. My father's household.

The family, or the kingdom, of God. That's what he's talking about here. And notice this, verse 3, if you don't think that's what this means, notice what he says next.

And if I go and prepare a place, a room for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am there you may be also. So just like a groom would do in that day, go and prepare a place for them to live, and then come back to take his bride and have the wedding celebration, this is exactly what Jesus Christ says that he's going to do. Like any other groom, he would do that. He would come back for his bride, and then they would become a part of his family. And then he goes on, we won't read more of this account here, but he goes on to talk about God the Father, Jesus does, and the following verses, and how this is the way that we will get to the Father. So the imagery that he used that evening is right out of the culture of his day. He extends a marriage offer, marriage proposal to his followers. He extends a contract, spells out the terms of that contract. This is the new covenant in my blood that you may have eternal life.

And then he goes on to say that he's going, he's going to leave them, he's going to prepare a place for them to live as part of his father's household forever. And this is the same symbolism that we take part in every year at the Passover. Like the original disciples, Jesus Christ offers us a marriage contract. A marriage contract because he wants to live with us, live with you, and live with me forever as a part of his father's family. And when we take of that cup at Passover, we are acknowledging the contract that he's offered to shed his own blood, to pay the penalty for our sins, the bride price, the bride price that he's paid for us. And to take of that cup at Passover is to say, I accept your gift. I accept you giving your life for me, and I will give you my life in return. So in God's Holy Day plan, it begins, it ends. And every Holy Day, I'll talk about this sometime in a sermon, every Holy Day revolves around Jesus Christ. It begins with what?

Begins with a Passover, that festival, and that's where God's plan begins. It cannot begin. It cannot continue without Jesus Christ offering his life for us. And it ends with what? It ends with us, at Christ's return, becoming a part of God's family, and ultimately beyond that, with the millennium and the symbolism of the eighth day and the great resurrection, and all eventually having the opportunity to become a part of that family and that household as well. So Passover, again, gives us the imagery of Jesus Christ as the bridegroom extending an invitation to us, the offer of marriage. And then he says, In my Father's house are many rooms. I'm going to prepare a place for you, a room for you, so that you can be a part of my Father's family forever. I'm going away, but I'll come back for you, because I've given my life for you. And you've promised to give me your life. I love you, and I'll come back for you, and I'll take you to the wedding feast that I have planned for you in my Father's kingdom. And that is His sure promise to each of us. And as His bride, will you be ready for the marriage of the Lamb?