Grace Community Church, Arlington, TX

Jesus is asked by His disciples when will be the end and when will He come again, and He answers their questions by saying,

But there is something else that must happen before Jesus comes again.

Jesus is coming back for a bride, the church, that has made herself ready.

That is the inner garment.

But there is also an outer garment, that has to do with our righteous acts we performed as Christians on the earth.

The inner garment is justification by faith which is the gift of God. The outer garment is our own righteous deeds. Those good works that God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. There is positional righteousness that a Christian has that is given him by our Lord. There is also practical righteousness that we have in doing good deeds for our Lord.

So, the inner garment is something Christ bestows upon us when He washes our sins away, when we wash our robes, our souls, and make them white in the blood of the Lamb. But there is also an outer garment that is given to us at the Judgment Seat of Christ where we are judged for our lives that we lived for Jesus as Christians on the earth.

And based on our acts of righteousness as Christians, we are given that fine linen, bright and clean, according to our acts of righteousness.

And the result of that is what the prophet Daniel is talking about in Dan 12.

So, how does the Bride get herself ready? By doing those acts of righteousness.
What acts of righteousness does the Bible have in mind?

The Lord Jesus Christ has two purposes for giving leadership spiritual gifts to His church. He has an immediate purpose and an ultimate purpose.

1. The immediate purpose of these leadership spiritual gifts is to get the church ready to do ministry now.

2. The ultimate purpose of these leadership spiritual gifts is to get church ready to meet Christ when He comes.

The immediate purpose of leadership spiritual gifts is seen in the phrase, “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service.”
The purpose of these leadership gifts is not that they do all the ministry of the church. The purpose of these leadership gifts is that they equip all the church to each do their ministry.

But there is also an ultimate purpose for the giving of leadership spiritual gifts to the church…“the building up of the body of Christ.”

We are told what a built-up body of Christ looks like.
The verse 11 ministries must function “until” three things take place.

There is a time dimension given here. These five spiritual gifts must function until three things happen.
1. Unity – “until we all attain to the unity of the faith.”
2. Intimacy – “until we all attain to the experiential knowledge of the Son of God”
3. Maturity – “until we all attain to the measure of the stature that belongs to the fullness of Christ”

That is what the built-up body of Christ is going to look like.

That is what the bride that Jesus is coming back for will look like. Unity, Intimacy, and Maturity. And Jesus is not coming back until the bride has made herself ready in the areas of Unity, Intimacy, and Maturity. And it is the responsibility of the leaders of the church to use their spiritual gifts to get the bride ready to meet the Bride Groom.

First, there must be Intimacy.
The word here is Experiential knowledge or intimacy with Jesus Christ.
The church is to be like a Bride that is passionately in love with the Bride Groom.

Jesus prayed in John 17 to His Father in heaven, “…that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” (Jn 17:26)
Will God the Father answer His Son’s prayer? Will there be a people that will love Jesus likes the Father loves Jesus? Yes, there will! There will be a bride that is passionately in love with Jesus. And that is the Bride that is ready for the coming of Christ.

Second, there must be Unity.
Jesus is coming back for a unified church, not a divided church.

And He prayed for that.

Will God the Father answer His Son’s prayer? Yes.
The church is to have unity within each church among its members, and to have unity between churches, regardless of what tribe.

Unity mean that there is love and cooperation. It means that there is an end to competition. It means that we speak well of each other--that we want to see all the Body of Christ succeed.

Now humility is essential to unity. Pride lurks behind all discord.
And love is also key to unity. Since love seeks the welfare of others and the good of the community.
When humility and love are absent, no external structure of unity can stand.

So, a built–up body of Christ will be unified.

Third, there must be Maturity. to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
A built-up Body of Christ will be mature.

Maturity is defined for us here. The Body of Christ will look and act like Jesus Christ.
Maturity is having the character and the conduct of Christ.

It is the church functioning properly in the fruit of the Spirit and in the Gifts of the Spirit.
The Bride that is ready is full of Kingdom love and Kingdom faith.

Intimacy, Unity, and Maturity—that is what a built up Body of Christ will look like.
That is what those with leadership gifts in the Body should be pursuing. That is the ultimate purpose of why those gifts were given to the Body.

Jesus is not coming back for a dead, defeated, divided, apathetic, impure bride. He is coming back for a bride that has made herself ready.
There will be a revived, victorious, holy, passionate and united bride waiting for the coming of Christ.

The Bride will be ready for that day.
And leadership spiritual gifts have been given, specifically the five mentioned in Eph 4, for that purpose.

So, there is an immediate purpose for those leadership gifts. That all the saints would be equipped for ministry right now on the earth in this dark world.

And there is an ultimate purpose for those leadership gifts. That the body of Christ might be built up in unity, intimacy, and maturity. So that that Body of Christ will make herself ready to meet Christ when He comes.

So, how close are you to being ready? How is your love for Jesus? How is your unity with others in the church? How is your maturity? You love and your faith?

Is there anything you need to repent about today and confess to the Lord?