Grace Community Church, Arlington, TX

You will never be as close to Jesus as you wish to be, and you will never be as close to Jesus as you want to be, you will only be as close to Jesus as you choose to be.

Jesus is coming back for a Bride that has made herself ready.

God the Father would not insult His Son by presenting Him a Bride that is apathetic, impure, divided, defeated, and dead in affection and passion for His Son.

Jesus is coming back for a Bride that has made herself ready.

The verse 11 ministries must function “until” three things take place. There is a time dimension given here.

What are these three things?

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”

The church is to be like a Bride that is passionately in love with the Bridegroom. Jesus prayed in John 17 to His Father in heaven,

Now, one of the keys to growing in your love for Jesus is in knowing how much He loves you.

In fact, He has been serenading you your whole life.

Our Heavenly Father promised His Son that He would provide for Him an eternal companion.
One that would love Him in the same way that He loves her.

HISTORY IS HEADING FOR A WEDDING. In fact, the Lord has planned this wedding since the beginning.

Remember when God the Father saw Adam and said that it was not good that man should be alone. So, He promised Adam that He would provide a companion for him. But it would cost Adam. Adam would be put into a sleep. His side would be pierced and out of that piercing… that which came from Adam would provide the basis in which His companion would come.

Well, God the Father also promised His Son Jesus an eternal companion. A Bride. One that would love Him life the Father loves Him. But it would cost Jesus. The Father would have to put Him to sleep. The sleep of death, pierce His side, and out of His side being pierced, that shed blood, would provide the means for a Bride to be put together. And we, the church, are that Bride.

What was the joy set before Him? What is it that He came to die for? What is it that He was so anticipating that He could go through the crucifixion and endure it because He was seeing beyond it, to some prize, what was it?

The only time the Lord ever defines the joy set before Him is in this verse.

His desire before the cross to the Father, His last desire to be uttered was that we would be with Him forever.

There He is serenading us. The dining in view here is ultimately fulfilled at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

And that will happen at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, the great wedding feast. Jesus will raise a glass of wine, and we will have a toast with Him, and then let the celebration begin!
All history is heading for a wedding.

And even now we can begin to enter into a level of life and joy and satisfaction and fruitfulness as we draw near to Him.

Jesus is using a metaphor here. He used metaphors quite often. Here He uses the metaphor of eating and drinking. Just like you take food into your empty stomach, and it fills you and strengthens you and satisfies you, so also taking Jesus into your life relationally fills you and
strengthens you and satisfies you.

Notice what else He says using this metaphor.

Every time you He talks about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, He is not speaking literally, but metaphorically. He means taking Him into your life relationally. He is not teaching cannibalism. Though some who heard Him speak did stumble over His usage of the metaphor.

There is nothing else that can fill the emptiness within. Life is not in us, it is only in Him. And we experience that life as we walk in nearness and communion with Him.

(Now, don’t stumble over the metaphor like many of the listeners did when Jesus spoke it.)

To the degree that we will experience intimate communion with Christ, to that degree we will experience abundant life, fulness, and satisfaction.

And to the degree that we experience this true life, to that degree we will want to live for Him.

He is the bread of life. Only He can fill the emptiness and satisfy. So, draw near to Him and know Him that you might experience this satisfaction. The result will be that you will want to live for Him because you have no hunger to live for anything else.

Now, I want to go back to verse 56.

Jesus uses the word abide to describe this close relationship we can have with Him. Well, He uses the same word in John 15.

Here we see that effectiveness in ministry, fruitfulness, is tied to abiding with Christ.

Here we see answered prayer is connected with abiding with Christ.

Here we see the level of joy that you have in life is connected to whether or not you are abiding in Christ.

So much is riding on whether or not we are going to deny ourselves and draw close to Christ relationally. Your satisfaction and joy and fruitfulness and answered prayer.

He is worth arranging your schedule to spend time with Him. He is everything that you need and everything that you hunger for.

And He is madly in love with you! Will you respond and love Him back?
Jesus is waiting. He is waiting for a response. He is waiting for a Bride that will love Him like He loves her. He is waiting for us to come out on that balcony and sing our song to Him.