Introduction

 

The Bride is preparing for the Bridegroom and for the wedding that will take place in heaven.

How does the Bride prepare:

1. First the Bridegroom needed to select the Bride (Biblically that happened even before the foundations of the earth)
2. The Bride needs to have been born (sinners need to be born and then be born again, repent and trusted and following the Jesus)
3. The Bride needs to prepare wedding clothes (this refers to the life of the believer becoming more like Christ in sanctification and embracing the mission of Christ.)

 

6411 In Jesus Christ there was nothing secular and sacred, it was all real, and he makes his disciples like himself.

Oswald Chambers (Lecturer and Missionary)

 

Discipleship involves joining in the ministry of Jesus to make other disciples.

 

The New Testament can scarcely conceive of a disciple who is not baptized or is not instructed. Indeed, the force of this command is to make Jesus’ disciples responsible for making disciples of others, a task characterized by baptism and instruction.

D.A. Carson

 

4. Eventually Jesus will come for His Bride and bring her to His father’s house to take part in the marriage ceremony (the marriage of the Lamb)

 

Our Passage is like a photo album depicting pictures of the Bridegrooms ministry and the condition of the Bride to be, and then eventually what is expected of the Bride preparing for her marriage to the groom.

 

Historical Background

Matthew set out to prove that Jesus is the Messiah (The Bride groom).
Matthew taught how disciples were to imitate Jesus’ ministry and to join in His ministry when he was absent. (Preparing for the groom)
Our passage begins with pictures of the Messiah (the Bridegrooms) ministry and prepares you the reader for a blueprint of what the imitate in Christ and how to join in HIs ministry, preparing for the marriage feast in the future.

 

Proposition

2 descriptions of the Bridegroom’s ministry that encourages you follow, imitate and embrace the ministry of Jesus.

1. The predicted ministry of the Bridegroom vs 14-17
2. The present ministry of the Bridegroom vs 18-35