Bride of Christ – Part 4
Who is the Bride?
The book of Revelation is full of imagery and symbolic language. Angles are stars. Churches are lampstands. Overcomers are pillars. The Bride is a city. In these examples, an inanimate object represents a being, a person. A symbol is related to a person. I do not know if a symbol is ever related to another symbol.
And there came unto me one of the seven angels ...and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. (Rev 21:9)
John, the Apostle, in Revelation 21, is shown the Bride. Finally, here is what everyone has been waiting for. He is going to be shown the Bride clearly.
And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, (v.10)
The Bride IS the city. Usually when we speak of a city, we are referring to the residents. If it is a famous present day city, such as Paris or New York, we may picture a skyline. Generally, however, we do not think of the architecture or the sewer system. We may not think of the mayor or other prominent people but we do speak of a city to refer to all the population of it.
However, it is more than just simply the residents, the people who get their mail at this address. In some way, it is the residents but it is more than that. In some sense they are the city.
In chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation, Jesus is directing His friend John to write a letter to 7 churches or assemblies of his day. All of them were located in present day Turkiye. To most of the churches, Jesus has some rebuke and some commendation. To every church he gives special promises to the “overcomers” in each one. He also states something else in His message to each church, which we will see in a moment.
In Jesus' address to the church at Philadelphia, He issues no rebuke to them. Yet He further promises something to a subset of that church, a group of people within the group of people.
Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. (Rev 3:12)
Why is Jesus creating second class Christians? He is not. He extends the invitation to be distinguished. People, then, line up on one side or the other, depending on what they want. Some wish to press in as close as they can to God. Others do not care. God has assigned no one to second class status. He extends the invitation to all. All those in heaven are believers but some have not cultured any hunger for the things of God. If you were a newlywed, what would you think if your new spouse said about your romantic advances, “I can take it or leave it. I don't care. Makes no never mind to me. I'd rather be comfortable. What's to eat around here? Let me see if my favorite show is on TV, etc., etc,....blah blah....”
I know Someone Who is expecting to spend some time with a wonderful woman who cannot think of anything else but Him. These are the Overcomers. Those who have overcome their own inertia to fall asleep with a no-care attitude. They are those who have pushed past the flesh and take orders from someone other than their own belly. These are those who can see the invisible future promises of God and do not think that the temporal things that can be perceived by the natural senses are the sum of all reality.
It may be easy to write or read that. Now, let us be those people that live that!
The overcomers are promised to be put into a special relationship with God that is described as being made a pillar, a pillar in the temple. King Solomon brought a man named Hiram from Tyre to do beautiful artwork for the temple. Hiram was a special man. He was a skilled craftsman in bronze. His mother was a Jewess and his father was from Tyre, a Gentile region. Probably his greatest work was building the great pillars. They were 6 feet in diameter and 27 feet high. There were two of them for the front of the great temple in Jerusalem. According to some drawings and some other similar type temples from that era, the pillars did not support anything. They were free-standing. They did nothing. They did no work. They had no use, except to stand in front of the temple.
I said at the beginning of this article that in Revelation a symbol is usually never related to another symbol but always to a person. Jesus said that He would make the overcomers a pillar in the temple. The pillars are to be in relation to the temple. However, there is no temple.
When John saw the city of New Jerusalem come down from God out of heaven, he must have been awed. He described in intricate detail the materials, the foundations, and the gates. He further says,
And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. (Rev 21:22)
There is no temple in that city!
Jesus promised to make the overcomers a pillar in the temple. There is no temple. As the overcomers correspond to pillars of the temple, God corresponds to the temple. More than that, He is the temple. The pillars uphold nothing. They support nothing. They do nothing. They are just to be next to the temple as a beautiful ornament. They are to be close to the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb. This is the place of the Bride, the wife of the Lamb. The Day of labor is over forever. Her existence and her purpose is to be. To be close to the Lord.
These are the qualities of the people who make up the Bride company, but who are they?
Imagine a royal wedding in a great European cathedral. There would be dignitaries from far away. The clothing of the guests and the luxury of the day would be astounding. With the king's son and his beautiful bride in full view of everyone, the high official begins the ceremony. Starting with great words of pompous welcome to the hundreds of guests, he suddenly stops abruptly.
“Oh, everybody...come on. Get up here. You can all be the bride!”
Do you think the King would have any opinion about this kind of insanity? There are some clues as to who she is.
In Genesis 24 Abraham is speaking to his servant who is never named in this account.
3 And I will make thee swear by the LORD, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell:
4 But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.
Abraham strictly charged his servant that he was not to take a wife for his son from among the nations around him. He was to go Abraham's extended family and select her from there. No Canaanites. No people that would one day be categorized as “Gentiles”. So, Gentiles have no hope of being part of the Bride? It might seem so but there is some more information that we are told.
Remember Hiram, the maker of the 2 pillars? He was from a Jewish mother and a Gentile father. Interesting. He made two pillars to sit in front of the Solomon's temple. Very interesting. Remember Jesus, the maker of the pillars for the temple in Revelation 3:12?
At the end of the promise to overcomers, He makes a statement that He makes to each of the 7 churches.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. (Rev 3:13)
There is a teaching today that says we must severely separate all of scripture, dramatically dividing it into the persons to whom the scripture is addressing. It says we must not confuse words that are spoken to Israel with words that are directed to non-Jews or to the Church. There are many excellent things that are brought out by this teaching. However, there is one difficulty.
Let me use an illustration. Remember, an illustration does not prove anything. It may illustrate something. Imagine a large room, maybe a basketball court. There are a group of people gathered at each end. Imagine yourself as a spectator in the bleachers. A important person goes over to one group of people, gathered at one end of the room and whispers something to the group. We lean forward and strain to hear what he might have said. The man turns to us spectators and angrily shouts, “It's none of your business! Never mind!” We have no idea what was said.
He then walks over to the group of people at the opposite end of the room and whispers something to them. We wonder what could be so important that it is kept a secret from us spectators.
Instead of the previous scenario let us imagine the same large room but this time there are not two groups of separated people. They are all mixed up all throughout the room. The man making the secret announcements, this time stands next to the spectators and shouts for everyone in the building to hear. He first addresses a particular group of people. Their instructions are loud enough for everyone to hear. Then he addresses another people group which are mixed in with everybody else. He shouts their instructions so everyone in the building can hear. There are no secrets but each group has to know their identity and follow the directions given to their group.
Jesus answered him, I spake openly to the world;...and in secret have I said nothing. (John 18:20)
This does not mean that Jesus never had a private conversation with anyone. It means that what He says, He says so that everyone can hear it.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. (Rev 3:13)
What Jesus is promising to the Church in Philadelphia, He wants everyone to hear and he wants everyone to take it as personally to them. While the wife of God was originally Jewish and all indications point to the faithful believers within ethnic Israel as the main focus, Jesus makes this invitation to all believers, Old Testament saints, the mostly Gentile Church and the Tribulation saints. There is a place for you and me if we will have it.
One of the many things Jesus accomplished by His death was to make one new man (Eph 2:14-16). Jew and Gentile, if they are believers in Christ, are no longer divided into different people groups. An important question: Are broken Jewish branches grafted into a Gentile church or are Gentile branches grafted into a Jewish root (Jesus)? It makes a difference (Rom 11:17). Gentile Christians can be part of the Bride since they are grafted into the Jewish root. (This is not to be confused with The Jewish Roots Movement.) God can remarry the Ex and the Church can be a part of the Bride. If the church is separated from Israel it would be IMPOSSIBLE for the Church to be the Bride of Christ. It really is important.
Not everyone is the Bride. Then, who are the guests at the wedding supper? If the wedding has guests, not everyone is the bride. All the invited to the marriage supper are believers but not all are the wife of the Lamb. This is promised to the ones who overcome indifference and apathy in their own hearts. The invitation is made to all believers in Jesus as Messiah. Do not be one who disqualifies yourself from a place near the Lamb.
When are we going to see the Bride appear? When is the marriage supper? We will look at that in our final part.
July 27, 2024