Here Comes The Bride Series

Sunday Morning March 23, 2003 Bel Aire Baptist Church

Series: ¡§Church On The Rocks¡¨ [#18]

HERE COMES THE BRIDE

1 Corinthians 15:12-58

Introduction:

[Play Wedding Processional]

1. When we hear this song, we begin to look for the bride. After this sermon, Jaime will be the bride, but during the sermon we are going to look at another Bride, the Church. In every wedding is a bride and a groom. After the sermon, Curtis will be the groom; but during the sermon the Groom is Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 5:22-33

2. Today, the Church is engaged to Christ. Jesus has gone to prepare a place for His Bride.

John 14:1-4

3. In Jesus¡¦ day when a couple was engaged to be married, the Groom would leave his bride and go to his father and tell him he was engaged. The father would then give his son the portion of property that he had inherited and the son would begin to prepare a home for him and his bride. When the home was prepared he would tell his father he was finished and the father would send him to get his bride and they would be married. Jesus Christ is preparing a place for His Bride and He will come back for her.

All Or Nothing

1. There were some saying that although Jesus was raised from the dead that the bodies of believers would never be resurrected.

2. Paul told them it was either all or nothing.

3. Either Christ was resurrected from the dead and believer¡¦s bodies will also be resurrected from the dead or Jesus wasn¡¦t resurrected from the dead and we won¡¦t be either.

All True

1. But, Jesus was raised from the dead and so will believers be.

2. Because of the 1st Adam, we must all die; but because of the 2nd Adam we will live if we are a Christian.

3. Christ paid the price of sin on the cross and was raised from the dead. He had victory over sin, Satan, and death.

1 Corinthians 15:54-57

All Alone

1. Although every person has the opportunity to be a part of The Bride of Christ there are some that will refuse to believe.

2. They just cannot and will not believe that God sent His only begotten Son to this earth, born of a virgin, never sinned, died on a cross, and was risen from the dead.

3. When these people leave this earth they will be separated from God for all of eternity in Hell. There will be many there, in that dark place of fiery flames. They will be all alone because God will not be with them.

All For The Bride

1. For those that believe and confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, crucified for the sins of the world, and raised from the dead; they are saved from this separation.

2. Believers make up the Church which is the Bride. Christ will return for His Bride and when He does, there will be a great procession.

1 Corinthians 15:52

3. All of those believers that have died will be raised to meet Christ in the air. Now understand that at the very moment a person dies, their soul goes to Heaven or Hell; but at the rapture, the bodies of believers will be raised. After the dead in Christ are raised, the believers that are living will be raised.

All New

1. Once Christ has gathered His Bride, believer¡¦s bodies will be changed to a glorified body so that we can enter Heaven.

2. These bodies can¡¦t go into Heaven.

3. We will be given a new body.

Revelation 21:4

Conclusion:

1. Are you part of the Bride of Christ?

2. If you died today, do you know where you would end up?

3. Believers, let me challenge you with 1 Corinthians 15:58.

WEDDING OF CURTIS MOUDYAND JAMIE WALDEN

PROCESSIONAL

MEANING OF MARRIAGE

„« We are here assembled in the presence of God to unite Curtis and Jamie in marriage.

„« The Bible teaches that marriage is to be a permanent relationship of one man and one woman freely and totally committed to each other as companions for life. Our Lord declared that man shall leave his father and mother and unite with his wife in the building of a home, and the two shall become one flesh.

„« Who gives the bride to be married? (Bride¡¦s Deacon): [Her Church Family and I].

PRAYER

„« The home is built upon love. In the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians the Bible says:

„« ¡§Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never ends;¡K So faith, hope, love abide, these three: but the greatest of these is love.¡¨