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091220 The Spirit and The Bride Say Come pt4

The Gift That Brought Longing

Tim Franklin

Introduction:

Today is the fourth and last message of the series entitled, “The Spirit and the Bride say, Come!” The theme of this series has been “We do not long for His appearing because we do not know Him.” We have seen through the past weeks that as we get closer and more intimate with Him/Jesus we long for his return just like a bride longs for the return of her soldier husband.
Love and longing go hand in hand. The more love one has for another the more they long to be with them. When love grows cold longing diminishes. When love grows strong, longing is stirred to greater levels.
I want to give you a summary of why we as Christians should long for the return of Jesus.
The answer is quite simple: Love. As believers our longing stems from the Greatest Gift of All Times. That Gift is why we celebrate this time of year.

The Greatest Gift of All Time
1. What is a Gift?
  1. A gift is something that one person transfers to another while receiving nothing in return. Dictionary.com
  2. A gift is something you are given not because you are owed it or deserve it. It is given with no expectations of anything being given in return.
  3. We all know that a wage is something that is owed to us for something we have done for another. You work all week with the expectation that at the end of the week you will receive a wage—not a gift. A wage is something that is due you, it is something you are owed. A gift has nothing to do with something you deserve.
  4. When we give gifts we give expecting nothing in return. We give because we love, not because we owe or they deserve. The apostle Paul said that the gift of God is eternal life.
2. The Gift is eternal life! --Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. NKJV A wage is what you deserve.
  1. Paul states that the gift of God is eternal life, in Christ Jesus our Lord.
  2. The gift is eternal life
    1. Greek for eternal is aioonion, without beginning or end, that which always has been and always will be: (from Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Electronic Database. Copyright © 2000, 2003, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.) That sounds like God life to me!
    2. Life from Gk. Is zoe-life force, the quickening power of God, it causes to live. It is a description of the kind of life God has. God touches a dead man—he lives. God touches a blind man—he sees! God touches a deaf man--he hears! God touches a demonized man—he is free and in his right mind.
  3. What is eternal life? Jesus gave us a solid answer: “It is to know Him!”
    1. John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. NKJV
    2. John 17:3 And eternal life is this: to know you, the one true God, and him whom you sent, Yeshua the Messiah. CJB
3. Every gift has a price tag.
  1. The price tag on God’s gift of eternal life was His Son. The price tag on the gift of knowing God was his Son. The gift of eternal life comes through Jesus. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. They called Him Jesus—the Lord is salvation. He shall save His people from their sin. Emmanuel—God with us. It cost God and incredible price for us to have access to eternal life, or the knowledge of Him.
  2. Romans 5:18-19 Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous. NKJV
    1. The righteous act brought to us justification by faith.
    2. Whoever would believe would not die but have everlasting/eternal life, life without beginning or end—the God kind of life! I get to have God’s nature, God’s life, God’s righteousness—the very thing that makes him different from all the world. I get that! That is good news! When the God life comes in I have access not only to heaven, but healing, deliverance, breakthrough and dominion, and most of all Him.
    3. Through one man’s act of disobedience all men died and through the one man’s/Jesus’ righteous act all can live. What was this righteous act?
The Greatest Lover of All Time
1. God has loved us by giving His Son. Jesus was the baby born to die!
  1. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. NKJV
  2. John 3:16-18 This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. ¹⁷God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. ¹⁸Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. THE MESSAGE
    1. “Loved” is in the aorist tense meaning that God loved us at one time in the past and the impact of that act of love still stands/continues to this day. It never has to be done again.
    2. God loved us enough to offer His Son as the price tag for us to have God’s life and not a devils death. We deserved to die! We earned the wage to die! But because of the love of God, in paying the price through the death of His Son, we have opportunity to live being filled with life that has no beginning or end!
    3. That creates longing in me! That someone would love me so much as to give to me the ultimate gift at the cost of His Son is incomprehensible! We hear of stories of people dying for a loved one, friend, family member—but hardly ever for an enemy. Ro. 5:8. God loved us by giving us His Son.
2. Jesus is the greatest lover all time. He loved us by giving His life. How did He love us?

He was willing to be like us.
1. Philippians 2:7-8 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. NKJV
2. God was born a man, coming to us in the most humble means—by birth in a cave.
3. He took on the appearance of a man.
  1. In appearance or fashion as some Bibles read.
    1. Comes from the gk. Work schema—outward structure, appearance, features, sketch.
    2. It is like God is saying, “Surprise! Didn’t think God could do that did you?”
    3. This is extremely important, for this was precisely the same word that was used in ancient times to depict a king who exchanged his kingly garments for a brief period of time for the clothing of a beggar.
  2. He was rich but became poor.
He was willing to die for us.
1. John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. NKJV
2. The Father offered His Son as the price to be paid so we could have eternal life.
3. But it was the Son who consistently made righteous choices throughout His life. It was the Son who chose to do the Father’s will in order that we could be justified by His/the Son’s death.
4. Jesus chose to love by dying for us because he knew the church would be His bride.
  1. Ephesians 5:26-27 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. NKJV
  2. Revelation 19:7-8 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready." 8 And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. NKJV It is the greatest love of the Father and His Son that creates in us the greatest longing.

The Greatest Longing of All Time
1. The Church longs for Jesus.
  1. Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. NKJV
  2. Why wouldn’t we long for Him. After all, He died for us. He made it possible for us to become righteous, whole, healthy, and prosperous.
  3. I was dead in sin, filled with the nature of hell itself and God through His Son made it possible for me to born again! To become a new creation. Why would I not long for a God who did that for me.
  4. Jesus took my place on the cross. Jesus took my punishment. Why wouldn’t I out of gratitude live daily to be in His face? Why wouldn’t I long for Him? If One who has done so much for us who deserved so little, it is only right that we should live with longing in our hearts for Him.
  5. The Holy Spirit (in us) cries to Jesus, “Come!”
2. Jesus longs for his bride
  1. Jesus ascends to the right hand of the Father leaving us with Holy Spirit.
  2. Jesus prepares a room John 14:1-ff In my Father’s house… He wants us close because he longs!
  3. Jesus promises to return. He states three times in Rev. 22 I am coming quickly.
    1. Revelation 22:7 "Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book." NKJV
    2. Revelation 22:12 "And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone according to his work. NKJV
    3. Revelation 22:20 He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! NKJV
3. The Bride longs for others to join Him. Rev 22:17
  1. Let him who thirsts…Come!
  2. Let him who desires…Come!

Conclusion:

It is a fact that Jesus is returning. Well over half of the prophetic scriptures of the Bible have been fulfilled. The times are ripe for many others to be fulfilled now. Jesus is returning.
I want Him more.
I want you to know how He longs for you now.
Invitation to know Jesus

Pastor Tim Franklin, 12/19/2009