Imagine the uncertainty, the anxiety, the fear, like a threatening storm cloud hanging in the air above them, when the disciples gathered in the Upper Room. Jesus was saying strange things, doing strange things, as though He were preparing them for some disaster about to happen. They had learned that He never said or did anything without a purpose.

What now?

First, words of reassurance…

John 14:1 NLT
[1] “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. “

“Guys, I know you are upset and disturbed. You need to trust me in this as much as you trust God.” How important that they heed His words when their world began to shake… was shattered when events took a turn for the worst.

Then followed some of the most profound promises ever made…

John 14:2-4 NLT
[2] “There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? [3] When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. [4] And you know the way to where I am going.”

This was wedding talk! After the betrothal, and the drawing up of the marriage contract, a Jewish groom-to-be would make this announcement to his finacee, “I am returning to my father’s house to build the bridal chamber. When it is complete, and at my father’s instruction, I will come for you.”

Jesus added, on another occasion, when He was speaking of the end of the age…

Matthew 24:36 NLT
[36] “However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.”

… exactly as the groom would speak to reassure his bride of his return for her.

When the bridal chamber was ready, the father would give the signal, the son would return for his bride, the wedding would take place, and then, the groom would carry his bride (rapture her) over the threshold into the bridal chamber to consummate the marriage. Blood would be the evidence that they had become one!

What a perfect picture of the completion of our salvation…our eternal union with our bridegroom. Among the many beautiful symbols of the Father’s dealings with His wayward children is the theme of marriage which reoccurrs throughout Scripture, the courtship and marriage of the Son of God to His chosen and perfected bride.

The story is completed in the graphic prediction of the great wedding of the Lamb.

Revelation 19:7-9 NLT
[7] “Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honor to him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself. [8] She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.” For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people. [9] And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he added, “These are true words that come from God.”

After all the trials and tests of this life, the Bride of Christ, the composite woman, the church, made up of every faithful believer, made spotless and blameless in preparation for her wedding day by the blood of her own bridegroom, the wedding will take place at the end of time.

Paul gives us the pattern for an earthly marriage which is to reflect the union between Jesus and His church.

Ephesians 5:25-27 NLT
[25] For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her [26] to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. [27] He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.”

This promise sums up everything that Jesus did for His church, and provides an unshakable reassurance that He will finish what He started.

When their world began to shake out of control, did these words steady their hearts? Perhaps only in hindsight would the disciples have remembered with gratitude what He had spoken to reassure them. When this shaking was all over, under them was the rock of solid truth that could never be shaken. No matter what happened in this life, no matter how bad the world would became, no matter how much they were called to endure, He promised that He would return to complete His mission and to take them home to Father’s house to live in union with Him forever.

And for us who follow in their footsteps, no matter what our lot in this life, we have the same promise that Jesus is coming to finish what He started. Each one of us has been wooed and won by the love of our Bridegroom. We all have His promise that He is coming again to take us home to Father’s house, whether by death or by transformation, to live with Him forever in a union so deep and profound that no one on earth can imagine what it will be.

So, as for the disciples in that moment in the Upper Room, so you may be standing where they stood, on the edge of a precipice so frightening that you dare not look ahead, you dare not imagine what may happen in the next moment. So, He says to you…

John 14:1-3 NLT
[1] “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. [2] There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? [3] When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.”