The Emperor Strikes Back

Transcript of the segment on Another King and a Better Kingdom:

When Ahasuerus summoned his wife, it was actually to shame her in public. He wasn’t thinking about that, of course. He was doing that unconsciously. But that would have been the effect. When the Lord Jesus summons his Bride, it is not to shame her. It is to cherish her, it is to bestow his love upon her, it is to wash her feet with salvation. It is to put the spread of his love around her. It is to show, ultimately, before a watching world her righteousness, the gift of righteousness that he has given to her. It is to show her off before a watching universe, not in her shame, but in her glory. And his banquet that he prepares for her will be for her, for her, her glory. When the Lord Jesus calls his Church to himself, it’s about life and joy. Did you realize the story of the Bible is about this? When you come to the opening chapters of the Bible, you read about Adam and Eve. And how God brought the woman out of the man and how he gave her back to the man and they became one flesh and they have children. You thought at the beginning that it’s all about marriage. You come to the New Testament and Paul says that the great mystery is that it was never about that marriage, it was about THE marriage that we were made for.