Derek Prince - Are You Excited About The Second Coming?
This is an excerpt from: Why Should We Be Longing for Jesus' Appearing?
The second reason why all Christians should be longing for the Lord’s appearing is that it will mark the consummation of our union, two ways. First of all, with Christ himself. Our union with Him will not be complete until he appears. Turn to Revelation 19. I’d like to ask you that, don’t you find the Bible exciting? I tell people if you’ve never been surprised by what you read in the Bible, you’ve never really read it. It is a surprising book. It’s not a religious book. You understand what I mean by that? Religion is predictable, the Holy Spirit is unpredictable. Verses 6–7, now this is actually the climax of human history. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying: Alleluia! For the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give Him glory.
Now what’s all the excitement about? I mean, the whole universe is in an uproar of excitement. What’s it all about? It’s about you and me. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. Now, we all know, I mean, how many of you have been married? Don’t you bother to put your hands up. You know what it is to court. To date, if you want to use that phrase. To get engaged, hold hands, express emotion, get excited. But you all know that that’s no substitute for getting married. There’s a union in marriage for which there’s no substitute. When it talks about the marriage supper of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, there’s going to be a union with Him which we can’t even imagine at this time. One of the things that impresses me about the book of Revelation, it doesn’t try to describe it, because in human language it’s indescribable. But, that’s what every bride is longing for. Am I not right?
She may be excited about being engaged, she may be tremendously thrilled about her engagement ring. But that’s no substitute for being married. Any bride that isn’t excited about being married probably ought to reconsider her decision to marry. The same is true of us as Christians. We are the bride of Christ. If we’re not excited there’s something wrong with us. I’m not upset by people who get excited about their religion, I'm upset about people who don’t. Because the only logical reaction is to get excited. Anybody who isn’t excited really doesn’t believe. I’ll just give you this little illustration. I grew up as a boy in the Anglican church in Britain. It was very dignified, the service was often beautiful, the buildings were very old. I didn’t really believe you could worship God in a building that was less than 400 years old! And I thought some of the other things were about as old, too. I mean, I knew all the prayers, I could repeat the general confession and the creed and all that. In a sense, I thought they’re wonderful. But, I looked at the people as they went out of church after saying all those glorious words and I thought to myself: they don’t look like people who believe what they’ve said.
In fact, in my critical teenage mind I said: If that lady were to drop her beautiful lace handkerchief. And I were to run after her and pick it up and say: Madam, you dropped your handkerchief. She’d get much more excited about her handkerchief than about all the things she said in the service, is that right? People have got the impression that you ought to troop out of church looking very dignified. I think you ought to come out of church looking very happy. If you were dancing and leaping I wouldn’t see anything against that. Sincerely, I’m not jesting. I’m just trying to acquaint you with the fact— I think it was — what was this name of that man? I can't remember his name. Old servant of God about a generation back. He said the temperature of the Church is so subnormal that if anybody gets normal, we’ll think they have a fever. So, remember: the Bible is a romance. It has a climax. That’s what we’re headed for. Nothing else can take its place.