The Heart of the Passionate Bridegroom
I. THE FORERUNNER MINISTRY: A SPIRITUAL ROMANCE MINISTRY
A. The Holy Spirit is raising up a Forerunner Ministry to precede the Second Coming of Jesus, just as He did at His first
coming. These forerunners will help to prepare the Church for the great and terrible day coming upon the earth. They will
preach and proclaim three distinct “faces” or aspects of Jesus as a passionate Bridegroom, a transcendent King, and a
righteous Judge.
B. The forerunner at Jesus’ first coming, John the Baptist, was characterized by his happy heart. His heart was filled
with spiritual romance (the romance of the gospel). The spiritual strength of his life was his fascination with God. A
spiritually romanced heart is one that is exhilarated and fascinated by God. It speaks of being motivated by gladness
in Jesus. It has nothing to do with identification with earthly sensuality. The Forerunner Ministry only works effectively
out of the overflow of a lovesick heart, a heart that has been fascinated by the beauty of the Lord. This paradigm of a
lovesick God awakens to us the reality of becoming a lovesick Bride.
II. REVELATION OF THE BRIDEGROOM
You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’ 29 He who has
the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of
the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:28-30)
A. John the Baptist spoke of himself as a friend of the Bridegroom who heard the Bridegroom’s voice. The key to hearing
the voice of the Bridegroom is having a new paradigm of God as a Bridegroom God. John the Baptist understood history
in light of Revelation 19:7; a Bride was being prepared and invited to enter into fellowship with God forever. This is the
essence of the Bridal Paradigm: seeing the Kingdom through the eyes of a cherished Bride who is to be fascinated with
the beauty of Jesus as the Bridegroom.
B. This revelation of God as a Bridegroom describes the very makeup of God’s heart. At the core of His being He
is one who is filled with love and desire for human beings. This is not merely a function of God’s heart – it is the essence
of who He is.
C. The revelation of Jesus as a passionate Bridegroom is foundational to the Forerunner Ministry. It is essential we
have a revelation of the Bridegroom in order to understand the King and the Judge and participate with Him in a right
way. The plans in the heart of the Father and the Son and the judgments they bring upon the earth at the end of the age
make sense only in the context of the heart of the Bridegroom who wants voluntary lovers to come forth all across the
earth. He is coming to purchase a Bride. The forerunners, “friends of the Bridegroom”, work together with Him to bring
that Bride into His embrace, to convince her of His worth and His splendor and who she is to Him.
D. At the end of natural history there will be one generation that will be dominated by the awareness that the Messiah
is a Bridegroom King. Jesus will be manifest as a Bridegroom in splendor. When we see God in this light we see ourselves
and our ministry on the earth much differently. We become connected with God’s heart as our primary reward.
Understanding the heart of the Bridegroom is essential to our ability to see who God is and who we are before
Him.
E. The way we enter into the friend of the Bridegroom reality and become lovesick worshipers is by encountering these
realities in the heart of God. We are able to live abandoned to God as we touch the superior pleasures in His heart, as
we see His mercy, gladness, and jealous love. We need to focus our attention on cultivating revelation and understanding
of what the Scripture says about Jesus as the God with a Bridegroom heart.
III. THE TENDER HEART OF THE BRIDEGROOM
A. We will never understand the Bridegroom God without understanding that God delights in showing compassion.
Jesus the Bridegroom is a God of mercy. The Scripture says many times that He is the God of kindness.
B. The revelation of the vastness of God’s mercy is a vital revelation the enemy seeks to obscure. God desires to
daily give us revelation of His mercy that we would grow in it forever. We receive mercy based on what Jesus did on the
cross, not on what we have accomplished (2 Cor. 5:17-21). When we trust God’s mercy, then we have confidence and
gratitude before God whether we fail or succeed.
Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness. (Lam. 3:22-23)
Who is a God like You…? He does not retain His anger…He delights in mercy. (Mic. 7:18)
C. Jesus twice in the New Testament quoted Hosea 6:6 as a prophetic testimony of God’s commitment to show mercy to
adulterous Israel. This is the only time that Jesus quoted the OT in a way that revealed His heart in the first person.
I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than offerings. (Hos. 6:6)
But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners,
to repentance." (Mt. 9:13)
If you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless.
(Mt. 12:7)
D. Jesus is our sympathetic High Priest who deals tenderly with us as we repent of our sins.
For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses…16 Let us therefore come boldly to the
Throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy… (Heb. 4:15-16)
E. God has extravagant compassion in His dealing with His people (Ps. 103:10-14). God's ways of mercy are as high
above man's as the heavens are above the earth (Isa. 55:7-8). There is no one on the earth that forgives weak people
like God does. Isaiah 63:15 and Jeremiah 31:20 speak of the yearning heart of God who is tender towards us. The Bride
in the Song of Solomon emphasized this truth during a difficult season of testing (Song of Solomon 5:14).
"The yearning of Your heart and Your mercies toward me" (Isaiah 63:15).
"My heart yearns for him (Ephraim); I will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord" (Jer. 31:20).
IV. THE GLAD HEART OF THE BRIDEGROOM
A. The second implication of Jesus’ Bridegroom heart is that He is a God of gladness. The foundation of His personality
and disposition is gladness. The very environment of the presence of God is different in our experience when we have
the Biblical revelation of God’s heart. When we understand this we will have a happy heart and rejoicing spirit.
B. God’s joy is the joy of the Bridegroom. The cross was motivated by a God who had great gladness about His
wedding day. The plan of redemption flows from a God who eagerly anticipates the intimacy He will have with His people
for eternity. The cross became a reality because before the beginning of time He desired to marry us.
"For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so
shall your God rejoice over you. " (Isaiah 62:5)
Go forth, O daughters of Zion, and see [the King]...on the day of his wedding, the day of the gladness of his heart.
(Song of Solomon 3:11)
C. Our Bridegroom is exceedingly glad. In Acts 2, Peter quotes Psalm 16, which tells in Jesus’ own words what sustained
Him to endure the cross. The first truth is that Jesus has a rejoicing heart rooted in the eternal reality of who He is. The
second insight is that the words of His mouth are glad.
For David says concerning Him [Jesus]: “I foresaw the Lord always before My face, for He is at My right hand, that I may
not be shaken. Therefore My heart rejoiced, and My tongue was glad....You [Father] have made known to Me [Jesus] the
ways of life; You will make Me full of joy in Your presence.” (Acts 2:25–28)
D. Psalm 45:7 tells us that Jesus was anointed with gladness more than any other man. The writer of Hebrews quoted
Psalm 45 and assured us it speaks of the Man Christ Jesus.
You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more
than Your companions. (Psalm 45:7)
But to the Son He says: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever....You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness;
therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions.” (Hebrews 1:8–9)
E. Jesus has the ability and intention to present you with exceeding joy before the Father (Jude 24). We should
anticipate heaven as a place of supreme gladness.
V. THE RAVISHED HEART OF THE BRIDEGROOM
A. The third reality concerning the Bridegroom is His affection. He is a God of burning desire. At the very core of His
glory is His desire for us! It is glorious that He loves weak, broken people. Ephesians 3:18 talks about the length, the
width, the depth and the height of God’s fiery desire, and burning passion.
…The King greatly desires your beauty… (Ps. 45: 10)
B. In the Song of Solomon Jesus reveals His passion and desire for the Bride in context to her decision to be
wholehearted (Song 4:9-10). This revelation equips her for 100-fold obedience. Jesus' heart is filled with extravagant
passion for His people. We are unusually attractive to Him even as immature believers as we determine to be
wholehearted. This reality is found in the words of Jesus to His disciples right before they betrayed Him and left Him
alone to go to the cross (John 15:9; 17:23, 17:26).
You have ravished My heart, My sister, My spouse; You have ravished My heart with one look of your eyes, with one
link of your necklace. 10 How fair (beautiful) is your love, My sister, My spouse! How much better than wine is your l
ove… (Song 4:9-10)
"As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you.” (Jn. 15:9)
“…that You (Father)…have loved them as You have loved Me.” (Jn. 17:23)
“I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in
them." (Jn. 17:26)
C. The revelation and experience of God's ravished heart is central to equipping the End-Time Church and
establishing a strong foundation in grace. The gospel flourishes as the Church understands the extravagant passions
in God's personality. The Holy Spirit wants us to know how He feels and what He desires deep within His heart. This gives
us insight into why He does the things He does. When we know how He feels, then we better understand the cross, the
coming revival and our eternal glory in heaven. The Holy Spirit will reveal God’s extravagant passions to us in a fresh
way in the generation that the Lord returns.
… “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for
those who love Him.” 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes,
the deep things of God. 11 … Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have
received, … the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
(1 Cor. 2:9-12)
VI. THE BEAUTY OF THE BRIDEGROOM
A. The Bridegroom is the God of transcendent beauty. He is the God who fascinates. He is the God who overwhelms
those nearest Him as He unveils Himself. They are overwhelmed with the splendor of His holiness and the sublime
pleasure that they feel encountering the revelation of His beauty. God’s beauty is the source of the superior pleasures
that we have in the grace of God.
You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
(Psalm 16:11)
They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, And You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures.
9 For with You is the fountain of life… (Psalm 36:8-9)
B. The doctrine of the beauty of God is the very pinnacle of the message of the Bride of Christ. The beautiful God
fascinates His people and awakens them as lovesick worshipers.