What will determine the time Jesus is going to come and take the Church? It will be when His bride is complete. That will be when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Perhaps there’s a service tonight in the mountains of North Carolina. Perhaps there’s a little country church there with a fill-in preacher who’s stepped in for the pastor who is ill. He’s doing what a lot of preachers would do on short notice—he’s just trying to explain how to be saved, and he’s using John 3:16. Maybe there are not more than forty people there in that little church building, and this layman is trying to share what Christ has done for him using John 3:16. And as he does, tears fall out of his eyes, with a trembling voice and no homiletical beauty at all, he simply tells how God loved the world and gave His Son. He says that if people would repent of their sins and trust Jesus, they’ll be saved. And a little girl steps out and comes forward to give her hand to that preacher and her heart to Jesus. And that may be the last soul that’ll ever get saved before Jesus comes. It could be today. And God says, “Gabriel, that’s it! Martial the troops. Jesus, it’s time! My Son, go and claim your bride. She is complete.”

• According to today’s verse, what must happen before Jesus will return?
• Considering this truth, how is the Church directly involved in bringing about the return of Christ?