Adult Sunday School - Marriage And Christ Earthly Ministry

Christ’s Incarnation as a Pattern for Marriage

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this morning and pray that you would bless our study of your word and What you say of salvation in its relation to marriage. We pray that you would give us wisdom in Jesus name.

Amen.

All right.

So last time we started going through the Historia Salutis, which is the history of salvation and then Taking that and applying it to marriage. If indeed Paul says for the husband is the head of the life as Christ also is the head of the church Being himself the Savior of the body that indicates that the salvation That Christ provides in that union between Christ and the church is supposed to instruct us about marriage.

It's worth looking at that salvation of Christ and asking ourselves What might this imply about marriage? And so last time we looked at election and calling this time. We're going to be looking at Christ's earthly ministry now when I Wrote all this out.

I.

Am not certain. Okay, so there's a there's a break point here where if I'm afraid we won't we won't have finished our time. But at the same time we won't have enough time to go into his offices of prophet priest and King.

Yet, we'll see. We'll see what happens when we get there whether or not we'd save that for next time or try to Try to go into it. But while election happens before the foundation of the world and God has been calling people ever since the beginning ever since the fall His incarnation Christ's incarnation happened at a particular time.

And this this likewise has implications for marriage. So let's start there any questions before we get started. I Know I'm I'm going off of because because this has taken a lot more research and work I'm going off a lot more notes than I usually do and that may mean that I'm just kind of talking more with a Kind of a train that can't be stopped, but feel free to raise your hand and ask questions if you want to.

Yes well, we've been studying marriage for several weeks, right and and We looked at the union between God and the church or and sorry in Israel and the Old Testament and all the all the marriage analogies that are used there including the Song of Solomon and Psalm 45 and then we looked at that also in the New Testament and then.

After.

After that, we looked particularly at Ephesians 5 and what it says and that that analogy is not just a an arbitrary Observation by Paul where he's like, oh look this thing is like this thing he's saying that there really is an organic connection between the two and that the reason why God gave us marriage is as an illustration of Christ's in the church.

And so if that is if that's the case and specifically This union being found in salvation. Let's walk through salvation and see what implications are from marriage the last time election and calling which have the implications for how Man would choose his wife and and the role of the wife also in choosing a husband.

Yeah, and so this time We're looking at the incarnation. Or in Christ's earthly ministry in general.

All right.

So.

First of all Christ in a sense Departed from his heavenly home. So Jesus is On the present on top of being on the present. We should never suggest that there's any kind of separation in the Godhead or any separation between The father and son as some might do all the same scripture decides to.

Anthropomorphically, you know as a man describe the eternal Son of God Coming to earth as a leaving of heaven and as leaving his heavenly father now like I said, he's on the present that is not a. It's not as though that That position was lost in any sense.

Yet Jesus himself speaks this way. For I have come down from heaven. This is John 638 for I've come down from heaven not to do my own will. But the will of him who sent me so he comes down from heaven.

John 16 28 I came out of the father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the father the idea of being. Oh, I was here I came here and now I'm here and I'm going back. And so this is also implied by the notion of God giving his son to the world for God.

So loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes on him should not perish but have eternal life. That is of course John 3 16. Yes, so the father doesn't doesn't really lose him in any sense.

Regardless if we are to speak of what does it mean for us to have this gracious God who gives of himself and yet Is dispossessed of nothing, you know, how do you how you describe that action? Well, if you're going to describe it in a way that makes sense to Humans, it makes sense to speak of it as a giving or as a leading or as a as a losing.

Even though it's not it's not truly a loss in that Polissen. Yes. Right, yes. Yeah that that too right he talks about him leaving and. And that that would imply that yes, there was also a coming the thing is it on one hand it makes sense because he has.

A.

You know now he has a he has a human body. And so that human body really did leave the earth. The interesting thing is he talks about even before he had a body, you know when he talks about him him leaving heaven.

That's not as a body, you know as a human leaving heaven. That's talking about just his person. Leaving heaven, even though there once again really is no loss, but it's pictured this way for us. Okay, and What would the implication this be?

Well, this is a this is a core part of what marriage is is a leaving of the home. You don't normally think of that as being the main thing involved in marriage. But that's really like part of the definition that scripture gives every time it requotes Genesis 2 24 it quotes that.

Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother and will be joined to his wife and they will be one flesh. Yeah, so this is not actually a minor part of marriage. This is a significant part of marriage.

Now one may argue back that well Christ remains in his father's household. In fact, he even went back to the father as we've read in those passages. John 14 2 says. And my father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so I would have told you. For I go to prepare a place for you.

So.

Let me make sure I have my phone so I don't. So don't lose track of time. Actually I've got my laptop here that will do. That'll be good enough.

Okay.

All right, so but that's not out of line with the picture in Genesis if you look through Genesis even though Genesis 2 24 talks about the man leaving his father and mother what you see that look like is not a you know a Separating from all kind of proximity to father and mother or leaving the father's estate.

In fact a lot of times it involves Remaining part of the father's estate so that you can gain the inheritance that will come from the father. So just going through a few passages in Genesis. Genesis 31 30 and now though you want to be gone because you this is I believe layman speaking to Jacob.

Because you longed greatly after your father's house yet. Why have you stolen my gods? Right and so this is Layman speaking to Jacob talks about him him leaving because he longs to go to his father's house.

So he's taking his His family back to his father's house. And yet this is not at odds with leaving father and mother. Genesis 50 22. And Joseph dwelt in Egypt. He and his father's house and Joseph lived 110 years.

So He remaining with his father's house and yet having left father and mother. As he is a married married man at this point.

So.

Yeah, as such it's reasonable to see Christ coming from heaven to earth as a as a picture of That same of that same thing that we see in human marriage a leaving father and mother now in addition. In considering the incarnation we see the humility of Christ.

So He becomes man he gives up a a Status in a sense once again, it's not really that as though a status is actually lost. But it is pictured in this way for us. Philippians speaks of this as an emptying of himself a kenosis.

That's the Greek word Philippians 2 6 who existing in the form of God counted not the being. Yeah, okay, sorry the ASP says this weird counted not Equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself taking the form of the servant being made in the likeness of men.

And in Hebrews we see that he was made temporarily lower than the angels. But we behold him who has been made a little lower than the angels Jesus because of the suffering of death. Crowned with glory and honor that by the grace of God.

He should taste death for every man. Okay, so naturally this speaks of the loving sacrifice that Paul requires of husbands and Beneficence by husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for it.

So that giving up of himself does not just refer to the just that moment on the cross. But there was there were many acts of humility including the incarnation itself being part of his being part of his humility and I'm trying to remember we have one particular catechism question that addresses that as well.

This is this is part of his his humility is just him being born in the likeness of man. And especially in the manger, etc. All right, so yeah, even the incarnation itself is is a motivation or a Picture that we should look at and see that husbands should be especially sacrificial for their wives.

All right. Yeah, and what once again it might seem like this is odd remember back when we When we talked about how to interpret Ephesians 5 I mentioned that Christ is an incarnational title.

And so.

It would be wrong to take some of these statements about Christ in the church. There are different ways. It's wrong to apply it first. It's wrong to overly apply it to individuals right because it's Christ in the church not Christ and the church member that are you know.

Married, you know, I'm not. Personally, I'm married to Christ. It's the church that's married to Christ. The other thing that is uh, that would be problematic is to Apply these things to the divinity of Jesus when it's primarily Christ is primarily an incarnational title.

It's talking about him as the anointed one. It's primarily talking about his humanity. So here it might seem odd because when he is Becoming incarnate. He is he is not human when he you know, quote-unquote goes to earth.

So is it right to apply this? Well, it's the it's the person of Christ that we're speaking up here. So we're not really talking about the the humanity of him or the deity of him so much as we're talking about the person of Christ sacrificially.

Engaging in that act of humility for the sake of the bride. All right now moving on to discipleship. Okay. So as Christ grew to mature years, he began his earthly ministry and this is not just a Precursor to the Atonement, you know, it's not just that.

Okay. Well, the church doesn't exist yet. That's not going to exist. Don't told Pentecost. There's no there's no kingdom yet. That's not going to exist until the resurrection. There's no victory yet. That's not going to exist until then as well.

Jesus speaks very differently about these things. He does speak of of the church as being established and existing even in the Gospels prior to his his death and resurrection. Matthew 16 18 He says and also I say to you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

And.

He gives commands that presume the establishment of the church as well. Matthew 18 17. And if he refused to hear them tell it to the church. And if he refused to hear the church also, let him be to you as the Gentile and the tax collector.

And speaking of the Victory that was already possessed even before the gospel was accomplished just in the proclamation of the gospel as its first being preached. Luke 10 18. And he said to them I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven.

I don't believe this is talking about him. You know, uh some people interpret this as Jesus a long time ago saw the fall of the angels or or something like that. What he's talking about in context is when the disciples go out and proclaim the gospel Satan has lost power as the gospel is of the kingdom is being proclaimed.

All right. And then he also explains that the kingdom is already present even prior to his declaration as King through the resurrection. Luke 17 20. And being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God comes He answered them and said the kingdom of God does not come with observation.

Neither will they say behold here or there for behold the kingdom of God is within your midst.

Okay, so.

Okay, so the church that kingdom that victory is already existing during this time of the gospel. So it's not anachronistic to look at the union between Christ and the church at this time, right? So far we've been talking about Preparatory things that Christ is doing for the sake of some some union to be had.

But now as we get into the heart of the Gospels Is it right to talk about an actual? Union between Christ and the church. And it is because he does not he does not talk about the church as being just some future thing it is something that Exists then.

Leaving Father and Mother to Form a New Family

Okay. All right, and so we have not just Christ's departure from his So during his earthly ministry not just a departure from the heavenly home like we talked about in his incarnation. But a departure from his earthly home.

In.

Mark 3 33 and he answers them and says also I'm reading from the ASV. But just an interesting thing about translations that you may not know just like in English. We often do this when we tell stories.

Sometimes we'll tell them in present tense. And we'll say, you know, and there I was at the store and I grabbed the soda, you know I just switched from past tense to present tense, right? They they did that too back then and a lot of the Gospels are written that way.

And if you I don't know what the ESV does but in the NASB they have an asterisk. That that marks every time they just went ahead and changed the past tense to make it easier for you to read but really, they're switching back and forth between past and present tense and The ASV which is what I'm reading from just goes ahead and leaves it that way.

So that's why it may might sound a bit odd to your ears. Mark 3 33 and he answers them and says who is my mother and my brothers. And looking around on those who sat around him. He says behold my mother and my brothers for whoever will do the will of God He is my brother and sister and mother.

So.

Wow, you know, he still cared about his earthly family. They are no longer his primary family as he is as he's proclaiming the gospel as he's establishing the church. He is he is saying, you know, who are my mother and my brothers?

These are my mother and my brothers these the ones who do the will of the father these are my mother and my brothers and so there is a So there's a departure from his earthly family to embrace that union between him and the church right, and so the the implication is Like I said, he still cared about his family.

But if those are ever at odds one is primary and Yeah, there are many couples that live under the thumb of their parents and they haven't really separated as they ought and that ends up hampering the the fruitfulness of the marriage or the flourishing of it and Yeah couples need to be willing to make good on that fundamental such separation such that if those Families are ever at odds the new family formed by the new union is the is the primary one which has precedence over the other.

Yeah, I'm familiar with a a particular case where Someone wanted to marry a Woman, but the the parents were very hostile about the the Christian faith. His parents were very hostile about the Christian faith and so the advice from his elders was we would support you in marrying her but you have to be willing to to break off contact because you know, they were like physical threats of violence very real ones to not just you know not just Incredible ones they were credible threats of violence and things and so you have to be willing to break off from your parents.

If you are going to to marry this woman and he wasn't he decided he wasn't willing to break off from them. So he he didn't marry her but which is I think that's a sad move but uh Yeah, it is it is needed sometimes To have the full separation where there's no communication.

That's not always what's necessary you know, sometimes there's other kinds of separation that are appropriate but Yeah, that that new family has to become primary. Now it's not merely the case that Jesus departs from father and mother but also the disciples do as well.

And this is something that It's featured pretty Prominently at the beginning of Jesus ministry as he's calling the initial 12 disciples Mark 119 says and going on a little further He saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother who also were in the boat mending the nets.

And immediately called to them and they left their father Zebedee and the boat with the hired servants and went after him. Alright, so you see the disciples leaving their father in order to follow after Jesus.

And this is it ends up being a rule that he applies for all his disciples saying that they must even hate their own Families in order to follow him, you know, once again that hatred not necessarily being a You know abdication of all love but rather a Relative love that says that This new family is primary above that above that old family and any competing love must be abandoned.

Luke 14 26 if any man comes to me and Hates not his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters. Yes, and his own life. Also. He cannot be my disciple. He requires us of his disciples to leave their fathers and mothers.

Matthew 10 38 5. For I came to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter Against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and a man's foes Will be those of his own household.

He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he who loves son or daughter more than me is Not worthy of me. So this is a requirement In order to be united with Christ is to abandon father and mother.

Or to be willing to abandon them and Then he also states this is forming a new family Matthew 19 27. Actually, it'd be good. Maybe if we could get some of these longer readings if we could get volunteers.

Does someone want to read a Matthew 19? 27 through 29. Do we have a do also do we have a microphone? About 27 through 29 27 through 21 9.

All right. Then Peter said in reply see we have left everything and followed you what then will we have? Jesus said to them truly I say to you in the new world when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

And Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for my name's sake Will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.

All right. So what's the result of leaving behind their family? Right is that they gain a new family. Okay, so the the separation Causes the formation of a new family. All right now could somebody else read John 19 26 through 27.

Yes, please. Sorry. That was yes, John 19 26 through 27. 26 through 27.

When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciple standing by whom he loveth he said unto his mother woman behold thy son. Then saith he to his disciple behold thy mother and from that hour that disciple took her into his own home.

Okay. Thank you.

All right.

Anybody ever wondered about the significance of that. Anybody want to try to explain what Jesus is saying, you know. This is one of those sayings on the cross. Traditionally, it's been counted as seven different sayings on the cross.

What does this one mean. Where he he points to? His mother woman behold your son. And. He's John is the disciple whom he loved. Right woman behold your son. Then he says to the disciple. That's John behold your mother.

What is the yeah, what's the implication of that?

Okay.

Okay loyalty. Yeah. Yeah, this is this is your new family what is being established through the cross is this is this new family where John the disciple and Mary Jesus's mother are Bonded by a family bond that is even stronger than Jesus to his own mother by earthly ties, right?

Everyone imagines. Everyone Roman Catholicism, you know imagines Mary to be so blessed and have such ties to Jesus through. You know her bearing him in her womb. But what Jesus is saying is that's not a that's not a significant tie.

You know blessed be the blessed be the warm womb that bore you and the breast that nursed you blessed rather of those who do of the will of the Father, right. And. Yeah, and Mary did you know, she's a sister but.

But that connection is shared by all of us, you know, it's not by the fact that she bore him All right. Now I mentioned a second ago that we want to avoid overreading Individual relationships with Christ because we're not individually related to Christ when we're talking about the disciples leaving father and mother.

Is it right to think of it that way? Well, what we see is that this is spoken of corporately as well Psalm 45 which we've talked about the significance of that before psalm 45 being a.

A.

Abbreviation it's not the right word. An abridgment an abridgment of the Song of Solomon and a lot of ways.

Says.

Listen to a daughter and consider and incline your ear speaking to the wife of the of the king whom she's marrying. Forget also your own people and your father's house. You know, this is the this is the call to the bride and Psalm 45 is forget your people forget your father's house.

And so the people are supposed to leave their earthly families behind for this heavenly family. And remember also that Psalm 45 is the one that's quoted in Hebrews 1 the one that says Your throne of God is forever and ever etc.

So.

Hebrews 1 acknowledges that this is talking about Jesus Christ and. And if it's talking about Jesus Christ, it's certainly talking about the union between him and the church because that is his bride since this is a wedding a wedding poem and.

Yeah, so that call to forget your own people applies to the church.

Yeah.

Right, yeah, yeah that book Jesus calling that. Yeah, we're this woman claims to have actually had visions of Jesus and to him to have spoken to her and she records all this it's unfortunately very popular, but Yesterday, yeah, I believe so that's a good point and that would be yeah him doing so as a not a disciple maybe in the New Testament sense so much, but yeah and to follow after God and To be part of this people and to and to form and I mean what is Abraham doing?

But forming the new family of God right as he's as he's becomes the father of many nations, etc. Yeah, that's a good point. All right. Yeah, and so though Genesis 2 24 speaks particularly of husbands therefore man shall leave his father and mother.

The same is true of the wife. It's not. Yeah, there's no. Maybe we could say there's a particular way it applies to the husband. But it still applies fairly symmetrically to the wife that she must leave her her family as well.

And this is something a lot of women struggle with, you know when they when they get married. When their husband's not treating them well, and they're sad about things. They what do they do? They call it mom.

They complain they say Like is that really a leaving father and mother or is that you know hanging on because when I don't like this family I'll tend back to this family when I do like this family. No, you can't be this weathered vein of Deciding which family you want to be part of the same is true of disciples, right?

You can't be like, oh well now I like the world. Because the because the church is too difficult. Oh, you know now the church is okay. Oh, no, I think I like the world again. We can't be that weathered vein and likewise wives can't be that weathered vein with their new family.

It has to be something they're committed to you also see a lot of Wives who have trust issues who Because they have trust issues and are so concerned that Divorce is somewhere on the horizon they're always they've always got some kind of backup plan in place and they're really scared to Lose anything that would be part of their backup plan whether it be you know holding on to a particular career or something and not investing in the home because not because it's actually Needed for the family to survive or anything.

It's just well what happens if he what happens if this doesn't work out, right? And that's not a that's not a commitment to the new family. That's a you know, one foot in the one foot in the old family still.

If you're not willing to fully commit to your own family, there's another proverb that Is appropriate here. Let me see if I can look it up. Oh, man. Can anybody help me find this it talks about the foolish woman woman tearing down her own household.

It is. Yeah, it's proverbs. Yeah, I'll just check Google instead of trying to search the words directly. Okay proverbs 14 1. Yeah, the wisest of women builds her house but folly with her own hands tears it down that's what a lot of a Lot of women do because they aren't fully committed to their to their new home, especially younger right younger moms or younger wives.

Because they still feel like they've got one foot in the old door. They're not committed to building the house up and we'll even build it tear it down. Any questions. Yeah, if you've got if you got practical questions to about what should you do in this sort of situation feel free to ask them.

I know we're spending a lot of time on theology here. But the whole point is to get to practical applications like that and I know I'm kind of light on the on the specifics I'm giving. We're gonna all this stuff.

I plan on most of these Application points I plan on coming back to and the usual way that you would go through them. You know just what is marriage? How should you think of marriage? Most most works on marriage are going in that direction and then they'll.

They're walking through what marriage is and how you should do marriage and then they'll occasionally make observations about Christ in the church. Right, and we're trying to if Christ in the church is primary.

We're trying to do the opposite at least first before then going back with all that in mind doing it the other way. All right. Okay now service though he came as a king Jesus ministry was marked by service.

Who wants to read Matthew 20 25? Through 28 2025 through 28.

Thanks.

2025 Do 38 28. 20, but Jesus called them to him and said, you know that the rule rulers of the Gentiles Lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them It shall not be so among you But whoever would be great among you must be your servants and whoever would be first among you must be your slave.

Even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Okay. Thank you. All right, and this is a especially. One well-known instance of this is Jesus washing the disciples feet. Does someone want. Sorry. Miguel every time you squeeze back in there ask you to pass it to somebody else.

But this one want to read John 13 2 through 5. Sorry. Make you keep getting back up. You just let them pass it around. John 13 2 through 5.

During supper when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him Jesus knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and they had come from God He was going back to God rose from supper.

He laid aside his outer garments and taking a towel tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and begin to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around.

Yeah, sorry. Go all the way to verse 8.

Came to Simon Peter who said to him Lord. Do you wash my feet. Jesus answered him? What am I doing? You do not understand now, but afterward you will understand. Peter said to him You shall never wash my feet.

Jesus answered him if I do not wash you you shall have no share with me.

All right. Thank you. All right. So, yeah, we have this we have Jesus washing the disciples feet. Interestingly, this is another one of those passages where there's a lot of present tense in the original Greek, you know, and then he let's say was it say I lost my I lost my spot, but.

Yeah, it says He rises from supper and lays aside his garments and he took a towel. So just which is the past tense right there so while that's While that's normal and the way we speak it's not normal in the way we write.

So I think that's the that's like the cultural disconnect because I always think like why why does that feel so unnatural if we also? Speak that way. Just we don't write that way. All right, so does this apply this the service that's washing feet.

Well washing is one of the same words that Paul uses in Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5 25 through 26. He says Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for it that he might sanctify it having cleansed It by the washing of water with the word.

So now the kind of cleansing that Christ is symbolizing when he Washes the feet is of course a purification that a husband cannot offer a wife that kind of sanctification or that kind of. Yeah, cleansing from sin is not really possible for a husband to do but husband is to care for a wife's well-being or spiritual well-being especially.

And so husbands should serve their wives now this this service service is not at odds with. With authority a lot of times it will be pitched at being at odds with authority. Something that Tim recently pointed out to me was that The term servant leader.

I forget if it was like in the 70s or 80s, but that was some That didn't come from you know, like Christian writings that came from some You know workplace Philosophy about about how to lead in the workplace servant leadership and then ended up getting adopted by Christians in the way, right and there's nothing wrong with leaders being servants.

But a lot of times the way that servant leadership is described. It's more servant and very little leadership, right? It's authority less leadership. Where the only way that you lead is by by persuasion and nothing else.

So these things are. So these things are not at odds with authority, but it directs authority, right? How should? How should Christ use authority he should use it for the good of his church.

And.

At the same time it doesn't stand at odds with the service that the church is to give to Christ. Right the fact that he's serving her does not mean that she should not serve him that the church is to Serve him and it is likewise for her good.

Yeah, and so often you see people take Notions of authority and say that well it be. While husband has that authority because he's supposed to be serving her anytime He actually uses that authority to you know, rule her or command her would be Tyrannical and that's a failure to to serve.