Adult Sunday School - Marriage Between Christ & The Church

Dear Holy Father, thank you for this day that you've given us. Thank you for your word which guides us, and thank you for Jesus Christ whom you've sent to save our souls.

We pray that you would teach us more about him today, in Jesus' name, amen. All right, so we are continuing our study of marriage.

Last week we ended up looking at the marriage that's described between God and his people in the

Old Testament, and this week we'll be looking at that in the New Testament. And I say last week, that was actually three weeks ago, because there was a gap there.

But we looked at various passages in the Old Testament, a lot of them had to do around the assumption that Israel was married, and then talking about any instance of idolatry as being a prostitution or a whoring.

But then also we looked at the Song of Solomon as being an allegory, rather than something actually historical, being an allegory for Christ and the church.

And Psalm 45, likewise, being the same. Well, today we're going to be looking at the

New Testament. We're going to be doing a lot of reading today, maybe even more reading than teaching, because I just want to go through all the passages that are relevant to this in the

New Testament. So what I'm going to do is maybe if you could come sit over here and run the mic to people who want to volunteer to read.

If I could get three volunteers to start off with for three passages. Anybody want to read?

Okay, we've got one. Yeah, turn to John 3, and you turn to, sorry, Albert, do

John 2, and then Francisco, John 3, and then Jonathan, Mark 2.

I'll give you the actual verses in a minute, but, okay, could you take that back to Albert? All right,

Albert, if you could read John 2, 1 through 11. Thanks. Testing.

John 2. On the third day, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine.

And Jesus said to her, woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.

His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. Now there were six stone waiter jars, there for the

Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons. Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water.

And they filled them up to the brim. And he had said to them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.

So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water, now become wine, and did not know where it came from.

Though the servants who had drawn the water knew, the master of the feast called the bridegroom. And he said to him, everyone serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then they pour the poor wine.

But you have kept the good wine until now. This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

Okay, thanks. All right, so yeah, these first passages that we're going to be looking at here have to do with the beginning of Christ's ministry, and things that point to that relationship between him and the church there.

Now, why would I pick this passage, this first miracle of Jesus? How does this relate to the marriage between Christ and the church, other than it depicting a wedding?

What else, what else is going on here? Maybe, maybe let me ask this.

Why do you think this was Jesus' first miracle, and why does, you know, John points out that this was the first of his signs.

That's pretty significant, right? Like, this is the first sign, this is the inaugural one that explains what the purpose of his ministry, what, who he is, you know, what he's doing.

Why this one? Any thoughts on that? I know somebody's got some thoughts.

Yes? Okay. Okay.

Because just the, just the correspondence with the wedding sort of suggests that. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah, maybe it has something to do with joy, right, that his ministry is one of joy. You see that later, especially as he's compared with John the

Baptist. Okay. But consider this. Okay, he makes wine for the wedding.

Now, who has the responsibility of providing wine for the wedding? Okay. Who's the host?

I think, yeah, in our culture, that would be. But who does the, who does the master of the feast go and talk to about this wine?

The groom. He talks to the groom, right? The groom is the one who has the responsibility. He goes and talks to the groom because he assumes it has come from the groom, and the groom has saved the best wine for now.

And so, what is Jesus doing? He's fulfilling the responsibility of the bridegroom in providing wine, making this feast joyful, letting people know that he is the ultimate bridegroom by this sign, right?

So this one's not as explicit as a lot of the passages that we see in the New Testament talk about the marriage between Christ and the church, but this is his first sign.

It has real significance in identifying who he is and what the purpose of his ministry is. And he is the ultimate bridegroom who makes the wedding as joyous as possible, all right?

And this is, and I think I'll spend a lot of next week pointing this out, but this is more than other things.

You know, this is not just the analogy between, you know, Jesus is the Lion of Judah, or he's the door, or he's the vine.

There's a special significance to this one such that Ephesians 5, even in my understanding of it, seems to suggest that God gave marriage for the purpose of teaching us about this union.

Whereas, you know, ferocious felines or whatever, those are things that he gave for various reasons and then, you know, uses that as an analogy.

Doors, obviously, you know, they've got a lot of purposes, and then God uses it as an analogy. Marriage is something I believe that was given primarily for this purpose.

Not that all things aren't primarily for Christ, the Bible says that all things are, but you know what I mean?

There's a special way that this one is, this one is ordained and given to us to teach us of Christ.

All right. Francisco, I think you had John 3, if you could read verses 25 through 30.

Now, a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification.

And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who is with you across the Jordan to whom you bore witness, look, he is baptizing and all are going to him.

John answered, a person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.

You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.

The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.

Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.

All right. So John's ministry is to proclaim Christ. This is what he's doing. He's the forerunner.

He's the herald of Jesus Christ. And when Jesus comes on the scene, what does he say about his identity?

Like who are we to think of this guy as? And he is the bridegroom. Any other thoughts on this particular passage?

Right. Yeah, Jesus has the bride. It's not John who has the bride, right? John is, in this analogy, he is the groomsman.

You know, he's the best man who's heralding the groom as he's coming in.

So his role is not as the bridegroom, but as the groomsman. So the bride should be going to Jesus. Exactly.

Exactly. Yeah. He must decrease. John must decrease, that is, and Christ must increase.

All right. Now, right, well, he's a prophet.

You know, he's communing with God. So it could be by direct revelation. It could be by some inspiration that he himself doesn't understand, as it describes in 2

Peter 1, 10. It could be, there are various explanations of this, and it could just be his own studied understanding of what the

Old Testament says about this anticipation of a renewing of the marriage that had been, where, you know, divorce had been constantly threatened between God and Israel.

That there's going to come this one that the song of songs speaks of, who will be married and facilitate the beautiful marriage between God's people and him.

So, you know, all three of those are options, direct revelation from God, pulling an analogy that's just by inspiration of the spirit in the moment, or even his own studied understanding.

I don't think that's beyond possibility. In fact, I think that's very possible that he had a studied understanding that there was an expectation of a bridegroom.

All right. We've got Mark 2 over here, Jonathan, verses 19 through 20.

And Jesus said to them, can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.

All right. Thanks. And that appears in the other synoptics as well, the other synoptics being

Matthew and Luke. Okay. So what, maybe you all are familiar with this passage.

What's the question that's asked to Jesus when he gives this answer? Right. Yeah.

Why aren't your disciples fasting? John's disciples fast. Well, the answer is he is the bridegroom, and there will come a day when he's taken away.

It will be appropriate to fast in that day, but it's not appropriate to fast while the bridegroom is with them. So his ministry is one particularly of joy, you know, and he explains,

I believe it's in Matthew, if not the others, oh, it's in Luke too, where he says, he makes the analogy of the children who are, you know, talking about playing the dirge and you did not mourn or playing songs and you did not dance.

I'm butchering that a little, but, you know, that's describing John's ministry, people not responding,

Jesus's ministry, people not responding. So there is a contrast between John's ministry, which is anticipating

Christ and in Christ's ministry where he's actually present. All right. So those three passages are the main ones in the, or the only ones

I know of in the beginning of Christ's ministry that speak of him as this bridegroom, but there are obviously some pretty important ones.

The first sign that he does, the witness of his herald, his own witness to himself. Okay. So that's like, that's all you would really want is if he's got someone to herald him, he says who he is, he says who he himself is, and then he does a sign demonstrating who he is.

Okay. But then he tells parables that place him, place us in various places.

In fact, I don't know if we're the bride in any of these, but places us in different places and then, but he is the bridegroom in each of these.

So let's look at those parables. Can I get, let's see, four volunteers to read.

Okay. Chris, anyone else? Okay. Go ahead and turn to Matthew 22.

Anyone else? Three more. Okay.

Francisco, Matthew 25, who wants to take Luke 12? Just start calling random people.

Okay. Jonathan. And then Luke 14. So on Luke 14, one more person.

Okay. All right. All right. I'm blanking. Sorry. Mitchell. Right. All right. Luke 14.

Okay. Great. Let's start with Chris in Matthew 22 verses one through 14.

Here, you have, for the recording. Yeah. Thanks. Once more,

Jesus spoke to them in parables. The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.

He sent his servants to summon the bride. The bride was invited to the banquet, but they did not want to come. Again, he sent out his other servants and said, tell those who are invited, see,

I prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready.

Come to the wedding banquet. But they paid no attention and went away, one to his own farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them.

The king was enraged, and he sent out his troops, killed those murderers, and burned down their cities.

Then he told his servants, the banquet is ready, but those who are invited were not worthy. Go then to where the roads exit the city and invite everyone you find to the banquet.

So those servants went out on the roads and gathered everyone they found, both evil and good. The wedding banquet was filled with guests.

When the king came to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed for a wedding.

So he said to him, friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes? The man was speechless.

Then the king told the attendants, tie him up, hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

For many are invited, but few are chosen. Thanks. All right. So any observations from this parable?

Who are the various things in this parable? He says the kingdom of heaven is likened to a certain king.

So what's the king? What's the marriage feast? Who are the guests? Someone fill in details for me here. God is the king.

Okay. God is the king. And the ones that are invited are the Israelites. Okay. Yes. Okay. And they weren't interested, so he went out and gathered them.

Right. Without true righteousness. Right. Without true righteousness. Right.

Yes. And so, yeah, they're cast out. Yeah, the son is obviously

Christ, the bridegroom. Yeah. And this wedding is, this wedding is coming.

So, one thing to remember in all this, Jesus is called the groom. He's not called, typically, he's not called the husband, and the church is not called the wife, because that marriage is not yet consummated, it's still not consummated, right?

The church is in a state of betrothal to Christ. And so, we're anticipating that day, and as people are being invited to the wedding, they're either coming with proper righteousness or without proper righteousness.

Now, we know from the rest of the New Testament where that proper righteousness comes from. It comes from Christ himself.

But, just here in this context, these Israelites are coming to him without true righteousness.

Yeah. Go, therefore, to the partings of the highways, and as many as you will find, tell to come to the marriage feast.

Right. So, you've got, yeah, you've got several different parties here, right? And there are those who are welcomed in, who are not part of the original invite list.

And, you know, it talks about the gospel going forward, et cetera. All right. Matthew 25, verses 1 through 13.

Who had that? Francisco? Yeah. And the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.

Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them.

But the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.

But at midnight there was a cry, Here is the bridegroom, come out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.

And the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, saying,

Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.

And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him. To the marriage feast, and the door was shut.

Afterward, the other virgins came, also saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered, Truly I say to you,

I do not know you. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

All right, so this is coming immediately after the Olivet Discourse, where Jesus is explaining when he will return.

He's explaining two things. I've described this in the scripture reading lately. He's describing when the temple will fall, and then secondarily, when he will return.

A lot of people get that confused, and they think he's describing one event, but he's describing two different things. And that makes sense of the comment that this generation will not pass away.

I actually want you to talk to a Buddhist who said like, this is the, like a very serious committed

Buddhist who said, this is the verse that shows that most Christians don't understand the Bible. And I was like, actually,

I do believe he was really talking about that generation. But this

Buddhist, right, and like Jesus said he was coming back in, you know, within that generation. And the way a lot of Christians take that is that, oh, okay, well, this whole world is this generation or something like that.

But Jesus is explaining how you can anticipate the fall of the temple. And so he was talking about that generation.

It's just not talking about his return. That's the next answer he gives afterward to the disciples. Okay, so he explains all that.

Explains that he's coming. And now he talks about the importance of anticipating his coming.

So who are the different characters in this parable? Okay. Right, so who do they represent?

Right, so it'd be people, right? So us as the church being ready or the world not being ready.

Or maybe people who think they're part of the church and not ready. That's a great question.

So I haven't thought too much about whether or not the oil is so specific in the analogy.

But yeah, to be ready is, you know, putting together these parables, we realize these are all about, you know, having the right righteousness, right, having

Christ's righteousness. A lot of people, you know, think that they'll just live their lives and then, you know, figure it out when

Christ returns. But when he returns, it'll be too late. There's a lot of people who think that they can just, you know, live for themselves now and then near the end of their life, they'll clean it up.

Not realizing that they're, you know, hardening their own hearts such that they never could. Right.

Yes. Luke 12.

Is that Jonathan? Luke 12, 35 through 40.

35 to 40? Yes. Okay. Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks.

Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at the table and he will come and serve them.

If he comes in the second watch or in the third and finds them awake, blessed are those servants, but know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into.

You must be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect. All right.

All right. And so, yeah, who is, who are the different characters in this one?

This is interesting because in this one, it's not clear whether or not the one who is returning from the feast is the groom, right?

But given all these other parables where Jesus is the groom, it would make sense that perhaps this is the groom returning from his own feast.

And each of these have been different, right? You've had the groom inviting people and then there are these people who are invited, the groom expecting these virgins to be ready at the feast and then this groom or wedding party goer expecting servants to be ready back home.

So the analogy is retold in different ways and it's not, it's not so one -to -one.

You'll find that as you study the parables that, you know, it's, there's not some strict formula. Oh, Jesus always has to be exactly the groom in this way or the church always has to be the bride in exactly this way in these parables.

Because they are parables, you know, they aren't the, they aren't the bigger theological statements that we're getting in the epistles or at the beginning of Jesus' ministry stating our relationship with him.

They're just the other different analogies revealing this. Right?

Yeah, so a while ago we preached a sermon series through 1st and 2nd Thessalonians which are really about that, that importance of being ready for Christ's return and anticipating his return.

So yeah, you know, it means being prayerful, growing in sanctification, not being fooled by the world and living in darkness.

Yeah, exactly. Distracted is a good word. All right. Yeah, so we're supposed to be, we're supposed to be ready for his return.

Yeah, there's also statements but, but know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched and not have left his house to be broken through.

So you see even another analogy being used after this about, about the master and the thief.

Well, the passage that first comes to mind for me is 2 Peter 3 .10 that talks about Jesus returning like a thief and that basically, you know, we don't know when it's going to happen.

I don't know if that's, that doesn't seem related to Jesus being the strong man who's going to, even though this is similar where you've got a house invasion in both of these, but, but I think that might be the limit of the similarity.

But yeah, the house would represent, you know, the, the household God. All right.

Luke 14, 7 through 11 from Mitch. Thanks. 7 through 11?

Yes. Now he told a parable to those who were invited when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, when you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor unless someone more distinguished than you be invited by him.

And he who invited you both will come and say to you, give your place to this person, and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.

But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place so that when your host comes, he may say to you, friend, move up higher.

Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

All right. So this one has a little different character than the other ones.

Still talking about feasts, though. What are the implications of this passage?

And I once wrote a book on preaching that used as an illustration to describe the importance of really understanding the passage.

Talked about a preacher who preached on this text to give people tips for how to plan a party.

And that was like the whole thing of the sermon. You know, if you've ever been to a liberal church before, this is the kind of preaching they do.

You know, they just take these passages and, you know, they're not talking about Christ. They're just like, oh, here's some tips for your life, like how to plan a party.

All right. But what are the implications for this, this marriage feast?

Okay. So we should be humble and allow God to do the exaltation. Okay. All right.

Who has the chief seat at a wedding? The groom.

Okay. So who will get the most exalted seat? Right. In this parable about humility and exaltation, who will get the most exalted seat?

The one who is most, what's that? Right. The most humble. And so who has engaged in the most humility?

Who has been the most humiliated? Right. It's Christ. It's Christ. Yeah. You look at Philippians 2 and what it says about Jesus that, though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but humbled himself, becoming a servant, taking on the likeness of man, even to being obedient to the point of death.

You know, this is, yeah, Jesus' humility goes beyond the humility of others.

And others might die worse deaths, but given Christ's status and the chasm and given what he's accomplishing in it, it is a greater humility that leads to a greater exaltation.

And so while this isn't, while he's not directly talking about himself, this is one of the implications we're supposed to be getting from this.

Okay. If I want to be great in the kingdom of heaven, yes, I should be humble and I will be exalted somewhere, you know, in that table.

But Christ, he is the one who is the most humble or was in his earthly ministry anyway.

And so he will therefore be the most exalted at that table. He is the groom once again.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's right. All right. Let's do, okay, yeah, let's do two more.

Okay. Two more volunteers to read. Okay. Okay. Chris and Unamath.

Bianca. Okay. Second Corinthians 11 .2. And then

Bianca Ephesians 5. So now we're moving on from Jesus' parables here.

So we looked at three different parables. And now we are, yeah, we looked at three instances in the beginning of Christ's ministry.

We looked at four parables. And now we're going to look at two different passages in Paul's epistles.

So maybe if you could, for Chris, 2 Corinthians 11 .2.

Yes. For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy because I have promised you in marriage to one husband to present a pure virgin to Christ.

Okay. Thanks. All right. So what is Paul saying here? Like what are the implications of all this?

Right. Who is Paul in this analogy? The friend of the bridegroom.

What did you say, Josh? The father, right? Yeah. So the father is the one who gives away the bride, right?

And the father is also the one who is, you know, this is kind of lost in our culture, but responsible for keeping the woman pure for the sake of marriage, right?

And he is, as a good father, and you see this throughout the epistles, what he means by being a father is having been the one influential in their conversion.

You see this when he talks to Titus, you see this when he talks to Timothy, and even when he speaks to the Corinthians or the

Thessalonians as a whole, he regards himself as a father because he was the one who is responsible for their new birth, right?

For being born again. And so he takes a fatherly role in that, and that fatherly role continues in 2

Corinthians in a couple of ways. One of the ways that you see in a chapter later from this is that in talking about how the super apostles charge the money, but he does not charge the money for the gospel, that the children are not responsible for saving up for the parents, but parents for the children.

This is a statement he makes in 2 Corinthians. And so that's why it would be wrong for him to charge, and anyone who's truly a father figure to them, which the super apostles appear to be claiming to be, claiming having done the mission work that Paul has done, right?

They're positioning themselves as fathers of Corinth, but then charging for the gospel. And Paul is showing that no, he's the true father because the role of a father is to save up for the children, not the other way around, and to provide that inheritance.

And this is another way that he's a father here. He wants them to be, he wants to keep them pure so that he can present the church.

Now, of course, he's part of the church, so this analogy breaks down somewhere. But he wants to present that church to Christ as a pure virgin.

And so Christ is the groom here, the church, in particular the

Corinthian church is spoken of as the bride, but of course this applies to the church universal as the bride.

And this also is a very good passage, probably the best passage to show that that marriage is not consummated yet.

It should be obvious that when the Bible talks about the wedding feast that is to happen, marriage is not consummated yet.

If you look at a lot of, there's a lot of unhinged literature on marriage in various ways.

There was one article recently in the Gospel Coalition about Christ and the church that was so bad they ended up,

I think they ended up pulling it, but it was describing this analogy between Christ and the church in such a way that it was pretending as if the marriage already existed.

And so it was describing the sexual act between Christ and the church and what that means and how that's fulfilled. But the thing is, that hasn't been fulfilled yet, the marriage hasn't been consummated.

And Ephesians 5 explains that the whole mystery of that physical union is a mystery, right?

That it hasn't been revealed yet what that entails. What does it mean for that wedding to be consummated? It's a mystery.

And yeah, there's some unhinged literature that tries to explore, like, well, what does that mean between Christ and the church that there's this, you know, two becoming one flesh, et cetera?

It's like, no, that's a mystery. That's the secret things belong to the Lord. One day that will belong to us, but not yet.

We don't know. We don't know what that means yet. So occasionally you will see language of husband and wife used, even for now.

Why would that be appropriate, do you know? So, in their culture, the betrothal process was very contractual, very formalized, not like we have, such that, for example, you see

Joseph seeking to secretly divorce Mary, right? They're not really married yet.

So why are they getting divorced? Well, because they're betrothed, and that contractual agreement is such that we might describe the breaking of it to be a divorce.

And so this is why occasionally you will see language that talks about Christ and the church as husband and wife, though it's not yet consummated.

It's not because it is consummated. It's because the betrothal process in their culture was far more formalized and contractual than ours, and it makes it appropriate to speak in this way.

All right. Ephesians 5, 22 through 32.

Now, of course, we've quoted this one a number of times, but this is the other passage in Paul's literature that goes into this analogy.

Yes. 32. Oh, 32.

Yeah, 22 to 32. Okay. Wives, submit to your own husbands as the

Lord, but the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church.

His body and is himself its Savior. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.

Therefore, a man shall live his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Okay, thank you. All right, we'll be looking at this in a lot more detail next week to talk about the implications of what this means for husbands and wives today, but let's go ahead and talk about how does

Paul speak of Christ and the church in this, and let me add that this really is the most important passage out of all these in some ways, because it's the one that explains that this is not just some arbitrary analogy that's being pulled out.

This passage is explaining, this is really how we are to think about the relationship.

Any thoughts on what this says about Christ and the church?

Talks about the sacrifice, right, that Christ is sacrificial for the sake of the church. Obviously he gave his own life, purifies the church.

Now, that's interesting, because that might be more of the role of the father, but what that reminds me of is in Ezekiel, and I'm forgetting which passage.

We looked at those two different Ezekiel passages last time, but the one where God is described first as a father who's adopting some child, and then washing her, and then later marrying her.

Now, obviously, that analogy breaks down. It's not appropriate for human relationships, but it's describing, what

I think is being alluded to is the relationship between God and his people that you see in Ezekiel, rather than describing the typical role of a husband, but it does have implications for us in how we care for our wives, washing with the water of the word, keeping pure, et cetera, right?

So Christ provides for the church. Yeah, we're members of his body, and so that membership in his body is meaningful, just as the one flesh union is meaningful.

You know, there's another passage that speaks to this I'll pull up. 2 Corinthians 6 says, excuse me, 1

Corinthians 6, 1

Corinthians 6 says food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for food, and God will destroy one and the other.

The body is not meant for sexual morality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the

Lord, and will also raise us up by his power. So I'll stop there a second. The fact that God is raising up,

I think, is important because I haven't sorted out all that this passage means, but there is a way that our bodies being raised up have a special status in Christ, that even though our bodies are in Christ now, there is a way that they are joined uniquely in that power.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?

Never. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For as it is written, the two will become one flesh, but he who is joined to the

Lord becomes one spirit with him. So that's interesting because it suggests that there would be some sense in which a prostitute would be made, would be joined to Christ by us joining with a prostitute, and that the alternative here is that we are joined spiritually and our bodies raised up in power are joined and fitted to him on that last day.

So there's a lot of details there that I haven't completely worked out. Oh yeah, and then the next verse is also pretty relevant.

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

So all the implications of that, a little difficult to sort out, but it does suggest that there is some reality to that one flesh union that implies implications even for how we think about Christ and the church and our responsibility to our wives, ourselves being joined to Christ.

It also shows how serious it is to be one with Christ. Yeah, that's good.

Great. Yeah, and then likewise for the wife, the church obviously needs to submit to Christ, and so Paul is drawing out that the wife needs to submit to her husband, and also the leaving behind.

For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and will join to his wife. Yeah, and so there's a departing from other things in order to embrace this union.

All right, a lot of details here. We're going to look at that in more detail next week, actually, and just go through the role of the husband, the role of the wife, what that means practically.

All right, so those were the two passages in Paul. Now, let's go on to Revelation. I need,

I think, let's see, three more readers, three more readers.

All right, Chris again. Okay, Vinay and John.

Okay, so Revelation 19 and Vinay, you can do

Revelation 21, and then John, Revelation 22.

All right, so in Revelation 19, we're going to look at verses 6 through 10.

Yes, and maybe he's got the microphone for you here. Then I heard something like the voice of a vast multitude, like the sound of cascading waters and like the rumbling of loud thunder, saying,

Hallelujah, because our Lord God the Almighty reigns. Let us be glad, rejoice, and give him glory, because the marriage of the

Lamb has come. And as the bride has prepared herself, she was given fine linen to wear, bright and pure, for the fine linen represents the righteous acts of the saints.

How much farther is that? Sorry, all the way to verse 10.

Then he said to me, Blessed are those invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb. He also said to me,

These words of God are true. Then I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, Don't do that.

I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers and sisters who hold firmly to the testimony of Jesus.

Worship God, because the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Okay, thanks.

So here you have in Revelation repeatedly this description of Christ as the groom and the church as the bride and this anticipation of that marriage.

Yeah, let us rejoice and exult and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and the bride has made herself ready.

It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. You know, it's not just something she was able to do on her own, but it was granted to her.

And then it explains what the fine linen is, it is the righteous deed of the saints. So all these analogies that have been being made before by Jesus in his parables, the

Bible saying, or Jesus himself saying in Matthew 13, 13, that the parables were given so that people wouldn't necessarily understand, having ears they wouldn't hear, having eyes they wouldn't see.

And here, Revelation, as cryptic as it is, is interpreting these details for us.

The fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. Yeah, and blessed are those who are invited.

Okay. Now, let's, oh, and also, this also makes sense of why there would not be marriage as we think of marriage in heaven also.

Right? Matthew 22, 30 says, from the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given a marriage, but are as the angels in heaven.

And Luke 20, 34, similar passage, and Jesus said to them, the sons of this world marry and are given in marriage, but they that are counted worthy to attain to that world and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they can neither die anymore, for they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

So there's, and I have it planned to sort this out a bit more, but that neither dying, yeah, neither can they die anymore, has some implications for why they wouldn't marry.

But I think that it's reasonable to say that this marriage between Christ and the church is such that it supplants the need for human marriage.

And if God's purposes in human marriage are also for procreation and He is creating a redeemed people for Himself, what would it even mean for that to continue in heaven?

Because those new children would not be redeemed. Right? They would rather be ones who had never any need of salvation.

Right? And they would not be able to praise God for His mercy, the way that we are able to praise God for His mercy, looking into things that even the angels long to look into, because they are not ones who are saved.

God already has angels. You know, He has people who are, or not people, but He has spirits who have no need of salvation and are able to praise

Him as those who just have been preserved. You know, but we are ones who have not merely been preserved, but have been saved.

And this is the role of humanity, is to be redeemed. And that marriage is that completion of that redemption, such that it supplants marriage on earth.

All right. Next one is Revelation 21. Let's go ahead and do verses 1 through 10.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be

His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore.

The former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said,

Behold, I am making all things new. Also he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.

And he said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

To the thirsty I will give from the spring of water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his

God, and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for the murderers, the sexually immoral, the sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

One more verse. Thanks. Verse 9. Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last flakes and spoke to me, saying,

Come, I will show you the bride, the wife, the lamb. And he said... That's good. Thanks.

Yeah, okay, so what is this speaking of here?

We have... I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorning for her husband.

And then, in verse 9, Come, I will show you the bride, the wife, the lamb.

A lot of people see this passage and they think of this as being some kind of literal event that will be fulfilled, you know, in this very large city.

You know, this city is so large. It's... Okay, first of all, it's cubic. Its dimensions are the same on every side.

And those dimensions are... I forget what it is in miles, but it's about half the United States. So if you can imagine our globe and then half the

United States and a big wart on top of that, that's how big this city is in this analogy. And this is the bride.

The city is the bride. And so what is the city? The city is not the physical entity.

It is the people. It is the church. And why are its dimensions, you know, 144 ,000 on every side in stadia?

Like I said, I forget what that is in miles. But it is because, as you see earlier, the 144 ,000 describing...

This number describing the saints where you have, you know, 12 squared. 12 being a general picture of God's people, right?

Both the tribes, the disciples, Jesus having chosen this particular number of disciples to explain what he's doing in creating a new nation.

Revelation really capitalizing on that imagery, those images of numbers.

Squaring 12, having a number of things that are 144 or 144 ,000.

This is a picture of God's people. And it talks about the 12 gates and the 12 foundation stones,

I believe. You know, one representing the apostles, one representing the tribes.

And so, yeah, this is a picture of the church. There's no reason to think that this is something that will have a literal fulfillment.

Or, sorry, there's no reason to think that this is a literal description of something.

It will have a literal fulfillment. That literal fulfillment, though, is not what's being described here. It is simply the fact that, as we pray in the

Lord's Prayer, you know, let it be done on earth as it is in heaven. You know, that kingdom is coming from heaven down to earth, descending and landing.

And that's happening even now. And this is the bride that is getting prepared, is being ready.

All right, and the last one is Revelation 22.

Let's see. Hang on a second.

Okay. Let's do verses 14 through 17.

Yeah. Yes, 22, 14 through 17. Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.

Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches.

About these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.

The spirit and the bride say, come. And let the one who hears say, come.

And let the one who is thirsty come. And let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

Okay, thank you. All right, so the explicit part here is speaking about the spirit and the bride.

What does it mean that the spirit and the bride say, come? You know, for a long time

I heard that, and I knew that meant something about Jesus coming back, but I didn't really know.

What does it mean that the spirit and the bride say, come? Yes, go ahead.

Yeah, the bride is eager for the groom to arrive. And her eagerness is not alone, it is along with the spirit.

And so just the same spirit that causes us to cry out, Abba, Father, is also crying us to call out for the bridegroom.

And the spirit with us is crying for the return of Christ and empowering us to make that cry.

And you notice also some callbacks in here in verse 14. Blessed are those who wash their robes, etc.

This alludes to what we were talking about earlier with the ones who are allowed to come to that marriage feast, the ones who have the righteous deeds of the saints, the one who

God is working and sanctifying so that they have Christ's righteousness and are growing in holiness, without which no one will see the

Lord, as it says in Hebrews 12, 14. Yeah, and so all that, you know,

Jesus' ministry, first sign, He is the bridegroom. He is the ultimate bridegroom who is providing the wine to make this marriage joyful.

And then how does the New Testament end? It ends with He is the bridegroom who is coming and the bride is waiting

His arrival so that that marriage feast can be had with that joy. Something else

I'll add here in the couple of minutes we have. I preached a sermon some time ago on the

Lord's Supper in Luke. The particular observation

I was making was that Jesus swears off wine at that event, which is very surprising given, you know,

His first miracle is to make wine. And then when

He's on the cross, He refuses wine. So He says He won't drink through the vine again until He sits together with His people.

And so He wants us to have joy. This is how good a bridegroom He is.

He wants us to have joy. He wants us to, as a people, even literally, you know, drink wine on a regular basis in the

Lord's Supper, remembering the joy that we're supposed to be having in Him. But He Himself will not make His joy complete until we are together.

He has sworn off until that day when we all sit together, and He will join in that marriage feast with us.

So He is the ultimate bridegroom, making that wine at that wedding and the sign, swearing off wine for Himself until we be together, and us longing for that day when we will be together, when we will make our joy complete at that feast.

All right, any questions? Yes. Yes, so, of course, when we're talking about Jesus, we're talking about one who is both man and God.

God is perfectly blessed, you know, He doesn't need anything, and that's been eternally the case, even when

Christ was on the cross. Considering Him as God, He is perfectly blessed and needs nothing. However, as a man,

He does, yeah, He does have a longing for the church. And because, and I believe this is why

He swears off wine, He says that He won't eat this feast again until we're with Him, is so that we know that He has that longing.

Just like you see people make vows in the Bible, like Paul's opponents who swore off food until he died, right?

Like this is to demonstrate we really want this, we really mean this, you know. And so Christ has, because we might think, well,

He's just up there with all the saints in heaven, with the Father, with the angels, He's just enjoying it.

He has no longing for us to symbolize that for us. He lets us know that He's not going to engage in the acts that one engages in to make their joy complete when they're feasting over some celebratory event.

In order that we can know that He is waiting for us as well. Anything else?

Okay, yeah, let's pray. Dear Holy Father, thank you for Jesus Christ, our excellent bridegroom.

Thank you that He is invested in our joy, and we thank you for the spirit that He has given us which produces that fruit of joy, but we pray that you would make that joy complete, and that you would hasten the day that Christ returns, and we are all together enjoying that marriage feast.