Marriage Is A Mystery That Mirrors Christ and His Church Eph 5:22-33 Sermon Notes 8-25-19

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Walk Thru The Word: Ephesians 5: 22-28  (ESV)

Mutual Submission Is The Method We Practice In Christ

²²Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. ²³For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. ²⁴Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

²⁵Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, ²⁶that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, ²⁷so 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.

Walk Thru The Word: Ephesians 5: 22-33  (ESV)

Marriage Is A Profound Mystery Reflecting Christ & His Church

²⁸In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, ³⁰because we are members of his body. ³¹“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” ³²This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. ³³However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Message map Ephesians 5: 22–33

Ephesians Session #12

“Marriage Is A Profound Mystery That Mirrors/Reflects Christ & His Church”

• Eph 5:22–24 Mutual Submission Is god’s Model for Our Families & His Church
• Eph 5:25-26 Husbands, Agape-Love your wives, as Christ Agape-loves the church
• Eph 5: 27-28 The Purpose of Christ’s Love is To Present Us As Perfect – without Spot of Wrinkle
• Eph 5: 29-30 Marriage Molds The Family Members
• The World has attacked the head to kill the family
• Eph 5: 32–33 Marriage Is A Profound Mystery That Mirrors (is a Reflection of) Christ & His Church 

1. Single Sentence BOTTOM LINE:

“Marriage Is A Profound Mystery That Mirrors (is a Reflection of) Christ & His Church”

2. OPENING LINE:

We probably all have noticed that God’s plan for marriage is under attack.  Would we say these social movements are an attack on the family? a) abortion, b) homosexuality, c) transgenderism, d) homosexual marriage?  

3. THE INTRODUCTORY TRANSITION:

Eph 5: 22-33 provides God’s plan for marriage, which we as God’s ambassadors / representatives on earth should feel the obligation to defend.  

4. THE MAIN POINT IS:

Have you heard that the best defense is a good offense?

Eph 5: 22–33 is a discipleship call to get in touch with God’s plan and wisdom for marriage.  Even if we are called to be single, we should understand and know God’s system and design for marriage — as is the condition that will cause people either great comfort and joy or amazing grief, and everything in between.     

5. 5. WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Personally, each of us needs to get in touch with our role and responsibility as a bride of Christ, which is the mystery that is reflected in Eph 5: 22-33.   

Okay, let’s launch into Today’s message and Work through the notes in your bulletin.

Eph 5: 22- 24 Mutual Submission Is god’s Model for Family & Church

²²Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

• Eph 5:22 is only for wives. Single women do not submit to random men.
• submit = adjust/yield your life style to meet another’s needs.
• NW 1828 submit = 2. To yield, resign or surrender to the power, will or authority of another; with the reciprocal pronoun.
• The Bible gives a model of mutual submission

²³For the husband is the head (a corner stone, uniting two walls, which in this sense are the wife and children; head, ruler, lord.) of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. (savior, deliverer, preserver)

²⁴Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

• Does the church submit to Christ perfectly Y/N
• Does Christ reject His church for its imperfect submission Y/N
• Do we reject wives for imperfect submission Y/N
• Do we reject husbands for being imperfect models of Christ Y/N
• Is imperfection different from rebellion. Y/N — especially since rebellion is the sin of witchcraft.

At the Great White throne of Judgement we’ll find out what the outcomes are of our less than perfect submissions.

Does Christ reject the church for not submitting to Him perfectly? We’ll find out when we get to the Great White Throne of Judgement — Rev 20:10-12 ¹⁰And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, into which the beast and the false prophet had already been thrown. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. ¹¹Then I saw a great white throne and the One seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from His presence, and no place was found for them. ¹²And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And there were open books, and one of them was the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their deeds, as recorded in the books.….

Eph 5: 25-26 Husbands, Agape-Love your wives, as Christ Agape-Love the church 

²⁵Husbands, love ((wish well, take pleasure in, long for; denotes the love of reason, esteem.)) your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up (gave Himself over to crucifixion) for her, ²⁶that he might sanctify (make or treat as holy) her, having cleansed (recon her clean, literally, ceremonially or spiritually = Don’t tribute bad motives to her. This applies to how we in the church should treat each other.) her by the washing of water with the word, ²⁷so 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.a ²⁸In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

Eph 5: 25-26 ²⁵Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, ²⁶that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

• Agape = reason as Christ reasons to love your wife, as Christ loves His Church
• embracing God’s will (choosing His choices) and obeying them through His power.
• actively doing what the Lord prefers, by His power and direction.
• “discriminating affection which involves choice and selection” (WS, 477). 1 Jn 4:8,16,17 for example convey how loving (“preferring,” 25 /agapáō) is Christ living His life through the believer.

Walk Thru The Word: Ephesians 5: 25-26 (Translation Comparison)

The Church is Sanctified by The Washing of Water with the Word

²⁶ …having cleansed (make clean, literally, ceremonially, or spiritually) her by the washing of water with the word, (God’s

ESV 25… Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

KJV 25… Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

NAS 25… Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

NIV 25…  Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,

Eph 5:26 The church is cleansed by the washing of water with the word.”  Does this mean … 

1. Through understanding God’s Word we realized we are washed clean through the work of Christ on the Cross.
2. John 17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
3. Heb 2:11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,
4. Heb 10:10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

JFB Commentary

• with the washing of water—rather as Greek, “with,” or “by the laver of the water,” namely, the baptismal water. So it ought to be translated in Tit 3:5, the only other passage in the New Testament where it occurs. As the bride passed through a purifying bath before marriage, so the Church (compare Re 21:2). He speaks of baptism according to its high ideal and design, as if the inward grace accompanied the outward rite; hence he asserts of outward baptism whatever is involved in a believing appropriation of the divine truths it symbolizes, and says that Christ, by baptism, has purified the Church [Neander] (1Pe 3:21).
• by the word—Greek, “IN the word.” To be joined with “cleansing it,” or “her.” The “word of faith” (Ro 10:8, 9, 17), of which confession is made in baptism, and which carries the real cleansing (Joh 15:3; 17:17) and regenerating power (1Pe 1:23; 3:21) [Alford]. So Augustine [Tract 80, in John], “Take away the word, and what is the water save water? Add the word to the element, and it becomes a sacrament, being itself as it were the visible word.” The regenerating efficacy of baptism is conveyed in, and by, the divine word alone.

Eph 5: 27-28 The Purpose of Christ’s Love is  To Present Us As Perfect – without Spot of Wrinkle  

²⁷so that he might present (prove, come up to and stand by) the church to himself in splendor (highly esteemed, splendid), without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.a ²⁸In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

1. Numbers 19:2 … “This is the ordinance of the law that the LORD commanded that the Israelis be told:
2. They are to bring you a spotless red heifer, without physical defect,
3. Ephesians 1:4 For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love
4. Colossians 1:22 But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence–
5. 1 Pet. 1: 18-19 18knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
6. Hebrews 9:13-15 13For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.  15Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

Eph 5: 29-30 Marriage Molds The Family Members     

²⁹For no one ever hated (detested, loved less, esteemed less) his own flesh (physical body, human nature), but nourishes (body, human nature), but  nourishes) and cherishes (foster, comfort, revives it for health) it, just as Christ does the church, ³⁰because we are members (parts of the whole) of his body.  

6. MOVING TOWARD APPLICATION:

• Proverbs 11:17 The merciful man doeth good to his own soul: but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh.
• Ecclesiastes 4:5 The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.
• Isaiah 40:11 He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.
• Ezekiel 34:14,15,27 I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel…
• Matthew 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

We have a self-preserving tendency to …

1. be self-justifying (make excuses for our own shortcomings)
2. be self-righteous & find fault with others, while overlooking ours
3. want to hold on to our carnal ways that separate us from God, and break relationships by hardening our hearts towards others.

• 19:8 He told them, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of the hardness of your hearts. But it was not like that from the beginning
• 10:5 But Jesus told them, “He wrote this command for you because of the hardness of your hearts.

Delving Into Discipleship:

Lk 14:26: “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate (3404 /miséō, ‘love less’ than the Lord) his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple” (NASU).

We had better stop attacking God’s view of the family through abortion!

• Isaiah 40:11 He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.

Eph 5: 31 Families Are Formed To Model God’s Faithfulness

Ephesians 5:31  For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

cause

• God made Adam &
• then made Eve as part of His body. Then the two shall become one! Gen. 2:23 And the man said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of man she was taken.”
• At Salvation we are made part of the Body of Christ
• As disciples we understand our roles as those who are betrothed and submitted to Christ.
• In Heaven our union with Christ formally will be realized as we enter into our final roles as the Bride of Christ.

Earthly marriage is the model for the above.  [bctt tweet=”Eph 5: 32–33 The World has attacked the head to kill the family ” username=”LibertyCF3″]

Eph 5:22-33  The Purpose of God’s Provision of Marriage

Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;  male and female he created them

28And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

From Gen 1: 27 …

1. Be Fruitful & Multiply = Biological Procreation.

• Heterosexuals Reproduce
• Homosexuals only Recruit

1. Loving Companionship — Gen 2:18  While some have a gift  to be single, generally it is not good for man to be alone.  Most are not suited  to be alone.

• God’s plan and provision of Marriage Avoids Fornication. 1 Corinthians 7:5 Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

1. Marriage Avoids Fornication (1 Cor. 7:5)
2. Marriage is a Model /Illustration / A type of Christ and the church

6. MORE APPLICATION?

Eph 5: 32–33 The World has attacked the head to kill the family 

The World has attacked manhood to destroy the head of the family, so that the loss of the head destroys the life of the family.

• The family is the building block & cornerstone of civilized society
• God’s people need to stand in the gap (a breach through which calamity breaks forth) to advocate for the God’s plan for the family to prevail! (Ezek. 22:30)

Ephesians 5: 32  (ESV) Marriage is a Model of the Mystery of the Relationship Between Christ & The Church

 ESV — 32This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

KJV — 32This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

NAS — 32This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

NIV — 32This is a profound mystery–but I am talking about Christ and the church.

NLT — 32This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.  

” ³²This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. ³³However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Eph 5: 32–33 Marriage Is A Profound Mystery That Mirrors (is a Reflection of) Christ & His Church

³²This mystery (1. secret, of which initiation is necessary; 2. the counsels of God, once hidden but now revealed in the Gospel or some fact thereof;3. the Christian revelation generally; particular truths or details of the Christian revelation)

is profound, (esteemed highly for its importance) and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

³³However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects (shows a reverential deference or reverential obedience to) her husband.

7. THE CLOSING

WHAT SHOULD WE DO ABOUT THIS INFORMATION:

 As the bride (a chaste, pure virgin) of Christ each of us needs to show reverential deference and obedience to Christ (2 Cor. 11:21 & Rev 22: 12-17)

2 Corinthians 11:2 I NLT For I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God himself. I promised you as a pure bride to one husband—Christ.

Rev. 22: 12-17 Christ says to us , His church, His Bride:

12“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. 13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

14Blessed 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. 15Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

16“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

17The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

Fear prevents us from submitting to God and each other. One must overcome fear to submit. 

1 Peter 3: 1-6

¹ Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, ² when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. ³ Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. ⁴ Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. ⁵ For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, ⁶ like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.

 Let’s Pray ….

Lord God help us overcome fear to trust you and live as Your faithful brides during our remaining time here on earth.

COMMUNION: 

While the Communion team is distributing the elements, We’ll do 2 verses of In Christ Alone for which we’ll teach you a tag, and then we will celebrate the Lord’s Supper.

Then we’ll do more verses of In Christ Alone to close out our service. 

Let’s Commemorate Christ, Whose Sacrifice On The Cross Washed Away  The Penalty For Our sins, and Whose Word Reminds Us Of Our Great Redemption!

1 Corinthians 11: 23-26

²³For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, ²⁴and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁵In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” ²⁶For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Optional 1 Cor. 11: 27-32

²⁷Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. ²⁸Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. ²⁹For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. ³⁰That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. ³¹But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. ³²But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. [email-download-link namefield=”YES” id=”404″] 

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