TITLE: A Marriage Model for Relating to God
Essence of the Sermon in a Sentence ESS: Biblical marriage lessons dealing with intimacy, faithfulness and submission are applicable as well to our relationship with Christ.
TEXT: Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
INTRODUCTION –
I have had two weddings this past week, and will have another one this coming Saturday. Bachelors are biting the dust like crazy these days!
I would like to turn our thoughts today to the subject of Christian marriage and in particular how the relationship of marriage parallels our relationship to Christ.
But before we go there, I thought you would enjoy these tidbits of wisdom from children (collected from the internet) concerning marriage:
“HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MARRY?”
You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you
like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should
keep the chips and dip coming. - Alan, age 10
No person really decides before they grow up who they’re going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later
who you’re stuck with. - Kirsten, age 10
“WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?”
Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then. - Camille, age 10
No age is good to get married at. You got to be a fool to get
married. - Freddie, age 6
“HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?”
You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids. - Derrick, age 8
“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?”
Both don’t want any more kids. - Lori, age 8
“IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?”
It’s better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need
someone to clean up after them. - Anita, age 9
“HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?”
Tell your wife that she looks pretty even if she looks like a truck.
- Ricky, age 10
SOME REFLECTIONS ON MARRIAGE AND OUR RELATIONSHIP TO GOD
Over the years as I have counseled with couples who are intending to get married, I have thought more and more about why God has a vital interest in marriage.
Though many people today dismiss marriage as an ancient tradition, a relic that has no place in modern society, God has taught us in his Word, the Bible, some vital principles about marriage. I am convinced that Biblical teachings about marriage are not merely arbitrary “rules” made by God. Rather, I believe God has a divine purpose in his every teaching about marriage.
You see, the relationship that we have with Christ is often paralleled to the relationship of a husband and wife.
-Jesus referred to himself as the bridegroom, (and the church as his bride):
Luk 5:33 They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”
34 Jesus answered, “Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”
-Paul follows Jesus’ lead and makes a very direct comparison between the relationship of husbands and wives to the relationship of Christ and the Church.
Eph 5:22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing a her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” b 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
-The Apostle John takes up the theme in the book of Revelation where he quotes the Lord who speaks of the church as the Bride of Christ. Rev 21:2, 9, Rev 22:17.
It should not be surprising then that we should be able to look at God’s teachings about the marriage relationship and see some parallel truths about our relationship to the Lord.
I would like to center on three such parallels today:
Intimacy in Both Relationships
Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
That “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son...” to die on the cross for mankind’s sin is not novel thought. We have heard that many times - but to put God’s love for us in terms of the love that a man has for his wife – for Christ to call us his Bride – that is not all that common an image.
Yet in the Bible it is expressed perhaps most graphically in the Old Testament book of the Song of Solomon. (Also known as the Song of Songs.) You find it right after the book of Ecclesiastes. The book is a passionate and graphic love poem about the love of a man and a woman. And yet scholars have for centuries seen it as more than that. It has been viewed as having another layer of meaning. Allegorically it speaks of God’s overwhelming love for his people.
God desires an intimate relationship with us and He desires us to desire Him as much as He desires us.
I believe God, from the foundation of the world, created marriage to show us intimacy, the oneness, that a man and a woman can have for one another, so that we might seek a spiritual intimacy, a spiritual oneness with Him. Just as two become one in marriage, so does God desire that we become “one” with Him.
Joh 17:21 [Jesus prayed for all his followers] that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us....
Faithfulness
God requires us to be faithful to Him and to Him alone. Remember a couple of the 10 commandments?
Exo 20:2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God...
God will accept no rival. He demands total faithfulness.
It is the same in marriage. The vows require us to be totally faithful to one another.
Exo 20:14 You shall not commit adultery.
Illustration: Greg Asimakoupoulos, Concord, California wrote: “Weddings in our church always include the lighting of a unity candle. At one rehearsal I was explaining the symbolism of the candle ceremony. "After the middle candle is lit, blowing out the two side candles means the two become one," I said.
"Oh," a guest admitted in surprise. "I thought it meant ’no more flames!’"
The guest at least got one thing right. We are not allowed any more “flames” outside of marriage!
God has a purpose in insisting that you be faithful to your marriage partner. It is so that you can learn to be faithful to Him.
Do you remember the OT book of Hosea? The book is a living object lesson. Hosea, the prophet marries an adulterous wife, Gomer. Just as Gomer has played the harlot, so has Israel played the harlot by lusting after other gods. They lusted after false gods, idols. They had been unfaithful to the one true God. They were spiritual adulterers.
I believe God, from the foundation of the world, created marriage to teach us the reality of faithfulness. He insists we commit our lives to Him and Him alone because he alone is God and worthy of our worship. And he gives us an earthly model for that faithfulness - a commitment to our marriage partners - that we should take just as seriously. If we cannot be faithful in a marriage bond, what makes us believe we can be faithful to Him?
Submission
Eph 5:22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
1Pe 1:13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. 16 Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. 17 Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.
18 Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.....
1Pe 3:1 Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands...
Submission. Not politically correct in a “I-am-woman-hear-me-roar” kind of society.
Yet the ultimate purpose for a wife’s submission in marriage, is not that she might become a doormat for her husband, but that she might model godly submission so that both she and her husband can learn the meaning of submission to God. When we submit to God, we are not doormats. We are loved with an infinite love! We are exalted, not put down!
I believe God, from the foundation of the world, created marriage to teach us the reality of submission to Christ our bridegroom. It is one thing to say we submit to the will of Christ and quite another to live in submission on a day by day basis. Marriage is a living object lesson teaching us the truth of submission.
Conclusion
God has a vital interest on marriage. We cannot take it too seriously. To truly understand the marriage relationship is to begin to understand our heavenly relationship with Christ.
It is no wonder that that you don’t get past the second chapter of scripture before you run into the subject of marriage. You see the relationship with a spouses and the relationship with our god are inseparably woven together.
This is a sermon that can cut two ways.
- Perhaps there are those present who have not taken as seriously as they should their vows to the Lord Jesus Christ. You may be a person that would never commit adultery against you spouse, but you have not been so committed to Christ. You have followed other Gods by putting other things or persons first. Christ would call you back to an intimate, faithful submissive relationship. It is never to late to restore and renew your relationship to God, for He, like Hosea, will always seek to take back an errant spouse.
- On the other hand, perhaps there are those present who though faithful to God, need to take more seriously their vows to their marriage partner. Perhaps there has been a past relationship that is irreconcilably broken, with a divorce, a remarriage. One cannot change the past, but one can change the present. To the glory of God, you can exhibit the lessons of faithfulness, intimacy and submission in your present marriage relationship.
There may be some today who simply need to come and pray at this altar and seek God’s forgiveness, his strength in your relationships.
What would the Lord have you do or change this day in response to this message?
