Sermon Central
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The Be Happy Blessings Of Revelation Pt 5 Series
Contributed by Michael Mccartney on Dec 8, 2010 (message contributor)
Summary: Today we are going to explore the symbol of Christ being the Bridegroom and we being His Bride. To help us understand this analogy we need to understand the phases of a Jewish Marriage. There is the symbol of Christ as the Bridegroom and the Church as the
Series: “The Be Happy Blessings of Revelation”
Funny Opening Illustrations: Oops altar call!
A minister was planning a wedding at the close of the Sunday morning service. After the benediction he had planned to call the couple down to be married for a brief ceremony before the congregation.
For the life of him, he couldn’t think of the names of those who were to be married. "Will those wanting to get married please come to the front?" he requested.
Immediately, nine single ladies, three widows, four widowers, and six single men stepped to the front.
From: http://www.javacasa.com/humor/sermon.htm
A marriage story: A Heavenly Marriage
An elderly Italian man lay dying in his bed. While suffering the agonies of impending death, he suddenly smelled the aroma of his favorite Italian sprinkle cookies wafting up the stairs.
Gathering his remaining strength, he lifted himself from the bed. Leaning against the wall, he slowly made his way out of the bedroom, and with even greater effort, gripping the railing with both hands he crawled downstairs. With labored breath, he leaned against the doorframe, gazing into the kitchen. Where it not for death’s agony, he would have thought himself already in heaven, for there, spread out upon waxed paper on the kitchen table were literally hundreds of his favorite sprinkled cookies.
Was it heaven? Or was it one final act of heroic love from his devoted Italian wife of sixty years, seeing to it that he left this world a happy man?
Mustering one great final effort, he threw himself towards the table, landing on his knees in a crumpled posture. His parched lips parted, the wondrous taste of the cookie was already in his mouth, seemingly bringing him back to life.
The aged and withered hand trembled on its way to a cookie at the edge of the table, when it was suddenly smacked with a spatula by his wife..... ’Back off!’ she said, ’they’re for the funeral.’
Sermon 5: The blessing of being invited to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9).
"Then the angel said to me, ‘Write: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’ And he added, ‘These are the true words of God.’"
Thesis: The bride needs to be ready and awaiting the coming of the Bridegroom so she can participate in the Wedding, in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb!
Introduction:
Quest Study Bible states: In the OT Israel is the bride and wife of the Lord Isa. 54:5:
5For your Maker is your husband— the LORD Almighty is his name—the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.
In the NT that imagery is applied to the church (Eph. 5:22-32). Christ’s deep love for the bride (the church) and His commitment to it are symbolized by the marriage covenant. Just as husband and wife become one, Christ and the Church are also united as one.
22Wives, submit to your husband’s as to the Lord.
23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.
24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
26to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
29After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church—
30for 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.”
32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.
In the New Testament the church of Jesus Christ is described by 7 different symbols.
1. Jesus is the Great Shepherd and we are his sheep (Jn. 10:1-18)
2. He is the True vine and we are the branches (Jn. 15:1)
3. Jesus is the cornerstone and we are the living stones of the house of God (I Peter 2:4-7).
4. The Lord is described as a merchant who finds a single pearl of great price and buys it sacrificially (Mt. 13:45).
5. Jesus is the Great High Priest over the household of faith and we are his servant priests (Heb. 4:14-16).
6. Jesus is the head of the body of Christ we are the parts of the body (I Cor. 12:12-14).
