Satisfying Love
Being the Bride of Christ • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewWhat Jesus does for His bride: Nourishes His bride
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Youth Boys Camp-out story...
Have you ever been so hungry that all you can think about is food?
Just as our bodies need nourishment, so our spiritual lives need nourishment.
Today, people who don’t know Jesus are attempting to satisfy that hunger with innumerable things that promise satisfaction, but ultimately leave them spiritual starving.
And even within the church, we often gorge ourselves on the junk-food of the world, which cause us to fill too full for the spiritual nourishment that is only found in Christ Jesus.
Over the last two weeks we’ve been exploring what Christ has done for His bride:
We were reminded that Christ Jesus sacrificed Himself for His bride and sanctifies His bride for Himself.
This week we are going to begin looking at what Jesus does for His bride, continuously.
Body: Ephesians 5:28-30 & John 6:22-59
Body: Ephesians 5:28-30 & John 6:22-59
Read Ephesians 5:28-30
We see in verse 29 two things that Jesus does for His bride, the church.
Of course, as we’ve seen, Paul is showing that a husband’s love for his wife should be like Christ’s love for the church.
And we see here, that Christ nourishes the church and cherishes the church.
This morning we will focus on how Christ nourishes His church.
What Christ does for His bride:
Christ nourishes His bride because we are members of His body.
The term nourishes is ἐκτρέφω (ek tre pho) in Greek.
It means to sustain or to provide with nourishment.
So, Christ nourishes, or sustains or provides for, His bride.
As we look at this text we should notice a couple of important points:
This is done selflessly: as one nourishes himself...
This is done in order for her good: we are Christ’s bride so He provides His bride with exactly what we need.
The most basic human needs are: oxygen, water, food, shelter, warmth, and rest. Outside of maybe shelter, we don’t really need to be taught any of these. We come out of the womb with each need as part of God’s design.
A baby who is thirsty or hungry cries until she is satisfied; if she is too cold, she cries; if she’s sleepy, she cries, then hopefully falls asleep.
So nourishment is a basic need for everyone. Of course, the nourishment Paul is talking about isn’t food, but spiritual nourishment. Yet, using this language, Paul wants the reader to understand that just as a man nourishes his own body with food because it is a basic need, he should take care of his wife’s basic needs as well. He does this because of the example of Christ, providing for the spiritual needs of His bride, the church.
Over the last two weeks we saw how He did this through His sacrificial love and His sanctifying love. But here, the word nourishes is in the present active indicative voice, which means it is happening right now. Jesus is actively nourishing His bride right now.
The only other place this Greek word is used in the NT is later in Ephesians:
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
When Paul says, “…bring them up...” it is the same word that is used here. The idea being to “look after” or “care for.”
Christ cares for the spiritual needs of His bride. Like a good father, He is not dispassionate about the needs of His children.
Many in Ephesus were saved out of the Hellenistic pantheon of gods and goddesses, in which the gods toyed with and often mistreated people.
Paul wants his readers to know that this isn’t Christ’s way towards His church. His church is truly His beloved bride.
Going further, we see that Paul links this idea with the Creation itself. See verse 31...
The idea of oneness of flesh here should remind us of the unity that Jesus Himself has made possible. He nourishes us because we are members His body, the church.
Now, let’s briefly look at this illustrated in Jesus ministry.
In April and May of 2021, I preached out of John 6, and those sermons are posted on the church’s YouTube site. Instead of rehashing those four sermons in half a message this morning, I’m just going to hit some of the high-points of the text. (But, I would encourage you to go look them up on our YouTube page.)
Read John 6:22-35
“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
Here, Jesus point is that He is the bread of life, in that all who are nourished by Jesus will not hunger or thirst spiritually anymore.
This section sets the terms that Jesus will use throughout these verses, establishing that Jesus is the metaphorical bread of life, which spiritually sustains those who believe to salvation.
Read John 6:48-58
“Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
Jesus uses the idea of consuming His flesh in the spiritual sense. Meaning, those who find life in Him will do so because they come into an intimate spiritual union with Christ.
To fully understand this, we have to understand that within the context, the people were looking for a miracle like when God provided manna in the wilderness to the children of Israel.
Jesus point here is that He is not like manna in that those who partake of Him will never die spiritually, but will have eternal life. Manna could only satisfy for a brief time, Jesus satisfies eternally.
And this was their greater need, not seeing another food miracle.
So, if one wants to abide in Him, they must eat His flesh and drink His blood.
Or, abide with Jesus.
So What?
So What?
Christ nourishes His bride because we are members of His body.
Christ nourishes His bride because we are members of His body.
The bride is nourished by Christ through the Gospel.
The bride is nourished by Christ through the Gospel.
What is the Gospel?
When I mention “the Gospel”, for some they think I’m talking about Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John...
The Gospel is the Good News...
The Gospel states that we are sinners who need a Savior...
Verse 35 tells us the Good News in that it answers our need for a Savior...
Why does the Gospel matter so much?
The Gospel must be more than the starting place for our spiritual lives...
The Gospel should impact every thing in our lives.
In his little book, A Gospel Primer for Christians, Milton Vincent said it much better than I could:
“On my worst days of sin and failure, the gospel encourages me with God’s unrelenting grace towards me. On my best days of victory and usefulness, the gospel keeps me relating to God solely on the basis of Jesus’ righteousness and not mine.”
See, the Gospel isn’t a one-and-done thing. We should daily preach the Gospel to ourselves. Paul did:
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
The bride is nourished by Christ through fellowship with Christ.
The bride is nourished by Christ through fellowship with Christ.
In verse 56 Jesus uses this term, “abide”, a term that he uses often as a call to disciples.
It means to continue with a certain state, condition, or activity.
Today, we might say, ‘stays with.’
Throughout the gospels, Jesus calls His followers to abide, or stay with Him.
Let’s go back to Paul’s teaching in Ephesians about husbands and wives.
When April and I were in pre-marital counseling, the pastor said a number of profound things.
One of those was that we needed to never set out to change one another. That we needed to make peace with one another exactly the way we were, or conflict would surely follow.
But that doesn’t mean we won’t change. Two people who truly appreciate one another and who spend lots of time together tend to change naturally…until one person tries forcing the change, then the other person typically resists.
I’ve changed a lot since April and I got married:
I truly enjoy musical theater...
I have a better filter than I did before on what should and shouldn’t come out of my mouth...
I’m less of a slob than we we met...
The point? When we spend quality time with someone, change often naturally happens.
When we spend quality time with Jesus daily, change will happen.
But, we have to make it a priority. Too often, we make excuses, not a priority.
The bride is nourished by Christ unto eternal life.
The bride is nourished by Christ unto eternal life.
Look at verse 27 of John 6....
Contextually, the crowds were looking for Jesus to do another miracle, in line with the feeding of the five thousand that He had just done.
But Jesus rebukes them, telling them that they need to not look for temporal sustenance (like the bread) but spiritual sustenance, that He would give them.
The sustenance that Jesus gives His people “endures to eternal life”. This is the same word as abide we looked at earlier.
Unlike worldly nourishment, the nourishment from Christ has eternal benefits for us, and for others.
Jesus nourishes us in a way to benefits us today, benefits others when we love as He loves, and benefits us to eternity. No earthly food can do this. No false spiritual nourishment can do this. Only Christ Jesus can.
Thus, Jesus tells them, and us, to look to the One who can nourish us totally.
Are you finding that nourishment in Christ Jesus or somewhere else?