Here Comes the Bride
From The Begining • Sermon • Submitted
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· 33 viewsIt is an amazing thing when two people fall in love and get married. It's so exciting when they make the commitment of marriage because there is no doubt that both people will be changed and hopefully blessed and enriched. So it is with us and Christ as we enter the marriage relationship with Him. The picture of Christ and the Church can be seen very clearly in the story of Issac and Rebekah in Genesis 24.
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Introduction
Summer time is some of the funnest times. The warm weather really get people out doing things. Summer time is one of the biggest times for Weddings. Kim and I were married in the summer time. We will celebrate 27 years of marriage on August 4th.
That’s also the date of our Marriage retreat so make sure you sign up to go with us.
Love is one of the primary needs that everyone has on the planet. Marriage is the ultimate vow of love as you commit yourself fully and only to another person and they commit themselves only to you.
Someone to share life with through the good times, The bad times, the happy times, and the sad times. A person that will never leave you and always love you.
The very first institution that God established for mankind was the institution of marriage. Like every thing else it didn’t take us long to mess it up as sin enter the marriage just like it did anything else.
But the idea of marriage has not changed. The dream of marriage remains: that I can love someone unconditionally and be loved unconditionally in return. If you think about it these are big shoes for sinful being to fill.
We struggle with selfishness and pride, talking instead of listening, faithfulness and sacrifice. We struggle with insecurities on every level that sometimes cause us to leave the very relationship that we thought would last a lifetime.
But yet we search, and we pray, and we beg the Lord to bring us the fulfilment of true love in a mate. A partner for life.
What many of us realize is we all carry some brokenness. And we bring that brokenness with us in our perfect love relationships. And true love is tested.
Marriage can seen all through the Bible. Even the relationship that God has with his people Israel is described as a marriage relationship.
God is married to an unfaithful bride that has committed adultery and whoredoms against him. If you are in a bad relationship this morning let me give you a little comfort. God understands your pain.
He knows what its like to be lied to and cheated on. He understands when you cry out because of abuse and neglect. He understands your prayers and he hears your cries.
Yet He is faithful to His bride. In the midst of her sin and brokenness God is faithful.
As we have been studying through the book of Genesis there is a pattern emerging that you might have missed. Throughout the Old Testament God uses patterns and pictures to prepare us for the things to come. This is one of the greatest tools to understanding the writings in the New Testament.
Jesus said that Moses wrote of him but Jesus is never mentioned by name at all. But Christ is seen in the pictures.
Let’s establish the players that we have seen so far.
God calls Abraham to be the father of many nations. Abraham is a picture of God. (Gen 12)
Sarah, Abraham’s wife is a picture of Israel that will produce a miracle son. (Gen 18)
Issac, the seed of promise is a picture of Jesus the Christ. (Gen 21)
Issac is taken by the father to mount Moriah to be sacrificed as a picture of the death and resurrection of Christ. ()
Sarah (Israel) dies in illustrating the rejection of Jesus after the cross.
Now Issac is ready for a bride ().
Rebekah, the bride of Issac is a picture of the Bridge of Christ which is us, the Church.
Eph 5:22
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
Ephesians 5:
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 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.
31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
Ephesians 5:
So once again we find ourselves in the pages of the Old Testament. The way Abraham finds a bride for his son is the way God finds the Bride of Christ.
1 Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years. And the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. 2 And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh, 3 that I may make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, 4 but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”
Genesis 24:1-
God has sent His Spirit as the Servant to find the Bride
God has sent His Spirit as the Servant to find the Bride
He convicts the world of sin
He convinces the world of righteousness
He confirms the world of Judgement
Genesis 24:
5 The servant said to him, “Perhaps the woman may not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?” 6 Abraham said to him, “See to it that you do not take my son back there.
The Son is with the Father while the Bride is found
The Son is with the Father while the Bride is found
Jesus is with the Father while the Spirit is at work
The Bride must agree to come by faith not by sight
14 Let the young woman to whom I shall say, ‘Please let down your jar that I may drink,’ and who shall say, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels’—let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master.”
Gen
15 Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, came out with her water jar on her shoulder.
The Bride is Found through a Divine Appointment
The Bride is Found through a Divine Appointment
The Holy Spirit is seeking out the Bride
The Bride is unaware. She is just living life.
The Proposal Demands a Response
The Proposal Demands a Response
Gen 24:
57 They said, “Let us call the young woman and ask her.” 58 And they called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will go.”
Conclusion:
Here it is Summer time. What a great time for a wedding.
Could it be this morning that God has sent his Holy Spirit to seek you out.
You were just minding your own business but the Spirit has been speaking to your heart this morning telling you of the Son.
Asking you if you accept the proposal to be a part of the Bride of Christ. To be married to Christ.
To those who receive Him, you become a part of the family of God. Jesus is a husband that will never leave you or forsake you.
But you must say “I will. I do.” The proposal is on the table. And the proposal demands a response.
If you haven’t yet responded to the invitation to be the Bride of Christ then today is a great day for a wedding. You just need to respond.
If you have become a part of the Bride, what kind of bride are you. Are you sticking to your vow or are you stepping out on Jesus.