Lake Washington Fellowship
Date: 2/14/10
Title: ‘NEWLYWEDS’
Text: 2Corinthians 11:2
Theme: Lord’s Supper
Series: The Positive Side of Family
Props: Party Poppers for everyone
‘NEWLYWEDS’
When I first showed up at Doreen’s home for our first date I was not the kind of young man her mom and dad had hoped and dreamed for their little girl. I was a long haired puertorrican who could hardly speak English honking the horn of my car so she’d come out of the house. Well…they didn’t let her out; I had to go to the door. I shaped up in a hurry and three and half years later we married on May 7th, 1983 in Orlando; it was a day I’ll never forget. My brother Hector and I went to the hotel where Doreen and I spent our first night together to prepare the room. I had bought a special hallmark card for her that I placed somewhere in the room; I also put non alcoholic grape juice on ice. Then we went to the church, married, and as newlyweds we flew to Pennsylvania for our honeymoon.
The Bible describes Jesus’ relationship with you and I, the church, as a spiritual wedding and being newlyweds with God, even having a wedding reception up in heaven one day.
Aren’t wedding celebrations the most amazing of parties? In them you laugh and toast to the couple and dance with joy and knock on the glasses, ‘ding, ding, ding’ so the couple can kiss, and you eat and dance some more and take pictures with little cameras on the tables and blow bubbles and dance some more and throw rice as a sign of good faith and wish of prosperity for the newlyweds and you pull on party poppers…Christians ought to celebrate this marriage relationship with have with our God! The apostle Paul said of the church,
2 “For I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God himself. I promised you as a pure bride to one husband, Christ.” 2Corinthians 11:2 NLT
In our spiritual marriage with God Jesus is the groom and the church (you and me) is the bride. Let’s think about a Jewish wedding…
Jewish marriages often were prearranged. The young man and his father would negotiate a price for the girl with her dad (mohar). You could say the purchase price was sort of the engagement ring. Once the price was settled the couple was engaged and once engaged they were considered married but before the couple came together physically they were separated for 12 month. The groom would use those 12 months to go back to his father’s house to prepare a place for him and his wife. Then, one night when the 12 month period was over the groom and his wedding party would go down to the bride’s house in a torch lit procession to get her and her wedding party. The bride knew the day he would come but not the time. The groom, bride, and the whole party would then go back to the place the groom had prepared at his father’s house/property. They would get to the bridal chamber and the bride and groom would go into the place alone while the wedding party waited outside. After the physical union the groom would go outside, announce the consummation of the marriage, and go back inside the bridal chamber and stay there for the next 7 days while the wedding party would go tell the guest the marriage had been consummated and they would blow bubbles and dance and party for a week. At the end of the week the couple would come out to see everyone.
This morning we’re going to look at our relationship with the Lord from that newly wed perspective, have the Lord’s Supper together and celebrate.
THE ENGAGEMENT (Jesus, who created you, loves you with all His heart; The Bible says that Jesus loved/knew you before you were even born)
But the Bible says that all of us are sinners and are destined to die one day.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23 Every one of us has sinned, I’m a sinner, you’re a sinner…all of us have done wrong and the a penalty for sin is death,
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23…in other words even though Jesus loves us our sins separate us and keeps from Him and His love.
‘death’- eternal separation (to be eternally separated from God forever; people think that hell is the worst thing the afterlife but as bad as that may be it is not having the love of God for you that a person will hate the most).
So there must have been a meeting in heaven between the Father and the Son and Jesus must have said something like, ‘I love them Father, I’ll pay whatever price to have them be with me, to save them.’ But the Father said something like, ‘the price for their sin is blood my son.’ So Jesus said, ‘I’ll die for them.’ So the Lord came down to earth and was crucified for our sins; He purchased you and me with His blood so we could belong to Him. The apostle Paul said,
“You were bought at a price” I Corinthians 6:20
When you feel the ‘tug’ of the Holy Spirit in you and you give your heart to Jesus you’re born again and become spiritually connected to God through your faith in Jesus Christ; that’s when the spiritual engagement and marriage begins.
The cross is the engagement ring (it is free to you but not cheap…remember, it cost Jesus His life).
Your spiritual marriage is like a Jewish wedding in that there’s separation, like the engagement without the consummation of the marriage. The Holy Spirit is with us but we’ve never physically seen Jesus. One day, though, He will be back for us and we will see Him and He will make us perfect and take us to heaven; that will be the amazing consummation of this spiritual marriage. All of us Christians look forward to that.
Right now the church waits for the bridegroom’s return.
It’s been called the rapture of the church when the Bible says Jesus will come down from heaven, the believers will hear a trumpet blast and we will take off up to heaven like superman; listen, Jesus could return in our lifetime. What He said to His disciples before He died sounded like what a groom would say to his bride before he left for a year, Jesus said,
2 “In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:2-3
Heaven is the place the Lord is preparing for us, the bride.
BEFORE THE WEDDING…(the day Jesus returns for His church)
1. The bride/church waits in expectation (you already wrote the word ‘return’ in your notes, now please write the word ‘waits’.
7 “Behold, I am coming soon!” Revelation 22:12
17 “The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" Revelation 22:17
We, the bride, pray for the Lord to come and take us out of here, we get tired of the heartbreak of life, tired of having disappointments and having our hopes shattered, we can’t wait for Jesus to come.
When I was getting married, though, I would pray ‘Jesus, come, but please don’t come before my honeymoon.’ Most guys are like that. The church can’t wait for Jesus to come for two reasons,
A. Jesus is going to transfer us to heaven. The way the Bible describes heaven, the sights, the sounds, the activities, man, it’s going to be an eternity of absolute bliss. Beyond that, think about life in heaven: not tears, no death, no fears.
B. When Jesus comes back for us, we who are still alive are going to skip dying. Isn’t death the thing we dread most? And it can happen to us at anytime. Did you hear about the 21 year old athlete who died racing down the luge at the Olympics? Then a couple of 3 nights ago someone gets shut in the neck a few houses down from mine. The guy didn’t die but he could have. None of us want to die at any time. Jesus is going to spare us from that when He comes back. We get a double whammy: heaven and not having to die…ever! That’s huge. Fulfilled Bible prophecies tell us it can happen soon, Jesus said,
28 “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." Luke 21:28
So the bride waits in expectation, second, before the wedding
2. The bride needs to get ready for the groom.
7 “Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready’… 9then 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.” Revelation 19:7, 9
The food part is like the wedding reception and celebration down here on earth. I don’t know if there’s going to be bubble blowing and dancing and rice throwing up in the heavenly marriage reception but the party is going to be on!
So how do we get ready?
We get ready by letting Jesus be our driving motivation.
They say a woman is never prettier than on her wedding day. She is beaming! I thought, why? Is it the makeup? Not really, girls wear make up all the time. Is it the dress? Nope, though wedding dresses are usually pretty not all of them are stunningly beautiful. People lie, though, and they’ll tell you is the prettiest dress they’ve ever seen. But people lie. It’s like babies, not all of them are cute but you never hear someone say out loud, ‘that’s one ugly child.’ Nope, we’re tactful and say, ‘ain’t ‘e cute?’ or start making funny voices to the baby, ‘she’s the cutest, yes she is.’ A woman looks amazing on her wedding day but its not the dress, or the accessories, or the make up. My theory is that her radiant beauty comes from her anticipation of being with the groom, that’s what makes her glisten and puts a twinkle in her eye. Listen to the way the apostle Paul put it,
25 “Husbands, 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.” Ephesians 5:25-27
It is Jesus’ love, how His Spirit guides us and helps us and comforts us when we’re down that lights up our lives. It is His sacrifice and His precious Word that sets us apart and makes us love life and be happy and fulfilled. That’s what Jesus does for His bride. It made me think, men, make a practice to sacrifice yourself for your wife’s happiness. Think of what you can do to bless her life and speak to her with words and praise. I’ve heard that a woman’s face reflects her husband’s love for her. Men, look at your wife, does she show fulfillment and satisfaction? Does she light up when you show up? Does she reflect your love for her?
This morning we remember we are newly weds and we are celebrating and looking for our groom, Jesus, to come back. While we wait Jesus said remember me by having the Lord’s Supper because the juice represents the His blood and the bread represents the body. Before we do that let’s pray,
PRAYER OF INVITATION
Lord’s Supper…you’ve got to know Christ as your Savior to enjoy the Lord’s Supper. If you haven’t been born again the Bible says it’s better for you to abstain from taking the Lord’s Supper because you would be bringing judgment on yourself…
Before we get out of here we need to celebrate our engagement/marriage to Jesus…BRING OUT THE PARTY POPPERS…WARN PEOPLE TO POINT THEM UP…ASK PARENTS TO HELP THEIR CHILDREN AND AT THE COUNT OF THREE…keep in mind, at a wedding you make a mess and other people have to clean in up, not here...please, clean up the celebrative mess.
