The Bride of Christ, the Church.
Notes
Transcript
Foundation Series
Bible:
God
Sin
Jesus
Church/Holy Spirit
Church as a Foundation of Christainity?
Yes,
Biblically define what the Church is.
First it is not the building!
The word “church” is a translation of the Greek word ekklesia, which is defined as “an assembly” or “called-out ones.”
Not a building.
Unfortuntely our culture defines it as a building. (What church do you go to, where’s your church?, even we say it in “hey I’ll meet you at the church”)
We don’t mean to take anything away from it but little by little we’ve lost the meaning of the Christian church defination.
The church is the people, an assembly, or called out ones.
Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia.
Not greet the church building and it’s rocks. but the church IN their house.
Lets’ read Romans 16:1-5
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae,
that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well.
Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus,
who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well.
Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia.
Now lets read it with the word church changed to “called out ones”
16 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant[a] of the called out ones at Cenchreae, 2 that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well.
3 Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, 4 who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the called out ones of the Gentiles give thanks as well. 5 Greet also the called out ones in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert[b] to Christ in Asia.
Called out ones…Special!
Called out of darkness into the light of Christ!
We are priveged in this folks…think about it.
God’s people!
The church is the people not the building!
Church just going off the defination of the word biblically has a deeper ralational meaning, more of a personal unity with each other. Deeper as in we are brothers and sisters in Christ.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Or how about this one?
Romans 12:10–13 (ESV)
Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
We are family, we’ve been adopted!
Pulled from depravity, to life!
So, we’ve got the litteral defination of church just by defining it’s orginal word of ekklesia in greek, which again means “an assemly or chosen ones”.
We’ve biblically seen in the above verses that it is people and these people have a deep relationship with each other because of the saving grace of Jesus.
What is the church to Jesus? Biblically speaking.
Two metophors used.
The bride of Christ and the Body of Christ.
Lets look at the Bride of Christ first since we’ve been discussing relationships.
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
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.
Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
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.
In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,
because we are members of his body.
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
First paragraph is giving the context of Husband & Wife and the start of the metaphor as Christ being the bridegroom and the church the called out ones the bride.
What’s one of the most special relationships human beings can have with another?
Let me give you a hint.
Genesis 2:18-24
God has made creation, land, water, plants, everything and we see something missing here with Adam. something the Lord points out as not good.
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.
So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Relationship between Man and Women. One that is like no other. One that is used to bring more creation into the world. Children.
Marriage! Biblical marriage that is. Marriage of love, honor, respect, truth, intamatsie, patience, and forgiveness. One taken of utmost seriousness. An oath to love and behold no other.
Not the kind of pain, abuse, selfishness, non-love.
It’s a relationship like no other!
Not like the relationship with your Mom & Dad, your friends, your children, aunt, uncle, etc.
This is the church to Christ.
A relationship like no other!
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 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.
We weren’t adorned with anything that said to Jesus “bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh”. We were ugly, selfish, idolaters of everything but him.
But through Love. Love of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. We’ve been washed, changed, cleaned, rightous. Made Holy! Made the Bride of Christ!
How humbling!
For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,
We are fully nourished in Christ, not hungary. Fully fed. If we still hungar, not fulfilled, what is that saying? Where’s our heart, where is our desires.
Christ gives all that we need. He cherishes His Church, His bride. Do you think He’d withhold any goodness from us? Ok, then. Maybe the things we desire and don’t get, might just not be good for us.
because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Christ and the Church becomes on flesh!
This relationship with each other, with Christ. Is a special one.
Don’t take it for grant it!
We are one with Jesus. Not in the terms of we are god. But to point to the type of intimate relationship we have with Him.
Not a distant king ruling over the peasants type. But the type of closness.
Did you get that? God, the creator of all, the maker of everything, the only Holy one, perfect in all things. Desires to have a relationship with us, His creation!
Second and lastly
The Body of Christ, the Church, the called out ones.
The Church, the called out ones, scripture calls The Body of Christ.
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,
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.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
For the body does not consist of one member but of many.
If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.
And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.
If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?
But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.
If all were a single member, where would the body be?
As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,
and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty,
which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it,
that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
What is the overall teaching of today’s message?
The Church is a body of called out ones, called out of what? Darkness, sin, death!
And what are we called into? If we’ve been pulled out of somewhere/something, we’re in somewhere else or something else.
We’ve been called out of darkness to light. From death to life. From a body of flesh and weakness to a Body of great Holiness!
We are the Church, The Body of Christ.
it is the only entity our Lord is building in this world.
The only thing in this world that is moving towards eternal life, where everything else is moving towards death.
And we are called to be together! The Body doesn’t march by itself. The Body doesn’t learn by itself. It takes the eye, the brain, the fingers, the senses, and everthing else that supports those body parts for the body to function!
The church is not me, not Chris, not our kid’s workers its all of us and it takes all of us to function as a body. With Christ as the head!
Listen to the early church and the importance of unity.
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
Biblically what does the Church look like and why is it foundational?
Is it what I beleive we’ve been raised to think?
It’s a building I go to learn about God. A school you might say. A place to go and learn more about God but no real change or repentance. Just a place to build some brownie points with God.
Maybe to feel good about myself because I went to church today and done something good.
Learning, doing good, these things by themselves aren’t bad. But it’s not the Church.
Why, mostly because it has everything to do with you and no one else.
Me, me, me, I, I, I. Where’s Jesus, where’s His body? If you’re hurting, the body don’t know. If the body is hurting you don’t know. Why because you aren’t part of it!
The Church is about the Body of Christ and it being one with Him and His called out ones!
Not seperate, going there own way!
Why is it foundational? It’s The Body of Christ. It’s how we do what we do as believers. We work together, not alone, in this world for the Glory of God. Our foundation is on Him and through that foundation His body spreads the foundational truths of God!
Folks please don’t take the Church for grant it. Remember, we are brothers and sisters in Christ, family, called out of darkness, into light. The very Bride of Christ, made spotless, holy, & beautiful by His sacrifice and made one with Him in His body to have life and to share that life with others!