20250511 The Church as the Bride of Christ
Coram Deo • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Welcome to Vertical Church
42 And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.
As a church we seek to uphold the values of the NT church as seen in Acts 2:42 -
We are Trinitarian - while God is one in essence, He is three in person: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit
We believe in the sovereignty of God - sovereign over all creation, sovereign over the affairs of men, sovereign over salvation
We believe in the authority of the Bible - Scripture alone is the Word of God
We are Biblical in our theology - we are a bible teaching church
We believe that the Church is not a building or a denomination but a people - those who are truly in Christ and embrace the truths that were embraced and confessed by the New Testament Church, the apostolic church.
We are evangelical - we believe that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
We are a Vertical Church - we believe that all true worship and living is Vertical, God directed and for the glory of God alone.
Let us worship God
Call to Worship - Psalm 100
A Psalm of Thanksgiving. 1 Make a loud shout to Yahweh, all the earth. 2 Serve Yahweh with gladness; Come before Him with joyful songs. 3 Know that Yahweh, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. 4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. 5 For Yahweh is good; His lovingkindness endures forever And His faithfulness, generation unto generation.
Scripture Reading - Ephesians 5:23-30
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body.
Introduction: The Church As the Bride of Christ
I had the privilege of attending the Coram Deo conference at Trinity Bible Church in Morgan Hill on Friday and Saturday. This was the 6th year for this conference. Coram Deo is the latin reformation phrase that literally means Before the Face of God, and it is a phrase that came to be understood as the duty and obligation of every true believer, that every true believer is to live their life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, and to the glory of God.
It was a wonderful conference and as has been my custom for many years, I enjoy bringing the blessings I received back to you so that you also might be blessed. And so this morning’s message deals with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirits love for the Church and how the greatness of this love is given by the Church’s title, the Bride of Christ
Before we talk about the Bride, let me talk about Mothers.
It is Mother’s Day, and it is on this Day that we fulfill the 5th commandment, the commandment about which Paul says in Ephesians 6:1-3
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), 3 so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long in the land.
And so children are to honor their parents and on this day we remember that we are to honor our mothers. And so, on this day may we remember our mothers and if our mothers are still with us, may we seek to honor them, appreciate them, and pray for them.
Great theologians of the past compared the Church to the role of a Mother
Joel Beeke in Cherishing the Church
Calvin agreed with Cyprian and Augustine, who said, “He cannot have God for his Father who refuses to have the church for his mother.” To this Calvin added, “For there is no other way to enter into life unless this mother conceive us in her womb, give us birth, nourish us at her breast, and lastly, unless she keep us under her care and guidance until, putting off mortal flesh, we become like the angels.”2 So, the church is essential for spiritual nourishment and maturation.
But this quote leads me to ask, What to you is the Church and what is the role of the Church?
The source of salvation or an occasional addition to your personal spiritual life?
Our focus this morning is the Church, and I pray that we will understand that when we refer to the Church, we are not referring to a building, but a people, and not just a small group of people meeting in a building, but a people all over the world who have come to Christ.
And so this morning, as we talk about the Church, I want to give you three main points that will help us to not only love Christ, but to love those He died for, those who are called the Church
(1) What is the Church?
The Church is biblical name for the those who are in Christ, those who have been saved by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ. When the Christians of the 1600’s began to protest the lack of biblical truth in the Church and sought to reform the Church and return to biblical Christianity, and biblical teaching, and biblical leadership, one of the things they did was to emphasize that the church was not the building or the organization but the people. One of the ways they did this was to call the places where they met “meeting houses” or “chapels”. You did not go to Church, you were the Church.
Another thing they did to help people understand what it meant to be the Church was to teach what the Bible said about the Church. Notice what the Bible says about the Church
While in the Old Testament there was the temple of God, now in the New Testament those who are in Christ are called the temple of God, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit
16 Do you not know that you are a sanctuary of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
Body of Christ
5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another,
1 Cor 3:9
The Sheep of the Good Shepherd
14 “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
15 but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.
10 So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.
9 Then one of the seven angels who have the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
Notice that these are all terms of love, and intimacy and protection. These are terms that denote commitment and sacrifice. If in our salvation we are united with Christ and union with Christ means that we are in Christ and Christ is in us, I pray that you will understand what it means to be loved, and cherished, and purchased with the shed blood of Jesus
The church is not a building but a people. And we are not just any people, we are a family, a household of faith, the cherished possession of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
(2) Christ will build His Church
16 And Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
The confession
The source of this truth - revealed by the Father
The foundation of truth - Petra and petra.
I - the Christ, the Son of the Living God will build MY people - Spirituall he will build us, he will protect us, he will transform us
(3) Christ loves His Church
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.
If we are the Bride of Christ
He gave himself up - Jesus died
He is sanctifying - holiness and drawing close, setting apart for
Cleansing her by the washing of water with the word
presenting her to himself in all her glory for his glory
holy and blameless
How should we then view our gatherings?
The role of the word of God in worship and spiritual growth
The word of God shows us what we should seek to be and how we should worship
How to deepen our understanding of Christ’s love for us and how do we deepen our love for Christ?
The word - read and preached
The ordinances - baptism and communion
Prayer - spoken and sung
Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, in all your troubles and darkness, remember what you are and have. You have been loved with an everlasting love. You are supported by everlasting arms. You are recipients of everlasting life and heirs of an everlasting kingdom, all sealed and made sure by the blood of an everlasting covenant. Amen.
CHERISHING THE CHURCH Joel R. Beeke How important is the church in the life of the individual Christian? This question has been answered in various ways. At one end of the spectrum is the clericalism and absolutism of Roman Catholicism, in which the visible and institutional church, administered by a hierarchy of priests, bishops, and pope, claims and wields total power over the believer in matters pertaining to this life and the next. At the other end is the intense subjectivism and individualism of modern American evangelicalism, which holds that Christianity consists only in personal faith and which suspiciously regards the church as “organized religion.” Many agree with the notion that the church is a voluntary society.1 “You don’t have to attend church to be a Christian,” they say. As a result, the church commands scant regard for her ordinances and office-bearers, and even less loyalty from her adherents. As an institution, the church must compete for support with the whole welter of Christian crusades, mission agencies, schools, publications, broadcasts, charities, and fund drives that crowd the landscape of evangelical America. The net result is that the church has lost all authority, and has been reduced to a revolving door where people are leaving as fast as they are coming in. Both extremes are rooted in unbiblical views of the church. Both are unacceptable to the mind of the Reformers like John Calvin. While breaking with the clericalism, authoritarianism, and absolutism of Rome, Calvin nonetheless maintained a high view of the church: “If we do not prefer the church to all other objects of our interest we are unworthy of being counted among her members,” he wrote. Calvin agreed with Cyprian and Augustine, who said, “He cannot have God for his Father who refuses to have the church for his mother.” To this Calvin added, “For there is no other way to enter into life unless this mother conceive us in her womb, give us birth, nourish us at her breast, and lastly, unless she keep us under her care and guidance until, putting off mortal flesh, we become like the angels.”2 So, the church is essential for spiritual nourishment and maturation. Calvin warns us to avoid a church that is an absolute authority, an infallible teacher, and a center of habitual grace. But he also urges us to avoid a church that is a center for rallies, entertainment, rehabilitation, or politics—a church that becomes a music hall, a social institution, or an evangelistic circus. Instead, Calvin calls us back to Scripture to consider what Christ has said about His church. In the past, Reformed believers have profoundly cherished the church. Today, that sense of appreciation is waning in general. Many Protestants have depreciated the place 1Michael Horton, We Believe: Recovering the Essentials of the Apostles’ Creed (Nashville: Word, 1998), 193. 2 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960), 4.1.1, 4.1.4. 1the church occupies as Christ’s institution.3 This lowered view of the church is fostered by a lack of understanding about what the church truly is as Christ’s institution. It disregards Jesus’ words to Peter: “Upon this rock I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18). Calvin would say that we cannot really understand what the church is and why we should appreciate her until we truly understand the meaning of those words. To that end, I want to address three things: first, the status of the church as belonging to Christ (“My church”); second, the substance of the church as founded on Christ (“upon this rock”); third, the success of the church as the workmanship of Christ (“I will build”)—all of which should increasingly move us to cherish the church.4 The Church’s Status: Belonging to Christ In Matthew 16:18, Jesus speaks about the church as the epicenter of His vision. There is a programmatic ring about the words He uses. He doesn’t just say, “Peter, by the way, I am planning to build the church.” Rather, He tells Peter with absolute certainty that He will build His church, despite the gates of hell that will try to prevail against it. It is as if He says to Peter and to us, “Since you have recognized My true identity as the Son of God, I want you to understand what lies at the heart of My ministry. The reason I have come into the world as the Christ is so that by My Spirit-anointed ministry I might bring into being a church that belongs to Myself.”
