Wedding Sermon for Jeff and Sheila

Introduction:

Today is a special day as we are finally here and as we witness the covenant Jeff and Sheila are to make before God and these witnesses.

Marriage is a wonderful gift of God. In fact, we see that the Bible begins with a marriage and the Bible concludes with marriage of Christ and the Church. They say that the most important decision you will make in your life is following Jesus Christ. The second most important decision will be who you marry.

And in God’s providence, God has brought both Jeff and Sheila together. In our few remaining minutes, I would like to offer three brief words of encouragement to the groom, the bride, and you together as a couple.

Marriage as already mentioned is a gift of God. Therefore this gift must be protected and held in high regard, for God made marriage for man and woman to flourish and reflect his character. We can say in one sense marriage is a picture of the gospel. It is a parable of God’s love for us in Christ. And when we make it our aim to reflect the beauty of God in marriage, we will maximize our happiness in marriage and glorify our Maker.

Proposition: So, I am going to give you three words you need to remember for a a marriage that will honor God, strengthen and keep your marriage. First word you need to remember is the word submit.

I. Submit (vv. 22-23)

Ephesians 5:22–23 ESV

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.

In our culture, the “S” word means inferiority, inequality, oppression, or abuse.

But when the Bible speaks of the word “submission”, the Bible speaks of a voluntary choice that yields to the loving and sacrificial leadership of the husband.

Marriage is a divine dance. One person has to lead. The other person has to follow or we can say submit to one’s direction.

Submission never means turn off your mind, never ask questions, or provide input, but what it means is to follow, encourage, and help your husband be the man God has called him to be.

Submission is done as to the Lord. We submit because God commands us to and biblical submission recognizes a divine order of society. A husband must submit to Christ, just as Christ submits to God the Father. Submission is always down under a context of loving protection and leadership.

Sheila, God has made you a helper to Jeff. The phrase helper is not a derogatory term. The term was used of the God in the Bible who would strengthen and help His own people. You have gifts and talents that will complement and strengthen your husband.

When you submit, you allow your husband to lead and take initiative. When you don’t, it encourages him to be passive and lack direction. Let your husband lead you. Your role is to encourage that leadership so that he can be a better man and better lover.

Submission is

Ephesians 5:24 ESV

Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

If you think that was a hard word for Sheila, the man gets the bulk of the instruction because he bears the responsibility.

When he doesn’t

Transition: Jeff, if you are going to have Sheila follow you, then you have the greater responsibility. The word you need to remember is love.

II. Love (vv. 25-31)

Ephesians 5:25 ESV

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

Biblical love is not an emotion or a feeling. Biblical love is not temporary or passes away with whatever your feeling.

Biblical love is a sacrificial love. The way you are to love her is the way Christ loved his own people.

How did Christ love his people?

The Bible tells us he voluntarily gave himself up or in place of his people. His people deserved judgment because of sin, yet Jesus took their place willingly to save them from their sins by bearing the judgment on himself. He took from the church what she deserved, and he gave the church what she didn’t deserve.

In other words, Jeff, you are to love her at all times, whether she deserves it or not, in good times and in bad times. Your love is to be an expression of God’s love for us.

How did Christ love his bride?

A. He purified her

Ephesians 5:26 ESV

that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

You are to lead her not only emotionally and physically, but you are to love her spiritually. As great of a husband you may be to her, nothing will ever satisfy her deepest longing except Christ. A good husband will be a reflection of Christ and she will will love Christ more deeply if you lead in this way.

B. He Cares for Her

Ephesians 5:28–30 ESV

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.

Ephesians 5:28-

The way you care for yourself, is the way you are to care for your wife because now she is part of you and belongs to you. Nourish and cherish speaks of highly prizing your wife. Like a precious jewel, you will do everything in your power to make her flourish and make her more lovely.

C. He cares for

She should look back at the end of her life and say I become more beautiful because I was loved and cherished by my husband.

C. He is One with Her

Ephesians 5:31 ESV

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

The great mystery of marriage is that the two become one. You now view life through the lends of we, not me. Us, not I. Your decision making will affect your wife, so you need to live a life that takes into account the feelings and the thoughts of your wife. You need to consider her interests above your own.

What I’m trying to say her is Biblical love, the Jesus type of Love, is a sacrificial and committed love. It is a love that will love your spouse in her deepest darkest moments. It is a love that will love her when she doesn’t deserve it. It is a love that will put her needs above your own.

• True Biblical Love says I see all the bad and ugly, and I’m still going to love you and stick with you.

• True Biblical love is not a promise of present love; but a promise of future love.

• True Biblical love is not a love discovered, but a love declared.

CHRIST: THE EXAMPLE OF SACRIFICIAL LOVE

Even the secular culture understands that sacrifice is the greatest expression of love.

Bruno Mars has a song entitled Grenade.

Bruno Mars has a song entitled Grenade.

I catch a grenade for ya. Throw my head on a blade for ya. I’d jump in front of a train for ya. You know I do anything for ya. Oh, Oh, I would go through all this pain, take a bullet straight through my brain, Yes, I would die for you.

One wife rightly told her husband, “Honey, I know you are willing to die for me; you have told me that many times. But while you are waiting to die, could you just fill in some of the time helping me dry the dishes.

Before you die for your wife, make sure you are dying daily before first before the grand sacrificial death.

Before we get all ideal and romantic, before you take a grenade for your wife, can you just take out the trash for your wife? Before you put your head on a blade, can you just listen to your wife when you are coming home tired from work? Before you jump in front of a train, can you just show some courtesy for your wife in opening the door for her. Before you take a bullet straight to your brain, can you just pick up your pants and put in the drawer? Make sure you die daily even you want to make sure you are willing to to the greater death.

III. Christ

Ephesians 5:32 ESV

This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

As we have mentioned in our pre-marital counseling, if your marriage is going to work properly, you need to have Christ as the center.

The reality of the matter is that each one of us will fail in marriage. There are times when you Sheila will fail to submit to your husband, and there are times when you Jeff will fail to love your wife.

This is beauty of the gospel. Because as mentioned, the Bible begins with a marriage, but also a marriage that went terribly wrong. Even rejected her husband’s authority by listening to the serpent, while Adam rejected God’s authority and failed to love his wife by protecting her from the Serpent.

And because of their disobedience, sin and death were introduced into the world. Conflict and broken marriages are all a result of sin.

But God sent Jesus Christ into the world to bear our curse by dying on the cross for our sins. Because God was so committed to us, he was willing to give up his own Son so that we could be forgiven and washed. And by raising His Son from the dead, he grants eternal life and forgiveness of sins for all who turn away from their sin and trust in Him.

Jesus Christ, the perfect Husband, came to rescue his people when they were at their lowest and worst moment. And Jesus Christ came to save, protect, and redeem his bride so that she could be presented in glory on that final day.

The Bible ends with this marriage and the happily ever after because God is love.

And when we fail in marriage, we keep returning to this story. When we failed one another, we look to Christ who never fails. When we sin against one another, we forgive because Jesus forgives. When we are tempted to be selfish, we look to Christ who looked out for our own interests so that we can be all that God made us to be.

You need the Gospel at the center of your marriage so that you can enjoy one another in marriage and point others to this great mystery of God’s love for us in Christ. Only when you are satisfied and loved in Christ, are you able to love one another like this.

Jesus will give you to strength and grace to fulfill your vows on the days it gets hard and the days when life is tough. He is the One who gives us the love, grace, forgiveness, and hope we need so that we can have a life long committed marriage to reflect his love to one another and to others.

Make sure you both prioritize Christ above one another. And when your prioritize Christ, you will love one another better than you can ever imagined.

Submission.

Love.

Christ.

These are the key ingredients to a healthy marriage, because marriage is just a reminder or picture of God’s love for us in Christ. May God bless your marriage as you seek to follow Christ, and love another.