Sermon Tone Analysis

*Cosmic Christianity:  Relational Application #1**-**Marriage*

March 18, 2007; Ephesians 5:21-33

 

 

Unfinished business from last week:

            Purity, contentment not just a male issue

 

Guarding your heart:

* Youth-no computers in bedrooms

* Software decisions

* Zone Labs

* X3Watch

* Online connection:  Turn it off!

Three men were sitting together bragging about how they had given their new wives duties.

The first man had married a Woman from Iwatoba and had told her that she was going to do dishes and house cleaning.

It took a couple days, but on the third day he came home to a clean house and dishes washed and put away.

The second man had married a woman from Minneberta.

He had given his wife orders that she was to do all the cleaning, dishes, and the cooking.

The first day he didn't see any results, but the next day he saw it was better.

By the third day, he saw his house was clean, the dishes were done, and there was a huge dinner on the table.

The third man had married a girl from Wislumbia.

He told her that her duties were to keep the house cleaned, dishes washed, lawn mowed, laundry washed and hot meals on the table for every meal.

He said the first day he didn't see anything, the second day he didn't see anything, but by the third day some of the swelling had gone down and he could see a little out of his left eye, enough to fix himself a bite to eat and load the dishwasher.

///21//// //Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

/

///22//// //Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.

////23//// //For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.

////24//// //Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

/

///25//// //Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ////26//// //to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, ////27//// //and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

////28//// //In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.

He who loves his wife loves himself.

////29//// //After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— ////30//// //for we are members of his body.

////31//// //“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”

////32//// //This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.

////33//// //However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

/

/ /

God's purpose for marriage--ONENESS!

Gen 2:24; Eph 5:32--Leave, Cleave, become one Flesh

            I Cor 6:15-18--Reason for abstaining from immorality:  Defilement of oneness

            John 17:20.21

--Purpose of ministry:  Be one as Father and Son are one

            Eph 4:1-6--Practical outworking of salvation:  Oneness of Body

 

How do we accomplish this task?

*Submission:*

*            *To one another…

 

            Out of fear of Christ

 

#.

Wives:  SUBMIT! 

to renounce one’s own will for the sake of others [v22,24]

            How?

--As you would the Lord  [v22]

                        Deep respect, desire to see reputation enhanced.

HUSBAND AS HEAD:

 

| Eph 1:10 | 9 And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

|

| Eph 1:22 | And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

|

| Eph 4:15 | Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.

16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

|

| Eph 5:23 | For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.

|

 

                        1.

"Honor", as one's physical head is the seat of his honor

                                    I Cor.

11:3

                        2.  "Authority", which would naturally include idea of honor

                                    Eph.

passage seems to include this idea in use of "hupotasso", which was a military term, and in the comparison of the husbands role to that of Christ, for we do more than honor Christ.

--Your role parallels that of Jesus Christ [v23]

 

--As the Church does to Christ  [v24]

                        Legitimate need and sense of dependency

 

            Why?

            --Demonstration of oneness   [v32]

 

When San Antonio computer consultant David Williamson was called for federal jury duty and told him to keep the month of August free of commitments, he replied he was ready to serve --- at his normal rate of $100 per hour.

Williamson prepared an invoice for “Court ordered professional services,” and sent a bill for $16,800 -- $100 an hour, eight hours a day, 21 days during the month of August.

Williamson’s bill warned court officials that the invoice was due at the end of the month, and after that would begin accumulating interest at 2 percent a month, if not paid.

There was no reply to Williamson’s initial invoice, so he mailed it two more times.

The response Williamson finally received was not the one he expected.

The court sent a form ordering him to report August 26, for a seven-week trial.

Williamson wrote back that as a principal partner in a small software firm, he could not miss seven weeks of work.

He asked that his jury duty be postponed until next year – as it had been in 2000 and 2001.He added, “If you would like to meet and discuss this, please have his Honor call and schedule an appointment.”

The answer from U.S. District Judge Fred Biery appeared on Williamson’s answering machine the next Monday.

It read, “ The Court is happy to accommodate Mr. Williamson’s suggestion for an appointment: Mr. Williamson is HEREBY ORDERED TO APPEAR in Courtroom 2 of the John H. Wood Jr, United State Courthouse to show cause why he should not be held in CONTEMPT OF THE COURT AND JAILED ACCORDINGLY.

The order described Williamson as “arrogant” and asserted that the man had shirked federal jury duty for several years.

Court officials said it’s rare that a court needs to resort to the threat of jail, but said they did not know what else to do with Williamson.

Though Williamson disputes some of the Court’s figures, he says he will show up for the hearing.

--Associated Press, August 13, 2002, Submitted by Jim Sandell

 

2.

Husbands:  LOVE!

[v.25,28,33]

 

            How?

            --Sacrificially  [v25]

                        Mk 10:43-45

 

            --With a goal of purification [26,27]

                        Phil 2:6-8

 

            --With the same love you have for yourself [28,33]

                        v29, Care:  Cherish, comfort, foster with tender care

 

HOW DOES ALL THIS AFFECT OUR RELATIONSHIP TO OUR CHILDREN?

1.

Provides an example for the children of what Christ is like, and of how they need to respond to the Savior

 

2.

Provides an example for the children of the character of the Church, and of how the Church is to look to Christ for guidance and leadership, and not to itself alone.

3.

When there is role reversal in the relationship, it creates insecurity and confusion.

4.

A strong and loving father is extremely important in the development of a child's life and security structure.

\\ g.

The remaining use of ὑποτάσσομαι in NT exhortation suggests that the general rule demands readiness to renounce one’s own will for the sake of others, i.e., ἀγάπη, and to give precedence to others.

This word which belonged originally to the sphere of worldly order is now filled with new content as a term of order.

Clearly this means that, e.g., the relation of the owner to the slave takes on a new aspect even though the legal position remains unchanged.

Even the ὑποτάσσεσθαι of those who are properly subordinate does not stay the same when done under the control of dependence on the Lord, though externally it is rendered in exactly the same way as by others (cf.

Tt. 2:9); for the demand now has a specific Christian basis, Col. 3:18; 1 Pt.

2:13; Eph.

5:21 f., cf.

Eph.

5:24: as the community is subject to Christ.