The Bride of Christ
and Transformation
The Greatest Transformation
All of us like transformation stories
We love the Ugly Duckling Stories
The Cinderella Stories
The before and after pictures
But the greatest transformation story of all is the story of the Bride of Christ
Revelation 19:7-9
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.
Christ did so much for us on the cross
But we must allow Him to wash us with the Word
The Bride of Christ is the greatest story of transformation
Christ is coming back for His Bride
What is He waiting for?
He is waiting for the Bride to be that glorious, gorgeous Church
He is still removing our stains, wrinkles, and blemishes
Let us speed His return by getting ready
Let us submit to Christ in everything
The Bride of Christ
and
The Greatest Transformation
All of us like transformation stories.
We love the Ugly Duckling Stories
The Cinderella Stories
The before and after pictures.
But the greatest transformation story of all is…
The story of the Bride of Christ.
Revelation 19:7-9…
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.
8 Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her to wear."
(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)
9 Then 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."
When a woman accepts the engagement ring,
she begins an amazing transformation.
She accepts the ring because
her heart has been transformed by love.
Her love for her boyfriend becomes so great
she desires to do life together.
Love is expressed in a promise of commitment
till death separates them.
A statement that says their love is so great
no one or thing has the power to separate them.
Only death is powerful enough to separate them.
The engaged woman is filled with dreams...
Dreams and desires from childhood.
Dreams of being loved
and a best friend to share her life with.
Dreams of being a wife and building a home.
Dreams of having children
and building a family legacy.
When a woman accepts the engagement ring
dreams fill her mind.
Dreams of her Wedding Day.
It is her day.
Whether she is poor or rich
she dreams of the Wedding Day
as the greatest day of her life.
She dreams of making herself gorgeous
and everything around her beautiful.
Paul tells us about the relationship
of a husband and wife.
In doing so…
He says he is talking of Christ and the Church.
We see the image of a wife as the Church
and the Bride or wife of Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 5:22-23 tells us…
Christ is Lord.
He is the Head of the Church…
The Bride.
Our role as His Church, Bride,
wife, we are to submit to Him.
This takes a lot of trust.
This is why it says in verse 25…
Husbands, love your wives,
just as Christ loved the church
and gave himself up for her.
Christ demonstrated His love for us
by taking on our humiliation of sin…
Taking our place on a criminal’s cross of execution.
Verse 26 tells us why…
To make her holy, cleansing her by the washing
with water through the word
To make the Bride holy,
the word holy means “set apart”…
She is like nothing else.
Her acceptance of His love on the cross for her
makes her stand out from all others,
like a bride on her wedding day.
But He not only makes her holy…
He “cleanses her by the washing
with water through the word.”
I don’t want to make this “R” rated but…
We get an image of water like rain,
a washing like baptism.
Having someone bath you
can be very intimidating.
I have always been uncomfortable
about others seeing my body.
I remember as a little boy my grandmother
taking me to buy school clothes.
She would go into the changing room with me.
I told her I could not change in front of her
and she said, “you don’t have anything I have not already seen”
That did not help me.
But I was glad she bought me the clothes.
It is intimidating to have someone bath you,
even your spouse.
There have been times when…
Sandy physically could not bath herself
and times when I could not bath myself.
Those were intimidating times, humbling times.
Jesus knows our need to be cleansed.
It is not good enough to wash the body parts that are seen,
we need to have every part of our body cleansed
in order to be healthy and smell good.
The soap and water to clean us is the Word of God.
It has to reach every part of our lives…
Even the challenging areas between
the soul and spirit or thoughts and emotions,
where dirt and impurities can infect us.
I cannot imagine not taking at least two showers a day.
In the same way,
we should look to God’s Word daily…
Not just for information,
but for cleansing.
The cleansing of the Word needs
to be applied by the Spirit of Jesus because…
We do not always do a good job
of washing behind our ears.
Verse 27 give us a beautiful picture
of why He bathes or washes us…
And to present her to himself as a radiant church.
This word “radiant” is also translated as…
Glorious, honorable, and gorgeous.
What woman does not want to be gorgeous?
What man does not want his wife to be gorgeous?
God the Father wants a gorgeous Bride for His Son.
Jesus Christ deserves to have a gorgeous Bride.
So, we come to the second half of verse 27
that tells us what the washing of the Word does…
And to present her to himself as a radiant church,
without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish,
but holy and blameless.
Without stain….
Men and women you know what it is like
to get stains on your hands and clothes.
Stains don’t come off easy,
they take aggressive measures to remove them.
Generally, stains don’t come from a desire to get stained,
they come as a by-product of working with,
or making something that has staining agents in it…
Like working on a car or making blueberry jam.
The Greek word is also translated as defect, disgrace.
Do you have any scars or defects on your body
that are only seen when you are bathing?
Wrinkles…
The worst wrinkle is not in your clothes.
The worst wrinkle is the one on your face
then the ones under your clothes…
We call love handles.
God’s Word can remove wrinkles.
But like those love handles…
It may take some time and work.
The any other blemishes denote character or individuality.
Let’s be careful of how we justify who we are.
Who you are may be irritating to others
and the Bridegroom.
When I grew up…
Passing gas was embarrassing,
now we make it a laughing matter.
Be careful of what you cover up with a laugh,
it may need to be washed.
Jesus set us apart as His prize passion.
But we must also set ourselves apart
from other things and people
to keep in the presences of our Lord.
Blameless, blemishes, faults, and spots
need to be washed away so that…
Before our Bridegroom
we are faultless and unblameable.
Christ did so much for us on the cross but…
We must allow Him to wash us with the Word.
The Bride of Christ is the greatest story of transformation.
Christ is coming back for His Bride.
What is He waiting for?
He is waiting for the Bride to be
that glorious, gorgeous Church.
He is still removing our stains, wrinkles, and blemishes.
Let us speed His return by getting ready.
Let us submit to Christ in everything.
Two verses speaking of the change process.
2 Corinthians 4:16…
16 Therefore we do not lose heart.
Though outwardly we are wasting away,
yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
Colossians 3:8-13…
9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
12 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Change…
Can you share a change that has taken place in you?
Is there some area you have not let Him
cleanse in you with His Word?
Scripture Reading
Ephesians 5:21-33 NIV
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.
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