Genesis 2:18-25 [+/-]Genesis 2:18-25
[18]Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man
should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."
[19]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. [20]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. [21]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. [22]And the rib that the LORD God had taken
from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the
man. [23]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."
[24]Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother
and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
[25]And the man and his wife were both naked and were not
ashamed. (ESV)
, Mark 10:2-8 [+/-]Mark 10:2-8
[2]And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked,
"Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" [3]He
answered them, "What did Moses command you?" [4]They said,
"Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and
to send her away." [5]And Jesus said to them, "Because of
your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.
[6]But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male
and female.' [7]'Therefore a man shall leave his father and
mother and hold fast to his wife, [8]and the two shall
become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh.
(ESV)
, Ephesians 5:22-33 [+/-]Ephesians 5:22-33
[22]Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
[23]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. [24]Now as the church submits to Christ, so also
wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
[25]Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the
church and gave himself up for her, [26]that he might
sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water
with the word, [27]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. [28]In
the same way husbands should love their wives as their own
bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. [29]For no one
ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it,
just as Christ does the church, [30]because we are members
of his body. [31]"Therefore a man shall leave his father
and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall
become one flesh." [32]This mystery is profound, and I am
saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
[33]However, let each one of you love his wife as himself,
and let the wife see that she respects her husband. (ESV)
The is the first in a series on Marriage.
“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here in the sight of God and in the face of this congregation to join together this man and this woman in Holy Matrimony; which is an honorable state, instituted by God in the time of man’s innocency, signifying unto us the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and His Church.” These are the opening lines of one of the oldest and most beautiful wedding ceremonies ever written by human hand. Found in The Book of Common Prayer this ceremony communicates clearly the biblical foundations and the reasons rooted in the revelation of God for Christian marriage. These words were written at a time when without question or exception people understood that marriage was a relationship between one man and one woman for all of life and that the distinctive of Christian marriage was that it was a revelation of the relationship of Jesus to His church so that who a man was in his family became the most fundamental factor in determining who he was and what he could do in the church.
Learn more about this message by downloading the sermon notes here!
