Teaching Text

Ephesians 5:22-32

Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 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. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.

Sermon Recap

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our sermon series, Making Sense of the Church, by examining the Church as the Bride of Christ, reminding us that the Bible is, at its core, a great love story. Beneath all the striving and ambition of New York City lies a deep-rooted desire of wanting to be loved. While culture tells us we must earn love through achievement, Scripture tells a different story about how our truest identity is found in being loved by God. 

The Bible begins with a wedding in Genesis and ends with a wedding in Revelation, framing the entire story around God’s covenant love for His people. Yet Scripture also reveals the Bride’s inability to remain faithful to the Lord, and the Old Testament prophets consistently describe sin and idolatry not only as moral failure but as relational betrayal. The separation sin causes is one of the deepest pains of the human experience, but God’s people remain His treasured possession.

Even in our unfaithfulness, God is revealed as a jealous, yet persistent lover. Despite idolatry and betrayal, God continues to pursue His Bride. The old covenant between God and His people, as written in Exodus, was filled with commands of “you shall,” but in the new covenant, God declares, “I will,” a faithful, loving response that communicates the power of the cross of Christ to reconcile His people to Himself. Through Jesus and His resurrection, the Bridegroom comes to redeem His Bride, laying down His life to restore her to Himself. Our truest identity as believers is shaped first and foremost by God’s initiating love, and God’s vision for His Church is a people responding to Him wholeheartedly in devotion. 

The story of the Bible ends in the eternal, joyful union of Christ and His Church with the wedding supper of the Lamb. It is out of the assurance that Jesus sees His Church as holy, chosen, and dearly loved, that we can live lives surrendered to the preparation of sanctification that will ultimately transform us into a radiant Bride. Pastor Jon reminded us that the love story of the Bible should reshape how we see our city and culture. Our city hungers for love in success, ambition, and relationships, but only God’s love can truly satisfy. Leadership, discipleship, and community become ways of directing desires for love towards Christ. The Church is at its best when it sees itself as the Bride of Christ who is beloved, pursued, and preparing for union with Him. Since God has declared His deep love for the Church, as believers, we too should place the sanctification of the Church at the center of our hearts and lives.

Rooted in this love story, we gain transcendent hope, eternal security, and the freedom to serve our world without being enslaved by it. The Church is not merely an institution or obligation, but an expectant Bride preparing for her wedding day. The invitation is to surrender to this love story, to build our lives on the truth that we are the beloved of Jesus, and to live as His radiant Bride, preparing for the joy that is to come.