Missionary organizations, evangelistic organizations, thank God for them. What are they? They are bridesmaids, whose work is to assist the bride as she gets ready for the coming of the bridegroom. Thank God for the bridesmaids. Friends, it is a great mistake to make more of the bridesmaids than you make of the bride. Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. And Colin, this is such a vivid picture, helping us to understand the significance of the church as the bride of Christ. Yeah, that’s right. And you know, everything else apart from the church is the bridesmaids. That’s why it’s so important to be serving the local church. That’s why this series is so important as part of our ministry. Really want to encourage you to grasp a vision of the church as Jesus sees the church. The world will always dismiss the church and will never think much of it, but Jesus Christ loves the church. He gave himself for it. One day the church is going to be made perfect in glory. You’re going to want to be part of it then, and for sure that means you’re going to want to be part of it now. So I hope that this series is going to have that effect. It’s a great thing to be a bridesmaid, but you know, to be part of the bride, that’s a marvellous thing and even greater. We’re going to be looking at Ephesians chapter 5 today, so I hope you’ll be able to join us as we conclude this message called The Bride. Here’s Colin. Christ has chosen a bride, and his bride is the church. And as he loves and cares for her, so one day he will present her, verse 27, to himself. And when he does, the church will not be in rags or tatters, there will be nothing that spoils the bride of Christ. She will be without, verse 27, without stain and without a wrinkle and without any other blemish. I love that. No spots on this bride, no zits, you know. Isn’t that the bane of being young? What do you do about these zits? And the endless adverts you see on television for, you know, cream that you can put on here and it’s going to get rid of all these spots, and so you order that cream when you’re in high school and see what it’ll do. Then 50 years later, you’re looking for another kind of cream, because your problem isn’t zits anymore, it’s wrinkles, isn’t it? And you say, now where’s the cream that’s going to do something about this and smooth it out and all the rest of that? And there’ll be no wrinkles on the bride either. What are wrinkles? Wrinkles speak of being overstretched, overtired, carrying a burden for a very, very, very long time, weariness. And Christ says there will be no spots, there will be no wrinkles on my church. She will be radiant and she will be beautiful, and she will be with Christ forever, and we are the bride of Christ. That’s what it means to be the church. Can you feel your view of the church rising under the influence of the Word of God? Can you feel yourself beginning to think in a different way about what it means to be the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, what a local church actually is? And it is the church that is the bride of Christ. It is the church that Christ will present to himself. So we should thank God, and we do, for the many, many agencies and ministries that God has raised up. But in this world where ministry sometimes becomes very, very complex, it is important to remember that their task is to support the church. Christian schools, seminaries, radio ministries, missionary organizations, evangelistic organizations, thank God for them. What are they? They are bridesmaids whose work is to assist the bride as she gets ready for the coming of the bridegroom. And the bride needs her bridesmaids. The bride loves her bridesmaids. Thank God for the bridesmaids. But friends, it is a great mistake to make more of the bridesmaids than you make of the bride. Think about that. At the end of the Bible, John the Apostle hears a great shout coming from heaven. And he hears this voice saying, hallelujah, the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad, and let us give him the glory. For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb. Christ has chosen a bride, and that bride is the church. Now we’ve looked at how Christ loves the church. I want us in this second part, and there are only these two here today, to think about how we love the church. How do you love the church? Christ loves the church. If we’re his friends, then we should love her too. We saw in verse 21 that there is this holy union between Christ and the church. He’s chosen a bride. We are his body. We are his building. We are his bride. And friends, does this not make sense? If you love the bridegroom, you will love the bride as well. There is this holy union between Jesus Christ and his church, and it is like the union between a bride and a bridegroom. Now just think about that. If you were to hurt the bride, you would really hurt the bridegroom. I mean, guys, you know, I mean, someone might say something rude or insulting to you, and you know, you can handle that. But if someone is rude and insulting to your wife, you will rise immediately to defend her. It’s the nature of your union with her. Now Christ is one with his bride, the church. He is one with her. So think about this story in the Bible. Remember Saul of Tarsus and how he was so antagonistic towards the church and wanted to exercise violence and to persecute believers in this town called Damascus. And he’s on the road to Damascus, and you remember the risen Christ appears to him in a blinding light and then speaks to him in an audible voice. And he’s on his way to persecute the church. And what does Jesus say to him? Jesus does not say, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting the church? What Jesus says to him is, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Me? You see, the point, the union between Christ and the church, they are one. And he’s saying, Saul, you lift your hand against the church, you’re lifting your hand against me. No wonder the man was down in the dust and pleading the forgiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the principle is very simple. What you do to the bride, you do to the bridegroom. Now let’s turn that to our advantage and think of it this way. If my wife is in need, and you should help her, you are my friend forever. You really are. If you have done good to my wife, then you have brought a smile to my face, every husband knows this, and you have brought more blessing to me, actually, than if you’d done something directly for me. The church is the bride of Christ, and when you are good to the bride, you bring pleasure to the bridegroom. Now grasp that and you will begin to think in a new and a different way about the local church, which is the body and the bride of Christ. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and the message, The Bride, which is part of our series, What is the Church and Why Does it Matter? And the series looks at Christ’s union with his church. If you’re new to the Bible and you’d like to understand it better, see how it all fits together, come to our website, that’s at openthebible.org.uk. On the website you can find Open the Bible Story, and this is a guide which will lead you through from Genesis to Revelation, showing how the entire storyline of the Bible points to Jesus. Again, you can find that on our website, openthebible.org.uk, and just click on Open the Bible Story. Back to the message now, here’s Colin. The church is the bride of Christ, and when you are good to the bride, you bring pleasure to the bridegroom. Now earlier in this series, I quoted from a friend of mine, Tom Nelson, who serves as a pastor in the Free Church in Kansas, and I want to quote from him again today. Tom has written a helpful little book called Ecclesia, which is simply about God’s design for the local church, and he has a passage in that book where he speaks personally about his own journey, and I think that many of you will relate to this. He says, for a long time in my own spiritual journey, I separated my love for Jesus and my love, or he says more often, my lack of love, for the local church. So here I’ve got my love for Jesus, and here I’ve got what I think about the local church, and they’re kind of in two different places. He says, I was immersed in a tradition that wonderfully emphasized personal belief in Jesus and following him in personal discipleship, but I finally grasped that I was also to love what Jesus loves. That’s a huge line. I finally grasped, this is a pastor speaking, I finally grasped that I was to love what Jesus loves. Then he says, with that realization, I understood the teaching of the Bible more clearly. The closer I walk with Christ, the nearer and dearer his beautiful bride, the local church, becomes. Now, that’s a huge insight. I used to think that loving Jesus was a thing that’s a personal kind of pursuit, and I’m also connected in some way to the church. Now I’ve come to see in the Bible that I am to love what Jesus loves, and here’s what I’m now finding, says Tom Nelson, that the closer I’m walking with Jesus, the nearer and the dearer his bride, the local church, becomes. So he says, the question I most often ask myself is, Tom, what do you truly love? What we truly love, he says, isn’t hard to determine. It’s what we dream, and it’s what we talk about, it’s what we sacrifice for, it’s what we pray for. What we truly love is evidenced in how we spend our resources of time and talent and treasure. He then refers to the work of Dr. Gary Chapman, who has identified five love languages, that is, five ways in which people express love in the context of marriage. How many folks have heard of Dr. Gary Chapman’s five love languages? It’s going to be all over the congregation, okay? Very, very helpful. How many thousands of people have found this really helpful in the context of marriage? And Gary Chapman’s point is a very simple one, and that’s why it’s so helpful. He says, people express love in different ways, and we have to learn to speak different love languages. And the five he identifies are words of affirmation, quality time, thoughtful gifts, acts of service, and physical touch. Now, I’ll tell you, I want to be fluent in all five of these languages in my marriage. I hope, by the way, that there’s nobody here who would take an idea like that and say, well, I just speak one language, and that’s, you know, as long as I do one reasonably well. No, that’s not the point. We want to be fluent, if you’re a husband, if you’re a wife, you want to be fluent in all five of these languages. But here’s what I found helpful, and it was Tom Nelson who put me onto it. That’s actually a very helpful grid for me to test and to evaluate how well I am loving the church, the Bride of Christ, how well I am loving what Jesus loves. I’ll tell you, all over this congregation, there are people who are loving the Bride in extraordinary ways and showing their love of Christ through this, pushing the boundaries in each of these ways of expressing love. But I want to give you, as we wrap up this series, just this simple challenge for you to evaluate where you are, and perhaps it will be that in one or even in all of these areas, God would call us to take a significant step forward. So let me simply ask you to evaluate yourself, take some time to reflect on where you are measured against this grid used not now in relation to your marriage, but specifically in relation to you sharing the passion of Jesus Christ, which is for His Bride, the church. Words of affirmation. How do you speak about the church? This local body of believers of which you are a part, when you’re out breakfasting with your friends, how do they hear you speak about the church? Do you speak well of the church? Is your predominant mode to be speaking critically of the church? Is that the habit and the pattern of your conversation? How does Jesus Christ, who loves the Bride, feel about your words regarding her? Second, time. If there are three words that define our culture in the northwestern suburbs here, I’m going to plump for three. Three would be my busy schedule. I think that is defining for so many in so many ways. Some of us don’t have quality time to engage in the work of the body of Christ, the life of the Bride, because our schedule is simply crammed full. Now, we’re coming up towards the end of the summer very fast, and we’re going to be making plans for the fall. I want to give you this challenge for you and for your family. I’m going to sit down and to ask the question, what is my schedule crammed full with? And what are the values that are cramming this schedule? And what will be the fruit that will come of this schedule? And how would I stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and tell him that my schedule was so crammed I had very little time for the life of his Bride? Third, gifts. Let me be quite candid with you. I want us to grow in giving to the local church as a congregation. Not only so that we can do more of what the church is called to do here and around the world, but I want us to grow in our giving to the local church because I want us to be a congregation that shares the passion of Jesus Christ. And that’s my question to you, do you? We have folks who are pushing the boundaries of this in all kinds of extraordinary ways. In an unusual season, doing things that they’ve never done in their lives before in their giving and may never be able to do again. And it’s coming out of a passion for Christ. How many of you know of this? The church is his consuming passion, is it yours? Fourthly, serving. I think we speak this language better than any other in this congregation. We are a serving church with so many people actively engaged. If that’s not true of you, I encourage you to learn this language and to love Christ’s bride by serving and being involved in some area of ministry. And the fifth area, touch, which Tom Nelson helpfully kind of rephrases as presence for this purpose. Just being physically here as you are here. Being part of worship. You know, so many people in our congregation, for you, Sunday is a highlight in the week. You look forward to worship and when we stand to sing, you sing and when we pray, you pray and you soak in the word of God because you are hungry and you are thirsty after God. And that is an evidence of the life of the Holy Spirit in you. Let me tell you as your pastor, something that weighs heavily on my heart. There are many in our congregation who gather for worship probably about one week in four. Many. And in some cases, there may be some very good reasons for that, I understand. But I have to tell you that I feel a sense of burden in my own heart as I think about that. And it is so easy, friends, especially in this culture, to kind of sign off on, I believe these Christian things and I’ve got a place for God in my life and all this kind of thing. And never really to come to the place where the life of the Holy Spirit is in you. And a passion for Jesus Christ defines you. And a love for the local church flows out of your love for the bridegroom. What do you know of that, friend? Is there a hunger? Is there a thirst in your heart after God? Oh, if you are a Christian, you are a member of the body of Christ. You are a stone in God’s great building that will be his home for all eternity. Christ loves his bride and if you’re becoming like him, you will love her more and more too. So I simply ask you to measure yourself by these things. You’re attending, you’re serving, you’re giving your time, your words. Do you share the passion of Jesus Christ? Christ has chosen a bride. He gave himself up for her on the cross and now he lives for her in glory. She is the constant focus of his attention, the very center of the risen Christ’s world. All his plans are for her, for her good, and all gearing to the day when he will sweep her up into his presence and into the joy of his eternal home. And friend, if you know and if you love the bridegroom, you will love the bride. You will count it your greatest joy in this world that you belong to the church, which is Christ’s, and that we are his body through whom he works. That we are the building that he is putting together for his everlasting home. And that we are the bride who is his joy and his delight, with whom he will share his everlasting home with great joy forever and forever. What a great way to finish our series, What is the Church and Why Does It Matter? Today looking at the picture of the church as the bride of Christ. In the series we’ve also looked at the church pictured as the body and the building. And if you missed any of the series or if you wanted to go back and listen again, you can of course always do that by coming to our website, that’s openthebible.org.uk. There you can stream any of the messages in the series. You can also find our messages as podcasts, go to your favorite podcast site, search for Open the Bible UK, and subscribe to the podcast if you want to receive regular updates. Open the Bible is entirely supported by our listeners, that’s people just like you. And if that’s something you haven’t done up until now, but you feel you’d like to begin supporting us, we’d love to thank you by sending you a gift. If you’re able to set up a new donation to the work of Open the Bible, in the amount of ÂŁ5 per month or more, we’ll send you a copy of the book of prayers called Valley of Vision. Colin, who would you say the book The Valley of Vision is written for? Oh, for every Christian who wants to pray. And it’s beautifully laid out to help us in different areas of prayer. So there are prayers here that will help you in expressing worship to God. There are prayers here that will help you in confessing sin to God. Prayers here that will help you in bringing your own needs to God. And they’re beautifully crafted. These are prayers that have come down to us over centuries from Christian believers who have crafted words that really help us speak from the heart to God. I just love this. I mean, for example, here’s one of the prayers speaking about how the broken heart is the healed heart. The contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit. The repenting soul is the victorious soul. To have nothing is to possess all, and to bear the cross is to wear the crown. Well, you know, you read things like that, they’re not only prayers that you can offer to God, but they stimulate and they enrich the mind and the heart. This is a marvellous resource for a Christian to have. I would love that there was a copy in every Christian home, because it’s really going to help stimulate prayer to God. Well, we’d love to send you a copy of this book if you’re able to set up a new donation to the work of Open the Bible in the amount of ÂŁ5 per month or more. Full details of this offer and lots of other information and resources on our website, openthebible.org.uk. You’ve been listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick, and I very much hope you’ll join us again soon. The Apostle John called himself the disciple whom Jesus loved. Find out what he had to say about the birth of Christ next time on Open the Bible.