Ephesians 5 Part 3
Bible Study Time 1-22-06
Church links:
Bible Study Time 1-22-06
The Apostle Paul explained in Ephesians, Chapter 5, that the marriage relationship is symbolic of the relationship between Christ and the Church. He said that the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the Head of the Church.
Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians are the three epistles that Paul wrote from his prison cell in Rome, and in Ephesians and Colossians Paul brought to the forefront the fact that Christ serves as the Head of the Church which is His Body. He mentioned this three times in Ephesians and twice in Colossians. Obviously, the Holy Spirit wanted to emphasize this point. Christ is the Head of the Church which is His Body.
However, many people who are aware of Christ’s position as Head of the Church are surprised when they find out that this doctrine is not taught in Paul’s earlier, Acts-period epistles. Paul got close in I Corinthians 11:3, when he said:
1 Corinthians 11:3 (NKJ)
3 . . . the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
This is close, but it is not the specific doctrine that Paul teaches in his later epistles, that Christ is the Head of the Church.
In I Corinthians 12, Paul spoke at length about the unity of believers, saying that all believers are baptized by one spirit into one body, and then he said, “You are the body of Christ, and members individually.”
This gives us cause to question, was Paul revealing the Church which is the Body of Christ as an institution? I don’t think so. First of all, he never calls this body the Church which is the Body of Christ, and secondly, as I said earlier, Paul never names Christ as the head of this body. An institution not only needs a name, but it also needs a director.
The fact that Paul gets so close during the Acts period to truths that relate to the Church without ever revealing the Church leads me to believe that God was working during this time in a mighty way to prepare Paul’s heart and his mind for the revelation of the mystery Church which he would soon receive. God was exposing Paul a little here and a little there to concepts which would be so important in his later revelations.
During Paul’s Acts-period ministry, it was not yet time to reveal the truth of the Church which is the Body of Christ. At that point in history God was still offering the New Covenant Kingdom to the nation of Israel. The message of the kingdom is a different message from the message which has been given to us as members of the Church.
The message of the kingdom relates to the Bride of Christ, not the Body of Christ. The Lord Jesus came preaching the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and when the disciples of John asked Him why He and His disciples did not fast, He said:
Matthew 9:15 (NKJ)
15 “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
Jesus called Himself the bridegroom because He had come to woo Israel as His Bride.
The Lord told the parable of the ten virgins who went out to meet the Bridegroom, but when the Bridegroom came some of the virgins were not prepared and were not allowed to enter the banquet hall when it came time for the wedding.
Revelation 19 speaks of the time when Christ will come at the end of the tribulation period. At that time the Jews who do not believe in Jesus Christ will be unprepared for His return, but the small, believing remnant of Jews who do believe in Jesus will meet Christ in the clouds of heaven, and will be united with Christ at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Then they will return with Christ to rule and reign with Him on the earth.
As Christ came wooing His Bride during His first advent, He went preaching the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He warned His disciples that a time of great tribulation would come before they would see Him coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
This message for the Bride of Christ stands in contrast to God’s message for the Church which is the Body of Christ as we see it in Paul’s prison epistles. In Colossians 3, Paul said:
Colossians 3:4 (NKJ)
4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
When Christ appears, we will be taken up into glory beyond the clouds of heaven. In Philippians, Chapter 3, Paul said:
Philippians 3:20-21 (NKJ)
20 . . . our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
Paul wrote to Timothy after writing Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, and spoke of the perilous last days of the Church, and he never said a word about the antichrist. The Bride on the other hand will be taken up after the abomination of desolation and after the tribulation of those days according to the words of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 24. Indeed, the message for the Bride of Christ is vastly different from the message for the Body of Christ.
When Paul wrote I and II Corinthians, he was preaching the message which was formulated for the Bride of Christ. He told them that they should prepare to rule the world in an earthly kingdom. In I Corinthians 6 and verse one, he said:
1 Corinthians 6:1-10 (NKJ)
1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?
Paul chides them for going to a secular court to settle their legal disputes. He advises them to bring their disputes before the elders of the church so that the elders can help them resolve their differences.
This is different from Paul’s message to the Body of Christ in II Timothy 2 where Paul says:
2 Timothy 2:4 (NKJ)
4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.
Why did Paul tell the Corinthian church to bring their legal matters before the church elders? He tell us in verse 2:
1 Corinthians 6:2 (NKJ)
2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
He says, “The kingdom is coming, and you need to be prepared to rule the world. You need to get used to resolving conflicts.” This clearly is the message for the Bride of Christ. It is the Bride of Christ which will rule the world. When Christ catches us up as members of the Body of Christ, we will be taken up into the glory of heaven, but when Christ catches up His Bride at the end of the tribulation period, they will meet Him in the clouds above the earth, they will attend the marriage supper of the Lamb, and they will return with Christ to rule the earth in a worldwide kingdom.
At that time Christ’s feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, and He will destroy all those nations who have played havoc with Jerusalem. Zechariah 14 says:
Zechariah 14:1-4 (NKJ)
1 Behold, the day of the LORD is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst.
2 For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; the city shall be taken, . . .
3 Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle.
4 And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, . . .
Zechariah 14:9, 11,12 (NKJ)
9 And the LORD shall be King over all the earth. . . .
11 The people shall dwell in it; and no longer shall there be utter destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.
12 And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem: their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, and their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths.
Zechariah 14:16 (NKJ)
16 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
This fits in with Chapter 8 where Zechariah says:
Zechariah 8:22-23 (NKJ)
22 Yes, many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD.'
23 "Thus says the LORD of hosts: 'In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."'"
This is the hope of the Bride of Christ. The Bride of Christ will rule over all of the nations which are left after the great battle which takes place at the time of Christ’s second coming. Revelation 19 calls this great battle the Battle of Armageddon.
When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he was anticipating this kingdom so he told the believers to get used to judging the issues that come up in the local assembly.
Now. You may ask, “Why didn’t the kingdom come?” Jesus said it was going to come. Paul and all of the other apostles expected it to come. Why didn’t it come?
The answer is simple. The Jews refused to accept it. They refused it when Christ offered it to them, and they refused it when the apostles offered it to them with miracles, wonders and signs from the Holy Spirit. The Jews refused it, and it could not come unless the Jews accepted it. The promise of the kingdom was to the Jews.
Now, let’s be clear about this one thing, however, when the Jews rejected Christ and the kingdom, this did not surprise God. We know that it was all part of God’s plan. It had to be part of God’s plan or He would not have allowed it.
Do you think that all of the Jews at the end of the tribulation period are going to believe in Jesus Christ when Christ does establish the kingdom? No, most of them will not accept Christ at that time either. Why then is the kingdom going to come at that time? Because at that time the rebellious Jews will be destroyed along with the rebellious nations, and only the believing remnant of Jews will enter the kingdom along with all of the nations that are left after the Battle of Armageddon.
Well, God could have done that same thing at the end of the Acts period, but He had a secret plan for mankind which He had yet to reveal. It was a plan for a group of people who would be separate and apart from the program for the Bride of Christ. You guessed it, God was planning to call out the Church, which is the Body of Christ.
God could have proceeded straight into the kingdom at the end of the Acts period, but that would have cut out all of us who have come to God through simple faith in Christ over the past 2,000 years. Oh, how He loves you and me.
In Ephesians 5 Paul speaks to the Church the Body of Christ and says that the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the Head of the Church. Then he says that each husband should love His wife even as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for the Church to make it holy and spotless in the sight of God. Then he says:
Ephesians 5:30-32 (NKJ)
30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.
31 "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."
32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Some people today look at these verses and say that the Body of Christ is the Bride of Christ. Besides the fact that that would really mess up the analogy, this passage does not say that the Body is the Bride of Christ. The mystery of this passage is that Christ loved us enough to die for our sins and present us before the Father as spotless and holy.
For the Church to be the Bride of Christ, one would have to conclude that God will never fulfill His kingdom promises to Israel. That Christ will never take Israel as His Bride. Revelation 19 proves that He will take Israel as His Bride after He catches up the Church which is His Body.
It’s been a pleasure being with you this morning. Thank you for listening, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians are the three epistles that Paul wrote from his prison cell in Rome, and in Ephesians and Colossians Paul brought to the forefront the fact that Christ serves as the Head of the Church which is His Body. He mentioned this three times in Ephesians and twice in Colossians. Obviously, the Holy Spirit wanted to emphasize this point. Christ is the Head of the Church which is His Body.
However, many people who are aware of Christ’s position as Head of the Church are surprised when they find out that this doctrine is not taught in Paul’s earlier, Acts-period epistles. Paul got close in I Corinthians 11:3, when he said:
1 Corinthians 11:3 (NKJ)
3 . . . the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
This is close, but it is not the specific doctrine that Paul teaches in his later epistles, that Christ is the Head of the Church.
In I Corinthians 12, Paul spoke at length about the unity of believers, saying that all believers are baptized by one spirit into one body, and then he said, “You are the body of Christ, and members individually.”
This gives us cause to question, was Paul revealing the Church which is the Body of Christ as an institution? I don’t think so. First of all, he never calls this body the Church which is the Body of Christ, and secondly, as I said earlier, Paul never names Christ as the head of this body. An institution not only needs a name, but it also needs a director.
The fact that Paul gets so close during the Acts period to truths that relate to the Church without ever revealing the Church leads me to believe that God was working during this time in a mighty way to prepare Paul’s heart and his mind for the revelation of the mystery Church which he would soon receive. God was exposing Paul a little here and a little there to concepts which would be so important in his later revelations.
During Paul’s Acts-period ministry, it was not yet time to reveal the truth of the Church which is the Body of Christ. At that point in history God was still offering the New Covenant Kingdom to the nation of Israel. The message of the kingdom is a different message from the message which has been given to us as members of the Church.
The message of the kingdom relates to the Bride of Christ, not the Body of Christ. The Lord Jesus came preaching the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and when the disciples of John asked Him why He and His disciples did not fast, He said:
Matthew 9:15 (NKJ)
15 “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
Jesus called Himself the bridegroom because He had come to woo Israel as His Bride.
The Lord told the parable of the ten virgins who went out to meet the Bridegroom, but when the Bridegroom came some of the virgins were not prepared and were not allowed to enter the banquet hall when it came time for the wedding.
Revelation 19 speaks of the time when Christ will come at the end of the tribulation period. At that time the Jews who do not believe in Jesus Christ will be unprepared for His return, but the small, believing remnant of Jews who do believe in Jesus will meet Christ in the clouds of heaven, and will be united with Christ at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Then they will return with Christ to rule and reign with Him on the earth.
As Christ came wooing His Bride during His first advent, He went preaching the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He warned His disciples that a time of great tribulation would come before they would see Him coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
This message for the Bride of Christ stands in contrast to God’s message for the Church which is the Body of Christ as we see it in Paul’s prison epistles. In Colossians 3, Paul said:
Colossians 3:4 (NKJ)
4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
When Christ appears, we will be taken up into glory beyond the clouds of heaven. In Philippians, Chapter 3, Paul said:
Philippians 3:20-21 (NKJ)
20 . . . our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
Paul wrote to Timothy after writing Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, and spoke of the perilous last days of the Church, and he never said a word about the antichrist. The Bride on the other hand will be taken up after the abomination of desolation and after the tribulation of those days according to the words of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 24. Indeed, the message for the Bride of Christ is vastly different from the message for the Body of Christ.
When Paul wrote I and II Corinthians, he was preaching the message which was formulated for the Bride of Christ. He told them that they should prepare to rule the world in an earthly kingdom. In I Corinthians 6 and verse one, he said:
1 Corinthians 6:1-10 (NKJ)
1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?
Paul chides them for going to a secular court to settle their legal disputes. He advises them to bring their disputes before the elders of the church so that the elders can help them resolve their differences.
This is different from Paul’s message to the Body of Christ in II Timothy 2 where Paul says:
2 Timothy 2:4 (NKJ)
4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.
Why did Paul tell the Corinthian church to bring their legal matters before the church elders? He tell us in verse 2:
1 Corinthians 6:2 (NKJ)
2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
He says, “The kingdom is coming, and you need to be prepared to rule the world. You need to get used to resolving conflicts.” This clearly is the message for the Bride of Christ. It is the Bride of Christ which will rule the world. When Christ catches us up as members of the Body of Christ, we will be taken up into the glory of heaven, but when Christ catches up His Bride at the end of the tribulation period, they will meet Him in the clouds above the earth, they will attend the marriage supper of the Lamb, and they will return with Christ to rule the earth in a worldwide kingdom.
At that time Christ’s feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, and He will destroy all those nations who have played havoc with Jerusalem. Zechariah 14 says:
Zechariah 14:1-4 (NKJ)
1 Behold, the day of the LORD is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst.
2 For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; the city shall be taken, . . .
3 Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle.
4 And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, . . .
Zechariah 14:9, 11,12 (NKJ)
9 And the LORD shall be King over all the earth. . . .
11 The people shall dwell in it; and no longer shall there be utter destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.
12 And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem: their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, and their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths.
Zechariah 14:16 (NKJ)
16 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
This fits in with Chapter 8 where Zechariah says:
Zechariah 8:22-23 (NKJ)
22 Yes, many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD.'
23 "Thus says the LORD of hosts: 'In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."'"
This is the hope of the Bride of Christ. The Bride of Christ will rule over all of the nations which are left after the great battle which takes place at the time of Christ’s second coming. Revelation 19 calls this great battle the Battle of Armageddon.
When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he was anticipating this kingdom so he told the believers to get used to judging the issues that come up in the local assembly.
Now. You may ask, “Why didn’t the kingdom come?” Jesus said it was going to come. Paul and all of the other apostles expected it to come. Why didn’t it come?
The answer is simple. The Jews refused to accept it. They refused it when Christ offered it to them, and they refused it when the apostles offered it to them with miracles, wonders and signs from the Holy Spirit. The Jews refused it, and it could not come unless the Jews accepted it. The promise of the kingdom was to the Jews.
Now, let’s be clear about this one thing, however, when the Jews rejected Christ and the kingdom, this did not surprise God. We know that it was all part of God’s plan. It had to be part of God’s plan or He would not have allowed it.
Do you think that all of the Jews at the end of the tribulation period are going to believe in Jesus Christ when Christ does establish the kingdom? No, most of them will not accept Christ at that time either. Why then is the kingdom going to come at that time? Because at that time the rebellious Jews will be destroyed along with the rebellious nations, and only the believing remnant of Jews will enter the kingdom along with all of the nations that are left after the Battle of Armageddon.
Well, God could have done that same thing at the end of the Acts period, but He had a secret plan for mankind which He had yet to reveal. It was a plan for a group of people who would be separate and apart from the program for the Bride of Christ. You guessed it, God was planning to call out the Church, which is the Body of Christ.
God could have proceeded straight into the kingdom at the end of the Acts period, but that would have cut out all of us who have come to God through simple faith in Christ over the past 2,000 years. Oh, how He loves you and me.
In Ephesians 5 Paul speaks to the Church the Body of Christ and says that the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the Head of the Church. Then he says that each husband should love His wife even as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for the Church to make it holy and spotless in the sight of God. Then he says:
Ephesians 5:30-32 (NKJ)
30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.
31 "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."
32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Some people today look at these verses and say that the Body of Christ is the Bride of Christ. Besides the fact that that would really mess up the analogy, this passage does not say that the Body is the Bride of Christ. The mystery of this passage is that Christ loved us enough to die for our sins and present us before the Father as spotless and holy.
For the Church to be the Bride of Christ, one would have to conclude that God will never fulfill His kingdom promises to Israel. That Christ will never take Israel as His Bride. Revelation 19 proves that He will take Israel as His Bride after He catches up the Church which is His Body.
It’s been a pleasure being with you this morning. Thank you for listening, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
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