The Blood of the Bridegroom

I really enjoy attending weddings. I mean, any occasion I can have to dress up, I just do not turn down. Seriously, though, you should always attend a wedding where you get a chance because a wedding teaches you something. A wedding is an opportunity to come together and celebrate the new union of friends. It's an opportunity for you to encourage them by you being there to help them celebrate. More so, if you're a Christian, a wedding should always be a reminder of the gospel. A wedding is a picture of the gospel, and a Christian should always go to the wedding, if the wedding intended to be or not, and be reminded of and encouraged by the love that Christ has for us, His bride. This morning we're going to be looking at a wedding, and we're going to consider how this wedding points us, the bride of Christ, to see and reflect upon the love of Christ, our bridegroom. This morning we're in John. If you're new with us, we're in John 2. We'll be looking at the wedding of Cana. If you're using a Pew Bible, that can be found on page 887. There's some context that's important here for what happens next here in chapter 2. The prologue is verses 1-18. It's an introduction showing us the big picture. The one who has come, the one who has taken on flesh. It's God himself. It's the Son of God. He has come to redeem his people. And then you see John the Baptist. He begins to, well really he's already outing Jesus. He's declaring, behold the Lamb of God. See! This is the one you should be looking at. And Jesus begins to get disciples, as we saw last week. And well, last week it was a big buildup. Numerous titles and names for Jesus, the Lamb of God, the Messiah, the Promised One, the Son of God, the King of Israel, the Son of Man, the Master Teacher. And if we look at the end of chapter one, Jesus makes a promise. After the disciples were mesmerized, how do you know these things? He declares, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and ascending on the Son of Man. You will see heavens open and you will see greater things. Well, next is the greater things. We're looking at the first greater thing in chapter 2. And we're looking at the first greater thing, and John tells us this is the first sign. Look at verse 11 of chapter 2. This the first of his signs. John can be traced a number of ways. You could trace the I am statements, but we can also here we're going to trace the signs. This is the first of the signs. A sign is a miracle that points beyond what's actually happening to a greater reality. And notice here is the first of the signs. They saw the glory of Jesus. That's what we're looking for this morning. We're looking at what this sign is and how it points us to the glory of Jesus. He tells us the first sign. John sometimes has some double meanings in words. This word for first, it could also be foremost. John could actually be saying this is the first and foremost of the signs. This is the most important sign. It's obviously important because this is the one he chose to begin his account of Jesus Christ. All this to say, this is very important. Let's look to God's word and hear it and see what God has to teach us today about the gospel of Jesus Christ. John, chapter two, verses one through eleven, the wedding On the third day, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. And Jesus said to her, woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. Now, there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons. Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water and they fill them up to the brim. And he said to them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. So they took it when the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine and did not know where it came from. So the servants who had drawn the water knew. The master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, everyone serves the good one first. And when people have drunk freely, then the poor one. But you have kept the good wine until now. This is the first of the signs Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him. We pray with me. Almighty God. Give us eyes to see. Give us hearts that will love you in response to your great love for us. Give us give us the ability to believe. Lord, as you manifested your glory in this story, when you turn the water into wine, manifest your glory this morning so that we may behold you. So we worship you. So we believe in you. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. The most basic structure we can see in the story is there's a there's a crisis, there's a solution, there's a response. The crisis, a wedding has run out of wine. The solution, Jesus turns water into wine. The response, the glory of Christ manifested in the disciples belief. So let's begin in our study here. Let's begin. Let's first look at the setting. Verses 1 through 2. There is a wedding in Cana. On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. Now, we don't know who the bride and the groom are. All we know is that Jesus' family is there and that Jesus and his disciples are there. The only disciples we know of are John the Evangelist, most likely, the author of the Gospel we're reading, Andrew, Peter, Nathaniel, and Philip. Now, the importance of a wedding in this culture is really hard for us to grasp. When we go to a wedding, it's usually a five-hour event. That's a long wedding. You have the wedding and then the fellowship afterwards, the reception. It doesn't take that long, and the ceremony itself, really, from what I was told in seminary, the shorter the better. You know, you want to get beyond the reception, you don't want to take too much time, you want to get to the reception. It's hard for us to grasp the importance of what a wedding was in this culture, because we live in a transient culture that's constantly moving around, and here, the town has a real investment in this wedding. Children they saw grow up are now uniting together from their families forming one family and they're invested because that new unit now must contribute to the town. They're invested personally because they've helped train up these children. Now they're going to be reliant upon them as they are part of society and they must produce and have vocations and enter into the world and carry on the town's traditions. Furthermore, it wasn't just five hours, it was more like five days. This was a great celebration where everyone came to celebrate a new union, a new covenant, and how this new family will contribute to their society. It was a great celebration. Well, there's a crisis. They have no one. The wine was running out. Let's look at verses 3 and 5. When the wine ran out, now obviously the wine must have run out earlier than expected. We don't know how many days this wedding had been going on, but the wine ran out too early. The mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. And Jesus said to her, woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, Do whatever he tells you now. This is this is. This isn't the clearest text in all Scripture. We praise God that his word is clear in who he is and I respond to him. But what's actually happening with Jesus mother? I've got some possibilities, so let's think through this together. There are some things that are clear. The bride grooms family. They throw the party. Alright, so the groom, his family's responsible for the party. We really see this in verse 10. When the new wine comes that Jesus made, the master of the feast, he calls the groom and says, wow, you've done it backwards. You brought out the best wine last. So he gives credit for the wine, so it's assumed here the groom is responsible for this great celebration. There were cultural expectations. If the groom did not throw a proper celebration, it was shameful in this culture. The bride's family could actually sue him, some think, if the celebration was not up to proper standards. The crisis is this family is in the midst of possibly a great shame. The party is going to end. The celebration would be below standards. Mary hears that there is a concern. Maybe she's related to the family, we don't know. And she declares the crisis, they have no wine. Up to this point, it's actually OK, but here's where it gets strange. Jesus responds to his mother, woman. That's what's striking. Now, it's not rude. This isn't a rude way of calling upon someone or naming someone. It's not rude. It just isn't what you say to your mom. Woman, what does this have to do with me? The literal translation, what to you and to me? It's obviously some kind of an idiom or simply saying, what does this have to do with me? What is your intention? How am I responsible for this? Why are you bringing these concerns to me? I really have two big questions here. Why did Mary involve Jesus in this crisis? There's a couple options. There's a couple possibilities. One, it may just be she saw a need. She knows who her son is. And she tries to connect the problem with a clear solution. He's God. He can figure it out. So it may just be that Mary sees that there's a real problem and she knows how she can fix it. She wants to help and she connects the two together. The other kind of more aggressive interpretation would be she's eager for her son's ministry to begin. The possibility there, the probability there would be that Jesus responds, my hour is not yet come. You're rushing me, mom, woman. So it's possible, but I'm not sure which of these or either one of those is why she's bringing this up to Jesus. But why did you just talk to his mother this way? An interesting interpretation. She doesn't he doesn't call her mom. because being a family member of Jesus did not give her an inside track into the kingdom of God. She had to come to Christ as a sinner, just like everybody else. Being the mother of Jesus did not make her a saint. Being a sinner who believed in Christ, just like everybody else, is how she enters the kingdom of God. And I don't see that jumping off the page, but I find that a helpful thing to remember here. Regardless of why she brought the situation to Jesus, why he responds, why he does, how he does. My hour has not yet come. This is really the key to understanding what's happening here in the crisis. My hour has not yet come. The hour is something that we could also trace through John. The most important reference to the hour is John 13, 1. Remember, chapter 12 and 13, that's a big transition. It's a major transition in John because he's been building up the identity of Jesus all the way up to 12. Beginning in chapter 13, Jesus is headed to the cross. If the last time he's going to go to Jerusalem, he's headed to the cross. Chapter 13, verse 1, Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. His hour has not yet come in Galilee three years prior, but now in chapter 13, just weeks heading into days before His crucifixion, His hour has come. John 17 also references it. This is a very important passage as well. This is a high priestly prayer of Jesus Christ. This is the opening word of his prayer. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, the son may glorify you since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. The hour is a reference to his time of suffering, from the time he begins to go up to Jerusalem, when he's judged, when he's betrayed, when he's beaten, when he's mocked, when he's spat upon. And finally, when he's nailed to a cross, as if a sinner, to die in the place of sinners. Now, something as we reflect upon this, he is giving his mother a rebuff. He's turning her down at some level. Because he's saying, my mission is not to supply the wine of this wedding. My mission, my focus, his purpose is to die in the place of sinners. Jesus has a clear, single mission and purpose in mind. It is to die for sinners. This is important for us. This is a good lesson for us. We must always remember the primary mission of Jesus. We're a forgetful people. We can easily forget that his primary purpose is to give us a right standing for God, to make us forgiven, to declare us sons. The correction here is that Jesus is not our personal problem solver. Jesus is not our personal problem solver. We don't go to him just just to say the wine is gone, the money is gone, our dog has a limp. We don't just go to Jesus with our problems, he isn't Just there, as if he's supposed to make our life as happy as it possibly could be in this world. That is not his primary purpose. The primary mission of Christ is to make us right before God. Friends, we don't cherish Christ for all these other things he gives us. The beautiful thing is, are you supposed to take everything in prayer? Yes! He supplies the wine. But the primary purpose is so that we can be in the presence of God and sing his praise with clear consciences, knowing we have been forgiven. We cherish Christ because he died for us, because we're forgiven in him. We're reconciled with God. We also go to him and we ask for everything and we trust in his goodwill and his good way. He will bless us. As we think about the primary purpose as a church, we have to remember this is the primary identity mark that unites us. that Christ died for us. As we sang, as Brian prayed for all the nations, we're supposed to be a bunch of different kinds of people gathered for one reason. Jesus Christ died for us. That's what unites us. It's not our age. It's not our vocation. It's not where we come from. It's one thing. Jesus Christ died for us. If you're not a Christian this morning, The most important thing you can walk away from this summer from this time together. Christ came to die for sinners in order to truly cherish who Christ is and what he's done, we must first recognize we're sinners. We have not lived the way God has intended us to live. We are therefore under his wrath because he's a just and righteous God. He will judge us with equity, with right, with a right judgment. That means we will be condemned unless someone takes that condemnation for us. And that's what Christ did on the cross. You deserve wrath. But if you believe in Christ, he takes that for you and gives you a new standing, a forgiven standing. As we continue to look at the story, we see Mary's very persistent. She stops talking to her son, she turns to the servants. Do what he tells you. Mary's next words are words of faith. She knows her son is going to do this miracle. Let's look at the miracle. Verses six through ten. Jesus provides the wine. There is no wine. Now Jesus provides the wine. Verses six through ten. Now there are six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification. each holding 20 or 30 gallons. Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars of water. And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water, now become wine and did not know where it came from. But the servants who had drawn the water knew the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor one. But you have kept the good wine until now." So there's a transition, verse 6, now. He makes a transition in the story, we see the transition very clearly, and we're going to be looking at some jars. The first thing he wants to point out, there were some jars, and there's some significant things we need to know about these jars. First, they're large. There are six large jars. Six jars that held 20 to 30 gallons. I'm no mathematician, but that's more between 120 gallons, 180 gallons. We're going to call it 150 average. 150 gallons. Am I right? OK, you laughed. 150 gallons of liquid here. And these are not just any old jars. These jars are Jewish rites of purification jars. The jars were set aside for purification. Now, why are they at a wedding? They're there, I believe, so that those who are participating in the wedding can purify themselves before entering into this great celebration. There's actually a tradition that the bride would be baptized before getting married to demonstrate that she is now not going to be her old person. She's changing her identity. She's saying bye to her old life. She's coming into a new life. She's leaving her mother and father. She's coming into her new husband's home. I believe these jewel charts of ceremony could be used for that kind of sprinkling. There's a washing that says, I need to be made new to enter into the celebration and maybe for the bride, instead of them saying, we're not going to see each other. There's a tradition. I'm going to declare, I'm going to become a new person today. Jesus says to the servants in verse seven, fill the jars with water, so they fill them to the brim. And as we know in the story, in an instant, Jesus made water into wine. In an instant, Jesus made water into wine. Now, I had to Google all of this in case anyone's wondering, but it takes somewhere between 10 and 25 days for wine to ferment and to age properly. In an instant, Jesus turned water into wine. He didn't have even he didn't have grapes to begin with, but he had water in an instant by his declaration. It turns to one when it should take days. It's a long process for wine to be properly made, especially the kind of choice wine that the master of the feast recognizes. What kind of power is this? So that's important that we started with John 1.1. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. And without him was not anything made that was made. This is the power of the Creator who speaks and whatever he declares will happen, it happens. The power to declare whatever he wants and whatever he wants to happen, it happens in an instant. This is the power of the creator. Now, this is encouraging for us, friends, because the power that this creator who has come down and taken upon flesh as he is the one who declares forgiven. When he declares forgiven, it's instant, it's forever, he's able. Our salvation is secure in the power of the Creator. We see that he is able. The servants take the new wine to the master of the feast. The master of the feast, he's kind of the equivalent of our wedding planner, DJ and MC, kind of all in one. He's the life of the party. The groom's family would hire this fellow to make sure everything is right and set up, and he's supposed to make sure things are moving. It would be a connoisseur of wine, supposedly. And he tastes this wine. He says, this is the good stuff. You know, the funny thing here is the groom's original good stuff, this stuff was better than his good stuff. And notice, Jesus doesn't get credit for this miracle. By most. The master of the feast calls the groom, the man actually getting married in this wedding, and he gives him credit. Now, we have to ask, what is the meaning of this miracle? At face value, this is what we have. Jesus Christ provided 150 gallons of wine for a wedding. Had to Google this. That's 15 kegs worth of wine, just to give you some kind of perspective. This is bizarre. This is somewhat strange at face value. Why is the first sign, the first miracle, Jesus saving a wedding by providing so much wine? Why isn't the first sign a healing? Why does he gather all the sick children and heal them? Why does he raise them from the dead? Why does he go into a leper colony and heal all the lepers? Why is he the transfiguration? There's so many other things. Why did he provide wine, a lot of wine, at a wedding? Was it the first sign and miracle of Jesus? The heavenings open up. The greater thing, was it really him providing a bunch of booze to save a bridegroom from embarrassment? I think not. What we have to realize is that Jesus, John always records Jesus using something physical to point to something much more spiritual and significant. Right? So the bread of life, he feeds them bread in order to teach them that my body that will be broken for you, that is a true bread of life. He uses the water, the well of Jacob to declare, if you drink from what I have to give you, you'll never be thirsty. I am the one who will truly satisfy. He's constantly using physical things in our normal everyday use to teach us something much more spiritual. And I believe if we think about the wine of this miracle, we'll see two very powerful gospel lessons. Here are the two gospel lessons that we're going to get from that I hope we see from the story. I hope we see the glory of Christ in these two gospel lessons. First, the wine points us to the blessing we have in Christ's blood. The wine points us to the blessing we have in Christ's blood. Secondly, the miracle points us to Christ being the bridegroom for the church. The miracle points us to Christ being the bridegroom for the church. First, the wine points us to the blessing we have in Christ. There's a clear message in John about the Old Covenant, the New Covenant. We go back to 117. He contrasts Moses and Jesus. This story, there's the old, there's the Jewish ceremonial rites jars that have water in them, and he turns them into wine. Next, he's going to say he's going to destroy the temple. The temple is replaced by his risen body. Then he has to correct a Jewish teacher about what new creation and new life are going to be. He says, we're not only going to worship in Jerusalem, but you're going to worship in spirit and truth. There's a constant contrasting going on to these first few chapters of John. And I believe it's helpful for us to keep that in mind because there's also a great continuity. He's going to use the Old Testament to teach us about who Christ is in the New Covenant. The first thing we realize is this wine in the Old Covenant wine in the Old Testament. It was a symbol for abundant blessing. Wine in the Old Testament is a symbol for abundant blessing. We could go to a number of passages and you look up Amos 9 later. I'm going to read Isaiah 25 6 through 9. On the mountain on this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make For all peoples, a feast of rich food, a feast of well aged wine, a rich food full of marrow, a rich and aged wine, well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain, the covering that is cast over all the peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. And the reproach of his people will take away from all the earth for the Lord has spoken. He'll be set on that day. Behold, this is our God. We have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. Now, notice here that he's mixing this this feast language with forgiveness language. I believe the feast language is when God blesses his people, they use language that was familiar to the people. There will be a great harvest and the harvest would have great grapes. There will be quantity and quality of God's great blessing. I believe that's what the wine symbolizes. There's an abundance of well aged and refined wine. It shows that God is blessing his people. It's a symbol. It's a sign for God's blessing. It's a symbol of peace and prosperity and abundant blessing throughout the Old Testament. So the Old Testament wine is a symbol of abundant blessing. In the New Testament, wine is a symbol for the atoning blood of Christ. In the New Testament, wine is a symbol for the atoning blood of Christ. Remember what Christ said in Matthew 26. And he took a cup. And it's already assumed what this cup is. It's a Passover. It is wine. He took a cup, when he gave it to them, saying, drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. He takes the wine and he says, this is my blood. This is the blood that will be poured out for your forgiveness. As we look to one in the Old Testament, it's an abundant blessing in the New Testament. It has a change. It now points to that atoning blood. I don't think it's a complete difference, though. There's something completely different between the two. Because I think if we think about this, we are abundantly blessed in Christ's blood. That is where the blessing comes from. We are abundantly blessed in Christ's blood. As we think about wine and its symbol and what it's a sign of, remember what Jesus says in his last words, what happens to Jesus on the cross? Let me read it for you. John 19, verse 28. After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said to the fellow of scripture, I thirst. A jar full of sour wine stood there. So they put a sponge full of sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. I don't think John is accidentally starting his ministry with a jar of wine and ending it with a jar of wine. I believe we see a clear intention symbol. He begins his ministry by creating six jars of wine that are sweet, that are good to the taste. He ends his earthly ministry with sour wine, because what he's about to do is take upon the bitter wrath of God for sins, for sinners. There's a beautiful picture here from John, the wine representing the blood, the blood of the covenant. That is what matters to begin his ministry. The end, his hour. That's what he's focused on. Picture this. The party just got kicked back up. New wine has been brought out. People are drinking their fill. They want to try the new good wine that's just come out. And Jesus is sitting there. He's sipping that sweet wine. And he can't enjoy it because the only thing he can think about is the bitter, sour wine that lies before him. And it's not the sour wine he drank on the cross. He knows that what lies before him is his blood must be shed for sinners. He can't enjoy the celebration because he's looking ahead to the time he will secure his bride with his blood. Now, this is the beauty of that. It's done for us. so that while we have to sit in this world and go through momentary sufferings, while we have bitter wine on our lips oftentimes, we know we can always look ahead to the sweet wine that will be ours forever at the wedding feast of the Lamb. Our momentary sufferings must be seen constantly in light of what Christ has accomplished. He's forgiven us and our eternity will be a forever celebration of what he's accomplished for us. As Christ was at a wedding looking forward to him dying for us, we live in this world looking forward to the culmination, him finalizing what he has done for us. If you look at this, Christianity is a celebration. Christianity is a celebration. We must constantly be celebrating what Christ has done for us. We are constantly looking up and praising God for what he's done and who we are now in Christ. Our second gospel lesson. The miracle points us to Christ being the bridegroom for the church. Our story actually intentionally puts Jesus in the place of the bridegroom. The bridegroom did not provide the wine. Jesus did. The story very intentionally places him there. The bridegroom of the wedding, he actually takes credit. He gets the credit for it. The story intentionally tells us Christ is the true bridegroom because he is the one who brought the wine to the wedding needed. We can look beyond this story. We can see the bigger picture of Scripture. As Brian read, Isaiah 62 talks about God declaring to his people, you are my bride. This is one of the great metaphors of the Old Testament. Hosea is all about this metaphor. God calls his people whores and adulterous people because they are not loving him alone, even though he has said, you are my bride, I love you alone. Deuteronomy 7 to 17 points this out as well. We look to all scripture and this is one of the great metaphors. God is a covenant God. He loves his people as if a husband. We can also look to John and other places. John 3, starting in verse 27, you just flip over one to two pages. John answered, a person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said I am not the Christ, but I have sent before, but I've been sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. John the Baptist, he declares he's the Lamb of God. Here he's looking back at the wedding, I think, and says he's the bridegroom because he is the bride. John the Baptist, he can't do anything to save people except for say, hey, he's the bridegroom. Believe in him and he will purchase you. He will die for you. His blood will be spilled for you. Jesus is called the true bridegroom, and the response is great rejoicing. So the Old Testament, it points out that this bridegroom language is a central metaphor for the gospel. John himself, I think, makes it very clear in John three and in John two. But Paul makes it Crystal clear. Ephesians 5, beginning in verse 25. Husbands, love your wives. As Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 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. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it. Just as Christ does the church because we are members of his body. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two should become one flesh. This mystery is profound. I am saying that it refers to Christ in the church. However, that each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband. Now verse 33, this mystery is profound. I am saying that it refers to Christ in the church. What it is referring to is the verse before, which is in Genesis. Every wedding is pointing to Christ in the church. Every marriage is a little demonstration, a microcosm, a symbol, a sign. of who God is to his people. A groom to a bride, a husband to a wife. It's powerful imagery because that's the most intimate relationship we have on this earth. And God is using it to help us understand how close and personal and loving he is to us. God designed marriage to be a picture of the gospel. To show us the great love of the father that he has for the son that he has come and he's chosen a bride for the father to show his love for the bride by sending his son to die for the great love of the son. To lay his own his life down for her, there's no more intimate and personal picture we could imagine for the love of God. That he lays down his life to purchase his bride. Let's close with some application. First, if you're a Christian, you must know your love. We are a love people. We may not feel love sometimes, but we must know by looking at the gospel and always remembering what God has done for us, we are love. We should not question his love when he sends his son to die in our place. We should not question his love when we see what he has in store for us. We should not question his love when we see how faithful the husband he is. Because if we're honest with ourselves, we have been disobedient and adulterous brides. He saved us from idolatry. He saved us from our sin. He saved us when we were refusing him. And he chose to love us Still, he's patient with us in love. Christian, the one thing we have to know is we are loved by God and that love is demonstrated when we see Christ dying on the cross for our sins. That is where we must constantly look for our identity. We are loved. The second application. We are all called to love our spouse for the glory of God. We are called to love our spouse for the glory of God. It is a way of demonstrating the gospel to the world. Husbands loving your wives as Christ loved the church. As Paul declares, women, though the wives, submitting and respecting their husbands as the church to Christ. The marriage is a picture of the gospel for the world. Not just at the wedding. But every day. Now. When we think about what does it mean to love our spouse for the glory of God? When God loves us, he loves us even though we're unlovable. He loves us even though there's nothing lovely about us whatsoever. When two people get married, there's two sinners getting married there. And sin is unlovely. Yes, there's things that attract us to our spouse. We love about our spouses, but sin's ugly. Sin is unlovely. And when we start to see the sin of our spouse, that doesn't keep us from loving them because we love our spouses. God has loved us. We love them for the glory of God because he loved us. We must persist and continue in the love of our spouse. Constantly, because that's how we glorify God. What does this look like? Wives, show your husband grace when they fail to lead. Wives, show your husband grace when they fail to lead. When they're having a difficult time leading, encourage them to lead. Husbands, You're to love your wife as Christ loved the church. Christ didn't sit back and wait for the church to come to him. Christ sought her out, Christ sought to know her, Christ went after her. We have to be proactively seeking our wives, denying ourselves for her benefit. That is a marriage that glorifies God. And I don't want you to miss this. The ultimate motivation for why we love our spouses is for the glory of God. Yes, God designed it so that we'll be happier. God designed it so our life will be more rich and full, but it's ultimately for the glory of the one who died for us and rose again and is our bridegroom. Finally, we are called to wait faithfully. We are called to wait faithfully. Christ has purchased us. We're waiting for him to come back and cleanse us from all sin so that we can enter into the wedding feast of the Lamb, the great banquet that will go on forever. We're called to wait faithfully now. I was just with an engaged couple, and I said, how can we pray for you? Pray that we will remain pure. That's the right prayer request. Now, for them, that meant that they can't wait for their wedding day and they want to be poor as they are relating to one another. Friends, we've been betrothed. We're engaged. We have been declared someone's husband. And the temptation for us is to look for love in other places while we wait for him to come back. We must keep ourselves pure while we wait for Christ's return. One of the, an interesting scene I remember from Pride and Prejudice. Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley, they're coming up the walkway unexpected and the Bennett girls are sitting around in their house clothes eating bonbons. And they see the Bennett, they see Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bingley and the house becomes frantic. They have to hide the bonbon. They start putting on their formal dresses and they do their hair. It's just a frantic, comical scene. They weren't ready for the men to come calling. Friends, our pride group is going to come very unexpected. He's going to come and we will not get a warning. How will he find us? Because if he finds us sitting around tasting the treats of this world, it will not be comical. Will he find us faithful? waiting upon him expectantly, because we know that what he has for us is so much better than what this world has to offer in its cheap imitations of love and celebration. As we close the response, the first of his signs, he manifested his glory and they believed in him. There's two things here. He manifested his glory. He is the bridegroom. He is the one who will pour out his blood. Now we believe in him. We lift him up in our hearts. We trust him. We know there's nothing we can do on our own. We must place our faith in him. Will you pray with me? Oh, loving Heavenly Father. Thank you for how you have given us so many different pictures of what the gospel is. We thank you for the wine of the Passover feast that Christ is able to show us. This is my blood. Like the lamb slaughtered in place of the Israelites. We thank you, Lord, for the picture of the bridegroom, for the husband. We thank you, Lord, Thank you that there's really nothing that can truly declare how much you love us. Help us, Lord, to respond with a greater love for you as we see your glory. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.