Sabbath School lesson is one of the worldwide lessons studied by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and we are in the third quarter of 2023. The adult Bible study lesson for this quarter was written by John K. McVay. We are currently studying the book of Ephesians, and the Sabbath School lesson for this week is titled “Husbands and Wives: Together at the Cross” August 26-September 1. Join Pastor Mark Finely as he gives a short preview of this week’s lesson.

<p>Sabbath School lesson is one of the worldwide lessons studied by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and we are in the third quarter of 2023. The adult Bible study lesson for this quarter was written by John K. McVay. We are currently studying the book of Ephesians, and the Sabbath School lesson for this week is titled “Husbands and Wives: Together at the Cross” August 26-September 1. Join Pastor Mark Finely as he gives a short preview of this week’s lesson.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

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3rd Quarter Sabbath School 2023: Ephesians

Mark Finley

01 Paul and the Ephesians

02 God’s Grand, Christ-Centered Plan

03 The Power of the Exalted Jesus

04 How God Rescues Us

05 Horizontal Atonement: The Cross and the Church

06 The Mystery of the Gospel

07 The Unified Body of Christ

08 Christ-Shaped Lives and Spirit-Inspired Speech

09 Living Wisely

10 Husbands and Wives: Together at the Cross

11 Practicing Supreme Loyalty to Christ

12 “The Call to Stand”

13 Waging Peace

14 Ephesians in the Heart


We're moving right along in our Sabbath school lessons in our study of the book of Ephesians. In lesson number 10, we're studying husbands and wives together at the cross. The memory text really causes us to think a lot. There's a comparison between the husband-wife relationship and Christ and his church. And this verse really contains a great deal of spiritual depth.

It says, "'Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church, gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish." So the love of Christ for the church motivates the church to give to live godly lives. So in the relationship between a husband and a wife, just as Jesus gave himself in self-sacrificial love for the church, the husband gives himself in self-sacrificial love for the wife. She responds then with a loving submission to the claims of Christ. And of Christ, of course, is always the head of the woman as well as the head of the man, Jesus Christ, the head of the church. But this woman responds in loving submission to her husband because of his self-sacrificial love to her.

It's not a submission that's forced, not a submission that's coerced. It's not a submission where the husband says, you have to do this, submit, not at all. It's a voluntary loving submission to her husband, just as we as Christians voluntarily and lovingly submit to Christ. Now, throughout the lesson, it talks about submission and it's pretty important then to define what submission is. Is submission blending one's will into the will of another?

Is submission blindly accepting what another says? Is submission becoming a non-person and simply yielding to the demands or the opinions of another? We get some help in that in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 21. Verse 20 gives the setting for verse 21. It says, Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now this is speaking about the church submitting to 1 another in the fear of God. The word fear there means respect or reverence or taking God seriously. So unity in the church comes as the church worships together and as the church submits 1 to another. What does it mean to submit? Let me give you some suggestions.

Submitting to 1 another means to respect 1 another, to appreciate 1 another, to honor 1 another. Submission is not pushing my way, but it's listening carefully and sensitively. Submission is not arrogant. Submission is not belligerent. Submission does not have self-inflated importance.

So when the Bible says members submit to 1 another, it really means that they honor 1 another, they respect 1 another, they appreciate 1 another, and they accept 1 another. So in a marriage relationship between husband and wife, when a wife submits to the loving self-sacrifice of her husband for her, she's honoring him, she's respecting him, she's accepting him, She's not belligerent in pushing her own way. The author of our lessons in Sunday's lesson in the last couple sentences draws this out. It says, Christ is the head of the church. I'm reading about 5, 6 lines up from the bottom.

Christ is the head of the church and he's the savior of the body. Ephesians 5.23, by analogy, or that's comparison, the husband is the head of the wife with the church's faithfulness to Christ serving as a model for the wife's loyalty to her husband. So just as Christ gives himself sacrificially to the church and the church responds loyally, so the wife responds loyally to her husband because of his modeling of Christ's sacrificial love. The passage, that is Ephesians 5, 21 to 23, presumes a loving, caring marriage, not a dysfunctional 1. Thus the verse should not be interpreted to allow any form of domestic abuse, certainly not.

Paul does not use the term submit in the sense of submitting to one's husband, who is abusing them, not at all. It rather uses the term submit, as we've mentioned in the area of respect and honor in the mutual loving relationship that a husband and wife has. Monday's lesson brings out some fascinating things about the church as the bride of Christ. So what does it mean that the church is the bride of Christ? There are 4 points or 5 points rather that Monday's lesson gives to us.

First, that Christ loves his bride. The church is the bride. Now anybody that criticizes the church, anybody that denigrates the church, anybody that speaks evilly of church leadership, is speaking critically of the bride of Christ. How would you feel if somebody wrote a book criticizing your wife, and the book was 100 pages long. Would you read it?

You'd probably throw it in the trash, wouldn't you? Why? Because of your love for your wife. So the first point that Paul makes is, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. Christ loves the church.

Then it says that he gave himself for it. Now in ancient times there was what was called the bride price. We might call it a dowry. And that bride price that the man paid for the woman to her parents was a guarantee that he would care for her, that he had the substance to care for her. Sometimes in ancient times, the woman received the dowry and she wore that dowry on her person.

And you remember in Luke 15, when a woman loses a silver coin and they search the house to find it, that was part of the bride price. That was part of the dowry. And so here the bride price, what was, it was usually a large sum of money, valuables, and often ancient economies in the villages, parents depended on this bride price that came, it really fueled the economy. When Christ purchased his bride, he paid the bride price with his own blood. He paid the bride price with the sacrifice on the cross.

He paid the bride price hanging on Calvary's tree with nails through his hands and a crown of thorn upon his head and blood running down his face. That was the price that Christ paid, the bride price, to secure his bride, the church. Now, remember what the Bible says, husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church. So the first aspect is love and gave himself for it. Bride price gave his life.

Then it says he washes it and bathes it. In ancient times, the woman who was being married was often bathed by her bridesmaids, but here Jesus bathes or washes his church to make it holy. He washes it with the water of his word. The living seed of the word of God springs up in our life to bring life. The washing of the water of the word is the cleansing power of Jesus Christ through his word that transforms our lives.

So Jesus loves the church. Jesus gave himself for the church. Jesus washes the church. Jesus speaks a word of promise to the church. When the cleansing is performed, let's perform with the word.

This is a word of promise. The promises of God's word lodged in the mind bear fruit in the life. And Jesus prepares and adorns his bride in flawless splendor for the return of the bridegroom, the coming of Christ. The whole purpose of this, did you notice in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 26, It says that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word that he might present her to himself, a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Now in ancient times the father of the bride, like it is today, or sometimes the best man, presented the bride to the groom.

The groom could never present the bride to himself. But here, Jesus, who loves the church, Jesus who paid the bride price for the church, Jesus who redeemed the church, Jesus, this Christ who prepares the church for the wedding. He presents her to himself and the bride rejoices. The church rejoices over the fact of Jesus' grace and love and goodness. In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, you also have this symbolism of the church and the bride.

2 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 1 to 4, Oh that you would bear with me, and a little folly, Paul says, and indeed you do bear with me. And what's Paul saying there? He's saying that as he speaks about the love of Christ in the church, it warms his heart. It brings joy to his soul. He says, for I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy.

For I have betrothed you to 1 husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear lest somehow as the serpent deceived ease by craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Paul says, just as a husband is jealous about his wife, and just as Christ is jealous for the church, so I am jealous for you, O Corinthians. Ancient weddings began often with a parade at nighttime. The bridesmaids would lead the parade with lighted lamps and come to the bridegroom's house.

Often the bridegroom would leave his house and meet them. So there's this great parade, this great celebration. So Jesus Christ is leading his church in the darkness of night with the light of the Word of God. He's leading his church home. He's leading it to that final marriage when we sit at the marriage supper of the Lamb and rejoice with Christ forever and ever and ever.

The Apostle Paul uses these illustrations of Christ's love for his church, for the human love that we have as men for our brides. Then Paul makes this quite remarkable statement. You almost have a double take when you read it in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 28 to 30. This is quite a remarkable statement that Paul makes in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 28 to 30. He's talking about husbands loving their wives as they love their own body.

Ephesians 5, 28-30. So husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no 1 ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church, for we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. Now, love your wives as you love your own body. In ancient times, husbands had complete control over their wives.

They had complete control over their children as well. At times, husbands would be vindictive, angry, and beat their wives. So what Paul is saying is treat your wife as your own body. Unless you're a crazy man you're not going to think about beating your own body. You're going to respect your own body.

You're going to love your own body. You are going to honor your own body. So what Paul is saying here is love, honor, and respect your wife. Where the pagans may, at times in their godless rebellion, beat their wives. That is the farthest thing from the mind of a Christian.

Paul argues here, a lesson points out, second to last paragraph, third sentence in that paragraph from the bottom. You are so much 1 with your wife, Paul argues, that the harm her is nothing short of afflicting self-harm. And most people in their right minds don't do that. Returning to the example of Jesus, Paul argues that Christ is himself practicing tender self-care in cherishing believers who are in his body. Model your behavior towards your wife, says Paul, on the way you treat yourself and ultimately on the way Christ treats you.

Powerful words. Treat your wife as you would want to be treated. Remember Jesus says, love your neighbor as yourself, love your wife as yourself. You're not gonna beat up on yourself. You're not gonna flagellate your own body.

And respect your wife, don't beat up with her on words. Don't flagellate her with criticism. Don't whip her with anger. Rather, love her like Christ loves the church. And then Thursday's lesson talks about that 1 flesh model.

Remember the Bible says, Man shall not live alone. And then he goes on to say, I've created a help meet corresponding to you and man shall leave his father and mother and join into his wife and they shall be 1 flesh. The physical union of 1 flesh in marriage represents a much larger mental, emotional and spiritual union. It indicates that oneness, that completeness of a relationship that is based on the unity of mind, body, and spirit, based on that relationship of intimate love. In the intimacy that we experience in marriage, in a monogamous relationship between 1 man and 1 woman, That relationship reflects the relationship that Christ has for his church.

Christ loves his church. Christ has done everything he can to save his church. And Christ treats his church like a bride. And in our lesson today, we have echoing and re-echoing down the centuries from the Apostle Paul, these words, husbands Love your wives and wives in loving submission Obey respect admire your husband a wife and a husband who lovingly together submit to 1 another, each 1 desiring to meet the other's needs. The husband wants to obey the wife's wishes.

The wife wants to obey the husband's wishes. And that loving submission of both brings about a unity in marriage that brings 1 of life's greatest joys. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you that in loving submission, husbands can submit to their wives, wives can submit to their husbands, and this mutual love that Christ has for his church modeled in marriage brings joy and happiness to the household. So Lord, help us relate always in that love 1 to another.

We pray in Christ's name. Amen. This media was brought to you by AudioVerse, a website dedicated to spreading God's Word through free sermon audio and much more. If you would like to know more about Audioverse, or if you would like to listen to more sermons, please visit www.audioverse.org

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Series

3rd Quarter Sabbath School 2023: Ephesians

10 Husbands and Wives: Together at the Cross

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

01 Paul and the Ephesians

18m

02 God’s Grand, Christ-Centered Plan

21m

03 The Power of the Exalted Jesus

18m

04 How God Rescues Us

17m

05 Horizontal Atonement: The Cross and the Church

20m

06 The Mystery of the Gospel

19m

07 The Unified Body of Christ

21m

08 Christ-Shaped Lives and Spirit-Inspired Speech

20m

09 Living Wisely

20m

10 Husbands and Wives: Together at the Cross

18m

11 Practicing Supreme Loyalty to Christ

21m

12 “The Call to Stand”

19m

13 Waging Peace

17m

14 Ephesians in the Heart

22m

Sound Doctrine