23 September 2012
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Hosea 2:16-23
Hosea 2:16-23 (NIV)
16 "In that day," declares the LORD, "you will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master.'
17 I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked.
18 In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.
19 I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion.
20 I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD.
21 "In that day I will respond," declares the LORD-- "I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth;
22 and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.
23 I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called 'Not my loved one.' I will say to those called 'Not my people,' 'You are my people'; and they will say, 'You are my God.'"
-- on Tuesday of this week, the world was astounded when they opened their papers and turned on their TVs and were told that new scientific evidence suggests that Jesus was actually married
-- this new finding is based on a translation of a tiny scrap of papyrus by a professor at the Harvard Divinity School -- this manuscript -- no larger than a grocery store receipt -- contains the intriguing phrase, "Jesus said to them, 'My wife...'"
-- no one knows where this manuscript came from -- how it was discovered or who originally owned it -- it first showed up in the 1980s when a German Egyptologist suggested it might prove Jesus was married
-- in 2010 the current owners asked Harvard professor Karen King to authenticate the papyrus and provide an accurate translation
-- scientific tests of the paper and the ink demonstrated that the tiny slip of paper was indeed authentic and came from a fourth century codex written in Coptic, an Egyptian language -- Dr. King believes it may have originally been translated from an earlier Greek manuscript and notes that it was written around 300 years after the death of Christ, probably around the same time as the apocryphal gospels of Thomas, Mary, and Philip
-- of course, the claims from this manuscript are nothing new to the Christian community -- others throughout history have claimed that Jesus was married and that He even had children
-- the most famous of these in recent years was Dan Brown in his novel, "The Da Vinci Code" -- in this novel, Brown alleges that Jesus was married to Mary Magdelene and that she was the Holy Grail sought after in the middle ages during the Crusades
-- Brown goes on to say that Jesus and Mary Magdelene had children and that their descendants are still alive today and are the keepers of the truth of the message of Christ that the early church corrupted for their own political reasons
-- so, in light of this discovery that was just announced this week, I thought it might be helpful to spend a few minutes this morning talking about the issues this manuscript raises so you would be ready to discuss this issue with any friends or coworkers who might come up to you and ask you questions about it
II. Did Jesus have a Wife?
-- let's start with the big question that this manuscript raises -- did Jesus have a wife?
-- the answer to this question, based on scripture, is simply, "no" -- no where in the New Testament is there even a hint that Jesus might have been married -- it is not recorded in any scripture that we have and it is not even found in the earliest Gnostic gospels or writings
-- in fact, until this discovery of this Egyptian manuscript and its translation by Dr. King, we have never found in print a statement indicating that Jesus was married, even though there were many opportunities to do so in our own Bible
-- if you would, hold your place here in Hosea and turn over to the New Testament -- to 1 Corinthians 9:5 or just listen as I read this verse
1 Corinthians 9:5 (NIV)
5 Don't we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord's brothers and Cephas?
-- in this verse, Paul defends the right of the apostles and other church leaders to be married -- this would have been the perfect place for Paul to write that Jesus was married -- if Jesus had been married, Paul most certainly would have cited Him as conclusive support for being accompanied by a wife
-- in other words, if Paul wanted to make the case that it was okay for him to have a wife, what more compelling case than to say, "Jesus was married, so I can be married, too?" -- but he didn't, he only mentioned Peter and Jesus' own brothers -- which implies that Jesus was not married and everyone knew He had never been married
-- we have to remember that Jesus' mission on earth was not procreation but salvation -- as Focus on the Family states on their website, the "establishment of marriage, family and an earthly home were not Jesus' purposes" -- this was not why He came -- He came to bring forgiveness of sins and redemption through His blood, not too raise a family
III. Who is the True Bride of Christ?
-- in fact, if Jesus had married, He would have sinned and been guilty of polygamy because He already was engaged to be married to another
-- look back at Hosea 2:16-20
Hosea 2:16-23 (NIV)
16 "In that day," declares the LORD, "you will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master.'
17 I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked.
18 In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.
19 I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion.
20 I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD.
-- you see, Jesus was already promised to be married to someone else -- He was promised to be married to the church
-- in 2 Corinthians 11:2, Paul tells the church at Corinth, "I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him."
-- in Ephesians 5, Paul uses the analogy of marriage to explain our relationship to Christ when he tells husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the church
-- and in Revelation 19:6-9 we are given a picture of the wedding feast of the Lamb and are told that His bride -- the church of Christ -- has made her herself ready by putting on righteousness and fine, bright linen that was given to us to wear
-- here in Hosea, we read even more pointed language telling us that we are the bride of Christ
-- in verse 16, God tells us that "in that day" -- in the day of the Lord -- we will no longer call Jesus "master," but we will call Him, "husband"
-- and down in verses 19 and 20, we read that we are betrothed to Him forever -- in righteousness and justice -- in truth and in love
-- we are betrothed to Jesus -- we are engaged to Him -- we are His bride
-- this is why Jesus could never have been married while He lived on earth -- He already was engaged -- He already had a bride
-- if you know a little bit about the Jewish wedding customs, you'll see just how perfectly the analogy of a marriage lines up with our relationship with Jesus
-- when it was time for a young man in Jesus' day to marry, either he or his father went to the bride's father to arrange the marriage -- by custom, they were required to pay a dowry for the bride -- to give something of great value in exchange for the woman's hand in marriage
-- then, when both parties were in agreement, the girl would be brought in and the betrothal would be sealed by drinking a cup of wine that was passed between the bride and groom and their parents
-- at that point, the couple were considered betrothed in the eyes of God and man, and the union could only be dissolved through divorce -- this was the same situation as Mary and Joseph were in when she was found pregnant with Jesus -- although they had not actually had a wedding yet or consummated their relationship, for all intents and purposes, they were considered married by their family and friends
-- after the betrothal, the groom would go away to prepare a place for his bride -- usually, a room for them in his father's house
-- the groom would stay away from his bride for a long period -- anywhere from one to two years -- but when it was time for the wedding, the groom would come at night with his friends and witnesses, with trumpets and great fanfare -- they would be met at the bride's home by her attendants, who lit the path to her home with lanterns and escorted the groom to the wedding feast
-- the couple would dine together at this feast with their family and their guests -- and then they would say their vows to each other in the presence of all of those present -- they would retire to the bridal chamber where their wedding was consummated -- and then the feast would continue for another seven days until the groom carried his wife back to his father's house to begin their new life together
-- now think for a moment how this relates to us and Christ -- look back at verse 18 here --
Hosea 2:18 (NIV)
18 In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.
-- God says that He made a covenant with us and the earth that He would be our God and we would be His people
-- this happened with Noah after the flood that destroyed the earth -- God made a covenant and gave us the rainbow as a sign of His promise -- later on He confirmed this covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Jesus reaffirmed this covenant in the upper room when He shared the cup of wine with His disciples and spoke of a new covenant of His blood
-- this was our betrothal ceremony -- this was when we became engaged to be married to Jesus
-- and then Jesus paid the greatest price of all for us -- He gave His own body and blood that we might be with Him -- and then He left us here to prepare a place for us to dwell with Him forever -- remember the words of Christ to His disciples in the upper room? -- "I go to prepare a place for you" and "in my Father's house are many rooms"
-- at some point in time -- in the day of the Lord -- Jesus will come back to claim His bride and we will join Him at the marriage feast of the Lamb -- the church will be His bride and we will truly become one with Him at that time
IV. Will Jesus Still Marry Us?
-- so, if the church is the bride of Christ, then why does the world keep trying to marry Him off? -- why do they keep trying to find a wife for Jesus?
-- it's because the church is not acting like a faithful bride -- we are acting like Hosea's wife Gomer
-- God made the prophet Hosea fall in love with an adulterous woman named Gomer -- and even though she bore him three children, she left their home to become a prostitute -- even though she was married, she lived like she was not and was unfaithful to Hosea and to the vows that she had made to him
-- Gomer was a picture of the way the nation of Israel acted towards God -- as it says here in verse 17, Israel turned away from God and chased after idols like Baal
-- in the same way, the church of Christ today has not been faithful to its betrothed -- we may not be bowing down to idols in our backyard like the Israelites did, but we put our faith in idols just as much as the ancient Israelites did
-- we trust more in our bankbooks than we do in the God who provides -- we follow the ways of the world more than we follow the ways of Christ -- we have been unfaithful to Him just as Gomer was unfaithful to Hosea
-- that's why the world keeps trying to find a bride for Jesus -- they look at us and they don't see a bride waiting for her bridegroom -- they don't see a chaste virgin waiting for her wedding day -- instead, they see us prostituting ourselves on the idols of fame and fortune, more concerned about living the American Dream than looking forward to the hope we have in Christ
-- we're hardly the type of bride that Jesus would want -- but that's one reason why I like the book of Hosea so much -- it shows the heart of God
-- look at verse 21-23
Hosea 2:21-23 (NIV)
21 "In that day I will respond," declares the LORD-- "I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth;
22 and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.
23 I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called 'Not my loved one.' I will say to those called 'Not my people,' 'You are my people'; and they will say, 'You are my God.'"
-- every time Gomer left Hosea, Hosea wouldn't let her go -- he followed her into the streets and chased after her even though she was unfaithful -- he bought her back from her life of prostitution time and time again
-- even though she continued to be unfaithful and repeatedly left him, Hosea was faithful to her and brought her home again and again and again
-- in the same way Hosea sought Gomer, these verses say that God responds to us -- He responds to our unfaithfulness with faithfulness -- He responds to our lack of love with His agape love
-- to those who were not His loved one, He shows love -- to those who refused to be His people, He says, "You are My people" -- and He promises that He will never leave us or forsake us but will stay with us forever until we turn again to Him and confess, "We are your people -- You are our God"
V. Closing
-- so, what's the take-home message from all of this?
-- first, when someone asks you if Jesus was married, tell them, "Yes, He is married to His church" -- tell them that we are His bride and despite our flaws, Jesus loves us and chases after us and redeems us from our sins and our unfaithfulness -- tell them that He clothes us with His righteousness and dresses us in gowns of fine linen -- and tell them that He has prepared a place for us to dwell with Him forever in His Father's house
-- second, when they ask you about that manuscript where Jesus says, "My wife..." tell them that He is probably referring to the church -- remind them that there is no record in all of Scripture that indicates that Jesus was married when He lived here on earth -- and that even none of the Gnostic gospels and writings closer to Jesus' time refer to Him being married
-- this little slip of paper with the words, "My wife..." taken out of context from the larger codex do not mean that Jesus was married
-- third, keep in mind that as the bride of Christ, we have responsibilities in this relationship as well
-- we have to find the perfect clothes to wear -- everyone knows that the wedding dress is symbolic of the bride -- the white signifies the purity of the bride to all who are gathered there -- the dress is a reflection of the character of the woman who wears it
-- as the bride of Christ, our clothes will be a reflection of our character -- we need to be putting on pure, white garments -- reflecting our purity of character -- our devotion to Christ
-- our daily acts -- our daily lives -- will determine what type of clothes we will wear to the wedding and the wedding feast
-- I guarantee you that there's not a women in here who did not dream or plan on wearing a beautiful white dress to her wedding
-- if we consider our earthly weddings so important, then why aren't we taking more care with the clothes we will be wearing to our heavenly wedding?
-- we need to be standing firm -- living for Christ -- and we need to remain pure and devoted to Him
-- how do we show our love and devotion to Christ? -- how do we ensure our garments will be fine linen? -- by doing righteous acts in His name
-- what's the other thing we should be doing as the bride of Christ? -- we need to be sending out wedding invitations
-- when Kim and I got engaged, we sent wedding invitations to everyone and their brother -- of course the family got invited -- then we started working on our friends -- and then our parent's friends -- and the list got bigger and bigger and bigger
-- well, we have a wedding and a wedding feast coming up -- and I don't think it's too far away -- let me ask you a question -- who have you invited to the wedding lately? -- who have you told about your betrothed?
-- we need to be sending out invitations to others to join us at the marriage feast of the Lamb -- we need to be sharing our faith with our family and our friends and our friends' friends
-- it is a crying shame that we put more effort into inviting people to our earthly weddings than we do in inviting them to a marriage that will last for eternity
-- finally, we need to be watching for the coming of the groom -- we need to keep the fires lit and the lamps trimmed -- we need to make sure that we are not caught unaware when Christ returns -- He tells us that He will come as a thief in the night, and that we must keep a close watch for His return
-- so, keep one eye to the heavens and one eye on earth as you go about your day, so that you will be prepared for your wedding when Jesus comes again
-- let us pray
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