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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Bible Questions Answered: Wedding Attendants

Bible Questions Answered:
We know that the church is the bride of Jesus Christ, but what about all others, who then or what are they?
Henry/ Bakersville, North Carolina

Bible Answers:

Christ and the Church, His bride.

Ephesians 5:21-33 NLT
21 And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of His body, the church.
24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.
25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up His life for her
26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.
27 He did this to present her to Himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.
28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself.
29 No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church.
30 And we are members of His body.
31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.”
32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.
33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Christ the Bridegroom:

Matthew 9:15 KJV
And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bride chamber mourn, as long as the Bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.

Matthew 25:1,6 KJV
[1] Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
[6] And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

Revelation 21:2 KJV
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Church as the bride:

II Corinthians 11:2 KJV
For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one Husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Revelation 21:2 KJV
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Revelation 22:17 KJV
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

Church married to Christ:

Romans 7:4 KJV
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

I Corinthians 6:15 KJV
“Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?...”

II Corinthians 11:2 KJV
For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one Husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Ephesians 5:30 KJV
For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.

I John 2:24 KJV
Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.

The Church is the bride of Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the Bridegroom, this group comprises all believers through today, since Calvary.
Yet the question exists, who then are all others, all believers in God, before Christ?

Who is it that will be glad and rejoicing?
An answer is found in John's gospel.

John 3:27-30 KJV
[27] John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.
[28] Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before Him.
[29] He that hath the bride is the Bridegroom:
but the friend of the Bridegroom, which standeth and heareth Him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice:
this my joy therefore is fulfilled.
[30] He must increase, but I must decrease.

John 3:27-30 NLT
27 John replied, “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven. 28 You yourselves know how plainly I told you, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only here to prepare the way for Him.’
29 It is the Bridegroom who marries the bride, and the best man is simply glad to stand with Him and hear His vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at His success.
30 He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.

John (John the baptist) says that a great rejoicing host, that is not the bride of Christ, is the “Friend of the Bridegroom.”
These are all Godly believers from Adam up to Calvary.
They are the “Attendants (The witness of the marriage of Christ and His church, bride.), The Friends of the Bridegroom.”

Luke 15:7 KJV (The completion of the church.)
I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth,..."

Revelation 19:6,7,9 KJV
[6] And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
[7] Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready.
[8] And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
[9] And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.