NAMES AND TITLES OF CHRIST
THE BRIDEGROOM
DR. JIM DIXON
JOHN 3:26-30
JUNE 22, 1997
The Bible tells us that the church is the bride of Christ. This is stated in Ephesians, chapter 5, and in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11. It is stated in Revelation, chapters 19, 20, and 21. It is implied in Matthew 23, in Matthew 25, and in our passage of scripture for today, John chapter 3. The church is the bride of Christ. In the words of John the Baptist, “He who has the bride is the bridegroom.” Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom. By this title, we are to understand that Jesus Christ is married to His church. Christ and the church, bridegroom and bride.
This morning I have two teachings relating to how this title affects our lives and what this title means to us individually. First of all, this title “The Bridegroom” tells us that Christ loves us very, very much. If you are a Christian, if you have received Christ as your Savior and as your Lord and you have entered His true church, then you have become part of His bride and He loves you with a love that is sacrificial and a love that is eternal. Because Christ is wedded to His people. Christ is wedded to His church.
The word wedding etymologically comes from an old English word which means “bride price.” It is true that in England long ago if you were to take a bride, if you were to enter into marriage, you must pay the bride price. Even today, there are many nations in which a bridegroom, in order to have a bride, must pay the bride price. This has become a matter of great controversy in Libya today because the bride price has become so high. Just 27 years ago, in 1970, if you were a man living in Libya and you proposed marriage to a woman, you paid a bride price which on the average amounted to $3,500. Perhaps you also threw in a camel or sheep. That was the bride price, and it was costly 27 years ago. But it is far more costly today because today in many parts of Libya if you would be the bridegroom taking a bride, the bride price in many parts of Libya averages $15,000 to $20,000 and a brand-new car. This, of course, is given to the father and the family of the bride as a bride price. There are actually some parts of Libya today where, if you would enter into marriage, the bride price is $40,000. This is why some of the men in Libya are actually going to Egypt to find their brides, because the average bride price in Egypt is $300 to $400. Many of the Libyan women today are complaining. The Libyan women today are complaining and they’re saying, “If you really love me, you will pay the bride price.”
Have you ever thought about how much Christ loves His church? Have you ever thought about how much Christ loves you and the bride price He paid? In Philippians, chapter 2, the Bible tells us that “Though He was in the form of God, He did not count equality with God a thing to be clutched. But He emptied Himself, taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even unto death on a cross.” You see, the incarnation, where He was born in Bethlehem and took our flesh upon Himself, sharing our humanity, was all part of the bride price. His sinless life was all part of the bride price, that He might provide perfectly the sacrifice through an atoning death, that He might take your sin and my sin upon Himself. It was all a part of the bride price.
Christ loves His church. Christ loves you. His love is sacrificial. His love for His people will never end. That’s why in Ephesians, chapter 5, the Apostle Paul writes to earthly husbands and tells them that they are to love their wives as Christ loved His church and gave His life for her. It was the bride price He was willing to pay. His love for us will never die. His love for us will never end and He wants you to know that today. A million years from now He will still love you and He will still love me. He will still love His bride. His love will never fail. This is almost a difficult concept for us in this fallen world where love is so often transitory and where love so often comes to an end.
I read recently about a group of people in western Africa who live in the nation in Guinea-Bissau and also live in Senegal. These people are called the Balanta people. The Balanta people have a very strange custom. The bridegroom gives to the bride, on the day of their marriage, one gift and only one gift. It is the bridal gown. The bridal gown is worn by the bride in that wedding ceremony on their wedding day. The bridegroom must make the wedding gown himself. He weaves it. It’s his work and it’s his gift.
After the wedding, the bride almost never wears the bridal gown again, except for very special occasions. The reason she never wears the bridal gown again is because the bridal gown is considered to represent the duration of the marriage. As soon as the bridal gown becomes frayed, as soon as it is threadbare, the marriage is over. This is a reality in the Balanta culture. This is the wedding gift, and the marriage lasts as long as the gift lasts and so the bride is careful to take that bridal gown and store it away unless she no longer loves the bridegroom, unless the marriage isn’t doing so well. I mean if you come home and your wife has on the bridal gown, you know you’re in a lot of trouble.
Even in this culture, while we do not have that custom, is it not true love often fades? In 1920 in this nation, one out of every seven marriages ended in divorce. These are government statistics. In 1940, one out of every six marriages ended in divorce. In 1960, one out of every four marriages ended in divorce. In 1972, one out of every three marriages ended in divorce. In 1977, one out of every two marriages ended in divorce. And so it remains today, twenty years later. This nation, over these last few decades, has desperately sought to reverse the trend but we don’t seem to be able to do it. One out of every two marriages today in 1997 ends in divorce.
Many of you have heard those painful words, “I don’t love you anymore.” You’ve heard your spouse say to you, “I don’t love you anymore.” What words can be more painful? But Christ wants you to understand He’ll never say those words to you because He is the Bridegroom, and He loves His bride. He loves His bride with a sacrificial love, and He loves His bride with an eternal love. His love will never end, and He wants you to know that today.
You know, Barb and I love each other very much. Sometimes people will come up to me as a pastor and say, “Well, do you think when you get to heaven you and Barb will still be married?” I have to honestly say I wish that were true because I love Barb like that. I would like to be married to Barb forever and ever and ever and yet really there’s nothing in the Bible that promises that these earthly marriages are eternal. It says, “until death do us part.” Of course, our love for each other, Barb and I, is eternal and the relationship which is eternal is that relationship of brother and sister in Christ. We are part of the family of God. But the Bible describes only one marriage as everlasting and that one marriage which is everlasting is the marriage between Christ and His church. Bridegroom and bride.
Christ wants you to know today He will never fail you or forsake you, which really leads us to the second and final teaching this morning. That teaching is this: The bridegroom calls His bride to faithful union. He loves us with a sacrificial and undying love, and He calls us to faithful union.
Now, on the back of the dollar bill, there is of course the Great Seal of the United States. On the face of the Great Seal, there are these words “E Pluribus Unum,” “one out of many,” because this nation is a union. It is a union of states and territories and possessions. It is a true union. Today, as you all know, here in the city of Denver this weekend, we have this conference taking place between world leaders called “The Summit of the Eight” and the nations that come together in this meeting do not really comprise a union. These nations and the leaders of these nations are coming together in some kind of cooperative effort in hopes of making this world a better place but there’s no union between these nations. These nations have not become one. There is no guarantee that if some nation attacked Russia that America would come to Russia’s aid. We are not a union. We are not one. But the United States is a true union. The United States is a true union bound together.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and sunk 18 ships. Three thousand five hundred men, women, and children were killed or injured, and it awoke a slumbering nation. In the next four years, 20 million American men went to war willingly and millions of American women went into the workplace, into factories, to fuel the war machine and the war effort that this nation might remain free and that freedom might be served around the world. And it was sacrificial. It cost $200 billion, and yet the financial cost was nothing compared to the cost in blood.
Today there’s not a nation in the world today that would attack the United States of America no matter how much they hate this country. They will not attack a portion of this country because they know that this is a union. There’s not a nation in the world who thinks they could “take” Colorado. There’s not a nation in the world that thinks, “we could take Denver,” because they know if you attack Colorado, you attack Texas and you attack California and New York. It’s a union. Is that not true? And the Bible tells us that the bride of Christ is like that. The bride of Christ is one body united.
Just last week, ABC was here at our second worship service. Maybe you saw their cameras. Peter Jennings was doing some kind of a special on the persecuted church. Afterwards, some of the folks from ABC asked me why this church cares about Christians who are persecuted in other countries. “Why do you even care?” they said. The question seemed strange to me. I would think we would care simply as human beings. I would think we would care if civil rights abuses were taking place anywhere in the world, but we particularly care as Christians and we particularly care for one another as Christians because there is a union here. If you attack one Christian, you are attacking all of the Christians in the world because we are one body.
The Bible says, “As one member of the body suffers, the whole body suffers with it.” As we are united to each other as the bride of Christ, so the bride is united with the bridegroom. If you attack the bride, you attack the bridegroom. If you attack the church, you attack Christ. If you attack an individual Christian, you attack Christ. There is a faithful union. I don’t think the faithfulness of Christ in this union is really in question. I hope you have faith to believe that He is faithful, and it does take faith because there are many things that He does in our lives that we’re not even aware of. I know one day when we see Jesus face-to-face, bride and Bridegroom, we will then see all the incredible expressions of His faithfulness to us and we’ll understand. I know and believe that Christ has done so many things that I’m not even aware of in my life and Barb’s life and Drew’s life and Heather’s life and in your lives because of His love and because of His faithfulness to this marriage union.
One day we’ll understand all He has done for us. One day we’ll enter into glory. We’ll enter into heaven itself and a new heavens and a new earth and we’ll have resurrection bodies and an eternal future because He is faithful to this marriage union, Bridegroom and bride forever. The only question today is, “Are we faithful?” I think that’s the question Christ would ask us this morning. As you think of this title “The Bridegroom,” are you faithful to Christ in this faithful union?
You know, a faithful union can be a lot of work. We can understand this in earthly marriages. When I was single, I had a system through which I took care of my clothes. This was true in college, and this was true in graduate school and in seminary. The system worked like this. At the end of the day, I would take my clothes off and if they looked like I could wear them again, I would throw them over the chair. If they looked like I couldn’t wear them anymore, if they were too dirty, I would throw them on the floor. That was the system. Then, according to the system, when it got to where there were too many clothes on the floor to walk, I would gather all the dirty clothes and I would take them down and I would wash them and then I would dry them and then I would take the washed and dried clothes back up to my dorm room and I would pile them in the corner of the room. Then when I woke up in the morning and I was looking for something to wear, if I couldn’t find anything that was just strung over the chair, I would then go look at the pile in the corner, pick something out and I would iron it and I would wear it for the day. Then at the end of the day, I would recycle the system. If it looked like I could wear it again, it went back on the chair. If not, it went down on the floor.
That was my system. It really wasn’t a problem because all of my roommates in college and graduate school and seminary had the same system. My roommate in college was Glen Goldie, who’s the Director of Christian Education at this church. And I can tell you Glen had the same system. But when I married Barb, I soon discovered that Barbara had a different system. To my amazement it involved closets and clothes hangers and dirty clothes hampers. You know, something had to change if this was going to work. She either had to adapt my system or I had to adapt her system. And, of course, my system really wasn’t right and so I began to change. I had to change my system. And isn’t it that way in earthly marriages? Don’t you find yourself having to change your systems? I think in earthly marriages we make certain compromises normally in order to have a faithful union, right?
Now, the church is married to Christ, bride and Bridegroom. In that sense, you are married to Christ, bride and Bridegroom. Christ does not need to change His systems. But if there would be a faithful union, we need to change ours. Maybe your system is “me first.” But Jesus has a system which is “others first.” Maybe you have a system which is “my will be done.” But Christ has a system “Thy will be done.” Maybe you have a system which says, “If it feels good, do it.” But Christ has a system which says, “If it is good, do it. If it is good as defined in His word and in His scripture, do it.” It’s all part of faithful union.
Christ would ask us today if we’re really willing to change for the sake of faithful union, for the sake of the Bridegroom who gave His life for us or is it all just lip service. Is it all just lip service?
As we conclude this morning, I want to tell you a little story, and it’s true from history. It concerns a man named David O’Keefe. David O’Keefe lived in Savannah, Georgia, in the 19th century. He had a wife and a little girl. The year was 1871 when David O’Keefe went to sea. He was traveling to China, and he would return in 6 months (or so he thought). His wife and daughter hated to see him go and looked forward to his return.
Well, something happened at sea and the ship that David O’Keefe was on went down in the Western Pacific near a group of islands that are called the Yap Islands. These islands are almost a thousand miles east of the Philippines. There are four larger islands and eleven smaller islands. So, there was David O’Keefe on the Yap Islands with Micronesians, Yapese people. Historians don’t know exactly how it happened but somehow David O’Keefe became King of the Yap Islands. Incredible.
Somehow, he managed to buy up much of the land that was owned by tribal chiefs. Somehow the people all began to look to him, and he was elevated in their midst. Historians tell us that David O’Keefe built this massive mansion on the main island of Yap, and he was served by all the Yapese people. He was the king of Yap. Even though those islands technically belonged to the Spanish, who never went there, practically, functionally, David O’Keefe was King and he even created a flag. On the flag there was the United States flag and beneath it the letters OK for O’Keefe.
Ships came by the Yap Islands two times a year, traveling across the Pacific and making trade with the people of Yap. David O’Keefe could have gone home. He could have gone back to his wife and his little girl. He had the opportunity to do that every year, twice a year, but instead he just sent gifts and he sent letters to his wife and little girl. In those letters he told his wife, “I love you.” He told his wife that he was faithful. He told his wife to wait and one day he would come home. In the meantime, he fathered seven children through various Yapese women.
Finally, thirty years later, in the year 1901, David O’Keefe decided to go home. His wife was still alive, and his daughter was in her thirties. He never made it. His ship went down at sea. And maybe it’s just as well, because his marriage was a sham. There was no faithful union. It wasn’t just the adultery (a tragedy), but his lack of desire for intimacy and fellowship for his wife. He should have gone home at the first opportunity. He was too busy building his own empire. He told his wife he loved her. He told her he was faithful, but it was all yap! He was the King of Yap, and it was all yap!
I mean, isn’t that true? How about you? Christ is the Bridegroom. His church is the bride. The church is married to Christ, purchased in His blood, called to faithful union. And how about you? You call yourself a Christian. You say you’re living for Christ. Is it true or is it just yap? Are you really building your own kingdom or are you serving His? He is the Bridegroom. He loves His church desperately, sacrificially, eternally, and He calls us to faithful union. Let’s close with a word of prayer.