The Heavenly Romance.
Speaker of God's love this week was Gail
This is a transcript of Sunday's sermon given by Gail, I hope I have done it justice and you will be as excited as we all were to hear about
'The Heavenly Romance', the ancient Jewish wedding of Jesus as the groom and gentleman.
How exciting it is to see the meaning of the bridegroom, his bride and Jesus speaking of the second part of the marriage ceremony.
Today when marriage is no longer the norm, it seems to have brought us on the verse of a tipping point in the world. Same sex marriages are a blatant mockery of what God intended for us, a time when divorce is one of those things that people have in the back of their mind, 'in case, the marriage does not last'. Satan, is having an absolute heyday!
Jesus Himself has followed the steps of a Jewish bridegroom when taking His own bride, the church. There are many hidden treasures that are lost to us because we do not see Jesus in His original Jewish context.
Step 1 was the selection of the Bride John 15:16, 'You did not chose Me'
In Israel brides were usually chosen my the father of the bridegroom. He would send his most trusted servant to search for a bride for his son.
Brides in the Bible times were purchased, The price was paid to the father of the bride. We as the bride of Jesus have also been purchased with a price. A very high price, the blood of Jesus.1 Corinthians 6:20 ,
Then comes the beirolhal KETUBAH....... marriage contract. Please refer to this site for a very good discription of the Ketubah, similar to that Gail gave us.
We have been given a KETUBAH from Jesus, our bridegroom. Our marriage contract is God's Word. It shows us all what we are entitled to as the 'Bride of Christ'. It's the promise of God's Word for us, so we 'must' believe this. We are entitled to these promises, that are a part of our Ketubah.
God never forces anyone to say 'I do', When we say I do to Jesus we must believe with hearts and confess with our lips. (Roman's 10:9)
The Cup of the Covenant.
After the terms of the Ketunah were accepted, a cup of wine was shared to seal the marriage covenant. The second cup of wine would be shared many months later during the marriage cermony. The cup Jesus took at His last Passover on earth was the cup of the new marriage covenant with His bride. " In the same way, he gave them the cup after the supper, saying, “This cup is God's new covenant sealed with my blood, which is poured out for you"
Matthew 26:29 says, " I tell you, I will never again drink this wine until the day I drink the new wine with you in my Father's Kingdom.”
References
The Marriage Contract (Ketubah) Chabad,org (1993-2014) http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/465168/jewish/The-Marriage-Contract-Ketubah.htm Chabad-Lubavitch Media Cente Accessed 11.02am 13/5/2014
