The Bride, The Wife of Christ (Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter: May 25, 2025)

Listen to the sermon here.

Texts:  Psalm 67

Acts 16:9–15

Revelation 21:9–14, 21–27

John 16:23–33

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Alleluia, Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia.

The text that serves as the foundation for our sermon is all of our texts, especially these words at the beginning of our epistle reading, “Then came one of the seven angels … and spoke to me, saying, ‘Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.’” (Revelation 21:9).

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,

Weddings are a special time, although they've somewhat gotten blown completely out of proportion, in my opinion, today. But there is a wonderful thing that happens in the marriage ceremony. The groom stands at the front. The doors are closed and then the doors opened up there stands the bride. And the woman's father brings the groom's bride down the aisle. The bride adorned in white is brought to her husband. Many in our world today do not understand the symbolism behind this. Many in our world today think that this is just an antiquated practice showing that the woman is just some piece of property for her dad to give away. That's not the reason for this at all. It is, as marriage is, a representation of Christ and His bride, the Church. “‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal” (Revelation 21:9-11). As the bride is brought forward we are called to be reminded of God presenting the Bride, the Church, to His Son, Jesus Christ. So that leads us to the question, who is the Bride of Christ? To that we learn that all those who are part of the household of God, who are part of the holy city Jerusalem, they are members of the bride of Christ.

Let us pray: Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, our world sees Christians scattered, tempted, falling away from the faith, leaving constantly her Bridegroom, Christ. May the words of my mouth and meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer, that we, having been made so through the waters of Holy Baptism, may continue to live as members of Your Son's Bride, until at last we get to partake of the marriage feast forevermore. It is through Your Son's name we pray. Amen.

So what does it take to be a member of the Brine of Christ? What does it take to be part of that church, that church body? To be certain, it's not just membership in an earthly denomination. No one earthly church body could dare claim to be the Bride of Christ. No one earthly church body could claim that everyone who's not a member of that earthly organization will not be in this great heavenly banquet. No, the Bride of Christ expands across all nations, all tribes, all languages, all peoples. So how is one made a member of the Bride of Christ? How does one become part of a family? Is it your own doing? By no means. You don't get to pick which family you're a member of. You become a member of a family because of birth. You become a member of a family because you're born into that family. Or you're adopted into that family. Even with adoption, though, that's not your choosing. If someone just randomly came into your house today at 12:30 while you're home eating lunch and said, “Hey, I'm part of your family now. I'm going to live here. You're going to take care of me. You're going to provide for me”, you'd call the cops because that's not how adoption works. Adoption works by the parents saying, “Hey, you're now part of my family”, whether that goes through the legal process or not. And so it is with us. We do not become members of the Bride of Christ because we chose to be in God's family. We don't become members of the Bride of Christ because we made some great decision for him. “I believe that I cannot, by my own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him.” On our own, we are left helpless without defense. On our own, we are left without people.

And so God comes, and He adopts us. We see this in our first reading for today from Acts. We meet “a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.’” (Acts 16:14-15). Paul makes it clear there that is through baptism, through the baptism that she was given, that she was then able to say, “Yeah, come to my house. Stay in my house.” So once she was made a member of the bride, then she was able to open her home willingly to the apostles.

So it is with us. It is only through the waters of Holy Baptism that you and I are made members of the Bride. For it is in the waters of Holy Baptism that God has adopted you. In the waters of Holy Baptism God has claimed you. It's in the waters of Holy Baptism that God has washed away your sins through the blood of His son, Jesus Christ, given and shed for you on the cross. It's through the waters of Holy Baptism that you experienced the resurrection from the dead, just as Christ was raised from the dead on the third day. It's through the waters of Holy Baptism that you are clothed in white. Now you’re a member of the Bride of Christ.

So does this mean that once you're a member of the bride that everything is going to be hunky dory? Don’t get ahead of yourself. You're a member of the bride, but the wedding has not yet happened. Satan is still trying everything in his power to make you fall away, to lead you astray so that you would leave the Bride. Jesus told the disciples exactly this. “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). Indeed we see much tribulation: whether that's tribulation of our bodies as our bodies fail us; whether that's tribulation of grief and sorrow as we mourn those we have lost; whether that's outside tribulation, persecution that comes from the sin-filled world. Whatever that tribulation may be, it's all Satan's attacks trying to get us to fall away.

And yet, what does Jesus add? “Take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Christ has overcome this sin-filled world. Christ has defeated Satan. And thus, even though Satan still tries to attack, even though Satan still tries to get us to fall away, we have the sure and certain hope that our Bridegroom, Christ, our Lord, has already won the victory. We have the certainty that that victory is ours. So even as the tribulation comes, even as the heartache and the hardship comes, we know that He is taking care of us. We know that we can call to Him whenever our heart is in anguish, whenever the terrors of death have fallen upon us, because we know He will save us. We know that He redeems our souls in safety from the battles we wage, even though many are arrayed against us. For He has conquered. He is risen and will never die again.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, you are members of the Bride, the Wife of Christ. You are members made so through the waters of Holy Baptism. For a little while still, that door stands closed as you will wait to see the Bridegroom face to face. Yet just as a father lovingly waits with his daughter to walk her down the aisle, so likewise your Heavenly Father waits with you. Until on that last day, the doors are open and the Bride is presented to the Bridegroom for that never-ending marriage. May you, who have been made members of the Bride of Christ through the waters of Holy Baptism remain steadfast in the faith all the days of your tribulation until at last you get to see your Bridegroom face to face. Amen.

May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!