Passage: Ephesian 5:21-33

Speaker: Steve Hands

Series: We Are Wellspring 2.0

We Are The Bride

What is the church? Is it the building we meet in? The song, Bible, and prayer events we run every Sunday? The 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with its programs, staff, and by-laws? The church is the community of “women, men, and children who belong to Christ and live under his reign”.

[1]This community isn’t like any other under the face of the earth. We often have our own ideal of what the church should be for us, or which need we want the church to meet. But God has his own vision for his gathered community, and as we begin to see the church as he sees it, we’ll grow in love for him and his people. This summer we seek to recapture God’s vision of the church through biblical images of God’s gathered community, starting with the picture of the church as the bride of Christ in Ephesians 5. In this passage we’ll see that as the churchsubmits to Christ her head (Eph. 5:21-24), she is made holy by his word (5:25-27) and nourished by his love (5:28-33).

[1]See Immeasurableby Skye Jethani, chapter 4 for a good discussion on church as community vs. institution