Elliott Baptist Church - Marriage/Family Series

Dr. Cecil A. Fayard Marriage/Family Sermon Series

The True Significance of Wedding Traditions
Part 4

The Jewish Wedding and how it relates to redemption and the church.
1. After the groom comes to the bride's home with a shout (I Thessalonians 4:16), he receives the bride and her female attendants and returns to his father's house.
  1. One day our groom, the Lord Jesus Christ, is coming for His bride. He will come with a shout.
  2. The bride will be caught up with the Lord to be forever with Him (I Thessalonians 4:14-17).
2. The bride and the groom, after going to the father's house, enter the privacy of the bridal chamber and enter into physical union for the first time, this consummates the marriage. Then a time of feasting and rejoicing takes place.
  1. Christ's union with the church takes place at the rapture and lasts throughout eternity (I Thessalonians 4:17).
  2. After the rapture there will be the wonderful marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelations 19:5-9).
THE TRUE MEANING OF WEDDING TRADITIONS
1. Why does the preacher, minister ask the question, "Who gives this woman to be married to this man?"
  1. This question and the response to it symbolize the transfer of responsibility to the groom by the father.
  2. The response to the question also says that the parents of the bride give their full blessing upon the marriage.
  3. The daughter is under the authority and responsibility of her father until she is married (Numbers 30:4-8).
  4. The father by saying, "her mother and I," transfers this responsibility to the groom.
2. Why do the bride and groom take each other's right hand, during the wedding vows.
  1. The open right hand offered by each party symbolizes the strength, resources, and purpose of the couple.
  2. By clasping each others right hand, they are pledging these resources to each other.
  3. As we depend on the "saving strength of God's right hand" (Psalms 20:6), so each partner can depend on all the resources that the other brings to the marriage relationship.
  4. The clasping of the hands goes beyond the sealing of a contract. It symbolizes the cleaving of two lives which is to be accomplished in the marriage covenant (Genesis 2:24).

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Dr. Cecil A. FayardMarriage/Family Sermon Series

Dr. Cecil A. Fayard
Marriage/Family Sermon Series