What Is God’s Position on Marriage and Life?

by | Oct 7, 2018

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

  1. God Defines Marriage
  2. God Loves Children
SERMON TEXT:  Mark 10:2-16

Some Pharisees came to test him and asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He replied, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.” But Jesus told them, “He wrote this command for you because of your hard hearts. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.” In the house his disciples asked him about this again. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. If she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” Some people began bringing little children to Jesus so that he would touch them. But the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said, “Let the little children come to me! Do not hinder them, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen I tell you: Whoever will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the little children in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

Bible Readings

FIRST LESSON:  Genesis 2:18–24

The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is a suitable partner for him.” Out of the soil the LORD God had formed every wild animal and every bird of the sky, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature, that became its name. The man gave names to all the livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal, but for Adam no helper was found who was a suitable partner for him. The LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. As the man slept, the LORD God took a rib and closed up the flesh where it had been. The LORD God built a woman from the rib that he had taken from the man and brought her to the man. The man said, Now this one is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She will be called “woman,” because she was taken out of man. For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will remain united with his wife, and they will become one flesh.

SECOND LESSON:  Ephesians 5:21-6:4

… and by submitting to one another in reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he himself is the Savior. Moreover, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, in the same way as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, by cleansing her with the washing of water in connection with the Word. He did this so that he could present her to himself as a glorious church, having no stain or wrinkle or any such thing, but so that she would be holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands have an obligation to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. To be sure, no one has ever hated his own body, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will be one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I am talking about Christ and the church. In any case, each one of you also is to love his wife as himself, and each wife is to respect her husband. :Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with a promise: “that it may go well with you and that you may live a long life on the earth.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

VERSE OF THE DAY:  Psalms 22:22

I will proclaim your name to my people; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.

GOSPEL: Mark 10:2-16

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