Revelation 19:6-10
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Is Spencer and I'm one of the pastors here we are been moving through big chunks of the Book of Revelation uh like last week we went through two chapters and some change today we get to kind of camp out in five verses which I'm excited about we're in Revelation chapter 19: 6-1 I am uh bear with me this morning I'm getting over some funk that's been going around so I have no idea what's going to come out of this voice but I'm sure it'll be lovely I um I love weddings uh weddings are a lot of fun I love The Angst of the moment uh that's you can just.
See bound up in the groom when he walks out I don't think I've ever seen a groom that's not just nervous because the weight of the moment is just so big and then when the do is open and his lovely bride is walking down the aisle the joy in both of their eyes and just the excitement and really the naivity of the pure joy which is what the way it's supposed to be and there just excitement um I love the vows that they take.
When I do weddings I do serious vows um because it's a serious moment and uh even if I'm performing this ceremony like I I I tell everyone and I myself reflect upon like my own vows that's a moment to remember the Covenant of marriage and how uh important it is to honor this Covenant um I love wedding receptions um I appreciate weddings that that do receptions well and have really good food um you know I I mean I do I got I'm went to a wedding that had endless shrimp cocktail and it's like yes absolutely just non-stop just quietly going back and forth trying to not get as much judgment that like I've murdered this.
Shrimp cocktail spread I love we're in the South so if you've got a good quality mac and cheese that's well done uh if you have uh a good spread of meats I really appreciate that I love weddings to have good food and good drink and really responsible wedding parties that can enjoy the moment but aren't sloppy and just can be responsible adults having fun um I love dancing I'm not the uh I'm not the first out on the floor kind of guy never have been that's just not my role in the party.
But but I do enjoy uh uh dancing with my wife as we get to go and have fun I enjoy wedding anthems Don't Stop Believing Mr bright side shout like just I mean I I so love it I love when they leave like I just love the seeing them excitedly going out on this adventure uh I love weddings I don't think I'm alone in this I think it's a widely accepted experience that most people enjoy good weddings and that's true in this culture that's true.
If you look at weddings and cultures across the world that's true when you look throughout history that in every age like weddings when they're written about no matter what year it is what century it is like weddings are are a joyous event they are some of the best versions of humanity this side of Eternity therefore it should come as no surprise that a wedding is one of the most joyfill hopeful themes that runs throughout the Scriptures from Genesis into Revelation let me read our text.
For today Revelation 19: 6 and following then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude like the Roar of many Waters and like the sound of mighty peels of Thunder crying out Hallelujah for the Lord Our God the Almighty Reigns let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen bright and pure for the fine linen is the righteous Deeds of the Saints and the angel said to me write this blessed are those who were invited to the marriage supper of the lamb and he said to.
Me these are the true words of God then I fell down at his feet to worship him but he said to me you must not do that I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold the testimony of Jesus worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of Prophecy what sometimes gets missed is this great theme that goes from Genesis to reev ation so much so that uh the buildup to this is is often missed the the theme that this is and Bible nerds will call this a motif that's the word Motif it's just a grand theme that flows from Genesis to Revelation that has this one grand theme that.
Kind of flows throughout the entire story and if you if you don't understand the buildup to this and you just jump into Revelation without understanding the backstory you you miss how beautiful and how wonderful this moment is it was be like just starting with the second Lord of the Rings movie and then all of a sudden an old man just pops out in the forest you're like oh they're excited to see him that's nice but you admiss that that's Gandalf and in the last movie he died this is a really big deal.
So without the backstory you miss how big that moment is and that's what if you don't understand the backstory that goes into this joyous wonderful event that all of the Scriptures are looking forward to you miss it so that's I want to do today I want to fill in the backstory I want to walk from Genesis to Revelation and just kind of go through from old into the New Testament to see this grand theme of this love story that plays out throughout the Scriptures and my hope is is that as we walk through this by the end of it we would understand the gravity of this moment and it would make us fall more in.
Love with our savior for who he is and what he's done for us so I'm going to pray for us and then we'll walk through this together heavenly father I thank you for this picture that the Church has longed for for so long God I pray that you'd help us understand how big this is and that we would aim and Orient Our Lives to get that wedding Altar and we ask this in Jesus name amen all right so we're going to start in Genesis chapter 2.
God uh makes Adam and he sees that it's not good that Adam is alone so he forms Eve from the rib of Adam and then brings them together in the first marriage and this is what God pronounces about their marriage in Genesis chapter 2 he says therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh and the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed so we get the creation of marriage as a gift to humanity and there's a lot of theology as in what's what's the point of marriage and there's lots of different purposes it's a partner it's a.
Partner for Holy intimacy it's a partner for the rearing of children for the building of families for the building of societies there's a lot that goes into this and then all of a sudden when you get to chapter three this beautiful Harmony that they enjoy is disruptive when the enemy Satan the form of a serpent comes into the garden and lures and entices them into rejecting finding satisfaction in their God by satisfying themselves in lesser things and then all of a sudden sin comes into the world through sin through their Rebellion against.
God through their rejection of God through trusting the word of the enemy over God sin enters into the world but it also enters into their marriage and strife begins so much so that the very first actions really after this some of the very first things that are said Adam blames Eve he says it's her fault it's this one you put with me and you see Strife begin and that trickles down into the rest of humanity and affects marriages even into today.
But if you read the rest of the Scriptures just keep going through the Old Testament it you don't really see much more about marriage other than it's just a part of society it's a part of families it's just part of the building up of the nation of God it's just a it's just it's a building block but by the time that you get to the prophets in the Old Testament we start to see something that marriage is actually a picture it's actually pointing to something bigger than just the horizontal relationship between husband and wife.
When you get to Isaiah 54 verse 5 God who is consoling his people who are enduring and going to endure more trials and are going to suffer more in Isaiah 55 54:5 he says for your maker is your husband the Lord of hosts is his name and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer the God of the whole earth he is called and we get this picture here where it says your maker God is your husband that this Covenant relationship that.
God has with his people is like that of a husband the Lord and his wife his people and you get this picture of marriage that points to something bigger that this is God and his people in this Covenant relationship together so much so that it's got this the Lord of hosts is his name the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer it's this this language of he's the husband who defends and strengthens and upholds his wife it's picturesque I mean there.
If you've if you've been in marriage long enough you know at some point one of you is going to struggle and one of you is going to uh to be in a season where you're just not okay and in Christian marriage by the power of the Holy Spirit the spouse who is doing a little bit better gets to by not his or her own strength but the strength of the Lord uphold and help carry through their spouse through the other side of it and that's this picture here of.
God he's he's I'm your Redeemer I'm your husband I'm going to I'm going to be with you I'm going to help you get through this and we see that marriage is is bigger than just husband and wife and this theme continues in Isaiah 62:5 on the back part of verse 5 it says and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride so shall your God Rejoice over you you and we get another picture here that the Lord he says like a groom who rejoices over his bride like a new husband who's just excited about his bride.
And if you if you've been there you've seen this it's it's wonderful I mean to see a husband who's just excited to be married and he's excited about his his new wife I remember when I first got married uh back in the day on Facebook they had this uh uh in the About Me section they had these activities so in college I had all these activities I don't remember what they were but I'm sure they were profound um and I had all these activities.
And when I got married I deleted all of them I just put marriage cuz I was that excited I like I'm just I'm married in the whole first year of marriage all I can do is talk about and that's that's a that Zeal that Joy that's what the Lord has over his people right he loves his people he's zealous for his people he rejoices es over his people what a wonderful picture of our God that those who belong to him he rejoices over them he celebrates them he's excited about them and that's the picture that.
God has for his people this deep Fierce love that is profound and it is precisely why when his people reject God why the response is so intense and so fierce in judgment that when the people of God re reject their maker reject their Covenant husband reject God for lesser Idols you get passages like Ezekiel 16 you look through the chapter of Ezekiel 16 I'm just going to pick out a few parts of it but God is addressing how they've forsaken him.
For forign idols and in verse 8 it says when I passed by you again and saw you behold you were at the age of age for love and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you declares the Lord God and you became mine just look at that of just how how much God loves us how much God loves his people and he says I I covered you with the corn of my garment it's this deep love that.
God has for his people pitted against verse 15 and 16 what happens he says but you trusted in your beauty and played the because of your Renown and lavished your whings on any pass her by your beauty became his you took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines and on them played the the like has never been nor ever shall be and you get this picture of marriage which was this love story that turns into a tragedy because the people of.
God have worshiped Idols in the place of God and and what they were doing is is a lot of times you think oh just how silly it is to bow down to W an object it's like that actually they they didn't un they didn't look at this wood an object that's just that's what I'm bowing down to this was an object that represented the God of Baal who provides rain for the fields and fertility and I'm not getting what I want from.
God here so I'm going to run to this God instead I'm going to go to Ashera pole instead I'm going to go to these foreign Gods who can provide for me and God is saying you play the horror you've gone to other things you've reject that's the all the language we've seen in Revelation so far and this spiritual adultery it's from the prophets and it's this picture of a rejection of God by the time you get to the prophet of Hosea in Hosea chapter 1.
God raises up the prophet Hosea to literally be a living Parable and he tells them that you're going to marry a a promiscuous woman and she's going to you're going to have children you'll build a family and a life with this promiscuous woman and she's going to cheat on you and your life will be a living Parable for what the people of God have done to me in Hosea 1:2 it says when the Lord first spoke through Hosea the Lord said to Hosea go take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom.
For the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord and the life of Hosea is this picture of God who loves and pursues and yet the people reject and they run to idols and lesser things and then this continues all the way to Malachi chapter 2 at the very end of the Old Testament yeah that was not enough not enough when you get to chapter 2 verse 11 at the end of the Old Testament it says Judah has been faithless and an Abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem.
For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord which he loves and has married the daughter of a foreign God and the Old Testament closes with this theme of of marriage pointing to this bigger reality and it this marriage is in disrepair the people of God have not remained faithful no matter how much God loved them no matter how much God blessed them no matter how much God protected them over and over again they say no I want this instead of you no I'd rather have this way instead of your ways and there's this longing as the people continue to Rebel as they continue to cheat.
And if you ever seen or endured cheating or adultery it's bad enough it's painful enough in the act itself but it's so much worsened when the person says yeah you caught me but guess what I don't care I'm going to keep going with this person cuz I don't want you and that's what's happened the people of God keep rebelling they keep running to other things instead of God and there's this longing for the marriage to be fixed for something to happen.
And then a prophet in Nazareth begins to preach and that is when the restoration of This Love Story begins when Jesus begins his ministry the Pharisees criticize him and his followers for not fasting and Jesus responds but he uses a very some very specific language and in Mark 2:19 it says and Jesus said to them can the wedding guest fast while the bridegroom is with them and he uses very specific language because he calls himself the bridegroom he's the groom and he says can can they fast.
When I the groom are with them he's using the language that's been pulled throughout the Scriptures in the prophets to say the groom is here and he's coming for his bride and then John the Baptist who at this point realizes that his work is done John the Baptist speak speaking in John 3 says the one who has the bride is the bridegroom the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice therefore this Joy of mine is.
Now complete he must increase but I must decrease and John the Baptist ends his ministry by exalting Christ he's like I'm I'm the best man my job is here he is he's here the the the groom has come and I'm I'm taking a step back now and then Jesus continues this in some other Parables he teaches about this wedding Feast that is to come and he pictures this wedding Feast that's going to include not just uh the people of God that were the Jewish people.
But also the Nations and you get all of this language that gets pulled throughout the rest of the New Testament but then you get to Ephesians 5 which gives us really the fullest clearest picture of what this love story was all about now when you read Ephesians 5 a lot of attention is paid to uh the roles that God tells of husbands and wives where God tells the husband to love your wife as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up.
For her and a lot of times when we're teaching this like husbands you were to lay down your life like Christ did sacrificially for your wife it's the sacrificial love and then he looks at wives and he says wives submit to your husbands whe it's just this picture of your husband is meant to lead the home you're meant to follow him and we teach this that wives you should follow the lead of your husband this is the picture of the design of marriage and a lot of attention rightfully.
So gets paid to that but there's something bigger that's happening in Ephesians 5 by the time you get to the end of Ephesians 5 it's very clear in Ephesians 5: 31-32 at the end of this passage it says Paul referencing Genesis 2 says therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh so he quotes Genesis 2 and then he says this this mystery is profound and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the Church.
So marriage is about this one flesh partnership it is about holy intimacy and marriage it is about the raising of children it is a building block for families it is a building block for societies but that's not the biggest part that's not the main thing marriage was and is and is always pointing to something bigger the bigger love story of Christ Jesus and his bride the Church that's what marriage is and that is why I'd argue that for every Century throughout time marriage in every culture has been this joyous event whether the people know why or not there is a reason why weddings are.
So joyous it is because it points to the most beautiful relationship God and his people Jesus Christ and the Church that he claims I mean goodness you read you read Revelation 19 and it's this picture of Christ being united with his bride and this wedding and then literally what Chad's going to walk through next week he slays the dragon so he gets the girl and he slays the dragon that is the basis for every classic tale you know why because it's based on the biggest love story that has ever existed.
God and his Church that's what this was always about now now now that you know the backstory let's read this text again in Revelation Chapter 19 Verse 6 then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude like the Roar of many Waters and like the sound of many of Mighty peels of Thunder crying out Hallelujah there's this this unbelievable rejoicing like if you watched the the game last night the yeah woo yeah that stadium was shaking and that's got nothing compared to this.
When this thunder peels of Thunder crying out Hallelujah for the Lord Our God the Almighty Reigns let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory and we've seen this type of rejoicing so much in the Book of Revelation because judgment is coming but that's not what it's only about there's this rejoicing because finally ever since the longing in the garden it is going to be fixed Jesus Christ is going to wet his Church it says for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready like a bride who's done all the right steps who has been faithful to wait in and engagement and is.
Now clothed herself in the white linen cloths of Purity and is now ready to receive her groom the bride is ready to receive Jesus verse 8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen bright and pure for the fine linen is the righteous Deeds of the Saints and the picture here is twofold the righteousness is the is the picture here clothes the Church first by no work of Our Own It says it was granted to her and the good news of the Gospel is that though we don't deserve it.
Jesus Christ through faith in him bestows his righteousness upon us every good deed and perfect work of Christ is placed upon us I love what RC Sproul says he says Adam said don't blame me blame my wife the second Adam Jesus said don't blame my wife blame me that's the Gospel y'all that Jesus says don't blame the Church I will go to the cross I the sacrificial lamb will have my blood shed for her I will give her my righteousness no I'll take the blame.
So the first part of this is a God who comes for his bride and rescues her and prepares her with righteousness not of their own but the second part of this it says the fine Lin is the righteous Deeds of the Saints So within this when we believe the Gospel we live out the Gospel and we endure and the works that he's the the workmanship that he's created for us Ephesians 2 and we remain faithful in endurance and the these two come together in this beautiful wonderful picture as the bride of Christ has made herself ready.
Verse 9 and the angel said to me write this blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb and he said to me these are the true words of God blessed are those who invited oh the day that that's going to be listen I don't I don't know what this Feast is going to be like I'm acing dream about it I can picture it but the only thing I've got are are the best wedding experiences I piece together where it's like oh you had this beautiful ceremony you had this beautiful reception with this amount of food and and this and I I could piece all of these together and I'm like.
Oh man but none of those quite capture what is coming this eternal feast and celebration that happens like we can't quite imagine how it's going to be every wonderful picture of love love that we have here it's a pale comparison to what awaits us and it's this wonderful picture that John is losing his mind on so much so that in verse 10 it says then John says I fell down at his feet to worship him but he said to me you must not do that I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of.
Jesus the angel says no you you have misunderstood this this he says no worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of Prophecy so John loses his mind a little bit he gets corrected here but it's just this joyfill event the wedding between God and his people that will be eternally satisfying when the kingdom is finally consummated the people of God will get to behold God to be so known by him in the perfected state that awaits us and to know him that that intimate language of knowing and being known that's what that's what awaits the Church of.
Jesus Christ and that love is so overwhelming and it's so sad because so much of this life is stumbling around trying to find what we think is the purest form of love people are looking for I'm I'm just looking for the one meaning they've looking for uh this romantic uh person or I'm looking for the purest form of friendship or I'm so deeply wanting the affection of my children I want the affection of my superiors and we're looking for all these forms of love.
Jesus says it's me it's me I'm the one your soul needs I'm the one that ultimately completes you I'm the one that ultimately satisfies you it's me no person a friend no human can satisfy this longing and we just don't understand how we just we can't conceptualize how wonderful that love is DL Moody was a was a preacher in the 19th century in Chicago in the Great Fire of 1871 in Chicago that burnt down quite a bit of Chicago DL Moody's Church was burnt to the ground his home was burnt to the ground and most of his Church their homes were burnt to the ground.
So utterly devastated imagine that this place burning to the ground all your pastor's homes burning to the ground and most of your homes burning to the ground completely devastated and he was in this deep dark depression and suffering longing in the darkness and he said that in this day this this this this this time of prayer when he was immersed in prayer seeking the Lord the lord gave him a glimpse of this heavenly love that awaits us gave him just a a slice of this love that we're going to experience in Christ in eternity and he says I cannot describe it I seldom refer to it it is almost too sacred an experience to name.
He goes on to say I can only say that God revealed himself to me and I had such an experience of his love that I had to ask him to stay his hand and it's like he caught a glimpse of this unbelievably Purity that this pure form of love that was so satisfying and so overwhelming that he just said I had to ask him just to stop because he's not in the glorified state yet in our in our sinful State I just I I just can't quite take it yet and it's just we we don't understand what kind of love that is we don't understand what kind of intimacy that is we don't understand what.
Kind of Union that is but that's held out for us if we just endure in the engagement because that's where we're in right now we're in the period of Engagement and we have to endure and the problem for us is that we're not good at that that we will take the Lesser things now we're like the person that goes to the best concert like whatever that is for you the Aras tour Eagles in the 80s like what fill in the blank whatever that is.
Okay and you go to the concert that you're so excited about and all of a sudden the opening band comes out and they're just mediocre so like have you ever been to a concert where there's so mediocre that the people are talking louder than they're playing and it's just finish up but you look at that and you say I did it I finally saw the best there is and I'm going home and you pack up and you leave before the main event that's how foolish we are in this life to be.
So I mean CS Lewis was so right we are far too easily pleased to worship lesser things to put our hope and satisfaction in lesser things part of remembering the Gospel is remembering the end that there is a day coming where a final Feast awaits us and yes the engagement is long but the weight is worth it the weight is worth it faithfulness is worth it and on that day I promise you if you wait if you remain faithful you will not regret the road that it took to get there.
But we must endure brothers and sisters we must endure we make the aim of our entire lives to make it to that altar we make it the aim of our entire lives to make it to that feast and yes we are going to struggle everyone who has chosen to follow Christ and has struggled I'm telling you is going to be worth it those of you who have consistently uh denied those persistent fleshly Earthly desires within you and you've chosen to believe that.
Jesus is better over and over again I'm telling you the weight is worth it those of you that have chosen to not build kingdoms of sand here kingdoms of Earthly Pleasures here and comfort here but you have leveraged your life to build into the Eternal kingdom of God you have given yourself away your time your talents your money to see the Gospel go forward because you are investing in the great feast and the satisfaction that awaits you it will be worth it those of you that have risked your relational capital in your workplace or in your homes or in your neighborhoods or with your friends to share the Gospel and it's made you.
Look weird but you so desperately want to see those people in your lives at that wedding Feast I'm telling you it is going to be worth it those of you that have chosen obedience obedience down some of the most difficult paths that you would have never chosen personally but God said you are going down that road and you said by faith I will go it will have been worth it those of you that have chosen chosen to not settle for an Earthly marriage with someone who does not love.
Jesus and you are getting older and it may be singleness for the rest of your days but you have chosen to remain faithful because you know that you have a husband who is much better you have a savior that you will await that is much better and you will Faithfully endure putting all of your hope for intimacy all of your hope for completion all of your hope for longing in that day it will be worth the wait those of you that are enduring right.
Now in a season of marriage that is difficult and right now you want to head for the door but you endure by faith remaining faithful because you know that your ultimate hope is not in a marriage here but it is the marriage that is to come those of you that have chosen to endure hard to endure the hardships of sharing the Gospel to go where God has told you to go even when it's difficult those of you that endured every single trial this world has to throw at you.
But you've said I will believe that Jesus is better at every step of the way it will be worth it because that day is coming that day is coming and that Eternal wedding Feast awaits us so endure endure endure because one day we will behold him for who he is we will walk down the aisle and it will all have been worth it and one of the ways we remember that is by taking the Lord's Supper the van's going to come up and we take this meal regularly.
For a reason because it is meant to remind us of what Jesus did for us on the cross that on the night that Jesus was betrayed he took bread and he broke it and he said this is my body that was broken for you and he took the cup of the Covenant he said this is my blood that was shed for you that as long as you eat this you Proclaim my death which we remember what he did for us on the cross.
But it says until I return so the Lord's Supper is a meal of remembrance remembering both what Christ did on the cross for us that we did not deserve that he shed his blood for us so that we might secure the invitation to the wedding Feast that awaits us it is a meal of remembrance that looks back but also looks forward because it is a meal that points forward to the feast that awaits us so when you come to the table you're not just remembering the wonderful sacrifice of Christ.
But you remembering that faithfulness and endurance is worth it because that meal That Never Ends the day where I behold God in an intimacy that that I will never wrap my head around in this side of Eternity is worth it so it's a meal that strengthens you to endure you to fight to believe the Gospel and to endure so Christians come to the table joyfully remembering what this meal points to but if you are not a Christian if you not trusted in Christ as your only hope do not come to this table you need to run to Christ you need to believe that what he has.
For us is better than anything this world has to offer and humility right now you need to lay down your life Believe In Christ trust that his death will cover you so that one day you will Behold Him when you walk down the aisle but you must believe in him and my hope is that you would now let me pray Heavenly Father help us see how wonderful how powerful how beautiful the wedding Feast is that awaits us Lord help us by faith every day endure help us catch a glimpse oh.
Lord that we be be like DL Moody that we might catch a glimpse of your love that would be so overwhelming that we would have to ask you to stay your hand because it's just too much God we want that love to help us see that what awaits us is better so Lord reveal yourself in Jesus name amen.