11-15-20 Grace-Tucson Sermon

Revelation 19:1–9 [Saints Triumphant-End Times 3]

Pastor Ron Koehler

Grace—Tucson, AZ

November 15, 2020

Are You Ready for the Wedding?

In the name of our Savior Jesus, dear friends, There are all sorts of things that a person has to do to get ready for a wedding, aren’t there? There are preparations made by the bride and groom: Tell the pastor that you’re engaged and ask if he will do the wedding service. Reserve the church. Reserve the venue for the reception. Send out invitations. Try on dozens of wedding dresses and settle on the one that is “perfect.” For those who will be attending—RSVP for the blessed event. Buy a gift. Pick out nice clothes to wear. The pastor has a bunch of work to do too. Pre-marriage classes with the couple to go over what God says about a Christian marriage. Plan the service. Write a sermon. Make sure an accompanist is lined up. Prepare for the rehearsal. There’s often a lot that needs to happen to get ready for a wedding!

This morning through the vision given to John in Revelation, God tells us about a wedding. It’s the same one Jesus talked about in the parable from our Gospel lesson.

God pictures the joining of Jesus with all his saints—all believers—for eternity as a wedding. Jesus is the groom or bridegroom, and the group of all believers—the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints—as Christ’s bride.

This is a beautiful picture and one that God uses throughout the Bible. A couple things stand out about that. In the Old Testament, God often pictures his chosen people as his bride to whom he is already married. Maybe you recall this image in places where God had to point out to his people that although he had been like a faithful husband to them, they behaved like an unfaithful wife as they disobeyed his will and chased after false gods.

In the New Testament, God continues to use the image of husband and wife, but it is always in terms of a betrothal. A betrothal was like an engagement, only more binding.

It was taken quite seriously. It was really marriage, but without the living together as husband and wife until the actual wedding ceremony took place. So we find that in the New Testament Christ is pictured as the bridegroom and the Christian Church is his bride. They are promised to each other and the wedding, which is off in the future, will happen without a doubt. The wedding of Christ (the bridegroom), and all his saints (the bride), is the official joining of them for eternity in heaven.

The apostle John was shown a vision of that wedding. Actually, as we read John’s written record of that vision, we find ourselves there as the wedding is taking place.

Just as a wedding isn’t the only thing that happens on a particular day, so it is with the wedding of Christ and his Church. As the wedding is happening, “Alleluia!” is shouted by a great multitude in heaven. Why?

Because God has condemned the great prostitute. That sounds weird. But it fits the vision. This is how the group of people who rejected God and mistreated Christians and seduced the world’s people away from God are pictured. God has avenged his people by destroying her. This is an eternal, ongoing destruction in hell— “her smoke goes up forever and ever.” The divine judgment of God causes this immense crowd, this heavenly choir—the saints and angels—to erupt: Alleluia! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just. And then, “Alleluia! Her smoke goes up forever and ever.” And Then the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures bowed down and worshipped God, who sits on the throne, saying, “Amen! Alleluia!”

There is great rejoicing because the saints of God now see clearly, with sinless eyes and hearts, how God’s judgment is perfectly justified, and how he has fulfilled the promises he made to them as they endured persecution for their faith and the struggles of this world, always with the hope of heaven held out in front of them as the final relief from all that threatened them. Spontaneous praise and worship then fills heaven. It is further encouraged by a voice from the throne, an angel: “Praise our God, all you his servants and you who fear him, small and great.”

And they did! And I heard what seemed to be the roar of a large crowd or the roar of many waters or the sound of loud rumblings of thunder, saying: Alleluia! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory, because the wedding of the Lamb has come. His bride has made herself ready, and she was given bright, clean, fine linen to wear. (In fact, the fine linen is the “not guilty” verdicts pronounced on the saints.) The angel said to me, “Write: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.”

Did you hear what I heard? Those who are the saints of God, those who will be in heaven, were invited by God. AND the brilliant, spotless wedding clothes of the bride were given to her to wear. It is all God’s doing that they are there! The grace of God alone brings the saints to heaven!

Remember the betrothal I mentioned? In addition to the promise to marry, there was a betrothal price paid by the groom for the bride as he anticipated the eventual wedding service to be held at his own home. What an even more beautiful picture this wedding of the Lamb of God is when you consider the betrothal price Jesus paid in order to bring his bride, the Church, to himself and to make it possible to one day celebrate the wedding in his own home of heaven!

That price was his sinless life and his sacrificial death on the cross. When Jesus, the Lamb of God, was sacrificed for sinners, he accepted their guilty verdict from the Father and gave to them the “not guilty” verdict highlighted here. That “not guilty” verdict is pictured as the fine linen wedding garment given to his bride. This causes us to think of how God talks of us being “clothed with Christ,” and how we wear a “robe of righteousness.” Nothing less (and nothing more) than the work of Christ applied to the sinner prepares them to be joined with him in heaven!

Today in our worship, God’s Word, our prayers, our hymns, all direct us to consider our preparation for this wedding. Jesus wants us to be ready for that glorious day and the eternal life that it ushers in. As you listened to his parable about the wise and foolish virgins, you may have wondered which group you will be found in when Jesus returns with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God. Will you be ready?

What if I’m at a weak point in my faith? What if I’m actually sinning when the End comes? What if I haven’t lived exactly like God wants? What if I never got around to all the ways I thought I would put my skills and abilities to use in God’s church? What if my track record for worship and offerings and service to others is not impressive? What if, like the foolish virgins, I am not prepared and it is too late to do anything about it?

Will I, like they, miss the wedding? Will I not be invited? It is so awful to think about the possibility that I will be separated from God eternally! How terrible the thought that Jesus could say to us from behind the shut door of heaven, “I do not know you.” We can’t imagine anything worse because there is nothing worse.

We sometimes have these fears. We may have wondered from time to time whether we are good enough to go to heaven, to live with the holy God. We get very concerned as we think about our sins—not just how many things are wrong in the eyes of God, but how some of those things, we just can’t seem to stop—even though we try. How long will God put up with me if this is how I am? Will he see me like he saw his people over the centuries—like an unfaithful spouse? Will there be no wedding for me?

This is no way to live—with all this uncertainty and doubt and fear. It happens when we forget, or we just don’t know, what God says about those who are prepared for the wedding of heaven. God doesn’t want us to be afraid and uncertain. Words like those found here give us a certain hope, confidence that we are prepared. These are the ones I’m talking about: Alleluia! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory, because the wedding of the Lamb has come. His bride has made herself ready, and she was given bright, clean, fine linen to wear. (In fact, the fine linen is the “not guilty” verdicts pronounced on the saints.)

How has the bride—how have we—made ourselves ready for the wedding? Well, it is not something good we have done or something bad we have avoided, is it? It is actually something that was given to us. Pictured as bright, clean, fine linen to wear— beautiful wedding clothes—it is the “not guilty” verdict pronounced upon us. It is the very thing that makes us saints (“holy ones”).

This takes us again to Jesus, the Bridegroom. His conception and birth were immaculate, his life pristine in the eyes of his Father, his death like an innocent lamb slaughtered to atone for the guilt of others, his resurrection from death a victory proclamation with a promise that all who trust in him will also rise to life in heaven. God the Father declared the sinners of the world “not guilty” because of all that Jesus did.

We can’t earn a “not guilty” verdict from the righteous God; it can only be pronounced and applied to us by God’s grace. And that God has done for you! There is no reason to doubt at all whether you are part of the bride of Christ, because it is not up in the air and it’s not dependent on you having only pure thoughts and perfect behavior. You are prepared for the wedding! You can be confident about it because God sent his Son to pay for all your sins, and he sent his Spirit to give you faith to trust in him. By faith, you are wearing the wedding clothes that make you ready for heaven!

Those who trust in Jesus know that he paid the price to make them his bride, and that he is coming for them in order to take them to the wedding at his home in heaven, where they will live together perfectly forever. How true and how comforting are the words of the angel: “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!”

Are You Ready for the Wedding? There is no doubt that all who trust not in themselves and what they have done, but instead trust only in what Jesus has done for them, are ready. Let there be no doubt in your mind, no hesitation in your voice, as you answer the question, “Yes, I am ready—because Jesus has declared me innocent and holy—a “saint” who has been invited by the grace of God.” Amen.

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

After these things I heard what seemed to be the loud sound of an immense crowd in heaven, saying: Alleluia! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, 2 for his judgments are true and just, because he has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and he has avenged his servants’ blood that was shed by her hand. 3 A second time they said, “Alleluia! Her smoke goes up forever and ever.” 4 Then the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures bowed down and worshipped God, who sits on the throne, saying, “Amen! Alleluia!” 5 And from the throne came a voice that said, “Praise our God, all you his servants and you who fear him, small and great.”

6 And

I heard what seemed to be the roar of a large crowd or the roar of many waters or the sound of loud rumblings of thunder, saying: Alleluia! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory, because the wedding of the Lamb has come. His bride has made herself ready, 8 and she was given bright, clean, fine linen to wear.

(In fact, the fine linen is the “not guilty” verdicts pronounced on the saints.) 9 The angel said to me, “Write: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.” He also said to me, “These are the true words of God.”