A Chorus of Hallelujahs

Cameron Townsend, the founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators stated: Many people quench the Spirit by being down in the mouth rather than rejoicing, by planning rather than praying, by murmuring rather than giving thanks, and by worrying instead of trusting in Him Who is faithful.

Our attitude tells a lot about whom we are. Our attitudes also tell a great deal about the One to Whom we belong.

Of all people in this world, it seems to me that the following should be true:

We who belong to Jesus Christ should be a rejoicing people.

Rejoice in the Victory.

Revelation 19:1–5 (NASB95)

After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God; because His judgments are true and righteous; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and He has avenged the blood of His bond-servants on her.” And a second time they said, “Hallelujah! Her smoke rises up forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” And a voice came from the throne, saying, “Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.”

After these things—we’ve seen this phrase several times in Revelation. This is an indicator that a new vision is taking place. What we’re looking at today and next time takes place after Babylon is destroyed and just prior to Christ’s coming to set up the 1000-year reign, or the millennial Kingdom.

I love the descriptiveness of John as he allows us to listen in on his vision. There is a roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting. It is as if one is sitting in a stadium and the home team makes a touchdown in a come-from-behind victory. The whole stadium erupts with a roar of shouting. One can barely hear the person next to them as both are shouting at the top of their lungs. That is the sound that I believe John wants us to have echoed in our ears as we go into chapter 19.

What are they shouting? Look at Revelation 19.1-2 “After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God; because His judgments are true and righteous; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and He has avenged the blood of His bond-servants on her.””

This is a shout of victory. It is the noise of One Who has conquered to the point where justice finally prevails. This is a shout that is recognizing that all the wrongs have finally been righted. Even Paul speaks to this in 2 Thessalonians 1.6-8 “For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”

There is also a shout about the destruction of the false religious system as seen in Rev. 19.3: “And a second time they said, “Hallelujah! Her smoke rises up forever and ever.”” Satan’s lies which have seemingly ruled the world, has come to a permanent end.

Then we notice that the 24 elders and four living creatures fall down and worship God. Their cry is one which recognizes that there is a sense of finality as they give praise and adoration to God.

Then the scene changes a bit in Revelation 19.5: “And a voice came from the throne, saying, “Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.”” A voice from the throne gives orders for everyone to give praise to God. All of God’s servants join in to praise Him. The beauty is that it doesn’t matter what your social or economic states may have been. You see, if we belong to Jesus Christ, we cannot help but praise Him.

Yet, even today, we may sometimes wonder how we can rejoice with all of the negative that we see and oftentimes experience. It would definitely be much easier to rejoice when we are personally experiencing victory taking place. Let me give you some Bible perspective that may help; 2 Corinthians 4.18: “while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

I was reminded of a story I read several years ago of a football game in October 1982, in Madison, Wisconsin. More than 60,000 University of Wisconsin fans watched their team play the Michigan State Spartans.

Michigan State was definitely the better team and the score became quite lopsided against the University of Wisconsin. The odd thing was that the fans would burst into applause and shout cheers every now and then. It didn’t make any sense.

What was happening at the same time was another event was taking place 70 miles away. The Milwaukee Brewers were beating the St. Louis Cardinals in the third game of the 1982 World Series. Many University of Wisconsin fans were listening to that game on their portable radios. Their cheers and applause were related to a game somewhere else, not what they were immediately seeing.

My point is that we can rejoice even when we do not immediately see the victory. The reality is that one day there will be the ultimate victory that we will experience. So we can rejoice in that victory even now.

Rejoice in the Victory Supper.

Revelation 19:6–10 (NASB95)

Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ ” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.” Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

We see a response to the voice from the throne in Revelation 19.6: “Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.” We’re not certain as to whom these people might be. Since they are a different group than the heavenly group, or the angelic group, we can assume the voices belong to all who belong to Jesus Christ.

Again, John compares the sound to a roar of rushing waters and loud peals of thunder. The great multitude is shouting praise and adoration to God. But why? For one thing, there is a recognition of the absoluteness and totality of God’s rule. That is certainly reason to rejoice and be glad.

Another reason is that the wedding of the Lamb has come and His bride (the church) has made herself ready.

Let’s take a side trail and understand a little bit more about the three stages of marriage as understood by everyone during John’s time. They are betrothal, presentation, and celebration.

Betrothal, or engagement, is that time when the man promises to the father of the bride his undying, absolute commitment to his future bride. There is a great deal of preparation that then takes place. The groom is busy, preparing a place for his bride, so that when he is ready to bring her home, there is a marvelous place designed just for them. This is spoken of in more detail in John 14.3: ““If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” Some have described this betrothal as beginning before time existed for the church. The Holy Spirit has sprinkled prophecies of this throughout the Old Testament.

The next stage is that of final preparation and presentation. This is the final stages leading up to the ceremony. There are lots of festive activities that could take a week or more, depending on the bride and groom’s family’s finances. We see this described in Revelation 19:7. Our culture has various parties and showers leading up to the awaited event. After this is completed, the groom and his friends would go to the bride’s house and get her and her bridesmaids and proceed to the ceremony and celebration.

That leads us to the final element; that of the ceremony and celebration. This is seen in verse 9. And what a celebration that will be! There is much that takes place during the ceremony showing the God-ordained plan for marriage and the joy and beauty that results from this. There was never a thought given to the idea that marriage was anything less than permanent. The reason is that God’s plan for marriage was permanence. If we can grasp that understanding, then it becomes much more clear why there was such an incredible time of rejoicing when a couple got married in the Jewish tradition. This also helps us in understanding that when the church is with Christ, there will be a wedding supper such as has never been experienced.

There is an interesting phrase in Revelation 19.8, “It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” You and I understand that Christ has given our righteousness to us. Yet, the last part of verse eight describes the fine linen as representing the righteous act of the saints. Just prior, John states that the fine linen was given to the bride to wear. It makes absolute sense when thinking of a couple of other portions of the New Testament. James tells us that we can prove our faith by our deeds. But that faith comes from God. If we don’t have deeds, then there is no tangible evidence of any faith we may claim to have received.

Here on earth, our righteousness is imputed to us by Christ. In heaven, we shall be completely righteous. This is fulfilled by what John says in I John 3.2: “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”

Look also at Ephesians 2.10: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Even in the book of Revelation, John reminds his readers that if we truly belong to Jesus Christ, it will be observable and noticeable by what we do.

We should also find it fascinating to contrast the difference between the bride and the bride groom, with that of the beast and the prostitute and their followers. The prostitute wore purple and scarlet clothing. It was rich looking, but completely unacceptable for the great wedding. The bride will wear white linen. Scholars state that this was an expensive cloth, worn by priests and by royalty. The description of it shows the purity and glory that belong to the church because of Jesus Christ.

The angel speaks to John about the incredible blessing it is to be invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb. This would not be referring to the Church, for who invites the bride to her and the bridegroom’s supper?Who might this be? Those who are invited would most likely be those who are not part of the church, which began in Acts. Most likely, this would be Old Testament believers. It could also include the Tribulation believers.

This is going to be a major event, based upon what we know of the traditional Jewish wedding supper. The wedding supper was not just a little sit-down meal. The wedding supper began on the wedding day, toward the end of the day. It actually lasted for several days.‌ We don’t know exactly the time frame for the real wedding supper. However, there will be some things which we know for certain. Sadness and sorrow were never on the menu. It was to be a time of great joy and celebration.

The impact of this vision; of what it means to be a child of God; to be part of those invited to the Lamb’s wedding supper; will be so overpowering and overwhelming, that John actually fell at the angel’s feet and began to worship the angel. Obviously, the angel immediately rebuked John, reminding him that God alone is to be worshiped. What a reminder to us, even in this time and place. Idolatry, even angel worship can be very easy to fall into doing. However, it is never acceptable. In addition, the entirety of Scripture and everyone who proclaims God’s Word, must be based on the testimony of Jesus.

Conclusion

Remember the theme I presented towards the beginning of the message?

We who belong to Jesus Christ should be a rejoicing people.

My friends, when Christ promised that He came to give life and give it abundantly, we can believe it. The Bible states that we can have joy overflowing. This is where we can begin to have an impact upon others.

I read a story which illustrates what I’m describing. A university professor tells of being invited to speak at a military base one December and there meeting an unforgettable soldier named Ralph. They had sent Ralph to meet him at the airport, and after they had introduced themselves, they headed toward the baggage claim.

As they walked down the concourse, Ralph kept disappearing. Once, to help an old woman whose suitcase had fallen open. Once, to lift two toddlers up to where they could see Santa Claus. Again, to give direction to someone who was lost. Each time he came back with a big smile on his face.

“Where did you learn to do that,”? the professor asked.

“Do what”? Ralph said.

“Where did you learn to live like that”?

“Oh,” Ralph said, “during the war, I guess.” Then he told the professor about his tour of duty in Viet Nam, about how it was his job to clear mine fields, and how he watched his friends blow up before his eyes, one after another.

“I learned to live between steps,” he said. “I never knew whether the next one would be my last, so I learned to get everything I could out of the moment between when I picked up my foot and when I put it down again. Every step I took was a whole new world, and I guess I’ve just been that way ever since.”

My friend, that should be the picture of all of us who belong to Jesus Christ. When we realize that all that we are doing on this earth is in preparation for that day when Jesus receives us as His bride, we will have reason to rejoice. A rejoicing person is a person who doesn’t dwell on the past nor worry about the future. A rejoicing person blesses and serves others while it is still day.