Hallelujah!

Revelation 19:6–10 ESV

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 peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult 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 are 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 to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Revelation 19:

Introduction

All good things must come to an end. And so today for the Church, the year ends. Christ the King Sunday. As we have heard over the past two weeks, the end of the Church year is a stark reminder that our lives, this world, the entire creation of God will come to an end marked by judgment, and complete and total destruction. But even in the midst of the cataclysm that falls upon the world and the unbelievers, God has set you aside as His very own. You are the bride of the Lamb and you will live in wedded bliss with Him eternally at a wedding feast that earth could not imagine. Today we focus on the reign of Jesus both here on earth now, and in heaven forever.

Jesus is King. He always has been. By Him the world and everything in it, including you and me, have been made. His reign over this world began at the very beginning of Creation and it will never end. If you want to see what His reign was supposed to be like, look at Eden. Everything was perfect. God said so Himself, “behold it was very good.” Adam and Eve lived in a personal fellowship with God, unknown to anyone else who would ever live. He walked in the Garden. He conversed with them directly. Adam and Eve were one with each other, one with the animals, one with all of creation. And Jesus was king. He ruled over this wonderful creation that God the Father fashioned into being.

But something happened. Something went terribly awry. Not by God, but by the two made in His own image. They broke fellowship with God, with one another, and with creation by disobeying God, and through it, God’s Kingdom was destroyed and cursed. As Paul reminds us that sin came into the world, and death through sin. There was no death before Adam and Eve brought it into this world and you and I, through our sin, have kept “death” “alive and well”. Because of their disobedience and our sin, we all have a date with it. Some sooner than later. Never knowing when it will come to claim us. But one thing is certain, life now is a terminal illness. You will die.

So where are you now, King Jesus? Some king you are! Why is there suffering in the world when you could do something about it? Maybe you can’t! Why did my child die? Why are there school shootings? Why did my best friend kill himself? Why are so many people dying from overdoses? Why is there evil in the world? Why, why, why? If you’re still king, you aren’t doing a very good job of it… Most people don’t believe that Jesus is the King because evil clouds their vision, and hurt causes them to grovel into the dirt. If that’s the kind of “king’ you are we don’t want anything to do with you.

Yet this day pronounces to us that Christ is the King. No apologies. No explanation. And the reason He announces this throughout the Scriptures? To give you hope. To lift your eyes above what sin has destroyed and show you that the suffering in the world and in your very lives is not the sign that Jesus is impotent, forgotten his promise, or has abandoned us, but a reminder that He is coming again.

Remember what Peter says:

2 Peter 3:

2 Peter 3:3–13 ESV

knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

The reason the world- with all of its suffering goes on is because God is merciful. He wants all to be saved. All to come to the knowledge of the truth. Yes, some will continue to reject Him and will reject Him eternally and suffer the consequences of that. But there are those out there who have not yet believe who will believe as the Church proclaims the Gospel and God loves them so much that He does not want them to be lost. There is urgency in evangelism, beloved.

Our text lifts our eyes:

God Reigns

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 peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.

This is a wonderful section of the Revelation which, coincidentally, we are studying today in our class. It is the text upon which G.F. Handel and Charles Jennens wrote the Hallelujah Chorus in the Oratorio, Messiah. And why is it that the voice of the multitude in heaven cry out “Hallelujah?” Because the LORD GOD REIGNS.

In this particular text, God has executed judgment upon the false prophet that leads His Christians away into being apostate. To create a Christianity based upon their own understanding, not what God has said. Those who call evil good and good evil, but do so under the guise of the Church. She— this false prophet— is eternally destroyed and her smoke rises forever and ever before the Saints. They cry out “Hallelujah” because God has triumphed. In His trampling out her death and sin, He shows that He alone is Almighty and All powerful. He is called “pontacrator” an attribute that only God has. His might against her evil shows His righteous right arm. And in this chapter, He is about to destroy the first beast, that is, the antichrist, who did all in its power to bring down the Church but failed. Gone. And in the next chapter, He goes after the ancient dragon himself and casts him into the eternal lake of fire. That’s the prophecy, and that’s what’s going to happen.

Married

The Lamb’s gracious reign over the human race was interrupted by humanities sin of rebellion. But this text assures us that Gould would win back mankind and again exercise His reign of grace and love and thus take back His Kingdom.

Our text continues:

Let us rejoice and exult 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.

During the time of the Old Testament, marriage had two components. First, there was the betrothal. And then there was the wedding.

The betrothal is nothing like our engagement where a man and woman become attracted to each other, begin to court, fall in love, get engaged and then married.

A betrothal happened often at birth, though sometimes later on in life.

The father of a groom would approach the father of the bride. They would make a contractual arrangement between themselves that the man would become the husband of the other father’s daughter. The father of the groom would pay a dowry, or an amount of money, to assist the father of the bride in readying his daughter for the day that she would be married. This was a legal contract made before the members of the Synagogue. To break an engagement required a divorce, and that could have really ugly consequences particularly for the bride to be.

Upon the betrothal of the woman, her mother and sisters, and other women in the community would immediately begin making a beautiful wedding garment for her— years before the marriage. The betrothed woman would then wear a portion of this wedding garment throughout her life that would, in effect, say to other men, “don’t touch me, I belong to him.”

Finally, the day of the wedding would arrive. The marriage took place when the groom carried the bride over the threshold of their new home and physically consummated the marriage with her.

The marriage feast would always take place at the father of the groom’s house. He would provide wedding garments for all who would attend. Both the Old Testament and the Apocrypha record for us that these feasts could go on for 2 weeks!

Now, the reason I tell you this is that you must understand how a Hebrew marriage works to see the wonders of our God.

God has betrothed you to Himself in Baptism. He has set you aside to be the Bride of His Son, Jesus. The Church is the Bride of Christ.

God then pays the dowry to prepare you for marriage. He offers up His Son into death on the Cross, making you holy.

And now you wear the wedding gown, the robe of righteousness, shown forth in your righteous works so that the devil, the world, and your sinful flesh can hear, “don’t touch me, I belong to Him!”

This King is coming back to claim His bride. You and me, and all believers in Christ. He will pick us up with His nail-pierced hands and carry us over the threshold into our heavenly home where this Marriage will be consummated, and the rejoicing will go on forever and ever.

The Reign of the King

Jesus’ reign over the world has not ended. Sin has obscured what we see. Sin has ruined our hearts so that we cast blame and hate. But remember the problem is with us, with our perception. It is not the reality that Jesus reigns.

He reigns in three places. We learn in Confirmation that He is the King of Power- that is, He rules over this world now. He allows things to happen to us that have come as a result of our sin and fallenness, but that doesn’t mean He has abandoned us or is impotent. He uses these things to break us so that He, not I, become all in all.

He reigns in the Church- we call that the Kingdom of Grace. Here He is. And what does He do in this? Makes us ready to meet Him. He forgives our sins. Declared in Absolution, proclaimed in the Gospel, eaten in Holy Communion, and sealed with the Benediction. Right here is the medicine of immortality.

And He reigns in Heaven, in the Kingdom of Glory, as we see in this very text today.

When Jesus came to claim us as His own, His reign between heaven and earth was not on a throne, but on a cross. God has reigned from a Tree. And that has restored us to His Kingdom.

Glorious Hope

Remember when Peter was called by Jesus to walk on the water? Remarkably, he did it! That is, until he took His eyes off of Jesus. The second that happened he sank. Fix your eyes on Jesus who is Your King, Who is reigning at the right hand of God, interceding and paracleting for us. The waves of the suffering of this life are all around. If you look at them they will overtake you and you will die eternally. They deceive you into thinking you have no King but Caesar. But you have a King. Living high above the Heavens for the sake of your salvation, who is preparing not just a feast but a mansion for you. Fix your eyes on Him.

Hallelujah!