Sermon Tone Analysis

Translation

After these things I heard something like a the loud sound of a great crowd in heaven saying, “Hallelujah!

Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God, because His judgments are true and just!

For He has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her prostituting.

He has vindicated the blood of his servants from her hand.”

They spoke again, “Hallelujah!

Her smoke rises for ever and ever!”

The twenty-four elders and the four creatures fell down and worshipped God who is seated on the throne, saying, “Amen!

Hallelujah!”

A voice came out from the throne and said, “Praise our God!

All his servants, those who fear him, the small and the great!”

I heard something like the sound of a great crowd, like the sound of rushing water, like the sound of mighty thunder saying, “Hallelujah!

For the Lord God Almighty reigns.

Rejoice and be glad, and glorify him!

For the wedding of the little lamb has come, and the bride has prepared herself.

She has been allowed to clothe herself with pure and bright fine linen, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

He said to me, “Write: Blessed are those invited to the wedding feast of the little lamb.”

Then he said to me, “These are true words of God.”

I fell down before his feet and worshipped him.

But he said to me, “Stop it!

I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who have the testimony of Jesus.

Worship God.

For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

What’s It All For?

Revelation has been full of:

Spiritual Warfare

Human Warfare

Judgement

Why?

It all leads to this Wedding Feast

God’s Judgement is not arbitrary.

By that we mean that God’s judgement is just

But we also mean that he judges for a purpose

What is Unholy cannot remain with the Holy

But God has always desired to be with us

The Consummation

Not just Revelation, but all human history is aimed toward the consummation of Heaven and Earth, the Wedding of the Little Lamb

Incarnation: Supra-lapsarian?

Yes!

All scripture points toward the joining together of God and Man

Fall -> Abraham

Moses and Tabernacle

Prophets and marriage theme

Is 62:3-5

You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD,

and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken,

and your land shall no more be termed Desolate;

but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her,

and your land Married;

for the LORD delights in you,

and your land shall be married.

5 For as a young man marries a young woman,

so shall your builder marry you,

and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,

so shall your God rejoice over you.

From Moses’s Tabernacle to Christ as Tabernacle; John 1:14

Καὶ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν

Crucifixion

For forgiveness of sins?

Yes!

But only so that we may be brought close to God.

In other words, the forgiveness of sins is not the end goal!

Ascension

For the first time humanity, in Christ, is brought into Heaven

The Church

Body and Bride of Christ

Preparation: In Deed

While we await the wedding banquet and marriage of the Little Lamb and his Church, however, we must prepare ourselves as a bride

“For the wedding of the little lamb has come, and the bride has prepared herself.

She has been allowed to clothe herself with pure and bright fine linen, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.”

Colossians 3:17

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Our holy living is a right response to the good things God has done and is preparing for us

This whole passage is a liturgy of praise to God for the defeat of evil and the future promise

Likewise, we give glory to God as we remember the ways we’ve already witnessed his justice, the ways we anticipate his justice.

For the love we have recieved from Christ as well as the love still in store for us, His Church

As the Bride of Christ, we are to adorn ourselves with Good deeds

Every time we serve the poor, feed the hungry, etc., We are making ourselves beautiful to Christ.

This is the Holy Spirit washing away the grit, grime, and dirt of this world, bathing and perfuming us for the Wedding Day

Preparation: In The Word

Good deeds, however, must go hand in hand with a sound grasp on the Word Himself

John reminds us that we do not worship the angels, but only God.

The word John has recieved is the Testimony of Jesus, which is the “spirit of prophecy”

In other words, by the Holy Spirit we are given the power to cling onto the gospel, and thus to remain faithful to our groom

All of Revelation is, in essence, a warning against receiving the wrong Savior, accepting a false Christ, and thus a warning against chasing after the wrong groom!

2 Cor 11:2-4

2 I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by its cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you submit to it readily enough.

Preparation: A Word from Ephesians