Sermon 3/19/22

Revelation 19 The 2 suppers

Verses 1-10 Wedding supper of the Lamb.

This section is like an interlude between the judgment of Babylon...

… (part 2; part1 in notebook)

This salvation is made possible only after the persecuting enemy power has been removed and God’s ppl have come out of Babylon.

2nd reason - in punishing Babylon, God has avenged the blood of His servants from her hand. This implies legal action: God has judged Babylon in avenging the blood of His servant. This end-time apostate religious power is found responsible for oppressing God’s faithful ppl n shedding their blood. The ones rejoicing are those who call out in Rev. 6:9-11

“How long, O Lord, holy and true, will you not judge and avenge our blood upon those who dwell on the earth?” Their rejoicing shows a sense of relief after the deliverance in the final crisis. The saved shout a 2nd Hallelujah because Babylon’s smoke ascends forever and ever. It’s another way of saying Babylon will never again rise from her ruins just like Edom of old never did as said in Is. 34. “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will you not judge and avenge our blood upon those who dwell on the earth?”

the rejoicing multitude is joined by the 24 elders and 4 Living Beings. As mentioned b4, the 24 elders r most likely glorified saints. In heaven, they are a symbolic representation of the redeemed and faithful ppl of God.

the 4 Living Beings r provably an exalted angelic order involved in service to God and leadin the heavenly hosts in worship and praise. In Rev. 4: 6 on to the end describing the throne room up in Heaven: ^ Rd “in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. 7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second creature like a calf, the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. 8 And the 4 living creatures, each one of them having 6 wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night 1they do not cease to say, “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY IS THE fLORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, who was and who is and who is to come.” 9   And when the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to bHim who lives forever and ever, 10 the 24 elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and they will worship dHim who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11    “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they 1existed, and were created.”

These guys were 1st mentioned by Ezekiel in Ch. 1 of his book, which is where the Apostle got his vision of them.

In contrast to most of the ppl of earth who turned their backs on God, but here we see the representation of both heaven and earth in givin praise to God for his mighty works of deliverance n judgement.

Then an invitation from God’s throne calls upon the servants of God saying, “Praise our God all His servants, those who fear Him, small and gr8. This is the fulfillment of what was announced with the 7th trumpet in regard to the givin of the reward to the saints who fear God’s name, “The small and the great ones” as mentioned in Rev. 11:8. That phrase is borrowed from Ps. 115:13 “he will bless those who fear the Lord, both the small and the great.” This is refering to faithful believers from very socio-economic level.

Then the praising reaches to its highest point with a new exclamation of hallelujah!” but this time not because of the destruction of Babylon, but bcuz “our Lord God the Almighty began to reign. This is the development of the announcement made with the 7th trumpet in Rev. 11:17 “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.”

Then it goes on to the rejoicing at the wedding of the Lamb. This is the much awaited union o Christ with his bride - the church - at the 2nd coming is expressed in terms of the wedding of the Lamb. This union is in contrast to the illegal relationship between the prostitute Babylon n her lovers as shown in the previous chapters. The expression “rejoice and be glad” is found only in one other place in the NT, when Jesus was giving His sermon on the Mount he said, “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for ain this same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” in Matt. 5:12.

The Lamb’s bride is consisted of those who took on the call to come out of Babylon and not be partakers in Babylon’s sins. They have kept themselves undefiled from the adulteration and impurity of Babylon and suffered because of that. Now they are partakers of the Lamb’s weddin supper. The weddin supper doesn’t happen here, it’s only announced. There’s a supper in verse 17-19, but not a weddin supper. The church is in preparation for this weddin, rather than waiting. In these verses we have an allusion to the ancient weddin practices of Jews. These verses we read as they are, but for John and his audience 2k years ago, were very familiar with those weddin practices, but not so for us, unless if we research the background.

In the Jewish wedding, the groom with his parents paid a visit the parents of the girl, the wedding was a family business. Then the young man would explain to the parents of the girl and would say, “I am fond of your daughter, nd I would like to marry her.” the 1st thing the father would ask, “How much do you offer?” Then the negotiations started, then the dowry was set. And the dowry was paid followed with a celebration, with feasting and singing. At the end of the engagement party, the young man would tell them “I’m going back to my father’s house and prepare a place where me and my bride will live, and we wll come back and the wedding will take place.” These preparations are familiar to us from other places in the Bible. It’s in John’s other book, his Gospel, and he was the only one to mention this in his Gospel what Jesus said in John 14:1-3. ---> Rd. Now in Rev. the same person, John tells us, the time has come for His promise is to be fulfulled. It was 2k years ago, Jesus died on the Cross, where He paid the dowry for His girl, his wife the church. Then after the cross, He went up to heaven with the promise to prepare the place, where he and his bride will live together. Now here in Rev, John is teling us, the place is prepared. The bridegroom was preping the place, the bride, she has to prep everything, with her own hand for the wedding, meaning she didn’t order from Amazon.com.

The wedding will happen at the 2nd coming. Paul speaks of Christ’s live for His church in Eph 5:27 ->Rd. then John wrote in 1 John 3:3 -> rd. Here is where the apostle announces that the church has now prepped herself and is ready for the wedding. The moment has finally arrived for Christ, the bridegroom, to leave His Father’s house and to come down to the earth to join His beloved bride, the church, and take her to the place prepped for her.

There are a few wedding metaphors in the Bible. Mark 2:19 Jesus used wedding in regard to His relationship with His disciples; The wedding supper parable in Matt. 22:1-14, also the wedding of the king’s son. Matt. 25:1-13 is of the 10 virgins who are waiting for the groom to come at night. in 2 Cor. 11:2 Paul speaks of himself as betrothing the church like a pure virgin to Christ.

The bride’s preparation is described in terms of arraying herself in fine linen, bright n clean. Daniel prophesied of the time of the end in 12:10 ->rd. in ESV. Bright indicates a radiant whiteness which denotes glorification we’ll see in Matt 13:43 - rd. and clean reflects the church in all her purity, loyalty and faithfulness. Fine linen is mentioned several times in Rev. In this txt it is especially significant in that it represents the righteous deeds of the saints.

Righteous deeds are the natural and inevitable result of a righteous character poduced by a victorious Christian life developed by the grace of the indwelling Christ. We’ll see in Gal. 2:20.

The bride’s linen dress stands in sharp contrast to the purple and scarlet clothing and lavish adornment of the gr8 harlot Babylon. Both the church and Babylon are clothed in their deeds and character; while the church’s robe symbolizes righteous deeds and Christ-like character, Babylon’s robe symbolizes unrighteous deeds and Satan-like character.

The bride did not make her own robe, but it was given by Jesus as a gift. There are other places in Rev we have read about white robes. 1st, when Jesus invited the Christians in Laodicea to buy from him white garments. What did they use to buy? it was the cost of total commitment, so as to clothe themselves and cover the shame of their nakedness. This is from Ch. 3:18. The slain martyrs underneath the altar at the 5th seal were given white garments as a token of their obedience to God, Rev. 6:11. in Ch. 7:9-14, the white garments were made clean by being washed in the blood of the Lamb. That is why they shout “Salvation to our God sitting on the throne and to the Lamb.” Rev. 7:10.

In 19:7, the redeemed are called to give glory to Him, showing their redemption is entirely the result of what Christ has done for them, rather that what they achieved for themselves. John got this allusion from Is. 61:10 - rd.

Where it says, “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb - this is the 4th of 7 beatitudes, or blessings in Rev. It brings to mind Luke 14:15 -rd. Jesus spoke of many coming fr the east and west, and sitting at “the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven” Matt. 8:11. This joyous banquet expresses the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to His disciples at the last supper in Matt. 26:29 - rd. John was instructed to write this blessing to remind God’s ppl that even though they might be experiencing hardship and suffering, they are blessed because of the call to the wedding supper of the Lamb. To assure John and readers of Rev. the angel adds the statement, “These are the true words of God”. The call to the wedding supper is “the unfailing word of God”.

Herman Hoeksema has said, the figure of the bride is the unified church as a whole, in her marriage with Christ, while the gusts are the members of the church who individually responded to the invitation to the feast which the Father has prepared for His Son.

John fell at angel’s feet to worship him, but he warned him not to do that, reminding him that he is not divine saying, “I am a fellow servant of you and your brothers who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God!” This is what Jesus made clear in the desert when He was tempted by Satan in Matt. 4:10 - rd. No matter how important a person and his message may be, he is not to be worshiped. Only God.

THen the angel says, that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. This is the only time this is used in the NT. Jewish and early Christian literature, not found in the Bible used this regularly otherwise. The expression “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” must be understood as the testimony that Jesus either bore in his own life and ministry, or thru those who have the spirit of prophecy, just as he did thru the prophets in ancient times.

Richard Bauckham puts it this way, “the Spirit who speaks through the prophets. Eph 3:2-6 tells us the prophets are the agents of God’s revelation. their role is to “unpack the mysteries about Jesus Christ, about His life and death, His resurrection, His work in heaven, and His return to the earth. John here claims to be one of the prophets, he received a special revelation fr. God. John does not consider himself to be the last as prophet, but he indicates the prophetic ministry will continue in the church after the 1st century throughout the Christian Age. In the end, the church will once more be in possession of the prophetic ministry as was in the time of John.