7/28/13 Revelation 19:6-9 A Wedding Party

Revelation: The Present Future

Week 3: A Wedding Party

July 28, 2013

• How many of you have been to a wedding?
• Do you like weddings?  Are they fun, boring, or a little of both?
• Have you ever been to a wedding where someone really goofed up or something completely unexpected happened?  Tell us about the experience.

Here is a  video with some memorable mistakes and bloopers from weddings: youtube.com/watch?v=lW_smAFm_LA

Our thoughts on weddings are no doubt influenced by the weddings we’ve attended—or blooper videos we’ve watched.  Weddings can be short and simple, or long and elaborate. But almost every wedding centers on celebration.  Today’s lesson focuses on this kind of amazing, memorable, joyful celebration—except that this celebration will surpass any we can ever imagine here on earth.

Read Revelation 19:6-9 (nlt)

⁶Then I heard again what sounded like the shout of a vast crowd or the roar of mighty ocean waves or the crash of loud thunder:

“Praise the Lord! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. ⁷Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honor to him.  For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself.  ⁸She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.” For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people.

⁹And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.”  And he added, “These are true words that come from God.”

In this passage, we reach a place in John’s account where God has defeated His enemies. There is great happiness in heaven.  The church has been gathered and is now presented to Christ as a pure, spotless bride.  The wedding feast of the Lamb is about to commence.

The wedding imagery might seem odd for us modern-day readers.  But for the first century Jewish community, and those non-Jews familiar with its customs, this would have been an image they immediately recognized.  The wedding feast was an elaborate, multi-day celebration, a joyous occasion.  Moreover, it was a common image used to describe or talk about the kingdom of God.  In the Old Testament, Israel was referred to as the bride.  Jesus used the image of a wedding feast when he told various parables.  And Paul used the imagery to describe the church as the bride.  So it’s a common theme that would have echoed of the great celebrations that happened when a bride and groom joined in marriage.

As the church, this wedding feast is our future.  We are headed toward it with each day. There is a moment in our lives when we will join Jesus at a table where the celebration will be one for the ages.  It’s such a profound reality.  This lesson will help us see how our future destination can be an incredible source of strength for us today and hope for us in the future.

Let’s take a closer look at this.

1. An incredible celebration awaits us in heaven

• What’s the loudest environment you have ever been in, where the sound was made totally by people’s voices?  Was it a concert or an athletic event?  Tell us about it.
• How many people would you guess were responsible for making the noise you heard?
• Verse 6 describes multitudes gathered before God, worshipping God so loudly that it sounded like a huge crowd or a mighty ocean.  What do you think that experience would be like, to be part of that event?
• What are some specific reasons in your life to celebrate being a follower of Christ?

In Jesus’ day, around 2,000 years ago, a wedding feast was an awesome party!  It was a happy, joy-filled celebration that lasted for days.  As John was watching something human eyes had never seen, he compared what he saw to the wedding feasts he had participated in and observed.  The feast will be a joyous expression of the longing of the church to be unified with Christ for eternity.

2. Sin will no longer defile us in heaven

• When you think of the color white, what words or images come to mind?  Do you think of the idea of purity, or being clean?  Explain.
• Imagine that your life is like a clean, white robe.  You wear it around your whole life. But the sins that you commit, your thoughts and your actions, they stick to you, each sin staining your robe.  Think of what this robe looks like at the end of your life. But then you arrive at this feast, and the sinful, stinking robe you have been wearing around your whole life is replaced by Christ with clean, fine, sparkling white garments.  How does this picture of grace and forgiveness affect the way you see your future?
• Knowing Christ paid for this forgiveness with his life, how does this change the way you see your sinfulness today?

The purity of the wedding feast is incredible.  Earlier in Revelation, John had seen a vision that he described as a prostitute and her lovers.  This, of course, is symbolic language.  But it is a sinful, wretched image.  As he depicts the wedding feast of the Lamb, John makes a great contrast between the vision of the prostitute and the pure vision of Christ (the Lamb) and his virgin bride (the church).  It’s a beautiful image, especially as we consider how our sin has been taken away by the Lamb Himself.  Christ made us, His bride, pure in order that we would be redeemed and cleansed.

3. Our place at the banquet table is granted by God’s grace

• Have you ever been invited to a really nice dinner?  How did you feel as you were at the table?  Did you feel special?  Excited?  Nervous?
• Sometimes it seems like it’s a duty to be a Christ-follower, a task we have to carry out.  We forget the joy of following Christ sometimes.  How does verse 9 describe the people who have been invited to the feast?-
• If you have professed your faith in Christ, you are a child of God because of God’s grace.  What does this mean to you personally?

Our place in heaven was made possible by Christ.  God loves all His children.  But because of His nature, God cannot fellowship with sinful man.  God is holy.  We could not stand in His presence because of our sin.  And God is just.  All sin is rebellion against God, and rebellion deserves death.  But Christ paid the debt our sin earns for us.  And Jesus made us holy and righteous in God’s eyes by His sacrifice on the cross.  Christ broke down the barriers to our dwelling with God forever in heaven.  Our seat at the feast is made possible only because of God’s love for us as demonstrated through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION

Luke 14:15-24 (nlt)

¹⁵Hearing this, a man sitting at the table with Jesus exclaimed, “What a blessing it will be to attend a banquet in the Kingdom of God!”

¹⁶Jesus replied with this story: “A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. ¹⁷When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guests, ‘Come, the banquet is ready.’  ¹⁸But they all began making excuses.  One said, ‘I have just bought a field and must inspect it.  Please excuse me.’  ¹⁹Another said, ‘I have just bought five pairs of oxen, and I want to try them out.  Please excuse me.’  ²⁰Another said, ‘I now have a wife, so I can’t come.’

²¹“The servant returned and told his master what they had said.  His master was furious and said, ‘Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’  ²²After the servant had done this, he reported, ‘There is still room for more.’  ²³So his master said, ‘Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full. ²⁴For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet.’”

• Read Luke 14:15-24.  What are some differences and some similarities between this parable Jesus tells about a wedding feast and what we see in Revelation 19?

Isaiah 25:6-8 (nlt)

⁶In Jerusalem, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will spread a wonderful feast for all the people of the world.  It will be a delicious banquet with clear, well-aged wine and choice meat.  ⁷There he will remove the cloud of gloom, the shadow of death that hangs over the earth. ⁸He will swallow up death forever!  The Sovereign Lord will wipe away all tears.  He will remove forever all insults and mockery against his land and people.  The Lord has spoken!

• Read Isaiah 25:6-8.  How do these verses echo the imagery and ideas from the passage in Revelation 19?

APPLICATION

• Studying the book of Revelation is both really cool and a little perplexing.  As we’ve gone through the lessons so far in this series, how have the conversations changed the way you think about your relationship with God, what eternity will be like, or what you ought to value most in this lifetime?

• It seems like we could draw some strength and assurance in our faith from knowing how God has planned the end of this present reality.  Do you think this is true?  Why or why not?

• What role does hope for the future play in your life?  Is it hard to really think about these types of things as a teenager or not?  Explain.

SUMMARY

The Bible teaches that those of us who are followers of Christ will have an incredible encounter with Jesus in our future.  We, the church, will join Christ in a celebration feast for the ages!  What a day it will be, when we are welcomed into Christ’s presence as His pure and holy sons and daughters.  It is a future reality.  The question for us is how this knowledge affects our lives today and in the future.  This lesson examined that question.

For Keeps [Memory Verse]

And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he added, “These are true words that come from God” (Revelation 19:9 NLT).

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