Rev No.19 Rejoicing in Heaven

Lord we offer royal praise, gold and frankincense, and Lord we come in holiness. Lord we worship you. Perhaps for some of you this is the first time in several days you've taken time out to think about God.

Maybe your quiet time is in utter disarray. Well here's the opportunity of you coming back to the presence of the Lord, feeling his presence, and realizing who you are by his grace, a member of his family circle. Chapter 19 in Revelation is the book as if you didn't know, and it starts with hallelujah.

How about saying that word on the count of three. One, two, three, hallelujah. After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven.

Shouting hallelujah, salvation and glory in power belong to our God. For true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries.

He has avenged on her the blood of his servants. And again they shouted hallelujah. The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.

The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried amen, hallelujah. Then a voice came from the throne saying, praise our God all you his servants, you who fear him both small and great.

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters, and like peals of thunder, shouting hallelujah, for our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice in the glad and give him glory. For the wedding of the lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.

Fine linen bright and clean was given to her to wear. Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints. Then the angel said to me, write blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the lamb.

And he added, these are the true words of God. At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, do not do it.

I am a fellow servant with you, and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Now a few verses tucked away in Exodus, if you'd like to go to them.

In the 23rd chapter, actually chapter 24, if you'll excuse me. Verse 9, incredibly mysterious words. Exodus 24 9, Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the 70 elders of Israel, went up and saw the God of Israel.

Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites. They saw God, and they ate.

Well wasn't that an incredible statement, in Exodus 24. They saw God, and they ate and drank. Come back to the 19th chapter of Revelation.

I was interested to note in the Times Educational Literary Supplement, that I think for the 147th occasion, Professor Stephen Hawking's book, on the beginning of time, has been a bestseller during this past week. I wish that people would give as much attention to Hawking's very brilliantly written book. I rather wish that they would give as much attention to the book of Revelation, as is given to this contribution that this great crippled man has made, to our understanding of the creation of life.

For it seems to me that by implication, Revelation answers not only the question about the origin of life, but also the ultimate destiny of men and women. Something that Hawking's hardly addresses at all. If I were to put this question to you, I wonder what your answer would be.

Why did God create men and women in the first instance? Well if you go back to the book of Genesis, you will discover that God wants fellowship with beings that he has created remarkably, mysteriously, in his own image. I introduced a hymn, a modern hymn, last Sunday evening here at the Tab, but at least we may have had it once before, but no more. And the hymn says this, and it's plucked really from that remarkable verse in Exodus, God and man at table have sat down.

Now this is my argument, that in a very real sense, the purpose behind men and women being created, is that they can sit at table with God and fellowship together. And in one sense, that summarizes the heart of the gospel. You see, in the beginning of the world, God creates man and woman, and they are to live according to his revelation.

There is one prohibition that's placed against them in the Garden of Paradise, and they break the regulation. Eve takes and she eats, that which she has been prohibited from doing. And Adam joins her in this act of defiance and rebellion.

And someone has said that God will have to taste both poverty and death, in order for the verbs take, eat, to become verbs of salvation. At the beginning of time, God and man find a dislocation in their relationship. And when our Lord Jesus comes into this world, and eventually dies on the cross of Calvary, and is raised again in the power of an endless life.

His purpose was to make it possible for men and women again to have fellowship with God, in a word for them to be able to sit at table with God. And it seems to me that this is basically the teaching of this 19th chapter of the book of Revelation, because we have this extraordinary reference made to ordinary people like ourselves, being invited to a great wedding feast. It's called the Wedding of the Lamb, or if you like, the Wedding Supper of the Lamb.

And people around the globe, and people of all dispensations, of all time, are summoned to this. It's the grand occasion when men and women redeemed in the blood of Jesus, sit down at the table of God. And they have fellowship, one with the other.

God and man at table, have sat down. Ron George told you when he was here, delivering a very fine address a couple of Sundays ago, that hospitality in the East is at an all-time premium, an all-time record. Not that it's better now than it has been, but it's rather sustained, the concept of the open house, which we are last year in the tabernacle, in Worthing, in the United Kingdom, in general, do not reproduce.

And when you start to look into the Old Testament scriptures, and you go on into the New Testament, you see that God is very interested in fellowship at the banqueting level, fellowship at the table level. That's why you should never take a meal without offering grace, and I hope you do that. That's why when you have a meal in your home, you should be asking yourself, is it right that I have this meal on my own, or with my wife, or were there others who should have been invited to this table.

Abraham, in the book of Genesis, you remember, has celestial visitors. He doesn't know to start with, but then he gets the idea, they're more than human. What does he do? Well, he does what I do.

He rings his wife. Well, he doesn't ring her. She's there, and he says, look Sarah, get working.

And he spreads the table. He says, it's just bread and water, but it turns out to be mutton, and yogurt, and cheese, and so forth. If Abraham ever invites you to a meal, take it.

It's better than McDonald's. And as you make your way through the Old Testament, you will find in the Levitical sacrifices, and so forth, that there is this concept of the table being spread, of God inviting men and women to have fellowship with one another, and to have fellowship with himself. I'll come back to that in a moment or two.

Here in this chapter, there are four occasions when Hallelujah is said. And it's not just said, it's shouted. It's not just the perfunctory, non-conformist type of insipid Amen, that a third of the congregation will say.

Neither is it, and they're better at it than us, the Anglican more dominant note of Amen. It's an Amen that's like mighty waters crashing in on the seashore. It's like the cisterns of the earth erupting in a cry of praise.

Why the four Hallelujahs in Revelation 19? Well, you hear, you heard Tim in a persuasive address last Sunday morning, give the explanation as to the preceding chapters. The fall of Babylon, the fall of this present world system, with all its ugliness, with all its anti-godness. And here is the demolition, and the final process of the elimination of evil from this world.

And there's a roar, verse 1, of a great multitude in heaven shouting, Hallelujah. And down on the earth, verse 4, gives you the, gives you the wording, the 24 elders representative of the Old Testament Church, and the New Testament Church. The patriarchs and the apostles, the Jewish dispensation, and the Christian dispensation.

The one people of God, they come around the throne, and they cry, Amen, Hallelujah. And all the courts of heaven, and every intelligent being on earth and in heaven, allows his, her voice to be mingled in this, in this great crescendo of praise. Verse 6, Hallelujah, for our Lord God Almighty reigns.

Why rejoice? Well, the wedding of the Lamb has come, his bride has made herself ready, or if you want that starkly translated, for it has come. The wedding of the Lamb, his wife has made herself ready, it was given to her that she be clothed in fine linen, glistening pure, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. It has come.

So the question is, what has come? And the answer is, the time when God and man at table shall sit down, and not just for a moment, but for an eternity. When John has a glimpse into the life beyond, into the ultimate purposes of God, remarkably, shockingly, God gives him a picture of a banquet. And he says, the time has come.

If you go to the prophecy of Isaiah in the 25th chapter, the 6th and 7th verses, you get reference to what became very prominent teaching amongst the rabbinical school, that is the Jewish theologians. It was a concept of a messianic banquet. Isaiah 25, 6 and 7, on this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine, the best of meats and the finest of wines.

On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers up all nations. He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces.

He will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken. You see, what is happening in the book of Revelation is that the Old Testament prophecies are being plundered and brought together with a fulfillment the like of which men and women, even though they be well inscripturated, well knowledged in the Old Testament, are amazed to see at the great things that God has in store for the redeemed of Israel and the redeemed of the world.

When you're out in Asia and you invite a man or a woman to your house, you don't just feed them. You open your heart. You see, we've lost this in the Western world.

The East and Africa can teach us so much. You say to the man who comes across your threshold, this is now yours. My bathroom is your facility.

My pantry is at your disposal. My wardrobe is really your wardrobe. The inviting of a person to a meal is sacramental of assigning yourself over in fellowship, in covenantal love to that individual.

Now you'll never understand the reason why Jesus died unless you appreciate this. Because Jesus was put on the cross of Calvary for one reason, or for one of several reasons, and one of them was this. He offered hospitality as a representative of God in the way that the rabbis found to be utterly distasteful, if not blasphemous.

You say you don't understand, all right. I take you to Revelation, to the book of Luke and to the 15th chapter. You know that chapter, it's well-worn.

It has the account of our blessed Lord setting up the parables of the three things that are lost. I have a fourth story. It's the loss of contact lenses, for which I have a great talent, as my wife will tell you, as she so often adopts a Muslim attitude on our, in posture on our bedroom floor, looking for the missing lens.

Well, here is our Lord, and he sets up these parables. But why? Well, look at the first verse. The first and second verse are the key to the reason why Jesus taught these parables, and we're not going to look into these.

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear him, but the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered. What did they mutter? This man welcomes sinners and eats with them. You see, it's this that's stuck in the throat.

He welcomes sinners and he ate with sinners. Therefore, as the rabbis rightly concluded, he was offering his covenantal love with sinful people. God and man at table, sitting down.

This God, but surely not those men. And as a result of that, our Lord is ultimately crucified. Because encapsulated in the gospel message is the invitation given for ordinary people to come and put their feet under the table and sup with God.

Now here is our beloved Lord, and he's towards the end of his earthly ministry. Let's go to Matthew's Gospel in the 26th chapter. He's setting up the feast that we will be partaking of in a moment or two.

In other words, the communion service. In the 26th chapter, he's not only describing what the disciples are to do and say that this feast will look back to his death on the cross. But there's an eschatological aspect to it.

In other words, it looks forward. So verse 27 of Matthew 26. Then the blessed Lord Jesus took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them saying, drink from it all of you.

This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until the day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom. And every time you take bread and wine you reflect not Calvary, but you have your eyes on that great ultimate banquet to which all of God's elect children are invited at the end of time, the marriage supper of the Lamb.

When God will allow you, as he allowed Aaron and his two colleagues and Moses to have food with him, God and man at table, and God has no objection. So we can take and we can eat verbs that have now become verbs of salvation of the body and of the flesh of our Lord Jesus. And as we remember him, so we have in our minds eye that great day of the consummation of all things.

Now this banquet to which John makes reference in this glorious passage. I'm glad I've got these ten verses or eleven verses and that Tim didn't pinch them last week. Here it's an invitation not just to a banquet, though it is that.

It's an invitation to a wedding. Verse seven, let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory for the wedding of the Lamb has come. Now in the Old Testament scriptures you will recall that on many an occasion reference is made to Israel in terms of the Bride of God.

Let's go to the 54th chapter of Isaiah just for a moment or two. And here is this astonishing verse in the halfway through it. Verse 5 of chapter 54, For your maker is your husband.

The Lord Almighty is his name. The Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. At the ideal level, when God looked down upon the sons of Abraham in the Old Testament era, he saw them not just as his children, but as his bride.

And the thing that broke the heart of God was the adultery, the spiritual adultery of the Hebrew people. Now when our blessed Lord comes on earth, he is knowledgeable of course of the revelation of the Old Testament and ideally of God's people being seen in terms of the Bride. And so it seems quite reasonable for him to fit into the position of the Bridegroom.

And you remember on one occasion in Mark's Gospel how our Lord Jesus is in contact with the disciples of John and also the Pharisees. And criticism is made of the close associates of our Lord Jesus. How is it that they're not fasting? And our Lord Jesus puts down this memorable response in the 19th verse of Mark's Gospel chapter 2, How can the guests of the Bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot so long as they have him with them.

But the time will come when the Bridegroom will be taken from them and on that day they will fast. So how does our Lord look upon those who commit their lives into his care? Well he sees them as his Bride. And you will remember how the Apostle Paul runs with that metaphor.

He writes to the Ephesians, he talks about husbands and wives, he tells us how to behave ourselves in our home, the love that we ought to have mutually for one another. We are to love our wife as Christ loved the church. And he goes on to tell us about the church.

She is to be the pure spotless Bride of whom? Of our Lord Jesus. And so you see how all those lovely prophecies in the Old Testament and the New Testament, they merge when you come to the revelation of John the Divine. The wedding of the Lamb has come and his Bride, you could even daringly translate it, his wife, has made herself ready.

A Jewish wedding was a rather drawn-out affair and I'm all for drawing out weddings. I think they're splendid occasions. But the Jews who could teach us a lot about worship could also teach us a lot about celebration.

Indeed worship and celebration were intermingled. And I don't think that the Puritans, who are very often criticized, not sometimes intelligently by people, but even the Puritans I don't think fully understood just how much celebration was part of the worship practice in Old Testament times. Well here's this Jewish wedding, what happens? Well there is the betrothal.

The betrothal is like our engagement but it has legal force. And a declaration of intent is made between the two parties. And then the one who is betrothed leaves and preparation is made for the marriage supper.

A dowry is paid to the husband, or rather to the father of the bride. And after a period of time has gone, then occurs the marriage procession. And the bride and his best men, generally at night, will go to the home of the beloved.

They'll have torches, they'll be singing, and they will be dancing. And he will come and he will take his rights, his bride, his wife, and he will return her to his own home. And then will begin a wedding feast, which will go on into the night, into the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day.

At least seven next days, the Jews know how to do things properly. We Gentiles who have to learn from them in terms of celebration and really enjoying ourselves. Now remember, the New Testament is basically a Hebrew book.

I mean by that it's written with a Hebrew backdrop. So to interpret it properly as the Old Testament, you have to have some sort of knowledge of Hebrew culture. I read in Scripture that before the foundation of the earth, this great God had a people for whom the Lord Jesus would die.

If you like, it was the act of betrothal. Ethnic sons of Abraham, spiritual sons of Abraham, they will all become part of the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ on the same basis. There is only one means of salvation, and God will always give more than he actually promises to the Old Testament patriarchs.

So he takes his friend Abraham one day for a walk, and he says, Abraham, okay you haven't got your laptop computer with you. You haven't got your calculator, but Abraham have a look at those stars. Can you count them? And Abraham says no.

The following morning they're going down the beach, and the Lord says, Abraham look at the sun. Count the grains. And Abraham is perplexed.

The puzzle is as great as the former one. And here is God sort of humor that he has, and yet the humor is not devoid of some literalistic fulfillment of what he's about to promise. He says, Abraham, as numerous as the stars, as great as the number of the grains of sand, so shall be your descendants.

Abraham, I will do for you far above all that you can ever expect. And don't you see down the dispensations of time from the ethnic ranks of Abraham and from Gentile people thereof come those who have exercised a similar faith in the God of Abraham. And they are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb, because of the greatness of the salvation plan of our Lord.

And the day is coming, and here Stephen Hawkins has little concept, though he does not deny it. The day is coming when the reason for which man was brought into this world shall find its final consummation. And the question we should be asking is not just why man, but whither man.

And that's why you need the book of Revelation, because it significantly answers both questions. Now here's the bride. What does the bride do on her wedding day? Well, she gets up early.

She goes to the beauty salon. She has her hair done. Well, you ladies, you're better than I am at describing this.

You know, I can see some of you there. Look, I'm getting all excited turning this lectern light up and down. I love weddings, you see.

You can flesh it all out, can't you? Well, here is the bride of Christ. What is she doing? The wedding of the Lamb has come. His bride has made herself ready.

Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. And we've read earlier, have we not, and it's been preached on so many times, that there is this great number of the elect of God, of the Old Testament and the New Testament. This magnificent multitude that no one can number.

And you ask, what are they dressed in? And the answer is, they are dressed in robes which have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. They have been prepared. The act of betrothal has been entered into.

The down payment has been made. The blessed Christ has died on Calvary's cross. And then, well, after your justification, what follows? Your sanctification.

The deeds of the bride. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. Verse 8, go on to the explanation.

Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints. You see, in one sense, it's a travesty of Christianity. If as the decades go by, I am not becoming more like our blessed Lord and Savior.

If I don't lose the pettiness that bedeviled my earlier years. If I don't become more and more like Him, sweet and reasonable and humble. You see, when you spend a lifetime contemplating Him, then there is this gradual change.

Wesley got it right from 2nd Corinthians 4. Change from glory into glory. Till in heaven we take our place. He that has this hope within him purifies himself, says John, as he is pure.

The bride making herself ready. Now, this is the most remarkable thing to which God calls you and me, who are Christian people, to study the Lord Christ. So that our personalities become more and more like Him.

So that on that great, tremendous day, we are prepared for this magnificent act of marital consummation. From heaven he came and sought her, to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought her.

And for her life, he died. Here's the blessed Christ. I give you a picture.

He's on one of the mountains that dot the topography, the geography of the land of Israel. And a couple of his disciples are with him. And suddenly something happens.

Elijah and Moses come alongside. And the disciples are spellbound. Not because they've got the representative of the law and the representative of the prophets, but because of what's happening to him, the blessed Christ.

He's irradiated. His clothes are wiped like the clothes of a fool. There is something uncanny about it.

There is something celestial. Here is the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ beaming through, flashing forth from his humanity. Now when you've seen that, you've seen something of what eventually you will be like.

He is going to place you in garments of righteousness. I delight greatly in the Lord. My soul rejoices in my God, for he has clothed me with garments of salvation, and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness.

As a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61 10. Doesn't this excite you? You see they're going to come.

All those who constitute the bride of Christ. This is the reason for the invitation being underlined, and the beatitude being expressed. Verse 9. Blessed, blessed, blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.

Blessed are those who come. Listen to our blessed Lord. Here he is, as he speaks of this great event in Matthew 8. And he's so totally misunderstood by the theologians of his day.

And he's often misunderstood by people today. For he has in mind this, this great day, when the marriage supper of the Lamb shall be called. Matthew and chapter 8 verse 10.

When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following. He's impressed, you remember, by this centurion who showed such great faith. Lord, you don't need to come to my home.

You can heal at a distance. Such faith as this he hasn't found in Israel. And then he goes on to indicate that amongst the sons of Abraham, there are these who are his by faith.

I say to you, verse 11 of Matthew 7. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Our Lord's teaching here was sensational.

The problem with you and me is that we're so familiar with these scriptures that we forget their import, and the sensational way in which they struck the hearer. You see, here is our Lord, and he's saying that this messianic banquet, which according to the rabbis, was restricted just to the ethnic sons of Israel, to the Jews alone. He's saying Abraham will be there, Isaac will be there, Jacob will be there.

And not only will they be there in an authoritative capacity, as the rabbis believe, but taking their places will come those from the east and the west. And our Lord here is bringing together messianic promises, prophecies from the Psalms and also from Isaiah. You check your reference, those of you who've got a reference NIV version of the Bible, and see our Lord is plundering these verses that speak of the restoration of Israel.

And he is applying them to his own, to those blood-bought Jews, to those blood-bought Gentiles, who will be brought from the north and from the south, from the east and from the west. And they will be at this banquet presided over by him in the company of these patriarchs and the apostles. It's a mind-blowing picture.

You see, the God of the Old Testament, when he gives his prophecies, always in the fulfillment will give more than your mind could ever possibly understand. He has a concern for the sons of Abraham. He has a concern wider for the sons of Adam.

And he brings the prophecies of Abraham to their fulfillment in a grander way than Abraham could ever have envisaged. And here at the end of time, you've got the concept of this great banquet, this married supper of the Lamb. Blessed is he, blessed is he who's invited.

You're a Christian. You belong to the Lord. You're an ethnic son of Abraham, and you belong to the Lord.

You're a spiritual son of Abraham. You belong to the Lord. Blessed are you who have been called to this great banquet.

You should go out from this place. Always resolve to live your life with the idea that one day you will be with God at table, and he will sit down with you and sup with you. And just in case you think that John is a little demented because he's been there on this island for such a long time, and it's affecting his brain, and he's not really grasped what's being said, then listen, verse 10, at this I fell at the feet of the one who spoke to me.

Ah, but prior to that, what happens? He added, the one who gives all this communication, these are the true words of God. This is one of the formulae that the Apostle Paul sometimes uses when he says, here is a saying, a worthy saying, full of all acceptation. I quote the authorized version, these are the true words of God.

Detract from these words at your peril. Interpret these words differently at your peril. These are the true words of God.

And John, his mind is almost blown. He falls down in mistaken worship of the one who brings this tremendous communication. But this is only an angel who says, do not do it.

Don't worship me. There is only one who can be worshipped. I'm a fellow servant with you, with your brothers, who hold to the testimony of Jesus, but worship God.

For the testimony of Jesus is a spirit of prophecy. Whenever you hear a man or a woman declare the unsearchable riches of Christ and apply that word to your heart, you are listening to a prophetic utterance. The testimony of Jesus is a spirit of prophecy.

Mark you, I didn't say every time a man preaches. Every time you're going to a church, what I said was this, that when you hear a person in the power of the Spirit declare the unsearchable riches of God found in his Word and apply them to contemporary times, then you hear prophecy. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

What's going to happen? At the end of time, God and man at table will sit down. Not on one occasion, not a one-off, but this will lead on into an eternity of sweet fellowship. The reason why you and I were created will find its final consummation.

And at the banquet and in that eternity, there will be blessed Jews and Arabs and Russians and Indians and Americans from every tongue, from every tribe. The blood-bought, beautified Bride of Christ will be there along with the Lamb to worship Him forever and forever. Let us stand.

In the words of the prayer that our Lord Jesus taught us, unsurpassed, this breaks out into the final doxology, ascribing praise and honor to the God to whom all kingdoms eventually will yield, our Father who art in heaven.