Time To Celebrate

Darin Wilt

Things to See • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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Revelation 19:1-10

Time to Celebrate

Intro: It is Mother’s Day in America. And we celebrate Our Mother’s. Whether that is biological mothers, step moms, mother in laws. Maybe it is someone who fills the role, like a grandmother, an aunt, or an older sister who helps take care of their brothers and sisters. We celebrate the people who care for us.

We will probably all have some lunch or brunch or dinner today to celebrate.

We use food to celebrate a lot of things. Weddings almost always have a reception to gather everyone together.

Birthday parties, Fourth of July, Cinco de Mayo, Thanksgiving, funerals or wakes usually have some kind of food element to them.

Even here, we have donuts and coffee before church and maybe after it too.

And so we see this big victory celebration in heaven Because God has defeated the city of Babylon. And then the marriage feast of the Lamb is at hand.

Read Verses: 19:1-10

Main Idea: The Wedding Feast is a time to celebrate

I. Celebrate God’’s Victory (1-3)

The beginning of the chapter is a continuation of chapters 17 and 18. That Babylon is fallen.

And John hears they loud voice of the great multitude. So this sporting event or concert level of of noise or speaking . And they are crying out or shouting Hallelujah.

Hallelujah is repeated four times in these 10 verses. Hallelujah means You all Praise Yah or You all Praise God and “In Hebrew this expression is an imperative in the second person plural that summons a group to praise the Lord.”

This is not a suggestion or just a good idea for the church to do, but is a must do.

And what are they giving praise to God for? Because they know that salvation, glory and power belong to God. They have witnessed God vanquish the world, as far as the great city that opposes God and represents everything that is opposite of God.

He has Judged them and we have the answer from the question asked in chapter 6:10 Oh Lord, How long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?

The answer is now. And we can celebrate God’s Victory.

Just like when our favorite sports team or singer wins an award, we can be happy for them when they win and celebrate with them.

We didn’t go on the field in any capacity, but we can still revel in the glory that the team’s accomplishments.

Likewise, we did not go to the Cross and die for our own sins or anyone else’s sins. Jesus alone did that.

The salvation in question here is both the rescuing from The World’s torment and the fact that they are in heaven because God saved them. And so we can celebrate and praise God for our salvation today, bought by the lamb or the bridegroom.

The procession is a match made in heaven so to speak. And so we can celebrate the marriage.

II. Celebrate The Marriage (4-8)

In verse 4 we see The next group of people we see worshipping and praising God are the 24 elders and the four living creatures. They say Truly or Amen, hallelujah!

Revelation 19:4 (Revelation (AYBC)): Amen” is a transliteration of a Hebrew word meaning “may it be so.” It emphatically affirms what is said (1:6, 7; 22:20) and may conclude a statement of praise (5:14; 7:12; Rom 11:36; 16:27; Gal 1:5; Phil 4:20). It was combined with “hallelujah” or similar expressions (Ps 106:48; cf. 1 Chr 16:36) and was widely used in the early church (e.g., Rom 1:25;)

And then we hear this voice from the Throne, which is most likely an angel or an elder calling for praise again.

Revelation 19:5 (Revelation (AYBC)): “Praise our God” has the same meaning as “hallelujah” in 19:6 (cf. Ps 150:1). The call for God’s “servants” and “those who fear him” to give praise echoes Israel’s worship tradition (Ps 135:1, 20). In Babylon, slaves were reduced to “bodies” that were bought and sold (Rev 18:13). By way of contrast, the slaves or servants of God are “purchased” by the blood of Christ and are given dignity and honor (Rev 5:9; 14:3; Note on 1:1). The categories “small and great” point to higher and lower social status (Note on 13:16).

We see the difference in status of how God sees His people and how the world sees people. God sees us as someone to be purchased out of the turmoil and work and elevated by His Grace. God calls you by your name, he knows each of the hairs on your head.

The world sees people just as a nameless, faceless body that just feeds the machine. If you break down, you are replaced.

And this brings us to the important part of this section:

Let us rejoice, for the marriage of the Lamb has come. And His Bride has made herself ready.

The Church is referred to as the Bride of Christ. And so in a way, the time of church is a betrothal. This is more than an engagement but not an official marriage just yet.

And so the bride is waiting for her wedding day to come.

God is referred to as the nation of Israel’s husband. This is extended further to Jesus in the New Testament as the Bridegroom to the Church. Because the relationship has not turned into a full marriage yet. These aren’t two groups of people but just two ways to describe the Church over all. Remember Paul makes no distinction between Jew and Gentile. We are all one Church. God’s people.

In Matthew 26:29 During the Last Supper,Jesus makes a comment, “I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

The bride is ready because all the people are assembled. The church is all there. Everyone who was going to be saved is now in the Throne Room.

She is pure because of the blood of jesus. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of jesus. What washes our garments white as snow? Nothing but the blood of jesus.

So when we properly understand the text and our place, we understand that we are in the great multitude singing or calling out Hallelujah Praise God, because we are also the bride going to the wedding feast because we have been invited.

III. Celebrate Your Invitation (9-10)

The angel tells John to write this down: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb.

Revelation 19:9 (Revelation (AYBC)): Where OT prophets were to “go and say” (Isa 6:9; Jer 2:2; Ezek 3:4), John is told to “write,” so the prophetic word comes through his text (Aune, Prophecy, 275, 330–31). The message is that those who belong to God are blessed (makarios). This word for well-being occurs seven times in Revelation and anticipates the fullness of life that will come with the final defeat of evil and death (Intro IV.E.2).

“who have been invited to the wedding banquet of the Lamb.” Invitations to a marriage banquet could be given orally or in writing (Matt 22:1–10). For example, a written invitation could say, “Isidoros invites you to dine with him for the marriage of his daughter at the house of Titus the centurion” (P.Fay. 132), or “Thermouthis invites you to dine at the marriage of her daughter in her house tomorrow” (P.Oxy. 1579).

In Revelation those invited to the Lamb’s wedding banquet enjoy God’s favor; they are “called” and “chosen” (Rev 17:14). The Lamb’s wedding banquet is gracious, in contrast to the “banquet” on the battlefield in the next scene, where the allies of evil are defeated and are devoured by birds (Rev 19:17). We will cover that section next week.

But we see John fall down and worship an angel but he quickly says, I am the one to worship. I am the same as you, we are brothers. Only God is worthy of all our worship. Where angels are already in the chosen group, men and women are redeemed . And this is interesting because we know that the angels are not redeemable. They either stayed in heaven or they rebelled and were thrown out with no chance of return.

But Jesus Made a new covenant in his blood for us. And this is why the Lord’s supper is important. It is a reminder and a way for us to celebrate this covenant he made with us and keeps even when we cannot.

And we give thanks for this Action.

So we are now going to administer The Lord’s Supper. So I am going to ask the men to pass out the juice and the bread.

When Paul wrote to the Corinthian church about the church’s conduct during Lord’s supper, in chapter 11 of the first letter, he admonished the church and told them they needed to be united.

Chapter 11: 23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said,[f] “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Conclusion

Today is a day to celebrate if you are a God’s people. We serve the Most High God and we have been invited to his feast when the time comes. We are living in his kingdom now and we will live with him in eternity.

We can have confidence that he is faithful and He keeps his word. Victory is His. and next week we will see the Lamb come onto the Battlefield for the start of the last battles.

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