Good morning, church. Would you turn with me to Revelation chapter 19.
We are continuing our series in the book of Revelation today,
picking up in chapter 19, looking at verses 1 through 10.
Last week, if you were here, we considered the fall of Babylon, the worldly city.
And in that chapter, we heard a call for followers of Jesus to make sure our
allegiance was not bound up with the broken structures of this world, but rooted in Christ our King.
We're called to be citizens of Christ, first and foremost, no matter what earthly city we find ourselves in.
And in our text today, as we kind of continue this same section of Revelation,
we'll hear the praise of heaven, glorifying God,
not just because the worldly city has fallen once and for all with all of its injustice and oppression,
but also glorifying God because of the glorious future He has in store for His redeemed people
and His redeemed creation.
So let me pray, and then I'll read this text for us.
Let's pray together.
Father in heaven, we do ask for the work of Your Holy Spirit to come
and to take these words that He has inspired and He has preserved
and He has used so often in Your church to build up the saints.
We pray that His work would continue today in our midst
and that above all, we would see Christ more clearly in His saving power and goodness and glory,
that our hearts might come to love Him and worship Him and serve Him all the more.
We pray this in Jesus' mighty name, Father. Amen.
All right, Revelation 19, 1 through 10.
After this, I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven crying out,
Hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
for His judgments are true and just.
For He has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality
and has avenged on her the blood of His servants.
Once more they cried out, Hallelujah, the smoke from her goes up forever and ever.
And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God
who is seated on the throne saying, Amen, Hallelujah.
And from the throne came a voice saying, Praise our God, all you His servants,
you who fear Him, small and great.
Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude,
like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder crying out,
Hallelujah, for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.
It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure,
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
And the angel said to me, Write this,
Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
And he said to me, These are the true words of God.
Then I fell down at His feet to worship Him,
but he said to me, You must not do that.
I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus.
Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
So, when you think about eternity,
when you think about eternity, what comes to mind?
That is, when you think about kind of the ultimate future towards which all of creation is headed,
what does it look like or what does it feel like in your mind or in your imagination?
Because, you know, it matters, actually, what sort of future you believe in.
If the future is just a cold expansion of atoms into limitless space,
if that is ultimately where everything is headed,
you know, then perhaps you might be motivated to make the best use of the few years you have.
But that future ultimately leads to a very bleak and even meaningless approach to life now.
But what sort of picture does Scripture give us,
does the gospel give us, of the future God has in store for His creation and for His people?
Well, over the next couple of months,
that is much of what we are going to be considering in the book of Revelation.
How does the story end?
What does the last chapter look like?
Is it just the end?
Is it nothing?
Or is it, as C.S. Lewis put it so wonderfully,
at the end of his Chronicles of Narnia,
is it chapter one of an even greater story,
which no one on earth has read,
which goes on forever,
in which every chapter is better than the one before?
Well, chapter 19 gives us Revelation's first glimpse of this ultimate future.
And the first glimpse is pretty surprising.
The first taste that we get of the future that God has in store for His people
is the taste of a feast.
But not just any feast.
A wedding feast.
Look again at our text.
First, in verses one through five,
the heavenly host praises God for His justice
because the worldly city that's full of evil and idolatry has fallen.
Now, since we looked at the fall of Babylon last week,
we won't spend much time there in those first five verses today.
But then, in our text, in verses six through ten,
the heavens erupt into song for a second time.
And there's rejoicing and exultation.
Why?
Verse seven,
And in verse nine,
The ultimate future that God has in store for His people,
for His redeemed creation, is a feast.
But not just any feast.
Heaven is a wedding feast.
Now, I want to do something a little different this morning
than what we typically do in our Sunday morning sermons.
Typically, as you know if you've been at Trinity,
we kind of walk piece by piece through a text
explaining and applying the main ideas as we go.
But rather than going verse by verse today,
I want to just pull this single thread
and see how the whole Bible contributes to this beautiful idea.
The story of the Bible from a very important angle
is the story of a wedding.
History culminates in a wedding feast
between God and His people,
between Christ and His bride.
So let's look at that story together,
and then after we've done that,
let's consider what difference it makes in our lives today.
So first, let's consider the story,
the biblical theme of marriage, of a wedding.
And you know, we might think of this theme in three parts.
In Scripture, we see the making of marriage,
and we see the marring of marriage,
but then we see something that we might call
the mystery of marriage.
Now, we read about the making of marriage.
We read about that earlier in the service,
in Genesis 2.
God creates the institution of marriage.
It's not something that humans originally came up with.
God brings male and female together
into a one flesh union,
into a covenant,
into a binding promise.
And that joining of male and female in marriage,
this union is meant to have priority
over all other relationships, right?
The narrator in Genesis puts it this way.
He says,
Therefore, a man will leave his father and mother
and hold fast to his wife,
and the two will become one flesh.
All other human relationships,
even to parents,
become secondary to this new thing made in marriage.
And the sense you get from Genesis 2
is that the making of marriage brings great joy, right?
The man exclaims upon seeing the woman,
This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh.
At last!
There are words of joy, of surprise.
You know, the first attempts of human poetry
were right there in Genesis 2.
The first attempts of human poetry
were written in the wonder of love.
So, you know, when you feel romantic
and you want to start writing love poetry,
there's a deep human instinct there.
You can take part of.
At last!
Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
But now, no sooner do we see
the making of marriage in the biblical story,
but we learn, too, tragically,
of the marring of marriage.
In Genesis 3,
sin enters the world through the first humans.
Adam and Eve disobey God,
and through sin comes the curse.
And it's not just their relationship
with God that's broken.
It's also their relationship with one another, right?
Because of sin, the joy and the union of marriage
will now be marred with strife and with discord.
And the sad history of humanity plays this out.
Marriages in Scripture and out are marked
by the tragic consequences of sin,
by selfishness and neglect and even violence.
The Bible is at times almost embarrassingly honest
about how broken human relationships in general
and human marriages in particular can become.
And it might seem like the story, then,
of marriage ends there.
It was a pretty short one.
It was made by God and then marred by sin.
But that's not the final chapter
that we see in Scripture.
As the story of Scripture progresses,
we see that there's also
an unfolding mystery to marriage.
And I use this word mystery
because it's one that the Apostle Paul uses
in Ephesians 5.
In Ephesians 5, Paul's talking about
how husbands and wives should love
and honor one another.
And then he quotes that verse we read earlier
from Genesis 2.
Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother
and hold fast to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
And then he says this.
He says, this mystery is profound.
Marriage is a profound mystery, according to Paul.
And the word mystery there
has a bit of a technical meaning.
You know, it means more than just
sort of something that's tricky to figure out, right?
Like a Sherlock Holmes story.
No, for Paul, the word mystery
means a redemptive reality
that has only now fully come to light
because of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Something that was there all along,
but we didn't see it
until the day broke, as it were,
and sunlight flooded the room.
And then in the light of day,
the thing that was there all along
suddenly became clear.
That's what Paul means by mystery.
So what is this mystery of marriage?
What's the thing that marriage has been saying
for generation after generation,
but we didn't necessarily have the ears to hear it
or the eyes to see it?
Paul says the mystery of marriage
is that all along,
it referred to Christ and the church.
That from its institution in creation,
it always had a more profound significance.
It was a living signpost
in the middle of human history.
Marriage was like performative art all along,
enacting the story of the gospel.
And consider even the Old Testament,
you hear echoes there of this mystery.
There are echoes of this mystery
even in the Old Testament,
prefiguring the new.
Isaiah telling the people in exile,
your maker is your husband.
God commanding Hosea
to take back his faithful spouse
to demonstrate God's own love
for his wayward people.
The song of Solomon flowing with poetry,
I am my beloved's
and my beloved is mine.
And then you hear the central covenantal promise
of the whole Old Testament.
What is it?
What is the one thing that God keeps saying,
this is the core of my covenant
with you, my people?
What is it?
I'll be your God
and you'll be my people.
I'll give myself to you
and you'll give yourself to me.
And then as the New Testament opens
and Jesus begins to teach
and to heal
and to forgive sins.
He's doing all this,
but the people are confused.
Jesus, they ask,
our religious leaders,
you know, they all say
that we should be fasting.
But you and your disciples,
you don't really seem to be fasting.
You seem to be feasting.
Your first miracle was turning water
into wine at a wedding feast.
What kind of religious leader are you?
And then Jesus says this.
He says,
can the wedding guests fast
while the bridegroom is with them?
Now, is Jesus just using
an illustration there?
Or is he uncovering the mystery?
The mystery that he is
the bridegroom.
He is the great divine husband.
Come for his beloved.
Come for his bride.
Come to get her back
from her waywardness.
Come to win her freedom.
That's certainly
what Jesus' apostles taught.
Paul will say
in 2 Corinthians 11
that when the Corinthians
heard the gospel and believed,
it was as if they were betrothed
to Christ as their true husband.
And again,
in 1 Corinthians 6,
Paul will say that
Christians are now
spiritually united to Christ.
They're one flesh
and one spirit with him
by faith.
So the mystery of marriage
is that human marriage
was always meant to be
a projection
of a greater divine reality,
the divine reality
of a Savior
who gives himself
sacrificially for his bride,
the church.
And of his church,
the bride that gives itself
willingly back to him.
And here in Revelation 19,
the mystery of marriage
reaches its fulfillment
in this feast of eternity.
The feast of eternity
will be the wedding feast
between Christ
and the church.
And notice again
how Revelation describes
Jesus here.
He's the Lamb,
the Lamb who was slain.
Is there any greater love story
than a lover
laying down their life
for their beloved?
You know,
when I was in high school,
the movie Titanic came out.
You know,
the one with Leonardo DiCaprio
and Kate Winslet?
You know,
you know that one, right?
Now,
when I was a high schooler,
I thought that was a dumb movie.
I thought that was really dumb.
I still kind of do, actually.
But at the end of the movie,
why does it grip us?
Why does it move us?
Because Jack is willing
to put himself
into the cold depths of the sea
so that Rose can stay safe.
He goes down
so that she can stay afloat
amidst what would otherwise
be certain death.
Friends,
the story of humanity
is the story of marriage.
Your story is the story of marriage.
No matter what your relational status is,
we're made by God.
We're marred by sin.
God made us
to be united to Him in love,
to receive the poetry of His love
and to make our relationship with Him
the highest of our loves.
That's why we were made.
But we've marred it.
We've rejected His love.
We've rejected His rightful place
in our lives.
And our result of rejecting
our heavenly Creator,
our heavenly Lover,
the result of that rejection
is the curse of death.
How could it be otherwise?
If we cut ourselves off
from the source of life,
what is left for us
but death?
But there's a mystery.
There's a saving mystery.
Though we have been
unfaithful spouses
to the God who made and loved us,
Jesus came and was
completely faithful.
On the cross,
He willingly plunged down
into the cold depths
of death and hell.
So for us,
His beloved,
His bride,
so that we might be rescued.
On the third day,
He rose from death
so that all who trust in Him
will be forgiven of their sins
and reunited,
reconciled to God
in an unbreakable bond
of love and union.
He rose from death
and the day will come.
The day will come
when the King
will return for His bride
and the marring
will be healed
once and for all.
The tables will be set
and the wedding feast
will begin
and we will be
with the lover
of our souls forever.
Friends,
that's the biblical theme
that reaches its climax
right here
in Revelation 19.
So what difference
does it make?
What difference
does this story make today?
Let's consider
three points of application.
First,
if history is headed
toward this heavenly wedding feast,
if history is headed
toward this heavenly wedding feast,
then earthly marriages
are charged
with eternal significance.
Earthly marriages
are charged
with eternal significance.
You know,
if you were to ask
most people in history
what the point of marriage was,
they'd probably give you
one of two answers.
They'd probably say
that the point of marriage
is either
to provide social stability
or to bring
personal fulfillment,
right?
You know,
if you were in more like
socially conservative circles,
they'd probably emphasize one.
If you were in,
you know,
more progressive circles,
they'd probably emphasize the other.
But those are the two answers
most people would give.
And you know,
in a sense,
marriage does bring
both of those things.
Marriage does bring
social and financial stability.
Studies have shown that
again and again.
And marriage does bring
personal fulfillment,
right?
It does.
But the real point of marriage
is in either of those things.
According to Scripture,
the point of marriage
is to picture
the love of Christ
and His church.
It has a significance
far beyond
whatever social
or personal benefits
come out of it.
But because it has
this eternal significance,
that means for Christians,
marriage should be filled
with just the deepest
reservoir of joy.
Because marriage is a,
for a Christian,
marriage is a knowing reflection
of the joy of heaven.
It's a picture of the future
come into the present.
It is imperfect,
yes,
but it is greatly
to be enjoyed.
Marriage is a greater
and more precious gift
than we often realize.
And that's why
Christians have also had
a very countercultural
approach to marriage.
Christians have always had
a very countercultural
approach to marriage,
understanding its significance
in this way.
I mean,
if you would ask
most people
in the first century,
what made Christians
really weird
or offensive,
right?
This is what,
this is one of the things
that would have been
really,
really high on the list.
First century people
looking at Christians,
one of the things
that they would have said,
Christians are totally weird,
one of the things was
how they approached
marriage and sexuality.
In the first century,
Christians were very strange.
First,
they believed
believed
that sex should
only be between
a man and a woman
in marriage.
And that was just confusing
to first century folk.
They looked at that
and they thought,
why should your sexual appetites
only be confined
in that way?
Right?
That just seems unnecessary.
That seems unhealthy.
Right?
But second,
here's the other thing
that made Christians
very weird in the first century.
Christians believed
not just that,
but they also believed
that a life of singleness
and a life of
a life without marriage,
without sex,
was just as meaningful
and fulfilling a life
as someone who was married.
Lifelong singleness
and celibacy
was held up
as a perfectly normal
and fulfilling way to live.
This is what made Christians
very strange,
one of the things
that made them very strange
from the very start.
Now, perhaps you're saying
to yourself,
you know, Nick,
I have news for you.
It's not just
first century people
who found the Christian ethic
around marriage strange.
Right?
Maybe you find this
pretty hard too.
Right?
Maybe this is a fairly
significant barrier
for you to becoming
a Christian.
Now, if that's you,
and honestly,
that is most of us
at one point and another
in our spiritual journey,
if that's you,
if you're wrestling
with this kind of
biblical Christian approach
to marriage,
I think it helps
to see this teaching
in the context
of this bigger story,
in the context
of the mystery of marriage
and the coming wedding feast.
You see,
if you are married,
then your marriage
is meant to display
Christ's love
for the church.
And at a definitional level,
what is marriage?
It's two fundamentally
different partners,
a male and a female,
becoming one
in a lifelong covenant
to live in sacrificial service
and self-giving.
Just as,
that's a mirror,
just as Christ
and the church,
two fundamentally
different partners,
human and divine,
are united
in an eternity-long covenant
that will continue
in sacrificial service
and self-giving love forever.
You see how it's meant
to display that.
So, married couples,
if you're finding
married life hard
and every marriage
goes through those seasons,
remember that your faithfulness
to one another
through hard times,
through trials,
through disappointments,
your choice
to continue loving
and forgiving one another
and staying faithful
to each other,
that is bearing forth
a weight of glory
that is so much greater
than what you can see right now.
Your perseverance
in trials
and your celebration
in joys,
these are bearing witness
to the greater marriage,
the reality of Christ's love
for His church.
But there's a message here
for single Christians as well.
If marriage really is
about the union of Christ
and His church,
then friends,
every Christian
has the substance
of which earthly marriage
is only the shadow.
The joys of earthly marriage
are but a reflection
of the greater feast,
the greater consummation
that awaits
the bride of Christ.
This is why Christians
in the first century
and in the 21st century
could live their lives
in singleness
their whole lives
and be completely fulfilled,
dignified,
and take their place
in the community
because they knew
that the greatest love
and greatest joy
was already theirs.
They had a lover
who would not disappoint
and their wedding feast
was already being prepared.
Now, that's not to downplay
the challenges
of single life,
but it's to put it
in the right biblical
and theological perspective.
You know, you can read
the old spiritual writers
of the faith
and sometimes it can
almost be a little shocking
to hear how they spoke
of their intimacy
with Christ.
I think we've lost
some of this.
I was reading the letters
of Samuel Rutherford
a few years ago.
Rutherford was a 17th century
Scottish pastor
who was persecuted
and imprisoned.
And in his letters,
he often speaks
of his communion
with Christ
with language
that just overflows
with love
and intimacy
with passion.
He speaks of
going to Christ
in prayer
as being a tryst
with his beloved.
If I said that
in a sermon,
you'd probably be like,
I don't know what's up
with Pastor Nick, right?
But this was the kind
of intimacy
that they had
with their Savior
that I think
we've lost.
You can almost hear
Rutherford just echoing
back that ancient poem
to Christ,
at last,
here is bone
of my bones
and flesh
of my flesh.
He just breathes
intimacy with Jesus.
And you know,
if you were to visit
Rutherford's tombstone
today,
you know what you find
on his tombstone,
on his monument
over his tomb?
Acquainted with
Emmanuel's love.
That was his life.
Here was a saint
who knew
what it was like
to live
in the mystery
of marriage
and who knew
that history
was headed
toward a heavenly
wedding feast.
And that meant
his life of faithfulness
was not just one
of mere duty,
but of delight.
Because he knew
intimately
his heavenly bridegroom.
Rutherford once said,
faint not,
the miles to heaven
are but few in short.
faint not,
Christians,
the miles to heaven
to this heavenly
wedding feast
are but few in short.
History's headed
toward the heavenly
wedding feast,
and that makes
all the difference
of how we approach
marriage today.
There's another
application here,
though.
If history is headed
toward the heavenly
wedding feast,
then our earthly loves
should be ordered
more and more
to eternal realities.
If we are headed
toward this feast,
then our earthly loves
should be ordered
more and more
to these eternal realities.
Notice what we see
at the end of verses
seven and eight.
Seven and eight says,
and his bride
has made herself ready.
It was granted her
to clothe herself
with fine linen
bright and pure,
for the fine linen
is the righteous deeds
of the saints.
The idea here
is that the church
has been preparing
for this great feast.
Now, if you've been married,
you know that planning
for a wedding day
can become an all-consuming task,
right?
There are seemingly
endless details to arrange
and decisions to make,
but in the midst
of all that,
the couple is usually
consumed by the coming
wedding day,
not just because
there are all these
social expectations
about how many guests
you should invite
and what sort of meals
you should serve
and all that.
They're consumed
by the coming wedding day.
Why?
Because they can't wait
to spend the rest
of their life
with their beloved.
They're eager
to begin the journey
of marriage
and union
of common life
and common joy.
And that same anticipation
should fill the heart
of the Christian
in this life.
We are soon
to be seated
at the feast
with our heavenly lover
never more to part,
ready to begin
the great adventure
of eternity
in the new heavens
and new earth.
And how do we get ready
for that great day?
Well, verse 8
has this wonderful phrase.
It says,
Isn't that an interesting
turn of phrase?
It was granted her,
something was given
to her as a gift,
to clothe herself.
She then took it
for herself
and made it her own.
What is this fine linen?
What is this fine linen
that on the one hand
is a free gift of grace
and on the other hand
is something that we take
for ourselves
and make our own?
Well, verse 8 says,
It's the righteous deeds
of the saints.
But how are the righteous deeds
of the saints
both freely given
as a gift
and something we make
our own?
Well, I think this idea
is similar to what Paul
says in Ephesians 2.
In Ephesians 2,
Paul brings these things
together.
He says,
For by grace you have been
saved through faith.
This is not your own doing.
It's a gift of God.
It's not a result
of your work
so that no one can boast.
And then he says,
For we are His workmanship
created in Christ Jesus
for good works,
which God prepared beforehand
that we should walk in them.
Did you catch the balance there?
There is no doubt
where our righteous status
before God comes from.
We're forgiven and accepted
solely by grace,
not by works.
But,
though we're not saved
by our good works,
God does create us
in Christ Jesus
for good works.
They flow out of a life
changed by the gospel of grace.
In fact,
Paul says that God
prepared those good works
beforehand
that we should walk in them.
So how do we eagerly anticipate
the coming feast?
We align our hearts
to the good works
that God has prepared
in advance for us to do.
We take up the freely given
fine linen,
bright and pure,
and we dress ourselves
each day
in the heavenly attire.
And practically,
we seek to learn
and to love
more and more
what Christ loves.
What do we see Him value
in His Word?
What do we see Him pursue?
What does He command?
What does He forbid?
We make the Word
and the ways of Christ
more and more
the pattern
of our own affections.
And we do so as Christians
not because we fear
some future punishment.
The punishment
has been paid by Christ.
No, we do so
because we're eager
to be united
in all things
to our heavenly lover,
to love what is loved
by our beloved.
That's Christian obedience.
That's the motivation.
Simple as that
and profound as that,
to love what is loved
by our beloved.
So, Christian,
in anticipation
of the coming wedding feast,
are you learning
to love what Christ loves?
And if so,
is it evident
to those around you,
to your spouse,
to your kids,
to your roommates,
to your neighbors?
Our passage ends
with John falling down
before the angel
who shows him
these things
in an attempt
to worship him.
The angel is sort of
glorious and wonderful
and John falls down
to worship him
but the angel says,
don't worship me.
I'm just a fellow servant
with you and your brothers
who hold to the testimony
of Jesus.
Worship God.
And then the passage
ends with this curious phrase.
It says,
for the testimony of Jesus
is the spirit of prophecy.
And that phrase
could mean something like,
all true prophecy
bears witness to Jesus.
Does our life
bear witness to Jesus?
In the power
of the Holy Spirit
is what our life
speaks forth,
is what it professes,
the testimony
that Jesus is worthy
of our love and affection.
Lovers are always
talking about
their beloved,
aren't they?
It can sometimes
be annoying
when you have a friend
who just started
dating someone
who's like all they
can talk about,
how great so-and-so is,
and you're just like,
man,
they're not that great.
Settle down.
But church,
may our hearts
never cease to flow
with love for Christ.
Would His name
naturally come to our lips?
Would the Holy Spirit's
work in our lives
bring forth
the testimony of Jesus?
And would we see this life
as a preparation
for a greater feast to come?
Would we make ourselves
ready,
clothing ourselves
in the fine linen,
the righteous deeds
that have been granted
to us,
that have been prepared
in advance for us
to walk in them?
One last observation,
then we'll wrap up,
and it's this.
If history is headed
toward the heavenly
wedding feast,
then our God
is worthy
of endless worship.
If we're headed
toward this heavenly
wedding feast,
then God is worthy
of endless worship.
You can't come away
from this passage
having missed
the repeated refrain,
right?
Hallelujah.
It's a Hebrew word
that just means
praise God.
The heartbeat of heaven
is worship of God
the Almighty.
And as we've seen,
worship isn't just
a key theme
in this particular passage.
It's a key theme
of the whole book
of Revelation.
There's no other book
in the New Testament
that's filled
with passage
after passage
ascribing glory
and praise to God.
God is worthy
of endless worship.
And what a wonder,
what a surprise,
what a cause
for even greater worship
that this infinitely
great God
has prepared
a feast
for us.
And not just a feast,
a wedding feast.
Do you know
what you mean,
Christian,
when you say
that you have
a relationship
with God?
Do you realize
how utterly staggering
that is?
How unique it is
among all the world religions
that the infinitely
holy God
has prepared
a feast
for you.
But a,
not just a feast,
but a wedding feast.
Because you're the bride.
Because he's taking you
as his own.
Jonathan Edwards
once preached
a sermon called
The Church's Marriage.
And he put
this staggering truth
of the gospel
like this.
He said,
Then the church
shall be brought
to the full
enjoyment
of her bridegroom,
having all tears
wiped away
from her eyes,
and there shall be
no more distance
or absence.
She shall then
be brought
to the entertainments
of an eternal
wedding feast,
and to dwell
forever
with her bridegroom,
yea,
to dwell eternally
in his embraces.
Then Christ
will give her
his loves,
and she shall
drink her fill,
yea,
she shall swim
in the ocean
of his love.
You know it's good
when there's two yays
in a quote, right?
She shall swim
in the ocean
of his love.
Christ will give
her his loves,
and she shall
drink her fill.
And the heavens
say,
Hallelujah.
Blessed are all
those who are
invited to the
wedding supper
of the Lamb.
And friend,
you are invited
right now.
Take Christ
by faith,
and this ocean
of love
will be yours,
and you too
will have a place
at the feast.
Let's pray.
Father in heaven,
thank you
for the invitation
that goes forth
to sit down
at table with you
and to dine.
And the great meat
and the great drink
of that day
will be the
unending
courses
of your love
for your people.
Oh God,
would you make us
ready for that day?
Draw our hearts
up to the beauty
and the wonder
and the anticipation
of it.
And Lord,
we pray
that the magnificence
of your love
would break
through our
stony hearts.
And would we
throw ourselves
in faith
upon our mighty
Savior, Jesus.
Amen.
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