Come, I will show you the Bride of the Lamb!

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 25

Revelation 21:9-27

We’ve made it almost all the way through the Book of Revelation. These last three readings contain no more struggle, no more warfare, no more persecution, no more pain. We’ve made it through all the visions that repeated, over and over, the struggles of the Church in this New Testament era. The rest of the book describes what things will be like for the faithful after Christ returns. We’re given a picture of the eternal life that awaits.

And that’s useful for us! Because, we haven’t yet reached the end of the story. You and I and the rest of the Church Militant are still in the thick of it, in a warzone. We’re surrounded by enemies. The fight is fierce, the warfare long. The life of a Christian is a hard life. It has to be! Because it has to resemble the life of the One whom we call our Lord, a life still characterized here by the cross. Will it all be worth it? It will! Revelation gives us a glimpse of how the story ends. Tonight the angel invites us to join the Apostle John in contemplating what the Church of Christ will look like after Christ returns. Come!, he says. I will show you the Bride of the Lamb!

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.

In the picture-language of Revelation, lots of vivid imagery gets all mixed together. Christ is depicted as a Lamb, and also as a Bridegroom; the Church as his bride, and, at the same time, the Church as a city. At the end of the story, there will be the Church of Christ, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God – a holy city, a brilliant, shining, glorious city – sparkling like a diamond as it descends.

The question is, how did the Church get that way? Because it certainly didn’t start out that way. The bright, shiny Church at the end of the story is the same Church that, in the Old Testament, God called a filthy harlot. The beautiful, holy Church at the end of the story is the same New Testament Church that doesn’t look at all pretty this side of heaven—by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed. The Church on earth is made up of both true believers and hypocrites. It’s filled with sinners, every last member. But the Church at the end of the story has no sin in it whatsoever. Where did all the sin go?

It went to the Lamb, of course, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Christ, the holy Lamb of God, sacrificed himself on the cross for the filthy sins of his Bride-to-be, called her to repentance and faith, washed her and made her clean in the waters of Holy Baptism. As Paul says in Ephesians 5, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish..” Isn’t that just the picture John is describing here at the end of the story? A Church made up of people whose sins were all forgiven here in this life, and who have finally shed the sinful flesh entirely, so that they no longer commit any sin.

The angel goes on to describe the Bride of the Lamb, the City of God. She had a great and high wall with twelve gates (made of pearls, by the way, which is why they’re sometimes called the “pearly gates”), and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west.

Twelve gates. Twelve angels. Twelve tribes of Israel. Twelve. The number that symbolizes God’s Church. People from north, south, east and west have come into it. People from every nation, tribe, language and people have been built together into a single city, a New Jerusalem for a New Israel, made up of both Jews and Gentiles who either looked forward to the coming of Jesus the Christ before He came, or who believed the word of the apostles after He came.

And so the description continues: The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. This sounds so much like what Paul said in Ephesians 2, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.” We enter this city by faith in the blood of the Lamb, and that faith comes from hearing the message, the Word of Christ, handed down to us by the apostles of the Lamb.

At this point in the story, the point in which we live, it seems like the Church could dwindle down to nothing. But skip ahead to the end of the story. Come, says the angel. I will show you the bride of the Lamb! 12,000 furlongs wide by 12,000 furlongs long, by 12,000 furlongs high. That’s about 1,380 cubic miles—miles! That’s a city bigger than the state of Texas, and reaching far into outer space, with walls that are 144 cubits thick—that’s over 200 feet thick. But the numbers are symbolic. 12,000 is 12 x 10 x 10 x 10. 144 is 12 x 12. It’s the full number of the elect. See what God’s Word will accomplish before time is done. See this immense city coming down out of heaven and know that it was God’s Holy Spirit who built that city by the simple preaching of the Word of God, by the simple administration of the Sacraments of the Lord Jesus. See how valuable our time will have been spent, gathered here around Word and Sacrament, and studying God’s Word, and speaking God’s Word in the world.

Come, says the angel. I will show you the bride of the Lamb! I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

This is the goal. This is the prize we’re striving to win, the light at the end of the tunnel, that the Almighty Father who loved you and gave His Son for you will come and make His home with you visibly and tangibly, that the Son of God, the Lamb who gave His life for you, will come and make His home with you visibly and will shine on you with everlasting light. This is why you must keep fighting. This is why you must persevere under hardship and remain faithful until death, why you must bear the blessed cross, why you must cling to the Word and the Sacraments, because this is what’s waiting for you. This is the prize, to live under Christ in his kingdom and to serve him with everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He has risen from death and lives and reigns eternally.

How will the story end? It’s no surprise ending for us Christians. The story of this world will end in glorious victory for all who trust in Christ Jesus. But after the end of the story of earth begins a new story in the City of God. Now, that’s the real surprise, the ultimate adventure. How will that story go? You’ll just have to finish the book to find out. Amen.