The wedding day will finally arrive

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 15

Revelation 19:1-10

It’s time to rejoice again this evening, not only because of the content of the text before us, but also because there’s nothing here that’s difficult to understand. It’s all very straightforward and full of joy. First, the true Church will rejoice in God’s judgment against the false Church (which we heard about last week). And then, the Church will rejoice even more. Because the Bridegroom soon will call us, and the great wedding day will finally arrive for the Lamb and His wife.

I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia!”

The great multitude in heaven, made up of both saints and angels, cries out, Alleluia! We’re so used to singing that word. It’s hard to believe this is the only time the word is used in the whole New Testament, four times here in this chapter. It’s a Hebrew word, Hallelujah!, used throughout the Psalms, but always just translated, “Praise the LORD!” Praise Yah, Yahweh, the only true God, the God who inspired the Holy Scriptures and who is described in the Holy Scriptures! John’s use of the Hebrew word of praise here in Revelation shows the connection between the Old Testament Church and the New, that it’s really one great Church—all believers in Christ, either before He came or after.

Why is heaven praising the LORD? Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.”

Glory, honor, and power belong to the Lord our God. But also “salvation.” He saves His people from their enemies. He saved us from sin, from death, and from the devil by Christ’s atoning death and by applying it to us through Baptism and faith. We already praise our God for that, day after day after day. But on the Last Day, the Church will praise Him for saving us from the false Church, the apostate Church, the great harlot, the Antichrist within the Church who “corrupted the earth with her fornication.” While pretending to teach the Christian faith, the apostate Church actually leads people to commit spiritual fornication, to trust in all sorts of false gods and a false version of Christ. Last week we heard about the final destruction of Babylon. Tonight we hear the Church’s response to that destruction. It’s one of joy and celebration. Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!

Ironically, there are two extensions of the Antichristian Church that often teach opposing lessons, both of which are wrong. On the one hand, you have people within the Church who are vindictive, who love to mock and ridicule and take haughty pleasure in the downfall of those whom they consider to be enemies. They may even seek to take revenge themselves against those who have wronged them. That’s wrong and unchristian. It’s a false version of Christianity. On the other hand, you have others who are so wishy-washy, so “evangelical” that they reject any notion of vengeance, any idea that God will actually punish His enemies. That’s equally wrong and unchristian. Here in this reading, we have the truth presented very simply. The saints and angels in heaven have been praying for judgment and for God’s vengeance on those who persecuted the saints. Back in chapter six the souls of the martyrs were crying out, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Here in chapter 19, their question is finally answered. God will judge and take vengeance on the great harlot. And the Church in heaven will not mourn over it. It will rejoice, not arrogantly, not spitefully, but justly. Because God is just and demands justice. The only way to escape His just judgment is to take refuge in Christ Jesus, but the Antichristian Church taught people not to take refuge in Christ alone, and so the true Church in heaven will agree with God’s judgment against the Church that deceived people into disbelieving in His Son.

And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying, “Amen! Alleluia!” Then a voice came from the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!”

The twenty-four elders, you recall, represented the whole Church of the Old and New Testaments, and the four living creatures represent the teachers of the Church. The Church in heaven praised God for judging the harlot, and the whole Church in heaven and on earth responds, Amen! Alleluia! The Last Day will not be a day when Christians are mourning over the destruction of the wicked. In the perfection of holiness, we will be rejoicing over the destruction of everyone who stood against our God.

And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!

More praise and rejoicing on the Last Day, even louder than before. Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! That is, He alone reigns. Now, for a time, the devil has a kingdom here on earth. He is the “prince of this world.” Now, for a time, darkness reigns, and the kingdom of the Antichrist prospers, and the Church on earth has to put up with living in enemy territory. But not forever. In the end, God alone will reign, and the devil and his allies will have no power at all.

The believers continue, Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.”

This is the long-awaited wedding banquet that Jesus talked about in His parables, the feast that the Father prepared for His Son, the wedding hall where the ten virgins waited with their lamps to receive the Bridegroom and His bride, the holy Christian Church. This is the resurrection of the dead, when Christ comes to take His believers to Himself in heaven. John again refers to Jesus here as the Lamb, the sacrificial Lamb who shed His blood in order to cleanse us from our sins so that we could stand beside Him forever in this perfect “marriage.”

St. Paul talks about this marriage 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.

John pictures that spotlessness and holiness here, too: And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. What are the “righteous acts of the saints”? That’s not a good translation, actually. Literally, it’s the “righteousnesses of the saints.” The saints, believers in Christ, have a twofold righteousness. We have the righteousness of Christ that is given us in Holy Baptism, by faith, through the forgiveness of our sins. That is the righteousness by which we are justified. But we also have the beginning of righteousness that we call “sanctification,” righteous thoughts and intentions, righteous words and deeds, patiently bearing the cross and enduring the suffering that comes with being a Christian in an unchristian world. The Church will be forever dressed in that twofold righteousness, fine linen that God gave to her and enabled her to wear, not that she manufactured herself.

Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.”

Blessed are those who are called! Now, when Jesus told that parable about the wedding banquet, many were called, but few were chosen, because many who were called didn’t want to come! But here the angel telling John to write down this trustworthy saying of God is talking about those who are called and who actually come, who actually believe in Christ and persevere in faith until the end. Blessed are they!, he says. Because this marriage supper of the Lamb is the best thing you can imagine, better than the best thing you can imagine. This is Paradise. This is what “going to heaven” is all about, the coming together of all believers of all times with Christ, the Lamb of God, our Savior, our Redeemer, and our Lord.

And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brothers who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God!

John isn’t allowed to worship the created angel. Only God is to be worshiped. We should view the holy angels as fellow servants of John and of “his brothers who have the testimony of Jesus.” In a direct sense, that refers to the ministers who have been entrusted with preaching about Jesus as witnesses. In that regard, heavenly angels and human “angels” have the same task, to proclaim, not our own ideas, but the Word of God, and to proclaim, in particular, the Lord Jesus—His life, His words and teachings, His compassion, His atoning death, and His glorious resurrection. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. That is, it’s proclaiming Jesus that is the heart and soul of prophecy, of all proclamation about God. If the preaching doesn’t revolve around Jesus, then it isn’t Christian preaching at all.

As we struggle with the world in these last days, prepare for the celebration that’s coming. It isn’t quite time yet for the full-blown, untainted rejoicing to begin. It isn’t quite time yet to celebrate. But we can anticipate the celebration, because it’s coming. When we know something awful is coming, we certainly know how to dread it ahead of time. But we know that something wonderful is coming: God’s final victory over the Antichrist and the marriage supper of the Lamb. Knowing that, let us continue to hear the call to attend the wedding supper of the Lamb. Let the certainty of that supper get you through the difficult days ahead. And let us not allow anything in this world to get in the way of our arrival at that feast. Amen.