THE CHURCH – ITS CONSUMMATION IS RIGHTEOUS JOY – THE MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB AND THE CHURCH’S RETURN TO EARTH - PART 2 (PART 13 IN THE SERIES)
This message follows on from Part 1. It is the very last posting in this Series on the Church, the Bride.
[5]. WHO IS INVITED TO THE MARRIAGE SUPPER?
We come to the next part and I can not give a categorical answer to it. “Who are the invited guests?” {{Revelation 19:9 He said to me, “Write, ‘BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ARE INVITED TO THE MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB,’” and he said to me, “These are true words of God.”}} I will share some thoughts from others:
(a). Some say this marriage supper occurs on earth after the second coming. This is incorrect as Christ comes from heaven AFTER the supper not before it. Therefore the Bride has to be in heaven, getting rewards, getting purified and getting ready for this marriage/marriage supper. She then comes back in the Second Coming with her Head, the Lord Jesus Christ.
(b). A considerable number say the Church is distinct from all the believers of the Old Testament and includes believers only from Pentecost onwards. They say the invited guests are the Old Testament believers. If we accept that then the Old Testament saints are in a separate class so what happens to them when Christ returns at the Second Coming? I have difficulty with this view. I covered the removal from Paradise earlier. The Church comprises all from Adam to the Rapture who were saved.
Another aspect of that is this – [[ So, John the Baptist will surely be invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be invited too (Matthew 8:11). A common interpretation of this passage is that likely all the Old Testament believers and the tribulation believers will also be included as invited guests ]] I just can’t see that as a possibility. To hold that view is not to appreciate the division of covenants and time gaps and what the Church really is.
(c). Also a goodly number think all those invited are those in the Church who responded to salvation, Old and New Testament . That makes those in the Bride and the guests the same. I think that has merit. Look at this weird idea – [[ Since "no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6:44), any opportunity for salvation is by special invitation of the Father, automatically putting anyone called in the "guest" category. He must then don wedding garments or be cast out! After the choosing, sifting, and sorting, God selects a final number of 144,000, and rejects the rest. He will resurrect and change the chosen ones to spirit when Christ returns. At that point, the surviving "guests" or "invited ones" are the bride! ]] Such nonsense!
[6]. MY CONCLUSION ABOUT THE GUESTS AND THE END OF THE MESSAGE
I have no absolute certainty on this matter of guests and I am unhappy about the three explanations above, but am inclined to the third one (not the stupid part at the end). I am happy to believe those in the Bride and the guests/invitees are the same but for the time being, I will let the matter rest.
I have several good books explaining the Customs in Israel and the Holy Land. Marriage Customs in both the Old and New Testaments. However I was reading a book written by Henry Morris on that part of Revelation and he seems to have summarised parts of those customs books so I will give a long quote from it -
[[[ And again the figure of the marriage or marriage supper is used to depict that union of Christ and His Bride. The marriage of the Lamb is mentioned in verse 7 and the marriage supper in verse 9 but both the usage of these words and also the wedding customs of John’s time regarded the marriage and the marriage feast as essentially the same.
The betrothal was normally arranged by the parents long before the actual wedding. The marriage contract was effected by a payment of a dowry by the bride’s parents. Months, or maybe years later, when the bride and groom were ready for marriage, the date for the wedding feast would be set. At the appointed time, the bridegroom and his friends would set forth from his home to her home to claim his bride.
There she, his chased virgin bride, would await his coming with her own friends, all virgins, who would accompany her to the wedding supper, sumptuously provided at great expense by the father of the bridegroom. Upon the arrival of the bridegroom, the bride would be surrendered to him by her parents, and he would carry her back to his own home with great joy and anticipation. They would be followed by their friends who would then join them in the happy wedding celebration at the home of the groom’s father.
From that time on, the bride and groom were united, never to be parted until death if God’s ideal plan for marriage was accepted and followed by them then. Thus did the marriage supper consummate the marriage.
It is this a beautiful custom which apparently is in view here in this striking picture of the marriage of the Lamb. The marriage had been engaged long ago when the heavenly Father assayed to claim a Bride for his Son from the world of lost mankind. In this case, however, the Bride had no dowry to offer for her husband, and was quite unworthy of such a wedding. Therefore the Son offered to pay the price himself. He became the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world (John 1:29) and his shed blood became the purchase price that made the Bride fit to enter the home of His Father. The garments of salvation, her robes of righteousness provided by Him, replaced her own filthy rags, and that she became his espoused Bride.
It was a long time however, before He could actually go forth to claim his Bride. Finally the day had come and He received her to Himself from the home of her parents (this world) taking her with Him to the wedding. The time en route (corresponding to the time between the Rapture and the actual wedding supper) would be a time of fellowship and also a time of further cleansing and purification in His presence (corresponding to their appearance at His judgement seat.) But now at last it was almost time for the wedding.
The figure of the wedding feast is familiar in the parables of Christ. For example in the parable of Matthew 22:1-14 and also {{Luke 14:16-24 Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like and to a certain king which made a marriage for his son and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding and they would not come.”}} The major thrust of this parable of course is directed against those who refuse Christ's invitation. All have been invited to his wedding, but most people declined his gracious call. Whatever the excuse it does not satisfy the king, and he sends into the highways and hedges to find those who will come to the wedding. When the wedding feast is finally ready, the wedding was furnished with guests Matthew 22:10. Further, the host provided all with the proper garments for the wedding no matter how torn and filthy may have been their own clothing. When one man appeared at the feast without a garment, he was cast out. He, like all the others, had been invited and had rejected the formal terms of the invitation preferring instead to participate on his own terms, rather than those of the host. This is impossible of course and he will therefore be cast out with all those who had refused even to come all. ]]]
[7]. THE HONEYMOON IS NOT WHAT YOU EXPECT
Well I just had a surprise. I looked up the origin of honeymoon and there are all sorts of contradictory ideas. I think the origin might be obscure but it certainly is not biblical for the concept is rather recent. “Hony moone” is often defined as a post-wedding holiday, originally from honey, in reference to that charmed period when married love was as sweet as honey, and moon, in reference to how long it would probably last – it was assumed to wane like the moon and for roughly the same time frame, but later the sense became ‘the first month after marriage’. AND "The first month after marriage, when there is nothing but tenderness and pleasure." — Dr Samual Johnson (1709-1784), Oxford English Dictionary.
I use the term in this article because it gives a greater contrast to the account. Let us revisit the last verse of the marriage supper description, and the next two verses soon after that – {{Revelation 19:9 He said to me, “Write, ‘BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ARE INVITED to the marriage supper of the Lamb,’” and he said to me, “These are true words of God.”}}
{{Revelation 19:11-12 “I saw heaven opened and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many diadems and He has a name written upon Him which no one knows except Himself.”}}
The marriage supper concludes, and the “honeymoon begins”. This is the strangest honeymoon ever because the location is a battlefield. Immediately after the joyous events in heaven, Christ and the Bride leave heaven for the great Battle of Armageddon and then the arrival on the Mount of Olives. The Bride will never be set aside “while the Lord goes about His business”. She is bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh and will be with Him always so where the Head of the Church is, so too will the Bride be there. Do you remember this - {{John 14:3 “and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself that WHERE I AM, THERE YOU MAY BE ALSO,”}}
This great battle of Armageddon is the honeymoon where Christ wages battle with all the armies of the world who will come to obliterate Israel from the face of the world. The location is the Valley of Jezreel. I have written on that a lot of times. The remainder of Revelation 19 sets that battle out, along with Zechariah 12 and 14, and also the Gog/Magog war of Ezekiel 38 and 39. Immediately after the defeat of Antichrist and the False Prophet and all the armies, the Lord continues His descent to earth in the Second Coming to arrive in Israel – {{Zechariah 14:3-4 “Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. And in that day HIS FEET WILL STAND ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south.”}}
On His return, His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives exactly as they did when He stood there before His ascension, after which the angels said that Jesus would come in just the same way as they watched Him go into heaven – from the Mount of Olives.
Zechariah also says this – {{Zechariah 14:5 “And you will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD, my God, will come, AND ALL THE HOLY ONES WITH HIM!”}}
The “holy ones” who will come with Him are the angels and the Bride, the Church. Yes, the Church will come from heaven with the Lord to Armageddon. They leave the defeat at Jezreel and go straight to the Mount of Olives. What a honeymoon that will be! The Church and the Lord will never be apart.
[8]. THERE IS ONE LAST THING TO DO – THE CHURCH ETERNAL
When the Church returns to this earth with the Lord at the Second Coming, she will be with the Lord in such a close union. The Church is perfected and all the saints making up the Church as living stones are purified and sinless. Can we imagine that! Christ returns to reign for one thousand years. That is the Millennium. Do not deny that as churches do, or spiritualise it away. That is a disgrace to the inspiration of the bible. The bible is clear about it. So should you be too.
Just after the Rapture of Revelation 4:1 we see the redeemed in heaven worshipping the Lamb in chapters 4 and 5, but we have this verse – {{Revelation 5:9-10 and they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals, for You were slain and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, AND THEY WILL REIGN UPON THE EARTH.”}}
Jesus Christ, with His Bride, will reign over the whole earth – {{Zechariah 14:9 “AND THE LORD WILL BE KING OVER ALL THE EARTH. In that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name, the only one.”}} AND WE WILL REIGN WITH HIM UPON THE EARTH. Just match that Revelation verse with the Zechariah verse. The saints who were martyred in the Tribulation will be resurrected and they will also be reigning with Christ. {{Revelation 20:6 “Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection. Over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and WILL REIGN WITH HIM FOR A THOUSAND YEARS.”}}
[9]. WHAT IS THE ETERNAL HOME OF THE CHURCH?
The bible is clear about this. It will be so glorious. It will be the New Jerusalem also called the Bride – {{Revelation 21:9-10 “One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, came and spoke with me saying, “Come here, I SHALL SHOW YOU THE BRIDE, the wife of the Lamb,” and he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God”}} The start of Chapter 21 is the creation of the new heaven and earth, sinless, pristine, eternal. Then the New Jerusalem descends from heaven. The description of the New Jerusalem is considerable and takes up most of chapters 21 and 22, but I don’t want to proceed any more with that. Read it and marvel at what God has prepared for His Church. The New Jerusalem is equated with the Bride, so glorious will it be.
The length and breadth and height of this “cube” City is 1500 miles or 2500 kilometres. Our tiny brains can’t fathom that. How God loves the Church! God will dwell among His people and the Church will ever be near Him forever. Amen!
[10]. THE FINAL INVITATION IN THE BIBLE
To end this study on the Marriage Supper I will give this verse right near the end of the bible – {{Revelation 22:17 THE SPIRIT AND THE BRIDE SAY, “COME,” and let the one who hears say, “Come,” and let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.”}}
This is a gospel invitation from the Bride. I want to talk to anyone who reads this but is not a Christian or has never come to the Lord, repenting of your sins to receive Him into your life. The time is very short. The Lord comes for His Church in the Rapture and you will miss out and go into the Tribulation, most likely to perish. It will be a terrible time.
Christ died for your sins on the cross to remove you from the judgement of God. He loves you and desires your salvation. Please come to the Saviour and get saved. Then you will be a precious member of the Bride and you will have all those wonderful things we spoke about in this study. God’s salvation is without cost but at great cost to Jesus at the cross. Today is the day of salvation.
Just to close this whole study I have two sections. They are self evident.
[11]. WHAT THE CHURCH IS NOT!
1. Is not Israel or spiritual Israel as reformers say and amillennnialists say.
2. Is not the group of all believers from Adam through to the new heavens and new earth.
3. Is not under the control of a Vicar of Christ or Pope. It has one Head.
4. Is NOT built on the Apostle Peter or on the confession of Peter.
5. Is not the property of man, or a minister, pastor or anyone. It is “MY Church”.
6. Is not destined for judgment and suffering in the Tribulation, not even in the first 3.5 years (mid-tribulationists). Some say the first half of the 7 years is peaceful but that is very wrong; it’s just that the 2nd half will be worst. “Jesus our Deliverer from the coming wrath”.
[12]. SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU TO THINK ABOUT OR TO DISCUSS:
1. How does God minister to, and provide for the members of His Church?
2. What are the functions of the Holy Spirit in connection with the Church, the Body of Christ?
3. What’s the connection of the Word of God (bible) in regards to His Church?
4. Which of the Gifts have a direct bearing on the Church?
5. What is your Gift? How can you discover that?
That ends this full study on the Church. I trust before the Lord that something here might have strengthened you; given more insight; encouraged you, and increased your desire for the bible.
God bless you all.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
