"The Bride of Christ"

Good morning, church. Would you turn with me to Revelation chapter 19.

Revelation 19 · chapter mention

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.

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.

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?

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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