Are You Ready For Awesome? (Revelation 19:6-10)
GIST: Heaven will be exuberant, Godly, and full of praise; so trust God as you get yourself ready, live with joyful hope, and let your life be defined by worship.
Today, we’re picking up in Revelation 19. After two weeks of focusing on sin, we’re going to get a peek at the most wonderful celebration of all time—the marriage supper of the Lamb. Here, we have a picture of Christians in Heaven. Jesus has come to defeat sin and rescue us from destruction so we can experience this. Let’s check it out!
“6 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. 7 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; 8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure"-- for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. 9 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." 10 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.”
I’ll try not to keep you too long this morning (even though I technically have six points ☺️) because I know many of you are probably still dragging a bit from our really awesome trunk-or-treat last night (180 Bibles distributed and an estimated 450-500 people attending!) So let me just dive straight into our gist: Heaven will be exuberant, Godly, and full of praise; so trust God as you get yourself ready, live with joyful hope, and let your life be defined by worship.
I. Heaven Will Be Exuberant
“6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude…”
Ok, so I won’t spend too much time here, but we have to at least notice this. Heaven seems to be, well→
Alive. I used the word exuberant because it’s a great word. It means “characterized by a lively energy and excitement” (Oxford Dictionary). We’re going to see with the next descriptions (roar of many waters, mighty peals of thunders) it’s not quiet. Heaven is supposed to be vibrant, so you know that means it’s ok if church is like that too, right? ☺️ I heard a pastor say something about like this early this week, and it really hit home with me. He said his earliest memories of church were uncomfortable because he was always being told to be quiet and sit still. Church was lifeless to Him. And that stereotype ends up impacting how we view Heaven. Like I’ve tried to point out several times during this study, our culture has created this quiet, yoga-meets-hospital-waiting room-meets-clean-hippie-commune picture of Heaven. The reality is something so much better. Let’s keep reminding ourselves and others of that. The best way to do that, of course, is by living with that kind of excitement now!
II. Heaven Will Be Godly
“...like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder…”
Ok, I know this point seems like a given. I mean, of course Heaven will be Godly. It probably sounds like saying closets will have clothes. But, there is something really neat about the way these loud voices sound that I wanted to point out really quickly. This is actually something I just noticed while reading over this passage this week. Look at these two descriptions. The voice of the multitude sounds like the roar of many waters and peals of thunder. Where have we heard these descriptions before?
Roar of many waters has actually been applied to the multitude in Heaven before in Revelation, as well. However, the first time we see this description was way back in chapter 1: “12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around His chest. 14 The hairs of His head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and His voice was like the roar of many waters.” Here it is describing… Jesus.
What about peals of thunder? Well that’s been used a bunch. In fact, you’ll find this description in Revelation 4:5, 8:5, 11:19, 16:18—everytime we get a picture of Jesus coming back!
So, both of these are descriptions used to describe the sound of God, and now that sound is coming out of our mouths. Here’s what hit me→ Our words—so often used to bring pain, so often taken out of context, so often taken from us by fear or discrimination or persecution— are now reflecting the very character of God! That’s the beautiful transformation of grace!
III. Heaven Will Be Full Of Praise
Look at how this verse then breaks down what our loud voices will be saying. “...crying out, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory…”
Hallelujah means praise Jehovah. And we are praising Him For The Lord God Almighty Reigns! The all powerful God is in control! So, let us rejoice—get excited, get pumped— and exult— speak highly of, draw attention to—and give glory— make His character known. This is what forever will be about!
IV. So Trust God As You Get Ready
“for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has made herself ready; 8 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 here we have a really clear picture of that Biblical balancing act that has led to about a bazillion debates and discussions→
God’s Sovereignty & Human Responsibility. First, we see that the bride has: made herself ready. This is a picture of her waiting in active and eager expectation of His coming. This echoes the Jewish tradition of the bridegroom coming to get the bride at an unknown time. He would go and prepare a place, usually in his father’s house, and would come back whenever He was done. But, they didn’t have cellphones, so the bride just needed to be ready at any moment.
On a practical note, this reflects what we talked about several weeks ago. Living prepared means living actively for Jesus now. Loving God and loving people. Seeking to know Him more and striving to show Him and His love to the world.
We can’t miss this though. The bride made herself ready…but she was also granted to clothe herself in purity. What does that mean? We’re made new. We don’t clean ourselves up, but Jesus rescues us from our sin. Righteous deeds are also “granted to us”, so even the good we do is part of the gift of God. Still, we’re granted to clothe which implies we’re still putting the clothes on. What does this mean? ☺️
Here’s the gist of this beautiful truth spread all throughout the Bible. Jesus saves us. He is 100% in control of salvation. That is such a beautiful reassurance. We don’t save ourselves. That is all Him. He then opens doors for us to walk through, but He doesn’t control our actions in a robotic way. We’re still responsible for our actions. He provides opportunities that only He can create, but we must walk with Him through those.
So we… trust and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. ☺️. Oh, and speaking of happiness. We’re actually called in this passage to→
V. Live With Joyful Hope
“9 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."”
Yeah, I know. It’s here again! We’ve seen this word “blessed” before. It refers to true and lasting happiness. Who is the recipient of this? Those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Guys, Jesus loves the whole world. Though not all will be saved, this offer is extended to any who will believe. This opportunity for lasting joy is presented to everyone.
Receiving this gift of salvation, experiencing His rescue and looking forward to His return, then points us toward lasting happiness even now. I love how Albert Barnes put this. “...In all times of persecution - in every dark hour of despondency - the church… should receive it as a solemn truth never to be doubted, that … Christ would finally prevail, and that all persecution and sorrow here would be followed by joy and triumph in heaven.” If this future is certain, we have all the reasons we need for joy in the present!
VI. And Let Your Life Be Defined By Worship
“10 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.”
Wait, John did what? It’s impossible to read this section and not notice that the apostle John just tried to worship an angel. The angel is quick to point out that he and John on are the same mission, so to focus his worship on the one true God, not the messenger.
Some commentators excuse this as the angel being such a good representative that John got all caught up in the moment and mistook the messenger for the real deal. Honestly, I completely see where they’re coming from. However, this isn’t the last time we’ll see this happen, so I think it also points to a danger we can all fall into, that is worshipping good instead of God. I think we should take this as a warning. Because of common grace, which is the gift of God, there are some really awesome things in this world. There are also some really awesome people, some of which even serve Jesus. However, nothing and no one deserves our worship except Jesus. If we put all our hope in people, no matter how good and Godly they might seem, they will let us down. And if they crumble, what happens to our faith?
Instead, our lives should be defined by worshiping the one true God. In fact, our lives, like the angels, are meant to declare Jesus and His message. The idea of the testimony of Jesus being the spirit of prophecy points to sharing the truth of Jesus (the gospel) with the world.
Alright, let’s recap with some→
TAKEAWAYS
Heaven will be exuberant.
Heaven will be Godly.
Heaven will be full of praise.
So trust God as you get ready.
Live with joyful hope.
And let your life be defined by worship!
And this seven just makes this seem more like a Revelation study. ☺️
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