Dear Brothers and Sisters,

You are invited to come to the Wednesday evening prayer meeting and pray for the church (and other things -- 7:00 PM Wed., LHF time).

Text: Rev. 19:6-9

"Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: 'Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.' (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) Then the angel said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!'" And he added, "These are the true words of God."

Who is the great multitude? What's all the shouting about? It's like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder. What's going on? I think this has to be the same multitude that rejoiced at the fall of the fall of Babylon the great, the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth in verses 1 through 5. Surely that multitude included the angels of heaven ("Rejoice over her, O heaven!" says Rev. 18:20a) and the Old Testament saints ("Rejoice, saints and apostles and prophets" - Rev. 18:20b) -- probably also the great cloud of witnesses of Hebrews chapter 11 (see Heb. 12:1).

Why is this multitude rejoicing now? John describes the multitude rejoicing over God's judgment of Babylon in verses 1 through 5. In verse 6, he says that he hears the same sound again -- like a great multitude. They are rejoicing because they have very, very much to rejoice about. They are praising God -- Hallelujah -- because he is God Almighty and because he still reigns. He will always reign. Everything exists because he is almighty and because he is reigning. We have life because he is almighty and because he is reigning.

But this multitude is especially rejoicing because the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Isn't that us -- the Church? We are the bride. Jesus is the bridegroom and the bride belongs to the bridegroom (John 3:29). It is upon us that the fulfillment of the ages has come. (Did you know that God made the ages? -- that he made history happen? -- and that he recorded it for us, so that we could learn from it? 1 Cor. 10:11 says that God's judgments of the Israelites in the desert "happened and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.") Yes, we are the bride. We belong to Jesus. There's going to be a wedding supper -- a great celebration -- the wedding supper of the Lamb (v9). What's this wedding supper all about?

We do a lot of eating and drinking now. We have fellowship together and we celebrate together. How can you explain what this wedding supper will be like in terms of anything we experience now? Sometimes you don't want to go to weddings or banquets because you don't know very many of the people that will be there -- or to awards banquets because there will be long boring speeches that you have to listen to. Maybe you go just because you feel obligated -- so as not to hurt friends or family members.

On the other hand, one of my favorite things that I can remember from the past was going to the Golden Lamb restaurant (interestingly enough) for dinner with my family. We did that a number of times over 20 years ago. We would eat and then sit and talk about all kinds of things until they kicked us out some time after closing. One time we had to drive all the way there (normally about an-hour-and-a-half drive) on slippery snow and all the way back on polished ice. It was hard on the driver and took much more than an hour and a half each way but I thought it was worthwhile anyway.

Still, there is nothing in this life to which we can compare the wedding supper of the Lamb. You are just going to have to multiply whatever joyous occasion you may have experienced in this life by a few orders of magnitude to get an idea.. All of us there will be one family. Jesus is the bridegroom. We will be there with him. He is the one who created us, along with everything else. When we rebelled against him, he made himself to be one of us so that, as the Lamb of God, he could be sacrificed -- be punished in our place with the punishment we deserved for our rebellion. He loves us and saved us. We will be there with him.

Verse 7b says: "For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear."

This is what the great multitude will be saying about us. First, by the time this happens, we will have made ourselves ready -- "the bride has made herself ready." Secondly, fine linen, bright and clean (which stands for the righteous acts of the saints) will have been given to us. All this will have happened BEFORE the wedding celebration. We are NOW preparing ourselves for this celebration. God is now giving us white linen. He is GIVING us righteous acts -- the foremost of which is to believe the one he sent -- Jesus. We believe.

When we see him face-to-face, we will be like him. Everyone who has this hope purifies himself, just as he is pure. You can't help it. Because it is he, himself, who is preparing his bride for the wedding celebration. John's vision is of us. We are the bride. Praise the Lord and give him the glory!

Come on Wednesday and pray for the Church. The Church is the overflowing abundance, the wealth beyond measure and the full and perfect nature of God who fulfills and completes everything in every way.

Grace and peace, Dean Svoboda

PS: You can also bring you own prayer requests and pray for them with your brothers and sisters in Christ (i.e., with the Church). Bring your requests to God with thanksgiving and receive his peace.

PPS: Pass this invitation along to others in your household or to someone who doesn't have an e-mail address in the LHF directory