Revelation 19: 6-9
What motivated the Holy Spirit to visit the aged apostle John on Patmos and give him the revelation that became the conclusion to our cannon of scripture? What are we to do with it? There is not much practical application here unless it is to make sure your wardrobe is predominantly white. (There are lot of people dressed in white in this book!)
In The Middle With Mystery we often wade off from the shoreline a bit before we enter into much perceived mystery. In Revelation, one step and we are in way over our heads….
And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” …….Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.
It is ironic that I happen to be sitting at a friend’s desk. He happens to be named John and he happens to be an apostle in the network of prophetic and intercessory believers he serves. I am very big on divine-coincidence so I glance to my right and on his shelf, I see a book which is an answer to my initial question. It is Storm Warning by Billy Graham. He also wrote Approaching Hoofbeats: The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse.
Billy Graham is typical of all God’s great saints. While the great harlot of Babylon has seduced the souls of men into an orgy with this world, the great ones are intoxicated with the things not of this earth. The souls of all men are haunted by the notion that there may be more to life than meets the eye. The souls of God’s saints have gained the clarity of faith to see and increasingly focus on the invisible kingdom of God. The book of Revelation is grade “A” nutrition to the faith-infected soul looking toward the “more” of God.
Revelation even adds particulars to the mysteries; the Marriage Supper of the Lamb being among them.
Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then 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 am thinking now of Paul, as another encouragement as to what we are to do with the book of Revelation. To Timothy, Paul’s son in the faith, he says……
I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.
We know Paul considered his flawless resumé and his pedigree to be as dung, so was it his reputation that he had entrusted to God? I am more inclined to think that Paul saw everything that he was and might have been as buried in Christ and that he was raised up into new life with eyes of faith to anticipate a future of glory not just the applause of men. I believe Paul was attracted to the idea that Jesus was due considerable honor that he had not received on earth. I believe Paul and all God’s authentic saints are pining to see their King honored and worshipped in a manner befitting One of His stature. At the very least, the Lamb’s Marriage Supper should include this agenda item.
The real problem for us, in accepting an invitation to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb is our wardrobe. Really! What is a person to wear to this gala of cosmic import? Well, as I’ve already said, it needs to be just the right shade of white. We might think some of our whites would look nice at this function but if they are shaded in the very least by our works, they will not get us in the door. What looks like a shade of white to us is grotesquely stained to God. We must look in our wardrobes and see if we can find those garments of white that were given to us by the Lamb who was slain. This is will be the only acceptable attire for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
Some will want to protest that our attire for the party should be composed by the deeds of our Christian service. While this is true in a sense this needs to be clarified. The acts referred to here are a particular type of acts. In fact hey are the acts born of a particular type of faith. Paul again is our reference point. Of his own labors he says….
For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me………for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
For Paul, it was no longer he who lived but Christ lived in him and through him. Like all saints Paul had to learn how to labor in the yoke of Christ, how to carry the burden so that it was light. The life of a saint is a mysterious experiential affair. Precise and detailed instructions on how to dress would only subvert the process of making ourselves ready, of clothing ourselves in fine linen, bright and clean.
There is no way into the Marriage Supper of the Lamb other than through the door which is Christ Himself. Jesus has been sending invites out to his people for centuries but we know from the parables that few respond. How then can we even imagine that we would get in? It is simple but it is not easy. It involves responding to the invitation in the right way.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.
I believe those in attendance at that grand event will be those who have been availing themselves by faith of the door that Jesus opened into the the Holy of Holies by way of His death and resurrection. Because they had found Christ in themselves and diligently stewarded that mysterious reality through by resting in Him, their lives produced those kinds of acts that were referenced as the righteous acts of the saints.
Father, may we hear afresh Your invitation to our hearts to draw near. May we discover how to stir afresh the gift of Christ within that we may live out of Your limitless life, escaping the restrictions of our time bound and diluted thinking. Through You and by You and for You Lord; may our hearts be made ready with praise. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to You. May our voices blend and add to the sounds of many waters saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Amen.