City Life Starter

I. The Word: Revelation 19:1-10

1 After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting:

“Hallelujah!

Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,

2 for true and just are his judgments.

He has condemned the great prostitute

who corrupted the earth by her adulteries.

He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”

3 And again they shouted:

“Hallelujah!

The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever.”

4 The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried:

“Amen, Hallelujah!”

5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying:

“Praise our God,

all you his servants,

you who fear him,

both great and small!”

6 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.

7 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.

8 Fine linen, bright and clean,

was given her to wear.”

(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)

9 Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”

10 At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers and sisters who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For it is the Spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus.”

The worst movies, to me, are the movies that have way too many plotlines and not enough time to develop any of them. It feels like the director took the script, loaded into a shotgun and pulled the trigger, exploding the discombobulated story onto a story board. The viewer is then left to put the pieces together and figure out which story to follow. I think many people read the bible like this and can easily get confused or frustrated. With so many stories and different writing styles, if you are not taught well, you can miss the constant theme and “one story” of all of scripture.

We have gone to great lengths to try to help our church read the bible as one story pointing to Jesus throughout. As you read Revelation this should be no different. Revelation, in a way, resolves all the plotlines of the Bible, human history, and your life. It points ultimately to our savior Jesus who will perfectly restore all the brokeness.

Before we look at these scriptures check out what the ESV study bible says about the theme of the book of Revelation:

“Revelation unveils the unseen spiritual war in which the church is engaged: the cosmic conflict between God and his Christ on the one hand, and Satan and his evil allies (both demonic and human) on the other. In this conflict, Jesus the Lamb has already won the decisive victory through his sacrificial death, but his church continues to be assaulted by the dragon, in its death-throes, through persecution, false teaching, and the allure of material affluence and cultural approval. By revealing the spiritual realities lying behind the church’s trials and temptations during the time between Christ’s first and second comings, and by dramatically affirming the certainty of Christ’s triumph in the new heaven and earth, the visions granted to John both warn the church and fortify it to endure suffering and to stay pure from the defiling enticements of the present world order.”

 Now, as we look at Revelation 19 we see three key figures: the Prostitute, the Lamb, and the bride. The protitute is always a perfect representation of what sin truly is in our relationship with God. The constant allures to gratify ourselves and run from our true lover (God) to someone or something else is like a spouse running to a prostitute. It is very strong language, but used on purpose to show the depth of how God views us turning from Him.

You see, if we only view God as a king we will be afraid to betray Him as a servant alone. If we only view Him as a shepherd we will fear missing out on His care when we wander. However, if we view Him as a spouse, as His bride, we understand how our betrayal hurts His very heart.

Imagine a woman who is a wife, and she has a husband. She finds her husband is spending every evening over at another woman’s house conversing about life, sharing their dreams, talking about their problems. Every night, hours and hours. He’s also taking long trips around the world with her.

So finally the wife confronts him. He says, “I don’t understand what you’re so upset about. I’m legally your husband. I pay the mortgage. You have my name. You have my money. I do my duty. So what’s the problem?” What the wife will say is, “But I don’t have your heart. If I don’t have your heart, what kind of marriage is a marriage that I have all the other things and some other woman has the title to the deepest affections and love of your heart?”

This is where the idea of a prostitute hits home and takes sin to a much deeper relational place then we would’ve ever gone. No other religion goes this far, but Scripture speaks of this constantly.

This wedding feast and marriage imagery is more than just an analogy, it is how God really views our relationship. Caught right in the middle of this imagery is a lamb (the solution to our problem). This lamb speaks of the blood that has conquered this great prostitute of sin and corruption. This lamb is Christ’s sacrifice for all of us for the forgiveness of our sins for those who believe. Because of Him we can see God’s great love and rescue mission of His bride. To win and renew our hearts to Him while we were astray in adulterous relationships. Not because we are so lovely, but to make us lovely. A God who would bring this type of restoration and love deserves our everything.

So here’s the question: Does He have your everything? Do you see God as mostly a king? A shepherd? Or do you know Him deeply and intimately as a spouse with all of the marriages incredible implications?

Revelation points us to Him as the great conqueror and restorer of our true hearts desire. Thank you Lord for not only showing us the problem, but providing the solution! That emboldens our own thundering Hallelujah as we join the chorus of those before and after us.