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 (Revelation 19:7).
And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9a).”
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price (Revelation 22:17).
It is easy to complain about the church. As a pastor I sometimes feel as if I’m heading up the Complaint Department. Don’t misunderstand my sentiments, complaints are often valid. If you read through the words of Christ spoken to the seven churches of Asia found in Revelation 2 and 3, you would find all kinds of problems: lovelessness, false belief, hypocrisy, open immorality and much more. Yet we need not look at the church of the first century; we only need to look at Great Valley (no you don’t need to send in your list to make your point).
Knowing the flaws as we do, we likely wonder how the church could ever be described as the bride of Christ, but it is. We might ask the same question Dennis Johnson asks: “What groom could find beautiful a bride so covered with blemishes?” But amazingly Jesus does. As the apostle Paul tells us, Jesus died out of love for us, so that he might present us one day as a bride without blemish (Ephesians 5:25-27).
One day we will rejoice, for the great marriage will finally have arrived (see Revelation 19:7 above). The marriage supper of the Lamb will be far more glorious than any wedding banquet this world has known; Revelation 19:9 hints at this and Isaiah 25:6-9 describes it in more detail. Because we know that all who are invited to this banquet are “blessed,” then we are prompted by the Spirit to cry out to a thirsty world to come and drink of the water of life without price (Revelation 22:17). We have great news to share, and Revelation gives us reason to share it with those who are desperately looking for love in all the wrong places.