“Saved the best for
last!”
The words “blessed are they” or “you are blessed” appear sixty times in
the Bible. Just the word “blessed” by itself appears two hundred and seventeen
times. Many times the context is repetitious, but the fact remains that if you
are a Christian, a true Christ believer and follower, a born-again and Spirit
filled disciple, you are blessed in many ways! We have looked at some of those
blessings in the last three chapters, but as the old saying goes, God has saved
the best for last! These last blessings come from the last three chapters of
the Book of Revelation, and as wonderful and awesome as all of our earthly
blessings are now in this life, they pale in comparison to our eternal
blessings to come.
To that end, I want to cover the following scriptures;
Revelation 19:9 – “Then the angel
said to me, write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!”
Revelation 20:5-6 – “This is the first
resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection.”
Revelation 20:14 – “Then death and hades
were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake
of fire is the second death!”
Revelation 21:8 – “But, the cowardly,
the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who
practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars – they will be consigned to
the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is
the second death!”
Revelation 22:14 – “Blessed are those who
wash their robes, that they may have the
right to the tree of life, and may go through the gates into the city.”
The Marriage Supper of the Lamb
The marriage supper of
the Lamb is a subject greatly misunderstood, not because of erroneous teaching,
but because it is almost neglected in preaching today. The marriage supper of
the Lamb is after the Rapture and following the judgment seat of Christ, where
the members of the church will be rewarded for their faithful service. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat
of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things
done while in the body, whether good or bad.” (2 Cor. 5:10)
A marriage will take
place. The church, "the bride of Christ" and our Lord Jesus Christ
(the bridegroom) will be officially married in heaven. While the earth is
suffering through the last throes of the Tribulation, the church will enjoy a
heavenly wedding. And then a feast! 1
Thessalonians 4:16-18 – “For the Lord himself will come down from
heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with
the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise
first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught
up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we
will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with
these words.”
The marriage supper of
the Lamb was one of the themes on which the Lord Jesus loved to dwell. In many
of His stories or parables, He spoke of marriage suppers. For instance, in the
parable of the ten virgins, He told about the preparation for the coming of the
bridegroom. Matthew 22:1-14 – “Jesus
spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is
like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his
servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to
come, but they refused to come. (Israelites) Then he sent some more
servants (Prophets) and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I
have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and
everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ But they paid no attention
and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized
his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He
sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he
said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did
not deserve to come. So, go to the street corners and invite to the
banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and
gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the
good, (Gentile and Israelite believers) and the wedding hall was filled
with guests.”
More on this next week...
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