What is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, and who is the Bridegroom

Reverence to our God and Savior Jesus Christ

The lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold.  Come, behold the works of the Lord,  who has wrought desolation’s in the earth.  He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariots with fire.  “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exulted among the nations, I will be exulted in the earth”.  The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold.

The marriage supper of the Lamb is when Christ shouts and the trumpet sounds, all those that belong to Christ arise.  All the dead saints shall rise first, then all that are alive shall rise to meet Christ in the air.  At this time our new bodies come out of the grave and join our spirit to reunite them with Christ.  This is the end, but when did the marriage supper begin, and who is it for in scripture?

Matthew 22:2-14  “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king, who gave a wedding feast for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come.  Again he sent our more slaves saying, tell those who have been invited, behold, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast.  But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them.  But the king was enraged, and sent his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and set their cities on fire.  Then he said to the slaves, the wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.  Go to the main highway, ans as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast.  And those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests.  But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw there a man not dressed in wedding clothes, friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes, and he was speechless?  The king said to his servants, bind him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness; in that place there shall be weeping, and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen”.

Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God

Who are the slaves that were sent out to invite the people to the wedding feast.  Paul said that he was a slave of Christ.  Ephesians 6:6, “not by way of eye service, as men pleasers, but slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart”.  Also James and Peter said they were bond servants of Christ.  Bond servants can also be translated slaves.  There are negative connotations of being a slave.  In the days of the Greeks and Romans, slaves had no freedom, no rights, they could not own anything, they had no legal recourse in the courts, they could not give testimony as a witness in the courts, they had no citizenship, they were told what to do, not asked.  Also slaves were not Greek or Roman at the time.  In the old testament, Israelite’s could sell themselves into slavery to their country men to help the family survive.  But after seven years they had to be let go by the laws of God.  Being slave to Christ gives everybody freedom in Christ.  In Christ we are not a slave to sin, we are counted worthy to be called a son, as a son we are counted as righteous, as a son we can appeal to Jesus for intervention in our behalf, we will even get rewards because we have exercised out faith to help others.  Yes, as a slave for Christ, our work for Christ will not go unrewarded.

I am sorry to say that there are slaves is this day and age somewhere in the world.  Is it right, no, but Jesus will free the slave and deal with the slave holder, I do not know when, but Jesus knows.  It makes no difference what color of the skin is, Christ says that we are slaves to sin.  The only way we can get rid of it is to put our faith, mind and heart into the hands of Jesus.  To change the way man thinks and believe what Christ said in the new testament and live and treat all people as Christ would treat them.  Christ wants us to conform to His ways and love for people, not the worlds ways.   “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”  Romans 12:2   Gods mercy has made room for you too.  By being a slave of Christ and believing in Jesus, we all have the heavenly reward to come,  Christ said, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male or female; for you are all one in Christ.”  Galatians 3:28   We all have two natures within us, the carnal, and the spiritual.  We have a choice,  which do you choose.

What kind of slave is Paul talking about, slave of Christ.  When Saul met the Lord Jesus on the way to Damascus, Jesus ask him “why are you persecuting me”.”  Then Saul was taken into Damascus and spent three days blind.  The Lord sent Ananias to Saul to pray for him to regain his sight.  Ananias said to the Lord “I know what this man is doing to the church”.  The lord said to Ananias, “go pray for Saul and lay hands on him so he could receive the Holy Spirit,”  “for I will show him what he  must suffer for my name sake.”  Acts 9:16   Saul is going to be my instrument before the gentiles, kings and the sons of Israel.  Saul’s name was changed from Saul to Paul.  Saul was the great persecutor of the church and now Paul is going to be one of Christ disciples, and wrote 13 of the 27 new testament books.  Paul had three missionary journeys that took Paul further and further west all the way to Rome.  What did Paul suffer for Christ, in his quest to take the gospel of Christ to the gentile world.  Five times (5) I received from the Jews thirty-nine (39) lashes.  Three (3) times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was ship wreaked, a night and a day I spent in the deep.  I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.  II Corinthians 11:24-25  As a believer. I had a choice if I wanted to believe or not.  Eleven of the disciples were personally by Christ, but Paul was drafted into service.  Paul accepted it an honor to suffer for Christ.  When we start to serve Christ, we do not know what the walk will be like.  We do not know what Christ will give us to endure.  Are we willing to suffer for the sake of the gospel of Christ.  I had never looked at or thought about this before, me being a slave of Christ.  I would wear that name proudly for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Back to the question, who are the slaves who were sent out?  John the Baptist, Christs disciples, missionaries, pastors, evangelists and others who give their testimony to others, you and me.  The king sent his armies to destroy those murderers, in AD 70 the Romans conquered Israel, many died, the city walls were torn down and burned.  The man dressed in the wedding cloths was a non-believer.  Only non-believers are cast out into outer darkness.

Matthew 25:1-13  This parable is about the ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out  to meet the bridegroom.  The bridegroom is Christ.  The bible says that five were foolish and five were prudent.  The five foolish virgins took their lamps with no extra oil, and five prudent virgins took their lamps with extra oil.  Now while the bridegroom was delayed, they all got drowsy and began to sleep.  But at midnight there was a shout, behold the bridegroom! come out to meet Him.  “Then all those virgins rose, and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish said to the prudent, give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.  But the prudent answered answered saying, no there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.”  And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with Him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut.  Later the other five virgins came, saying Lord, Lord, open up to us, but He answered and said, truly I say to you, I do not know you.  Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.  Jesus also said that if you are in the field, when you hear the shout, do not go back to your house and get your cloak.

My Pastor Ron said once, live like Christ is coming tomorrow, that way when He does come, you will be ready.  A disciple plans ahead to be prepared.  It is a discipline that keeps a person wanting to do better to be ready.  Five virgins were prepared, the other five were only somewhat prepared, but only some what prepared is like not being prepared at all, as you can read the response from Christ.  Christ wants us to believe Him, when He said we do not know the hour or the day in which He comes.  We are supposed to be watching and waiting for His return.

What happens to our bodies until the shout and the trumpet sounds.  When we die, our bodies turn back to dust, and our spirit will go back to be with Christ.

Genesis 3:19  By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and dust you shall return.

Ecclesiastes 12:7  Then the dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord Jesus Christ.

We shall meet Him in the air

Revelation 19:7-9  Let us rejoice and be glade and give glory to Him, for the marriage supper of the lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.  And 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.  And 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 the true words of God”.

The marriage supper of the lamb is at the beginning of the thousand year reign of Christ.  This is called the first resurrection.  This is all the believers who have been raised in Christ.  Also remember that after the resurrection of Christ it says the He descended and then He ascended to the Father.  He descended into into the lower parts of the earth where the old testament saints had been kept until His resurrection.  ow their spirits are with the other saints that have passed on before us.

I Corinthians 3:10-15 “according to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it.  But each man be careful how he builds upon it.  For no man lay a foundation other than the one ehich is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold,silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed by fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each mans work.  If any man’s work for which he has built upon remains, he shall receive a reward.  If any mans work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.”

II Corinthians 5:10  “For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good, or bad.

Benefits of the resurrection and the rewards of the Bridegroom, our bodies will be like His body

II Corinthians 5:1  For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  II Corinthians 5:6  Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.

Luke 24:15 Christ appeared as a man.  And it came about while they were conversing and discussing, Jesus Himself approached, and began traveling with them.

Luke 24:39  Christ used His nail pierced hands and feet to show Thomas that He was alive, and He ate food.  “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself, touch and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.  Christ asked if they had any food?  And they gave Him a piece of broiled fish.

Luke 24:51,31 “And it came about that while He was blessing them, He departed from them.”  When it says He departed, He just vanished.  Just as the two on the road to Emmaus, He came up on the road and started conversing with them.  When their eyes where opened at dinner, they recognized Him and He vanished.

John 11:25-26  Jesus said to Her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.  Do you believe this?

Jeremiah 17:10  “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds.”

Jeremiah 32:19  “Great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, giving to everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds.”

I Corinthians 15:52  “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trump will sound, and the dead shall rise imperishable, and we all shall be changed.”  There are three views of the twinkling of an eye.  The first is 11,100 hundredth of a second.  The second says that it is 8.23 milliseconds, and the third says it is 5.23 milliseconds.  It looks like it will be very, very fast.  We will go from being a dust body to imperishable. From a corruptible body to incorruptible.  It will be a transformation to a new body that  will never decay or be diseased.  Our sole focus  will be seeing the face of God and worshiping Him in eternity.

Believers are given five crowns in their different walks and struggles with the Lord Jesus Christ

1. The crown of righteousness.  2 Timothy 2:8   In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will reward to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.

2. Crown of rejoicing.  I Thessalonians 2:19  For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming.  For you are our glory and joy.

3. Crown of life.  James 1:12  Blessed is a man who preserves under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

4. Incorruptible Crown.  I Corinthians 9:24-25  Do you not know those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize?  Run in such a way that you may win.  And everyone who competes in the games exercise self-control in all things.  They then do it to receive a perishable wreath (crown), but we a imperishable.

5. The crown of glory.  I Peter 5:1-4  Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; nor yet lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.  And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.  Amen

Have you put your trust in Jesus,  He is waiting to hear from you, and then you will hear from Him and have a personal relationship with the one that loves you most.