READY FOR THE WEDDING

 

The church is the Bride of Christ. There is coming a day when the Bridegroom claims His Beloved and we are joined with Him forever!  Until that day, the Bride is to be getting ready.  The wedding garment is “fine linen, clean and bright…the righteous acts of the saints.”

It is the pastor’s task as part of the Bride to prepare himself. It is easier to preach it than to practice it, but sanctification to God and service to Him is paramount, if we are to help lead the church to get ready for Christ’s return. 

In this sense, the pastor has a specific role beyond his own preparation—to help the local congregation dress up with righteous deeds. His practice is to exemplify the standard, and his preaching is to expound the standard.  

How do we do this in our preaching?  That is the thrust of Revelation 19:7-10.

Observe, THE SUBJECT OF PREACHING, “the testimony of Jesus,” twice mentioned here. Our preaching that prepares the church to meet Jesus is rooted first, not in the principles of action, but in the Person of adoration. The why precedes the what.  Wherever we take our text, we are to make a beeline to Jesus. He is the subject of the Scriptures. The more we know Him, the more we love Him, and the more we love Him, the more we serve Him, and the more we serve Him, the more we know Him, and the cycle expands and deepens. 

A Christ-centered message produces a burning heart of devotion.  Recall the Bible lesson the risen Christ gave to two disciples on the Emmaus road, “And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” This was the result, “And they said to one another, ‘Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?’” (Luke‬ ‭24:27, 32)‬‬. 

Next, consider THE SPIRIT OF PREACHING, “the spirit of prophecy.”  We can preach with accuracy—and we must—yet also preach with anointing!  Paul put it this way, “who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”  (2 Corinthians‬ ‭3:6‬‬). 

The message of the Old Covenant was one of the letter—commandments of God, engraved, as it were, in stone by the finger of God. There was no problem with the accuracy of the message. The problem was in the people who would not obey it and were thus condemned by it. The message says,”Do this and live,” but we do not, and are sentenced to death. Sadly, this characterizes a lot of preaching that tells people what to do and what not to do (and mostly the latter), yet has no power to equip them and so they leave the sermon with condemnation weighing them down. This breeds hypocrites who are legalists and wear a mask of religion or dropouts who are discouraged and carry the burden of failure. Vance Havner put it this way, “You can be as straight as a gun barrel theologically, but as empty as one spiritually.”

Our ministry is one of the New Covenant. It is one of the Spirit—the Spirit of prophecy—who imparts life. It does not call for reformation that is superficial, but for regeneration that is supernatural!  The Spirit of God calls the elect into real life, as He changes us from the inside out. Our dress is not one of the filthy rags of self-righteousness, but the wedding garment is the beauty of Christ—the righteousness that comes by faith.  This preaching, anointed with the Spirit is one of life and liberty. It yields joy!  The Apostle Paul confronted legalism in Romans 14, “For the kingdom of God is…righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,” (v.17).  Four times, “Alleluia” rings out in Revelation 19. The shout of praise will accompany the Spirit of prophecy!

In conclusion, note THE SWORD OF PREACHING, It is said of Jesus, “out of His mouth goes a sharp sword,” (Rev.19:15a). When Paul uses this analogy, he says we are to wield this “sword of the Spirit which is the word of God,” (Eph.6:17b).

When Jesus is the focus of our preaching and the Spirit gives the force to our preaching, then change will be the fruit of our preaching. Someone may ask the pastor in a Monday morning ministers’ meeting, “Was there any response to your preaching yesterday?”  The faithful messenger may say, “Yes!  100%!  Some responded in repentance and some in rebellion. Some said yes to God and left better, but some said no and left worse.”  This is the two-edged sword of the Word of God. We see the element of judgment here when Christ returns (Rev.19:11-21).

This is the promise, “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”  (Isa.‭55:11‬‬). There are those who sit under our preaching whose hearts will be tender and they will respond in obedience and become even more sensitive to truth. Others will have hearts that are toughened and they will respond in callousness, exiting even more dull toward truth.  

The preaching of the Word will separate the wheat from the chaff.  In the end, those who are truly the Bride will be dressed in white, yet others: “But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” (Matt.22:11-13‬‬).