Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Wedding Feast of the Lamb

Episode Date: July 17, 2023

We’re tracing the single story of the Bible. We look now to the very end of the book of Revelation because all well-told stories tie up all the plot lines. And in the book of Revelation, all the plot lines of the history of the human race and all the plot lines of your life find a happy ending in Jesus. They’re all resolved with him.  First, we have this remarkable and yet strange vision of the marriage supper of the Lamb. There are three figures or characters: a prostitute, a Lamb, and a bride. If we look at this vision and these three figures, we’ll see it wraps up the whole history of the world.  Let’s look at these three things: 1) the prostitute and the problem, 2) the Lamb and the solution, and 3) the bride and the result. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 5, 2009. Series: Bible: The Whole Story - Redemption and Restoration. Scripture: Revelation 19:1-10. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. Many people view the Bible as a series of disconnected stories or morality lessons, but in reality, the Bible tells one single beautiful story. What's wrong with the world? What God has done to put it right in Jesus Christ? And how history will turn out at the end? Today we invite you to listen as Tim Keller teaches on the central story of the Bible, our redemption and restoration.

After you listen, please take a few seconds to rate and review our podcast. Your review can help others to discover our podcast and experience the hope of the gospel. Now here's today's teaching from Dr. Keller. Tonight's scripture reading comes from the Book of Revelation, chapter 19 verses 1 through 10. 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, 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. And again, they shouted,

Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever. The 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God who was seated on the throne and they cried, Amen, hallelujah. Then a voice came from the throne saying, Praise our God, all you, His servants, you who fear Him, both small and great. Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peels of thunder shouting, hallelujah, for our Lord God Almighty reigns. 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. Find linen, bright and clean was given her to wear. Find linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints. Then the angel said to me, right, blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb. And he added, these are the true words of God. At this, I fell at his feet to worship him,

but he said to me, do not do it. I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. This is the Word of the Lord. Now for weeks we've been tracing out the story of the Bible. We've said that the Bible is a single story about what's wrong with the world and with us, what God has done to put it right in Jesus Christ, and then how it all turns out in the end.

Creation, fall, redemption, restoration. That's the story. And for four weeks, we're actually going to the very end of the book of Revelation, because you know, all good, all well told stories are very careful to tie up all the plot lines. You don't want to get to the end of the story and say, but whatever happened to, you want to know how all of the plot lines are wrapped up. And even though we can't do that completely, when you get to the book of Revelation, you see you have a very, very perfectly told story

because all of the plotlines of the Bible, all of the plotlines of the history of the human race, all the plotlines of your life, find a happy ending in Jesus, the resolved with Him. And what we're gonna do for just four weeks is look at the way that happens here in the very last four chapters of John's

Apocalypse the vision of Saint John the book of Revelation and the first vision is this remarkable wonderful and yet strange vision of the marriage supper of the Lamb Because in the marriage supper of the Lamb. Because in the marriage supper of the Lamb, you've got three characters, three persons, right? The three figures in the marriage supper of the Lamb are the prostitute, a Lamb, and a bride. And if we look at this vision, we're going to see that this really is a wrapping up of the whole history of the world because the prostitute represents the problems, what is wrong with human race, the lamb represents the solution, what God has done to put it right,

and the bride represents what we can be in Jesus Christ, what we can have through Him. So let's take a look at these three things. The prostitute and our problem, the lamb and the solution, the bride and the result, what we can be. First of all, in the very beginning, it talks about a prostitute, and actually he has condemned the great prostitute who has corrupted the earth by her adulteries. And you need to go back into Genesis, pardon me, into Revelation chapter 18 to understand this a bit, because in 18 we are given a description of the city of Babylon, who's called the Great Prostitute, and Babylon represents human society without God in all of its violence and all of its oppression, in all of its corruption.

That's human society without God. And all of that awful stuff, all the cruelty, all the violence, all the injustice, here in chapter 19, verse 2, is described as adultery. All human sin is described as adultery. And what we're being introduced to is one of the great themes of the Bible. That from the beginning to the end, we hear it God continually saying this in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. He says, I want to relate to my people, but I don't want to relate to my people merely as the king relates to his subjects, or as a shepherd relates to sheep.

I want a relationship with you, the way a husband relates to a wife. I want a relationship with you that permanent, because you know marriage is still the most solemn and binding of all human contracts. I want a relationship with you that comprehensive, because of course marriage affects every part of life. But most of all, I want a relationship that intimate. I mean, even when you're a parent and you have a little child, you see the child naked.

The child doesn't see you naked. You see, it's in marriage and only in marriage that we are absolutely vulnerable to each other and therefore, until you're married, if you're living together and you're not married, then you're actually, you have made yourself economically and legally vulnerable to the person have you, you've held on. You might be making yourself physically vulnerable, you might be getting physically naked, but you're really not getting naked in any other way. It's in marriage where both parties are absolutely vulnerable to each other, they know each other, they love each other, they care for each other, they're loving each other, to the degree that is impossible anywhere else. And God has the audacity to say,

that's the kind of relationship I want with you. And that's the kind of relationship with God that you were built for. Now look, there is no other religion that dares talk about a relationship with God that you were built for. Now look, there is no other religion that dares talk about a relationship with God like this. I've looked. And once you grant that, once you grant, what the Bible says, that that's what God wants, and that's what you were built for,

that kind of relationship. And that tells you something about the nature of sin that no other image can tell you. In other words, unless you understand this aspect of what God wants for you and with you, unless you understand that God doesn't just want to be your king and want to be your shepherd but wants to be your spouse, your lover. If you don't understand that, there's some things you'll never understand about sin, that you only understand when you reflect on this image.

Sin is adultery. In other words, we learn two things here about sin, and what's wrong with us. We learn something unique about what sin is and what it does when we think about this metaphor. First of all, what sin is? What we learn here is, sin is loving anything more than God, giving anything the title to your heart more than God, making anything more central to your imagination and your emotions than God. And that's sin. Because see what God has said is, I don't want you just to obey me like a king. I don't want you to just obey me like a king.

I don't want you to just rely on me like I'm a shepherd. I want you to love me supremely as I have supremely loved you. And if you love anything more than God, it's sin. Now, let me push you a little bit on this. Imagine, imagine a woman who's a wife and she has a husband. And she finds that her husband is spending every evening over at another woman's house, talking about life, sharing their aspirations, talking about their problems, every night hours and

hours and he's also taking long trips around the world with her and so finally the wife confronts him and he says I, I don't understand what your soap said about. You know, you have, you know, I'm legally your husband and I pay the mortgage. You have my name, you have my money, you have, I do my duty, so what's the problem? And what the wife will say is, but I don't have your heart, and if I don't have your heart,

what kind of marriage is a marriage? I have all the other things and some other woman has the title to the deepest affections in love of your heart. So there is the illustration and you are saying, what kind of idiot would a man be to say, I don't what the problem is. Well, look to myself. Because do you go to church? Are you baptized?

Have you taken the name on? Do you say, oh, I believe. Do you say, I obey the 10 commandments. I pray I do all those things and get there's something else that actually has your passion. There's something else that you're really living for that's captured your imagination, your career, your career, your family, a romantic interest, a political cause, a social cause. Something that really turns your crank, that you actually love supremely, that actually,

in other words, you've given God your name and your money and all kinds of other things, but somebody else has got your heart. And you expect them to overlook that? You expect them to feel any different than that wife? So there's a couple of tests. You say, well, how do I know? Archbishop William Temple says, if you want to know who your God is,

look at see what you do with your solitude. Now, you know what that means? Solitude? When you don't have to think about anything. Let's just say you're waiting for a bus and you don't have to think about anything. Nothing is forcing you to think about something and you can think about what is most effortless to think about. What does your mind ordinarily go?

Where does it naturally go? When you most like to think about and daydream about and scheme about, is it God and His grace and His glory and His work? No, it's something else, you know that. And whatever that is, that's your real spiritual spouse. Or another test, by the way, is where do you spend your money the most effortlessly? You know, if you have a paramour, you spend your shower, the person with gifts, you have no problem. It doesn't even feel like.

It feels effortless. You always spend your money most effortlessly, where your heart is. Jesus said, where your money is, there's your heart. And now you beginning to understand something. Are you beginning to understand the nature of sin? Sin is not just breaking the rules, okay? It's loving anything more than God, and secondly, it not only tells us something about what sin is, but also what sin does.

Sin does not just break the rules, it breaks and tramples on God's heart. The heart. There is no way you can get any idea about the seriousness of sin unless you think about sin through the lens of the thing God most wants from you, and that is your heart. See if God is only a king, then when you sin, you just break a rule. But if God has given you his heart, if God wants your love, if he's loved you supremely, in all kinds of ways, in that case, you're trampling on his heart, you're not just trampling on his rules.

I mean, some years ago I talked to a man who his wife had left him, had gone off with somebody else. And one of the things you can do when that happens, in order to, you might say, cauterize the wound emotionally, you know, one of the ways to sort of stop the bleeding is to hate her. You know, just hate her. Well, he couldn't do that. He didn't want to do that.

He actually forgave her, but she'd left, you know, and therefore, every time he would walk by a picture of her in his house, it was like a knife in the heart. And eventually, because he loved her and because she had betrayed him, he had to do what he didn't want to do, and that is put all the pictures away. And then it was he had a little bit more peace. But you know, God doesn't put our picture away. He's omniscient, he's omnipotent, he's omnipresent, and he sees

us. And I think it is a very difficult thing for me, and I probably for you too, to in any way get an understanding of the seriousness, the odiousness, the cruelty of disobeying God. You'll have no idea about how serious it is unless you see this. It's not just breaking the rules, it's breaking his heart. Now, so when you see the prostitute, you see the history of the human race, the fatal attractions. We put ourselves in the arms of other things besides God. And as a result, they are fatal attractions. See, it's one thing to be friends with somebody.

It's nothing to go to bed with that person. That changes the relationship, doesn't it? And it's one thing to be friends of your career, spiritually speaking, it's nothing to go to bed with it. It's another thing to say, this is what turns my crank. This is what makes me feel like I'm a person. This is where my identity comes from. Huh.

See. Be friends with your career and it will be friends with you. Go to bed with your career and it'll drive you under the ground. It's a fail attraction. See, until you understand this image, this aspect of what you were made for and what God wants from you and what God seeks with you and what you were built for, you want to understand the nature of sin. So that's the first thing.

Spiritual Deltry, that's our problem. Second thing we learn though, is the solution, the Lamb. Now, so the prostitute, and now the marriage supper of the Lamb. Now, so the prostitute and now the marriage supper of the Lamb. Now, when you have a prostitute who's obviously in this imagery is a female human being and you have a bride which is obviously a female human being, what are we doing with an animal here in the middle? You know, it seems like a mixed metaphor. Well, it is a mixed metaphor. It is a mixed metaphor. All right. But you know why? Because the only thing that will turn us from a prostitute into a bride is the blood of Jesus Christ.

And the lamb is a sacrificial animal. Most Christians, even pastors, struggle to talk about their faith in a way that applies the power of the gospel to change lives, especially in our skeptical culture. Tim Keller's book of preaching, Communicating Faith and an Age of Skepticism is a guide for anyone who wants to become more effective in communicating about their faith. Pastors and lay people alike. Drawing on his years of experience, Dr. Keller will help you share your faith

in a more engaging, passionate, and compassionate way from the pulpit or in the coffee shop. Preaching is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel and Life share the hope of Christ's love with people all over the world. So we request your copy today at gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelandlife.com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. The only thing that will cure us of our fatal attractions and turn us from prostitutes into brides is the blood of Jesus Christ.

Now, John the Apostle who had this vision also wrote the book of John. And remember how I said the book of Revelation is nothing but the wrapping up, essentially, of all of the plot lines. And there's no way to understand Revelation 19, without going back to John chapter two. In John chapter two, Jesus Christ and his mother, and maybe some other members of his family, were at a wedding. They were at a wedding feast.

Friends of the family, they went to the wedding. Seasons of weddings are upon us, and so you'll be going to weddings, okay. And at the feast, he's sitting there, and his mother comes and says, they've run out of wine, which of course was a great crisis. The wedding feast lasted a long time, and they'd run out of wine way early,

which was a disaster. It was a social crisis, because the wine is the joy of the feast. So she comes and says, they run out of wine. And Jesus turns to his mother and says, Mother, woman, he says, it is not my hour. And of course, by the way, in the book of John, whenever Jesus talks about his hour, it means the hour of his death. And so, okay, let's recap this dialogue.

Okay. Mother, Jesus, they run out of wine. Jesus, Mother, Jesus, they've run out of wine. Jesus, mother, I'm not ready to die yet. And the one thing that the narrative, the text doesn't tell us is how Mary probably said, come again. Or what? Or yeah, it's Jesus, yes, he says things like that. I don't know what she must have thought because he says,

we're out of wine and he says, I'm not ready to die yet. One of the only way to make any kind of sense of this, by the way, is to realize that Jesus was a single man and Jesus was spending the wedding like a lot of single people spend weddings. Have you ever thought about what single people do at weddings? Some of you said, what do you mean? I am a single people. And well, a lot of times what single people do at weddings,

sometimes they have this kind of far way look at their eye, is because they're thinking, well, I ever be married. And what will my wedding day be like? And he said, well, how do you know Jesus was thinking about something like that? All through the Bible, Isaiah 62, Ezekiel 16, Jeremiah chapter two, and all these dramatic places,

God reveals Himself to be the bridegroom of His people, the bridegroom of His people. The bridegroom of his people. See, he says, I want my people to be my spouse. I don't want them just to be my citizens or my sheep. I want them to be my bride. And then there's a place in Matthew 9 where the Pharisees come and say, you know, you're disciples, Jesus, you're disciples. They don't follow the rituals that many others devoted people do,

and they don't fast. And what does Jesus say to them in Matthew 9? He says, how can the guests of the bridegroom mourn when he is with them? Jesus says, he's the bridegroom. He's the bridegroom. Do you know what he's claiming? Yes, you know what he's claiming. But it's not just amazing that he's claiming

that he is the Lord, he is the God of his people, but he's going even further. If he's sitting there, hearing that when the wine goes out, there's no more joy in the wedding. And suddenly saying, it's not my time to die. Here's what he's saying. He's saying, Mother, you're right. There's no joy at a wedding without wine.

And if my bride is gonna fall into my arms and if she's gonna drink the cup of joy, I'm gonna have to die. And that's the reason why you're gonna hear tonight what Jesus Christ did on the night before He was betrayed two things. First of all, He says, this cup is my blood. You will not have any joy.

You will not be able to fall into my arms unless my blood is shed. And the same night in the Garden of Gethsemane, he says, Father, let this cup pass from me. This cup of justice, this, the punishment that we deserve for our adulteries, he had to drink. He says, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will, but I'm done. I know what this means.

Look, look. The only way we're going to follow the Jesus arms at the end of time and drink the cup of joy, the only way that could happen was that Jesus Christ had to go to the cross in the midst of time, in the midst of history, and take the cup of justice. And that's the reason why the Bible is filled with prophecies like this. Like this. Be glad, O daughter of Jerusalem, He has taken away your punishments. He takes great delight in you.

He quiets you with His love. He rejoices over you with singing. The only way that we can come from being prostitutes to being brides, the only way our hearts can be recaptured, by the love of our true spouse, the only way that a punishment for our adulteries can be wiped away, the only way that we can lie in the arms of our true spouse and drink the cup of joy at the end of time, he had a lie on the cross and drink the cup of wrath in the midst of time.

And he's thinking about all that. And this is what he did, and this is what he gets for us. That's the prostitute and the adulteries. That's the lamb, and it's his marriage feast because he has died, because he has sacrificed himself now lastly, the bride. The bride. We're the bride. We're all the bride.

And this is a little interesting. I've always said, some guys afterwards come up and says, you know, I'm having a little trouble getting this idea of being the bride of Christ. And I said, well, yeah, of course, the go to Galatians 4, we're all sons of God, we're all brides of Christ. So everybody's got a little bit of a little work to do, a little imagination work. Okay? You're all sons, you're all brides, work on it.

And here's how I want you to work on it. You know what it means? The because of what Jesus Christ has done, that he's not just our king, but he's our spouse, that we're in a marital union with him. Five things, quick. Number one, wait, I'll give you two you quick. Marriage is legal, marriage is comprehensive. Marriage is a legal thing, it's a comprehensive thing.

It's an intimate thing, it's a fruitful thing, it's an intimate thing, it's a fruitful thing, and it's a consoling thing. First of all, it's a legal thing. In every culture, every place, if you're poor and you marry somebody rich, even though you've never earned any of it, when you get married, legally, you're rich. And in the Bible, I'm not going to spend any more time on this because we just spent weeks on it, right? If you've been here for the last couple of months, you're a sinner and when you marry

Christ by faith, when you say Father, accept me because what Jesus did and you unite with Him by faith, you're a sinner, He's righteous, and when you get married legally, you're righteous. Same thing. So marriage is a legal thing. Secondly, marriage is a legal thing. Secondly marriage is a comprehensive thing. I will never forget about four days into my marriage and I was coming home and I realized I needed to do something so I took a little detour and I was 30 minutes later than I usually get home and there is my new wife, you

know four days into my marriage. I just oh, why didn't you call me? Well, I didn't know it. Why didn't you tell me I expected you were? You didn't even call. And I suddenly said, you mean I have to tell her everything? I have to check with her just because I take a detour. Earth to newlywed, yes. Absolutely.

Why? Because marriage affects absolutely everything. And God says, you can't put me over here in a little box. I'm not just part of your life. I must influence. I must have an impact on every area of your life marriage. A legal thing. It's a comprehensive thing.

Thirdly, it's an intimate thing. There needs to be contact. It's just a marriage on paper, unless's contact. I hate to say this, but an awful lot of us. It's almost just a marriage on paper because contact means the love of Christ actually flooding your heart and you pouring out your love into his heart. That's marriage. That's spiritual marriage. Does that happen? Do you even have time to pray? And when you pray, is it a kind of like a lot of gimme prayers?

I mean, are you really married? Dwight Moody was a famous pastor in Chicago in the late 1800s. And there was, you know, the Great Fire in Chicago in 1871 was absolutely devastating to the city. It not only burned his church down, but it burned down the homes of many, many of his parishioners. And the whole congregation was devastated economically. And Moody was thrown into something of a depression over it.

And Dwight Moody came to New York in order to raise money to try to rebuild the church and other things. And he, when he came here, he spent time praying because he said, I'm really on the verge of depression. I'm on the verge of despondency and he asked God, please let me know your love, not just know about your love, let me know your love. And he tells this story.

He says, well, one day in the city of New York on the streets of New York, oh, what a day. I can hardly describe it. I seldom refer to it. It's almost too sacred and experienced to name. I can only tell you this, that I had such an experience of his love, that I had to ask him to stay his hand, to stop. I would not now be placed back where I was before that experience if you should give me all the world. I should not now be placed back where I was before that experience if you should give me all the world.

He fell into his Savior's arms. He'd never been there really. Marriage is a legal thing. Marriage is a comprehensive thing, marriage is an intimate thing, fourth, marriage is a fruitful thing. If you really experience His love, and by the way, this is a biblical idea, you go to Roman VII and it says, if you put yourself into the hands of Jesus Christ, fruit, you bear fruit to Him. What is that? What is that? See, if you put yourself, if you have a marriage on paper and there's no contact, there ain't going to be children.

But if you put yourselves into each other's arms, children are born into the world. Now think about this. In fact, Romans 6 says, do not offer your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer the parts of your body to Jesus as instruments of righteousness. You are to belong to Him who was raised from the dead in order that you might bear fruit to God. Here's what it means. If you, let's go back to that illustration before, if your career is not just your friend,

but as actually you're in bed with your career as it were, spiritually speaking, what's the fruit that's going to be born into the world through you? You're in your career's arms and fruit's coming. Work a whalism, say. Overwork, strain, maybe ethical compromises because you've got to do, you've got to be successful and no time for anybody else, but put yourself in the arms of Jesus and know His love and the kind of poise and the kind of

joy that comes from that. You're going to have time for people, you're going to have the humility to give to reach out to people who otherwise you would feel superior to. You're going to have to desire to reach out to people. His fruit is going to be born into the world through you, as opposed to that fruit. So marriage, lastly, look, marriage is a legal thing. Marriage is a comprehensive thing. Marriage is an intimate thing. Marriage is a fruitful thing, and lastly marriage is a consolation. Ed Clowney, when he preached a sermon on John chapter 2, where Jesus Christ is sitting

in the midst of all this joy, and he's thinking about going to the cross. So everybody's happy, and Jesus is sad. And Ed Clowney says, Jesus sits in the midst of all that joy sipping the coming sorrow so that you can sit in the midst of all the world sorrow and sip the coming joy. Jesus sat there in the midst of all that joy and was sad because of the future, and you can sit in the midst of the worst sorrows and be glad because of the future. Marriage is a consolation, and here's the irony of the whole thing. If you have a good marriage,

then you better love Jesus more than your spouse, or you're gonna ruin your marriage. You're gonna make your spouse into an idol, gonna put pressure on your spouse that nobody can bear. But if you're in a bad marriage, then you better love Jesus more than anything, because then you're gonna have a consolation

that'll help you get through it. And if you wanna be married and you're not married, you have to make Jesus your spouse, and then you're going to be able to get through it. Because listen, whether you have a good marriage, a bad marriage, no marriage, and you want the marriage, listen. There's only one spouse that will ever really fulfill you. Do you believe that? There's only one marriage feast that will ever give you the joy your soul needs, and it awaits you if you answer the invitation. Because here it says, look, it says, and then the angel said to me, right, blessed are those who are invited to the wedding summer of the Lamb. Right, you know what that is? That's the invitation. It's gone out. Are you going

to the feast? You say what invitation? The gospel is the invitation. The gospel is the invitation. It's gone out. Are you going to the feast? You say, what invitation? The gospel is the invitation. The gospel is the invitation of the feast. Have you RSVP? That's believing. So the gospel comes out. It's your invitation of the feast. And here's how you RSVP.

You believe in Jesus Christ. That's your way of writing, back saying, thank you, I shall surely come. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you that now we're able to pick up the cup of joy because your son picked up the cup of sorrow. We thank you and we ask that you would help us understand

what it means to be united with him. In love, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for joining us today. If you were encouraged by today's podcast, please rate and review it so more people can discover the hope of the gospel. Thank you again for listening. This month's sermons were recorded in 2009 and 2016. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast

were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.