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 Sermon > Sunday Morning Service |
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Title |
Heaven(6) - The Wedding Banquet in the Air |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Revelation19:9 |
Date |
2006-12-17 |
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Revelation 19:9
Then 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 true words of God."
This is the sixth session of the sermon series "Heaven."
Today's Scripture from Revelation 19:9 says, "Then 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 true words of God.""
"The marriage supper of the Lamb" here refers to the Seven Year Wedding Banquet that we, the saved souls, will have together with our Bridegroom,Jesus Christ, as His brides when He comes in the air.
Today I will speak about this 7-year Wedding Banquet in the Air.
People say that a wedding is one of the happiest days in our lives. Both the bridegroom and the bride wear the best clothing, and the bride adorns herself most beautifully and graciously.
The wedding places are decorated with shining chandeliers and pretty flowers.
After the wedding ceremony there is a feast with lots of wonderful tasting food followed by a harmonizing crescendo of music, songs, and dancing.
Earthly weddings of a man and a woman are accompanied with well-organized and delightful preparation for the joyous celebration. How much more merry and exciting the 7-year Wedding Banquet will be that the saved souls will enjoy with the Lord!
As I explain to you about this 7-year Wedding Banquet, may each of you prepare to become proper brides of our Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I pray!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 says, "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord."
When our Lord comes again in the air, all the saved children of God will receive the Lord in the air.
First of all, those who are asleep in the Lord, namely those whose bodies have been dead and buried in the ground, but whose spirits and souls stay in the outskirts of Paradise, will put on the resurrected bodies.
Then, the believers who are alive on earth will be transformed into the resurrected bodies and be lifted up into the air in which our Lord will be descending.
Just as all kinds of metals (with iron) are pulled upward to a huge magnet, those who have life in the Lord will be taken upward into the air in an instant by the power of God.
And they will enjoy the wedding banquet as the brides of the Lord for 7 years.
Before the beginning of the ages, God planned and destined this wedding banquet to comfort His saved children.
So, God prepared the special space for the wedding banquet long ago.
Where is this place for the wedding banquet that is for the Lord and all the saved souls?
In the last session I explained to you that "the kingdom of air" belongs to the second heaven and the second heaven houses both the World of Darkness, over which the evil spirits have their authority, and the World of Light, in which the Garden of Eden is located.
Our 7-year wedding banquet will be held in a special place that is in Eden.
Here you have to remember that Adam lived in the Garden of Eden and the Garden of Eden is included in the vast area of Eden.
When we enjoy the wedding banquet, the people in the Garden of Eden will be able to see us and we will be able to see them, too.
But we will not be able to visit each other.
Moreover, the evil spirits will be able to see the wedding banquet and we will be able to see them too.
The evil spirits would not dare to approach the place at all, but they will be able to see us.
The evil spirits will fall so painfully when they see us merrily and happily enjoying the wedding banquet.
They will experience severely unbearable anguish because they had failed to take just one more soul into hell and had allowed a person to become a child of God.
On the other hand, when we see the forms of those evil spirits, we will realize once again how fiercely and horribly they have prowled to devour us like roaring lions while we were being cultivated on earth.
And then we will feel more thankful for the grace of our Father God, our Lord Jesus Christ and our Helper Holy Spirit who have led us to reach heaven as the saved children of God. We will be grateful all over again for those who have guided us to the path of life.
When we attend the 7-year wedding banquet, we will not only enjoy it and feel comforted for our efforts and cultivation on earth, but also reminisce about the times of our cultivation on earth and add to the thankfulness given to God.
In addition, we will imagine how much more joyous and happy the everlasting heavenly life will be compared with the 7-year wedding banquet and wait for the coming heaven with expectation and happiness.
Really, our happiness in heaven cannot be compared with that of the 7-year wedding banquet.
Similarly, the space that is for our wedding banquet and that of the Garden of Eden are located in the same Eden, but the former is much more beautiful than the latter.
There are such pretty and enchanting flowers and trees and five colors of lights that shine so beautifully. A clean, pure and beautiful natural environment covers the kingdom of the air so widely that the end of the kingdom is not visible.
Just imagine how broad and vast it will be so that all the people who have been saved since the beginning of the world will walk freely!
When you are guided into the kingdom of air, that is prepared for the wedding banquet, an extremely bright space of lights is unfolded before your eyes that you have never experienced on earth.
Your bodies are lighter than cotton and when you sit down on the grass there is no pressure. At first, because the shining of the lights is so bright to your eyes, everything around you is seen as shining lights. But little by little you can see each one of them.
The clean and blue sky will dazzle your eyes and the shining lake will be stretched before your eyes. The lake will look like jewels reflecting and radiating beautiful lights whenever the waves dance.
Various colorful flowers will blossom all the corners of then kingdom and green pastures and forests are seen like curtains in the distance.
Flowers dance as though they were waving at you and very thick, beautiful and sweet scents that the flowers give off softly touch on your nostrils.
And all colors of beautiful birds fly towards you and perch, and then sing for you with a clear and merry voice.
In the lake as transparent as to be seen from outside, colorful and beautiful fish swim across the water and move upward the surface and show themselves.
When you step off onto the grass, you feel like you're walking on a road of cotton, and tender breezes ruffle the edges of your clothes and tenderly embrace you.
These beautiful and perfect surroundings are displayed so broadly that you will not be able to see the end. In the midst of the beautiful space there is a castle that is huge enough to accommodate all the saved souls who will be enjoying the 7-year wedding banquet. It is here in this place that we will celebrate our wedding banquet.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
The wedding banquet begins with our transformation. When our Lord comes to take all of us back home, the saved souls will put on the imperishable "resurrected body."
With the transformed and resurrected body, each individual will clearly realize how much he has accomplished the spirit and how boldly he can stand before the Lord.
And with resurrected body, he will understand how much fruit we have borne on earth.
Each person has not received complete rewards for their fruits yet, but after he puts on the resurrected body, he will come to roughly realize what kind of rewards and glory will be received at the Great White Throne Judgment.
Some will feel comforted and thankfulness when they discover a much greater measure of their accomplishment than expected, while some others will be a little disappointed in the lesser measure than expected.
What I mean by "measure" is their different measures of the spirit that they have cultivated on earth.
1 John 3:21-22 says, "Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God."
And it is said in Matthew 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," and in Hebrews 12:14, "Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord."
This will apply to you at the 7-year wedding banquet, too.
All the saved souls will shine differently with bright lights from their resurrected body according to their measure of spirit. They will feel that difference in their hearts and their attitude and confidence towards our Bridegroom Jesus Christ.
There is a different place at the wedding banquet and a limit to the range a person can wander about that is determined according to each individual's measure of spirit
No matter how great the country the residences of the royal family, the nobility and common people are separated.
In the same holds true for the space for "the kingdom of air" in Eden, the Lord's place and that of the others will be strictly separated.
A few fathers of faith and others who are recognized by Father God will be able to move in closer to the Lord and talk with Him, but many others will not be able to come close or to enter into the separate space of the Lord.
People of whole spirit, namely those who have not only accomplished and sanctified and pure heart but also lived at peace with everyone in search of holiness will be able to courageously put themselves in the arms of the Lord and sit close to Him.
Those who have reached the fourth level of faith by throwing away every form of evil and accomplishing the measure of spirit can see the face of our Lord, but this is different from the privilege of a man of whole spirit.
The lights that our Lord shines are so bright that those at the fourth level of faith cannot see the Lord's face as comfortably as those at 5th level of faith are able to see Him.
This is not simply because the brightness of their light is different but also because they themselves feel sorry that they have not been faithful to the utmost degree.
In other words, those at the 4th level of faith will be able to put themselves in our Lord's arms when He hugs them, but they will not be able to have the same boldness of action that as a man of whole spirit has.
How much more sorry those at the third level of faith who have not cast off every kind of evil, and others at the 2nd and 1st levels of faith who have barely been saved will feel?
Each person will be different not only in the lights that their resurrected bodies shine but also in the confidence and shame they have before the Lord.
And the happiness and impression that they will feel at the wedding banquet will be different according to their measure of faith.
But since every one's heart is full of goodness and love without any evil not only in heaven but also in the wedding banquet place, each person will be able to feel the most happiness and experience the excitement according to his/her measure of faith.
For example, those who have been shamefully saved will not feel sorry always, but feel their own happiness at the wedding banquet because everything has been prepared properly.
Those who have received shameful salvation will not dare put themselves in the arms of the Lord. When men of whole spirit are hugged, comforted and favored by the Lord, however, they will feel the same happiness and impression through watching the scene on screen.
Let me give you a real illustration. Now while I am preaching here, countless people are attending this service on screen at the 2nd and 3rd sanctuaries, and branch churches at home and overseas.
They attend the service at physically separated locations, but they experience the same grace and works of the Holy Spirit in spirit when they worship God in spirit and truth.
It is very similar when those at lesser levels of faith watch the Lord on screen during the wedding banquet.
But, when our Lord's appearance is watched on screen, His light is overwhelmingly bright. So, God will decrease the brightness according to the measure of viewers' spirit not to dazzle their eyes.
Those souls at the 1st level of faith are taken into consideration in seeing the Lord's face, but they hang their heads on account of their own shameful hearts.
They will think to themselves, "Our Lord was put to such shame, shed His blood and was crucified, for me and on account of me, but what have I done for Him?"
Thus, they will not be able to see the Lord's face wholly on screen because they drop their heads down. But they will see His face a little because God weakens the brightness of His lights, and then they will feel the most happiness on their own through the inspiration spread in that space.
Brothers and sisters in Christ,
How then do you imagine those who have reached the whole spirit and accomplished requirements of the brides of the Lord will celebrate the wedding banquet with our Bridegroom Jesus Christ?
Now imagine you have accomplished whole spirit and become a proper bride of the Lord by faith. And put yourself in the shoes of the most beautiful bride of the Lord now.
When you are transformed into resurrected body and taken up into the kingdom of the air in Eden, your eyes are dazzled with powerful radiance.
In the midst of the powerful radiance the Bridegroom stretches out both His arms wide towards you with a smiling face and waves at you.
If you are encouraged by His waving hands and come nearer to Him, His face begins to become clearer.
It is the first time for you to see Him, but you have already known very well who He is. He is the very Bridegroom, our Lord, whom you have missed and longed to see for such a long time.
Heartfelt and warm tears rain from your eyes down onto your cheeks.
You are reminded of every moment that you have experienced during your cultivation on earth and cannot stop shedding tears.
No matter how hard and difficult the situations were and no matter what kind of trials and persecutions you faced, you could overcome any of them with just thinking about our Lord who loved you to the point of laying down His life for you. Now you are seeing Him for the first time.
Then, our Lord comes up to you and calls you "my bride!" and hugs you with His mighty arms around you, and He says to you, "My bride! I have waited this day. I love you." In this way He gives you the touching expression of His love.
When you are in His arms and hear His loving confession, more heartfelt tears well up from your eyes.
Our Lord wipes away your tears with His tender hands and hugs you more.
When you look into His eyes, you can feel His love as it is. "You can read the heart of the Lord saying, "I know everything of you. I know your tears and pains. From now on only happiness and joy await you."
It is in this way that you experience perfect peace that you have never experienced and your body becomes filled with joy and fullness in the arms of the Lord.
Meantime beautiful praising voices are heard tenderly from somewhere and touch your heart. Then, the Lord takes you to the place that resounds with the songs like birds in flight.
Where you are taken there by the Lord, you will find a resplendently shining and gorgeous castle. The castle is so big and beautiful and magnificent.
As soon as you arrive there, the gates of the castle are opened and bright lights are shone from the inside. At the entrance of the castle numerous angels line up and welcome you who are entering there.
If you enter the castle in the midst of the angels' reception, you will find a hall whose end is not seen. This magnificent hall has been decorated with all kinds of beautiful adornments, filled with five colors of bright and shining lights and clearer and more beautiful songs than that of a short time before that were sounded.
When all the proper brides of the Lord, namely all those at the measure of whole spirit have entered, the Bridegroom our Lord announces the opening of the wedding banquet in a tender and mighty voice.
Others who have not accomplished whole spirit watch this scene on screen outside this hall. Then, the 7-year wedding banquet begins like a sweet dream.
What then will we do and what kind of life will we lead during the 7-year wedding banquet? This will be explained next time.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Today I have spoken about the place of the 7-year wedding banquet that our Lord and we will have and what will happen on the first day of the wedding banquet.
On the first day, the souls of those who died and stayed at the outskirts of Paradise, the waiting place for heaven will put on the resurrected body and those who are alive on earth will be transformed into the resurrected body and taken up into the air in an instant.
Are you sure that you will be able to put yourself in the arms of the Lord on that day?
Many believers hope and confess that they will surely be put into the bosom of the Lord. But the Bible gives us clear qualifications for those who can see His face.
I eagerly wish for all of you to be able to see the Lord's face at the 7-year wedding banquet and confess your love to Him while looking into His eyes.
And I want all of you to be hugged by the Lord and receive His comfort and love.
If you really hope for this blessing, I urge you to accomplish the word of 1 John 3:3 in your life saying, "And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."
Thereby, may each of you dwell in the endless love and comfort of the Bridegroom, our Lord. May you be close at His side during the 7-year wedding banquet that our Father God prepares for us in His love, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I pray! |
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