Being Engaged

Posted on by korgrocker

“But if a man thinks that he’s treating his fiancée improperly and will inevitably give in to his passion, let him marry her as he wishes. It is not a sin. But if he has decided firmly not to marry and there is no urgency and he can control his passion, he does well not to marry. So the person who marries his fiancée does well, and the person who doesn’t marry does even better.”
1 Corinthians 7:36-38 NLT

In these closing verses of 1 Corinthians 7, Paul is addressing the situation that applied to engaged couples. He still emphasised his belief that marriage is second best to being single, but only from the perspective that singleness avoids the distractions that marriage brings. The culture in Paul’s day in Greece was different from today, when it comes to such things as engagements. In those days, a woman had very few rights, and her father would have wielded much influence over her marital status and the engagement to her future husband. Being a believer had the potential to change much of the process because it brought God’s perspective into the relationship, present and future. Today, in 21st-century Western society, being engaged to be married remains a significant step towards the future of two people, a man and a woman, as they spend the rest of their lives together. Still, it means little in many cases because such an engagement is easily broken. But things change today when an engagement happens between a Christian man and a Christian woman. The couple would probably have met in church, perhaps at a youth meeting, or in a singles group, and the bigger churches may have in place a “Preparation for Marriage” course. Pastoral support would have helped and supported parental advice, and the build-up to the big day, when the bride walked down the aisle towards her groom, would have been complete.

Being engaged to be married starts with two people making a promise to each other. The promise forms a commitment and provides the future couple with the opportunity to make plans and preparations. Subjects discussed and agreed upon range from the mundane, such as the colour of the bedding, to the subject of having a family and how to raise them. Change and compromise will be involved, so that when the day arrives, there are no nasty shocks, such as happened to a young woman I knew who found out on her honeymoon that her husband was a drug dealer. As we would expect, it was a major disappointment for her, and she quickly returned to her parents’ home, devastated, her world and future in ruins.

There is a marriage parallel with being a believer. God has made promises to His children which He will never break, and those promises will come together with the Church becoming the Bride of Christ. Isaiah 62:4-5, “Never again will you be called “The Forsaken City” or “The Desolate Land.” Your new name will be “The City of God’s Delight” and “The Bride of God,” for the Lord delights in you and will claim you as his bride. Your children will commit themselves to you, O Jerusalem, just as a young man commits himself to his bride. Then God will rejoice over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride“. In this context, Isaiah was referring to the Jews, God’s chosen people, but in the New Testament we read, “For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Saviour of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything” (Ephesians 5:22-23). And then we read about the Wedding Feast of the Lamb in Revelation 19:7-9, “Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honour to him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself. She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.” For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he added, “These are true words that come from God””.

Finally, we must turn to the Book of Songs, a rather explicit, even mildly erotic, account of the King and his betrothal to a young woman. How did this book find its way into the Canon of Scripture? In answering this question, we cannot ignore the fact that this love poem between a man and a woman is only there because God wants it to be, and we have to look at its application as being a “type” of the intimate relationship between Christ and His church, His bride. In a significant sense, we pilgrims are a part of the Bride of Christ, engaged to be married, and we will one day take our seats at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. Isaiah wrote, “I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God! For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness. I am like a bridegroom dressed for his wedding or a bride with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). We have our wedding clothes already prepared, and these were given to us at the Cross of Calvary, where we repented of our sins. We have been saved from the punishment our sins deserved, and, more, we have been given Jesus’ righteousness as a cloak to enable us to stand before God, pure and spotless, a suitable bride for our Bridegroom, Jesus. It all reads like a fairy tale, but that is not what it is. The reality is that God made a promise to us through Jesus, who is the ultimate Bridegroom, because He laid down His life for the sake of His bride. Too good to be true? Too good not to be!

Dear Father God. To be a part of Your Son’s bride and being able one day to partake of the wedding feast is beyond all that we can ever expect in this life. And so we are deeply thankful, worshipping before You once again. Amen.

The Feast is Prepared

Posted on by korgrocker

“You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honour me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever”.
Psalm 23:5-6 NLT

The first four verses of Psalm 23 provide an analogy of how the Good Shepherd looks after His sheep, using the model of a shepherd in David’s day. In those days a shepherd ensured that the sheep in his care were protected from predators, were fed and watered, were kept safe from danger, and even regularly examined to ensure that tics and other nasties were removed from their coats of wool. A complete package for the sheep, just as the Good Shepherd, Jesus Himself, totally looks after His sheep, pilgrims such as you and I. 

But now we move on to the future, and David wrote that the Lord is preparing a feast for him. What an invitation! It is great when a friend invites us to have a meal with them, especially when he or she is a good cook, such as one of my friends. We know that there will be an enjoyable time of fellowship over the meal, and we Christians have much to talk about as we share our experiences from our journeys to the Promised Land. But what if we receive an invitation from the Lord Himself? Isaiah wrote about such a feast, “In Jerusalem, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will spread a wonderful feast for all the people of the world. It will be a delicious banquet with clear, well-aged wine and choice meat” (Isaiah 25:6). This verse was part of an End Times prophesy, of which there is more in Revelation 21. But God has always been generous to His people. We think of how He fed them for forty years in the wilderness with a complete food called “manna”. Just for one meal a day for the estimated two million Israelite slaves who left Egypt, that adds up to nearly three billion meals! The God we worship is anything but stingy! God then brought His people into a land flowing with milk and honey, signifying a land capable of providing all the food needed for the Israelites. But David wrote that there is another feast being prepared, and Jesus provided more details.

In Matthew 22:2 we read, “The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son“. We pilgrims know, of course, that the “Son” is none other than Jesus, and the wedding will take place between Jesus and the church, His bride. We read about it in Revelation 19:7-9, “Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honour to him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself. She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.” For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he added, “These are true words that come from God””. In Jesus’ parable of the Great Feast in Matthew 22, we read that when the King’s banquet was ready, His servants were sent out to notify those who were invited. But the servants were rejected, violently in some cases, and the invitation was ignored by most guests. So the servants went out again, but this time the King’s instructions were, “Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see.’ So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests” (Matthew 22:9-10). In the parable, Jesus implied that God’s people, the Jews, were invited to the wedding feast, but they had rejected Him. John wrote, “He came to his own people, and even they rejected him” (John 1:11). So the wedding list was expanded to include the Gentiles as well, something we are eternally grateful for.

David was sure that God was preparing a feast for him, because he knew the Lord. He was David’s Good Shepherd, and, as Jesus said in John 10:14, “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me“. There was that relationship there and David, through his faith and trust in God, just knew that something good would happen to him one day. We pilgrims also have that same faith and trust in our gracious and loving God and we too can look forward to the Heavenly wedding banquet. David was going to be a willing participant in the coming feast but the tragedy in Jesus’ parable was that those initially invited had insignificant excuses as to why they wouldn’t come. It wasn’t that they couldn’t come but they chose not to. And that’s a tragedy of the first order for the people concerned because one day they will find out that they had seriously made the wrong choice. But worse than that, for some reason they abused the servants, the messengers holding their personal wedding invitations. It was bad enough that some ignored the invitations, but to then, for some inexplicable reason, kill the servants was a crime so bad that it provoked the King to send out an army to destroy the murderers. It begs the question, why would human beings prefer to make a short term temporal choice at the expense of the eternal blessings of God? An alien looking on would be scratching its head (if it had one) in puzzlement, wondering about the intelligence of the human race.

In the banqueting hall there is unlimited room, and God will wait until He has enough guests to fill it. He is more willing to accept sinners than they to be accepted, it seems. But there is a place laid for each one of us, complete with our names. In the Matthew 22 parable, we read that the banqueting hall was filled with guests, but there was a problem. One of the guests turned up wearing the wrong clothes. It is a fundamental fact about Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins, that when we come to Him in repentance and receive His forgiveness, He takes on our sins and in exchange provides for us His righteousness. So perhaps the man wearing the wrong clothes was dressed in his own righteous, a self-righteous individual thinking he had the right to a place at the wedding feast when clearly he hadn’t. Isaiah 64:6, “We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind”. What arrogance the man had, to think his filthy rags would be enough. Revelation 7:9, “After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands“. In his dirty clothes the man must have stood out like a sore thumb, amongst all those white-robe-clad saints, so no wonder he was unceremoniously ejected from the feast about to take place. Sadly, though, Jesus ended the parable with the statement, “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). 

We pilgrims are heading for our Heavenly home and a great feast with Jesus. The angel said to John,  ““ … Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he added, “These are true words that come from God”” (Revelation 19:9). On the mantel piece behind the clock do we have our invitation to the Great Feast? If not then in faith write one out, because for us pilgrims the only unknown is the date. The feast will be a great celebration for all those who are in Christ, and we wait for that awesome time, trusting in the One who deserves all the praise and all the glory, Jesus Himself.

Dear Father God. Thank You for all Your servants who have invited us to be with You. We accept Your invitations through them wholeheartedly and gratefully. Amen.

A Wedding Celebration

Posted on by korgrocker

“The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration.”
John 2:1-2 NLT

John starts chapter 2 of his Gospel with “the next day”, an event right after Jesus’ conversation with Nathanael. A Jewish wedding was a great celebration, and some of them went on for days, with feasting and drinking. Dancing and merriment. But Jesus was there with His disciples, who we know from the previous chapter were Andrew, Simon, Philip and Nathanael. This event is a problem to some Christians, who disapprove of such occasions, and particularly that Jesus would have been there. Would Jesus have been joining in with all that was going on? No doubt in my mind at all.

How do we pilgrims feel about such events in our culture? Some weddings and their receptions can be bizarre, to say the least. Others are more traditional, with a church service and simple meal afterwards. But such events bring together families and sometimes expose fault lines that would rather have been forgotten. Family relationships that perhaps fractured over something quite trivial and were never resolved. But the whole point of a wedding is to dedicate a young couple to God with lifetime vows “’til death us do part”. And families and friends are invited to witness the occasion and share in the couple’s joy.

We pilgrims have another wedding to look forward to, as we read in Revelation 19:7b-9, ” …  For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself. She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.” For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he added, “These are true words that come from God””. These verses describe the celebration, that followed the commitment made by believers to their Lord and Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. A wonderful picture of the time one day when we will all be united with Christ forever.

So the next time we receive a wedding invitation we remember the one still to come. It will surpass anything we have ever experienced before. It will be out of this world.

Dear Lord Jesus. Again we worship You, the wonderful bridegroom and husband to be. We look forward to receiving that invitation, to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. Amen.

The Wedding Feast

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then I heard again what sounded like the shout of a vast crowd or the roar of mighty ocean waves or the crash of loud thunder: “Praise the Lord! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honour to him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself. She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.” For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he added, “These are true words that come from God.””
Revelation‬ ‭19:6-9‬ ‭NLT

At last! The long promised “wedding feast of the Lamb” is about to happen. The excitement gripping all those living in heaven, “a vast crowd”, is palpable, and they shout out with a roar that sounded like “mighty ocean waves or the crash of loud thunder”. They proclaim the reign of God’s Kingdom, with rejoicing and honour to “the Lord our God”. There is a special wedding coming up, and the bride, God’s holy people, the Church, will be wearing the “finest of pure white linen” which, we are told, “represents the good deeds of God’s holy people”. 

There’s a bit to unpack here. Most of the references in the Bible to the “wedding feast of the Lamb” occur in the Book of Revelation. But Jesus, of course, taught about this momentous event, and His words were recorded in Matthew 22:1-14. This feast is to be a celebration of the marriage of the King’s Son to all those who have accepted Him as their Lord and Saviour, His Church. In the parable, Jesus sent out His servants to tell those who had been invited that the banquet, the wedding feast, was ready. But His invitation was refused by many, who, as we have been seeing in the Revelation story, came to a sticky end. But those who did respond to the invitation were welcomed. Well, all except one, who tried to get into Heaven by some other way, other than The Way, and he was not wearing the righteousness that comes from repentance and faith in Jesus. He came to a sticky end as well. Paul, the Apostle, said this to the Ephesian church, “For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.” (‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭5:25-27). Paul, in his illustration of the marriage between a man and a woman, referred to the true husband, Jesus, and the lengths He went to, to ensure the Church, His future Bride, was “holy and clean”.

We have to be careful in understanding the “good deeds” relating to the white linen garments. It does not imply that we can be part of the Bride of Christ purely by doing good deeds to others, which some claim. Paul wrote, again to the Ephesian church, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” (Ephesians‬ ‭2:8-9‬ ‭NLT). We won’t gain entry to Heaven by being good, as the man in Jesus’ parable discovered. But the good deeds we pilgrims do through the grace of God, led by His Spirit, will define the garments we will wear when we take our seats at the banquet that surpasses all other banquets. Eating with God Himself in Heaven. 

The angel told John to write these words down, “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb“. And we know that he did, because we read it in Revelation 19:9. Are we pilgrims feeling blessed today? Have we received our invitations? Just imagine how excited we would feel to have a personal invitation from God Himself sitting on our mantelpiece, taking pride of place in our living rooms. Well, the Good News is that we have already received it. Ephesians 1:4-5, written by Paul, says, “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” Worth a wow and amen? If not, I don’t know what is!

Father God. We look forward to that wonderful day, when we enjoy the banquet high above all banquets. Come, Lord Jesus! Amen.