Bible Commentaries

Revelation 19:6

The Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

I. God's people are looked at in two ways. First, as forming a great body: the body of Christ, the Church. In this light the whole Church is the bride of the Lamb. Secondly, as a great multitude of separate believers, regarded now as guests at the great marriage supper of their Lord. Both parts of this sacred vision have their full counterpart in other portions of Scripture. On the one hand, we find many passages in which the whole Church together is spoken of as the bride of Christ, the Queen who is to reign by the King's side in heaven; on the other, there is no lack of passages which speak of the great marriage feast at which Christian people, now regarded one by one, are to sit down to meat in the kingdom of heaven, received to the marriage supper of the King, each in his own wedding garment of repentance and faith.

II. As the Church is represented, on the one hand, as being one, the bride of Christ, the wife of the Lamb, who hath made herself ready, so we must take great care to keep in the Church, to cling to the unity of the Church, lest we should have no part nor portion in the unspeakable blessedness of the bride of Christ. As, on the other hand, Christian people are represented as being received one by one to the marriage feast of the Lamb, so we must remember that, besides clinging to the Church of God and forming part of the oneness of the queenly bride of Christ, we must ourselves be fit guests for that heavenly feast, and live and die with that clean and white array, that wedding garment of repentance and faith, which alone can give us admission to it,

G. Moberly, Brighstone Sermons, p. 292.

Revelation 19:9

I. A distinction seems to be drawn between "the marriage" and the "marriage supper" of the Lamb. "The marriage" takes place now; "the marriage supper" is to follow by-and-by. "The marriage" is that act of union between each soul and Christ when the soul, drawn by God's love and made willing by His grace, is linked to, and made one with, the mystical body of Christ; "the marriage supper" will be the public celebration and the glorious consummation of that union. Therefore there are differences. "The marriage" here, blessed and beautiful as it is, has its trouble and its separation. The soul has to leave, not without pain, what once was very dear to it. And some fear cannot help to mingle even where love prevails. But at the "marriage supper" it will be all union, and no parting; and there will be no room for the shadow of a fear there.

II. "The marriage" here is an individual act. One by one, each as God chooses, one here and another there, souls give themselves to Christ. "The marriage supper" will be the solemnity of the whole Church's collective partnership, one and another, with Jesus. "The marriage" here—at least, so it seems sometimes to the poor Christian's heart—is capable of being dissolved again; but when the "marriage supper" comes, who will ever think of breaking the tie? In "the marriage" here, real and perfect though it be, there are intervals of distance, seasons when there is no union between the soul and Him it loves; but in the "marriage supper" the felt and visible presence of Christ will be for ever and for ever. In "the marriage" here there were many who, though truly and indissolubly joined to Christ, yet often seemed to others and seemed to themselves not to be His. The world did not acknowledge them; the Church did not acknowledge them; they did not acknowledge their own selves. But at "the" marriage supper" there will be no misunderstandings. Christ will have proclaimed His own, and the whole universe will confess Him and His saints.

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 289.

Revelation 19:10

Christ the Theme of Prophecy.

I. The words of our text were addressed by an angel to the Evangelist John. They are very large and general; there is no exception made. Whatever the subject matter of prediction, the text claims it as a witness for Him; whosoever the prophet, he is to be reckoned amongst those who bore testimony to Jesus. The words may, indeed, with equal fairness, be inverted, and their meaning will be still more apparent: "The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus." According to this reading, prophecy, however variable and whatever its immediate topic, has but one object: that of giving testimony to Christ. Thus also St. Peter, in his address to Cornelius, says of the Redeemer, "To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him should receive remission of sins." And yet undoubtedly there are many predictions of the Bible in which we cannot profess to find a strict testimony to Christ; and if we were referred to each prophet to find an express prediction accomplished in Christ, we should probably be somewhat at a loss. The writings, for example, of Nahum and Zephaniah seem to contain nothing that amounts to a distinct prophecy of the Messiah. There are undoubtedly allusions to the times of the Gospel, but there is no prophetic declaration of which we are bound to say that it expressly belongs to the person and work of the Mediator. And yet it is evident from our text that something may be drawn from these prophets, as well as from Isaiah, who sketches with such wonderful accuracy whatever should befall the Messiah. Let us see, then, how this is to be met. Let us take in our hands the prophets of the Old Testament, and let us examine whether in one way or another they do not give such testimony to Jesus as would bear out the assertion, "The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus." If prophecy contributed to the introducing and upholding of a dispensation which rendered the Jews the great heralds to the world of a Deliverer to be born in the fulness of time, there can be nothing clearer than that, in delineating national prophecies, the prophets performed the part of witnesses for Christ, so that, whether they spoke of what should come to pass in Jerusalem or poured forth their strains in descriptions of the victories and defeats of heathen nations, they were effecting the mighty result that a whole people through many generations should stand out as a harbinger of the Redeemer of man, and therefore were they furnishing by their every announcement the material for verifying the assertion of our text: "The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus." The immediate theme of prophecy may, indeed, be the siege of a city or the overthrow of a state; but to ourselves, at least, who are privileged with the whole of revelation, it is evident that the besieged city or the overthrown state represents yet mightier conquests and more stupendous victories. In the ruins of Babylon we are taught to behold the defeat of antichrist; so that as ancient prophets pass through the lands which were inhabited by the enemies of Israel, and announce the vengeance by which they should be speedily overthrown, we hearken to strains which tell of deliverances to be vouchsafed to Christ's people and effected by Christ's interference. What then? Centuries may have gone by since the prophets swept the chords to the story of battle and of conquest. The notes of their strains may have told of nothing to the listeners in Jerusalem but the march and defeat of some monarch at whose power they trembled; but we hear in their every effusion the resistless advance of the Lord our Redeemer, and knowing that it is the Captain of our salvation appearing at the last as the Deliverer of His Church whom they hail as "coming from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah," we give in our assent to the accuracy of the description, "The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus."

II. The true idea of prophecy—an idea which should be kept steadily in view whilst you peruse the predictions of Scripture—is derivable from this truth: "that in all the prophets" Christ found the things concerning Himself. Men are apt to assume as the sole purpose of a prophecy the giving men notice of some coming event. They do not look to any ulterior purpose, and they are therefore surprised if the prophecy seem obscure when the event has occurred, or if the correspondence between the two be not every way accurate; and certainly the predictions of Scripture will not always answer to the tests which men think it fair to impose. Many of these prophecies remain mysterious, though we know their accomplishment; and the events to which others are referred are scarcely commensurate with the terms in which they are announced. But all this is to be explained by the fact that "the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus." If it had been the business of a prophet simply to tell men beforehand the issue of a siege or a battle, it might have been expected, and we should probably have found, that all obscurity in description would have been removed by the occurrence, and that the two would have corresponded in every particular; but if, on the other hand, it be the object of prophecy to tell men indeed beforehand of the siege or the battle, but so to shape the prediction that it shall also bear witness for Christ, you may fairly expect that, whilst the historical event is sufficiently indicated, much will be introduced which arises solely from the ulterior testimony. Indeed, there is much to excite our admiration when we study the events predicted, and compare them with events in which they find their fulfilment. To be able, as we are in a variety of instances, to read the fortunes of nations in both prophecy and history—this supplies Christianity with a standing miracle, and places us on as fine a vantage ground in our combats with infidelity as though we could appeal to wonder-working power yet possessed in the Church.

H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2687.

Revelation 19:11

Fighting for God.

I. If we are to contend earnestly with evil, we must ourselves hate it. To hate evil is not so easy as it once was. As people become civilised, and lives become comfortable, evil is cunning enough to veil its ugliest features, and to call in the aid of many powerful allies, such as good-nature, common-sense, charity, and even philosophy, to say a word on its behalf. Between them they contrive to produce a very lenient portrait of evil, and to represent it as an amiable weakness, or an irresistible temptation, or a conventional slip, or even an imperfect and undeveloped good. And the more we look on such kindly but really godless caricatures of evil, the harder it becomes for us to hate it. St. Paul's words seem exaggerated, "Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good."

II. Note two of the main difficulties which are likely to damp our courage and make us only half-hearted in our contest with evil. There are, of course, many such, but I shall select only two. (1) We have read of that legendary "Knight of God," into whose lips the poet has put the noble words,

"My strength is as the strength often,

Because my heart is pure."

Alas! the sad reason why our strength is often little better than a coward's is because our heart is not pure. (2) The second obstacle is this: the fancy that we stand almost alone in our desire for a better state of things, and that the mass of those around us are either indifferent or hostile. Thus the enterprise will seem hopeless. Remember, God does not bid you succeed; He only bids you try. And all history tells us that all the best things that have ever been done in the way of moral reforms have been done by minorities, strength made perfect in weakness, the faith of a few triumphing over the stagnation or the opposition of numbers. This is the device, written in letters of gold, oftentimes in letters of blood, over the front of all great causes. "God loves," it has been said, "to build upon nothing."

H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons, 2nd series, p. 266.

References: Revelation 19:11-16.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv., No. 1452; C. Kingsley, Westminster Sermons, p. 202. Revelation 19:12.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v., No. 281; R. W. Dale, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 353.

Revelation 19:16

Christ the Universal Sovereign.

I. The title of the text testifies to Christ's permanent kingly qualities. The true king is not merely the man who reigns, but whose qualities mark him out for dominion. He is, as the title itself indicates, the best regulator, or, as we say in our Saxon speech, the man who can, the capable man, the man who can command, not merely because he can command the brute force which compels the weak to submit, but the wise and good qualities which make it a privilege to obey him, and who shows men what is fitting and best for them to do. Christ is the world's ideal King, the object of all its longings, whether they have been related in story or uttered in song. Its fabulous heroes or the true kings whom it has honoured most, almost deifying some of them, because of the good which they have conferred on their people, whether or not they existed as they are seen through the haze with which distance and romance have surrounded them—these men, so far as they were good, are but darkened and shadowy types of the all-perfect one. He combines in Himself all that was kingly in them, while He is exempt from all the imperfections by which their kingly character was marred.

II. Then, again, the passage asserts His control over the mightiest and most exalted of men, for although His dominion is not so extensive as it is destined to become, and the title He bears has not as yet attained to its fullest significance, it is, nevertheless, true that even now He exercises control over the kings of the earth. Whether or not they recognise His authority, they are still under His dominion.

III. This title foretells His universal dominion, and in so doing it does but chime with other Scriptures, which, however much they differ as to the means by which such a desirable consummation is to be accomplished, are one in the belief that the same Lord who governs in nature and in providence is yet to extend His dominion and be the acknowledged King over all the earth.

W. Landels, Penny Pulpit, New Series, No. 313.

References: Revelation 20:1-3.—Homilist, 3rd series, vol. vi., p. 162. Revelation 20:4-6.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., No. 391. Revelation 20:11, Revelation 20:12.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. xiii., p. 70.