The Marriage Supper of the Lamb

At some day set aside by God, His Son Jesus Christ will come and take His Bride Home. My message last week concerns the Bride of Christ; this message concerns the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and the Wedding guests.

Paul wrote to the Church of the Thessalonians concerning this event:

"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:16, 17, NKJV, emphasis added).
Take note of the following points:

1. The Bride of Christ includes true Christians who died before Christ comes for His true Church. The phrase "in Christ" means "true Christians or true disciples of Christ". These Christians are those who have walked or are still walking by abiding in Christ (John 15:5). They have walked or are still walking blamelessly and at all times "depart from iniquity" (2 Timothy 2:19).
2. The phrase "We who are alive and remain" means "true Christians who are still serving the Lord faithfully and remain faithful to Him" before Christ comes to take all of them Home.
3. The phrase "we shall always be with the Lord" indicates that true Christians (dead or alive when He comes) will be with the Lord in eternity. This makes sense because as His Bride we will always be with Him to share His life - there is no divorce in Heaven. In fact there is no marriage in Heaven except the Marriage of the Lamb. Furthermore, as His Bride we will accompany Him when He comes (His Second Coming) to judge the sinful world (Rev. 19:14).

Those Who are called to the Marriage Supper

John heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying:

"Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb! These are the true sayings of God" (Rev.19:9)

The above verse says that those who are called (invited) to the marriage supper are blessed. And if they are blessed, how much more blessed will be those who have become the Bride!

The New Testament Scripture seems to indicate that there will be three groups of believers who will be called (as invited guests) to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The only condition is that they must be in heaven before the marriage supper. In other words they must have died after they were saved.

The First Group of believers

The first group of guests are the friends of the Bridegroom.

John the Baptist, the last of the prophets who came in the spirit of the Old Testament, said:

"He (Jesus) who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom (John), who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled" (John 3:29, emphasis added).

I can think of two examples what the New Testament Scriputure calls the Old Testament saints (believers before the first coming of Jesus) as the friend of the Bridegroom.

1. John himself said he was the friend of the bridegroom. Concerning John Jesus said:

"For I say to you, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he" (Luke 7:28, emphasis added).

John the Baptist, being the greatest prophet was considered less than the least in the kingdom of God because he was only a friend of Bridgroom and not the Bride. Only the true Church of Jesus Christ is the Bride. What great privilege the true believers have!

2. James said, "And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.' And he was called the friend of God" (James 2:23, NKJV, emphasis added).

Notice that Abraham was called the friend of God and not just a friend of God!

The Second Group of believers

This group of believers belongs to a dead Church. Even though their names have not been blotted out from the Book of Life they failed to take part in the rapture.

Jesus said to the Church in Sardis, "I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before His angels" (Rev. 3:1, 5, emphasis added).

The above passage of Scripture indicates:

1. The names of all overcomers (in any Church, even a dead Church) will not be blotted out from the Book of Life. In other words all overcomers will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
2. Some names of those who fail to overcome will be blotted out. But we cannot say all of their names will be blotted out. God alone makes the choice.
3. Since a Christian is either an overcomer or fails to overcome some of their names will be blotted out. In other words, some Christians will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians concerning building one's work upon the foundation laid by our Lord Jesus Christ:

"Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire" (1 Cor. 3:12 - 15, emphasis added).

I believe the work of the overcomers will endure the test of fire. But, the work of those who fail to overcome will be burned because they built their work on the Foundation of Christ with wood, hay and straw! The phrase "he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire" means "he will be saved after a narrow escape through the flame".

Therefore we expect some believers who fail to overcome as guests to the marriage supper in heaven. The only condition is that they must die and be in heaven before the marriage supper. If there live through the Great Tribulation they will miss the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

The Third Group of believers

The final group of guests are those who are saved after the true Church has been taken up into heaven to be the Bride of Christ. These have died as martyrs during the Great Tribulation. They are the highest hornored guests. Because of this I believe they will attend the Marriage Supper of the Lamb as bridesmaids!

Conclusion

This message is the product of my Bible research work. My readers must not take this as the doctrine of the Bride of Christ.