Sermon Tone Analysis

THE ULTIMATE WEDDING Based on Rev. 19:1-9

By Pastor Glenn Pease

Romance is the greatest power in the universe.

It is the motivating power that will produce the new heaven and the new earth, and it is the power behind much of what has been created in this earth.

The spectacular Hilton Hotel chain that goes around the world.

It was not just the love of money and power that moved Conrad Hilton to build this vast empire.

In his autobiography, Be My Guest, he tells of a turning point of his life while in Dallas.

It happened in church.

"All I saw of her at first was a jaunty red hat and a few curls

several pews in front of me at church.

The hat was dark red

and the curls were very black and there was something about

the way she wore the hat, the way she carried her head, she

was very attractive.

When I saw her face, pretty, vivacious,

alert, with laughing eyes, in my excitement I did something

worthy of a college freshman.

I followed the red hat out of

church to try to find out where she lived.

For once I wished

I hadn't so many friends to greet.

I'm afraid I was abrupt.

But as it was, the red hat got such a long start on me that,

after seeing it bop up and down in the crowd for a couple of

blocks, I lost it.

For a month of Sundays I amazed that

congregation with my piety.

I attended every mass from six

till noon.

But I didn't see her again."

One afternoon as he left his theater where business was going bad, he walked right into that same girl.

She had on a different hat, but it was her, and she was with a Mrs.

Evans whom he knew.

Mrs.

Evans introduced him to Mary Barron.

They entered at once into a whirlwind courtship.

She had to leave Dallas, but he insisted that when he finished building a hotel she come back and marry him.

He also insisted she give him her red hat.

He writes:

"There was the incurable romantic coming out again.

It was

now my firm intention to sprinkle stars in Mary's lap, and I would

go back into the fight, climb my mountain, as her champion.

In the

days when Arthur was king, I would have worn her colors on my sleeve.

In Dallas, Texas, in 1924, I had to content myself with flying the

red hat from my bedpost.

Then I went back to my mountain with renewed vigor."

He was soon back on top and very successful, and he married Mary and took her into the world of the rich and famous.

It is a beautiful love story, but it has one major flaw.

They did not live happily ever after.

Eight years later their marriage ended in a bitter divorce.

Falling in love is the easy part.

The living happily ever after is the hard part.

But the fact is, the greatest love story of all time and eternity does end this way which means it never ends at all, for Christ and His bride live happily ever after.Heaven is an eternal honeymoon where the bride and groom enjoy endless bliss with no fear of conflict.

The goal of God is achieved when He gets His Son, the most famous single in all of human history, married.

When Jesus gets married at the great wedding of the Lamb, then singleness will cease to exist, and all will be as it was in the garden of Eden: One couple-a husband and wife-and Adam and Eve.

In eternity it will be the one groom-the second Adam-Jesus.

His bride is the church the second Eve.

The new heaven and the new earth will be their wedding gift from God.

This is the beginning of the most romantic adventure conceivable as this happy couple, perfect in themselves, enjoy together a perfect universe forever.

There will be no singles in heaven, for all who are there are part of the bride.

There have been many great singles all through history.

John the Baptist, The greatest of the Old Testament saints, was single.

Paul, the greatest of the New Testament saints, was also single.

Volumes could be filled with the stories of the famous singles who have served the kingdom of God with great success.

But all this will be over in heaven, for there will only be married people in heaven.

Some ask, will marriage last forever?

The answer is yes.

People will not be marrying each other, but they will be wedded to the Lamb, and be His bride forever.

Christian husband and wives will together be part of the Bride.

Their love for each other will not be diminished, but rather enhanced.

Their primary loyalty, however, will be to the Lamb.

The wedding is called the Wedding of the Lamb, and the Wedding Supper of the Lamb, because it is the sacrifice of Christ on the cross that made it possible for the bride to be there redeemed and made clean and whole, and fit to be the bride of the Son of God.

In chapter 18 fallen man in his folly and wickedness is called a harlot.

In this chapter the redeemed and forgiven are called the bride.

The Bible gives the female equal time in its symbolism.

On the cross we see two men, one of whom represents the rejecters of Christ, and the other represents the receptors of Christ.

From that cross setting one of them goes to hell and the other to heaven.

Now in Revelation 18 and 19 we see all mankind represented by two females.

The one is a harlot who is destroyed, and the other a pure bride who is exalted.

All mankind ends up either a harlot in hell, or a bride in heaven.

This means the whole Christian life is preparation for a wedding-a wedding that will begin eternity, and be the final wedding that will not only end all singleness forever, but also all divorce forever.

Paul in II Cor.

11:2 writes, "I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy.

I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to Him." Paul saw his task in life as preparing the bride for the Wedding of the Lamb.

We call it a lot of things: Church planting, evangelism, discipleship, sanctification, etc., but they all point to the ultimate wedding.

The problems Paul had were due to the bride becoming infatuated with an impostor.

The church was letting this rival to Christ win their affections.

The battle of history has been to keep the bride of Christ loyal to the Lamb.

So all of history is a matter of romantic conflict.

Satan's goal is to seduce the bride and make her a part of his harlot.

The Savior's goal is to make her holy, and as Paul says in Eph.

5:27, "To present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless."

So all of life is wedding preparation, and it is a hassle because Satan is trying to postpone the wedding and get the bride to break the engagement.

The task of the church is to overcome and press on to the wedding and be ready to marry into wealth and power beyond imagination.

The bride who marries the King of Kings-the ruler of the entire new universe-will be the Queen of Heaven, and the most powerful and wealthy Queen that has ever existed.

This is the destiny of the Bride of the Lamb.

What would it be like to marry the richest man in town, or the country, or the world?

It is an interesting fantasy, but the promise of God is that all who love Christ as Savior in this life will be married to Him in the life to come.