Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. The kingdom of God, Jesus says, is like a wedding party because there was no greater celebration that Jesus could describe on earth than a wedding party. Everybody in ancient Palestine understood this is the greatest celebration imaginable.
We can't think of anything greater than a wedding celebration, and Jesus said that's what the kingdom of God is like. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, The Revelation, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It's a CD album or a digital download, your choice of the body you've always wanted, audio messages on what heaven is like. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries.
As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org. Or call 877-544-4860.
That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright. She is what the prostitute wanted to pretend to be, but couldn't be and wasn't. She's beautiful, not to allure all kinds of people, but she's beautiful because she is beautiful, and she's made herself ready for her husband and for her husband alone. She's not outwardly adorned herself so that others could be seduced. She is outwardly adorned herself because she is holy unto the Lord. The great prostitute on the beast had a parody of a wedding, had a perversion of a marriage, riding along together in their evil pursuits, but here is the real thing.
The bride who has been adorned with fine linen. Did you know that the priests wore linen in their service in the temple because linen was the lightest weight material in which they were least likely to perspire. God didn't want the priest sweating it out.
He wants ministry to be a thing of grace. And they've got on as if garments that priests wear. And the bride is adorned with white because, as we've seen, the blood of Jesus symbolically washes the people of God of all iniquity so that, remember this, beloved, this is who you are in Jesus. Whether you feel like it or not, this is who you are. There's not one stain of sin or condemnation or guilt left on your life. You are a radiant bride. You are gorgeous to God.
And He loves you. And so here is the paradox of the Christian life that explains so much of our time. We have been given our bridal clothing because we can't get our own righteousness. And you, therefore, have been clothed with the righteousness of God. You remember the strange parable where Jesus, after talking about how the kingdom of God is like a wedding party that a king gave, and yet, after this beautiful story of the parable, then all of a sudden here comes some people that were trying to come into the banquet and they weren't allowed because they didn't have their proper wedding clothes on. And he said, take them out and throw them into where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. And you read that and go, Jesus, you just ruined a good parable here. It was so fun. And now we've got somebody being thrown out just because they don't have the right clothing on.
What's that about? What you must understand is that kings and people that through these extravagant banquets would also have clothing, sometimes clothing of their own son that would be available for anyone who was too poor to afford it. And they could put it on and be properly dressed at the banquet. He would clothe them, and those who refused it would not come in. You must let Jesus clothe you.
Wait until Jerusalem, He told the disciples, until you are clothed with power from on high. Being a Christian is like getting a new set of clothes. You don't wear clothing in order to be a Christian. You wear new clothing because you are a Christian. Putting on a white dress doesn't make a woman a bride.
The reason she puts on a white dress is because she is the bride. That's who we are. Let the life you live be an outward adornment of who you really are.
The righteousness of Christ. You have been clothed, and yet you're getting yourself ready. And I've been married 36 years. 36. And we still go on dates. And I highly recommend dating your wife if you're married. You know, you get married 36 years, and you've been around each other. You know, you see what each other looks like in the morning, and late at night, and you know what has changed, and you know what age is doing.
You know it all. But when you go on a date, you're not like, I'm going to get dressed up so I can catch me a good man tonight. Oh, you are my wife. You are my husband. And it's the middle of December, and we're going to the Nutcracker Ballet, and we're going to Ryan's to eat a filet mignon dinner ahead of time. And so give me a little time and a little space to prepare.
I want to look good for tonight. Because you're mine. To say, get ready, Jesus is coming, doesn't mean get ready, you better clean up your act, or he's not going to love you anymore. And you might be left out of the party. To get ready means you're betrothed to him.
He's yours, and you're his, and you love him. See, our view of romance and the way we get married in Western culture is entirely different than most of the world for most of history. Most marriages throughout history, and certainly in first century, were pre-arranged marriages. It's not this parody that you sometimes see and hear about, these awful situations where some evil father cares not one whit for his daughter and forces her to marry some guy from a place that she doesn't like and people and she doesn't like him and she don't want, it's not that. No, I would say that pre-arranged marriage in most parts of the world throughout history, it's a little bit more like a very personal form of online dating. And I'm for online, feeding people, meeting each other through valid mechanisms where they have a chance of discovering someone who shares similar values and especially discovering someone who loves the Lord has called down the same path of life. And that's a much better chance than the Hollywood version, which, you know, makes for good movies where they see each other across the bar and the music, you know, it's just perfect and all the rest of the crowd dims into the background and they got that halo look, you know, that they can get as they look at each other and fall in love at first sight. Don't know a thing about each other and yet they're going to be spending their life together.
That's good for the movies, but let me just tell you, if you think that's what it's all about is, the feeling of infatuation of love at first sight, 36 years down the road, that doesn't do much for you. What you need is you need a call of God down the same path of life into covenantal faithfulness that takes you into the deepest treasures known to humanity. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. If you think heaven is a misty place where you float around on clouds and pluck angelic harps, you're in for the surprise of your life. Our special product this month is all about the hope of heaven.
It's our gift to you when you support this month. Alan's CD album invites you to discover the body you've always wanted, a spiritual resurrected body. Be assured that God isn't going to scrap you or the world. He'll make all things new. Overcome the gnawing anxiety about the end of your life.
You can have peace now. Pastor Alan Wright's hope-filled messages will lead you into more than a joyous revelation of heaven according to the scriptures. They'll lead you into a bounding hope. So please help us stay on the radio in your area by making a generous gift today and we'll be happy to send you the body you've always wanted, the CD album that is. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Now these are the final days this offer is being made available to you this month. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastoralan.org. Today's teaching now continues.
Here once again is Alan Wright. So it's pre-arranged meaning that a father has a son who is ready to be married and their family knows a lot of other families. You know, they just know a lot of people and they don't know them.
They're not Facebook friends, they're real friends. You know, people didn't have TV and air condition so they're not sitting inside apart from each other. You knew a lot of people and you got big families and everybody knows their body and so you got a son who's ready to be married and then you find somebody else that's got a daughter that's ready to be married and you say why don't you all try each other out here and so they meet and you know they hope they hit it off and you've pre-arranged the marriage you see and so instead of fall in love and get married it's really more get married and fall in love. It's a real different view of it but it's important because you need to understand that the image therefore of being the bride of Christ is not the western romantic image of that. It is a pre-arranged marriage image which goes far to help me understand what Paul means in Ephesians 1 when he says we have been chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world. It's not a wooden doctrinaire way of looking at predestination. It is to say that God's love for you is seated in something more than the whims of his emotions.
It's not because you got yourself looking good for God and therefore he fell in love with you. It's something that deep and eternal and rooted from the foundation of the earth. That's the love of God and oftentimes the father's family of the groom the father would offer a gift sometimes quite extravagant gift to the bride's family. It's wrongly called the bride price because you're not buying the bride.
That's a complete character of it when it's working well. It is to say out of gratitude and according to custom we offer this wonderful gift to the bride's family and then the couple would be betrothed and when you're betrothed this was a legal contract. It could not be broken without divorce. You remember the story of Joseph the Christmas story and he thinks that you know Mary is pregnant so what's he going to do? So he decided to quietly divorce her. Well they were betrothed. They weren't married yet so betrothed is you are legally bound to one another can't break it without a divorce and now you're you're you're all but married you just hadn't you're not sharing the same home or the same bed yet and during this betrothal period which normally be about a year during that period of time the groom would go back to his father's house and usually would add an annex an upper room an addition to his father's house and that he's preparing a place for him to bring his bride when they get married and live.
If they had a lot of money they might build an additional house on the father's property. Helps you understand John 14 doesn't it? Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God.
Trust also in me. In my father's house there are many rooms and I go there to prepare a place for you and I will come back to take you to be with me where I am. He's preparing and then though the bride would know the approximate time of the wedding the exact time in which she would be joining up with her groom to go and have the big celebration that would be customarily reserved so that she wouldn't know the exact hour of that and yet she's getting ready because she knows it's coming and when the bridegroom would come they would cry out in the village the bridegroom is coming the bridegroom is coming and the bridesmaid along with her the bride along with her bridesmaids would have these bridesmaids light up their lanterns. Remember the parable of the bridesmaids and some who didn't have any oil for their lantern. It was a picture of having the oil of the Holy Spirit and some of those bridesmaids were like wait I got no oil let me have some of your oil and Jesus is telling this parable like no that's not the way it works you can't borrow the Holy Spirit from somebody else. And the reason for this is he might come at dusk and they'd light up those lanterns and they start being escorted through the village bride and groom and villagers would be shouting out their blessings God bless you shalom God bless your marriage and people leaning out the windows of their well wishes and people cheering they're like a prince and a princess even if they were paupers they were treated like royalty and they would go back to the father's house exchange exchange their marriage vows and then in the bridal chamber she would let down her hair for the first time because in Jewish custom the women practice great modesty as regard to other men but joyful intimacy with their own man and then you know the way we do it it's like after my wedding I was like I'm tired I'm rooting this is I thank everybody for coming got to go now going on a honeymoon that's not what they do for seven days friends and families stayed around and celebrated so the marriage feast of the lamb the marriage supper of Jesus Christ celebrating the wedding of Christ and his people in a new heaven and a new earth it's not an image of people standing around with some finger food you know and sipping on a little champagne it is a seven day long maybe longer if they're wealthy feast that seems like it's never going to stop and people just keep laughing and people just keep celebrating and people just keep dancing and they just keep blessing the bride and the groom that's the image behind this it is the kingdom of God Jesus is like a wedding party because there was no greater celebration that Jesus could describe on earth than a wedding party everybody in ancient Palestine understood understood this is the greatest celebration imaginable we can't think of anything greater than a wedding celebration as Jesus said that's what the kingdom of God's like so God in this image in revelation 19 has called you both the bride because you're the people of God you're the bride and also the blessed ones who have been invited so both images apply and as his bride betrothed to him what it means is that he's coming for you no matter what it means if you've had some bad times and you've been depressed and you've had doubts you're his betrothed he's coming for you never going to cross his mind that because you fell in a pool and got paralyzed that he's not going to come for you this is covenantal love compared to shallow substitutes that an alluring woman on a beast could offer that eventually implodes maybe it'll be like this the father knew that it was time for his son to be betrothed in the fullness of time the word became flesh and made his dwelling in our midst and he invited people to follow him and to be his and through the gift of the cross where he became our sin we were given the privilege of being saved becoming his righteousness and being clothed with the holy spirit with the holy spirit anyone in christ is thus betrothed to him can't be broken without a divorce and god is not going to divorce you but there'll be a time and it could be soon in which may be some dusk as if over a judean hillside the bridegroom arrives and maybe it'll be gabriel or some other archangel that'll sound the trumpet and say the bridegroom is coming and we'll light up the holy spirit will light up on side inside of every person who is in jesus christ every single person who has the holy spirit every person in christ gonna light up like a lantern and come to meet the groom as all of heaven and all the saints who've been encircled around that emerald rainbowed throne begin rejoicing from all eternity and we with him are going to have the marriage feast of the lamb of god and it's not going to just last seven days it's going to go on and on and on whatever celebration you've ever been to where you had your best friends your closest family and people who only wanted the best for you if you ever had a moment where you didn't have a care in the world and you just gave yourself over to the celebration you didn't have to worry about what it cost you didn't have to worry about about what was going to happen at work the next day you just celebrate if you ever had a moment like that that's what the new heaven and the new earth are going to be like and so the invitation for us is to know ourselves betrothed to the lord cannot be broken he is ours and you're his beloved and he loves you and he's coming for you and his covenantal love is a love that's from everlasting to everlasting and is rooted and seated in his finished work for you you wear the righteousness that he bought for you so get yourself ready because he's coming and the marriage feast is going to be one doozy of a party that's what's coming and that's the gospel pastor alan wright our good news message today the marriage supper of the lamb in the series the revelation i encourage you to stick with us pastor alan is back here in the studio with a parting good news thought for the day in just a moment if you think heaven is a misty place where you float around on clouds and pluck angelic harps you're in for the surprise of your life our special product this month is all about the hope of heaven it's our gift to you when you support this month alan cd album invites you to discover the body you've always wanted a spiritual resurrected body be assured that god isn't going to scrap you or the world he'll make all things new overcome the gnawing anxiety about the end of your life you can have peace now pastor alan wright's hope-filled messages will lead you into more than a joyous revelation of heaven according to the scriptures they'll lead you into a bounding hope so please help us stay on the radio in your area by making a generous gift today and we'll be happy to send you the body you've always wanted the cd album that is when you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today we'll send you pastor alan's messages in an attractive cd album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership now these are the final days this offer is being made available to you this month call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastor alan.org back here now with pastor alan and our parting good news thought for the day i wanted to put a smile on your face you know the image of being the bride of christ is daniel is not like in our western culture in america where we have this romantic idea about this really is rooted more in the style of people uh coming together in marriage by some sort of pre-arrangement not the caricature of marriage being pushed on people like we see in some oppressive households but you know where they're loving families and they're helping their children to find a suitable mate and the families know each other and they meet each other and they so there's a kind of love that is oh we fall in love and then we get married but there's another way and that is we get married and we grow in our love and so i want to leave listeners you with this assurance you and you if you're a christian it means you've been chosen in christ before the foundation of the world it means that it's in a sense a pre-arranged marriage and the reason that's such good news is that it means that you can't have a bad day and therefore have the bridegroom lose affection for you you're already his and oh what a day it's going to be when he comes back to consummate it all and we have the marriage supper of the lamb today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries
