Mike Bickle emphasizes the dual themes of Revelation 19, portraying Jesus as both the Bridegroom and the King. He explains that the culmination of history is a glorious wedding, where Jesus desires to unite with His people, while also addressing the necessary judgment that precedes this union. The sermon highlights that God's judgments are rooted in love, aimed at removing obstacles to love, and that the church must prepare itself as a worthy bride. Bickle encourages believers to understand their identity as Jesus' inheritance and the significance of their commitment to Him in the context of this divine relationship. Ultimately, the message calls for a deeper recognition of the relational nature of God, who desires partnership with His people.

You would give her clarity in her spirit even now And release the manifest presence of god as she shares your heart tonight in the name of jesus. Amen. And amen Okay, uh top of page 23 jesus the bridegroom king Hosting a wedding from revelation chapter 19. Then we're going to take a break and come back And do the second part of revelation 19 Jesus waging a war now both halves Of this chapter are very very important and they must be read together to understand the full picture revelation 19 Is a must chapter Now just make note of that you must know revelation 19 the exciting part the wedding And the terrifying part the war you have to be you have to uh, understand both together natural history Ends with a glorious wedding and a global war That's how natural history ends And jesus returns to begin the age to come Now both of these subjects Point to the same reality It's jesus's desire To fill the earth with love to fill the earth with righteousness and love He goes to war for the sake of a wedding He wants to remove everything that hinders love. That's what's on his mind The judgment of god is because of love. It's not in contradiction to love He wants to remove everything that hinders love. That's what judgment is about the final battle of natural history Which we'll look at in the next session results In jesus ruling the earth in partnership with his bride Paragraph b again, I want to say we have to read both halves of revelation 19 together because the way to understand the glory of the wedding Is to see how extreme the war is and the way to understand The violence of the war is the passion he has for the wedding Both of them are necessary to understand the other We will not understand his motive for the war without seeing his desire for the wedding Now the war is shocking When we look at some of the details Which at a casual reading you might not catch them But when we bring what the rest of scripture says to bear upon the second half Of revelation 19 the war is shocking I mean, it's shocking where jesus confronts Rebellion openly on a global level It is shocking. He kills all the kings of the earth in one day Now many believers have never read that verse or they've never registered it Did you know that The day is coming where jesus is going to gather every king of the earth to one city Jerusalem, and he will slay them. He's like what? Where's that in the bible? I'm glad you asked because I have notes on it. We're going to look at it It's shocking but even more shocking Is that he is doing this for a wedding he's going to bind himself forever To people like us that's more shocking than the war the wedding is why Would the uncreated god? Jesus who in eternity past was god Why would he bind himself to us forever in a wedding? paragraph c Now there's no contradiction No contradiction at all Between jesus the bridegroom who loves us And jesus the king who wages a war to rule the nations There's no contradiction in that at all paragraph d Revelation 19 verse 7. We'll look at the the key verse of the first half of this chapter The marriage of the lamb has come Jesus is the lamb obviously The praise is going forth in the courts of heaven finally The marriage of jesus has come And the wife the bride of christ the church Throughout the ages throughout all the generations from the very beginning from adam all the way through the redeemed They have made themselves ready There will be a generation That will prepare themselves in radical obedience there will be a generation That will respond beyond any other generation in history and that's the generation being described here natural history will end with the bride of christ the church Saying yes to jesus in such a radical abandonment that she will be ready for the wedding day Okay now this verse The marriage supper, I mean the marriage of the lamb I call this god's mission statement for creation We would interview god and say what is your mission statement? I think he would say something like the marriage Of my son to his people. That's the guiding principle For which god has led human history All that he is doing He is preparing a bride. He's raising up a prepared bride for a worthy son That's what he's doing throughout all the generations He's kept this in focus To raise up A prepared bride for a worthy son Now that's not exactly what's on our minds. So often we're trying to get out of a little bit of pressure Make life a little bit easier make our ministry work Have our relationships work get enough money The lord cares about those things But he has a bigger picture a bigger plan He is raising you up to be a prepared bride for a worthy son. He says yes I care about those things in your life But there's a bigger vision that you have to know about You have a bigger role in history than just having your life work out in practical ways in this age So there it is revelation 19 verse 7 God's ultimate purpose for creation to provide an eternal companion for his son a bride paragraph e Now natural history will end at the second coming Human history continues past the second coming, of course But history just in the natural sense ends at that time and the age to come begins And natural history ends with a bride made ready for her bridegroom God is creating the optimum environment for us to get prepared That we would love jesus in a voluntary way I would say that again the father Is creating the optimum environment for us to obey and respond You know in wholeheartedness Now that optimum environment includes pressure It includes persecution It includes the outpouring of the spirit It includes standing before temptation and saying no All of these work together To prepare us in mature love for the son on that day. My point is this There's a big drama that you're a part of If you keep this vision before you That there's something bigger going on Life is not just aimless. It's not about just Making some things work and getting rid of pressure our struggle Makes sense if we know where we're going. We're on our way to our own wedding. That's where we're going That's what's happening right now Look at paragraph g Or let's look at psalm 2 verse 8 The line a sentence just before The father promised to give the nations as an inheritance to jesus Jesus's inheritance Is his people did you know? That you are the inheritance of the lord. Jesus You are What he wants You are what he wants you are the inheritance that the father has given him Ephesians 1 Paul prayed That we would know the riches of the glory of being jesus's inheritance Beloved we need to know who we are to him We're not just people That he stamped our passport saved rescued from hell next Saved go on in the city rescued from hell He did so much more Than stamp our passport We are his inheritance We are his eternal companion and paul prayed look at here. Ephesians 1 He said oh father Let them see notice the phrase the riches of the glory of being the inheritance of jesus So the issue That we care about understanding Is the riches of the worth of jesus? his worthiness Beloved he is worth so much to us He is worthy of all of our adoration But that's not the end of the story It's not only that he is worth so much to us That's reasonable What is shocking? Is how much you are worth to him? You are worth so much to him This is what paul prayed That we would know the riches Of the glory of how much we are worth to him as his inheritance Turn to page top of page 24 Now jesus is very committed to his wedding This has been on his mind from the beginning all of history Centers around the drama of this wedding that natural history ends with Let's look at the very beginning paragraph a History began With adam and eve in the guard of eden joined as bride and bridegroom At first glance it seems just to be the story of adam and eve But many years later paul the apostle came along By the anointing of the holy spirit god told him there's more than meets the eye Adam and eve as bride and bridegroom Was a prophetic picture Of jesus and his church as bride and bridegroom Paul the apostle is the one that made that known to us in ephesians chapter 5 in the relationship Of adam and eve We see a prophetic picture of jesus joined to his church But the picture did not just begin in the garden of eden It ends in the garden of eden look at paragraph b Natural history ends In a eden-like City called the new jerusalem It's a heavenly city With all of the elements of the garden of eden and the glorious temple of god coming together in this glorious city But in this city Jesus And his people are joined fully in an open way as bride and bridegroom Let's look at paragraph c Let's I want to show you the importance Of this Of the wedding of jesus's wedding to him paragraph c Jesus began his ministry at a wedding number one He ended his ministry By describing the kingdom As the father preparing a wedding for him Then he began his ministry to the apostles When he first gathered the apostles to himself He revealed himself to them as a bridegroom He said I am the bridegroom And then at the end of his ministry to the apostles He called them again To the reality of him as the bridegroom god History ends With the church crying out right before the second coming globally in her bridal identity The church is crying out the spirit and the bride Saying come lord. Jesus Come lord. Jesus. So the church ends in her bridal identity as well Look at roman numeral three god's nature His eternal personality is love Here's my point Jesus is a bridegroom king He is a bridegroom Meaning that's the nature of his heart He is not like a bridegroom At the core of his being he actually is a bridegroom A king is what he does It's his function He demonstrates his power to exert his rule But at the core of his being He is one who loves his people At the core of his being he is a bridegroom god It's not symbolic It's not something he does for a moment Forever he is the god with burning desire for his people Says here in first john 4 16 God is love Now love is not something that he does it's something that he is He is the overflowing fountain of desire for his people He desires To share the joy of his love with his people. That's who he is at his core God is love Now love by definition is relational Love isn't just something god does it's who he is meaning At the core of jesus's being He is relational. He wants to deeply be involved with us in partnership forever The reason i'm saying this We can only understand god's purposes When we understand this relational paradigm of who he is Sometimes be paragraph b We think of jesus as a great king and surely he is But he's a distant king to many people And we think of him as this powerful Mighty king who at a distance is reigning And we think of his Main interest in us Is to save us so we'll worship him And we'll work for it Beloved Jesus is looking for something more Than affirmation and a free workforce He has more on his heart than getting affirmation Raising up a workforce now His great worth his great glory demands that we praise him But It's important that we understand He wants to be praised in context To a relationship of love. That's what he's after Let's look at paragraph c the bridegroom message Is about jesus's emotions for us Somebody will ask What is the bridegroom message? It's the revelation of his emotions for us And it's the revelation of his commitments to us And the bridegroom message also Involves Our radical commitment back to him. I've had people say I want to preach the bridegroom message. What is it? We want to focus on his emotions beloved Jesus has more than power He is a god of deep emotions He is moved by the way that we love him he not only moves us But we move him that's That's almost scandalous to our mind That weak and broken people could respond in a way That moves him so deeply We are committed to preaching the bridegroom message in the context of the larger story of salvation I mean our message is the salvation story But it's not Just a savior who forgives It's a bridegroom who deeply engages with the people that he forgives Let's look at paragraph g Top of page turn to top of page 25 Let's go down to paragraph g now in the old testament Israel understood that the messiah was a king They understood that god was a king with power That's clear that's easy for most people to grasp who love god He's a king with power But the prophets came along isaiah was the first and he said He's more than a king with power He is a bridegroom with desire He wants relationship He doesn't just want to rule you He wants to relate with you even more He wants to rule with you over the nation ship over the nations in a deep relationship Even the relationship of marriage This was a Very difficult idea for the old testament covenant people undoubtedly I can imagine When isaiah and then hosea that were contemporaries Contemporaries those were the first two prophets to give this message He's more than a king with power He's a bridegroom with desire That must have really thrown off the covenant people What do you mean? God is so transcendent He's so powerful He's so high How could he ever stoop so low to be in relationship? Even a marriage relationship. This is unthinkable now when we talk about the bridegroom god And the bride of christ his redeemed his church It's important that you don't bring any sensual or romantic dimensions into this Now some people do that and that's non-biblical What I mean is Jesus being our bridegroom meaning hope means He opens his heart and shares his emotions with us and brings us close to him in intimate interaction In relationship in terms of sharing his heart There's no There's no sensual romantic dimension to it every now and then One of the young ladies You know in the bible school she'll say i'm going on a date night with jesus I go no Jesus doesn't go on date nights He's not your boyfriend. That's the wrong idea. You're watching too many movies. That's not what we're talking about jesus being a bridegroom Means he's fully opened his heart to us. That's what it means and invites us into partnership With him in the deepest way It has no connotations again to romance You don't hold hands with jesus in the park You don't kiss jesus You don't sing love songs to him like romantic love songs Now, I know 99 of you get that But there's always the one percent That have funny ideas Just forget those ideas Jesus is not married to the girls any more than he's married to the boys because It's not about that dimension sensuality as a king He shares his power with us As a bridegroom, he shares his heart with us Let's look at paragraph g number two as a king He wants service As a bridegroom He wants partnership. He wants us to be involved with him as we serve him As a king He gives us mandates As a bridegroom, he wants conversation with us Now when a king gives an order he doesn't want conversation But a bridegroom wants conversation He really wants to partner with us at this level as a king He wants to rule over us as a bridegroom. He wants to rule with us Obviously He is the leader But he said I want you to sit with me in my government because that's how dear you are to me as a king He wants obedience As a bridegroom He wants loyal love But jesus said that our love is expressed through our obedience As a king He is worshiped by us As a bridegroom our worship moves him deeply He doesn't just receive The affirmation and adulation of the nations say thank you. Thank you. I know I deserve it. It moves him Because he cares so much about us Now let's look at roman numeral four Revelation 19 the bridegroom's response on the wedding day Now I wanted to give the background a little bit To make sense of revelation 19 of the great wedding That's where we're going and again When you understand that it makes Sense of how god's leading our lives Because if it was all about just making us happier now Giving us more money now Giving us more anointing now Giving us a bigger ministry Making things work better Then we would be confused why it's not happening more But he says no all of those things will happen Even in this age to some degree But I have a bigger plan i'm preparing you For a wedding in which you will be equally yoked to my son in love And it will make sense fully on that day my leadership over your life in this age Let's look at the bride's response on the great wedding day Verse one, let's read it through Then we'll go back and break it down a little bit Says in verse one after these things After what things After he demonstrated his judgments In revelations 17 and 18 some of his most severe judgments in history after these things The great multitude in heaven the redeemed from all of history They respond to the lord Now the great multitude in verse one is the bride in verse seven It's the same group They say hallelujah They say to jesus We agree With your leadership in judging the nations of the rebellion against you We agree Salvation and glory and honor And power they belong to you What they're saying is? We agree with your leadership jesus Verse two breaks it down exactly what they agree with Because when they say hallelujah, they're saying we agree that's we agree with rejoicing We finally understand and we fully agree with what you've done verse two For true and righteous are your judgments Because you have judged the great harlot that's chapter 17 and 18 a book of revelation Now notice What the great harlot has done? She has corrupted the earth with her fornication her immorality And The lord has avenged on her the blood of his servant shed by her verse three Again, the bride says hallelujah For her smoke rises up forever and forever verse 4 Then the 24 elders and the four living creatures They are overwhelmed at what they're witnessing And they fall down And they worship god And they cry out hallelujah And then a voice came from the throne saying Praise our god all you servants both small and great So what's going on again much more is happening here than meets the eye at a casual reading John is having an open vision Of the bride responding to jesus on her wedding day Because the next verse or two it's clear the wedding of the lamb has come and they're all assembled All the angelic host of heaven are witnessing Jesus receiving his redeemed as his bride openly before all That's what's happening in this context Now the first thing that happens on the wedding day The father is in essence Saying this not exactly but let me add a little to it. So you get the picture he's saying Okay people of god Before the wedding is fully consummated Before the wedding is brought to its fullness What do you think about my son's leadership over history? And for the first time a hundred percent Of god's people are in a hundred percent agreement with god For the first time all of god's people they agree with jesus's leadership over the nations Because the most offensive thing About jesus's leadership is his judgments that's why Her agreement with his judgment is highlighted When jesus's judgments go forth the devil whispers and says That's a contradiction to love And even the people of god They get offended at jesus when his judgments go forth The devil knows this Because we can't grow in love if we're offended at jesus's leadership If you're angry Or if you don't trust his leadership over your life, you can't grow in love towards him The enemy knows this so he constantly Is accusing us I mean in our mind accusing the lord saying what he's doing is not right. It's not good The issue of his judgments So here we are on the wedding day and the father says let's settle the issue Now that all the information is out Now that you see it all What do you think of my son's leadership over history? The great multitude the bride of christ Cries out hallelujah We agree You did right Now we fully understand There was no contradiction in your judgments from your claims of being a god of love For you did everything In your judgments to remove all that hinders love Imagine several billion believers all with resurrected bodies Now with full understanding Standing before jesus on the wedding day Declaring their agreement with him even in the most difficult issue of his leadership the issue of his judgments because again The devil wants to keep us confused about the judgments of god. So he keeps us offended at jesus because of them Because we can't grow in love if we're offended Paragraph b Well, the most severe judgments of history have just been poured out And here's all the saints around the throne And here's their first statement hallelujah Salvation belongs to the lord They're saying this We now see That your judgments ended up in causing more people to be saved Your salvation increased It did not decrease The devil told us a lie That if your judgments were in the earth Your salvation would be minimized Salvation belongs to you we can see your salvation purposes have increased They go to the next point Hallelujah Glory belongs to you We can see now That there are more people who love you And live for your glory because of your judgments Your judgments were wise They were effective They worked they actually produced more love for god in the earth Honor belongs to you the measure of obedience In the nations of god's people increases It does not decrease When god's wise judgments are administrated And then it goes on it says power belongs to you And they can see what's coming That jesus through his judgments Has removed at the end this time in the second coming All the evil authority structures on the earth And all the governmental power over all the nations now belongs to this jewish man power All the governmental power of the nations is now his in other words His judgments were wise now The point isn't only about judgment. Here's the real point Our full agreement with his leadership And the reason his judgments are being emphasized. That's the most difficult area to agree with the point being If we agree with the most difficult area of his leadership How much more will we agree with all the other areas of his leadership? So it's a bigger subject going on than just the judgment of god Look at page 26 now notice Back in verse 2 on the on the page before but i'll just remind you of it They said hallelujah salvation glory and power yours because True and righteous are your judgments Your most difficult area of leadership proved to be good not bad the devil lied to us Your judgments proved effective How much more all of your other dimensions of leadership Now look at the back in verse 2 revelation 19 verse 2 it says this The two main reasons for god's judgments Were that the harlot this false religion that will emerge in the end times We can see the early beginnings of it right now The two main sins that this harlot religion this new Emerging religion which hasn't even started yet. I don't believe just the very beginning of the beginning we can see it emerging the two main sins Are her corruption her immorality And her oppression that she kills and oppresses the saints Is Now the harlot does this harlot religion does more than that But those are the two main areas of sin that are increasing in the world corruption and oppression both of them Are related to attacking the bride's love for jesus the devil's system Is to use this false religion to fill the earth with immorality because beloved To the degree that you touch And are engaged in immorality your love for jesus is diminished and the devil knows that It's not an accident But through all the internet technology immorality is exploding in the earth. That's an absolute satanic strategy The point is to cut off your love for jesus and diminish it because you cannot You cannot be engaged in immorality and grow strong in love with jesus You can still be genuine and say no to the immorality and struggle with it But your love will never grow strong. It will always stay weak and defiled So the saints go we understand that you're bringing the immorality into judgment But the harlot does more than bring corruption and immorality. She kills the saints And the lord stands up And he removes all that oppresses his church beloved the day is coming The oppression will be removed now here in the western world. We don't have much oppression, but the days are coming when we will We'll understand this more Paragraph e then all the elders And all the living creatures they fall down before jesus The top governmental leaders In heaven they are overwhelmed when they see the church In unity with jesus the elders and the four living creatures they go god it's happening The thing you promised your son That he would have an inheritance that he would have a people who love him it's happening right in front of our eyes We're witnessing the promises of god to jesus are actually taking place So they fall down overwhelmed everything that god promised jesus is happening right in front of their eyes Because when the saints come into full agreement with jesus's leadership Then they are functioning as his inheritance That he fully possesses Let's look at paragraph g Now imagine Billions of believers They're awestruck watching the 24 elders And the four living creatures fall down before jesus. They're stunned. They're silenced. They're thinking how awesome That the top governmental Ministries of heaven are so overwhelmed At the fact that the bride is perfectly unified with her bridegroom Then a voice comes from the throne And he says praise our god all you servants this voice Cries out from the throne And says in essence I know you're all overwhelmed that the elders are falling overwhelmed before god, but let's change the focus Let's cry out to god and thanksgiving to him for all the things that he's done in bringing a prepared bride To this day to be joined to his worthy son Look at roman number five revelation 19 verse 6 I heard the voice of a great multitude The sound of many waters. This is the bride again It's the sound of mighty thunderings And she's crying hallelujah. We agree for the lord god omnipotent reigns Let us be glad Let us rejoice For the marriage of the lamb has come paragraph a The bride is rejoicing All of heaven is rejoicing because god's reign Jesus is finally being seen as king over all the nations the day has come where jesus is being Manifest as king on the earth and his wedding is taking place The two things are happening causing all of heaven to rejoice now notice in verse 5 That the sound of the multitude the multitude is the bride She sounds like many waters The sound of mighty thunderings wait a second in the book of revelation The voice of many waters is the voice of god The voice of thunder that's god's voice The bride Sounds like god. She isn't god, but she has his authority When she worships in unity on that day, she will have the same sound She will have the very authority of god her voice is like thunder not just the voice of jesus She will sound like her bridegroom paragraph c They cry out The lord god omnipotent reigns now god always reigns in heaven Jesus is reigning right now in heaven And they worship the angels and the saints in heaven. They worship god in his power now But there's a bigger message They're talking about god's power being manifest on the earth to reign over the nations through a jewish man That's what it's talking about here the day Of his world government has come and it's happened on the same day of his wedding top of page 27 All of heaven is rejoicing All of heaven is glad there's no more tears no more sorrow no more pain The time of eternal gladness has begun God There's no fear. There's no condemnation. There's no shame Imagine all the saints are worshiping worshiping with a full spirit No defilement, no sorrow, no shame full confidence face to face with the bridegroom god They give glory to the lord All of god's people will be god-centered From the very depth of their being Everybody will be god-centered That god himself jesus will be the main thing on their heart and the main compulsion of their life He will be their magnificent obsession all the saints together on that day They're rejoicing Because she made herself ready now, that's an interesting statement That the bride has made herself ready Well, I thought that the grace of god is what made us ready It is Well, then how can it say? That the bride has made herself ready because there's a cooperation in the grace of god God does his part God provides the inspiration and the power And the forgiveness and many other things But we must respond God will not do our part and we can't do his part What's happening here the emphasis Is not that she's so awesome. She had the ability to do it. That's not what's being emphasized What's being emphasized? She wanted to respond That on the wedding day the bride is saying We're here because we want to love him Right Jesus doesn't want an unwilling partner on that day The bride is there Because she's responded from her own free will through history Beloved this is not a shotgun wedding None of us will be there on that day because We were forced to but only those that wanted to that's the emphasis of that phrase It's not undermining the grace of god But it's emphasizing The responsiveness of the bride as a key part of that wedding day because jesus glories in a people who want to be with him Paragraph g very significant is the bride's garments on that day It was granted to her to be arrayed in fine linen For the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints Every one of you Will receive the garments of salvation as a free gift Because of what jesus did for you not because of what you did But in addition to the free garments of salvation There are additional garments that are given to you based on your responsiveness Don't think that in the age to come You will only have one white gown, you know one big white t-shirt and that's it some people When they think of the age to come You know, jesus has this glorious new jerusalem city with phenomenal food And the power of god and music and sound and light and color and diamonds and precious jewels And oh no He forgot about the dress code. All we have is one big white t-shirt For billions of years and jesus. Oh, no, I forgot about dress. Oh, how could I have slipped that? How could i've overlooked that? Well, that's not the case You will have many garments in the age to come Your wardrobe in the age to come will be far more sophisticated than your wardrobe is now There will be many occasions And they will all have garments That are appropriate to those occasions You won't just be at one billion year worship setting with a white t-shirt on You'll be in many many many different settings forever And you will receive the gift of salvation and those garments but in addition You will receive garments That are in response to the way you loved him on the earth All of you will have different garments according to your dedication to him in this age says here The garments are for the righteous acts the saints did now He is so moved by the way you love him He will openly declare The way he feels about the way you loved him by the garments he gives you beloved You will actually wear You will wear in your clothing the love that you have for him in this age eternal rewards Are not about us Getting a reward so we boast in front of another believer Like we walk by and say hey look at these garments look at this crown Boy, you should have been dedicated. I told you back there. You should have eternal rewards Are not about superiority to other believers Eternal rewards Are jesus expressing openly the way he feels about the way you loved him? So Eternal rewards Are about your proximity to him in the age to come not your superiority to other saints We will all have different rewards in that day and the rewards will be According to the way we loved him in this age It really matters what we do on those mundane routine days That are boring and you don't feel good and you feel lonely Nothing's working you feel sad. It really matters what you do in those days because there's so many days like that And we love him We don't feel a lot sometimes but we seek him We choose to obey instead of yield We we choose to stay steady instead of drawback. I assure you On that day He will give you garments That reflect the way you loved him in this age because he won't ever overlook even one day of devotion. You've shown him Well, let's end with that Let's stand I'm gonna ask the lord to touch you Take a 10 minute break the lord. I just ask even now I ask you Show us who we are to you Show us the riches of the glory of who we are as your saints And we ask you to touch us in jesus name Amen, and amen I'm gonna take a 10 minute break and then laura hackett will come And she'll lead us in a few moments of worship, then we'll do part two