Revelation 19:1-10

Chapter 19 begins with great shouts of praise from three groups!

1 - The first Hallelujahs – The Saints in Heaven. Verses 1-3. Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God – Hallelujah or Alleluia is a transliteration of the Hebrew halelu yah, meaning “praise Yah.” Yah is the poetic form of Yahweh, the LORD.

God is worthy of Hallelujah because of His salvation, glory, power, righteous and true judgments, and avenging of His bond-servants

A second time they said Hallelujah! Her smoke rises up forever and ever. - Babylon, the world system that has always stood against God and falsified His message of grace, is now finally destroyed.

2 - The Second Hallelujah – The 24 elders and 4 living creatures.

Verse 4. The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, “Amen, Hallelujah!”

Amen = So be it! Praise the LORD!

3 - The Third Hallelujah – The great multitude. Verses 5-6. The voice of a great multitude and as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty peals of thunder saying, Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.

Verses 7-8 – The Marriage of the Lamb Announced

The marriage of the Lamb has come – There were three major aspects to marriage customs of that time.

1 – The marriage contract – Fulfilled by the church when each individual member believes in Christ.

2 – The marriage ceremony – The bridegroom, unannounced, goes to get his bride and escort her to his home.

3 – The wedding feast – The celebration of the marriage. The church is already redeemed, the Lord has already come for her at the rapture, and now we see the marriage supper of the Lamb, the celebration!

The wedding feast – The location of this feast is debated. Some think it occurs in heaven during the tribulation. Most likely it occurs on the earth in connection with the second coming of Christ. If so, it will occur either:

At the beginning of the millennium

Throughout the millennium

Throughout the millennium and all eternity

Verses 8-9

And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints – This is not speaking of being justified by faith but of being sanctified by righteous living. Of course, sanctification is brought about by our relationship to Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Note Ephesians 5:26 where Jesus sanctifies His bride. It appears that this fine linen may, in some sense, be a part of the reward given at the judgment seat of Christ. There is debate as to how each individual member fits into this picture.

Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb – It appears that not every member of the church will be invited to the marriage supper. Note Matt. 25:1-13, Matt. 22:2-14.

Blessed – This is the 4th of the seven blessings, beatitudes, in Revelation (1:3, 14:13, 16:15, 19:9, 20:6, 22:7, and 22:14).

These are the true words of God – There seems to be something awe inspiring about this statement. Note the parallel statements in Revelation 22:6, 8-9).

Verse 10

*And I fell at his feet to worship him *– John has a similar experience in Revelation 22:8 at the pronouncement of God’s faithful and true word.

I am a fellow servant – Humans should never worship angels (Col. 2:18-19) as angels are fellow servants of God.

Worship God – Only God is worthy of worship!

*The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy *–

This can have two meanings:

1 – The testimony about Jesus is the common theme of all prophecy.

2 – The testimony that Jesus has given is the essence of prophetic proclamation.

It is possible that both meanings are intended. That is, Jesus is both the originator and the subject of true prophecy.

The point here is that Jesus is the source of revelation and angels only communicate it. Therefore Jesus (God) should be worshiped.