In our American culture we have officially entered into the “Christmas Season” with the dawning of “Black Friday.” What an interesting title for what greedy men have made out of the birth of the Christ child with their final push at the end of the year to sell as much of their merchandise as possible. How opposite can a culture be from the nature of our Savior who turned over the tables of merchandise and money changers when He found them in the temple in Jerusalem and said to them, “It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves.” 

In great contrast have you ever wondered how the Church could be called the wife of the Lamb? The lamb is used by the Spirit in the scriptures to show us the nature of Christ. John in his heavenly vision (the Book of Revelations) saw a lamb as though it had been slain, standing! This is the very nature of Christ who came to this earth in all lowliness as a baby born in a stable for there was no room for Him because all the Jews had had come from afar and filled up the spaces in the local inns. He was born into poverty and the wise men who saw His star just knew that the King that they foresaw would be born in a king’s palace and that is where they showed up. The first shall be last and the Last shall be First. This is the nature of God’s only begotten Son in His love, true humility and lowliness. The profit Zechariah wrote,

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zech 9:9, ESV2011)

In the Book of Revelation we read,

Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.”And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. (Rev 21:9-11, ESV2011 – emphasis added)

There is so much to unpack here! The Bride, the wife of the Lamb… we know that the Lamb is Jesus Christ for John the Baptist saw Him coming and said of Him, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” But how can a Lamb have a Bride made up of humanity unless the Bride has the very nature and attributes of this same Lamb? In Genesis we read where God demanded that each being He created was commanded to reproduce after its own kind. The Bride is also likened by the angels in this vision to a holy city a NEW Jerusalem coming down out of heaven with the glory of God Himself with a radiance of a jewel clear as crystal.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. (Rev 22:1-5, ESV2011 – emphasis added)

These two analogies speak of the same thing in two different allegories. The bride of the Lamb is compared to a city with only ONE street which had one river that flowed down from the throne of God. It is also spoken of as having great purity and clarity. Today in Christendom we have many streets that come under many different names and not all their rivers are going the same direction much less are they flowing down from the throne of God. Another thing that strikes me is that John is carried away to a great high mountain and there he saw the New Jerusalem, the bride, coming down out of heaven. When Jesus was tempted by the devil at the end of his 40 days in the wilderness he was take away to a high mountain and shown all the kingdoms of the world…

And the devil, taking him up into a high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, “All this power will I give you, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.” (Luke 4:5-6, KJ2000)

These are two kingdoms that are adverse to one another. One is God’s kingdom, the New Jerusalem where Jesus and His Bride will rule for it is being prepared as a wife for the Lamb which was slain who yet now stands before God waiting for the perfection of His wife the Bride of Christ in all her purity and beauty. And the other kingdom is the one that belongs to Satan (also known as the Great Whore) where he gives its power to whomever he wishes if they will just bow down and worship at his feet (if we look deeper into the actions of those who rule in the kingdoms of men we often will find that demon worship is quite common among them).

Jesus knew that He had a kingdom which His Father was preparing for Him. But He also knew that it could not be taken prematurely by greedy hands. What was Jesus’ answer to this temptation? “Get you behind me, Satan: for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” Satan’s playground is found in the things that men desire. Just before Jesus was to go to the cross we read the following,

And he began to teach them [the disciples], that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he spoke that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get you behind me, Satan: for you consider not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. (Mark 8:31-33, KJ2000)

Peter and many of Christ’s followers were falling under the desires of the carnal Jews who wanted to have a kingdom of their own here on earth. The Jews were looking for Him to use His demonstrated power to overthrow the Romans and set up a kingdom here on earth where they could sit with Him and rule over the affairs of men. Little do men, even religious men, know that it is as Jesus warned saying, “He who finds his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake shall find it.”

Even in Christendom men who rule desire the high places among their followers. Sad to say, in many cases Christianity has become “a haunt of every demon and every foul and hateful bird.” Sad to say, the humility of Christ is rarely found among Christian leadership today. Most Christian leaders love the high places in the congregation. How they love their elevated platforms! Whatever happened to the example and life of Christ that was found throughout the early church in the first century? They were known as the “People of the Way” and it was the pagans of Antioch that called them “Christians.” Oh, that all who claim Christ were truly the People of the Way. In those early years the Roman emperors and the leaders of the Jews persecuted and killed those who believed in Christ because they in their love and humility they were turning their world upside down. What do we have today? Our presidents and leaders pay honor and are willing hosts to those who are the high profile leaders in Christendom. How opposite is this thing called “church” from what Jesus set in motion by His very example and life? No wonder Jesus prophesied,

And shall not God avenge his own elect, who cry day and night unto him, though he bears long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man comes, shall he find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:7-8, KJ2000)