The Warrior King

Well, if you have your Bible, I hope you do, turn to Revelation 19. If this
chapter in Revelation was a movie, the second half of Revelation 19 would be a
Western. It would be that classic Western where the town has been overrun by the
bad guys and where the saloon is full and where the hotel has become a brothel and
where righteousness rules and all of the good people stay home and stay out of
sight because the town has just become corrupt and then one day you look and off
on the horizon you see a lone rider coming in and everybody looks and says who's
that and what's going on and he comes closer and closer and you know what happens
I mean if you saw the magnificent seven even back in what was in 1960 it first
came out and then there was a remake in 2017 and the seven riders come and they
come to clean up the town. Well Revelation 19 is not about the magnificent seven
it's about the magnificent one who comes riding in to destroy Babylon and to bring
the order and safety back to the world and to the towns people know that they're
safe. So that's what we're gonna look at. It's an awesome, it's a sobering scene
that John is seeing in this chapter and so we're gonna get right into it this
morning and see what God would have for us in his word. And again, Lord, we come
to you and ask that you would open our hearts and minds and our eyes to see and
hear what your spirit would say to us in your word this morning. Give us not only
eyes to see, but hearts to obey. speak to us by your spirit through your word, we
ask in your name. Amen. Revelation 19 beginning at verse 11,
you follow along as I read, this is the word of God for the people of God. John
says, "Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse,
the one sitting on it is called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges
and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire and on his head are many diadems
and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe
dipped in blood and the name by which he is called is the Word of God.
In the armies of heaven, a raid in fine linen, white and pure, were following him
on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword,
with which to strike down the nations. And he will rule them with a rod of iron.
He will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God, the Almighty.
On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of
Lords.
Then I saw an angel standing in the sun with a loud voice. He called to the birds
that fly directly overhead, "Come, gather for the great supper of God to eat the
flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses
and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both great and
small.
And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make
war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. The beast was
captured, and with it the false prophet, who in his presence had done the signs by
which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who
worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns
with sulfur. The rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who
was sitting on the horse. All the birds were gorged with their flesh.
Amen. May God bless this reading of his word. The grass withers and the flower
fades. The word of our God will stand forever. That's a sobering passage and we're
going to spend most of our time this morning on the first half of these verses and
here's why. We have a picture here in Revelation 19 that along with Revelation 1
and some of the other passages in this book give us a fuller picture of who Jesus
is, a picture that we desperately need, something we need to understand and embrace.
This is a portrait we don't see in other books of the Bible, a portrait that if
we don't embrace, if we don't consider it, if we don't have this fill in our
picture of who Jesus is, we will have an incomplete view of Jesus,
an inaccurate understanding of His totality. If you sat down with your friends,
even most churchgoers, and you said, "Describe Jesus for me." Most of them would
say, "Jesus is kind. He's loving. He's gentle. He's compassionate." They would say,
"He cares about the poor. He cares about the hurting, about the marginalized. He is
wise and he's a good teacher. He's humble. He humbled himself to the point of
death, even death on a cross. He comes to pay for the sins of all who will follow
him. And all of that would be true, but incomplete. It would be unusual if your
friends said to you, "Jesus has eyes that pierced like fire and he comes and makes
war. That's not what comes to mind when we think about the Lord Jesus.
And if you ask them, "Will Jesus come to judge the earth one day?" Some of them
will say, "Well, John 3 .17 says God did not send his son into the world to
condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him." And again, that's
true. God sent Jesus the first time to announce the gospel,
to announce the arrival of the kingdom, to call people to himself, to unite with
him by believing in his death and his resurrection, believing that he is the
Messiah, but his second coming will be different than his first coming.
His second coming, he comes with a different assignment. And Jesus talked about this
himself when he was here the first time on the night before he was crucified,
meeting with his disciples in the upper room. They ask him, no, this was on the
night after he had met with his disciples, he was in front of Caiaphas, the high
priest, and Caiaphas said to him, "Are you the Messiah?" And he said, "I am,
and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming with
the clouds of heaven." He'd already told his disciples about the coming day of the
Lord in what is known as the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24. He said this, "Then
will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man. All of the tribes of the earth
will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power
and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they
will gather the elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other.
This idea of Jesus coming on the clouds, that's not a meteorological reference, the
clouds of warriors that are coming with him. It's the angel armies that are coming
with him who will accompany him when he comes to judge the world and to punish for
eternity those who persist in rebellion against God.
Ask your friends if they believe what the Apostles Creed says, and by the way, many
of our roots students memorized the Apostles Creed last week, way to go. But ask
people if they believe that Jesus is coming to judge the living and the dead, and
they will likely default to passages like, "How do you know that?" They'll say,
"Well, he'll separate the sheep from the goats. The good people will go with him to
heaven, the people who aren't good will go to hell and you say, "Well, who are the
not good people?" And they'll say, "Well, you know, like Hitler and this boss I had
one time, you know, they'll just come up with a list of the bad people." But this
portrait of the warrior king Jesus coming to bring judgment to the earth is a
picture given to John and to all of us to help us understand Jesus and his coming
and his role in judgment, to give us a complete picture of who he is and why he
comes. The truth is, most of us are happy to talk about the loving and kind and
gentle and compassionate Jesus, but when we come to the idea of Jesus coming as a
warrior king and as a judge, we tend to shy away from that. But we can't dismiss
the portrait of Jesus that is found here in Revelation. And the better we understand
it, and the more we embrace it, and the more we're captivated by the power and the
authority and the justice of Jesus, the more we will be humbled by His grace
because
of His great love for us, that if we follow Him by His grace,
He will save us from the wrath that is to come. So Here's how we're going to
approach these verses we just read. We're going to look first at this portrait of
the warrior king that is laid out for us in verses 11 through 16. We will see
there his appearance, we will see his actions, and we will see the names given to
him in these verses. Then we're going to look briefly, we're going to spend most of
our time there, we'll look briefly at what's called the great supper of God in
verses 17 through 18, and finally the final victory that is declared,
that is laid out for us in the end of this, verses 19 through 21. So let's see
how John describes in this first vision Jesus coming on the white horse,
the
appearance of Jesus. In the Roman world, in Jesus' day, when a king had conquered a
land, he would come back to his homeland and he would ride in procession on a
white horse as a parade of victory was celebrated. He would come in riding on this
white stallion and the white horse would make the king stand out from the other
horse riders who were coming in. It would signify his righteousness and his triumph.
And by the way, I think it's clear that when we look and see, when John sees this
vision of one riding in on a white horse, I don't think we should expect that
there will be a day ahead when the heavens will be pulled back and Jesus will come
on a white horse. I think this
It could be. I could be wrong, but I'm guessing that this is a metaphor for him
coming in triumph as a king. John in verse 12 says, "His eyes are like flames of
fire." When he looks coming in, he's looking with intensity.
His eyes are piercing. You almost have to turn away from his gaze. Spurgeon
commenting on that statement says, "Why are his eyes like flames of fire? Why first
to discern the secrets of all hearts? There are no secrets that Christ does not
see." There's no lewd thought, no unbelieving skepticism that Christ does not read.
There's no hypocrisy, no formalism, no deceit that he does not scan as easily as a
man reads a page in a book. His eyes are like a flame of fire to read us through
and through and to know our inmost soul. Jesus has that kind of piercing eye.
When he comes to judge, he can see the thoughts and intentions of every man. He
knows what's true. He knows what's hidden in your heart.
He sees everything. Nothing is hidden from him.
And this passage tells us that he comes with many diadems on his head, many crowns.
The Greek language has two words for crowns. One word is the word "Stefanus," which
is a crown of victory. That's the crown that you give to an athlete who has won
his race in the games. He gets the "Stefanus" put on his head. And back in
Revelation 14, When Jesus came in a vision with a sickle, John said he had a
Stephanus on his head because Jesus has won the victory through his death.
But here he's not coming with a Stephanus, he's coming with a diadem. That's a
different crown. It's a crown of authority and rulership. It's not that you're
victorious, it means that you are, you've been set apart to rule. You are the king.
This is a picture of a diadem. There's one of these in the Getty Museum dated from
around the time of Jesus, and you notice these tassels that are hanging from the
gold there. These tassels could be decorative, but they also might signify the
conquests of this particular king. These hanging tassels, you would get a new one
every time you conquered another land. And I think the reference to Jesus having
many crowns is not a reference to Jesus having many of these on his head, but many
tassels hanging from that crown. That he is coming with a fully laden crown full of
tassels because he has conquered all. He has conquered the whole world.
We've seen in this book that when the dragon rose out of the sea, he had seven
diadems on his head. The beast had 10 diadems on his head. John says,
"Jesus has many crowns, many diadems, too many to count,
more than you can number." He's conquered everything. It's all his.
And then his robe in verse 13 is described as being dipped in blood,
and commentators are split over whether the blood on his robe is his own blood from
his sacrifice or whether it's the blood of his enemies from his victory of the
battle against them. Then there are arguments for either side. I tend to think that
this is a picture of what has been described for us in Isaiah 63. So I want you
to turn to Isaiah 63 because I want you to see what I think John is seeing
fulfilled and what he has in mind in this vision. Isaiah 63, Isaiah is,
go to Psalms in the middle and you keep going past Psalms and Proverbs and you'll
eventually get to Isaiah. Isaiah 63 and verse 1, I think this is the scene that
John is seeing here in Galatians 19, "Who is this who comes from Edom in crimson
garments from Basra? He who is splendid in his apparel,
marching in the greatness of his strength, it is I speaking in righteousness mighty
to save. Why is your apparel red and your garments like his who treads the wine
press? I have trodden the wine press alone, And from the peoples, no one was with
me. I trod them in my anger, I trampled them in my wrath. Their lifeblood
splattered on my garments and stained all my apparel for the day of vengeance was
in my heart, and my year of redemption had come." I think the blood on Jesus' robe
in Revelation 19 is the blood of his enemies defeated in battle.
And again, I think this is symbolic. Like, I don't think there's a day ahead when
Jesus will be doing hand -to -hand combat and sword fighting with his enemies to get
a blood -spattered robe. I think he comes, the vision that John sees of a king
coming on a white horse with a blood -spattered robe is saying, "This is a king who
rules in authority and who has won the battle." And it was a costly battle,
And there was blood shed in that battle. The blood here is on the robes to remind
us that the victory comes with a cost. The battle did take place, an enemy was
engaged and defeated.
And then this last description we see of Jesus in verse 15 is a picture of a
sword coming out of his mouth. And again, I think this is what John is saying. His
defeat does not come with sword play, but it comes with his words. His words are
like a sharp sword. In Ephesians the Bible talks about the sword of the Spirit
being the word of God. And as we see in this passage we'll look at it more
carefully in a minute. One of the names given to Jesus in this passage is the word
of God. Now think about it. How did God create the world? How much effort did he
exert and created the world? He spoke and the world was created. God said,
"Let there be light," and there was light. God spoke it into existence. There is
creative power at the word of God, and there's destructive power in God's word. All
Jesus has to do is speak, and his words are like a piercing sword that defeat the
enemy. Luther made this point in his great hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God,"
when he says, "The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we
can endure, for lo, his doom is sure. One little word shall fell him." All it
takes for Jesus to defeat the enemy, to defeat Satan, is for him to speak, to say
the word.
And he's presented here as a victorious warrior coming in triumph on a white horse
in a blood -spattered robe, coming in power with a crown with many diadems, having
defeated and destroyed the enemy. If your picture of who Jesus is does not include
this, it's an incomplete picture.
In the ancient world, if you saw a king coming from a battle like this, you would
do one of two things. If you were a subject of the king, you would celebrate. The
king had won the battle and he's coming in triumph and you would, there would be a
parade and you would be shouting in the street and you would be praising the one
who had won the battle. If you were his enemy, you would run and hide because this
king who had come in victory had just shown his might and his power, and you would
be terrified of his coming.
So that's the appearance of Jesus for us in Revelation 19 as he comes to judge the
world. Let's look at his actions, not just his appearance, but his actions. First
John says he comes to judge in verse 11. He comes to judge and he judges in
righteousness. That means that when he judges, he judges with what is right and
wrong. He's the author of what is right and wrong. He's the God of righteousness,
and he judges according to that righteous standard. He's not arbitrary, he's not
capricious. He judges what is right and what is wrong. We have nine justices who
serve on our Supreme Court. Pretty common that when a case is brought before them,
it will be a split decision. Some of the justices will say, I think this is right,
other justices will say, no, I think that's wrong. So you get a five to four or
six to three decision from the Supreme Court. Very rare that you get a nine nothing
decision from the Supreme Court. When they rule, these justices have a different idea
in their minds about what right and wrong is. That's why some justices say,
I vote with this guy because that's right and somebody else says no I think the
other guy is right. They have different standards for right and wrong. Jesus judges
with perfect righteousness. He knows what is right and what is wrong and he judges
according to that standard. He's established what is right and wrong. He's the one
who made right and wrong and he's the one who made us. I don't want to get ahead
of myself here but one of the names for Jesus is that he is faithful and true.
Verse 11 says that's what he's called, and this is in relation to his role as a
judge. His judgments are right and true and faithful. You ever heard of the
Innocence Project? Maybe you saw the movie that came out a few years ago or read
the book, Just Mercy, written by Brian Stevenson. The This project was established to
ensure that people who are incarcerated actually belong in jail, that justice has
been done, and over the past 32 years, they have found more than 250 cases where
justice was not done, including a number of death row cases. They estimate that 4 %
of people on death row in the United States today are actually innocent, and there
was either false witness born against them, or they were coerced to inter -apply that
they say they did something that they didn't really do. Now I don't know if that
number is correct or not, but here's what I do know. When Jesus comes to judge,
His judgment will be right and true. There will be nobody who will be judged
wrongly. There's nobody who will be condemned who doesn't deserve to be condemned,
because the truth is We all deserve condemnation. We all deserve to be condemned.
There is no one who is innocent who will be punished 'cause there's no one who's
innocent.
You get that, right? I mean, those who are spared from judgment and justice, like
you and me, if we are followers of Jesus, we will be spared not because we're
innocent and don't deserve eternal punishment. We'll be spared because God has
graciously of the offer of eternal life to us. He's offered to forgive our sins.
He's offered to pay the debt we owe. And that is why we don't receive justice.
That's why in this picture we can rejoice at his coming rather than fear his
coming. The only reason we're able to escape the judgment that others will face is
because Jesus himself, the righteous judge is also the one who paid the price For
our sin and rebellion against him You and I would be subject to his perfect
righteous judgment against us For the penalty as the penalty for our sin if he had
not Paid the price on our behalf if he had not been the sacrifice for us And this
is why I want to plead with you today if you have not turned to Christ if you've
not turned away from a sin If you've not surrendered your life to him pledged your
life to him If you're Not worshiping and following and serving and telling others
about him, friend, you're in danger of judgment that is coming. A judge is coming
and your name is on his list. He will render faithful and true justice when he
comes. And you will face eternal punishment for ignoring or dismissing or rejecting
him for living your life on your own terms instead of submitting to Him. But God
who is gracious offers to you today a way of escape from that judgment. He offers
to forgive your sin. He offers to give you a new life, a new heart. He offers
hope for the future instead of fear and dread. He offers an eternity with Him. What
you have to do is turn from sin and self and pledge yourself to Him,
to follow Him. And I pray that everyone of you here today, everyone watching this
online, has either made that decision to set a new course for your life to follow
Jesus, or you'll do that today, right now.
He is chastening. In Proverbs 10 the Bible says, "A rod is for the back of Him
who lacks sense." You use a rod to beat somebody. Isaiah 9,
the Messianic passage in Isaiah talks about the Messiah breaking the rod of the
oppressor. So this rod of iron is a symbolic way of saying that Jesus comes to
chasten his enemies with a rod, and not just a switch, but a rod of iron.
And what's happening when Jesus comes and makes war with a rod of iron, he's
fulfilling what the psalmist said in Psalm 2. This is straight out of Psalm 2. In
fact, here's what it says, "This is God saying to his son, 'Ask of me, son,
and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your
possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a
pottery's vessel. Now therefore, O kings, be wise, be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling, kiss the Son, embrace him, lest
he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed
are those who take refuge in him. God has promised he will one day come and
destroy evil, and those who refuse to bow to him, and Revelation 19 is that day.
War has come and he comes with a rod of iron.
So he's coming to judge, he's coming to make war and we're also told that he will
trample the wine press of God's wrath. We've already seen this at the end of
Revelation 14 in that previous passage that speaks of the coming day of the Lord
and the trampling in the wine press. The idea of God trampling the wicked and the
great wine press of his wrath, again, this is not something that comes to mind
often when we think about Jesus. I'm going to share with you again a quote that
I've already shared from J .I. Packer that helps us think about the wrath of God as
he comes to make war and he comes to judge. Packer reminds us that God's wrath is
righteous anger. It is the right reaction of moral perfection in the Creator toward
the moral perversity in the creature. It's the right response of God to judge its
righteous anger. So far from the manifestation of God's wrath in punishing sin being
morally doubtful, the thing that would be morally doubtful would be for him not to
show his wrath in this way. If God withheld righteous judgment,
that would be morally wrong. It's not morally wrong for him to inflict it. And then
he goes on to say, "God is not just," that is, he does not act in a way that is
right. He does not do what is proper to a judge unless he inflicts upon all sin
and wrongdoing the penalty it deserves. It would not be just for God to ignore the
penalty for sin. He would not be being a good judge if he did that. For wickedness
to come to an end, for injustice to be put away once and for all, for hatred and
evil to be extinguished, God's wrath has to be poured out. Evil and hatred and
injustice and wicked have to be judged. He has to trample the wicked once and for
all. Now we read this passage and we think about the horror of God's wrath being
poured out on the wicked, we have to remember that if it were not for God's grace,
we would be among them. It's what we deserve, but God has spared us from this by
His grace because of His love for us that we don't deserve.
And that brings us to the names for the writer for Jesus found in this passage.
We've already talked about him being called faithful and true, verse 11,
this is how he will judge with truth and with faithfulness. He rules in
righteousness. In verse 13 he's called the Word of God. John famously,
in John chapter 1, begins his gospel by saying, "In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The Greeks used the term logos,
the term for word as a placeholder for the big idea of the universe.
Logos means the big idea behind the universe, everything proceeds from it and
everything is ordered around it. It's the beginning of everything, the logos, the
word. The logos is the starting point, it's the reason and the purpose for
everything. If you said, "Why are we here?" They were searching for, "What is the
Logos? What's the purpose? What's the reason? Why do we exist?" And John says,
"In the beginning was the Logos." That's the universe started from the big idea. And
it was with God and it was God. Jesus is the reason why the universe exists. This
one coming on the horse to bring judgment is the starting point of everything in
the universe because he was before all things. He is eternal. Everything comes from
him. And whatever comes from the author is accountable to the author.
If you wrote a poem or a story or if you wrote a song, you decide what happens
in the poem or in the story. You decide what the characters do. You decide where
the plot goes. And at the end of writing the story, it belongs to you. Those
characters are your creation. You came up with them. You have the authority over
that story because you're the author of it. Jesus is the author and has the
authority. He is the Word. All things come from Him. All things belong to Him.
And so the name given to Him, the Word of God, means that he is the beginning of
all things. All things come from him. He is also named the King of Kings and the
Lord of Lords. Now again in the Roman world in Jesus' day, if Rome conquered your
territory, they would allow you to keep your king in place. That's why in Judea
there was still a King Herod, even when Rome was in charge.
But King Herod, who had some jurisdictional power over the Judeans, did not have
ultimate power. King Herod's authority was under the authority of Caesar in Rome.
Caesar in Rome was the king of kings. He was the Lord of lords.
He was over all, and in fact he saw himself as being so over all things that he
declared himself to be worthy of worship. He declared himself to be a God.
This writer coming is the true king of kings.
Again, the people to whom this letter is first being written, this prophecy is first
being given, are people who are suffering under the oppressive ruler from Rome.
And John wants them to know that the one coming is the true king of kings. Caesar
answers to him. Caesar is under his authority. He's king of kings, and he's lord of
lords. He's greater than any human ruler.
And then the last name given to Jesus in this passage, you've got faithful and
true. You've got the word of God, you've got king of kings and lord of lords,
and then The Bible says that it is a name that no one knows.
In those days, if someone knew your name, they would know something about you
because your name would either reflect your heritage, you would be Joshua Ben Joseph,
reflecting that you were a child of Joseph, or your name would reflect your
vocation.
Well, John is saying that While there is much that we can know about who Jesus is
and much we can learn and much we can understand and we should make that our quest
to try to know and understand him as fully as we can, there is much we will never
know and understand about who Jesus is.
Deuteronomy 29 -29, "The secret things belong to the Lord." You've seen that. Now
that verse should not be a cop -out. When you read something you go, "This is hard
to understand." Well, the secret things secret things. No, we should work hard to
try to know and understand what is in the scriptures. But the Bible tells us in
Romans 11 that his judgments are unsearchable and his ways are inscrutable.
There's a lot you'll never understand about God and his purposes and his ways. One
of the books I'm reading through this year in my devotions is Kevin DeYoung's Daily
Doctrine And back in January, he talked about the noability of God. And I
highlighted this from him when I read it. He said, "We cannot know God as God
knows God." Especially on this side of heaven, we must confess that we see through
a glass dimly, our knowledge of God is never exhaustive and never perfect. We know
only in part. Only God is incomprehensible, but incomprehensible is not the same as
unknowable. You can know him, but you'll never know him fully. Only God knows God
fully.
So you put those names together. He is the faithful and true judge. He is the word
of God from whom all things come. He's the king of kings and Lord of lords. He
has supreme authority and there's more to him than you will ever understand or no,
and we have a snapshot of the power and majesty of the one who is coming riding
on the white horse to bring judgment to the earth. And the rest of this chapter
describes the devastation that takes place when he comes.
And we'll look quickly at that. Verses 17 and 18 describe what is called in verse
17 the great supper of God. Last week we saw the marriage supper of the Lamb,
the great feast, the wedding banquet that takes place and celebrates the consummation
of the bride coming to be with her bridegroom and eternity with Christ beginning.
We saw that. Well this great supper of God stands in contrast to that event.
One is glorious and calls for a celebration. the other is gruesome and horrible and
devastating. And again, the image is symbolic. One commentator here says this
represents the utter shame, destruction, and condemnation suffered at the end of
history by those who opposed Christ and who afflicted his people during history. This
scene of destruction and devastation of dead bodies everywhere is taken from Ezekiel
38 and 39 where it talks about birds coming to feast on the flesh of the fallen
enemies of God. You may have heard of Gog and Magog. That's from from Ezekiel 38
and 39. We're not going to turn there. You can go back and reference that later if
you want to. But the picture here in Revelation 19 from Ezekiel is intended to show
us at the end of the age you are either gathered around the wedding feast table
with the people of God or you are carnage for the birds. There are only two
options and
this chapter ends with a clear and decisive victory for the rider who's coming on
the white horse. Verses 19 through 21 show the leaders of this rebellion,
the kings of the earth, the beast and the false prophet, all gathering to make war
against the rider on the horse and his army. By the way, do you know who the army
coming with Jesus is? It says he's coming on a white horse and there's this army
of those robed in white linen who are coming on white horses with him. Who are
those people? Well, if you look back at verse 14, it says they are a raiden white
linen, white and pure, following Him on a white horse. There are people who say,
"Well, maybe these are angels who are coming with Him. That's possible." But I think
the context makes it clear that the better answer is it's you and me. It's the
saints who have died and gone before. Why do I think that? Because you look back
at verses 7 and 8, where the bride has made herself ready. It was granted to
clothe herself with fine linen, white and pure. We've already seen the reference to
this white pure linen. Now we see these riders coming. They are dressed in the
white pure linen. This means that the saints who die before Jesus comes will return
with Him on white horses.
So when He comes to destroy His enemies, we're with Him. But as I said, we're not
engaging in actual battle or bloodshed. We're not coming to draw our swords and to
kill people because it's one word from the mouth of Jesus that ends the battle,
that destroys the enemy. God speaks and the battle is won.
Here in verse 19, the enemies gather to make war against God, and Tom Schreiner has
pointed out here that their opposition reveals their insanity and their madness since
they're fighting a war that they have no chance of winning, But evil isn't rational,
it's finally self -destructive. Why would Satan and his enemies fight against God if
they know they're going to be defeated? Because evil is not rational.
Because their anger, their hatred is so consuming that it overrules their rationality.
In this passage, the beast and the false prophet are destroyed. They are thrown into
a lake of fire, burning with sulfur. This is the same lake of fire we saw back in
chapter 14. We'll see it again in the next chapter. This is the first of four new
references to the lake of fire between now and the end of the book. And it says
in the next chapter that Satan will be thrown into this lake of fire and he will
be tormented there day and night forever and ever, eternally. By the way, the same
Greek word that talks about the eternality of punishment is the Greek word that
talks about the eternality of new life. God gives us eternal life.
The same word is for eternal punishment. It goes on forever. As long as we will be
with God forever, so will eternal punishment happen forever. And this is horrible to
consider.
But the one who is just and true and righteous in his judgments has determined that
this is the just punishment for those who refuse to subject themselves to his
rulership for him to be their king of kings and they rebel against him instead.
The armies who come with the rider on the white horse, they play no actual role in
the battle. The victory belongs to the leader himself. He is the one who speaks the
word and wins the victory alone. And it is not a protracted or a weary some
battle. Jesus wins the battle simply and decisively by his word.
In these two images at the end of Revelation 19, the lake of fire and the birds
of prey feeding on the flesh of the fallen remind us what the writer of Hebrews
says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. So two
questions for you as we wrap up this morning and as we prepare to come to the
Lord's table. First of all, when you think about Jesus, does your understanding of
who he is include what we've heard about here today?
Yes, he is the suffering servant, the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sin
of the world. Yes, he is gentle and lowly. Yes, he's a man of sorrow acquainted
with grief. Yes, he is a loving Savior who says, "Come to me, all you who are
weary and heavy laden. I'll give you peace. My peace I give to you." Blessed are
the peacemakers. This is all true about Jesus, but he's also the rider on the white
horse who comes in judgment to destroy evil and wickedness and to wipe out evil for
eternity. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of this living God unless
you are his child. Are you his child? Are you in his family?
Second question for you this morning. Why does John give, why does God give to John
and to us this image. Is this here to give us nightmares? Is it here to scare us?
To sicken us? Can I suggest that God is giving us these images as an act of grace
and mercy? To show us again how horrible eternity will be if we reject him.
He is under no obligation to tell us what is coming for our rebellion, but he does
it "Along with the offer, come to me, I'll give you rest.
"Don't come to me, and here's what's ahead for you." It's a warning. I'm gonna show
you how graphic this will be, because this is what you're headed for if you refuse
to come to him.
As God's saying to you this morning, this is what's ahead for you because you are
stubbornly rebelling and refusing to bow the knee to him.
God gives John and us in this vision, this vision so that we can do what John the
Baptist warned the Pharisees to do. Remember, the Pharisees came out to see John the
Baptist and he said, "Who told you to come out and see me? Who told you to flee
from the wrath to come?" Well, that's what this warning is here for.
It's here for us so that we can flee from the wrath to come and you flee to
Jesus. He alone can rescue you from what's coming. It will come. The end will come.
The writer on the white horse is coming. God in His grace is saying to each of us
this morning, "There is still time. Today is the day. You can flee to Me. You can
come to Christ. You can find salvation. You can find peace for your soul. You can
find forgiveness of your sins. You can find new life. You can rest in me. Just,
let me pray. Father, we are sobered by what we have read here this morning,
by this picture, by this image.
And Lord,
We are overwhelmed when we think about your grace that you have spared us from what
we richly deserve by offering your Son to be our sacrifice.
Lord, I pray for any here who have not come to you, who have not fled to you.
I
pray for those who are almost Christians,
but who won't let go, who won't surrender.
I pray that you would awaken them this morning with the news of what is ahead For
those who refused to bow the knee
And that they would today say Jesus you are king of kings and lord of lords you
are lord of my life. I Will follow you
we ask this in Jesus name