Sermon Tone Analysis

Revelation 19:11–21 (ESV)

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.

And the armies of heaven, arrayed 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 winepress 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, and with a loud voice he called to all 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 small and great.”

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.

And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its 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.

And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.

Two weeks ago we saw the final judgment begin.

Last week, we saw the accompanying salvation of the elect that will go along with the final judgment of the wicked at Christ’s coming.

But as I said last week, we had not yet seen the completion of the final judgment in this vision cycle.

Tonight, that is what we are going to see.

John hears the rejoicing in heaven during the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, and then:

A few times the Bible talks about the heavens being opened.

It is always written from the point of view of man on the earth - which remember, John is seeing these events from the perspective of the earth.

The first time we here of this, it is the prophet Ezekiel as a captive in Babylon who sees the heavens opened:

He says that the vision he is given is a vision of God Himself.

And we have considered that vision and the symbolism that is carried over into the book of Revelation.

What Ezekiel sees is God in His glory, but as we saw, it is Christ that he sees.

Not only is the symbolism of the four living creatures used there, but Ezekiel says:

Ezekiel 1:26–28 (ESV)

And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance.

And upward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around.

And downward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him.

Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around.

And while we won’t go over it all again, the description of this One with the likeness of a human appearance is Christ.

The descriptions here match many of the descriptions of the risen Christ from the first chapter of Revelation.

We discussed the bow in the cloud and how that represents the reminder to God about the judgment of the Flood and how when Christ comes again He is coming with the bow of God and His arrows will be aimed at the wicked.

But the point is, the first time we see the heavens opened in the Bible, God reveals Himself in Christ.

The next time we read about the heavens being opened, we get another revelation of Who Christ is.

Jesus comes to John the Baptist, and John baptizes Him, and we read:

Both the Spirit and the Father here bear witness to Christ.

The next time we see the heavens opened is not coincidentally when the very first Christian is martyred.

When Stephen bears witness to Who Christ is to the Jews, they stone him.

And this is what we read:

Again, we have the witness of the Holy Spirit - this time from within Stephen.

He sees the glory of God like Ezekiel.

And He sees the Son of Man.

And at the end, when the great persecution is happening and we are waiting fully awake for the return of Christ, we will see the heavens opened and the Son of Man coming.

The last time before the book of Revelation that we see the heaven’s opened is later in Acts.

Peter is alone praying on a housetop, and he has a vision of heaven opening:

Acts 10:9–16 (ESV)

The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.

And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth.

In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air.

And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”

But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.”

And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”

This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.

And of course, while Peter doesn’t see Christ, he hears Him - much like John has heard Him in Revelation a bunch of time.

And this vision reveals to Peter that Christ is the Savior of the whole world.

That nobody is now unclean based on their physical lineage.

So taken all together, the visions of the heaven opening in the Bible reveal that God is triune, that Christ is God, that He will save those of all the earth, and that He is coming in judgment.

That is what John is seeing here:

And we have already seen this in the book of Revelation.

In the seventh trumpet, which records the same events as what we are looking at tonight, we read that the trumpet blows, John hears the saints praising God in heaven for His now established reign and His judgment of the wicked - which is what we saw last week in the first half of this chapter.

And then:

The Temple, of course, is heaven - the earthly Temple was meant to picture heaven.

And the Ark of the Covenant is Christ - God’s presence with His people.

This is heaven opening and Christ coming.

Like here:

We see here a white horse.

This is not the first time that we are seeing a rider on a white horse.

We saw way back in the second vision cycle the seven seals on the scroll that, as we saw, represent all of time between Christ’s two comings.

And we read this:

Does anyone remember what this rider represented?

This is the Gospel going forth into all the world.

This is the weapon of our warfare in the here and now - the message of Jesus Christ.

It is the message of Him with the bow - as we saw in Ezekiel and earlier in the book of Revelation.

It is the message of the King.

Remember, we are in a war!

And we conquer, as we also saw in the second trumpet, by taking back souls for Christ and destroying Stan’s kingdom bit by bit.

Here, we see the final and complete destruction of Satan’s kingdom:

Here, the One on the horse is the object of the Gospel that we have as our weapon of war - the Word of God that the Word of God points to (and hold onto that thought for a minute, because we’ll be coming back to it).

Here, He judges and makes war.

He has been making war all along through His church.

As we saw in the trumpets - He has been judging the world in ways that point to the final judgment all along.

But here, He comes to judge finally and completely, and win the war finally and completely.

And note, He does all of this in righteousness.

This is a just judgment He is rendering.

He is righteous to judge.

And we also see that the rider here is called Faithful and True.

These are descriptions of Christ throughout the book of Revelation.

Like when Christ addresses the church in Laodicea and refers to Himself this way:

Revelation 3:14 (ESV)

“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness…

This is Who John sees coming from heaven:

Then he continues:

We see here that His eyes are a flame of fire.

This is another indication of who this is.

We read in John’s description of the risen and glorified Christ in chapter 1:

We see Christ refer to Himself this way in His address to the church in Thyatira:

And the flame of fire represents the judgment of God.

This is the Judge of all things from Whose eyes nothing is hidden.