Rev 19v11-21

Claim - Jesus is King of all kings and so will one day, fully and finally, rightly and powerfully judge the world’s injustices - while showing mercy to the saints. (for they are dressed in ‘fine linen - righteous acts given by God)

Focus - Jesus is the powerful and just judge of all: Non-Christians even craves such a King, but are inconsistent in application (they only want justice for people who are worse than them); Christians praise our Lord for we have received his loving mercy (fine linen of righteous acts)

Function - to cause praise to Jesus for He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, merciful to all who repent and just to all who don’t.

Describing Jesus

Describing Jesus

White horse

Faithful and true

Justice and judgement

eyes of blazing fire

head of crowns

unknown name

robe dripped in blood

Word of god

Army of saints

Sharpe sword

iron scpetre

winepress of fury

Who is the enemy of Jesus

Who are you?

"He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood" (). This is the blood of God's enemies, a preview of the defeat of the beast and the false prophet, with the slaughter of earth's kings and armies (19:2 1). His robes are soaked blood red because he "treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty" (19:15), from which his enemies' mies' blood flows deep and wide (14:20). The imagery of this vision is drawn from , quoted above (chap. 10) in the exposition tion of . Such a presentation of a divine Warrior, full of wrath and vengeance against those who disregard his authority, ity, is offensive to many today. How can such an image be made winsonme sonme to people attracted more by tolerant love than by strict justice? Scripture, however, paints a realistic picture of the moral structure of the universe. I )espite the preferences of nave wishful thinkers, at the cosmic level there can be no true mercy, no genuine redemption, apart front justice. of vengeance" and "year of redemption" are closely associated by the parallelism in : For the day of vengeance was in My heart, And My year of redemption has come. Redemption for those who are God's friends by grace entails vengeance on those who stubbornly persist as God's enemies. Miroslav Volt, reflecting on his Croatian people's suffering at the hands of Serbian aggressors, concludes that only the biblical confidence dence that God will bring the unjust to justice at history's end can enable able victims to respond to their attackers with nonviolent grace in the present. "The presupposition of God's just judgment at the end of history tory is the presupposition for the renunciation of violence in the middle dle of it."' He anticipates, "My thesis that the practice of nonviolence requires a belief in divine vengeance will he unpopular with many Christians, especially theologians in the West." To his objectors he proposes that they imagine themselves lecturing on the thesis "we should not retaliate since God is perfect noncoercive love" to people living in a war zone, whose villages have been plundered and burned, whose daughters and sisters have been raped, and whose fathers and brothers have been murdered.

"Soon you will discover that it takes the quiet of a suburban home for the birth of the thesis that human nonviolence corresponds to God's refusal to judge. In a scorched land, soaked in the blood of the innocent, it will invariably die.

John's visions are for Christians who have experienced or will soon experience the atrocities of which human evil and injustice are capable. The vision of the righteous judge who will not spare the wicked is precisely cisely what they and we need to sustain their persistent and nonviolent response to their oppressors. The sharp sword proceeding from Christ's mouth (19:15), another feature drawn from the opening vision of the Son of Man (1:16), is the implement of righteous vengeance by which he will strike down the nations (cf. ). It is drawn together with the "iron rod" with which the Messiah (), who is the woman's child (), will rule or shatter the nations (see the fuller allusion to in ). When Christians are victimized by injustice and cannot fight back, they must not despair. The strong and righteous Judge is coming. When they can fight back, they need not and should not retaliate, taliate, repaying evil with evil, for their strong judge assures them, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay" (Ronl. 12:17-19).

Dennis E. Johnson. Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation (Kindle Locations 2958-2959). Kindle Edition.

Dennis E. Johnson. Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation (Kindle Locations 2945-2958). Kindle Edition.

Dennis E. Johnson. Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation (Kindle Locations 2959-2965). Kindle Edition.

When the beast and false prophet are cast into the lake of fire, and "the rest" are killed by the judging sword of the Word and their flesh consumed by the birds (19:2 1), there will be no human survivors except for the faithful ful army of saints who follow the Lamb.

Dennis E. Johnson. Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation (Kindle Locations 3012-3014). Kindle Edition.

The Lamb Is All the Glory: The Book of Revelation The Battle Ends

The giving of flesh to the birds of the air is a familiar Old Testament picture, expressive of the complete defeat and shameful public subjection and disgrace of the enemies of God, His Christ and His people (cf. Ezekiel 39:4).

The Lamb Is All the Glory: The Book of Revelation The Battle Ends

As we leave this chapter there is a need for self-examination. Where do you belong in this battle? On which side are you? Oh, that we might all be fighting and secure under the banner of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Captain of our salvation—the King of kings and the Lord of lords! At any time, and not least when Armageddon comes, the only security to be found will be in Christ’s camp; for all those who have ‘received the mark of the beast and worshipped his image’ will have been deluded, and will be defeated and destroyed.