Rev 19, Part 2; Jesus Returns!
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I entitled last weeks session the two Suppers and tonight is a continuation of chapter 19. Its very exciting as we will see Jesus returning with His Bride (us, you and me).
We pick up now in verse 10 John is overwhelmed; He falls to worship this angel;
10 Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
V10 Don’t worship anything one but God. We see Angel worship today in the cults and Catholicism even in New Age religion. Paul warned the Colossian church;
18 Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind,
The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of Prophecy. It’s all about Him.
7 Then I said, “Behold, I come;
In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
On this verse Barclay writes;
The Revelation of John, Volume 2 The Spirit of Prophecy (Revelation 19:10b)
WE take this phrase by itself, because it is both ambiguous and important.
The ambiguity springs from the fact that the testimony of Jesus has two possible meanings.
(1) It can mean the witness which the Christian bears to Jesus Christ. That is the way in which H. B. Swete takes it. He says: ‘The possession of the prophetic spirit, which makes a true prophet, shows itself in a life of witness to Jesus, which perpetuates his witness to the Father and to himself.’ The message of the prophets lies in the personal witness of their lives, even more than in the spoken witness of their words.
(2) It can equally mean the witness which Jesus Christ gives to men and women. On that interpretation, the phrase will mean that no one can speak to others without first listening to Jesus Christ. It was said of a great preacher: ‘First he listened to God, then he spoke to men.’
This is the kind of double meaning of which the Greek language is capable. It may well be that John intended the double meaning and that we are meant not to choose between the meanings but to accept both of them. If so, we can define true prophets as those who have received from Christ the message they bring to others, and whose words and works are at one and the same time an act of witness to Christ.
Now we get to the moment of Jesus’ return. Amen.
11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war.
12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself.
13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.
14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.
15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.
16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
Now in verse 11 we see a white horse with one sitting on it. You might remember in Chapter 6 we another white horse;
2 I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.
this one in ch 6, as we discovered in non-Other than the anti-christ, the instead of messiah. The one spoken of here in Ch 19 is called Faithful and True. He judges in righteousness. Of course this is the true Messiah, Yeshua ha Mashiak.
Notice here in verse 11 A door opens in Heaven for the second time – Chapter 4 when he to us away and now when he brings us out.
On Verse 11, the One riding the white horse is called faithful and true;
The Revelation of John, Volume 2 The Conquering Christ (Revelation 19:11)
The white horse is the symbol of the conqueror, because it was on a white horse that a Roman general rode when he celebrated a triumph.
We should remember that the whole background of this picture lies in Jewish expectations of the future and has little to do with the Christ of the gospels, who was meek and lowly in heart.
(2) His name is Faithful and True. Here, on the other hand, is something which is valid for all time. Christ is described by two words.
(a) He is faithful. The word is pistos; it means absolutely to be trusted.
(b) He is true. The word is alēthinos and has two meanings. It means true in the sense that Jesus Christ is the one who brings the truth and who never at any time has any falsehood in anything that he says. It also means genuine, as opposed to that which is unreal. In Jesus Christ, we meet reality.
Now in in verse 12 - 16 we have a description Eyes blazing like fire – he instantly knows and judges. Wood, hay and stubble are like they never happened. Compare to Gen 22 – when Abraham is told to take his son his only son. Ishmael, a work of the the flesh is not even acknowledged.
The description is the same as we saw in Chapter 1;
12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands;
13 and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash.
14 His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire.
15 His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters.
16 In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.
Notice he has Crowns or Diadems - royal , not stefanos- accomplished or earned- which by the way the white horse rider in Rev 6 is described. here Jesus wears the Royal Crown, He is the King of Kings! Historically, the diadem was a blue band marked with white which Persian kings used to bind on the turban or tiara
He has a name no one knows but Him? Perhaps it’s the tetragrammaton YHWH, or maybe it’s a way of stating we can never know Him completely, but have an eternity to work on it.
Verse 13 is particularly interesting to me. Whose blood? His own or His enemies, both work. We need to look at Is 63 for more light here;
1 Who is this who comes from Edom,
With garments of glowing colors from Bozrah,
This One who is majestic in His apparel,
Marching in the greatness of His strength?
“It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”
2 Why is Your apparel red,
And Your garments like the one who treads in the wine press?
3 “I have trodden the wine trough alone,
And from the peoples there was no man with Me.
I also trod them in My anger
And trampled them in My wrath;
And their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments,
And I stained all My raiment.
4 “For the day of vengeance was in My heart,
And My year of redemption has come.
5 “I looked, and there was no one to help,
And I was astonished and there was no one to uphold;
So My own arm brought salvation to Me,
And My wrath upheld Me.
6 “I trod down the peoples in My anger
And made them drunk in My wrath,
And I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”
So here Jesus is covered with the blood of His enemies. Wow. Notice His name, The Logos, the Word of God. John loved this name for Jesus. He used it in John 1;
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Logos of course is translated as”the Word”. It means the conception or idea that embodies all the God is.
V14 the armies of heaven – includes us on white horses as well. So will there be horses in heaven? Apparently Yes!
Notice: Who is fighting or waging war? Its not us. We seem to be observing. Jesus does it all.
When Israel was threatened by the Assyrians and King Sennacherib, King Hezekiah responded;
8 “With him is only an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people relied on the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.
Application: When we allow God to fight our battles the outcome is sure. Are you in a fight you can’t? Let God fight your battle, He wants you to trust Him to fight for you.
Notice also, that this future scene is revealed in the oldest prophecy in the Bible.
14 It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones,
Now in 15,16;
15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.
16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
We see some familiar idioms, A sharp sword, which is the word of God, which He will use to strike down the nations. He will rule (Shepard) them with a “rod of Iron.” We have seen this imagery throughout the scriptures.
Brad Hasseler used to quote verse 16 as His justification for tattoos.
Sadly, a recent survey of Christian Pastors found that 51% did not believe Jesus to be God. No, He is the the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords!
There is an old hymn that would say “Crown Him with many Crowns.” If you don’t yet know Him as you God and King ask Him to reveal this truth to you.
Now we move on to the second supper. This though is quite different.
17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, “Come, assemble for the great supper of God,
18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great.”
19 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army.
Here we see similar imagery to Ezekiel;
17 “As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord God, ‘Speak to every kind of bird and to every beast of the field, “Assemble and come, gather from every side to My sacrifice which I am going to sacrifice for you, as a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood.
18 “You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, as though they were rams, lambs, goats and bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
19 “So you will eat fat until you are glutted, and drink blood until you are drunk, from My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.
This will be a very grizzly slaughter. Remember Chapter 14;
19 So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God.
20 And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses’ bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles.
The chapter ends with the final end of the AC and the FP.
20 And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone.
21 And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.
Those that are here pictured as being killed by the sword, the armies of the AC, they are sent as all those who die without faith in Jesus, to hades. A holding place for the dead, until the Resurrection of the dead at the end of the millennium.
Those who are in Christ going immediately to be with the Lord at physical death and will come again with Him when He comes again.
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