Revelation 19
Let’s hear God’s Word together.
Revelation 19, beginning at verse 11. This is John, and he says, 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 Almighty.
On his robe and on his thigh he has 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 is sitting on the horse and against
his army. And the beast was captured, and
with it the great 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. Amen. This is God’s word for
us. Think tonight with me, if you can, about compare and contrast. You do that in school, don’t
you? You compare and contrast. You take two pictures, you look
at them, you see what’s the same, what’s different. You compare,
you contrast. Maybe opposites is a good way
to think of this. There’s the wedding supper of
the lamb where God’s children gather and feast in celebration
of marriage, like a wedding reception. But then there’s the contrast
in our passage tonight where the birds of the air, they come
and they eat. the kill, I guess you might call
it, from God’s wrath as he judges the wicked on the earth. And
there’s the compare and contrast with the Antichrist, the beast,
and here tonight, the faithful one, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we wanna think of these
two images tonight, one of Jesus, one of the supper of God, it’s
called Well, first let’s think of Jesus. At the name of Jesus,
which or what images come to your mind? Bible says not to have images,
right? Not supposed to have pictures of Jesus. Not supposed to figure
out who God is and what he looks like. We’re just supposed to
take God at his word and not create images and say, this is
our God. But we’re visual people. At the
name of Jesus, what image comes to mind? Well, let me ask it
this way, keep us out of trouble. Where in the Bible is Jesus described
most vividly? Is it at his birth? I mean, do
we know he’s eight pounds, nine ounces, 22 inches long, that
he had blonde hair, blue eyes, and he was a perfect white American,
as so many of our pictures depict him of? Or is it, description
of him as a boy. Does it say in the Bible that
he was 5 foot 3, 160 pounds, he had big biceps because he
worked alongside his father, earthly father, in the carpentry
shop and he had curly black hair and he was a good-looking Jewish
boy. Is that a description we have? Absolutely not. What about
as a man? Do we have some description that
says he was 5’5″, 180 pounds? He had strong legs because he
walked about the countryside healing people, and he stood
a lot, so he had these big, strong legs like a fullback on a football
team. That’s not a description either.
It may be that our passage tonight. maybe one of the best descriptions
we have of Jesus. And what a terrifying one it
is. Verse 11 tells us that John saw
heaven opened and there was a white horse with one sitting on it. And we get from this point on
up until maybe through verse 16, a wonderful description of
Jesus, the divine warrior. Do you ever think of Jesus as
a divine warrior? We mostly think of him as a healer.
He liked to touch little children on the head and invite them into
his kingdom. He loved to heal people of their
sicknesses. He loved to cast out demons.
But do we ever think of him as divine warrior? The one who at
the end of all human history will come on a ride horse Everyone
who was an enemy of his will see him and fear him and ultimately
die at his hands. Well, we read Psalm 2 earlier
and Psalm 2 told us in a certain way that Revelation 19 was coming.
Jesus would be the great king. Jesus would be the great warrior.
Jesus would be the great one. And all nations, though they
conspired and said, we’ll overturn his kingdom, they actually would
be ruled by Jesus, by his rod of iron. And so you pick up in
verse 11, the one sitting on this white horse, he is called
faithful and true. He is the righteous one who judges
and he makes war. His eyes are like a flame of
fire. He sees everything. On his head are many diadems.
He’s royalty. He has a name written that no
one knows but himself. He has a clothe. He is clothed
in a robe dipped in blood. We always hear about Jesus, you
know, Jesus Christ meek and mild. Jesus Christ meek and mild. He
would never hurt a flea, we might would say. Well, here’s Jesus
Christ, not so meek and mild. In fact, he’s on a white horse,
a war horse, and he has the splattering of blood on his robes. because
he goes about the earth seeking justice for all wickedness and
righteousness. This isn’t the picture that we
like of Jesus, is it? We like sweet Jesus, meek and
mild Jesus. You know, sometimes you go into
a church and behind the pulpit, up on the wall, some make people
like us, they have a cross, but some people have a picture of
Jesus. And is it blood spattered Jesus on a big white horse? No,
it’s usually Jesus in a robe looking rather Caucasian, rather
sweet, rather meek and mild. But this is the picture of Jesus
that is yet to come. This is a picture of Christ that
is in the scripture. It picks up in verse 13. He’s
clothed with a robe dipped in blood. The name by which he is
called is the word of God. 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. Here’s Psalm 2. He’ll rule them
with a rod of iron. He’ll tread on the winepress
of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. And on his robe, on
his thigh, he has the name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. At the name of Jesus, what image?
comes to your mind? Is it baby Jesus in a manger?
Is it the boy Jesus in the temple? Is it the man Jesus in his earthly
ministry? And those are all fine images
to come to mind. But does this image come to mind?
Well, it should. I know each and every one of
us every day probably puts our hand to our head and says to
ourselves or to those in our hearing, what’s this world coming
to? Well, what this world is coming to is not yet seen. It may be dark. It may be dying.
It may be a rotten culture. We may see politics we don’t
like. We may see nations around the
earth doing things that scare us. We may be in the midst of
trade wars and ideological wars and wars between this group of
militants and that group of militants. But there is one great King and
Lord over all the earth. And remember Psalm 2. He looks
at all the nations of the earth as they conspire. And as they
seek to make a name for themselves, and the word of God says, he
who sits in the heaven laughs and he holds them in derision.
And here we see Jesus coming to take care of business at the
last day of judgment. Well, there’s a picture of Jesus
there that we often don’t see. What about this feast that comes
up in verses 17, through 21 and we’ve just had a picture in our
last study in chapter 19 of the great wedding supper of the lamb,
the marriage supper of the lamb. The promise of almighty God from
beginning when he made covenant was this, I will be your God,
you will be my people. He makes that promise to Abraham,
your people will outnumber the stars of heaven. The sand grains
on the seashore will not outnumber your offspring. And then we see
God throughout the history of redemption. He’s bringing those
people to himself. He’s saving them. He’s rescuing
them. He’s preaching to them. He’s prophesying to them. He’s
rescuing them from their own folly and madness. And ultimately
in heaven, he brings them to himself. where the great covenant
promise says, I will be your God, you’ll be my people. And
heaven says at last, the dwelling place of God is with men. And there’s this great wedding
supper of the lamb, the marriage supper promised to us in the
Lord’s supper to be the one at the last day. But what of this
other feast? We need not go into descriptions
of roadkill and vultures and carry on birds and all the rest.
You get the idea. We don’t need a little gross
out section here. I don’t believe you don’t want
it. I don’t want to give it, but we see in verse 17, I saw
an angel standing in the sun and with a loud voice, he called
out to all the birds that fly directly overhead. And he basically
says this, come and feast on everyone who’s fallen at Jesus’
sword. Everyone who has shaken their fist at Jesus in this life,
they have gotten their due. And instead of an honorable burial,
instead of being honored as kings of the earth, as captains, as
mighty men, the flesh of their horses and the flesh of these
riders is free reign. It’s buffet for the birds of
the prey. And the angel stands in the sun
and he calls with a loud voice, come gather for the great supper
of God. So there’s the wedding supper,
a wonderful, blissful meal that will last into eternity. But
there’s this supper as well to eat the flesh of the Kings. Verse
18 says the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the
flesh of horses, the flesh of their riders, the flesh of all
men, both free and slaves, small and great. And he says, I saw
the beast of the kings of the earth with their armies gathered
to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against
his army. There’s still some fighting yet
to be done. Jesus is still continuing the
battle that was started in the garden. When we first see Satan
manifest himself as an evil one against God and his people, sometimes
Maybe we see it in a movie or we’ve seen it on the playground
or in the schoolyard ourselves. We see two hostile groups. They face each other off and one of
them says to the other, you’re going to be dead meat tomorrow,
right? Something like a Rocky Balboa
threat. Tomorrow at this time, you’re
going to be dead meat. The birds of the air are going to come
eat you. It’s big talk. But that’s what Jesus is saying
in this passage, look, all you kings of the earth, look, all
you wicked ones, look, all you unrighteous who have rejected
me about this time tomorrow. In a sense, he says, you’re going
to be you’re going to be food for the birds. You’re going to
be food for the birds of the air. Verse 20, it picks up. It
says the beast was captured and with it the false prophet who
in its presence had done the signs which he had deceived.
who had received the mark of the beast and those who worship
the 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 flesh.” That’s a
terrible end, isn’t it? You’ve got a gathering of God’s
people in heaven, a marriage feast, and then you’ve got fallen
by the sword. eaten by vultures. And what’s
the difference between these two? Well, one is faith in Jesus. The other is a fist shaken in
the face of the Lord Jesus. And so the question for us is,
which is it for you? Is it faith? Do you love Jesus? Can you not wait for his appearing?
Can you not wait to be with him in heaven forever? To sing praises
to his name without end? You long to be at that great
wedding feast. Or you’ve about heard enough
of Christ. And with the rest of the wicked
on the earth, you have your fist up and you say, oh Jesus, if
you’re really real, you won’t get me. Oh, but he will. And this passage reminds us of
the two great ends of people on this earth. You’ll feast.
or you will be feasted upon. Let us pray together. Our Lord
and God, we’re thankful for these stark reminders. They’re scary,
they’re strange, they’re even gross, but we’re reminded this
night that there are two ways to live, one for you, the other
for ourself. There are two ways to carry out
our days in eternity in your glorious presence or in that
sorrowful and pitiful lake of fire forever. Lord, help us to
choose the right by your grace, we pray in Jesus name, amen.