The Art of War

chapter 19.

It's going to be starting in verse 11 this evening.

You remember last week we were finishing up the fall of Babylon that we saw it towards

the end there of chapter, I guess the beginning part of chapter 19 and the marriage supper

of the lamb.

And so we're coming to this section now starting in verse 11 that talks about when Jesus returns

and what that's going to look like.

He's going to return to earth on a white horse and he is going to wage war.

And as I was studying this section I was thinking about a book I read a while ago.

I don't know if any of you have ever read the Art of War by Sun Tzu.

No?

Okay, well I guess we don't read the same thing.

It's basically Sun Tzu, Brian you read it?

Okay, yeah there you go.

So it's basically a bunch of military quotes from Sun Tzu.

He was a leader and he's got a bunch of quotes about military and leadership strategy.

For instance in the book he says appear weak when you are strong and strong when you're

weak.

I thought that was pretty interesting advice.

He also said to know your enemy you must become your enemy.

Jesus isn't necessarily going to follow that here but there was one quote that really stuck

out to me and I thought it was perfectly fitting for this passage.

He said a wise general does not enter battle seeking victory but only enters battle having

already achieved it.

And I thought that was really interesting because that's the exact picture that we get

of Jesus here when he's returning to earth.

He's already achieved the victory at the cross.

The Bible says that's where he won the victory was at the cross at his resurrection.

And so when we see him returning to wage war it's not to win a victory it's to put an

end to the rebellion that's happening in light of the victory of Christ on the cross.

And so we get this picture of Jesus as this mighty warrior who's returning and I think

it really kind of goes against the common view or at least a common view that gets put

forth about Jesus today.

If you listen to a lot of sermons or you're in different churches or around certain Christians

they'll often present Jesus kind of as this meek, mild, like very gentle, almost weak

savior.

And the Bible does say that Jesus is meek.

He is mild.

He is gentle.

He is lowly, a bruised reed.

He will not break.

But the Bible says that he's also a mighty warrior.

Yes, he's the lamb who was slain for our sins but we don't need to forget that the lamb

of God is also the lion of Judah.

And that's what you're seeing in this passage is all those who don't submit to the lamb

they are going to be conquered by the lion.

And so when he returns it is as a conquering lion, a mighty warrior.

I want you to look at this description in verse 11.

It says, then I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and the one sitting on it is

called faithful and true and in righteousness he judges and makes war.

So I wish I had my white board tonight because there's going to be a lot of symbolism that

we need to break down but we're going to do our best to get through it without a white

board.

So white is highly symbolic.

What do you think white represents?

Purity.

Yeah.

So in the ancient world white would represent purity but also victory.

So I think both meanings are intended here.

Jesus is the one who is perfectly holy, perfectly pure but he is also the one who is coming

having already won the victory and because he is pure and because he is holy he is able

to enact a true justice that we see here.

That is why he's called faithful and true.

So he comes in righteousness to judge and to make war and it's not petty or vindictive.

His judgment is the right judgment because he is faithful and true.

And we see in Revelation verse 12 here of 19, his eyes are like a flame of fire and on

his head are many diadems and he has a name written on him that no one knows but himself.

So the eyes like a flame of fire that's referring to Jesus's penetrating insight and wisdom

to judge properly and expose sin.

We're reminded of what the Bible says in Hebrews 4.13 where it says, and no creature is hidden

from his sight but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an

account.

So in other words what the Bible is saying here is when Jesus returns the entire world

is going to be laid bare before him.

There will be no running from Jesus.

There will be no hiding from Jesus.

I mean the Bible even says that at that time people are going to be begging the rocks

in the mountains to fall on them and to hide them from the eyes of Jesus and that will

not work.

He will expose every sin, every act of unrighteousness, he sees all and every single person is going

to have to give an account to God.

And that thought alone should be absolutely terrifying to every single person who is not

a believer.

For the believer it shouldn't terrify us.

Now if you did not have Jesus can you see why that would be terrifying?

Do you want to have to give an account of your life and all of your sins and every horrible

thing you've done to God face to face?

No.

But when you have Jesus who has covered you by his blood then everything that God is going

to hear about your life and your account he's already taken care of at the cross.

And so this should not be terrifying for believers but for unbelievers.

This should be absolutely horrifying to think that one day they will have to stand before

the holy God of the universe and give an account for everything that they've ever done.

And notice here it says that he is crowned with many diadems.

Now something you're going to notice is kind of interesting here.

How many diadems does it say Jesus is wearing?

Many, right?

It doesn't give an exact number.

And you might be wondering well what's the point of that?

And it's interesting because it's kind of contrasting the dragon and the beast.

Because earlier in the book of Revelation when it was talking about the dragon and the

beast it said that they were wearing diadems or crowns because they have set themselves

up as a counterfeit Christ with a counterfeit kingdom.

And the Bible says that the beast has 10 diadems and the dragon has seven.

And the point of that is that they are wearing a limited number of crowns.

Meaning their rule and their authority is limited.

And I think the reason the Bible does not tell us an exact number when it comes to Jesus

is because it's communicating the fact that his rule is unlimited.

There is no limit to his authority.

There is no limit to his power.

He is the rightful ruler of everything.

He's not limited in any way nor is his authority.

And this is something that many people fail to understand today.

I remember having a conversation with one of my very close friends who is an atheist.

And we have had many conversations before.

We've talked about Jesus and the gospel and I've shared that with him.

And I remember on this one occasion I think it was in 2020.

I think it was election season 2020.

And he was asking me who I'm voting for and we're having this conversation.

And we got on the topic of abortion.

And I said well I'll tell you who I'm voting for and the whole reason why is because of

the issue of abortion.

I don't want a country where abortion is allowed and where it's celebrated and encouraged.

I think it is evil and it is sin.

And I remember we were talking and he said but Alex not everyone is a Christian and you

can't force your Christian morality on non-Christians.

And I remember telling him this isn't an issue of morality.

This isn't my perspective on the issue.

This is what God says about the issue.

And so it's not me trying to force my Christian morality on people.

This is what the God of the universe who created all things says is evil and sinful in his

sight and that applies to all people whether they are believers or not.

And he said but I'm not a believer.

I don't believe in God so why should that have any bearing on my life?

And I said because whether you believe in God or not is irrelevant when it comes to

his word and his power.

God is the authority whether you recognize him as the authority or not.

I like the way one preacher said it.

He said that Jesus you do not make Jesus Lord of your life.

Jesus is already Lord whether you acknowledge that or not.

And that's what's being communicated here when it says that he wears these many diadems

that he's the king of kings.

He's the Lord of lords.

His rule is not limited and it's certainly not contingent upon unbelievers in our world

recognizing his existence.

So whether they recognize it or not Jesus is the authority over their lives.

And we're told that he has a name written on him that no one knows but himself.

Now anybody want to take a crack at this?

What does this mean?

He has a name written on him that no one knows but himself.

What does that mean?

He's the only one that's perfect.

We have one guess.

Anybody else?

Okay.

Probably never meant to understand what it was.

Yeah.

So I think a lot of it is tied to first century culture because in the first century if you

knew a person's name it kind of gave you an idea of everything you needed to know about

them.

So in the first century if you found out someone's name was Caesar you're automatically thinking

a lot about them.

That tells you pretty much everything you need to know about that person just because

you know that their name is Caesar.

In the same way it's still kind of true today.

My mom's not here so she's not going to get offended by this.

Her maiden name is Smith.

In America if your name is Smith it's considered pretty basic.

It's just the most common name.

That's why you've got like John Smith or John Doe stuff like that.

Smith is basic but in America let's say your last name is something like Kennedy.

That carries some weight does it not?

Automatically you're starting to think about presidential connections.

You're starting to think about all sorts of higher up connections and that tells you a

lot about that person.

Or if you're living in the UK and your last name is Windsor people automatically start

thinking royalty.

So this is the idea.

Things have a way of communicating pretty much everything you need to know about a person

in a lot of ways.

And the fact that the Bible says that Jesus has a name on him that no one knows.

I think it communicates Jesus's immensity.

That you can never know everything there is to know about Jesus.

We will never plumb the depths of Christ.

I think one of the coolest things about eternity.

And I'll talk to some of my family members about this because I had one of my family

members ask me is heaven going to be boring?

I was like why on earth why would heaven be boring?

And she said well she had this idea that we're all going to go to heaven and we're going

to be sitting around on a bunch of clouds and we're just going to be singing 24 seven

nonstop and that is heaven.

And she goes listen I love Jesus but honestly that sounds miserable to me.

I was like yeah that sounds miserable to me too.

Praise the Lord.

That's what it's going to be like.

There's going to be a new heavens and a new earth and we're going to be working and building

and creating and like all these really cool things.

But one of the coolest things about eternity is that every single day if there are what

we consider days in eternity we are going to learn something new about God.

And every single day it is going to amaze us.

And it's going to be something that we never knew about God before.

And we are never going to run out of things to learn about God for all of eternity.

And that is forever.

We can't even grasp the idea of eternity in our minds.

I don't know if you've thought about it too long but it starts turning my stomach to think

about eternity.

So I have to tell myself not to do that.

But we can't even grasp eternity and yet for every single second and day of eternity we

can learn something new about God and we will still never fully know everything there is

to know about him.

And so the fact that he's got a name no one knows is communicating his immensity.

And you look at verse 13 it says that he is clothed in a robe dipped in blood and the

name by which he is called is the word of God.

Now there are two theories about this blood.

Whose blood do you think this is?

Our blood?

Okay.

Jesus's blood?

Okay.

So pretty much the two main theories are it's either Jesus's blood from the cross or it's

the blood of the enemies who are rebelling against him that he is slain here as he brings

war to the earth.

And I think both are possible but I do think it's more likely that it's a reminder of his

sacrifice for our sins.

It's his blood that was spilled for us because it reminds us of Revelation 12 11 where it

says, talking of the saints that they have conquered him by what?

By the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony for they love not their lives

even unto death.

And so conquering in victory happens by the blood of the lamb.

The saints conquer the enemy by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony,

sin, death and Satan are defeated by the blood of the lamb.

And so the fact that Jesus already has this blood on him as he's riding into battle, it

is a reminder of where the victory was actually won.

I like the way one writer said it.

He said the blood on his robe will always be a reminder of where the victory was actually

won on the cross.

And so he rides into battle bearing the marks of the victory that he's already won for his

people reminding all of the enemies and all those who are rebelling against him that this

is already won.

This is already over.

He's just kind of cleaning up the mess afterward.

And he's called the word of God here.

And this obviously reminds us of John 11 where it says in the beginning was the word and

the word was with God and the word was God.

And John 114 it says in the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory,

glory as of the only son from the Father full of grace in truth.

And so it's important in Hebrew thought a word was not a lifeless sound, but in Hebrew

thought a word was thought to be an active agent that accomplished the intentions of

the one who spoke the word.

And so you can think about all sorts of ways that this applies to Jesus since he is the

eternal word or the Greek is the logos, the eternal logos of God.

Think back to creation.

When the Father spoke everything into existence, who brought it into existence?

It was Jesus, the word, right?

The Bible says in John chapter one that everything that was created was created by Jesus.

So the Father spoke the word of God and then Jesus as the eternal word accomplished what

the Father intended to accomplish.

He created all things.

You think about salvation and Jesus accomplished the salvation that the Father declared before

him.

The Father told him to go and be the propitiation for the sins of his people and Jesus went

and accomplished that.

He brought all of God's intentions and purposes to pass.

And so whatever God speaks, Jesus makes it a reality.

He brings it about in this world.

And I think it's very interesting to think of Isaiah 55.11 here, because we all know

this passage in this verse very well.

In Isaiah 55.11 it says, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth.

It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall

succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Now it's interesting that we typically only apply that or think of it in terms of teaching

and preaching, right?

When a pastor is preaching, you say, hey, that was a horrible sermon, but God's word

will not return void.

So he's going to do something with that terrible sermon you just preached or a Bible lesson.

You say, hey, the word of God's not going to return void.

There's something is going to be done here.

But how fitting is it to apply this to Jesus?

Since he is the eternal word of God, I think it's perfectly appropriate to apply this to

Jesus and say that everything Jesus does, it will be accomplished.

He will never return void on anything that he sets his intentions to.

He will always bring about God's purposes and he will succeed in everything that he

attempts.

That's what we see here is he's engaging in this battle at the end and you look at verses

14 and 16.

And it says in the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, we're following

him on white horses.

And from his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations and he will

rule them with a rod of iron and he will tread the wine press, the wine press of the

fury of the wrath of God, the Almighty and on his robe and on his thigh he has a name

written King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

All right, so here's the question.

Does Jesus when he returns is he literally going to have a sword protruding and coming

out of his mouth?

No, he could.

Okay.

I like these varied answers.

Yeah, one says no and the other is like, I don't know.

I could see it.

Maybe he does.

I don't think it's a literal sword that's coming out of his mouth.

I don't know exactly how that would work.

It's important to remember as we're reading Revelation, you have to keep in mind the genre,

right?

So this is apocalyptic literature.

So it's going to use highly symbolic language, metaphors, pictures to convey certain meanings.

And so when you're looking at this, it's talking about Jesus's authority as he speaks.

And that's what the word and the sword here is communicating that he by his word that

comes out of his mouth is going to execute justice and exercise authority.

I mean, for instance, we remember Hebrews 412 that says, for the word of God is living

and active sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the division of soul and of spirit

of joints and of marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

So, so rather than just say, hey, when Jesus returns, he's going to speak with authority

and execute justice.

The way that John portrays that and the vision that God has given him is that Jesus is coming

back and he's got a sword coming out of his mouth.

But the message that's being conveyed is he has authority.

He will speak his authority into this world and execute justice.

And I mean, this is even what Paul was talking about in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 8.

2 Thessalonians 2:8

He says, and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with

the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.

So it's not saying that Jesus's breath is so deadly that he's going to breathe on people

and they die.

Could mean that.

But I think it's more likely that when he returns, he's going to speak with authority

and his words of authority are going to end the man of lawlessness and his rebellion against

God and his kingdom.

And then it's really interesting here that John says he's going to rule them with a rod

of iron because this is literally a word for word fulfillment of Psalm chapter 2.

Psalms 2 · chapter mention

Psalm chapter 2 beginning in verse 7.

Psalms 2 · chapter mention

It says, I will tell of the decree, the Lord said to me, you are my son.

Today I have begotten you.

Ask of me 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 potter's vessel.

Now therefore, O kings, be wise.

So here's what's happening.

God says I've appointed my son.

He's going to rule the nations.

He's going to rule them with a rod of iron.

Therefore here's what you need to do about that in light of what's happening.

Be wise, be warned, O rulers of the earth.

Guard the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the son lest he be angry with you and you perish in the way.

For his wrath is quickly kindled and blessed are all those who take refuge in him.

So God gave man this revelation and the nations did not listen to him.

They did not heed the warning.

They were not wise.

They did not submit to him.

They did not kiss the son when he was in their midst.

They had the opportunity to pledge their allegiance to Jesus, to follow him, to recognize him

for who he was and instead they crucified him.

And so the wrath of God is kindled against them and the Bible is saying when the day

of the Lord comes and he returns on his white horse in judgment, it's going to be too late

to kiss the son then.

Really in that moment when they see Jesus coming, they're going to want to kiss the

son at that moment.

They're going to realize that they were wrong.

They're going to realize that everything Christians have been warning them about is actually

true and it's going to be too late at that point.

And it just strikes me about how sad this world we live in actually is.

I mean, I can't tell you how many unbelieving friends and family members I have who live

like there will never be a judgment.

They do whatever they want.

They live however they want.

There is no sorrow.

There is no repentance.

There's no turning their life to God.

They live like there's never going to be a judgment.

And that same atheist friend that I mentioned to you earlier and in another conversation

with him, he said to me, if there is a God and he is so loving and forgiving, then I'm

sure he's going to forgive me in the end and let me into heaven if such a place exists.

And I said, well, here's the big mistake with what you just said.

God is loving and God is merciful and God is willing to forgive.

But that also doesn't take away from God's just nature and the fact that God is righteous

and that he is true and just.

And this is one of the biggest problems I think we have in evangelicalism today is we

are especially popular Christianity today.

We like to pit God's mercy against God's just nature.

And we say because he's merciful, he's just going to overlook everything.

He's going to forgive everyone in the end.

Everyone's going to go to heaven.

I mean, this is the Rob Bell whole approach that he took the pastor Rob Bell.

He wrote this book called Love Wins in the promo.

He said, you know, a person had approached him and said something about Gandhi being

in hell.

And Rob Bell said to him, what makes you think Gandhi's in hell?

And the guy said, well, because he wasn't a Christian and this pastor said to his church

member who was raising this question, he said, yeah, but God is loving and I believe that

love wins in the end.

And so he wrote this whole book that basically was talking about how God is ultimately going

to love everyone so much and forgive everyone so much in the end, no matter if you're a

Christian or not, everyone goes to heaven.

No one goes to hell.

And my thing is, that's not the God of the Bible.

And not only that, that's dishonoring to God.

That's belittling to God.

It's saying that he is not a righteous God, that he does not care about justice, that

sin does not matter to him.

And if that is true, then it means that Jesus Christ was crucified in vain.

And ultimately God's just going to wipe his hand and just wash away every sin that's ever

been committed to overlook everything and just let everyone into heaven.

Then it means that Jesus died in vain.

And one of my strongest beliefs as a Christian is that the Father will not allow his son

to suffer in vain.

And not even one drop of the Savior's blood will be shed in vain.

That the Lamb of God will receive the reward of his sufferings.

And so, yeah, God is loving, he is merciful, but he is also just and he will bring about

justice in the end.

And then you notice here in verse 17, it says, 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 great and small.

So this is a pretty grotesque verse, right?

You got a lot of flesh eating here and you can get called up and like, why is it talking

about all these different kinds of flesh and why is there eating?

The meaning is very simple if you think about it in context, right?

So in the verses before this, it was talking about the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Because there's this great feast, this banquet that's happening.

And the meaning of this is basically saying that every single person on earth will take

part in either one of two eschatological meals in the end.

You will either be eating with Jesus at the marriage supper of the Lamb, or you will be

eaten by Jesus at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

And so this isn't saying that we're actually going to be eating the flesh of all these

different people and all these different classes of people.

That's not what it's saying.

It's saying that we are going to share in the spoils of Jesus' victory.

So the marriage supper is a celebration of Christ's victory here on earth in our union

with Christ.

And so that is saying this is the reward of his suffering.

And we, as his people, get to share in the spoils of that victory.

And so we will get to take part in that meal, but no, you will not have to eat the flesh

of anything else.

In verse 19, I saw the beast in 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 received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped

this 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.

So if you look here, it kind of feels like we skipped a lot of the action, right?

Because you get this big setup.

Here's Jesus on the white horse.

Here's all of his army with their white horses.

Here's the rebellious army.

And then it just says, and then the beast and the false prophet, they're thrown into

the lake of fire.

So you're kind of like, well, where's the action?

Where did the fighting take place?

We kind of missed out on that.

And I think the reason it's not mentioned here is it just speaks to how quickly Jesus

is going to put an end to this rebellion.

That there's not going to be some big grand battle.

Like this isn't a movie where everything's leading up to this final battle and it's a

really close one.

You don't know who's going to win, but Jesus just barely squeaks it out.

Now, this is saying when Jesus returns, that's it.

Like the battle's done as soon as he enters it.

And so they are immediately defeated and they're thrown alive into the lake of fire so that

they can actually experience their eternal torment.

And so this is actually pretty much the last extensive judgment passage we get in Revelation.

There's going to be another short one after we talk about the millennium, which is going

to be next week.

So make sure that you come back next week because we're going to be talking about different

views of the millennium and what that looks like.

And we're all going to be brothers and sisters in Christ and we're all going to get along

and there's going to be no fighting or yelling or name calling.

Everybody agree to that?

Yeah?

We good on those terms?

At the end of the day, we can say we all believe in Jesus.

We believe he's coming back and we believe we're going to be with him forever.

Yes, we all agree.

Yeah, so we can agree with that.

So what I'm going to do next week is I'm going to present you with four different views of

the end times, especially the millennium and the kingdom.

I'll try to be as unbiased as I can.

I will present them as fairly as I can.

I never want to misrepresent someone else's view.

And I'm going to let you decide which view you think is most biblical and you want to

hold to and you can be a Christian and hold to any one of these four views.

So nobody say, hey, they don't hold to my view, they're not really a Christian.

That's not how it works.

It's eschatology, okay?

Has nothing to do with your salvation.

And I'll let you decide.

Do you want just a quick general here are the four views nice and simple or do you want

me to actually explain each one and give a little detail?

Do what now?

How many months do we have?

You tell me, brother.

I'm here.

All right.

So what do you want?

Do you want an overview like Cliff notes version or do you actually want some details?

Here's why they believe this.

We want some details.

Okay.

All right.

Well, yeah.

All right.

It sounds like most people want details.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, the overview is Jesus is coming back.

And if you're a believer, you get to be with him forever.

The details of when that happens, what that looks like and when the millennium takes place,

we'll get into that next week.

But this passage is ultimately pointing us to our hope in the return of Christ.

And I just want to just very briefly as we conclude, say that we don't really talk about

hope enough.

We talk about love and forgiveness.

But I've noticed this really bad trend of Christians who will say things like, I really

hope Jesus doesn't return before I get married.

I really hope Jesus done return before I have kids.

I really hope Jesus done return before I can go visit this place or I can do this thing.

And it's like the return of Jesus is an inconvenience to them.

And I just want to say as a believer, the return of Jesus is literally the greatest thing

that could ever happen for us.

Having our savior return and renew the world, restore his people, bring about the new heavens

and the new, that is literally the greatest thing that could ever happen.

And so we should not be praying for Jesus to delay in his return.

Instead we need to be praying exactly how John does at the end of Revelation.

In Revelation 22, he says, come Lord Jesus.

And I would say, come Lord Jesus, come quickly.

I think that should be the prayer of every single Christian because our hope is in his

return.

All right, Gene, hit us with a word of wisdom this week.