What Will It Look Like When Jesus ACTUALLY Returns?

242, how are we doing?

Yeah, Brighton, Monroe, Saganal, so good to be with you guys.

I don't know if you're a fan of movies or not.

Um, I'm a I get a big kick out of movies.

I like action movies, and uh there's something about movies when the hero is revealed that is powerful.

The big Indiana Jones guy, right?

So uh if you remember the very first scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, when you first see Indiana Jones, it's when he steps out of the shadows of the trees.

Oh man, so cool.

Or maybe, maybe you like uh Avengers Infinity War, and in the middle of a fight scene, there's this train that passes by, and the bad guys look up at the train because they notice something, and the train passes, and there's a shadowy figure, and it steps out, and it's Captain America, and it's like you just want to stand up and like get excited, right?

We're at that point in Revelation today.

Like we've been we've been walking through the book of Revelation for a number of weeks, and we've been kind of looking at battle after battle, thing after thing, vision after vision, moment after moment, and time and time again, it feels it feels like the end is nigh.

It feels like it's it's right there, and it just doesn't happen.

Today, we jump into chapter 19.

Or the next three weeks, we're gonna spend time in chapters 19 and chapters 20, and we're gonna see some really important moments.

We're gonna see the arrival of the hero, we're gonna see the final battle, and we're gonna see the final judgment.

Like all the stuff we thought we were going to see is about to happen over the next three weeks.

And these are some powerful stories, some exciting stories.

Now, if you haven't been with us this whole time, we've been walking through the book of Revelation, one of the most often read yet most misunderstood books of the entire Bible.

And we've been saying, hey, what is it that John's actually trying to communicate to us?

Because the book of Revelation isn't just some book that's trying to help us predict the end times.

Are there elements of that?

Sure.

Have fun, go for it.

But what John is actually trying to show us is a call to radical discipleship.

Because what John is acknowledging is something that you and I, we all know.

Deeper than our core, we all know it to be true, that the world is not as it should be.

It's broken.

We experience it in our own lives, we see it in the news, things that make us greed, things that make us mourn, things that bring us pain, that we have a current reality, and that is that the world is not as it should be.

And the reason you and I know that is because we know that God created all things.

And he created you with the image of God within you.

He created you.

So deep within our soul, we know that this is not how things should be.

But the Bible over and over again promises us a future reality.

And that future reality is that all things will be made as they should be.

All things will be made new.

We'll see that in chapter 21.

There'll be no more crying, no more grief, no more mourning.

We'll see that in chapter 21.

We see that there's a promise, not just of revelation, of the gospels, and of Jesus, but the entire scriptures.

Tells us there's a promise, there's a hope, there's an anticipation, there's a truth.

That one day Jesus will return.

And when he returns, everything will be made as it should be.

So you and I live in a tension.

And what John is acknowledging all throughout the book is this tension of a world that's not as it should be, knowing the truth of one day it will be as it should be.

And the question that John is continually asking you is how should you live in light of that?

How should you live your lives in light of that?

We've talked about things like fallen Babylon.

Babylon was a people group that that uh overtook Israel in their history.

So they hear the word Babylon, it's not a favorable thing.

So John uses fallen Babylon as the picture for the fallenness of the world, the brokenness of the world, the things that are against Christ or against godliness.

And we see that that it's not just last week, we talked about the harlot, actually, the mother of all harlots, which meant she wasn't the last one.

There would be more to come.

Well, John may be referencing Rome, there would be there would be more versions of her, more manifestations of her.

Every generation experiences the reality of a brokenness of this world.

So we ask ourselves the question as we work through this book like, what does it mean for us to live knowing the world is not as it should be?

But the one day all things will be made new.

And today we may get into some specifics about what that looks like that maybe you didn't know were even in the book of Revelation.

Because I'm gonna tell you right now, it's one verse.

One verse that stands out above the rest that tells you a big story about what it means to live in that tension.

If you have your Bibles, go ahead and flip with me to chapter 19.

We're gonna do a little Bible study today.

Uh, we're gonna look at some of the description that we see here in what John is trying to communicate to us that you and I might miss.

Because one of the things we have to continually remember is that before the book of Revelation was the last book of your Bible, it was a letter to seven churches.

It was a letter that was literally passed from church to church in Asia Minor, now known as Turkey, passed to those churches during John's day.

Like, so it had to have meant something for them.

And John is, remember, John had this vision, so he stepped out of human consciousness and understanding.

It's just consider this is everything that you know.

And he was pulled into vision consciousness, and then he's told, Hey, John, write these things down and communicate them to the people who haven't seen it.

So he uses 500 Old Testament references, constantly pulling from the pool of imagery of the people of John's day so that they would understand.

So it takes us a little bit more work that we take some time to say, what did it mean to them?

What was John trying to describe?

And then how does it speak into our lives?

So today we're going to see the arrival, the dramatic, cinematic experience of the hero coming on the scene.

Would you pray with me though?

Lord Jesus, I'm so thankful for you, and thankful that today we get to explore what it's like when the hero, you, enter into the story.

So, God, would you open our eyes?

Would you open our ears?

Maybe most importantly, open our hearts so that we receive what it is that you have for us.

So that today isn't some average day, some ordinary day.

Today is the day that we discovered our hero, that we discovered the champion, that we discover our savior, and that we meet you intimately here in this space.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

All right, so we have seen the fall of Babylon already.

We've seen a lot of stuff.

We've seen beasts and dragons, all kinds of crazy stuff and visions that he's seen.

But but last week we kind of talked about the fall of Babylon.

And chapter 19 begins with a picture that we've already seen once.

If you go all the way back to chapter four, you may remember that there was worship that was from the four creatures that that represent the created order of God.

There was worship from the 24 elders, and there was worship from the multitudes.

We get into chapter 19 and we see the same thing.

We see the 24 elders and the four creatures and the multitudes worshiping and praising God because of the fall of Babylon.

Because the thing they've longed for is actually happening.

And then in verse 9, we see that the angel is preparing John for another vision.

He says, Then the angel said to me, Write this blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.

And he added, These are the true words of God.

At this I fell at his feet to worship him.

But he said to me, Don't do that.

I'm a fellow servant with you and with your brothers and sisters who hold to the testimony of Jesus.

Worship God, for it is the spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus.

This is one of my favorite passages, because every time I get confused about what's happening in Revelation, I realize that John was too.

He begins to bow down and worship an angel.

And the angel's like, whoa, hold up, hold up, hold up.

Not me.

I'm not worthy of your worship.

John, I don't know if he was confused, misinformed, maybe he just had no idea what was going on.

So he thought the best thing I could do is just bow down and worship.

And if I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but I certainly don't want to not worship the one that worship should be ascribed to.

And it's a perfect timing for this moment because we're about to enter into that part of the story where the hero enters into the story.

So let me read this for you.

We're gonna read it kind of slowly.

I just want you to kind of begin to picture what this looks like when Jesus enters in.

I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse whose rider is called faithful and true.

With justice he judges and wages war.

His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns.

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

He's dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the word of God.

Verse 15 Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.

He will rule them with an iron scepter.

He treads the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.

On his robe and on his thigh, he has his name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

I don't know how you're picturing it.

This is better than Captain America showing up.

Like this this sounds pretty incredible.

In fact, here's an AI generated image that gives you an idea of what this might have looked like in John's vision.

Now, it's not it's not exactly accurate, but this is an idea of what it could have looked like as Jesus rides triumphantly in like this.

You remember on Palm Sunday, he rides triumphantly in on a donkey.

Here he does what kind of we all thought he would do, and he's riding in on his trusty steed for battle.

Now there's a lot of stuff here to unpack, so I want to kind of walk through some of this passage and begin to explain some of the things that John is actually trying to communicate.

So let's jump back to verse 11.

When he says, I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse whose writer is called faithful and true.

Here are these words.

With justice, he judges and wages war.

Now we often skip right past this because we want to get to the fiery eyes, the bloody robe, and all the crowns, all the all the cool stuff, but but here it says he judges, or with justice, he judges and wages war.

The picture that's being painted of this writer is not one who comes in and just slays humanity.

This word for justice could also be translated righteousness.

That is righteousness he judges and wages war.

This isn't a sword-wielding, gun-wielding Rambo movie.

This is this is Jesus riding in and conquering evil with the simple presence of his righteousness.

It's just because he is righteous, evil necessarily cannot exist.

Because evil cannot exist in the presence of a righteous God.

Think of it like you're standing in a dark room and you turn a light on.

I mean, the light chases away the darkness.

This isn't new language for John.

If you read John's gospel time and time again, he talks about this idea of light and dark, that Jesus is the light to a dark world.

And here he there's this picture that sounds very similar, that the presence of Jesus necessarily chases away evil.

Evil, the enemy, hear this, is outpresenced by God.

It is a simple presence of the writer that wages war and inflicts judgment.

Now, this this writer does have a weapon.

He's not completely weaponless.

So jump down to verse 15.

Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.

He will rule them with an iron scepter.

He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.

So there's a picture of a sword, but this is not a this isn't a scabbard.

This isn't the same kind of thing that Peter had in his hand when he cut off Malchus's ear in the garden, if you remember that scene before Jesus' death.

It's not that kind of sword.

The description is that it's not in his hand, it is coming out of his mouth.

Now, this isn't uncommon language, this is a way to describe the word of God.

That the weapon that Jesus is wielding is not a sword to kill, but it is the word of God to bring truth into the presence of evil.

The weapon of the people of God, the weapon of Jesus is the word of God.

When we read the the about the armor of God in Scripture, we see that there is a sword of the Spirit, it is the word of God that is the weapon that the army of God gets to wield.

It is right here.

Like if you want to figure out how to conquer evil, it is the truth of God's word.

The truth of God's word necessarily defeats the enemy.

That is the power of this being the living, breathing word of God.

And so many of us, we spend our lives not realizing the weapon that we have at our disposal to conquer evil.

Because it sits on our bookshelves and it sits on our end tables and our nightstands, and we don't really open it, we don't touch it, we don't spend time exploring it and studying it, we don't spend time owning what the word has to say for our own lives.

So we just kind of go about our lives as the army of God, which we'll get to in a moment, without a weapon in our hand.

Without actually wielding what it is that God has given us to wield.

There is power in the word of God, the Bible at our fingertips.

Let's look at the robe, verse 13.

He is dressed in a robe, dipped in blood, and his name is the word of God.

Christians have understood this in different ways throughout many centuries.

Some would say that this is the blood of his enemies on his robe after slaying the enemies, he's covered with blood.

I don't think that's what John is painting a picture of.

I think the picture that he's painting is it's Jesus' own blood.

The sacrificial lamb who was slain bled out so that you wouldn't have to.

See, the book of Romans tells us that the wages of our sin is death.

Like we were meant to die in the way that Jesus did.

But Jesus, in all of his grace and all of his love, and all of his mercy came and he took your place on a cross so that you wouldn't have to.

So when Jesus writes, and now look, all throughout the book of Revelation, John is being pretty clear, the victory was won at the cross.

Like if you don't know that the victory is already won, it's already won.

When Jesus gave up his life for you, he won.

Everything in Revelation is formality.

We know how this story goes.

You ever notice all throughout Revelation, the one person who never seems stressed, never seems confused is Jesus?

Because he's already won.

He already knows it.

Do you know it?

Like, do you know in your heart that Jesus is already won?

That when he rides in and he's covered in blood, it is the blood that he shed for you.

So that you wouldn't have to, so you can have everlasting life, so you can be forgiven and set free and redeemed.

Jesus rising victoriously in a robe that is covered in blood because he died for you.

This is the gospel.

Seemingly tucked inside of the book of Revelation.

This is a Savior that died so that you may be saved.

So that you can be a son or a daughter of God.

But what seemed to be weakness, the cross, ended up being strength.

What seemed to be defeat, the cross, ended up being victory.

Jesus' blood displays for us that he conquered the enemy.

Because when Jesus enters into the story, we realize before Jesus was a conquering king, he was a sacrificial lamb.

Before there was a white horse, there was a cross.

Before there was a crown, there were thorns.

Before he became a judge of sin, he came to carry it.

Friends, this is the gospel.

What John is trying to paint is a picture of the fullness of the gospel of who Jesus is and what he's done for you.

You see, this whole book has been about redemption.

You know the reason the end hasn't come yet?

It's because every single time it seems like it's almost there, redemption is offered.

Go back and read the seven seals, read the seven trumpets, read the seven bowls.

There's redemption, there's an opportunity for people to turn back to God.

There's a call to repentance.

Why?

Because while the victory has already been secured, the end isn't here yet.

And how we live our lives actually matters.

It actually has an impact.

But look at the name.

Verse 12.

Second half of verse 12.

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

It's kind of an odd description, isn't it?

When we stop for a moment and realize that we can't comprehend the fullness of his glory, it begins to make sense.

You and I can't, we can't fully comprehend and grasp the fullness of his nature and his righteousness and his gloriousness.

It is beyond us.

And that is a very good thing.

Look at verse 16.

On his robe and on his thigh.

I don't know if it's a tattoo or what it was, he has this name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

All of this comes together.

For John to paint a picture of how Jesus conquers.

Jesus doesn't conquer by slaying humanity, Jesus conquers by laying down his life.

Jesus conquers by becoming the king of kings and the lord of lords.

And the question is, is he your king?

Is he your lord?

Because here's what we need to know about Jesus is because evil cannot exist in the presence of Jesus' righteousness.

When Jesus' righteousness is present, evil cannot exist.

It just cannot.

Now you may have noticed that I skipped a verse.

And this is the verse that I want us to key in on for a moment because I think I think John kind of, it seems like John shifts his focus a little bit.

He's all this description about the rider coming in on the white horse, and then there's this one verse that kind of like, oh, let me glance over here, and then let me come back.

It's verse 14.

It says the armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.

Who are these people?

There's just this army kind of kind of unnamed.

It just talks about what they're wearing.

If we go back a few verses to verse six, this is so good, guys.

So good.

Verse six.

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters, and like loud peals of thunder, shouting, Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory.

Listen to this, friends.

For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.

Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.

Fine linen, he's so nice, he gives us a parenthetical explanation.

Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God's holy people.

So when we slide into verse 14, we discover that what John is painting a picture of is that it is the body of Christ, it is the bride of Christ, it is the followers of Christ, it is the church who's wearing the white linen behind Jesus, following him into battle.

Now, I I want to note the contrast that John's pointing out.

John didn't actually pivot at all.

He didn't shift his gaze over to something else.

He was focused on Jesus the entire time.

And the reason he wants to point out what the army looked like is because look at the contrast between what Jesus looked like and what the army looked like.

While Jesus is covered in blood.

Your robe is clean.

While Jesus is covered in his blood that was shed, you have been washed and you have been clean and you have been pure.

The picture that he is showing is the fullness of the gospel in your life.

That you are the army of God and you are wearing the whitest robes you can imagine, not because of anything you've done, but because of what Jesus has done for you, because the robes were given to them to wear.

In the form of the righteous acts of the church.

And this is going to be one of those kind of heavy things we're going to look at in the next three weeks is like, what does what does it look like?

And why is it so important that the church engage in acts of righteousness?

But today I want to take a moment just to just to acknowledge what that looks like.

Like here at 242, we talk about knowing God, growing with others, and changing the world.

That's what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

So the first thing we do when we think about who are these people and how do we live like this, how do we become the army of God, is that we know God.

That we we gather together.

That we gather together, just like we are right now, we're we're worshiping together.

We're gathering together.

This is the assembly of the army of God.

That we come together to engage not just one another, but the Holy Spirit and the power of God so that we can go out into the world and be the church where we live, work, and play, or be the army of God where we live, work, and play.

This is the assembly of the saints, the assembly of the church, the assembly of the army.

This is what it means to know God.

As we spend time in the Word of God.

This is why our services look the way they do.

It's why we we talk about scripture, it's why we pray, it's why we take communion together, because this is the assembly of God's people.

The second thing we do is we grow with others.

We know that life is better with others in it.

So we do life together.

We have small groups, and we look, we want you in a small group or some sort of group, not just to study scripture and pray.

That's super important, but we want you in a group because you need to have community in your life you're doing life with.

You need to have people that you call when things go sideways, when things become difficult.

This is how we hold formation as the army of God.

Another movie reference, you remember Gladiator?

The very first scene of Gladiator when they're riding through the trees into battle, and he keeps yelling one thing.

Remember what it was?

Hold the line.

He kept yelling, hold the line, which means be unified and to be together and be into battle in togetherness.

So we we not just know God and assemble, we grow with others, which means we hold formation.

But the last thing is that we we change the world.

We change the world.

There's a uh there's a story about Norway when the Nazis had occupation, and this is the first of two Nazi stories, it's not by design, but just letting you know.

Uh, when they had occupation of Norway as a sign of their own personal rebellion, one of the things they would do is they would take a paper clip and they would clip it to their lapel.

And it wasn't like they weren't fighting that day, they weren't overthrowing anything, but they knew that when they passed each other on the street or in the store or wherever it was, they knew when they saw that paper clip that they were unified, that they they were together, that they were they were on the same page and nothing was going to dissuade them.

They weren't divided, they weren't separated, that they were together.

This is kind of what our robes do.

This is also what it does when we begin to live out our faith in righteous ways.

Because we do this in two ways.

In one, we serve others.

We serve others, we we serve one another and we serve those who are far from God.

And the reason we do that is because that is an act of righteousness, it's a way of us expressing the love of Jesus to others.

And the second way we do that is through generosity, that we give.

Because it's our giving that actually fuels the resources of the army of God to fulfill the mission of God.

You see, no great battle has ever been won with when the supplies dry up.

We've been in this all-in generosity initiative for uh about a year and a half now.

And if you're not familiar with the all-in generosity initiative, we have a QR code you can scan, find more information, uh, begin to ask questions about what it looks like for you to go all in.

But but the reason we went all in is very simply this is that we know that the mission that Jesus has in front of us is great.

It is huge, and that we, you and I, are the army of God.

Now we could be an army that just sits back, or we could be an army that advances.

Because when we change the world, it is the army advancing.

So the All in Generosity Initiative was all about saying, hey, if we can reduce our mortgage, it amplifies dramatically the kind of ministry that we can do.

Now, I've said before that we could have just said, hey, let's raise X number of dollars, but but actually reducing the mortgage is the greatest impact we can have.

Because it frees up resources for us to not service a mortgage any longer, but actually service the mission of God and grow the kingdom of God.

It allows us to be the most effective army of God that we can be.

Because we are the army of God.

That Jesus doesn't just ride into battle on his own, he rides into battle with every single one of us behind him.

The question is, are you in formation?

All in is one of the ways that you can get in formation, you can join us on this great mission that God has for us.

You can actually begin to change the world.

Some of you have gone all in, you've made commitments, and we're so grateful and thankful for that.

But some of you, maybe you're hearing about it for the first time.

This is a great opportunity for you.

Talk to someone in our next steps area, scan that QR code that I'm gonna ask them to toss back on the screen again and uh and see what it looks like.

What does it look like for you to go all in?

What does it look like for you to become the army of God through your generosity and actually change the world?

Because the supply lines don't keep themselves open.

That's the work of the people who believe that the army is worth supplying.

In 1943, um, the Nazis decided that they were going to deport all the Jewish people in Denmark.

When they showed up in Denmark to actually act this out, they discovered that nearly all 7,000 of them were gone.

They were just gone.

The Danes, the neighbors, coworkers, family members, friends, strangers, began to hide people in their attics and in their basins.

And what they would do is they would they would ferry them to Sweden on a boat, fishing boats at night to get them out of the country.

So by the time the Nazis showed up to actually do something to ex to deport the Jewish people, they were already gone because the people of Denmark realized that there was a greater cause.

That they weren't going to subject themselves to what the Nazis were trying to do.

They decided they were going to change the world.

This is the kind of thing that the army of God does.

That we we decide that we're actually going to make a difference and change the world.

The question is, are you living that way?

Yes.

We've seen the hero ride in triumphantly on his steed.

But right behind him, verse 14, the armies of heaven were following him.

I just want to ask you the question: are you in formation?

Are you knowing God?

Are you growing with others?

Are you changing the world?

Honest reflection time.

You don't have to answer it out loud or anyone sitting next to you.

I just answer it to yourself.

Are you in formation?

Are you in the army?

Are you assembling?

Are you holding formation?

Are you advancing?

Because not only does the Bible call us to this, Revelation calls us to this.

Because when Jesus rides in for the final battle, behind him is the church, it is the bride of Christ, it is the saints.

It are all those who have aligned themselves in formation behind Jesus.

A line has been drawn in chapter 19.

You can be behind him or you can be in front of him.

And next week, we're going to discover that you don't want to be in front of him.

Because it ends exactly how we think it's going to end.

Jesus wins.

Would you pray with me?

Lord God, thank you for your word.

Thank you for this vision that you've given John.

And what it begins to speak into our own lives.

Lord, would you help us assess right now?

Monroe, Saginaw, Brighton, those watching online, would you help them assess right now in this very moment?

Are they in formation?

Holy Spirit, speak into us.

Tell us the hard truth.

Please tell us the hard truth.

And show us what our next step is so that we can be the army that you've called us to be.

It's in Christ's name we pray.

Amen.