A sermon for Pilgrim Church July 2022
In the last two chapters (17&18) we saw the fall of Babylon. The fall of the beast, the false prophet and the dragon will be described in chapters 19 and 20. But before we get into the narration of the fall of the devil and his allies, we have a picture of the rejoicing in heaven over the fall of Babylon.
1 After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, 2 for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.” 3 And again they shouted: “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever.” 4 The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried: “Amen, Hallelujah!” 5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying: “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both great and small!” 6 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.” (Rev. 19:1-6 NIV)
This passage expands on the command in 18:20 to rejoice over the fall of Babylon. The people who live on the earth mourned the fall of Babylon because they were allied with her and profited from her wealth. None of the inhabitants of the earth care about the kingdom of God; they are interested in glory in the here and now. But the saints look forward to God’s kingdom. Since Babylon persecuted the people of God for refusing to join in her idolatry, the fall of Babylon is good news for the church. Consequently, their response to the fall of Babylon is loud praise of God. Four times in these six verses the inhabitants of heaven shout, “Hallelujah!”, that is, praise to Yahweh. The sounds of rejoicing and praise are like a roar of a multitude. This is the host of heaven, all the saints of all time giving glory to God for his acts of judgment.
“Salvation and glory belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments.” Babylon tried to give herself glory and splendour, but these things belong only to God. Babylon’s version of salvation was only temporary because it is tied to this world, which is passing away (1 Cor 7:31). Those who joined in with her, and worshipped the beast and took his mark, did so in hope of economic security. But the saints know that this form of salvation cannot last and is not worth the compromise. In this scene in 19:1-6, the saints have received from God the salvation that belongs to him, salvation that is eternal and cannot be taken away (see 1 Peter 1:3-5).
God’s judgements are true and just. In Australia right now, the godless do not think that God even has a right to judge them because everyone in our society thinks of themselves as a victim. But when God judges Babylon he does so in a way that demonstrates his holiness, righteousness and justice. His judgments demonstrate that all of God’s promises to his people are true. God does not lie. He hears the cries of his saints as they pray for justice when the wicked attack them. Jesus told a parable about a persistent widow and an unjust judge. The conclusion is: “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?” (Lk. 18:7 NIV). At the end of the age, this is exactly what happens, God brings about justice by avenging the blood of his persecuted people.
“For our Lord God Almighty reigns.” Isaiah describes the day when the Lord reigns (Isa 52:7). Zechariah also. “The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name” (Zech. 14:9 NIV). At this point in Revelation, all the people who want to make a name for themselves in the vein of Babylon have been judged and now the only name that is exalted is the name of the Lord God Almighty. It is not that the Lord was not already the king and ruling, but at this point in history it is obvious to all, believers and unbelievers, that our God reigns. His kingdom has come in its fullness and the kingdoms of the earth have been crushed by him. The only appropriate response to this is, “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.”
7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. 8 Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.) 9 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.” (Rev. 19:7-9 NIV)
Finally, the wedding supper of the Lamb has arrived. This is foreshadowed in various ways throughout the Bible. In the Old Testament, the LORD God is called the husband of Israel (Isa 54:5; Jer 31:32). In the New Testament, John the Baptist referred to Jesus as the bridegroom (John 3:29). And Paul refers to the relationship between Christ and his church in terms of marriage (Eph 5:21-33). The wedding supper of the Lamb is one name for the great end-time feast (Matt 8:11) that righteous Jews looked forward to. The great end-time feast was promised in Isa 25:6. At that time God will swallow up death and all his people’s tears and their disgrace (Isa 25:8). This is the ending to the story we have been waiting for, when the church and her Lord are eternally joined together. There is great anticipation for the celebration, which is very close. We must wait until ch 21 for a fuller description of the bride and her glory. Here we are merely told a little. But we know that those who are invited are blessed, which contrasts with the state of the wicked under judgment.
The bride has made herself ready. This statement, like many other aspects of the Christian life, has two sides to it. On the one hand, there is a responsibility on the bride to get ready for the wedding. And she does, putting on bright, clean fine linen, which stands for the righteous acts of the saints. These righteous acts have been demonstrated throughout the book of Revelation as the saints have refused to compromise with idolatrous Babylon. They have not worshipped the beast or its image or taken his mark (13:8, 15; 20:4). They have come out from Babylon and will not share in the prostitute’s punishment (18:4). There is a sense in which the bride could not put on these wedding clothes without having experienced the trials of living through the reign of the beast and the false prophet and through the temptations of Babylon. Only because of these trials can she demonstrate her devotion to Christ.
On the one hand, her wedding clothes are given to her (see Isa 61:10). In Ephesians we read “25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Eph. 5:25-27 NIV). So, it is Christ who has made his church ready for the wedding by his death and through his word. It is impossible to be pure and holy without the blood of Christ washing us clean. Without the work of Christ there would be no wedding supper. Only those who receive salvation from him can join in the feast.
10 At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am 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.” (Rev. 19:10 NIV)
John got a bit carried away with how beautiful the angel was and with his announcement and fell down to worship him. But he was rebuked. It is actually important that we understand who to worship and who to not worship. Revelation paints a very clear picture of this. God and the Lamb share the throne and no one else rightly receives worship, although the beast falsely receives worship and the false prophet encourages people to worship the beast. John certainly understood this but perhaps the angel looked divine. The rebuke is enough for us to know that angels are not to be worshipped because they are merely beings created to serve God and the gospel.
11 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. 12 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 he himself. 13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron sceptre.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. (Rev. 19:11-16 NIV)
This passage has taken us back in time to a description of the judgment of the wicked. This has to happen before the wedding supper of the Lamb that was just described. Revelation tends to go backwards and forwards between judgment and the final reward of the saints. Chapters 19 and 20 detail the judgment of wicked people, the devil, the beast and the false prophet. This is described from many different angles so we should not be surprised by the fact that we have digressed from the wonderful news of the wedding supper.
Every one of God’s enemies must be defeated at the end of history. Babylon has been destroyed, and now the beast, the kings of the earth and the false prophet will be destroyed. Christ wages a holy war against all the wicked. Sometimes Israel engaged in holy war against their enemies. But the ultimate holy warrior is God himself (Isa 42:13; 59:17-19; Hab 3:11-14; Zeph 3:17). “The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves” (Zeph. 3:17a NIV). Here in Rev 19, Jesus is the mighty warrior. From the start, we have been aware that Jesus will not allow those who persecute his bride go unpunished. And now he comes to complete his judgment and bring all those persecutors to their end.
The description of this warrior tells us much about how he conducts this holy war. He rides a white horse. White conveys God’s holiness and purity. His name is Faithful and True. Jesus has promised his church salvation and he is faithful to bring that to completion because his word is true. He will judge the wicked, vindicate his own name and those who follow him. In righteousness and justice he judges and wages war. This cannot be said of the kings of the earth. But in judging the earth and waging war against his enemies, Jesus is utterly just and utterly righteous. He is the one who has demonstrated his own sinlessness and righteousness by dying for sinners. No one can accuse him of any unrighteousness. He judges based on what people have done and the thoughts of their hearts. His eyes are like blazing fire. He is the divine judge and he sees all. He has many crowns. The dragon and the beast have crowns but Jesus has an unnamed number of crowns. Jesus’ crowns exceed those of the dragon and the beast and his crowns are fully deserved. He is the ruler of the kings of the earth because he has died and been raised from the dead and is now Lord over all. On the other hand, the dragon and the beast are usurpers and pretenders to the throne of the universe. Jesus is the genuine article.
Jesus has a name written on him that no one knows but himself. Names indicate something about the one who bears the name. To know the name of God is to know his character. Jesus is not trying to hide his name, as if a series of syllables must be kept hidden. In fact, there are many names given to Jesus in this passage: Faithful and True, Word of God, King of kings and Lord of lords. That Jesus has a name that no one knows but himself means that no one can know the sovereign Lord of all unless he reveals himself to them. Believers have received saving knowledge of who Jesus is and hence follow him. Unbelievers do not know Jesus and hence will only experience his character through the judgement be brings against them.
The one on the white horse has a robe dipped in blood. He has trod the winepress of the wrath of God. In this way he is like the LORD God who warred against his enemies, poured out their blood on the ground and whose garments were stained with his enemies’ blood (Isa 63:1-5). Thus Jesus’ robe is dipped, not in his own blood, but in the blood of his enemies. This is a similar image to what we saw in chapter 14, where the blood flowed out of the winepress and was as high as the horses’ bridles. It is a way of saying that Jesus is the divine warrior who defeats all the enemies of God, of himself and of his people. The armies of heaven follow him. In other words, the saints are given a part in the victory of Jesus over his enemies. But they are not covered in blood. Their clothes are white and clean, representing the purity of their Lord and the reward he gives them. Instead of being dressed for battle, their clothes indicate that they are ready for the victory celebration, the wedding supper of the Lamb.
The way Jesus defeats his enemies is not with violence but with the sword of his mouth. The word of God will judge every person and God’s word will defeat all wickedness and evil. None will withstand the truth that Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. All the pretenders will fall. “He will rule them with an iron sceptre” is a promise from Ps 2:9 for God’s anointed king. Psalm 2 gives us a picture for how the world is divided. It begins with “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?” These same wicked nations who want to ignore the sovereign rule of God will be given to the Son as his inheritance and he will rule them with a rod of iron, that is, in a very harsh way. The rule of Christ over his church is loving and gentle. But his rule over his enemies is strong and wrathful. They will know who they have spurned and rejected and whose people they have persecuted when the real King of kings and Lord of lords defeats all his enemies.
17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in mid-air, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, 18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small.” 19 Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. 20 But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulphur. 21 The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh. (Rev. 19:17-21 NIV)
This is another very gory image of judgment. The birds, like the saints earlier in the chapter, are invited to a supper. But instead of a wedding supper, which is a beautiful image of celebration and joy, they are invited to a supper to gorge themselves on the flesh of kings, generals, the mighty, horses and riders, indeed all people. The goriness of the image is supposed to be sickening. The wicked don’t get to join the wonderful feast that is the wedding supper of the Lamb. Instead, they get to be the main course in a macabre feast. Being eaten by wild animals instead of being buried is just another layer of judgement. The one who was most famously eaten by animals instead of being buried was Jezebel (2 Kings 9:10, 30-37), and she was a very wicked woman. She persecuted the prophets of God and fed the prophets of Baal. The church in Rev 2:20 was in danger of being enticed away from the truth because of Jezebel. We must guard against being led astray like this because the fate of the wicked is to be killed without any shred of dignity or respect.
Before the birds go to their macabre feast, the beast and the false prophet gather their army of unbelievers together to wage war against the rider on the white horse and his army of saints. This is no contest. The beast and the false prophet are captured and thrown alive into the lake of fire and burning sulphur. Fire and sulphur are not literal but together form an extreme image of judgment. The beast and the false prophet are alive, not annihilated. They are alive for eternity and there is no end to their conscious torment. The beast and the false prophet are not really individuals as such but a series of corrupt governments opposed to God and false religious leaders who lead the world away from God. None of these people escape the judgment of God.
“The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.” This means that the kings, generals, mighty, slave or free, small or great were defeated by the powerful and truthful word of God which came from the mouth of the Lamb. The people who are deceived by the beast and the false prophet went willingly to wage war against the Lamb and the saints. They did so because by nature sinners hate God and want to be their own god. If this were not so, the beast and the false prophet would be unable to deceive anyone. Their choice leads to their defeat and judgment. The birds get their fill of flesh.
It feels like evil will go on forever. The wicked seem to prosper and get their way and the righteous seem to be forever downtrodden. This chapter is good news. God is not sleeping. Jesus will not forget his bride or forsake her. He will destroy his enemies and the enemies who have persecuted his bride. The wedding supper of the Lamb is coming. Then the bride can enjoy her bridegroom forever.