The Glorious Return of Jesus Christ, Part 2
Revelation 19:11-16
It is our great privilege tonight to open our Bibles to the nineteenth chapter of Revelation and to look at that great text which details for us the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Revelation 19 verses 11 through 16, I want to read this text, it's such a powerful text I want you to have it in mind.
Starting in verse 11, John, of course, is given this great vision while on the island of Patmos in exile for the preaching of the gospel. And he says, "I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. And His eyes are a flame of fire and upon His head are many diadems and He has a name written upon Him which no one knows except Himself. And He's clothed with a robe dipped in blood and His name is called the Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. And from His mouth comes a sharp sword so that with it He may smite the nations and He will rule them with a rod of iron and He treads the winepress of the fierce 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."
Here is the great presentation of the vision of the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now to show you how important this is on the pages of Scripture, a total of one thousand five hundred and twenty-seven Old Testament passages alone refer to the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are approximately eight thousand verses in the New Testament and three hundred and thirty of those or about one out of every twenty-five verses directly refers to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. In fact, next to the subject of faith, no subject is more often mentioned than the return of Christ. For every time the first coming of Christ is mentioned, the Second Coming is mentioned eight times. And the Lord Himself refers to His coming twenty-one times and over 50 times we are exhorted to be ready for that great event. It is a major theme throughout the pages of Scripture.
Clearly because of so much biblical testimony, we can be certain that Jesus will come again. The promise of God demands it. God who cannot lie promised that the Messiah would come and that He would establish a kingdom and that throne would be in Jerusalem and from that throne He would rule the world. God promised that He would set His King upon His holy hill, Psalm 2; that the government would be upon His shoulders, Isaiah 9; that He would reign and rule. Daniel chapter 7 portrays Him coming, Zechariah chapter 14 and other Old Testament passages. And even the New Testament repeats that promise. It is repeated to us in the gospel of Matthew in the Olivet Discourse and also in the gospel of Luke.
So the promise of God demands the return of Christ. Secondly, the statements of Jesus demand it. Jesus Himself said that He would go away and come again in John chapter 14. And again in Matthew 24 and 25 He described His own coming, the coming of the Son of Man in heaven.
Furthermore, the guarantee of the Holy Spirit demands it. The Holy Spirit it was indeed who inspired the New Testament writers to write the promise of the return of Christ. And it is the Holy Spirit in us who is the guarantee or the down payment on that great event that is yet to come. The word arrabon is used to describe the Holy Spirit, He's called the earnest of the Spirit. Arrabon can be translated "engagement ring." He is the engagement ring that guarantees the wedding between the bride, the church, and the bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so, the promise of God demands Christ's return, the statements of Jesus demand He returns, the guarantee of the Spirit demands He returns. And even outside the trinity itself the program for the church demands that He return. God has established the program for His church. In fact, it is laid out in the New Testament no more clearly than in the fifteenth chapter of the book of Acts where the Scripture very clearly tells us that the Lord has a wonderful plan for His church. It unfolds starting in verse 6. "And the apostles and elders came together to look into this matter and after there had been much debate, Peter stood and said to them, `Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the gospel and believe; and God who knows the heart bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.'" And so God established His church, made up of Jews and Gentiles. Down in verse 15, "With this the words of the prophets agreed, just as it is written, `After these things I will return and I will rebuild the tabernacle of David which has fallen and I will rebuilt its ruins and I will restore it in order that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord; and all the Gentiles who are called by My name,' says the Lord, `who makes these things known from of old.'"
God has a plan and it's a plan that involves His return and the establishment of His glorious kingdom. And we know that promise is laid out for us not only in the book of Acts but it's unfolded for us even in the book of Revelation, as we shall see in chapter 20. So God's plan for the church demands Jesus' return, after all He has to come back and take His church to be His bride, marry His church, the promise of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, which we already saw in this chapter, involves the church. He must return for that.
And then God's plan for the nations demands it. He's coming back to judge the nations, Matthew 25 says that, Joel 3 says that. He's coming back, He's going to judge the nations, set up a Kingdom and rule over the nations. God's plan for Israel demands that Jesus return because the kingdom, after all, was promised first to Israel, they would have a Messiah and they would ultimately enter into the Messiah's kingdom. All Israel, eventually, Romans 11 says, will be saved. The dry bones will be revived, Ezekiel tells us and there will come a time when Israel believes, when they look on Him whom they've pierced, as Zechariah put it, mourn for Him as an only Son and enter into their kingdom.
So the plan for the church, the plan for the nations, the plan for Israel demands that Jesus Christ return. You could look at it another way, as well, the humiliation of Christ demands that He return. The first time He came He was scorned and He was hated and He was despised and humiliated. And that demands that He come back in the glory which He is do, with the respect and honor and worship which should be given to Him. Furthermore, the exaltation of Satan demands the return of Christ. Satan who is the usurper needs to be dethroned, who is temporarily the prince of this world, the god of this world needs to be taken off the throne and the rightful heir needs to be placed on that throne. The serpent's head which was bruised at the cross needs to be finally cut off and he needs to know the execution that God has planned for him.
So, the promises of God, the statements of Jesus, the guarantee of the Holy Spirit, the plan for the church, for the nations, for Israel, the humiliation of Christ, the exaltation of Satan temporarily, all of those things demand the return of Christ and the establishment of His Kingdom. And finally, that this takes us right into the wonder of this whole passage, the expectation of the saints demands it. We are those who love His appearing, according to 2 Timothy chapter 4. We are those who wait for His coming. This is the Christian hope, the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you find the saints not only in the New Testament, but throughout the Old Testament, longing for and anticipating the coming of the Messiah to set up His kingdom. So in order to fulfill His promise, in order to fulfill His own Word, the Lord Jesus Christ must come. In order for Jesus to be true to that which He promised He must come. In order for the Holy Spirit's guarantee to come to pass, He must come. For God to execute His program for the church, for the Gentiles, and for Israel, He must come. And in order to reverse the humiliation of Christ and the exaltation of Satan, He must come. And to fulfill the anticipation of the saints, He must come. And He will. And we see the coming of Christ portrayed and demonstrated in the majesty of the words which I just read to you in chapter 19.
Now I want to divide these verses up into three parts...the return of the Conqueror, the regiments of the Conqueror, and the rule of the Conqueror...the return, the regiments and the rule. However, before we look any further into this text, I want to give you a little bit of background, so I want you to turn in your Bible back to Isaiah. Back in Isaiah chapter 11 we have a text of Scripture that I mentioned to you last time that is important for you to understand because it lays the background for this vision. You remember now, in Isaiah 11:1 a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, that refers to the Messiah, coming from the line of Jesse, He came through David who was Jesse's son. "A branch from his roots will bear fruit and the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, and the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord and He will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what His eyes see nor make a decision by what His ears hear." In other words, He'll make no superficial judgments. "But with righteousness He will judge the poor and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth and He will strike the earth with a rod of His mouth and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked and righteousness will be the belt about His loins and faithfulness the belt about His waist." And there you have the promise of the Messiah and of His reign.
Go over to the sixty-third chapter of Isaiah and you'll find another text of Scripture that is in some ways parallel as well to the vision that John has. Verse 1 of Isaiah 63, "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?" Obviously it's the Messiah, this is the messianic portion of Isaiah's prophecy. "It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save." That's who's coming. That's who is coming in garments of glowing colors, literally in the Hebrew, crimson colors, red the color of blood. Verse 2, "Why is Your apparel red, and Your garments like the one who treads in the winepress splattered?" as it were, with all the red juice of the grapes. Why? "I have trodden the wine trough alone, and from the peoples there was no man with Me. I also trod them to My anger and trampled them in My wrath; and their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments and I stained all My raiment. For the day of vengeance was in My heart, and My year of redemption has come. And I looked and there was no one to help and I wa astonished and there was no one to uphold, so My own arm brought salvation to Me, and My wrath upheld Me and I trod down the peoples in My anger and made them drunk in My wrath and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth." Pretty vivid imagery, isn't it?
Blood splattered the Messiah comes and by Himself tramples out His wrath. Those two scenes in Isaiah 11 and Isaiah 63 have some parallels to the vision here in Revelation 19, and I only wanted to draw those texts to your attention because of the common expressions that we find and we'll see also in Revelation.
Now this return of Christ that is given us in the nineteenth chapter has already been anticipated. You remember in the fourteenth chapter verse 14 John looked and behold a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a Son of Man, having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand. And down in verse 18, He took that sharp sickle and He was told to put it in and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth because the grapes are ripe. It tells us the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth and threw them into the great winepress of the wrath of God and the winepress was trodden outside the city and the blood came out from the winepress up to the horses' bridles for a distance of two hundred miles. Here is another blood-splattered scene where blood is splattering up as high as the height of a horse, as the Messiah Himself tramples out the winepress of the wrath of God and grape juice becomes the picture of spattering of blood.
Over in chapter 16 another vision of this, as I noted for you last time, is given. Verse 15, "I am coming like a thief." And when He comes, verse 16 says, they gather them together to a place which in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
So now we come to the scene which has been anticipated by Isaiah, and anticipated as well by John in the book of Revelation in those texts which I read to you. Now we come to the actual event in its chronological sequence, followed by chapter 20, the establishment of the kingdom and flowing on into the eternal state.
Let's look then, first of all, at verses 11 to 13 and look at the return of the Conqueror..the return of the Conqueror. Verse 11, "And I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war."
Again, for another time in the book of Revelation, heaven is opened. And we're going to see a glorious glimpse of heaven, a glorious vision of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's very different than the one we saw in chapter 1 where He was ministering in His church. Here He is obviously coming in fiery, flaming vengeance. He is coming with a sword of judgment. He is coming with blood-splattered garments. This is the point of His return. This is the fulfillment of the promise of Jesus Himself from His own lips in Matthew chapter 24 where He said in verse 27, "Just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather." It will be a time of great carnage. Immediately after the Tribulation it will happen. "The sun will be darkened. The moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky. And the powers of the heavens will be shaken." In other words, the whole universe goes pitch black. "And then the sign of the Son of Man appears in the sky, all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they'll see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other." That is that which now is being described in Revelation 19.
So as the scene unfolds, our eyes are fixed on this majestic, regal, mighty rider. Heaven is opened to us and we see the white horse and on the white horse we see the rider. Now let's talk about these details, because they're important.
The reason heaven is opened this time is to not let us in but to let Him out. A number of times in the book of Revelation heaven has been opened and we've been given access to that. We can go back, for example, to chapter 4 and we remember, don't we, that John the Apostle says in verse 1, "Behold, I looked and a door standing open in heaven, the first verse which I heard like the...the first voice which I heard like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me said, `Come up here and I'll show you what must take place after these things.'" And so the door of heaven was opened in chapter 4 so John could go in and see. And now the door is opened so the Son of Man can come out.
Jesus, the One who ascended to heaven as recorded in Acts chapter 1, the One who has been seated at the Father's right hand is now coming back. He is going to receive the kingdom which the Father had promised to Him, the kingdom to which He was entitled. As you go back in to chapter 5 you remember that the Father was seated on the throne in heaven, in His hand He held a book which was the title deed to the universe. And you remember no one in heaven or on earth, verse 3, or under the earth was able to open the book or look into it. In other words, no one had the right to take possession of the universe. No one had the right to open this sealed scroll and take possession. And so John says, "I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or look into it." In other words, was the world always going to belong to the usurper, to Satan, to sin? Was there no one who could take it back?
And one of the elders said to me, "Stop weeping, behold the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals." And I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders a Lamb standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent out unto all the earth. That too a reference to Isaiah 11.
"And He came and took it out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne." And there you have the Lamb, the Son, Christ, the Messiah having the privilege and the right to take the title deed out of the hand of God because it is His right to take the universe. "And everyone sang a new song, `Worthy art Thou to take the book and break its seals, for Thou was slain and did purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and Thou has made them to be a kingdom and priest to our God and they will reign upon the earth."
You have a right to take possession of the world. You have a right to establish Your Kingdom. And so the one who has a right now is on the edge of heaven and heaven is opened and He is about to come. That great and wonderful anticipatory prayer that comes from the sixty-fourth chapter of Isaiah, this first couple of verses, "O that Thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down that the mountains might quake at Thy presence, as fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil, to make Thy name known to Thy adversaries that the nations may tremble at Thy presence." That's the prayer...O, that Thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down. And what Isaiah anticipated and prayed for in chapter 64 now unfolds in Revelation 19 as heaven is opened and He's ready to come.
And this time John doesn't see a Lamb in the midst of the throne, rather He sees, according to verse 11, a white horse. This is not a lamb, this is a white horse. And riding on that white horse is the great Conqueror, the Messiah. Riding no longer the way He rode when He rode in His earthly life, but now coming as a Conqueror in a typical fashion of Roman triumphal processions.
Now let me mention something at this point. Would you...capture this because it's very important. What you have in the imagery of this vision is a mingling of symbol and reality. And you have to comprehend that or you can't comprehend this. There is language here that is the expression of reality and there is language here that is the expression of symbol. Of course, that symbol points to a reality. People ask the question...does this mean there are real horses in heaven? The answer, no...anymore than it means that when Jesus comes He's actually going to have dangling off His head a whole lot of crowns, or that when He returns He's actually going to have sticking right out of His mouth between His lips some kind of sword. Or any more than it means that all who come with Him are going to be riding on a myriad of white horses. Listen, there is nothing to indicate anywhere in Scripture that horses get glorified, that horses get eternally glorified and go to heaven. There is a mixture here of symbol and reality. This is not necessarily actual reality anymore than that Jesus Christ when he sets up His Kingdom is going to roam the earth with a huge iron stick in His hand, mashing people's sculls with it. And yet it says He'll rule with a rod of iron.
You have to understand that the symbolic language here expresses reality, but in itself is symbolic of that reality. And the symbol here, the majestic symbol here is of a Roman conqueror who is coming back in a triumphal procession. He's coming to a great battle, to triumph and to enter into the glory of that triumphant. A general would ride to war on his white horse, he would come with his battle garb, leading his tremendous battle troops, as it were. And they would engage in war. And when the war was won, he would then come to Rome and up the Via Sacra(?) the main street of Rome, to the temple of Jupiter on the Capitaline(?) Hill, and there he would enter into his glory. So the imagery is vivid.
John sees Jesus no longer as a Lamb, no longer as He was portrayed in Zechariah 9:9, coming in humiliation, riding on the colt, the foal of an ass. But in this case he sees Him as a conqueror. And white is not only the color of war chargers, in the ancient Roman world, but it is the symbol of purity, it is the symbol of spotlessness, of unblemished holy power. And, in fact, everything in that imagery is in contrast to the humble foal of a donkey which Jesus rode into the city. Now He comes as the conqueror, now He comes as the warrior King, now He comes to destroy the wicked, to overthrow the Antichrist, to bind Satan, take control of the earth and the universe and establish Himself as KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. The horses are symbolic. The sword out of His mouth is symbolic. The rod of iron is symbolic. The crowns are symbolic. But the coming is reality. And the psalmist himself wrote of this event when he wrote, "And Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O most mighty, with Thy glory and Thy majesty, Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall under Thee. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever." Even the psalmist under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit could get a glimpse of the coming of God in the glory of messianic rule to establish His eternal kingdom.
And so He comes. Scripture tells us He comes in glory. We read that in Matthew 24, Matthew 25. In Revelation 1:7 it says, "When He comes every eye will see Him." Obviously the whole world will have gone black and dark, as we read to you, everything will be turned out, the blazing glory of Jesus Christ will come with such startling reality that everyone on the face of the earth will see Him. And He will come not only in glory, not only visibly, but He will come with vengeance to judge and m