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Favorites, Part 4
Revelation 19:11-16
Bruce A. Hess
Now, if you would, please take out the word of God and turn in it to the last book of the Bible, which is the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. You could turn to chapter number 19. If you don’t have a Bible with you, there is one under a chair in front of you and you could take that Bible, in the very last part, turn to that last book and turn to chapter 19 and you would be right where our passage is for the day.
This is the last in a series of messages I have entitled, “4 Favorites.” Every time I have been sharing with you something that is a very special treat to me, something I enjoy eating. I want to share another one of those with you today. It is actually going to be my favorite cookie of all time. It is really a special treat that my grandmother would make whenever we came to visit her at the house on the hill in Waterford, Pennsylvania. We would get there and she would have already baked these cookies. They are raisin filled cookies. The way you make them is, you would take some raisins and you take some butter and you take some sugar, you take a little bit of flour and you make the raisin mixture with it all together. Then, you would put it on some dough and then you would put an umbrella of dough over the top of that and you would bake them. They look a little bit like small hockey pucks but, man, they are delicious and I really appreciate my wife putting forth the labor of love. They are not easy to bake and she baked them so I could have these pictures just to flash in front of you. But, also so that I could eat them. And, I have been eating them, very carefully, I want to spread this out for as much time as possible so I can enjoy my favorite cookie of all time, my grandmother’s raisin filled cookies.
But, if you’ve been with us in this series, you know this is not a series about my favorite treats. It is rather a series about some of my favorite passages from God’s word. We’ve been using a theme throughout this series which comes from Jeremiah, chapter 15, verse 16, where Jeremiah says of the word of God, “Your words were found and I ate them and Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart.”
There are many passages from God’s word that delight my heart but, in this series we are just looking at four of them. Today we come to Revelation, chapter 19, verses 11-16. Every time, in this series, I have been taking you a little bit back in time, explaining a little bit about how a passage of Scripture became one of my favorites and I need to do that again today. I need to take you back in time to the time that I was a college student at the University of Nebraska. It is the summer of 1970. I am nineteen years old and because college students have more flexible time, we decided, four of us, that we were going to take a trip across the USA for two weeks. We were going to stop off at a key meeting place for the three major student ministry organizations on college campuses. So, we drove from Nebraska to Bear Trap Ranch in Colorado Springs, which was the Intervarsity’s conference center and we checked that out. Then, we did a hop, skip and a jump in Colorado Springs over to Glen Eyrie, which is the headquarters of the Navigators. Then, we drove on to California to Arrowhead Springs, which was the headquarters, at that time, of Campus Crusade.
We also made another stop when we were in California and that was at the University of California at Los Angeles, known as UCLA. We wanted to go there because there was something special happening at a place on campus called the Light and Power House. A guy by the name of Hal Lindsey was teaching there. You say, ‘What was so special about Hal Lindsey teaching there?’ Well, what you may not know is that a very special book, an impactful book, came out in 1970, earlier in the year, written by Hal Lindsey, called The Late Great Planet Earth. This book I have had now for 47 years. I can still remember going to the Light and Power House on the UCLA campus and actually Hal taught from the floor with a music stand and I am always a front row person, I was right at his feet, just sitting there on the floor, looking up at him as he taught about the second coming of Jesus Christ.
So, it was Hal, himself, who was the first one to teach me about the truth of the second coming of Christ. I don’t embrace everything that Hal Lindsey taught about prophecy but, I have always deeply appreciated his heart to point me to the teaching on the second coming of Christ.
By the way, this book, I had him sign it at the time, 47 years ago. He wrote, ‘To Bruce, may the hope of His soon return keep you excited in His service.’ Then, he signed it, ‘Maranatha,’ which means ‘The Lord is coming.’ Indeed, the truth of the second coming of Christ has kept me excited all of these years since then.
Before we actually read the passage, we have before us today, I am going to give you a rather long introduction, so you can just be ready for it. I want to start off talking about today’s cultural atmosphere in our nation. If we were to go out on the street and conduct a survey, we might ask a question like this, ‘Do you believe there is a day coming in which Jesus will come back in power to judge the rebellious human race?’ That is the question we might pose. Do you believe there is a day coming which Jesus comes back in power to judge the rebellious human race? If we were to go out on the street of American today and ask that question, what kinds of responses would we get? Well, no doubt, a number of people would say, ‘I doubt it. I doubt that is going to happen.’ Or, someone might say, ‘I don’t think so.’ Others might say, ‘No, no, no, Jesus wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t come back and judge the rebellious human race.’ You know we would hear some of those responses and probably the majority of them would be that. The truth is, for those who have that perspective out in our culture today, I would simply say this, my verdict is, they are sadly mistaken.
At the same time, what is interesting, we can talk that way about the culture but, even in the church, many in the church at large, many who are followers of Jesus today, tend to down play Bible prophecy. There are many who would say, ‘Well, you know, it’s really not that important, the study of future things,’ the theological term is, eschatology, ‘the study of those kinds of things, including the second coming of Christ, that’s just really more of secondary importance. That’s not of first importance. It’s really not vital. Other truths about Jesus are vital, but not that one.’ Again, my verdict is, for those who might have that perspective, even among followers of Christ is, they are really, honestly, sadly mistaken. Bible prophecy is a very unique thing, it is very precise, it is very specific.
In Isaiah, chapter 46, verses 9-11, it says this, God speaking, “I am God, I alone, I am God and there is no one like Me. Only I can tell you what is going to happen even before it happens and everything I plan will come to pass.” That is what Bible prophecy is. It is telling us what is going to happen before it even happens. Everything that He plans will come to pass.
Someone has estimated that in the Bible we have 1000 prophecies. I’m not sure, I’ve never counted them all, but they go on to say that one half of those 1000 prophecies have already been fulfilled, already were fulfilled in the first coming of Christ. Even if that is true, there are 500 of them to go that have not yet been fulfilled. When you take, in the Bible, prophecies related to the second coming of Christ and you compare them to prophecies related to the first coming of Christ, the prophecies of the second coming of Christ outnumber the first coming, eight to one. Seems to me like there are some significance to the prophecies about the second coming of Christ.
Again, someone has counted this up, I didn’t do it, but they said, regarding the second coming of Christ, there are 1527 references in the Old Testament. In the New Testament there are 300 references to the second coming. And, 21.5% of the New Testament contains prophecies about the second coming of Christ and the events surrounding it. Now, that is pretty significant to me. It indicates to me we should pay a little bit of attention to what the Bible has to say about the second coming of Christ.
It is interesting, God’s cosmic story of the universe, if you go all the way back to the book of beginnings, the book of Genesis, it has a very dramatic beginning, His cosmic story. You can go back there to Genesis 1-3 and you see that He creates the world, He creates the universe, He creates Adam and Eve, they are in rebellion, they end up introducing death into the universe, they end up being tossed from the Garden of Eden. Then, you go a little deeper into the book of Genesis, chapter 6-9, and mankind becomes fully corrupted and God sends a judgment on the world, a flood, and it destroys all of humanity, except for one family. That is a very dramatic beginning to God’s cosmic story of the universe.
It goes on to tell us, back in that story, that there is a Deliverer who will come one day, who would restore humanity’s relationship with God. Just as the beginning of God’s cosmic story is dramatic, so the consummation of God’s story is dramatic. When Christ comes back the second time it is not as the Lamb of God, He is coming back as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He is coming back the second time to judge a rebellious world. He is coming back to establish His kingdom on Earth. We see, in the consummation story, that the old heavens and earth, that is where we live now, are going to be destroyed and He is going to create a new heaven and new earth. It is very dramatic. So, all I am saying by all of that is we, in my opinion, should pay as much attention to what the Bible says about the consummation of His cosmic story as we do about the beginning of His cosmic story.
I mean after all, Jesus thought this was pretty important. Do you know what the last major teaching was by Jesus before the cross? If you just set aside what He taught His disciples in the Upper Room, just before His arrest, what was the major teaching of Christ before the cross? It was on the second coming of Christ and the end of the world. See, the disciples came to Jesus and they said, ‘What is the sign of Your coming in glory and the end of the age?’ He has this extended teaching about all that. You see it in Matthew, chapter 24. You see it in Mark, chapter 13. You see it in Luke, chapter 21. And, right after that, in those three gospels, you have the arrest and the cross and everything after that. In all three of those situations, He says to them, “You will see the Son of Man coming with power and great glory.”
Then we come to the book of the Revelation and it is the only book in the Bible that has a special blessing for those who read and heed it. We see it in the first chapter of the book, verse 3, it says, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it.”
We see it not only in the first chapter, we see it in the last chapter, chapter 22, verse 7, where it says, “Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.”
So this, men and women, is worthy of our attention. And, that is the introduction.
Now, let’s read the passage. I invite you to read along with me as I read Revelation 19, verses 11 and following. The apostle John writes and he says,
“I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is 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. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
Men and women, this passage we have before us today is a reminder of reality. Sometimes, you know, we are so close to living life, we lose sight of reality. This is a reminder of reality. Christ is coming back in glory.
I can so remember the first time I read this passage of Scripture and it gave me goosebumps [bumps on the skin caused by excitement]. To be honest with you it has continued to do that over the years. This is a description of the very moment of the beginning of the second coming of Jesus Christ. This is the culmination of Bible prophecy. This is really the culmination of all Biblical history since Genesis, chapter 3. Aside from the events of the Easter season, this is THE MOST dramatic portion of God’s word.
So, let’s look at it. John says, “And I saw heaven opened.” If you studied the book, you would know that in chapter 4, and verse 1, there he says, “I saw a door opened in heaven.” But, now it is a much bigger event. He says, “I saw heaven opened.” It is almost like there was this super long sliding door that went all the way open and all of heaven is now opened up. He says, “And behold,” our way of saying that might be, ‘oh my.’ He sees, “A white horse and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True.” We are going to see that the one sitting on the horse is none other than the person of Jesus Christ.
Think back to the time of the crucifixion when Jesus came riding in to Jerusalem, He was riding on what? A donkey colt. He is riding on a different animal now. He is on a white horse. A white horse was symbolic, in that day, of military victory. If you know your Roman history, you will know that the Roman general, after he had won the battle, he would come back to Rome, he would get on a white horse and parade up the Via Sacra in Rome. After the victory had been won he would get on the white horse. Do you notice something different here? The victory hasn’t actually been won yet, but He is already on a white horse, why is that? Because the victory is completely certain. There is no doubt about what is going to happen. Jesus is going to be victorious.
Verse 11 says, “He who sat on it is called Faithful and True.” He is the real one. He is authentic. He is trustworthy. Because He is, we can trust all the truths of Scripture. We can trust everything that God says, everything that God predicts, including all future events. He is Faithful and True.
Notice the last phrase in verse 11, it says, “And in righteousness He judges and wages war.” What is happening here? After multiple centuries of God’s grace and mercy with sinful, rebellious humanity, we’ve now come to the point where God’s patience has run its course and He is ready to judge and wage war.
Verse 12 describes Him this way, “His eyes are a flame of fire.” He has this penetrating, omniscient gaze. To His gaze all evil is exposed.
Hebrews 4:13 says, “All things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him to whom we give an account.” Humanity is going to give an account.
It goes on to say in verse 12, “And on His head are many diadems.” Again, my thoughts go back to the first coming of Christ and as He went to the cross what was on His head? Remember? That mocking crown of thorns. It’s is very different in His second coming. There are, it says, many diadems. Diadems are ruler crowns, there are multiple ruler crowns on His head. It is a picture of total sovereignty. His sovereignty is undeniable.
Then, we have that phrase, it is so interesting, in verse 12, “And He has a name written which no one knows except Himself.” It is some sort of a secret name. I am always amused when I read commentators who try to figure out what the secret name is. What does it say? He has a name written which no one knows except Himself. I mean, an infinite God can never be fully known, He transcends human knowledge. Whatever this name is, none of us can even know what it is.
Then he says in verse 13, “He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood.” If you’ve been with us in our baptism class we talk about the word baptism and how it comes from another word ‘bapto’ (b-a-p-t-o). If you were in that class you know that bapto means ‘to dip.’ That is the exact word that is used here. He is wearing a robe that is dipped in blood. I remember the very first time that I read through this and I came to that, He is wearing this robe dipped in blood, and I am getting all these goosebumps just reading through all this, and I said to myself, ‘That blood must be the blood of the cross.’ We are made white in the blood of the Lamb, so we see that blood reminding us of that. That was my first response, but the more I studied this over time, I don’t really think that is what it is referring to, because the focus of this section of the word of God is not on Christ’s work as redeemer, rather the focus is on Christ as the warrior judge.
I think what we have here is an allusion to the Old Testament in Isaiah, chapter 63, verses 2 and 3. There it talks about the Lord in His vengeance of judgment and there is a conversation to the Lord, speaking of the Lord, and it says this, “Why are your clothes so red as if you had been treading out grapes?” God says, “I have trodden the wind press alone, in my anger I have trampled my enemies as if they were grapes.” What a picture. “In my fury I have trampled my foes, it is their blood that has stained My clothes, that has spattered on My clothes.” That is what I think he is talking about. He hasn’t actually engaged the rebellious world because, as He comes out of heaven, the world is actually going to turn on Him and there is going to be bloodshed, but it is already on His robe. Why? Because it is certain that it is going to happen, it is certain that it will happen.
Verse 13, “And His name is called,” here is the identifier, “The Word of God.” Who is writing the book of the Revelation? The apostle John. He also wrote the gospel of John, chapter number 1, he says, “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,” talking about Jesus Christ. This is Jesus in His second coming.
Now, I want you to look at verse 14, and I want to read it again. It says, “And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.” What I want you to notice about that verse is the word, ‘army’ is not in the singular, it is in the plural. There are armies, plural. We know that one of the armies is an army of angels. We know that from multiple passages in the Bible.
For example, Matthew 16:27 says He is going to return the second time in glory with His angels.
In 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 7, He is going to come back, it says, with His mighty angels.
So, when we are talking about armies, plural, one of the armies is the army of angels. But, there are more than one. This, to me, is what gets very exciting. This is what always excited me about this passage. Another army that is going to be accompanying Him as He returns in His second time would be the saints in glory. That is us! That is His followers. There are several reasons why we know that is true.
In 1 Thessalonians 3:13 it talks about Jesus’ second coming and he says He will be coming with all His saints. That is the followers of Christ.
We can see it right here in the book of the Revelation. Turn one page to the left, to chapter 17, and look at verse 14. It is talking about people waging war against the Lamb, Christ. He is going to overcome them. Why? Because, “He is Lord of lords, and King of kings and those who are with Christ,” who are they? “They are the called and chosen and faithful.” They are the saints in glory who are returning with Christ.
We know that is true, also, because of chapter 19, verses 7 and 8, a very close proximity to what we are looking at. In the following verses it talks about the marriage of the Lamb, the festival of the marriage of the Lamb, where the bride has made herself ready. Notice it says, regarding the bride of Christ, “It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” So, we talk about here these armies, one of which is clothed in fine linen, white and clean. This is talking about the saints in glory. It says that we are going to be following Him on white horses. That is us! Does that not get you a little excited? I mean, try to ponder that this week, what the scene is going to be like when, as part of the armies that come with Him, would be the army of the saints in glory.
By the way, I noticed that we, following Him as His army of saints, we have no weapons. Why? Because we don’t need any weapons. We’re not doing any fighting. Jesus is going to do all the fighting. In fact, there’s not going to be any hand to hand combat. Look at verse 15, “From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations.” In Isaiah 11:4 it says that when He comes back He is going to strike the earth with the rod of His mouth. No hand to hand combat, He is just going to speak and humanity is going to be destroyed. With the sword out of His mouth He will, “Strike down the nations and He will rule them with a rod of iron and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.” You know, you read some of this and it is just so hard. That is hard language when you talk about human beings. He is going to tread the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.
Way back in the book of beginnings, I mean, way, way back in the book of beginnings there was a guy by the name of Enoch and he made a prophecy about the second coming of Christ and when he made it, he actually used the past tense because it was that certain. It is recorded for us in Jude, verses 14 and 15 and here is what he said, “The Lord came,” this is the second coming, “with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” Now, that is a hard statement to see.
In 2 Thessalonians, chapter 1, verses 7 and 9, it tells us this, “The Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire.” Then, it says this, “Dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These people will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.” That is just some hard stuff to ponder.
Look at verse 16. It says, “On His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, ‘KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” You know, I read that and I think again back to the crucifixion. Remember what happened to the robe that He was wearing when He was arrested and then beaten? What happens? The soldiers cast lots for His robe. No one is touching this robe!
It is interesting how we much we like to monogram things. We monogram sweaters, we monogram shirts. Guess who invented monogramming? God, Himself. So, we have, “On His robe,” monogrammed, “and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” He has always been the supreme ruler of the universe. What that means, for those of us who know Him, is that nothing ever comes into our life except that it passes through His hands first. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. Moses sought to teach that to the people of Israel before they entered into the Promised Land in Deuteronomy, chapter 10, verse 17. He said to them, “The Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God.” Wow! You read through a passage like this and we have to do the practice that the psalmist often did, where they would use the word, ‘Selah.’ (S-e-l-a-h) It would mean, ‘pause.’ Let that truth kind of sink in a little bit. That is what we need to do with this. Whoa, this is some amazing information.
While we are pondering that, think about this, it is interesting how, as human beings, we have viewed God’s time table, well, it just appears a little slow to us. Do you ever think about that? Think about the Old Testament, how there was this promise of the Messiah who would come. Then, there is like, seven centuries that go by. Then, there are four hundred silent years from the end of the Old Testament to the birth of Jesus. God didn’t say a peep for four centuries. What do think people were thinking? I mean, is God ever going to act? Is God ever going to fulfil His promise of sending the Messiah to us? God’s timetable just seems a little slow to us.
The same thing is true, not only of His first coming, but His second coming. In fact, in 2 Peter, chapter 3, verses 3-9, it tells us that in the last days there will be some who will start mocking, regarding the second coming of Christ. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? You know, He came in the first century, now we’ve had twenty centuries go by. I don’t think He is coming.’ Peter goes on to write this, even though it seems slow, His timetable, to us, he says the Lord is really not slow as some people count slowness. He is patient. He goes on to write, “Not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.”
Men and women, this is reality. We have before us a reminder of reality.
As we look at this reminder of reality, what is our response to it? On the one hand, it is encouraging. I mean, it really is encouraging. You say, ‘Bruce, how is this encouraging?’ Well, I am reminded of a guy by the name of Asaph, who wrote some of the psalms of the Old Testament and he wrote Psalm 73. Here is what Asaph said, ‘When I look around in my generation, I get frustrated. I see arrogant people. I see wicked people. I see violent people who do harm to people. I see people who are mocking God.’ I like one of the phrases he uses. He says, “Their tongues parade through the earth.” These obnoxious people who are wicked. And he says, ‘It was troublesome to my spirit, until I went into the temple and I saw their end and that changed everything for me. I realized God is going to deal with wicked, violent, evil people.’
We are learning that about His second coming. Jesus Christ is coming back a second time and He is going to judge rapists. He is going judge murderers. He is going to judge child traffickers. He is going to judge those who do Ponzi schemes [a fraudulent investment operation promising quick, high returns to the first investor from money invested by later investors. The scheme will eventually collapse with everyone losing their money] and steal money from people. He is going to judge those who steal the retirement money of elderly people. Does that just tick you off [make you angry] when that happens? He is going to judge people who shoot 22-year-old police officers as recently happened in our area. It is actually encouraging to know. Jude 15, He is going to judge, “All the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way.”
So, on one hand it is encouraging on the other hand this is challenging. Challenging. In 2 Peter, chapter 3, where it is talking about the second coming of Christ and it says, “The day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar…and the earth and its works will be burned up.” Then, here comes the punch line in verse 11, “Since all these things will be destroyed in this way, what sort of people,” followers of Jesus, “ought you to be?” He says you ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. It is challenging. We should live differently because of this truth in the word of God.
Romans, chapter 13, verses 12-14, Paul puts it this way, “The night is almost gone, and the day (of salvation) is near.” He is coming back. So, what should we do? Well, remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes and put on the shining armor of right living. Because we belong to the day we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or even in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.
How do we respond? Well, on one hand it is encouraging, on another hand it is challenging, on yet another hand it is sobering. It is even sobering for us as followers of Christ. Think about this. We read 2 Thessalonians 1, it says divine retribution is going to fall on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even as followers of Christ, we all have loved ones who haven’t trusted in Him. We all have friends who haven’t trusted in Him. We have people around us at work, we have people around us at school who have not yet embraced the good news of Jesus Christ in their life. Men and women, that is sobering is it not? It is very sobering.
What are we to do about that? Can we do anything about that? The answer is yes. One thing we can do is pray for them. You know, Paul talked about how he was sobered about the fate of unbelieving Israel, in Romans, chapter 10. He said, ‘My prayer for them is for their salvation.’ We can all do that, we can pray for our friends, our neighbors, our relatives, the people we work with, the people at school. Pray for their salvation. That is what Paul did.
The second thing we can do is, we can share. We can share the reason for the hope that is within us. We can share our testimony. We can share the gospel. We can share that Christ is coming back a second time. We have a saying in our culture that says, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. The same thing is true of our friends and our relatives, our co-workers. We can lead them to the water, but we can’t make them drink.
Now, there is a way we can do instant affirmation and application. We have these little cards we’ve put together and on the back it talks about coming to Wildwood for our Easter worship services, Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. You could take this right now and share this with your friends at work. You could share this with your neighbors. You could share this with other people that you know and invite them to come to Wildwood, where the gospel message will be proclaimed. We are going to have people at the exits handing these out. Take multiple copies of them. Share. We can pray and we can share.
It is sobering for those who are followers of Jesus, but it is really sobering for anyone who has yet to embrace Jesus as their Savior from sin and judgment. I don’t know, in a room like this or anyone listening to my voice, it is possible we have multiple people that are like that. You’ve never yet trusted in Christ as your Rescuer. Let me just say, it’s not too late. He is coming back to do this, but it’s not too late to trust in Him. There is still an opportunity. You know, in the first worldwide judgment of the flood, salvation and deliverance was given to those inside of the ark. In the second worldwide judgment that is coming, salvation will be given to those who are in the ark of Christ, who have trusted and put their faith in His work on the cross. Jesus, Himself said, “Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears My word,” what is His word? ‘I came to give my life as a ransom for you.’ “He who hears My word, that I came to give my life as a ransom for you and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” If you haven’t yet turned to Jesus and trusted in His death in your place, you need to do that. You don’t have to be in church to do that. You can be anywhere to do that. You can be in a car. But, it is a decision that we make to say that is my hope. My hope is in Jesus.
Revelation 19:11-16, men and women, these are God’s words. Eat them. Embrace them. Believe them. And, they will be a joy and a delight to your heart. Let’s pray together.
Father, we just again thank You so much for this section of God’s word. We need to be reminded of reality. May we, as we are stirred up in a reminder of reality, remember to pray for those that we care about who don’t yet know Christ, to pray for their salvation. Then, to share, to share our testimony, to share the gospel, to share our story with them so that they might have that opportunity to trust in the One that we trust in, who makes all the difference in all of the world and for all eternity. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Questions for Reflection on this message
Revelation 19:11-16
1. What was your favorite fresh baked cookie while growing up? How did that become your favorite?
2. As best as you can remember when was the first time you heard about the 2nd Coming of Christ? Elaborate some.
3. We talked about how many in the church today tend to downplay Bible prophecy (eschatology is the theological term). They often view the Bible’s teaching on future events as more secondary to other truth. Why do you think that is?
What about the prominence of prophetic teaching on the 2nd Coming in the New Testament might indicate otherwise?
4. People have talked about and anticipated the Lord’s 2nd coming all the way back to New Testament times. Why should we not simply “give up” and forget about it?
5. What stands out significantly to you when you read Revelation 19:11-16? Explain why.
6. Imagine yourself there, following the glorified Lion of the Tribe of Judah out of heaven as he commences His second coming. What might we be feeling at that point?
7. We spoke of three possible responses from this passage (and related passages on the 2nd Coming). They were: Encouraging, Challenging, Sobering. Which one (or more) do you most identify with and why?
8. Praise God for His promises.