Revelation 19: The Victory of King Jesus

Woodland Hills Church of Christ

Victory of King Jesus!

Revelation 19

Introduction: When I try to conceive of what God has done in his creation of both the heavenly and earthly realm, I am only left with the words of David in Psalm 8, “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”

It seems that God first created a heavenly realm with ten thousand times ten thousand heavenly beings. But this heavenly creation was in preparation for his crowning glory, the creation of the material realm and that of humanity.

Is that an unimaginable, foreign idea to you? Is it nearly beyond your ability to comprehend? To which of the angels did he say he had “crowned them with glory and honor and put all things under their feet?” To which of the angels did he ever say, “he gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor…”? (Ephesians 5:26)

That is where we are in Revelation 19. Note the words of verses 6-9! “Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready…” The words are the culmination of “hallelujahs” that are being shouted from those in heaven to those on the earth.

1. The Call to Praise God (1-10)
   1. Verse 1: There first the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven. We were introduced to this multitude in 7:9. They were those who had come through the great tribulation, had their robes washed in the blood of the Lamb, and were now before the throne of God.
   2. Verse 3: “Once more” this multitude in heaven shouted, “Hallelujah.”
   3. Verse 4: Now those around the throne, that we saw in the very beginning of John’s vision, fell down and worshiped God saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!”
   4. Verse 5: Then there is a call from the throne to all of God’s servants both small and great, to praise God.
   5. “Hallelujah” is a combination of Hebrew and Greek transliterated into English, which means “praise Yahweh” or “praise the Lord.” Therefore, from the multitude who had been redeemed and now reside in heaven, to those before the throne, to God’s servants still on the earth, everyone is giving praise and honor to God.
   6. Now notice the reasons God is praised and should continue to be praised:
      1. “He has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality [NET: “sexual immorality” NIV: “adulteries”]. The Greek for “corrupted” is also translated “destroy” (11:18), as in “the destroyers of the earth.” We need to see this immorality for what it really is, that which destroys and corrupts God’s creation. It takes away peace and joy and destroys lives. The wicked of the earth mourned over the judgment of the prostitute, but the righteous shout hallelujah, praise God. We are given relief by the true and just judgments of the Lord.
      2. “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.” This is praise to God because her destruction is complete and permanent and a everlasting sign to all nations who follow her immorality.
      3. “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.” It is not that the Lord was not reigning before this, but his conquering of the great prostitute signals that the prophecy of Psalm 2 and the reigning of the Son of God has now been proven in spite of the conspiracy of the rulers of the earth to overthrow God’s Messiah.
      4. Finally, “Hallelujah, rejoice and exult and give him glory because the marriage of the Lamb has come.” This is God’s end goal. Everything Satan has done was to defeat God’s plan for the moment he would present us to himself in splendor. Hallelujah! Glory be to God!
         Do you also notice that the the Bride’s wedding garment, has been granted by God and is the righteous deeds of the saints? Every bride has always had strong motivation to be stunningly beautiful on her wedding day. Will we be any different?
   7. Verse 10: Suddenly John appears in the scene. He is so overwhelmed by what he has seen that he falls down and worships the angel who has been delivering the message. But the angel immediately rebuked him. Angels are “fellow servants.” The only one to be worshiped is God and the Lamb. This is appropriate considering warnings of idolatry throughout the vision.
   8. Let’s stop and make sure we understand why there is such an emphasis on praising God.
      1. We saw it at the beginning of the vision and now we are seeing it at the end. Praising God should be what goes on every day by every Christian. The reason and purpose of praise is not artificial. It is not simple singing a song that says, “Praise him.”
      2. True praise comes naturally and spontaneously out of what we enjoy and what we value. If we do not praise, we admit we have found little value. Do we realize that the number one reason we come together is because we want to enjoy God together? We sing because we are so moved by what he has and is doing for us, we must sing about his goodness. It is the reason we pray, the reason we study together, and the reason we must share it with others. It is simply too good to keep quiet. And those who do not participate and find other things of more value, obviously do not give much value to what the Lord has done!
2. The Warrior–King’s Final Judgment of the Beast & False Prophet
   1. There is no doubt that the one riding on the white horse is the Christ. He is called “faithful and true” and he judges in righteousness and makes war with the enemies of the earth. His picture is similar to the scene of chapter one, but in this case his clothing is dipped (sprinkled, ASV) in blood.
   2. The armies of heaven are also following him on white horses. The idea of white horses is a picture of victory. Then out of the mouth of the King is a sharp sword which he uses to strike down the nations and rule them with a rod of iron. This again has been a repeated picture of Psalm 2 and the battle of God and his Christ against the rulers and nations who refused to submit to God’s king.
   3. Verse 15: Notice the picture of our King treading the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God with the name on his robe: “King of kings and Lord of lords.” This picture is borrowed from Isaiah 63:1-6 when the Lord returned from the defeat of Edom (who represented the rebel kings/nations of the earth.
   4. Verse 17: Then John saw an angel standing in the sun and calling all the birds flying overhead to “Come, gather for the great supper of God to eat the flesh of kings, captains, mighty men, horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, free and slave, both small and great.” This is obviously a picture of vultures gathering to clean up the kill. Note that everyone from kings to slaves are being consumed by these birds. The picture comes from Ezekiel 39:17-21.
   5. Verse 19: The beast and the kings of the earth gather in one last effort to conquer the Lamb. But we are not even told of the battle. Instead, the two allies of Satan, the beast and the false prophet are thrown into the lake of fire – utter, final destruction – and all the rest are killed with their bodies left to be gorged upon by the birds.
   6. With the beast and false prophet now thrown into the lake of fire, there is only one enemy left: the dragon!

Conclusion: All that God has done since before time began has led up to this moment. Are we living in such a way that we reflect the worth and value of what the Lord has done to make us his bride?

Berry Kercheville

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