Look! Jesus is Coming Back

0:12 Here we are to open God's Word together. We're going to be in Revelation chapter 19 this evening, so you're welcome to open your Bible, turn there with me. Going to be jumping around just a little bit, but we're going to mainly be planted right there in Revelation chapter 19. No, I'm not Pastor Skip. I am not 6'5". That's the only difference between us, though. 6'5", 5'6". Just kidding. I'm not 5'6", either. I'm 5'10 on my driver's license, and that's where it really matters. Probably 5'9 in reality. But that extra inch I wanted to make sure, you know, was documented officially. So we're going to be in Revelation chapter 19, like I said. Pastor Skip was recently over in the UK. Anybody have like a good British impression? Anybody here from England or the UK? I know that the UK.

1:05 Oh, Carol. Very good. I won't make you come up here, but Carol is a longtime member of our church and decision team, and she was originally from the UK. So welcome, Carol. Thanks for being here. Hey, we do want to pray for Pastor Skip. He's finished his ministry in the UK alongside Franklin Graham. He was able to, you know, often he'll do these conferences where he teaches teachers. He teaches pastors how to study the Bible and enjoy it, but then also how to teach it to others. That was a little nod, books, how to study the Bible and enjoy it. But he teaches pastors, leaders, how to go through God's word verse by verse, correctly interpreting it and teaching that to others. And so we want to thank God for that ministry, but then pray for him because for the next few days, he's going to be working on a book that is going to be coming out later. Again, prophecy. Last time that he was in Michigan, he was really working on that book. And so he's working on that. And then he'll be

2:07 Come back next Wednesday and we'll continue the joyful book of Job. Let's pray. Father, we want to do those very things. We ask that you would bless Pastor Skip, that you would bless the continued efforts of the work that he completed this last week. And we ask that you would give him times of refreshment in your word, that you would give him times of inspiration as he writes, and that this next book that comes out would be

2:37 and eye-opening to the readers who read it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, well, we are in Revelation 19, but we're also in the month of October. And here in New Mexico, in October, we spend a lot of time looking up. We like, even as we're driving, we're looking up. Oh, look at that balloon. Oh, look at that balloon. Oh, is that a new one? Has that one been here for a few years? Did anyone see like they have like four parrot balloons now? And I was just like, I think I'm in a pirate's village. I don't know what's going on. But as I'm driving around and my kids are in the car, often I'm, look up, look up, wow, look up, look up. As I'm on my motorcycle and others are doing that, I'm saying, hey, look down, look at the road. Don't you know I'm here? I don't want you to hit me. But this is the posture that a Christian ought to live in, is looking up to him, looking forward to who his coming is, but looking up specifically for him. Just yesterday morning, we woke up early. We braved the early, you know, crowds, and I was expecting bad traffic, and we were like, we got to get to the balloon fiesta. We put all of our layers on. We've got four kiddos, a 10-year-old, an 8-year-old, and two 5-year-olds, and we got in the car. We were

4:01 because it was 4.30 in the morning, made the trek about 45 minutes to Balloon Fiesta Park, and then we got in, and there was no traffic. And I was like, oh, foiled again. It was like, you're sad if there is traffic, and then you're sad if you get there way too early because there isn't traffic, so I guess either way you're sad when you go to the Balloon Fiesta. But because of that, because we got there so early, it was still dark for some time. And we showed up, and the drone show hadn't started, which, by the way, is very cool to see,

4:31 create shapes and all these things. And then once that was done, it was just like, I don't know what we're supposed to do for the next hour. Like, you can only eat so many burritos and Tom's Thumb's donuts. I mean, you can eat a lot of Tom's Thumb donuts. If you guys know what I'm saying, you know what I'm saying. Because those things are a blessing from Minnesota and from the Lord. But they're just these little donuts that are covered. This isn't about donuts. So we got there so early, we're just wandering around. We're like, gosh, we're here. It's dark. There's nothing to see. obviously for kids, man, dad, when are we going to see the balloons? Why aren't the balloons up? Why is this taking so long? When is this going to happen? Why are we still here? Are we there yet? You know, and this is another cry of the Christian. Why is this taking so long? It seems like we've just been in darkness for so long. There's so much pain and evil in this world, and Jesus said he's

5:31 has it taken so long? And so I am going to say to us the same thing that I had to say to them, is, well, we just got to wait for the sun. We just got to wait for the sun to come. And once the sun comes, that the light will come, and then the balloons can go up, and it'll be magnificent. We can just keep staring at the sky. It'll be fantastic. We'll have a lot of fun. Right now, we're waiting for the sun. We're in a season trusting, believing that just like every morning the sun comes, there is coming the Son of God. He didn't just come the first time, He is coming again. Newsflash, and that's good news for you and I. So our title today is Jesus is Coming Back. Look, Jesus is coming back. Revelation chapter 19, we're going to read verses 11 through 16 together, and then we're going to look at a few things that we should look at. Now I saw heaven opened, verse 11, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns.

6:51 He had a name written that no one except himself knew. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen, ooh, I love some good linen, white and clean followed him on white horses. now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that with it he should strike the nations and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron he himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of almighty god and he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written king of kings and lord Lord of Lords. Are you looking forward to that day? A little bit of context here because we're jumping in, not to the middle of the book, we're jumping into the tail end of this book, the book of Revelation. Not only the tail end of the Bible, but the tail end of the book of Revelation as well. So John is the author of Revelation. He's authored five books total, for prior to this. He's authored the Gospel of John for a second and third John, and now we have Revelation. And he's living in exile right now because he's the only apostle, tradition tells us, that wasn't killed for his faith. However, he was boiled alive in a cauldron of oil.

8:28 And after they did that to him and he didn't die, they said, we got to shut this guy up somehow. The oil's not going to kill him. Let's exile him to a little island off of Ephesus, which is where he was primarily pastoring towards the end of his life. And we'll just keep him silent there. And I love that that was the thinking is like, let's stop his influence. Let's put him on an island. And then he wrote one of the most important books that we have in all of scripture. And God said, yeah, you're not good at keeping my people silent. If I want something to be said, then it's gonna get said, no matter what island you stick them on, right? So he's there. this island and he has this vision and he sees, well, first he hears from an angel in chapter one of Revelation. And then he sees the risen and ascended Jesus. And it is one of the most hardcore pictures that you could ever read. It's similar to what we just read, but he's in these white robes and they're long and his hair is white and he's got a sword coming out of his mouth and he's got this gold sash across him. And Jesus speaks to him and he says, I'm the alpha and the omega.

9:33 I'm the beginning and I am the end. And then the story carries on. He sees Jesus a little bit longer and then Jesus says, now I've got an important message for you to share with seven churches. And so chapters two to four of the book of Revelation are John writing these letters that Jesus spoke to him to send to these churches. They're just like these micro epistles. Chapter five of the book of Revelation, we're taken back up into heaven, and we see that there's this title deed, there's this scroll that nobody seems worthy to be able to take and to unscroll, to break its seals, to read what it says. And we see this judicial scene, nobody's worthy, nobody's worthy. And then we see, and that's where we get a lot of our worship songs, worthy is the lamb, right? The lamb who was slain. We see that Jesus himself is worthy. Worthy is the lamb who was slain before of the earth, to take that title deed for the earth, essentially, and to open each one of its seals. And good news follows for the next 14 chapters. No, no, no. It's actually very, very tough news. From chapter 6 all the way to 17, we enter this season called the tribulation.

10:49 And it goes about, it goes seven years. I was going to say about seven years. It goes like to the day, seven years to the day. And during this, you see that there's seal judgment. There's seven different seals that are open, and every one of them is a judgment of chaos on this earth. And then you see trumpet judgments, and then you're introduced to this character called the Antichrist, and he has the false prophet that come with him, and they deceive so many people, and they take the mark of the beast, and they're going to reject Jesus because there's crazy famine in the world. And this is the only way that you can survive and buy and sell is if you take this mark. And they say, well, we'll deny Christ and we'll take this. And then I think we'll survive. Everything will pan out in the end for us if we do this. And there's deception worldwide. And there's a false prophet. And then there's these two witnesses. And it's wild. It's crazy. These two guys come back. Maybe Moses and Elijah.

11:42 We don't know exactly who both of them are. But they come and they prophesy. and there's 144,000 Jews that are just like mega evangelists going everywhere they can to tell people the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then finally chapter 18 comes and heaven rejoices because finally Jesus proclaims that he's putting to death that wicked woman and Babylon that she represents and the systems of the world and all of this chaos and pain and tribulation that everyone's going through and the enemies of God are going to be stopped.

12:16 to chapter 19 of the book of Revelation, where Jesus, he invites, at the beginning of this chapter, he invites all of the saints to come and have the marriage supper of the lamb. It's a wedding feast where Jesus takes his bride. Who's the bride? Us, the church. You and I are gonna be there. I don't know what's for supper, but I do like lamb. So if there's gonna be lamb there, maybe that'll be fantastic, or maybe he's the lamb, to eat. I think we're going to care very little about the food. We'll care more about the presents, but I think God's a big fan of good food. So Michelin star rated, probably.

12:56 Then right after that chunk, we see, he says, all right, it's time for my second coming. It's time to return. And that's exactly what we just read, is that he comes on this white horse, and he starts making his way back to earth. And with him is an army from heaven, heaven's armies, it says. And those are clothed in fine white linen. Exactly like verse eight, which is the saints, the bride of Christ, clothed in fine white linen. So even if your wife is like, don't wear that linen outfit, it's not good. What are you trying to be Fidel Castro over here? hey, one day you're gonna get to wear fine white linen.

13:42 So this is to catch us up with where we are. God told John, write down the things you have seen, the things that are, and the things which will take place. And this is the outline for the book of Revelation. But I wanna be clear because right now when we hear second coming, a lot of us might think rapture. What we're not talking about tonight rapture of the church. And Pastor Skip has gone in depth to the difference between the rapture and the second coming, and I want to be as faithful to this text as possible, but I'll add a little bit of clarity. Rapture comes to us because you might hear people say, the word rapture is never actually in the Bible. Well, true. The word Bible is also never in the Bible. The word Trinity is not in the Bible. There could be a case to be made that biblos was in the Bible, but it's literally just when Paul was telling Timothy, hey, bring those books that I left behind. And he uses the word biblos. But that's beside the point. I digress. Paul, in 2 Thessalonians chapter 4, he says, I don't want you to be ignorant, brethren. Here's something, you're grieving because people around you have suffered and died because of a persecution. I don't want you to be ignorant about eschatology because it's actually going to be proving to be a great help to you.

15:02 those who are dead in Christ will be caught up with him. And we who remain until he comes will be caught up with him in the clouds. And so the rapture, have you guys seen that commercial where Apple is like claiming that they've been to the moon? They're like, what do you do next after you've already made it to the moon? What happened is one of the astronauts that recently orbited the moon and then came back, he had an iPhone. And it was like in one of their little, you know, broadcasts from the dark side of the moon. And so now Apple's like, we've been to the moon and nobody else has been to the moon. The rapture is kind of like the Apple iPhone. It's like Jesus doesn't touch down. He comes around the earth, captures his saints, raptures them up. Harpazo is the Greek word.

15:57 And then that was translated by Jerome in the fourth century, who wrote the Latin Vulgate, or translated the Latin Vulgate, into the word raptus or raptium. And that's where we get the word rapture. So yeah, the word isn't there, but it's based off a Latin word that's based off a Greek word, and the concept is throughout Scripture. Now, why do we think that chapter 19 of the book of Revelation is not the rapture? because we see a lot of terminology in chapters 1 through 4 regarding the church. He says, Jesus says, you got to write seven letters to seven churches. And so he does that, so much language about the church, and then pretty much immediately after chapter 4, there's no more mention of the church until the bride of Christ shows up in chapter 18. So the absence of it would also be an indication.

16:52 And there are several other reasons, but again, Pastor Skip has gone at length through all of this. So it is our understanding from scripture that right around chapters four or five is when the church is taken up. And here we have the return of Christ because one other important distinction, rapture, we go up to the clouds to be with him. The return of Christ, the second coming, what we're talking about here, we come with him, fine linen, Anybody? And we come back with him and he makes war. So we're going to look for the rest of our time together at three aspects of his coming that we should look to. First, we want to look to him. That seems pretty important. If it's his second coming, it's all about him anyway, so look to him. Secondly, we want to look at his majesty. He is king of kings and lord of lords. He's got crowns on his head, or if you've got another translation, maybe you read diadems, many diadems on his head. And then thirdly, we're going to look to his victory. So let's look to him. Verse 11 says, now I saw heaven open and behold, behold means to take it in, to like focus in on what you're seeing, and behold a white horse. And he who sat on him was called faithful and true.

18:26 And I think this is an important place for us to start, that we have so much hope in the return of Christ because what it means for us, the death of God's enemies and the fact that God is glorious, but more, our hope is not as much in the event as it is in the person behind the event. Does that make sense? And sometimes I find that in Christianity, we get really excited about a certain concept of Christianity, maybe even more excited about that concept of Christianity it's Christ. And so the hope for Jesus' return is that Jesus is returning with us. And there are a bunch of other benefits that come along with that. Interesting, and I think this is worth pointing out, that there is a ratio between the amount of verses, the amount of scriptural real estate dedicated to Jesus' first coming and His second coming. And He takes and He guesses how many times One to what?

19:35 His first coming versus second coming. Anybody want to take a stab at that? You're like, no, that's like way too, what? It's one to eight is the ratio. For every one time the Bible mentions Jesus' first coming, eight more times it alludes to his second coming. And this passage, we read, it's kind of like an excited toddler who's trying to tell you a story. And he this, and he that, and then him that did this, and then he had this. and it's just like, he, he, him, him, him. Thirteen times in these six verses, the focus is all on Jesus. And I wonder if 13 times in my day is the focus all on Jesus. And I think to help reinforce this point that it's all about him and that we should look to him, the name of this book is what?

20:32 Revelation. What does revelation mean? It means to reveal something, right? And this actually, if we look at Revelation 1.1, it says the revelation of Jesus Christ. This whole book is to reveal Jesus to us. Now, a lot of people look at the book of Revelation, they think, oh, that's that book that hides everything and obscures it in figurative language these pictures. And it's like, no, that figurative language in those pictures exists to reveal, not to conceal. And chiefly, what they reveal is Jesus. The Greek word is apokalupso. It's where we get the word apocalypse. And it means a revealing or an unveiling. Think of a bride meeting her groom on the wedding day, down at the altar. And she has a veil on. And once she's then she is revealed to that groom. Or once she is unveiled, the groom is revealed to her.

21:39 And so this whole book is all about Jesus. the word, the words, there's a phrase that comes up very many times here in the book of Revelation. It's the testimony of Jesus. In fact, we can read it right here. Revelation 19, verse 10. And a lot of, a lot of people like to quote this, and I think they quote it not even really knowing what it means. Verse 10 says, and I fell at his feet to worship him. By the way, This is John pulling like a, oh, what are you doing? This is kind of like a Peter moment for John. I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, see that you do not do that. I am your fellow servant. He falls down to this angel, tells him this good news. Oh my gosh, Babylon's falling. And then you're about to see this other crazy thing. And John falls to his feet. He's like, oh, angel, I worship thee. He's just like so excited.

22:31 He's like, hey, this is getting a little weird. You don't need to do that. I'm just like, I'm just a servant like you. But then he continues to tell him, he says this. that you do not do that. Very uncomfortable. Awkward. I am your fellow servant and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. I'm from your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God alone, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. I think it's worth unpacking what that means for just a little bit, because I think sometimes we get like in this mentality is like, oh, what Jesus cares about most is that we all prophesy. And I've heard so many people like, oh man, we gotta start prophesying because that's the spirit of Jesus. And if we test, no, basically what he's saying is the testimony of Jesus

23:29 is the reason that prophecy exists. the whole reason that this book of prophecy exists is so that we would see Jesus and I love John here he mentions I mentioned it earlier he kind of reads like a toddler he him oh and then he did this have you ever heard like a toddler try to explain to you their day if they're really excited about something they just give you a little snippet of a detail and then they remember another detail halfway through another one of their sentences and he's like oh by the way this also happened oh and this was really cool and you're just like dude I gotta figure all of this out. And I guess I'm also just reminded that I should be more childlike when it comes to Jesus and my faith, is that I would be a little bit more John-like, that I just have this, oh my gosh, I got to tell these other people about how good Jesus is.

24:25 Because the whole point of me having a ministry at all is just to show people Jesus, is just to spotlight on Jesus, the whole reason that we prophesy, the whole reason that we do worship, or the whole reason that we use any of the gifts that we have is simply to show people Jesus. And so I pray that as a church and as individuals, we become a little bit more enamored and excited about blabbing about Jesus.

24:55 notice that it says that he is faithful and true. He has this name, faithful. He who sits on it is faithful and true. Now, this is particularly important because right before this, I told you 14 chapters, there's this guy called the anti-Jesus, the anti-Messiah, the anti-Christ,

25:20 and on the back of his bumper sticker, it doesn't say faithful and true. It says unfaithful and liar, deceitful and liar. And so for John to include this is almost like Jesus shows up to town and he puts the enemy in his place. He's like, this liar has been around for long enough. Listen, he came riding on a white horse in Revelation chapter 6 verses 1 and 2, and he went out to conquer, but this is the real conqueror, and he is faithful and true, and he has showed up. Do you guys remember Robin Hood, that old 1976 version of Robin Hood that Disney put out, and there was like Prince John always sucking on his thumb and like ruling the land, and he was always being miserable to everyone, and everyone hated him, but he was important because he was wearing the crown for the time being, and then finally King Richard comes back and he's like all brave and huge and he's got a mane that puts everyone to shame and he shows up and then Prince John's all of a sudden like, ooh, I've got a skedaddle. I'm out of here, right?

26:28 Or like, we think about the Lion King. You've got Scar who's ruling the land. The pride lands are desolate and there's destruction and there's fire and there's pain. And then Simba finally, righteously takes his rightful place on the throne and he establishes rule and he says out with the invader the imposer the fake the real king has arrived I don't know why I'm so obsessed with lions and kids cartoons and how that's where my illustrations come from maybe you saw the odyssey recently I was like tempted I was like okay well here's like a human illustration but it's still kind of knew, like, should I ruin the ending for everyone? And then I was like, well, this is actually one of the oldest stories ever. And I think we all had to read it in middle school or high school, so it should be ruined for you already. I'll just say similar storyline. You're just so excited when the one who deserves the throne shows back up and takes the throne.

27:33 That's the scene here in heaven in Revelation chapter 19, only it's not fiction. The one that has been tormenting us and the one who is going to torment later is going to be put aside and dealt with because there is one who is faithful and there is one who is true and he is coming back riding a white horse. Look at verse 11. It says, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. We're going to be, we've looked at him or looked to him. Now we want to look to his majesty. In righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire.

28:23 man, we live in a world where we could use some righteous judgment, don't we? I don't know if you've ever walked through your life and come across circumstances where you're like, all right, here's two people that are fighting. Maybe it's two employees that you have, and they're fighting, and it's a he said versus she said, and there's no evidence, and nobody has reports of any emails that were actually sent or anything that was actually done. It's just like, yeah, this person's saying one thing, this person's saying the other thing. I need like some Solomonic wisdom and divide a baby here. I don't know. I don't know what to do. And so sometimes we judge things inaccurately just because of the deficit that we have. We don't have all the evidence that we are lacking the insight. We can't see the truth. And then sometimes people make bad judgments because they're evil themselves. If there's anything that's come out of this case of the mother who killed her three children, admitted that she killed her three children, confessed that, and there was evidence of that, and then she went to trial, Lindsay Clancy, and it was just ruled like a mistrial, or, you know, now she, and people are celebrating her, oh my gosh, well, empowerment to women, empowerment to women. If there's anything that we are not good judges.

29:51 We are not good at handling justice. And it seems like we're getting more and more and more incapable of making the right decisions. Not Jesus. It says that his eyes are like fire. Isn't that hardcore? That's like different than the little felt board Jesus you grew up with, huh? He's got eyes like fire. that means? It means that he sees every detail. And he judges according to righteousness. He makes righteous judgments. His decisions and his rule, they're not based off of incompetence or evil. He's not a judge or a ruler that could be bribed or bought. He's not reliant on a faulty jury, and he's not reliant on bad evidence. He sees all. And I look forward to the day when King Jesus, who is not a corrupt politician, is ruling and reigning here over this earth.

31:00 Notice this phrase. This is interesting. It also speaks to his majesty. He had a name written that no one knew except himself. What was that name? Nobody knows but himself. Isn't that kind of awesome? Isn't that pretty amazing?

31:21 I love that. It's interesting. You know, the Jews consider God's name ineffable. That means that they will never say it. They don't refer to him as Yahweh. They refer to him as Hashem. Hashem, ha is the, and then Shem is name. They refer to him as the name because they have such a sense of reverence for his name. And in fact, if they're writing it out, probably what they'll do in English is they'll put G and then forward slash D. And I'm like, what is that, a website or something? And it's because they don't want to dishonor the name of God. I could go into all of this and why we shouldn't do that because Jesus introduced, God introduced himself by name. And so who are we to say, no, we're not able to use the name that you clearly introduced yourself to us as. And then Jesus says, no, we call him Abba, Father. And he introduced another level of intimacy and we don't need to be estranged from him and all of this. So we don't need to go down that road. But I do find it interesting that God says, no, I'm so holy that if I don't want you to know something, guess what?

32:28 That can be one of my attributes. That can be one of my names and you still won't even understand it. in the fact that I don't understand God. Do you guys find comfort in that? Isn't that a good thing? Like, if we could understand and know everything about him, would he be God? If he was really able to be relegated down to our, this man, I've got a ninth grade education, friends. Like, if I could understand God, that would be very problematic, and I would trust him for nothing.

33:01 He says, my ways are above your ways and my thoughts are above your thoughts. Yeah, clearly. You've got names we don't even know. 13, verse 13, he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the word of God. The word of God. First off, he's wearing robes. That's royal attire. Ooh, some fancy.

33:27 Maybe they're cashmere robes. I don't know what kind of robes they are. It doesn't mention. But that's royal attire. Isaiah 6 says that, man, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. You know what he was doing? He was sitting on the throne. And the train of his robe, it was so immense. It was so powerful, so big. He has so much authority that the whole train of his robe just filled the temple. It filled it. But notice this. It says his name is called the Word of God. Now, this is probably, you guys are a Wednesday night crew. probably what the word word is in Greek, right? Anybody know that? Shout it out if you know it. Logos, logos, right? And so for the Greek mind, for the Roman mind, the idea of the word is that it was the overall ruling authority of the universe. Because the Romans were smart enough to look around and they would say, man, there seems to be order in this place. This is something we call the teleological argument for the existence of God. They simply look around and they say, this world is so well-ordered. Like the planets, they keep just going in the same order.

34:35 And those constellations, they go. Oh, and then a few months later, we're going to see them again. And they seem to follow like a design. Like there's a little bit of rhythm to this world. The waves, they come in, they crash, and then they go out for tide. And then the tide comes back in, and then they come in and crash. And then there's like cycles in the world and how deer give birth and all these things. They looked and they said, this seems kind of like a symphony of music. And I guess the only logical explanation is there must be a conductor conducting this symphony. And so it's, we're gonna call that the word. The word that orders all of existence. And then for the Jewish mind, this was particularly important the God that they worship is a God that reveals himself to his people. Time and time again through the Old Testament, I will be your God and you will be my people. And some of the ways that he reveals himself is through prophets, speaking. They have a high, high appreciation for the written word and for the oral tradition. And so they say, man, you know, God has spoken to us in the past by prophets, but in this last days, He's spoken to us by His Son. And the same author that authored Revelation authored John. I already told you that. John chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And everything that was created was created by the Word. And then fast forward to verse 14, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us or tabernacled among us. And so on this rider is given the name, the Word of God. Jesus is both the conductor of the universe, spinning the symphony and making the music happen, and the perfect picture, express image or icon, as Hebrews tells us, of God himself. He is God, and he reveals God to us.

36:50 Check out verse 16. It says, and on his robe and on his thigh, a name. Another name? We got like eight names by this point. How many names do you need? He's got a lot of names, and they all show different parts of his character. And he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written. You didn't know Jesus had a tattoo, did you? A little name written on his thigh. I don't think it's a sharpie.

37:16 King of kings and Lord of lords. Not just like, yeah, king. I'm king and lord. No, I'm the king of all kings. And I am the lord of all lords. Check this out. Verse 12, we skipped over this. head were many crowns. How many crowns? Many crowns. Many crowns. You know, there have been a lot of great men and women and leaders and politicians and kings in this world, but there is coming a day where every single one of them, no matter how many countries they conquered or how much economy they stimulated, every single one of them is going to bow their knees and confess with their mouth, No, he is the Lord of lords. He is the King of kings. There is no one greater than him. He doesn't just wear one crown.

38:10 He wears them all. Like he's the king of this region, put a crown on. He's the king of this region, put a crown on. He's the king of this region, put a crown on. Oh, and by the way, there's 24 elders earlier in the book of Revelation. And what do they all do with their crowns? They throw him at his feet. they say, oh my gosh, like you are God and we are not. You can have this crown that's been gifted to me. I'm going to just give it right back because you are deserving of that and more. And so he says, I'm going to wear all those crowns. He is majestic.

38:48 The third aspect that we want to look to is look to his victory. Look to his victory. Now, this is a picture that, you know, as we read through this, and there's a sword, flaming sword coming out of his mouth, and he comes not just to judge, but also to make war.

39:12 And it says that with his sword, he like kills, well, pretty soon we're going to read actually, that he casts the Antichrist and the false prophet into the lake of fire, even while they're still alive, and then everybody else, all kings and captains, rich and poor, all of them are defeated with a sword from his mouth. And this is a different picture than I think we often think of when we think of Jesus. We regularly don't see him as the conquering warrior, general king,

39:47 Navy Seal Jesus. In fact, I found that AI even had a problem picturing this. I put in a prompt this morning just out of curiosity. I said, hey, create a picture of Jesus solely based off of this passage. Like, don't use any other content other than this passage. And this is what it came up with. And I was like, okay, you kind of got that right, and then you kind of got that like way, way wrong. And so I said, hey, AI, not so smart after all, are you? Did you notice that it said that his robe was dipped in blood? Did you notice that it said that his sword comes out of his mouth? Did you notice that he's actually from Israel, not America or England? And so it came up with this. And I said, also, you didn't even get the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

40:37 And I guess this is just the reason that I show this is, yeah, you know, to see like, whoa, that's hardcore and AI is dumb. But also, like that's not the picture that we usually have of Jesus in our mind. A robe dipped in blood? Yeah, we associate his blood with him. We celebrated communion just a little bit. You can take that photo down. We celebrated communion just a little bit ago, but the blood that's on this robe is not his own blood. It's the blood of his enemies. Like let's read this passage together. together. I'm just going to read this again. We'll focus on the things that are related to his victory. Now I saw heaven open and behold, a white horse. Okay, first off, he's on a horse. Do you remember April 6, 32 AD? No, you don't because you weren't there. But do you remember what happened on April 6, 32 AD? Jesus came into Jerusalem through the east gate on a donkey. I thought Jesus wrote donkeys, not horses.

41:35 Well, donkeys were ridden by kings during times of, and horses were ridden by kings during times of war. So he's on his war horse, first and foremost. And he who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses. So apparently, we're going to be riding horses and wearing linen. That kind of sounds uncomfortable. It doesn't seem like a good combo, but I'll trust the Lord. It says,

42:59 Like, that is pretty hardcore. But I do want to point out a few notable characteristics of his victory. Just like he judged according to righteousness, the syntax of that sentence implies that he makes war according to righteousness as well. that he is not unjust in bringing battle to this earth. You know, we're familiar with the just war theory. Jesus is the judge of all the earth, and he could establish that just war theory, but he's not acting out of unrighteousness. He's not acting out of, well, I want their oil, so I'm going to start a war with them.

43:50 Well, I was pressured in by, you know, all of everybody, you know, my constituents, and so I was going to go to war with them. Or I was pressured by other world leaders, and so I'm going to go to war. I'm going to create war. He makes war based off of his righteousness with integrity, virtue, and correctness of thinking. Notice it says, and the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on their horses, on white horses. That's us. But notice that Jesus, this is a good leadership tip, friends, Jesus leads from the front. Jesus leads from the front. They're all behind. We are all compiled behind him. And he says, no, I'm going to charge into this. And then when we read more of this passage, we discover he really is the one that does all of the work. It seems like we're just there to be like a cool looking entourage. So two things you know you'll do in the future.

44:53 You'll wear linen and you'll ride horses. That's pretty rad. But Jesus leads from the front. We don't do any of the things. He does all of that. But notice how hardcore this is because he's got that sword coming out of his mouth, whether he's literally going to have a sword coming out of his mouth or whether that is figurative language to say that his word is so powerful that he can create all things by his word, that his word is so powerful that he can sustain all things by his word. His word is so powerful that he can uncreate all things by his word. My guess is that's probably what John is getting at here. Second Thessalonians 2 verse 8 says that Jesus destroys the Antichrist you know how? With the breath, with the breath of his mouth. He simply breathes, just like he breathed

45:49 into Adam and there was life. He breathes and the Antichrist is done. That is the King Jesus that we serve, that when he speaks, things can't help but obey his voice. When he was on the Sea of Galilee and his disciples were freaking out for their lives, he gets up, he yawns, peace be still, go back to bed. Waves are done. Who is this? What manner of man is this, that he speaks and the winds and the wave obey him. Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that with it he should strike the nations and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. This imagery is really intense. Why is there blood on his robe? Because he's been treading the winepress.

46:54 Treading a wine press is like you take grapes and how do you make wine is you get your friends, hopefully you clean your feet, you put them in a big bath and you just start like treading, you just start stomping around so that the grapes turn into juice and then they funnel over to this other section and you can get all like the pulp and nastiness and the seeds and all that stays away and then you just take the liquid and then you make a wine out of it. And this is the language, This is how Jesus is eventually going to treat the enemies of God who refuse to take him up on his offer for grace and forgiveness. This is how God sees sin worth crushing under his feet.

47:41 and we as the children of God are not going to face that kind of wrath because Jesus as the Son of God faced that very same wrath on the cross for you and me. See, both of His first coming and His second coming are God dealing with sin, but in two vastly different ways. One where Jesus said, I will take the wrath on myself for his sin and for her sin. The crushing that they deserve, I will be crushed on the cross and that sin will be forgiven and they will be given my robes of righteousness and I will take the blood of their sin on myself. coming, he is coming to abolish and do away with evil and sin for good.

48:45 I want to introduce you to somebody named Miroslav Volf. He's a Croatian Christian. He's a professor at Yale's University of Divinity, the School of Divinity. And he lived through the Yugoslav Wars, where Serbia and Croatia were at war with each other. And it was a very close quarters fought war, where it was not just military against military. against woman. It was the people would turn on their neighbors. And some horrific events happened during this, and he witnessed it all firsthand. He writes about seeing friends who had daughters and wives and sisters who were raped, and friends and neighbors who had sons and husbands whose throats were slit. And he says this about God's justice. He says, one could further argue that in a world of violence, it would not be worthy of God to wield the sword. If God were not angry at injustice and deception and did not make the final end to violence, God would not be worthy of our worship. I know it's a little hard to parse because he uses a few double negatives, but he's saying essentially when you look at the evil in this world, two nights ago my alarm went off at 1 a.m. because of an amber alert for a 16-year-old girl that was kidnapped at gunpoint, just a few neighborhoods away from where I live. You don't have to look long at all through social media or news headlines to see the evils of our world. I mentioned that mom earlier, this world that we're living in is evil. And Miroslav Volf, he says this, if that evil exists and God doesn't have a plan to deal with it justly, he's not deserving of worship. And we have this struggle

50:53 because we think Jesus is meek and mild and he's only forgiving and he's only gracious. That's not the picture of the Jesus of the Bible. Jesus is coming back to deal with finally every evil that has ever been done wrong to you. And he is just in doing so. And doesn't creation long for this kind of salvation from the violence and the crime.

51:28 and ultimately Jesus is going to deal with that, and he deals with Satan in that very same way, and he deals with the false prophet and the beast in that same way. I want to read, and this is really gnarly, but I want to read verse 17. This is almost like, sorry, if you've got like kids in here, this is one of the reasons why we encourage, hey, if they're younger than eight, this is probably not a great place for them, because sometimes we talk about like R-rated violent stuff in here. Verse 17 says, then I saw an angel standing in the sun and he cried with a loud voice saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather together for the supper of the great God. Okay, really quickly, right before this section that we're studying tonight, there's the marriage supper of the lamb where he invites his church, he invites the saints to come and to dine with them. going to have, but it's probably going to be delicious. But even better than that is the host of the party, the focus of the party. And then there's an angel right after Jesus comes back, and he's on this white horse and the sword and Lord of Lords and King of Kings. And then an angel pops up. And John's like, okay, what's the angel going to say? And the angel says, hey, all of the birds of the earth, come here. Everybody get over here because there's going to be a crazy big feast that you want to come to. And the feast is the carcasses of the enemies

52:50 Notice this, it says verse 18, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both great and small. And I saw the beast, the king of the earth, and their armies gathered to make war against Jesus, who sat on the horse and against his army. Then the beast, which by the way, what an idiot move. Like you just see this king, see Jesus and then you're like, all right, let's get together. We're going to fight that guy. I don't have words. I saw the beast. They make war, verse 20. Then the beast was captured and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire, burning with brimstone and all God's people said, hallelujah and amen. And the rest were the sword which proceeds from the mouth of him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh. How insane is that passage of scripture? The Bible's boring. Okay.

54:04 Come see me afterwards. Cash me outside. How about that? Anyways, probably shouldn't have said that. What do we do with any of this? Cool. Oh, oh, what'd you do on Wednesday night? Oh, we read about how Jesus is really hardcore and way later in the future after we're dead or raptured and then we come back and seven years, then we're gonna come. This is pretty neat. Okay, but so what? Who cares about this today? How does this impact today's living? I wanna give you four quick takeaways and I'll invite the worship team up because I would love for us, if I can speak quickly enough, to respond with a song of worship.

54:45 looking forward to his coming. So what do we do with this? First, if the question is, how do we live? How does this affect our life? We live with adoration. We live with adoration. You know, the book of Revelation has at least 10 distinct songs, all just praise songs to Jesus, all just saying, God, you're so amazing. Besides that, regularly throughout the book, when the angel tells John something, the people respond with, hallelujah, or amen, or that's awesome, or that's great, so good. Pastors always make fun of me in the group text because they're like, Matt doesn't know how to not say so good when somebody says something that is so good.

55:29 So they've got like an amen corner. So what do we do with that? We should respond and live with adoration of him. You know, multiple times John just falls to his face in worship. When's the last time that we got on our faces and just worshiped? It's not like, oh, that's, if you get on your face, then you're holy. But what about like in your heart? Are you just like, gosh, like just everything, God. And your body's allowed to follow your heart. Did you know that? So let's respond with adoration. How else do we respond? How else do we live? With invitation. Revelation, think about Acts chapter 1, verses 6 through 8. Jesus has resurrected. He's hanging out with his disciples, and then his disciples, they go up to the Mount of Olives, which is where he took off and where he's coming back, by the way. And they go up to the Mount of Olives, and Jesus gives them this commission, and they say, hey, right now, is this when you're going to build the kingdom? No, that's Revelation chapter 20, but that's not for you to know the times or the seasons. What you need to do is be my witnesses. Just tell everyone that you know about me in Jerusalem and also in Judea and then up north in Samaria and then, oh, by the way, to the ends of the whole world. Like the whole earth should hear about the salvation that I provide. So how should you and I live our lives? With invitation. Let the gospel ever be on our lips. Praise first towards God, and then the gospel towards others. Third, live with absolution. What does that mean? It means to live with forgiveness in your heart towards those who have wronged you. The beauty of the fact that Jesus is just and going to deal with sin means that we don't have to. Vengeance is mine.

57:22 says me? No. Well, yeah, probably you do, but you shouldn't. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. We would not be able to let go of the way that people have sinned against us unless we knew that there was a God who was going to deal with that sin. Guess what? God's going to deal with that sin. It's not on your shoulders to exact judgment on anybody. So live with absolution. And then live with anticipation. Live eagerly looking for the day when he's coming. First to rapture us up, to catch us up in the clouds. And then live eagerly towards eternity. Live with anticipation. Right now, my wife and I, our kids, we're living in a camper because we're building a house. And while the house is being built, we're going to live in a camper. And sometimes it's a little uncomfortable, but, and sometimes, you know, I will think, oh man, this door is really squeaky. I need to fix this and I should do that. And I should change this. And what if I had put like some nice lawn ornaments outside of our trailer? And I could spend Monday and Tuesday really working on the camper and it'll be really great. It's like, no, you should spend your Monday and Tuesday on the house that you're building instead of on this trailer. Like, go fix the land that's more your permanent home.

58:45 You're focusing on the little camper. Put your energy towards the permanent thing, not the temporary thing. And sometimes we do this in life. Like, this place isn't our home, but we get so obsessed with being as comfortable as possible in this skin and on this planet. It's like, no, live towards eternity. Put your money towards the things of eternity. Put your mouth towards the things of eternity. Live your life in a way that you're storing up for yourself treasures in heaven, not on earth where rust and moth destroy. I had my first moth-eaten suit two weeks ago when we were moving out of our house. I packed up all my suits and I was like, man, Jesus was right. Moths literally ate my suit. I didn't even think that was a thing anymore. They got rid of that 1,500 years ago. And I was reminded, I saw that and I was really frustrated.

59:40 I was like, dang, this suit, like I like this suit. And I was just like, oh, this isn't where my treasure is. That's where my treasure is. So let's live with anticipation. This is not home. We have a home whose builder and GC is not human hands. Jesus went to prepare a place for us. Father, we worship you. We want to say thank you. Thank you for revealing yourself to us. Thank you for inviting us into your grace. Thank you for paying the penalty for our sin and doing away with the power of sin for us.

1:00:21 Lord, we look forward to your return and we ask that you will help us to continue to look forward to your return. Lord, we live lives of worship and evangelism and significance. Would we focus our minds on you? And would this city and would this world reflect a little bit