REVELATION 19
Read Revelation 19:1-21
Chapter 17 showed the terrible nature of sin and its all-pervading influence on this world. Chapter 18 showed the defeat of sin at the hands of God Almighty. Now, at the beginning of Chapter 19 we see all of heaven celebrating the overthrow and destruction of sin once for all. The great multitude of the faithful celebrate (v1) and the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures that we met in Chapter 4 celebrate as well (v4). The song that they all sing in celebration makes it clear that salvation is from God alone; the New Testament tells us again and again that we cannot contribute to our own salvation; it is only through God’s grace that we are saved, and Revelation reinforces that here. There is also the re-statement of the reality of judgement, and that God’s judgements are true and just (v1).
Towards the end of the last chapter, we saw Revelation pick up on the image of the church as the bridegroom of Christ (18:23) and in vv7-9 we see that image again when the angel said to John, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb’ and we see the bride, the church, being prepared. This wedding feast in heaven is something that has been promised throughout the Bible and here we see that it will come to fruition and the angel giving John, and us, heart by saying, ‘these are the true words of God’
John is evidently so overwhelmed by all this that he fell of the feet of the angel to worship him. But at once the angel rebuked him and made the point that it is only God who is worthy of worship. The angel is no-one special, he is, like John, merely a servant of the Lord. We live in a world where worship is often addressed to mere mortals and we need to have the right perspective. Worship is to be addressed to God – in all his fullness as Father, Son and Holy Spirit – but to God alone.
The next scene we see is quite shocking, but that is the point. It is an illustration of judgement; that it is a reality and that those who have been unfaithful to God will not receive eternal life but rather eternal separation from God. John describes a rider on a white horse. White in the Bible often stands for purity. The rider is called ‘faithful and true’ (v11) and ‘King of Kings and Lord of Lords’ and is clearly a picture of Jesus. He comes with justice, and we have seen earlier that justice is the prerogative of God – Jesus is God and he is dispensing righteous judgement. He also has a two-edged sword coming from his mouth. On the face of it, this is a slightly strange image, but knowing Revelation as we do by now, we realise that it is an image, a picture, a metaphor. It is words that come out of the mouth. It is the word of God that convicts and condemns the unfaithful in judgement – and Jesus, of course, is the living word of God.
The chapter closes by assuring us that Christ’s victory is certain and that these powerful and influential enemies that Revelation has described in colourful and picturesque language have been dealt with completely and utterly.