Behold the Victory

Revelation 19:1-21

You can download the pdf file here

Then I heard…Hallelujah!

Hallelujah is common word for us, it trips off the tongue – but look, this explosive expression of praise follows a chapter of mourning and lament (18:16-20) – the world is in mourning but God’s people are caught up in worship. They are not singing… they are shouting! Why?

John, in his first letter says, “Do not love he world or anything in the world…” [1] By ‘world’ he meant our greed, our lustfulness and our pride – all the things that drive society away from God and the behaviours that make us self-satisfied and self-reliant.

In the Old Testament this attitude was personified by a city – Babylon – it symbolised everything that was wrong with the human race. In the New Testament the greatest city on earth stood for the same thing – Rome. In Revelation 18 John sees the fall of Babylon, but the more you read Revelation the more you realise that ‘Babylon’ is a code-word for Rome – he is writing bout the fall of the Roman Empire. In chapter 19 heaven is delirious with praise that God has destroyed it.

Do you find that offensive? Or perhaps you prefer not to think about it? When we worship God we focus on him as Creator and as Redeemer, so it comes as a surprise – perhaps it is something of a shock – to see God worshiped here for his destructive judgement of Babylon/Rome. It is embarrassing to see the multitudes of heaven shouting their heads off in exultation that the prostitute has been punished and their brothers and sisters have been avenged.

Three things we need to remember:

Judgement is part of salvation (1b-2) a central part of rescuing the earth from evil is the destruction of those who promote it. Read the parables about the kingdom of God in Matthew 13 and Jesus does not pull his punches on this, the weeds are pulled and separated, then they are burned. God is gracious and he is patient but eventually his patience is exhausted and he moves in judgement of those who will not accept his rule. The Romans had a title for their city, Roma Eterna: Eternal Rome. Now John sees the exultant multitude of heaven play with Rome’s famous title (3). Eternal Rome has become an eternal bonfire! The kingdom of Rome has fallen foul of the kingdom of God.

Judgement is part of God’s character (4-5) - If I am uncomfortable with God as the decisive judge of history, how comfortable would I be with a God who never judged at all? When the Serbian army attacked the town of Srebrenice in 1995 their commander ordered the bus station to be shelled with airburst shells – people shredding devices that rained mayhem on innocent civilians. One of the UN staff interviewed shortly afterwards said, “I hope he burns in Hell for what he did today”. What an embarrassing thing to say! But what would you think of a God who did not hold that commander to account? The multitudes in heaven realise that the only God worth worshipping is one who will hold sinners accountable for their actions. Judgement is part of his wonderful character.

Judgement proves God’s covenant bond with his people (2c) – God shows his faithfulness to his people by avenging their blood. People who make life difficult for Christians are courting disaster – God is gracious and patient and he will give those individuals time to repent, but if they do not God will exact vengeance upon them for their refusal to listen to him.

The first Christians found Roman rule quite useful – Paul was positive about the system of government and justice it could bring, and used his Roman citizenship to open doors and get out of the occasional tight spot. Persecution was rare. By the time John of Patmos wrote his Apocalypse all that had changed. The Roman monster was beginning to turn against them. In the UK we have enjoyed a long period of activity untroubled by interference from the state. This is coming to an end: new legislation is creating a number of opportunities for those who hate us to make life difficult for us. Such people must beware – they should read verse 2 and tremble.

The final fall of these vicious people was the cause of unbridled rejoicing in John’s vision: A Mexican wave of praise rippled from the throne to the utmost corner of heaven and back again: God’s rule had been demonstrated, his people had been avenged.

Then I heard… the party is about to start!

My friends Chris and Carol were in Canada some years ago and thought it might be nice to try white water rafting. So they went to book a trip at a rafting company that specialised in extreme river descents. Chris did not rumble the ‘extreme’ bit, and when asked if he knew what he was getting into he bluffed his way through by telling them that he and Carol had rafted many times before. Early the following day Chris and Carol turned up at the raft base to meet their companions for the trip; they piled into a raft and set out paddling across a mirror-flat mountain lake. It was early morning, silent except for the bird song, Chris and Carol felt that they were going to enjoy this very much!

Over the sound of birdsong, in the far distance, Chris felt he could hear a noise: it got louder and louder as they paddled down the lake. Chris also noticed that the still lake water had begun moving, slowly at first, but more quickly as the noise got louder. Chris was now quite curious, and a little anxious, so he turned to the guide and said, “Excuse me, what’s that noise?”

It was the sound of six hours of terrifying rapids with no chance of escape! This is the sound you will hear when you arrive in glory (6), the roar of a great multitude shouting - it is God’s people gathering for the greatest party in history, the party at the end of the universe, the Lamb’s wedding celebrations!

What is the greatest compliment you can pay a church? (Nice building with clean toilets? Warm welcome with a letter a few days later? Lively worship and great preaching?). The greatest compliment I have ever relieved was from an American couple who visited Bethany a few years ago – they wanted to tell me that they felt that Christ was at the centre of everything we did. Now that is a compliment!

Church leaders we are preparing our people to be the bride of Christ (7b). We need to make sure that he is at the centre of our church life so that four things keep growing:

First, our love for him grows stronger – every time we meet to worship we need to be helping one another to love Jesus a bit more. Everything ought to be about nurturing our love for him.

Second, our intimacy with him grows deeper – go back to the first humans and you see they were created for intimacy (Genesis 2:24) when two people marry they remain individuals but become ‘one’. In the New Testament Jesus prays this:

John 17:20-26

His goal for us is the kind intimacy enjoyed by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – three individual persons knowing perfect love and intimacy: so they are really one person. The intimacy between Jesus and his people is intended to grow until it is of the same quality – you and I are invited to be intimate with the Trinity. Churches need to be helping people to grow in their intimacy with Christ. In his vision of the end of time John sees the church united with Christ as Adam and Eve were once united, “His bride has made herself ready”.

So here’ a question, “What is the greatest casualty of a busy life?” [2] Answer: intimacy is the first thing to suffer. Churches need to encourage intimacy with God, but you can’t turn intimacy on like a light – it must be built day after day.

Third, as our love and intimacy grows so does our enjoyment of him. Did you know that the whole purpose of human life is to Glorify God and enjoy him forever? Pastors are terrible people, you know they get to the end of a service, sit down and think, “How did that go… how did we do… was that any good?” We get so concerned with the activities we organise that we completely forget why we bother at all! About a month ago I sat down at the end of a service and thought, “Isn’t He good! Then I stopped myself and realised that it had been a long time since I had felt that way after worship. How tragic if our worship and preaching become an extended exercise in missing the point! We are here to delight in him!

Well now I have made us all feel good and guilty, let’s deal with the question, what do I do if my love has gone cold and my joy has vanished? Some practical advice:

  • Pray – even if you don’t feel anything
  • Read and reflect on God’s word [psalm 103]
  • Meet with someone and help one-another
  • In the dark times, don’t stop doing the right things

Remember: you can’t turn intimacy on like a light – it must be built day after day.

Fourth, our commitment to him gets stronger – we learn to imitate his faithfulness. We move from a feeling centred life to a command centred one. Christ – is he an amenity, a convenience? Or are you his servant?

And the bride has the dignity of bringing something to the table (7b-8). Do you remember Jesus once said that if you give a cup of water to someone in his name you would be rewarded? Every good thing we do is working towards the moment when the church realises it’s one-ness with the Saviour – we are united with him forever – and the angel wants us to know something (9).

And you are invited! However, the invitation has RSVP on the bottom… if you do not tell him he will not assume that you are coming.

All this is overwhelming and John does what comes naturally to any citizen of Rome’s eastern empire – he wants to worship the angel! The angel is appalled!

“We are fellow servants” – It may have felt right but it was wrong.

Angel worship is alive and kicking today. I came across a book recently, It is called, “Your Angel Astrology Love Diet; How Your Guardian Angel And Star Sign Can Work Together To Make You Slimmer And Happier”. Its companion volume, “How Your Guardian Angel and Star Sign Can Work Together to Make Me Richer” is yet to be published. People buy this stuff – because it feels right for them – but it is not right, it is defying God’s law.

Christians too can show an unhealthy interest in angels – the angels themselves would be appalled at the things some Christians say and write about them (10b – “Don’t do it…”). It seems that in John’s day some people has the same problem. “The spirit of prophecy” – the heart of what the Holy Spirit wants to say to the church and to the world – is the testimony of Jesus and not a message from an angel.

Don’t worship fellow-creatures, worship this person…

I saw… The White Rider

We live in a prosperous and secure world, but at the back of our minds is a series of recurring nightmares – nuclear holocaust, ecological disaster, terrorist outrage. These nightmares recur in our books, movies and in our psyche – they just won’t go away. What is your worst nightmare?

Rome knew that the good times were not going to roll on forever and they had a premonition of where the trouble would come from. Way off to the east, in the land that we call Iran, was the huge and powerful kingdom of Parthia; the Romans didn’t know what to do with the Parthians whose armies were as disciplined and tough as their own. But they had a recurring nightmare that one day the Parthians would show up outside the gates of Rome. It never happened, but it was always a terrifying thought.

The formal title of the Parthian king was “King of Kings and Lord of Lords”, now look what is written on the rider’s thigh (16) – but this isn’t the Parthian king, it is the carpenter the Romans crucified!

John is delighted to see Rome’s worst nightmare will come true – the Commander of the Armies of the Lord, at the head of the Armies of the Lord, coming to lay waste to Rome’s godless people. Think of our worst nightmares, they are as nothing compared with the day when God moves against our godless culture in his just and reasonable wrath.

At the head of this is our Lord Jesus Christ. And John gives us another one of his descriptions of Jesus – look at the details:

He is faithful and true – he himself has stayed the course through terrible persecution and martyrdom and he remained true to his people and faithful to the end.

He makes war with justice - Now here’s an important detail; it is Jesus who judges, he who makes war, he who strikes down the nations. This contrasts vividly with current forms of Islam where every slight, every question and every perceived insult is dealt with by violence from Allah’s foot soldiers who think that, by their uncompromising brutality, they are going God a favour. Think of the Islamic reaction to the Satanic Verses and the Christian reaction to the DaVinci Code.

From time to time some Christians unwisely urge that the church be more intolerant, more violent in its language, more violent in its actions. This is a mistake. It is Jesus who will judge and not ourselves – our job is to trust, proclaim the gospel and love those who hate God.

When the Communists controlled East Germany they made life difficult for Christians, back then I met a professor of engineering who worked in a boilerhouse shovelling coal because they wouldn’t let him teach; a nursery nurse who could not teach because she was a Christian. When the regime fell the most hated man in the leadership, onetime premier Erich Honneker and his wife were homeless. It was a German pastor, Uwe holmer who took the Honnekers in and looked after them.

That is how believers should treat their enemies!

His eyes are blazing fire – could this be an indication of the fire that burns within the Lord, his passion for his people, for righteousness and for justice?

Crowned with many crowns – when Christ returns there will be no disputing his lordship.

A secret name – in the ancient world it was believed that if you knew the name of a God you could control it. This is a neat way of saying that no-one can control Jesus.

His robe is dipped in blood : whose blood? It could be the blood of those who are facing the wrath of God (15b) – it could be his own blood, because he died for the very people he is judging: we don’t know, it could be either, and this is an intriguing ambiguity. The people he will judge do not need to be at the receiving end of his wrath because he died for them - they have rejected his blood and so their blood must flow.

God’s judgement is so unnecessary, no-one need ever be at the receiving end of his wrath (fury) – the Word became flesh and lived among us, died for us…

Keep this in mind because things are about to get very dark… Will Self, a broadcaster and writer recently called the book of Revelation ‘psychotic’ – this next passage may be what he had in mind.

I saw… the carrion feast

An angel issues an invitation to a second party – another feast – crows, vultures and carrion-birds are summoned.

The powers that be on earth are still holding out, actually gathering to make war on the King of Kings. Last night we delved into the strategy of the Dragon and what happened when he was defeated, the creature did not give in! There is an echo of that here (19) whena the army of the Beast re-groups to face the white rider.

Evil is tenacious, it does not give up without a fight and even when defeated remains dangerous. [John mark’s python]

They are defeated. The beast and false prophet are cast into the lake of burning sulphur; their armies are fed to the birds.

What an appalling vision. We can understand people who were guilty of outright evil being judged in this way – but what about the ordinary people we live and work with, surely this is over the top?

Here’s a true story…

In 1995 a team of UN peacekeepers moved into the town of Srebrenica in the former Yugoslavia, their aim was to protect the unarmed Muslim inhabitants. They had disarmed the Muslims when the Serbian army arrived and took over – they removed 8000 Muslim men and boys and murdered them in cold blood. Their bodies were dumped in mass graves near the town. The Peacekeepers knew what was going on and did nothing. They were armed, they had access to ferocious air support if the Serbians got frisky but they did nothing; nothing. Who was responsible for those murders?

Certainly the Serbian soldiers were responsible, but don’t the UN troops bear some responsibility? They certainly do – neutrality was not an option at that moment in history, to remain inactive was a vote in favour of evil.

This is not a moment in history to remain apathetic, inactive, uninvolved. This is a moment of decision – the armies are gathering, you will fight on one side or the other.

Which is it to be?

In the great clash of spiritual kingdoms this is not time for apathy. You may think that you are neutral, but in fact you are using up resources without contributing to the fight – you are helping the enemy by being uninvolved. Apathy is not neutral – it puts you on the enemy’s side; disinterest is not neutral; it puts you on the enemies side. It is time for decision.

Which is it to be?

And so at the end of time there are two banquets, the wedding feast of the Lamb and the carrion feast of the dead. Today we choose which it is to be - There is no need for anyone to face this – the Lamb shed his blood, he invites you to his wedding party.

“Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb: these are the true words of God”. RSVP – remember?


[1] 1 John 2:15-17

[2] I found this idea in Supporting Christians at Work by Mark Greene