Victorious Warrior King

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Don Filcek; Rev_19_11-21 Victorious Warrior King

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You're listening to the podcast of the Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. This week,
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Pastor Don Filsak preaches through his series, Thy Kingdom Come, taking us through the book of Revelation.
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Let's listen in. Don Filsak, I'm the lead pastor here, and I just want to say welcome to all of you.
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A special welcome to those of you that are here for the first time. Just glad that you're here, and make yourself at home.
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There's coffee, there's juice, there's donuts up here, all that's free, so take advantage of that. One of our core values here at Recast Church is the
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T in Recast stands for truth. Our name is an acronym, and we believe that God's word is the truth that has been given to us as a faithful guide for our lives.
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And so, we look at scripture as a little bit more than just merely an academic exercise, although I believe that it requires, you know, engaging your minds in order to understand what it says, but we also think about it as a life pursuit.
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And so, we take in God's word, and that's what I think it means to grow in faith, is taking in God's word, believing it is true, and believing it is true enough to impact your next week of life, and the rest of your life, to be honest.
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And so, we take on this truth each week, we dig into God's word, and the goal is that we are transformed.
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I mean, the end result of the preparation and time that I spend each week preparing for a sermon, and studying
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God's word, and trying to get down to it, is that we, together, might be changed and draw closer to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, by coming in contact with the way that He has revealed
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Himself. Not the way that I reveal myself, or not just some academic, oh, wow, that was a pretty interesting point there, or I didn't understand the history of that, or something like that, but when we're digging into the pages of God's word, we're seeing something that God desired you and me to know about Him.
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That's a pretty cool thing, right? And about the way that life works, and about the way that we really are. The scripture is interpreting us to some degree, and showing us our own sin, and our own hearts, and all of that.
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And at the culmination of all of that revelation, at the culmination of the word, when we get down to the book of Revelation, we're looking at kind of the apex, the climax of the entirety of history and scripture.
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And that is shown to be Jesus Christ, His Son. Who stands there at the apex of history?
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Who stands there when everything is coming to the crescendo? It is Jesus Christ. The letter to the
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Hebrews in the Bible begins with these words, Chapter 1, verse 1 of the book of Hebrews says,
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Long ago, at many times, and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. In other words,
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He revealed His word to us. He showed us the truth. But in these last days, goes on verse 2,
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In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom
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He appointed the heir of all things, through whom He also created the world, the author of Hebrews says.
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See, God has spoken to us through His Son. And the book of Revelation is called
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Revelation, because within its pages, the very Son of God is revealed,
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Jesus Christ, God's only Son, is shown to us. And I would suggest to you that we need the book of Revelation, a much neglected book, but we need the book of Revelation in order to have a more robust, more accurate, and more glorious understanding of who
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Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, truly is. I hope that you all, like me, have been growing deeper in your connection with God through the pages of the book of Revelation over the last few months.
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Sure, we get to know God and we get to know Jesus specifically through the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
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But in our text this morning, we get a clear image of His coming in victory. Through the
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Gospels, we get a picture of His first coming. Through the book of Revelation, we get the image, the picture, the fully or wrapping up the cycle of how
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He's going to come again. You see, I believe we live in a world that divides
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Jesus. They love the teacher Jesus. Maybe some of us in the room would just kind of say, well, we love
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Him as a good teacher. He had some good things to say to us. Many will love Him as the healer
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Jesus. When you get a sickness, you get an illness, you run to Jesus and He's there to help you through.
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And many of us have fallen in love in our culture. Even those who don't attend church or are not connected in a real vital way with the people of God would say they love the kind and compassionate, love -your -neighbor -as -yourself kind of Jesus.
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But many in our culture would utterly reject Jesus, the righteous and true judge of all humanity.
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Isn't that true of our culture? Many love the Jesus who's a good teacher, the Jesus who's there to serve us, the
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Jesus who's our cheerleader. But what about the Jesus that's meant to be our King, our
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Lord? The one we obey, the one we bow before, the one that we honor.
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And so as I read through this text this morning before the band comes to lead us in worship, I want you to listen attentively,
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Recast, because your King is on His way. And this time,
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He's not coming in a lowly manger. So let's open up to Revelation chapter 19, verses 11 through 21.
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A glorious passage, a significantly beautiful passage in that it is going to show us the revelation of Jesus Christ and His final coming to earth.
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What is it going to look like? What's it going to be like? And it's going to explain it to us here, Revelation 19, 11 through 21.
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If you don't have a Bible on your lap or a means to navigate to a Bible, raise your hand. And we've got some guys back here who have
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Bibles just to hand to you. No shame in that, but we want everybody to have God's Word available to them.
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I'll write up front here. Revelation 19, verses 11 through the end of the chapter.
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Follow along. Again, Recast. This is God's very Word to us, His revelation of Himself.
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So listen in. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems.
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And He has a name written that no one knows but Himself. His clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which
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He is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following Him on white horses.
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From His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron.
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He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On His robe and on His thigh
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He has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
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Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice He called to all the birds that fly directly overhead,
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Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.
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And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against Him who was sitting on the horse, and against His army.
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And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped its image.
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These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur, and the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of Him who was sitting on the horse.
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And all the birds were gorged with their flesh. Wow. And we're going to turn to worship after that last sentence.
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Let's pray. Father, we read a text here that is graphic in nature.
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It's intense. I hope that many in the room rejoiced at the arrival of the one on the white horse, the one who our hearts long for, the one in whom all of our hope and trust has been placed.
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And yet when we see Him with His eyes blazing and the sword coming from His mouth with which to slay those who have opposed
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Him, and we just read this gruesome and graphic explanation of the birds.
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We're going to have a lot of mixed emotions right now. And the next step, the next thing that we're going to do is we're going to sing some songs to you.
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We're going to lift up our voices before you. And how do we do that in light of this destruction that is coming for those who oppose you?
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And we do so because it is only of your grace that we are not going to be the ones who participate in that feast in reverse.
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But we are those who have been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. And we recognize echoes of what we deserve.
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We recognize a graphic portrayal of what we deserve in our sin. And so it's all to your mercy and grace that we sing praises before you this morning, recognizing that we should be the feast and instead we get to feast.
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And so, Father, illuminate our hearts and our minds to see you as you are, high and exalted and glorified.
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And then let our words and our worship and our singing be rendered to you as praise before your throne this morning.
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In Jesus' name, amen. I do encourage you to keep your Bibles open to Revelation 19, 11 through 21.
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I recognize that some of you have just come in after I read that. And so that's the text that we're going through. And again, that's our outline.
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That's where we're walking. Remember, if you need more coffee, juice, or donuts, take advantage of those.
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But jumping in, as we jump into a book and I'm going through a series, I always like to kind of catch us up a little bit.
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I recognize that not everybody's here every week. And so just to clarify, last week John was given a vision of the marriage supper of the
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Lamb. We saw an imagery, a picture of a feast and festival of eternal joy where God and his people will be together forever.
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There's a time coming when we will dwell with God, and he will be our king, and we will be his people.
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And we will be in awe and wonder at his salvation, his power, and his glory, and we will indeed sing his praises.
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And God is setting up his kingdom, and a major theme throughout Revelation has been the judgment of the kingdoms of this world.
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In order for God to establish a kingdom in which there will be no more sin, no more racism, no more brokenness, no more broken world economies, none of that mess that we read about in the headlines, that we experience in our families, that we experience even within our own hearts, something radical is going to have to change for us to get from where we live, here and now, to an eternal kingdom without pain, suffering, or death, or sin.
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And so we all acknowledge that something radical has to shift. Something radical is going to have to change in order for Jesus to establish his rightful rule and reign as king over all.
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Well, Jesus is coming, and he's going to bring with him an eternal kingdom that will be without all of those difficulties, all of those sins, without pain, without death.
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It will be full of joy, celebration, and human flourishing. It will be a final restoration of what humanity was made to be in perfect relationship with our creator
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God, in a restored relationship with God and with creation and with each other.
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That's a beautiful thought when you think about it, because you and I both live in a world where we are broken in our relationship with God.
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Have you identified that in your own life, that you need some healing in that? Are you broken in your relationship to creation, and anybody notice some weeds growing in your yard, and some things that are coming up where you don't want them to be, and stuff like that?
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Or how about in your relationship with others? Maybe that's where we experience the most brokenness, right? Is in the people that we want to love the most, we cause the most pain to, and vice versa, and how is that possible, right?
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When we have good intentions. How many of you would say that at times you've had good, quote unquote, good intentions, and it didn't go the way that you thought it was going to?
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A handful of us. The rest of you are just getting warmed up, right? But I think all of us have experienced that to a level in our lives, and now we come to, here in our text, the arrival of the king.
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He's showing up in our text. He's breaking in. And in verse 11, we see here at the culmination where that new kingdom is coming in, the old kingdoms are passing away, and we're going to see that in stark words, gruesome words here at the end, the passing away of those old kingdoms and the ushering in of the new king.
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And in verse 11, heaven is opened. And from the perspective of earth, John is granted a view of the next event in the workings of heaven.
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And a white war horse appears. I say war horse because historians that I read this week identified that in Roman times, white horses were considered to be the optimum to ride into war.
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I don't know anything about horses. I don't know if their color means anything. Some of you are like, you're dumb. You'd be right.
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If you're talking about horses, I don't know a whole lot. But most commanders are leaders, particularly in the
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Roman Empire. The leaders, commanders, the heads of the army would all be sure to ride a white horse into battle, maybe just as a show of their power, their strength, whatever.
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But the one sitting on this horse is what I want to focus on. Because I know this guy. I know this one.
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He is my king. He is my savior. He is the one on whom
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I have centered all of my hope, all of my purpose, all of my trust, my very life, and even further, my very eternity rests on the guy riding this white horse.
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Where do you stand in relationship to this guy riding this horse?
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What does he mean to you? His name is Jesus. And contrast his final arrival here in the book of Revelation with his first arrival.
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His first coming was very different, right? But in his final coming, no birth, no frailty, no humility, no manger, no shepherds.
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He is not a helpless baby. But man, he shows up, and his eyes are like a flame of fire, seeing through and judging all.
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He needs no one to bring him gold, frankincense, and myrrh this time around, but instead he comes and his head is crowned with many crowns of sovereign rule.
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The word diadem there is the ruler's crown. A handful of different words in the Greek language that meant crown and various kinds.
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The Stephanus was the victor's crown. At the end of the Olympics, they would give out the Stephanus, the ones who won.
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Or at the end of a battle, they would get a Stephanus. But this is a diadem. It is the ruler's crown, and he has many on his head.
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He comes with a piercing gaze of judgment. He comes with the authority of kingly power.
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And where Satan was pictured back in chapter 13 as a great red dragon wearing ten crowns on his head,
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Jesus is wearing enough crowns that John doesn't even take the time to count. And he has these two titles that he comes bearing.
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Faithful and true. Faithful and true. He keeps his promises.
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Faithfulness. He keeps his promises and can be counted on to come through for his people. He will never leave a promise unfulfilled.
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He is completely and utterly the definition of faithfulness. Equally, he's the definition of truth.
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He's always honest. He never deceives or leads anyone astray. His truth is absolute, and therefore his judgments are always true.
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And the purpose for his arrival here at the end of verse 11, if you're looking at the text, at the end of verse 11 he has come to judge and make war in righteousness.
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It's interesting to note that his judgment and his making war are an outcropping, an outflowing of his very righteousness.
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Righteousness meaning that he always makes the right decisions. He is always right. He is always correct in the way that he sees things, and therefore the actions that flow out of the way that things are.
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Jesus doesn't come to make war. It sounds so gruesome to us at the end of this text. He doesn't come with poor motivation.
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We are wracked with poor motivation. We have to deal with poor motivation in the headlines of the newspapers all the time.
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Just war? How does that work? And it gets very complicated and just messed up.
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But you see, Jesus isn't coming to make war as a land grabbing scheme. He isn't making war to secure better resources.
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He isn't making war to extend and expand his borders. His war is a righteous war of just and true judgment.
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He is not coming to wage conventional human warfare that has all of these crazy levels of mixed motives within them.
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But he is coming to judge all the earth because they have opposed him. Those who are in opposition to him will be judged.
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And at the end of verse 12 he is given another title. And it's a beautiful, amazing, and kind of mind -bending thing.
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And it's intentionally mind -bending. His eyes are like a flame of fire, verse 12. And on his head are many diadems.
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And he has a name written that no one knows but himself. Thanks, John, for recording that for us, right?
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Like, oh great. Okay, so you've recorded for us that he has some kind of a name, some kind of a title that applies to Jesus that you and I don't even know.
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So why even mention it? It's kind of an interesting thing. And I would suggest to you that to speculate about what we don't know regarding Jesus could be dangerous.
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And I would not suggest that any of us offer a suggestion to what that title might be. It's intentionally left vague.
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It's intentionally left absent. And I think for good reason. I believe that God includes this here in his text to once again highlight for us that we do not possess all knowledge.
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We do not have comprehensive understanding. As many would arrogantly presuppose, right?
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Many Christians would presuppose that we have all the answers. We've got everything. And if we don't have them, if we could just do enough research, we'll get to it.
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And God says, no, you don't have it all. You don't have all the answers. And you've got to rest in that tension.
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How many of you are like me? You like to, when you get something in your mind, you want to research it to the very end and get a conclusion on it.
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Anybody like me on that? Some of us in the room know what that's like. It almost kind of can be like a pest in the back of your mind that's kind of like,
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I want to know, I want to get down to the bottom of this. Well, you know, this is here for us.
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This is here to humble us. To go, your mind is not enough to figure
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God out. You're not going to completely wrap your mind around Jesus. My hope is that everyone in this room knows
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Jesus. If you don't know him, I would love it at the end of the service to get an opportunity, and I'm going to mention that again later, to introduce you to him.
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I'm going to stay up here at the end of the service for anybody who would love to come and meet Jesus. But as much as we might think of Jesus as our friend, some of us have been kicking around with Jesus for years, right?
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And you're like, man, me and Jesus, we're buddies. He has a title that you don't even know.
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Something big about him that you don't even know. And I'm excited about meeting Jesus, getting to know him, and learn more about him.
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And here's the thing that I want to calm any fears that you might have, because you might be going, look, what's that title?
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Like, that could be pretty significant. For him to have a title that you don't know. Anybody think that that might be a pretty big deal? We don't even know what it's going to be.
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But I can rest peacefully in what I don't know because of what
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I do. Because of what he has said of himself. What did he just say?
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I'm faithful and true. And so we can bank on his promises that he is there for his people, and that we will not be condemned.
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Think about it this way. Surprises from strangers are kind of creepy, right? Do you know what
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I'm talking about? Okay, so a stranger comes up to you and says, close your eyes, I have a surprise for you.
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You're just walking along the sidewalk or something. Close your eyes, I've got a surprise. How many of you are like, run, right?
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And especially if it's a clown, run to your mommy, okay? I mean, don't close your eyes for a surprise from a stranger.
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Any kids in the room, just don't do it, okay? But is Jesus a stranger?
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No, we know him. And so when he's got a surprise for us, I have trust that it's going to be a really cool thing.
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The fact that he's faithful and true matters a lot. Like, what if the title was, I don't know, like, surprise,
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I'm the destroyer of all. No, that's the title. But what we know of Christ by his faithful and true witness leads me to joy in discovering what else
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I don't know of him. Further, what he does reveal to us of himself is his robe is dipped in blood.
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And although some see that as a picture of victory over his enemies, the battle hasn't even happened yet. I believe this is intentionally, whose blood?
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I believe it's his own. I think it's more likely a picture of his redemption for us by shedding his own blood.
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Here at his arrival, we have a glimpse of his great love for us, and also a reminder of the great treachery of the human heart.
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God sent his Son, and we said, now we've got him. And we killed him. But his true victory came there at the cross.
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And it was through his death and resurrection that he has been exalted to the right hand of the Father. Further in our text, he's called, by this title, the
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Word of God. Well, I thought the Bible was the Word of God, right? But it's a double metaphor throughout the pages of Scripture that both this is the revelation of God, but so too, within its pages, we find
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Jesus Christ to be the revelation of God. Think about it this way.
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Because we don't use the word, word, like they do in that day and era. But how do you best know your friends?
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How do you best know the people around you? And I would suggest to you that we have kind of a two -fold thing, like what they do and what they say.
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But is a person's word significant about them? It's a manifestation of them.
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It's an expression of them. It is, in essence, a part of them. When my words go out from me, you can know something about me based on the words that I say.
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And in that way, the Word of God is, the word is used as a metaphor for God, that God sends out his
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Son, much like I send out my words, and they represent me and they are an actual representation of who
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I am. And John wrote, in his first gospel, these words.
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
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God. And the Word, in chapter 1, verse 14 of his gospel,
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John said, And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us. Jesus is the very expression of God to humanity.
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Much like my words are an expression of myself, your words are an expression of yourself. God's word is an expression of himself.
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And God speaks to humanity through everything that Jesus says and does. And Jesus doesn't come alone.
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You see that in verse 14. He's not alone. But the armies of heaven, probably angels and believers, will be following him on white horses.
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Those who have died before, those who have been raptured and brought to his throne before, are following him as his armies.
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And two quick observations on verse 14. First, we follow him. It's a very simple statement, but it's significant and important.
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And I don't want to make a metaphor out of what is a literal picture. I mean, we're literally following him as he leads the charge.
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But that we will literally follow our king in the battle is an amazing picture of who we will become.
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The fact that we follow him, then, should serve as a reminder that we ought to follow him now.
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We should be careful to know all that we can know of Jesus. Study him. To emulate him.
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To be Christ -like in the way that we interact with the world around us. The second observation is a little less intense, and it's just simply that many have pointed out something that I find at least interesting here, and that's that horses come out of heaven.
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Okay? Lots of horses. Lots of white horses. Enough for everybody to ride one. One commentary suggested if there was any one passage that ought to give pet owners any potential hope that they're going to see
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Fluffy again, it might be this passage. It's one that at least directly shows us animals coming out of heaven with humans.
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Now, don't go around telling everybody that Pastor Don said that your pet went to heaven. But I just wanted to point out that this text indicates that a day is coming when a lot of horses are going to ride out of heaven with the saints in tow.
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But in verse 15, we continue on with three further descriptions of Jesus. We find that he has a sword coming out of his mouth.
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Is that cut? What is that like? How are his lips on that? That doesn't seem very comfortable, right?
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Any of you ever seen a sword swallower? This is kind of, he's like bringing it back up. And once again, we recognize this is apocalyptic imagery.
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It's kind of figures of speech and images that are given to John to kind of help him to understand what is going on and kind of word pictures.
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I don't believe that Jesus is going to show up and have a literal sword coming out of his mouth. But instead, this is a way of indicating that his authority and power will come from his spoken words.
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And what is that power here that's very clearly expressed in verse 15? And that is that his power in his mouth is to strike down the nations with his words.
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Second, the text says that he will rule those nations with a rod of iron, which seems like a really strange prediction. In the middle of his destruction of those very nations is a prediction that he will rule them with a rod of iron.
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Anybody find that strange? I think he's about to destroy them, and then it says he's going to rule them. How will he ever rule them if he's about to obliterate them in judgment?
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But when we look at chapter 20 next week at the beginning, we're going to come face to face with a doctrine that makes sense of this prediction here in our text in 19.
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He's about to remove all who oppose him from the planet, and then in the next chapter, Satan is going to be bound for 1 ,000 years.
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And Jesus will rule the earth during that era of peace. And nations will once again form in the absence of these.
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And theologians call this time period the millennium. There are a lot of thoughts and opinions about whether or not it's a literal or a figurative 1 ,000 years.
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And we're going to talk a lot more about that next week. But I believe that when Jesus returns the second time, he will set up a kingdom and reign for a literal period of time, fulfilling this prediction that he will indeed rule the nations.
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Now, one thing that's very interesting is the imagery of a rod of iron. What does that mean? Does that mean he's going to be a stern and harsh ruler?
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Actually, no. The word that's translated rod of iron would be the type of rod that a shepherd would use to beat back enemies of the sheep.
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He will not smash those under him with the rod, but instead will protect those under him with that rod.
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And again, a lot more about that next week. But Jesus will also tread out the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the
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Almighty. Intense imagery, if you really think about it. The fury, how many of you used the word fury this last week?
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Okay, you probably didn't use, okay, maybe a couple. Probably not many used the word fury this week.
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Probably not many of you used the word wrath this week. Those are intentionally heavy loaded words of emotion, right?
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When somebody expresses fury towards someone, you expect heads to roll, right? When somebody has wrath, okay, it's one thing to get a little bit angry from time to time, but this is wrath.
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It's a word that's intentionally used to demonstrate the patience that God has expressed to the human race down through the centuries that's culminating and building and building until a previous text actually said that the sins of humanity have stacked up to the point where the imagery is that God can't ignore it anymore.
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It's getting, it's kind of clouding his view, if you will. It's the word picture that's used there and the sin that humanity has stacked up and stacked up and stacked up and there's coming a point, not that God has, you know, some kind of snapping point.
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He's like, I'm gonna go off. If you do that one more time, I'm pulling this car over. It's measured, it's intentional.
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So when you think wrath, you might go, oh, God is off his rocker now. It's not quite like that.
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God is not like you or me. When we talk about his love, we're talking about a different love than you and I can express.
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When we talk about his anger, we're talking about a different kind of anger than you and I can express. It's very measured and intentional, but it's just and it's righteous.
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And it will be swift and it will be severe and it will be intentional. On his robe and on his thigh, again, we're still describing
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Jesus. All in the context, remember, of his coming to finish a war that humanity has brought to him. We're gonna get there here in just a second.
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But on his robe and on his thigh are written this title, King of Kings and Lord over all
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Lords. King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is the sovereign over all sovereigns.
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He is majestic, far above all majesties. This is both on his clothes and tattooed on his thigh.
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Unless you think that Jesus did some sharpie art on his leg, this is a permanent and super sweet tattoo. Now, I've always said that if I did an
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Iron Man, I don't really have any, there's nothing on the schedule, but if I did an Iron Man, I think I'd get the Iron Man tattoo.
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Just to kind of say I did it, you know, that would be kind of cool. And this is kind of similar to that, only a lot better, because Jesus is basically, by this tattoo on his thigh, saying,
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I'm the best there is, so I thought I'd just wear it forever. Okay, I just wanted to kind of demonstrate that to everybody.
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Kind of right here on my ripped thigh, I wanted to show everybody, King of Kings and Lord over all
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Lords. I am the sovereign one. That was not, by the way, a pitch towards getting a tattoo.
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It's just, that's up to you. And you kids, that's up to your parents. You're welcome, parents.
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But now comes the battle that we've been waiting for way since back in chapter 16. That's one of the things that's a benefit and a blessing of going through books of the
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Bible chapter by chapter is that you don't always, if you just pick a random chapter and read it out of the
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Bible, you're gonna miss something. This battle here at the end of our text is something that started clear back in chapter 16 and it hasn't reached its culmination until chapter 19.
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Well, you'd miss that. You'd be like, what is this battle all about? What are all these birds gathering for?
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But way back in 16, at the end of the sixth bowl of God's judgment, the false prophet, the
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Antichrist, and Satan sent out three demons to lead the leaders of the world to gather their armies for battle against the
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Son of God at a place called, a very familiar word to most people in our culture,
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Armageddon. This place called Armageddon. We don't know exactly where that is. But then the text left us without the conclusion of the battle.
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The lines were drawn up and all the armies had gathered. We don't even see their opposition show up yet. And they're all kind of milling around this plain or this great battle place with no enemy.
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Oh, that's why we've been talking about Jesus coming on his war horse. Because he's gonna finish that.
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Now comes the battle that we've been waiting for. And in verses 17 through 21, we find the climax of that battle, of the nations against the
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Messiah King. And an angel, are you ready for this? An angel silhouetted by the sun.
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Pretty bright angel. You know what I'm saying? If you could take him in and the sun is kind of the backdrop for him.
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And he's gonna end up being the referee and he begins the first round of battle by stating a grotesque reality.
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He says, this is not gonna go well for you guys. I've met God. I've met his son.
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And this is not going to go well. And he has an invitation to the birds. And he says, come, because there's gonna be a feast at the end of this battle.
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Grotesque reality. By the end of that battle, the birds will be gorged with flesh. This is purported to be an epic battle for the ages.
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Humanity versus God. Kind of like what we wanted clear back in the garden. What humanity was driving for with the whole
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Tower of Babel. Maybe we can just kind of do it without God. The way that our culture goes right now.
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Maybe we can make ourselves better without God. Do we really even need him? Isn't he passe? Isn't that old school?
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Isn't that ancient religion? Isn't that, you know, I mean, we're scientifically minded now.
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We're technologically advanced. Is there really any room for God in our public dialogue and debate anymore?
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Because haven't we, isn't God dead? Wasn't that on the front of Time magazine at some point?
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Humanity has wanted to put him down. And put him out of his misery. Since our first sin.
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That's this battle. And one quick question before we break into the discussion about the battle itself.
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Who instigated the fight? Who has come together? Who has initiated this?
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The nations have gathered to rid themselves once and for all from the
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Holy One. And Satan has incited them. Saying, now is the time. He'll meet us out there to battle if we show up.
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Let's go do it. The birds are told that they will dine on the flesh of kings, military leaders, great and small, slave and free.
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All who oppose God are going to be supper for the vultures by the end. And in verse 19, the battle lines are drawn.
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With the Antichrist and his armies on one side. And the glorious Lord Jesus Christ himself and us the saints on the other.
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And the tension is thick when the Son of God opens his mouth. Is this going to be a parley?
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Is this going to be a plea for reconciliation? Is this going to be the gospel?
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Is this going to be, man come unto me all of you. What is this going to be? What does the world expect
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Jesus to say next? And all that I imagine. I don't know the words. I don't think it's too unhealthy to guess.
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But we don't know what these words are. But whatever he speaks. Whether it is, be dead.
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Or enough. Or just simply, I am. But whatever comes out of the mouth of Jesus.
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Everyone dies. Like that's the battle. Like you're like, that's kind of anticlimactic, right? It's kind of like, is that, that's it?
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I thought there was going to be a battle. And I thought there was going to be swinging of swords. And maybe some missiles flying through the air. There's going to be a nuclear something going on here.
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Or something at least. What's the best that humanity is going to bring against the almighty? And he says, be dead.
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And it's over. That's it. What is the best that we have to offer to bring against the almighty?
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Nothing. We've got nothing. He is sovereign.
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He is indeed God. Not like one of the, I don't know, there's all kinds of movies out. I haven't seen any of them.
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I think there was one about Egyptian gods recently. I didn't see that one. But I'm just guessing that it's, you know, mortals fighting against the gods.
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And it's kind of like, oh, I've got a big sword or something. Or, boy, watch my battle axe. I bet I can hack this god's ankle off or something.
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I mean, I don't know what, you know. What do people think about that kind of stuff? It's not a fight.
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It's judgment is what it is. Do you understand that? This isn't God going out to fight and hope he wins.
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This is his final judgment. This is his, you know, saying, this is enough, guys, really.
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This is enough. And it's over. And all are wiped out except for two.
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Imagine that. Two are left there standing going, guys? Guys? I mean, there's nobody else there except for the beast, who is
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Antichrist and his false prophet who deceived the nations, and they will be captured alive. And they will be thrown alive into the lake of fire, receiving conscious torment forever.
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And the last phrase reminds us of the truth of the angel that was in the sun speaking at the start of what ends up being really basically the end of the battle.
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And all the birds were gorged with their flesh. This text may very well be a mixed bag of emotions for you.
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It kind of was for me as I go through it. It would be glorious to come with our Savior in victory.
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What are you excited about that day? There's an enthusiasm and an excitement about it. But all the carnage may strike us as a little bit too violent for Jesus.
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Some may even be moved to think, my Jesus would never do something like that. Right? I mean, come on, guys.
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Let's look at the Gospels. Is that the same Jesus? Or are you talking about Revelation Jesus? Or are you talking about Old Testament Jesus?
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Or are you talking about Revelation Jesus? And it's just Jesus. He's the one who came first to redeem us and will come second as judge.
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Is your Jesus the just and true Jesus of Scripture? Or is your
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Jesus just a figment of imagination that you've made up to pacify your own fears?
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Think about it this way. I mentioned it earlier. Is your Jesus your cheerleader? Or is
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Jesus your king? Is he your cheerleader? Or is he your king?
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And I don't mean that to be a rhetorical question. But answer that in your heart this morning.
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Is he just there to support you? Is he there to validate your agenda? Is he there to validate you as a person?
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Is he there to make you feel more comfortable? Is he there to please you? Make your life go well?
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Someone on the sidelines just to say good job when you do something well and that's it? Or is he your king?
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Is he calling the shots? Do you see yourself bowing before him and submitting your will to his will in obedience?
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Who's Jesus to you? How does he line up? How does the
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Jesus in your mind line up with scripture? How does it line up with the text that we've just read together?
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There are three significant realities that I want to apply from this text before we wrap things up this morning. The first one's a little bit harsh.
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But will you be invited to the feast? Or will you be the feast? Last week we saw a great feast in heaven, a reception banquet in heaven with God's people.
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It was likened to a joyous occasion. Like a wedding reception. I mentioned
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I like wedding receptions. They're fun. Especially when you don't have any responsibilities or anything. You just go and just enjoy and celebrate and eat good food and maybe dance a little bit or something.
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We're not Baptists here. You can dance. I'm not saying you're able to dance.
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You can try. I do. It's ugly. But it's fun. Not so fun when the pictures get posted.
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But there's this joyous occasion. There is a feast.
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There is a celebration that is coming for those who are saved through the blood of Jesus Christ.
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And the promise was given that all who respond to that invitation to the wedding supper of the Lamb will come to that feast and they will be happy.
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They will be blessed. But in our text this week we see a different feast, don't we?
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Man, it's a contrast. Man, it's gruesome. Birds are invited to feast on the flesh of the enemies of God.
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Which feast will you be a part of? I assume that I know which one you want to be a part of.
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And yet Jesus declares that the way into the kingdom is narrow. Have you dealt with that? Have you recognized that?
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That the door is a person, is an individual, is one who is God in flesh and his name is
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Jesus and he is not the gatekeeper. He is the gate. He is the door.
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Nobody will get there to that eternal celebration on accident. You know if you're going there.
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You will know if you're not. If you're unsure which feast you will take part in, today would be a great day to secure your seat at the table of the celebration of Jesus.
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I mentioned before I'm going to stay up here at the end of the service. And if you'd like to respond to the invitation to come to the marriage supper of Jesus, come up and talk to me afterwards.
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And I would love to talk with you about how to initiate that relationship with Jesus Christ our
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Savior. The second point is just simply Jesus isn't playing around.
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He's not playing around. It's not a game. We could be lulled into a passe relationship towards Jesus because of that whole
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Christmas story baby thing. Or the judgment of Jesus could fade in our minds because he said things like, let he who has no sin cast the first stone.
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We like to ignore the part where he said go and sin no more, right? But I mean that's inconvenient for the purposes of what we like to talk about in our culture.
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So we'd really like to focus maybe on the really nice part where he saved her life, right?
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Jesus is the one who God has appointed as the just and righteous judge of all humanity.
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He who is the way, the truth, and the life is the one who will judge whether or not we have come his way, whether or not we have believed his truth, whether or not we have received his new life.
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He who is those things will be the one who determines whether or not you have come to him his way. This application is not necessarily about something for you to go and do, but it is about something to believe.
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Don't tame Jesus in your mind. Believe the whole truth of God's word regarding your savior.
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And worship him in awe and wonder. He will return as the final righteous and true judge. Lastly, my final point, get familiar with horses.
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Just kidding guys. No, there are horses. They're not all white, but there's horses.
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But I really am just kidding. The last point is Jesus is faithful and true. Jesus is faithful and true.
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Rest in his honesty. Put yourself over into his arms of faithfulness in the storms of life, in the times of celebration and joy, and even to your very final breath, trust in Jesus.
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I would suggest to you that when you've got it, you know you have it. Because you recognize that it is all about Jesus.
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And when you hear his name, your heart gets lighter. And when you see him appear on that white horse, even in the text, your heart rejoices.
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Because you know that your savior is coming. He died for us.
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So here at Recast, we remember that each week by obeying his instructions to take a piece of cracker and a cup of juice as a reminder of his body that was broken for us and his blood that was shed for us.
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This is meant to be an anchoring event each week. I hope that it is that for you. I hope it isn't just something that becomes routine or rote.
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And I recognize that we're in risk of that by doing this each week. And at the same time, it is my hope and prayer that each one of us comes anew each week and recognize it for the anchoring event that it really is.
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It is meant to bring us back to the central belief of our faith. And that is simply that we couldn't save ourselves.
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And so God sent Jesus Christ, his perfect sinless son, to take our sins on himself.
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And he paid the price for our sins on the cross so that if we trust the one who is called faithful and true, we will have eternal life.
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That's what he's faithful and true about, his promise to save those who come to him by faith. If you've asked
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Jesus Christ to be your king and savior, then come to one of the tables during this next song and remember his sacrifice for you. Remember that if you're here and you're not sure where you stand regarding Jesus Christ, I'd encourage you to skip communion, but come up and talk to me after the service, after we close things down, and I would love to pray with you, to talk with you about knowing
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Jesus Christ more. Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for your son,
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Jesus Christ. I thank you for his sacrifice on our behalf. And even now as we come to the table of communion, we remember his body that was broken for us, we remember his blood that was shed for us.
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He took on that suffering and that punishment that we deserved so that we could skip past that whole judgment thing.
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It's just amazing. As we read this text and we just see the carnage and we see the reality of what we deserve, and then last week what we actually get, it is just, it couldn't be any further.
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So Father, we look forward to that marriage supper of your son, Jesus Christ, that reception that will be a glorious and beautiful thing that you promised us we'll be delighted in, we'll be happy there.
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And Father, if there's anybody in this room who does not know for sure that they're going to be at that marriage supper, but instead they may find themselves as the carnage for the birds,
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Father, I pray that you would be moving in their hearts, not just as a means of fear, but as a recognition that you have provided a way that you have loved them enough to send your son to die for them, and may they do business with you even today.
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Father, I thank you so much for your love for us. Help us to walk in you this week. In Jesus' name, amen.