Jesus in Revelation

We're in the book of Revelation, and we've come to the final study in the series, going through the Bible book by book. And we come to the book of Revelation and just some of the comments that we made this morning very briefly. The book of Revelation, the word revelation comes from the Greek word apocalypto, which has a different meaning today.

Just in the last few years, the meaning of the word has changed to mean some great disaster. But really, that's not the meaning of the word. The Greek word literally means an unveiling, an opening up, or a revelation.

And that's why we get the English word revelation. And that's important because the book is not an obscuring. The book is not about mysteries.

The book is about a revealing, about an opening up. And that's the reverse to what most people see in the book. And so the understanding of the book is not that difficult.

What makes it difficult is because people cloud it with all sorts of arguments and theologies and all sorts of preconceived ideas. But if you just simply read the book, it is not that difficult to understand. And we're going to read together from chapter 5, verse 6 through 14.

And I want to speak with you this morning about one aspect of the book, and that is about Jesus Christ. In chapter 1, the Spirit giving to John the meaning of the book. He says that it is the revelation of Jesus Christ and of the things that must come to pass.

Those are the two things. Now, normally when we look at the book of Revelation, most people, if you stopped anyone in the street outside and you said, what is the book of Revelation about? Well, if they knew about the book of Revelation, what they will tell you, it's about future things. But the definition of the book is that it is first of all, a revelation of Jesus.

Then it is secondly, a revelation of the future things. And this morning, I want to focus on that first aspect of the book, the first reason for the book. And remember that all the books in the Bible have the same purpose.

Remember, Jesus says you search the scriptures because you think in them, you have eternal life. And he says, it is they that speak of me. So according to Jesus, all of the books in the Bible speak of him.

And that is true. And that is true of the book of Revelation. Also, it speaks of Jesus.

And I want to, I want us to have a look at that aspect of the book this morning and see Jesus in this book. I'm going to go to three separate passages, but we'll begin by reading chapter five, verses six through 14. Revelation five, verse six.

And I looked and behold in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Then he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne. Now, when you had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each having a hop and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

And they sang a new song saying, you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and you have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us Kings and priests to our God. And we shall reign in the earth. Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders and the number of them that them was 10,000 times, 10,000 and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.

And every creature, which is under heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them, I heard them saying blessing and honor and glory and power be to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb forever and ever. Amen. Then the four living creatures said, amen.

And the 24 elders fell down and worshiped him who sits, who lives forever and forever. And I'm going to begin in chapter one. And as I said, I'm going to take you to three passages, three sections of the book and chapter one begins by giving us the setting.

John says he is writing. He tells us that he was on the Island of Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony. In other words, he was in, in prison.

This was a penal colony where people quarried, uh, the marble out of which the, the, um, the palaces in Rome and throughout the world was built for the Caesars. And he is, he is obviously sent there because of the fact that he, uh, would not submit or bow before Caesar. Remember that Christians at this time or not Christians, but everyone at this time was required to once a year worship Caesar.

And, uh, if you, once you did that, you've got a letter to say that you, um, had worshiped Caesar. And if the police stopped you on the street at any time, you would have to be able to produce that letter to say that you had indeed worshiped Caesar. And of course, Christians could not do that.

And so for this, they were fed to the lions. They were persecuted in many ways. And John was obviously sent to Patmos, uh, where he at an old age, 80 years old, uh, was now doing hard labor.

And in spite of that, you'll see that he, he says in verse nine of chapter one, sorry, I'm in chapter one of verse nine. I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patients of Jesus Christ was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God. And for the testimony of Jesus Christ, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day.

And I heard behind me a loud voice as of a trumpet saying, I'm the alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, what you see right in the book and send it to the seven churches, which are in Asia to Ephesus, Myrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, to Saunders, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. And when I turned to see the voice that spoke with me and having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the son of man.

Now, this is a very important introduction that, that John gives us. You know, if you or I were in John's place, I don't know what we would have written. Maybe we would have written about the hardship and about the way that we miss the churches back on the mainland, because this was some way off the coast, how he missed seeing other Christians, how hard it was to work in the hot sun at his old age.

But, you know, John writes nothing about those things, but he says, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. Now this doesn't mean that he was in a trance, but he's simply saying that he was in a right relationship with God and being in that position. What does he see? He doesn't see the difficulties.

He doesn't see the hardship, but he sees Jesus. And if we are in the spirit, it doesn't matter how many difficulties we have. It doesn't matter what our circumstances are or the situation around us is, we will see Jesus.

And we will see Jesus in every situation. Whether, and you remember, there was the three young men who wouldn't deny, very much like John, who would not bow before this image made in Babylon. And they were cast into the living, into this fire.

And then they looked, people looked on the outside and there were those three young men. They were, they were alive, but not just, they were alive. But in fact, what they said is we see one like the son of man walking with them.

And so in the midst of our difficulties, in the midst of our, of our trials and our persecutions, and remember John is writing to Christians who are facing tremendous persecution for the faith. And he is saying, it doesn't matter how many difficulties you have, how many problems you have in your family, how many financial problems you have, how many health problems you have. You can still see Jesus in all of those things.

And how does he see Jesus? He sees Jesus in his power and his glory. And this is one of the things that's important about the book of Revelation is it restores the balance of our view of Jesus. Too many people's understanding of Jesus is based just on the gospels.

And how do we see Jesus in the gospels? We see him meek and mild, riding upon an ass. We see him crucified. We see him not opening his mouth to defend himself.

And sometimes the picture that we have of Jesus is only formed by how we saw Jesus in his humiliation as he walked on the face of the earth for those three, uh, 33 years. And obviously particularly the last three years that is recorded for us. But what the book of Revelation does is it gives us the full picture and it reminds us that Jesus is no longer walking the streets of Jerusalem, that Jesus is no longer standing before Pilate and not giving him an answer, that Jesus is no longer upon a cross being spat upon and beaten and bleeding.

But in fact that he is risen and not only is he risen, but he is glorified and he is indeed the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And that's a very important part of the book of Revelation. And sometimes we miss out on that because we don't read the book of Revelation and we particularly don't read it to see Jesus, we read it to try and understand the future.

And so we need to see Jesus because it completes our understanding of who Jesus is. And it particularly shows us and opens our understanding as to who Jesus is now and who he will be in the future. And we need to, we need to get away from the fixation we have.

And, and yes, we, that was part of who he was, the way that he came and, and was born in a manger and, and lived the 33 years and died and was buried and rose and ascended. That, that, that's a very important part of who he was. But remember that Jesus is not just a man, but he is also God.

And the book of Revelation shows us him restored to his divine power and glory and magnificence. So when we pray today, who do we pray to? Do we pray to a Jesus who is in a manger? Do we pray to a Jesus who's on a cross? And I know even today there are, there are millions of people who've gone to churches and have prayed to a Jesus on a cross. Or do we pray to one who is glorified, who is the king of kings, who rules and reigns forever? And this is what John shows us is, is he shows us who we, who we have our relationship with today.

And he begins and he says, he heard this voice and the voice said, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last. I'm the beginning and the end. Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet.

Omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet. And so if this had to be, if he was speaking English, he would have said, I am the A to Z. I'm the beginning and the end. And that's a wonderful thing.

The book of Revelation is about the end. And this is the end. Jesus was there at the beginning.

In the beginning was, John said, the word. In the beginning was the word and he created everything. But now we come right to the end.

And now he says at the end is Jesus, the word still there. I'm the beginning and the end. And then he says, I turned in verse 12 to see the voice that spoke with me.

And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands and the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the son of man. Where did we find those words before? I just told you the story a few minutes ago. They saw the fourth man in the furnace, like the son of man, same words, like the son of man.

And this is what he looked like. Clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. Now, let me just introduce just one thought here in terms of our theology.

God is a spirit. God does not wear clothes. Not because he's a nudist and I say respectfully, but because he's a spirit.

He doesn't have a body. But Jesus came and he took upon himself a human form and he will forever have that human form. He is not limited by the limitations of our bodies.

He doesn't die. He doesn't get old. He can go through doors and through windows.

He can move. He can be everywhere at the same time. You know, he has all of the attributes of God.

He knows everything. He is all powerful, but it is all in a human shape, packaged in a human body. And so when we see him here with clothes on and with crowns on, this is not God, but this is Jesus.

And because he has that shape and that form that we are able to relate to, because we have such great difficulty in understanding God as a spirit. And that's why Jesus came and took upon himself this human form. And so he speaks about the fact that he was clothed with a garment down to the feet, girded about the chest with a golden band.

His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes like a flame of fire. And I want to just touch on a few of these things because we have so much to get through this morning. But it says that his eyes were like a flame of fire.

Sometimes we speak about somebody who has piercing eyes, that when they look at you, they look right through you. And it's speaking about Jesus, and his eyes are like fire. They burn.

And he literally does look right through. And he tests, and remember that the book of Corinthians speaks about that, that everything that we do will be tested by fire. And the fire is his eyes that just looks at things.

And you know, we say, God, you know, I did all these things for you. Here's all of my labor. And he looks right through it.

And he just burns up all the wrong motives and all the wrong stuff that's attached to that. And he sees it for what it's really worth. And so that which is rubbish is just consumed just by his looking at it.

So his eyes are as a flame of fire. And I want you to see that the different picture that is introduced right at the beginning here. We're not seeing that Jesus who stands before Caesar and who's maybe downcast, and his eyes are full of love and compassion.

But we're seeing a different eye, the eyes that are fiery, the eyes that speak of judgment. And then in verse 15, his feet are like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace. And his voice like the sound of many waters.

His feet are like fine brass. And whenever you read about brass in the Bible, it speaks about judgment. And you'll see one of the pictures we're going to see of Jesus later on in the book is that he treads the winepress and the fierceness of the wrath of a mighty God, speaking about his judgment, and the fact that he's going to rule and judge the earth, that he's going to judge the nations for all of their wickedness and all of their evil.

And so his eyes speak of judgment, his feet speak of judgment. And then it says that his voice is the sound of many waters. Remember, Pinus said, don't you answer me.

Remember that he cried his last words, almost last words, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The cries of a man who is dying, who is dying of thirst and of asphyxiation. But here he sounds of the sound of many waters, the sound of a waterfall, rushing, powerful, thundering. And then he says, and in his right hand, seven stars.

And out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. And his countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. In his right hand were seven stars.

And we see that those seven stars represent seven churches in the next three chapters. So he holds the churches in his hand. Sometimes we feel that God is really not involved in our church.

We say, Lord, you know, are you really involved? Are you really here? And he says, I'm holding you. I'm holding you in my hand. And he says, nothing will pluck you out of my hand.

He promises us elsewhere. So not only is he the judge, not only is he coming to rule and to reign, but he's holding us. And out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword.

Again, this judgment. Remember the book of Hebrews, chapter four, verse 12, says that the word of God is a sharp two-edged sword, and it divides, and it judges, and it cuts asunder flesh and spirit, bones and marrow, thoughts and the intents of the mind. And so his word is piercing.

His word is judging. His word is dividing all the time. And he says that in his, sorry, verse 16, out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.

You can't look into the sun. You'll be blinded. And you know, when you look at his face, it's like the sun.

You can't look at it. It's just too glorious. Wasn't this what John, what Paul saw on the road to Damascus? He saw that great blinding light, and he was blind.

He was blinded, physically blinded by what he saw. That was how glorious it is, what he saw at that point. What did he see? He saw Jesus.

And do you remember Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, he says, I saw him as one born out of due time. The others saw him physically after the resurrection. But he says, I also saw him.

But remember that when they saw him, when the 120 in the upper room saw him, when Peter and Mary and the others saw Jesus, they saw him in his human form, because he had not yet been glorified. He had been resurrected, but not yet glorified. But when Paul saw him, he had ascended, and he had received back his full glory.

And so when Paul sees Jesus on that road to Damascus, he sees the same picture that John sees. His face is like the sun shining in its strength, and you just can't look into the sun without being blinded. And so he sees the power and the glory and the magnificence of the Lord Jesus.

In verse 17, and this is his response, when I saw him, I felt that his feet is dead, but he laid his right hand on me saying to me, do not be afraid. I'm the first and the last. What happened to Paul when he saw Jesus on the road to Damascus? He was blinded, but what happened? He fell off his horse.

He fell down. And John has the same experience. He falls down and he feels just like those men who came to apprehend Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.

You remember, he said, who are you looking for? And they said, we're looking for Jesus. He says, I am he. And they fell down.

I get scared when I hear people speaking about the fact that they saw Jesus. One of the things I always wonder, if you saw Jesus, especially TV preachers, they like to say, I saw Jesus. But if you saw Jesus, did you fall down? Were you blinded by that experience? If we're going to see Jesus today, you see, the problem is this, that when they say we saw Jesus, they saw Jesus in their minds and they saw him the way he is depicted in the gospels, meek and lowly.

But if you really see Jesus, if Jesus, for some reason or the other decides to reveal himself to you, to show himself to you in his, in the way that he is today, you will not see him on a cross. You will not see him with long hair and a beard and blue eyes. You will see him the way Paul saw him.

You'll see him the way John saw him, glorified with a face shining so that you just can't look into his face. And you have one response. There can only be one response.

And that is to feel all at his feet as one who is dead because he is just so powerful. He's just so glorious. He is so magnificent.

And then we go across the passage that we read in chapter five. And I'm just going to look at, I just want to take one particular aspect of this passage that we read. And we'll explain the meaning of the scroll and the seven seals as we go through the studies on this book.

But verse six of Revelation five, he says, I looked and behold in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though it had been slain. Now you don't have to be a theologian to understand who this is. This is Jesus.

He is the lamb of God. Remember John pointed to him, John the Baptist pointed to him and says, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus is depicted as that lamb who died in our place.

And so here is Jesus again, and he is shown to be a lamb as though it had been slain. Now, obviously he's alive. So why does it say as though he had been slain? Because he's bearing the marks of his death.

And so there he is. He's shown as a lamb, but he's still bearing the marks in his hands and his feet and in his side. As though one that had been slain, but he's not dead.

He's alive. But I want to focus just on this little aspect, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And I'm not going to speak about the seven eyes and the seven spirits.

And obviously this here, all right, let me take a break here for a moment. One of the problems we have with the book of Revelation is people say, well, you know, it's filled with all these pictures and these symbols and these things, and none of it's literal. It's all pictures.

It's all spiritual. And so how do we know whether it is spiritual, whether it's literal? And obviously the book of Revelation contains some things that are spiritual, some things that are pictures that represent something else. The same way as a parable is earthly story that represents a heavenly meaning.

But now that's not all of the book of Revelation. Most of the revelation is literal. It's something that is real the way that it is.

And when John says, I saw him, John saw him. When it says that there is war, it means war. You can't spiritualize that and say, well, you know, this is political dialogue or, you know, whatever other meaning you want to put to it.

War means war. And in fact, we know that it's literal because it speaks about the blood and war is about blood and about death and about burying the dead. So when it speaks about war, it's a literal thing.

How do we know then the difference between parts of the book that are spiritual and need to be interpreted in a spiritual way and parts of the book that are literal and need to be taken literally? And that's where we have some difficulty. And folks, it's really not difficult. It's easy.

And just remember this, and we'll come back to this for those who are going to be in the Bible studies. It's literal unless it is obvious that it cannot be literal. It's literal unless it is obvious that it cannot be literal.

Let's go back to the Gospels. Jesus speaks about many things. Some of the things he's using pictures and some of the things he is speaking literally.

We read part of Jesus's sayings this morning, and it says that he revealed to them that he would have to go to Jerusalem and that he would have to suffer and die. Was that literal or was that a picture? No, it was literal. It meant exactly what he said it meant.

But then somewhere else Jesus says, you shouldn't take your pearls and throw them before pigs. Is that literal? No, obviously not. How do we know it's not literal? Because it's obvious.

It's obvious that he's not speaking about taking your necklace and throwing it at a pigsty. But he's using that as a picture to illustrate a spiritual truth. It's obvious.

Now, when we come to the book of Revelation, he speaks about war and he speaks about the blood and the burying of the dead and the machines and the engines of war. What is that? That has to be literal because it's clear. But now here he speaks about Jesus and he says he looks like a lamb that had been slain.

He has seven horns and he has seven eyes. Is that literal? I don't think so. It's obvious that it's not literal because Jesus doesn't look like a sheep, and I say that respectfully.

Jesus doesn't look like a sheep. We get the picture in chapter one. He looks like a man.

So we know that this is not literal, that this is a picture that depicts some spiritual principles. And so when it speaks of him as a lamb, what is it telling us? It's reminding us that he was the lamb of God and the lamb is always spoken in the context of the sacrifice. The lamb is always spoken of in a context of sacrifice.

And so the lambs that were taken at the day of Passover in order to make atonement for the sins of the people, Jesus became that lamb that took the place of all of those other lambs and paid the ultimate sacrifice. Remember, it speaks about him being led before as a sheep is led to the shearers is done, so he opened not his mouth. And so it always speaks about that when it speaks about the lamb, it speaks about the sacrifice that Jesus made.

So it's reminding us that Jesus is the one who paid the price. He was a sacrifice. He still bears those marks as it had been slain, but he's alive.

But now there are two other aspects. He has seven eyes and seven horns, and I'm not going to speak about the seven eyes. He has seven horns.

So obviously he doesn't have seven horns. You can see that it's a picture. And so what does it mean? Well, when you go to the old Testament, you find that horns appear a number of times in the old Testament, but mainly in the temple of the tabernacle.

And you remember the altar had horns, four horns on each of the corners. The altar of incense had four horns, one on each of the corners. What do horns speak about? Horns represent power and authority.

Horns are something which comes from the animal kingdom. And when you look at the animals, what do the horns represent? They represent the authority. And in many of the many animal species, the buck with the biggest horns is the leader of the tribe or of the pack.

It represents his power. When male antelope or buck fight for power or for territory or for dominance, which one wins? Invariably, how do they fight? They fight with their horns. Which one wins? Invariably, the one with the biggest horns.

So the horns represent the authority, the power. In many of these animal species, you find that the female animals don't have horns. The males have the horns.

And the males with the biggest horns are the leaders of the tribe. So the horns represent power. They represent authority.

They also represent maturity. And here in America, you have deer, and they speak about a, I don't remember, a five-point deer. Where are the hunters? There are no hunters.

All city slickers. They speak about a five-point deer or a seven-point deer, meaning that it has seven horns, seven points on the horns, and that indicates how old it is. It indicates its maturity.

So a young deer, a young buck only has one point. And as they get older, they have more points. So the horns represent power.

They represent authority. The number seven represents what? Perfection, divine completion. And so Jesus has seven horns in this picture.

So he has power. He has authority. And he has seven, which means he has perfect power and perfect authority.

But I want you to see the picture. It shows him as a lamb, not as a ram. So he is that lamb that was slain, but he now has power.

Not the lamb that was dumb before its shearers. Not the lamb that was--you remember Abraham turned when he was about to sacrifice his son, and he turned, and there was an animal, a ram, caught in the thickets. This is not Jesus who is caught, who has no options, who has to lay down his life for us.

This is the risen, glorious, powerful one. And what he's saying by this picture is, I have all power. Divine perfection.

I have all power. And so we need to begin to change our thinking of saying, well, the picture I have of Jesus is of this lamb that was led to the slaughter. The picture I have of Jesus is of this meek and mild lamb.

No, the picture we should have of Jesus today is of the risen, glorious, powerful Lord, who has all power and who has all authority. That's the picture he's giving us. Now let's go to Revelation chapter 19.

And Revelation 19 is important in the scheme of the book, because the chapters up to here, from chapter 4 through 18, gives us all the bad news, all of the judgments and the war and the tribulation and all of these things. Then chapter 19, things change. And then chapter 20 through chapter 22 gives us the good news.

So you have the bad news, chapters 4 through 18, you have chapter 19 in between, and then you have the good news, chapter 20 through 22. And so chapter 19 is where everything turns. And it turns around Jesus.

He is the focus, he is the center, he is the pivot. So chapter 19 of Revelation and from verse 10. And I fell at his feet to worship him.

Notice the response again. Chapter 1, he fell at his feet as dead. Here in chapter 19, I fell at his feet to worship him.

But he said to me, see that you do not do that. Now this was the angel that he was, that gave him the revelation. I'm your fellow servant and of your brethren who have had the testimony of Jesus.

Worship God for the testimony of Jesus is a spirit of prophecy. Then verse 11, I saw heaven opened and behold, a white horse. And he who sat on him was called faithful and true.

And in righteousness, he judges and makes war. I saw him on a white horse. Now, for those who have read the book, you'll remember that there's another white horse, but that's not Jesus.

That's death. This is a different white horse. And Jesus is seen to sit on that white horse.

When was the other time we saw Jesus ride on an animal? He rode on a donkey and he came into Jerusalem. Is there a difference between a donkey and a horse? Yeah. Well, they both have four legs and a tail and a front end.

But yeah, there's a big difference in symbolically, there is a big difference between a horse and a donkey. Donkeys is what poor people ride. Horses are what rulers ride.

Donkeys is what peasants use. Horses is what warriors and soldiers use. There's a big difference between the two.

You wouldn't go to war on a donkey, except what was his name? Don Quixote. The only guy who, or was it Sancho Panza who rode the donkey? Anyway, you don't go to war on a donkey. You go to war on a horse.

And so when Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, it represented his humanity. It represented the fact that he was a servant. But now he's no longer riding on a donkey.

He's now riding on a horse. And it represents the fact that he is the ruler of the armies of heaven. And he's not coming meek and lowly riding upon the foal of an ass as is prophesied in the Old Testament, but he has come riding upon this white horse as the conqueror over the armies of the world.

And he's come to set up his kingdom. There's a huge difference between those pictures. And the picture we need to remember that he was the one on the donkey, but we put so much emphasis on the donkey and we forget that in fact, he's no longer riding a donkey.

When he comes again, he's going to be riding a white horse. And he sat on him was called faithful and true. And in righteousness, he judges and makes war.

When Jesus comes again, as far as the world is concerned, he's not coming to be crucified. He's coming to judge and to make war. Those are the two things he's coming.

Yes, for us as Christians, that's good news because he's coming to take us home. But for the world, as far as the world is concerned, he's coming to do those two things to judge, to make war. That's a terrible thing.

And you know, unfortunately, most people in the world look at Jesus and they see Jesus still as the suffering one as the meek and the mild one. But no, Jesus is not coming that way again. This next time he's coming, he's coming to judge and to make war.

In verse 12, his eyes are like a flame of fire. Where did we see that? Chapter one, same picture. And on his head were many crowns.

Now, remember in chapter five, he had seven horns speaking about his power. But here it says he has many crowns, not just one crown. And what do the crowns represent? Kingdom, kingship, the ruler.

But he doesn't have one crown. And all the kings that I've ever seen and pictures I've ever seen, we sometimes we see pictures of the queen of England and they have their crowns and they magnificent things bedecked with jewels and gold and all of these wonderful things. And it obviously represents their power and their authority as the king or the queen of the country.

But you know, I've never seen a king wear many crowns. They only always just wear one at a time. But Jesus wears many crowns indicating that he is the king of kings.

That he is the king over all the kings. That he's not just kings of one realm, but he's the king of all the realms. That he's the king of the spiritual domain.

He's the king of the natural domain. He's the king of the world. He's the king of the universe.

He's the king of kings and the Lord of lords. He has many crowns. And so his eyes are like a flame of fire.

Verse 12, he had many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except himself. And he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood.

And his name is called the word of God. He has a name. So he has a robe dipped in blood.

Now in chapter one, what did we see? He had a white garment on, but here in chapter 19, he has a garment that has the signs of the blood, his blood, his own blood that he shared for us on the cross. And then this 14 and the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen, white and clean followed him on white horses. Who's that? You and me.

Well, I certainly hope to be there. And I trust that you'll be there. The armies of heaven, follow him.

Those are us. These are the men that Enoch, seventh from Adam prophesied. The Lord comes with 10,000 of his saints.

And so we come with him and he's leading the battle. He's the captain leading the battle against the world. And out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, verse 15.

We saw that in chapter one also. And with it, he should strike the nations and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He himself treads the wine press and the fierceness of the wrath of almighty God.

With his word, he strikes the nations. You see, there's going to be a big battle called the battle of Armageddon. And then at the height of the battle, Jesus appears in this way.

He appears on this white horse with the armies of the, of the, of the, with the Christians and the angels coming with him. And then the armies of the world turned to fight with him. And what is he going to use to, to fight this battle? Not an atom bomb, not nuclear war, not bullets, just his word.

Just his word, that same word, which he used to create the world. But this time his word is no longer creating, but his world is, his word is destroying. And as he speaks, he just consumes the armies of the, of the enemies of God.

What a powerful thing. Remember that he stood before Pilate and he didn't open his mouth, but now when he speaks, his word destroys, his word consumes the armies that fight against him. And then there's this gruesome picture of him.

He will rule them with a rod of iron and he treads the winepress of the fierceness and the wrath of almighty God. This is a terrible time. You know, the, the, one of the accusations that people bring against the, against Christianity and against God is they say, if God is who we say he is, how, why does he allow all of the crime and the rape of babies and the murder and the wars to continue? While he's continuing, he's allowing that Peter says, because he's giving people, people time to repent, but it doesn't mean he's turning a blind eye.

And we've been studying in the book of Romans that what is happening is that his anger and his wrath against these things is accumulating, is building up. And what's going to happen at the end of time, and this is what he's speaking about, is he's going to unleash all of his anger and he's all of his judgment against all of the, all of the atrocities and all of the murders and all of the genocide and everything that man has been doing. He's going to judge the world for those things.

And he's going to tread the winepress. The same way as a man gets into a, into a vat or into a container with grapes and he treads out those and the, and the juice comes out, he's going to stand and he's going to walk all over the people of this world and all over the kingdoms of this world and the juice is going to flow. Except it's not going to be grape juice.

It's going to be the blood of the nations. A terrible, terrible time. And you know, I think that sometimes our pictures have been saying of Jesus is the wrong picture because we see him upon that cross.

And yes, he was on that cross, but when he comes again, he's going to come to tread the winepress and the fierceness and the wrath of a mighty God with judgment upon the earth. Verse 16, he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And finally, I'm going to close by reminding you about the book of Philippians that says that because he humbled himself to the death of the cross, God has highly exalted him, given him a name, which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue confess.

I think we have one of two choices. Either we bow our knee before him today willingly, acknowledging him as our Lord and as our King and as our Master, not just as our Savior. Too many people want to have him as their Savior, but they don't want him as their Lord.

You can't separate those things. You have to have him as both Savior and Lord, both as friend and master. And if we don't do it today, the time comes when everyone will bow before him, according to Philippians.

And this is the time. And so the choice is, do I willingly bow before him today and say, Lord Jesus, you are my King. You're the one I serve.

You are my Master. Or am I going to wait until that day when he comes with a rod of iron and he forces me to bow before him? I don't know about you, but I rather would willingly bow before him and receive him as my Lord and my Master and my Savior, than have to wait to the day that he breaks my back and treads me in his winepress and brings me to a place where I have to bow before him, whether I like it or not. And so Jesus is glorious.

He is the King of Kings. He is the Lord of Lords. He has resurrected.

He has risen with power and with healing in his wings. And I want for us just to see him no longer as the Jesus of Gethsemane, the Jesus of Calvary, the Jesus of Galilee, but the Jesus who rules and reigns in heaven and who is coming very soon to set up his kingdom. Father, thank you for your word.

Thank you for the completeness of your word and that you don't just give us part of the picture and part of the story, but you give us the whole picture. And Father, forgive us for never reading the end of the story and for sometimes having an impression that Jesus continues to be the one who is meek and lowly and riding upon the foal of an ass. Help us to see him the way he really is, risen, glorified, given a name which is above every name, given all power and all authority in heaven and in earth.

And Father, we bow before him this morning and we worship and adore him. And we say he is worthy of our worship. He is worthy of our adoration.

He is worthy of becoming and being our Lord. And so Father, we bow before you this morning and we bow before Jesus and we acknowledge him as Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Lord, I pray that everyone in the service this morning would come to that point where they would acknowledge Jesus as Lord.

And Father, as a representative of this church, we want to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord of this church, that he is the King and he is the Master and he is the Lord and he is the supreme authority in this church. But Lord, we pray that that may be true and real in every one of our lives. And so we thank you that we are not serving a defeated savior, that we're not serving one who died and lived as a man, but one who died, lived as a man, but is risen and glorious and is powerful and who's coming to set up his kingdom.

Lord, we want to be part of that kingdom. Make these things real to us, Lord. As we struggle with some of these things, we pray that you'd help us in our unbelief, help us in our ignorance, help us to understand and above all, help us to do and to obey your word.

We ask these things in Jesus' name. Separate us and part us now with your blessing. Go with us.

Bring us together again this evening. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.