“The Return of the King”
Revelation 19:11-20:3
“11And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. 13And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. 14And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 15And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
The rider on the white horse of Rev. 6:2 is the false Christ, but this Rider is the true Christ.
He is not coming in the air to take His people home (1 Thes. 4:13-18), but to the earth with His people, to conquer His enemies and establish His kingdom.
Note the emphasis on Jesus’ names (Rev. 19:11-13, 16).
He is “Faithful and True” (see Rev. 3:14), in contrast to “the beast” who was unfaithful (he broke the covenant with Israel) and false (he ruled by means of deception and idolatry).
Suffering saints need to be reminded that God is faithful and will not desert them, because His promises are true.
Perhaps the “secret name” (see Rev. 19:12) is the same as the “new name” (Rev. 3:12). To the Church at Philadelphia He wrote, “12Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.”
Not knowing what this name is, we cannot comment on it; but it is exciting to know that, even in heaven, we shall learn new things about our Lord Jesus!
Whatever the name I am sure that it will reveal even more of His character like His other names.
Verse 13 reveals one of the many names of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ; He is called, “The Word of God”. This one of the familiar names of our Lord in Scripture (John 1:1-14).
Just as we reveal our minds and hearts to others by our words, so the Father reveals Himself to us through His Son, the incarnate Word (Rev. 14:7-11).
A word is made up of letters, and Jesus Christ is “Alpha and Omega” (Rev. 21:6; 22:13).
He is the “divine alphabet” of God’s revelation to us.
The Word of God is “living and powerful” (Heb. 4:12); what’s more, it fulfills His purposes on earth (Rev. 17:17; note also Rev. 6:11; 10:7; 15:1).
Jehovah Himself says, “I am watching to see that My Word is afulfilled” (Jer. 1:12, niv).
Just as the Word was the Father’s Agent in Creation (John 1:1-3), so the Word is His Agent for judgment and consummation.
Christ’s most important name is “King of kings, and Lord of lords” (Rev. 19:16).
This is His victorious name (Rev. 17:14), and it brings to mind references such as Daniel 2:47 and Deuteronomy 10:17.
“47The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret.”
“17For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:”
Paul used this same title for our Lord Jesus Christ in 1 Timothy 6:15.
“15Which in his times he shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;”
The title speaks of Christ’s sovereignty, for all kings and lords must submit to Him.
No matter who was on the throne of the Roman Empire, Jesus Christ was his King and Lord!
The greatness of Christ is seen not only in His names, but also in John’s description of the conquering King (Rev. 19:12-16).
The eyes “as a flame of fire” symbolize His searching judgment that sees all (Rev. 1:14).
The many crowns (diadems) indicate His magnificent rule and sovereignty.
The vesture dipped in blood speaks of judgment and probably relates to Isaiah 63:1-6 and Revelation 14:20, the conquest of His enemies.
It is not our Lord’s blood that marks His vesture, but that of His foes. His blood was spilled at the cross during His First Coming for redemption.
This is a picture of His Second Coming which is in judgment and wrath.
This is not His own atoning blood which is associated with His First Coming. This is the blood of His enemies from His trampling them in the “winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God”
The sharp sword is a symbol of God’s Word (Rev. 19:21; see also Eph. 6:17; Heb. 4:12; Rev. 1:16).
As He used His Word to create and to sustain, He uses His Word to defeat the enemy.
“By the word of the LORD the heavens were made and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth” (Ps. 33:6)
We have met with the “rod of iron” before (Rev. 2:27; 12:5), a symbol of His justice as He rules over the earth.
The image of the winepress must be associated with the judgment at Armageddon (Rev. 14:14-20; see also Isa. 63:1-6).
Jesus is not alone in His conquest, for the armies of heaven ride with Him. Who are they?
Certainly the angels are a part of this army (Matt. 25:31; 2 Thes. 1:7); but so are the saints (1 Thes. 3:13; 2 Thes. 1:10).
It will be unnecessary for the army to fight, for Christ Himself will defeat the enemy through three great victories.
He will defeat the armies of the kings of the earth (vv. 17-19, 21).
“17And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; 18That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. 19And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. 21And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.”
These warriors have assembled to fight “against the Lord and against His anointed” (Ps. 2:1-3), but their weapons prove futile.
The battle turns out to be a slaughter—a “supper” for the scavenger birds!
The first half of Revelation 19 describes the marriage supper of the Lamb; the last half describes the “supper of the great God” (see Matt. 24:28; Luke 17:37).
The word flesh occurs six times in this paragraph.
While John’s immediate reference is to the human body, eaten by the vultures, there is certainly a deeper meaning here: man fails because he is flesh and relies on flesh.
The Bible has nothing good to say about fallen human nature.
Recall the Lord’s words before the Flood: “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh” (Gen. 6:3). (See also John 3:6; 6:63; Rom. 7:18; Phil. 3:3.)
“All flesh is as grass” (1 Peter 1:24) and must be judged. This is the account of the well-known “battle of Armageddon,” which was anticipated earlier (Rev. 14:14-20; 16:13-16).
All that our Lord has to do is speak the Word, and “the sword of His mouth” will devour His enemies.
So the armies of the world are gone, but He has more to conquer:
He Will Defeat “The Beast” And False Prophet (v. 20).
“20And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.”
Since Satan’s “henchmen” are the leaders of the revolt, it is only right that they be captured and confined.
They are cast into the lake of fire (see Rev. 20:10, 14-15), the final and permanent place of punishment for all who refuse to submit to Jesus Christ.
“The beast” and false prophet are the first persons to be cast into hell. Satan will follow 1,000 years later (Rev. 20:10), to be joined by those whose names are not recorded in the Book of Life (Rev. 20:15).
Today, when an unbeliever dies, his spirit goes to hell or hades, the place of the dead.
When believers die, they go immediately into the presence of the Lord (2 Cor. 5:6-8; Phil. 1:19-23).
Hades will one day be emptied of its dead (Rev. 20:13), who will then be cast into the lake of fire to join Satan, the beast, and the false prophet.
Satan Will Be Defeated (vv. 1-3).
“1And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 3And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.”
The “bottomless pit” spoken of in Revelation 20:1 is not the same as hell.
Satan is not cast into hell immediately, because God still has one more task for him to perform.
Rather, Satan is confined in the bottomless pit for 1,000 years.
As we saw with Jesus, there is an emphasis on the names of satan.
The dragon – the old serpent refers to the ancient enemy of man who entered into the garden. God starts to identify him from the beginning.
He was on hand at the fall of man and now man is on hand for his fall.
The devil reveals his duties to God today – he is the accuser. He keeps record of the sins of man to present them to God.
This name also reveals the deception of satan. For he is false accuser of the brethren.
And back to satan the great adversary of both man and God. He is taken and bound and cast into the pit for 1000 years.
Here is the significance of this event:
First, Satan was cast out of heaven (Rev. 12:9), and now he is cast out of earth!
Do you see how quickly God diminishes the power of Satan?
There is no power struggle.
There is no battle. One moment he is running around and the next he is bound and thrown into the pit!
The seal is placed on him to limit his influence on mankind. For 1000 years he will not have the power to deceive the nations.
We are told that this binding is only temporary. Satan does not escape. He is not going to overcome… he will be released to do the will of God after the 1000 years.
Satan is in the business of deception.
Throughout history he propagated the lie that mankind by its own efforts can provide the perfect environment.
This never succeeded nor will it ever succeed.
Communism was an attempt to provide a social environment whereby people would be equal. However, no amount of government can create perfect people.
People cannot reach their ultimate potential by their own efforts.
A perfect environment is not the solution to mankind’s problems.
People will fail even under the perfect environment of the millennial reign of Christ.
A perfect society is one of the greatest deceptions of Satan.
He loves to put this in the minds of national leaders.
His deception in the Tribulation was that internationalism is the cure-all for mankind.
Let’s not kid ourselves, Satan is on the loose today.
He is out to deceive. Only faith in the Word of God will enable us to resist him today.
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world” (1 Peter 5:8).
Satan is not bound today; he is free to roam about “seeking whom he may devour”. However, Satan’s power cannot control us if we operate by faith in the promises of God.
Satan’s main deception involves the Word of God.
He wants to destroy its credibility. If he can do that, he can destroy the credibility of God.
Satan deceives man about the true values of life. He instills values of power lust, sex lust and greed. These things are the polar opposite of faith in Christ as the One who provides everything we need.
Having taken care of His enemies, the Lord is now free to establish His righteous kingdom on the earth.
