For seven long years the Tribulation had been raging across the earth. Scores of people had been destroyed by the outpouring of God’s wrath. News outlets scrambled as unexplainable catastrophes happened one by one. Those unwilling to take the mark of the beast had to hide for their lives; others had been found and beheaded. Entire cities were decimated. Whole communities were gone.
This is the picture that the Bible gives us in the book of Revelation. We’ve only seen it in movies, but the Apocalypse will happen one day, and no movie can accurately display the horrors of what will unfold. It’s so despairing! Where is the hope?
The hope finally becomes reality in chapter 19, verse 11: “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse…” This Rider was the conquering King, and He had finally returned to conquer the world once and for all.
Notice five distinctive truths concerning the Conqueror:
1. THE NAMES OF THE CONQUEROR (v. 11-13, 16)
The Conqueror is given no less than four names here:
—Faithful and True (v. 11)—describes the character of Christ
—The Word of God (v. 13)—speaks of His deity
John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
—KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS (v. 16)—speaks of His ultimate authority. No king is higher than Jesus.
—A name that no man knew (v. 12)—speaks of the magnitude and mystery of Christ.
Henry Morris: “The names assigned to the Lord Jesus Christ in Scripture are many and beautiful…but all of them together cannot exhaust the infinite meaning of His ineffable name. We know Him in many wonderful attributes, but we can never know Him in His incomprehensible fullness. He is all and in all and we, even in the glorious resurrection, can never learn everything concerning Him, though no doubt our knowledge of Him will continue to grow throughout eternity. The fullness of His mighty name, only He can know!”
2. THE DESCRIPTION OF THE CONQUEROR (v. 12-13)
When Jesus came the first time, it was a lowly entrance. We’re very familiar with it. He was born to peasants and laid in a manger in a smelly stable! Jesus will also look different than He did the first time. Isaiah 53:2 says that Jesus had “no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.” Unlike the paintings, Jesus was not the model of perfection. He looked ordinary.
But when He returns as the King of kings, He will look anything but ordinary!
—His eyes are a flame of fire (judgment)
—His head is adorned with many crowns (King of all the nations)
—His vesture is dipped in blood (vengeance, the blood of His enemies)
But that’s not all. We have a further description of Christ in Revelation 1 (read v. 14-16)
—His hair is white as wool (wisdom)
—His feet were like fine brass (purity)
—His voice was like the sound of many waters (authority)
This is not a portrait of a handsome Jesus; it is a portrait of a fearsome King, the likes of which we have never seen! He is not coming this time as a meek Lamb, but as an avenging Conqueror.
3. THE HOSE WITH THE CONQUEROR (v. 14)
The armies in heaven—that’s us! During the Tribulation, we are with the Lord in heaven. When Jesus returns as the King, we get to ride with Him upon white horses wearing white linen robes.
Did you know that this was prophesied about in the Old Testament?
Zechariah 14:5, “And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.”
Jude 14-15, “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
David Jeremiah: “In one short verse, Jude used the word ungodly four times. This repetition is not accidental. Jude was emphasizing the fact that when Christ comes the second time, His long-suffering patience will have run its course…At this point the people on the earth will have rejected the ministry of the 144,000 preachers and the two witnesses that God sent to them for their salvation, just as the prophet Jonah was sent to the Ninevites…But unlike the Ninevites, the people in the last days will have hardened their hearts beyond repentance.”
4. THE JUDGMENT OF THE CONQUEROR (v. 15)
Notice three key points here:
—a sharp sword (a conquering King)
—a rod of iron (a just King)
Psalm 2:8-9, “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
—winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God (an avenging King)
Up to this point the devil has been the god of this world, but now Christ has returned to reclaim the world. He has come to subdue His enemies before reigning as the monarch of the world.
Believe it or not, Christ will be a dictator. He will have absolute say, and His word will be final. He will not tolerate rebellion, and His justice system will be swift and righteous. Because of this, the millennial age will be a time of peace.
5. THE WAR AGAINST THE CONQUEROR (v. 17-21)
Illustration: Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds
The word fowl in verses 17 and 21 are both the Greek word orneon, which means a “scavenger bird.” In other words, these are vultures.
Zechariah 14:3-4, “Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.”
The Anti-christ and the false prophet are both cast into the Lake of Fire. It will be 1,000 years until all the other unbelievers join them. As for the rest of the opposing army, they are dispatched by Christ Himself. Not much of a war. The saints don’t even get to fight, but are only there to watch the Conquering King defeat all His enemies.
The vultures will have quite a feast. The vast army will be cut to pieces by Christ’s sword and blood will be gushing everywhere. Their carcasses will be devoured by the birds, a grisly end for God’s enemies.
CONCLUSION
In 1914, Ernest Shackleton put out an advertisement looking for adventurers. Here is what it said: “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.” Shackleton, along with 28 men, would be the first to cross the Antarctic continent on foot.
Shackleton was an able leader and a certified hero. His men came to call him “the Boss.” He worked as hard as any crew member and built solid unity on the ship, aptly named Endurance. In January 1915, the ship became entrapped in an ice pack and ultimately sank, leaving the men to set up camp on an ice floe (a flat slice of sea ice). It was here that Shackleton proved his greatness as a leader. He kept the men busy during the day and entertained by night. He even gave up his warm fur-lined sleeping bag for one of the men, and personally served all the men hot milk every morning.
In April 1916, their thinning ice floe threatened to break apart, forcing the men to seek refuge on nearby Elephant Island. Knowing that rescue was unlikely, Shackleton and five others left to cross 800 miles of open Antarctic sea in a 20-foot-long life boat. There was more of a hope than a promise that they would return for the rest of the crew.
Second in command Frank Wild was left in charge in Shackleton’s absence. He maintained the routine the Boss had established, assigning daily duties, serving meals, planning athletic competitions, and keeping up morale. Wild kept the men busy shoveling away snow drifts so that they could be seen just in case a rescue ship appeared.
The firing of a gun was to be the prearranged signal that the rescue ship was near the island, but as Wild reported, “Many times when the glaciers were ‘calving,’ and chunks fell off with a rapport like a gun, we thought that it was the real thing, and after a time we got to distrust these signals.” But he never lost hope that the Boss would return. Confidently, Wild kept the last tin of kerosene and a supply of dry combustibles ready to ignite instantly for use as a locator signal when the “day of wonders” would arrive.
Due to Wild’s leadership, the men were prepared to break camp at a moment’s notice. Wild would roll up his sleeping bag each day with the remark, “Get your things ready, boys, the Boss may come today.” And sure enough, one day the mist opened and revealed the ship for which they had been waiting and longing and hoping for over four months. Wild’s cheerful anticipation proved infectious, and all the men were prepared when the evacuation day came.
The return of Christ will be far greater. The Tribulation will have ravaged the entire world. Those who have been saved during these 7 years will be desperate to see their Savior. Where is He? When will He return? Jesus said it best in Matthew 24:30—“And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” Can you see it? The entire world is going to look up and say, “Here comes the King!” For now we have to imagine this incredible moment, but some day we will see it for ourselves because we will be with the King of kings as He returns to conquer all His enemies!
Frank Wild was sure that his Boss would return, but he was only a man. Our returning King is the God of heaven, whose promises cannot fail! We have a lot to look forward to, but until that time comes, may we be faithful serving the Lord here on earth. The time is short. Don’t waste it! Redeem the time. Be faithful to your King.
