The Rider on the white horse saves the day

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 17

Revelation 19:11-21

Several weeks ago we talked about the battle of Armageddon that never was. It didn’t happen. There was no battle, not really. The forces of evil lined up for battle, but they didn’t actually get the chance to fight, because God just came in and wiped them out. We see the same thing pictured before us this evening in slightly different language.

First we encounter a rider on a white horse. This isn’t our first encounter with Him. In John’s vision of the four horsemen, the rider on the white horse was just starting to ride out to conquer. He wore a stephanos, a wreath-crown on his head, showing that He would be victorious. We identified that rider as the Lord Jesus, who would spend the New Testament era building His Church through the preaching of His Gospel. Now we encounter Him again in this vision, and there can be no question that it represents Jesus.

The rider was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. Those same names had been applied to Jesus earlier in Revelation. Now His faithfulness and truth would be seen in making war against the forces of evil. It will be a just war, even as His judgment against His enemies is perfectly just and righteous.

His eyes were like a flame of fire, just as Jesus was described back in chapter one, representing His omniscience, and on His head were many crowns. These are the diadems, the crowns of the great emperors and symbols of claims to divinity. He wears many of them, because He has now spent the New Testament era expanding the “empire” of His Church, and His Gospel has conquered the whole earth, bringing in the elect from every nation.

He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. A name describes a person. Jesus has many descriptions that are revealed to us, but there are also things about Jesus that we simply cannot know or comprehend—how He can be true God and Man in one Person, for example. But we don’t have to know everything about Him. We only have to know the things He has revealed in His Word.

He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood. This isn’t His own blood. It’s reference to a prophecy about the Christ’s final victory over all His enemies, recorded in the book of Isaiah: . Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like one who treads in the winepress? “I have trodden the winepress alone, And from the peoples no one was with Me. For I have trodden them in My anger, And trampled them in My fury; Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, And I have stained all My robes. For the day of vengeance is in My heart, And the year of My redeemed has come. I looked, but there was no one to help, And I wondered That there was no one to uphold; Therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me; And My own fury, it sustained Me. I have trodden down the peoples in My anger, Made them drunk in My fury, And brought down their strength to the earth.”

And His name is called The Word of God. There was that one name written on the rider that only He knows. But we have been told many of His names, including this famous one which only John uses: in His Gospel, in his first Epistle, and here in Revelation.

And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. This could be the angel armies. Or it could be all believers in heaven and on earth, lined up behind Christ the King, which, I think, makes the most sense. Fine linen, white and clean, was given earlier to the Bride of the Lamb, and all the saints were wearing white robes in earlier visions. But in the end, the armies don’t do any fighting. The rider on the white horse does it all Himself.

Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. Christ alone does the fighting with the sword that goes out of His mouth. That is the instrument of creation. It’s the instrument by which God upholds the universe. It’s the instrument with which God brings people from spiritual death to spiritual life, with which He sustains the faith of His people and calls the wanderers back to repentance. And it will finally be the instrument by which God brings all His enemies to justice, just as Paul says about the Antichrist in 2 Thess. 2 that the Lord will consume him with the breath of His mouth and destroy him with the brightness of His coming.

And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. There’s another name we are allowed to know. The rider on the white horse is King of kings and Lord of lords, the highest King, the highest Lord, who is King and Lord over everyone else who is called king or lord in the universe, whether human or angel or demon.

Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.” Usually when we hear about a supper that God provides, including the Lord’s Supper, it’s a pleasant thing, intended for all people to come and eat the good things the Lord will provide, both physical and spiritual—the blessings He offers the world in the Person of Christ. But not here. Only the birds of prey are invited to this supper, because it’s a supper of flesh, a supper of God’s enemies. And yes, this is a graphic and gory picture. But so have been the executions of Christian martyrs over the millennia. All the violence that men have done will be brought down on their own heads in the end. They get away with it now, but they won’t in the end.

And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. All God’s enemies—the secular Antichrist and the ecclesiastical Antichrist (the one within the Christian Church), together with the kings of the earth and their armies—are all gathered together to fight against God and against His army. This is no battle that would take place with guns or tanks or bombs, just as Christ won’t really return riding on a horse. These are all pictures of how God’s enemies will be lined up against Him and His true Church, determined to get rid of us once and for all. And I have to say, it seems like the world is alrighty lining up for battle. Between the secularists who openly deny God and want society to move on from religion entirely, and those, on the other hand, who still profess to believe in God but promote a false version of Him, with different standards of right and wrong and with a different way of being saved than through faith in Christ Jesus, most of the world has already gathered together for battle.

But there will be no actual battle. After all God’s enemies are gathered together against Him and His army, what happens? Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.

When the world is finally ready to be done with the Lord and with His people, the Last Day will come upon them like a thief. The rider on the white horse will save the day. The Lord Jesus will come, with His holy angels, and with a word He’ll raise the dead. The sleeping saints will be reunited with their bodies and gathered to the Lord. The living saints will be perfected and gathered to the Lord and to them. And the Lord Himself will fight for us. With a word, He’ll bring destruction on all our enemies and send them to eternal punishment in the lake of fire burning with brimstone, otherwise known as hell.

Once again we’re confronted with the main message of the book of Revelation. The world will line up against Christ and His Church. Injustice will prevail on earth for a time, and it will look like the true Church can’t possibly survive. But be faithful until the end. Don’t lose hope. Don’t lose heart. Because in the end the Lord comes, and we win. And Jesus will come riding in on that famous white horse to save the day. Come quickly, Lord Jesus! Amen.