Revelation 19Hallelujah! The Wedding Supper and the Rider on the White Horse

“A great multitude”: we saw the same wording in Revelation 7:9, where they were the martyrs from the great tribulation. This might be the multitude of heaven, he said, but it’s probably still the martyrs. They are praising God for the destruction of Babylon.

As a reminder, Babylon is the great prostitute, which represents all false religions, including unfaithful Christians. Babylon is also the great city that in the end times will lead all nations into fighting against God rather than revering Him. The city is destroyed at this point, but its influence is still great: they’re still gathering all the nations for war, even more so now.

The city is burning with an eternal smoke, an eternal furnace, forever destroyed; it can’t be resurrected. But its plan is still intact. It has still gathered the nations to war against Christ, and now that they’ve been taken out, they’re angry.

“True and just are his judgments” (like 15:3 and 16:7): God’s judgments correspond to the moral truth of things.

Babylon is destroyed because she “corrupted the earth,” or destroyed the earth, and destroyed God’s servants: “He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.” She destroyed, so she is being destroyed.

“Hallelujah” is in the New Testament four times, and this is the first one; the last one is in verse 6. These six verses contain all four New Testament uses of the word (19:1, 3, 4, 6). Psalms uses the word 29 times, but you can only see them in the Hebrew, unless you’re reading the CSB; most versions translate it “Praise the Lord.” But these four here are the most memorable uses of the word, and they’re why we find it in so many songs, sacred and secular alike. It’s Hebrew, from “Praise Yahweh.” So John, through the Holy Spirit, is expecting his Greek listeners to know a little bit of Hebrew here.

(Secular songwriters “don’t know what it means. They put it in their songs. We’re like, ‘All right, I’m going to praise God with you. It’s fine.’”)

“The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever” echoes Isaiah 34:10, “its smoke will rise forever,” in his prophecy against Edom. This is also the second time the phrase is used for the fury of God’s wrath on faithless humanity (Revelation 14:11).

It’s an indication of a final judgment: it’s done.

Now we see the twenty-four elders and four living creatures in action again, like we did in chapter 4 (their description is in 4:4 and 4:6). We haven’t seen them for a long time. Once again they are worshiping God, this time saying “Amen, Hallelujah!” to the righteous judgment of God on Babylon.

The command to praise. “Praise our God, all you his servants” echoes Psalm 134:1, “Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord.”

It also marks a theme change, because now we come to the first of two suppers. He preached a message called “The Tale of Two Suppers” on this part of Revelation 19 at the beginning of 2022, in the church’s Creation to Completion series. “If you want to go back and hear some fire preaching, go back to 2022.”

It’s going to be a party! Blessed, happy, rejoicing: you want to be invited to this supper … or verses 17–18 are looming. We’ll get there. This is the marriage supper between Christ and His bride, the Church.

The tables discussed: Why is God so serious about Christians being right with His church?

“Lord God Almighty” is used throughout Revelation (1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7; 19:6; 21:22). It speaks of the power of God and His control over all things.

“His bride” is the church: all the saints around the world who hold fast to the testimony of Jesus and who are marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit. In Revelation 21 the church, the bride, is also represented by the holy city coming down from heaven (21:2).

Mike shared from his own study of “made herself ready”: he understood the word as a term from the political world of the time, for getting yourself or your town ready for the king or the governor to visit, so that nothing could impede his coming. The rocks were picked up and the plants cleared out of the way. That’s what the bride has done: all the rocks of unforgiveness are gone, the roots of bitterness are plucked up, and the way into her is clear. It’s a dynamic, alive process going on in our lives today. “That’s a beautiful picture,” Pastor Jared said, of our responsibility to get ourselves and the church ready for the coming of Christ, like an Olympic city cleaning up and building to host the Games.

“Fine linen” is the garment that adorns the church, based on her own righteous acts on the earth. Meanwhile in chapter 21 we see that she’ll be decked out in jewels that the glory of God has given her, by recreating her new!

“Write this”: the angel is commanding this to be written for legacy, for future generations to understand it.

“Blessed are those who are invited.” You get to and have to be invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb. This is a necessity for your eternal soul. It’s like Luke 14:15: “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” This is one of seven blessings in Revelation.

“We’re doing that now. We’re all blessed. Awesome.” You want in on all of these blessings! They’re the seven beatitudes of Revelation, and that’s a great study right there.

“The wedding supper of the Lamb” is the supper you must be invited to. If you don’t come to this one, you’ll end up being on the menu for the great supper of God. This is the tale of two suppers, and the first one mentioned here is the good one.

That’s how high the stakes are.

Jesus Himself alluded to the wedding supper of the Lamb in His parables in Matthew 22:2–14 and Luke 14:15–24, saying that the kingdom of heaven is like a wedding banquet. Paul expanded on this, comparing human marriage to Christ’s relationship to the church: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” … “This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:25–32). The spiritual reality of Christ’s relationship to the church is like marriage between a man and a woman. We’re going to see more of this in Revelation 21:2 and 21:9, and more when we get to the other supper. Duhn, duhn, DUHN!

That’s the primary point of the Ephesians passage, and Paul is pointing to the imagery we now see fully fleshed out in Revelation 19.

“These are the true words of God.” Godly people are only interested in truth.

“I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, ‘Don’t do that!’” (like Revelation 22:9). John hears the words and commands of the angel, sees how magnificent he is, understandably feels inferior, and begins to worship. However, the angel knows who he is and where his splendor comes from, so he instantly and dramatically corrects John. Why?

It happens again in chapter 22: John makes this mistake twice. “Great is the mercy of God, right?”

“It is the Spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus.” The word prophecy is in the book seven times (1:3; 11:6; 19:10; 22:7, 10, 18, 19). The Holy Spirit adores Jesus, and loves to shout His praise and give Him glory, through us and in us. True prophecy points people to Jesus. And the Holy Spirit is the One who directs all inspired words about Jesus.

That should be the ultimate fruit of prophecy: people are pointed closer to Jesus.

Now here’s the most powerful imagery in the entire book, in his opinion (and in John’s, he believes). John has been building to this moment throughout the whole book …

He loves every revelation of Jesus in Scripture: Jesus as the Word at creation, as the fourth man in the fire, as God in the flesh as a baby, as the crucified one, as the Lamb of God, as the Wounded Healer, as the resurrected Lord, as the Great High Priest, and so many others.

There’s spiritual truth and growth to be had in every picture, and living in those pictures, having them in your imagination space with the Lord, is beautiful. That’s why they’re there in Scripture.

Here’s a recommendation. Take these six verses and listen to them over and over and over again. Fifty times would barely be enough, and it would take you a total of about 15 minutes. Meditate on every detail, every aspect; let it wash over you again and again. Refine the picture in your own imagination until you can see it, and it becomes clearer and clearer.

The first-century peoples were really good at this. They didn’t have movies, a lot of pictures or a ton of statues; it all had to happen in their imagination. That’s why words were so powerful and these descriptions so vivid. We can be good at this too.

He showed an artist’s version from the Kingstone Bible that hits the major things well: “like a comic book version of it. However, it’s pretty darn accurate.” The writing on His thigh, the embroidery on His garment, the robe dipped in blood, the sword from His mouth, the host of heaven on white horses behind Him. Your own imagination can be more vivid, but it gets you started.

We see a glimpse of this picture in 2 Thessalonians 1:7–8, “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.” It also echoes Daniel 7:13–14, “one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven.”

That’s why, when Jesus used the title Son of Man, they took offense. He wasn’t just calling Himself a human, like we think; He was calling Himself the Messiah riding on the clouds of heaven. To the Jewish leadership that was even more offensive than “Son of God”: “Oh no, that’s Daniel 7. You can’t claim that.”

“Heaven standing open” means heaven is going to interact with earth in this moment. Get ready! Like we went through in chapter 4, opened heavens are a common sign of God coming near to humans, through His presence, His power or His revelation of truth. Open-heaven scriptures make a great study: Genesis 28:12; Isaiah 45:8; Ezekiel 1:1; Malachi 3:10; Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:21; John 1:51; Acts 7:56; 10:11, 16; Revelation 4:1; 11:19; 19:11.

“A white horse.” In chapter 6, at the opening of the action and the first seals, we saw four horsemen, affectionately termed “the four horsemen of the apocalypse.” Horses in prophetic imagery always mean movement of some sort. In Zechariah 1:8–11 and 6:1–8 they mean good movement; in Revelation 6 they mean wrath movement. They can mean military movement, like some of the Revelation horses, or the movement of the Spirit of God and His purposes. Here, this horse represents the movement of Warrior Jesus Himself, as He mobilizes the host of heaven to war!

The rider, “Faithful and True,” is very different from the riders of the horses in Revelation 6! Jesus called Himself faithful and true in His letter to the church in Laodicea, “the faithful and true witness” (Revelation 3:14). There’s only One who can be called by this name. It’s Jesus!

On the robe dipped in blood: it could be for the cross, it could be for the wrath on His enemies, or a mixture of both. It probably points to the wrath that’s about to happen, but might also point back to the cross. We have robes that are cleansed by the blood of the Lamb too (7:14). Blood is a dirty image to us, but spiritually it’s the only way we get clean. “It’s this beautiful paradox.”

Someone added that the robe wasn’t a little bloody at the hem: after the winepress it was drenched. Some scholars say He comes back on a white horse with His robe completely red, covered in the blood of the enemies He battles for us. “It’s a striking image.”

Jesus’ victory over “the nations” is found throughout the book (2:18, 26–28; 11:15, 18; 12:5, 10; 14:1; 16:14, 16; 19:15).

Someone added that if you want to be with Jesus in this moment, you need to learn how to do warfare this way: “We don’t pray, ‘Oh God, let your will be done.’ We say, ‘Father, what is your will in this matter?’ and we pray the word.” (Wednesday nights at 6 is where you learn it.) “Pray the word. Amen. Sharp sword. I love it.”

“His name is the Word of God” points back to John’s own writing: “In the beginning was the Word” … “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:1, 14).

“King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 1:5; 17:14) contrasts dramatically with Jesus’ first coming. The world didn’t notice the King in a manger (Matthew 1; Luke 2; John 1). But the world won’t possibly be able to miss this one (Revelation 1:7; Matthew 24:30–31). Jesus has been the Lamb that was slain, but remember from chapter 4: the Lion is the Lamb! Jesus is coming back as the Lion, the conquering warrior: King of kings, Lord of lords!

Another member added that Revelation 1:6 says He “hath made us kings and priests” (KJV), and that in the Greek “King of kings and Lord of lords” means He is the King of those becoming kings and the Lord of those becoming lords. “Guys, that’s us. Get busy out there.” In chapter 20 we’re going to reign with Him.

He’s coming with “the armies of heaven” … that’s us! The context makes it clear that this is the bride, the church: the people who are set apart for God and sealed with the Holy Spirit, who have said yes to being fully in with Jesus. We will be “riding on white horses” also, dressed in “fine linen, white and clean.” Even though we’re an army, it doesn’t seem like we have to fight. Jesus shows up, does all the heavy lifting, and the war is over. The end.

His is the robe dipped in blood; we’re white and clean. We’re just along for the ride: “Yay, Jesus, do the thing!”

“With which to strike down the nations” (like Isaiah 64:1–2; Zechariah 14:3–4; Matthew 24:29–30).

“He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.” Grapes were put through a series of tramplings underfoot to remove the juice. The deep stain of the juice coming out of the grapes, staining the winepress floor and overflowing, looked to many like blood being spilled and poured out. Genesis 49:11 shows this correlation: “his robes in the blood of grapes.” Throughout the Bible the treading of grapes is imagery for the judgment of God on wickedness (Isaiah 63:1–6; Joel 3:13; Jeremiah 25:30; Revelation 14:19; 19:15). The contrast to this in Scripture is being alive and connected to the vine of Christ in John 15.

“I’m giving you so many chunks of Bible studies you can do on your own. I did a lot of work for you guys, so go take advantage of it. It’ll breathe life into your Bible study times. I promise.”

Here’s the point from Jesus’ description that our culture is missing: if you’re trying to imitate a “meek and mild” Jesus, you’re imitating an idol of Jesus that you’re creating in your own head, and not the Jesus of the Bible. Stop it with the “meek and mild” Jesus! Jesus is Conquering King, with armies of heaven behind Him, with a sword from His mouth that strikes down nations. He rules with an iron scepter. He treads on people like a winepress, with fury: 100% the grapes are people, as we see from Revelation 14, and their blood is the grape juice getting squeezed out of their lifeless bodies … (he sang it) “The Bible tells me so.”

“Meek and mild,” by the way, comes from a Christmas song, not from the Bible.

“The great supper of God.” The invite to the wedding supper of the Lamb from verse 9 is the crucial contrast here. Again, this is the tale of two suppers.

Everybody who has accepted Christ, been sealed with the Holy Spirit and said yes to Jesus, from all the nations, is included in the first. Any of the nations, if they’re enemies of God, are on the menu for the second.

So Revelation 19 is the tale of two suppers: remember. One is happy and blessed and joyful, and everyone should want an invite, but only those who are clean before God will get one. The problem is that if you don’t get an invite to the marriage supper between God and His church, then you’ll get an “invite” to the second supper, called “the great supper of God,” where you’ll be dead and on the menu for the birds to eat. GROSS!!! But you have to see this: it’s serious … and it’s hope!

The reason he kept saying it: “It’s so important to get right with Jesus. Amen. It’s so important to tell others to be right with Jesus.”

“The beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider”: they’ve gathered to oppose Jesus and His return and the armies of heaven. We saw this gathering in Revelation 16:14–16, because they knew Jesus was coming. But here is where Jesus engages them.

The beast and the false prophet were captured and thrown into the “fiery lake of burning sulfur” (like Daniel 7:11, where the beast is “thrown into the blazing fire”). This is two-thirds of the unholy trinity; the only one left outstanding at this point is the dragon, Satan himself.

“The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider”: the battle is over that quickly. Satan’s not even around for it. His end is coming; you’ll have to see that in chapter 20.

Satan stirs them all up and then lets them all get destroyed. “But wait, there’s more! You’ll have to come back for chapter 20.”

“The rest” could indicate that God’s judgment stemming from this battle extends to the entire world, even to those who might not have gathered for war (Jeremiah 25:29–33; Revelation 14:19). This means that only those who trusted Christ will remain alive and enter the millennium to come. It could also be that those who are reigning with Christ will rule over the rest of the world, and the others are left alive to be ruled at this time.

Now … it’s your attitude toward suffering that will determine whether you curse God or are with God in the army. When you see the plagues of God’s just wrath on the earth, how will you respond? If you have a theology that disallows God’s wrath, Jesus’ return, the consummation of all things, will take you by surprise, just like the first coming of Jesus took Israel by surprise. So how’s your theology of suffering, and of God’s wrath? Is Jesus so “meek and mild” in your head that He’s not allowed to have the second supper, to end the ungodly who reject and war against Him? Then you might be in that army.

Israel was surprised because they didn’t have a theology of a suffering servant God. So our theology matters: what we think about God and how we understand Him matters. “That’s a sobering thought, right?”

The tables discussed: Why are people so tempted to ignore the conquering King Jesus picture? Even Christians, sometimes.

Fix your view of Jesus. Get on the right side of Jesus. Serve the Jesus of the Bible, not the idol you make up in your head. Respect and honor the real Jesus, and you’ll be with Him in the first supper. Get right with His church; love His body, the church; love His people. Learn His justice: change your attitude toward God’s wrath. Embrace the wholeness of who God is. Serve the living God! Not your idol, baby, Christmas-song version of “Jesus.”

The idol we make up in our own heads tends to look more like us than like Jesus. He wasn’t saying anyone in the room was doing that, but we all need to cleanse our picture sometimes, and outside the room it’s very common: he cited the 45% of America who say they’re Christians but never attend church, read their Bible or pray, “about one in two people that you meet in America.” We need to understand this so we can express it effectively to others.