Revelation 19:11-21: The Return of Jesus Christ

Mary Fairchild

The following is based on the phonetic writing of the expository teaching tapes of Pastor Jim Mooberry.

Jesus is going to be coming again personally, bodily, and visibly to the earth. The contrast between His first coming and His second coming is equally immense. In the first coming He was meek and lowly. In the Christ of the gospels we see rejection, humiliation, suffering, and openly death for us on the cross. But the Christ of the Revelation comes in great power and glory. He is manifested as the one who brings the wrath of God to a sinful world and all unrighteousness will be put down as the kingdom of God is finally established.

God has a plan and a program for the earth. The book of Revelation outlines that plan clearly.
We are now living in an interim age. Some call it the church age. That age will conclude with the removal of the church at the rapture. Then will begin the tribulation on earth for seven years. That will conclude by the second coming or the return of Christ to the earth. Then we will inaugurate the kingdom of God that will last for 1,000 years. After that there will be a judgment and eternity will begin. Understanding the second coming makes a big difference in your
worldview, the hope that you have, what is laid up in the future for you. If were not important God would not have said anything about it. But He has written a whole book called the Revelation to reveal to us the return of the Son of God.

THE HEAVEN OPENED

Twice in the book of Revelation we see heaven opened. The first time in chapter 4 heaven was opened so that the apostle John could enter in to heaven. As a representative of the church he saw the 24 elders there which also represent the church and they are already in heaven. The second time the heavens are opened it is to let Jesus Christ exit to return to the earth form His exalted position that He is at this morning at the right hand of God the Father. As it is opened, John is struck by a vision of a man sitting on a white horse. The horse is symbolic of military victory and conquest.

In the rapture Christ meets His own in the air. In the return of Christ, He returns to the earth to the Mount of Olives to meet the saints. In the rapture passages there is no immediate judgment of earth at all. It appears as if the Savior returns to heaven. On the return there is an immediate and total judgment of the earth. In the rapture passage the saints go up to be with the Lord. In the return passages the saints remain on the earth and the Lord comes to be with them. In the rapture passages His return is immanent. In the return passages it is preceded by the seven years of the tribulation. It’s called the blessed hope in Titus.

”We do not want you to be uniformed brethren about those who are asleep (Christian death) that you may not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to
you by the Word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord (rapture) shall not procede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are live and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13

THE JUDGMENT OF THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS

In Zechariah 14 they were told to flee the judgment that was coming when the Lord would go forth and fight against those nations. In that day there would be a great earthquake and the Mount of olives would split in the middle from east to west and half would move to the north and
half would move to the south. That is exactly the place that Jesus left from. And the angel said just as you have seen Him leave He will return. There has been discovered a fault line that runs through the Mount of Olives. This return passage speaks of His return to the earth, not the heavens. There is no message of taking the saints to be up with him but He has come to fight against those who are against Jerusalem. In Matthew 24 and 25 Jesus spoke about His coming.
This is when the elect are gathered together before Him for the judgment of the sheep and the goats on earth. It is a glorious event that is witnessed the whole world. It illuminates the whole heaven. The sun and the moon having been darkened and Christ comes back to the earth. There is no mention there of any sort of resurrection, or being caught up into the heavens, this is a different event.

This awe-inspiring seen is introduced by John by him saying that he saw heaven open. Torn apart like a scroll, then he sees a rider on a white horse. His title is the faithful and true one. He is faithful because He is come to execute the plan of God. He is living truth. He is the way, the truth, and the life. Everything is measured by Him. We live in a day of relativism and people are rejecting the whole concept of absolute truth. That there are certain things that are true whether you think they are or not. In our day its whatever you define as truth is truth for you. God says there is truth. That truth is embodied in His Son Jesus Christ. He is truth. In righteousness He comes and wages war. He is not the Lamb this time but the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

His eyes are a flame of fire and upon His head are many crowns and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood. His eyes like a flame of fire speak of the piercing burning gaze of judgment that He has as He looks upon the unrighteous. His head with many crowns denotes His sovereignty in every realm. His unknown name except to Himself speaks of His divine nature of which only He and the Father and the
Spirit truly understand. In Matthew 11:27 He said all things have been handed over to me by my Father and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son. There is something about the inherent deity and essence of deity that only They understand being the Trinity. His robe dipped in blood speaks of the great judgment that is about to occur and His robes are spattered with the blood of the slain. Isaiah 63 says the robe dipped in blood speaks of what is going to happen when He returns to destroy the opposition.

THE WORD OF GOD

His name is called the Word of God. The name “The Word of God” when applied to Jesus Christ signifies His deity and the fact that is the Creator. He is the one who called all things into
existence. In the gospel of John when Jesus Christ is introduced He is not introduced as He is in Matthew and Luke as the Son of Man. His genealogy of human beings is not given. He is introduced as the Eternal Son of God. It says in the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God. He is God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

SPIRITUAL REALM

In verse 14 we see the armies that are with Him. The armies which are in heaven clothed in fine linen white and clean were following Him on white horses. Who are these armies? They are angels (2 Thes. 1:7). That army of God’s angels are encamped around us even now. Nothing can
happen to us that is not permitted by the will of God. The angels of God protect us. In 2 Kings 6:15 Elijah prays for his servants to be opened to be able to see into the spiritual realm. We don’t have that natural ability right now. But we will have it one day. There is a spiritual realm around us that is parallel to our physical realm. If we determine what reality is just by our senses we’re
going to miss a tremendous realm of reality around us. Things are not always as they appear. If you gauge things just by your own senses you are not walking by faith. That can lead you to a totally wrong appraisal. Our faith and the will of God cannot be deterred by circumstances. The tests in your life become tests of your faith and whether you will believe God and His Word. This should also have a cleansing effect on our lives. There is no such thing as a secret sin. We are
a spectacle to the angelic realm. That should teach us how we should live as children of God.

The angelic army is coming with the captain of he host. But there is something else here. This verse also speaks of you and I as Christians. The church is coming with Christ. We are numbered among the armies of the heavenly host. These armies are clothed in fine linen white and clean.
This is a picture of the saints coming with Him. This is also found in chapter 17:14. These will wage war against the Lamb and the Lamb will overcome them because He is the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings and those who are with Him are the called and the chosen and the faithful. There are a number of passages that speak of His coming as of coming in a cloud. The cloud could be all of the robes of the saints coming with Him. There is no armor on them. There is no fear
of defeat or death because they are immortal now. They are on white horses, co-conquers with Him and they are following Him because He is their captain.

UNRIGHTEOUSNESS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED

Then we see the sovereign Himself in verses 15 and 16. He is omnipotent and unchallenged in any
realm. 1. He is omnipotent in battle; the sharp sword that He will use to smite the nations. The sharp sword is symbolic of the Word of God (Hebrews 4:12, Eph. 6:17). God’s Word is either that which will save you or that which will destroy you and condemn you. It is the Word of God that He will speak from His own mouth that will smite the nations. 2. He is omnipotent in His rule. He will rule them with a rod of iron. That is reminiscent of Psalm 2, the great kingdom Psalm. In
that Psalm the Lord says why are the nations in an uproar….. The kings of the earth take their stand and rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed… Thou shall break them with a rod of iron…The Scriptures tell us that unrighteousness will not be tolerated in the kingdom of God. Only the righteousness of Christ will be permitted and He will rule the nations in omnipotence. He is also omnipotent in judgment. Verse 15 says that He will tread
the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the almighty. God hates sin. As we listen to our media and many pulpits today you would miss that message. He will judge sin, His wrath will come, and in the day of judgment it will be too late to expect mercy from God. Judgment is inflexible when grace has been spurn. This is a day of grace. This is a day of judgment suspended. This is a day of freedom to receive Christ and to escape the wrath of God in Him.

In verse 16 we see His authority. His name is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Zechariah 14:9
says that the Lord will be the King over all the earth, in that day the Lord will be the only one and His name the only one. King of Kings Lord of Lords. The great coming of the King of Kings. In verses 17-21 we see His victory. The vision now moves to Christ’s ultimate victory over the kingdom of darkness, the world system that is in reigning today is now finally destroyed.

The first is the call to the supper of God (vs. 17,18). This is announcement of great importance because He is standing in the sun. The sun is the very focal point of all life on earth is the sun. With a loud voice He gains attention to all who are addressed. He is addressing the birds of he earth. One of the reasons that God created the animals, the birds, fish, the insects is because
they are His cleaning crew. They are what restore the ecosystem. When things die they come and clean it. They are meant to refurbish the earth. So God calls thebirds and says I am preparing a supper for you and it is the supper of Armageddon. Ezekiel 39:17-20 speak of this same incident.

This is also what was meant in Matthew 24 when it says where the corpses there the vultures will
gather. That’s the return to earth and the cleaning of the birds.

Then the armies that are against Him are seen (vs. 19). In chapters 16:13-16 described how a great Satanic delusion was sent out, the spirit like frogs that come out of the beast and the antichrist. They go out to gather all of the leaders of the armies of the world into Palestine. They choose to gather in that strategic spot on earth where the meeting of three continents is and where the
oil fields are. In Satanic delusion they persecute Christians. Because of the heart of man they eventually turn their guns toward their Savior. That is the delusion that God will send upon them in order to destroy them all.

In verses 20 and 21 we see the defeat of the opposition. First of its leaders; the beast was seized and with him the false prophet who performed the signs of his presence by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. These are the first two inhabitants of hell.

Sometimes in the Bible the word hell can mean two things. The Apostles Creed is translated in some English versions about Jesus Christ dying and descending into hell. The word is Hades. The word here is Gahanna; the lake of fire. They are different. In Luke 16 where the two men died and they both went in death to Hades. One to a place called torment the other to a place called paradise. These are the two realms of Hades. This is a temporary waiting place for the departed
dead. It is a place, Christ went there during His death; He went to the paradise realm in Hades, the Hades of the righteous dead. Paradise is now in heaven Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12 when he was caught up into heaven after the death and resurrection of Christ. He said he saw paradise there. The inhabitants of paradise were moved from Hades to the presence of Christ. Now when you die as a Christian you are absent from the body and present with the Lord Paul says.

Hades is still there today. It is the residence of those who are awaiting their judgment; of those who are rejecters of Christ. It is a place of torment. But that place is not the permanent place that we think of when we say hell. That is Gahanna (Greek word translates as lake of fire). It is the place of eternal condemnation. In chapter 20:13-14 it says that sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death in Hades gave up the dead which were in them, and they were judged everyone of them according to their deeds in death in Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death; the lake of fire. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life he was thrown into Gahanna. If you were to die today and you were a Christian you would be with the
Lord in the next second. A thousand years later Satan will join the beast and the false prophet and the rest that are judged.

In verse 21 we see the armies that are judged. All armed opposition is smashed. Then preparations are made for the great judgment of the sheep and the goats. Matthew 25:31 it says
that when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne and all the nations will be gathered before Him and be separated from one another as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those on His right, “Come you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” And then
He will say to those on the left, “Depart from me you cursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.”

In Daniel 12:11,12 we are given a little glimpse of the administrative schedule of the Lord Jesus Christ of the time that it will take between His coming and the beginning of the kingdom. From the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished, at the mid-point, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 12,090 days. How blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 13,035 days. But as for you go your way to the end then you will enter your rest and rise
again to your allotted portion at the end of the age. These two numbers 12,090 days and 13,035 days; the last half of the tribulation in the book of the Revelation is 12,060 days. That is the time that the antichrist has complete reign over the earth. 30 days are added possibly for an administrative time for the judgment and the separation of the sheep and the goats. There is another 45 days added on until you get to 13,035 days where he says how blessed are those
who wait until then. That is possibly the administrative preparation for the beginning of the kingdom of God and the inaugural of the wedding supper.

When the Lord returns He will begin to set up His kingdom. First judgment, and then the beginning of the kingdom on earth. No unsaved person will enter the kingdom. Those who have been raised from the grave, who are immortal will be with Him, those who have lived through the tribulation and who are saved will enter into the kingdom. Their children will also have to trust in Christ for their salvation and many will not. Because righteousness will reign and it will not be apparent who those are who actually have never trusted in this Messiah for their salvation until in chapter 20 it is said that Satan is released again from his prison.

The first thing he does is he marshals all of those who are rebels in heart for one last rebellion again. Therefore it is revealed, who those are who never trusted in Christ for their salvation, even
though they lived in a kingdom of absolute perfection and beauty. The wrath of God was poured out on Jesus Christ on the cross and He took your sins to Himself. He had no sin. But God put your sin on Him and he dumped out His wrath on His Son. If you will accept that, if you will receive Him as your Savior, then the wrath that you were to experience has already been taken and you will never again face God as one deserving wrath. Pray now, in your own heart look to
God in heaven and say thank you for Jesus Christ coming and dying for me. I believe that and right now I accept Him as my Savior.

“THE RETURN OF JESUS CHRIST,” Rev. 19: 11-21, #JMREV35; The Faithful Word. Pastor Jim Mooberry

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