Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Whats the epic battle you can think of?

Maybe it was when William Wallace routed the English army at the battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297?

Maybe the Battle of Normandy, D-day in the Second World War which began to turn the war in the allies favour.

One of the most epic battles is probably when the small Spartan army held off the vast Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. 7000 men, some of whom were the famed Spartan warriors faced down over 100,000 Persian warriors and the mighty Emperor Xerxes.

They held their own for three days before they were overwhelmed by the numbers.

They lost that battle, but their courage has become legendary, and Greece managed to repel the Persians a year later, ending Xerxes invasion.

Great battles throughout history and in our fantasy stories or movies are climactic moments.

They are where the game changes: the good guys win, the bad guys are defeated.

Even if it’s a tragedy, the good guys till get glory and honour.

Eventually the country is saved, the pretender king is deposed.

Evil attacks but good triumphs in the end.

Our story today is just like that.

The apostle John writes about a massive battle.

It looks like evil might just have the upper hand, but it turns out that they never had a chance.

This kind of story is typical of Revelation: there is vivid imagery used to paint powerful pictures of wild wonders and crazy catastrophes.

It is meant to contort your mind as you try to conceive an understanding of the how these things work.

Metaphors are mixed, and imagery overlaps.

Apocalyptic Literature

Most of us aren’t familiar with the type of genre that Revelation is written with.

We don’t exactly have a modern equivalent.

Its called “Apocalyptic literature”, and it was quite common back in the day.

You can even find it in other books of the Bible like Daniel and Ezekiel.

But what do we do with it?

How do we understand it?

I’ve been wracking my brains for a way to illustrate what apocalyptic literature does.

Its a kind of propaganda.

It’s metaphor mixed with allegory, mixed with fantasy.

It kinda like reading George Orwell’s 1948; you’re not meant to say “this is cool science fiction story,” you’re meant to say “I hope the the wrong people don’t get their hands on too much power.”

Political Cartoon

One of the closest things I could think of to explain Revelation is the political cartoon, you know where you open the paper and there is some funny picture about the political happenings of the week?

When you look at a political cartoon, you’re not meant to see a representation of an actual event: it’s a caricature, a parody, amplified imagery.

The illustration will take real life events and create an artistic message with a message built in.

The artist takes attributes like body features or character traits and stretches them out of proportion to make a point.

When we get to Revelation, it’s a similar story: there are a bunch of caricatures and figurative pictures mashed together.

For the most part, if you looked at the news headlines in John’s time, the culture and the political situation of the day when this was written, it all makes perfect sense.

Honing In

We’re honing in today on a part later in Revelation, it’s part of the climactic and triumphant end to the book.

John has been laying out strange visions of angels and beasts.

He keeps telling the same story over and over, but each time it is from a different angle.

Our passage today in Revelation 19 is one of those cycles that is building up to the beautiful end to the book.

But before we get to the beautiful end, there is destruction.

There is war.

There is a battle.

Is it a real battle?

Is this something that will literally take place?

I’m not so sure.

I think that God is trying to paint a picture of what it will be like, rather that an actual account of events.

Like our political cartoon, the events are represented, not literal.

This battle is very curious.

In many ways it reminds us of the climactic battles of a good action movie, but there are some startling differences.

First we’ll investigate the crazy description of the Wonderful Warlord, second we’ll have a look at the Assembled Army, thirdly hear about the Battle Preparations before fourthly checking out the Brief Battle itself.

Look with me in the Bible to see what is going on.

1.

The Wonderful Warlord

v11-13, 15-16

Describing The Warlord

From verse 11 starts a vision; John the Apostle peers into heaven.

He sees a fantastic white horse with a noble rider.

A Wonderful Warlord.

That rider turns out to be Jesus.

lets look at the description;

Wow!

Here is this picture of King Jesus, riding out to make war and to judge.

How do we know it’s Jesus?

Apart from the fact that this description could fit no other, there is an explicit reference to Jesus being called Faithful and True in Revelation 3 (v17), and he is called the Word of God, which is the same language that John used in the Gospel of John.

Now that we are certain about who this is, how is he described?

He is sitting on a regal victory horse (despite the fact he hasn’t won the battle yet!).

His eyes are blazing fire, no one can stand his gaze!

He is wearing a bunch of crowns.

He is a mighty king.

Throughout Revelation there are descriptions of usurpers who wear crowns, 7, 10, etc, but here, Jesus has multiple crowns, a bunch of diadems.

He is the rightful ruler, who has more than enough crowns.

It’s difficult to tell how many there are!

He has a secret name that only he knows.

It’s like a password, it is private, and no one else knows it.

If a password is leaked, then someone else, like a hacker, can take control of something, whether it be your bank account, or social media account, or phone!

Now there is no secret password, that unlocks control of Jesus, but the idea here is that no-one can get one-up on Jesus.

No one can control him or manipulate him, they can’t even know his secret name.

So we have Jesus, the Word of God, seated on a white horse, with blazing eyes, a bunch of crowns on His head and a robe splattered with the blood of His enemies.

Further Description

But wait!

There’s more!

If we keep looking from verse 15 we see more about Jesus;

Jesus sword in his mouth is a recurring theme in Revelation.

It’s because he doesn’t swing a physical sword, but as the Word of God, his power comes through speaking.

God spoke the world into existence.

His Words shaped the world, and he did it through Jesus.

Jesus will judge the living and the dead, and pronounce their everlasting judgement.

He will defend Justice or meter it out, and all he has to do is speak.

Not only does he have a sword, but a rod of iron as well.

He dual wields!

Like a shepherd who protects and subdues the enemies of the flock, Jesus will rule with an iron rod.

Catch Breath

Can you keep up with this?

There is so much packed into this description!!

As Dr. Voddie Baucham would say: this is no "sissified, needy, Jesus”.

He’s already in victory stance, even as the battle looms.

He is given royal titles that are usually given after you have won the battle.

The enemies haven’t arrived yet, but he’s already got blood on his robe.

Wrath of God