Jesus’ Final Answer to Worldly Injustice (Rev 19:1-21)

When it comes to any book of the Bible, a helpful question to start with is why was it written? Why was the book of Revelation written? Like every book in the Bible, Revelation was written to a specific audience, but it was written for us.

Here is a quote

When it comes to any book of the Bible, a helpful question to start with is why was it written? Why was the book of Revelation written? Like every book in the Bible, Revelation was written to a specific audience, but it was written for us.

Here is a verse

When it comes to any book of the Bible, a helpful question to start with is why was it written? Why was the book of Revelation written? Like every book in the Bible, Revelation was written to a specific audience, but it was written for us.

When it comes to any book of the Bible, a helpful question to start with is why was it written? Why was the book of Revelation written? Like every book in the Bible, Revelation was written to a specific audience, but it was written for us. For example, the New Testament book of Philemon was written by Paul to Philemon about Onesimus, which is one of Philemon’s runaway slaves. It was written to a specific audience, but it was written for us. It’s one of the shortest books of the Bible, one chapter, just 23 verses, but it richly teaches us about how Jesus transforms lives. It teaches us about the inherent value of humanity and so much more. If you’re struggling to read your Bible, how about you start with Philemon? It’ll take about 5 minutes and then you can say you read a whole book of the Bible.

Each book of the Bible is written to a specific audience but written for us. And it’s the same with Revelation. Revelation was written by John to seven churches. We looked at one of them last week. You can see them all in chapters 2 and 3. Now some of the churches are desperately clinging on to Jesus as they face opposition and persecution and other churches are either ignoring Jesus or just giving up on him. Now what do the churches need that are desperately clinging to Jesus? This is what they need. They need growing perseverance and confidence in Jesus. They need renewed contentment and trust in Jesus. And they need a deepening loyalty and love for Jesus. That’s what they need. But what do the other churches need? The other churches that are ignoring Jesus or giving up on him, it’s the same. They need growing perseverance and confidence in Jesus, renewed contentment and trust in Jesus, and they need deepening loyalty and love for Jesus. It’s the same.

And so this is why Revelation was written. It was written to make disciples of Jesus, to encourage and challenge followers of Jesus. Now, as you might have noticed as the chapter was read out, it achieves this with apocalyptic poetry. That’s fancy academic language for picture language. And this type of communication works very well on humans because we really love pictures and art and music and creativity. Our brains are wired to enjoy it.

I’m not ashamed to say that my favorite TV show is Bluey. It’s brilliant. If you think it’s a mere kids’ show, you are wrong and I will fight you about it. I tend to only watch it with my daughter, but I listen to the soundtrack all the time when she’s not around, and I definitely shed a tear every few episodes. If you had asked me a few months ago what my favorite episode was, I would have said the episode called “Army” because that’s the episode where Jack is introduced, Jack the Jack Russell Terrier, and I really resonate with him and with his story. But now, my new favorite is the episode “Rain.” If you haven’t seen it, I’m going to spoil it for you. Bandit, the dad, and Bingo, the little sister, they go out somewhere. And Bluey, the main character, and Chilli, the mom, they stay at home, and it rains. And so, Bluey tries to build a wall of stuff so that the water will reach the other side of the driveway. That’s it. That’s the whole episode.

Now, you might be thinking, “That sounds pretty boring. The dialogue must be amazing.” There is no dialogue. There is literally nothing said in the whole episode. It’s just animation and music. That’s it. And it is my favorite episode. It is a work of art. Humans love pictures. We love art and music and creativity. And Revelation leans right into that, right into that part of our brain to encourage and challenge followers of Jesus. So then why was Revelation written? It’s written to the seven churches, but it’s written for us to encourage and challenge us to follow Jesus in every season of life, in every season of faith. And it uses this creative symbolic picture language that leans into that part of our brain to communicate truth with us.

Now, with that in mind, we’re a bit more ready now to jump in and look at the two meals that are happening in chapter 19.

The First Meal: The Wedding Feast with Jesus

Let’s look at the first meal, the wedding feast with Jesus. You got your Bible there? You’ll need your Bibles today. There’s lots to look at. Have a look at verses 6 and 7. “Then I heard again what sounded like the shout of a vast crowd or the roar of mighty ocean waves or the crash of loud thunder. Praise the Lord for the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice and let us give honor to him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the lamb and his bride has prepared herself.”

A few months ago, Morgan and I went to a wedding of one of Morgan’s good friends and the reception was up at Wentworth Falls at the Conservation Hut. It’s this beautiful cafe. It’s been around for a long time and it used to be rubbish. The food and the coffee up there was so bad. Such a shame for such a good location. But recently, it was taken over and the food is now good and the coffee is excellent. And so at the reception, of course, there was a bar tab like there usually is. And so I went up to the bar and asked for a piccolo latte at 7:00 p.m. and they made one for me. And so as some of the guests were drinking themselves under the table, I was there sipping on multiple piccolo lattes and I was very awake for the drive home. It was awesome.

We all know that one of the marks of a good wedding is that the guests leave satisfied. They leave after a full meal that was delicious, that was plentiful. And this is the picture here in verse 7. We’re about to sit down for this wedding feast of the Lamb. Not the wedding feast with lamb, although that sounds like a solid catering option. The wedding feast of the Lamb, which Revelation so far has made very clear, is Jesus. And so Jesus is getting married. He’s the groom.

The Bride Has Prepared Herself

His bride has prepared herself. And the bride is me. It’s the church. It’s me. It’s you. It’s us. It’s every follower of Jesus. Have a look at verse 8. “She, the bride, has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.” In the same way that Revelation so far has made it very clear that Jesus is the Lamb, also what we’ve seen in Revelation so far is that those who wear white are God’s people, are followers of Jesus. Let me give you just one very quick example and then I’ll give you a longer one. Have a look up here. Revelation 3:4. “Yet there are some in the church in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes with evil. They will walk with me in white for they are worthy.”

The Team Colors

Let me give you a longer one, a longer example. As chapter 19 was read out, you might have just noticed the great prostitute who was defeated in verse two. That might have jumped out at you as it was being read. Now, we talked about this last year in our Habakkuk series. You might remember that the prostitute represents Babylon. Now, we’re not talking about Babylon, the specific nation led by King Nebuchadnezzar in the 6th century BC, who threw Daniel in the furnace. We’re talking about Babylon, the title. Any king, any nation that rejects God is Babylon. Babylon is an attitude. It’s a posture. It’s a stance against God and all who subscribe to that attitude belong to Babylon.

And so here on the screen, this is Revelation 17. This is where we’re properly introduced to this great prostitute. It’s a wild passage, but I particularly want you just to notice what she’s wearing. Here it is. “The kings of the world have committed adultery with the great prostitute, and the people who belong to this world have been made drunk by the wine of her immorality. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that had seven heads and 10 horns, and blasphemies against God were written all over it. The woman wore purple and scarlet clothing and beautiful jewelry made of gold and precious gems and pearls. In her hand, she held a gold goblet full of obscenities and the impurities of her immorality.” And on it goes. That’s a pretty wild part of the Bible, right? There’s so much to unpack in there, but for now, what’s she wearing? She’s wearing purple and scarlet clothing with beautiful jewelry made of gold and precious gems and pearls. She’s clothed in riches and royalty.

And it couldn’t be any more different than the bridal gown in chapter 19:8. The simple, clean white linen is in stark contrast. It’s directly opposite to the purple and jewelry. And here’s the point. This picture is showing us the team colors. Every team sport has team colors. You know this. When I was a kid, I played soccer out at Mulgoa, the Mulgoa Black Swans. We had a red and yellow uniform so that we knew who was on our team and the referee knew all that kind of stuff. It’s obvious. And that’s what’s happening here. This contrast shows us who has had their sins washed away by the death and resurrection of Jesus. They’re on his team wearing his white team colors. And then there are those who have not had their sins washed away and they are on Babylon’s team wearing her purple colors. We are the white clothed bride of Christ. That’s what’s happening.

Completing a Theme from Across the Bible

Now, at first, this might seem a bit strange or a bit uncomfortable that there’s a wedding between Jesus and us, but just remember, Revelation is apocalyptic poetry. It’s picture language. And like the whole book, this wedding picture is here to encourage and challenge us to follow Jesus. And the way that it does that is by completing a theme that has been used all throughout the Bible already. In the same way that the ending of a mystery movie draws all the threads together and it completes the story and it satisfies the watcher, this wedding picture is drawing threads together from across the Bible to complete the theme and satisfy the reader.

Let me show you the clear teaching about marriage from the Bible is that it’s designed to be a covenant, a promise between one man and one woman for life. And in this covenant, something new is made. So the man and the woman, they each leave their family and they are united together. And so when Morgan and I got married, my parents and Morgan’s parents became our extended family. And now my family is me and Morgan. And this picture of marriage is used throughout the whole Bible to be a symbol of God’s relationship to his people. And then it finds its ultimate conclusion in these final chapters of Revelation.

And so starting at the beginning of the Old Testament, God makes all these covenants, all these promises with his people, with Noah, with Moses, Abraham, David, and he promises that he has united himself to his people and that he has chosen them and he loves them and he’s going to bless them. And as part of that, he warns them not to go and look for another god, another idol, another husband. Now, of course, God’s people mess up time and time again. And yet, God remains faithful. This picture is shown the most clearly in the book of Hosea. This whole book likens God to this patient, faithful husband. And then God’s people are the unfaithful wife. They are repeatedly running after another man, another god, another idol. And yet, despite their unfaithfulness, God remains faithful. And he speaks of a future day where his people will be forgiven and their marriage, their covenant will be restored. That’s what’s happening here.

One more passage just to show you and tie it all together. Isaiah 54, God’s people are struggling and suffering. And this is what they’re comforted with. “For your creator will be your husband. The Lord of heaven’s armies is his name. He is your redeemer, the holy one of Israel, the God of all the earth.” And so, you see, this wedding picture in Revelation 19 isn’t random. It doesn’t stand alone. It’s not an original composition. It’s more like a DJ sampling a well-known track. And then of course, this theme continues into the New Testament. Jesus often refers to himself as the groom. He often speaks of a future wedding or a wedding feast. And then perhaps just the most clearly in Ephesians 5, Paul is teaching about marriage and how wives and husbands should love and serve each other. And he qualifies the teaching by linking the marriage of a husband and wife to the marriage of Jesus and the church. Let me show you just some of it on the screen. Ephesians chapter 5. “For husbands, this means love your wives just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.”

And so the reason that I should love my wife Morgan and lay down my life for her is because Jesus loves his wife, the church, and laid down his life for her, for us. We are the bride of Christ. We are not guests at the wedding feast. We’re sitting at the bridal table. You know how at a wedding reception sometimes you can tell how close someone is to the bridal party by where their table is in the room. The further away the table is, maybe the less important they are. Morgan and I once went to a wedding and we were sitting with some church friends right at the back next to the men’s toilet door and during the night something went wrong with the plumbing or something. And so every time the door opened we would all grab like the gift candles and hold them to our nose and it became this great joke. And I went up to Morgan last night. I was like, “Hey, I’m telling a story from my sermon. You got to guess what it is.” And I picked up a candle and I sniffed it and she was like, “It’s the wedding.”

That is absolutely not the picture of Revelation 19. There’s no bridal table over here and Jesus over here and then there’s the family tables and the friends tables and the leftover tables. We’re all on the bridal table because we are all the bride. We were God’s unfaithful people who ran after other idols. But through Jesus’s death and resurrection, our relationship’s been restored. We are the prodigal sons and daughters who have returned to God. That is the first meal, the wedding feast of the lamb, where Jesus is the groom and we, the church, are the bride.

The Second Meal: The Great Banquet of God

But that’s not the only meal happening in this chapter. A few years ago, Morgan and I were at a wedding in Mulgoa, the same church where we were married. And in the middle of the sermon, about 50 rebel bikie gang members turned up on their bikes and surrounded the church. This is a true story. We couldn’t hear the sermon anymore. The noise outside was deafening. Now, some churches have a volunteer called a verger. That’s someone who looks after the admin and looks after the building on weddings and funerals. And the verger at St. Thomas Anglican was this little old lady and she marched outside to tell them off. We thought that she would die. And about a minute later, all the bikes were turned off and the little old lady walked back inside and everything continued as planned. It turns out that there’s this famous rebel bikie gang leader who was buried at St. Thomas in Mulgoa and all these bikes had turned up to pay their respects on the anniversary of his death. And they were polite and they apologized for interrupting the wedding and after they did what they’d come to do, they left a bit more quietly during the last song. It was this very strange contrasting moment between what was happening inside the building and what was happening outside.

And we are confronted with a very similar contrasting moment in Revelation 19. Because in verse 11, the tone completely changes. Jesus is now on a white horse. He’s leading an army to battle against the beast and the kings of the world and their armies. Again, this is Revelation. Don’t imagine this as the next thing that will happen, like a linear sequence, like when Morgan and I got married. After our ceremony, we hopped in our Kia Carnival with our three bridesmaids and our three groomsmen. Poor Braden had to sit in the back seat between me and Morgan. And then we went through drive-thru Maccas on the way to the reception. This is a perfect picture of our marriage. Morgan looks stunning and I’m eating chips. That’s what happens in our house. This isn’t like that. This isn’t the wedding feast is over, and now Jesus goes and gets changed out of his suit and then into his blood-dipped robe to do the next thing. All of this symbolism is happening together.

Jesus, the Warrior King

And so Jesus is on this white horse. He’s heading to battle. And again, there’s so many things we could say about these verses. I want to just highlight three things to notice about Jesus’ appearance. First one, just notice in verse 13 that his robe is dipped in blood before the battle starts. That’s because his robe isn’t stained from the blood of his enemies. It’s his own blood, the blood that was spilled on the cross so that we could be washed as white as snow. Second, just notice in verse 15 that his sword comes out of his mouth. The thing that he will use to defeat the enemy is his word, is his judgment, his justice. He will speak of their sin. He will speak of their rejection of God and he will therefore declare them guilty and that will be their downfall. Third, just notice in verse 16, Jesus has a tattoo. It’s a bit hidden in the NLT version, but that’s what it says. And so, if anyone ever tries to tell you that it’s a sin for Christians to get tattoos, you can gently and lovingly point them to this part of the Bible.

A Tale of Two Feasts

And this brings us to the second feast. Have a look at verses 17 and 18. “Then I saw an angel standing in the sun shouting to the vultures flying high in the sky. Come gather together for the great banquet God has prepared. Come and eat the flesh of kings, generals and strong warriors of horses and their riders and of all humanity both free and slave small and great.” And that’s exactly what happens. The chapter finishes with the vultures gorging themselves on the dead bodies. There is a sharp unmistakable tone shift in the middle of this chapter. But again, remember Revelation was written for us to encourage and challenge us to follow Jesus in every season of life, in every season of faith. And this picture is also doing that. Let me share two ways that this picture is doing that for us.

Number one, this is a blunt, unfiltered, in-your-face reminder that every person throughout human history can find themselves in Revelation 19. You will either find yourself in verse 7 celebrating at the wedding feast of the lamb or you will find yourself in verse 21 where you are on the menu. And it’s clear throughout the Bible that there’s no middle ground. There’s no Switzerland option. You’re either playing for Jesus’ team and wearing his team colors or you’re playing for Babylon’s team and wearing her team colors. Now, here, if you’re here and you’re on Jesus’s team, then this picture is here to encourage you and challenge you to stick with Jesus. You’re on the winning side. Stick with him. But if you’re here and you’re not on Jesus’s team, then I have just very good news for you because Jesus is inviting you to join the winning team. He’s waiting for you. He’s longing for you to join the winning side. He’s keen to invite you to the wedding feast. He’s keen for you to swap your purple team colors and wear his white jersey. And so where are you in Revelation 19? It’s kind of like a Where’s Wally book or in our house at the moment the Where’s Bluey book. Do you see yourself in verse 7 or do you see yourself in verse 21? That’s the first way this picture is encouraging and challenging us.

Second way, this picture is a comforting and satisfying reminder that justice will be done fully. And finally, our world is so messed up. It’s deeply and profoundly and predictably messed up. We face injustice daily. We read about injustice across the world daily. Injustice is a constant thread running throughout human history. And of course, that’s just the tip of the iceberg, right? There’s so much more injustice happening that we don’t even hear about, that we don’t get to hear about. There’s injustice that’s covered up or that’s explained away or manipulated to make it seem right. There’s injustice happening behind closed doors that won’t make its way to the media. And even the injustice that does make its way to the media, who even knows for sure about what’s true anymore? And so, isn’t it good? Isn’t it good and comforting and satisfying that justice will be done fully and finally and rightly? Isn’t it good that God sees all and knows all? He knows the truth. He knows what happens behind closed doors and that he will deal with it fully and finally and rightly. That’s the second way this picture is encouraging and challenging us.

What Do We Do When We Face Injustice?

As we wrap this up, there’s just one more question that I’d like us to wrestle with from this chapter of the Bible. And here it is. What do we do when we face injustice? What do we do? How do we respond? We’ve just said that this chapter is a comforting and satisfying reminder that justice will be done. But until then, as we wait for that full and final justice in the future, what do we do when we’re faced with injustice right now? What do we do when we read the news? What do we do when our loved ones tell us the news? What do we do when the injustice that we face is newsworthy? What do we do? Here’s what we do. We run. We trust and we cling.

• First, when you face injustice, run to the one who sees all and knows all. You run to God in prayer. You don’t stroll to him in prayer. Don’t worry first and then meander over when it makes sense. Run to him. Let him be the first person that you talk to because he knows all and he sees all and he loves you. He is the right person to go to first. In the same way that a child runs to their dad when they fall off the swing, so too should we run to our father when we read that article or we receive that call. When you face injustice, run to the one who sees all and knows all.
• Second, trust Jesus’s love for people and his judgment of people. When we talk about injustice and things being made right when Jesus returns, followers of Jesus tend to land somewhere along a spectrum. On this end, they might say, “Injustice is terrible, but Jesus is coming back and he’ll make everything right, so I’ll just leave it to him.” In other words, they just face the injustice and bury their heads in the sand. But on the other end, they might say, “Injustice is terrible and it’s not good enough that the guilty get away with it, and so it’s up to us to make it right.” And so in other words, when they face injustice, they carry the burden of solving it. That’s the spectrum. Can I suggest that actually both of those extremes are missing the heart of the Bible? Because the follower of Jesus who sees injustice and just ignores it is seriously underestimating Jesus’s love for his people. And yet the follower of Jesus over here who sees the injustice and burdens themselves with the need to solve it now is seriously underestimating the power and the beauty of the cross. And so let’s pull ourselves towards the middle. Let’s be faithful followers of Jesus who love and serve our neighbors and our enemies and who seek to uphold the oppressed and the poor just like Jesus taught. And let’s be faithful followers of Jesus who trust that his death on the cross is enough and that God’s full and final judgment really will make things right. And so when you face injustice, trust Jesus’s love for people and his judgment of people.
• And number three, cling to the wedding invitation. When injustice feels overwhelming, when it feels like the world and the flesh and the devil, they’re on a winning streak, cling to the promise that this story ends at the banquet table and not on the battlefield. You’ve not been forgotten. You’re not an afterthought. You’re not the weird cousin that Jesus only invited because he felt like he had to. Jesus invited you because he loves you. He wants what’s best for you. You’re precious to him. And so cling tightly to your invitation. Cling tightly to your Lord and your Savior and your friend.

And so what do you do when you face injustice? You run to the one who sees all and knows all. You trust Jesus’s love for people and his judgment of people. And you cling to the wedding invitation.