A Rider on a White Horse
The Glorious Appearing
A Rider on a White Horse
Revelation 19:11-16
 
Revelation 19:11-16
 
Now this is the event to which the tribulation saints have looked and longed.  Can you imagine what kind of relief and adoration they will have? They have lived for seven years under a totalitarian state.  They have increasingly had their freewill taken from them. They were commanded to worship the beast and the false prophet.  They were commanded to worship the image of the beast.  And they knew that at the end of tribulation period Christ was going to come and deliver them.  This was seven years plus a little time after the rapture of the church. And now, finally, He’s here. 
 
I wonder sometimes why we don’t have that kind of anticipation as those who will miss it all. 
 
Let’s take a look tonight at what will happen at that time.
 
1.  The Appearance of Christ
 
Notice in the first part of verse 11 John says, "And I saw heaven opened..."  Then the very first thing he does is describe Jesus. 
 
He sees Him as a Commanding Christ.  This is a different picture of Christ than the Christ who came at Bethlehem.  This is a different portrait of Christ than the one we saw in His first coming.  In His first coming, we saw Christ who came as a little baby.  Christ who came meek and mild.  Christ who came as the shepherd who would gather His people like a hen gathers her chicks. 
 
But this is a Christ who is a general.  This is a man of war.  This is a man who comes on a mission.  And His mission is to defeat evil.  His mission is to fight against sin.  So He is the commanding Christ. 
 
Now secondly He is the Contrasting Christ.
 
Notice the phrase, "He that sat upon him was called Faithful ..." 
 
This is in stark contrast to what the people have been experiencing.  What they have been experiencing is the government of the antichrist and the antichrist is anything but faithful.  He is unfaithful.  He breaks every one of his promises. 
 
And then it says He is the one who is called True.  That is another contrasting statement.  The antichrist is not true. He is an imitation. Everything he has said is a lie.  He doesn't have the good of people at heart.  He has only his selfish interests.  He wants to be worshipped.  He wants to be adored.  He wants to be God.  He is only concerned about people bowing before him.  He is not concerned about creating a better world, he is concerned about having it all for himself.  He is full of greed. 
 
And now the real deal is on the scene.  He is faithful.  He has the power to keep His promises and He is true.  He cannot lie. He is conformed to truth.
 
Notice that He is the Conquering Christ
 
"With justice, He judges and makes war." 
 
Now, when He came the first time, He came on a mission of salvation.  He came to save sinners.  In Luke 19:10 he said, "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost".  He said that on the occasion of going to the house of Zaccheus, the worst sinner in all of Jericho.  And many people questioned why He went to the house of this guy?  He is the biggest cheat.  He is the biggest skinflint.  He is the biggest sinner in all the town.  Why did He go to his house? 
 
And Jesus said the reason I went to his house is that the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost."  And the only way He could do that was to be with sinners and to identify with sinners and reach out to sinners. 
 
But now the picture of the man on the white horse, the Christ on the white horse is a picture of a Christ who is not coming to save, He is coming to make war on Satan.  He is coming to do away once and for all with sin and everything that sin has caused.
 
Then He is the Comprehending Christ
 
John says that "His eyes are like blazing fire".  His is quite a picture.  Try to imagine this great figure on a white horse with eyes like blazing fire.  What does this indicate?
 
I think at least a couple of things. 
 
It could indicate His omniscience. Scripturally speaking, God’s eyes are referenced as seeing everything.  Therefore He knows all things, the omniscience of Christ, the all knowingness of Christ.  The writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 4:13, "all things are naked and open before Him with whom we have to do."   So He knows all, He sees all.
 
But I think more directly, it speaks of judgment.  In chapter 1 he is referenced as having “eyes as flames of fire” as He moves among the churches.  Paul described Christians being saved so as by fire. 
  
No one else can judge men because they cannot see their hearts, but He can see the heart.  He has eyes of flaming fire that pierce through the outward appearance, deep into the heart.
 
Then He is the Crowned Christ.
 
He looks upon on His head and sees many crowns.  There are two words for crown in the New Testament.  One is a word that is stephanos.  It means the crown given to the athlete who won the race.  The New Testament world was a world of Olympics.  It was a world where they had the Greek Games.  The javelin throw, the discus throw, the race, the wrestling matches and whoever won received a stephanos, a crown. 
 
But this is not the word for crown used here.  It is the other word.  It is the word diadem.  On His head were many diadems.  Diadem is the crown for the king.  It is the crown of royalty.  So on His head are many crowns of royalty, indicating that all the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of God and of His Christ.
The Scripture teaches us that God will deliver up the kingdoms of this world to His Son Jesus Christ.  Hebrews 1:1-3 tells us that Jesus Christ is the heir of all things.  Somebody says what is this world coming to?  It is all coming to Jesus!  It all belongs to Him.  He is the heir of all things. 
 
Now, at this point Jesus has been crowned Lord in heaven. If you look back in Revelation 4:11 following the rapture there is a great worship service.  And again in Revelation 5:13-14 there is a great worship service and the four and twenty elders cast their crowns before the throne of Jesus. 
 
The crown that He has given to us, we cast at His feet as though to say, we are not worthy of these great honors that you have given to us, but you are worthy O Lord.  And those in heaven take off their crowns and cast them before Jesus and say, no thou art worthy Lord to receive power and honor and glory and riches because you were slain and hath redeemed us to God, by thy blood our every kindred, race, people, and tongue.  And what a scene that is going to be one day in heaven.  Jesus has already received those crowns.
 
And now He is the Consummate Christ and now He comes to that time when all creation will bow and recognize Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
 
Then notice 
 
2.  The Names of Christ
 
verse 12
 
This tells us there are some things that God reserves unto Himself.  There are some mysteries about God.
 
Somebody says, what is that name?  Well, nobody knows that name.  He doesn't intend us to know.  It says, "no one knows the name but He Himself."  God is a sovereign God.  Man will never figure out God.  I wouldn't want a God I could figure out.  If I could figure out God then He wouldn't be much of a God.  So He has a name of mystery.  This may be a name of intimacy between God the Father and God the Son.  The name of the only begotten Son of the Father, it is indeed a mystery that He carries this name at this time.
 
He also has a name of ministry
 
verse 13
 
Remember what we are told in John 1:1?  In the beginning was the Word.  The incarnate Word of God or the living Word of God was a visible expression of the spoken Word of God. 
 
Jesus was the Word, the logos.  Logos in the Greek means the expression of a thought.  So Jesus is the expression of God.  He is the visible expression of the invisible God.  This is the name of ministry.
 
In John 1:14 it says, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,..."  The Word of God that was from the beginning.  This is the mystery of the Trinity and the incarnation, that Jesus the living Word is the same as Jesus the spoken Word.  And by the way it is the same as Jesus the written Word.  I am not saying the Word of God and Jesus are the same, but they are in agreement. 
The Word of God that is written, the Bible, is God's revelation of Himself.  Jesus was God's revelation of Himself.  And all of it is the Word of God.  The name of mystery, the name of ministry and thirdly,
 
There is a name of majesty
 
verse 16
 
This title speaks of His position.  His position is King and Lord of all.  He comes back to a world where a man, a satanic man claims to be lord of all.  He asks all the people of the world to worship his image.  He asks the people of the world to submit to him.  He claims that the world is his.  But Jesus comes, riding on a white horse, and His title is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and what that says is the antichrist is wrong.  He is not king of kings, I am King of Kings.  This is His position.
 
Then the title speaks of His possessions.  King of Kings means everything belongs to Him.  The Psalmist said, "The earth is the Lord all the fullness thereof.  The cattle on a thousand hills belong to Him."  So He is coming back to claim what is rightfully His.
 
And then this title speaks of His power. He is also “Lord of Lords”.  And Philippians 2:9-11 tells us what will happen one day.  "Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father."  And it will happen at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
Next comes the Battle of Armageddon, and as we will see next week, it will be very short.
 
And at the end of it, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ indeed is Lord.
 
Following that, as we will study, Jesus sets us a perfect kingdom and we will live and dwell in the wonderful environment of that kingdom for a thousand years. 
 
And then it just keeps getting better as we move on into heaven and the holy city of our eternal home with God.