The Return of Jesus (Rev. 17-20)
With the defeat of evil, the multitudes cry, "hallelujah." This message explores why they cry out and whether the battle depicted here should be viewed as a literal battle or as something else.
Transcript
We’re in the second-to-last week of our Revelation series. And when you think of the near ending of the story of the Apocalypse, there’s still one more event we haven’t talked about yet. That’s Jesus’ return and the final battle between good and evil—Armageddon.
When I say the Final Battle or Armageddon, what comes to mind?
Maybe you picture something out of the Lord of Rings—Satan and his army vs. Jesus and his army charging each other in a field
Maybe it’s like Jesus vs. Satan. “Type AMEN if you love Jesus. Keep scrolling if you love Satan.”
Or maybe it’s just the cheesy Bruce Willis asteroid movie.
But I’m guessing that if you’ve been taught anything in church about Armageddon, you probably picture it like Lord of the Rings.
You’ve probably been taught, like I was, that Armageddon is one giant battle where all the armies of the world, led by the Antichrist, gather together in the Middle East and fight against the returning Jesus Christ and the armies of heaven. It’s an epic, final war between good and evil.
But there’s a big problem with that understanding. It’s mostly wrong. That’s not how the book of Revelation describes this Final Battle. In fact, it’s not final, and it’s not even a battle.
We have an enemy. (Actually, a few enemies).
We have a conquering hero.
We even have a battlefield.
But there’s no battle.
There’s not even a single clash of swords
So, let me explain. Today, we’ll jump around chapters 17-20. I’m combining a couple of sermons since we had to cancel service last week.
To help you understand what Armageddon really is, I want to talk about 4 things:
The Battlefield
The Enemy
The Hero
The Outcome
And then, after that, I want to bring it home and show you the difference it can have in your life this week.
1. The Battlefield
Let’s start with the battlefield. Now, this is probably the least interesting thing today, but it probably is the first misunderstanding you have.
The name Armageddon isn’t actually an event; it’s a place. It comes from chapter 16, which talks about “the battle on the great day of God Almighty.” Verse 16 says this: “Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.” (har Megiddon or the hill or Megiddo).”
Megiddo is a city in ancient Israel. In fact, it was the location of numerous battles in the Old Testament. So, it would’ve been surprising to people to hear that a big battle would happen there. But remember, there was no actual battle.
2. The Enemy
Next, let’s talk about the enemy. (This is where it starts to get interesting.) Now we see some of the same characters we’ve seen before:
The dragon, representing Satan
The beast, representing the Antichrist
The demonic army of the beast
But there’s a new player on the scene: a woman named Babylon, the great prostitute. She’s described like this:
“3 Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet and was glittering with gold, precious stones, and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. 5 The name written on her forehead was a mystery: Babylon the great, the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth. 6 I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus.” (17:3-6)
This is just the beginning of a vivid description of this deplorable creature. She’s named after Babylon, the Old Testament city that became synonymous with grave sin. In these chapters, she’s characterized by false religion, idolatry, greed, violence, and abuse of power.
Very quickly in chapter 17, it becomes clear that John is actually describing Rome, the largest world power of that age. They represent the social, political, and religious antithesis of God—the opposite of everything good and godly.
But in God’s grander picture, Babylon, the prostitute, represents any system of power that takes the place of God.
It’s any empire that promises wealth and success but demands allegiance.
It’s any empire that pursues wealth and neglects the poor.
It’s any empire that uses political power to gain religious power.
It’s any empire that looks beautiful on the outside but inside is full of arrogance, corruption, and violence.
As we’ll see shortly in chapter 18, the judgment against Babylon is swift and harsh.
So, we have Satan, the Antichrist, the false prophet, and Babylon the prostitute, along with legions of demons lining up at the hill of Megiddo. Who’s on the other side?
3. The Hero
Every battle needs a hero. Ours is introduced in chapter 19, verse 11.
“11 I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice, he judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh, he has this name written: King of kings and Lord of lords.”
This is the return of Jesus Christ, also known as the Second Coming. But let me caution you: it is very easy to misinterpret Jesus here.
Have you ever heard the line, “The Lord came as a lamb, but He will return as a lion”?
The Left Behind series described him as the warrior Christ, ready to wage a literal war.
Disgraced pastor Mark Driscoll once preached, “In Revelation, Jesus is a prize-fighter with a tattoo down His leg, a sword in His hand, and the commitment to make someone bleed.”
Unfortunately, these are just wrong. Three things in this passage suggest that Christ won’t come as the warrior-king but instead is still the slaughtered Lamb we saw earlier in the book.
First, he is named the Word of God, Faithful, and True.
Second, yes, he has a sword, but it’s in his mouth, not in his hand. We’ve seen this image before—in the first chapter of the book. Jesus Christ never rules with a sword; he rules by being the true Word of God.
Third, he’s dressed in a robe dipped in blood. But this is before the battle. He’s not covered in his enemies’ blood; he’s covered in his own blood.
He is still the slaughtered Lamb. Christ defeats his enemies in the same way he always has—through his death on the cross. Jesus wages war, not by violence, but by self-sacrifice. As pastor and author Brian Zahnd puts it, “Christ always rules from the cross, never from an Apache attack helicopter.”
4. The Outcome
Now let’s talk about the outcome of this Final Battle. This is probably the most surprising part. There is no battle. Nowhere in chapters 17-20 is there any fighting; there is only victory. Jesus Christ wins simply by showing up. This reinforces that Jesus’ victory came at the cross, not the battlefield. Jesus already defeated death, Satan, the Antichrist, and evil when he died on the cross.
Here's how the Bible describes it:
“19 Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. 20 But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. 21 The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.”
There was no battle, only defeat and then next judgment. First, Satan was bound and thrown into the Abyss for 1,000 years. This is a time of peace and of Christ’s rule called the Millennium. After the 1,000 years, Satan is released from his prison, and he leads another army, but, like before, they are instantly defeated. And then, finally, Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet are thrown down into an eternal lake of fire, whose torment has no end.
And then the last event in this sequence is the final judgment, where every person is judged on whether their name is written in the Lamb’s book of life.
There you have it—Armageddon, the final battle, which is neither final nor battle but a continuation of the victory, rule, and reign of Jesus Christ that began at the cross.
There are two hugely important implications of this for your life.
FIRST, all the victory you will ever need in your life was already accomplished by Jesus on the cross. Jesus already defeated any enemy you are facing today. You don’t have to try harder, work more, or be better. All you need are the same two things that Jesus Christ brought into battle: his death on the cross and the truth of his Word. In those two things, you can stand firm in the victory you already have.
Feeling hopeless? You already have victory in Christ.
Addicted to something? You already have victory in Christ.
Experiencing spiritual oppression? You already have victory in Christ.
Living Tired? You already have victory in Christ.
Getting angry? You already have victory in Christ.
Jesus showed up at Armageddon and immediately won. He can do the same for you if you trust and obey and walk with him. In him is all the victory you will ever need in your life.
The SECOND is an extension of this: Victory in Christ is found in self-sacrifice, not attacking others. There’s a whole group of Christians out there who are trying to build the kingdom of God by attacking others. You find them online. You find them in politics. You might even find them in your family. Maybe even in the mirror. Powering up has never been the path of Christ. To quote the author of Soul Care, Rob Reimer, “You can’t use the tools of darkness to gain victory in the kingdom of light.”
LASTLY, our blessed hope is found in the return of Christ. We talk a lot about hope around here. It’s the first word in our mission statement: hope, healing, and growth for next-gen Hmong and beyond.
If you are living your life in Christ, his return will bring joy beyond imagination. Romans 8 says that our present sufferings aren’t even worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed. Everything will be made right. Everything. That’s what we’re going to talk about next Sunday. So come back to discover the power of this blessed hope.
