The Great Supper of God | Revelation 19:17-21 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (8/16/26)

Well, good morning, Maranatha Bible Church. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We wanna welcome you to this Lord's day service, as we give our all to the one and say to our one Lord and Savior, the risen King Jesus. Amen. You know, as I was thinking about the call to worship today, I'm reminded that a call to worship at the beginning of a worship service like ours is not a pep talk.

Excite your emotions and and get an emotional response from you. No. Our aim in a call to worship is to herald, is to proclaim. Come. Come.

Now is the time to worship the Lord. Come into the house of God. Come among the people of God, and give your heart, mind, and soul attention, focus, energy on him, because that is where our true rest, that is where our true joy lies today. And it's not just me heralding or calling you, it's yourselves. The psalmist has this as an example to us.

We say to our own souls, hope in God. We say to our own souls as we come into this room today, this sanctuary today, soul. Put off the distractions of this week. Put off the cares of this world. Put off the lesser things that seek to draw our attention and our affections away from God.

Discard them Say that to your souls today. Because when we come into this place, when we come into this church, this is not a social club. Gathering of just like minded people who get along sometimes. No. This is the house of the Lord.

This is where we worship God as the local body of Christ. It is the most serious thing that you will do this week. And it is also the most joyful. So as we prepare our hearts to worship him today, I invite you to stand for the reading of God's word, and may God's word focus your attention today. May the power of the Holy Spirit, through the reading of his word, sharpen your affections for him, as we remind ourselves who God is, and who we are in relation to him.

Romans chapter five. Romans chapter five beginning at verse one. And let these truths, these amazing, joyful amazing joyful truths fan the flames of affection in your heart today. The Apostle says, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance. And endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person though, perhaps, for a good person one would dare even to die, but God shows his love for us.

In that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Saved by him from the wrath of God. For, if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more that. We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Let's pray, church.

Father, we thank you. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you as we bask in these truths, that we are reconciled to you through Jesus Christ. As your people, Lord, we have peace with you. And that is cause for rejoicing today. That is cause for giving you our utmost adoration and exaltation today.

Father, help us now as we begin this service. So to help us focus our hearts and our minds on Jesus Christ today. By the power of your spirit, may you illuminate us and savor everything that you are as we open your word together as a church. Lord, move in this place today. Open our eyes to behold wondrous things out of your law.

Teach us your way, oh Lord, that we that we may walk in your truth and satisfy our souls only in you. And it's in Jesus's name we pray. Amen. Amen. Church, will you please remain standing and sing with joy from the bottom of your hearts to the Lord.

Indeed, Lord, we come to serve you in this place, and we've come to behold your majesty yet another week. And we pray, Lord, that anything that would be scales on our eyes that would blind us to your beauty, to your reality, that you would be gracious, Lord, in removing those blinders so that we can behold you. Oh, we know that by beholding you, we will become like you in your moral majesty, in your love, in your humility, in your compassion. Help us, Lord. If we are left to ourselves in this service, then we will pray amiss, and we will hear amiss, and we will leave here, Lord, not knowing what we need to know.

And so we come hungry for your righteousness. We come thirsty for your holiness. May we taste it again this morning. We ask these things in Jesus' precious name. Amen and amen.

Well, before your seat, turn to somebody and welcome them to this Lord's Day service. Welcome to Maranatha Bible Church. If I can ask you a favor, if you're sitting on the edges of the chairs and notice to your left or to your right that there are a bunch of empty seats, If you wouldn't mind making your way to the center of those chairs just because it makes it easier for those who may be entering in a little late to not have to try to trick their way into their seating. Thank you so much for being willing to do that. And special welcome to you.

Our genuine prayer is that as you've come to worship the Lord with us, that you would leave here with a fresh vision of Christ, and that you would know that he was here with us, and that you would be blessed indeed. And for those who call this place home, welcome home. It's always a joy to gather together as a family. And we are going to continue in our worship here as we give. It's our custom to give at this point of our worship service and so the ushers will help us with that in a moment here.

And and as that's taking place, I wanna encourage us because some of you know this, at least the member should know this, but though the giving yes goes to the expenses for this facility and and the things that return to serve you in our community, we also partner with other organizations that are doing a great work for the kingdom of God, that we believe are advancing the gospel of God in the way that God has called them to. And one of those ministries that we are so excited about that we work with at least from a financial standpoint is CURE International. Have you heard of CURE? Anybody heard of CURE? If you haven't, Cure specializes in medical missions and they go to different places in Africa and The Philippines specifically to offer life altering surgeries, for children and families that cannot afford it.

And more than just offering that kind of service, they are very intentional to go into these communities, to reach out to families, to preach the gospel to them, to offer this kind of service, and then to see them through until after their surgery to continue to disciple them and pray with them. The the doctors that perform these wonderful things are also believers and it's so wonderful to look at some of their videos where you see these surgeons gathering around a child and praying for them before they they perform their surgeries. And so, we we work with Cure on a monthly basis. We provide, just some contribution and they do us the wonderful joy of returning to us some of the names and the pictures of the children that our contributions helped. And so just to give you a visual here of some of the precious people that, their their lives have been changed forever.

And so we we have here Asiatu from Malawi who had a bowed legs and you can see some of the before pictures there at the top left and the surgery was evidently successful. We have Zachary age four with knock knees and Niger. And again, you can see the the before picture up there and And you have to understand that these children are not just suffering debilitation and hindrances to just daily activities. But in in these cultures, if you are born with some of these deficiencies, you were seen as cursed. So there's a social stigma associated with these, deformities.

And we have here Nadia age 15. Look at look at that there at the top left. I mean, these things seem incurable but just for a few thousand dollars their lives can be forever changed. And this is all being done in the name of Jesus Christ. This is all being done in his name with his love and the support of God's people including you.

We have Amar here, h three from Niger as well. Look at his little face there in the bottom right. He's happy. The bottom left as well. And we may have one more, maybe not.

Yeah. Cure International, they are doing an amazing work. Continue to pray for them, but we wanna do more than just pray for them. We wanna help and give, and we will continue to do that. So I just want to stir your heart to know that, your giving goes to causes like this.

Much more intentional and even much more, open to partnering with other missions organizations. And maybe, maybe one day, this is also our prayer, that God would raise up missionaries from this house. And then we can send them to different parts of the world with the gospel experience the love of Christ. Well, more announcements here. We are getting closer and closer to our conference weekend.

It's not next weekend. It's the weekend after, the twenty seventh to the August 30. Just to remind maybe some of you who don't know that we will be in Michigan. Most of the church, if not all the church will be there. And so there will be no services here on that weekend, including the prayer meeting on that Wednesday.

And so Wednesday of that week, there's no prayer meeting. Friday, there will be no Bible study. Sunday, there will be no Lord's Lord's Day service here but everything will be live streamed and so you can always join us from the comfort of your home. I know it's not the same but at least you have some kind of connection to what God will be doing there. There'll be six sessions total.

If you're not joining us, pray for us. There'll be people beyond our church who will be participating and staying that weekend. Names that we've never heard of, people that we don't know about, that will be flying in from different parts of The States, even from Canada, and even beyond. And so it's always a blessing. This this conference always has testimonies of salvations and people just being healed in their hearts and their faith.

And we're looking forward to what God will do this year. One more note on on that with the conference, we do have childcare, we do have a VBS program for our children during that weekend, but we do need more volunteers. And we're calling to the members specifically to help out in this way, both men and women. And all we're really asking for is not for you to not not attend any of the sessions to to watch the children of the parents and families who will be there, but at least one session. If you're willing to just step out and to teach and to watch and to play with these these children as, their parents will be receiving the word of God, that will be a tremendous help to us.

And so, if you can do this, if you're willing to do this, just find Katie. Katie, I'm not sure if you're here. If you are here, just stand up. If, if you're a member here, you should know who Katie is. But this is a a call specifically for the members to to just help us in this way and we are so appreciative of that and we're looking forward to how God will bless the children as well.

Well, as we continue to sing here in a moment, you know, there's only so much you can squeeze in one message, right? And, it was Charles Spurgeon who said that it's a preacher's responsibility to prepare their messages in morsels that are digestible. And so sometimes, people feel the need to, just turn on the fire hose and just spray the people so that they can take in as much information as possible. And though that may be possible for some to receive that amount, it's the preacher's duty to know what should be said in the certain amount of time that he has been granted. I'm saying all I have to say that during these announcements, we get to say some additional things that don't count as the sermon and, and hopefully that blesses you more.

I wanna read to you a prophecy as we're looking at again the return of Jesus Christ in the book of Revelation. Revelation just echoes hundreds of prophecies in the Old Testament. And one of those prophecies is in Isaiah chapter two. And this is a very familiar passage and I wanna read it to your encouragement. Isaiah the prophet says in verse one of Isaiah two, the word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be lifted up above the hills and all the nations shall shall flow to it.

Let me ask you a question. Is Jerusalem important according to the Bible? Very important. Don't think that what's going on in The Middle East is about real estate. Verse three, and many peoples shall come and say, come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.

For out of Zion shall go the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, verse four, he shall judge between the nations and shall decide disputes for many peoples. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. Oh, what will the world look like when Christ becomes king from Jerusalem? There will be no need for a second amendment.

There'll be no need for weapons. Nobody's gonna know how to do war anymore when he rules and reigns. You wanna know something interesting? Verse four is inscribed somewhere in the United Nations headquarters. Which part?

And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. I'm not sure if it's there anymore, but you can look this up and discover that they have this on a plaque. But you know what's amazing? They only quoted the second part of the verse. What's the first part?

He shall judge between the nations and shall decide disputes for many peoples. So they cut out the part that matters the most. You're not gonna have nations not learn war anymore unless you have the king who occupies the right throne from Jerusalem. See, people want peace. They don't want the Prince of Peace.

Go on dreaming. Have as many meetings as you want at the UN. You need Christ if you want this prophecy fulfilled. We have Christ. And whether the UN wants him or not, he's coming, and he's gonna fulfill this.

And we can applaud that. Let's thank him for it, shall we? Lord, we thank you that we belong to the winning team. We thank you that you are our king now and we say, come Lord Jesus and fulfill all these predictions and all these foreshadowings and all these prophecies. We long for it Lord.

Our world needs you, oh God. And we pray that you would use us as your church to be equipped in your word so that we can go unashamedly to the rest of the world and tell them about you, our king and their king, our savior and their savior. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Let's stand and worship because he is the victorious one.

Lord, we give you all honor, all glory, and all thanksgiving today for this gathering. Lord, we thank you Father for the freedom we have to gather today, The freedom we have in Christ. And it is so freeing, Lord, to know what our destiny is in him, in the eternal destiny we have in Christ and through Christ. We thank you for your promises. We thank you for the victory that has been won on the cross and the victory to come.

Look to you now as we receive your word and we ask that it would it would just sink into our ears, our minds, our hearts that we would be more like Christ. And we would be filled with your joy and strength pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Let's turn together now to our Bibles in the book of Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19. Now, the book of Revelation speaks about two suppers or two feasts that will take place in the last days. And both are in connection to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first is the marriage supper of the lamb, which we carefully examined and joyfully considered a few weeks ago.

And the second is known as the great supper of God. Now these two titles may seem to speak about the same event, but they do not at all. Unlike the marriage supper of the lamb, it is not a blessing to be invited to the great supper of God, and you and I will see why shortly. But like the marriage supper of the lamb, we see here the great supper of God is found in Revelation chapter 19. And although we most definitely do not want to take part in this occasion, the Holy Spirit clearly wants us to know about it and to learn from it.

And John here is prepared to teach us about it. After describing to us the incredible vision of Christ breaking open the heavens and entering into our world with his wonderful glory and his unstoppable majesty, the vision continues. In other words, this feast that we are going to analyze is a continuation of what Christ will do when he comes. The great supper of God will unfold immediately after Christ returns. In fact, it's a part of his grand entrance when he comes as the conquering king.

And we will do what we can to understand it by first reading about it here in Revelation 19 verse 17. After telling us about the rider on the white horse with the name king of kings and lord of lords on his thigh, we find John telling us the following in verse 17. Then I saw an angel standing in the sun and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, come gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great. And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against them who was sitting on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet, who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who worshiped its image.

These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur, and the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh. We ask father that you would help us understand the great supper of God. And in an understanding it, we would realize what a privilege it is to be at the marriage supper of the lamb with you forever. And so Lord, open our minds that we may understand your wisdom, what you've planned for the future, what the fate of the wicked is that we would have more compassion and urgency and boldness with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We trust, Lord, when we are weak, you are strong, and that you meet our weakness with your perfect strength.

And we ask for that now in this moment. In Jesus' name, amen. Apart from the fact that the great supper of God is something that coincides with the return of Christ, there are three striking features of this supper that we we must consider. And hopefully, these are memorable ways of understanding and retaining this incredible event. I want us to look at three things that begin with the letter b.

The first thing that stands out is the birds. Following that, the battle. And lastly, there's great emphasis on bodies, the bodies. Now those things grouped together may sound a little bizarre, but it will all make sense when we consider them separately. And so the first thing that we want to consider now are the birds.

Look again at verse 17 with me. After describing the manifestation of Christ returning from above, John tells us that he sees something else in the midst of that scene. Then I saw an angel standing in the sun. An angel, we see many of them in our study of Revelation, but here we find one stationed in the sun of all places. Now what does that tell us about the brilliance and the radiance of these angelic beings for John to be able to recognize one standing in that blazing star in our solar system?

But I don't think that's the point. I don't think John here is trying to illustrate just how glorious some of these creatures are. You have to remember that leading up to the return of Christ as we come to the crescendo of prophecy, there has been a lot of commotion among the cosmic elements. It was the lord Jesus Christ who himself said in Matthew twenty four twenty nine that immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun, what will happen to it, It will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. So with this in view, we can understand how an angel can be perceived standing in the sun at this point in history.

But there's more to it than that. The dimming of these heavenly bodies also indicates that there is going to be a significant change that will be taking place to the normal course of our world, to the normal systems that we have been accustomed to these past few thousand years. In other words, the fact that the stage is being darkened is telling us here that a new age is about to be inaugurated. When Jesus Christ comes back, everything will be altered, including our solar system. And so this angel is standing in the sun, a sun that has been darkened.

And also standing from that place, he is making an announcement to the entire world. He's seeking to grab the attention of all the inhabitants of the earth. But here's what's so amazing about this. He does not address humans with this heralding, does he? No.

He is calling and summoning the birds. Come, in the latter part of verse 17, gather for the great supper of God. He's not inviting kings, magistrates. He's not inviting politicians. He's inviting birds to participate in this feast.

Strange perhaps at first. Grotesque? Absolutely. But to the student of the Old Testament, this is not entirely new, is it? In terms of its imagery and its message.

Here's what you find throughout scripture. The human body, not just the human soul, but its physical component is sacred and highly valued in the sight of God, and it should be to us. And one of the ways that this is demonstrated is the care that is given to a body after it dies. And so repeatedly throughout the scriptures, there's this great emphasis on proper burial being granted to the deceased. And this is a custom that you see from Genesis all the way up to the New Testament while also showing us that one of the greatest graces that you can give to somebody who has died is not bury them and to intentionally leave their breathless body exposed to the elements or to the dangers of praying animals that would violate the body.

And so this is actually much more prevalent than than you might think and I want us to go on a little journey here in the Hebrew Scriptures. Do you remember one of the taunts, one of the threats that Goliath made to David when they had their face to face standoff? Let's go to the first Samuel in chapter 17 in verse 44. Want us to look at just briefly different parts of the Old Testament that confirm what we see here in Revelation 19. At least clarify what's happening in Revelation 19.

In first Samuel seventeen forty four, get ready. You're gonna turn to a few pages with me now. The Philistines said to David, come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field. What is Goliath saying here? I'm not just ready to kill you.

I'm ready to mortify you. I don't wanna just take your life. I wanna humiliate you. And the way I'm gonna humiliate you is so destroy you, so intimidate the watching army of Israel that they wouldn't even dare scoop your body up after I'm finished with you, but that you'd be left for the lunch of the birds that are hovering above us right now. Consider now in Psalm 79, how the psalmist laments as he reflects on the destruction of Jerusalem, as he cries out to God, one of the first thing that he utters in his pain is what you find in verse one and two of Psalm 79.

Oh god, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in ruins. They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the heavens for food, the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth. So you see it again.

Do you not? This is one of the most shameful things that somebody could experience after they die. This is the one of the most humiliating things that you can do as you handle something as sacred as the human body, and we don't have time to get into the several reasons for why burial specifically to the scriptures is a vital importance, I just want to show you here a pattern. A pattern that even continues with God himself who made an issued threats, warnings of judgment against his own people, who would continually walk in rebellion, who would continue to walk in idolatry and blatant wickedness. So he speaks to the nation of Israel in Deuteronomy 28 and he presents blessings for obedience and disobediences with curses attached to it.

And one of the curses are this in Deuteronomy 28 verse 26. This is God speaking in Deuteronomy twenty eight twenty six, and your dead body shall be food for all the birds of the air and for the beast of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away. This is very graphic. Is it not? God is saying to those who would turn their back on him, you will not experience the honor of a burial, but that you would be so devoured by the beast of the earth and the birds of the air until you essentially disappear, physically speaking.

This continues as God speaks through his prophets who clearly didn't take heed to this warning and so they are doing all these atrocious things in the promised land and God raises up a prophet by the name of Jeremiah. And he seeks to alarm the people of Judah specifically. And one of the things that he does is reminds him what he says of the warnings in Deuteronomy 28. Listen to this in Jeremiah 16 in verse four. They shall die of deadly diseases.

They shall not be lamented nor shall they be buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead body shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth. We can go on and on and on, but I'm sure we get the point. With this background in mind, what happens in Revelation 19 becomes that much more clear, I hope, at least.

The summoning of the birds highlights the severity of the judgment that will be executed upon the return of Christ. It speaks to the great dishonor and disgrace that the adversaries of Christ will experience for the rebellion against the lordship of Jesus even though throughout the tribulation period, he has done so much to gain their attention and to win their surrender. By summoning the birds, God is saying, I'm about to unleash one of the most dreadful forms of judgment that I can offer. But there are a couple of other things that we can learn about the birds in Revelation 19. And one of the things that we can take from it is that the judgment that is associated with them is inevitable.

In fact, this gruesome feast that is being prepared by this angel is so certain that if you read carefully in the verses that we explored in Revelation, he invites the birds before the bodies of the enemies of Christ are even slain. What does that tell you for him to say, alright, birds. Come. There's a feast about to be prepared for you. It communicates that the judgment is fixed, that the judgment is inescapable, that the judgment is certain.

God will judge the wicked, and nothing and no one can change that. You can change that for yourself by putting your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but the judgment itself is on its way. Secondly, this judgment reveals that God is no respecter of persons. Notice the description of those who will be eaten in verse 18 of Revelation 19. To eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.

What's that telling us? It doesn't matter who you are in this life or how others view you or esteem you. You can be a king or a slave. You could have lived the experiences of 10 men in one lifetime. You can know achievement, status, or position in this world that is celebrated and revered.

But in verse 18, in light of God's judgment, we are reminded that his value system is far different than ours, that he is not influenced by these things, that his moral judgment is not skewed by the things that man performs or possesses. All men, both great and small, will be judged if they are outside of Christ. So with the sobering indictment, it goes to show that what you do or who you become in this world means very little at the end of the day. In fact, it means nothing at all. It doesn't matter if you're famous.

It doesn't matter if you're totally overlooked and completely unknown. It doesn't matter if you invent things that warrants a Nobel Prize or you're barely able to meet your basic needs on a weekly basis. The only thing that truly matters about you and for all eternity is whether you know Jesus Christ and are sealed with his holy spirit. There is a poem that I heard many years ago, and I shared this with our prayer meeting a few weeks ago that recently has been ringing in my ear. And I'd love to read it to you.

It's a poem called A Hundred Years From Now. It will not make much difference, friend, a hundred years from now if you live in a stately mansion or on a floating river scow, if the clothes you wear are tailor made or pieced together somehow, if you eat big steaks or beans and cake a hundred years from now. It won't matter about your bank account or the make of car you drive, for the grave will claim your riches and fame and the things for which you strive. There's a deadline we all must meet that no one will turn up late. It won't matter then all the places you've been.

Each one will keep that date. We will only have in eternity what we give away on earth. When we go to the grave, we can only say the things of eternal worth. What matters, friend, the earthly gain for which some men always bow? For your destiny is sealed, you see, a hundred years from now.

All the kings, all the captains, all the mighty men, all the great, all the small will face judgment one day. This is what we see with the birds, but we move on from the birds now to the battle. And we have to establish here with the battle that what's being depicted here has already been foretold in Revelation 16. We got a little snapshot of what we see here, and that is how the nations and the armies of those nations will join the antichrist to surround Jerusalem in the place in Hebrew that is called the Harmageddon. You've probably heard the term the battle of Armageddon, which can be debated because more accurately, Armageddon is where they gather, and you can see other places where the battle will actually take place.

But I digress. This is the unfolding of what you saw earlier in this book. This is when all these kings and presidencies and all these different prime ministers will join the Antichrist and stand before God seeking to destroy Jerusalem and the promised son of David who was prophesied to rule and reign from Jerusalem. And it will be a vain attempt. Christ will meet them in all his glory, and the outcome of this face off is quite clear.

There is no contest whatsoever. When he comes, the spirit of God reveals that the victory of our lord will be swift, it will be immediate, and it will be complete. But there are more details to this. John wants to let us know that there are actually specific steps that will be taken when Christ comes back. So the birds have been summoned.

They're hovering, and they're waiting for their meal. And before Christ opens his mouth to slay all the inhabitants of the earth that have resisted him and denied him, especially during the tribulation period when he made himself so known, He does something quite interesting. Look back here at verse 20 of Revelation 19. And the beast was captured, and with it, the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worship this image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.

I want you to highlight if you have the ESV, the word captured in that verse. Some other translations would say seas. In the Greek, this is the only occurrence where this word is found. But here's where it gets more interesting. When you explore of its usage across the New Testament, you'll see that it is brought up a couple of times in Acts and Corinthians, but it is most found actually in the gospel of John, the same author of the book of Revelation.

A total of eight times in the gospel of John and six out of those eight times, it's John seeking to describe the attempts of the religious leaders who wanted to arrest Jesus Christ and get rid of him. So I want you to kinda get this with me by going to the gospel of John because the Holy Spirit is being very creative here. The Holy Spirit through John's penmanship is wanting to convey a message by connecting this word between the gospel of John and the book of Revelation. So again, this word capture in Revelation nineteen twenty appears the most in the book and gospel of John. Look at it with me in John seven to start.

John seven verse 30. So they were seeking to arrest him. That's the same word. They were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. Look at John seven thirty two.

The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. Look at verse 44 of John seven. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. Go over to chapter eight of John in verse 20. John eight twenty.

These words he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple, but no one arrested him because his hour had not yet come. Let's look at one more place in John 10 in verse 39. Again, they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands. So you see it, and they're more than this. What is happening here?

It's only found once in Revelation, and it's found the most in the book of John, and I believe it's something that the holy spirit wants us to uncover. You see, when the lord Jesus came the first time, the efforts of the religious leaders through the spirit of the antichrist constantly tried to seize him and put a stop to fulfilling his mission. But when Christ comes the second time, he will be the one doing the arresting. And unlike the spirit of the antichrist who failed with every attempt to try to apprehend the lord Jesus and end his mission, Christ will effortlessly bind the beast who represents the Antichrist on his first attempt and will put an end to his reign and his perversion and his deception forever and ever. So you see what's happening here?

You see the beauty of the Bible, the artistry of the scriptures. Those who are familiar with John and to be fair, this would be more clear with the original language. You would see capture, seize, arrest, the same word, and then you come to Revelation. It's only there once, and it's Christ doing the arresting, and he is successful in his first attempt. And they will be bound, the the beast, the antichrist, and his right hand man, the false prophet for all of eternity.

Isn't that what we see here in verse 20? The prison house of this devilish duo is where? These two in the last part of verse 20 were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. This is the first time the expression the lake of fire is mentioned in all of the Bible, and it's not the last, but it's the first. And the lake of fire undoubtedly speaks about the eternal conscience punishment of those who have denied the lordship of Jesus Christ.

This is the place where people will be forever and ever enduring God's wrath in an unending unending manner. The blasphemy and the crimes of the beast and the false prophet are so monstrous that they will be the first ones to be consigned to the lake of fire. And even in the verse that we just read, there is no suggestion whatsoever that in entering into that place that they will eventually be annihilated or that they will cease to exist. That's a growing and more popular doctrine than ever. But don't let your theology come from podcasts of people speaking from their living rooms.

Look at verse 20 again. Look how precise the Holy Spirit is. These two will be thrown alive into the lake of fire, which suggest that they will go on living once they get there. And if you doubt that interpretation, then consider this. Christ returns to the earth in Revelation 19.

In Revelation 20, we're going to see what the Bible teaches about his rule and his reign on the earth, but we also have a glimpse of what will happen at the end of Christ's one thousand year reign. And one of the things that will happen at the end of the millennial reign of Christ is what? Look at verse 10 of Revelation 20. In Revelation 20 verse 10, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. So you see what's happening here.

At the end of the thousand year reign of Christ, Satan will join the beast and the false prophet telling guess what? That in two chapters, the beast and the false prophet have been in hell for a thousand years. It would be of the devil to convince us that hell is not as severe as the bible says it is. Feel the weight of it. The beast and the false prophet between Revelation 19 and Revelation 20 have been in the lake of fire for a thousand years, And they will be there after another thousand years.

And they will be there for another ten thousand years. And they will be there after one hundred thousand years. And everybody who rejects Christ will be with them. Notice that it says they in the way the ESV renders it in Revelation 20 verse 10. What are we to learn from this?

How absolutely foolish and delusional and terrifying it is to dare to fight against God. To think that you and I can live a life of sin and idolatry and worse defiance and think that we will win on the other side when in fact, the Bible tells us in this chapter of Revelation that it will be utter defeat instead. And not just utter defeat, eternal defeat. Which brings us to our final thought for the day. We looked at the birds.

We've considered the battle. And lastly, you can't ignore this. It's a little grotesque, but it's Bible. The bodies. It's a repeated thing.

And now let's remind ourselves here that we're discussing three distinct components of the Great Supper of God and it is strategically placed so closely to the marriage supper of the lamb which invites us to compare and contrast the two dinners. And one of the most obvious distinctions is this, that at the marriage supper of the lamb for the redeemed, for those who have been forgiven and washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are the object of Christ joy and delight since we're the bride of Christ. But in the great supper of God, those who are outside of Christ are the objects of his wrath. In the marriage supper of the lamb, we are invited to fellowship with Christ over a feast. In the great supper of God, the wicked become the feast.

That is spelled out so clearly at the end of verse 21. Let's just read the whole verse together. And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds absolutely devoured their flesh. Did you notice a repetition in the section of scripture? Flesh.

Look up at verse 18 again. In that single statement, it is mentioned five times. The flesh of kings, the flesh of the captains, the flesh of mighty men, flesh, flesh, flesh. And you wonder why the repetition, why the redundancy? Well, you can say to portray the magnitude of the carnage.

Absolutely. But you can't help but also wonder that there is an emphasis. There is something being stressed here concerning the futility and the fragility of the flesh. It's as though the repetition specifically in verse 18 is screaming at us, look at the faith of those who live for and depend on the flesh. See the end of those who come to the place where they have decided that they do not belong to the sweet savior, that they will not be governed by the rightful master but will willingly choose to be subject to their own will, their own impulses, and their own wisdom, the flesh.

Primary interpretation, the physical bodies of the wicked that will be laid out for the birds to eat. However, there is an application from this. Is there not? Where the flesh, where this life, where this mind, this heart will take a person when it is not surrendered to him but chooses to reject him instead. You look at the scriptures and you realize that it does not speak highly of our fallen human nature.

And in some context, the flesh again speaks about the material, but it also speaks about how this body and our thinking and our desires have been polluted because of the sin of Adam. So I look at this in verse 18 and I see flesh, flesh, flesh, and I see the destiny of those in the flesh, purely in the flesh, living this life in the flesh without Christ as king. And so many things go off in my mind about what the Bible says concerning the flesh today. I understand that this is a vision of tomorrow, but it provides warning for those who are in the flesh now. And one of those places that I would like you to follow me to is in Romans chapter eight.

And I want you to see what Paul says by the spirit about the flesh. In verse five of Romans eight, for those who live according to the flesh, Paul says, set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. Would you like to know this morning if you are in the flesh or if you are living in the spirit? Paul tells us one way that you can really, really know, and it is to examine the pattern of your thinking and to be honest with yourself and determine, are my affections, are my ambitions, is my reasoning guided and inspired by the things of God? What is Paul bringing up here to differentiate between living in the flesh and living in the spirit?

The mind. The mind. And what he's not saying here is that if you have desires for the necessities of life or even if you are seeking out to enjoy the gifts that God has put into this world and to tap into the experiences that we can enjoy in our lives, that's not what he's referring to. He's speaking about a mindset that is completely void of Christ. His will, his wisdom, his ways.

A person who has no room in his thoughts for Christ is a man or woman in the flesh. And Paul goes on to tell us what that mindset confirms about one's spiritual condition and about their future at the same time in Romans eight verse six. For to set the mind of the flesh is death, but to set the mind of the spirit is life and peace. So let's connect this with Revelation. You may be royalty.

You may be very wealthy. You may be loved by so many because you look at your subscribers on your YouTube account, and you think to yourself, I am so admired. You may seem free according to worldly standards, But if you are in the flesh, you're dead. You don't have true life. You don't have heavenly peace.

The life and peace that God intends you to have, by the way. And if there's any takeaway, if there's any application from what we're studying in Revelation 19, is to look at the flesh and almost smell the aroma of death. And think to yourself and hopefully believe in your heart, I want to run away from that fate as far as possible. Let the vision and revelation remind you to deny yourself. And not just deny yourself, but to respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit to make Christ king over your life, and that includes what you are and what you do with your body.

Let this vision of the great supper of God cause you to say, I want no place at that feast. I want a place at the marriage supper of the lamb. And the only way that you can have a seat at that celestial, glorious time of fellowship with the lord Jesus Christ is to make him king today. You wanna know what kind of banquet Satan leads people to? One where you become the food, and the only ones who benefit are unclean birds.

You know what kind of feast Christ leads us to? One of unspeakable joy, one that gives you a new body where you will never know pain, shame. You will never have to worry about the honor you might receive at your funeral because you will never die. And you will stand in the shadow of his presence for endless ages, and you will know why you were created. The great supper of God.

This will happen. It will be real. And those who will be alive during the tribulation period and think that they can actually have a chance to overthrow the throne of Christ will be the primary ones who will experience this dreadful thing At the same time, a hundred years from now, your fate and mine will be sealed. And today, you can decide with absolute certainty where you will be a hundred years from now. And I wanna make the invitation today for you to respond to the invitation to the first feast that we looked at and that is the marriage supper of the lamb.

If you're hearing this today and you're not certain where you will be forever and ever, if you don't know where you stand with the Lord Jesus Christ, God is using this service today to give you an opportunity to have your sins forgiven and to be justified in the sight of God and to read the book of Revelation not in fear, not in crippling terror, but with absolute confidence that all the wrath that is described here is not my portion. You can know that today. And the only way you can know that is if you know Jesus Christ. Respond to his love. Reach out to him even now, and he will meet you and he will transform you.

And you will walk out of these doors brand new knowing that you're going to a wedding that he will host and that you will enjoy forever and ever. Let's pray. Lord, your word is beautiful. And like John, we eat this scroll and it is sweet to our mouths, but it's bitter in our stomachs. We look at something like the great supper of God and we recognize the horror of it.

But at the same time, we recognize that it's a part of our redemption and it's a part of your vindication, and it's connected to your exaltation. And so, Lord, we, in great trembling, say amen to all of your word. Even with what we just looked at, we say amen. So be it. But Lord, at the same time, our hearts are heavy because what we see in your word, yes, is true and it's being confirmed with the events that we are seeing around us.

The news of earthquakes increasing, the news of wars, what's happening in Jerusalem even as we speak is setting the stage for what we are looking at in this book. And, Lord, thank you that we are ready. Thank you that we are rescued. But, Lord, there are so many that we know that are blinded, that are in the flesh and gladly in the flesh. And we pray that you would use messages like this in our lives and the messages that we carry through our actions to show people that there is a coming kingdom and one that they can be part of because of your grace, because the same king that we looked at here, Lord, in your word in Revelation 19 is the same one who came into this world two thousand years ago.

We know this and defeated sin and death on the cross so that we would have a way in. I pray with all of my heart that every person sitting in these chairs would know that they will be at the marriage supper of the lamb, but only you can convict the heart that doesn't. And we pray that for the rest of the service, even beyond this meeting, that conviction would be undeniable. And it would be so strong, Lord, so sharp that those who do not know you would finally bend the knee and say, Lord, take my life including this body and make it yours. We ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. Let's stand together. Kingdoms So I will

standing

Let's pray together. Lord, we ask that you would help us know what it means to live by and in the spirit. As we consider prophecies, Lord, week after week, we also see the the call to actions, the the themes, and the applications that deal with our lives now. And Lord, if there's any area of our lives that are of the flesh, void of Christ, ignorant of Christ, suppressing Christ, please Lord show us, Show us. We want life and peace.

We want life and peace. So help us set our minds on the things of the spirit this week. Help us be moved by what we heard to go even deeper into your word. Lord, for the person here who is lukewarm and they know it, but more than knowing it, they're okay with it. Please, Lord, use these final moments of this service to woo them back to you with your love.

Lord, for the person here who doesn't know Christ, they're curious perhaps, they're fond of Christ, they don't know what to make of what they heard even today. Lord, we pray that you would convince them of your love for them, of their need for a savior, of their sin, of the destiny of a life in the flesh. And Lord, they would surrender even before they leave this parking lot. Make us ready for your return. Make us ready for the marriage supper of the lamb.

Bring revival to your church. Help us recapture the truth of the return of Christ from the pulpit in our fellowship, in our singing. Forgive us, Lord, for being a bride that has lost sight of that day. Use these final moments in the book of Revelation to sharpen our vision of what's to come so that we can live today the way you've called us to live. Bless those who are burdened, the marriages that are struggling, the children that are wayward, oh, bring them back.

The people who are in a test, in a trial, who who don't even have room in their thinking for the the end times. They're they feel like they're living in the end times with their personal struggles and challenges. Give them relief, Lord. Give them that life and peace that we reference today. We ask these things in the glorious name of the soon returning Christ, Jesus.

Amen and amen. The Lord Jesus be with you this week. Join us for a time of fellowship, and we will see you next week, God willing. Should he tarry, come Lord Jesus. See you.