Last night I was a bouncer in a dog collar. I was standing in the lobby of the church we serve. Our guest speaker was a school parent at one of our local schools. He said that in 35 years of ministry he had never seen such spiritual openness as he had this year. He may be right. The church was packed to overflowing. This was his sixth carol service this year and the message is well worth a watch:

We moved here 15 years ago today with three kids under the age of 4. It snowed that Christmas and London seemed full of hope as a blanket of white settled over any dirt or grime that needed covering up. But it wasn’t long before the snow melted and exposed a building that needed an actual clean up after 170 years of life in London’s pre-’ultra low emission zone’ smog. That and some masonry stonework that was falling off. 

That was Rico’s point in his talk. Even when we cover it up we all have accumulated a right mess in our hearts and our lives. It needs sorting out. It needs taking away. 

That Olympic summer of 2012 Christ Church Turnham Green sprang into action, with a soft play cafe, olympic themed quizzes, a 100km fundraising walk along the Thames, and low and behold the £300,000 needed to sort out the building was quite miraculously raised – much to the surprise of the Finance and Audit Committee (who had planned a 7 year loan repayment process), and the Vicar (who hadn’t planned on a building project when he accepted the job). That was just the start of many more financial adventures in the life of the church that expanded to become Christ Church W4, and from 2014-2016 brought St Alban’s Church (now rechristened as Christ Church Acton Green) back to life after the local community saved it from being turned into flats. That phase had a £1million price tag, and still we have never yet needed that loan. It’s good to remember these facts as we press on to the next challenges ahead. We still have an outbuilding eyesore outside that church which needs replacing to fulfil the church’s God-given destiny to be the ‘beating heart of the community.’ The Lord who has provided will provide again. The mess will get sorted out. Then all things will be new. 

There is a longing in all of us to see ‘all things new’. That’s where Revelation is headed in Chapters 21-22. But before we get there the mess needs to be sorted out. 

That’s why Revelation 19 comes as such a relief to us. An unexpected relief at that. There are a few things that are unexpected:

First is the use of the word ‘Hallelujah’. It’s unexpected because in the whole of the New Testament it is the first time that the word has turned up. A word we are so used to from our hymns, anthems and choruses. But apart from 24 uses in the Psalms Halləlū-Yāh [literally Praise ‘Yah’] only features in the Bible in the fourth from last chapter. 

It does however feature in two of the books of the apocrypha. In 3 Maccabees 7 the Jewish people appeal to King Ptolemy IV Philopator of Egypt for the right to punish by death, ‘those of the Jewish nation who had wilfully transgressed against the holy God and the law of God.’ The King grants their petition and, ‘when they had applauded him in fitting manner, their priests and the whole multitude shouted the Hallelujah and joyfully departed. And so on their way they punished and put to a public and shameful death any whom they met of their compatriots who had become defiled.’

The back story is that Ptolemy IV had tried to enter the holy of holies in the Jerusalem temple, been struck down temporarily by God, but survived and turned his wrath on the Jewish people. They responded with prayer and fasting, after which Ptolemy realises he has been fighting the true and living God and has a complete turnaround. He now issues an edict protecting the Jews. So the punishment that gets this first ‘Hallelujah’ is a punishment of those apostate Jews who had given in to his previous  ‘beastly’ authority. 

The other place it is used is in Tobit 13. That is a song of an exiled believer in Nineveh who has been healed. It interprets suffering as discipline, deliverance as mercy, and the future as radiant with hope for all nations. Early Christians liked to read it as it anticipated a glorious new Jerusalem – and that is the context the word Hallelujah comes in. 

For Jerusalem will be built as his house for all ages…

The gates of Jerusalem will be built with sapphire and emerald,

    and all your walls with precious stones.

The towers of Jerusalem will be built with gold,

    and their battlements with pure gold.

The streets of Jerusalem will be paved

    with ruby and with stones of Ophir.

The gates of Jerusalem will sing hymns of joy,

    and all her houses will cry, “Hallelujah!

Blessed be the God of Israel!”

    and the blessed will bless the holy name for ever and ever.’ [Tobit 13:16-17]. 

Hallelujah – there is a judge: Shouts 3 Maccabes from Egypt. 

Hallelujah – there is a coming new Jerusalem: Shouts Tobit from Iraq. 

Which leads us to the second thing that is unexpected. What the Hallelujah shout is given for in Revelation 19. It is given three times by a great multitude, whose shout sounded like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder. It is given three times, with a response from those representative 24 elders and 4 living creatures added in. 

  1. Hallelujah – Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments, He has condemned the great prostitute, who corrupted the earth by her adulteries, He has avenged on her the blood of his servants: shout the great multitude in Revelation 19: 1-2
  2. Hallelujah – the smoke goes up from the great prostitute forever: shouts the great multitude in Revelation 19:3
  3. Hallelujah: For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean was given her to wear (the linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people): shouts the great multitude in Revelation 19:6-8. 

The third surprise for those who haven’t taken on board the book of James is that the linen the church gets to wear is her righteous acts… don’t miss out on something to wear in heaven! Faith without works is dead. 

But focus in on those three Hallelujahs and you will see that just like in 3 Maccabes the multitude (that’s basically everyone) is praising God that judgement has come on the faithless traitors who have done so much damage. Why? Why is the focus of these Hallelujahs not something nicer – like a beautiful sunset or the love a mother has for a newborn child? Why is the human heart so desperate for judgement? 

We touched on it in Chapter 17 when we looked at the seals, trumpets and bowls of wrath poured out on the world, in a limited but increasingly devastating way that prepares the way for the final judgement to come. There I quoted Bishop James Jones addressing a University gathering. He made the point that when people ask, ‘why does God allow suffering?’ what they are really asking for him to be Judge. They want Him to get rid of what is bad, and leave what is redeemed and redeemable.  

That’s what we want too. That is what everyone wants deep down. That is what creation is longing for. 

‘The old has gone, the new has come’ says St Paul when he reflects on what redemption means for him and us. The old me has been judged, found wanting, buried in baptism and raised to new life with Jesus because of his unmerited kindness to me. Now I am a new creation, I am seated with him in heavenly places even as I walk this earth, and I am being changed from one degree of glory to the next, all because death was at work in me and now life is at work in me because with a tiny spark of faith I said yes to his irresistible grace. 

I am not who I will one day be when I see him face to face, but I am definitely not who I used to be when I was blind to him either. 

But the burial is necessary.  The judgement is necessary. The cleansing is necessary. 

Creation is longing for a judge to sort things out. Our artists and popstars share the same instinct. Anytime you hear a Freddie Mercury type figure singing out ‘who wants to live forever?,’ or words to that effect, you hear them tuning into that longing of creation that it is only in a better life, a better world, that we should want to live forever. God may have put eternity in our hearts, but this is not the place to get stuck in for all that time. 

As we near the end of Revelation, the end of all things is coming too. And the abundant relief is that he will come and judge with justice and truth. He will come and condemn ‘the great prostitute’ who has corrupted the world with her adulteries and he will furthermore avenge on the ‘great prostitute’ the blood of his people. It is salutary that the judgement is so far reaching that the smoke from the great prostitute ‘will go up forever.’ 

This judgement is needed. This spiritual restart. This chance for a fresh start. Why? So his bride the church can be dressed in white linen robes. So she can be righteous and unharmed. The bride he died to save is about to come safely home. And that beautiful picture elicits that third and final great Hallelujah from the multitude, watching and waiting for that wedding day. ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’

Not only is he praised for his judgement, the Lamb can also back it up. The Lamb who was the only one worthy to open the seals of the scroll that would start the judgments rolling, now finishes the job. 

We get to meet Jesus in a fresh way here in Revelation 19. A way that the letters to the seven churches have been hinting at. The way Revelation 1 introduces Him before we get to see him as the Lamb.

In Chapter 4 we looked at the Letter to Pergamum. It begins: 

‘These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. I know where you live—where Satan has his throne.’ [Rev 2:12-13, see also Rev 1:16]

Now we get to see what he can do with that sword. The sword comes from His mouth symbolises truth conquering lies. This is victory through truth, not simply brute force: Christ’s word, character, and righteousness prevail.

In Revelation 19 he comes on a white horse. He is faithful and true. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is the Word of God. His robe is dipped in blood – and if it is his own blood, as seems likely, it is a sign that even when he is now a conquering Lion he is still that slain Lamb. His judgment is just and redemptive not arbitrary revenge but the vindication of truth, the end of lies, and the liberation of creation

Which means that God’s justice fits His character and his judgment clears the stage for worship and mission, and the marriage of the Lamb to his bride. 

What he has to clear out is the rider of the beast. The great prostitute or ‘whore of Babylon.’ A rider who represents those who ride on the corrupting (beastly) political empires. A rider who represents the allures of this world, luxury, idolatry and who persecutes the saints who resist her. A rider with the sad spiritual heritage of the decadent ancient Babylon, mirrored in the equally decadent imperial power of Rome, and similar systems down the ages. A rider who corrupts other nations and systems, drawing them into her spiritual adultery.  A rider that draws others to worship the Beast. 

In essence a rider who is a powerful metaphor for each and every corrupt social and political system that opposes God and leads people astray. 

A rider who sums up the mess this world is in. 

A rider whose time is up. A rider who has met her match when her Beast faces off with the White Horse. 

The Lamb Wins… but this time he is on that White Horse and He has a sword in his mouth. 

And the Beast, the False Prophet and the Prostitute all end up in the lake of burning sulfur… and eternal hell fire. 

The really great news about Christmas, Rico was saying last night, is that if you really understand it you know it is the greatest news ever. Because it is heaven’s rescue plan from the mess you are in. 

Although living in this Beastly world we have all been corrupted along the way, there is a way out. You are so loved that He came to earth as a baby destined to grow up and pay the Lamb’s blood price for you on the cross. A sacrifice in your place. 

Marked and saved by Him the Beast cannot get you, the False Prophet cannot corrupt you, the Great Prostitute cannot seduce you, if you hold on, endure and overcome. They are on their way out. You are on your way up to meet him in the air when he comes again to rule and reign forever. 
That is the BIG story. Christmas is GREAT NEWS. It literally changes the world.

Read More in this Series

The Lamb Wins Whole Series Catch Up : Introduction: Chp 1: Hope is Here | Chp 2: First, Love: Ephesus | Chp 3: Fear Not: Smyrna | Chp 4: I Know: Pergamum | Chp 5: Tolerate This: Thyatira | Chp 6: Wake Up: Sardis | Chp 7: Hold On: Philadelphia | Chp 8: Knock, Knock: Laodecia | Chp 9: What Must Soon Take Place | Chp 10: Holy Forever | Chp 11: Most Blessed | Chp 12: One That Was Slain | Chp 13: Come Home | Chp 14: Sun Forbear to Shine | Chp 15: 144000 | Chp 16 Sound of Silence | Chp 17: Spiralling Down | Chp 18 Two Witnesses | Chp 19 The Rapture | Chp 20 The Beast

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