Revelation 19 (Lesson 1) - Aaron Cozort - August 23, 2026

 This lesson explores the symbolism and timeline in the book of Revelation, focusing on the fall of Rome, the imagery of the marriage feast, and the identity of the church as the bride of Christ. It clarifies common questions about apocalyptic language and the spiritual significance of these visions.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and overview of Revelation's timeline

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Host

Aaron Cozort

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The Admonition podcast brings you Bible lessons and sermons from the Collierville Church of Christ with host Aaron Cozort. Each episode focuses on interpreting Scripture in its original context, exploring the background of key passages, events, and teachings. Gain deeper insight into God’s Word as we study together, applying timeless truths to everyday life.

Everybody's awake.

All right. Take your Bibles if you will
and open them to the book of Revelation.

We're wrapping up chapter eighteen and
headed into chapter nineteen this morning.

We've pointed out in the text that ~

There are times where John is going to
cover something,

then he's going to describe the something,

then he's going to back up and deal with
the details of something.

Then he'll proceed through to the next
thing.

So we're that's kind of the the pattern
that we're in as we get into

the text this morning. But let's begin
with a word of prayer and then we'll

get into our study. Our gracious Father in
heaven,

we bow before your throne, grateful for
the day that you've blessed us with.

Grateful for the opportunity that we have
to serve you,

and we pray that we might do so in spirit
and in truth.

Lord, we pray that you be with those who
are struggling this morning because

of illness, those who are struggling
because of difficulty,

those who are struggling because of the
treatments that they may be under.

And we pray that you give them strength,

that you give them the health that they
desire,

the abilities they desire to.

deal with the difficulties this life
presents.

Lord, we are mindful of those who are
dealing with the aftermath of the the
storm.

We pray that people will have safety as
they are dealing with

~ the power outages and with the downed
trees and the other things pertaining

to that storm. Lord, we pray that you give
them safety,

as well as those who are on the roads.

Lord, we pray that you be with us as we

Open our minds and open your word this
morning.

May the things that we study be those
things which we can apply to our lives,

that we can grow in our knowledge and our
wisdom in your word,

but also our confidence and our strength,

our strength, and our trust in you.

Lord, we pray this out of love for you,

love for your creation, love for what you
have.

built and what you have made in the body
of Christ.

And Lord, we pray that you will always
help us to be the Christians

you would have us to be. All this we pray
and ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

As we consider chapter 19,

let's just take a moment and review what
we said about chapter 18.

and chapter 17, chapter 17, we're told the
time period of the book.

It is in the time period of the sixth
king,

because there's seven that are initially
pointed out,

and one is fallen, one dies, as it were.

~ in Nero and is resurrected in Domitian,

the eighth. And it is during the time of
the sixth that the book is being written.

It's not a guess, that's not surmising,

and it's not up to historical scholarly
works to determine that.

John tells us that he's writing this when
there's one more

Horn that is about to come up,

and he's only going to be there for a
little while.

And that's Titus. And that after that,

Domitian, the eighth, is going to come up.

The beast is going to come back up in the
king that is the eighth king.

And that is Domitian. So John is writing
this when Titus is

n approaching the throne. Therefore,

the latter end of Vespasian, Titus's
father's reign.

As Caesar. That puts the dating of the
book somewhere in

the late 70s A.D.,

76, 77, 78, 79, somewhere in there as
Titus will come to the throne in 79.

But in chapter, I'm gonna skip through
these just to get back to chapter 18.

Alright, chapter 18, we read about the
great city's defeat.

John is told he's going to be shown the
mystery of the great harlot that rides
upon

the beast. And we see the woman is Rome.

We see that she's the city that rules the
world in John's day.

We see that she's the city that persecutes
the church.

We see that she's the city that sits on
seven hills.

We see in chapter 18, she's the city that
seduced the nations.

She was an economic power.

And they would grieve when they lost her
the access to her markets.

They will mourn as they sit off,

as it were, in the merchant ships off the
shore and watch her demise.

But then you have in the end of chapter 18
the picture of

the millstone being cast into the sea.

You know, the Jesus uses the figure ~ in ~
Luke chapter 17.

of the one he says if anyone ~ does damage
or causes one

of these little ones to stumble it would
be better off that he hung

a millstone around his neck and that he
cast himself into the sea.

The picture there is once the millstone is
around your neck and you're in the water,

you're done for and you're never coming
back.

Okay? So there's that imagery of the
millstone and the sea,

even visualized in Jesus'

Teaching. We get into chapter 19,

and we're going to find all through 17 and
18,

we've had the Christians and they're
persecuted.

They're being described as those who are
being killed.

Their blood is being found inside the
city.

in the heart of the city as the city is
being destroyed,

as the as the autopsy is done on why did
this happen?

The answer God gives is go look inside the
city,

you'll find the blood of the saints.

But in chapter 19, the picture opens and
it's it's not a picture of a bunch

of dead people. It is rather a picture of
a marriage feast.

Now.

As we get into this, some are gonna ask,

Isn't this the final day?

Isn't this when Jesus returns?

And isn't this when we are all reunited
with the Lord in heaven?

Well, maybe I should ask this.

Has John said that the things which are
going to occur in this book

are shortly to come to pass?

Did John write it in the first century?

Did he say that the things were at hand?

Is he about to describe things that were
the f

~ revolving around the fall of the nation
of Rome?

So when the marriage feast is described
that follows the fall of the nation of
Rome,

guess when it occurs? At the fall of the
nation of Rome.

Shortly to come to pass. It's at hand.

The description here is one that we'll
deal with as we go through the text,

but appreciate the fact that when we get
into chapter 19,

we're supposed to do the same thing that
we've been doing since chapter one.

We're supposed to read what it says and
ask,

what does it mean? And we're supposed to
understand what it means after.

These things I heard a loud voice of a
great multitude in heaven.

Now, first question we need to ask:

Have we seen the multitudes in heaven
before?

Absolutely. We've had them described in
chapter 5,

we've had them described in chapter 7,

we've had them described in chapter 14,

we've had the multitudes in heaven
described over and over again.

Second question How does John describe

the Christians who are faithful through
the persecution when it comes

to their dwelling place?

He describes the unfaithful, the ungodly,

as those who dwell on the earth.

How does he describe the Christians?

as those who dwell in heaven.

As John is writing the book, he's
consistent all the way through.

The ones who dwell in heaven are not
necessarily those

who have died and left this life.

Those who dwell in heaven are those who,

though they are alive on the earth,

their dwelling place is where?

With God. Because they're faithful.

Okay? So as you deal with the figures in
the book,

don't get to a passage where you say,

~ well, we're told this is heaven.

We're told this is the end of time.

Therefore, we're going to cast out and
throw away all the consistency

of John's use of the figures. John sees a
multitude in heaven.

Is it the Christians who are faithful,

or is it the Christians who were faithful
and are now dead?

Doesn't matter.

Because both of them have their dwelling
place in heaven.

Okay? Let's just deal with the text as we
get to it.

He says, I saw a great multitude in heaven
saying,

Alleluia, salvation and glory and honor
and power belong

to the Lord our God. As you open up the
chapter

in chapter 19, the shout goes up.

Hooray for God.

That's what hallelujah means. Hallelujah
means hooray for God.

Praise the Lord. If you were to go back to
the Old Testament usage of it,

as it opens the Psalms that are praising
God.

The shout from

the multitude as they witness the judgment

of the woman.

The city that was persecuting the church,

the city that was killing God's people,

they witness the judgment and they say,

Hooray for God.

They say salvation and glory and honor

and power belong to the Lord our God.

Now you go back to chapter six.

Verse 9. When he opened the fifth seal,

I saw under the altar the souls of those
who had been slain for the word

of God and for the testimony which they
held,

and they cried with a loud voice,

saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true,

until you judge and avenge our blood

on those who dwell. Where?

On the earth.

Then a white robe was given to them and it
was said to them that they should rest

a little while longer until both the
number of their fellow servants

and their brethren who would be killed as
they were was completed.

God tells them, I know what's going on.

Here's a robe. Here's your white garment.

You go rest with the faithful.

I'll take care of it. And so in chapter
19,

they open with the rejoicing, saying,

He did exactly what he said he'd do.

Salvation and glory and honor and power
belong to the Lord our God,

for true and righteous are his judgments.

Because he has judged the great harlot who
corrupted the earth with her fornication,

and he has avenged on her the blood of his
servants shed by her.

What did God through the messengers tell
the ones who had died?

I'm going to deal with her. And so in
chapter 17 and in chapter 18,

John showed.

God's going to deal with her. I know who
she is.

I know what she looks like. I know that
she looks unbeatable.

I know that she looks like ~ a city that
will never be able to be conquered,

and all of her allies will protect her.

And what I'm going to tell you is,

I'm going to use her allies against her.

I'm going to tear her up from the inside
out.

I'm going to wipe her off the map.

I am going to make it so that everyone who
thinks they're going to

get rich by prospering, by committing
fornication with her,

will be weeping and wailing and mourning
because she's gone.

And then I'm going to tell you that those
of you who cried

out how long are going to shout

in rejoicing that I did exactly what I
said I'd do.

So then notice again they said,

Alleluia, her smoke rises up forever and
ever.

When does the rejoicing in chapter
nineteen occur

or begin?

What event are they rejoicing over?

Fall of Rome. You notice that John doesn't
leave this to

our surmising as to the moment of the
rejoicing.

The occurrence where this is going to
begin.

This is not the rejoicing that begins

at the return of the Messiah at the end of
the world.

This is the rejoicing that begins because
God in his judgment and

his justice has rained retribution down on
the city of Rome.

But notice the figure.

John uses apocalyptic visionary

figurative language to describe the
destruction and the fall of Rome.

If you were

to burn a small city.

In a war, how long would the smoke go up
from the small city?

Few days.

What does the fire eventually do?

It runs out of something to burn.

What about if it's a larger city?

What about if it's the largest city?

What about if it's a great city?

What about if it's Rome? If we're talking
about a physical city,

does it still eventually run out of stuff
to burn?

But not in the figure.

John is going to do the same thing that
Isaiah does.

When Isaiah speaks at the end of Isaiah,

in Isaiah chapter 66, and he describes God
bringing his people back to Jerusalem,

and what God was going to do with his
enemies and the enemies of Israel when

he brought Israel back to Jerusalem.

He said, We're going to be piling up their
bodies,

and the worm's never going to die,

and the fire's not going to be quenched.

I'm never going to lose, Isaiah says,

if we were to interpret the figure.

God's never going to run out of ~ enemies
to be put on the fire,

and he's never gonna lose. So the worm's
never gonna run out of something to eat,

and the fire's never gonna go out.

Now, interesting contrast of a figure.

In the tabernacle,

what was one of the articles of the
tabernacle in

the holy place that never went out?

Lamp.

Part of the instruction of the priest was
you don't let the light go out.

Now, was it literally the case that the
light never went out?

Couldn't be. How do we know? Tabernacle
got moved.

As the tabernacle would be moved

From one place to another, there's no
indication that the fire was kept burning

in the lamps while the tabernacle was
moved.

But as it was instructed for the Levites
to go in and set the tabernacle back

up in its next location, what were the
priests supposed to do?

Go light the fire. They were supposed to
do it the right way.

And it was the fire that would never go
out.

Except in a literal physical sense,

did the fire go out? Sure it did.

At times.

But in the picture, what it represented,

it represented the Spirit of God that
never departed.

And it represented God's presence.

And so they were to understand it was the
fire that never went out.

Now, when you look at Rome,

and when they look at Rome, and when John
sees Rome,

he sees a burning ash heap that never
stops smoking.

What is the never stop smoking tells us?

City never comes back. It's always on
fire.

Guess where you don't build and rebuild
and resurrect a city?

In the place that's still on fire.

When Jericho fell.

What did God say was never to be done when
it came to the city of Jericho after

it fell?

It was never to be rebuilt. Do you know it
was rebuilt?

God pronounced a curse upon it that the
one who rebuilt the city,

his firstborn would die with the laying of
the foundation,

and his lastborn would die with the
hanging of the gates.

But guess what? The city was rebuilt,

and guess who paid with their lives?

The children of the man who rebuilt it.

The point was God says this city

is cursed forever.

Now, will Rome the city be rebuilt?

Sure, you can go there today.

You go travel to Italy, you can walk all
over the place where that old city used

to be.

But was Rome the persecutor of God's
people,

the one under the authority and the power
of the beast in the first century,

the one who was represented in the person
of Domitian ever reconstituted

and resurrected by Satan? No. Now,

has the city of Rome and the people in it
done evil deeds sometime

in the future after that point?

Sure.

That's not the point. The point in the
vision is that

the enemy is so entirely destroyed as to
never be able

to be resurrected by the dragon,

by Satan. We notice here,

he says, Alleluia,

her smoke rises up forever and ever,

and the twenty four elders.

And the four living creatures fell down
and worshiped God who sat on the throne,

saying, Amen. Alleluia. You track all the
way back to chapter six,

chapter five, chapter four, and you see
the throne room,

and you see the 24 elders and the four
living beasts that are before the throne,

and they're praising God and saying,

He's worthy, he reigns, he's on the
throne.

And then they say of the Lamb,

He's worthy, and He reigns, and He's on
the throne.

And then you get a whole bunch of
persecution that looks like that Domitian

is on the throne, and that Satan reigns,

and that the woman the harlot reigns,

and that she's on the throne.

And the 24 elders and the four beasts say,

Don't you believe it? God didn't get off
his throne.

And when the woman and the city and the
the harlot ~ are vanquished,

they say, Told ya.

And just like in chapter four when they
fell down and worshipped the Lord.

Because the four beasts worship the Lord.

And just like in chapter five when they
fell down and worshiped the Lord,

because the four beasts worship the Lord,

now here they are in chapter nineteen and
guess what they're doing?

They're doing the same thing they were
doing in chapter four.

Then a voice came from the throne saying,

Praise our God,

all you his servants, and those who fear
him both small and great.

Notice it's not the mighty alone who make

it through the tribulation. It's not

the rich alone that trust in God that
survive.

God is the protector of the small and the
great.

God is the one who sees his faithful
through no matter their circumstance,

no matter their status, no matter their
stature,

God is the protector of his people.

Verse seven Let us be glad and rejoice,

and give him glory. For the marriage of
the Lamb has come,

and his wife has made herself ready.

Now, some will come to this passage and
say,

okay, this is the reuniting of Christ and
the church.

This is the this is the marriage at the
end of time.

This is when all of the faithful have been
delivered up to God,

and this is that moment that Paul writes
about in First Corinthians chapter 15.

Well, there's some problems with that.

Because when did Christ marry the church?

Turn to second Corinthians chapter eleven.

Paul is going to write to the Corinthians.

And he writes to them in 2 Corinthians
chapter 11 and says,

that you would bear with me in a little
folly.

Indeed, you do bear with me.

Paul is about to give them some figures

and boast a little bit about his
background to point out that boasting
doesn't mean

anything.

But before he does, he's going to say
this,

for I am jealous for you, with godly
jealousy,

for I have betrothed you to one husband,

that I may present you as a chase virgin
to Christ.

Paul will use the terminology in the first
century from

the Jewish background of the betrothal,

and he will indicate that he had betrothed

the Christians in Corinth to Christ.

That he had started their relationship and
was handing them over to Christ,

that they belonged to Christ and no other.

Now, in the first century, in that period
of time,

especially in Jewish periods, the
betrothal

was stronger than an engagement is
considered to be in our modern times.

Because the woman who was betrothed was
called the wife of the man.

Though the betrothal, the the arrangement
of the betrothal could could last a year.

When you go back and you look at the
timing of what we read about Mary and
Joseph.

You have an indication that it is during
the betrothal period that Joseph becomes

aware that she is with child. And he is
going to

put her away privately, secretly,

so as not to cause a great disruption.

But he's told not to. But he's also
commanded not to know her until

the child is born. So there can be no
mistaking that this child

is in Joseph's.

Paul says, of the church at Corinth,

you're betrothed, you are the espoused
wife.

Of one husband.

But the espoused wife, the betrothed wife,

the one who's engaged is never considered
one flesh with

the husband.

She's not the married wife. She's the
betrothed wife.

She's not one flesh with the husband.

Okay? But turn over to Ephesians chapter
five.

If Paul says that the church at Corinth is
the betrothed wife to Christ,

then she must not be the married wife of
Christ,

right? I mean, that would just make sense.

You can't be the betrothed wife and the
married wife at the same time.

~ Yet in Ephesians chapter 5,

he says, chapter 5, verse 22, wives,

not the term for a betrothed wife.

The term of the married wife. Wives,

submit yourselves to your own husbands as
to the Lord.

For the husband is the head of the wife,

as also Christ is the head of the church,

and he is the savior of the body.

Therefore, just as the church is subject
to Christ,

so let wives be to their own husbands in
everything.

Husbands love your wives, just also as
Christ just as Christ also loved

the church and gave himself for her,

that he might sanctify and cleanse her
with the washing of water by the word.

That he might present her to himself a
glorious church,

not having spot or wrinkle or any such
thing,

but that she should be holy and without
blemish.

So husbands ought to love their own wives
as their own bodies.

He who loves his own wife loves himself.

For no one ever hated his own flesh,

but nourishes and cherishes it just as the
Lord does the church.

For we are members of his body,

of his body.

Flesh and of his bones. For this reason,

a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,

and the two shall become one flesh.

This is a great mystery. But I speak
concerning Christ in the church.

Nevertheless, let each one of you in
particular love his own wife as himself,

and let the wife see that she respect her
husband.

Paul says in Ephesians chapter 5 that the
church at Ephesus is married,

is one flesh, is one body with Christ.

And yet over in Corinthians, he says she's
betrothed.

Now can you be both at the same time?

And the answer is sure you can,

if it's an analogy, if it's a figure where

the emphasis is different using a
different picture.

So in chapter nineteen of Revelation,

we've got a marriage feast where the
betrothed wife

is going to become the married wife.

But when is a member married

to Christ? When is a Christian added

the body of Christ?

Not on the day of judgment.

But when they're immersed in water,

when they die to themselves and are
resurrected and added into the body of
Christ.

Do you not remember what Romans 6 says?

Therefore, we were buried with him through
baptism into death,

that just as Christ was raised from the
dead by the glory of the Father,

even so we should walk in newness of life.

For if we've been united together in the
likeness of his death,

Certainly we shall also be in the likeness
of his resurrection,

knowing this, that our old man was
crucified with him,

that the body of sin might be done away
with,

that we should no longer be slaves of sin,

for he who has died has been freed from
sin.

Now, if we died with Christ, we believe
that we shall also live with him.

Knowing that Christ, having been raised
from the dead,

dies no more, death no longer has dominion
over him.

Paul will make it clear that we are added
into the body of Christ

in Ephesians and other passages.

We are added into the body of Christ when
we are immersed in water,

having been faithful to the command to be
obedient to the gospel,

having heard the word, having believed
that word,

having repented of our sins, confessed the
name of Christ,

and been immersed in water for the
remission of our sins,

we are married.

to Christ.

Because we are added to the body of
Christ,

and the body of Christ, Ephesians chapter
1,

verses 21 and 22, is the church.

The church is the body. The church is the
bride.

The church here is pictured in Revelation
chapter

19 as the bride of Christ being married to
Christ.

Not because the church has never been
married to Christ up until this point.

Church has been married to Christ ever
since Christ created the church.

Acts chapter 2.

Rather, the picture here is of the
rejoicing as

a stark contrast to the persecution.

See, in the persecution, they're dying.

In the persecution, they're suffering.

In the persecution, they're running for
their lives from their tormentors

and from their persecutors. They're not
stopping to have a marriage feast

in the middle of the persecution.

The picture means persecution's over and
it's never coming back.

Here we have in the text.

Marriage feast. They say, Let us be glad
and rejoice,

and give him glory, for the marriage of
the lamb has come,

and his wife has made herself ready.

And to her it was granted to be arrayed in
fine linen,

clean and bright. For the fine linen is
the what

righteous acts of the saints.

You wanna know how we know who they are?

They're the holy ones. They're the
justified ones.

They're the sanctified ones. They're the
ones who have been made righteous,

and these are their acts, these are the
things that they've done,

and they are arrayed.

In holiness. They're array in
righteousness.

They're arrayed as the church,

the bride of Christ.

As you get into chapter nineteen,

chapter twenty, chapter twenty one,

and chapter twenty two.

Do not miss that the description of the
bride.

Is very much like the description of the
harlot in this sense.

God's gonna give you a figure of the
harlot,

and he's gonna describe her one way.

Then he's gonna give you another figure of
the harlot,

describe her another way. Then he's gonna
give you another figure of

the harlot and describe her another way.

All through the process, it's the same
city,

it's the same persecutor, it's the same
woman,

it's Rome.

In chapter 19 and 20 and 21 and 22,

God's going to describe the bride.

And he's going to describe her in a
marriage feast.

And he's going to describe her as a city.

And he's going to describe her as a place
where all the nations flow into.

He's going to describe her as a paradise
of God.

He's going to describe her as a garden.

He's going to describe her as the place
where the tree of life is.

But you want to know what she is the whole
time?

The church.

Bride.

So as we get into chapter nineteen and
chapter twenty and chapter twenty-one

and chapter twenty-two and we read about
the pictures of the bride.

Know that she's made up of people who are
alive and dead,

whose dwelling place is in heaven,

who rejoice at the righteous judgment of
God.

And who are married to the Lamb,

who are saints, holy,

justified, sanctified,

and who are adorned with their righteous

faithfulness, not to the beast,

not to the harlot, but to the lamb.

Okay? Thank you