The Judgment of God
Revelation 20:7-15
3rd December 2023

Introduction

Well let me begin with a quick game. I’m going to read for you a cryptic summary of a famous movie … and you need to guess which movie I’m describing. Does that make sense. I’ll read a cryptic description … and if you think you know which movie I’m talking about … hands up.

Group spends 9 hours returning jewellery. LOTR.
Girl has to pretend to be a man to be taken seriously. Mulan.
Kid comes out of the closet. Narnia.
Love triangle between an 18 year old girl, a 100 year old guy and a dog. Twilight.
Man child learns to be an adult. Every Adam Sandler movie.
Woman abandons all her morals and standards to win back bad boy with greasy hair. Grease.
Talking frog tells boy to kill his father. Star Wars.

Well done. Well if I were to ask you to summarise the story of the Bible in one sentence … what would you say? Whether you know it or not … the Bible is one big, long story from garden to city. And the plot of that story can be summarised in one sentence as; ‘how is God going to fix the problem of sin’. OK … the first 2 chapters of the Bible recount creation. Then in chapter 3 Adam and Eve sin against their creator. The REST of the Bible … from Gen 3 all the way to Revelation 22 … is about how God is going to FIX the problem of Sin in our world.

And our passage today is the penultimate episode in that plan. Many years ago I used the word ‘penultimate’ in a sermon thinking it meant ‘awesome’. Like there’s ‘ultimate’ … THEN there’s ‘penultimate’ … so I thought. What it actually means is ‘second last’. Revelation 20 is the second last event in human history. Now it hasn’t happened yet … as I suspect you know. But what this chapter tells us … is that before God can usher in eternity … he has to END all wickedness. Before the new heavens and the new earth … next week’s passage … God MUST bring Sin to an end.

Now what this means is … this is a tough passage. We’re looking at the judgment of God today. But what a privilege it is … to be told about the future. I don’t know if you remember the TV show ‘Early Edition’. It ran for 4 seasons in the late 90s … and it was about Gary Hobson … who mysteriously receives a copy of the Chicago Sun-Times … one day in advance. Every morning at 6:30am … no matter where he is … a mysterious ginger tabby cat turns up with a copy of tomorrow’s newspaper … TODAY. And each episode follows Gary as he tries to prevent whatever tragedy was described in tomorrow’s newspaper.

And that’s what we’ve got here brothers and sisters. We have a copy of tomorrow’s newspaper … telling us how the whole of history is going to turn out. And like Gary Hobson … knowing about tomorrow helps us live today. And that’s our goal for this morning; to look at what’s going to happen tomorrow … the future Judgment of God … and figure out how God wants us to use that knowledge to live today.

And I’ve got 3 points … as your sermon outline shows … which correspond to the 3 main episodes in this chapter. So the first episode is (i) The Millennium … v. 1-6. Now we looked at the Millennium last week. But it was probably the most complicated sermon we’ve ever had here at Earlwood Anglican … so we’re going to do a quick recap. Second we’ll look at (ii) Armageddon … v. 7-10 … that famous final battle of planet earth. And we’ll conclude with (iii) Judgment day … v. 11-15. And this is where our primary application will be found. How are Christians to live NOW … knowing that God MUST one day bring wickedness to an end? So let’s dive in.

The Millennium (v. 1-6)

And the penultimate event in human history BEGINS with John taking us all the way back to the cross … believe it or not. Now not everyone believes the millennium is about the cross. Both Premillennialists and Postmillennialists believe the Millennium will occur sometime in the future … where Satan will no longer have ANY influence in our world. But as we saw last week … Matthew 12 and Mark 3 tell us Satan was bound at the cross.

Matthew 12:29 (NIV) … “how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.

So BEFORE the coming of Jesus … every single Gentile who ever lived … with but a handful of exceptions … went to Hell. Satan OWNED the nations before the cross. But now … every time a new Christian is made … Satan’s house is being plundered. So the Millennium … as we learnt last week … is symbolic of the time between Jesus’ first and second comings.

And IN the Millennium … we’re told deceased believers come to life … v. 4. Yet as we saw last week … this is a spiritual resurrection. So when NON-Christians die … they stay dead until Judgment Day … v. 5. But when Christians die … the NT tells us our soul is ripped from our body. It’s a very unnatural process. God didn’t design the world to include death. It came as a result of sin. But upon death … our body stays here to rot … while our soul goes to be with God. As 2 Cor 5:8 says:

2 Corinthians 5:8 (NIV) We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

That is in a spirit-like state. And IN heaven we’re told about these people on thrones … v. 4. Now there’s a lot of speculation over who these people are. My best guess is it’s the 24 elders from Chapter 4. The ‘souls of those who had been beheaded’ COULD be only Christian martyrs. But again … it’s probably symbolic for ALL those who don’t give their allegiance to ‘the beast’ … to the non-Christian world. And IN heaven … we will ALL have some sort of priestly role … of worship and service … while we await Judgment Day.

While Satan awaits Judgment Day … he continues to deceive people. Now he’s LIMITED in that deception … but his deception is mentioned several times throughout Revelation 20. In fact that’s ALL Satan does in this passage. He’s actually not very powerful. Notice how God doesn’t bind Satan. He just sends an angel to do it. Friends please do not be fooled into thinking Satan is God’s equal. There’s no yin and yang with God and Satan. There’s no dark side and light side of the force with God and Satan. Satan is just an angel. So God sends one of his faithful angels to deal with him.

So Satan has no power to force people to reject God. He cannot coerce people to reject God. The only trick he has up his sleeve is to deceive people. And our job as Christians … while WE await Judgment Day … is to undeceive them. Now the GREATEST trick the Devil ever pulled … his GREATEST deception … is convincing the world he doesn’t exist. But Genesis Chapter 3 gives us his next 3 favourite forms of deception. And this is what we need to understand … in order to undeceive people.

So firstly … Satan deceives people by questioning God’s word. ‘Did God REALLY say you can’t eat from any tree?’ OK … did God REALLY say we can’t gamble? Did God REALLY say we shouldn’t date non-Christians? Did God REALLY say that there’s only 2 genders?

Second … Satan deceives people by denying God’s word altogether. ‘You will surely not die’. OK … music piracy is a victimless crime. The government doesn’t deserve my taxes anyway … so I can cheat on my tax return. A little bit of porn never hurt anyone.

And third … Satan deceives people by making God out to be a killjoy. ‘For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like Him’. OK … the only reason God says no gossip is because he’s trying to take my power away. The only reason God says no sex before marriage is because he doesn’t want me to feel loved … or worthy. The only reason God says no getting drunk and no drugs is because he want to take my fun away.

Now brothers and sisters … whenever thoughts like that cross our minds … that’s Satan deceiving us. So to what extent is he deceiving you? Because there’s no way we will be of ANY use in undeceiving the nations … if Satan has deceived us. So as we await Judgment Day … may we live lives of Christian integrity … so that we can SHOW and tell others … that sin is the way of death.

Armageddon (v. 7-10)

So … that’s the Millennium. V. 7 then takes us to the end of the Millennium:

Revelation 20:7 (NIV) When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle.

So what John is telling us is that when the Millennium is drawing to an end … and Jesus’ return is immanent … Satan will be let loose to DECIEVE the nations without restraint again. And this will lead to the final rebellion. The Apostle Paul says the same thing in 2 Thessalonians 2.

2 Thessalonians 2:2-3 (NIV) … the day of the Lord [Jesus’ return] 3 […] will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.

Now … who is ‘the man of lawlessness’? He is The Antichrist … who is also ‘the beast’ in Revelation. Now we were introduced to the Beast in Revelation Chapter 13 … specifically the beast from the sea. And if you recall … the beast from the sea had a fatal wound on his head … that had been healed. What does that mean? He WAS dead … but now is risen. Sound familiar? OK … the beast from Revelation is the FALSE Christ … the Antichrist.

But according to Revelation 13 … the beast is an amalgamation of the 4 beasts from Daniel Chapter 7. And THESE 4 beasts represent 4 kingdoms that oppose God. So the Beast … the Antichrist … is not just a person. Most theologians believe he will be the ruler of a world-wide kingdom. He will be a new Caesar. Now this doesn’t come up very often in our sermon series … so let me explain what’s going to happen as the Millennium comes to a close. It’s quite fascinating:

At some point towards the end … Satan will deceive the whole world into thinking a world-wide government is a good idea. There are some people today who already think that. Now just so we understand … a world-wide government is literally the dumbest idea in the history of dumb ideas. And I’m not just saying that. I cannot actually think of a more dangerous thing than a world-wide government. Why? Because when you have a government that wields absolute power over it’s citizens … kind of like Russia and China and North Korea today … megalomaniacs see it as an opportunity for power. So can you imagine what would happen if a Putin or a Xi Jinping rose to the top of a world-wide government?

But that’s what God is going to allow Satan to orchestrate … just before his return. And according to Revelation Chapter 13 … that world-wide government … The Beast … will apply enormous pressure on Christians to give their allegiance to the world-wide government … rather than to Christ. That’s what the MARK of the beast is … if you recall. It’s not a literal mark … or a credit card. It’s a symbol that you’ve given your allegiance to the beast. Now Christians are to be good citizens. Don’t hear me wrong. But if ANY government goes against God … we side with God.

And the reason is simple. In the end … God wins. Even when Satan gathers the whole world into one big army … that’s what Gog and Magog are. It’s a reference to Ezekiel 38-39 … where Gog and Magog are the enemy of God’s people. But even when ALL the world’s kingdoms come together to fight God’s people … Rev 16 calls it the Battle of Armageddon … that huge army is defeated in less than a verse:

Revelation 20:9 (NIV) … But fire came down from heaven and devoured them

And what this shows us is … no matter how much pressure our world places on us to give it our allegiance … to do so means joining the losing side.

Friends … there is ENORMOUS pressure on Christians today to worship the almighty dollar. How many Christians are more interested in preparing financially for retirement than preparing spiritually for heaven?
There is enormous pressure on Christians today to deny God’s word … and claim that gender is fluid.
And there is enormous pressure on Christians today to bend the rules for the boss. If we don’t turn a blind eye to insider trading … or tax evasion … or exploitation of workers … we lose our job.

Yet brothers and sisters … that is giving our allegiance to the losing side. Sin is the way of death.

Judgment Day (v. 11-15)

And the specifics of that death are outlined in the third and final episode of this chapter:

Revelation 20:11-12 (NIV) Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened

Before God can usher in the new heavens and the new earth … he has to end sin. Now our world HATES this notion. There’s enormous pressure on Christians to not talk about God holding people accountable for their sin. This is the SOLE reason for atheism. People would rather believe ‘NOTHING’ created the universe than some divine being that we have to give account to. I heard a comedian recently ask which belief is more funny? You see the ‘nothing’ that atheists believe in … has a tendency to spontaneously explode into everything. That’s a pretty miraculous ‘nothing’ … wouldn’t you say? Such are the lengths people will go to … to DENY God’s Judgment. Others prefer to think of God as incompetent judge … who might punish other people … but not me.

What humans fail to realise is that God is perfectly just and righteous and holy. That’s what his WHITE THRONE symbolises in v. 11. It’s also why the heavens and the earth FLEE from him. God cannot be in the presence of sin or corruption. So when we say we have a problem with God judging sin … it means we’re on a different page to the perfectly just, righteous and holy creator of the universe.

And that’s not a good place to be. Because v. 12 says EVERYONE … from the richest most powerful politicians or captains of industry … down to the young child living in a slum … EVERYONE is going to have to stand before their creator one day. And ‘books’ will be opened … plural. What this means is … each person has a book with their photo on the front. And that book contains everything they’ve ever thought, said or done. Now I don’t know about you … but the idea of all my thoughts … dark and dirty as they can be … being published … isn’t all that appealing. Yet even LESS appealing is God’s judgment ON my evil thoughts. The way God deals with Sin … this is the message of the Bible … is by punishing the sinner in the lake of burning fire … v. 15 … for all of eternity. Terrifying stuff.

Yet John mentions ANOTHER book … in v. 12. The book of Life. Now we were introduced to this book back in Revelation 13 … where we got it’s FULL title. It’s called ‘the Lamb’s book of life’. And we were introduced to the Lamb back in Revelation 5 … where we were told:

Revelation 5:9 (NIV) “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.

So what the Bible tells us is that God HAS to punish sin … if he’s to remain perfectly just and righteous and holy. Yet in his infinite brilliance and love … God came up with a way to destroy Sin … without destroying the sinner. And that was for God the Son to take upon himself the punishment for sin. And this means there’s a way to avoid eternity in the lake of fire. OK … everyone has sinned. Therefore everyone deserves the lake of fire. Yet Jesus says if you affiliate yourself with me … if you get your name written in MY book … then that OTHER book with your face on the cover doesn’t even get opened. Why? Because my blood has taken the punishment for all your dark and evil thoughts, words and deeds. And all we need to do to get our name in the Lamb’s book … is to admit that we NEED our sins forgiven … repentance … and give our lives to the One who gave his life for us … faith.

Conclusion

And THAT … is tomorrow’s newspaper. God is going to fix the problem of sin by sending all sinners to the lake of fire. Yet there IS a way to escape that fire. And as those who already HAVE our names written in the Lamb’s book of life … here’s what we do with our ‘Early Edition’. Here’s our application for today. I want you to close your eyes … and picture your non-Christian family and friends. Just picture their faces in your minds right now. They might be brothers or sisters … aunties or uncles … neighbours or workmates. Picture their faces in your mind. Now picture their faces as they’re thrown into the lake of burning sulphur. Because that’s what’s going to happen to everyone who’s name is not written in the Lamb’s book of life. So how do we snatch them from the flames?

Well we need to be wise about this. Because people don’t like being bashed over the head with what they don’t think they need. Now we CAN hammer them … and yell and scream at them … and say ‘you NEED Jesus’. And afterwards we can wash our hands and say ‘I’ve done my bit’. Or … we can be wise and tactful in spreading the good news. So as we close … here are three simple steps to snatching people from the flames:

Step 1: Pray for opportunities to speak to people about Jesus. I heard of a Christian many years ago who would pray every day on his way to work for God to place an opportunity in his lap to speak to someone about Jesus. And almost every day God gave him one.

Step 2: When those opportunities arise … GRAB THEM. But this is where the REAL work comes in … because 1 Peter 3:15 says:

1 Peter 3:15 (NIV) Always be PREPARED to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.’

And that MAY mean telling them you don’t have the answer ON you … but let me go and ask my minister … and I’ll get back to you. Like I mentioned that guy last week who would RECORD his friend’s question … play it for his minister … then play the minister’s recorded answer back to him. What I DIDN’T mention last week was that after a few weeks … the Christian said ‘look … why don’t you just come to church and MEET my minister’.

And that’s Step 3: Close the conversation by saying ‘if you’d like to know more … why not come to church with me?’

Now they might say ‘no’. But our job is not to MAKE them say ‘yes’. Our job is to at least try and warn them of what tomorrow’s newspaper has told us. You WILL be judged according to what you have done … unless you accept the Lamb’s gift … of being judged for you. Let me pray.

Prayer

Heavenly Father,

We praise you that you have told us how you will fix the problem of Sin … before it happens. May we use that information wisely and lovingly … to tell the world that anyone whose name is not found in the Lamb’s book of life … will be thrown into the lake of fire. Amen.

The Judgment of God Revelation 20:7-15 3rd December 2023