Sermon 6 in the series, “The Be Happy Blessings of Revelation”
Introduction:
Today is Halloween a time which relishes in the emotion of fear and the act of scarring other people. This day celebrates death and the things associated with its torment. It is not known as a day that is filled with goodness, eternal happiness or even heavenly joy. It is a day which portrays images of devils, demons, witches, jack-o-lanterns, ghosts, goblins and even the eerie scene of graveyards.
It’s a day in modern day America to have fun with evil images and scary scenes with children being the focal point of these actions.
But today is actually a Satanic High Holy Day celebrated by the Satanic Church in America and by the church of Wicca (witches, or the church which practices witchcraft). Tonight these Satanist’s and witches will gather throughout the country and go through Satanic rituals, offering up sacrifices-even living sacrifices (usually animals) and they will focus on glorifying the realm of evil and they will seek to honor their god Satan who is also known as the horned god of the underworld.
We have all seen His images portrayed in movies, TV programs and even commercials over these last few weeks. It all seems innocent and in fun – but is it?
I have a video clip this morning I would like to play for you to remind you why celebrating Satan is not a good thing: In this video clip Satan may come across as funny or even charming but he relishes in evil and he hates Jesus. He is obsessed with the destruction of the church and her saints.
So let’s look at this interesting and even funny clip:
Video Illustration: Interview with Satan
Why does Satan hate Jesus? Why does He not even want to hear His name mentioned? Why does that which is evil hate that which is good? Maybe it has something to do with graveyards? Yes, you heard me right graveyards.
Let’s look first at Ezekiel 37:1-14 – really it’s a picture of a graveyard of destruction and death:
1The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.
2He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.
3He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”I said, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”
4Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!
5This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.
6I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”
7So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone.
8I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’”
10So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
11Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’
12Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel.
13Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them.
14I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’”
The time of the writing of this vision from this OT Prophetic book of the Bible”
In 586 BC Jerusalem was totally destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and his great Babylonian army. Solomon’s Temple, which had been one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world and the glory of Israel for almost 400 years was now gone. The Temple was ransacked and reduced to ashes; all the inhabitants of Jerusalem had been taken captive, enslaved either in Chaldea or in Babylon. They had all become slaves to this invading empire. They had been warned repeatedly by God through His prophets about what would happen to them if they turned toward evil ways and evil worship, yet they had turned a deaf ear to God’s repeated warnings!
Their nation’s history had begun by a miraculous deliverance by God from the cruel hands of the Egyptian Pharaoh. Moses had led them to freedom but now because of their disobedience, they are in captivity again. The Psalmist records: "By the rivers of Babylon ... we sat down, (and) we wept ...." Ezekiel adds his own lament to this bleak situation as he records in Ezekiel 1:1 that: "…I was among the captives by the river of Chebar."
All the prophets including Ezekiel tried to burn God’s message and God’s warning into the minds of the people of Israel but no one listened to them. They blew off the warnings of these prophets, they made fun of them and they ridiculed them. But now no one was laughing at the destruction caused by evil. Now they were all crying and weeping. They were gripped by fear and by chains.
Richard Deem notes this about the time frame of this passage in Ezekiel:
Undoubtedly those who found themselves incarcerated in the land of Babylon felt their life had ended. They felt they had become one of many "corpses" in the great Babylonian Graveyard. They felt their lives had been reduced to ashes, and yet God promised to "…give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;" We find in Scripture that “Testimonies can even emanate from a Graveyard!" Even in the graveyard of captivity, there is hope!
So we enter into this image of death and of destruction being communicated to Ezekiel and to the people in captivity. The initial images of Ezekiel 37 look rather hopeless to this enslaved nation. They are defeated and feeling doomed. Many of their loved ones are dead and a live ones are ripped from their loving arms.
For some today this scenario of hopelessness applies to your life or to your current situation. This message from a graveyard seems hopeless but as you read on in this text a breath of life blows through the graveyard and life starts coming together.
Deem paints this thought for us to ponder about this valley of death scenario: If ever a man was made to look upon an impossible situation, it was Ezekiel. Scripture records that the hand of the Lord was upon Ezekiel, carrying him out and setting him down in the midst of a valley which was full of bones. Not only was this graveyard filled with bones, it was filled with dry bones. Not only were the bones dry, scripture graphically portrays them as very dry. These corpses had undoubtedly been dead a long while. If Ezekiel had been taken to a valley filled with people who were dying there would have been a glimmer of hope. Perhaps some would be healed and survive. If the valley had been filled with the corpses of people who had just died, there would have been the possibility of a mass resurrection. Even if the valley had been filled with complete skeletons, there would be some hope. But this valley was filled with very dry, scattered bones. This scenario points to the absolute hopelessness of the situation. Look again at Ezekiel 37:3. The Living Bible says: "Son of man, can these bones become people again?" God was asking: "What do you think about it, Ezekiel? Is this a hopeless situation?" The very asking of this question brought a glimmer of hope to the prophet. "Lord, you alone know the answer to that." Yes, indeed --- God did have the answer. You see, in Ezekiel 37 we not only see the Hopelessness of the Plight --- We can also see the Blessedness of the Plan. Thank God, He has a plan for restoration! Scripture reminds us that "With God all things are possible." Is it possible that the scattered, very dry bones that are in a heap in this valley might really live again? Can these bones live again? Yes, indeed they can. But how? God has a two-fold plan! Listen to God’s response to Ezekiel: (v 4) "Then he told me to speak to the bones and say: ’O dry bones, listen to the words of God." That’s plan #1 -- The Word of God. Life comes through His Word! His Word will bring a change in the life of an individual, a church, a community! His Word is life!
His Word of life takes something that is dead and brings it back to life again!
How do I know that His word – Jesus’ Word brings things back to life?
I recall the story of Lazarus from John 11. He had died of a sickness and Jesus came to his tomb 3 days later and spoke to the dead bones and to the decaying body of Lazarus. He said loudly, “Lazarus, come out!” and you know what it says? This dead guy came out of the graveyard of death walking, breathing and living. I recall what Jesus had said prior to this divine miracle of life over death to one of Lazarus sisters: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”
Let me ask my question again: “How do I know that His Word – Jesus’ Word brings things back to life?”
You see I was once a walking dead person. I was breathing but I was not alive! I was existing but I was not living! But then one evening in church I heard Jesus say, “Michael come out!” And at that moment in my life I became alive! I partook of the first resurrection because I responded to Jesus invitation to come to life! I heard His Word and I said, “Yes Lord I am coming out!” When I responded to His call and repented of my sins which had caused my death I came back to life. At that moment in time I was written into the Lamb’s book of life! How do I know – I experienced it personally! You see no one can take this experience away from me. I felt it! I was changed as a result of this divine encounter with the word of God and the Spirit of Life.
You see this is why Satan hates Jesus. He keeps bringing people back to life and therefore Satan cannot torment them anymore. He cannot torture them anymore. He cannot inflict evil on them anymore because they are alive in Christ. Jesus always broke up every funeral he came in contact with. He loves to resurrect the dead!
So let’s look at our text today in Revelation 20:6:
“Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.”
The Blessing of taking part in the first resurrection is that Satan has no control over us anymore – when we respond to Jesus’ words of life Satan loses us to Jesus Kingdom! Satan despises Jesus because he keeps snatching people back to life that he has written off as dead. You see Satan kills – Jesus heals and resurrects. Satan steals people’s lives and Jesus snatches them back from death. Satan destroys and Jesus repairs and rebuilds things that are devastated by Satan. This is why Satan – hates Jesus!
T.S. – Let’s look at the word resurrection for a moment to understand this scenario better.
I. Resurrection means “To stand again!”
a. The Greek term for resurrection, anastasis, literally means, “To stand again.”
i. In the pagan world it was associated with the cycle of nature and the nature gods, or the survival of a ‘spiritual part’ of a person after death.
1. Because of Jesus Christ’s ability to stand up again after being pronounced dead this divine act of God communicates to us that we too can be brought back to life.
a. The New Testament accounts of Jesus’ resurrection fall into three categories: the empty tomb, appearances of Jesus before the ascension, and appearances of Jesus after His ascension (Holman).
i. These all communicate the power of God’s Word over death – death cannot hold back the Word of God!
ii. The term first resurrection means that we come back to life under Christ’s Words of life. It’s like the vision of Ezekiel in which he saw the dry bones being brought back to life again by the Word in Ezekiel and by the Spirit 37:1-14.
1. The point here is that Ezekiel sees into the future and makes us aware that God is able to take dead lifeless bones and bring them to life again. God is able to speak the Word and send the breathe of life his Spirit into dead people, dead nations, dead cities, dead families and bring them back to life.
b. In the New Testament Jesus’ preaching emphasized a teaching of a literal resurrection. The opposition by the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection, gave Jesus the opportunity to assert His own teaching to the crowd on this matter (Mark 12:18-27; Matt. 22:23-33; Luke 20:27-38; and compare with Deut. 25:5-10).
i. The point Jesus makes in these teachings is that God is the God of the living not of the dead. John’s Gospel presents Jesus as the mediator of the resurrection, He is the one who gives life to dead people and sets the believers free from the sting of death (John 6:53-58).
ii. Jesus is proclaimed in John 11:24-26 as the resurrection and the life. Jesus highlighted the resurrection in His teachings and pointed to the lost eternal punishment awaiting those who do not participate in the resurrection (Matt. 8:11, 12; 25:31-34, 41-46; John 5:28-29).
iii. In the post resurrection of Jesus he demonstrated or showed us a spiritual and physical new body (John 20:19, 26; 20:20, 27:21:13, 15). The point of this vivid picture in the New Testament is to show you and I that Jesus is going to give us a new body, a new eternal existence.
1. If you recall this we have learned this in our study of the book of Revelation.
c. The apostle Paul addressed the importance of the resurrection in I Cor. 15. He emphasizes it’ vital importance to the Christian. The point Paul declares is that if you do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and for us as believers, then you and I have no hope in the future. He communicates to us in this chapter that if we don’t believe and participate in the resurrection then we are still embellished, caged in the sin nature.
T.S.-We have briefly explored the importance of the resurrection but we need to look at our text in Rev. 20:1-6 and discover its implication to us.
Revelation 20:1-6:
1And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain.
2He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
3He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.
4I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
5(The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection.
6Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
The Historical setting of Rev. 20:1-6: This is an end time setting which will transpire after Satan is seized and placed into the Abyss for 1,000 years by the rider on the White Horse who is Jesus Christ. Another reason why Satan hates Him is he knows his fate is sealed in the end when He comes back!
II. The blessings of partaking in the first resurrection and its link to holiness.
A. What is a blessing? We have been studying the “Be happy blessings of Revelation”
1. Holman defines for us blessings and it’s opposite which is cursing.
a) Blessing and cursing are primary biblical emphasis, as reflected in the 516 uses of words such as bless (1320, blessed (285), blesses (10), blessing (70), and blessings (19); and the 199 occurrences of such words as curse (97), cursed (74), curses (19), and cursing (9).
b) In the New Testament the word “bless” often translates makarios, meaning “Blessed, fortunate, happy.” The special characteristic of New Testament uses of “bless” and related words is a close relationship to the religious joy people experience from being certain of salvation and thus of membership in the kingdom of God. “Bless” occurs in the New Testament only ten times, in contrast to 122 Old Testament occurrences. The New Testament never uses ‘blesses” and uses “blessing” only 17 times. It is reasonable to conclude that the primary use of the blessing concept in the New Testament is that of “blessed” as opposed to the verbal emphasis on ‘Bless”.
c) The term blessing asserts how wonderful it is to be a part of the first resurrection because of its many eternal benefits.
B. In the Scripture from Revelation 20:6 we see “Holy” attached to “Blessed?”
1. Holiness is God’s character and divine nature. It s uniquely His only! But this is the intended goal of mankind in God’s eyes. Holiness is essential to understand because it applies to God, to worship, and to God’s people. Those who are blessed – not cursed – are also called holy.
a) The opposite of holy is profane – it means irreverent: showing disrespect for God. It is secular or common: not connected with or used for religious matters. Here some synonyms blasphemous, irreligious, disrespectful, wicked, or sacrilegious.
2. Holiness explains God but in Scripture God also sets persons, places and things aside as being holy. They are made holy by His presence and His actions.
a) A Christian is made holy by sanctification. This sanctification is done through salvation and God’s presence coming into the forgiven individual’s heart. This is what happens when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
b) To be holy is a prerequisite to be able to participate in the first resurrection and to receive all its eternal benefits.
3. Holman informs us that Holiness was God’s command for all that came into His presence. This was required of the priests in the Old Testament.
a) The Holiness code is found in Lev. 15. God commands the people to obey this code in all parts of their lives. They were to be holy because He was holy. He also made it clear that sin and disobedience made an individual unholy and there had to be a sacrifice to cleanse the individual from sin so that they were acceptable to God.
(1) Sin always causes something to become unholy!
(2) That which is unholy cannot be in the presence of God who is holy.
4. I Cor. 1:2; 3:17 calls the Christian to live a holy life. It’s the Holy Spirit that will lead the saints to live holy lives.
a) John D. Watts notes, “They (Christians) are holy inasmuch as they receive and submit to these saving and sanctifying agents” (Jesus Christ the Word of God and the Holy Spirit).
5. The Scriptures assert and link holiness as the condition to be able to partake of the first resurrection. It’s imperative to see and understand that holiness comes from accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and then God gives you the gift of holiness like a present. Then the Holy Spirit teaches you and directs you on how to hold onto to this God given gift of holiness.
a) We cannot make ourselves holy! Only God is able to make a person holy – it’s His choice and His action not mine.
6. Catch the thought, “People are blessed because of holiness and this condition enables you to partake of the first resurrection.”
T.S. – We have learned the meaning blessed and its link to holiness but now let’s see the eternal benefits of having been resurrected by Jesus Word’s of life.
III. The benefits of the first resurrection have eternal value.
a. The benefit of the first resurrection is that the second death has no power over the individual.
i. Rev. 20:6, 11-15:
1. 6Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
2. 11Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.
12And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
13The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.
14Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.
15If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
a. This passage teaches us that the second death is the final separation from God. It occurs after one has died literally and then they appear before the Lord. This has to do with spiritual death and no eternal bliss in Heaven.
b. Revelation reveals what happens to a person who is overpowered by the second death.
i. There are images of the a lake of fire Rev. 20:14
ii. It’s a lake of burning sulfur Rev. 21:8
iii. There are some who stress the literal separation from God and the hopelessness of this eternal condition.
iv. There is also a reference to eternal blackness being associated with the second death.
ii. The important point to grab a hold of is that for those who are blessed, who are holy in the eyes of God they will not partake at all of the second death. Instead they will hear these words, “Well done though good and faithful servant.”
iii. The one benefit of the first resurrection is the individual gets to enjoy all the blessing of living in Heaven with the Lord forever.
1. Heaven: Revelation chapters 21, 22 talk about this marvelous place.
a. Randy Alcorn wrote a great book on this subject, the book is called “Heaven.”
i. In December I will spend two Sundays teaching on Heaven!
b. But for now: Here is brief description of Heaven:
i. In this city there is No death – only life - life with no crying, no diseases, and no pain. Death is no longer a concern only eternal life! In this holy city there is a new way of doing things – the old is dead and gone – It means: This Heavenly city is not like the worlds - driven by pride, by greed, by people treading on top of others to get to the top, by people doing their own thing at the cost of someone else’s life or feelings. No this city is run with Love – Love has absolute control. (21:4-10).In this city God makes everything new- there are no ghettos, no crack houses, no houses of ill repute, no exploitation of people and resources, no thieves or stealing – no it’s honest and righteous! It’s fresh, vibrant and beautiful like a Spring day after a long hard winter! There is a new honest and upright government! There is No corruption- no power plays-no self centered mindsets. In this city there is a spring of everlasting life. Many have looked for the fountain of youth so they could live forever. Here it is friends it’s in the New Jerusalem (21:6).The great blessing is, there is no cost to drink of its life giving water. In this holy city according to Rev. 21:11 “It shone with the Glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a precious jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal.” Friend the holy city was illuminated with the presence of God. There is a beautiful colorful majestic view of GOD! There is a color show more gorgeous than even a rainbow. It is absolutely breath taking.
1. Let’s pause for a moment and let the Holy Spirit give you a divine glimpse!
b. The second benefit of the first resurrection is that the people will be priests of God.
i. This honor entitles the person to be able to go into the presence of God with petitions and prayers. An honor that the Old Testament speaks about was only done by a faithful few.
ii. I Peter compared Christians to living stones, “Built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5).
1. The emphasis here is that individuals themselves can now come to God like the priests of the Old Testament. They can come and give “Living sacrifices to God.”
2. The big difference here is the ability to come into God’s presence without being a priest.
3. This tells us that we are all made into priests by what Jesus Christ did on the cross and by our confession of faith in Jesus.
iii. Romans 12:1 highlights for us, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
1. The Old Testament showed that the priests of the Old Covenant offered animal sacrifices upon the altar. But now the New Testament tells us that we are all to offer up living sacrifices to God directly. This was made possible by the Sacrifice Jesus made on the cross for all of us. His life for our lives. In this passage we are instructed to offer up our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. This is to be a day-by-day commitment. Once again revealing the privileges we have in Christ.
iv. There are other Biblical examples of the priestly functions of a priest.
1. We are urged to pray for one another. This is the priestly function of intercessory prayer to God.
2. We are urged to confess our sins to one another and to bear one another’s burdens. The role of the ancient priest was to receive confessions from the people and then convey them to God on behalf of the individual so they could receive forgiveness.
a. Today we all have the ability and privilege to help others out by praying for them.
b. How well do you do at this?
3. We also can bring others to Christ – To God. We do this by telling the Good News and encouraging people to give their hearts to Christ. The ancient role of the priest was to be the gap between God and the people (Information from Wayne Ward).
c. The other benefit is that we will reign with Him for a thousand years.
i. The thousand years is called the millennium a term not found in the Scriptures but taken from the Latin to express the thousand years mentioned six times in scripture.
ii. The Millennium is a thousand years of peace where Christ reigns on the earth and sets up His kingdom. Satan is bound for this 1,000 years.
iii. The meaning of the thousand years and the relation of Christ’s future coming to them have given rise to various millennial views.
1. Evangelical Christians hold three main views:
a. Amillennialism
b. Dispensationalism
c. Premilllennialism
d. The other benefit of the first resurrection is that we will receive new resurrected bodies.
i. These bodies will be different from our present bodies (I Cor. 15:53, 54; Phil. 3:21).
1. Somehow it will look like the same body but it will be different. It will not be physical but spiritual.
2. The nature of the resurrected body is that it is spiritual (I Cor. 15:44)
Conclusion:
Let me come back to my few questions thrown at you in the beginning of my message:
Why does Satan hate Jesus? Why does He not even want to hear His name? Why does that which is evil hate that which is good? Maybe it has something to do with graveyards? Yes, you heard me right graveyards.
Jesus loves to go into graveyards and raise the dead – He loves to break up funerals and death. He loves to trample on top of Satan and spoil his grave sites of torment. Jesus loves to replace fear with hope and happiness. He loves to remove the scary things of death and replace them with the joy of the resurrection of the believers. He just loves to trample on top of Halloween with the word “Hallelujah! He is risen!”
So you see it does have something to do with the Word of Life blowing through a graveyard of hopelessness and bring the dry bones back to life. Dry bones come back to life by His Word and by His Spirit! The two combined together bring life to the dead, they enter graveyards and bring everlasting life and resurrection power!
Deem states, “The Blessedness of the Plan is found in the Word of God and the Spirit of God. These two work in tandem to bring life out of death -- victory out of defeat! The very dry bones found scattered upon the valley floor have been miraculously returned to life by the Word and the Spirit!”
Altar Call:
So this morning you have the Word of God now we are going to pray for the breathe of the Holy Spirit to blow through this place. We need both for life to come into the midst of a graveyard and bring life.
