Although the number of people identifying themselves as “Christians” here in the United States has dropped significantly over the past two decades, most surveys show that somewhere around three quarters of Americans still claim to be Christians. But when some more probing questions are asked about their beliefs, it is apparent that there is a big difference between those who outwardly claim to be Christians and those who inwardly embrace Jesus and all that He is.
In a March 2009 survey, the Barna Group asked a series of questions to identify those who hold what they described as a “Biblical worldview”, which they defined as those who hold to these six beliefs:
• Absolute moral truth exists
• The Bible is totally accurate in all the principles it teaches
• Satan is a real being, not merely symbolic
• A person cannot earn their way into heaven by being good or doing good works
• Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth
• God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today
Overall, only 9% of the respondents held all six beliefs. But what is really troubling is that fact that only 19% of those identified as born again believers had that worldview. These are people who said they have made a personal commitment to Jesus and are certain that they will go to heaven when they die only because they confessed their sins and accepted Jesus as their Savior.
Over the last two weeks, it has become quite apparent that without a doubt, chapter 20 of Revelation is by far the most difficult for most of us to deal with. In many ways, it really raises more questions than it answers. And among the most common of those questions is this: Why, after He has defeated His enemies, would Jesus have Satan bound for a thousand years, only to release Him at the end of that time to deceive the nations one last time? While none of us can satisfactorily answer that question in full, I am convinced that at least one of the purposes is to help us see the kind of huge disconnect between the outward conformity to Jesus and the inward embrace of all that He is that is demonstrated by the Barna survey and others like it.
So with that in mind, go ahead and open your Bibles to Revelation 20 and follow along as I begin reading in verse 7:
7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. 9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, 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.
11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
As I mentioned, this chapter certainly raises a lot of questions that frankly we just can’t answer at this time. But at the same time, there are a number of things that we can know from this passage and which provide us with some practical principles that can guide our lives right here and now. So that is what we are going to focus on this morning.
1. Many will still reject Jesus - even under perfect conditions
Some of you may have been following the murder trial of Shawna Forde. After being convicted of first degree murder in the slaying of Raul Flores and his daughter Brisenia in a home invasion in Arivaca in May 2009, the jury returned to determine whether Forde would receive the death penalty. During that phase of the trial, the defense witnesses recounted Forde’s broken childhood in which she suffered abuse and abandonment. This is only one very public example of how so many people today try to blame their behavior on their circumstances and environment.
But during the millennial reign of Jesus here on this earth conditions will be perfect. Satan will have been completely bound and be powerless to exert his influence on people. Jesus will be ruling with a rod of iron, so there will be no abuse, no crime, no violence, no exploitation of others. Outwardly everyone will have to conform to His rule.
And yet, at the end of that time, when Satan is released, he will have no problem at all recruiting a large number of people who will gather to fight against Jesus and His followers. John describes their numbers as being like the sand of the sea. How can that be?
Although we can’t fully answer that question, I think there are a few clues in the passage that at least give us a partial answer.
You will note the reference to Gog and Magog here. We previously saw those same two names mentioned back in Ezekiel 38 and 39 where Ezekiel described how a person identified as Gog, from the land of Magog, would lead an attack on Israel. As we discussed at that time, it is unlikely that the battle described in Ezekiel is the same battle described here in Revelation 20. Among the significant differences is that here in Revelation, those coming against Jesus and His followers will be destroyed by fire instantly where the battle described in Ezekiel will be a more protracted affair and it will take seven years for the weapons used in the battle to be burned up.
In Ezekiel, God also reveals to the prophet that the purpose of that battle is so that all the nations will know that He is God. Since everyone who opposes God is destroyed instantly here in
Revelation, that could not possibly be the purpose here.
But the reference to Gog and Magog is a picture of the nature of those who will gather to battle against Jesus. Like the armies in Ezekiel, they will be the ones who hold deep-seated contempt for God. Even though they may conform to his rule outwardly, inwardly they don’t like the fact that they are being ruled over by Jesus and His followers. So when Satan is released, they are eager to follow a leader who offers to lead the attack against God.
This is one last Scriptural example of why so many people reject Jesus inwardly, even when they may appear to follow Him outwardly:
• Many reject Jesus because they are unwilling to yield their autonomy
We see this all the way back in the Garden in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve sinned because they were not willing to yield their complete autonomy to God. They wanted to be like Him so that they could have complete autonomy over their lives.
When it comes to our relationship with Jesus, we cannot retain autonomy over our own lives and at the same time make Jesus Lord of our lives. The two are mutually exclusive. And just because we do all the right things outwardly doesn’t insure that we’ve truly made Jesus the Lord of our lives inwardly. I’m reminded of the words of Jesus:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Matthew 7:21-23 (ESV)
Outwardly these people have done all the right things. They call Jesus “Lord”. They do all kinds of good works, claiming that they are doing them in His name. But when Jesus says that only those who do the will of His Father will enter the kingdom, we immediately see what the problem is here. These people have been doing what they, in their own autonomy, have determined they should do in God’s name. But what they are doing is clearly according to their own will and not according to God’s will.
These words of Jesus should be a sober warning to all of us. He is reminding us that making Jesus Lord is a matter of the heart. We can do all the right things outwardly – we can be in church every time the doors are opened, we can read our Bibles and pray every day, we can share the gospel with others – but until we are willing to yield our autonomy to Jesus, He will never truly be our Lord.
2. Every person will face the judgment of Jesus one day
The writer of Hebrews confirms this principle:
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment
Hebrews 9:27 (ESV)
Although both believers and unbelievers will all face the judgment of Jesus, the nature of those judgments is quite different. We’ll begin by looking at the judgment of the unbelievers, which is described here in Revelation 20.
• Unbelievers – Great White Throne judgment for the purpose of punishment
Four times in this passage, those who are being judged are referred to as the “dead”. This is to distinguish them from those who we saw last week in the first part of the chapter were part of the first resurrection. Therefore those being judged here are only those who have died and who have not yielded their autonomy to Jesus and made Him Lord of their lives. That would include all those who have died in that state both prior to and during the millennial reign of Jesus as well as those who revolted against Him and were consumed by fire at the end of that reign.
There are several aspects of that judgment revealed here:
o Their bodies and souls will be reunited
This is indicated by the use of the terms Death and Hades. Death is a reference to the physical death of the body. The additional mention here of the sea giving up the dead is just to reinforce the idea that regardless of what happens to the body – whether it is lost at sea and becomes shark food or it is burned up by fire from heaven or whether it is buried in the ground and decays, that one day God will reverse that process and bring the body back to its original form.
Hades, as we mentioned last week, is used to describe a temporary holding place where the soul goes to be after death. It is the equivalent of the Hebrew term Sheol that we find in the Old Testament. The Bible doesn’t reveal a whole lot about this place except that it is a place where the soul will be in torment.
At the end of the 1,000 years, God will gather all the bodies and all the souls of the unbelievers and the will be reunited for the purpose of standing before God as He pronounces His sentence against them.
o They will be judged based on their deeds
There are two sets of books mentioned here. The first is the book of life. We’ve seen that elsewhere in the book of Revelation and have determined that it is a citizenship list of all those who have committed their lives to Jesus. No one who stands before the Great White Throne will have their names recorded in that book.
The second set of books is a record of all the deeds in their lives – both good and bad. But regardless of how good a person has been, regardless of how many good deeds they have done, those deeds can never be sufficient to earn the favor of a God who is 100% holy.
o They will be sentenced to a life sentence in the lake of fire
Several weeks ago, there was a question in the Parade magazine which comes in the Sunday newspaper about an actor names Javier Bardem. Here is what Bardem said as part of the response to the question:
I don’t know if I’ll get to heaven. I’m a bad boy. Heaven must be nice, but is it too boring? Maybe you can get an apartment there and then go to hell for the weekends.
I’ve got bad news for Mr. Bardem. You don’t just get to hang out in hell on the weekends. In fact, once you get to hell, you’re there permanently until the Great White Throne judgment. And believe me that is not going to be a place where you just get to hang out with your buddies and have a good time – it is a place of continuing torment for the soul. And then you’re going to be thrown into the lake of fire, which will be a place of everlasting torment for both body and soul.
Although it’s not specifically mentioned in this passage, we need to take a few minutes to discuss the completely different kind of judgment that believers will face.
• Believers – Bema Seat judgment for the purpose of rewards
As we saw last week, at the return of Jesus the bodies and souls of Christ followers will be reunited. At that time we will receive our resurrection bodies which will be much different than the ones we have now. At that time, we will also stand before Jesus to be judged. But the nature of this judgment is completely different than the Great White Throne judgment:
o The judgment is not for the purpose of determining our salvation
Paul described this judgment in his second letter to the church at Corinth:
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
2 Corinthians 5:10 (ESV)
The word translated “judgment seat” is the Greek word “bema”. This would have been familiar imagery to Paul’s audience. The bema was a raised platform where the judges sat at the finish line for races in the ancient Olympic Games. The judges’ responsibility was not to determine if the runner finished the race. All who crossed the finish line had done that. But what they did do was to determine which runner finished in which place so that they could be given the appropriate award.
That is exactly what is going on here. Each person before the bema seat is a genuine Christ follower and the fact that they are there means they have finished the race and they will receive the full salvation that has been purchased for them by Jesus. Paul further explains this process in 1 Corinthians 3:
For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw - each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
1 Corinthians 3:11-15 (ESV)
Here it is clear that even if our works are burned up because they are found to be lacking, our salvation is assured. That is because we will not be judged on works for the purpose of determining our salvation because Jesus has already paid the price for all of the sins that we commit in our lives.
o Our deeds will be judged only for the purpose of rewards
Even though our deeds will not be judged for determining our salvation, they are still important to Jesus and they will be judged, but only for the purpose of determining rewards.
Those things that we do that are built on the foundation of Jesus and which are beneficial to His kingdom will result in rewards. Those things that are built on any other foundation, and which are therefore not beneficial to the kingdom, will be burned up. We won’t be punished for those things. We just won’t get the rewards that we could have obtained by serving Jesus according to His plans.
This is another area where our view of our autonomy is the key. If we try to do things according to our plans, those deeds will have no lasting value and we will receive no rewards for them. On the other hand, if we yield our autonomy to Jesus and do things His way, those deeds will produce lasting fruit – a principle that Jesus confirmed with His own words:
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:5 (ESV)
In light of what we have learned this morning, we must ask the same question that we ask every week – how should what we have learned impact the way that we live our lives right now? This morning, instead of me standing up here and giving all of us a list of principles to apply, it seems more appropriate to give all of us some time to evaluate our own lives in light of what we’ve learned this morning. As we’ve seen, the key issue here is not so much what we do outwardly as what our heart is like inwardly. While others may be able to look at our lives and judge whether they conform outwardly to Jesus, only we individually, along with God, can determine whether we are truly embracing Him inwardly.
So we’re going to take a few moments to individually lay our lives before God and ask Him to help us make an accurate and honest evaluation of our lives. In particular, I want to encourage all of us to lay this idea of our autonomy before God and ask God to show us whether we’re hanging on to our own autonomy or whether we have truly yielded our lives to Him.
Once we’ve had a chance to do that, our worship team will come back up and lead us as we sing “More Than Life” as a prayer of commitment back to God.
