The Real End of the World
(Revelation 20-22)
1. How good of an imagination do you have? How good is your long-term memory – do you remember details and what your life was like many years ago? How creative of a person are you? Are you able to trust God or do you fall apart in unusual circumstances?
2. The answer to these questions might be all the same way, positive or negative. Ramez Sasson writes, “Imagination is the ability to form a mental image of something that is not perceived through the senses. It is the ability of the mind to build mental scenes, objects or events that do not exist, are not present or have happened in the past.
“Memory is actually a manifestation of imagination. Everyone possesses some imagination ability. In some it may be highly developed and in others it may manifest in a weaker form...
“Imagination makes it possible to experience a whole world inside the mind. It gives the ability to look at any situation from a different point of view, and enables one to mentally explore the past and the future.”
3. I believe we develop the attribute of hope by focusing on our futures in heaven, the resurrection of our body, the Millennium, and in the New Jerusalem. To develop that hope, we must exercise imagination. No imagination, little interest in future details.
4. In Hebrews 11:27, the author is speaking of Moses: “By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.”
5. How do you see the invisible? With your imagination. And that ability to imagine is a factor of faith and especially hope, which often accompanies endurance.
6. Prophecy exercises our imagination and creativity. This, in turn, increases our ability to develop hope. Hope matters and it breeds endurance, therefore it does our soul good to imagine the millennium, and today, the new heaven and earth. Today, we are going to consider the end of the world and our eternal dwelling place, the New Jerusalem.
Main Idea: The destruction of this present world will take place after the thousand year reign of Christ. Let’s preview the events that bring our new home to earth!
I. The Final REBELLION (Revelation 20:7-10)
A. Satan LOOSED
1. He does not make a prison break
2. God has him released to make the point: people are eager to rebel
3. They are deceived because they have gone along with truth, not loved it
B. Gog and MAGOG rebel
According to a widespread tradition, God and Magog represented the heathen nations or aggregate powers of evil, as opposed to Israel, the Kingdom of God…Ezekiel… pictured the final destruction of the heathen world before the city of Jerusalem…” [editor’s notes from the Socino Talmud]
• Does any of this strike you as insane?
• The relationship between insanity and evil is a close one
• Add ego/pride/arrogance/control into the mixture
C. Consumed by FIRE
D. Lesson: MANKIND rebels against God by nature
II. The Great WHITE THRONE Judgment (Revelation 20:11-15)
A. For UNBELIEVERS only
(show photo 1, white throne)
B. Cast into LAKE of fire
(show photo 2, lake of fire)
The typical Jewish belief was that hell lasted one year, except for the really bad
Perhaps the Roman Catholic belief in purgatory developed from this…
C. Lesson: Hell is real, all WORKS reviewed
1. Rob Bell and others might have a hard time with this, but hell is eternal
2. We do not have to like what we believe, but we must interpret fairly/objectively
3. We can either believe what the Bible teaches or what we want to believe
III. The New HEAVEN and Earth(Revelation 21:1-22:5)
What keeps you from being excited about heaven? Do you view it as boring, strumming a harp for eternity? Or a constant church service? First, seeing God will be amazing. He is more amazing than the sum total of his creation. Yes, we will worship God, but we will do more. Yes, we will be at peace. But we will be engaged. New heavens and new earth will be there for we creatures to explore, enjoy, and marvel.
A. DESTRUCTION of current heaven and earth (1-3)
1. Contrasts
1:1 - heavens & earth created 21:1 - New heavens & earth
1:16 - Sun created 21:23 - No need for the sun
1:5 - Night established 22:5 - No night there
1:10 - The seas created 21:1 - No more seas [exiled on Patmos!]
3:14-17 - The curse announced 22:3 - No more curse
[satan, serpent, soil]
3:19 - Death enters history 21:4 - No more death
3:24 - Man driven from paradise 22:14 - Man restored to paradise
3:17 - Sorrow & pain began 21:4 - No more tears or pain
[source for this comparison: Jerry Shirley, Sermon Central]
2. As a bride adorned (2) cf. 21:9
3. Weddings: Bride takes forever to get dressed
4. That is our role right now…getting prepared (spiritual maturity/discipleship)
B. The New Jerusalem, Our HOME (21:9-26) – It is a Pre-fab!!!
(show photo 3, New J)
1,500 miles X 1,500 miles X 1,500 miles
Revelation 3:12, “The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.”
Hebrews 11:10, 12:22-24, “For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God…But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”
Did you know heaven was going to be on a new earth and involve a new heaven?
C. The TREE of Life
(show photo 4, tree of life)
D. Lesson: The JOYS of eternity are beyond description
ll.—little girl born blind/only beauty she knew came from her mother’s descriptions/flowers in spring, trees in fall, snow in winter, ocean in summertime/girl could only imagine/at 10 years of age, had experimental surgery to help her see/bandages for several weeks/moment of truth came…bandages removed and she saw/ran to the window and stood breathless/ “mother, why didn’t you tell me it was so beautiful?”/ “I tried to, but words just wouldn’t suffice!” [Jerry Shirley, Sermon Central]
