This week, Skylar Murphy admitted in court that he put together a pipe bomb with a friend last year and planned to blow up a shed in rural Alberta for fun, but forgot the explosive in his bag until he was in line at the Edmonton airport. Screening staff found the device but — in an admitted foul-up — didn’t immediately call RCMP and allowed the 18-year-old passenger to board a plane to Mexico with his family for a holiday. The judge who handled the case had her own stern words for the young bomb-maker:“ If the authorities had missed that pipe bomb and you had gone in Mexico, through a screening device, you would not even get a trial,” “You would be in a Mexican jail. And your grandfather and your family would be visiting you in that jail. And you would probably be learning Spanish by now, if you survived. “I doubt you would have survived.” (http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/01/16/teen-who-brought-pipe-bomb-to-edmonton-airport-built-device-out-of-bullets-stolen-from-mothers-fiance/)
Revelation 20:11-15 describes the final sentencing of the lost and is the most serious, sobering, and tragic passage in the entire Bible. Commonly known as the Great White Throne judgment, it is the last courtroom scene that will ever take place. After this there will never again be a trial, and God will never again need to act as judge. The accused, all the unsaved who have ever lived, will be resurrected to experience a trial like no other that has ever been. There will be no debate over their guilt or innocence. There will be a prosecutor, but no defender; an accuser, but no advocate. There will be an indictment, but no defense mounted by the accused; the convicting evidence will be presented with no rebuttal or cross-examination. There will be an utterly unsympathetic Judge and no jury, and there will be no appeal of the sentence He pronounces. The guilty will be punished eternally with no possibility of parole in a prison from which there is no escape.No one at the Great White Throne judgment will have the slightest grounds for complaint about his or her sentence. Those who reject God’s grace and mercy in this life will inevitably face His justice in the life to come.
This simple, but powerful text describes the terrifying reality of the final verdict and sentence on sinners under four headings: 1) The Scene (Revelation 20:11-12a), 2) The Summons (Revelation 20:13a) , 3) The Standard (Revelation 20:12b, 13b), and 4) The Sentence (Revelation 20:14-15).
1) The Scene. (Revelation 20:11-12a)
Revelation 20:11-12a [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). (ESV)
The words ‘then I saw’ indicate the commencement of a new vision. What the apostle John is given here is a remarkably detailed vision of the Day of Judgement, painted in vigorous colours. Here is the day that God has fixed ‘when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed’ (Acts 17:31). (Richard Brooks. Revelation: The Lamb is all the Glory. EVANGELICAL PRESS. Faverdale North Industrial Estate, Darlington, England.1986.)
During his earthly ministry when Jesus taught about his Second Coming, he connected kingship closely with judging: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matt. 25:31–32). In Revelation 19 we see the conquering King of kings. John sees Jesus in his role of the Judge of all unredeemed humanity. (Kendell Easley. Revelation : Holman New Testament commentary. Broadman & Holman Publishers. Nashville, Tennessee. 1998)
The throne is great in the sense of being authoritative and powerful and “white” to sum up the themes of purity and holiness that have been associated with it throughout the book. Christ has white hair (1:14), sits on a white cloud (14:14), and returns on a white horse (19:11); celestial beings wear white (4:4); the triumphant saints wear white (3:4, 5; 6:11; 7:9, 13) and return with Christ on white horses (19:14). The “white throne” sums up all these themes. It is a throne of purity and triumph and so rightly stands as the throne of judgment.(John R. Yeatts. Revelation: Believers church Bible commentary. Herald Press, Scottdale, Pa. 2003)
Though the Father and the Son share the throne, it is the Son who is uniquely in view here, since Scripture teaches that He will judge sinners(cf. Jn. 5:22-27). Yet, John is not interested in labeling the one on the throne, and it is likely he intends both Father and Son to be involved in the judgment. (Grant R. Osborne. Revelation: Baker Exegetical Commentary. Baker Academic. Grand Rapids, MI. 2004)
Please turn to 2 Peter 3 (p.1019)
After describing the vision of the Judge on His throne, John noted the startling reality that from His presence earth and sky/heaven fled away. That amazing, incredible statement describes the “uncreation” of the universe. The earth will have been reshaped by the devastating judgments of the Great Tribulation. It will still be tainted with sin and subject to the effects of the Fall—decay and death; hence it must be destroyed, since nothing corrupted by sin will be permitted to exist in the eternal state (2 Pet. 3:13). The details of God’s uncreation of the universe are given by Peter in 2 Peter 3:10–13, which describes the final expression of the Day of the Lord:
2 Peter 3:10-13 [10]But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. [11]Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, [12]waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! [13]But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. (ESV)
God will in its place create “a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away” (Rev. 21:1; cf. 21:5; Isa. 65:17, 22; 2 Pet. 3:13). The present earth and sky/heaven will not merely be moved or reshaped, since John saw in his vision that no place was found for them. They will be uncreated and go totally out of existence. This is nothing less than the sudden, violent termination of the universe (cf. Ps. 102:25–26; Isa. 51:6; Matt. 5:18; 24:35; Luke 16:17; 21:33; Heb. 1:11–12; 12:26–27).
Quote: Donal J. Barnhouse wrote: “There is to be an end of the material heavens and earth which we know. It is not that they are to be purified and rehabilitated, but that the reverse of creation is to take place. They are to be uncreated. As they came from nothing at the word of God, they are to be sucked back into nothingness by this same word of God” (Revelation: An Expository Commentary [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1971], 391).
Introducing the final element in this fearful scene, John writes in verse 12 that he saw the dead, great and the small, standing before the throne. The setting is the indescribable void, the inconceivable nothingness between the end of the present universe and the creation of the new heaven and the new earth. The prisoners before the bar are all physically dead, since there are no longer any living people—none could possibly have survived the destruction of the present universe. The last living unbelievers will perish when God crushes the rebellion at the end of time (20:8–9). The last living believers will be translated and transformed into their eternal bodies, like Enoch (Gen. 5:24), Elijah (2 Kings 2:11), and the raptured church (1 Thess. 4:13–18).
To emphasize the all-encompassing scope of the judgment, John notes that the sweeping mass of unbelievers before God’s throne includes both the great and the small. Neither status nor work on earth will gain preferential treatment before a holy and just God. God’s perfect fairness at the last judgment leads believers to treat their neighbor fairly in this life. “You know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him” (Ephesians 6:9). (cf Rom. 2:11; cf. Deut. 10:17; Job 34:19; Eph. 6:9; Col. 3:25; 1 Pet. 1:17). (Wayne D. Mueller . Revelation: The People’s Bible. NORTHWESTERN PUBLISHING HOUSE. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 1996)
The dead pictured here standing before the throne of divine judgment include all the unbelievers who ever lived. This is the “resurrection of judgment” (John 5:29), the resurrection “to disgrace and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2), the “resurrection of … the wicked” (Acts 24:15). The Bible teaches that no believer will ever face God’s judgment, because “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). Everyone “who believes in Him is not judged” (John 3:18); they have “eternal life, and [do] not come into judgment, but [have] passed out of death into life” (John 5:24). Far from being judged, all the godly participants in the first resurrection (Rev. 20:6) will have already received their rewards (cf. v. 4; 19:7–9; 1 Cor. 3:12–15; 2 Cor. 5:10).
Quote: John Phillips provocatively wrote: “There is a terrible fellowship there.… The dead, small and great, stand before God. Dead souls are united to dead bodies in a fellowship of horror and despair. Little men and paltry women whose lives were filled with pettiness, selfishness, and nasty little sins will be there. Those whose lives amounted to nothing will be there, whose very sins were drab and mean, spiteful, groveling, vulgar, common, and cheap. The great will be there, men who sinned with a high hand, with dash, and courage and flair. Men like Alexander and Napoleon, Hitler and Stalin will be present, men who went in for wickedness on a grand scale with the world for their stage and who died unrepentant at last. Now one and all are arraigned and on their way to be damned: a horrible fellowship congregated together for the first and last time”. (Exploring Revelation, rev. ed. [Chicago: Moody, 1987; reprint, Neptune, N.J.: Loizeaux, 1991], 242–43)
2) The Summons (Revelation 20:13a)
Revelation 20:13a [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). (ESV)
As the next scene in this ultimate courtroom drama unfolds, the prisoners are summoned from their cells to appear before the Judge. Since their deaths, their souls have been tormented in a place of punishment; now the time has come for them to be sentenced to the final, eternal hell. Before the sea was uncreated and went out of existence (cf. 21:1), it gave up the dead who were in it. The “sea” and “Death and Hades” are virtual synonyms in the book, both personifications of the realm of evil. The capricious and unpredictable sea has no place in the new creation.(Grant R. Osborne. Revelation: Baker Exegetical Commentary. Baker Academic. Grand Rapids, MI. 2004)
Death symbolizes all the places on land from which God will resurrect new bodies for the unrighteous dead. The sea and death are pictured as voracious monsters that have swallowed those bodies and will be forced to disgorge them before their uncreation.
As we saw last week with the story of Jesus and Lazarus, Hades is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word sheol. Both words describe the realm of the dead. Sheol, used sixty-seven times in the Old Testament, describes the realm of the dead in general. Hades is used ten times in the New Testament, always in reference to the place of punishment as we saw last week (cf. Luke 16:23) where the unrighteous dead are kept pending their sentencing to hell. In this incredible scene, Hades is emptied of its captive spirits, who are reunited with resurrection bodies before the bar of God’s justice. Unbelievers, fitted with resurrection bodies suited for hell, will then be ready for their sentencing to the lake of fire where their punishment, unlike that in Hades, will last forever.
Illustration: As we travel around in our daily lives, one thing that should stop us in our tracks is a memorial. Some times they are in cemeteries, placard’s on a wall or public monument. One of the most unusual is the USS Arizona memorial at Perl Harbour, Hawaii. During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Arizona was bombed. She exploded and sank, killing 1,177 officers and crewmen. Unlike many of the other ships sunk or damaged that day, Arizona could not be fully salvaged, though the navy removed parts of the ship for reuse. The wreck still lies at the bottom of Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial, dedicated on 30 May 1962 to all those who died during the attack, straddles the ship's hull. Upon their death, survivors of the attack may have their ashes placed within the ship, among their fallen comrades. Veterans who served aboard the ship at other times may have their ashes scattered in the water above the ship.(http://www.ask.com/wiki/USS_Arizona_(BB-39)?o=2801&qsrc=999&ad=doubleDown&an=apn&ap=ask.com#Salvage_and_memorial)
Regardless of how the unsaved have died in this life, at the end of time all will permanently reside in the same place. From the sea, to the mountain peak, the souls of the dead will reunite with their bodies for their eternal fate in Hell.
3) The Standard (Revelation 20:12b, 13b)
Revelation 20:12b, [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. (ESV)
Revelation 20:13b [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. (ESV)
Please turn to Galatians 3 (p.973)
The books contain the record of every thought, word, and deed of every unsaved person who ever lived. God has kept perfect, accurate, and comprehensive records of every person’s life, and the dead will be judged by/from the things which were written in the books, according to what they had done/their deeds. Sinners’ deeds will be measured against God’s perfect, holy standard, which Jesus defined in Matthew 5:48: “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” In his first epistle Peter wrote, “Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’ ” (1 Pet. 1:15–16). To the Galatians Paul wrote:
Galatians 3:10-14 [10]For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written,
