11.10.24 Revelation 20:4–6
4 Then I saw thrones, and those who were sitting on them were given the authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshipped the beast and his image, and they did not receive his mark on their forehead and on their hand. They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 (The rest of the dead did not live until the thousand years came to an end.) This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one who has a share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them. Instead they will be priests of God and of Christ. And they will reign with him for a thousand years.
We just came off of an election, trying to decide who will rule as president of the United States. It’s a pretty big thing, because the president holds a lot of power over America for at least four years. The president also has power to select who will be on the Supreme Court, which makes judgments in the highest courts of this land. Some envision gloom and doom while others envision peace and prosperity. Only God knows. But what does that compare to ruling in the kingdom of heaven?
John Envisions the Saints Living and Reigning
In John’s vision he sees the thrones of people ruling in heaven and given the authority to judge. John states that the saints live and reign with Christ even now for a thousand year period as they wait for the final resurrection. This is symbolic language, which is obvious as it describes the devil as a dragon who can be bound with a chain. So it is with the thousand years. The thousand years are symbolic of the time between Jesus' death and resurrection and the last Day. Saints live and reign from now until the Day Jesus comes again.
How do you become a saint? John also speaks of a first resurrection. The first resurrection is not talking about a bodily resurrection, but a spiritual one. It happens when people are brought to faith in Jesus as their Savior. Paul described the way that one is born into this world as being spiritually dead, kind of like those zombies you see in the movies. All they live for is to devour and eat flesh. An unbeliever is only born to satisfy his or her sinful nature of flesh. Paul writes in Ephesians 2,
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
But then he describes what happens when you are brought to faith.
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.
This is the first resurrection. When we come to faith, our minds and our hearts are brought to life, focused on Jesus. Our minds are not captivated by the fears of this world, like who is president or who isn’t. We aren’t driven by fear over a sickness or disease or a war. We don’t live our lives for the next pleasure or promotion or sports team. We don’t live for sex or drugs. We live for Him. We hope in Him. We want to please Him. We want to be with Him forever in heaven. We serve Him as our King and our Lord.
Does this describe you? Do you look forward to being with Jesus? Do you pray to Him? Do you cherish His mercy and grace? Do you live your life in hope of heaven? Then you know you’re alive! Do you struggle with it? Well, then you still have life in you, but you know you want more! But if none of this matters to you, if it all seems boring and useless, then you’re dead even while you’re alive.
But for those of you who are alive, think more about the blessings we have as believers in Christ. John writes, Blessed and holy is the one who has a share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them. Instead they will be priests of God and of Christ. And they will reign with him for a thousand years. The second death is the physical death that we all face when we die. It has no spiritual or emotional power over us. We’re not afraid of it, because we know that when we die we get to go to heaven with Jesus, all because He died for us. We go out in faith and hope. Think of how we sing this song of hope -
Lord, when your glory I shall see and taste your kingdom’s pleasure. Your blood my royal robe shall be, my joy beyond all measure. When I appear before your throne your righteousness shall be my crown. With these I need not hide me. And then in garments richly wrought as your own bride I shall be brought to stand in joy beside you.”
And what’s another thing? John calls us HOLY! Why? Because Jesus’ righteousness covers us from head to toe in our baptism and through a continued faith in Jesus. Not one sin goes on our account. No wrath of God. We can look death in the face and know this is not the end. Jesus says, “Because I live, you too will live.” We believe this. We celebrate it! In God’s eyes, we look like saints! We don’t have to be voted into sainthood. We don’t have to perform some special miracles. We’re saved by grace, through faith alone in Christ.
And what do we do in the meantime? John writes, They will be priests of God and of Christ. In the Old Testament the priests prayed for the people. They made sacrifices for the people, to convey to them the forgiveness of sins. And that’s what we do right now. We intercede for the world! We pray for people we know, for our nation, and for our world. We come before God with sacrifices of thanksgiving. We bring Jesus’ forgiveness to the world, telling them of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, through Word and sacrament. We do painful things, living painful lives of sacrifice for those we love, out of love for Jesus.
This service doesn’t stop once we die on earth. Our souls depart to be with Christ but they continue to serve even in heaven. A soul is unique to humanity. It is a conscious part of us that lives on after death. But we don’t just sit around and do nothing in heaven. John says that we live and reign with Jesus in our souls. Revelation 7:15 says, “they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple.” We don’t struggle with our own sins or the temptations of the unbelieving world. We don’t struggle with the pains and aches of living in a sinful and broken body. We pray for Jesus to hurry up and bring about final justice. We live and rule with Christ in ultimate peace and harmony.
There’s a special group worth mentioning in heaven, those who had to pay the ultimate price for their faith - the martyrs who were beheaded. It is a gruesome and humiliating thing to think about, having your head chopped off in front of people. There’s no coming back from that, not on this side of heaven. John the Baptist was beheaded. Paul was said to have been beheaded outside of Rome. You probably don’t remember this, but in 2015 there were 21 Egyptian Christian construction workers who were abducted and beheaded by Muslims. They made a video of it for the world to see. It still happens today, Christians being beheaded.
Why are they beheaded? Because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. John was beheaded for calling out Herod for having an immoral relationship with his brother’s wife. Paul was imprisoned and ultimately beheaded for telling the Romans and the Jews to repent and believe in Jesus as their Savior. Those 21 construction workers refused to renounce their faith as well. You can’t help but admire such people for the sacrifice they made.
Why are Christians met with such violence? It’s not that we are trying to be at war. Christians today try to be as kind and amicable as can be. We want to be loving and kind. But even though Jesus healed people and reached out to the great sinners of His day, He still had to call out their sin. He told his fellow Jews who were opposing him, “You belong to your father, the devil.” (John 8:44) Even when he managed to keep an adulterous woman from being stoned to death, he still told her to “go and leave your life of sin.” (John 8:11) When he had healed another man, the man had gone on to start living a sinful life. Jesus told him, “stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.” (John 5:14) Jesus did not accept wicked behavior. He preached repentance just like the rest of the prophets, and they killed him for it. He wanted them to repent and believe in Him as their Messiah.
Think about the implications of what preaching Jesus brings. Jesus came to be your Savior, to save you from your sins, and to save you from hell by dying for you on the cross. It implies that you are a sinner and that you deserve hell and that you need to be saved. Now that’s what makes people angry. The cry of our age is, “Don’t judge me. God is going to have to accept me as I am. God doesn’t make mistakes.” There’s an angry type of defiance in these words, from people who don’t want to change, who don’t want to repent or bend the knee to Jesus. So when God’s Word talks about adultery, homosexuality, greed, anger, and all of these different sins . . . when it says to repent . . . well, people get angry about it. The god of our age is tolerance. If we don’t tolerate sin, then we are met with anger. We are called every name in the book, unloving, intolerant, homophobic, bigots. When we don’t accept immoral behavior, we are met with anger and threats. When we speak against children chopping off body parts in order to escape the sexuality of their bodies, we are told that we are partly to blame if these children then go and kill themselves. It is actually illegal in some states to try and keep someone from giving in to their desires to have a same sex relationship. There is anger at the mere thought of saying, “Don’t give in to it. This is wrong.”
This philosophy of life makes me the god of my own destiny. I decide what’s right and wrong. I bow to no one and nothing. I do what I want to do, and nobody else can tell me otherwise. Do you know what the number one song is that people like to listen to when they’re dying? It’s Frank Sinatra’s, “I did it my way.” Wow! Ultimately, it’s a demonic type of thinking. Revelation describes it as a mark that is placed on the head and the hand, with your thoughts and your actions. They had not worshipped the beast and his image, and they did not receive his mark on their forehead and on their hand. It’s not an actual physical mark like a social security number or something. It’s symbolic of something obvious in you, for how you think and how you act and who you are ultimately allegiant to. Think perhaps of the tattoos that the gangs get marking them publicly and proudly, trying to intimidate people. If you color or cut your hair a certain way, wear a certain type of clothing, you might be purposely aligning with a certain movement that is against God’s Word. This is who you are. You put it on social media. You live it in your life. You worship the beast and his image, whatever form it may take in your day and age.
As Christians, we resist these marks. We call them out as evil. We hold to different marks. Our marks are given us in our baptism, where God marks us as His children. Our marks are in our confessions of faith in the Creeds. Our marks are seen as we kneel for the body and the blood of Christ, sinners who confess they need forgiveness offered herein. Our marks are seen when we get up for worship and come to church, when we pray for our meals, when we study the Bible, when we tell people, “I’ll be praying for you.” I am not ashamed of the Gospel. My mark is Jesus. I don’t need to be accepted by my classmates or my society by identifying myself by an alternate sexuality or a Republican or a Democrat. I’m a Christian. I’m a Lutheran. I believe in a six day creation. I believe there is a real heaven and hell. I believe there is only one way to be saved, through faith in Jesus Christ. It’s the same faith as my parents, my grandparents, and my great grandparents, with all the saints who have gone before. A simple faith in Christ crucified. That’s it.
This past summer I walked by a guy downtown with my Packer shirt on. He said, “Nice shirt!” I said, “Thanks!” As he rode by he then asked, “Did you get it at the women’s store?” I wasn’t too happy with him. I never used to think about wearing my gear around here, but that got me thinking about it. Do I want to put myself through a snide comment? Is it worth it? How big of a Packer fan am I?
Think about that as a Christian. As we live in an ever more anti-Christian culture, one that demands we accept same sex, sex change, abortion on demand, so many other immoral things . . . you have a choice. If I am a Christian, a baptized believer in Jesus, am I willing to say it? To live it? There are many saints who have gone before us, who had to face a lot more persecution than we can ever imagine, who have paid the ultimate price. But they didn’t lose. They won. God saw their lives of faith, and now they are living and reigning with Christ, awaiting the final resurrection. They have more power than any president of any country could ever have. And through faith in Christ, you do too. You have the God of the universe promising to listen to your prayers and come to your rescue, to work everything out for your God.
So who are going to be? You can be who God died for you to be, adopted you to be - a triumphant saint, living and ruling with Jesus into eternity. What an honor and a privilege to be called God’s saint, to be a part of this holy group of believers in Christ. Isn’t it worth living and dying for? Amen.
