We’re on the next-to-last week of our sermon
series on the book of Revelation. And as you heard, there’s a lot of
stuff happening.
You might remember that, a couple of weeks ago, we talked about the beasts. In the section right before the one we read today, a heavenly warrior, thought to be Jesus Christ, comes and defeats the beasts. The beasts are thrown alive into a fiery lake of burning sulfur.
Then comes the part we read today. An angel comes down from heaven holding the key to the abyss. If you remember when we talked about the opening of the seventh seal on the scroll, one of the things that happened is that an angel opens this abyss. Now, what we assume is that same angel takes the devil, Satan, throws him into the abyss, and locks it. Satan cannot deceive anyone for a thousand years. Then, it says, he must be set free for a short time.
That seems kind of odd, doesn’t it? Satan is imprisoned. He’s under control. He cannot get out. He cannot deceive anyone. He is completely powerless. Why not leave him that way? Why let him out?
Well, I’ll tell you--I don’t know. The greatest Bible scholars say the same thing: we don’t know. There are theories, of course. Could it be that God is giving Satan, even Satan, one last chance to repent and ask for forgiveness? Could it be that God wants to demonstrate God’s great power, that God has complete control even over Satan and that Satan can only do what God allows Satan to do? Could it be that, during that thousand years, some people will waver in their faith and God is allowing them to make a choice who they will serve? These and many other theories have been offered. You may think some of them make sense, or you may not. But the fact is that we simply don’t know.
Christ will reign during that thousand year period. The souls of the martyrs, the one hundred forty-four thousand that we talked about last week, will be priests and will reign with Christ. We’re not told what actually happens during that thousand year period, but it has to be the most wonderful thing the world has ever seen, at least since Eden.
But at the end of that period Satan is set free. We have the reference to Gog and Magog, which appears to be a reference to a prophecy in the Old Testament book of Ezekiel. The prophecy was that Gog, of the land of Magog, would attack Israel with a huge army, but would be defeated by God. The reference to that in Revelation appears to indicate that Satan is going to amass a huge army to attack God’s people. But again, that army is going to be defeated by God. Satan will be thrown into the same lake of burning sulfur that the beasts are, and they will be constantly tormented forever.
And that sounds like a happy ending. But it’s not, at least not for everybody. Then comes the day of judgment. The dead stand before the throne, and the book of life is opened. Everyone is judged according to what they have done. If someone’s name is in the book of life, great. But, it says, “All whose names were not found in the book of life were thrown into the lake of fire.”
So, two things I want to talk about. First, this statement that “Everyone is judged according to what they have done.” When we heard that, some of us may have thought, wait a minute. I thought we were saved by our faith, not by our deeds. What’s the deal about being judged by what we’ve done?”
Well, we are saved by our faith. But it’s like what the apostle James wrote. Faith without deeds is a dead faith. It does not mean anything. Our faith, to be real, must be shown by the things we do. It must be shown by the way we live our lives. It must be shown by the way we treat each other. Including those we don’t like very much. Remember, Jesus said to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Jesus said to treat others the way we’d like them to treat us. Not the way they do treat us, the way we’d like them to treat us. How well we do those things shows how strong our faith is. God does not expect perfection--God knows we’re not capable of perfection. But God expects us to do our best. And when we fail, God expects us to acknowledge that, ask for forgiveness, and try again.
But the other thing to remember is simply this--we will be judged. You and I and everyone else. We will all stand before that great white throne, and we will be judged. There will be some whose names are not found in the book of life. And there will be serious consequences for them.
We don’t like to think about that. We try to deny it. In fact, you’ll hear some very prominent and very well-respected Christian leaders tell you that many roads lead to heaven, that hell does not exist, that a loving God would never allow any of His children to go to hell, and all kinds of similar things. Some of you have probably heard that. Maybe some of you believe it, I don’t know.
But that’s not what the Bible says. Sometimes I wish it did. I don’t like to think of anyone not getting eternal life. I don’t like to think of anyone going to hell. I don’t know if the description of a “lake of fire” is intended to be taken literally, but even if it’s not, hell is obviously a terrible, awful place to be. I don’t want to think of anyone being there.
But what I wish the Bible said does not matter. My wishes do not change the Bible. My wishes and wants and desires do not change God or God’s Word. And God’s Word says, pretty clearly, that the way to heaven is by faith in Jesus Christ. God’s Word says that hell does exist and that there are people who go there. If some people disagree with that, if some people deny it, I don’t know what to tell you. Your argument is with the Bible, not with me.
The day of judgment is coming. I don’t know exactly when it will come, but it is coming. And the only time we have to get ready for it is the time we have on earth. And none of us knows how much time we’re going to have on earth. It’s been said that one of the most dangerous lies we tell ourselves is that we have time. We don’t need to think too much about our faith now. We don’t need to worry too much about our salvation now. We can wait. We have time.
We don’t know that. None of us knows that. The time for us to get ready is now. We don’t know that we’ll have time tomorrow.
So, what should we do? Well, since we’re all here in a Christian church, I assume we all have some level of belief in God. So, the first thing we should do is pray. Pray that God will help us. Pray that God will strengthen our faith. Pray that God will help us take the words Jesus said seriously. Pray that God will help us feel love for God and love for each other. Pray that God will help us love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Pray that God will help us treat people the way we’d like to be treated.
And pray that God will help each of us truly accept Jesus as our Savior. Now, understand, I’m not saying you have not done that. But again, we’re told that we will be judged according to what we have done. So we need to do everything we can to make sure our lives reflect that we have accepted Jesus as our Savior. Again, not perfectly, but as well as we can. And we can only do that with God’s help.
And then, pray that God will help us do the other thing Jesus told us to do: go and make disciples of Jesus Christ. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago, but if we take this seriously, if we truly believe what it says in Revelation, then we have to realize that there are people around us, people we know, whose names are not in that book of life. And again, I don’t like that. I wish it was not that way. But all I can tell you is that it’s what the Bible says.
But if we don’t like it, then it’s up to us to do something about it. It’s up to us to do what we can to bring people to Christ. And I understand how hard that can be to do. I understand how uncomfortable it can make us to even think about it. And I understand how unqualified and just plain incompetent we feel when we do think about trying it. I understand all that. I’ve used all those reasons many times to try to avoid doing this.
But as we’ve said before, Jesus did not make this optional. Jesus did not say go and make disciples if it’s easy for you. Jesus did not say go and make disciples as long as you feel comfortable doing it. Jesus did not say go and make disciples if you feel qualified and competent to do it. Jesus said go and make disciples. Period.
But if we still don’t want to do this--and again, I understand why we don’t--think about this. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago, too, but if we don’t do this, who will? I don’t mean we in this church, I mean we who claim to be Christians. Again, if we take what Revelation says seriously, there are people around us whose names are not in that book of life. Trying to do something about that, even if we feel like we don’t know what we’re doing and even if we feel like we’re not very good at it, has to be better than nobody trying to do anything. And again, if you and I, the people of the church, don’t do anything, who will?
And here’s the other thing to remember: we don’t do it alone. God will be with us. If we do our best, God’s Holy Spirit will tell us what to do and what to say. Because the truth is that’s the only way to make disciples, anyway. You and I cannot do it alone. We can only do it through the power of God’s Holy Spirit.
Our reading from Revelation makes it clear. A day of judgment is coming. You and I need to be ready. And we need to do everything we can, through the power of God’s Holy Spirit, to help other people be ready, too.
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