Judgment Day - Revelation 20

Dennis Newton was on trial for the armed robbery of a convenience store in a district court…when he fired his lawyer. Assistant district attorney Larry Jones said Newton, 47, was doing a fair job of defending himself until the store manager testified that Newton was the robber. Newton jumped up, accused the woman of lying and then said, "I should of blown your [expletive] head off." The defendant paused, then quickly added, "-if I'd been the one that was there." The jury took 20 minutes to convict Newton and recommended a 30-year sentence.

Dennis Newton is just one of many criminals whose lack of intellect have led to their arrest and/or convictions.  There are books and web sites completely dedicated to telling the stories of these would be criminal not-so-masterminds.  Many of these stories account of how they were arrested…this story, though, takes us into the courtroom.

Our Scripture today, takes us into a courtroom of sorts.  However, before we get into the heavenly courtroom, let us take some time to examine this chapter carefully, for it is a key passage in many of the differing interpretations of Revelation.  So we will read through it, and try to determine just what this passage says.

Some of the claims that are based on this passage are that 1) We see Jesus return, 2) Jesus binds Satan for 1000 years, 3) Jesus has a 1000 year reign on earth, 4) There is a Final Battle where history ends, and 5) There is a Final Judgment.  We’ll examine these as we go through the passage.

“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.  He seized the Dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and locked and sealed it over him, so that he would deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were ended.  After that he must be let out for a little while.”

Two of our suspect statements are answered in these verses.  It is not Jesus who descends or returns from heaven in this vision.  It is an angel.  Could the angel be Jesus?  In other books of Scripture, that possibility is raise.  However, throughout Revelation, there is a constant distinction drawn between angels and the divine.  On several occasions (i.e. 19:10-11) when an angel presents something or talks to John and he falls to his knees to bow down to the angel, the angels quickly corrects John and tells him that no one but God is worthy of worship…so in Revelation angel never equals the divine…and so the angel would not be Jesus.  Angels are simply servants of God.

We also read here that it is the angel, not Jesus, who binds Satan and casts him into the pit.  It is not Jesus, but a servant of God who binds Satan.  That is important to note…God’s servants are able to bind Satan.  What did that say to God’s servants under the persecution?  It told them that they had the power to bind Satan.  What does that tell us?  It tells us that we have the power to bind Satan…we have the ability to prevent Satan from having power over our lives.  We can no longer say, “the devil made me do it.” How do we bind Satan?  How do we keep Satan from having control over our lives?  What has Revelation been about?  It has been about giving hope to those who are undergoing persecution for their faith.  It has also been a call to faithfulness.  Those who are faithful to God, bind Satan.  Satan has no control over the lives of those who are faithful.  Can they be physically harmed?  Yes.  Can Satan claim them as his own and drag them into the pit with him?  No.

In fact in the next section we read that those who Satan has harmed…those who have lost their lives because of their faith…those who had been beheaded (a common form of execution in Rome) reign with Christ, in heaven.

“Then I saw the thrones, and those seated on them were given authority to judge.  I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God.  They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands.  They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.  (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.)  This is the first resurrection.  Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection.  Over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him a thousand years.

Wait, we have always thought Jesus was returning and would reign on earth with the saints?  Remember, we just said it was an angel who returned.  And those who are beheaded would be martyrs…and where have the martyrs been throughout the book of Revelation…under the altar in the throne room of God.  The martyrs are ruling with Christ, not on earth, but in Heaven, according to the words of John in this Revelation that Christ has given him.

What about the thousand years?  Those thousand years have caused much debate upon church folks for the last couple of thousand years.  There have been debates and arguments about just when we live with relation to this thousand year reign of Christ.  Are we living prior to Christ’s reign?  Are we living after Christ’s reign?  Are we in the midst of the reign?  Well, if we remember two things, then all of these arguments are a moot point.  We just said, according to the text from Revelation, Christ’s reign, as described, is in Heaven and not on Earth.

The second thing to remember is how numbers throughout Revelation have been understood.  They are symbolic…and, while you don’t see 1,000 on that list, we do find a factor of 1,000.  10x10x10 gives us 1,000.  According to your “Apocalyptic Symbolism” sheet, ten represents inclusiveness, complete.  In this sense the Satan is bound completely, for all time…and the martyrs reign with Christ for eternity.

But, what about the next part where it talks about when the Satan is loosed again?

“When the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, God and Magog, in order to gather them for battle; they are as numerous as the sands of the sea.  They marched up over the breadth of the earth and surround the camp of the saints and the beloved city.  And fire came down from heaven and consumed them.  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.”

If after a thousand years, Satan is loosed, how in the world can we say that he had been bound forever?  Let’s go back and consider, Satan is bound by the servants of God, we, as God’s servants, are the ones who bind Satan.  Our faithfulness to God is what binds Satan and keeps him from harming us or leading us astray.  With that understanding, as long as God’s people are faithful, Satan is bound and cannot act, and is bound completely, for all time.  As long as Satan is bound, he cannot deceive or trick and individual…or a church…however, something looses Satan for a short time.  If Satan is bound forever, what could loose him?  The answer is in what binds him.  If he is bound by the faithfulness of God’s servants, if Satan cannot harm us as long as we are faithful to God, then what could possibly loose him?  Simply put, unfaithfulness.  When we become unfaithful to God, when we stop being true to God, because we have gotten caught up in some other false god…we have bowed down to some idol…we have given in to avoid persecution…then Satan is loosed.  It is unfaithfulness to God that lets Satan have a run at our lives again.  When God’s people, when we, remain faithful to God…loving God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and loving our neighbors as our ourselves, then despite his attacks, Satan is bound and cannot get us…but trust me, he will attack…if we are being faithful to God, Satan will come at us in an innumerable number of ways…he will put difficult times and difficult people in our lives…he will try to get us to doubt God’s love and protection for us…he will try to make us think that we have other good options or compromises that will free us from trouble and let us worship God…the problem is that we cannot compromise our faith, for when we begin compromising, Satan gets a hold in our lives.

Yet even with Satan loosed, there will come a day, as Satan comes up and goes against the people of God, a time when he leads the persecutors in surrounding and making war on God’s children, that before war can break out, God acts, and casts Satan into the fiery pit, with the beast and the false prophet.  Satan will be put away, forever.

Then we come to the courtroom scene, Judgment Day, as Christ presents it to John.

“Then I saw a great white throne and the one who sat on it; the earth and the heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them.  And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.  Also another book was opened.  Also, another book was opened, the book of life.  And the dead were judged according to their works, as recorded in the books.  And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and all were judged according to what they had done.  Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.  This is the second death, the lake of fire; and anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.”

A final judgment will come…a judgment rendered by the one sitting on the throne of victory.  Who would reign in victory?  Who has claimed the victory by throwing down the beast and the false prophet and Satan himself…either directly or through a servant.  None other than God.  God sits on the throne of victory…and feels all of earth and heaven with His presence…and he judges those who will be before the throne.  Who will stand before the throne in judgment?  According to the text, it is not simply those who have done what was wrong…those both great and small…everyone…will stand before the throne and be judged.  We will all be judged according to what we have done.

Is this a works righteousness call put out by Revelations?  No.  What “work” are we being judged on?  What has been the issue through Revelation that we have talked about earlier?  That’s right, faithfulness.  We will be judged as to whether we have remained faithful to God, not wavering, not bending down to other gods…or whether we have caved under pressure.  Those who remain faithful, we read, are rewarded with missing the second death.  What is the second death…it is being cast down amongst the beast, the false prophet, Satan, and others who have been unfaithful…the second death is being cast forever out of the presence of God.

We’ve discussed the book of life earlier…how no one can take any of our names out of the book of life but us.  However, Christ has promised that he will blot out the names in the book of life, of those who are unfaithful to God…those who cave to the pressures to bow down to someone or something other than God. 

My brothers and sisters, Judgment Day will come.  And on that day, the great and small, that means each and every one of us, will have to stand before that white throne.  Will we be found faithful or unfaithful?

I pray that we may all be found faithful…but will we?

It is appropriate to consider this as we approach the celebration of July 4^th in just eight short days.  A secular, not religious, holiday in which we celebrate the birth of our nation…and the freedoms that come with living here.  One of those freedoms is the freedom of religious expression.  Now, with what I am about to say, don’t get me wrong.  I am thankful to live where I live and have the ability to worship in public without fear of reprisal.  However, and this concerns me some, I have heard time and time again, “the only reason you are able to worship is because of those who have fought and died for that right.”  The reason that troubles me is twofold.  First, there is only One who chose not to fight and died, and in fact was raised from the dead, that gives us, as non-Jews, the ability and right to worship God.  Without Jesus, without his birth, life, death, and resurrection, we would be still be Gentiles, and not be part of God’s chosen people.

The second part of the previous statement that bothers me, is it suggests that the only reason we are able to worship is because we have the freedom of religious expression, suggesting that without that freedom we would not be able to worship God.  The problem with this is, my brothers and sisters, that we will not be judged on whether we were faithful to God because we had the freedom to do so…it is whether we remained faithful to God no matter how difficult times became.  It troubles me because there are times where we let a good sale at the mall, a beautiful day on the lake, mountain, beach, golf course, or ball field, a visit from family or friends, a rainy or cold day or any myriad of other reasons, stop us from gathering to worship God.  These are fun things, these are not even threats of persecution.  What if we lived in the Roman Empire, as did those folks that John was writing?  What if we lived somewhere like modern day China, Iran, Pakistan, or other places, where it is a life-threatening option to openly proclaim Christ…where either the government or a terrorist will threaten or take your life for bowing to Christ.  If we thought we might be beheaded for openly sharing the gospel, would we? If we thought we might be thrown in prison, never to see our family again, for handing out a Bible, would we?  If we thought we might be burned alive, for praising the name of Jesus, would we?

My friends, those are the questions we will face on Judgment Day, on that day when we stand before that white throne…will we be found to have been faithful to Christ, or will God find that we have given in and bowed before someone or something else?

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit…Amen.