“Here Comes the Judge”
Revelation 20:1-15
It’s interesting that there has been such an increase of shows on television that involve the court room. These shows really are all about the judge. He or she is the focus of the program. There is an entire station now devoted to Court TV. It all started with the “people’s Court” and Judge Wopner. Then there were spinoffs with some really tough judges like Judge Judy, Judge Mathis and on an on the list goes. You can tune into court TV and watch people being judged any time you want.
May people seem to be fascinated with being able to watch someone get what is coming to them As long as it is not us. We should all hope that we never have to stand in front of a TV judge.
When I was growing up, as a kid I remembered being told that the final judgment would take place something like this. There was a large curtain that would be pulled back, God would be on his throne and behind the curtain there would be a big screen, like at the movies and a film/video of everything we ever did would be shown on the screen. I got into a good bit of mischief when I was a kid so I thought man this is going to be a long movie. And everyone would face this one at a time their film would be shown. This theory that many of us have heard that there will be one general judgement for everyone is actually not Biblical. There will be judgment but not in the way most of us have pictured it.
Now we are going to look at this chapter in 3 parts and each of these sections contain a very important truth.
First one (1) WE WILL REIGN WITH CHRIST FOR 1000 YEARS. This is referred to as the Millennium. DURING THIS TIME SATAN WILL BE BOUND.
Revelation 20:1-3
Just as there are several views of the book of Revelation, there are also several views of the Millennium. Briefly there are 4. (1) Amillenialism. The word means no millennium. This takes the view that the book of Revelation is a collection of stories from the past. This makes the book of Revelation merely a history book. Those who believe this teaching do not believe that the millennium is actually 1000 years in length.
(2) Post Millennialism- those who accept this view also do not believe that the Millennium is literally 1000 years in length. They believe that the 2nd coming will follow the Millennium...they just don’t know how long it will last.
(3) PreMillenialism-this is the belief that the 2nd coming of Christ will come before the Millennium. This is what I believe and teach. I will give some reasons in just a moment. During this time Christ will reign from Jerusalem for 1000 years.
(4) Pan Millenialism-this is the belief that it will all “pan out.” No matter what.
Reasons I follow/teach premillenialism.
1. Revelation 20:6 because we will reign with Him, there cannot be a Millennium until He comes back.
2. Revelation 20:1-3 Satan will be bound during the Millenium. The only one who can do that is Jesus. So there cannot be a Millennium until He comes back.
3. Revelation 19:20 The AntiChrist will come before the Millennium. We know that. We know also he will be destroyed before the Millennium. Simply we cannot have a millennium until Jesus comes back.
Now Truth #2. The Millennium is now over and “SATAN WILL BE RELEASED FOR BATTLE AND HE WILL BE DOOMED FOREVER.”
Revelation 20:7-10
Satan loves to dig up the past. It is one of those things that we all have in common. We all have a past. And for many of us there were things that took place in our past that we had control over but we made bad decisions and as a result we hurt ourselves or we hurt someone else. And Satan loves to dig those things up.
You may have heard of the man who complained to his friend...he said I just can’t take it anymore.. His friend says, well what’s wrong? He said it’s my wife. Every time we have an argument, she gets historical! He says, you mean HYSTERICAL don’t you? He says no I mean HISTORICAL. Every argument we have she always brings up the past.
That is the way that Satan operates. Every time we try to move forward in our Christian walk, he gets historical on us. Let me give you a truth here that every one of us need to remember...here it is....
Every time Satan reminds us of our past we should remind him of his future. Would you like to hear about his future again? Revelation 20:10.
Now who does the Bible tell us will be in this place called Hell...this place of eternal punishment? (1) Satan himself....he will no longer reign as the Prince of Darkness....he will not be some kind of overseer or authority there...he will suffer like anyone else. (2) The AntiChrist...this is the beast of course. (3) the false prophet-he is the one who preaches on behalf of the beast to promote him and to entice others to follow him and to receive the mark of the beast (4) the fallen angels-those who fell with Lucifer at the beginning of time....1/3 of those in heaven at the time
(Revelation 12:4) (5) those who have rejected Christ. The Bible tells us tat broad is the path to destruction so there will be many who will be led into this place of everlasting punishment.
Now look with me at verses 11-15. Here is the 3rd truth I want to share with you.
Truth # 3. THE BOOKS WILL BE OPENED AND THE DEAD WILL BE JUDGED. Let’s look at these books. He says there is a “book” singular that was opened and that was the book of life. The dead were then judged according to what they had done as recorded in the “books.” (Plural). Now I don’t want to make too much of this but it appears that there are at least 2 books containing the names of those who will be judged...whereas there is only one containing the names of those who have been written down in the Book of Life.
There are several things we need to remember about this judgment that we see here. (1) the judgment will be fair. All of us know of situations where a judge was perhaps unfair in the courtroom. Likewise in sports the referee/umpire is in a real sense, a judge and at times they make mistakes. Now in football you can protest the call if you don’t like it and then it is previewed and the referee/judge can actually change his mind and he should if he has made an unfair call. But this judgment will be fair. Here is a judge who is not influenced by anyone..he doesn’t take bribes and the only thing he uses to judge by is the truth.
(2) the judgement will be full. All will be judged-living-dead, great-small, rich-poor, good-bad. No one will avoid it and God will fully take all things into account.
It is a full judgment because not only will everything we do be taken into account, but every thought, every motive, every intention.
Hebrews 4:12-13
1st Corinthians 4:5
(3) It will be fair. It will full. IT will be final. As many 2nd chances as we have received in life there will be no 2nd chances at the judgment.
By nature many of us procrastinate. We do it for a variety of reasons. USA Today took a poll recently...here are the top 5 things people put off until the last minute
(5) Changing the oil in our cars
(4) Calling relatives
(3) making a doctor/dentists appointment
(2) holiday gift shopping
(1) house chores and yard work
But I think there is one thing that they missed. Because there is another thing that we put off as well: we put off getting our lives right with God. Somehow we think this is something we can put off until another time, a later time-perhaps at the last minute and yet it is the single most important decision that we will ever make.
One course I had in college was in adolescent psychology. Difficult class but the professor would let us bring a note card with as much information as we could get on it. That was a great help. Steve Winger writes about a final exam he took in a logic class at the university he attended. The professor was well-known for his difficult finals. Winger writes, “To help us on our test, the professor told us we could bring as much information to the exam as we could fit on a piece of notebook paper. Most students crammed as many facts as possible on their 8 ½ x 11 inch sheet of paper. But one student walked into class, put a piece of notebook paper on the floor, and had an advanced logic student stand on the paper. The advanced logic student told him everything he needed to know. He was the only student to receive an ‘A.’”
Our final exam at the last judgment will be more than fair, because we are allowed to bring with us Someone who will answer the questions on our behalf. We could never pass the exam on our own, but we have someone who will stand in for us.
