Emmanuel Lutheran Church

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 20

Revelation 20:11-15

Over and over again in the book of Revelation, we’ve been guided through the whole New Testament period, and we’ve already reached Judgment Day several times. By the time we get to the scene described in tonight’s reading from chapter 20, the millennium is over. The devil was released for a short time, but then defeated by God Himself at His coming. All the trials and tribulations for the Church are over. All that remains is for judgment to be meted out. And that judgment is depicted for us in tonight’s reading in a series of books that are opened.

Daniel was the first to describe these books of judgment day. Here’s what it says in Daniel 7:

“I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire; A fiery stream issued And came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, And the books were opened.

And he adds in chapter 12:

At that time Michael shall stand up, The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; And there shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a nation, Even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, Every one who is found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine Like the brightness of the firmament, And those who turn many to righteousness Like the stars forever and ever.

Sounds a lot like what you hear in Revelation 20, doesn’t it? Now, Daniel, like Revelation, like most prophetic writing, uses a lot of figurative language. But it’s clear what we’re talking about. On the Last Day, God will come to judge the earth. That judgment is pictured like a human courtroom, with the judge seated on his throne (we might say behind his bench).

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.

In the end, there won’t be an earth or a sky or a sun or moon or stars. Judgment day on earth will be the end of this present universe. And God’s presence will take over everything. This is very similar to how Jesus described that day in the Gospels: When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him. We’ll talk more about that text in a few weeks.

And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

As we’re told throughout Scripture, God will raise all the dead on the Last Day, so that everyone who has ever lived will stand before Him. It doesn’t matter if they were lost at sea, or burned in a fire, or buried in the ground. Just as God formed the first man out of the dust of the ground, so He will remake the bodies of those who have died. The souls of those who have been resting in heaven will have new bodies made for them. And the souls that have been suffering in hell—in Hades—will also have new bodies made for them. But for them, that won’t be a good thing. It won’t be a resurrection to life, but a resurrection to condemnation.

They were all “judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.” Jesus says something similar in John 5: All who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. So the things written in the books are the complete record of a person’s works, from birth until death. And remember, “works” in the Scriptures refer not only to the things a person has done, but to the words of the mouth and the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. But God won’t have to stop and check what’s in the books for each person. He already knows all those things. And He’ll come ready to pronounce sentence.

That’s a frightening thing, by itself, because the Scriptures are very clear that “all have sinned,” and that by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. So how will any escape from the sins that are recorded in the books?

That’s where that other book comes in: the Book of Life. St. Paul mentions that book once in Philippians. Otherwise, it’s only mentioned here in Revelation, and it’s mentioned seven times. In some places it’s called “the Lamb’s Book of Life.” If your name is found written in that book when Christ comes again, then you go to eternal life, regardless of the sins recorded in those other books. If your name is not found in the Lamb’s Book of Life, then you go to the second death, to everlasting death in hell, regardless of any good deeds recorded in those other books.

So what is the Book of Life? Jesus spells it out in the Gospels. We heard it just a few weeks ago. He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. The names of believers in Christ, and only believers in Christ, are written in this “Book of Life.” We heard the same thing on Sunday when we looked at Jesus’ parable of the wedding banquet. Specifically, the man who wasn’t wearing the wedding garment—he was bound and tossed out in the end. As we said, you have to still be clinging to Christ in faith at the end of your life, or at the end of the world, whichever comes first, in order for your name to be found there when Christ returns. What a comfort for believers! And what a terror for unbelievers! And, also, what an important reminder for believers in Christ! There’s no such thing in Scripture as “once saved, always saved.” Through faith in Christ your name is currently written in the Book of Life. But it can be blotted out, if you choose to neglect the Means of Grace, choose to cling impenitently to sin. And so we pray that God will sustain and preserve us in the faith until the end! And we diligently use the Means of Grace as God’s tool for preserving us.

So, if it’s the Book of Life that actually determines who ends up in heaven and who doesn’t, what’s the point of the other books?

Well, for the unbelievers, it’s the reason why they’re condemned. The books reveal that they have not loved the Lord God will all their hearts and have not loved their neighbor as themselves. Those are the conditions set by God’s law for gaining life and for escaping condemnation. The Gospel offers another way to be saved, but unbelievers didn’t take that way, so they have to answer according to the Law. And the books will reveal just how well-deserved is the condemnation that will be pronounced upon them.

For believers, the books have a purpose, too. The Book of Life determines their entrance into heaven. So the sins recorded in the other books are forgiven. And the good works recorded there, good works that God Himself called them to do and worked in them to accomplish—they will be recognized by God, and rewarded. And God will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

So look forward to the day when the books are opened! It will be a very good day for believers in Christ. Just make sure you’re doing the things God gives you to do to remain faithful until that day. Stay close to Christ! And seek all your certainty of salvation in Him alone! Amen.

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 19

Revelation 20:1-10

As promised, we’re returning to Revelation 20 and the millennium, which we started to discuss last week. Let’s review a bit. In his vision, John sees an angel coming down from heaven, holding the keys to the abyss and a great chain, who bound the dragon for a thousand years. The angel represents the Lord Jesus who came down from heaven and bound the strong man, that is, the devil, so that the devil wasn’t free to prevent people from being rescued from his kingdom, so that the devil wasn’t able to “deceive the nations” for a “thousand years.” That figurative number, the “millennium,” represents the whole time the devil is bound, namely, the whole time the Gospel goes out into the world, when the nations are being brought to faith in Christ, when he isn’t given free rein to trap them under his spell of deception, as he was prior to the coming of Christ, when the Gospel wasn’t being preached to all nations.

It also represents the time when the “souls of those who were beheaded for their testimony of Christ” are reigning with Christ and serving as priests of God in heaven, for a thousand years. That’s happening right now! The saints, the souls of believers who are in heaven, even if they were brutally killed here on earth, are not dead. They are alive and reigning with Christ even now! So the millennium started with Christ’s first coming and will last until shortly before He comes again. It’s not literally a thousand years. It’s basically the whole time of the New Testament era, 10x10x10.

But toward the end of it, or at the end of it, the devil must be “released for a little while,” John says, allowed again to deceive the nations, allowed to suppress the preaching of the Gospel to some extent, allowed to fill the world with false teachings and dupe people into believing them, no matter how crazy they sound. How many people in the world don’t believe in millions-of-years evolution these days, even though the notion of life and complexity and order coming from lifelessness and chaos and disorder is really nonsensical? How many people are coming to believe, in droves, that men marrying men or women marrying women is normal and good, or that men can be women and vice versa, even though it’s openly absurd? How many have come to believe that it’s perfectly acceptable and even morally good to end the life of a child in her mother’s womb? These are just a few examples. While Christianity grew and flourished in the world, these insane ideas were overturned and held at bay. But now, as Christianity and the preaching of the Gospel diminish in the world, the nations are again allowed to be deceived, as a divine punishment against them, because they didn’t love the truth, even when they had it clearly presented to them.

We looked at that much last week. Now let’s go on a little further. Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison—again, not like a jail cell so that he’s trapped and can’t move, but like a restraint so that his success at deceiving people is greatly reduced—will be released, and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.

The nations which are in the four corners of the earth, that is, all nations everywhere. The devil goes out to deceive them, to turn them away from the Gospel of truth, to turn them against the holy Christian Church. And he gathers them together for battle against the Church of God, and their numbers are vast, “as the sand of the sea.” The vast majority of the earth will be “gathered” against God’s holy Church, not gathered literally, as in, all nations showing up on some battlefield in some country somewhere, but “gathered” in one mind, with one purpose, to rid the world of Christians.

That doesn’t mean everyone else gets along with one another, or that there are no other wars. For example, in the war currently being waged by Hamas against the nation of Israel, it seems clear that Hamas is out for blood and eager to do violence, while the nation of Israel is not out for blood but is justly defending itself from violence. But that doesn’t put Hamas on the devil’s side and Israel on God’s side. It isn’t “evil vs. good,” as far as God is concerned. Most Palestinians reject Jesus as the Christ. Most Israelis reject Jesus as the Christ. So it’s really a more violent form of evil vs. a less violent form of evil. Neither side is good. Neither side is “God’s people.” So this isn’t the war John is talking about in his vision.

John tosses out a reference here to “Gog and Magog.” That sends us back to Ezekiel 38 and 39. That whole chapter is a cryptic prophecy about the end of the world, and it’s important we understand it a little bit. Ezekiel, like John, uses prophetic, figurative language. He gives the name “Gog” to a wicked ruler from the land of “Magog,” far to the north—a ruler who has gathered many nations together with him to fight against the people of Israel in the land of Israel. This is relevant to what people are claiming still today. They’ll try to apply Ezekiel’s prophecy literally to the land of Israel, and to the modern Jews as the people of Israel. They’ll try to figure out which “nation from the north” is going to have a battle in the land of Israel against the modern Israelis. The problem is, Ezekiel’s prophecy is figurative. He describes Gog’s armies as riding in on horses, with their swords, and shields, and bucklers, and bows and arrows. Hardly a literal reference to how any wars are fought these days. What Ezekiel describes is very similar to what John describes in Revelation—the nations being gathered for a great battle against the people of God. But the people of God are not those who reject Jesus as the Christ. The people of God are Christians, regardless of their bloodline. And the “land of Israel” and the “mountains of Israel” and the “city of God” in Ezekiel’s prophecy is the Holy Christian Church. And the restoration of Israel to its land is the promise of the new heavens and the new earth for the people of God in Christ that God will establish after the Day of Judgment comes, the home of righteousness, as Peter calls it.

The names “Gog and Magog” may also have a figurative meaning, both in Ezekiel and in Revelation. There’s a Hebrew word related to “Gog” that means “roof” or “covering” or “covered.” “Magog” would be “uncovering” or “uncovered.” That would fit well with what John has described so far in Revelation. There are the “uncovered” or “open” enemies of the Christian Church—those who openly speak against Christ and His Gospel and `His people. There are also “covered” or “covert” enemies of the Christian Church—those who may even call themselves Christians but are false Christians, who promote a false Christ, an Antichrist. Both enemies, covered and uncovered, will gather against the true Church for battle.

But, just as we’ve seen repeatedly in Revelation, the actual battle never takes place.

They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

And the message of Revelation shines through brightly and clearly: Christians will be targeted by the devil and by the unbelieving world throughout the New Testament period. The last times before Christ’s return will be especially difficult. The voice of the Gospel will be practically silenced. The vast majority of the world will be deceived. And the Church will appear to be vastly outnumbered by those who would destroy her. But God Himself will come to our aid. Jesus will return in glory. And the devil and his allies in the world will be punished and tormented forever and ever.

What does this mean for us? Notice, the Church isn’t called on to do battle against any of these enemies. The Church doesn’t take up arms or armor, except for the “full armor of God” that Paul speaks about in Ephesians 6: Take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,  and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.

Do as St. Paul says. Take up that armor, whether we’re still in the millennium or in that last little while when the devil is released. And put your hope in God, and in the victory He has promised to the faithful—the victory depicted in Revelation 20. Amen.

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 18

Revelation 20:1-6

Finally we come to Revelation 20, possibly the most abused chapter in the whole Bible. It’s the chapter—the only chapter in the whole Bible—where we hear of a “millennial” reign, that is, a 1,000 year reign, of anyone. The word “millennium” simply means “a thousand year period.” What does this thousand year period refer to? Let’s take a closer look at the text.

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan,

Not that we need to identify the angel in these verses, because it can just be a symbol of God’s action. But this particular angel or “messenger” who came down from heaven fits well with the Lord Jesus Himself. He “came down from heaven” when He was incarnate as a man. He uses that phrase about Himself in John 3. This angel has the key to the bottomless pit, just like, back in chapter 1, the Lord Jesus said, “I have the keys of Hades and of death.” The dragon is expressly identified for us as the “serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan.”

It’s what comes next that has caused so much confusion. …and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished.

Let’s start with the chain. What is the chain with which the angel binds the devil? If you remember, Jesus once used similar language about the devil after casting out a demon: How can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house. There Jesus compares the devil to a strong man, and Himself to a stronger man who has come in and bound the devil, allowing Jesus to pull people out of the devil’s control. Jesus was already doing this during His time on earth, culminating in His death on the cross and His ascension into heaven. That fits well with what it says here, that the devil is bound “so that he should not deceive the nations any more until the thousand years were finished.” He isn’t completely powerless during this time. He isn’t completely restricted. But prior to Jesus’ coming, the nations, that is, the Gentiles, had been so deceived by the devil that practically none of them believed in the true God. Practically all the Gentiles were in the devil’s kingdom. But after Christ came, the Gospel went out and the devil wasn’t able to keep the thousands and the millions of Gentiles from being rescued out of his kingdom and brought into the Holy Christian Church. So the chain that binds the devil during the thousand years would be the preaching of the Gospel of Christ.

The devil is bound for a thousand years, with the preaching of the Gospel continuing in the world, that whole time. Since 1,000 is 10x10x10, that number of completeness that we’ve seen throughout the book, and since these numbers are mostly symbolic anyway, the safest conclusion is that the 1,000 years aren’t a literal number of years, but the full amount of time from Christ’s ascension until the Last Day, or at least, until shortly before the Last Day. In other words, the 1,000 years is the entire New Testament period.

But after these things he must be released for a little while. It’s hard to tell if that releasing of the devil happens toward the end of the 1,000 years or right after the 1,000 years, but in the end, it doesn’t change the interpretation. Toward the end of the world, the devil has to be released for a little while, or for a short time. He has to be released to deceive the nations once again. In other words, false doctrines will proliferate, the nations will be deceived and led astray, while the preaching of the true Gospel will be so diminished in the world that it will be difficult if not impossible to find.

Jesus spoke of the same thing in the Gospels: Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold… Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect… And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened. It seems clear that John’s vision is referring to the same thing Jesus was talking about. A little while at the end, a time of tribulation that is shortened, because the deceptions of the devil and the resulting tribulations will be so bad that even the elect will barely survive.

We certainly seem to be in such times. False doctrine has always been around, but it’s ramped up considerably over the last several decades. The deception has captivated the nations, like putting men under a spell. But that’s also a punishment from God, because, as Paul says in 2 Thess., people are allowed to be deceived, because they didn’t love the truth.

Let’s look at a few more verses about the thousand years:

And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

John sees thrones and someone sitting on them, and judging, serving as priests of God, and reigning with Christ for a thousand years. They are the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image. Remember, by John’s time, Christians were already starting to be persecuted and executed by the Roman Empire. St. Paul is said to have been beheaded in Rome, along with many other faithful Christians who wouldn’t worship the false gods of the Roman Empire. All the Christians saw with their eyes was death. But John is given a vision of the reality they couldn’t see. Those who had died in the faith hadn’t really died at all. Their souls lived! They reigned! They served as priests of God throughout the whole 1,000 years, throughout the whole New Testament period. As Jesus said in the Gospel of John, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies. And he who lives and believes in Me will never die.”

The “first resurrection” is the same one Jesus referred to back in John 5. We recently heard those words on the Sunday when we considered the raising of the young man of Nain, if you remember. It’s the one Jesus does here and now through His Word as He brings people from spiritual death to spiritual life. The “second death,” that is, eternal death in hell, has no power over those who have already been raised to spiritual life through faith in Christ.

Now, there’s more to say on these verses and on the thousand years, but I think that’s enough for tonight. We’ll pick it up here next week. For tonight, remember this: The thousand years mentioned in this chapter of Revelation represent the New Testament period. The chaining of the devil symbolized that he would be hindered for much of this New Testament period from deceiving the nations; many would come to believe in Christ Jesus. Those who come to believe take part in the first resurrection, and even after they die, even if they die a cruel death at the hands of the wicked, they aren’t dead at all. They’re reigning with Christ right now and serving as priests of God in heaven. Let these symbols and pictures fill you with hope and comfort and encouragement! Amen.