The Reigning King & Coming Judge – Revelation 20 (May 24, 2026)

The rest of us, if you would, go ahead and open up your Bibles to Revelation chapter 20.

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

If you uh have not been with us, Revelation is the last book of the Bible, and we are now in the very last pages of the entire Bible.

If you don't have a Bible with you this morning, no worries.

There should be one under a chair around you.

Feel free to grab it and use it this morning.

Um, you can even take it home with you if you don't have a Bible of your own.

Uh there's also, if you open up your bulletin, you can find the passage there.

Follow along with us.

We'll be in the text as we make our way through.

There's also some pages there that you can take notes on.

Uh, we really are this morning probably looking at what is, I would think, probably the most debated, uh, maybe the most controversial passage in the entire book of Revelation, which is a relatively debated book as a whole.

It might be the most debated passage in all of Scripture.

Um, so we are gonna talk about the millennium and the final judgment this morning, or the reigning king and the coming judge.

Now, there's a quote in the epic film Gladiator.

I'm not sure if you've seen that movie, but it's shouted by the Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius as he's getting ready to lead his troops into battle.

It's a great speech right before, and his sort of final words before he leads this charge have always stuck with me.

He says, brothers, what we do in life echoes in eternity.

What we do in life echoes in eternity.

I think it's a great statement.

I think it's actually maybe even more profound for the Christian.

But I wonder if you believe it.

Do you think what you do matters?

Like truly matters.

Not just minimally, but but really.

And not even just in this life, but eternally.

Now, I'm not sure that most of us do.

And I think there's probably a host of reasons why we don't, but I wonder if the primary reason is this.

That we've divorced this life and this world from the next.

See, as Christians, we believe in eternity.

We believe in life after death.

We believe in heaven.

But I don't know that we really connect it to our lives right now.

If we do, we probably do so minimally.

I think sometimes it's we think like this, maybe.

Well, we've trusted in Christ.

Our place in heaven is secure.

So what we do doesn't really matter.

Some ways there's nothing really left to do.

I almost wonder sometimes if we have a type of Christian senior itis.

I think probably most of us are familiar with senior itis.

We're coming right towards, or probably now at the end of the school year.

Maybe you know a senior in high school or a senior in college.

Maybe you've experienced this upfront in the last few months.

Uh maybe you don't have a senior, but you just sometimes I wonder if there's elementary itis and uh just students in general that have a little bit of this as the school year in.

See, these students, it's not as if they don't have anything to do.

They've got responsibilities, they've got papers, tests, they've got all sorts of things to do.

It's that they don't really think any of it matters.

They don't really think that it's going to change anything.

For some, it may be that they've already gotten in and been accepted to the college they want to go to.

Maybe they've already gotten a job that they're sort of been studying for, maybe their GPA is pretty much secured, most of the awards have already been received.

There's just not much else to do.

They're just biding time.

I think that's how many Christians live.

I think we sometimes think, and maybe this is too shallow of a way to say it, but that our tickets have been punched, Christ has done it all.

It doesn't really matter what we do.

Sure, we don't want to mess things up, but mostly we just want to make sure we get there as comfortable and as happy as we can.

But I don't think that's a very captivating vision for the Christian life.

I mean, I don't really think that that does much.

I think that's probably partly why so much of our hearts are given to things like sports, social media, success, even spreadsheets.

I think this is why for many of us our work and even our daily life feel so disconnected from our Christian life.

We can spend much of our weeks in ways that seem divorced from our Christian life.

I think this is largely because we have lost how this life is connected to the next.

See, I think many of us picture heaven, I've mentioned this before, like a vacation.

Maybe even a vacation from this life in this world.

Albeit a long one, an eternal vacation, but still a vacation.

But that's not how Scripture pictures heaven.

Scripture, we're gonna see, we've already seen it pictures it as a wedding day.

We're gonna see next week how it pictures it as a new city or even a new kingdom.

But when scripture pictures these things, especially in the New Testament, it tells us something else.

That this reality, this heaven to come, there's a real sense in which it's been inaugurated.

Now that word means initiated, started, began.

That in fact, right now, in some ways, if you want to think about the wedding day as a picture, right now, this life as Christians is a sort of engagement time where we are preparing and being formed and planning and participating in and uh towards this upcoming wedding day that's gonna happen when Christ returns.

See, friends, this current life is absolutely connected to the life to come.

And what we do matters.

I really do think what we do in this life does echo in eternity.

And I think C.T.

Stud, generation ago, was right when he wrote, only one life, twill soon be passed, only what's done for Christ will last.

There's something lasting from this life.

And I think we would be wise to give our whole lives to it.

Here's my main idea for us this morning.

We must live all of life before our reigning king and coming judge.

We must live all of life before our reigning king and coming judge.

Let's look at the text.

We're gonna begin with the first 10 verses.

Mainly this morning.

We've already looked at seven through ten last Sunday, so if you missed that, uh, listen to that.

But we're gonna look at the first six verses mostly, but I'm gonna read the whole thing.

Here's what it says Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand.

These are tools.

He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.

He threw him into the abyss, closed it, put a seal on it, so that he would no longer deceive the nations until the thousand years were completed.

After that he must be released for a short time.

Then I saw thrones and people seated on them who were given authority to judge.

I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the Word of God, who had not worshipped the beast or his image, and who had not accepted the 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 completed.

This is the first resurrection.

Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection.

The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog to gather them for battle.

Their number is like the sand of the sea.

They came up across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the encampment of the saints, the beloved city.

Then fire came down from heaven and consumed them.

The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

The first point that I want us to consider this morning is our reigning king.

You know, I mentioned that this passage is one of the maybe the most difficult, certainly the most debated in Revelation, if not Scripture.

And this passage refers to what many have called the millennium.

Some of you are going to be very familiar with that idea, but if you're maybe new to being a Christian or new to church, that may not be as familiar as a term.

The reason it's called millennium is because in verse 2 and verse 4, it mentions that this era, this time lasts for a thousand years, a millennium.

Now, I want you to know, I do think that uh number is symbolic.

I don't think it's a literal thousand years.

We've seen a thousand used often in symbolic ways throughout Revelation.

In fact, the number ten uh is a number of completeness or fullness.

You have ten commandments, ten plagues against uh Exodus, and a thousand is ten times ten times ten, three tens in a sense.

And so this is meaning this time period, this millennium, is gonna be a fullness, a complete time for what God is going to do.

Now, the key thing is what's at the heart of the millennium.

What really uh is happening in this millennium?

Well, there's two realities.

We're gonna look at both of them.

First, the binding of Satan, and second, the saints reigning with Christ.

That's what the millennium is.

And on that I think everyone agrees.

The question is when is the millennium?

For some, it is yet to come, probably for many, maybe for you this morning.

Here's the sequence on how they understand Revelation.

We've looked at in previous weeks, the fall of Babylon, and then comes the destruction of the beast and the false prophet at Christ's return.

That's what we just saw last Sunday.

Then the binding of Satan, the resurrection of believers, a thousand-year earthly reign.

That's much of what we're looking at this morning.

Then the unleashing of Satan, the final battle, Armageddon, the final judgment, which we'll see this morning, and then the new heavens and the new earth.

This view is often called pre-millennialism.

The reason it's called that is meaning that Jesus is gonna come pre or before the millennium.

This view would understand Revelation to sort of take place in a chronological sense from the beginning to the end.

Now, if you have been with us, you know that that's not how we have been reading Revelation.

Brayden and I, as we've been preaching through Revelation, we have uh argued that Revelation actually is best understood as a series of cycles.

And really, we're seeing seven cycles throughout Revelation, and they're all pictures of the exact same time period, the time between the comings of Christ.

When Jesus first came until he returns.

Well, that's actually how I think it's best to read and understand the millennium.

That the millennium is actually happening right now.

That the millennium began when Christ first came in his death and resurrection, and it will uh end when he returns at the end of this era.

And so what we understand would be a view that's often referred to as ah millennialism, which means that there isn't a future millennium.

I think it's better understood to be inaugurated millennialism.

This idea that Christ in his life, death, and resurrection inaugurated or started, initiated this millennial reign.

Now, that is a lot of information right from the beginning.

Like that was like going to college right now, like school just ended, and here we go.

Um, and I want to recognize too that what I'm gonna kind of unpack this a little bit as we walk through the text.

I recognize not everybody agrees.

Probably many of you don't agree with that.

And I want you to know, I think that's okay.

This passage is difficult, and people have debated it.

One of my favorite professors, Tom Schreiner, I think he might be one of the most brilliant New Testament scholars in the world right now.

He has flipped back and forth between these two views numbers of times, even as he's written commentaries on these things.

I think it's okay for us to disagree here and still be united as a church.

But I do think it will be helpful to walk through this text together.

And we're gonna do that by looking at these two realities.

First, we're gonna look at the binding of Satan.

That's what's described in verses one through three.

Here's the picture that's given an angel from heaven seizes the dragon.

And who is the dragon?

Well, it's that ancient serpent.

That's the language of Genesis three.

It's taking us back to the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve are deceived by a serpent who is Satan.

And so this angel actually seizes Satan and binds him for a thousand years.

Now, the question is, I've already noticed, is has this already happened?

Well, I think yes.

And here's why I think this has already happened.

If you wanted to flip back to Revelation 12, you could.

Maybe you remember when we walked through Revelation 12.

It's a really interesting chapter that talks about a woman and a child and a dragon.

And this dragon is trying to prevent this child from being born and then trying to kill the child once he's born.

And one of the things that we said is that this is a picture of the woman as the church, the child as Jesus, and then uh the dragon as Satan.

And so what is happening here that we read in Revelation 12 is actually giving us the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

And when Jesus was born and lived and died and raised, what Revelation 12 tells us is that actually Satan was defeated, given a mortal wound in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

In fact, Revelation tells us that Satan was thrown out of heaven, was thrown down, and in fact, it even tells us this that the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have now come.

So, so when Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, his coming actually threw down the one who deceives the whole world.

That's the same language from Revelation, and brought about the kingdom of God and the reign of Christ.

Well, this is what Jesus has already done.

Scripture tells us that right now Christ reigns on the throne of heaven.

This is exactly what Jesus proclaimed when he came.

Now, there's a lot of passages that we could turn to, but Matthew 12 is particularly helpful.

Maybe you remember this a little bit, but Jesus is casting out demons.

And the religious leaders of the day are not pleased.

So, in many ways, they're probably already jealous.

And so they begin to accuse Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Satan.

And Jesus calls out their ridiculousness.

How can Satan drive out Satan?

But here's how he responds.

Look at what Matthew 12, 28 and 29 says.

He says, If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, which is what he's doing, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

And then he says, How can someone enter a strong man's house?

He gives us a parable.

Who is the strongman?

It's Satan.

How can someone enter a strong man's house and steal his possessions?

That's what Jesus is doing, unless he first ties up the strong man.

Then he can plunder his house.

Jesus is saying, Why what how should we understand this driving out of demons, this uh what Jesus is doing in his ministry?

Well, he two things.

He is bringing the kingdom of God, and he has bound up Satan.

That word for tie up is the exact same word used in Revelation for bind.

Jesus has bound Satan.

Now, the rest of the New Testament agrees with this.

Paul writes this in Colossians 2, verse 15.

Colossians 2:15

He says, uh, God disarmed the rulers and authorities.

He's talking about spiritual rulers and authorities, the the demonic rulers and authorities, and disgraced them publicly.

Hebrews 2 maybe makes this most clear, verse 14.

Says, now since the children have flesh and blood in common, we as human beings have flesh and blood.

Jesus also shared in these.

Jesus became human, truly human.

Why?

So that through his death he might destroy the one holding the power of death.

That is the devil.

How is it that Jesus destroys the devil?

It says it, through his death.

Now, let me be really clear.

Bible tells us, we see it in our passage actually at the end, that Satan's final defeat is yet to come.

But the mortal wound has already been delivered.

Jesus in his life, death, and resurrection, he defanged Satan.

He disarmed Satan, he bound him in a real sense.

Now, I know what you might be thinking.

It doesn't seem like Satan's bound.

Like it doesn't feel that way.

Aren't there even many scriptures in the New Testament that speak about Satan being active and having power and defending ourselves even against him?

How is it that Satan is bound?

Well, I think our text is actually really helpful.

Look at verse 3.

It talks about the fact that Jesus, uh, that Satan is bound for what reason?

So that he would no longer deceive the nations.

See, what does it mean that uh Satan is bound?

Look again, look over at verse 7.

Verse 7, it tells us what happens when he is unleashed in a sense, when he is loosened.

And what are the two things?

It says that so that he can deceive the nations, and what does that look like?

What's the fruit of that?

And gather them for battle, the whole world in battle against Christ and his people.

Well, this is what uh the Bible's telling us is that right now, Satan is bound from deceiving the nations.

And what that means is that the gospel is being proclaimed and Satan can't stop it.

Friends, I sat at a table not too long ago with a group of pastors for dinner.

And at that table, there was a pastor from Jakarta, Indonesia, there was a pastor from London, there was a pastor from the United Arab Emirates, there was a pastor from Nigeria, there was a pastor from California, pastor from Florida.

I was right from the middle of the state in Indiana.

We're all eating dinner at a table, all pastors of gospel preaching, like-minded churches.

Friends, what began?

As a hundred people in a room in Jerusalem now spreads the globe.

I mean, the gospel has gone out to the nations, to the whole world because of what Christ has done.

See, friends, there's a real sense in which Christ is building his church and Satan can't stop it.

Now he can persecute, he can tempt, he can accuse, he can even bring suffering, but he cannot steal or destroy those who are in Christ.

I think he is bound.

Now I think it's worth pausing for a moment and asking this question.

I think it's a really important question.

Have you or have we underestimated what Christ accomplished at the cross?

I think maybe we have, especially in a larger sense.

I wonder if sometimes uh that our witness to Christ, our telling of others about who Jesus is and what he has done, has actually been tempered by an unwarranted pessimism.

That we're actually more pessimistic about what Christ has done than we should be.

You know, I often will read uh a book called On the Incarnation.

Uh I'll read it during Advent almost every year.

That's at least my goal.

And it was a book that was written in the 300s, a long time ago, by a man named Athanasius, a super godly pastor.

And one of the things that honestly most amazed me the first time I read it is how he talks about in almost a breathtaking way what Christ accomplished.

And the effects of Christ's coming when he came.

Here's some little bits and pieces of it.

He asked some rhetorical questions at one point in time.

He says, When did human beings begin to abandon the worship of idols?

When did those who were called gods and heroes by the poets begin to be condemned as merely mortal humans?

When were the deceit and madness of the demons despised?

When did the craft and teachings of magic begin to be trampled underfoot?

When did all of this happen, Athanasius asks?

And his answer is, when Christ came.

When Christ became a human being, when he lived, died, and raised from the dead to reign in heaven.

He then says this formally the whole inhabited world and every place were led astray by the worship of idols.

Now, however, through the whole inhabited world.

And he could not have pictured what we see today.

Humans are deserting the superstition of idols, they're taking refuge in Christ, and they're worshiping him as God.

Church, there is real deep darkness and evil in this world.

But the Bible is clear, the light has come.

And the light has shone.

And we need to believe it.

We need to take heart of it.

We need to live in light of it.

So this is the first reality we see of the millennium.

Here's the second reality: the reign of the saints.

So the reign of the saints.

Verse 4, John again, he's seen this many times throughout Revelation, over 40 times, thrones are pictured.

And every single time thrones are pictured, it is a picture of heaven.

Not individual throne, but thrones.

It's bringing us, it's a geographical marker for us in a one sense.

We go, oh, we are in heaven.

This is a vision of heaven.

And what we see in this vision is that there are people seated on these thrones who have authority.

Now, who are these people?

Look at the rest of verse 4.

I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God, who had not worshipped the beast or his image.

That's chapter 13 of Revelation, and who had not accepted the mark on their foreheads or their hands.

These are those who are seated on thrones in heaven.

And who are they?

They are those who were martyred for their faith in Christ.

But not only martyrs here.

I think that is predominantly the picture here, but also any who did not worship the beast.

Church, I wonder if you've ever asked this question.

What happens at death for the Christian?

I think many of us, we we have some sense that we go to be with Christ, but then it's blurry other than that.

I think this is maybe where our vacation picture is most prominent, where we just imagine sitting on a beach with Jesus.

There's not really a lot to it.

Well, I think this is a picture that scripture gives us.

What happens when we die as a Christian?

Will we go to reign with Christ in heaven?

I think we join the millennial kingdom of Christ.

I think that's the pictures here.

I think this is why John sees souls, not embodied individuals, but souls.

And he describes those as souls who have come to life, verse 4, and known the first resurrection, verse 5, which I think is a spiritual resurrection.

And here's why.

Because the Bible is really clear, there is only one resurrection.

And that one resurrection we're gonna read about in just a few moments.

It is a resurrection of all the dead.

Believers, unbelievers, all people will be raised before the judgment to give an account to Christ of their life.

We're gonna see that in a moment.

There's only one physical resurrection.

But those who are in Christ, the Bible tells us, know a spiritual resurrection.

New Testament tells us that we, even now, have been made alive in Christ.

We looked at this on Easter.

We are now new creations in Christ.

Now we await the resurrection of the body when Jesus returns, but right now we have been raised spiritually in a sense.

And I think this view helps us understand verse six.

Look at what verse six says.

It says, Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection.

And then it says, the second death has no power over them.

Well, friends, you need to understand, one of the things that makes this difficult is almost nowhere else in the Bible does it talk about a first and second resurrection or a first and second death.

This is new terminology in some ways.

But I think it seems very clear that this first resurrection, those who have been made alive in Christ, we don't have to worry about the second death.

That's what Julia prayed this morning.

That death is a spiritual death.

We will, even those of us who are in Christ, we will experience the first death, a physical death at the end of this life.

But we will not know the second death, which I would hold is a spiritual death, an eternal death in hell.

We won't know that because of what Christ has done for us.

See, the picture of the millennium here is that those who are in Christ reign with Christ.

Now, can you imagine the encouragement to the first readers?

Those who were in Rome, those early Christians, those who had experienced such significant persecution and suffering in the midst of the all-encompassing and all-powerful Rome.

Those Christians who had seen so many brothers and sisters in Christ martyred for their faith, scared, maybe even timid.

And what's the point here?

Well, the point is that this is a reminder that even that persecution, even that death, is but a portal to glory, to reigning with Christ in heaven.

See, this is one of the big issues of the whole book of Revelation.

It's one of the things that's trying to ask for us.

Why give in to Rome when you could reign with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords in Christ?

If that is before you, do not give in to what is right now and what appears so large.

Now, church, that's true for us too.

Revelation tells us, do not give in to this world, because there is something much greater in Christ in store.

You know, Paul tells us this in Ephesians 2, verses 4 through 6, passage many of us are probably familiar with.

Ephesians 2:4–6

He says, But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ.

Even though we were dead in trespasses, he's made us alive.

We are saved by grace.

And then look at verse 6.

He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus.

Those are past tense.

These are realities, Paul is saying, that has already happened in one sense.

We have even now been raised up with Christ and are seated with Christ in the heavens.

It's almost like our seats are warm, preparing for when we die and are there reigning with Jesus.

See, church, I think this is something that we so often miss.

And what I think Revelation is trying to hammer home again and again for us that all that God is doing in Christ, it's not all future.

That it's already started, that it's happening right now, and that we are not passive bystanders.

We're actually participants, we're actually active in these things.

Christian, when you read, pray, and sing the Bible with your kids, seeking to evangelize and disciple them in Christ, you're waging war against the dragon and you are reigning with Christ.

You are, in one sense, raising up kings and queens who will raise uh uh who will reign with Christ and the armies of Christ.

When you go into work every single day, you're not merely serving a company or making a product, giving a service, certainly doing those things.

But you are working for Christ.

You're fighting back the evil and idolatry of this world.

You're displaying the goodness, hope, and joy of the kingdom of God.

What if we began to actually think that way?

That what we do in this life is actually participating in the very kingdom of Christ.

You know, when we gather on Sundays as a local church, we're protesting the beast in Babylon.

We are participating in the very worship of heaven.

That's why Revelation shows again and again scenes of worship.

It's to tell us that what we do on Sunday mornings is that.

It's connected to that.

We're participating even now in that.

We're gathering to be edified and equipped in the good news of Jesus so that we together as a people may make disciples of all nations in Christ by the grace and power of God.

Church, if you're a Christian here this morning, you are taking part, you are participating in the great plans and purposes and promises of God in Christ.

So here's my encouragement for you this week.

I wonder if you would take each area of your life: family, friends, work, school, students, you should do this too.

Community, church.

And maybe you grab a brother or sister in Christ or a few brothers and sisters in Christ and you answer this question, write this down.

What would it look like for us to live in light of our reigning king?

In all of these areas, specifically, practically, what would it look like for us to live in light of our reigning king?

And let me be and encourage you in this.

It doesn't need to be some grand scheme or show.

The Bible tells us so often that that's not how the kingdom of God grows, that it grows in slow, steady, simple, small ways.

It is a purposeful plotting.

I love the idea of plotting.

It is a fervent faithfulness.

I've always taken great encouragement from the quote that we tend to underestimate what we can do, or overestimate what we can do in two years and underestimate what can be done in ten.

Friends, the the encouragement here is that what we do matters.

This life really matters.

It is connected to the next, and we need to be intentional to live all of life before our reigning king and coming judge.

Let's look at this next point, our coming judge.

Look at verses 11 through 15 of Revelation 20.

Here's what it says.

Then I saw a great white throne and one seated on it.

Heaven and earth fled from his presence, and no place was found for them.

I also saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were open.

Another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their works by what was written in the books.

Then the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them.

Each one was judged according to their works.

Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

That's the death of death in some sense.

This is the second death, the lake of fire, this eternal death.

And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

I think what John sees here is the end of the world.

Tempted to say as we know it.

Verse 11 tells us earth and heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them.

Now I think this is in part the glory of this throne, makes everything else disappear.

But I also think this means that heaven and earth are going away here, and it is preparing for the creation of the new heavens and the new earth that we will see and look at next week.

And what will happen at the end of this world?

Well, it tells us that the dead will be raised, all who have died.

Look at verse 12.

The great and the small.

Look at verse 13.

The sea gave up the dead that were in it.

Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them.

These are descriptions of graves.

Especially in the ancient world, the sea was a type of grave.

Death, Hades was the realm of the dead.

The point is that all who are dead will be raised.

I think that's something that maybe we haven't thought much about.

That actually every single person will be resurrected.

Not only those who are in Christ will be resurrected to life, but we will all be resurrected.

And why?

Well, it's because we will all stand before Christ the judge.

That's the main point of this passage.

That every single person who has ever lived will one day stand before Christ.

Friends, that will be a weighty moment.

Look at verse 11, just even how the scene is set.

Then I saw a great white throne and one seated on it.

This is the throne of all thrones.

And it is pictured as white because it is a symbol of holiness and purity, justice and righteousness.

And there is one seated on this great white throne.

And actually, Revelation begins by telling us who is this one Jesus that is seated on the throne.

And the picture of Jesus in all of his glory that John sees in Revelation 1 is such that John, the beloved disciple, falls at the feet of Jesus as though dead.

That's how glorious Christ is on this throne.

And Jesus will then judge.

Now, notice what happens though.

The kind of maybe interesting part of this judgment.

Look at verse 12.

Books are opened.

It's kind of a weird thing to think of, but maybe not in a court.

A set of books and then a single book.

Now, why are these books opened?

Look at the end of verse 12.

It says, The dead were judged according to their works by what was written in the books.

Now, here's the picture.

These books have written in them all of the works of every single person who has ever lived.

And one real sense, these books picture, they're symbolic of the very all-knowing mind of Christ.

See, when you read this, you should think, imagine every single one of your thoughts, words, and deeds as being recorded in these books.

Nothing missed, nothing forgotten.

I think the point's really evident, isn't it?

That we will give an account for every single way and deed and thought in our life.

See, I think we need to understand this.

I think this is actually really helpful.

That there will be no excuses on this day.

There will be no ability to hide or to blame or to obscure.

Every single one of our lives will be laid bare before the judge.

Friends, this is a weighty thing.

And I think it is a grace to us.

This passage certainly has a warning to it, but I think it's a warning that we need to hear because I think what this passage helps us to do is even now, it begins to pierce all of our attempts at self-justification.

See, I think there's so many people in this world, and I think we are often in danger of this too, that basically think they're good people.

I think that's how we mostly think.

And I think for many, many people that we would say that we've lived a good life.

And I think for many people, they would think, well, if there is a judge and a judgment one day, I think I'll make it through.

Maybe I'm not gonna ace the test.

If you're in the Midwest, you'd never say that.

But I'm gonna, like, I'll pass.

Now, I think there's a host of reasons for that.

I think one is because we forget the judge that we're gonna stand before.

That this is the judge who is creator and king, the one who sees everything, knows everything, forgets and misses nothing.

And that we are gonna be judged by his standard and not ours.

See, I think that's the problem with how we judge ourselves so often is that we always judge by comparison.

We as human beings love to compare ourselves to other sinners, especially, which we are all sinners.

And it's almost like I've heard this so many times.

We saw a grizzly bear in Glacier.

You know that story.

If you don't, I'd be happy to tell you.

Um, but ever since we've done that, I can't tell you, probably many of you have said this to me.

Well, you don't have to be faster than the bear in that situation.

All you have to do is be faster than the slowest guy.

I think that's how some of us live our lives.

Well, I don't need to be perfect, I don't need to be holy, I don't need to be righteous, I just need to be better than the next guy.

But that's not what's gonna happen on this day.

There's no comparison on this day.

We are each going to be judged according to our own works, and we are gonna stand before the one who is pure goodness, pure righteousness and holiness.

See, I think we're gonna see on that day how we have so often overlooked, pushed down, forgotten, justified so much of our sin and wrongdoings.

I think we are brilliant at this.

How often do you maybe think similar thoughts?

These are what I think so often.

Well, I only did that because I was tired.

Well, sure, I thought that, but I didn't act on it.

But that was a really long time ago.

Well, it was a small thing.

I mean, it didn't harm anyone, it wasn't important.

No one saw it.

And that's what we do with sins of commission, the wrong things that we do, but the Bible is really clear there are also sins of omission.

There are things that we should have done but did not do that we left undone.

We don't even think about those things.

Those aren't even in our mind when we judge our own selves, when we examine ourselves.

And so rarely we don't think about motives.

Why is it that we do the things we do?

Even if we do something good, what was behind that good that we're doing?

See, I think on this day we'll see the reality of our sin.

And I think that's a really helpful thing because so often the Bible tells us that we are blind to our sin.

See, deep down, I think we actually know that we're sinners.

I think this is why uh we so often try to hide parts of our lives.

I think that's why we have so much fear that other people would really get to know us.

I think this is why we spend so much time and energy trying to concoct an image of ourselves that we know isn't really real.

See, we need to live in light of this day.

Like every single one of us do.

We need to know that on this day there will be no hiding and there will no be, there will not be doubting the depths of our sin when we stand before Jesus.

And yet, there is another book, not a set this time, but a single one.

Look at verse 12.

Another book was opened, which is the book of life.

Now, what is this book?

Well, John is using shorthand here in Revelation 13.

He tells us that it is the book of the life of the Lamb who was slaughtered.

Here's why the gospel is good news.

Because there is a righteousness that will stand on that final day.

There is one whose works will be shown to be perfect and holy and righteous.

Our self-righteousness will never stand.

Oh, but the righteousness of Jesus absolutely will.

And this book is called the Book of the Life of the Lamb, who was slaughtered, because Jesus took the judgment that we deserved.

He paid the penalty for our sins and paid it in full at the cross so that we might live.

Friends, he took our sin and gave us his righteousness.

If you're not a Christian in here this morning, I want to encourage you in this.

If you know, if you're honest with yourself, that you will not stand on this day in this judgment.

I want you to hear and to know that Jesus calls anyone, no matter how great their sin.

Friend, Jesus came not for those who are well, but for the sick.

Truly right in Christ.

And I would encourage you this morning, turn from your sin, turn from your self-justification, self-righteousness, and trust in Jesus the Savior.

Now, church, what will this day be like for us?

Maybe you wonder, but am I going to be judged on this day?

Will my every work be brought to life?

Well, I think there is, in one sense, the answer is yes.

And here's again why I think what we do really matters.

We too will stand before Jesus and give an account of our lives.

And I think that should motivate us.

It should motivate us to flee temptation and sin.

It should motivate us that motivate us to bring sin to light and to confess it now.

It should motivate us to be diligent in the fight against any roots of sin.

Paul says in Romans, make no provision for the flesh.

Don't even let it begin.

Rip it out at the roots.

Because we need to remember that no sin is hidden, no sin is behind closed doors, no sin will ultimately be unknown.

What we do in this life really matters.

It really does.

And yet this will not be a day of judgment for us.

Not at least in the negative sense.

See, Paul meant what he said in Romans 8:1, that therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:1

None.

None.

So here's what I think this day is going to be for us.

I think it is going to be a day of incredible gratitude.

When the depths of our sin are shown before us, and I think we'll see that, we are going to stand all the more amazed and confident in the love and grace of Jesus.

I think we will be overwhelmed by all.

We will see maybe as clearly as we have seen the wonders of what Jesus has done for us at the cross.

And not just that, I think we're also going to see good works.

Not perfect works.

I think we're going to see genuine works of God's grace.

Here's how Kevin Deoung explains this judgment for the Christian.

He says the best explanation is not to see this judgment as contributing to our salvation, but as corroborating that we have been saved.

Good works are an evidence of true faith.

Good works don't save us.

That's not what's going to happen in this judgment.

We will see good works that will show that Christ has saved us.

That's the idea of corroborating.

See, one day when we stand before Jesus, we are going to see our sin, but we're also going to see God's grace, all that He has been working and doing us.

I think that is going to be a day of real humble joy for the Christian.

Here's why we must live all of life before our reigning King and our coming judge.

Because I hope it's clear that in Revelation 20, and I think the rest of Scripture, that Scripture leaves no room for any sort of lackadaisical life.

Christians, there's a lot of things that we could be, but we shouldn't be bored.

What we do in this life, in every part and in every moment, really matters.

There is a real sense in which General Maximus Decimus Meridius, he spoke truer than he could have ever known.

I know he's a movie character.

But what we do in life does echo in eternity.

Because we're participating in the very kingdom of Christ and we are preparing for the final judgment.

Oh, that we would consider our entire lives through these two realities.

That our king reigns and our judge is coming.

If that's how we would live all of life, and I pray that's how we would.

Let's pray.