Bible Guys Classics: Revelation - Promises

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Well, Jeff, today is your favorite topic? Yes, it's about

a banquet.

Oh yeah, absolutely, Lunch is a core value of mine.

I'm super excited about this one.

Yeah.

Well, hey, he's Chris and I'm Jeff, and we're the

Bible guys.

All right.

Well, hey, today we have a segment by Desiree, who

put together our show sheet and neither one of us

have read this yet. Yeah, but this is a segment

called Mailbag where we take people who write in and

sometimes they ask questions yes, yes, and sometimes we'll select

them to actually talk about on the air. This is

from Liam Pa and the question is this, if you

could interview a celebrity and ask them one question. Who

would you ask and what would you say? So let's

keep it to those who are still alive.

Still alive, living, living celebrities.

Yeah, living celebrity.

Yeah, these are hard for me. Well, they really are.

We should have looked at this in advance.

Yeah, that's that's so we're on the spot. So I

don't think a lot about celebrities, So I don't. I don't.

I don't know that I have that. But what about you?

What do you have? What celebrity would you want to

meet and what would you want to ask them?

Yeah?

So I think I think I would try to find

who I believe to be the wisest person, who I

just respect with wisdom, and then just ask them about

all the life lessons they've learned. Who knows, maybe it

will be Tom Hanks. Uh And and here's the reason why, because, uh,

somehow he's conducted himself with success because he is a

great talent. But also somehow everybody loves him. The world

knows him, and he's navigated every relationship with wisdom, and

everybody respects him. And now and think about the environment

which he's in when everybody else you know, with money

do this or that or they they're known to be jerks,

you know, but he's but he's known to be the

nicest human on the earth. And Keanu Reeves, you know

for sure.

But I think Tom Hanks has a greater resume.

And I think what I would do is I saw

I saw one time a bunch of celebrities sitting around

a table and uh they were they were giving wisdom

to each other on on a clip and they said,

what is one thing now that you're older, you wish

you would have known when you were young? And Tom

Hanks said, I wish I would have known this too

shall pass, he said, So he goes, you think you're

you think you're in a valley, This too shall pass.

He said, you think you're on top of the world,

that you know everything that shall pass right, And so

I just I just thought to myself, man, this guy

has navigated life and success with so much wisdom.

And one of the most difficult areas of the world. Yeah,

that's my answer.

So on my desk my office, I have a lot

of books, But on my desk I bought a collection

of books that just have funny titles, and I just

leave them out so that when people come by and

they go, oh, I wonder what kind of book Jeffreys?

And if you because all the books are I'm in

the shelf behind my desk, so I've got a cluster

of them. One of the books is Yoga for the

Inflexible Man, one of them. One of them is Life

Lessons from Bob Ross. Right. But you know, you know

the phrase w W j D what would Jesus Do?

So I have a book on my desk in that

little cluster of funny titled books that's just what would

Keanu Do? And it's a whole book of why sayings

from Keanu Reeves.

That's hilarious.

Thanks Liam for asking that question. That's a hard one

for me, but that's really good. Yeah. Well, hey, we

are in it, man, and the really devastating stuff is yesterday, right,

So you're talking about the Bible yes in uh, well,

I don't know, it depends how you felt like the

podcast right yesterday, but they're really devastating stuff with regard

to end times, because that's what we're talking about, end times.

So we talked about God unleashing all these plagues and

all that stuff and judgment, but then finally Jesus comes

back and defeats the evil one and we have a choice.

Right.

But then during what we believe is the tribulation, is

this judgment. There's two judgments that happen. There's the White

Throne judge, Great White Throne judgment that's at the very end.

But during the tribulation there appears to be this judgment

that we call the judgment Seat of Christ. And this

is for Christians. It's not about what or not you're

getting into heaven. This is all about God judging your

life and rewarding you based on what you've done for him.

So first of all, let's talk about the throne room

of God.

Yeah, this is and this is the references of receiving crowns,

the rewards, right, the rewards that you know, there's different

types of crowns that are mentioned. Yeah, and this is

all about yeah.

Yeah, so this is good news, not bad news. Yes,

this will be a glorious time for you. This is

gonna be this one. This is if we're at the Olympics,

this is when you'd be standing on the podium getting

your medal. Right, That's that's what's happening. And this is

good news for you as a Christian. So let's describe

where we're going to be. First, the Throne Room of God.

Yeah, this is probably one of the most epic portions

of scripture in the whole Bible.

Let your imagination run wild, and you're not even going

to scrap scratch the surface of this. So here we go,

he says in John says in Revelation four, describing the

Throne Room of God. Then as I looked, I saw

a door standing open in heaven, and the same voice

I'd heard before spoke to me like a trumpet blast.

The voice had come up here, and I'll show you

what must happen after this. Instantly I was in the spirit,

and I saw a throne in heaven and someone sitting

on it. The one sitting on the throne was as

brilliant as gemstones, like Jasper and Carnelian, and the glow

of an emerald circled his throne like a rainbow. Twenty

four thrones surrounded him, and twenty four elders sat on them.

They were all clothed in white and had gold crowns

on their head. From the throne came flashes of lightning

and the rumble of thunder, and in front of the

throne were seven torches with burning flames. This is the

seventh fold spirit of God. In front of the throne

was a shiny sea of glass, sparkling like a crystal.

In the center. Around the throne were four living beings,

each covered with eyes front and back. The first of

these living beings was like a lion, the second was

like an ox, the third had a human face, and

the fourth was like an angel an eagle in flight.

Each of these living beings had six wings, and the

wings were covered all over with eyes inside any out.

Day after day and night after night, they keep saying, Holy, Holy, Holy,

is the Lord, God, the Almighty, the one who always was,

who is, and who is still to come. Whenever the

living beings give glory and honor and thanks to the

one sitting on the throne, the one who lives forever

and ever. The twenty four elders fall down and worship

the one sitting on the throne, the one who lives

forever and ever. And they lay their crowns before the

throne and say, you are worthy, o Lord, our God,

to receive glory and honor and power, for you created

all things and they exist because you created what you pleased,

and that amazing.

It is amazing, and I just can't get out of

my mind. The four creatures being exy, yeah, the ox

and the eagle and the lion.

And the human faced one yeah yeah.

With eyes all over front and back, and then wings

with eyes on the inside of their wings and eyes

and by the way, not.

Just a few eyes.

It says the rings were covered all over with eyes

inside and out.

So I mean, just super cool and super creepy.

And you've got this throne where there's thunder and lightning flashing,

there's an emerald like bo around it.

Like a full circle rainbow.

Yeah yeah, but the emerald color, right, and then the

spirit of God is out in front of the throne.

It's just it's unbelievable how this works. And then you know,

we know that Jesus is the creator, so when they're

worshiping here that you created everything, right, we know that

Jesus is the creator. So the worship that's happening, and

then the humility of these twenty four elders, so twelve

there were twelve tribes of Israel. So here's what some

people believe. I don't know who these twelve of twenty

four elders are. But if you look like in the

Life Application Study Bible, they'll say a lot of theologians

believe the twelve of them represent the twelve tribes of Israel.

The other twelve represent the twelve Disciples, meaning there's the

law and there's the Church, right both sides. So the

completeness of God's revelation, the authority of the completeness of

God's revelation is represented in these twelve, these twenty four elders.

I guess we'll find out when we get to heaven.

We sure will. But if you're wondering who they are,

most the elogians would say that not not everybody.

That's our best guest, right, yes, yep.

And by the way, it says that the one sitting

on the throne was brilliant as gemstones like Jasper and Cornelian.

Yeah, I looked it up a.

Long time ago, actually, when I was in college. Cornelian

has like a red hue. It's like and then so

green and red, and yeah, it's green and red and

then and so actually the most dominant color of heaven

is actually believe or not green. Yeah, because it describes pastures,

it describes Jasper, it describes emeralds.

Is that where the author of the Wizard of Oz

got the Emerald city?

Yeah?

Maybe so, I don't know, maybe so, but but yeah,

when you think about heaven, you often think white.

Or gold.

And if you take all the color is written about heaven,

the most dominant color is green.

Isn't that amazing?

Yeah?

Green always represents life, even to us now, right, So

that's amazing. So you've got this this sea of glass

sparkling like crystal. The description of heaven is so of

the throne room of God, incredible room of God. So

this judgment seat of Christ seems to happen in Heaven,

in this throne room during the chaos of what's happening

during the tribulation on earth. And in Second greet the

chapter five, Paul just says, for we must all stand

before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever

we deserve for the good or evil we've done in

this earthly body. So everybody will stand in judgment before Christ.

But this judgment is not to determine your eternal destiny.

Right, Yeah, So it's just really clear we get to

heaven not by the rewards that we do. So the

judgment seat to Christ is not connected to that. The

Baba says nothing we can do, nothing, absolutely nothing we

can do can get us to heaven. Yeah, so we're

saved by grace through faith. Ephesians to eight and nine

tells us.

Yeah, God saved you by his grace when you believed,

and you can't take credit for this. It's a gift

from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good

things we've done. It's incredibus composed about.

It's pretty christa clely Yeah.

So this judgment, these rewards we're getting are not for salvation,

right right. Salvation is a gift from God that we

can't we can't brag about. He just gives it by

his grace when we believe. But the rewards that will

get in heaven really are Maybe this judgment is to

reward Christians for how they lived on this earth. Maybe

is better summarized in First Corinthians chapter three right where

he says, for no one can lay any foundation other

than the one we already have Jesus Christ. Anyone who

builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials,

gold and silver and jewels, wood, hay or straw. But

on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of

work each builder has done, will show if a person's

work has any value. If the work survives, that builder

will receive reward. But if the work is burned up,

the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved,

but like someone barely escaping through the wall's wall of flames. Right.

So he's saying essentially that God's going to try and

test our works that we do on earth, and some

things are going to last, and some things we waste

our time and they're going to burn out. Yeah.

And so there's several different kind of crowns that are

listed in the New Testament that refer to the prizes

that await us. So two Timothy four calls it a

crown of righteousness. Yeah, he says, And now the prize

awaits me, the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the

righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return.

And the prize is not just for me, but all

for all who eagerly wait or eagerly look forward to

his appearing.

The crown of life is James one twelve.

Blessed are those who patiently endure test the in temptation,

and afterward they'll receive the crown of life that God

has promised to them who love him. And then in

One Peter, it's the crown of glory. When the Shepherd appears,

you receive a crown of glory, of never ending glory

in honor. And then again Revelation chapter two refers to

a victor's crown or a crown of life, and that

reads this way, don't be afraid for what you're about

to suffer. The devil will throw some of you into

the prison to test you. You will suffer for ten days.

But if you regn faithful, even when facing death, I

will give you the crown of life, which is you know,

obviously those are end times of rewards.

So that crown of life is often translated as the

victor's crown. It's a different crown of life the one

that you read in the Book of James. Yeah.

So all of them, however, are crowns. They're all crowns.

So I'm sure that there are probably other rewards besides crowns,

but I think that the visual aid of rewards as

crowns was very appropriate, especially in.

The first century.

Sure, sure, sure, but you think about it, there are

other crowns mentioned in the Bible too, or other rewards

mentioned in the Bible. There's a martyrs crown, there's others.

But I mean we gave a summary here. So basically,

if you take First Corinthians chapter three and combine it

with these, you know, two Timothy James, Firstpeter Revelation talking

about these crowns, essentially, what's going to happen, what appears

is going to happen, is God's going to take the summation.

Let's say all the deeds you've done in your life

are one big package, and he sticks them in the

fire right in the oven or whatever in the kiln,

in the kiln, and it's going to burn away all

the junk, all the useless stuff we did, the stuff

that didn't matter, the stuff that doesn't have any eternal effect.

But then the stuff that did have an eternal impact,

that did make a difference, the things we did for Christ,

the souls we led, the Jesus, you know, the holiness

that we chose to live in our life. All these things.

Then those things, the precious stones, the stuff that can't

burn away, gold, silver, precious stones, those will be left,

and apparently a crown comes from that, right, and then

God will give us our crowns based on the things

that we deserve the And what's so cool about it is,

on one side, that's a little weird. How do we

just strut around Heaven with crowns on our head? You know?

And because then I'll be comparing, you know, as competitive

as I am with you. How come you have so

many more crowns? Right, you have a different crown every day.

My crown's more sparkly. Yeah.

Oh, I'm sorry, I gotta leave. I gotta go change

my crown. This is the time of day I like

to wear my other crown.

Right.

But what we see is every time those you said, yeah,

every every time those four angels are singing around the

throne about holy holy holies, Lord God Almighty. Yeah, the elders,

the twenty four elders get up and they lay their

crowns at Jesus feet. And I think that's what we're

gonna do with ours. This isn't going to be us

strutting around Haven shown off our crowns. I think it's

going to be the only thing that you can give

back to Jesus is the fact that some of what

I did in my life Jesus lasted and matters, and

it's all because the only good thing in me is Jesus.

And so I lay my crowns at Jesus' feet. That's

what I believe we're going to do with those crowns.

So there's no proof in the Bible that's true, but

we do know that the twenty four Elders do that,

and why wouldn't we, Right, that's great.

Yeah, Well then I sort of mentioned at the very

beginning that there's a.

Banquet, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, And so.

The marriage supper of the Lamb in Revelation nineteen. You

want to talk about.

This, Yeah, So we're kind of zigzagging back and forth. Remember,

so there seems to be a theme in the prophecy

in Revelation flips back and forth between heaven and earth,

heaven and earth, heaven and earth. It keeps flipping back

and forth. So that's kind of what we're doing too,

not entirely in order. But at the end of all this,

remember yesterday we read about how Jesus returns and he

defeats the Antichrist, you know, the beast and the false prophet.

So sometime during this time. In Revelation chapter nineteen, it says,

after this, I heard what sounded like a vast crowd

in heaven, shouting, praise the Lord. Salvation and glows and

power belong to our God. His judgments are true and just.

He has punished the great prostitute who corrupted the earth

with her immorality, that would be that false religion. Right.

He has avenged the murder of his servants, those that

are martyred. And again their voices rang out, Praise the Lord.

The smoke from that city ascends forever and ever. Then

the twenty four elders and the four living beings fell

down and worshiped God, who was sitting on the throne.

And they cried out, Amen, praise the Lord. And from

the throne came a voice that said, praise God all

his servants, all who fear Him, from the last to

the greatest. And then I heard again what sounded like

the shadow of as crowd, or the roar of a

mighty ocean waves, or the crash of loud thunder. Praise

the Lord. For the Lord, our God, the Almighty reigns.

Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give

honor to him, for the time has come for the

wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself.

She's been given the finest of pure white linen to wear,

for the fine linen represents the good deeds of God's

holy people. And the Angel said to me, write this,

blest are those who are invited to the wedding feasts

of the Lamb. And he added these other two words

that come from God.

Yeah.

So this is kind of the wedding of Jesus and

the Church. Yeah.

And there's a lot of symbolism, oh yeah in here,

right yep. So it refers to the place is heaven.

That's in verse one.

All false suitors are eliminated, it says.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the false religion, yeah yeah, yep.

Introduced introduced by wedding music. Verses one.

They're all singing yeah yeah, yeah yeah.

So it's a picture of a wedding, right, right, So

there's a bridegroom. In verse seven, there's the bride and

so the bridegroom is Jesus. The bride is Us, right,

the wedding gown and verse number eight the reception in

verse Noumber nine, and then you can really say it's

like a honeymoon that lasts one thousand years.

The millennium, which I think we're talking about tomorrow, right, Yeah,

the honeymoon starts. So really, God the whole story from

beginning and beginning to end with regard to humanity as

a love story. God made humanity to have a relationship

with us, not that he was unfulfilled and didn't have

He was perfectly fulfilled in his relationship within the Trinity,

but he chose to make humanity to express his love,

to show his love to us and to be loved

by us. Right. And so then all throughout the Bible,

the times when God's people in the Old Testament would

honor and worship God, he would talk about how much

he loves his people, and he would often refer to

her when he was speaking about Israel. But then when

Israel would turn from God and turn from God's worship

in the Temple, he would say, now you're committing adultery

on me. Right. It was always that's how God refers.

So God was seeing this as a relationship while everybody

else was only seeing it as religious perfunctory performance. Then

Jesus comes. Jesus comes as the hero to rescue his

beloved away from the dragon that has captured his beloved,

and he sacrifices himself in order to be able to

rescue her. And then some people respond, and then the

Bible says, then those new believers in Christ are the Church.

And the Bible says Christ loved the Church and gave

himself for her, and he cleansed her and he robed

her in white. That's all through the writings of Paul.

And then here we are standing at the marriage supper

of the Lamb, and it's exactly as Jesus describes, right,

It's pretty incredible. The whole story is a love story.

Yeah, And if you think about it, in Revelation, it

starts in paradise or excuse me, I'm sorry. In Genesis

in the beginning, it starts in paradise. In Revelation, it

ends in paradise. That's right at the beginning. Sin was

introduced in Genesis at the beginning, and Sin is defeated.

Once and for all.

The serpent comes on the scene for the first time

in Genesis, and then he is completely defeated in Revelation.

Right, the destruction of the dragon pretty soon. Yeah.

Yeah.

And then God is with God is physically and spiritually

present and walking among his people in the garden Genesis.

And then it's what does that say? It says God

himself in the Book of Revelation, will wipe the tears away,

you know, from their eyes, which means God is.

With his people again.

I'll be with my people, yes.

In Revelation.

So it is, it is. It is a completion, It's

a full circle. It is a restoration of the bondage

your sin.

Yeah, and you can only imagine. I've been to some

pretty extravagant weddings. My wife and I, you know, being musicians,

we've played in a lot of weddings. Some of the

richest people in Michigan. We played at a couple of

their weddings, the family children some of one of the

richest families in Michigan. The extravagance of those weddings, especially

the extravagance of the wedding party, was magnificent. Spent hundreds

and hundreds of thousands of dollars on the wedding party.

And I remember going, man, I'm running around eating lamb

chops and sushi and stuff. In the little breaks, and

when we had music, it was incredible. And it's nothing

compared to the celebration Guy's going to throw in heaven, right,

it's gonna be really amazing.

So there's a movie called Wedding Crashers, And back when

I was in high school, I could have written that

movie because Jeff and I my buddy, we would crash

weddings all the time, just walk up and be like

free dancing, free food, and we just go into the weddings,

you know, dressed up. And one time we crashed a

Mafia wedding. Oh no, and it was youngsterole mafia back

with the Mafia was very prevalent.

There was black roses on the cake, by the way.

Oh and it was this.

Massive, massive, extravagant wedding. It was unbelievable.

And then Jeff went with with all the batlers and

he caught the garter and then he was.

The one putting it on the bride during the music.

And then all the guys are still around, Hey, who's

this guy? Who's this guy?

And we had to run through the kitchen and we

actually went out the back door and ran to our cars.

Oh no, it's true story.

Oh, no, well, there would be no wedding crashers here,

no right. And that's the whole point, is that he

wipes out all the faults suitors and those that are

are setting themselves up as God or setting themselves up

as somebody who should steal away our attention, and instead

now at this point, all of our attention is going

to be on Jesus. Amazing.

Well, that's great.

We'll just pick up tomorrow and hopefully you'll join us

on the Bible.

Guys,