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9. Before the Throne
In our final encounter today, were going to look into the future, to see an encounter with Jesus that every person who ever lived will someday have. An encounter that will have eternal consequences. An encounter we dont want to get wrong.
Encounters with Jesus9. Before the Throne Dan Bidwell, Senior Pastor
Revelation 20:11-15 12 June 2022
To which St. Peter replied, "Yes, my dear, these are the Gates to Heaven. But you must do one more thing before you can enter."
The woman was very excited, and asked of St. Peter what she must do to pass through the gates.
"Spell a word," St. Peter replied."What word?" she asked."Any word," answered St. Peter. "It's your choice."The woman promptly replied, "Then the word I will spell is love. L-o-v-e."
St. Peter congratulated her on her good fortune to have made it to Heaven, and asked her if she would mind taking his place at the gates for a few minutes while he took a break. If anybody comes, he said, just ask them to spell a word, just like I asked you.
So the woman is left sitting in St. Peter's chair, when low and behold, a man approaches the gates, and she realizes it is her husband.
"What happened?" she cried, "Why are you here?"
Her husband stared at her for a moment, then said, "I was so upset when I left your funeral, I got in a car accident. And now I am here? Did I really make it to Heaven?"
To which the woman replied, "Not yet. You must spell a word first." "What word?" he asked.The woman responded, "Czechoslovakia~
A woman died and found herself standing outside the Pearly Gates,
being greeted by St. Peter.
She asked him, "Oh, is this place what I really think it is?
It's so beautiful.
Did I really make it to
heaven?"
1
Well there are lots of jokes about how to get into heaven this was one of the more mild ones I found! But is this joke an accurate picture of what happens when we die? Can we expect to meet St Peter at the pearly gates, or does the Bible teach something different?
Thats what were going to find out today as we open our Bible passage together. So why dont we pray and ask God to show us what will happen on the day we encounter Jesus in heaven?
Our heavenly Father, will you speak to us now through your word? Will you show us what happens when we die, and what we need to do to be saved? Please reveal the truth to us now, so that we can look ahead with great trust. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Well, this is our final sermon in our series called Encounters with Jesus. It has been a series all about when people met Jesus, and had an encounter with him, and how it changed them.
In our final encounter today, were not looking into a historical encounter that Jesus had with somebody. Instead, were going to look into the future, to see an encounter with Jesus that every person who ever lived will someday have. An encounter that will have eternal consequences. An encounter we dont want to get wrong.
Now today Ive picked a passage from the very last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. Its a book that some Christians love, but its also a book that many find confusing and confronting because of the imagery it contains. After all it does speak about angels and demons and the antichrist, and the mark of the beast (ch13). It paints a picture of the end of the world, with lurid descriptions of chaos and war and destruction and judgment.
The reason it is full of that kind of imagery is because Revelation describes a vision that the Apostle John had a vision that Jesus showed to him, a vision revealing the future so that Gods people wont be afraid of whats to come.
And John relays that vision to us in language that is often symbolic and pictorial a bit like when we try to describe a dream in words there are often ideas or feelings that are difficult to articulate. Thats part of the challenge of reading Revelation. But remember this isnt meant to be confusing. Jesus revealed this to John, so that John could reveal it to us. Thats where the name revelation comes from its all about Jesus revealing Gods plan so that we can put our trust in Him.
Lets jump into the passage. This comes from Revelation 20, the third last chapter of the Bible. It is a picture of the end of the world as we know it.
The Throne
This is what John sees (v11):
2
11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. (Revelation 20:11- 12)
Johns vision opens on a throne a dazzling white, brightly shining, radiant throne.
Im kind of putting words in Johns mouth here, but thats because all the way through the book of Revelation, John vision takes him time and time again into the throne room of God.1 And the vision that he sees of God on the throne harks back to the throne room visions that the ancient prophets had Old Testament prophets like Daniel and Isaiah and Ezekiel.
- In Daniel 7, Gods throne is portrayed as a flaming chariot, and God himself is dressed in clothing as white as snow, with hair white like wool.
- In Ezekiel 1, both the throne and God himself have the appearance of fire, and brilliant light, and radiance like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day. (Ezekiel 1:28)
- In Isaiah 6, Isaiah sees God seated on his throne, high and exalted. (Isaiah 6:1)
There is something both awesome and terrifying about the presence of God, seated on his throne. He is holy, and majestic, powerful and pure.
(It doesnt help that God is always surrounded by legions of angels, not the cute chubby baby kind, but winged creatures with eyes all over them, that make a sound like thunder when they move their wings...)
But in Revelation 20:11 the angels are gone, and the scene focuses in on the throne. Now did you notice the strange detail about the one who is on the throne? John doesnt identify who it is. He just says him who was seated on it. (Im going to come back to that in a bit...)
Keep reading in v11. It says:
The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. (Revelation 20:11)
Remember this is symbolic language representing a vision. Im not sure what it would look like for the earth and the heavens to flee from the presence of the one on the throne.
Perhaps its an image of destruction. In Revelation 6, John has a vision of the heavens receding like a scroll being rolled up, and mountains and islands being plucked up from where they were placed. Perhaps this is another image of the same thing. An image of destruction.
1 The throne of God and the Lamb feature in Revelation 4, 5, 7, 8, 14, 16, 19, 20, 21 and 22 3
Or perhaps the idea of fleeing is associated with the judgment motif of the passage the earth and the heavens somehow flee from the presence of the one on the throne, because nothing impure can stand before the throne of the Most Holy God.
The earth and the heavens might flee, but the throne is not something humans can flee from.. (v12)
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. (Revelation 20:12)
The throne room scene has become a court room scene, a scene of judgment. And no one is exempt great and small alike stand before the throne as the books are opened.
There is something kind of terrifying about the idea of standing before a judge, and trusting in the justice system. Dont get me wrong. I think we have an excellent judicial system, but it isnt perfect. Human error does occur, and sadly there is room for corruption. Those in positions of power the great sometimes avoid the full consequences of their misbehavior. And the small often find themselves unable to compete with the legal resources of the great...
But here in Gods courtroom, both great and small stand in judgment, side by side, with no prejudice and no preferential treatment either way. Gods justice is perfect. And it is searching... (v12)
12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead werejudged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. (Revelation 20:12-13)
No one escapes Gods judgment it searches to the bottom of the sea, and even to death and Hades. You might know Hades from Greek mythology. The NT writers use Hades to translate the Hebrew word Sheol, which is the place where the dead wait until the day of judgment, when theyll rise and face God. Thats the picture we see here in Revelation 20.
The point is, there is nowhere in the universe that we can go to escape this judgment that awaits each of us.
The Books
What does that judgment look like? Again, remember this is a vision that John is seeing, full of symbolism, but the meaning is quite simple.
Books are opened. And (v12) the dead are judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books.
4
You might have guessed by now that Im not a fire and brimstone preacher. But this passage is a fire and brimstone passage. Jesus reveals to us what the final judgment looks like, a judgment that each of us must face, and none of us can escape. A judgment where books are opened and our life is laid out before us, and we must account for the choices weve made in life.
Its said that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, once sent a message to the twelve most respectable people he knew, just to see how theyd respond. The message simply said: Flee, all is revealed! Within 24 hours, six of these respectable people had left the country.
We all have skeletons in the closet, and there is nothing that weve done that God does not know about. Hebrews 4:13 says:
Nothing in all creation is hidden from Gods sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:13)
I was pretty well-behaved at school, but one Friday at lunch I mouthed off to the deputy principal of my private boys academy... He was a scary individual, and he said: Bidwell, come and see me in my office first thing Monday morning. I spent the weekend terrified that I was going to be expelled. Turned out he didnt even remember why he had called me in. But I knew, and I still remember that feeling of being caught doing the wrong thing, and knowing I was guilty.
The prophet Isaiah had the same feeling when he found himself in the presence of God in Isaiah 6 he understood that his sinfulness made him guilty before the holiness of God. He cries out:
Woe is me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty. (Isaiah 6:5)
Are you prepared for the day when you stand before the throne of God, and the books are opened, and your life is laid bare before the judgment of God? When all is revealed?
Its a terrifying thought, if Im honest.
The Second Death
The vision continues (v14):
Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. (Revelation 20:14)
This lake of fire is an image from earlier in chapter 20, and in chapter 19 as well. There it is called the fiery lake of burning sulfur. Chapters 19 and 20 are all about the end of the world,
5
and Jesus paints vivid pictures of a war between the forces of good and evil Jesus and his angels against Satan and the powers that he stands behind kings and beasts and false prophets.
But they dont stand a chance against Jesus. One by one, Jesus throws the powers of evil into the lake of burning sulfur. They receive their judgment.
And coming back to our passage, to v14, now death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire as well.
I want you to paint a picture of this in your head, a literal picture. What would it look like to throw death into a lake? You cant do it, can you? Maybe if death was represented by a person. Do the same experiment for Hades. Hades was a place for disembodied souls who were asleep, kind of like heaven but for the dead. Its not a physical place, like the prison of Azkerban, that you could pick it up and throw it into a lake.
The vision may not be completely literal, but the idea underlying it is clear. On the day of Jesus final judgment, there will be no need for a Hades, because there will be no more death. Death itself will be destroyed, burned up, finished, no longer any part of Gods good creation.
So there is something very good about the lake of fire. Because it represents the end of everything bad that happens in this world. It represents the destruction of evil, and everything associated with it. Justice will be done, every injustice righted. It is a great triumph of good over evil!
But as part of that triumph, it also means that every human must stand and be judged for any injustices that we have done.
And thats where we need to read v15, a picture that speaks for itself:
Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15)
Its a sobering picture, isnt it. A graphic picture of Gods judgment, in which human life is lost. Verse 14 called it the second death. Jesus himself called it hell, and he spoke about it more than anyone else in the entire Bible. Because he doesnt want us to end up there.
Judging humans guilty is the last thing God wants to do. The big story of the Bible is the story of Gods plan to reverse the curse of sin and death, and to restore his good creation, so that we humans can enjoy life with God, just as he intended it to be in the beginning.
And thats where this sobering passage has a happy ending. Did you notice the other book that was mentioned?
6
The Book of Life
The first books are records of our sins. Records that lead to death.
But the other book is the book of life. And those whose names are written in the book of life escape the lake of fire. They escape the second death. Do you see that in v15?
I love this. Because it means that there is hope for sinners like me to be saved.
You see, the book of life isnt anything about what weve done. It is purely about whether Jesus knows us, whether we belong to him, whether weve come to him for forgiveness.
Because when we are friends with Jesus, we dont get what we deserve. Theres an old Dennis the Menace cartoon, where
Jesus doesnt forgive our sins because we are nice, but because he is nice. Like it says in my favorite verse (Romans 5:8)
God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
Do you remember at the beginning of our passage today, the description of the one sitting on the throne of judgment? It was unclear who was on the throne, wasnt it.
Something else I love about Revelation is the way that God and Jesus are both pictured on the throne at different times, and sometimes together. But when Jesus is on the throne, he is referred to as the Lamb, or the lamb that looked like it had been slain.
In the OT sacrificial system, when Gods people sinned, they would bring a lamb to the temple, and it would be killed. It was a symbol of Gods punishment for sin, but also his provision of a substitute a life given for a life.
Gods Lamb, Jesus Christ, gave his life for our life thats what the cross was about.
And it will be Gods Lamb sitting on the judgment throne on that day that this passage speaks about. The day we all have an encounter with Jesus.
And the Lamb is the one you want on the judgment throne, because Jesus is the one who knows if you belong to him, if youve given your life to him. It is he alone who will have written
Wilson's house, their hands full of cookies. Joey says, "I wonder what we did to deserve this."
Dennis answers, "Look, Joey. Mrs. Wilson doesnt give us cookies because we're nice. She gives
us cookies because she's nice."
7
Dennis and his friend Joey are leaving Mrs.
your name in his book of life, and he alone who has the power to save you from the second death. Know the Lamb, and you will know life...
Shall we pray?
8
Watch at: https://youtu.be/gzPlSVrPjxg File Downloads: https://dq5pwpg1q8ru0.cloudfront.net/2022/06/19/08/37/23/3e3cf1db-f420-4642-a02f-8b095a44754a/06.12.22%20%20Sunday%20Sermon%20Transcript.pdf
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By Yountville Community Church
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In our final encounter today, were going to look into the future, to see an encounter with Jesus that every person who ever lived will someday have. An encounter that will have eternal consequences. An encounter we dont want to get wrong.
Encounters with Jesus9. Before the Throne Dan Bidwell, Senior Pastor
Revelation 20:11-15 12 June 2022
To which St. Peter replied, "Yes, my dear, these are the Gates to Heaven. But you must do one more thing before you can enter."
The woman was very excited, and asked of St. Peter what she must do to pass through the gates.
"Spell a word," St. Peter replied."What word?" she asked."Any word," answered St. Peter. "It's your choice."The woman promptly replied, "Then the word I will spell is love. L-o-v-e."
St. Peter congratulated her on her good fortune to have made it to Heaven, and asked her if she would mind taking his place at the gates for a few minutes while he took a break. If anybody comes, he said, just ask them to spell a word, just like I asked you.
So the woman is left sitting in St. Peter's chair, when low and behold, a man approaches the gates, and she realizes it is her husband.
"What happened?" she cried, "Why are you here?"
Her husband stared at her for a moment, then said, "I was so upset when I left your funeral, I got in a car accident. And now I am here? Did I really make it to Heaven?"
To which the woman replied, "Not yet. You must spell a word first." "What word?" he asked.The woman responded, "Czechoslovakia~
A woman died and found herself standing outside the Pearly Gates,
being greeted by St. Peter.
She asked him, "Oh, is this place what I really think it is?
It's so beautiful.
Did I really make it to
heaven?"
1
Well there are lots of jokes about how to get into heaven this was one of the more mild ones I found! But is this joke an accurate picture of what happens when we die? Can we expect to meet St Peter at the pearly gates, or does the Bible teach something different?
Thats what were going to find out today as we open our Bible passage together. So why dont we pray and ask God to show us what will happen on the day we encounter Jesus in heaven?
Our heavenly Father, will you speak to us now through your word? Will you show us what happens when we die, and what we need to do to be saved? Please reveal the truth to us now, so that we can look ahead with great trust. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Well, this is our final sermon in our series called Encounters with Jesus. It has been a series all about when people met Jesus, and had an encounter with him, and how it changed them.
In our final encounter today, were not looking into a historical encounter that Jesus had with somebody. Instead, were going to look into the future, to see an encounter with Jesus that every person who ever lived will someday have. An encounter that will have eternal consequences. An encounter we dont want to get wrong.
Now today Ive picked a passage from the very last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. Its a book that some Christians love, but its also a book that many find confusing and confronting because of the imagery it contains. After all it does speak about angels and demons and the antichrist, and the mark of the beast (ch13). It paints a picture of the end of the world, with lurid descriptions of chaos and war and destruction and judgment.
The reason it is full of that kind of imagery is because Revelation describes a vision that the Apostle John had a vision that Jesus showed to him, a vision revealing the future so that Gods people wont be afraid of whats to come.
And John relays that vision to us in language that is often symbolic and pictorial a bit like when we try to describe a dream in words there are often ideas or feelings that are difficult to articulate. Thats part of the challenge of reading Revelation. But remember this isnt meant to be confusing. Jesus revealed this to John, so that John could reveal it to us. Thats where the name revelation comes from its all about Jesus revealing Gods plan so that we can put our trust in Him.
Lets jump into the passage. This comes from Revelation 20, the third last chapter of the Bible. It is a picture of the end of the world as we know it.
The Throne
This is what John sees (v11):
2
11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. (Revelation 20:11- 12)
Johns vision opens on a throne a dazzling white, brightly shining, radiant throne.
Im kind of putting words in Johns mouth here, but thats because all the way through the book of Revelation, John vision takes him time and time again into the throne room of God.1 And the vision that he sees of God on the throne harks back to the throne room visions that the ancient prophets had Old Testament prophets like Daniel and Isaiah and Ezekiel.
- In Daniel 7, Gods throne is portrayed as a flaming chariot, and God himself is dressed in clothing as white as snow, with hair white like wool.
- In Ezekiel 1, both the throne and God himself have the appearance of fire, and brilliant light, and radiance like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day. (Ezekiel 1:28)
- In Isaiah 6, Isaiah sees God seated on his throne, high and exalted. (Isaiah 6:1)
There is something both awesome and terrifying about the presence of God, seated on his throne. He is holy, and majestic, powerful and pure.
(It doesnt help that God is always surrounded by legions of angels, not the cute chubby baby kind, but winged creatures with eyes all over them, that make a sound like thunder when they move their wings...)
But in Revelation 20:11 the angels are gone, and the scene focuses in on the throne. Now did you notice the strange detail about the one who is on the throne? John doesnt identify who it is. He just says him who was seated on it. (Im going to come back to that in a bit...)
Keep reading in v11. It says:
The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. (Revelation 20:11)
Remember this is symbolic language representing a vision. Im not sure what it would look like for the earth and the heavens to flee from the presence of the one on the throne.
Perhaps its an image of destruction. In Revelation 6, John has a vision of the heavens receding like a scroll being rolled up, and mountains and islands being plucked up from where they were placed. Perhaps this is another image of the same thing. An image of destruction.
1 The throne of God and the Lamb feature in Revelation 4, 5, 7, 8, 14, 16, 19, 20, 21 and 22 3
Or perhaps the idea of fleeing is associated with the judgment motif of the passage the earth and the heavens somehow flee from the presence of the one on the throne, because nothing impure can stand before the throne of the Most Holy God.
The earth and the heavens might flee, but the throne is not something humans can flee from.. (v12)
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. (Revelation 20:12)
The throne room scene has become a court room scene, a scene of judgment. And no one is exempt great and small alike stand before the throne as the books are opened.
There is something kind of terrifying about the idea of standing before a judge, and trusting in the justice system. Dont get me wrong. I think we have an excellent judicial system, but it isnt perfect. Human error does occur, and sadly there is room for corruption. Those in positions of power the great sometimes avoid the full consequences of their misbehavior. And the small often find themselves unable to compete with the legal resources of the great...
But here in Gods courtroom, both great and small stand in judgment, side by side, with no prejudice and no preferential treatment either way. Gods justice is perfect. And it is searching... (v12)
12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead werejudged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. (Revelation 20:12-13)
No one escapes Gods judgment it searches to the bottom of the sea, and even to death and Hades. You might know Hades from Greek mythology. The NT writers use Hades to translate the Hebrew word Sheol, which is the place where the dead wait until the day of judgment, when theyll rise and face God. Thats the picture we see here in Revelation 20.
The point is, there is nowhere in the universe that we can go to escape this judgment that awaits each of us.
The Books
What does that judgment look like? Again, remember this is a vision that John is seeing, full of symbolism, but the meaning is quite simple.
Books are opened. And (v12) the dead are judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books.
4
You might have guessed by now that Im not a fire and brimstone preacher. But this passage is a fire and brimstone passage. Jesus reveals to us what the final judgment looks like, a judgment that each of us must face, and none of us can escape. A judgment where books are opened and our life is laid out before us, and we must account for the choices weve made in life.
Its said that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, once sent a message to the twelve most respectable people he knew, just to see how theyd respond. The message simply said: Flee, all is revealed! Within 24 hours, six of these respectable people had left the country.
We all have skeletons in the closet, and there is nothing that weve done that God does not know about. Hebrews 4:13 says:
Nothing in all creation is hidden from Gods sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:13)
I was pretty well-behaved at school, but one Friday at lunch I mouthed off to the deputy principal of my private boys academy... He was a scary individual, and he said: Bidwell, come and see me in my office first thing Monday morning. I spent the weekend terrified that I was going to be expelled. Turned out he didnt even remember why he had called me in. But I knew, and I still remember that feeling of being caught doing the wrong thing, and knowing I was guilty.
The prophet Isaiah had the same feeling when he found himself in the presence of God in Isaiah 6 he understood that his sinfulness made him guilty before the holiness of God. He cries out:
Woe is me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty. (Isaiah 6:5)
Are you prepared for the day when you stand before the throne of God, and the books are opened, and your life is laid bare before the judgment of God? When all is revealed?
Its a terrifying thought, if Im honest.
The Second Death
The vision continues (v14):
Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. (Revelation 20:14)
This lake of fire is an image from earlier in chapter 20, and in chapter 19 as well. There it is called the fiery lake of burning sulfur. Chapters 19 and 20 are all about the end of the world,
5
and Jesus paints vivid pictures of a war between the forces of good and evil Jesus and his angels against Satan and the powers that he stands behind kings and beasts and false prophets.
But they dont stand a chance against Jesus. One by one, Jesus throws the powers of evil into the lake of burning sulfur. They receive their judgment.
And coming back to our passage, to v14, now death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire as well.
I want you to paint a picture of this in your head, a literal picture. What would it look like to throw death into a lake? You cant do it, can you? Maybe if death was represented by a person. Do the same experiment for Hades. Hades was a place for disembodied souls who were asleep, kind of like heaven but for the dead. Its not a physical place, like the prison of Azkerban, that you could pick it up and throw it into a lake.
The vision may not be completely literal, but the idea underlying it is clear. On the day of Jesus final judgment, there will be no need for a Hades, because there will be no more death. Death itself will be destroyed, burned up, finished, no longer any part of Gods good creation.
So there is something very good about the lake of fire. Because it represents the end of everything bad that happens in this world. It represents the destruction of evil, and everything associated with it. Justice will be done, every injustice righted. It is a great triumph of good over evil!
But as part of that triumph, it also means that every human must stand and be judged for any injustices that we have done.
And thats where we need to read v15, a picture that speaks for itself:
Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15)
Its a sobering picture, isnt it. A graphic picture of Gods judgment, in which human life is lost. Verse 14 called it the second death. Jesus himself called it hell, and he spoke about it more than anyone else in the entire Bible. Because he doesnt want us to end up there.
Judging humans guilty is the last thing God wants to do. The big story of the Bible is the story of Gods plan to reverse the curse of sin and death, and to restore his good creation, so that we humans can enjoy life with God, just as he intended it to be in the beginning.
And thats where this sobering passage has a happy ending. Did you notice the other book that was mentioned?
6
The Book of Life
The first books are records of our sins. Records that lead to death.
But the other book is the book of life. And those whose names are written in the book of life escape the lake of fire. They escape the second death. Do you see that in v15?
I love this. Because it means that there is hope for sinners like me to be saved.
You see, the book of life isnt anything about what weve done. It is purely about whether Jesus knows us, whether we belong to him, whether weve come to him for forgiveness.
Because when we are friends with Jesus, we dont get what we deserve. Theres an old Dennis the Menace cartoon, where
Jesus doesnt forgive our sins because we are nice, but because he is nice. Like it says in my favorite verse (Romans 5:8)
God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
Do you remember at the beginning of our passage today, the description of the one sitting on the throne of judgment? It was unclear who was on the throne, wasnt it.
Something else I love about Revelation is the way that God and Jesus are both pictured on the throne at different times, and sometimes together. But when Jesus is on the throne, he is referred to as the Lamb, or the lamb that looked like it had been slain.
In the OT sacrificial system, when Gods people sinned, they would bring a lamb to the temple, and it would be killed. It was a symbol of Gods punishment for sin, but also his provision of a substitute a life given for a life.
Gods Lamb, Jesus Christ, gave his life for our life thats what the cross was about.
And it will be Gods Lamb sitting on the judgment throne on that day that this passage speaks about. The day we all have an encounter with Jesus.
And the Lamb is the one you want on the judgment throne, because Jesus is the one who knows if you belong to him, if youve given your life to him. It is he alone who will have written
Wilson's house, their hands full of cookies. Joey says, "I wonder what we did to deserve this."
Dennis answers, "Look, Joey. Mrs. Wilson doesnt give us cookies because we're nice. She gives
us cookies because she's nice."
7
Dennis and his friend Joey are leaving Mrs.
your name in his book of life, and he alone who has the power to save you from the second death. Know the Lamb, and you will know life...
Shall we pray?
8
Watch at: https://youtu.be/gzPlSVrPjxg File Downloads: https://dq5pwpg1q8ru0.cloudfront.net/2022/06/19/08/37/23/3e3cf1db-f420-4642-a02f-8b095a44754a/06.12.22%20%20Sunday%20Sermon%20Transcript.pdf