The Perfect Judge: Our current age will not last forever. One day Jesus will return, the dead will be raised, and all will give an account of their lives to Him. What will that day be like? What hope is there for any of us to stand before the great white throne on Judgment Day? Our hope rests on the fact that the Judge is also the Savior. Recorded on Apr 10, 2022, on Revelation 20:11-15, by Pastor David Parks.

This message is part of The Supremacy of Christ sermon series. The Christian gospel claims that Jesus is far greater than anyone or anything. And it’s true that his first coming was marked by humility, suffering, and even death on a cross. But is that how Jesus is today? Absolutely not. Jesus has risen from the dead, ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God. Today, Jesus reigns and rules over all of creation and will one day return in glory to judge the living and the dead.

Sermon Transcript

All year, we’re focusing on, The Greatness of God. And today, we’re finishing a sermon series called The Supremacy of Christ. For the past 6 weeks, we’ve been saying that the Christian gospel claims that Jesus is far greater than anyone or anything. And it’s true that his first coming was marked by humility, suffering, and even death on a cross. But that is not how Jesus is today. Jesus has risen from the dead, ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God. Jesus reigns and rules over all of creation and today we will consider his return in glory to judge the living and the dead. During the past few years of dealing with Covid and other difficult things, it became clear to me that far too many Christians have way too small of a vision of who God is. And it’s true that if we fail to get this vision of Jesus, high and lifted up, supreme over all, we’ll have all sorts of problems in our life and faith. In this series, we’ve considered a number of ways that Jesus is far greater than anyone and anything. But now, let us look ahead to things yet to come, to the end of time and the end of this age of sin and struggle. A few weeks ago, we heard the promise of the angels at the ascension of Jesus that he would one day return in the same way. What will that day be like? What will happen on that day when the King of heaven returns? If you have a Bible/app, please open to Revelation 20:11.

Revelation 20:11-15 (NIV), “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. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged 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. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Earlier this year, we finished our Encounters with God series by considering the Apostle John’s encounter with the risen Jesus on the Island of Patmos toward the end of his life living in exile there. And just as the ancient Israelites needed the incredibly vivid prophetic imagery of Ezekiel and Daniel when they were in exile, so John and the early Christians needed John’s vivid imagery of the cosmic battle between good and evil found here in Revelation. Now, the book of Revelation is really unique in the Bible because it’s written in the Jewish apocalyptic literary style, which we don’t really have anymore. And I suspect that it’s for this reason,