Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction: (2:08.40-2:11.45

3 Minutes)

For eighteen weeks now, we have been learning about this amazing book called the “Revelation.”

We have learned so much about good, evil, the coming of Messiah, the judgment of the future Babylon, the role of Israel, the body of the Messiah but today’s teaching well it is uncomfortable to say the least.

Usually, in a sermon, I would take the first few minutes to tell a heart warming story, or make you laugh or give you some statistic meant to grab you and pull you into what the text is going to say.

But, when talking about the biblical teaching that God is a judge and a judge who consigns people to hell there is no real heartwarming way to introduce this.

There is no real comparison on earth to it, the worst of human prisons in the worst of places are better than this place called hell.

Further, there are a number of concerns about this teaching, but basically I think the understandable objection goes like this.

The person says, How can you possibly reconcile the concept of judgment and hell with the idea of a loving God? Judgment and hell … loving God.

They just don’t go together.”

What do we say about that?

I’ll tell you, one of the things I have said over the years … Because I’m a minister, people ask me, “What do you believe about hell?”

One of the things I say is, “Well, one thing I believe is probably the biblical imagery of hellfire is metaphorical.”

The people go, “Phew!”

Then I always say, “It’s metaphorical for something probably infinitely worse than fire.”

They go, “Huh?” I’d like to argue that the biblical understanding of hell is crucial, that something is infinitely worse than fire.

That something is crucial for understanding your own heart, for living at peace in the world, and for knowing the love of God.

Realistically, I probably will one get through the first point today and I may come back to point two and three next week.

Understanding what the Bible says about how God is a judge and a judge who consigns people to hell is crucial for understanding your own heart, and so I want to take the time to develop this teaching with you.

I know what I am saying seems counter-intuitive.

Hell is for those people not for us but trust me it will help you understand your own heart better.

Remember, Revelation was written to the seven congregations in Asia Minor.

Grab you copy of the Scriptures and say it with me.

Ha-foke-bah

Ha-foke-bah

De-Cola-bah

Ha-foke-bah

Ha-foke-bah

Mashiach-bah

Scripture Reading: 2 Minutes

4Then I saw thrones, and people sat upon them—those to whom authority to judge was given.

And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Yeshua and because of the word of God.

They had not worshiped the beast or his image, nor had they received his mark on their forehead or on their hand.

And they came to life and reigned with the Messiah for a thousand years.

5The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed.

This is the first resurrection.

6How fortunate and holy is the one who has a share in the first resurrection!

Over such the second death has no authority, but they shall be kohanim of God and the Messiah, and they shall reign with Him for a thousand years.

7When the thousand years has ended, satan shall be released from his prison, 8and he shall come out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for the battle.

Their number is like the sand of the sea.

9And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the kedoshim and the beloved city—but fire fell from heaven and consumed them.

10And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are too, and they shall be tortured day and night forever and ever.

11Then I saw a great white throne, and the One seated on it.

The earth and heaven fled from His presence, but no place was found for them.

12And I saw the dead—the great and the small—standing before the throne.

The books were opened, and another book was opened—the Book of Life.

And the dead were judged according to what was written in the books, according to their deeds.

13The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Sheol gave up the dead in them.

Then they were each judged, each one of them, according to their deeds.

14Then death and Sheol were thrown into the lake of fire.

This is the second death—the lake of fire.

15And if anyone was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

For Understanding Your Own Heart

For Understanding Your Own Heart

And I saw the dead—the great and the small—standing before the throne.

The books were opened, and another book was opened—the Book of Life.

And the dead were judged according to what was written in the books, according to their deeds.

The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Sheol gave up the dead in them.

Then they were each judged, each one of them, according to their deeds.

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(7.0 Minutes)

This grand scene is all about books and what is found written in those books.

One book is a roster book containing names, it is called the book of Life.

That is it’s abbreviated name because it’s longer name is the book of life of the lamb who was slain (; ).

The name says it all.

The only way you get into the book of life is by association with the wrath absorbing Messiah Yeshua.

This book is also said to have been pre-written before a single person was ever born ().

They were predestined for life.

Now I know predestination sounds scary, but it is not.

Let me give you an illustration to help you understand.

God had it set up so that when I was about 17-18 I met a missionary on furlough named Paul while I was out selling drugs and high on the front porch of a church.

That night God intended that Michael the mohawk drug-dealing and using scumbag met a man who knew the wrath absorbing Messiah Jesus.

God orchestrated that event, and the next one, and the next one so that I could know boast that I found God, the opposite is true, He found me!

Before I ever loved Him, he first loved me.

He knew my name, and He has always known my name.

Being found in the Book of life is being found by Grace: “For by Grace you have been Saved through Faith and this is not of yourself but it is the gift of God” ().

Those in the Book of life are those who partake in what is called the first resurrection.

Those in the first resurrection are the believers from all of history not just the last two thousand year.

Remember, says that the Old Testament saints reach perfection with us because they also were saved by grace through faith in the revealed will of God.

Abraham will be there, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, David, the Prophets of old, countless myriads from the Jewish nation, and countless Gentiles like Ruth, Uriah the Hittite, Namaan the Syrian General, Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus the Great, and the Queen of Sheva.

They are part of that great roll call of faith, that roster in the book of Life.

Those in the Book of Life are not self-righteous they are made righteous.

Abraham will be there and he will stand up and say “My righteousness, I have none!

My righteousness came through faith!” Moses will be there, he wrote of the book of life, and he will say, “I struck the rock, I have no righteousness, my righteousness will come by faith.”

David will be there and sing the great song אַשְׁרֵי אָדָם לֹא יַחְשֹׁב יהוה לוֹ עָוֹן ashrei adam lo yach’shov Adonai lo avon, “Blessed is the person the Lord does not count sin against him” ().

And Abraham will respond, “because of faith God counts righteousness towards us (; ).

Those in the Book of Life are not self-righteous they are made righteous.

They are not perfect people they are forgiven people.

Paul says in that Eudia and Syntyce, who were some kind of disagreement with one another, yet, they were written in the “book of life” along with himself and his other co-workers.

This was a common Hebrew idea that God kept a roster of the community of the righteous and it was common in the Greek world to keep a register of citizens and when a citizen would die they would expunge, wipe his or name off the register.

God never wipes the name of a citizen off of his register.

We know this because he said in Matthew and Luke when on sheep goes astray, and leaves the flock, he leaves the 99 and finds him, puts him on his shoulders, that is a forceful return, and brings him back to the flock.

This picture takes grace with absolute seriousness.

Those who are part of the first resurrection and spared the “second death” are saved only by God’s grace—not by their deeds but by God’s.

There is a paradox here for us of works and grace, a paradox not unfamiliar in the Pauline tradition (; ).

We are ultimately responsible for what we do, for it has eternal consequences—we are judged at Messiah’s bema, not the white throne, by our works.

God is ultimately responsible for our salvation, it is his deed that saves, not ours—we are saved by grace but we will be held accountable for our lives.

They don’t do kind things to get noticed but because it is the right thing to do.

Remember, Yeshua’s teaching about the sheep and the goats.

When Yeshua says they fed, visited, and clothed him they had no idea what he was talking about.

He said, as you did it to one of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.