07.13. Jesus Returns (19:11-20:3)

Jesus Returns (Rev 19:11-21, Rev 20:1-3)

• Jesus comes with the armies from heaven and fights against the armies of the kings of the earth and the beast and defeats them. He will rule them with a rod of iron. The symbolism is a sword coming from His mouth. The Word of God is portrayed as a sword (Eph 6:17, Heb 4:12) and thus it would appear that it is through His Word that Jesus defeats His enemies.

The beast and the false prophet are thrown into the lake of fire and the rest of the people were killed by Jesus.

Satan is thrown into the abyss for 1,000 years. The Thousand Year Reign of Jesus (Rev 20:4-6)

During the one-thousand-year reign of Jesus, those that have been martyred for the word of God and those who did not worship the beast or receive the mark of the beast during the tribulation will reign with Jesus. The rest of the dead will not come to life until after the end of the thousand-year reign of Jesus. The Final Battle (Rev 20:7-10)

Satan is released at the end of the thousand-year reign of Jesus and will deceive the nations. The nations will then come up against the camp of the saints where fire will come and devour them. At this point, Satan is thrown into the lake of fire.

Great White Throne judgement and the Judgement Seat of Christ

People are judged for what they have done, death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire. Anyone whose name was not in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire to be tormented there for eternity. Believers will be in the “New Jerusalem” with God the father and Jesus (the Lamb). There is a vivid description of the city in Rev 21:1-27 and Rev 22:1-21. There is some disagreement as to whether there is just one judgment seat or more. Some of the passages that talk about the judgment seat of God or Christ.

“For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, (John 5:22 LSB) and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. (John 5:27 LSB)

“For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EACH ONE ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS. (Mat 16:27 LSB)

“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. “And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; (Mat 25:31-32 LSB)

“And He commanded us to preach to the people, and solemnly to bear witness that this is the One who has been designated by God as Judge of the living and the dead. (Acts 10:42 LSB) For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. (Rom 14:10 LSB) For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. (2Co 5:10 LSB)

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: (2Ti 4:1 LSB)

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sits upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. Then I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. (Rev 20:11-12 LSB) The things that these verses make clear are:

• Jesus is the one who judges

• People will be repaid for their deeds, whether good or bad.

  • For believers, this will not be a salvation issue, but rather one of reward or lack thereof. (1Co 3:11-15)

  • For unbelievers, it will determine the severity of the punishment and is not a salvation issue either. (Mat 10:15; Mat 11:22-24, Luk 12:47-48) William Macdonald writes regarding Mat 10:15

He warned that such rejection would bring severer punishment in the day of judgment than the perversion of Sodom and Gomorrah. This proves that there will be degrees of punishment in hell; otherwise, how could it be more tolerable for some than for others? ^xxi Writing on Luk 12:47-48, William Macdonald writes:

Luk 12:47-48 set forth a fundamental principle in regard to all service. The principle is that the greater the privilege, the greater the responsibility. For believers, it means that there will be degrees of reward in heaven. For unbelievers, it means that there will be degrees of punishment in hell. Those who have come to know God’s will as it is revealed in the Scriptures are under great responsibility to obey it. Much has been given to them; much will be required of them. Those who have not been so highly privileged will also be punished for their misdeeds, but their punishment will be less severe. ^xxii

• At the judgement, Jesus will separate the believers from the unbelievers.

There are some different views as to how many judgements there are and when they will happen. Some believe that the “bema” seat judgment in 2Co 5:10 is for believers only. Frequently this is said to occur at the rapture. This would present an issue – what about the tribulation and 1000-year reign believers. Some would also see another where the “sheep and goats” are separated. As we look at the above Scriptures, the most straight-forward, logical view would be that there is one judgment – the white throne judgment. Rom 14:10 says that we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. Paul quotes Isa 45:22-25 and it is quite clear there that “everyone” means everyone. The sure word of God is that every knee will bow before him and every tongue will swear allegiance to him (Isa 45:23 b). This includes Hebrews and non-Hebrews, all nations, all languages, and all people ^xxiii these verses contain an implicit forewarning: we must all appear before the judgment seat of God.⁷⁰⁶ It is this divine judgment seat (bēma), not Pilate’s (Mat 27:19; John 19:13), not Gallio’s (Acts 18:12; Acts 18:16-17), not the court of public of opinion, that ultimately counts. No one, including Christians, can escape it. ^xxiv The passage in Mat 25:31-46 sounds vey much like the great white throne judgment as well, so most likely there is one judgement.

While the others are possibilities, we should not be too dogmatic on this.

New Jerusalem

Rev 21:1-27 and Rev 22:1-21 describe the New Jerusalem. It is brilliant like precious stones. The first heaven and earth have passed away at this point. There are twelve gates (which are pearls) with an angel at each one. The names of the twelve tribes of Israel are written on the gates. There were twelve foundation stones with the names of the apostles on them. The city is square, measuring about 2300 kilometers in each direction – width, length, and height. The walls are about 64 meters wide. The wall material is jasper and the city is pure gold. The foundations stones are of precious, beautiful material. A river of the water of life flows from the throne of God and the Lamb with the tree of life being on either side of it.