Bible Guys Classics: Revelation - Promises

Hey, everybody, we're the Bible guys, and if you're just tuning in recently, just know that we are showing a little bit of reruns for a few months, and then we'll be back bigger and better than ever on August thirty first, because behind the scenes we're taking a hiatus to do some very important things. Yeah, we're building building out a new studio and we've got some new structure. Super excited about it. So August thirty first, brand new content. But in the meantime, enjoy some of our greatest hits. 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,