Transcription

Chris
Well, Jeff, today is your favorite topic. Yes, it’s about a banquet.

Jeff
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.

Chris
All right, well, hey, today we have a segment, uh, by Desiree who put together our show sheet, and neither one of us have read this yet. Yeah, but this is a segment called Mailbags where we take people who write in, uh, and sometimes they ask questions. Yes, yes. And sometimes we’ll select them to actually talk about on the air. This is from Liam P okay. 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.

Jeff
Still alive living, living celebrities.

Chris
Yeah. Living celebrities.

Jeff
Yeah. These are hard for me. Well, they really are.

Chris
We should have looked at this in advance.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah. No. That’s okay.

Chris
So we’re on the spot.

Jeff
Um, 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, uh, what about you? What what do you have? What celebrity would you want to meet and what would you want to ask them?

Chris
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, uh, about all the life lessons they’ve learned. Uh, 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. Yeah, the world knows him. And he’s navigated every relationship with wisdom, and everybody respects him. And now and think about the environment in which he’s in when everybody else, you know, with money, uh, 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.

Jeff
As you say, Keanu Reeves.

Chris
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 a, on a, on a clip. And they said, uh, 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.

Jeff
Oh, wow.

Chris
He said, so he goes, you think you’re you think you’re, uh, in a valley? Because this too shall pass. Yeah. He said, you think you’re on top of the world, that you know everything. This too 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, uh, areas of the world. Yeah. So there you go. That’s my answer.

Jeff
So on my desk. So my my office, I have a lot of books, and, uh, 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 books Jeffrey is. And if you. Because all the books are on the shelf behind my desk. So I’ve got a cluster of them. Uh, one of the books is, uh, 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 Wwjd what would Jesus do? Yeah. So I have a book on my on my desk in that little cluster of funny titled books. That’s just what would Keanu do? And it’s hilarious. It’s a whole book of wise sayings from Keanu Reeves.

Chris
That’s hilarious.

Jeff
Yeah. Well, hey, thanks, Liam, for asking that question. That’s a hard one for yeah, for me, but yeah, that’s really good. Yeah, well, hey, we are in it, man. And the really devastating stuff is yesterday. Right?

Chris
So you’re talking about the.

Jeff
Bible in the. Yes.

Chris
In, uh, not about me and you.

Jeff
Right. Well, I don’t know. It depends on how you felt like the podcast went yesterday, but, uh, the really devastating stuff with regard to end times, because that’s what we’re talking about is end times. So we talked about God unleashing, uh, 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. Um, 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 whether or not you’re getting into heaven, right? 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.

Chris
Yeah, this is and this is the references of receiving crowns. That’s right. All the rewards, right? Yeah. The rewards, that is, you know, there’s different types of crowns that are mentioned. Yeah. And, uh, and this is all about, uh. Yeah. Yeah.

Jeff
So this is good news. Not bad news. Yes. Correct. This will be a glorious time for you. This is going to be this one. This is if if we were at the Olympics. This is when you’d be standing on the podium getting your medal right. That’s that’s what’s happening. 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.

Chris
This this is probably one of the most epic portions of Scripture in the whole Bible.

Jeff
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 had heard before spoke to me like a trumpet blast. The voice said, come up here and I’ll show you what must happen after this. And 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. 24 thrones surrounded him, and 24 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 seven fold Spirit of God. In front of the throne was a shiny sea of glass sparkling like 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. Had a human face in the fourth was like an angel and an eagle in flight. Each of these living beings had six wings, and the wings were covered all over with eyes inside and 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 24 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. Hmm. Isn’t that amazing?

Chris
It is amazing and I just can’t get out of my mind. The four creatures. Four beings. 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. I know, and eyes. And by the way, not just a few eyes. It says the wings were covered all over with eyes inside and out. So I mean, just super cool and super creepy.

Jeff
And you’ve got this throne where there’s thunder and lightning flashing. Yeah, there’s an emerald, uh, like, bow around it.

Chris
Yeah, like a like a full circle rainbow. Yeah, yeah, yeah is what that is.

Jeff
But the emerald color. Right, right. And then the Spirit of God is out in front of the throne. Uh, 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 24 elders. So 12 there were 12 tribes of Israel. So here’s what some people believe. I don’t know who these 1224 elders are, but if you if you look like in the Life Application Study Bible, they’ll say a lot of theologians believe the 12 of them represent the 12 tribes of Israel. The other 12 represent the 12 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 12. Yeah, these 24 elders.

Chris
I guess we’ll find out when we get to heaven. We sure.

Jeff
Will. But if you’re wondering who they are, most theologians would say that not not everybody, but a lot.

Chris
That’s our best guess. Right? Guess. Yep. And and by the way, uh, it says that, uh, that the one sitting on the throne was brilliant as gemstones like jasper and carnelian. Yeah. Uh, I looked it up a long time ago, actually, when I was in college. Carnelian has, like, a red hue. Uh, yeah. It’s like. It’s like. And then so green and red and. Yeah, it’s green in red. And then. And so actually, the most dominant color of heaven, uh, is actually, believe it or not, green. Green. Yeah. Yeah. Because it describes, uh, pastures, it describes, uh, Jasper, it describes emeralds.

Jeff
Is that where the author of The Wizard of Oz got the Emerald City?

Chris
Yeah. Maybe.

Jeff
So. I don’t know.

Chris
Maybe so, but, uh. But yeah, when you think about heaven, you often think white, uh, but. Or gold or gold. And if you take all the colors written about heaven, uh, the most dominant color is green. Yeah. Isn’t that.

Jeff
Amazing? Yeah. Green always represents life, even even to us now. Right. So that’s amazing. So, uh, you’ve got this. This, um, uh, sea of glass sparkling like crystal. Yeah. The description of heaven is so of the throne room of God. Yeah.

Chris
So incredible room of God.

Jeff
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 Corinthians 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?

Chris
Yeah. So, so it’s just really clear we get to heaven, not by the rewards that we do. So the judgment seat of Christ is not connected to that. The Bible says nothing we can do nothing, absolutely nothing we can do to get us to heaven. Yeah. So we’re saved by grace through faith. Ephesians 289 tells us, yeah.

Jeff
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 pretty. None of us can boast about it. That’s pretty.

Chris
Crystal clear. Yeah.

Jeff
So? 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 we’ll get in heaven really are. Maybe, uh, 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 and wood, hay or straw. But on the Judgment Day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a 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 walls. 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 wasted our time and they’re going to burn up. Yeah.

Chris
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 Second 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, uh, or eagerly look forward to his appearing, uh, the crown of life is James 112. Uh. Blessed are those who patiently endure testing and temptation, and afterward they will receive the crown of life, uh, that God has promised to them who love him. And then in first Peter, it’s the crown of glory. When the shepherd appears, you receive a crown of glory, of never ending glory and honor. And then, uh, 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 remain faithful, even when facing death, I will give you the crown of life, which is, you know, obviously those are end times rewards.

Jeff
So that crown of life is often translated as the victor’s crown. It’s a different crown of life from the one that you read in the book of James.

Chris
Yeah, yeah. So so all of them, however, are crowns, right? Yeah, they’re all crowns. So I’m sure that there are probably other rewards besides crowns. Yeah. Uh, but I think that, uh, the visual aid of rewards as crowns was very appropriate, especially in the first century.

Jeff
Sure, sure, sure.

Chris
Well, you think about it.

Jeff
There are other crowns, uh, mentioned in the Bible, too, or other rewards mentioned in the Bible. There’s a martyr’s 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, second Timothy, James, first Peter 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, in the, the, 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 to Jesus, uh, 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. But then 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, I’ll be looking, going. How come you have so many more crowns? Right? Right. You have a different crown every day, right?

Chris
My crown is more sparkly. Yeah, yeah.

Jeff
Oh, I’m sorry I got to leave. I gotta go change my crown. This is the time of day I like to wear my other crown. Um, right. But what we see is every time those you said day. Yeah, every. Every time those four angels are singing around the throne about holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Yeah. The elders, the 24 elders get up and they lay their crowns at Jesus feet. And I think that’s what we’re going to do with ours. This isn’t going to be us strutting around heaven, showing off our crowns. I think it’s going to be the only thing that you can give back to Jesus. Is, 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, right? But we do know that the four or the 24 elders do that. And why wouldn’t we? Right. That’s great. Yeah.

Chris
Well, then I sort of, uh, mentioned at the very beginning that there’s a banquet, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, uh, so the marriage supper of the lamb in revelation 19, um, uh, you want to talk about this? Yeah.

Jeff
So we’re kind of zigzagging back and forth. Yeah. 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, but not entirely in order. But at the end of all this, remember, uh, yesterday we read about how Jesus returns and he defeats the the, the Antichrist, you know, the beast and the false prophet. So sometime during this time, um, in revelation chapter 19, it says, after this I heard what sounded like a vast crowd in heaven shouting, praise the Lord! Salvation and glory 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. That false religion, right? Right. Um, uh, he has avenged the murder of his servants. Those those that were martyred. And again, their voices rang out. Praise the Lord! The smoke from that city ascends forever and ever. Then the 24 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 shout of a vast 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 blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the lamb. And he added, these are the true words that come from God. Yeah. So this is kind of the wedding of Jesus in the church. Yeah.

Chris
And there’s a lot of symbolism. Oh yeah. In here. Right?

Jeff
Yep.

Chris
So it refers to the place is Heaven. That’s in verse one. Yep, yep. Uh, all all false suitors are eliminated. It says yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jeff
The false religion. Yeah.

Chris
Yep, yep. Uh, introduced uh introduced by wedding music and and verses one.

Jeff
They’re all singing. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.

Chris
So it’s, 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. Uh, the wedding gown in verse number eight. Right. Uh, the reception in verse number nine. And then, uh, you can really say it’s like a honeymoon. Yeah, that lasts a thousand years.

Jeff
The millennium, which I think we’re talking about tomorrow. Right. Yeah. Honeymoon starts. So really, God, the whole story from beginning, end, beginning to end with regard to humanity is 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 to to show his love to us and to be loved by us. Right? Yeah. 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. 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. That’s great. Jesus comes as the hero to. 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 through the writings of Paul. Right. Uh, and then here we are standing at the marriage supper of the lamb. And it’s exactly as Jesus describes. Right? Right. It’s pretty incredible. The whole story is a love story.

Chris
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. Uh, at the beginning, sin was introduced in Genesis at the beginning. And sin is defeated once and for all. That’s right. The serpent comes on the scene for the first time in Genesis. Uh, and then he is completely defeated in revelation, right? Yeah, yeah, he comes full circle.

Jeff
The destruction of the dragon pretty soon.

Chris
Yeah, yeah. And then, uh. And then God is with him. God is physically and spiritually present and walking among his people in the garden in Genesis. Yeah. And then what does it 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.

Jeff
I’ll be with my people.

Chris
Yes, in revelation. So it is. It is a it is a completion. It’s a full circle. It is a restoration. Yeah. Of of of the the bondage of sin.

Jeff
Yeah. And you can only imagine. I’ve been to some pretty extravagant weddings, uh, my wife and I, you know, being musicians, we’ve played in a lot of weddings. Uh, 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. Yeah, especially the extravagance of the wedding party. Yeah. Was magnificent. Spent hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars on the wedding party. Wow. 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 God’s going to throw in heaven, right? It’s going to be really amazing.

Chris
So there’s a movie called Wedding Crashers and, uh, 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. Right? Right. And we would just go into the weddings, you know, dressed up. And one time we crashed a mafia wedding. Oh, no. And it was a Youngstown mafia. Back when the Mafia was very prevalent. There was black roses on the cake, by the way. Oh, wow. And it was this massive, massive, extravagant wedding. It was unbelievable. And then Jeff went, uh, with, with all the bachelors and he caught the garter. Oh, no. And then he was the one putting it on the bride during the music.

Jeff
No, no no, no.

Chris
And then all the guys are sitting around, hey, who’s this guy? The guy who is 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, that’s a true story. Oh, no. It was. Well, there will be.

Jeff
No wedding crashers here. No. Right. And that’s the whole point, is that he he wipes out all the false suitors and the and those that are, are setting themselves up as God or setting themselves up as somebody who should steal away our attention instead. Now, at this point, all of our attention is going to be on Jesus. Amazing.

Chris
Well that’s great. We’ll just pick up tomorrow and hopefully you’ll join us on The Bible Guys.