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Sermon preached on Revelation 20:11-15 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 06/29/2025 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
As we near the finish of Revelation, we at last come to the passage that deals with the final judgment in terms of the actual judgment. Yes, there have been brief references to the coming judgment already in this book. We’ve also seen broader descriptions of God’s wrath that he brings at the end of this age which we sometimes refer to as final judgment when speaking broadly. But the actual final judgment speaks of a courtroom setting where each person stands before the judgment seat of God at the end. This apocalyptic vision portrays that final judgment with a great white throne with God seated upon it. This throne is great for it is the highest court. It is white surely to express purity and holiness and wisdom. As long prophesied, at the end of human history, after Jesus returns, there will be this final courtroom judgment. The outcome of this trial will determine the everlasting estate for each person. It is so important that we each be ready for our day in divine court. This is important, because there is only one way to be ready.
I will cover this passage in three points. First, I will have us consider how there is a resurrection of all people at the end. Second, I will have us consider the nature of the judgment, how people are judged according to what they did in this life. Third, I will have us consider the final estate for the wicked, this second death in the lake of fire.
We begin then with our first point to consider the resurrection of all people at the end. You might recall that last week we saw Christians are able to participate in what it described as a first resurrection. We said that meant that Christians, the moment we die, our soul goes to be with Christ in heaven. But our bodies still rest in their graves. Likewise, when a non-Christian dies, their body may be buried, but their soul goes to hades in an initial state of punishment and imprisonment. (If you use a KJV Bible, it translates the word hades with the word hell, but it’s talking about the same thing.) And so, everyone, Christian or not, upon death enters a conscious disembodied existence, either one of initial paradise or initial punishment. They each then await this final day of bodily resurrection and then judgment. Unless you are alive when Christ returns, then that means you will have already died when Jesus returns. At that time, everyone gets physically resurrected. Our immortal souls will be reunited with our resurrected bodies.
We see this truth in this vision in two places. Initially it is seen in verse 12 when it says that John saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. It is further clarified in verse 13 when it says that the sea, along with Death and Hades “give” up the dead who were in them. This is describing the general resurrection at the end. Everyone gets bodily resurrected, to come stand here before the throne, Christians and non-Christians alike. That must be the case because the passage ends up speaking about two groups of people that are identified in the judgment, those who go one to experience a second death, while others that get to enjoy the resurrection life.
This truth that all are raised and stand before the judgment seat is also taught elsewhere in the Bible. For example, in John 5:28-29 Jesus says, “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth– those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” Daniel 12:2 also describes how both the righteous and the wicked will experience a resurrection before going to their final destinies. Again, Acts 24:15 says there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.
I’m amazed how many times I’ve had the conversation where I share the gospel with someone and explain this fact and they want to just ignore it. I tell them how they can have eternal life in glory with our Lord and they say that when they die they just want it to all be over. I think what they are really saying is that they don’t believe there will be a resurrection and if they don’t believe there will be a resurrection then they don’t believe there will be a final judgment either. But the facts are the facts. The Bible is very clear that everybody will rise from the dead at the end so that they can stand trial for how they conducted themselves in this life. As Heb. 9:27 says, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”
This leads us into our second point for today, to consider how this judgment will be according to what we have each done. Did you notice the books? Such books are also mentioned in the similar vision of Daniel 7. These books clearly are the records of the deeds of all human beings that are here being consulted when considering the judicial case for every individual. So then, the fact that human deeds are considered in this judgment is stated twice. Verse 12 says the dead are judged by what is written in these books, according to what they have done. That is basically repeated again in verse 13. God has a record of all wrongs done and it will be brought as evidence in the final judgment.
So very many Bible passages teach this. Paul says in Romans 2:6 that God will render to each one according to his deeds. Jesus in Matthew 16:27 says he will return to repay each person according to what he has done. Psalm 62 speaks of God rendering to each man according to his work. I could go on and on.
Let us pause and appreciate what this is saying. In this life, people get away with their evils all the time, but no one fools God. The ability for humans to bring justice is limited in this life. Sometimes guilty people go free. But even outside of the courtroom, the sin done in secret is not secret to God. The sinful thought that no one could hear is not kept secret from the Lord. The depraved lust of the heart, even if not acted upon, is seen by God who judges even the hearts of men. Romans 2:16 says at the final judgment that God will judge the secrets of men. Ecclesiastes ends saying that God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. God’s demand for righteousness is over everything you do, say, think, or desire, and whether your action is public or private, or even if it is among consensual parties. God’s law determines what is right and wrong and our entire record will be measured against such. Furthermore, let no one falsely say they are being condemned unfairly, as if they didn’t know. God doesn’t condemn people for what they didn’t know. God condemns them for the evil they did even when they did know it was evil.
It is often asked if even Christians will need to face such a judgment. Do we have to stand before the judgment seat of the Lord? At least in some sense, the answer must be yes, but I will clarify. I’ve already pointed out that this passage sees both the saved the damned in this judgment. Other passages confirm this, like Paul in 2 Cor. 5:10, speaking to Christians, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” That verse can encourage us that for the Christian, this can be opportunity for God to commended us for the works we have done by his grace. But we can still ask the question if we Christians will have to have our records of sins recounted for us in this final judgment?
In answering this question, I want to not say more than what Scripture tells us. While it seems clear that Christians also must stand before this final judgment seat, there is some additional Scripture that should greatly encourage us. Let me give you some of those Scriptures. These only apply to redeemed Christians, saved by grace through faith in Jesus. Romans 8:1, “There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” John 5:24 says the Christian, “Shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life”. Hebrews 10:17 says that because of Christ’s atonement for us, that he will remember our sins and lawless deeds no more. Isaiah 43:25 speaks of God blotting out our sins and remembering them no more. What I’m trying to say is that in whatever capacity the books are opened at our final trial, we will be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment. Christians won’t have anything to fear, at all. We can be encouraged at the repeated promises of Scripture that Christians are already fully justified and declared righteous in God’s sight, that we are not under any condemnation, that he has blotted out our sin and removed out guilt. If God has already justified us, who can bring any charge against us on that last day? Instead of condemning us for our failings, this will be the moment Christians are commended for their grace-wrought works.
While that is all wonderful, encouraging, and true, this vision doesn’t actually go into those details. It rather puts the hope for the Christian in a much simpler way. If our name is found in the book of life, then we will be saved from the lake of fire. We will enjoy life, blessed everlasting life, in the eternal bliss that we will start to look at next chapter. Elsewhere, Revelation calls this book the Lamb’s book of life, which reminds us how our name can be in there, because it’s about how Jesus saves us through his atonng sacrifice where he already endure the punishment of justice in our place, the Lamb of God that takes away our sin.
Isn’t this a Christ-glorifying and grace-magnifying way to talk about how we Christians end up in glory and not the lake of fire? If we had to be judged on the other books alone, we would surely be condemned. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All the world, ourselves included, are without excuse, and are guilty before God on our personal record. But verse 15 says we get to go to eternal life, not because our deeds measured up. No, we get to go to eternal life if our name was written in the book of life, a book that earlier we learned was written before even the foundation of the world. In divine election, God foreordained to show us such mercy by covering our sin through the sacrifice of Christ in our place. All praise and glory, be to our God, forever, and ever!
With such Christian hope, let us then turn now to our final point to consider the outcome for the rest of mankind, for all who remain in their sin when Christ returns. They will stand before that final judgment seat of God and be condemned for their sinful works and cast into the lake of fire. The lake of fire imagery describes the final state for those whose sin has not been forgiven in Jesus.
We’ve already seen the beast and the false prophet thrown into the lake of fire last chapter. Earlier in this chapter, Satan was also thrown into it. Death and Hades are also thrown into it here, and we remember how 1 Corinthians 15:26 says that death is the last enemy for Christ to defeat, which happens here when Death is forced to give up its dead and then itself is cast into the lake of fire. So, this climactic section of Revelation shows that the lake of fire is the common place of punishment for all these enemies. That includes all these unsaved humans who die in their sin.
What is the nature of this lake of fire? What will this punishment entail for the wicked? In answering that question, let me say it is not the false doctrine known as annihilationism. That false teaching says that ultimately the wicked will cease to exist, that their eternal punishment is that they will be annihilated, totally destroyed, and no longer have any conscious existence. This is teaching of the Jehovah Witness cult as well as Seventh Day Adventists. Yet, in recent years there has been an effort by some otherwise evangelicals to try to make annihilationism, or the similar idea of conditional immortality, an acceptable position in the church. Like most tempting heresies, their advocates quote various Scriptures and make a clever-sounding case for why we shouldn’t accept the clear teaching of Scripture and the way the church has always held and taught such things. I suspect the internet has contributed to the spread of such fringe-group teachings. But this is a serious matter. As Hebrews 6 says, the teaching of the eternal judgment is part of the foundational teachings of Christianity. The good news of the gospel includes not only that we can have eternal life but that we are saved from eternal torment.
So then, the lake of fire is what Scripture elsewhere describes as gehenna and which in English has been commonly translated as “hell”. This place we call hell is repeatedly characterized with the imagery of fire. Right here, in the next chapter it will be described as a burning place of fire and sulfur. That complements the description in this chapter in verse 10 where it is described as a place of torment day and night, forever and ever. That describes an eternal conscious punishment. Jesus also described hell in Mark 9:48 as a place where the fire is not quenched, adding the additional imagery that there the worm does not die – describing how the maggot that eats a decaying body will keep eating and eating. Jesus was actually quoting Isaiah 66:24 there, which is to say that both the Old and New Testaments teach of the horror of hell. Jesus also describe hell as a fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, Matthew 13:42. Jesus calls hell an eternal fire and an eternal punishment in Matthew 25. Hebrews 10:27 describes hell as a raging fire (NIV). Even before someone ends up in hell, the initial punishment in the intermediate state of hades is clearly described as one of fiery torment as we read in the parable about the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16. We could also add that in addition to the continual fiery burning imagery, it is also described as a place of darkness and gloom in multiple verses, such as Jude 1:13 and 2 Peter 2:17. The complementary imagery of burning fire and gloomy darkness that will be experienced clearly and undoubtedly teaches how hell will be a place of horrible agony and ongoing torment.
A major way the annihilationist heresy tries to get around all this clear language is to redefine eternal and everlasting in terms of the outcome not the experience of the punishment. They say that when the wicked are annihilated, they will cease to exist for ever, and so that is an eternal punishment. Such interpretation greatly strains against the plain reading of the passages that describe the torment of hell, and I didn’t even give you an exhaustive listing of all those. It also struggles to do justice with how many passages speak comparing the outcome of the redeemed versus the wicked. For example, Daniel 12:2 speaks of how the redeemed are raised to everlasting life versus the wicked are raised to everlasting contempt and shame. Similarly, Matthew 25:46 speaks in parallel of eternal punishment versus eternal life. Surely, such comparison of everlasting and eternal doesn’t mean eternal existence for one group and eternal non-existence for the other.
Time doesn’t allow me to go further into combatting their arguments, but I trust this brief survey of various passages is enough to remind us that hell, a.k.a., the lake of fire, is a terrible punishment that no one should want to go to. It is blasphemous and foolish of certain godless people who say they would rather go to hell than heaven. Let us also remember that God, the just judge of all the earth, says this punishment of hell is what the unredeemed will deserve. When a condemned sinner says this is an unfair punishment, let us remember that God is the very embodiment of fairness and justice, the one who has even taught us what true justice is. If God says this is what people will deserve, I will not dare to make an accusation against the God of all creation.
Let us lastly note that Revelation calls hell a second death. The wicked get raised up just to essentially be put to death again. Again, this doesn’t mean annihilation because their first death didn’t mean annihilation either. But there is no coming back from this second death. Only an eternity of God’s just punishment will be in store for such a person. As next chapter, verse 8 says, this hell is what awaits the murderers, the sexually immoral, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars.
In conclusion, I ask if you are ready for your day in court? When the last day comes, what case will you make before the Judge? If you think you can defend yourself by appealing to the good things you have done, don’t do it. If you think you can defend yourself by comparing yourself to others who are worse than you, don’t do it. There is no appeal to your own works that will justify you before God on that last day. The only way to be acquitted on that day is you have already come to know the redemption that is in Jesus. Jesus is the only way of salvation. But he is a sure way! If you truly trust in Jesus, you don’t have to wonder of your outcome at that final judgment seat. You can have full assurance of the verdict. You won’t hear, “Guilty!” Rather, you will hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.”
Amen.
Copyright © 2025 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
