Word of Encouragement (11/23/2021)

And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth” (Rev. 11:16-18).

Here we have a short description of the Final Judgment. The Final Judgment is first described as “the time for the dead to be judged.” It implies that the dead will be raised to life to face God’s judgment. Death is not the end of man: “...it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment...” (Heb. 9:27); “...many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2). God has given man an immortal soul. Even though his body must see corruption, it will be resurrected on the last day to be reunited with the soul and face God’s final judgment—either to live forever in heaven with God or to suffer forever in hell.

The Final Judgment is “for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great....” All these designations—“your servants, the prophets and saints..., those who fear your name, both small and great”—all refer to the people of God as a whole (i.e., the Church), not different groups in the church.

We are all God’s “servants,” whose mission is to serve the one and only true God.

We are all “prophets” in the sense that we are God’s witnesses (Rev. 11:3ff).

We are all “saints” as well—the holy ones, who are set apart from the world to God as His cherished possession.

We are “those who fear [God’s] name.” As such, we are the wise ones since the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 1:7). It is only right that we fear the Lord, “who can destroy both soul and body in hell,” not “those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (Matt. 10:28). When we fear the Lord above all, we can be free from all other fears.

We are made up of “both small and great.” Even though we are all saved by God’s grace alone and faith alone and in Christ alone, there are those who are small and those who are great in the kingdom of God. We will all be glorified and perfected in heaven but we will not all receive the same reward. Some will receive great rewards and others will receive small rewards and still others will be “saved, but only as through fire” (1 Cor. 3:15). Maybe “small” comes before “great” because, on the last day, “the last will be first, and the first last” (Matt. 20:16) because we will be rewarded according to our faithfulness, not by the size or results of our achievements.

Here, we have many reminders of what our true identity is in the kingdom of God and what our mission is in this world. We have a wonderful promise that God will reward us according to how faithfully we have served Him in this life. Only the prospect of reward is given in this praise for the people of God because we have already passed out of judgment is into life. It’s time for us to lay up our treasures in heaven—not so that we will get more in heaven but so that we will bring more glory to God, to whom all glory and honor will be given, even for our good works!