This morning we have arrived at the dawn of a new millennium.
And you might think, well it's 2023, what are you talking about?
We have arrived in our study of Revelation to the millennial reign of Christ.
You know the idea of a millennium has historically caused people to get really excited about big change,
to imagine big change and what things will be like.
You know we characterize entire swaths of history by their millennium, right?
We refer to the 1900s, the 1800s, the 1700s.
And 24 years ago our world entered into a new millennium known as the 2000s.
And you know a lot of people had so many different questions about what the 2000s were going to be like.
At the time I worked as an IT tech at a large electrical contracting company and leading up to the year 2000,
they like many companies at the time, some of you will remember this, some of you weren't born yet,
but people were panicking about this thing called the Y2K bug.
You guys remember that?
Everybody was worried that all the computers were going to shut down or become sentient and launch the nukes
or whatever was going to happen because the programming was all messed up.
You know before then, before the 2000s and then for me growing up, you know,
people would imagine what it would be like in this millennium.
They thought we'd have flying cars.
People imagined that we'd have a video chat on flat screens that we could carry in our pockets.
People imagined you'd have robots cleaning your house, right?
We had TV shows and cartoons.
Some of you remember the Jetsons, which imagined a lot of this type of stuff,
and movies that imagined what the future would be like,
and you know, back to the future with the hoverboards and the self-lacing shoes.
Well, you know, although flying cars aren't necessarily yet feasible in today's world,
and there are no commercially available hoverboards, and there's only a prototype of auto-lacing shoes,
much of what people used to forecast into the 2000s has come to pass.
We do have very powerful computers that we carry in our pockets
that allow us to instantaneously video chat with anybody on the entire planet.
We have robots doing our housework, right?
How many of you have a Roomba?
It's a robot doing the housework for you.
And so lots of ideas, lots of questions, lots of conjecture,
and we've seen some of it come to pass, some of it we're still waiting on,
but as we've been studying through Revelation, we have now arrived at the dawn of the millennium.
We have arrived at what is one of the most important chapters in the entire Bible.
And it's not so much about the turning of a calendar date,
it's about the coming of what is called the millennial kingdom of Christ,
the kingdom of God to come upon this earth.
And the entirety of chapter 20 is about the kingdom age,
a perfect kingdom ruled by Jesus Christ that will last for a thousand years here on the earth,
a kingdom that is ushered in and established by Jesus Christ,
God Almighty, at the end of the very terrible time of tribulation.
Now because this kingdom is such an important topic,
and it is really the amazing, incredible hope of all believers,
we're going to take our time going through it.
You know, we've spent so much time, months, really going through all the bad of tribulation,
I don't want to gloss over the good stuff as we close the next few chapters here of Revelation.
So today, however, we'll be a little bit more topical than usual.
Usually it's just kind of a verse by verse study as we go through Scripture,
but today I'm going to give you more of an introduction to the millennial kingdom
and the ideas of what this is before we go through the first six verses of chapter 20.
And I also want to deal with some of the interpretational disagreement on the millennium
and what it is and how it works.
And the reason is, is because there's a lot of questions about it.
People have a lot of questions about the millennial kingdom,
such as what's the difference between the millennial kingdom and eternity, right?
The eternal state we talk about when we're going to be with God in His presence,
connected with Him in heaven forever.
Is the millennial kingdom literal or is it a figurative thing that Revelation is giving to us?
Is a thousand years a literal or a figurative thing there in Revelation?
And really, who will be there?
And what are we going to be doing during this millennial kingdom?
And what will it be like?
These are questions that I hope to answer over our next three studies
as we're looking to answer all of those questions as we study through Revelation chapter 20.
But first, this morning, we're going to spend some time in worship,
praising Almighty God, because He is awesome.
He blesses us. He blesses His kids.
He takes us through the good things. He takes us through the bad things.
He is faithful. He is true.
He is worth our worship. Amen?
Let's pray. God, we love You so much.
And Lord, we so look forward to the millennial kingdom,
and we look forward to eternity after that.
Lord, we look forward to the time as Your church.
God, when You're going to do Your work upon this earth
and just finally judge wickedness and sin.
But God, we're not yet there.
We're still in the church age, this age of grace, God.
So we study these things, Lord, that we would be prepared,
that we would be encouraged by hope,
that we would be ready to share with those who don't yet know You
what is to come, Lord.
But God, most importantly, we study Your Word,
specifically this book of Revelation, that we would be blessed.
And Your Word even says that those who read this book will be blessed.
And Lord, we're so grateful for the blessing You give us in our lives,
the blessing You pour out upon us,
the blessing of every gift, every challenge, every victory.
Lord, we love You. We thank You so much.
Lord, today we just want to glorify Your name as we do every Sunday, God,
lift Your name on high to praise You for You are holy
and You are righteous and You are worthy.
God, we love You so much. Thank You for saving us.
Thank You for loving us when we were still yet Your enemies, Lord.
We are so grateful, eternally.
Be blessed now, Lord, as we praise Your name.
It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right, we are in Revelation chapter 20.
If you want to turn or swipe there,
you know, Revelation 20 deals with the coming kingdom,
the kingdom that we have been talking about,
the kingdom that we're looking for, the millennial reign of Christ.
But what's really interesting is Revelation 20 deals with this momentous time,
this millennial reign of Jesus Christ, in a surprisingly brief manner.
The millennial kingdom is really only referenced directly
in the first six verses of Revelation chapter 20.
However, this coming kingdom is referenced in numerous other places in Scripture,
specifically in Isaiah and Ezekiel.
But what we have here in Revelation chapter 20
in these first six verses we're going to look at this morning
is really a summary statement of the millennial kingdom as a whole.
It's really a bird's eye chronology with limited information about the entire kingdom.
It's more of a summary of what is going to be happening.
And so read with me in Revelation chapter 20 starting in verse 1.
We're going to look at these first six verses,
and then throughout the study we'll deal with some of the other verses
in other places of Scripture that fill in some of the details.
But here in Revelation 20 it says,
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven,
Holding the key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand.
He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan,
And bound him for a thousand years.
He threw him into the abyss, closed it, and put a seal on it
So that he would no longer deceive the nations until the thousand years were completed.
After that he must be released for a short time.
Then I saw thrones, and people seated on them who were given authority to judge.
I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus
And because of the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image,
And who had not accepted the mark on their foreheads or their hands.
They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed.
This is the first resurrection.
Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection.
The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ,
And they will reign with him for a thousand years.
And that's really what Revelation 20 gives us about the Millennial Kingdom.
There are details here in Revelation 20 we're going to look at,
And details in other places about this Millennial Kingdom.
And so I kind of want to address it as we establish the foundation from this a little bit topically.
And then as I mention over our next two, including today's next three studies,
We'll be kind of walking through what is taking place and what is happening through this time.
But one of the first things I want you to notice here in these first six verses of Revelation 20
Is a word or a phrase that is repeated numerous times.
There is a specific time frame that is repeatedly mentioned in these six verses.
Did you notice the time frame that is repeated over and over again?
It is this time frame a thousand years.
You know a good habit of Bible study is when things are repeated,
That's like God saying, hey, pay attention.
Hey, I want you to know this detail.
And what's interesting is the phrase thousand years or one thousand years
Is repeated six times in the first seven verses of Revelation 20.
Now guess what a thousand years means?
A thousand years, right?
The word years there that is used in the Greek is a word that specifically means a period of time
Consisting of twelve months.
And then the word thousand is a word that means a thousand units of some measurement, right?
So a thousand periods of twelve months.
Now I believe God put this here six times in seven verses
Specifically to deal with those who might go, he didn't really mean a thousand years, right?
The dragon is bound and prevented from deceiving the nations for one thousand years.
The church and the tribulation saints reign with Christ for one thousand years.
The rest of the dead don't come back to life until the one thousand years are completed.
It's repeated over and over.
And this incidentally is where the term the millennium or the millennial kingdom comes from.
This isn't a kingdom of those born between 1980 and 1998, right?
It's not that millennial kingdom, okay?
We have a group of people in our culture we refer to as the millennials.
Different concept here.
But the idea of the millennium or the millennial kingdom comes from this idea of a thousand years
Because millennium simply means one thousand years.
And before we jump into the text directly here,
I want to spend some time addressing some things regarding this idea of the millennium
Because this has been a theological battleground for centuries within the church.
You know, people have wrestled and gone back and forth on what exactly is the millennial kingdom.
What will happen during the millennial kingdom? Who will be there?
How long will it be exactly?
As I mentioned in the intro, is it literal or is it figurative?
And today, as of today, not everybody in the Christian faith agree on the how, what, when, where, and why of the millennium.
And how one answers these questions about the millennium really is a pivot point for interpreting Revelation.
So what you think about the millennium really affects how you interpret the rest of Revelation.
And so I want to deal with some of these, but there are three major interpretations when it comes to what the millennium is.
There are three major interpretations that I want to point out this morning.
Now, there are subtle variations amongst these three major ones,
but I'm just going to deal with the three major ones because that's all we really have time for, okay?
The three major positions on the millennial kingdom of God, the millennial reign of Christ,
are referred to as a premillennial position, a postmillennial position, and an omillennial position.
Now, these interpretations are not to be confused with rapture interpretations that people have,
which are pre-tribulation rapture, mid-tribulation rapture, pre-wrath rapture, post-tribulation rapture, right?
You see why people get a headache studying Revelation sometimes, okay?
But because Revelation is so unique and so future-looking, it's interpretive, it's prophetic.
And so we have to look at these things, and people come to these different interpretations.
Now, the interpretations of the timing of the rapture are connected in certain ways to one's understanding of the millennial kingdom,
and we'll deal with that in a moment.
So as I said, I don't have time to do an exhaustive deep dive into all of these,
but I want to give you an overview so that if you encounter these positions, premillennial, postmillennial, omillennial,
in your conversations with people, you'll at least have a baseline understanding of what they are.
And again, as I've said before regarding different interpretations of Revelation and end-time stuff
and the different positions people have, I don't believe that differing interpretations regarding stuff
that hasn't happened yet is grounds for division or disfellowship, okay?
So I've said many times that I hold a pre-tribulational interpretation,
that I believe the rapture of the church will happen prior to the tribulation,
but I understand there's people that have good reason to hold the other positions, and I respect you.
And I respect that just as much as I hope you respect me for my position, all right?
And then ultimately at the end of the day, when we're dealing with the stuff that's in the future,
I've said before that I'm probably more pan-tribulational and pan-millennial than anything else,
meaning we'll know when it pans out, okay?
So, but I do hold a particular position myself, and regardless of your interpretation,
we're the family of Christ, we're the body of Christ, all right?
We are called to love one another.
And so when you're having discussions of these things with people, remember love.
Stay in love, stay there, okay?
We good on that? All right, so as I said, I do have a particular bent on one of these.
I do see one of the interpretations of the Millennium is really making more sense than the others,
and I'll attempt to explain why to you guys, but to deal with the three views of the Millennial Kingdom of Christ.
The first one is a pre-millennial view.
A pre-millennial position is the idea that one believes that Jesus will literally return to a literal earth
after a literal seven-year period of intense tribulation on the earth.
And when he returns to that literal earth, he will set up a literal 1,000-year kingdom
that he will rule from Jerusalem, hence the Millennial Kingdom of God, okay?
This interpretation comes from a straightforward literal approach to Scripture.
You see, there are rules of interpreting the Bible that one should employ when you're studying the Bible,
and of course it can get really, really complicated. I'm going to try and make it very simple.
But there's this science called hermeneutics. I don't know who Herman is, okay, but it's called hermeneutics.
And the idea of hermeneutics is the rules for interpreting Scripture so that we don't go off into crazy land
with some weird interpretations.
Now, one of the rules of biblical hermeneutics says that the Bible is to be interpreted literally
unless the passage is obviously intended to be symbolic or if figures of speech are employed.
That is a very good rule to follow, that when you read the Bible,
the idea is that the Bible says what it means and means what it says, right?
As you read the Bible, your first position is to take it at face value.
What it says is what it means.
Now, granted, this can be difficult when we're dealing with books like Revelation and some of the prophetical things,
and this is why hermeneutics then also says the second rule is passages of Scripture
must also be interpreted historically, grammatically, and contextually.
And then the third rule is that Scripture is always the best interpreter of Scripture.
So when you employ these rules of biblical interpretation and you employ the literal approach to Scripture,
what you're going to find is that you read things as they are and interpret them, meaning what they say.
So a premillennial position is the person that says, I read Scripture and I believe what it says on its face.
I'm not automatically trying to go, well, what's the hidden agenda behind it?
It's just I read it and I believe what it says on its face.
And so a premillennial position and a literal interpretation of Scripture says,
when Jesus said he would return to earth, what does that mean?
Jesus will return to earth.
When it says he will set up and establish his kingdom, what does that mean?
He will set up and establish his kingdom.
When it says this kingdom will last for a thousand years, that means it'll last for a thousand years.
And when it says Satan will be bound for a thousand years, that also means Satan will be bound for a thousand years.
A literal interpretation of Scripture, which commonly follows a premillennial position,
also supports the idea that God made a lot of promises to the nation of Israel.
And some of those promises have yet to be fulfilled.
But because God made the promise, the promise will be fulfilled in the future.
That's a literal approach.
One of the fulfilled promises that God made to Israel is that they would one day return to their land.
That has happened. They're in their land.
They have been fighting for it ever since and are fighting for it today.
But they did indeed return to their land.
But one of the unfulfilled promises that God has made in Scripture for Israel is that they would have an everlasting kingdom.
That their Messiah from the line of David would rule that kingdom from Jerusalem sitting upon David's throne.
Well, this hasn't happened yet.
And so a literal interpretation of Scripture and a premillennial following with that says that it will happen in the future.
Right. And so premillennial position holds that the world is going to get worse and worse and worse until one day God will literally step in, intervene on the world scene,
change things, judge the world's sin, and then set up his kingdom here on earth.
And so I personally believe that if you read Revelation and simply interpret it with the normal rules of biblical interpretation,
I believe you'll end up at a premillennial viewpoint.
However, there are other viewpoints. And so let's look at those real quick.
The postmillennial viewpoint says this, that the millennial reign of Christ is probably not a literal 1,000 years,
but rather it's an undefined era that is a golden age of Christian dominance upon the earth.
Those that hold a postmillennial interpretation of the millennial kingdom often interpret Scripture with a partly literal, partly figurative point of view.
Right. Scripture is partly literal, but it's partly figurative.
And so unfulfilled prophecy for those that hold a postmillennial view typically is looked at figuratively, especially unfulfilled prophecy.
It's all figurative. It's all symbolic. There's nothing literal to what we have in unfulfilled prophecy.
And thus, those that hold a postmillennial view often hold that all of the unfulfilled prophecies that specifically pertain to Israel
and specifically pertain to the Jews, that must be figurative.
And so it's not really Israel those prophecies are talking about. The church is Israel.
That's where that kind of idea comes from.
Those that hold a postmillennial view typically look at the thousand years as figurative.
They say it doesn't mean 1,000 years. It's simply a figurative way to say a long time.
And so they say it could be a thousand years. It could be 997. It could be 50,000. We're not sure.
So this long period of time, this millennial kingdom in a postmillennial view is something that is not inaugurated by Christ, but it's brought about by the church.
We, the church, are the ones who usher in the millennial kingdom through the preaching of the gospel and through a steady Christianizing of the world.
What a postmillennial viewpoint says is that the world will steadily get better and better.
And through the work of the church, the world will become more and more Christianized.
It will become one day predominantly Christian, meaning that the whole world, whether they believe in Jesus or not as their Savior, will go,
Jesus is real, God is real, and there will be Christians involved in government and school boards, and then Christians will be in ruling everywhere,
and thus we will usher in the millennial kingdom of Christ.
They say that Christ, though physically absent, will be reigning in this kingdom through the hearts of His people and through His church.
And so thus, the kingdom of Christ, the millennial kingdom for a postmillennial viewpoint, is more of a spiritual reality.
It's not a literal kingdom ruled by a literal Jesus. It's more of a spiritual reality.
And incidentally, this view is very popular towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century,
but as the 20th century marched on, this viewpoint, this interpretation of the millennium kind of died out because World War I.
And then World War II. And then the Great Depression. And then Korea. And then Vietnam. And on and on and on.
The world isn't getting better. The world is steadily getting worse. When we look at the morals of the world, they're steadily getting worse.
And so if the world is supposed to be getting better and better and better, and supposed to be getting more and more Christian,
well, if you look at the world, what's happening says the opposite of that.
Now, in the last few decades, there has been a resurgence of this type of thinking.
It comes under different names now. If you've heard of things called Dominion Theology, Kingdom Now Theology, or Reconstructionism,
this is what postmillennial viewpoints are renamed as in our modern culture.
And simply, people are having this idea that Christians have a moral duty to go recapture the world for Christ.
And so Christians, you should be taking over the governments. You should be running for office. You should be taking over the schools.
You should be, you know, becoming teachers. Christians should be running everything.
And as we take it all over, we will usher in the kingdom, which is just a postmillennial viewpoint.
And so the idea that is after this golden age of Christianity, at the very end of it, Jesus will come back, postmillennium.
And so, and when he comes back at that point, he will then judge the wicked, and then we will enter into the eternal state.
Then you have this viewpoint called Amillennial. Those that hold an Amillennial viewpoint say that the entirety of Revelation,
all of it, is purely figurative, purely symbolic. That nothing in the entire book of Revelation should be interpreted literally.
It is all just symbolic. It is all just figurative of other things.
Amillennials say there is no Millennial Kingdom of Christ. There is no rulership of God upon the earth, thus Amillennial, right?
They are saying there is no millennium. That all of it is just one big spiritual metaphor for the work that the church is supposed to be doing on the earth.
And so those that hold an Amillennial viewpoint say there is no literal kingdom on a literal earth from a literal throne of David by a literal Jesus.
There is no literally redeemed Israel. There is no literal 1,000 years.
When it says here in Revelation 20 that Satan was bound for 1,000 years, they go, that is just meaning that when Jesus died on the cross,
Satan's power was bound, right? Satan's effect was bound. And so it is just a symbolic representation that is saying Satan cannot stop the advance of the gospel.
And so they look at it all as figurative. They say that we are living in the Millennial Kingdom now,
because when Jesus died on the cross and bound Satan by his work on the cross, that that is when the kingdom of God started upon the earth.
So this now today is the kingdom of Christ. And then from that perspective they say history is just going to march on as it is,
not necessarily doing one thing or the other, and then one day, someday, God is just going to decide, I'm done, step in, end it all, judge the wicked, and we will move on to eternity.
People who hold an all-millennial viewpoint often say, look, I know God made specific promises to Israel, but they blew it.
Israel messed up. God took the kingdom from them and gave it to us, the church, and so therefore the church has replaced Israel for all of the unfulfilled promises in Scripture to Israel.
Since Israel messed up, the church is in that place, and that is where we get this idea of replacement theology, that the church has replaced Israel in Scripture.
The problem I have with an all-millennial viewpoint is if this is the millennial kingdom of Christ, I am radically disappointed.
I am radically disappointed because of what we're going to look at in a bit here of what the Scripture says about this kingdom.
And so if everything in Revelation is to be taken figuratively and it's all spiritualized and nothing else,
why did God take 22 whole chapters to tell us all about what's not going to happen?
That doesn't make any sense to me.
So obviously I hold a premillennial interpretive position for the reasons stated above.
Also, the reason I believe a premillennial interpretation holds true is it fits the chronology and the expressed outline of the book of Revelation.
If you guys remember in Revelation chapter 1 verse 19 it said this,
Jesus said to John, write what you have seen, what is, and what will take place after this.
That's the outline of the whole book.
So what John wrote down for us in 22 chapters is that chapter 1, he wrote down what he saw.
Jesus appeared to him, the exalted Christ, the glorified Jesus.
He wrote that down.
In chapters 2 and 3 he wrote down what is the church age, the age we are currently in.
And we had the letters to the churches, right?
And then in chapters 4 and 5 he goes on to start talking about or writing about what will take place after this.
If you remember in Revelation chapter 4 verse 1 it said after this, after chapters 2 and 3, after the church age,
we see John caught up to heaven and then they are observing the buyback of creation as the lamb takes the scroll from the father.
And then in chapter 6 tribulation begins.
And we have had that detailed all the way through to chapter 19 where tribulation ends with the return of Jesus Christ.
Then in chapter 20, Jesus having returned, binds Satan, sets up his millennial kingdom, rules for a thousand years.
Also in chapter 20 after the thousand years are up you have one final rebellion by Satan and then the final judgment of the wicked
called the great white throne judgment.
Then in chapter 21, God destroys his first creation.
He makes a new heaven and a new earth where we go from a kingdom on earth to the eternal state.
So a premillennial position fits that.
I believe there is a chronology there, right?
Secondly, I believe a premillennial position is the best one is because this was the interpretation of the early church up until about the third century.
The apostles on up believed that there was a literal reign of Jesus Christ on the earth in the future.
You see that in their writings, right?
It wasn't until about 300 A.D. where the whole idea of this coming kingdom of Christ started to become spiritualized and started to become mystified and allegorized.
And then the third reason I believe a premillennial position is the best one is that, well, we have a compelling reason to take prophecy literally
because I just believe that's the best way to interpret scripture, right?
God gave us his word to reveal himself to us.
I believe that God speaks plainly through his word in most cases.
Yes, there's a whole lot in the word that we have to go, OK, let's think about this, right?
Let's apply rules. Let's take context. Let's take historical, cultural context.
Let's apply these things so we can understand what the word means.
But God spoke plainly when the normal face value of scripture is abandoned, then the meaning of scripture can become whatever the whatever you want it to be.
Right. If we abandon saying I'm going to read the scripture and it means what it says.
No, no, no, it's just symbolic of something else.
Well, then who's deciding what it's symbolic of?
That's how we get cults. That's how we get false teaching.
That's how we get false doctrines, because people take the plain meaning and go, no, it couldn't mean that.
It needs to mean something else to fit my my point of view.
And so they reinterpret, they symbolize, they allegorize instead of taking scripture on its face value.
And when you do that, the objective meaning of words is lost.
When words lose their meaning, communication crumbles, right?
Can you imagine if we all just suddenly decide every word means something different than what we understand it to mean?
How are we going to communicate?
How are we going to talk?
It falls apart.
And so God communicated to us through his word.
He used words that have objective meanings.
Objective means you don't get to decide what it means.
It means what it means so that the ideas and the thoughts he wanted to communicate could be communicated.
And without that, it just is going to mean whatever you want it to mean.
So the idea is this.
When you're studying scripture and you're studying things like this and we're coming to say, what does this mean?
And what is the future hold and what does prophecy mean?
The idea is that scripture means what was meant by the writer who wrote it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit
in its historical context, in its grammatical context, and as supported by the rest of scripture.
And yes, that can be that can take work to figure out at times, but it's worth the work.
So, yeah, I take the Bible literally.
I take prophecy literally.
I only go symbolic when it's obviously meant to be symbolic.
And I only consider it figures of speech when it's obviously meant to be figures of speech.
And I would encourage you as your pastor to apply the same principles in your own Bible study.
OK, so if you take scripture at face value, I believe that there is a real kingdom that is to come,
that the actual real nation of Israel will be a part of that kingdom.
That kingdom will really be ruled by a real messiah on a real throne who is really from the line of David, Jewish born.
And that kingdom is going to last a thousand years without the influence of Satan
because he will be really bound out of the picture.
And that those who put their trust in Jesus Christ prior to the tribulation
are the people who will be returning with him and ruling literally.
And the saved, those that got saved through the tribulation time will be resurrected,
who got saved and died during the tribulation time will be resurrected.
And they will literally rule with literal Jesus on a literal earth in a literal kingdom.
And we know that this messiah is Jesus Christ.
Born in the flesh in his first coming, born of the Virgin Mary, born of the line of David,
come once to die as the atonement for all of mankind, both Jew and Gentile,
but to come again as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
Now, what is the point though of this millennial kingdom, this one thousand years of existence on the earth
if ultimately God's going to just destroy all of creation and make a new heaven and a new earth?
Why do tribulation and then why come back? Why another thousand years? Right?
Just end it there, Jesus. Right? Just boom, we're done.
We're in the eternal state. What is the point?
Well, that's because at the end of tribulation, there are still a number of promises that God has made
that still need to be fulfilled and God fulfills all of his promises.
And so the millennial kingdom, among other things, is a time of God fulfilling
as of that point in time yet unfulfilled promises that he has made.
Now, one of the promises that God has made is he promised his creation
that the curse upon it would one day be lifted.
That the creation that exists today, his creation, that the curse that came upon it due to man's sin
would one day be lifted. In Romans chapter 8 verse 21, this is what is said,
The creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God's children.
And that is a reference back to the curse of creation. If you remember,
when man rebelled and man sinned against God, it says that death entered the world.
There was a curse that came upon both man and creation.
And this curse is when sin or when death and disease entered in.
It's when sickness entered in. It's when the lifespans of mankind were reduced.
And we see that through the beginnings of Genesis, right, as the lifespans that were upwards of a thousand years
slowly reduced as generation after generation went on.
And man has simply added to the curse upon the earth and all the time that we've had it
with pollution and corruption and all kinds of stuff.
And so the curse came upon creation, death and decay entered the world,
and that has been the state of the world ever since.
And then like I said, we've trashed it in many ways.
And then of course, if you remember the studies through tribulation,
the judgments that God is going to bring upon the earth are going to trash it as well.
It's going to be pretty devastated.
But God made a promise that the curse, the death, the decay that has fallen upon his creation would be lifted.
And then I believe what that's going to be is God restoring the earth,
this earth to what is essentially its precurs condition.
And we see pictures of that when we study Genesis 1 and we look at the Garden of Eden.
That God is going to restore his creation, the environment, to a perfect, holy, peaceful state.
And we get this from places like Isaiah chapter 11, which tells us that during the Millennial Kingdom,
that the animal kingdom will revert to its prior peaceful state that it was in in the Garden of Eden.
Look at what it says in Isaiah 11, 6.
The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat.
The calf, the young lion and the fatted calf will be together, and a child will lead them.
The cow and the bear will graze.
Their young ones will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like cattle.
A lot of people believe that it was the curse that brought in carnivores,
that prior to that all animals just simply ate and grazed.
They were essentially vegetarians, if you will.
But verse 8, it says, an infant will play beside the cobra's pit, and a toddler will put his hand into the snake's den.
The idea is that with the curse removed, the animal kingdom that God created is no longer violent.
It's back to the peaceful state it existed in back when Adam and Eve named them all.
There's no zoos. There's no cages. All of creation is tamed, as it was at first.
On top of that, the biosphere is going to be restored.
It's going to be lush and perfect, as it was in the Garden of Eden.
Again, in Isaiah chapter 35, it talks about the wilderness and the deserts blossoming with wildflowers,
that there's going to be no more dry areas. Everything will be lush and green again.
It says the waters will gush. There'll be streams in the deserts, and parched ground will become pools and springs.
You know what's going to be glorious to the Millennial Kingdom is we could water our front lawn without getting a ticket from the city.
How glorious, right? Okay.
It also tells us that there's going to be longevity restored to humanity, that health and illness and disease,
all of these things that are a result of the curse, will be removed on us, His creation.
Isaiah 35 also says that the eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the deaf will be unstopped,
the lame will leap like a deer, and the mute will sing for joy.
Now, in Jesus' first coming, we got a taste of this, right, as we saw Him heal people and restore sight.
It's going to be global. It's going to be across all of mankind during this Millennial Kingdom.
And then Isaiah 65-20 specifically tells us that human longevity will be restored. Listen to this.
In her, a nursing infant will no longer live only a few days, or an old man will not live out his days.
Indeed, the one who dies at a hundred years old will be mourned as a young man,
and the one who misses a hundred years will be considered cursed.
You go back to the genealogies of Genesis, and you see that people were living 900, 800 years.
In the perfect state of the perfect creation, without pollution, without all the stuff that causes death and disease,
mankind was intended to be in an eternal state. That was God's plan before the fall.
And so the Millennial Kingdom is going to be a picture of that being restored.
Now, I do believe that Isaiah 65-20 is primarily pertaining to those who live through the tribulation period
and then go into the Millennial Kingdom, because there are indications that there's going to be a judgment
between the sheep and the goats. I don't have time to get into that.
But people are going to live through the tribulation.
The church is going to come back with Jesus in the Second Coming.
The tribulation saints, those who were killed for their faith during tribulation, they're going to be resurrected.
And then there's going to be this kingdom ushered in, and there will be people still in human bodies.
We, the church, we're going to have our glorified bodies, but we're going to be here on earth,
ruling and reigning with Jesus. What is that going to look like? I don't know.
But there will be people still in earthly bodies living upon the earth.
Now, at the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom, the indication is that every single one of them
will believe in Jesus as Messiah and God and Lord and Savior.
But as the course of this thousand years go on, people are going to live.
People are going to have babies. People are going to be born.
Population is going to swell again. And during that thousand years, as that population grows,
people are going to have these long lifespans.
I think during the Millennial Kingdom, there is very possibly going to be people here on earth,
say in year 850, who are going to be talking to some young kids and going,
I have no idea what it was like to live on an earth ruled by wickedness because I was there.
I lived through that time. And you don't want to go back to that.
Now, in our next study, we're going to talk about the release of Satan and the rebellion
and all that's going to be in, you know, the question is, is there still sin on earth during the Millennial Kingdom?
We're going to deal with all of that. But this idea that the biosphere is restored,
the animal kingdom is restored, the longevity and health of man is restored is a promise God needs to fulfill
because it hasn't been fulfilled yet. And that will be fulfilled during the Millennial Kingdom.
The second one is God promised the nations that there would be world peace with him as their ruler.
That hasn't happened yet, but in Isaiah chapter 2 verse 4, speaking of Jesus during this time,
it says he will settle disputes among the nations and provide arbitration for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plows and their spears into pruning knives.
Nations will not take up the sword against nation and they will never again train for war.
This is what's going to take place during the Millennial Kingdom, that Jesus will be an absolute rulership
over the entire planet, all the peoples. And so the nations will not be warring against one another.
Jesus will be in charge of all of it. Incidentally, this verse, Isaiah 2, 4,
it's inscribed on a wall across the street from the United Nations headquarters in New York.
And really it's been the goal of the United Nations to achieve world peace, right?
We want all the nations to work together, but we know that's never going to happen until Jesus comes back.
When Jesus comes back and takes over his creation, that is when there's going to be world peace.
That is when the weapons will be destroyed and there will be no more military training
and all this stuff that it's talking about here. And so these promises God has made,
it's paradise regained in a way.
The third reason for the Millennium is that God still needs to fulfill all his promises to Israel.
That are promises made to Israel, for Israel, the Jewish people.
Second Samuel, chapter 7, verse 12, it says,
When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors,
I will raise up after you a descendant who will come from your body and I will establish his kingdom.
And this is God talking to David.
I will be one who will build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
People go, well, didn't his son Solomon build a house for his name?
Yeah, but did his kingdom last forever? It did not.
This is a prophecy yet to be fulfilled.
Now in Psalm, chapter 89, verse 3,
we have a reiteration of this promise made to David in Second Samuel and it's confirmed by God with an oath.
The Lord said, I have made a covenant with my chosen one. I have sworn an oath to David, my servant.
I will establish your offspring forever and build up your throne for all generations.
And so the nation of Israel have been waiting for this coming king to rule.
We know that as Jesus Christ, the Messiah, come once and will come again,
but many of the Jews in the nation of Israel, they don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah
and they're still waiting for this coming king. They're still waiting for this promise.
Now, through the tribulation period, two thirds of the Jewish people on the planet are going to be killed.
And I believe, according to prophetical scripture, that the one third that is left by the end of tribulation
will all, to the number, go, Jesus is Messiah. We believe in him.
And they will enter into this millennial kingdom believing in Jesus as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords
and going on from there.
But this coming kingdom for the Jewish people, it's been predicted in Psalms.
It was predicted by virtually all the prophets that there would be an earthly kingdom as well as a heavenly one.
And so the millennial kingdom on earth is phase one to the fulfillment of that promise for Israel,
that there is an earthly kingdom to come. And this earthly kingdom will last 1,000 years
after which it will then be destroyed and God will create a new heaven and a new earth.
And that's what we're going to read about in chapter 21.
But at the end of that time, at the end of that 1,000 years, God is able to wipe out creation
because he's fulfilled his promises to creation in the millennial kingdom.
He's able to start everything over because at that point he has fulfilled all of his promises.
And then we know prophetically Israel never possessed all of the land that they were promised.
They've never fully possessed the borders that God gave to them. They will during the millennium.
Israel was promised a time where the nation as a whole, the nation as a whole would worship and honor the Messiah.
That hasn't happened yet, but it will happen during the millennium.
So not only are promises kept, but the millennium also serves another purpose.
And you go, why do we need this 1,000 years?
Well, the final purpose of the millennium is to reveal the depths of man's rebellious nature.
It's to address any remaining excuse mankind may have about why it sins.
You see, there are many who've said things like, I'm just a product of my environment.
I'm this way because of how I was raised. It's my upbringing. It's my culture. It's my society.
TikTok made me do it.
But they don't want to take personal responsibility for sin. It's not my fault I do these bad things and say these bad things.
And so what the millennium is going to provide is a perfect environment.
Well, it's not because of pollution.
A perfect government because Jesus, God Almighty, who is perfect and righteous, is ruling and reigning.
No devil. He's locked up and bound for 1,000 years.
There is going to be no outside tempter.
Well, if Jesus was just here ruling bodily, I would believe great.
He's going to be here for 1,000 years ruling and reigning bodily, physically.
Well, I don't know if what he says is true.
The glorified, the church are going to be here in their glorified bodies, visible evidence of the promises of God.
And yet, some are still going to refuse God.
They're still going to choose sin, and we're going to get to that in verse seven next time.
But it's proof that the problem all along has been man's own nature,
that there is nothing outside of us to blame for our rebellion against God.
There is nothing outside of us to blame for our sin and disobedience.
Not our environment, not our government, not the devil, not our culture, not our upbringing, none of it.
That the millennial kingdom will prove unequivocally that we are sinners by nature.
And it will reveal that in such a way that there will be no argument to be brought against that truth.
None.
And so at the very end, when God finally judges, nobody will be able to say, but it wasn't fair.
So, verse one, real quick.
When I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand,
and he seized that dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
He threw him into the abyss, closed it, and put a seal on it,
so that he would no longer deceive the nations until a thousand years were completed.
After that, he must be released for a short time.
Then I saw thrones and people seated on those thrones who were given authority to judge.
I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus
and because of the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image,
who had not accepted the mark on their foreheads or their hands.
They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
The rest of the dead did not come to life until a thousand years were completed.
This is the first resurrection.
Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection.
The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ,
and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
And so after tribulation, after Armageddon,
after the Antichrist and the false prophet are thrown into the lake of fire,
we read here that Satan is tossed into the abyss.
This abyss that we've seen previously in Revelation, a place of incarceration,
it is a prison that exists today that holds the really bad demons.
The demons that the other demons go, well, that's a bad dude.
They're locked up in the abyss, all right?
They are let out during the tribulation time to wreak havoc upon the earth.
Satan is bound in this place, and he is held there for the entire millennium.
He is out of the picture.
He is removed as an excuse for sin.
He is removed as an excuse for disobedience.
It says there that he no longer deceives the nations during this time.
That word deceive means to mislead or to cause to go astray in some way.
And so at the end of the millennium, there will be some who are remaining defiant,
those who still stubbornly choose sin over obedience to God.
And in verse 7, we're going to read next time that Satan will then be released
to rally them against God for one last fight, and then that's it.
But at the end of all of it, nobody will ever be able to say God isn't fair.
So verse 4, we see this throne, and it says there's people seated on these thrones,
and then there's those who are beheaded for their faith for not taking the mark.
I hope you could read there on its plain face that it's very clear
that these are two different groups of people.
They are not the same group of people.
Those that are sitting on the thrones, that harkens back to the 24 elders
that we saw in chapter 4 in heaven with God prior to the tribulation happening.
I interpret them to represent the church that is raptured to heaven
prior to tribulation. We have the church age, and then chapter 4, verse 1.
After this, we see them in heaven with God prior to the tribulation time.
But then he says there, what does he say?
I also saw a second group of people, and these are clearly what we refer to
as tribulation saints, those who accepted Jesus during the seven-year tribulation period,
and they were killed for their faith.
And we read about that, that those who would dare believe in Jesus during the
seven-year tribulation time are viciously, violently slaughtered
for believing in Jesus.
Here it references that they were beheaded. Their heads were chopped off.
Why? Because they wouldn't take the mark of the beast,
which is the intense persecution that happens during the second half of tribulation.
Take this mark. It's allegiance to the beast. You will worship him.
No, I won't. Boom, they're killed for it.
So it's referencing these two groups of people.
And it says these groups together are given authority,
and they reign with Christ during the thousand-year millennial kingdom.
Now this whole idea of the first resurrection, it says this is the first resurrection.
In Daniel chapter 12, verse 2, it's indicated to us there that everybody will be resurrected.
Everybody that has ever lived will be resurrected.
But not all are going to be resurrected to the same fate.
This first resurrection here is a resurrection of believers.
The second resurrection that we're going to see in verses 12 through 13
is all the nonbelievers of all time resurrected to their final judgment.
But this first resurrection, this resurrection of believers,
I believe is something that takes place in stages,
very similar to when we refer to the tribulation time as the Day of the Lord.
We're not referring to one 24-hour period.
We're referring to this time period where multiple things take place.
The Day of the Lord is this final seven years.
So when it's referring to the first resurrection here,
and it's including all of those who are blessed by this,
I believe it's referring to an event that has happened in multiple stages.
In 1 Corinthians 15-20, it tells us that Christ was raised from the dead,
the first fruit of those who have fallen asleep.
So when Jesus was resurrected, he started, in a sense,
paved the way for the first resurrection.
And then in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 16,
when we get to the rapture of the church, it tells us there that the dead in Christ will rise first.
And then those of us who are alive and remain will rise and meet them in the air.
So those that have believed in Jesus Christ through all time up to the rapture,
he resurrects them.
And they participate in the rapture and the taking up to heaven.
These are the people that are already sitting on the thrones, the church.
And then he says, then there are believers who died during the tribulation are resurrected.
I believe Jesus, who paved the way, the church at the rapture of the church,
the dead that were raised there, and then those that are resurrected that died during tribulation period,
I believe all these three groups are a part of this first resurrection.
And it says they are blessed and holy because the second death,
which is the great white throne judgment, the final judgment, the eternal judgment,
holds no power over them. They're saved. They're redeemed.
They're going to be in an eternal state forever with God.
So the first and second resurrection, there are events that are separated by the entire end times
tribulation period in the millennial kingdom.
So you have the first resurrection started with Jesus, you have the rapture of the church,
you have the tribulation period, you have the resurrection of the tribulation saints,
then you have the millennial kingdom, and then you have the second resurrection we're going to read about
in the latter part of chapter 20.
The first resurrection taking part as part of the day of the Lord and the whole tribulation time,
and then the second resurrection taking place at the very end of all things.
So that was a lot of info. I hope that made sense.
Okay? Praise God for YouTube. You can go back and watch it again if you need to cover some of it.
But we're going to cover more of this next time as we get into the rest of chapter 20.
But I wanted to start with a foundation of the millennium and really a foundation of what we believe here at Hosanna.
Again, if you have a different interpretation, you are still welcome to fellowship with us here at Hosanna.
Your interpretation, my interpretation of the millennium is not a salvational issue,
and it is not something for us to divide over.
But we're also called to be able to have dialogue and discussion about that civilly and with love.
But I wanted to give you guys a foundation of where I'm coming from.
But regardless, I just want to end today with a couple of applicational thoughts here
to take this information with us and really let it change the way we think and the way we live
and the way we do business and raise our families and all of that.
So here's the first one. The kingdom that is coming should motivate us now.
Knowing what is to come should motivate us now.
Knowing it's coming, the Bible tells us we should be watchful.
Because this whole prophetic timeline, this whole prophetic calendar that is all the end time stuff
we've been studying through Revelation, it's coming.
And we need to be ready for it. Jesus said over and over and over, be watchful.
Be careful for the way you live, lest you not be in that place to receive what God has for you
as this whole thing starts to unfold and move forward.
We look at the earth today and we see that man rules this earth presently.
We really know most of it is being ruled by the prince of the power of the air
and the devil behind them, but man will not rule ultimately. Jesus Christ will.
All earthly kingdoms are temporary, so don't invest in them.
Don't put your entire identity in the earthly kingdoms and what the world has to offer
because it is temporary. Invest in the eternal kingdom.
Invest in the everlasting kingdom.
Lay up your treasures in heaven as the Bible tells us.
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and He'll take care of you.
That's how we're to live in this world today.
Yes, we're to be involved in this world, but we're to live for the next one.
And lastly, we have to understand that Satan will be bound, but he is not yet bound.
So be careful. Be careful.
Peter, in his writings, said that Satan is currently, in this age, roaming like a roaring lion
seeking whom he may devour.
Paul told us, don't be ignorant of Satan's devices.
Let that be true of you today.
Satan will one day be bound. Hallelujah, I can't wait.
But not yet. He is still active and he is still ready to pounce on your life if you let him.
So be wary. Be diligent. Be ready. Be studied. Be learned. Be prayed up.
Because today we have that enemy and he is actively deceiving and distracting and destroying.
And he doesn't want you to think about eternity. He doesn't want you to think about what's to come.
He doesn't want you to think about the future. He doesn't want you to think about what's next.
He just wants to get you caught up focusing on here and now and your problems and to dwell on yourself
and your wants and your desires and to say none of that matters.
And some of you are living your lives here today clearly without any concern about your standing before God.
Without any concern that one day you will stand before God Almighty.
You will face him. You will be facing eternity and you will be there with or without Jesus.
That is something you need to think about.
That is something you need to consider because without Jesus it is judgment. It is hell forever.
Satan is the father of lies and it says that he comes to steal and to kill and to destroy.
And that's what he wants in your life today.
But Jesus said I am the way. I am the truth and I am the life.
And while we're in this age of grace today, we're in this age of wrestling with our sin nature
and God is still doing miracles and God is still saving souls
and God is still setting free those who are addicted to drugs and alcohol and all kinds of things
and God is still doing wonderful works today.
And our call is to live in obedience to him, to shine the light of the gospel while we're looking forward to the kingdom come.
And I pray you guys do that.
I pray you would take what God is teaching us through Revelation here and share it with those.
Share it lovingly. Don't be obnoxious. Some people can be obnoxious.
Share it with them lovingly.
Let people know that you've come to know Jesus and you want them to experience everything you've experienced.
The salvation, the freedom, the forgiveness that is only found in Jesus Christ.
Let them know that God is holy and he is just and he's going to judge sin one day.
But right now, right now you can be free from that judgment, saved from that judgment through the blood of Jesus Christ.
And if you need to receive that today, all you need to do is pray in the quietness of your own heart.
God forgive me. Forgive me of my sin.
I know I've sinned against you. I know I've broken your law.
I know I deserve judgment.
But would you please forgive me?
And the Bible says when you do that, he forgives you.
No question.
He doesn't say, well until you've done 57 Hail Marys, we'll talk after that.
He doesn't say you need to, well your ledger is pretty full of bad things.
You need to go balance that out with a whole bunch of good works first.
He doesn't say that.
He says come to me as broken as you are and I will save you.
Call out to him for that today.
Let's pray.
Father, we love you so much.
God, we're so looking forward to this time, this coming Kingdom Lord.
It's going to be glorious.
God, it's just, it's a marvel to behold.
God, to be able to participate in a creation that is restored to how you originally made it.
Lord, if that's how things are going to pan out Lord, and it seems in your word,
that's exactly how it's going to pan out God, that's going to be glorious.
God, no more doctors and hospitals and pills Lord, because health will be restored.
God will have years and years and years to live, to experience you.
Lord, it's glorious.
But God, while we look forward to that day, I pray God that that day would motivate us now
to be people of the gospel, to be people who live in obedience.
Seriously, like not playing around with sin God, but turning from the enemy and turning from sin
and turning from disobedience and saying no, no, no, it's about Jesus.
You and you alone.
That God, we would stop making excuses for why we sin Lord,
you're taking away those excuses one at a time and you're ultimately going to take them all away.
We might as well just skip to that point and admit today Lord,
that we are fully and wholly responsible for our own sin and our own disobedience.
And God, we say forgive us, cleanse us.
And your word promises that when we confess our sins, you do just that.
Help us Lord to be people who glorify your name here and now on this earth
as we look forward to the rapture of the church.
We look forward to you dealing with sin once and for all.
We look forward to the coming kingdom where you rule in glory.
And we look forward to eternity Lord.
So continue to speak to us Lord and continue to help us look into your word
and be able to study and understand what it is saying that we would apply these things to our lives
and live according to your will.
We thank you Lord, we love you so much.
It's in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. Let's worship.