Well, Revelation 20. I'm not going to read it. I'm going to read it as we go through the chapter today, just to save time. It's probably the most challenging book or chapter in this entire book. And Revelation is one of those books that people in the church today tend to avoid preaching on because of the controversy that gets attached. I don't like that. I think that we need to be not afraid to deal with any passage, knowing that God has given us the word of God for our betterment and our knowledge. And so we are here. at this book and we're coming finally to the end of it. Throughout history, people have approached this book in so many different ways that it makes it more complex than it needs to be. So what I've been trying to do is walk a careful line where I try to challenge some of the different ways that people will approach this book and yet at the same time not make this an argument for my view of revelation, but rather that I also want to make a positive declaration of what the passage is actually just saying. Because it's designed, all of the book, as it says in the first chapter, that blessed are those who read this book and heed what it says And so there is a promise of God's divine blessing on those who will embrace what is the message of this book. So we want to know that so that we might be blessed of God. Now the reality is that this breaks down into three natural sections that will be my outline, and you'll hear that in just a moment. But the chapter itself, regardless of the many, many words that have been written about it, is not a difficult chapter to deal with if you simply let it say what it says. Don't try to spend a lot of time leaving the book of Revelation and saying, well, maybe it really means this or maybe it means that. If you just simply leave it alone and let the passage flow, it flows very natural. It flows with no complexity at all. And it states what it states. And so I have been making the suggestion to you, and it's a strong suggestion, that as you go through Revelation, instead of trying to make it more difficult than it is, to just simply let it say what it says, and you'll find that, by and large, you'll have less questions rather than more questions. And so, as I said earlier, I'm trying to walk this fine line of explaining the passage, but also answering some of the other ways that people will approach this book, and then they can end up causing you to go into a tailspin. The worst thing that I would say for any of you is that you walk away and you say, well, that's Pastor Matt's interpretation, this is so-and-so's interpretation. I don't really know, it doesn't really matter. I guess all that matters is that in the end, Christ wins. That would be a terrible takeaway. That would be lazy. You don't want to be that. You don't want to say, well, I don't know. It's too hard. I don't want to think about it. You need to think about it. This is God's Word. It's holy. It's pure. It converts the soul, it makes wise the simple. This is something that is not something that you say, well, I just don't really think it's important. If it's important enough for God to spend an entire book on, then it's important for us to really labor and work with what it's saying. Now along with this, it's important that you understand the chapter breaks are not something that was part of the original writing. And so there's a close connection between chapter 20 and chapter 19 because it really is one seamless message. If you remember from two weeks ago when I preached chapter 19, we saw that Jesus Christ returned. This was his second coming that the Bible talks about over and over again in the New Testament. It's talking about this blessed hope and that we are to live a life that is a holy life anticipating his return. And that too often today we don't think about the coming of Christ as the next great event. We tend to look backward at just the cross and what Christ did on the cross when he died and then rose again. But the Bible doesn't leave it there. He then promises that he will return to judge the living and the dead. And so that's the event, the big event in chapter 19. He comes again. And with that comes this destruction of Babylon, which in the end days becomes the center place for Satan's basically his center of worship and work with the entire world. And so we watch that in chapters 17 and 18 utterly be dismantled. and then the coming of the Lord. And then there was this great battle, the Battle of Armageddon. And again, this is something that all kinds of people want to know details about, yet the Bible doesn't give us many of those details. It's sufficient that these kings raise up an army and they go against Jesus Christ. He is there with his own army, but his army does not even involve itself in this war. Simply, Christ, with his word alone, destroys these people. Along with that, we have two key enemies that are cast into hell. The first was the Antichrist, and the second was the false prophet. Remember, there was that unholy trinity. Satan is called, in the book of Revelation, he's also called the dragon, and then the Antichrist is called the beast, and then a second beast, like him, is named the false prophet. And in that, you have this false trinity. And in that, two of them have now been dealt with. They have been cast alive into the pit. They are now in hell, and that is where they will remain forevermore. And we talked about how we shouldn't look at them as symbols. You don't cast a symbol alive into the hell. This is, in fact, two beings, two persons, and they are cast into there, and they are gonna be dealt with for all eternity in the wrath of God. But along with that, there's all kinds of additional details we could have gotten into, but they weren't in the passage itself. And I'm trying not to spend a lot of time going all around the Old and New Testament to show you how other passages interact. But what I'm asking you to do, and this is specific to the community groups, but obviously all of you should take advantage of this, I am not going to look up all the verses that I gave you in this sermon. I got 12 pages and there's no way we can do that in the time allotted. But I'm giving you these passages so that you can look them up in the context of where I place them in the sermon and read what it says. And so the assignment for the community groups this week is simply to sit down and assign everybody to read a passage, find out in the sermon where it is and what it's trying to say, and then just let these additional passages speak to that event. As I said, other things were happening when Christ returned that never is even spoken of right here in Revelation. I'm going to quickly make those points. At Jesus' return in chapter 19, that's when you and I, if we're dead, if we die, that's when we will be raised from the dead. All right, so even though it doesn't say it there, the Bible makes it clear that when Christ returns, the dead in Christ will arise from the grave, and then those who are still alive will also meet Christ in the air. It's very explicit, and it says that in 1 Corinthians 15. and 1 Thessalonians 4, so you can look at those. So we know that that's occurred, that when Christ came, if you were dead, you will be raised, and if you're still alive, you will then be changed in an instant, and the Bible describes what that's like in those passages. Another major event that occurs that it doesn't talk about here is the conversion of Israel. All of Israel will then be saved. For those of you who have been here a long time, you know when we went through the book of Romans, that Paul, who wrote the book of Romans, dealt with chapter 9, 10, and 11, and he was dealing with the nation of Israel. What do we do with this nation that is supposedly the people of God, and yet they reject Jesus Christ? And so he deals with all of that, and especially in chapter 11, he shows that right now they are hardened. God hardens their hearts so they don't believe, so that you and I, non-Jews, would believe and that we are then being brought in. But he says at the end all of Israel will ultimately be saved. And you can read about that in Zechariah 12 and Romans 11 and you can look at those passages. So at this point as Christ is descending Remember, there would be a big trumpet blast, and Christ will appear with his angels, and they will see them. Well, in Zechariah 12, it says that Israel will see the one whom they pierced, talking about his crucifixion, and they will mourn, they will repent, they will be broken, and they will believe. And so we have you and I being resurrected from the dead and changed, and Israel now coming to faith. So it'll be this massive conversion preparing for the kingdom of Jesus Christ. So all kinds of passages in the Old Testament speak to this and you will see them as you do your Bible reading and also some of the passages I'll mention in the rest of this sermon. This is where these passages talk about God returning Israel to himself And finally, there is peace. And the nations of the earth will come to Zion or Israel or Jerusalem, and there they will worship God. What's happening? It's all here in chapter 19 and 20. So now, in chapter 20, we find the final person of the unholy trinity, Satan, being dealt with. So the first two have been dealt with, and now he's gonna turn his attention to Satan, and he's gonna deal with him in two steps. Now, what I want you to notice as we go through here is that the way chapter 20 deals with these events is actually very interesting and helpful. He deals with them very quickly. There's all kinds of details in here that you and I, if you're thinking about it, probably want to know. But John doesn't give us it. He just deals with them very, very quickly and cleanly. In fact, he's gonna cover 1,000 years in just a few verses. And so we need to treat Revelation in that way. We need to accept that we don't want to take massive amounts of time trying to add a bunch of more information onto it. We should just let the speed of the passage speak for itself and allow it to come out. Now again, the challenge though is that since there are all There are so many different views on this. In some way I'm going to try to deal with it quickly and yet at the same time try to give you some answers if you are confused on this or if you got somebody else talking to you saying, well actually Pastor Matt's not right, there's a better understanding and let me be the one to tell you that better understanding. I want to present to you how I would respond to some of those ideas or arguments. In some way, pray for me as I do this sermon. Well, let's look at the first section, which is the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and I'll read for you verses one through six. And it is written, and I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him. For what purpose? So that he should not deceive the nations any longer. How long? Until the thousand years were completed. After these things, he must be released for a short time. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshipped the beast or his image and had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand. And 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 has part in the first resurrection. Over these, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years. So very clean, very simple. It's also very logical. You don't find a whole lot of symbolism going on here. You don't have strange kind of imagery, but you have some very powerful statements. The very first thing you see in verses one through three is what's called the binding of Satan. And you have this angel coming down from heaven. He has the key to the abyss. He has this great chain and he is the one, not God himself, but but the angel who binds Satan. And I want you just to think for a moment the pleasure this angel has in this task. What an enviable position for him to be able to be the one to do this. The angels have sat by and they've watched Satan do his evil since time began. They watched him deceive Eve into eating the fruit that was forbidden. They have seen him do time after time great evil. He is the one who entered into Judas so that he would betray their Lord and Savior. They were told that they were not allowed to come down to rescue their Lord and Savior Jesus, or their Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, though they could have if he had simply commanded them. They had to watch him die and be our sin bearer. They have dealt with this over and over again for thousands of years, and now, finally, one of them is said, go and bind him. And that is what is happening here. Now this binding, sadly, is an issue of great conflict. The question becomes, well, Satan is not a normal like a human, and so he's a spiritual creature. So how does a spiritual creature get bound with a chain? That makes no sense. But it shouldn't be. It's not that hard if you just let the words say what they say. Remember in chapter 9 verse 4 it talks about angel or fallen angels or demons having been bound as well. If God wants to bind a spiritual creature, he can bind a spiritual creature just as easily as he can bind you or I. That should not be difficult for any of you to grasp. God is God and everything else is his creature. And whether or not they're what we call a spiritual creature doesn't mean that they have no substance or that they have no ability to be, if you will, solid or anything else. If he wants to take anything and bind it, God can do it because it's his to do. So some will simply say, well, it's silly for you to say that a great chain is going to somehow be able to bind Satan. And my question to you is why? Why is that hard? Aside from the fact that you're dismissing it out of hand, you prove to me rather than me have to prove to you, because what does the text say the angel has in his hand? I'll just ask you that. It's a great chain. So it's not my job to prove to you there's a great chain. The Bible says there's a great chain. It's your job to say it's not really a chain. And I just leave it to you. You prove that it's not a chain, and so the text is not actually saying what it's saying. And then people will say this, so you're saying a literal chain can bind Satan? I'm like, whatever kind of chain binds Satan, yes. I'm not saying you're gonna go to Home Depot and find the chain that's on sale and say, well, it's Satan, so let's get like 100 feet of this. No, no, and it doesn't claim to be that. But whatever kind of chain binds Satan is the chain. And I'm completely content with that. At that point, you're not having to say, well, it can't mean that, it can't mean this. I'm just simply saying it's what it says, and I'm willing to accept that. It's interesting. They'll try to make it a symbolic image, but they'll make the angel literal. He's a real angel, a physical, literal angel, and that he's coming from a real heaven. And yet then they'll make the key not real, and maybe even the abyss not real, and the chain not real, but his hand is real. And so it's like, how do you do that? How do you switch from real to not real in a verse when there's no indications that they are? If he said something like this, having in his hand something like a key or something like a chain, then I could say, yeah, it's not a chain, it's something like it, that's the best. And John does that over and over again in the book of Revelation. Remember he said, I saw what was like a burning mountain coming from heaven and it went into the sea. So we know it wasn't a burning mountain. That's the best he could describe what he was seeing. So he's not afraid to give you imagery and tell you that it's just an image. But here he makes the blatant statement, it is a key and it's a great chain. What happens is that we assume he has no body and somehow he's more like some spirit, like a ghost, like a bad ghost or something and we can't bind him. But again, nothing in the scripture says that he can't. And certainly when God desires to bind or do anything, he can do as he wishes. So the easiest way is to accept it for what it says. And understand that doesn't reveal to us exactly how that works, but that's okay. We don't need to know all of that. We just need to know that he will be bound. Now, the other debate in this is when, or what kind of binding, and when will it occur? So, okay, let's just accept, let's not debate the chain. Let's just debate what does it mean to be bound? And again, all kinds of views on this. depending on your position on the millennium. Now, how long is the word millennium? What does that represent? It's a time. It's 1,000 years, exactly. Now, what word jumps out several times in chapters 20, verses one through six? 1,000 years. That's why we're talking about this thing called the millennium. You're like, I don't even know what that means. It just means 1,000. And there are different positions. There are people who say, well, I don't think it's an actual thousand years. I don't think at all. I think it's just talking about a long period of time. And that position is called the amillennial. The A says no millennium, no thousand years. Others will say, well, I don't think that Christ is gonna come again until at the end of the thousand years. And they'll interpret that different ways, but they're called post-millennial, because the coming of Christ will be at the end of the thousand years. And then there are those, like myself, who are called pre-millennial, and that is that Jesus Christ will come and then the thousand years. Now, why do I hold to that? Well, first of all, because Revelation just said it. In verse chapter 19 at the end, who came? I told you earlier, starts with a J. There you go. Jesus came, all right? So he came. And then right after he comes, what does he do for a certain length of time in chapter 20? He reigns for a thousand years. So we have Jesus's coming and then the reign, which is pre-millennial. Jesus comes before the thousand years. That's all it means. And don't allow somebody to get you all tied up in Nazis, all this other stuff. That's as simple of an explanation as I can give you. And that's why I'm premillennial. I'm just letting the flow of the text go. And if you're not going to hold to that, then what you end up doing is making all of these verses in chapters 19 and 20, really all of Revelation, simply not say what they're saying. And it's that simple, though people would not appreciate me saying it that simply. What they'll argue is that this binding of Satan actually happened when Jesus came his first time, when he was born, and then we saw him live, then the gospel talk about his miracles, his ultimate death and resurrection, all of that. The argument is that that's when the binding happened. And they'll say things like in Luke 10. Luke 10 is where the legion of demons, remember, that they are confronted by Jesus and they're terrified. And they say, don't cast us into the abyss. And he, remember, he cast them into the pigs, and then he run them over the cliff, and they all died. So there, people will say, well, see, that's what he's talking about. He's binding them. And that's all that it's talking about. We shouldn't think anything more than that. The problem is, Oh, no, no, no. Actually, that's the wrong one. This is the one where Jesus told his disciples when they were out casting the demons out, I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning. And so that the people say, see, that's where he was bound. See, he was cast out of heaven like lightning, he fell. and this is what's happening. The problem is, that's not what the text says. Nowhere does it say it's bound. But more important, nothing else in that passage parallels what Revelation 20 talks about. You're having to take a major leap of just simply him saying, I saw him fall from heaven, and then make that mean that he's been now bound on earth to not deceive the nations. In Revelation 12, it's the other place that most of them will go to, and I created up a little worksheet for you to work on as a group. In Revelation 12, 9, they claim that this is a parallel chapter to chapter 20. And so all I did for you is, in the first column of the notes, if you have them before you, is I just showed you each point that Revelation 12.9 says. It says he was removed from heaven by Michael and the angels, thrown down to the earth. He's deceiving the world, and it's for a short time. Now what your job is to take our passage, verses one through three, and mark down what it says there. And you're gonna find there's no parallel. They're completely, in fact, opposite of one another. But the biggest point that this position tries to make is that the binding is somehow only a limiting. Now listen to me, it's warm in here, don't fall asleep and get bored. When it says that he bound Satan for 1,000 years, Revelation 20 is very clear on what it says. But what is the counter argument is no, he's not actually put away someplace. He's not in the abyss, whatever that is. That would be silly. What he is is he's been curtailed or limited in what he can do. And the problem with that is that they usually will argue it this way, is that he is no longer able to resist the work of the church as they bring the gospel to the nations. And so what they try to make is that the focus is on Satan is no longer able to resist the spread of the gospel as the church goes with the gospel message. The problem with that is that that's not even in view in Revelation 20. It's not talking at all about Satan not deceiving or limiting the church. Who is he no longer deceiving any longer? It says in verse 3, the nations and you all know if you've been here for any length of time when the Bible talks about the nations he's not talking about the church or believers he's talking about unbelievers and sold what he is not able to deceive anymore is not you and I as a Christian but he's not able to deceive the non believer he is no longer that power at work it's that simple so What's the other view? What's the view I hold? The other view is this is actually a binding that's a yet future event at the coming of Jesus Christ. The purpose of the binding of verses one through three is more than merely preventing the gospel from spreading. By putting him in what's called the abyss or another, and it's not hell, he's put in the abyss and the book of Revelation describes that as an actual place that functions like a prison And the purpose of that is more than keeping the gospel from spreading. He is effectively shut off from all of humanity. And this is where the other passage I got messed up on. In Luke 8, the demons were confronted, the legion of demons were confronted, and they're like, don't send us to the abyss, please, don't, don't. They understood that that is an actual place, and they didn't want to be sent there. So the demons actually are better at understanding this idea than many people in the church today. They actually treat the idea of the abyss as a real place that Jesus can send them to. And yet we will take the same idea of the abyss in the Bible and make it not actually be what it says. They have genuine fear. There's no sense of reducing. It's not like, well, we're not gonna be able to deceive people as good anymore. No, they knew that they were gonna go away if he sent them to the abyss. So this entire imagery in verses one through three is not simply restraining or slowing down Satan in some way. It is a complete removal from earth. So I'm gonna just shout out really quickly a few things that Satan is doing right now. And then I want you to actually take the time to look up all of these other passages. I want you to see how many passages there are that will just simply tell you, this is what Satan is doing. And what I want you to do as a group at the end of it is ask yourself, How can I in any way say Satan has been hindered or slowed down if all of these things are actually happening to this day by Satan? In Luke 22, it talks about Satan entering Judas and tempting Peter to sin. In Acts chapter five, Satan is the one who stirred Ananias up to lie. In 2 Corinthians 12, Satan is the one who sends either someone or something. We don't know what it is. It's that messenger of Satan to Buffet Paul. It's that thorn in the flesh. We're not quite sure what it is, but it was Satan who is the one who's doing it to Paul, and Paul understands it comes from Satan. Here's a killer one for people who say, well, it's just keeping, what's happening is Satan is no longer able to resist the spread of the gospel. Well, in 1 Thessalonians 2.18, Paul says, I have tried to come to you on several occasions, but Satan thwarted me, he hindered me. So if Satan is not able to hinder, how is Paul saying that he's hindering them? That's the question you have to ask. And so look up all these other passages, and you're gonna find that Satan is alive and well today, and he is very active in the act of both resisting the church, but also affecting the thoughts and lives of unbelievers. In fact, Paul says that he actively blinds the eyes of non-Christians that they might not see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is actively blinding them. And all of that cannot be true if you're gonna say that somehow he's been bound right now and he's not able to do these things. So all of that is how do you say he's bound in any reasonable way unless you're gonna take revelation for its word. And then finally, we come to this idea of the thousand years. Again, unfortunately, it's a hotly debated issue. In the amillennial and postmillennial view, remember that there is no thousand years or Jesus will come at the end of the thousand years. They basically land one of two ways. The first way is, well, a thousand years actually is symbolic of a long time. It's undefined. We don't know what time it is. Even though the Bible says it's a thousand, the interpreter says, well, yeah, but that doesn't mean a thousand. It means a long time. In fact, here's an actual quote from a commentary. that it's an ideal or complete time. This comes from combining the numbers seven and three, which are sacred. And when combined means holy perfection. And then when it's cubed, that means it now becomes a thousand. It simply means absolute completeness. There you go. It was that simple. All you needed to know is your math. and you needed to arbitrarily take the number three and the number seven, and then you put them together, and then you cube them, and that comes up with a thousand, and that tells you all you need to know about how long this is. If you think I'm mocking that, I am. If you're not sure, I am. It deserves to be mocked. There is no basis to come to that conclusion. Nothing in that text would indicate that you would just randomly draw those and then start adding or subtracting or cubing them or whatever else. The argument is generally that the book is filled with symbols. and therefore we should take this as symbol. The problem is the Bible, the book is filled with symbols, but it's also filled with a lot of just literal actions. So what is the basis for you to decide this is a symbolic one and not elsewhere? What's interesting is people will do this, and this is actually how I deal with it myself, for those of you who are wondering. I will just, when they say, well, I don't think that's what it means, I will ask them, look, just help me out here. Do you think that the 1,000 years actually means 1,000 years or not? And they'll usually not answer that. What they'll try to do is say, well, you need to understand. No, I don't need to understand. I know all of that. I just want you to tell me, is it 1,000 years or no? No, all right, then we're just not gonna agree. We're not gonna agree, not for any other reason than you have chosen to take a word and a number and a statement, and you have said it doesn't say what it means, but the only way you can do that is by immediately going out of Revelation and into other books. And this is what they'll usually do. The two passages that ever talk about the phrase thousand years are in Psalm 90 and 2 Peter 3.8. And they'll try to take you there and say, see, we shouldn't take it literally. The problem is when you read those verses, they're actually being treated literally. They're saying that for God, who is timeless, what is a thousand years? He means a literal thousand years, but what is it to him? And the Bible writer says, it's like a day. So he's treating it as a literal day and a literal thousand years, but that's not even his point. He's not trying to give you the hint. When Peter was writing 2 Peter 3.8, he wasn't like, and here is the hermeneutical or interpretational key to Revelation 20. I am gonna unlock for you a book that I'm not gonna write. And I'm going to let you now be able to unlock the meaning of that book by giving you this verse. There's no way you can come up with that thought pattern and be reasonable. Now, again, you want to disagree with me, fine, but that's what you're going to get from me is you proved to me that Peter was trying to show you the hermeneutical key to unlocking the meaning of Revelation 20. All he is saying is a real thousand years is just like a real day to the Lord. And the point that he's making is God stands outside time. Time means nothing to him. But that doesn't mean there's time, not time. Time is something you and I function in. And so even though those are the passages they'll do, they'll go to other places, they'll say like the cattle on the hills of 1,000 hills are the Lord's and they'll say, well, are you only saying then that only 1,000 hills are God's and everyone, what about the rest? And they don't look at the whole passage and realize that's not the point of it either. Actually, if you look at passages like that, it's very clear that what he's saying is that it all belongs to God. When we look at this number in Revelation 20, six times it's used, and each time with great emphasis and very specific. But notice also at the end of verse three, if John is trying to say that it's a vague long time, then why does he choose to use a vague short time? All right, he has no problem saying, he will be released for a short time. If he wants to, why doesn't he say he will be released for one day? Because then we could say, well, that just means a short time. But he uses the vague term short time. There is nothing wrong or hard for John to say a long time as well. So from here, in verses four through six, we have this resurrection, which is so huge. You have these thrones, it says. And the question is, who are they on those thrones? Because it says, and they sat upon them. And it's like, who are they? And it's not really clear. It could be angels. It could even be the apostles. And there's passages that could point to that. I think that they are the resurrected saints. You and I, when we are raised from the dead and we co-reign, with Jesus Christ. Again, it doesn't get into those details here, but elsewhere in the Bible it talks about how the church will reign with Jesus Christ. Actually, it does later on in this chapter too. But here again is where it gets frustrating. What does the word resurrection mean in this chapter? And the answer is a befuddling Two different meanings. It uses resurrection in two different ways is the answer. And I disagree with it. The idea is this. In verse four, it talks about they came to life. And they talk about the first resurrection. So what is being meant by that? What does it mean to come to life and this first resurrection? One position says it's symbolic. Again, it doesn't mean an actual resurrection. What it's talking about is your new birth or your regeneration. So for all those of you that don't know what that means, there comes a point when you're not a Christian, your heart is, the Bible says you're dead in sin, and then what the Spirit of God does is it changes you. And where you once didn't believe, now you believe, and you're made alive. Your heart is changed. And when you used to reject the good news that Jesus is the source of salvation and life, but now you believe it. Why? Why do you believe it? Because you're smart? No. Because God has done a work in your life, and he's changed your heart. And that's called the regeneration, or the new birth that comes to everyone who becomes a Christian. And what the people will say is, that's the first resurrection, is that you're changed, your heart is changed, and you're made alive in Jesus Christ. Why do they do that? Well, I'll tell you actually why they do it. The reason they do it is that if they're gonna make it an actual resurrection, then it has to be something that's happened, will happen in the future. That's the only reason why, ultimately. If they accept that it's what it says, that it was a resurrection, a literal resurrection coming from death into life and being changed like the Bible describes it, then it has to be something yet future. And since they don't believe that because none of this is future, it's all already happened, then they have to say, well, then what does it mean? Because it can't mean that. Not because the text makes it that way, but because their theology and the way they're interpreting it makes it that way. And so they say, well, it means that we are made alive by the Spirit of God in church. Not in church, in Christ, forgive me. However, I would argue that it's a lot easier for you to just let it be what it says, a resurrection from physical death into physical life. In fact, every time the New Testament uses the phrase to live, every time, not sometimes, every time, it's in connection to a physical death and a physical life. Nowhere does it use it symbolically. It's also very clearly connected to the martyrs of the tribulation. That that means that there's little actual time of tribulation as the other views hold. This is a very limited time. I want you to just look at verse four, and I'm just gonna throw out questions. I'll answer them quickly, but you can see them as well. Notice the flow. The souls were faithful to whom? These were souls that he sees. They were faithful, it says, because of the testimony of Jesus. So they were being faithful to Jesus Christ. These are the souls that are raised. What did they refuse to do? Two different things. They refused to worship the beast. and they also held to the testimony of Jesus. So what did they refuse to do? They didn't take the mark or worship the beast, and they also were faithful to the testimony of Jesus. What did these things then tell you about? If you were to describe these people, what word would you use to say they are? Well, they're faithful, but there's another easier word that we all use. Yeah, they're Christians. They believe in Jesus Christ. They follow Jesus Christ, they obey Jesus Christ. What do you call that? You call them a Christian. So if you're gonna be a Christian, have you been born again? Yes or no? Yes. Can you be a Christian and not be regenerated? All right, so he's describing these people have died. We've accepted that they believed in Jesus, they didn't take the mark, so they're Christians, so they're already born again, and now, after all of that, what do they have happen to them? They're raised from the dead. So if you're gonna say that they were resurrected, and that really means a new birth, then you're confusing the whole order. Somehow they were Christians who died, and then later were raised from the dead, and that's where they got their new birth. It just doesn't hold to the flow of what the text is saying. Might I also simply say it this way, 42 times in the New Testament, resurrection is used. 42 times. And it always means a physical resurrection from the dead, every time. So why would you come here and immediately say, this resurrection, the first one, is a spiritual one. It is, we are being born again and we believe in Jesus. Worse yet, we're gonna look at a second resurrection in this chapter, and those same people will say, that's an actual resurrection. And you're like, what? How do you say the first resurrection is not a resurrection, but the second resurrection is a resurrection? How do you do that? How do you just make that random decision? And in the text, you can't do it. So, what you have here, is that Christ returns, and in that return, he raises all who are his, and in all of that, he establishes his millennium reign, the thousand year reign. And so that's what you have in verses one through six is this promise that he made that he would return and that he would reign on earth. And the Bible is filled with passages that talk about this event. Again, time won't allow us to deal with them, but I'm gonna just spit off some and then you should look them up on your own. There are many passages where it talks where the nations will come to Israel and worship the Lord. But it also is in that same passage saying that there is still sin on the world. So that can't be talking about heaven or eternity. It has to be someplace before the new heavens and earth. And that's what Isaiah 65 talks about, that people will live extraordinarily long lives, but some of them will be accursed, which is they will be cursed by God. They will not be believers. You see it again in Zechariah. That's such an important book. But what you have here is this wonderful message that Jesus will reign in perfection, and He will do so from Jerusalem, and His church, you and I, will be reigning with Him. Notice that at the very end of this. that he said the second death will have no power in verse 6 in the halfway through it and they who are they they are us they will be a priest of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years that is your lot that is what you get for being mocked today as a Christian and being hated and having people laugh at you and reject you and ignore you. His promise is that in that day when Christ returns and you're changed and resurrected, you will be reigning with your Lord alongside Him for a thousand years. Then we have the judgment of Satan, in verses seven through 10. And when the thousand years, again, are completed, an event happens. Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war. The number of them is like the sand of the seashore. And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, that would be just Jerusalem, So noticing they're surrounding the saints and the beloved city and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are also. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. So now we come to the end of the thousand years. So Christ has reigned, you and I have reigned with him, all kinds of cool stuff there that we can't look at. And now it comes to the end and Satan is released. Notice he's not escaping. God lets him out. Why? Because God's not done with him yet. He's got some more things to accomplish with him. And immediately, what happens is he goes and does what his nature is. He is a liar. And he deceives the nations. And immediately upon deceiving the nations, the world comes alongside him as a whole, and they gather up to go against Christ at Jerusalem. Now again, here is the reality. There's no way to make the beloved city something else. The beloved city always has a reference to Jerusalem. And so all of the city is surrounded, and there is our Lord, there we are, having been raised, and now he has amassed this big army. What it tells you is a lot about who Satan is, that there's no repentance. A thousand years he's bound, he has no power, and he doesn't repent because it's not in his heart to repent. He just becomes what he is, more and more evil and vile. But we also see some other things. A lot of people to this day will blame Satan for what they do, right? You'll hear it. Back when I was young, there was this comedian called Flip Wilson. Most of you don't even know who he is. But he had this whole comedy routine about the devil made him do it. And you will listen, if you do any kind of counseling with people, you will be amazed at how often they will blame Satan. They'll blame the drugs, they'll blame the alcohol, they'll blame this, they'll blame that. They blame everything but their own self. But Satan is a common one. But by removing him for a thousand years, with Christ reigning on the earth in perfection, the heart of sin is still so wicked that people will not repent. That's the hard reality. And so that when Satan is let out, immediately they go to the one whom they yearn for. And it's not Jesus Christ. They yearn for one who will whisper in their ear and tell them what they want to hear. And the world flocks around him and they seek to destroy Christ. Ultimately then, the second lesson I pull from this is that the heart of mankind is so wicked that it truly deceives you to the utmost. You can literally live on earth with the blessings of Jesus Christ as the earthly ruler right there. He is ruling in perfection. No more junk from Washington, D.C., no more lies from Madison or all the other things we endure. It is perfection on earth where Christ reigns with truth. And yet, given the chance, you hear the lie, you believe the lie. Unless you have been redeemed and changed, you have no hope because your heart will deceive itself. So here, we have Satan released, and we have this reference to this Gog and Magog, and everyone wants to know who is it. Back when I was young, people said it's Russia, and it's this and that. We don't know who it is, because it doesn't tell us who it is, so let's just accept it that we don't know. But we do know that it, this is a fancy word, but it's set in apposition, not opposition, but apposition to the statement, nations which are in the four corners of the earth. And as a result of that, I think the best way to see is that the Gog and Magog are not specific nations, but it's representative of all the nations. From the four corners of the earth, they come and they gather to go against Christ because they hate him. But what we have here is a statement of the final battle. This is a battle that is of huge proportion, and you're expecting, again, this great big fight, but there is no fight. They gather, they line up, they're surrounding the city, and then where does the fire come from? It comes from heaven. Again, this is not the same battle as in Revelation 19 where it's his voice, his word that destroys this army. This is all of humanity has now arrayed themselves who are not believers. They've arrayed themselves against Jesus Christ and out of heaven comes this big old thing of fire and it's all done. That's the fight, no fight at all. It's almost disappointing in that sense. So you have an innumerable number of people Fire comes and it's done. And you can read about this more specifically in these couple of places in Isaiah and Jeremiah. But for me, I look at that and I'm encouraged. I'm encouraged because Yahweh reigns. Our Lord and God is the sovereign one and he's not intimidated. He's not intimidated by anything. He's not impressed by anything. With the simplest of ease, he looks at all of humanity, which he holds together by his own power. He looks at Satan and he just says, you're done. and a fire comes, and they're devoured, and the end is now there. It says that he takes Satan, and he casts him into the lake of fire. This is where the antichrist is already, the false prophet, and now Satan. Here's another thing. Remember last time I preached that people tried to say that the antichrist is not an actual person, and the false prophet is not an actual person. They're just concepts. but they're cast into the lake of fire alive. And I challenged, I said, how do you take a concept and throw it alive into the lake of fire? But also I want you to notice that is Satan a concept? No, he's a person. And the same people who try to spiritualize the antichrist and the false prophet, then make Satan literal. And I'm like, why? If you're gonna make them concepts, then let's just stop pretending Satan is a real being, and let's just call him evil. Let's just call him the concept of evil or something. And they're not going to because they're gonna treat him as the Bible treats him, as a real creature. And that's what happens as he's cast and now the whole unholy trinity is gone, it's banished. And it's good. You know, what I like about this, though, is how casual it is. There's no big battle, right? At the beginning of the chapter, an angel comes down, and when God says it's time to bind him, the angel grabs him and binds him, and it's done. And now, at the end of this chapter, we see the end of Satan, and he's just cast away, so casual. You and I, we can become terrified of him. We keep thinking he's up to this and that, and we keep finding him around every corner, and he's intimidating. God looks at him and says, He's my toy, and I'll use him for my purposes, and when I'm done with him, I'm done with him and he'll go away. And so he's passed into this place called the Lake of Fire. It's a place of torment, of torture, of great distress, and it speaks of the level of hatred God has for sin. And so for everyone in this room right now who is a Christian, this is a word about your salvation again, right? Because you were saved from the wrath of God and the lake of fire is the essence of his wrath. For all eternity, anyone in this room who is not in Jesus Christ, who is not saved by him, that will be your end. That will be your life for all eternity. But the great message of the good news of Jesus Christ is in Christ you can be saved from that. So really what you have is this is where these will be your companions, the Antichrist, the false prophet, and Satan, and you, apart from Jesus Christ, for all eternity. And yet Christ bearing our sins, taking it away, taking our death, taking our judgment, giving us his righteousness, makes us safe from that message. And then we come to the last part. We have this white throne judgment. Let me read it. And I saw in verse 11, I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it from whom the presence of earth and heaven fled away and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead. That's who the them are. I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. And books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it. And the death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them. And they were judged, every one of them, according to their deeds. And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. If you notice, the lake of fire comes up a lot here. This is the second resurrection. This is the final judgment also. It's called the white throne judgment. But this is where God now resurrects everyone else who are not believers. They've been waiting for this time of judgment and he brings them all alive. All of these humans have been destroyed by the fire of God on earth. And now what happens is all of heaven and earth flees from them. In other words, what it's describing is the only thing they have to look at is God on his throne. So all of you in this room who have spent your life telling me or your mom or dad or your husband or wife, I don't think there's a God or I don't think of that, that's fine. You can believe whatever you want, but on that day, that's all you're gonna be looking at. You don't get to look at anything else but the throne of God and the one who has made you. And now you are held accountable for this. It's described as a great throne because it's important. It's called the White Throne likely because of a symbol of purity. And the idea of the throne is the judgment of God. It's a place where God will judge all who are his enemies. So it's an amazing picture, but it's also a frightening one, as you see all of, I mean, basically everything else fades to black. It's just gone, and you're just there, all by yourself, before God. In some way, if I could get this to burn into mom and dad's hearts, that you might weep and have a burden for your children, for grandmas and grandpas to have a burden for your little ones. that you might be faithful to surround your children in the gospel, raise them up. Some of you were saved later in your life and you never had somebody when you were little. Some of you were like me where I was fortunate to be brought into the first generation Christian home. But my mom and dad raised me with the gospel from my earliest of days. Would you know and understand what this is saying? This is your call, mom and dads, to point your children one to the wrath and then two, to the means of salvation in Jesus. So everyone's raised and they're judged, but notice the basis of their judgment. It's their deeds. So these books are opened and laid out before you will be everything you ever did. So again, you say, well, I don't think I'm that bad a person. Well, good for you. You're not gonna be judged on how you think of yourself, and you're not gonna be judged on how good you are in relationship to me. You will be judged purely upon what you did or did not do. And that's not just, the Bible doesn't say just the actions. He says that your every word will be used against you. So every time you were using God as a joke, every time that you sat there and thought you were sounding really, really smart when you talked about why you don't think there's a God, or every time you sat there and said things like this, whether out loud or in your mind, well, if there was a God, he would do this, as if God has to obey you. Every one of those things. Every time you lied. Every time you stole. Every time you hated. Every time anything. Beloved, can you hear me? You will not have any of them forgotten. He will lay it all out in front of you. And it will be guilty. This is not the judgment for the believers. This is the judgment for the non-believer. And so knowing that there are non-Christians in this room, I just simply appeal to you. You have nowhere to hide. You can't even give an explanation because it's your own words laid out right in front of you, condemning you. And then he says that as you are found guilty, you're cast into the lake of fire. And then he takes death and Hades, or hell, and he casts them into the fire. And this is where people say, well, see, these are not people, and yet they're cast into the lake of fire. How's that work? And my answer is simple. I don't really know, but I can give you a couple of explanations that help. The first is that we don't wanna make hell merely symbolic. It's an actual place, because the Bible's filled with it, and you can look up those verses below. But hell or Hades is an actual place. The Bible makes it clear that when you die right now, you go to Hades if you're not a Christian. And that's a holding place for you until the final judgment, then you'll go to hell or the lake of fire. If you didn't know that, that's how it works. You go to Hades, that's where you're kept until hell is open for business and that's at the end. And so Hades is an actual place that's now swallowed up in the lake of fire. It just becomes like one place, if you will. And then when you say, well, how about death? How does it get cast into the lake of fire? Well, I would argue it this way. Death is inextricably linked to Satan and sin. All of that's gone. Satan has been cast into hell. All of sinners are cast into hell. So all aspects of what sin can be are now where? in the lake of fire. And so the fruit of sin is death. And so where is death? It's in hell. Because there's no place on earth now for it to be because no longer does sin exist in this realm. It's now been cast away. And so that's how I would explain it. I think it's reasonable. But more importantly is this, what you have now is in this quick flow of the text, you've watched Christ reign for a thousand years, he's resurrected his people, you, you've reigned with him, he's now bound Satan, released him, judged Satan, cast him into hell, and now has judged all unbelievers and cast them into hell. And what chapters 21 and 22 will then talk about is the hope of every Christian. He spends a very little time talking about this reign. and two whole chapters on what your hope is, and that is when He makes all things new. when the new heavens and earth and sin and death are gone, and we get a glimpse of that for the next couple of weeks as we look at what is heaven. So that's chapter 20. I hope I was helpful. I hope I was able to maybe answer some questions that you have, but I want you to walk away without grasp that Christ is unimpressed. No one is afraid of Satan. He is merely a pawn for the purposes of God, and that all those who have hope in Jesus Christ do not need to fear anything that's in this chapter.