Welcome to our service and at this point we’re going to take our copy of God’s Word, and that will take us to Revelation 20. This is Palm Sunday and I thought about speaking on that subject and yet we’re in a series called Things to Come, a series on the great turning points of biblical prophecy, and here we are just in the scheme of things looking at what’s called the millennial kingdom. If that’s foreign to you, the word millennium is a Latin term that means a thousand years.
According to the passage we are about to read, the Bible holds out the prospect that Jesus will return in victory and triumph from heaven, having been raised from the dead and ascended to the right hand of God. He’s going to come back and take planet Earth back, and all the mismanagement and the wickedness and the sorrow and the death that marks this world will be removed and His kingdom will be established. And I thought what didn’t happen the first time when he entered that city of Jerusalem will happen the second time, so that’s why I decided just to carry on, at least for this Sunday in our series. It’s a message called peace at last, Revelation 20:1-10, and follow along as you read God’s Word together.
“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old who is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. He cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal on him so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished, but after these things he must be released for a little while. I saw thrones and they sat on them and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the Word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. They lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.”
“Happy or holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years. Now when the thousand years had expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city.” That’s the city of Jerusalem. “And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”
What are we to make of such a passage? Well, I will try and help you understand Revelation 20:1-10. Long before it had studios, boulevards and stars on the pavement, Hollywood was a valley of fruit trees. That’s until 1885 when a couple from the Midwest bought 160 acres of that part of California. Daeida Wilcox and her husband decided they wanted to create a new city, far different from any old city; a Christian utopia, Hollywood. That’s what they set out to build, a Christian utopia, Hollywood. They wanted a city that was free from alcohol and guns and gambling and prostitution. It didn’t last.
It’s hard to believe that Hollywood in its presence state started out as a Christian utopia city. But saloons soon opened. Then you had the roaring 1920s, which brought success and vice to Hollywood. And then alongside of that, in 1910, the first movie studio was opened and, as they say, the rest is history as Hollywood became the birthplace of the biggest movie industry in the world. Although the Christian utopia Hollywood was gone, Hollywood decided to produce its own version of utopia, and that would be the happy ending that you’ll find in many of its movies. Truman opens the door and finds freedom. Luke destroys the Death Star. Bridget gets her man and Nemo is fine. All is well with the world. There’s no Christian utopia Hollywood, but Hollywood’s got its own version and we lap it up because everybody likes a happy ending. Because we each long for that in life and in our life.
Since the fall of man, the heart of man has longed for heaven on earth. The heart of man has dreamed of a utopia, a once upon a time world where everything is right, a world void of sickness, a world without war, a society made up of a brotherhood of nations, a time when the proverbial lion will lie down with the lamb and the swords of men will be beaten to plowshares. That has been the dream of man since time immemorial. The Irish poet Oscar Wilde, no stranger to misery, he wrote once, quote, “A map of the modern world that does not include utopia is not worth glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which humanity is always landing.”
Man has dreamed for and desired after utopia. Can I tell you why? Because you and I are displaced persons. A lot of talk today about displaced persons. War drives people out of their homes and they become displaced. They become exiles, but every human being is a displaced person according to C.S. Lewis. What he means is that we as men and women once lived in a utopia. Anybody know its name? Eden. A Garden made by God for man to walk in the cool of the day in the presence of God and enjoy God’s goodness and kindness and bounty. The once upon a time story is part of our story and we want it back. We’re haunted by the memories of a former state of great happiness. We instinctively know that the world that now is, is not the world that once was, and we want it back.
There was a better time. There was a kinder world. We know that the world needs a restart. The world needs a reboot. There are those who talk today about a global reset. The world needs a new beginning. I would advocate as a minister of the gospel that that can only come from the God who was there in the beginning, who made us for His glory, who made all things for us to enjoy, but man spoiled it in an act of rebellion and sin against his maker. But God has set out to remake the world that we have ruined, a fallen world, through the promise of Jesus Christ in the gospel.
Jeff Kinley in his book on Revelation says this, “The only true global resetter is God. Only the creator can be the re-creator. Only the one who set the world in motion can reset it back to its original condition.” What we have before us in Revelation 20:1-10 is one passage of many where we are reminded that God will remake the world. And that will happen when Jesus comes back. It’s a Christian conviction, my friend, that Jesus is coming back. He has come and He will come again. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and He’s seated at the right hand of God, and someday He’s coming back to take the world that’s His, and He’s going to rule it in righteousness, and He’s going to restore God’s glory and the knowledge of God will fill the earth as the waters fill the sea.
There’s this great utopian vision in the Bible, but man doesn’t bring it. Politics don’t bring it. You can’t buy it. It’s a gift from God, and it will come when Jesus returns. Remember He taught us to pray. You’ve recited it in your days of school or at home or at church. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as is in heaven. Someday Jesus is going to answer the prayer he taught us to pray. His kingdom’s going to come. See, the kingdom comes when the King comes. You can’t have a kingdom without a king, and the King is coming, and He’s going to set up a thousand-year reign. There will be peace at last. There are many passages either side of your Bible, in the Old and New Testament, that anticipate this glorious manifestation. In Psalm 2, we have the promise that God will set his King on his holy hill in Zion. The same passage tells us that God will give to Jesus Christ, His son, the nations as an inheritance.
If you read Isaiah 2, 11, 35, 60, you’re going to get ideas like this. Someday man will beat their swords into plowshares and they will learn war no more. That day hasn’t come, my friend, if you haven’t noticed. Lions will lie down with lambs. There will be environmental harmony. The knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth as the waters fill the sea. The deserts of Israel will blossom. There will be streams in the desert. In fact, there’s a verse in Isaiah that says the little one will be a thousand. And then you come to Luke 1:31-33 in the New Testament where we’re told that the one who has come will come again and he will sit on the throne of his father David and rule the nation of Israel and the nations. Acts 3:19, Acts 3:21 talks about times of refreshing and restoration. There’s going to be a great reset, and God’s going to bring it about through the person of His son, Jesus Christ.
Now let’s come and look at Revelation 20:1-10. We’re going to look at it this morning and then after Easter. The text in its context. Well, if you take a simple and straightforward reading of the text, it yields an outline of prophetic events that has the second coming of Christ following great tribulation on earth, the marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven and the battle of Armageddon. If you just read it simply, sequentially and straightforwardly, it also yields an outline of prophetic events that has a 1000-year reign of Christ, the judgment of the unsaved dead at the great white throne, and then the creation of a new heaven and earth following Christ’s second coming. That’s how I read it, and I’ll make further arguments for that as we go along.
Now, there’s five things we’re going to look at in the text. There’s the removal. That is the removal of Satan. He’s bound for a thousand years. There’s the resurrection of the tribulation. Saints who were martyred, who did not buy the need to the Antichrist or his empire. There’s the reign. Those who are resurrected will reign with Christ for a thousand years. I take that to be literal, and I’ll make an argument for that before we’re done. Then there’s release, which is a challenging thing. Why would God bind Satan and then release Satan? We’ll answer that. And then there’s the rebellion that God puts down at the end of the thousand-year reign. There’s five things we’re going to look at: the removal, the resurrection, the reign, the release, the rebellion. But we’re not going to look at them this morning. You’re going to have to come back.
That’s terrible, isn’t it? That’s like offering your kid a lollipop and you’re about to lick it and you pull it back. But here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to answer a question. It may not be the primary question in your mind this morning, but it’s an important one and since we’re in this passage, we can’t avoid it. I’m going to answer the question why I am a premillennialist. Now in this series, we have already answered a very big question, why I am a pre-tribulationist. We believe here at Kindred Community Church that the church has a distinct destiny. When set against Israel, the church is not Israel. We believe that the church will escape a time called Jacob’s Trouble and we give several arguments for that on an acrostic entitled PRETRIB; the place of the church in Revelation, the rapture before the tribulation versus the return after the tribulation, exemption from divine wrath, the teaching of the epistles and the absence of preparation for great tribulation, the removal of the restrainer, the doctrine of immanency, and the blessed hope. You can find that message if you missed it.
But I want to now answer the question why I am a premillennialist. Now, there are several choices when it comes to our understanding of what’s called the millennial kingdom. The millennium is simply a Latin term that means a thousand years, and there are basically three options. We could get more nuance, but the three big pots or columns is postmillenialism, premillennialism, and amillennialism. There are many Protestants and evangelical believers that hold these positions in good faith. It’s the conviction of a body of godly men here at Kindred, our elders, that we have settled on the premillennial conviction.
But let me explain ever so briefly, and this deserves much more, but postmillennialism is as it hints, Jesus’ return will come post, after the millennium. So postmillennialism is this idea that the thousand years represents not a specific period of a thousand years, but a period of time during which as the gospel is preached, as the church fulfills the great commission, as people come to faith in Jesus Christ and bow the knee to His Lordship and He reigns in their lives, that the gospel will triumph leading up to the second coming. We’ll see a great time of reformation and revival through the preaching of the gospel. And when that happens, that indistinct period of time, not a literal millennium, where the church preaches the gospel and Jesus triumphs in people’s lives, Jesus will return postmillennially.
Then you’ve got amillennialism. This is a made up of two Latin terms. It means no millennium. This is a view that says there is no millennium, that there’s no literal reign of Christ on earth. The millennial reign of Christ is reduced to a spiritual reign of Christ in the human heart. They don’t have the same emphasis as postmillennialism on the triumph of the gospel. This reign will either be over those on the earth that have put their trust in God or those in heaven who are now glorified. But like postmillennialism, amillennialism teaches that Revelation 20 is not to be taken in any literal sense. And in both cases, the promises made to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the descendants and the nation of Israel, those promises will not be fulfilled in any literal manner. In fact, you can spiritualize them, and you should spiritualize them, and they will be fulfilled in the church.
Then there’s the third form of interpretation, what’s called premillennialism, which is the conviction of Kindred Community Church, and it’s my conviction. It’s the conviction of the school I graduated from, The Master’s Seminary. We just take the text at face value, and this is a thousand-year literal reign of Christ at the end of history within time, prior to the new heaven and the new earth. And during that time, Christ will be vindicated, the saints of the church age will reign with Him, and the promises made to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob will be literally fulfilled as Christ reigns from the beloved city, Jerusalem, and He sits on the throne of his father David. This was the position of the church for the first 300 years of its history.
That said, we want to answer the question, why I am a premillennialist. Look, I realize that some here today might not take that position. I realize that good brothers don’t take that position, and I want to approach this with as much respect and an ironic spirit as I can, but I do want to say very quickly that I cannot remain neutral or undecided. Eschatology is not an elective. It’s very popular today. Maybe there’s a fourth category called panmillennialism. If you ask somebody what’s your view of the millennium, they say, “Well, I’m a panmillennialist.” It’s kind of confusing to me, so it’s all going to pan out in the end and I’ll just let it be that.
In fact Michael Youssef, whose writings I enjoy very much, basically takes that position and tells you in one of his books that “I’m a panmillennialist.” It’s all going to pan out in the end. Or some get a little cuter and they go, “I’m pro-millennial. I’m pro-millennium. I’m for the millennium whether it’s spiritual or it’s physical.” Very, very good, but that doesn’t satisfy me. I was in a church in Orlando not too long ago and the pastor was preaching on eschatology. It was so confusing, it was so foggy, it was so muddled, and he took some kind of pride in saying, “You know what? If John Calvin doesn’t understand it, neither do I. I’m in the radical middle.” Well, that’s good for you, and you tend to get run over when you’re in the middle, but that’s besides the point.
I’m not in the radical middle. I have a conviction that I hope to root in God’s Word this morning, but eschatology ought not to be an elective for you this morning. Panmillennialism and promillennialism won’t do. A fourth of your Bible is prophetic. If you’re going to know the whole counsel of God, you’re going to have to wrestle with that. Plus the issue of eschatology, the doctrine of the last things, spills over into every other doctrine; bibliology, and the field of interpretation. Are you going to interpret your Bible consistently, literally? Are you going to spiritualize some of the passages that don’t fit your theology? What about ecclesiology in the doctrine of the church? Has Israel been replaced by the church? Is the church’s destiny the great tribulation? What about Christology? The doctrine and person of Christ. Has all the Old Testament promises given to Abraham and his descendants now been fulfilled in Christ and the gospel and the church? What about Israelology? Is there no future for the nation of Israel? We looked at that in Romans 11. God forbid that that would be your position.
John MacArthur said at a Shepherds Conference, these words, “God did not stutter when it came to the end of the story. The scriptures are clear and literal.” I agree with that and I’m not going to stutter either, and I’m going to hold my view. I trust with an Aaronic spirit and with a love for brothers. I don’t want to be anywhere close to the fictitious story about the man who was standing on a bridge looking like he was going to jump when he was stopped by another man saying, “Why are you killing yourself?” To which the man replied, “I have nothing to live for.” He says, “Well, don’t you believe in God?” And he said, “Yes, I do.” The man says, “Well, so do I. Let’s start there. What a coincidence. Are you a Jew or are you a Christian?” He said, “I’m a Christian.” “Well, I tick that box also. Are you a Protestant or a Catholic?” “Protestant.” “What a coincidence. Anglican? Methodist? Presbyterian? Baptist?” He said, “I’m a Baptist.” He says, “Are you a strict Baptist or a particular Baptist or a general Baptist?” He says, “I’m strict and particular.” “What a coincidence. So am I. Premillennial? Amillennial?” He says, “I’m premillennial.” “What a coincidence. Are you pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib?” He said, “I’m mid-trib.” The guy pushes him off the bridge and says, “Die, you heretic.”
That’s an exaggeration, but sometimes we can treat each other a bit like that. Let’s stay away from terms like heretic when we’re dealing with other evangelical Protestant brothers. Although I’ll say this to my Reformed friends. That cuts both ways. As I can point to my own conviction and the extremes of some within it, I can also point to the fact that at times Reformed theologians give no weight to premillennialism and pre-tribulationism. In a conference at John Piper’s church in Bethlehem Baptist, some years ago, recently, actually a round table discussion was held in eschatology and there was postmillennialism, there was amillennialism, there was a form of premillennialism, but no reference to dispensationalism or pre-tribulationism. That wasn’t worthy of the discussion.
If you look at Reformed theology in the whole idea of a literal millennial kingdom in which Israel will ascend and the promises made to Abraham be fulfilled literally, the Second Helvetic Confession of the Protestant Reformation 1562 said this, “We reject the Jewish dream of a millennium.” John Calvin of all people said, concerning millennialism and church history, “But a little later they followed the chiliasts.” Chiliasm is simply the Greek term for a thousand years while millennialism is the Latin term. So he’s talking about those who believe in a thousand-year reign. He says this, “But a little later they followed the chiliasts who limited the reign of Christ to a thousand years. Now their fiction is too childish, either to need or to be worthy of refutation.” So Calvin says if you’re a premillennialist, if you’re a dispensationalist, you’re not even worth a discussion. It’s sad. I don’t see much respect in that. Thomas Chalmers, the great Anglican, said of millennialism that it’s a fable of Jewish dotage. So let’s make sure it cuts both ways.
Now that said, here’s my arguments. We’ve already answered the pre-trib position. I’m going to argue the premil position. I’m going to do it again with the help of my friend, Mark Hitchcock, through an acrostic. PREMIL. P, Promises of God. R, Resurrection in Revelation 20. E, Earliest view in church history. M, it’s the Most natural reading of the text. I, the Imprisonment of Satan. And L, a Literal use of the numbers in the Book of Revelation. Quickly, we’ll do this in about 15 or 20 minutes and we’ll pick it up on the other side of Easter.
The Promises of God, P. That’s the first argument for premillennialism, the literal fulfillment of the promises of God to Abraham and his seed and to David and his descendants. That would take you to Genesis 12:1-3, Genesis 15 and 17. If you go there, God says to Abraham, “I’m going to do this for you.” In fact, this phrase, “I will, I will, I will,” repeats himself throughout the text. Here’s what God is going to do for Abraham and his descendants unilaterally, unconditionally, and forever. One, He’s going to bless the nations through Abraham. Two, He’s going to multiply his descendants. And three, his descendants are going to inherit a specific piece of land as an everlasting covenant, as a forever promise of God.
Now, I would remind you this. Those first two were fulfilled literally. Hasn’t the descendants of Abraham multiplied? Haven’t we watched the miracle of their return and prosperity even in our days since 1948? Hasn’t God blessed the nations through the nation of Israel with this Holy Scriptures and the Holy Savior? I would remind you if the first two promises were fulfilled literally, have you got reason to believe that the third promise will not be fulfilled literally, that they will inherit this land forever? Under Solomon, they came close to ruling over the fullness of the land boundaries promised in Genesis, but only the millennial kingdom administrated by Christ from Jerusalem will see that full fulfillment.
Number two. 2 Samuel 7:12-16. You’ve got the promise of King David that one of his sons will sit on his throne forever. The Davidic dynasty has been established by God forever. Now, God didn’t promise that they would rule in an uninterrupted manner, but He did promise that they would maintain the right that one of the Davidic descendants would rule some day forever. Luke 1:31-33 reminds us when Jesus came the first time, there was a promise that He would sit on the throne of his father David and He would rule the nation of Israel. He didn’t fulfill that in His first coming. He would fulfill that in His second coming. As my friend Mark Hitchcock says, “The millennium is no optional part of God’s plan for the end times. It must occur for God to keep His promises.”
I’m interested in knowing that God keeps His promises. Aren’t you? And the millennium, which people say is not that important in whatever version you hold, it is, because at the end of history, I will celebrate the fact that God has kept covenant with His people and the promises He made at the beginning of history. The stories told of W.C. Fields, the comedic actor in Hollywood, he wasn’t known for his theological reflections. He was once found in a hospital bed during a season of illness by a friend reading the Bible of all things. And his friend said, “What are you doing?” To which he replied, “I’m looking for loopholes. I’m looking for loopholes.” There are no loopholes in the promises of God to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, or David. God will fulfill those promises literally in the millennial kingdom.
Number two. Not only do you have the promises of God, you have the resurrection in Revelation 20:4-6. Let me read the text and hang with me. This is a little heady today, so try and stay awake. Give me your best thinking. “And I saw thrones and they sat on them,” Revelation 20:4, “and judgment was committed to them.” So the people that are reigning with Jesus are now being described. “They’re the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the Word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.”
Again, a straightforward, simple reading of the text outlines this. Jesus is going to come back. There’s going to be a partial resurrection because some of the dead don’t live again until the thousand years are ended, a partial resurrection focused on the martyred tribulation saints and following that, they will reign with Christ. That’s what it says. And if that’s true, that means Jesus coming as pre-millennial. He comes, the martyred saints are raised. They reign with him. Satan is bound. At the end of the thousand years, Satan is released. There’s a rebellion, and then you have Satan cast into hell and the unsaved dead are raised and they go to the great white throne.
Now, the other side, if I may put it like that, are our brothers who disagree. Believe it or not, they believe that the first resurrection is your new birth in Christ. This isn’t a physical resurrection at the end of history. This is just anytime someone is made alive who were once dead and sinned. So they take this to be a spiritual resurrection, not a physical resurrection. I’ll let them speak for themselves. Kim Riddelbarger says this, “The first resurrection is spiritual and not bodily and occurs before, not after the second advent.”
Now I’m going to have to call foul on that for a couple of reasons. Number one, when we read about life in verse 4 and coming to life again in verse 5, the term came to life or life is used 12 times in the Book of Revelation. 11 of them are physical resurrection or physical life. The term resurrection described in verse 6 here as the first resurrection, that’s used 42 times in the New Testament, and it’s used 41 times of physical resurrection when the dead are raised and given new bodies. You’ll also notice that these people are those who wouldn’t bow the knee or worship the beast or receive his mark, which we read to be a description of the Antichrist in his end time kingdom, when he sets himself up to be God in a rebuilt temple according to Matthew 24 and 2 Thessalonians 2.
How can the martyred for Christ be martyred for Christ before they’re born again? Because again, they’re the ones who didn’t bow the knee, and then Jesus gives them life. Well, if the new life is the new birth, how can there be a martyr for Christ before they’re a follower of Christ? You can help me with that. Plus, as we have read here, they’re contemporaneous to the end time and the appearance of the Antichrist. You’ll notice it’s the same verb in verse 4, is used of the unsaved dead who are made alive again in verse 5. So it’s physical resurrection.
Let’s go into a third argument quickly, the earliest view. The earliest view. Now we’re turning the pages of scripture. That’s our best argument, but if you turn the pages of church history, you also get another argument. For the first three centuries closest to the apostolic era, the church were chiliaists or millennialists. They believed in the thousand-year reign of Christ. That was the prominent and dominant position of church leaders around that era. That’s why it’s surprising to find a man like Darrell Johnson, who teaches at Regent College in Canada, who’s got a good commentary in many aspects on Revelation called Discipleship On The Edge. He makes this statement, “The premil position only emerged in the 18th century.” Wow. Needs to read a little broader and a little deeper.
Let me give you a couple of examples. Papias, AD 60 to 130, was the bishop of Hierapolis. He was a companion of Polycarp and a disciple of the Apostle John. He was discipled by the Apostle John who wrote the Book of Revelation. And he tells us in his writings that Andrew, Peter, James, Thomas, John and Matthew were all premillennial in their position. Ignatius was the first-century bishop of Antioch in Egypt, AD 108, premillennialist. Polycarp, AD 69 to 155, a disciple of John. Remember, he was martyred at 80 years of age? He said, “I’ve known him for four-score years and he’s done me no wrong and I’m not about to betray him.” He was a disciple of John and he was also a premillennialist. Justin Martyr, AD 100 to 165, wrote about Christ’s 1000-year reign in his writings, a Dialogue with Trypho. Irenaeus was the bishop of Lyon, and he was a disciple of Polycarp, and he held to a premillennial position. It wasn’t until Augustine in the fourth to fifth-century that the spiritualizing of the kingdom of God takes root in the church, which is the predominant position of the medieval Catholic Church.
If I could draw an analogy, this isn’t a hill I’ll die on, but I found a little bit of an analogy in … If you look at Bible translation, the writing of our English texts from the Greek or the Hebrew, in textual discussion, the argument is made by, I would say, a majority of modern evangelical scholars, that the earliest manuscripts which are fewer are to be used more than the later manuscripts which are many. And so the argument is that we have got the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex of the writing of the manuscript Vaticanus. There may not be many copies as early as them, but earlier is better. Then you avoid later corruption. Well, again, just to make an argument. Again, it’s not the hill I’ll die on, it’s not my best argument, but I would say if you want to argue for millennial positions, then why don’t we argue for the earliest is best. That’s premillennialism. First 300 years of church history.
Okay, M. Most natural reading. Don’t need to spend a lot of time on this, but the premillennial position is the clearest and most natural way to read and comprehend the flow and sequence of events in Revelation 19 to 20. If you just read your English text, you would read it and go, “Okay, in chapter 19, He comes with the armies of heaven and He destroys his enemies. And in chapter 20, He establishes a kingdom and He reigns for a thousand years.” And until some theologian comes along and complicates that for you, you would take that to be literal.
I remember John MacArthur in a class at The Master’s Seminary telling us when he got to the churches in Eastern Europe and in Russia after the fall of the Iron Curtain, almost all the Protestant evangelical churches were premillennial. They hadn’t been corrupted by theologians. They just read their Bible simply, straightforwardly, literally, and they believed in a premillennial return of Jesus and a coming kingdom. I think that’s the most natural reading. Look at the conjunction that you find throughout the Book of Revelation and especially chapters 19 and 20. Revelation 19:9, “Then He said …” Verse 11, “Now I saw …” Verse 17, “Then I saw …” Verse 19, “And I saw …” You get to 20:1, “Then I saw …” Chapter 20:4, “And I saw …” So I saw this, and I saw this, and I saw this, and I saw that. You would take that to be a sequence of events, wouldn’t you? That’s the most natural reading of that. And this happened, and this happened, and this happened.
This is not the doctrine of recapitulation where you’re going back and forward all the time and you don’t know where that starts and where that ends. Plus, don’t miss this. Just again, sequentially the most natural reading. Chapter 19, Jesus comes. What does He do? He takes the beast, the Antichrist and its false prophet, and he does what? Throws him into the lake of fire. What seems consequential and logical, that now he does one more thing. He casts the devil into the bottomless pit and eventually into the lake of fire. If you’re going to deal with the unholy trinity, when you deal with them one after another? I’ve dealt with the false prophet and the beast. Now I’m going to deal with Satan at the end of history when I return.
I is imprisonment of Satan. There’s two to go. Hang in there. Some of your eyes are looking a little glazed, but it’s worth it. This is important, folks. This is a big issue. We want you to be convinced pre-tribulationists. We want you to be convinced premillennialists. The imprisonment of Satan. We’re really getting to the nub and the kernel of the issue here. Because this text, verses 1 to 3, and in 7 to 10, which we’ll look out when we come on the other side of Easter and actually [inaudible 00:39:51] the passage. But Satan gets bind, doesn’t he? He gets imprisoned. He gets put into solitary confinement, we’re told, for a thousand years. So you have a big issue here. When does this imprisonment take place and in what fashion should we understand it?
Now, the amil and the postmil proponent locates this binding during the first coming. They would say to us right now, it’s already happened. It’s already happened. Satan is bound, limited. They’d go to Mark 3:27 about if you’re going to take a house and there’s a strong man in it, you got to bind him before you take the house. If Jesus is going to take Satan’s captives captive, he’s got to bind the strong man. Don’t disagree with that, but not in the way they understand it. Matthew 12:25-29. Then you’ve got Colossians 2:15 where Jesus disarms the principalities and powers. In his resurrection and death, He openly displays His victory over them. Love that. Agree with the Jesus victorious. Jesus is triumphant. Satan is being defeated. But the manifestation of that in its totality, in its final form, awaits. He’s not bound today, as we understand this in Revelation 20.
I like what one of my friends says, “If he’s chained, he’s on a very big leash.” That’s been my experience. Or I think it’s … I like what one other writer said, “If this is the millennium and Satan is bound, can I have my money back?” It doesn’t feel like it, does it? I’ll give you a few arguments why that idea is wrong. Number one, you’ll notice it’s categorical. He deceives the nations a little bit? Once in a while? It says he deceives them no more. He doesn’t get to do it at all. That’s not the present age. That’s not the church age. This is a future day when he will be literally confined to solitary confinement. Look at the language of the text. We laid hold of the dragon who is the devil. We bind him. We cast him into the bottomless pit. We shut him up and sealed him there.
But Peter tells us he’s going about to and fro throughout the earth. I got a question. “He’s going to be bound,” look at verse 3, “but after these things, he will be released for a little while.” Well, I have a question of my amillennialist brother. You tell me that there’s no specific thousand-year reign, that the millennium is an unspecified period of time and the reign is spiritual in nature, not physical. And at the end of that period of time, Jesus comes, general resurrection, new heaven, new earth. Where do you fit in the little while? If he’s bound and he becomes unbound for a little while, where do you fit that in? I think you’ve got a problem. You don’t have much room to fit it in.
And then finally, it just contradicts the New Testament picture we have. He goes about like a roaring lion, 1 Peter 5:8. He turns himself into an angel of light and deceives people, Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. He tempts, he did it to Jesus, he does it to us, 1 Thessalonians 2, I think it’s verse 8 or 18. He hindered, he stopped Paul from getting to Thessalonica to preach the gospel. Right now he’s devouring, roaming. He’s deceiving. He’s tempting.
I like the story of the boxer who stumbled back into the corner of the ring, beat up, bleeding, bruised. The trainer splashes some water on him, gives him some smelling salts up his nostrils and says, “Hey, Rocky, you’re doing great. Your opponent’s hardly had a finger on you.” Half-dazed, he looks up and he says, “If it’s not him, then look for the referee because somebody’s beating the living daylights out of me.” My brother’s telling me Satan’s bound. It’s not my experience. Certainly I’ve got the defense of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and I’ve got the sword of the spirit and I’ve got the shield of faith and I’ve got the helmet of salvation. I can give them a good battle. But you know what? The church today is not defeated, but it’s bloody. It’s bruised. It’s through much tribulation the church is entering into the kingdom.
Finally, the literal use of numbers. PREMIL. Last one, L. Literal use of numbers. Why not take the 1000 years as it states? 1000 years? Why do you spiritualize that? Why do you turn that into an indefinite number when it’s a definite number that’s repeated six times in the space of a few verses? If it’s not literal, why would John mention it six times in repeated language? Plus, all the numbers in Revelation can be taken at face value. Bear with me as I quote Mark Hitchcock. Revelation 20. Most, if not all, the other time-specific time periods and numbers mentioned in Revelation can be literally interpreted. 10 days, Revelation 2:10. 144,000 witnesses, Revelation 7:4. Five months, chapter 9:5. 200 million in an army, chapter 9. 42 months, chapter 11 and 13. 1260 days, chapter 11:3.
When the number thousand is used, again there’s no reason not to read it literally. There’s 144,000 witnesses. Half of the tribulation will be 1,260 days. 7,000 killed in an earthquake, chapter 11. The new Jerusalem will be 1,600 stadia and 12,000 stadia long and wide. Why is that measurement not literal? And then by the way, if John wanted you to know that it’s an unspecified period of time, he can do that. In fact, in chapter 20:3, among other verses in Revelation, he says that when Satan is released, he’ll be released for a little while. He’s got ways to make it unspecific. But for six times in a period of seven verses, he says, “A thousand years. A thousand years. A thousand years.” Why not take him at his word? Well, I hope you find those arguments helpful and convincing. As we close, we’ll pick this up again more to … I want to work through this passage, reinforce some of that, but get into other practical and pastoral implications of Revelation 20:1-10.
Let me finish with this. I’m excited about the millennial kingdom. I love the idea of a literal physical kingdom, a utopia at the end of history marked by joy and peace and prosperity with streams in the desert, with the deserts blossoming, with environmental harmony, with man in a worshipful relationship with God. With Jesus sitting on the throne of David, manifesting his glory as every knee has bowed and every tongue confessed that He’s Lord. I think that’s a beautiful thought. That means Satan’s defeated. That means righteousness wins. That means all our sacrifices for Jesus Christ have been worth it. Because when you and I leave this world, either by death or by the rapture, we’re going to leave it under the sway of the wicked one. We’re going to leave it at war. We’re going to leave it plagued by sickness, imprisoned by the terror of death, tormented by tragedy. We’re going to leave a world where man loved pleasure rather than God. We’re going to leave a world unfinished, not as it ought to be, not as it once was.
Hollywood’s onto something. The Christian utopia didn’t work out, but they had their own version. The happy ending. And God’s going to give us a happy ending. He’s going to vindicate His son. He’s going to vindicate His people. There’s going to come a day within history that will be doxological in nature. Eden will be revisited. Paradise will be restored. There’ll be a once upon a time once more. I love it. I’ve been born again under a living hope. I can live on that hope, can’t you? That’s a carrot on the end of the stick that will help me keep going forward and being faithful because if we live for Him and if we endure for Him according to 2 Timothy 2, we will reign with Him.
As the team comes up, Marguerite Higgins won the Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on the war in Korea, and she wrote specifically about the Fifth Marine Company. They were 18,000 men strong, but they were up against 100,000 Chinese communists, and they defeated them and they put up a brave fight in savagely cold weather. I’ll let her speak. “It was particularly cold, 42 degrees below zero. That morning, reporters were standing around the weary soldiers who were half frozen in dirty trucks, eating out of their tin cans, and a huge Marine was eating cold beans with his trench knife. His clothes were stiff as a board. His face covered with a heavy beard that had been crusted with mud. The reported asked that soldier, ‘If I were God and could grant you anything you wish, what would you like?'” Do you know what his answer was? It was this. “Give me tomorrow. Give me tomorrow.”
That lies innate in every human heart. Give me a tomorrow that’s better than today. Give me a world that’s better than it is. The Christian, above all people, in Christ have that hope. God’s going to give us a tomorrow. He’s going to give this world a new start. It’s called the millennial kingdom. And if you want to enjoy that tomorrow, sir, you want to enjoy that tomorrow, madam, it begins today by repenting of your sin and putting your faith in Jesus Christ and bowing your knee to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Let’s pray.
Father, we thank you for your Word. Thank you for this stirring vision of a coming day when Jesus comes, and all the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our God and Savior, where what was lost because of man’s sin will be regained because of Christ’s obedience. We thank you for this hope of a literal physical kingdom within history when Jesus is vindicated, where righteousness is rewarded, where wickedness is punished, and where Eden is restored. Lord, thank you for giving us a tomorrow like that. We’re tired of a cancer-ridden world. We’re tired of burying our loved ones. We’re tired of the wickedness of man and his mismanagement of your good creation and his dictatorial wish to rule other men for one’s own self-aggrandizement. Even so, come Lord Jesus, put an end to this and establish a kingdom of peace and pleasure and prosperity under your scepter. Lord, help us to prepare for that kingdom by bowing the need of the King, kissing the Son, making peace with God. We pray for our friends and our loved ones that they would join us on this journey to the magic kingdom of the millennial reign of Jesus Christ, and we pray and ask it all in His name. Amen.