Well, let’s take our Bibles and turn to Revelation chapter 20. Before I went on my trip to Europe, we started a two-part, sermon entitled Peace at Last. We’re in a series called Things To Come. We’re looking at the great turning points of biblical prophecy, events that still lie in the future to us. We’ve looked at the rapture, we have looked at the judgment seat of Christ, the tribulation period, the rise of the Antichrist, the future restoration of the nation of Israel, the coming of Jesus back to earth. And now we’re looking at what’s called The Millennial Kingdom. The fact that Jesus upon his return will establish a kingdom on earth that will last for a thousand years. And we’re coming back to finish that study and as we come to the word of God, I think with the events that have unfolded in Israel in the Middle East yesterday, I think we come with a greater sense of urgency about the biblical prophetic text.
You and I are living in the last days, but it seems to me we’re living in the last of the last days. Think about what happened yesterday. Don’t let that fly past you. Yesterday there was an unprecedented and historic event. It’s the first time in modern history where the nation of Iran has attacked the nation of Israel. Now, if you know your Bible, and we touched on this ever so briefly, there is a battle that lies ahead of us that will take place in the first half of the tribulation called The Battle of Gog and Magog. It’s in Ezekiel 38 and 39 and Israel will be attacked and its life will be threatened and it’ll be attacked by a coalition of nations on its northern border. And Iran is one of those along with Russia and Syria and other nations which are outlined in their ancient names in Ezekiel 38, 39.
So is it significant that Iran for the first time in modern history has attacked the nation of Israel? Of course it is. It’s not a direct fulfillment of Ezekiel 38 or 39, but it is a harbinger is it not, that what is happening on the borders of Israel could quickly become The Battle of Gog and Magog. Now that won’t happen until the church is being raptured. Things are not falling apart, things are falling into place, and if that is the keys and then you and I need to be awake to the times we’re living and we need to give our ears and our hearts to the prophetic scriptures. I was reading The Daily Wire this morning before leaving to come here and there was an article in it that talked about Channel 12 on Israeli television has quoted one of the top Israeli officials as saying to the people of Israel, “Not to go to bed given what is coming Tehran’s way.”
One of the top Israeli officials is quoted on Israeli television as telling the people of Israel not to go to bed because of what’s coming Tehran’s way. I thought to myself, “You know what? That’s a challenge to me as a believer in Jesus Christ.” What’s physically true of the people of Israel today ought to be spiritually true of us. This is no time to go to bed as a believer, this is no time to fall asleep as a saint. You and I need to be awake to the times we’re living in and alive to the purposes of God for you and me within the church. Amen.
So with that said, let’s open our Bible at Revelation 20 and finish this message Peace at last. Revelation 20:1, “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand and he laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old who is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years and he cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal in 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. And 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 of 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. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished.”
“This is the First Resurrection. Blessed and holy as 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. That when the thousand years have 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 to gather 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 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,” so reads God’s word.
John Stott tells of a small town in West Texas around 60 miles west of San Antonio, the town is called Utopia. It’s inhabitants adopted the name for their community at the instigation of a man from Alabama who was suffering from tuberculosis and he found the climate health giving. But let me say this, Utopia is no Utopia. It has one jail, one hospital, and two cemeteries, which will remind us that sin, crime, disease, and death have not been banished from Utopia.
Utopia is no Utopia and as much as men may look work and hope for their Utopia, there are no Utopias in Texas or elsewhere. As much as man may dream of a world without war, hatred, famine, sickness, natural disasters and death, as much as they may desire a world marked by love, oneness and justice, that dream remains simply a dream. But the good news is this, that where man has failed, God in Christ will succeed. There is a happy ever after according to the plan of God, according to the Bible, the golden age that men have dreamt of will come at the end of the age when Jesus returns to reign on the earth. That’s where we’re at in Revelation 20:1-10. Here is described for us a period of time within time where Jesus will reign in righteousness upon planet Earth.
The world will see peace at last when the prince of peace returns, Isaiah 9:6-7. Do you know there’s talk today of a great reset? The world needs a reset. When we look at the wars and the famines and the health crisis and the rising suicide that marks this moment in history. There’s talk today of a need for a great reset, but that reset will not come about by means of human government. The WEF, the UN, the EU will not bring it about. While we agree on the source of the problem, we don’t agree on the solution to the problem. The problem is not human government, it’s divine government and that divine government will come when Jesus returns a second time to planet Earth. So let’s come and look at this study on what’s called The Millennial Kingdom, the thousand-year reign of Jesus. The context of our text is that Jesus has returned.
We see that in chapter 19 and following his return, he establishes a kingdom that will last for 1000 years and he will reign in power and in glory. We are not in the millennium. We are awaiting the millennium, a period of peace and prosperity, a time of harmony and happiness. David taught this time in Psalm 2:8-9. He tells us that God promised his son that he will give him the nations as his inheritance. Isaiah taught this time in Isaiah 2:1-5. We read about a time when man will beat their swords into plowshares. Zechariah taught this time Zechariah 14:6-21 envisions a time when the Messiah will return to the Mount of Olives. He will redeem Israel. He will rescue Israel from her enemies and he will establish his kingdom in the City of Jerusalem and the nations will go up to worship him.
Jesus taught this time in Luke 22:28-30. He told his disciples there will come a time when they will sit on 12 thrones reigning over the nation of Israel and its 12 tribes. Peter taught this time in Acts 3:18-21 when he talks about a time of restoration or a time of refreshing that will come at the end of time. Paul taught this time when he talks about Jesus coming and the appearing of his kingdom in 2 Timothy 4:1 or as he promised in that same letter to the saints that they will endure, they will reign with Christ and John taught this time as we find it here in Revelation 20:1-10. The reign of Christ is a future event that will take place immediately after the return of Jesus in the future. Now there’s several things I want us to see.
The last time we were together we gave you an outline of this text, the removal, the resurrection, the reign, the release and the rebellion. But we didn’t fill in the details because we sought to answer one question, is the coming of Jesus pre-millennial and I sought to give you six reasons to believe in the pre-millennial return of Jesus whereupon he will establish a literal kingdom within history at the end of time. Let’s look at the removal as we begin to exegete the passage we outlined. The removal verses 1-3, you’ll see that The Millennial Kingdom begins with a removal that is the removal of Satan, the execution of Satan from within history. We’re told that an angel will come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit which speaks of authority. He will lay hold of the dragon and he will cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up so that he will deceive the nations no more.
That’s at the onset and the inauguration of the kingdom of the millennial reign of Jesus. An angel will come from heaven, he will lay hold of Satan. He will lock him up for a thousand years but he won’t throw away the key because you’ll notice at the end of verse three that after that period of time or after these things, Satan will be released for a little while. We’ll come back to that. Hold that thought. I want you to notice the descriptions of Satan, he’s described as the dragon, the serpent of old, the dragon which speaks of his cruelty and ferocity, serpent speaks of his slyness and his deception. The devil is no joke. He’s a destructive and deceptive force and figure within human history. Now as we look at his confinement, there’s two things that jump out. Number one, the confinement is future. This confinement takes place after the return of Jesus to earth at the end of Revelation chapter 19, Satan is not bound right now.
Jesus did not bind Satan at his first coming. He binds Satan at his second coming. We noticed the use of the conjunction throughout this text and I saw this and I saw that this is a linear chronology of end time events. There’s a sequence of events that follow one after the other. Jesus returns. Jesus reigns and Satan is removed. This is future. Secondly, it’s full. The binding is total. Did you notice the phrase in verse three, “And the angel cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and sealed him so that he would deceive the nations no more.” This isn’t partial, it’s total, it’s categorical. He’s bound and he’s cast into the bottomless pit. Now what’s the bottomless pit or your translation might have the abyss? Well that’s where fallen angels are kept until their final sentencing in the lake of fire. 2 Peter 2:4.
You’ll recall in the gospels where the demons asked Jesus not to cast him into the abyss, but Satan is cast into the abyss. He’s bound, he’s shut up, he’s sealed. It’s categorical and its unqualified. This did not happen at the first coming. Satan is not bound today. I don’t think I need to tell you that. He goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He is deceiving the nations. He casts himself as an angel of light and he preaches a false gospel through false prophets. He tempts man, he hinders the servants of God as he did Paul in 1 Thessalonians 2:8. During the troubles in Northern Ireland when I was a police officer, when a riot was unfolding, when lawlessness came to the streets of Belfast, we would identify one or two of the ringleaders in the crowd and we would take them out.
We’d either take them out with a plastic bullet or we would send in a snatch squad and arrest them. And typically if we arrested the ringleader, if we removed the ringleader from the midst of the crowd, it tended to quell the crowd and the riot petered out. And I think something like that is going on in our text. Satan is an instigator of much evil, that’s why he’s called the evil one and God is going to remove him to bring about peace on the earth. Notice today he is restrained, but in the future he will be removed. The removal. Although before I leave that it has me thinking and I reflect on a message I heard Dr. John MacArthur preach, which I found very helpful. As you and I think about the means of restraining the devil today, he may not be removed but he is being restrained.
There are several means by which we restrain him or to put it more accurately or theologically, there are several means by which God restrains him. The first means is conscience. Romans tells us that God has written his law on man’s hearts. We innately have a sense of right and wrong and when we do wrong, our conscience goes off like an alarm clock in the morning and we feel bad and we feel guilty and God uses our conscience to restrain evil. Now you can sear your conscience and you can silence your conscience, but as a means of restraining evil and the evil one, there’s our conscience, and by the way, God would encourage us to train our conscience and to make it sensitive to the things which are right.
The second means is the family. God expects families to raise up their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. God expects families to establish authority over their children so that when they have learned obedience in the home, they may give out obedience outside the home to figures of authority within society. God expects a mother and a father to discipline their children physically. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child but the rod will drive it from them. Read the book of Proverbs and as you and I discipline our children, that’s a means of restraining their sin nature where we protect them and we protect others from them. That’s another means the family. Another means the government. Romans 13, God has given human government authority to wield the sword, which is a symbol of capital punishment. There is a time and a place for the taking of life, for the good of society. Those who shed blood, their blood ought to be shed according to Genesis 9.
And the government has a role and it’s main role is law and order and the enforcement of punishment on those who are evildoers. And then finally there’s the Holy Spirit who indwells the church. See the Holy Spirit has been sent into the world to what? To convince the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. In fact, we study didn’t we second Thessalonians 2 where the Holy Spirit is called the Restrainer. And as you and I live out holy lives in dedication to Jesus Christ, we are an element of restraint. We are salt and light in the world. But by the way, have you noticed that these four bulwarks against evil are all crumbling around us? We’re being told there’s no such a thing as good and bad. We’re being told that it’s a bad thing to have a bad conscience, not to allow yourself to become victim to guilt. So we’re switching the conscience off.
Are you not watching a lack of discipline in the family, an unwillingness of parents to discipline your children? I was texting one of the pastors who was with us in Greece and they took a flight out of Istanbul back to Dallas and I was texting him, said, “How did your flight go?” He said, “Well,” he said, “We had a kid behind us that screamed the whole flight.” He called him the spawn of Satan. He said, “At one point I was going to get up and go back and offer them my belt,” but you’ve seen it. I hope you’re not producing it by the way, this kid’s out of control because the family has lost its sense of direction and it’s God-given authority. The government, governments are failing. Every western government is eradicating capital punishment to the detriment of society and even look at the church, are we what we ought to be? We ought to be a restraining force in the world, but we’re looking more like the world and therefore we’re being ineffective in our restraint.
Today the devil is being restrained, but in the future he will be removed. Secondly, the resurrection. In our text, we see the restraint, the removal of Satan in verses one to three and in verses four to six we have what we called the resurrection, the binding and removal of the devil, that old serpent is then followed by the resurrection of Tribulation Saints. They’re described for us in verse four, “And I saw the souls of those who were beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God who had not worshiped the beast nor his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands.” That’s certainly a clear reference to Tribulation Saints who were martyred because they failed to bow and bend the demands of the antichrist. Revelation 6:9. This is clearly as we argued in our last sermon, a physical resurrection. It’s not a reference to new birth or spiritual regeneration.
So the resurrection is the physical resurrection at the end of the tribulation period upon the return of Jesus and at the onset of The Millennial Kingdom of martyred saints of the tribulation period. And you’ll notice how their resurrection is described as the First Resurrection. Those who participate in this participate in what’s called the First Resurrection. It’s the first of two resurrections. What are we talking about? What is meant here? Well, the MacArthur Study Bible is very helpful as it often is. Scripture teaches two kinds of resurrections. There’s a resurrection of life and there’s a resurrection of condemnation. If you want a verse for that among others, the best one would be Daniel 12:2 where it talks about those who are resurrected unto everlasting life and those who are resurrected unto shame and everlasting destruction. Now the First Resurrection of the two is a resurrection to life. Luke 14:14 talks about the resurrection of the just. Hebrews 11:35 talks about the better resurrection. And the Tribulation Saints are those who are part of that First Resurrection. So are the church age saints and so are the Old Testament saints.
Before I leave that thought I want you to see something I think is very important and challenging. You’ll notice in verses four through six of Revelation 20 that history ends with two categories of people, just two. There are those who participate in the First Resurrection and then there are those who experience a second death. Look at verse five, “But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished.” Next week we’ll look at the great white throne judgment of the unresurrected dead who are unsaved and unredeemed. This is the First Resurrection, “And blessed and holy is he who has part in the First Resurrection over such the second death has no power.” So two categories of people, those who are part of the First Resurrection and those among the dead who do not live again until the thousand years are ended and then they experience a second death.
What’s their first death? That’s the separation of the body and the soul. The second death is separation of the soul from God’s presence forever in hell. That’s the second death. Did you notice that the Bible is consistently binary. It’s always drawing a distinction between people and things. There’s light and there’s darkness, that’s binary. There’s God and there’s Satan, that’s binary. There’s heaven and there’s hell, that’s binary. There’s the wise and there’s the foolish, that’s binary. There’s the broad road and there’s the narrow road, that’s binary. There’s the saved and the lost, that’s binary. In April, 1912, the Titanic went down in the North Atlantic and there were all kinds of people on that boat. There were the crew, there were the passengers, there were those in first class, those in second class and those in steerage. There were men and there were women, there were adults and there were children.
But you know what? When that tragedy unfolded in the headquarters of the offices of the White Star Line in New York, a list was posted and there were simply two categories, the saved and the lost. 706 souls were saved. 1,517 were lost. My friend, when it’s all said and done, all of us that fit into so many social categories will all end up in one of two categories. The saved and the lost. Which column will you be in my friend, save or lost, part of the First Resurrection or those who will taste the second death? Flee the wrath to come. Not only do we have the removal and the resurrection, we have the reign that is the reign of Christ with his saints. Three times in our text staying in verses four, five and six, we are told that Jesus will reign and his saints will reign with him.
Look at verse four, “And I saw thrones and they sat on them and judgment was committed to them.” Look at the end of verse four, “And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” Look at the end of verse six, “And they shall reign with him a thousand years.” At the end of history, a new administration will take over the governance of planet Earth under the king of kings and the Lord of Lords and you and I, if we’re followers of Jesus Christ will be part of that new administration. Matthew 5:5 says what, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” What a promise. The lowly despised disciples of Jesus Christ will inherit the earth. We will reign with him. What a moment of vindication. What a moment of victory. In the end, the righteous win and come out on top.
What a happy time that will be. In fact, we read in verse six, “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the First Resurrection and who shall reign with him a thousand years.” What a happy time that will be when Jesus will reign in righteousness and the glory and the knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth as the waters fill the sea. It’s at that time we will truly sing Joy to the World, the Lord has come. Now I know we sing that at Christmas but we shouldn’t because that’s a hymn that has nothing to do with the first coming and everything to do with the second coming. Next time you sing it, notice it’s words, “Joy to the World, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her king.” This is written by Isaac Watts and you’ll know that it’s related to the second coming if you look at stanza three and stanza four, “No more let sins and sorrows grow nor thorns infest the ground.”
Chapter or verse four, “He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and the wonder of his love.” I don’t know if you’ve looked at the fields recently, but there’s still thorns infesting them and God is not proving the nations at this time, but there’ll come a time when we will truly sing with great joy and happiness, Joy to the world, the Lord has come. And let me look at this reign ever so quickly under several questions just to get a feel for what this time will look like. In fact, this deserves a series of sermons in itself. Number one, when. Well we’ve already kind of established that, but I want to go back over this.
When will this kingdom take place? It will take place in the future and it will be attached to the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. We’ve argued that’s the chronology of the Book of Revelation, but the verse that stands out to me is 2 Timothy 4:1, “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.” When does the kingdom come? When the king comes. That seems to be the clear implication of 2 Timothy 4:1. The Bible talks about God’s establishing his everlasting kingdom and The Millennial Kingdom is part of that. It’s phase one of the establishment of this everlasting kingdom. This part or this phase of the establishment of God’s everlasting kingdom will last for a thousand years. That’s qualified six times in our text of Revelation 20:1-10.
But you’ll go to chapter 22 and verse five and you’ll read this, “And they shall reign forever and ever.” When Jesus comes back, he will establish a kingdom that will last for a thousand years and at the end of that you’ll have a new heaven and a new earth where that kingdom will merge with the expression of God’s everlasting kingdom. I like the way someone has put it, the millennium is the first front porch to the eternal state. When? At the second coming. Where? On planet earth. We will see in a moment when Satan is released, he will lead a coup d’etat against Jesus, the king of kings and the Lord of lords and his focus will be on the camp of the saints and the beloved city. What is the beloved city? It’s Jerusalem verse nine. If you go back to Zechariah 14:1-21, the Messiah returns at the end of history to Israel. He puts his foot on the Mount of Olives and then he establishes his kingdom in Jerusalem.
This is not a spiritual kingdom, this is a literal kingdom within history at the end of the age. It will fulfill Luke 1:32-33 where Jesus is said to sit on the throne of his father David and reign which was not fulfilled on his first coming. See Jesus returns to the scene of the crime when man rejected him and crucified him and mocked him and he returns to the scene of the crime to enact and restore justice. This kingdom must take place within history because if God just picks us up and takes us to heaven, it would be tantamount to acknowledging our defeat. He must vanquish his foes and he must be victorious over the place where his son was rejected.
Who will participate in this kingdom? Well we see from our text at the onset it will be the resurrected dead of the tribulation period. Revelation 20:4. On top of that you will have those who survived the tribulation. We don’t have time to go there, but in Matthew 25:31-33, you have what’s called the judgment of the sheep and the goats. When Jesus returns, he judges the nations and he separates the sheep from the goats and the goats are cast out of his presence into hell and the sheep are told to enter into the joy of the Lord in his kingdom. They will enter in their natural bodies, they will not be glorified. In that passage they are not glorified. They enter into the kingdom in their physical state. On top of that, you will have the church-age saints who were raptured and resurrected who will return with Jesus in Revelation 17. 2 Timothy 2:10, 11 and 12 promises that if we endure with him we will reign with him.
And then as we quoted earlier, Daniel 12, 1-2 Old Testament, “Saints will be raised to everlasting life.” Who will inhabit The Millennial Kingdom? Glorified saints and un-glorified saints, the resurrected glorified saints of the tribulation period who were martyred, the church-age saints, the Old Testament-age saints all glorified and then those who survived the tribulation and who have come out of the judgment of the sheep and the goats and they enter in an un-glorified natural body because there will be procreation in The Millennial Kingdom, children will be born. We’ll come back to that. Why have a millennial kingdom? What’s the purpose of The Millennial Kingdom? That is a sermon in itself, but there are several reasons I’ll just run down them to fulfill the Old Testament promises to Abraham and David. Abraham and his descendants were promised a land as an everlasting possession and upon the Messiah’s return you’ll have the restored fortunes of Israel Sacra Via 12, 13 and 14.
David was promised a throne that would be established forever in Jerusalem. You’ll have the vindication of Jesus and his exaltation before the nations when every knee will bow and every tongue confess, you’ll have the reward of faithful saints. Those who endure will reign with him, 2 Timothy 2:11. We’ve quoted it several times. You’ll have the open display of Satan’s defeat. You’ll have a creation that’s redeemed, that’s Romans 8:19-22 where a creation that groans and desires to be liberated from the judgment of God and the effects of the fall that will take place upon the liberation of the sons of God. And then you’ll have the establishment of the sovereignty of God. What will the kingdom be like? What will be the conditions of the kingdom? It’ll be a time of climate change, a time of peace among the nations, a time of moral elevation, a time of spiritual exhilaration, a time of health, harmony, holiness and happiness.
In his book Global Reset, which I commend to you, our friend Jeff Kinley walks through some of the conditions of that period of time. Forgive me, we’re going to go through this quick and I’ll throw some text your way. You can listen to the message again and do some of your own homework, but one of the marks of this period of time will be permanent peace. See, Jesus is coming back as the prince of peace and the government is on his shoulder and he will establish his rule on the earth and he will establish peace. Isaiah 2:4 tells us that man will beat their swords into plowshares, wars will be ended. Isaiah 9:4-6, 7, you’ll have the Pax Messiah, the Messianic peace. It will be a time of perpetual happiness.
A spirit of exuberant joy and happiness will mark the world. Passages like Isaiah 9:3-4, Zephaniah 3:14-17 show that depression, discouragement will be banished from human experience. There’ll be pervasive glory. The prophet talks about God’s glory and God’s knowledge filling the earth like the waters fill the seed, the world will be awash with the presence of God in pervasive glory. There’ll be prevailing justice. He will rule the nations with a rod of iron. Revelation 2:27, evil will be restrained and sin will be reproved and righteousness and justice will be established.” There’ll be perfect health care. Those living on the earth and human bodies during the millennium will live long lifespans as in the days before the flood. Isaiah 65:20. And lastly, and again this is not exhaustive, but selective, profound prosperity, hunger, thirst and homelessness will not exist. The desert will blossom and the world and the nations will thrive under the wise leadership of Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 35:1-2, Amos 9:13-14. Now those are the conditions that will exist when Jesus returns and reigns. I like the story that is told of Dr. Donald Campbell who was the president of Dallas Theological Seminary at one point. He came under a class one day and he said to the class abruptly that he had become an amillennialist. That was a shock to the class at Dallas Theological Seminary because that was a bastion of premillennialism. So the students were shocked, but Dr. Campbell clarified his statement very quickly, lest he be fired. He said this to the students, “Last night, I was thinking about all the problems in our world, the violence, the inequality, the suffering, the wars, the broken homes, and as I was thinking about all these things, I’ve began to think about what the world will be like when Jesus comes back and takes over. And as I thought about that time of peace and prosperity and progress, I lent back in my seat and I said, ah, millennium.”
“And in that sense, I am ah millennialist.” I love it. That’s what it means to be an amillennialist and I’m ah millennialist that when Jesus comes and establish his rule of righteousness and justice as Eden is revisited and restored. Let’s move on quickly, time is gone. Last two thoughts we’ll move quick. The release. This is challenging, in the verses seven through 10, but especially seven and eight. Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are at the four corners of the world. Listen to this, this is striking, “Following the second coming of Jesus, you’ll have a second coming of Satan.” Now, our nation is struggling right now from the silly policy of this administration where we catch and release illegal aliens in our country and crime and chaos is the result.
We’ve got to stop this nonsense of catch and release. If you enter our country illegally, you should be immediately deported. But talking about catch and release, it seems that God does some catching and releasing here in Revelation 20 because he catches Satan and he imprisons Satan for a thousand years and then he releases him back into the world to deceive it. How do you explain that? What’s the purpose of that? Well, Dr. Louis Barry Schaefer, founder of Dallas Theological Seminary, which I mentioned a moment ago, was once asked why God loosed Satan after he had once bound him, to which he replied, “If you can tell me why he let Satan loose in the first place, I’ll tell you why he let Satan loose in the second place.” It’s a good answer, it’s a good answer, but let’s try and come to some kind of resolution and in the study I’ve done and the communities I’ve consulted and the wise men I have listened to, I think this is the reason to prove the justice of God’s judgment and to show that man is an incorrigible sinner.
Satan’s release and subsequent rebellion demonstrates the inherent wickedness of the human heart in a perfect environment. Jeremiah 17:9 would remind us that man’s heart is deceitful and desperately wicked and it will be proven at the end because remember, there is a group of people that enter the kingdom righteous but still in their natural bodies. Marriage will take place during The Millennial Kingdom. Children will be born and many of them will not be born again. Many of them will not submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ and in the end they’ll be part of a rebellion as Satan is released and does that not prove both the justice of God’s judgment upon man and the fact that man is an incorrigible sinner. One writer Robert Munson’s comment Revelation says this, apparently a thousand years of confinement does not alter Satan’s plans, nor does a thousand years of freedom from the influence of wickedness changed people’s basic tendency to rebel against their creator.
You know the story, don’t you about the London Times many years ago that asked this question to its readership, what is wrong with the world and the English essayist and moralist G.K Chesterton wrote to the editor the Times of London. “Dear sir, you ask what is wrong with the world? I am. That’s what’s wrong with the world, man in his fallenness rebels against his creator. Man, apart from the grace of God is a danger to himself. Man, apart from the grace of God is a danger to others. Man, apart from the grace of God is in danger of the wrath of a holy God visited upon a rebellious world.”
Finally, the rebellion as we close verses seven to 10. Satan is released. He goes out and deceives the nations and under his leadership they gather together to battle against the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire comes down from heaven, destroys them, and Satan is cast into the lake of fire. The devil is a repeat offender. Upon his release, he goes back to his wicked ways of deceiving the nations. He becomes a pied piper for those who were born within the millennium who have not bowed their hearts to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and they will join him in one final act of rebellion. There has been outward conformity on the part of some during The Millennial Kingdom. They have not repented, they have not believed in Christ and that facade collapses upon the reappearance of Satan and the Aurelian cry to attack the beloved city, the camp of the saints and King Jesus himself. The rebellion is not successful because God extinguishes it in a ball of fire. The devil is dealt with singularly and cast into the lake of fire.
That’s his final resting place, one of unrelenting misery for him, which seems so appropriate since he is the spreader of such misery among men. By the way, when I read that the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire. I did remember hearing something that Jack Hayford said on a radio broadcast one day and I wrote it down. I thought it was so good and I want to share it with you. He said this, “The next time the devil reminds you of your past, you remind him of his future.” See, he’s an accuser of the brethren. He likes to dig up our old sins and disturb our peace. But you need to tell him that you have passed from death unto life and you will not come in the judgment and if he reminds you of your past, you remind him of his future.
So as we close a word of exhortation, here’s The Millennial Kingdom. I don’t know if I’ve done it justice. There’s so much to it. It’s worth a study in and off itself by yourself, but there’s coming this righteous reign of Jesus and we’re going to be part of it. In this world that you and I are living in right now marked by pen and war and emptiness and fear, there’s going to be a redo and a makeover of it by Jesus and I’m looking forward to that. No wonder John says not far from this text, “Even so come Lord Jesus.” But the thought of that golden age at the end of the age is a motivation for you and I to persevere in the mucky, murky, middle. In 2 Timothy I’ve quoted it several times in this sermon, chapter two and verse 12. “If we endure, we will reign with him.” In Revelation 2:26-27, the church at Thyatira are told if they keep working until the end, they will reign with Christ.
What’s the point of those two texts with direct reference to The Millennial Kingdom? It’s this, saints of God keep going in the light of what’s coming. Are you weary? Are you worn? Are you finding it hard to put one foot of obedience in front of another foot of obedience? Keep going in the light of what’s coming. Having something to look forward to keeps us moving ahead, doesn’t it? If you’re in a dead-end job, it’s the thought of Friday that keeps you going. If you’re three hours into a six-hour drive to the coast, it’s the thought of the ocean waves and the sandy beach that keeps you going. If you’re months into an exhausting pregnancy, it’s the thought of holding a beautiful baby at the end of that that keeps you going. If you’re in the throes of cancer fighting radiation treatment, it’s the thought of a good health report that keeps you going.
Keep going friends in the light of who’s coming and what’s coming. There’s coming a kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy. In your fight with sin, remember, it will give way to a kingdom of righteousness. Being endangered in a world that hates Christ will give way to a kingdom of peace and our joys, our sorrows and our suffering will give way to a kingdom of joy. As the king comes up, do remember to keep going in the light of what’s coming.
This is training time for reigning time. Admiral Jim Stockdale was the highest-ranking United States military officer during the Vietnam War. He was a prisoner in the Hanoi Hilton as it was famously known. He was tortured more than 20 times over eight years. He lived out the war with no prisoner’s rights, no set date of release, no certainty that he would survive and see his family, but he did survive and he did return home and he was asked how he did it, to which he replied, “I never lost faith in the end of the story.” Don’t lose faith in the end of the story for it will be worth it all when we see Jesus. Keep going in the light of who and what’s coming, peace at last.
Father, thank you for this bracing word that would remind us that there is the carrot of The Millennial Kingdom on the end of the stick that would encourage us to fight on against the flesh, the world, and the devil that would encourage us having put our hand to the plow and not to turn back. That would encourage us to remember this is training time for reigning time, and whenever we give up, whatever he sacrificed for Jesus Christ will be given back to us, a hundredfold in the Millennial Kingdom. Lord help us not to shortchange you. Help us not to shortchange ourselves. Help us to remember the end of the story and not lose faith, for we ask and pray it all in Jesus’ name. Amen.