Sermon Tone Analysis

Good afternoon!

I hope that everyone is doing well today.

I apologize for last week.

Autumn unfortunately had Covid and out of a preponderance of caution I felt it best to isolate as well for a few days just to be safe.

How I came away without catching it I have no idea.

Isolation is not something that either of us do very well.

Autumn is somehow the only one in our family who caught it and unfortunately she is still dealing with some of the after effects of the virus, so I know that she would cherish your prayers as she continues to recover.

So, two weeks ago we looked at Revelation chapter nineteen and the destruction of the Beast and the false prophet.

Now, our story turns to the destruction of their master, Satan himself.

I want to give an overview of what we are going to find in the chapter first.

I hope that this will help us to see the details within the chapter clearer.

I am also going to go over the four most common positions concerning Jesus millennial rule.

And I am hoping to do all of this within about 35 minutes.

No guarantees though.

In order to hit this 35 minute mark we are going to only cover the first six verses, but I am going to give an overview now of the entire chapter so that we can see the big picture of what is occuring.

So what we are going to see within this chapter is that Satan is going to be bound and shut up within what is called the abyss.

After this we are going to read about the first resurrection and during this resurrection we are going to see the martyred saints join Christ in His messianic kingdom for a thousand years.

At the end of the thousand years Satan is going to be released from the abyss and He is going to once again deceive many people and gather them together for a second battle against Jesus.

After the defeat of Satan he is going to finally be thrown into Gehenna, which is hell where he will join the beast and the false prophet.

After all of this there is a second resurrection and at that point all of the dead will stand before the great white throne for the final judgment.

There will essentially be two judgments.

These two judgments serve different purposes.

One of these judgments will determine ones final destination, either eternity with Christ or eternity with Satan.

The other judgment that we are going to see will determine rewards that one will receive based on ones good works.

So that is, very briefly what we will find within the chapter.

But this chapter is rife with difficulties.

In fact, if I had to venture a guess this chapter more than any other has created the greatest amount of debate within the church.

Why?

Because this is the chapter that mentions the millennial rule of Jesus.

In fact it is the only place in the scriptures that explicitly mentions this thousand year reign.

And yet it causes such contention within the church.

Let me say this.

I do hold to a specific view, and I will share that view with you.

And, you are completely free to choose whichever view you choose.

It will have absolutely no bearing on ones salvation and so it is a position that we should hold with charity in regards to one another within the church.

I know that I went over these position early on in the series, but I believe that it bears repeating at this point.

Since the topic is now front and center within our passage today.There are essentially four views concerning Jesus’ millennial rule.

Amillenialism

The first of these is what is referred to as the Amillenial position.

This position holds that there is no actual millenial reign of Christ either before or after his second coming.

The primary distinction of this position deals with the structure of the book of Revelation.

This position does not believe that the book of Revelation is simply speaking of consecutive events that occur.

But instead the book often times covers the same events simply from different perspectives.

In fact often times they would hold that it is not simply looking back at end times event, but also historical events that occured during the times of Christ.

For instance this position would connect the binding of Satan within the abyss with Matthew chapter twelves discussion concerning Jesus victory over Satan during Jesus earthly ministry.

For instance in Matthew chapter twelve verse twenty-nine we read.

In this parable the strong man is Satan and Jesus is the one who is binding the strong man.

And in this chapter we are going to read about the binding of Satan.

Then in Luke chapter ten verse eighteen we read.

In this verse Jesus is relating to the Apostles that Satan is overcome by the spread of the Gospel.

Those who hold to this position would state that all of this was simply restated in Revelation chapter twelve and in particular verse nine where we read.

You can clearly see the similarity between these verses.

However, the question still remains as to whether or not the binding that we read in Revelation chapter twenty is the same thing that we see in Revelation chapter twelve.

Amillenialists would state that they are the same and we are now simply getting a different telling of the same event.

Amillennialism

If Revelation 20 and 12 are simply restating what happened in Luke chapter 10 and Matthew chapter 12 then what is the “first resurrection” that we are going to read about today.

Amillennialism holds that what is in reference to a spiritual reality that occurs when a believer becomes a Christian.

And so they would describe the millenial reign of Christ as the reign of Christ as it is manifested historically today through His Church.

And in the end there is no literal thousand year period of time within history that is yet to occur.

It is a symbolic number representing a lengthy period concerning the history of the church on earth.

Is the Jesus reigning and ruling by the presence of the Church through His presence within His people here today.

I would say yes that is what scripture teaches, but is that what Revelation chapter twenty is trying to teach.

This is how Amillenialists would read this chapter.

Let’s look at the next position which is called postmillennialism.

Postmillennialism

The postmillennial position holds that the return of Christ is ushered in when the Kingdom of God has been established by the Church within human history.

And so for instance the previous chapter, chapter nineteen, is a symbolic way of describing the fact that Christian morals and principles will be adopted throughout humanity and thus Christ will triumph over humanity by the spread of the Gospel through His Church.

After this period of revival Jesus will return to raise the dead, judge the world, and then finally bring in the new eternal order.

And this period of revival I suppose we might call it will be experienced world-wide and this is what is referred to in our chapter as the millennial rule of Christ.

The next position is premillennialism.

Premillennialism

The Premillennial view holds that all of Chapter twenty is referencing only end times events.

They would generally hold that the coming of Christ is followed by the binding of Satan, and then the resurrection of the saints who will join Christ in a period of time in which he will rule over the earth.

This period of time is typically referred to as the millennial kingdom.

This period of time will end with a final rebellion and then the final and last judgment will occur.

Within premillennialism there are two very different thoughts concerning the millennial period of time.

Historical Premillennialism

What I call the historical premillennial view would hold that the book of Revelation is primarily concerned with the plight of the church during the period of the end times.

This is the position that I hold to.

I am not going to go into this position significantly right now, because it is the position that I am going to primarily be speaking on today.

The other premillennial school of thought is called dispensationalism and is the most prominent of the premillennial views.

All because of a series of books called Left Behind.

They were very well written and I enjoyed reading them very much, even if today I disagree with this position.

It was my go to when I was first a believer.

Why?

Because I had read this books.

And honestly that is the only reason I held to this position.

However, after going to a Bible College and Seminary that were both entrenched within Dispensationalism I found it to be lacking, at least I felt in a consistent understanding of the Scriptures.

So how is this position distinct from historical premillenialism.

Dispensationalism

Dispensationalism sees the millennial kingdom primarily in terms of the restoration of the nation of Israel.

In fact this group interprets the book of Revelation as primarily concerned with the restoration of Israel in the last days and as a result the millennial kingdom has little to nothing to do with the Church.

In the end this is really what separates the two positions, however, in the end that is a pretty significant difference.

Is the book of Revelation written concerning the restoration of Israel or is it written concerning the victory of the church over Babylon and Satan.

That is what you need to answer if you are leaning, I might say, in the premillennial direction.

After all of that there are some points I want us to think about as we go through the first six verses of this chapter today.

One of the questions that needs to be answered is whether or not chapter twenty simply looks back upon the history of the Church.

Chapter twelve clearly looks back at the birth of the Messiah.

However, I would argue, that there are no clear markers within chapter twenty that indicate that it is looking backwards through history.

In fact, I believe, it appears to be looking forward into the future.