When Jesus is Crowned

We’re in Revelation 20 today, but I want to set today’s message up by revisiting Revelation 19:11-16.

In 19 we see Jesus returning, but for what purpose does He come? Is it just for retribution? Just for vengeance for the faithful? The reason He comes is found in verses 12 and 16...

He is coming to set up His kingdom. The first time He came He had no crown but a crown of thorns. He had no throne but a cross. When He comes again He is wearing a crown and will sit on the throne of David!

The focus of today’s message is that of the Millennial reign of Christ. Church, Jesus will rule on this earth for 1000 years. Some have said that this is not a literal thousand years. They suggest that John is using the term figuratively. They base this on the figurative uses of such phrases as “an hour” or a “short space”. I ask, were the seven churches that John wrote to figurative or literal? What about the 24 elders and the 4 living creatures? What about the two witnesses? What about the 144,000 Jewish evangelists? What about the seven year tribulation? Are these numbers figurative?

There is no reason to doubt that there will be a literal thousand year reign of Jesus on this earth! There are six references to “a thousand years” listed in the first seven verses of this chapter. Six times. That seems to indicate that God is telling us something! In these verses we see the entire thousand year period of Jesus’ reign over this earth and its inhabitants. For 1000 years He will sit on the throne of David ruling!

When He came the first time they rejected His offer to rule them. When He comes again, He will rule them with a rod of iron, and no one will stand against Him!

Notice that when Jesus is crowned...

Satan Will Be Bound 1-3

For one thousand years the enemy of God, of the gospel, of the truth, of the church, of every child of God will be locked away! Hallelujah, amen! But listen to what I say: This day has not come yet!

If he will be bound in the future, that reminds us of a sad reality: He is loose today! That explains a lot, because if he is loose, yet he knows his destiny, then he is going to be busy, and man don’t we see it?

Church we need to know our enemy!

His Power

Make no mistake that his power is greater than any man on earth

He was able to convince a large number of the angels in heaven to follow him in his rebellion

He was able to appear as a harmless serpent in the garden

He was able to possess the body of one of Jesus’ own disciples, Judas

He will convince the world he has the answers in the Tribulation

He will convince the world through miracles that he is a god and will be worshiped

But...

Make no mistake, he is not all powerful!

The Bible tells us, 1 John 4:4 “4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”

He still answers to God!

In these verses we see something amazing:

Revelation 20:1 “1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.”

“an angel” John says. We’re not given a name, not given a title. Nothing to tell us who this angel is. Here is what we see...

God dispatches and angel form heaven to lay hold on Satan and incarcerate him.

Satan, Lucifer, the greatest of God’s created beings, the highest of the angels, is powerless over this angel!

Why? Because the authority of this angel comes from God Himself!

I firmly believe we should know our enemy, and part of that is knowing his power, but we must never forget that for all his power, he will always fall short of the power of God!

Next we must know...

His Plan

Deceit

Revelation 20:3 “3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.”

It’s interesting how both his title “Devil” and his name “Satan” both indicate that he is a liar!

Devil means “to slander”

To slander is to say something false against someone

This is what he did in the garden of Eden

“Yea hath God said?”

“Ye shall not surely die”

Satan means to accuse, and by implication to “falsely accuse”

Again, in the garden we see the serpent tell Eve that God does not have your best in mind.

He convinced them to rebel against God promising them somehting they felt they couldn’t live without: Happiness.

That is what he does today!

He lies, and people believe the lies he tells them!

God doesn’t love you! No one loves you! You’re worthless. Your life is meaningless!

The leading cause of death of 13-14 year-olds is suicide.

Why?

Because we have believed the lies of the devil

That God is not real, that you have no purpose in life. That you are just an animal.

We teach children that we came from nothing, that our lives have no meaning, and that when we die we return to nothing. We have no purpose, we have no hope, and we wonder what is wrong with society?

Let me say that you do not have to be a genius to see the downward spiral our country took when we removed God from our schools.

What about this lie...

If you’re not happy then do what will make you happy!

This lie has opened up the floodgates of our depravity!

From this lie stems:

Failing marriages - not happy, look someplace else

Perversion - Sure, God made man and woman, male and female, but don’t let that stop you!

What is a man? What is a woman? Maybe you’re not happy becasue you haven’t embraced your true self

Drug culture

Satan is a liar, the master of deciet, but in Revelation 20 we see his..

Defeat

Revelation 20:3 “3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.”

Knowing our enemy involves knowing his plan, and his plan has always been to deceive mankind into believing his lies. I’m glad that there is coming a day when the lies of Satan will halted, we see this in...

His Prison

The Place

The angel is given authority over him to bind him and to place him into the bottomless pit

The bottomless pit comes from the same root word which we get our word abyss.

This is known in Luke’s gospel as “the deep”

It is the home or the dwelling place of demons and unclean spirits

Once he is inside the doorway is shut and locked, and if that lock isn’t enough, there is the seal of God placed on the pit.

The seal would remind John’s readers of the seal of the Roman government

Removal of this official seal was punishable by death.

Whatever the case, there is a finality in this statement.

His time is limited

The Purpose - look at the last part of Revelation 20:3 “3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.”

God has a purpose in his restraint - it’s so he will be unable to deceive the inhabitants of the millennium.

God has a purpose for his release - it is to see which of those inhabitants will pass the test of being tempted to rebel against God after a reign of Christ for 1000 years.

When Jesus is crowned, Satan will be bound, and the...

Saints Will Abound 4-6

Have you ever wondered what we will be doing during the millennial reign? Here is the answer, we will...

Sit on Thrones

The number is not known

There is not a mention of how many thrones are present

There will be at least two as Jesus will sit on one, and most agree the Father will occupy the other

Evidently there are more than just those two

Who will enter the millennial kingdom?

There are those who trusted in Jesus and survived the tribulation, we don’t know the number. These will enter the kingdom in their earthly bodies.

There will be the Tribulation saints who had been martyred for their faith.

There will be the resurrected OT saints - what a sight that will be!

There is also the church saints (you and me)

This moves us from our throne to our occupation, we will...

Serve the Lord - While we’re not given the details, we see that we will...

Have judgment

Luke 19:17 “17 And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.”

Your level of service will be predicated upon your faithfulness to God now.

Serve as priests

The OT priests served as mediators between God and man

In the Millennium, we will be mediators between those who enter the kingdom in their natural bodies

I don’t want to say too much, because the Bible doesn’t give a lot of detail, and if I press too hard, I’ll be reading into Scripture instead of out of it. Here in the end we see the greatest truth for those who have trusted Jesus: We will be with Him forever.

Conclusion: This great chapter is not without sadness. In this chapter we read of two resurrections, or rather, two types of resurrections.

There is the first resurrection or the resurrection of the righteous - this began with Jesus and is followed by the church, then the tribulation saints, lastly the OT saints are included in this resurrection as well.

Then there is the second type of resurrection, the resurrection of the unrighteous, called the “second death” in verse 6. In a few weeks we will see why this is called the second death, but suffice it say the saddest part of all is that it can be avoided.

The Bible talks about two important seconds:

The Second birth - John 3:3 “3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

This second birth is only possible by placing your trust in Jesus Christ.

The second birth protects you from...

The Second death Revelation 20:6 “6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”

Those who refuse the second birth must face the eternal consequences of the second death

Have you experienced the second birth?

Every head bowed, every eye closed...

Our enemy is real. He is deceptive, and he is powerful, but God is All-Powerful. If you will reject the lies of the devil and give your life to Jesus right now, you can have the assurance of heaven, and know that you will not partake of the second death.