Revelation 20:1-10 - The Millennium

INTRODUCTION

Let’s open our Bibles together to the 20th chapter of the book of the Revelation.

We will read verses 1-10 for our text this morning.

[READ REVELATION 20:1-10]

Let’s just begin with the plain truth:

For almost 2000 years, good, solid, orthodox (which means they hold to the truth) Christians have disagreed about this chapter.

As early as AD 160, the early church father, Justin Martyr, wrote about what HE believed the passage to mean, but also said his was not the prevailing opinion of the church.

And so, while I will this morning present what I think is a fundamentally correct understanding of this chapter,

I want to make sure you understand that I do not disregard some other interpretations.

What you think this chapter means, and how it flows into your belief of the events surrounding the Appearing of our Lord (the Parousia),

Has NO bearing on your salvation, which is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

I know we could spend a month on the question of eschatology, which is the doctrine of Last Things,

But I have chosen to take just this morning to provide some help with this difficult passage.

If you would like to view a very thorough treatment of the theories related to this, I warmly recommend a book by Dr. Sam Waldron - The Doctrine of Last Things

It is possibly the most thorough and fair treatment I have read on the subject,

Espousing one view, but dealing graciously with all the orthodox views in his explanation.

So looking at our text this morning, we can see that verses 2-3 introduce the main point of dispute:

Revelation 20:2–3 “And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.”

A thousand years - also known as a Millennium.

And that’s where the different theories around the meaning of these verses get their names.

Now, if you are immediately asking “What do other New Testament passages, clearer passages, say about this Millennium,”

I am so proud of you to ask.

That SHOULD be our first thought - to allow the clearer passages interpret the less clear ones.

But this thousand-year period of time, particularly as it is often interpreted, is mentioned nowhere else in Scripture directly.

So when does this seem to occur in relation to the REALLY Important Event - the Return of Christ?

That’s where much of the debate begins.

Because this passage stands seemingly alone in its imagery, if you ask 3 Christians what they believe about it, you might get 4 different opinions.

Some believe the Return of Christ happens BEFORE this Millennium, so they are known as PRE-MILLENNIAL.

There is some evidence that the early church fathers, like Justin Martyr, may have held this view, although it wasn’t in the same form as many in the church hold today.

But by the time of Augustine, about 200 years later, almost no one held this view.

And many, indeed, according to Justin Martyr and other writers, didn’t find this to fit the rest of the Scriptures even before Augustine.

About 200 years ago, a particularly problematic version of premillennialism, known as DISPENSATIONALISM, was introduced to the church, and it spread rapidly.

Renowned teachers like John MacArthur and Chuck Swindoll hold to parts of this system.

The main problem with Dispensationalism, to be very brief, is that some of those who hold to it think God has TWO methods of salvation:

One for the Jews of the nation of Israel, and one for everyone else.

That is, I am afraid, oversimplified, but I want to get to our text this morning.

So we have the two flavors of Premillennialism.

Then, just after the Reformation, in the 1600’s and 1700’s, a new theory was introduced that the church would establish a Christian kingdom on the earth, and that kingdom would last a thousand years.

And AFTER that thousand years, Christ would return on the Last Day to judge the living and the dead according to the Scriptures.

This theory is called POST-MILLENIAL.

This was the theory that led the Pilgrims to establish colonies of believers in the New World,

And led to great wars in Europe to decide who would lead “Christendom”.

This was the view held by Jonathan Edwards and others of his day, as they sought to bring Christ’s kingdom to earth.

For the greatest period of the church, though, the great teachers viewed this chapter of the Revelation as what it is: imagery and pictures.

It is a vision to lead us to hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of the trials and difficulties of life, even grave persecutions.

They saw the “thousand years” not as a literal time period, but as a full period of time, and a long one at that.

And because they were not of the PREMILLENIAL camp nor the POSTMILLENIAL camp, they were called A-MILLENNIAL.

“A” meaning “not” - not holding to either millennial view.

I rather like the Amillennial view for a very simple reason - it doesn’t require a “hidden” structure, like a timeline of the Rapture or the blueprint for Christendom -

No charts or graphs, no timelines about the events of this world in relation to the Return of Christ.

Because that is REALLY what is important here.

I couldn’t care less if you hold strongly to these theories, so long as you confess, as we do every Lord’s Day:

He [Jesus] ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father; From there He will come to judge the living and the dead, all according to the Scriptures.

If you cannot confess THAT hope, you do not believe a vital basic doctrine of a follower of Jesus.

His Return on the Last Day, His judgment of everyone who ever lived - those are witnessed throughout the Scriptures and MUST be believed.

If you don’t believe that, you don’t believe in Jesus Christ.

REVELATION 20

Let’s now turn our attention to the passage, and look at it in the light of the other Scriptures.

I said earlier that the mention of the “thousand years” is not made in that way anywhere else, but that doesn’t mean that the message of the passage doesn’t have other Scriptural references.

So in our reading of this passage today, I would suggest to you to think of this “thousand years” as the period of time between the Ascension of Jesus Christ and His Return.

It is a long time, and one that will end when God’s purposes of grace and mercy are complete.

And not a minute sooner or later than that.

Every eschatological system we have discussed recognizes this period of waiting for the Return of the Risen Christ;

And I think it explains easily the mystery and message of our text today.

[READ 20:1-3]

There are a couple of things I want to point out here:

1. This is the only place in the Bible where the Serpent of Genesis 3 is unmasked and identified.

Introduced in the third chapter of the Bible, he is unmasked in the 3rd from the last chapter in the Bible.

That’s because the Bible is a SINGLE STORY - a story by a SINGLE DIVINE AUTHOR.

It was written down by many men over 4000 years or so, but the author of it all is the Holy Spirit.

And He tells us from beginning to end the story of the great redemption of fallen mankind that God has accomplished.

2. The action of these verses is the binding and neutralizing of the great enemy of your soul - the adversary, the accuser of the brethren.

So the question becomes “When does that happen?”

For MILLENNIALISTS, this occurs only toward the end of the days of this earth.

Whether before or after the Return of Christ.

But for the AMILLENIALIST, (and I think, the Bible as well), we are told precisely when the great enemy was bound.

In Mark 3, beginning in verse 22, we see the Jewish scribes who came from Jerusalem accusing Jesus of “casting out demons by the prince of demons”.

But Jesus replied, identifying Satan as the prince of demons, and saying:

Mark 3:27 “But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.”

The point is that Jesus is ALREADY dealing with a bound enemy - and he is plundering the people of God from the Adversary.

And that is the mission He left to the church as well - to free God’s people through the gospel from their slavery to sin and death.

Maybe you are saying: “But I don’t FEEL like Satan is bound right now. There is still a great deal of demonic mischief in this world.”

Indeed there is.

But look at what he is bound from:

So that he might not deceive the nations any longer.

He was bound so that God’s people wouldn’t be deceived; so that the gospel WILL free them.

Those who are not God’s people, not chosen and called by Him:

They are held in the same darkness as they were:

2 Corinthians 4:4–6 “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Moving to the next verses in our text today, verses 4-6, the scene changes, as it so often does in this book.

Revelation 20:4–6 “Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.”

From the casting of the devil into the pit, our eyes turn to heaven.

I don’t care if you call it Paradise or Abraham’s bosom, it is the place with Christ where believers go after death and before the Last Day.

We know this is heaven because:

1. These are SOULS.

The same souls that cried out for justice from under the altar in Revelation 6:9ff.

They aren’t complete - they don’t have BODIES yet.

They haven’t been glorified yet.

But they are STILL comforted and reigning in the presence of Christ after death.

Even though they are literally “the beheaded ones”.

And the ones who refused to be engraved with the marks of this world.

2. They are the ones who endured to the end.

Matthew 24:13 “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

They are the ones who mourned and are comforted (Matthew 5:4 ““Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” )

The most important thing in this section, I think, is the reality that there is ONLY ONE CHURCH.

In this period of time between the Ascension and our Lord’s Return, there is a single church, spanning earth and heaven.

Believers here on earth, still living in our bodies;

A great cloud of witnesses who have gone before. (Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,” )

Because God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

Matthew 22:31–32 “And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.””

John 11:25–26 “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.””

That’s why Paul could confidently proclaim:

2 Corinthians 5:6–10 “So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”

The timing of this passage also fits with the rest of the New Testament - once the period of the church is complete and the Lord returns, then ALL people will be raised to judgment.

1 Thessalonians 4:14–18 “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

1 Corinthians 15:50–55 “I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?””

Let’s move quickly to the last verses of our text for today:

Revelation 20:7–10 “And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

This is, indeed, talking about the end of the Millennium.

And what do we see?

1. We see the Last Day, and the great judgment to follow.

You might have to read into the next few verses to see a lot of it, but you get the part to close the Millennium here in our text today.

The forces of the evil one stand on the verge of overtaking the people of God,

And then our Great Lord comes to rescue His people and end this entire age.

There is a LOT more to this, but I will have to leave that for another time.

2. The second thing we see is the resumption of Satan’s deception.

In other parts of the New Testament, this is called the Apostasy.

In talking about the Last Days in 2 Thessalonians 2:7–10 “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.”

I think this is talking about the same event as our text today - the restraint, the binding, is removed from the lawless one for a time.

And then our Lord Jesus Christ brings that lawless one to nothing BY HIS APPEARING.

1 Timothy 4:1 “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,”

2 Peter 3:3–4 “knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.””

In effect, it is the harvest of the wheat and the weeds that have grown here in the same field,

Separated for the Last Day and the judgment.

And so what are we to learn from this?

How should we then live?

This text, striking in its imagery and stern in its warning, is telling us nothing more or less than every other part of God’s word.

Walk in the Spirit, and you won’t gratify the desires of the flesh.

Beloved, when you were saved, you were converted from a citizen of earth and this present evil age

And made into a citizen of a heavenly kingdom that is ALREADY standing.

With a Lord Jesus Christ who is already reigning.

He isn’t waiting to take control;

He tarries because all His people have not yet been brought in.

He waits with patience for that day.

I beg you, don’t let that day come and find your heart unbowed and your faith cold.

Don’t wait until it’s too late to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 3:9–10 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”