Revelation 20:1-15

1,000 years & Great White Throne of Judgement

Before we get started: (bring out the index cards and pens)write down any unanswered questions that you’ve ever had about Christianity, Jesus, The Bible, Salvation.. anything. fold up the cards and toss them inside this _____, throughout the study, if you have any questions that pop up, feel free to write it down and add it to the _______. We are going to go through the questions at the end and talk about it. I wanted to go with written questions, this way you can ask questions without feeling like you’re being put on the spot.

Last week we learned about The Rider on the White Horse. Who was the rider and what did he do?

The rider was Jesus

with fire in his eyes

robe dipped in blood

army from heaven, clothed in white

his army was the church

he came to judge the wicked

and from his mouth comes a sharp sword (Ephesians 6:17 tells us that of the full armor of God, the sword of the spirit is the word of God.) So Jesus speaks and the battle is finished.

Today we’re going to learn about the Millennial Reign of Jesus and the great white throne of Judgement

But before we dive into our text, Let’s have a word of Prayer.

Read Revelation Chapter 20

Thousand year Reign of Jesus

key points:

An angel comes down and locks satan away for a 1,000 years.

And during that 1,000 years, Jesus will sit on the throne and rule as king on earth

but who has ability to rule the world right now? (pause)

2 Corinthians 4:4 “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.”

Matthew 4:8–9 “Again, the devil took him(Jesus) to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.””

We learned in Genesis 3, that the serpent tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden and that’s when sin entered into the world.

so since then, Satan has had dominion over man. because when Adam obeyed satan, he bent the knee to him. So if someone is ruling and then they decide to obey someone else, they no longer rule.. does that make sense?

Right now, Satan is the ruler of this world and look at how that has impacted everything… how has sin impacted everything? ....the Bible says that the wages of sin is death. (talk about it)

But in the Millennium according to the text, Jesus sits on the throne and Satan will be bound in the bottomless pit

Everyone who enter the millennium, will be a believer. But there will be two kinds of believers. Mortal believers and immortal believers.

Who do you think we will be?

lemme explain:

when Christ calls us up into the clouds or when he raptures his church, we will have our new resurrected bodies. (pause)

1 Corinthians 15:51–53 “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.”

Saints that have experienced the rapture or that have died before the rapture will immediately change into their new bodies.

in our new bodies, we won’t experience temptation. we’ve already gone through that. we’ve already gone through our time of testing. but,

In the millennial kingdom, there will be regular people—mortal believers—living on earth. These are the ones who make it through the Tribulation without dying. Since they’re still in normal human bodies, they’ll be able to get married, have kids, and live everyday life during those thousand years while Jesus is ruling.

But after the 1,000 years are up, Satan gets released again. And even though people have spent their whole lives in a world of peace with Jesus literally ruling, some of them will still choose to listen to Satan. He’ll tempt them, gather everyone who decides to rebel, and form one last huge army. That final rebellion gets dealt with quickly, and then the wicked and satan will go before God at the Great White Throne of Judgement

Who remembers the 2 judgement seats? Judgement seat of Christ. Great white throne of judgement. what is the difference?

Christ- saints judged according to their good deeds. 2 Corinthians 5:10 “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.” Believers aren’t condemned, they are judged to see what their rewards are in heaven.

Great white throne of Judgement: judgement of the wicked- This judgement is for unbelievers. those who have rejected God, They will stand before God and God will cast them out into the lake of fire

I’d like to point out that Death will also be thrown into the lake of fire. according to the text in verse 14 “Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. God will defeat death once and for all.

Then we can finally live the way that God originally intended for us to live. We will live where sin and death never has a hold on us ever again.

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”” Rev 21:4

I’d love for you to take a quiet moment and think about where you are right now, in your heart.

Are you leaning toward Christ—toward hope, rescue, and the promise of being with Him through the rapture, the Millennial Kingdom, and the Judgment Seat of Christ?

Or are you still holding back—still unsure or maybe even rejecting Him—which leads toward the Tribulation and eventually the Great White Throne Judgment?

This study isn’t meant to scare you. It’s meant to understand that God ALWAYS keeps his promises. Revelations is a promise. and it’s a reminder that we all have a choice. Let’s Pray!