The Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ Part 4

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Introduction:
I. The Removal of Satan (vs. 1-3)
II. The Reign of the Saints (vs. 4-6)
Revelation 20:4-6
Revelation 20:4–6 AV
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 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.
With Satan and all of the demons incarcerated, the rule of Jesus Christ in the Millennial Kingdom can commence.
The fulfillment of the proclamation of the angel Gabriel will now come to being.
Luke 1:32 ESV
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,
The Lord Jesus Christ will reign as the supreme ruler.
However, He will allow His people to subordinately rule with Him during this thousand year reign.
The will be allowed to rule every aspect of the Kingdom life.
And being glorified and perfect, they will perfected carry out the will of the Lord during this time.
John says that he saw “thrones”, “θρόνος” in the Greek.
And speaks about a seat of judicial and regal authority.
During the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ, the ones sitting on the throne will both enforce God’s will and adjudicate disputes.
Now, just as with the angel who will capture and seal Satan so are the identities of the ones that are going to sit on the throne not expressly given.
So how to do we deduce who are the ones that are going to be sitting on the throne judging?
The identity of the ones that are going to be judging can easily be identified by the ones that are promised to reign from the thrones.
Daniel 7:27 ESV
And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; his kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.’
So, OT saints are promised to rule with Jesus Christ during His kingdom.
Matthew 19:28 ESV
Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
So, the Apostle were given the promise that they would rule with Christ.
1 Corinthians 6:2 ESV
Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases?
2 Timothy 2:12 ESV
if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us;
Revelation 2:26 ESV
The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations,
Revelation 3:21 ESV
The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.
Revelation 5:10 ESV
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”
So, NT saints are given the promise that they will rule with Christ in His kingdom.
The passage indicates for us who will the last group of people that are going to rule with Christ during His kingdom.
Revelation 20:4 AV
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Revelation 20:4
The last group that will sit on the thrones and judge the world will be the believers that were killed during the time of the Tribulation.
“Beheaded” is the word “πελεκίζω” literally means to be cut off with an axe.
This is a figure of speech to symbolize those who had been killed.
The empire of the AntiChrist had terminated those who had a testimony for Jesus Christ, those who had not worshipped his image not taken his mark.
Because the Tribulation saints were faithful to the death, they were given the grace to come to life and rule reign with Christ and the rest of the saints in the Kingdom.
I want to point out something and clarify the statement that I just made when I said “those that were faithful to death”.
The reason that I say that is because the fact that they were willing to die for the testimony of Jesus Christ proves the genuineness of their faith.
Someone who does not endure to the end, shows that they were never truly a Christian.
Matthew 24:13 ESV
But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
And I know that this passage is used by many in the Church of God movement, as well as others, to try and say that if you go away from the faith, that you have “fallen from Grace” and lost your salvation.
Well, first of all, I would say that if someone falls away from the faith, it is not that they lost their salvation but that it is evidence that they never had it.
1 John 2:19 ESV
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
Second of all, every passage in the Scriptures must be interpreted in light of the context in which it is being written.
You take a statement that is made in the Scripture and then strip it from its context and then form a belief system based on that is just wrong and irresponsible.
The context of is eschatological and not the Church age and must be interpreted in light of that or you get some very bad doctrine.
Revelation 20:5 AV
But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
These are the unbelieving people of all ages, whose judgment and damnation are describe in verses 11-15.
John calls thew resurrection of all the saints of all ages the first resurrection.
Just to give you a list, it is called by several names in the NT.

That resurrection is also called in Scripture the “resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:14; Acts 24:15), the “resurrection of life” (John 5:29), the resurrection of “those who are Christ’s at His coming” (1 Cor. 15:23), and the “better resurrection” (Heb. 11:35).

The word “resurrection” is “ἀνάστασις” and is used 42 times in the NT and it is always refers to a physical resurrection as opposed to a spiritual resurrection, as one may perhaps assume.
Revelation 20:6 AV
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.
This is the fifth of the seven “Beatitudes” that are listed in the book of Revelation.
“Blessed” is the Greek word “μακάριος” and it means to be happy, to enjoy favorable circumstances.
John gives three reasons why those that have a part of the first resurrection should be happy.
First, because the second death has no power.
“Power” is the Greek word “ἐξουσία” and means “control”
Happy is the man that has a part of the first resurrection because the second death has no control or authority over them.
You say, “what is the second death”?
We will get to it later in our study, but verse 14 answers that question for us.
Revelation 20:14 ESV
Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
The comforting truth is that no true child of God will ever face God’s eternal wrath.
Romans 5:9 ESV
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
1 Thessalonians 1:10 ESV
and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
1 Thessalonians 5:9 ESV
For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Those who participate in the first resurrection will also be happy because they will become priests or God and of Christ.
Did you know that you are your own priest before God?
1 Peter 2:9 ESV
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Just as believers are royal priests called to proclaim the excellencies of God, so we will also do throughout the Millennial Kingdom.
Just as we do now, in the Millennial Kingdom we will have the responsibility of worshipping God and leading other in the worship and the knowledge of Him.
So during the Millennial Kingdom, one of our responsibilities will be to be witnesses for Christ.
The final blessing for those who participate in the first resurrection is that they will reign with Christ a thousand years.
The word “reign” is “βασιλεύω” and it has a root form “βασιλευς” which means “to be a king”.
We will share as kings in the Kingdom of our Lord.
III. The Return of Satan (vs. 7)
Revelation 20:7 AV
And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

As previously noted, Satan and his demon hordes will be imprisoned in the abyss for the duration of the Millennium, in which the Lord Jesus Christ will rule with unopposed sovereignty. They will not be permitted to interfere in the affairs of the kingdom in any way. Satan’s binding will end, however, when the thousand years are completed and he is released from his prison to lead a final rebellion of sinners.

To review briefly, Scripture teaches that no unsaved people will enter the kingdom. Only the redeemed from among the Jewish (12:6, 13–17; Isa. 60:21; Rom. 11:26) and Gentile (7:9–17) survivors of the Tribulation will go into the kingdom in their normal, physical bodies. The perfect environmental and social conditions of the Millennium, coupled with the lengthened life spans of those physically alive (Isa. 65:20), will cause their children to proliferate.

Though the initial inhabitants of the millennial kingdom will all be redeemed, they will still possess a sinful human nature. And as all parents have done since the Fall, they will pass that sin nature on to their offspring. Each successive generation throughout the thousand years will be made up of sinners in need of salvation. Many will come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But amazingly, despite the personal rule of Christ on earth, despite the most moral society the world will ever know, many others will love their sin and reject Him

Romans 8:7 ESV
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

Even the utopian conditions of the Millennium will not change the sad reality of human depravity. As they did during His incarnational presence on earth, sinners will refuse the grace and reject the lordship of the King of all the earth. That is not surprising, since even the perfect conditions of the Garden of Eden were not sufficient to keep sinless Adam and Eve from rebelling against God.

The issue regarding salvation is never lack of information (cf. Rom. 1:18–20); it is love of sin (John 3:19). Those who openly rebel will face swift judgment (2:27; 12:5; 19:15; Ps. 2:9), including the withholding of rain on their land (Zech. 14:16–19). But enough unrepentant sinners will be alive at the end of the Millennium for Satan to lead a worldwide rebellion.

When Satan is loosed, He will have enough cohesive supernatural leadership to bring to the surface all of the latent sinful rebellion that is left in the universe.

He will pull together all the rebels, revealing the true character and intent of those Christ-rejecting sinners and making it evident that God’s judgment of them is just. Satan’s desperate wickedness and violent hatred of God and Christ will not be altered by his thousand years of imprisonment in the abyss. When he is released, he will immediately set about fomenting his final act of rebellion.

IV. The Revolt of Society (vs. 8-10)
Revelation 20:8–10 AV
And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Satan will collect the deceived nations from the four corners of the earth (cf. 7:1; Isa. 11:12), an expression referring, not to a flat earth, but to the four main points of the compass: north, south, east, and west. In other words, the rebels will come from all over the globe.

John gives these enemies of the King of Kings the symbolic title Gog and Magog, naming them after the invasion force that will assault Israel during the Tribulation (Ezek. 38–39). Some believe that Ezekiel 38 and 39 describe this battle at the end of the Millennium. There are, however, significant differences that argue against equating the two events. Ezekiel 39:4 and 17 describe the invaders perishing on the mountains of Israel, but according to Revelation 20:9 the rebels at the end of the Millennium will be destroyed on a “broad plain.” Also, the language of Ezekiel 39:17–20 seems to be describing the same event depicted in Revelation 19:17–18. Finally, the events of Ezekiel 38–39 fit chronologically before the description of the millennial temple given in chapters 40–48, while the battle depicted in Revelation 20:7–10 takes place after the Millennium.

The name Gog appears to be used in Scripture as a general title for an enemy of God’s people (the Septuagint uses it to translate “Agag” in Num. 24:7). In Ezekiel 38–39, the name Gog describes the final Antichrist of the Tribulation. Most likely, then, Gog is used in verse 8 to describe the human leader of Satan’s forces. Some believe the people known as Magog to be the descendents of Noah’s grandson of that same name (Gen. 10:2). They later became known as the Scythians and inhabited the region north of the Black and Caspian Seas. Others identify them with a people who lived farther south in Asia Minor. Whoever the historical people known as Magog may have been, the term is used in this passage to describe the sinful rebels from all the nations who will gather together for the final war in human history.

John sees the number of the people that are coming up against Christ to be as the sand of the seashore and that they will encompass the beloved city; which we know to be the city of Jerusalem, where Christs’ throne will be and the center of the Millennial kingdom.
Just like the battle of Armageddon earlier, this war will actually be an execution.

As the rebel forces moved in for the attack, fire came down from heaven and devoured them. They will be swiftly, instantly, and totally exterminated. Sending fire … down from heaven is often the way God judges sinners (cf. Gen. 19:24; Lev. 10:2; 2 Kings 1:10, 12; Luke 9:54). Satan’s forces will be physically killed, and their souls will go into the realm of punishment, awaiting their final sentencing to eternal hell, which will take place shortly (20:11–15).

Nor will their leader escape.
Revelation 20:10 AV
And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Of course, the false prophet and the AntiChrist have already been there for a thousand years.
Satan will now join them as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords exterminates the world of its most fierce enemy.

Hell is a place of both mental (Dan. 12:2; Matt. 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Luke 13:28) and physical torment (14:10–11; Matt. 25:41; Mark 9:43–44; Luke 16:23–24). Those sentenced to that terrible place will be tormented day and night. There will not be a moment’s relief forever and ever. Scripture explicitly teaches that hell is eternal. The same Greek phrase translated forever and ever is used in 1:18 to speak of Christ’s eternity; in 4:9–10, 10:6, and 15:7 of God’s eternity; and in 11:15 of the duration of Christ’s reign. Unbelievers will “be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night” (14:10–11).

Jesus taught that the punishment of the wicked is as eternal as the eternal life of the righteous (Matt. 25:46). He also taught that hell is a place of “unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43), “where their worm does not die” (Mark 9:48). Second Thessalonians 1:9 teaches that the destruction of the wicked in hell stretches throughout all eternity.

As believers, as we are witnesses to the unsaved of the glory and goodness of God now as we will do during the Millennial Kingdom, we are saddened as many people reject Christ and will spend an eternity in torment.
Yet at the same time we rejoice because our arch enemy, Satan, has once and for all been defeated.
cf. confer (Lat.), compare
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2000). (p. 242). Chicago: Moody Press.
cf. confer (Lat.), compare
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2000). (p. 242). Chicago: Moody Press.
cf. confer (Lat.), compare
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2000). (p. 242). Chicago: Moody Press.
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