Revelation Study 24 Chapter 20
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So, because chapter 20 comes after 19 we think, again linearly, chronologically and assume that this 1000 year reign of Christ comes after this final and great battle.
With this understanding, what happens in 20:3 is odd, as well as what happens in verses 7-8
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.
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.
So we have to remember how Revelation is telling us this story repeatedly from different perspectives.
We have to remember how symbolic Revelation is.
We have to remember that a lot of what Revelation is telling us has already happened, or is happening now.
This is primarily not a book of the future, but how the Great Plan of God has been and will continue to be carried out.
Do you remember back to our talk during this study on “Shalom”?
Completeness, wholeness, goodness, that results in a rest, a Shabbot, or Sabbath.
What did God do in Genesis 1 to bring about the Shalom and Shabbot? He spoke.
He brought order out of the chaos. How? He spoke
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
With His spoken word He disperses the darkness with light.
What’s interesting is that the word or phrase “darkness was over the face of the deep” is more than literal.
I’m not saying it’s not literal, but I’m also saying its meaning is deeper.
From Revelation what do we know is the symbolism for the deep waters? The abode of evil, or it became know as that. But its symbolic also for chaos, the unknown, a realm of death,
Well the word in the Hebrew for deep waters is “hom” can mean the deep, the sea, but also it can mean the abyss and Sheol, depths of the earth, the place where the dead reside.
In the Greek the word is “abyssos” or abyss, deep abode of the dead.
Let’s look at Revelation 20 verse 1
New Living Translation Chapter 20
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven with the key to the bottomless pit and a heavy chain in his hand. 2
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.
New Living Translation Chapter 9
Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen to earth from the sky, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit
New Living Translation Chapter 9
11 Their king is the angel from the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon—the Destroyer.
What if, chronologically, chapter 20, or at least verses 1-4 of chapter 20 came before chapter 9??
And then verses 7-10 are what we’ve been reading about the last couple of weeks in the defeat of Babylon, the defeat of the prostitute and the beast??
This chapter is a summary of the existence of the church, from cross to the end.
So in the beginning God brought peace and shalom out of chaos, He stilled the deep, the abyss, darkness was over it and He brought forth light.
How was chaos reintroduced into the world? The Fall of Man through the deception of the enemy.
From that time forward the devil had reign on the earth.
What did the satan do to the people of God, to Israel? Enticed them, deceived them, tried to destroy them time and again with wicked nations.
Did they flourish?? Did they expand the kingdom of God?? NO
When did things change? When Jesus arrived, he defeated sin and death and the devil.
In doing so He took back what was God’s, what Adam and Eve gave away, the kingdom.
And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. 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.
So with this in the front of our minds, let’s read Verses 1-3 of chapter 20
New Living Translation Chapter 20
The Thousand Years
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven with the key to the bottomless pit and a heavy chain in his hand. 2 He seized the dragon—that old serpent, who is the devil, Satan—and bound him in chains for a thousand years. 3 The angel threw him into the bottomless pit, which he then shut and locked so Satan could not deceive the nations anymore until the thousand years were finished. Afterward he must be released for a little while.
What is this describing?
Is the 1000 years literal or symbolic?
What can 1000 years mean then? A period of time, an era, an epoch,
So, if we look at this event happening at Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection and ascension, what is the 1000 years? The Church Age
What happened during the Church Age? Satan was restrained, after his murderous attempt to destroy Jesus, he was bound, limited in his effectiveness.
What also happened is happening during the Church Age? The kingdom has spread to cover the entire world. How?
Revelation 20 verse 4
New Living Translation Chapter 20
4 Then I saw thrones, and the people sitting on them had been given the authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony about Jesus and for proclaiming the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his statue, nor accepted his mark on their forehead or their hands. They all came to life again, and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
What is this verse telling us?
From what we’ve studied, has this verse happened in history or is it in the future? It has happened, John has written about this in regards to Rome, the beast, the mark, the martyrs, to the Churches etc.
This is not the future, we are living in this verse, it continues.
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.
In order to have a first resurrection you must have a first death.
What is the first death? When we die to ourselves, when we die to this world and its system.
We are born again, resurrected to new life, a new creation.
If we have experienced this first death, this first resurrection, then the second death, our physical death has no power over us.
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?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
What are we called as this new creation?
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.
So how do we reign with Christ? As a “royal” priesthood.
What does reigning with Him look like? preaching the Gospel, expanding the kingdom, taking back from satan what is God’s, human souls.
New Living Translation Chapter 20
7 When the thousand years come to an end, Satan will be let out of his prison. 8 He will go out to deceive the nations—called Gog and Magog—in every corner of the earth. He will gather them together for battle—a mighty army, as numberless as sand along the seashore. 9 And I saw them as they went up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded God’s people and the beloved city. But fire from heaven came down on the attacking armies and consumed them.
10 Then the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulfur, joining the beast and the false prophet. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
So when does this sound like it’s happening? This is the final defeat of satan and his forces. We’ve been reading about this.
This defeat of satan is the fall of Babylon, now the focus is on satan and not the beasts or the prostitute or Rome, etc.
The final assembly, the gathering of the forces.
And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.
The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
Another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.”
And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur 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, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”
Now let’s look at verses 11 thru 15 of chapter 20
New Living Translation Chapter 20
The Final Judgment
11 And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. 12 I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. 14 Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. 15 And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.
This is the end of the first created world. The earth and sky have become completely dismantled.
Who is present that John is seeing? All of the dead.
Who is being judged here? Not the believers, the dead, the earth dwellers from everywhere and all time.
What were they judged according to? Their deeds.
Why? Because that’s all they have to base themselves on.
How will we be judged? Based on Jesus deeds, His life, His death for us. We are good because He was good.
It’s not on what we did or must do to be right with God, but what He has done with for us to make us right.
We are not dead, we have been made alive in Christ, born again.
In the end all of death and the devil will be thrown into the lake of fire, anyone not found in the Book of Life, not sealed by God.
This is the second death and it holds no power over us.
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.
YO