The King's Reign

Revelation 20

The King’s Reign

Intro: Sobhuza II, who was the paramount chief of Swaziland, is the longest-reigning verifiable monarch ever known. He ruled from 10 December 1899 21 August 1982 which works out to be 30,204 days or 82 years, 254 days. He became the paramount chief as they call it when he was about four months old so that partly explains his long rule.

Louis the 14th ruled for a little over 72 years and Queen Elizabeth is alive and she has been the queen for 69 years and 105 days. A king or queen or similar position is limited to our life span. The only way to make it go longer is to ensure the bloodline or family name at the least is allowed or made to continue on as long as possible.

The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, otherwise known as the Yamato dynasty, whose reign is traditionally dated to 660 BC. Dynasties are the blocks of families that rule the nation or territories. But even then, it there maybe 20 people who have ruled during the dynasty. And Someone is always looking to take over the rule. Sometimes they do it by open war, sometimes by politics, and conniving. Sometimes it is propping up a puppet king or queen while someone else makes the decisions. If you have watched or seen the three Musketeers, you know that Cardinal Richelieu was trying to rule France kind of behind Louis the 14th’s back.

Even with Sobhuza II, his grandmother ruled in his place while he grew up and learned the ropes of leadership and ruling.

As we saw when we started the Elijah Story, there were some Good. Kings and some bad kings. While we are on earth, we are limited in what we can do. In a republic or democracy we pick or at least have some influence as to who our representatives or leaders are.

But in the first century world of the Roman Empire, the people found themselves under the Caesars’ rule. The Roman rulers, overall, only cared about Rome, so on one hand, this is the mindset that the people found themselves in under the Roman Rule. When is this going to end? When is Jesus Coming back? When do we get the true King of the World? The one question may have been, just as we are asking today, will it end?

John gives us the answer to some of these questions and provides information on what everything will look like when it happens.

Read Verses:

Main Point: Jesus Returns and fully establishes the Kingdom. This is good news for believers and bad news for non believers.

I. Christ Rules with Believers (4-6)

Last week we covered the first three verses of Chapter 20, and we learned that in the timeline Satan is bound and sealed in a pit and not allowed to deceive the nations for a time. Starting in verse 4, John gives us another vision where he sees thrones and the souls of those who had even beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and those who had not worshipped the beast. So you have believers and they reigns with Christ for a thousand years. And these people that once died, are now alive, they ad probably we, are resurrected in order to rule with Christ.

The 1000 years is also what is referred to as the Millenium. As we talked about it on Thursday’s bible study, the 1000 year reign could be a literal 1000 years or it could be a symbolic number illustrating an undetermined amount of time.

And if we take this chapter literally, then Jesus returns on earth before and to establish his Millennial rule. This is often referred to as premillennialism.

If we take it symbolically, then The Kingdom is both now and not yet, the resurrection is then believer being made alive in Christ from our dead self, such as what Paul references in Ephesians 2, then you have amilleniasm. This is Where Jesus returns to set up his Kingdom after this symbolic 1000 year reign. the church continues its work and it will be finished when Christ returns fully.

Both readings are plausible, so it is not necessary to worry that you may be wrong or fight about it you think you are correct.

As I said on Thursday and I have said it a few times during this whole Study, what you think about the timing of Jesus’ return and his Kingdom is not a salvation issue. The fact that you believe In Jesus and he came to die for your sins, that he is the God the son and that he is lord of your life is the salvation quiz.

But we are living here on Earth and The church does have influence so the Kingdom of God is both here and will be here once the apocalypse happens.

And that is our first application

Until the Kingdom Comes we are to proclaim the Gods News Of Jesus’ death and resurrection and that he will return at some point.

And we must resist the world’s pleas and schemes. Notice that John tells us the believers are the ones that give their lives for God and to God. They do not bow down to the beast’s commands

And when we follow God, we will be blessed.

John gives us the beatitude, blessed is the one who shares in the first resurrection

And we have authority “over the second death is expressed in the phrase they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.”

We are spiritually alive or resurrected with Christ when we are converted. But these who do not know Christ are dead and they are deceived.

But after a time, Satan will be released from his prison to come into the world to deceive one last time.

II. Christ Destroys the Deceivers (7-10)

Satan is released from his prison and so the final battle is getting set. People who are still in the world, allow themselves to be deceived. The Kings and they people go Gog and Magog follow are deceived by Satan. John skips right to it. Verses 8 and 9 telll sis the armies gathered and they marched to the city and the camp of the saints ready for war. But fire came down from heaven and consumed them.

Revelation 20:8 (R:SC): The assembling of these antagonistic forces against God’s people is seen as a fulfillment of the prophecy in Ezekiel 38–39 that “Gog and Magog” and “many peoples” would gather together for war against Israel. In particular, the language of “gathering together” the nations derives from Ezek. 38:2–7 and 39:2, together with passages from Zechariah 12–14 and Zephaniah 3,

Much ink has been spilled over the centuries who are what Gog and Magog are. For the case this morning, just know that whoever they are, they, Gog and Magog represent the enemies of God and God’s people.

And somehow, Satan was seized and thrown into the lake of fire where they will be tormented forever and ever. The eternality of the punishment is clear. This is not just a saying for a really long time, anytime a time frame is given say even a 100 years or 7 years, it is a finite number. It says forever and ever. The suffering is conscious, because the word “torment” in Revelation always refers to conscious suffering (see further on 14:10–11). It is eternal, because the phrase “forever and ever” refers in Revelation to an endless period, as in God’s eternal reign (11:15), the duration of His eternal glory and power (1:6; 5:13; 7:12), His eternal life (4:9–10; 10:6; 15:7), and the eternal life of Christ (1:18). In particular, the use of the same expression for the explicitly unending reign of the saints in 22:5 must mean that the same temporal phrase in 20:10, hardly more than a chapter earlier, refers to a similar unending period. The “lake of fire” is not literal in nature, as Satan and his angels are spiritual beings. “Fire” in Revelation speaks of divine judgment, and that judgment, whatever form it takes, is certain to be terrible.

Here we see Satan receive his final punishment. Satan was the one who rebelled against God in the first place and he deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden. But God had grace on them, even though he judged them guilty and levied a punishment on them.

Application: God will destroy the deceiver as well as the deceived.

This is should be as reassuring to the 1st century Christians as it is to the 21st century Christians

This goes straight to the head of the snake or dragon if you like. He uses fire to destroy the armies, but then he grabs Satan and finishes him off.

Further, there is no doubt that evil demonic powers lie behind both the beast and the false prophet, powerful spirits subject to Satan (see on 13:2, 11–17). If that is the case, the reference here would be to the eternal torment of these demonic spirits, who will suffer alongside their master in the lake of fire. Matt. 25:41 corroborates this: “Depart from me, accursed ones [i.e. the lost], into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels” (the angels are also personal beings). The devil as an individual is eternally punished, according to this verse, as are the individual followers of the beast in 14:10–11.

But look church, the flip side of this eternal punishment is the eternal love for his people that believe. God’s Iove is so great that he has saved some, and by the description, it seems like he has saved a lot of people from this type of torment. And his love is made greater because He showed grace to those who do not deserve it.

After the enemy is done, it is time for the final cleanup operation. The dead will be judged.

III. Christ Judges the Dead (11-15)

Revelation 20:11 (R:SC): The vision in v. 11 of God sitting on the great white throne (And I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them) takes us back to similar visions in 4:2 and 5:7 of God on His throne, which allude primarily to Dan. 7:9 and Ezek. 1:26–28. The white color of the throne denotes the holiness of God. The judgment about to proceed from the throne is from the holy God, who judges not only to punish sin but also to vindicate His persecuted people. The One seated on the throne throughout Revelation is God (e.g., chs. 4–5; 19:4; 21:5; cf. Rom. 14:10). But it would not be problematic if it were Jesus seated on the throne here in 20:11 (in light of such texts as 5:12–13; 7:17; 22:1–3; Matt. 25:31ff.; John 5:22–27; Acts 17:31; 2 Cor. 5:10; 2 Tim. 4:1). Therefore, regardless of who is sitting on the throne, both God and Christ execute the last judgment. The visions in chs. 4, 5, and 20 are all rooted in Daniel 7, which features God sitting on the throne and books being opened. Whereas the vision in chs. 4–5 refers to the present reign and judgment of God and Christ, which began with Jesus’ resurrection, the scene in ch. 20 is about the culmination of that judicial rule in the final judgment at the end of history.

The landscape changes, the earth and sky seem to be no more and every dead person is resurrected to stand before God’s throne. The phrasing of the sea and hades are just to represent where the dead come from. if the sea represents evil or the enemy, then these are all God’s enemies, they are not talking about the sailors that went to Davy Jones’ locker

But here in verse 15 we have the key to the message

Revelation 20:15 (R:SC): And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. This implies that all who are found written in the book of life are spared from the judgment, which 3:5 and 21:27 make explicit (cf. Dan. 12:1: “and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued”). What is it about the book of life which spares them? The fuller title for the book is “the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain” (13:8; and 21:27 has “the Lamb’s book of life”). The life granted them in association with the book comes from their identification with the Lamb’s righteous deeds and especially with His death, which implies likewise that they are identified with His resurrection life (cf. 5:5–13). They do not suffer judgment for their evil deeds because the Lamb has already suffered it for them: He was slain on their behalf (so especially 1:5 and 5:9; see on 13:8). The Lamb acknowledges before God all who are written in the book (3:5) and who are identified with His righteousness and His death.

When the judgment comes, Jesus is our advocate. His blood has written the names of his people in the book of life. His holiness is not for anyone who is not holy to come into the kingdom with him. When Adam and Eve stopped being holy, they were kicked out of the garden.

Application: As Christians, we need to care for people enough to want to share the Gospel with them so they can have eternal life and avoid eternal judgment

God knows whose name is in the book of life. We do not. Our job as the church, is to spread the word and let the Holy Spirit do the rest.

This does not mean that if you do not tell someone about Jesus, that they will not be saved. Their eternal state is decreed by God and too important to just leave it up to you to do it or not.

God is sovereign and he is in command of those who are called. He ultimately takes care of it. But we still have a role to play in getting the news out. We have to go tell it on the mountain so to speak. We do not put our lamp under the table, we it it on top of it so the light hits the whole room.

That is the Gospel message. The message of Jesus coming to earth to lie a lifelike yours and be perfect in order to be our sacrifice to atone for our sins in order to write your name in the book of Life. The dead can have life, the blind can see, the prisoners are free, and the sick are healed. That message is It is not supposed to be locked up or covered with a blanket. It is supposed to be out there.

Conclusion

The end items sound scary and for non believers they will be. Earthly Kings come and go but we know that the one king will be ruling all things in his kingdom.

But when we are here, we know that God will come back one day to fully establish his kingdom. We must go and preach the good news that the Priest Jesus made the sacrifice and the King Jesus is returning to rule his world with righteousness.