Revelation 20

Translation

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven with the Key of the Abyss and a great chain in his hand. He seized the dragon, the Ancient Serpent, who is the Devil and the Satan, and bound him up for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss and closed and locked it after him, so that he would not be able to deceive the nations anymore until the thousand years were up. After this he must be released for a little while.

And I saw thrones and those sitting on them, and they were given authority to judge, as well as the souls of those beheaded for their testimony about Jesus and for the word of God, and who did not worship the beast or his image and didn’t get the mark on their forehead or hand. They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not live until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and Holy are those who have a share in the first resurrection. Over them the second death has no power, but they are to be priests of God and Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

When the thousand years are finished, the Satan will be released from his prison, and he will go out to deceive the nations to the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for war. Their number will be as the sand of the sea, and they go up across the breadth of the earth and surround the camp of the saints and the beloved city. Fire from heaven came down and devoured them. The Devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and false prophet were also, and they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

I saw a great white throne and the one seated on it, and Heaven and Earth fled from before him and no place was found for them. I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. The books were opened, and another book was opened, the Book of Life, and the dead were judged from what was written in the books according to their deeds. The sea gave up the dead in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead in them, and they were each judged according to their deeds. Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

The Millennial Reign

After Beast and False Prophet thrown down, so too is Satan

Satan “bound”; i.e. unable to exert his full powers and stop the spread of the Church

Those in Christ Rule

Matt 19

The New Revised Standard Version The Rich Young Man

28 Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.

Eph 2

The New Revised Standard Version From Death to Life

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Evil Defeated

Satan released again

God’s mysterious plan require that evil exhaust itself before being defeated, that all accusations be thrown out before the judgement comes

The final battle is like those that came before it. All the kings of the earth and all evil and injustice will stand against God and his people, and be wiped away in the blink of an eye.

No more evil, no more suffering, no more injustice

Get Your Crown

The Church, then, is to pronounce the good news about the defeat of all earthly powers and the coming of the true King. This is the Gospel.

In one sense, we might see our work as presenting a choice to the world: A crown in heaven or eternal damnation

Thus the Church’s work is to get our crowns and offer them to others

We offer life or death to the world in the same way that God offered it

Deut 30

The New Revised Standard Version Exhortation to Choose Life

15 See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. 16 If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20 loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the LORD swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

This is, in fact, the same choice offered not only to Israel by God, but to all the world through Jesus Christ

John 3

The New Revised Standard Version Nicodemus Visits Jesus

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Right to Rule?

But, in fact, while it is true that life and death, a crown and a lake of fire, are at issue here, to stop there would be too simplistic

We must go further and ask why God offers us a crown at all. What gives humans the right to rule and judge the world? And more crucial, as the church, if we are judges, how do we judge?

God sharing in power and rulership has always been the plan

Gen 1

The New Revised Standard Version Six Days of Creation and the Sabbath

26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

27 So God created humankind in his image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.

Here, this right to rule is rooted in our likeness to God

Trinity, persons, personhood