Sermon Tone Analysis

In Chapter 19, the Tribulation is coming to an end and the focus was placed on heaven and Christ’s second coming.

It is a time of rejoicing and victory.

After Babylon was destroyed, a great roar from heaven could be heard.

Babylon’s defeat would be a great victory!

The 24 elders and 4 living creatures are mentioned again as they sing a hallelujah chorus, along with another voice (assuming this is an angel) saying Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.

A great picture is then painted before us - the marriage of the Lamb (groom) and his Bride (believers) has come.

The bride is dressed in fine linen - believers are justified (made pure) by their faith - and stand before their groom based on their salvation.

Who would be invited to this joyous union?

Notice the differentiation among the attendees.

Jewish believers (Messianic Jews), Gentile believers, martyred believers, all believers will be gathered together in the great banquet hall, for the very first time and for one purpose - to worship God.

As John saw heaven open, he saw prophetically Christ’s second coming and the events which will follow it.

I can with all certainty tell you, scripture confirms a second return of Christ.

The armies had gathered for one final battle, wickedness will be defeated.

The Bible is clear that judgment awaits the wicked, and the second coming of Christ is the occasion for a worldwide judgment unparalleled in Scripture since the time of Noah’s flood.

The second coming should be kept separate from the rapture.

Before Jesus establishes His kingdom on earth, He will come for His Church - the Rapture.

Immediately after the rapture of the Church, Christians will be brought before the judgment seat of Christ.

He will reward them on the basis of the works they have accomplished.

This is the period where some will be set to rule and judge with Christ.

The Rapture will also inaugurate a period that the Bible characterizes as the "great day of His wrath," "the great tribulation" and the "time of Jacob's trouble."

Jeremiah 30:7 (ESV)

7 Alas!

That day is so great there is none like it; it is a time of distress for Jacob; yet he shall be saved out of it.

This time of unprecedented difficulty will affect Israel and all nations.

Its purpose will be to prepare Israel for her Messiah.

At the end of the Tribulation, Jesus Christ will return with the hosts of heaven as well as the Church to establish the Messianic Kingdom on earth and will rule for 1,000 years.

The Antichrist will be cast into the Lake of Fire and Satan will be bound for a thousand years.

Satan is Bound

Notice the dragon (Satan) is the only one seized.

What has happened to the AntiChrist and the False Prophet?

English Standard Version (Chapter 19)

20 And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence5 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.

When Christ returns to earth again in His glory and majesty, He is coming to destroy all the ungodliness and evil from the earth.

He is coming to re-establish His rightful rule and reign upon this earth.

It will be returned to its original intent - to be filled with the righteousness of God.

There is coming a day where there will be no more sin, no more sickness, no more heartache, no more pain.

Our relationship with God will be restored to a time similar to Eden.

As John watched these things unfold, the soon ending of the Tribulation and the formation of the armies for the great battle, he sees an angel coming down from heaven with the keys to the bottomless pit and a great chain.

May I remind you, Satan does not win - I would even submit he has never even been in the ball game.

We know from these verses that an angel - God’s messenger - is coming to chain Satan and he will be bound.

Satan is powerless compared to God.

Satan, while he may act as though he has authority is still under the subjection and rule of THE divine authority.

Even satan will have to subject himself to the will of God at the end.

God has the power to remove Satan and all the evil and sin from this earth, and He will.

Notice the names used for Satan:

The dragon - we see the picture of the dragon earlier in the chapter, one who stirs up the wrath of the people and the governments - causing them to behave like beasts and destroy people and their property.

The ancient serpent - From the beginning, we see this serpent deceiving Eve.

His deception has not ended - he continues to seduce people into sin, leading people to disobey, ignore, and neglect God.

The devil - a spiritual power that leads people to go against God.

Satan - the spiritual power that accuses, opposes, and stands as an enemy to God and His followers.

He is the accuser of believers, constantly pointing out our sins and failures.

He is the one behind all the ungodliness and evil in this world, and continues to deceive us into thinking otherwise.

He must be stopped.

That is why he has to be bound and removed from the earth so a perfect government and society can exist on earth.

Once removed, there will be no more ungodliness and evil on the earth for 1,000 years.

The Millennial reign where Christ will rule as was intended from the beginning of time.

How long will Satan be bound?

During this Millennial reign, satan is kept in the bottomless pit - a place where evil spirits and demons are kept until the end of the world awaiting their final destination - Gehenna, the lake of fire.

The place where all those who rebel against Christ will be condemned for eternity.

So, why is there a millennial reign?

Why is the final battle not fought and Satan defeated immediately?

Possibly it is to return this earth back to its original state - Christ reclaims this earth and rule over it before we transition to the perfect world.

Maybe it is where God can fulfill all the promises to mankind that is in His Word.

In the current sinful state of mankind and this world, all of God’s promises could not be fulfilled.

Mankind will finally be able to experience God’s true, pure love by experiencing a literal heaven on earth.

There is a restoration of the earth back as God intended without blemish, without sin.

Judgment

Revelation 20:4–6 (ESV)

4 Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed.

Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands.

They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.

This is the first resurrection.

6 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.

When we speak of the Millennium, we reference the thousand year rule of Jesus Christ on earth and here we have two events that have been shown to us.

First, Jesus Christ is going to return to earth as conqueror, and He is going to destroy the antichrist and all the war machines and armies of the world at Armageddon.

There will not be a shot fired at Armageddon.

When Jesus Christ appears in the heavens, He will give one blast of His glory and the most powerful laser beam the world has ever known will destroy the armies and nations of the world.

Second, Christ will take Satan and bind and remove him from the earth for one thousand years.

For one thousand years Satan will not be able to tempt or deceive people on earth.

This does not mean that people cannot sin or do wrong, for man will still have his human nature that comes short of God by its very nature.

Man will still have choices to make: to follow Christ or not to follow Christ.

But with Satan bound and removed, there will be far less evil and ungodliness in the world.

And government and society itself will be under the control of Christ Himself.

Who are those who have the authority to judge?

Their identities are not revealed, but they are not the martyred dead (also I saw).

Who is in this first resurrection John speaks of?

The martyred saints coming out of the Tribulation.

John sees people sitting on thrones with the authority to judge and rule.

He sees the millions of martyred believers from the tribulation, those who were dead in the earthly sense, but were alive during the Millennium.

What John saw was not all the souls in heaven but a particular generation of martyred from the Tribulation, so this instance is the resurrection of only believers FROM the period of the Tribulation - the resurrection of unbelievers is still to come.

1000 years will separate the two resurrections of unbelievers and their judgment.

This is a blessed and holy event.

It is a time of joy, completion, security, and peace.

We will be made perfect into the holiness of Christ Himself, bearing His very nature - holy and pure.

We, as believers, will never experience the second death.

Now, unless God returns, we will experience the physical death here on earth, but that is the only death we will experience as a believer.

Unfortunately there is a second death coming to those who rejected God.