Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

We have been looking at this chapter for 3 weeks now because there is are so many things that are important for us to know.

We have just started what is called the millenial reign of Christ, which is litterally 1,000 years that Christ will come down to earth and rule and reign on the earth with His saints.

Both those who have been raptured before the start of the tribulation period and those who were killed for their faith in the tribulation period.

We will be ruling with Christ on the earth.

Those who will be on the earth will be those who at one point placed their faith in Jesus during the tribulation period.

These people made it through the tribulation period and now have entered into new new season where Satan is no longer running wild and deceiving people on the earth.

I. SAINTS REIGN WITH CHRIST (V.4-6)

A. REIGNING WITH CHRIST (V.4)

John sees “thrones” at this point.

Thrones are always a sign of authority and judgement.

Who will sit on the thrones ?

as mentioned before, it will be those who put their faith in Jesus before the Rapture of the church, which is you and me..... and those who are killed for their faith in the tribulation period.

B. THE FIRST RESURRECTION (V.

5-6)

Now these piece of scripture can be difficult to understand so for the sake of time , i will try to make it simple....

We have to look at two resurrections that the bible speaks about

1st resurrection

this is basically speaking about all those who are saved, or are in heaven with God .

We will die once and our bodies will be resurrected again ..... there is no specific time but is speaking of many different times.

We see Jesus’ body resurrected in the gospels, we see the resurrection of the bodies in the rapture

Paul is addressing the rapture.

And he is saying that at the rapture those who have died already will be resurrected and those who are raptured shall meeting in the air together died to meet the Lord Jesus.

This First resurrection that the bible speaks about takes place before the 1,000 year reign of Christ.

And this resurrection leads to blessing and eternal life.

2nd Resurrection

the 2nd resurrection speaks of those who reject Jesus as their Lord and Savoir .

These people will die once and will be resurrected to face judgement and then will die again as they suffer the consequences of their choices.

This will take place at the end of the 1,000 year reign of Christ and will lead to eternal torment

III.

Satan Released to Deceive (v.

7-9)

We see that after the 1,000 year reign of Christ , Satan will be released.

Again the question would come, why would God release Satan?

the answer is to do the very thing that caused him to get locked up..... to deceive the world.

The Purpose od the Millennium Reign of Christ

we talked about last week that those who came to faith in the tribulation period and made it through the 7 years would enter the 1,000 reign of Christ.

Those who will be in the 1,000 year reign will begin to have babies and will begin to populate the earth.

In a process of 1,000 years, there will be many many people who are born during this time.

now what makes them different is that they will be born into a world that does not have Satan ruling and deceiving .... you remember that satan is bound during this time.

so while Christ is ruling and His authority is reigning on earth, those who are born during this time will follow the authority outwardly.... but there will be many who do not surrender their hearts to Jesus.

We know this because of the rebellion that we will see happen at the end of the 1,0000 year reign.

and we talked about this last week in detail.

That God is longing and looking for your heart above all things.

The outward works of religion is not what God is looking for.... but he wants a heart that is in full surrender to Him.

and in order for there to be a heart fully surrendered in love and obedience, there has to be a choice.

God does not just make us love Him but He always gives us a choice.

So this is the main purpose of the 1,000 year.

It is an opportunity for those who have not had a choice , to make a choice to follow and surrender God freely.

Remember there are many people who were born in the millennium reign who were not born again , or did not really have an option to give their lives over to Jesus.

They followed the rule of Christ but were not surrendered to Him..

Transition

last week we addressed the fact that our hearts are wicked and the reality is that you can take all of the wickedness of the world away, you can take all of the evil influences of the world away..... and still our hearts would want to do what is wrong and would want to disobey God.

This is because our hearts are wicked.

Jer. 17 tells us this.

This goes to show you and I that there has to be hard work to guard our hearts not only from outward influences but also from ourselves.

We often want to blame the world, or satan or our friends or our family for our mistakes and our issues..... but the fact is that our heart is what is wicked and it will always want to do what is wrong while we are on this earth.

We have to work hard to protect our hearts and to be spiritually disciplined in order to keep our hearts surrendered to God.

Transition

here you see that many people who were born in the millennium reign will be deceived and will follow Satan in one last rebellion against God.

The people come from the 4 corners of the world or from all over the world and we are told that the number of them is as the sands of the sea.

So those deceived is a large number of people.

These armies gather around the saints of the beloved city, possibly Jerusalem.

But we are told that God devoured these people with fire from His mouth.

Awesome to see how God just speaks and the great multitudes of the earth are destroyed.

IV.

THE JUDGEMENTS TO COME (V.

10- 15)

now we are going to take some time to look at what the bible speaks about the judgements to come for Satan, for non believers those who reject Jesus as their Lord and Savior and the judgement that believers will face, that is you and me.

Every person will have to stand before God and will be judged according to what we have done.

This is where if you remember i asked you to remember two words.

“REWARDS OR CONSEQUENCES” .

We will either receive one or the other.

And there are (2) main areas we will be judged on.

WE WILL BE JUDGED ON OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS

We have to understand that the bible declares that God is a righteous God.

The Bible declares that God is a holy God and a just God.

Because God is a righteous God and a Just God, He has to judge us based on our righteousness, or on our standing before God.

Here is where the problem lies.

Because the bible tells us that all humans are sinners and there is no one that is good.

so the bible declares clearly that there is no person who is good and the reason is because of our sins.

Ever since sin entered the world, every person born is born with a sinful nature.

We will always do what is wrong no matter how much we try to do what is right.

And since we are sinners , and God is a just God, the only thing that is right, is for us to receive judgement and consequences for our sins.

Transition

its like if your parents were driving down the road and they were speeding and got pulled over.

The cop would have to do the right and just thing because he is required to do that....... he would have to judge at that moment and decide if the person broke the law..... since the person did break the law.... the only just thing to do is to give the person a ticket.... that is the punishment required for the judgement ruled.

This is the picture we have to look at.

The difference is that based on the law of God..... every human is guilty.

We all deserve to be judged , to be found guilty and to suffer the consequences of our sins.

2. WE WILL BE JUDGED ON WHAT WE DID ON THE EARTH

what we did with the things we were given, our talents , our resources our time.

And what the motive of our heart was.

A. SATAN’S FINAL JUDGEMENT (V.

10)

After Satan is released and is allowed to deceive the people of the world, he is finally judged.

We are told that he is cast into the lake of fire for his final judgement where the anti-christ and the false prophet are.

the lake of fire is synonymous with “Gehenna”.

Gehenna comes from the Hebrew word Ge Hinnom, or Valley of Hinnom.

The valley of Hinnom was the located just outside of Jerusalem.

In the old testament, this place was know for child sacrifices to the idols.

This valley became a dumping ground for sewage and refuse of the City.

it was a placing crawling with worms and maggots and the continual fire burning .

Jesus used this picture to symbolize Gehenna to the place of everlasting punishment.