The name of the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ to me is one of great joy. I invite you to open your Bible to Revelation chapter 20. I'm going to read the first six verses. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
And he cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while. And I saw thrones and they that sat on them, and judgment was committed to them.
And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years, but the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection.
Over such, the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years. In these six verses we find six times the phrase, the thousand years. It is the only time in all of the revelation of God's word that we have the period of Jesus' reign delineated for us. It is from this phrase, the thousand years, that we get our English word millennium, which means the Latin origin. It means a thousand years.
This chapter is debated in some theological circles as to its interpretation. Of course, it doesn't make it unique, does it? There are many texts that are debated. There are those who understand the thousand years in a sense that they are described as post-millennial. That sounds like some sort of breakfast food. But post-millennial people believe this, that the preaching of the gospel will gradually overcome evil. And Christ will spiritually reign over the earth for a thousand years.
Then at the end of that period, he will return to judge the earth and set up a new world order. And so it is called a post-millennial position because they understand Christ to come after the thousand years. Now I only define it for you because you need to be alert to that term.
It is a position that lost favor after World War I because it was very clear that the preaching of the gospel was not causing men around the world to turn to God in such numbers that the world was becoming a better and better place. It was obvious that the world was decaying and degenerating, and that has been true since World War I. It has been very clear that the preaching of the gospel is not causing the world to come to more peace. There seem to be more wars than ever.
However, there are those today who are sort of reviving this whole theory. And so you may hear that term occasionally from some of those people. Then there is a position that is called a millennial. Just put millennium with an A in front of it and you get the idea. It is a millennial because they don't believe that there will be a literal one thousand year reign of Christ in any sense. These terms to them are to be spiritualized.
All of the promises to Israel in the Old Testament are to be applied to the church in some spiritual sense. They will never actually, historically be fulfilled. And obviously to them, because they have to deal with chapter 20 just like everybody else, to them Satan is now bound and has been bound ever since the cross. To me that is enough to seriously undermine this whole idea. They believe that Christ will return eventually to judge.
But they have no literal understanding of the thousand years, so it is called the amillennial position. And today, if you were just to take Christendom in general, you would find that probably more people hold this position than any of the others. The position that I adhere to is called pre-millennial teaching because we believe that Jesus Christ is going to come back to the earth in his second coming to establish this one thousand year reign of his.
It is a position that, at least to my thinking, understands the word of God literally. That is, you allow the words to say what they say. You understand them that way. And if you do that, it brings you to a position where you have to understand the promises in the Old Testament given to Israel, have to find fulfillment. As do these verses we've read tonight. There must be a one thousand year reign. So it is not found in any other text that is the one thousand year period.
That should not alarm us. The Bible is progressive revelation. God reveals here and there, bit by bit, line up on line until he comes to the end of the book and then we put it together and we see what he says. And so he waits until nearly the end of the New Testament to tell us the exact period of time that he has talked about many other places in the Bible.
Let me just give you a sampling of some of the texts from the Old Testament that speak of this period of time called the millennium or the one thousand year reign of Jesus Christ. Now rather than have you turn to all of them, I'm just going to read them to you so that you can concentrate on listening to what the word of God says. There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse. A branch shall grow out of his roots. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb.
The leopard shall lie down with the young goat. The calf and the young lion and the fatling together. And a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze. Their young ones shall lie down together. The lion shall eat straw like the ox. A nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole. And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain.
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. In that day there shall be a root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the people. For the Gentiles shall seek him, and his resting place shall be glorious. That text from Isaiah chapter 11. Now listen to these words again from Isaiah. The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.
It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it. The excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the excellency of our God. A highway shall be there, a road, and it shall be called the highway of holiness. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it. They shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. From Isaiah chapter 35. Isaiah has many other texts that say similar things regarding a coming time of blessing upon the earth. A time of paralleled blessing. A time of great glory, because the Lord will reign over the earth. Well, that has never happened historically.
The Lord has come, but he has not come with his glory being revealed to the world. He has not come to reign yet upon the earth. Well, listen to these words from Jeremiah. But I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their foals, and they shall be fruitful in increase. I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking, says the Lord.
Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will raise to David a branch of righteousness. A king shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In his days, Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely. Now this is his name by which he will be called the Lord our righteousness. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that they shall no longer say, as the Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt.
But as the Lord lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the countries where I had driven them, and they shall dwell in their own land. Jeremiah chapter 23, as he speaks about the return of the Jews to the land of Israel in God's blessing, in God's way. Then let me read from the book of Zechariah. Behold the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil, your plunder, shall be divided in your midst.
And I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem. The city shall be taken, the houses plundered, the women ravished. Half the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. That by the way refers to our study last week, in the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, just at that moment when there's house to house fighting going on in the city of Jerusalem. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations.
As he fights in the day of battle, and in that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from west to east, making a very large valley. Half of the mountain shall move toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
And in that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the western sea, that's the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. In both summer and winter it shall occur, and the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be. The Lord is one and his name one. And Zechariah 14 goes on to describe some of the things that will occur in that period of time that will follow.
The return of Jesus Christ to the Mount of Olives when that mountain will split as his feet touch it. The nations of the world that shall be left in that millennial reign shall come to Jerusalem to offer their offerings to the King of all the earth. These are the selected portions of Scripture that deal with this period that John now by the Spirit of God tells us is a thousand years in its length. The form of government in this period of time will be a theocracy.
God will reign personally over the nations of the world in Jesus Christ. The capital of the world will be the city of Jerusalem. The conditions on the earth will be ideal. There will be peace throughout the earth. There will be prosperity and righteousness and truth. And the Lord will reign with a rod of iron with perfect justice. Well, this new age of a thousand years will be a time of blessing on the earth. To make that possible, what happens in verses 1 to 3 must take place.
That is the incarceration of Satan. Notice with me first the proof of the identity of this one that is mentioned. This angel comes down from heaven. He has the key to the bottomless pit or the abyss in one hand and a great chain in the other. And he took hold of the devil, of the dragon rather, that serpent of old who is the devil and Satan. Notice that there are several names given here for this being who is captured.
He is called the dragon, which is a name given to him in the book of the Revelation. It is the name that is identified with his tribulation work. It's used in chapter 12 a number of times and we see it here again. Who is this dragon? He is the old serpent. And again in chapter 12 of Revelation that name is used of him, the serpent. It is his Edenic name, the name that refers to his work in the Garden of Eden in originating the fall of Adam and Eve, the old serpent who is the devil.
The word devil means slanderer. Satan, the word means adversary. Those two names refer to his relation to the people of God in all the ages. He is forever the slanderer of the people of God and their adversary. Now what happens to this being who is called the devil? Well he is bound. A chain is put around him and he is bound with a time clock put upon that bondage and the time is set for a thousand years. He cannot be freed for that period of time.
And it says that he is cast into the bottomless pit or the abyss. It is called elsewhere. The abyss is not the lake of fire. It is not hell. It is a demonic realm as we saw in chapter 19 verses 1 and 2 and again in chapter 17 and verse 8. He is not put in the abyss for punishment. He is put there for restraint so that he cannot exercise his influence in the world as he does now. That is one reason that the millennium will be the millennium.
The devil won't be upon the earth doing what he is doing among the nations today. Now what is the purpose of his imprisonment? Well it is that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years are finished. Today he is involved in the nations of the world. Why do people think the way they do? Why do the rulers of the nations make the decisions they do? Well to some extent greater or lesser I suppose depending upon the ruler, the decisions are made based upon the deceit of Satan.
Now he not only deceives nations and rulers, he deceives individuals and he can deceive us. And it is one of his primary methods. He gets us to think lies. He gets us to think things that are false. False about ourselves. You're no good. You're worthless. You'll never amount to anything. No one loves you. You're worth this abuse. And on and on and on the lies go. And he causes those lies to be repeated over and over and over again until people believe that they're the truth.
And when that happens they're deceived. There are many many people including some of God's people who have been deceived by Satan with lies about themselves. And then he causes us to be deceived about God. God can't be trusted. God is mean. God shouldn't have done that. God wasn't able to help was he? And on and on it goes the lies that he weaves about God and he deceives people with those kinds of lies. Well he is today involved in deceiving the nations of the world.
And in the millennium he will be bound in the abyss and we would assume from this that not only will he personally be bound but all of his demonic hordes will be bound. And they will be limited to that abyss for that period of time. They cannot exercise their influence and their deceit upon the world during the thousand years. Now it tells us that he must be released after the thousand years for a little while.
We're going to relate to that a little bit later in our study of the book of Revelation and we'll understand why God allows that. Revelation has said why does God allow Satan to be loosed again after he has been bound? Louis Barry Schaefer said if you will tell me why God let him loose in the first place I'll tell you why God lets him loose the second time. It's a pretty good answer. The incarceration of Satan will help facilitate this time of peace and righteousness in the earth.
In verses 4-6 we have the inauguration of the kingdom. Now this is a text that is just jam packed as it's put together here. We're going to pull it apart thematically. First let's think about the resurrection that is mentioned here. It talks about the first resurrection. This is the first resurrection.
Now those who do not believe that there is a thousand year reign of Christ that's going to be literal say that the first resurrection refers spiritually to your salvation and that the second resurrection is the bodily resurrection that will come some day. I think you have to do a lot of twisting and shoving and coercing of the text to ever come to that sort of an understanding. The first resurrection it seems to me is very clearly here a physical resurrection.
Literally the Greek word means to stand up and it is a word that is only used in the Bible physically, in a physical sense. This is not the first physical resurrection from the dead by the way. Who is the first one who was physically raised from the dead, the Lord Jesus Christ? And on the day that he rose from the dead it says there were many of the saints who also rose that day. Matthew chapter 27, that is quite a mysterious text to me, all that that means, verses 52 and 53.
But there were some of the saints who arose on that Easter Sunday with Jesus and were seen in Jerusalem. And then we know that the church is going to be resurrected. The dead in Christ shall be raised and we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. And so there is another resurrection that comes before the one here at the beginning of the millennium.
Furthermore, in chapter 11 of this book there is another resurrection of two people only, the two witnesses, who are killed and their bodies lay in the streets of Jerusalem for three and a half days as Antichrist and his gang rejoice and have a party. And then they are resurrected in the sight of all and are caught up and taken into heaven. So there is yet another resurrection. So when this says the first resurrection, what does it mean?
Well as it says the first resurrection, it does not necessarily imply that this is all there is to the first resurrection. It might be understood this way and this completes the first resurrection. In other words, the first resurrection does not take place all at the same time, but rather in groups. Broadly speaking, I think Paul outlines it in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and I invite you just to turn back there with me to see his outline of what I believe is the first resurrection.
He says, for as in Adam, this is verse 22 now of 1 Corinthians 15, as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive, but each one in his own order. In other words, it's not going to all happen at one time, he says. Christ, the first fruits, that's the first portion of the first resurrection. Christ comes first. He is the one who represents all of those who are coming after him. That's the meaning of first fruits. Then it says, afterward those who are Christ's at his coming.
Afterward those who are Christ's at his coming. So there we have another grouping. Now when we think of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, what do we think of? Well some will think immediately of his coming for the church. Others will think of his coming back to the earth and touching the Mount of Olives as we read in Zechariah 14. Which is the coming of Christ? The appropriate answer is both. The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is actually in two phases, isn't it?
The first phase is his coming for the church when he will come back to the world not touching the earth, but he will come back and call out from the world his own in that event that we call the rapture. The snatching away of his people, the bride of Christ, those elected to salvation from the time of Pentecost until that event. He will come and catch away in the rapture those who belong to him. The dead in Christ shall rise first, so there is that part of the first resurrection.
And as we have said before, we then have the joy of going with our Lord back to that place that he's prepared for us. We pass through that time of examination at the judgment seat of Christ when everyone will have his due praise from God. And we are prepared then to enter into our marriage with the Lord Jesus. And then we come back with him to the earth in the event that we saw last week.
And there is the marriage supper of the lamb, the celebration of it that in one sense lasts for a thousand years. What a honeymoon. But as he comes back to the earth, as he comes back to the earth and begins to reign, there is the final phase of the resurrection. Who are these people? Well, they are the people who were saved in the Old Testament. They weren't a part of the church, a unique body.
But here we have at the beginning of this kingdom reign of Christ and the fulfillment of the promises to Israel, the resurrection of David, who was promised that there would be one of his descendants who would reign on an everlasting throne. And he will be raised from the dead to see it and to participate in it as the son of David comes to reign. And here we see Abraham. And here we have Adam.
And all of those saved of the Old Testament period who are now brought forth from the grave to enter into this glorious time of the reign of Christ upon the earth. But what about those who have died in the tribulation period? Those who have been martyred, and there will be many martyrs, what about them? Will they also share in the reign of Christ? The answer is yes. And as John sees it, those are the ones primarily in focus in these verses. Notice how he puts this.
He says, I saw thrones and they set on them, judgment was committed to them. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus, the word of God who had not worshiped the beast, his image had not received his mark. Now you recognize that language as being from the tribulation period. It's language that's unique to that period of time.
And so John, as he sees the beginning now of the reign of Christ, sees especially those people who have laid down their lives in the tribulation period, resurrected to share in this reign of the Lord Jesus. And so who have a part in this first resurrection? The answer is the saved of all time. They each have their own group. The distinctions are not totally wiped away. We are one people of God in a sense, and yet we have our own groupings.
And so all of those who have been saved from back at the beginning in Adam's day and Eve, who were saved by the grace of God, and all of their descendants through the ages, will be raised in new bodies like Jesus' body to enter into the millennial reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the first resurrection. Now the second point we want to look at are the rulers here. They are said to sit upon thrones that are given to them. In some way they participate in this time of judgment upon the earth.
There are some judgments that precede this period of time. Let me just remind you of them. There is the judgment that we saw last week of the beast and the false prophet. When Jesus returns to earth and encounters their armies, of course the armies are defeated. They are killed, but not the beast and the false prophet. They are captured alive. And they are judged and the two of them are cast immediately into the eternal lake of fire that burns with fire and brimstone forever and forever.
And the smoke of their torment goes up. And so we have that judgment that takes place. And then there is a judgment of sorts upon Satan as he is incarcerated and bound in the abyss. And then of course there must be the judgment of all of these people who are now resurrected to come into the kingdom.
The church has already been judged in heaven and married to Christ, but all these people now who are raised from the dead from the Old Testament and from the tribulation period, they likewise will need to be judged and rewarded for their faithfulness. And then there are passages both in the Old Testament and the New Testament to say that all of those who are still living on the earth will be judged.
There will be people alive at the end of the tribulation period, a time of awful death and devastation. But there will be those who will live through that period of time. In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus compares it to the judgment of the sheep and the goats. What he's talking about there is that there are those who are compared to goats who have managed to live through the resurrection but who are not believers. And they are cast into the lake of fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
And then there are those compared to sheep. Who are they? Well, in the context of that parable, they are Gentiles who have become believers and who have not been killed. And they are brought before him for judgment. And how do we know that they were believers? What is the sign? Well, they were willing to even give a cup of cold water to the persecuted Jews in the tribulation period. It was the demonstration of their faith that was brought before the Lord there at that judgment.
And they enter into the millennium in their physical bodies alive. They don't need to be resurrected. They're not dead. And so they enter into the millennium alive. And by the way, well let me go ahead and say that there's another group implied in that parable and that is the Jewish people who have been saved in the tribulation period and not killed. They also will be judged.
And so if you're able to track with me in all of this, you will see that those who are resurrected are all judged and those who are alive at the end of the tribulation are all judged so that as the millennial reign of Jesus Christ begins, it begins with a purified people, a rewarded people. And those who have not died and who enter into this wonderful period of time in their physical bodies will begin to reproduce. And it is that which will populate the earth again.
There's no indication that those in the resurrection bodies will be involved in that. But there will be thousands, perhaps I can say millions, who will enter into the millennial reign in their natural bodies. They will bear children. Death will hardly exist in that thousand year period. There are peaceful conditions. There's no war. There is plenty. Food is abundant. And because of that, the greatest population explosion in the history of the world is yet to come.
And who can imagine how many people will be alive on the earth after a thousand years of these kinds of conditions? Now just keep that thought in mind for our next study as we see why Satan is loosed for a little while from his incarceration. We'll pick that theme up at that point. Well he says the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. Now who are these? These are the wicked dead. These are the unrighteous dead.
Those who have died in all times, Cain and his descendants. The wicked throughout the earth who had no knowledge of God and who have died in their sin. The tribal peoples. The peoples from the great cultures of the earth that have been pagan. For the thousands of years that earth's history has marched on day after day and year after year. Those people who have specifically rejected Jesus Christ. Those who have been false Christians. All of the wicked dead will not be raised now.
They are held until a time at the end of the thousand year reign of Christ. And again we'll pick that up in our next study. There is a time for them to be brought before God and to be judged. But for now they remain in their graves and in their place of punishment in hell. So we have the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now what a time that's going to be. Soon and very soon we're going to see the King. The band played earlier.
I believe that the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ for his church is eminent. It could happen at any moment. It may happen tonight or tomorrow or this week. Granted it could be a hundred years yet. Something's going to have to happen in history to put it off that long in my opinion. Because so many things are being put into place in our world that point toward the tribulation period. That it's at hand. But soon he is going to come.
And we who today long for righteousness on the earth and who are grieved at the prosperity so it seems of the wicked. And we who in one sense like Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah who was vexed every day with the wicked around him. And sometimes I feel that way don't you? It is vexed by the wickedness that we see in our culture. In our world.
We who hunger for righteousness to be vindicated will on that day rejoice that he who is the Lord our righteousness will come and will reign in truth and righteousness over the earth. The new age. A thousand year reign of Jesus Christ that will be blessing in this world. And there's more to come. And we'll get there. I'd like you to take your Bible, excuse me, your hymn book now. We're going to sing together a closing hymn by Isaac Watts.
By the way, I hope this doesn't spoil the hymn for you, but Isaac Watts was a post-millennialist. Two hundred years ago that was a very popular understanding of prophetic things that the gospel was going to be preached and more and more people would be converted and things would get better and better in the world and then Jesus would reign spiritually for a thousand years and after that come back again. That was his position.
And as he wrote this hymn, that's what he had in mind, but we're going to uproot it from all of that false teaching and put it over here as we understand it today that Jesus Christ is coming back to reign upon the earth for a literal one thousand years. Let's sing about the fact that he shall reign wherever the sun does his successive journeys run. Let's put the word thirty-one in your hymnal.