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A Study of Revelation

Chapter 20

 May 16, 2007

Bob Bradley

_________________________ 

Rev 20:1-15

 

1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are , and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

 

It takes a thousand years for those fifteen verses to be fulfilled.  Sometimes we read the Bible, verse by verse, or by chapters and we think that these things just happen one after the other.  Sometimes it does, but sometimes there are many years between verses and chapters.  One thousand years are covered between the start of Revelation 20 and the end of Revelation 20. 

 

Last Wednesday night we covered Revelation 19.  We talked about at the end of tribulation when we, the church, the born again, the saved leaves heaven.  Jesus Christ is riding upon a white horse and we are riding upon white horses following Him.  We come back to this earth to fight the battle of all battles.  As we are coming, the beast, the anti-chirst, and all their armies are going to be trying to prevent the Lord and us from coming back to earth.  We know that God is going to destroy them. 

 

As we get down to this chapter, tribulation has ended.  The fighting and the wars are over.  Things are about to change drastically.

 

1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

 

After we come back to planet earth, the wars are over and Jesus Christ is in control.  At the beginning of this thousand year millennium some things must happen if the things said in Isaiah; if the things that the Bible says is about to happen and is going to happen (and we know that it is) then satan cannot be here.  We are going to enter into a time here that there is going to be peace on earth and good will toward men. 

 

When we come back at the end of tribulation, when you read Matthew 25, we read about Jesus coming back and judging nations.  Do you remember reading about sheep nations and goat nations?  I know that we want to say that He is judging individuals there, but that is not the case.  When Jesus and we comes back with Him at the end of tribulation, we are going to be judging nations.  We are going to be judging the nations and they are going to be rewarded on how they have treated His brethren.  We know how the nations of the world have treated the hundred and forty-four thousand (144,000) Jews that have preached during the tribulation period, is going to determine whether they are a sheep nation or a goat nation.  The Bible tells us that the sheep nations, "...blessed are you that you can come in and inherit the kingdom that has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world, that is in Matthew 25. 

 

If you also read about the goat nations, He tells them where they are going to go and they going into punishment.  When the millennium starts, we are going to be dealing with people here that are righteous.  I do not know how many people are going to be here.  I know that two-thirds to seventy-five percent of the population is going to be destroyed through the end of tribulation.  However, I do not know how many people are going to be here on planet earth when that starts.  There is going to be many people here.  We are going to start with righteous people.  For there to be peace on earth and good will toward men, if there is to be a kingdom age where things can be done as the Bible says that it is going to be done, then satan cannot be here to ignite the ole Adamic nature of those folks that are going to be living on planet earth.  There is not going to be any open sin as there is today, during that time.  Jesus is going to take care of that.

 

He is going to get satan out of the way. 

 

1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

 

The Bible says here that John sees an angel with a great chain in his hand.  He has a key to the bottomless pit and he unlocks the bottomless pit.  He chained satan and put him in the bottomless pit and that is where he will be for the next thousand years.  There are many things that we may not be able to understand about that and when we read some of these things and I understand that if we do not spend much time looking at this, that it gets hairy in our brain sometimes.  However, when you look at the whole thing it all makes sense.  It all goes together.

 

3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

 

He is going to be in the bottomless pit for a thousand years.  There is going to be mortal people that are going to be living here because there is going to be people that has lived through the tribulation period.  There are going to be in flesh and blood.  For there to be peace on earth and good will towards men, satan cannot be here.  satan is the one that excites and ignites hatred in our hearts.  That is where it comes from.  It comes from satan. 

 

If you read today, books, literature, or listen to lectures about many folks that are in the counseling business today will tell you that the major problem in the world is our environment.  They want to teach that our environment has made us what we are.  What made us what we are, is SIN.  Our rebellion against God has made us what we are.  Listening to the wrong voice has made America and the world what it is today.  It is not our environment. 

 

You could put a Christian in any environment and he will live right.  He will do right.  We want to put blame on everything.  We want to take self and the sin problem out of the equation and say, "It's just man's environment."  That is why we are what we are and that is why we are sinful.  That is why men kill one another.  That is why they do all these horrible things.  The reason that we do these things is that we have rebelled against God.  We have sinned against Almighty God.  An enemy out there ignites us and plants all kinds of things in us.  he wants us to try to live and to make a world that can be at peace without God and that will never be.  We must have the Lord Jesus Christ if we are ever going to have peace. 

 

He is going to be there for a thousand years.  At the end of a thousand years, he is going to be loosed for a short season.  When you look at what is going to happen during the thousand years, there is going to be mortal people that will be living here.  Flesh and blood people, people that are like us that is going to be living.  During the millennium, people are going to be having children.  When you read about what the prophets said about this time, a fellow will die being a hundred years old and he will be just a child.  That means that longevity is going to come back because there is not going to be any open sin and rebellion against Almighty God. 

 

Go back to the Garden of Eden or shortly after, when men lived to be several hundred years old because of their relationship not with sin.  During the millennium, longevity is going to come back and men are going to be living to be several hundred years old.  There is going to be millions and millions of people that are going to be born here on planet earth during the millennium.  There is not going to be any open rebellion simply because satan is going to be bound.  Nothing is going to come along to excite or stir up the Adamic nature of those that are going to be living on planet earth because he is going to be bound. 

 

Could you imagine waking up in a world where you would never have an evil thought?  Could you imagine that?  During the millennium that is not going to happen because satan is going to bound.  he is not going to be here. 

 

What gets us in trouble many times, I know that we carry out the motions of sin through our flesh, through our members, but sin really starts in our mind, and about what we think.  It starts in our minds because of what we see and what we think.  If we do not deal with things like that, then they get out of hand and we know that we carry it out through the motions of our flesh.  Think about that being in place that we will never, at least for a thousand years here, the folks here on earth will not have a bad thought. 

 

3...and after that he must be loosed a little season.

 

4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

 

John says that he sees thrones and they that sat upon the thrones, and judgment was given unto them.  Here is where we come into play in a different way.  We think sometimes that when we go to heaven that we are just going to sit around under the palm trees or under the tree of life, hum, and whistle, or twiddle our thumbs, but that is not the case.  When John sees the thrones, and those that sat upon them, he is seeing us.  We are seeing the redeemed. 

 

Go back to the book of Corinthians 6.  The Corinthian people were as we are today.  They were suing one another.  They were having a big time.  They could not get along.  They were fighting and arguing.  People that belonged to the church were suing one another.  Paul was admonishing them saying:

 

1 Corinthians 6:2

 

2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

 

Jesus made this statement to the disciples saying:  "Don't you know that you are going to be sitting upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of the children of Israel?" 

 

When you read Luke 19, in the parable when Jesus spoke about the noblemen, those that were faithful, he gave them authority to be over different cities. 

 

When you Revelation 7, it talks about us who are, the great multitude, and so forth that we are going to be kings and priests and we are going to reign on the earth.  Earlier we spoke of about being priests of God and of Christ and we are going to reign for a thousand years.  What we are seeing here is that judgment given and we are going to be judging.

 

The Bible says:

 

4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God..."

 

That is telling us that those who have been killed during the tribulation period, those that have been beheaded because they did not receive the mark of the beast.  They did not worship the beast or his image.  They did not receive the mark of the beast upon their hands or in their foreheads. 

 

4 "... I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years."

5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

 

Jesus Christ is the first fruits of them that slept.  When the rapture takes, place and untold millions of people are going to vanish, not only is Jesus the first fruits, but when we leave here or the church leaves here, that is the harvest.  Here at the end of tribulation as the thousand year reign of Christ is about to begin we have the gleanings, those that have been saved during the tribulation period, those that did not receive the mark of the beast, those that did not worship the beast or his image, these are also going to be able to come in. 

 

The first resurrection has three parts to it.  Jesus arose from the dead.  The Bible says that many of the bodies of the saints that slept arose from the dead, went into the city, and many saw them. 

 

The three parts are:

 

1. first fruits
2. harvest
3. gleanings

 

This makes up the first resurrection.  Now the first resurrection is over.  That should put a question in your head. 

 

5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

 

We have saw all the saved from the Old Testament saints, the church age, the tribulation saints, they are all now with Christ.  Old Testament Saints, New Testament Church, Tribulation Saints we are all now with Christ.  He said, "...the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished..."  We have dealt with saints, saved people, but we have not dealt with the wicked. 

 

When I first got saved, I had heard all my life; the Lord is going to come back and there is going to be a bunch of fire.  The saved are going to heaven, and the lost are going to hell and it is all over.  That is what I thought, but the Bible does not teach that.  The Bible does not teach a general resurrection.  The saved and the lost are not going to the same judgment.  That is what many want to teach.  They teach that we all just come together and we mingle, with the saved going here and the lost going there.  The Bible does not teach that.  However, we have dealt with the saved now.  We are all with Christ.  We will be in different responsibilities and different privileges at this time; some kings and some priests.  We will deal with the dead at the end of the millennium. 

 

6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

 

Do you really think that is going to happen?  In the last 20 to 25 years, before that you never heard much teaching about the book of Revelation.  This is because things were not revealed to people 20-25 years ago as they are today.  That does not make these people second-class citizens, or does it makes us smarter.  I am not saying that.  The Bible says that in the last days that knowledge shall increase.  In the last days, if you read the book of Daniel, (Daniel did not understand what he wrote about.)  God told him to write these things down in a book, and seal up the book until the end time. 

 

Today, God is revealing unto us and unto this world about some things here during the end time.  These things are going to happen just as sure as we are sitting here tonight.  I may not know every detail, nor does anybody else.  However, God promised the nation of Israel a time of peace on earth and good will toward men.  He promised them that the Messiah was going to come to rule and reign with a rod of iron.  He promised this earth that it was going to rest and it is going to rest for one thousand years.  He worked six days and on the seventh day, He rested.

 

One day with the Lord is equal to a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. 

 

7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

 

This whole chapter covers a thousand years.  The millennium has begun and we get through the millennium.  We come to the end of the thousand years and satan here is loosed out of his prison. 

 

8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

 

There are going to be mortal people living on earth during the millennium. They will be in number as the sand of the sea.  There is going to be a bunch of people going to be born on planet during the millennium. 

 

satan is loosed at the end of the thousand years.  he goes right back to his same old tricks again.  To promote, to ignite and excite war, that is what he does.  his whole game plan all along is to destroy God and God's people.  he is stupid into thinking that he could overthrow God.  It is an impossibility for that to happen because we know what is going to happen.  At the end of the thousand years, he is loosed out of his prison and he is going to go right back to his same old tricks in deceiving people.  he is going to go around trying to make war. 

 

8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

 

The beloved city is Jerusalem. 

 

10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are , and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

 

Does everyone have a picture or outline in their mind about what is going to take place?  We do not know all the events and we are not able to see everything.  The millennium begins.  Life on planet earth exists for a thousand years.  satan is bound at the beginning of the thousand years and at the end of the thousand years he is brought out.  he deceives the nations.  he starts right back from where he left off.  They are going to come back to Jerusalem and encircle the city.  God is going bring fire down from heaven and He is going to destroy them.  He is going to take satan and cast him into the lake of fire where the beast and the false prophet are.  he is done, he is over.  We will never hear from him again. 

 

11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

 

12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

 

It is an impossibility for someone who is spiritually dead to have good works to bring glory to God.  The books are going to be there.  There is an Old Testament here, there is law here, and there is grace here.  There are two books here, the Old Testament and the New Testament.  Men, during the white throne judgment, are going to be judged out of this Bible.  If God wants me to live by this Bible today then God would not judge me out of something else out there.  God expects us to live by this Bible and there is no doubt in my mind, John sees these books. 

 

He also sees the book of life.

 

12 ...were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

 

This is the second death, not the first resurrection. 

 

15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

 

John is seeing the judgment of the wicked dead.  The great white throne judgment that he is seeing at the end of the millennium is the wicked dead.  These are those that have all lived and died they have never been born again.  They have never trusted Jesus Christ.  They lived all of their lives and died unprepared to meet Him.  John is seeing that horrible judgment. 

 

It does not please me to talk about that because men are going to suffer as they have never suffered before.  Jesus Christ is giving men opportunity to repent.  If you do not choose to repent, then you are going to be in the same lake of fire:

 

• where satan himself is going to be
• where drunks are going to be
• where people that you would never live around today are going to be
• where murders are going be
• where child molesters are going to be
• and where all those who have rejected Jesus Christ are going to be

 

They all are going to be in the same lake of fire.

 

Oliver Green had a great message about your neighbor in hell.  That might be good to read sometime.  We choose our neighborhoods where we want to live now.  However, we do not stop and consider where we are going to be living for eternity and who is going to be living beside of us for eternity. 

 

Jesus Christ loves you.  Jesus Christ went to the cross and died for you.  Jesus wants to save you and forgive you today.  It is my prayer that you will accept Him as your savior before it is everlasting too late.

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