1139. The Millennial Kingdom Part 2

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University a study series entitled, Return of the King, which is a study of the second coming of Christ.

Today's message will be preached by Dr. Sam Horn. I'm going to ask you this morning to turn to Revelation chapter 20 as we continue in our series, Return of the King. One of the central components of the Christian faith is the confident expectation that Jesus is coming back to reign on the earth.

That's what our whole series has been about. Believers throughout the history of the church, people like you, people like me, have endured intense suffering, enormous affliction, relentless persecution, and even at times ruthless martyrdom, and in the midst of all of it have been comforted by the hope that Jesus is coming to put all of this right. So the promise of Jesus coming back is not a minor component of our faith. It's central to what you and I believe as Christians, and it is thoroughly attested to in the New Testament.

Let me give you some examples. Jesus himself announced that he would be coming back just before his crucifixion in John chapter 14 verse 3. He said, I will come again. After his resurrection and just before his ascension, angels confirmed it actually after the ascension in Acts chapter 1 verse 11 by reminding the disciples that this Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way that you saw him go into heaven. And the rest of the New Testament writers, the apostles, preached this and they proclaimed it. For example, Peter preached it in Acts chapter 3 verses 19 through 21, repent that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send Christ appointed for you whom the heaven must receive until the time for the restoring of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets. I mean this is very early on in the beginning of the Christian church and Peter is already talking about the fact that there is a time coming when God will send Jesus to restore all things. Paul reiterates this in numbers of places in his writings. For example, 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 verses 9 through 10, he talks about a group of believers who have come to believe the gospel, who have turned to God from idols and then he describes them as waiting for the coming of his son from heaven. And then of course John speaks about it in the text before us but he also speaks about it in 1 John chapter 3 and in a very familiar text, verses 2 and 3, we know that when he, Christ, appears we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is.

A text that may not be as familiar to you is a quotation in the little book of Jude verse 14 where Jude quotes a prophecy that Enoch way back at the beginning, the seventh from Adam, made when he said, Behold the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all of the ungodly of their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way. And if that weren't enough the early church longed for this coming and they prayed for it. And you pray for it as well every time you articulate the Lord's prayer. Thy kingdom come. The early church said it this way in 1 Corinthians 16 verse 22 Maranatha which means our Lord come.

It is an appeal, it is a prayer. And so as we come to this part in our series I want to speak to you about the primary passage in our Bible that speaks to this return. And it is speaking particularly to a period of time that is referred here in the text as a kingdom that will last for a thousand years.

And so what will this time be like and what are the details around its inauguration. So let's begin by acknowledging some things that all believers or most believers agree on. And I would say it this way, most or almost all believers agree that Jesus Christ will physically return visibly to the earth one day in the future. I don't think there would be anybody in our group here who's a believer who understands the scripture who would deny that in the face of verses like the ones we've just looked at. Secondly we all agree that there will be a bodily resurrection of all people who have ever lived. Now some people believe that there will be more than one resurrection but everybody agrees that there will be at least one resurrection of all people who have ever lived. All of us agree that there is coming a time when Satan will be defeated, constrained, and eternally punished for his crimes against God. And then finally we all agree that there will be a final judgment of some sort where believers will enter into the joyful presence of the Lord and unbelievers will be eternally separated from God. And the passage we're looking at is ground zero for all of those beliefs.

However, as you look at Revelation chapter 20 and let your eyes just kind of glance through the 15 verses that make up this passage, they also speak very directly about details that go beyond these four agreed upon ideas. They specifically talk about Jesus reigning for a thousand years. That's the idea behind the word millennium.

It's a word that means a thousand. So a thousand years. And the passage describes believers reigning with him in that kingdom. And this thousand year reign is precisely the point of debate in eschatology. What will this millennium be like? Will it be an actual thousand year reign on the earth?

What is the nature of the binding of Satan that is talked about in the first three verses of chapter 20? What are these thrones that are being set up and who will sit upon them? And what will they do while they sit upon those thrones?

Are the events in these verses symbolic of great spiritual realities or are these verses describing literal events that will physically take place on the earth? And that is the question that we want to answer this morning as we make our way through this text that speaks about the millennium. And I want to do it in four ways and I'm going to give you a lot of scripture today. We'll put as much of it up on the screen as you can.

Some of it will be bolded so your eye will go right where it needs to go in those texts. But because of the complexity of this, I want to make available to you the manuscript of the message today if you would like it. And I would be willing to sit down and talk with those of you that are interested and explain further as we get into the text why hold certain views. So let's begin by noting the importance of the millennium. And the importance of the millennium rests in part of God's character. The scriptures repeatedly remind us that God cannot lie and that his word is fully trustworthy. And in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 20, the Apostle Paul reminds us that all the promises of God in him, in Christ, are yes, are yay.

And in him, amen or verily, it will be so unto the glory of God by us. And so Paul is reminding us again that God is fully trustworthy and that he will actually accomplish promises that he has made. And he's going to culminate and fulfill those promises in the person and through the work of his anointed, appointed Messiah who you and I have come to know as Jesus Christ. And so as we think about the importance of the millennium, let me give you very quickly six promises that God has made that are going to be fulfilled in chapter 20. Promise number one was a promise that God made to Adam and to Eve. And you know this promise in Genesis 3 verse 15 where God promises to Adam and to Eve that there will be a seed, a son. And he looks at the serpent who is identified in verses 2 and 3 of chapter 20 and he says, you will strike his heel but he is going to crush your head.

There is military imagery there. You are going to be fully and finally defeated. And that promise was made at the very opening of our Bible and the initial fulfillment of that, the first stage of that took place at the cross where our Messiah had his heel struck just like God predicted and God said would happen in Genesis 3. And the final end of that promise, the crushing of the head of that serpent is going to take place in chapter 20 of the book of Revelation. This is also a chapter that fulfills a promise made to Abraham. And you know the promise made to Abraham recorded three times in our Bible in Genesis 12 and Genesis 15 and again in Genesis 17.

And notice the way that it's described in Genesis 17. I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant. And then later in the text, I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger all the land of Canaan and then here's the text for an everlasting possession. He made similar promises to David in 1 Samuel chapter 7. The Davidic covenant is unfolded. It's repeated after the captivity as the Israelites come back and they are reminded by the chronicler of these great promises made earlier to David. And in 1 Chronicles 17, the writer reminds the restored Israelites that God said, I will ordain a place for my people Israel and will plant them and they shall dwell in their place and shall be moved no more.

And a little later in the text, I will subdue all thine enemies. There is a promise that was made to David. There was also a promise that was made to the nation of Israel and this is throughout the Old Testament.

You can see it in Isaiah 44 in Jeremiah 31 but look at the text in Ezekiel 36 and I'll give you a summary of verses 24 through 38. Notice what God says to this nation that will happen in the future. I will take you from among the heathen and gather you out of all the countries and will bring you into your own land. A little later in the verse, a new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. You shall keep my judgments and do them and you shall dwell in the land that I gave your father and you will be my people and I will be your God. And they shall say, this land was desolate and has become like the garden of Eden. And then it goes on to talk about the increase of this nation.

None of this has happened yet. The fifth promise is a promise that God made to his son. Psalm chapter 2.

We heard a message earlier in our series but here's the relevant phrase. God said to his son, I will give you the heathen for thine inheritance. The nations for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. And then he says later that he would raise up the tribes of Jacob in Isaiah 49 and restore the preserved of Israel and I will give you for a light to the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the earth. And then at the end of that passage, kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship. That has never happened yet in relationship to God's anointed champion, our Lord Jesus Christ. And then finally, there were promises that God made to you and me that will be fulfilled in Revelation chapter 20.

2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 12, if we suffer, we shall also reign with him. Revelation 2, he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power, authority over the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers even as I received of my father. So when we come to Revelation chapter 20, whatever is going on in this passage is a supremely important concept because it rests on the idea that God is fulfilling immense promises that have been clearly, repeatedly and directly given in the word of scripture from Genesis all the way up through the book of Revelation. So whatever's going on here about the millennium is of supreme importance.

And that brings us to our second question this morning. What are the options that faithful Christians have held regarding the millennium? How are we supposed to take Revelation 20? And there are basically three positions and they're nuanced in numbers of different ways, but there are basically three positions that people have taken when it comes to Revelation chapter 20, particularly the first 10 verses and specifically with regard to the nature of this 1,000 year reign or kingdom that is being described here. Position number one is a position called pre-millennialism.

Remember the word millennial just means thousand. And so this position would argue that the events in Revelation chapter 20 are coming after the Lord Jesus Christ returns. Revelation 19 depicts the coming of the Lord just like Jude said he would come with his holy ones and he is standing on the earth and Revelation chapter 20 begins to explain to you the events that are initiated upon his arrival. So pre-millennialism is arguing that this kingdom that is in Revelation 20 is actually a literal thousand year kingdom on earth that will be ruled over by Messiah with his people who have returned with him. And in this particular view there is a there is a future for national Israel. You heard a sermon earlier in the series about national Israel.

This is where that comes into play. And he will reign with his saints over the earth, over the nations for a thousand years. So pre-millennialism argues that whatever this kingdom is, it is a literal thousand year reign and it starts after Jesus returns. A second view that held a lot of popularity particularly in the last hundred or so years is a view called post-millennialism which argues that this thousand year reign is actually taking place in the church age. So the church age has been going on for 2,000 years and it ends with the coming of Jesus. But a post-millennialist is going to argue that as the power of the gospel expands and is energized by the Holy Spirit moving through believers to share the gospel around the world, the gospel and the nations are actually going to become Christianized. And the ideas that are in Revelation 20 and in the Old Testament passages that describe this kingdom are actually going to be sort of symbolically lived out by the wonderful state in which the gospel will bring the earth. And it may be the last thousand years of the church age or it may just be a way of talking about the church age, the last part of the church age itself, but when that happens, when the gospel has completely transformed the nations so that they are fearing God and worshiping Him and this golden age of gospel Christianity reigns on the earth, then Jesus will come back as King. And He will then turn the kingdom that has come in over which He has now taken possession back to His Father. In this particular view, the church replaces Israel so that the promises that were made to Israel are now being fulfilled in us.

And the third view would be somewhat different in this sense. It's arguing that there is no millennium at all. Amillennialism is the idea that there is really no millennium and that what is happening in Revelation 20 is just describing the church age itself. And that when Jesus Christ came the first time, He actually dealt the death blow to Satan and bound him. But the final victory of that isn't going to be fully affected until He comes back in Revelation chapter 20. And so there is really no real thousand year reign. This is just a symbolic sort of metaphor to help you understand what is going on in your life right now.

That evil is waxing more and more. In this view, there's no sort of idea that the earth is going to be Christianized and society is going to be transformed by the Gospel. It's just reminding you that you live triumphantly in a very wicked world because of the power of the Gospel and the death of Christ that bound Satan. And the next thing that is going to happen is not the evangelization of the world, the next thing that is going to happen is the coming of Jesus.

And so in this view, amillennialism, the millennium, is really not a reality. It symbolizes what is actually happening right now. So how are we to figure out which view to take? And I would suggest to you that you have one of two options. You can either read the text normally or normatively and let the text just unfold. Or you're going to have to come to text like this and you're going to have to assign symbolic or allegorical ideas to the things that are here. And so I want to just very quickly, as we sort of wrap up today, I just want to walk you through the texts that deal with this. So let's thirdly talk about the nature of this millennium that is described here. And let's see where it leads us. One of the things that we immediately discover as you think about all of the texts that speak to this is that the millennium is characterized as a political kingdom on earth.

Its location is terrestrial. Its duration is a thousand years. Its orientation is enforced righteousness. There's a rod of iron that is absolutely enforcing righteousness globally and it's initiated by the zeal of the Lord. That's what Isaiah 9 verses 6 and 7, the passage that talks about the government being on the shoulders of this individual.

And at the end of that text, we are told how this will be initiated. The zeal of the Lord of hosts, the wrath of the Lord of armies will perform this. And if you read Revelation and you start in chapter 6 and you go all the way to chapter 19, you are reading about the zeal of the Lord, the wrath of God being poured out in 21 judgments before you get to chapter 19. And then you have the inauguration of a kingdom. This kingdom is characterized by righteousness, peace and joy. And for sake of time, let me just mention a few verses. Isaiah 32 one, behold a king shall reign in righteousness and princes rule in judgment. Isaiah 32 and the work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. There will be joy filling the earth. Isaiah 12 talks about drawing water out of the well of God's salvation with joy. And in Isaiah 55, you will go out with joy and you will be led in peace. So this kingdom is characterized by peace and joy. It's characterized by unparalleled blessing. There's global prosperity in Jeremiah 33 verse 9.

The entire earth will fear and tremble for all of the goodness and all of the prosperity that I procure unto it. And then there's the reversal of the curse in this great chapter in Isaiah 65 verses 20 through 25. Human physical condition goes back to edenic conditions, to the way people lived in Adam's day. The land is abundantly fruitful.

Animal kingdom is no longer at enmity with humanity. And then it's characterized by Israel's restoration, exaltation and domination over all of the other nations. Zephaniah 3 verses 19 through 20 really makes this clear.

I will make you a name and a praise among all the peoples of the earth. Ezekiel 47 talks about God doing this for the sake of His name. And in Romans 9, 10 and 11, this is affirmed by New Testament writers. And then it is a time characterized by global worship. In Isaiah 66, all flesh will come to worship before me, saith the Lord.

And I would just say to you, none of this has happened yet. And that brings us finally to how does the Bible account describe the start of all of this? And the start of all of this comes after a time of global tribulation. We noted that Revelation 6 through 19 speaks about that. It starts with the binding and the confinement of Satan. There are six different verbs used in Revelation 21 through 3 that talk about the fact that our ancient enemy is going to be bound at command of God by a mere angel.

I mean think about the humiliation of this. The one who used to be the archangel is now being cast and confined to a pit by a mere angel. And it's happening in the presence of all of the nations that he has deceived. Thrones are set up and saints are resurrected in verse 4.

And you can see that really clearly. These thrones represent authority and those who sit on them are given authority to rule and they are resurrected saints who will serve as priests of God. They will represent God to the nations and they will rule with God over those nations. And they will reign over nations of non-glorified humans who live in a new earth under Edenic conditions. You see how in the world are you going to have glorified people and non-glorified people living together in the same kingdom? You've already seen that in the New Testament.

Jesus in his glorified body actually sat in a room with people in their non-glorified bodies and it worked great. So when you come to a passage like this and you read about glorified people who are living and reigning on an earth full of non-glorified people, you've already seen that in the Lord's own ministry. And then you'll note that righteousness is enforced in Revelation 20. This authority is going to be exercised with a rod of iron. There will be no adultery, no murder, no lying, no theft, no wickedness.

Nothing evil celebrated or practiced or tolerated. And for the righteous people who have embraced God, it will be glorious. But for the people who haven't, it will be miserable. And that's why at the end of this period, after 1000 years, Satan will be released and all of those people will gravitate to him. And he will lead a final rebellion against God that will be crushed definitively. And then in Revelation 20 verses 11 through 15, the rest of the dead are raised. And this resurrection is not a resurrection to life, it's a resurrection to judgment. Because what happens next is a great white throne, a blazing throne of the fire of a holy God is going to evaluate these people and those who belong to him are going to enter into his joy and those who don't are going to be eternally separated from him. And so what do you do with a text like this? I would suggest to you as we close that a natural reading of this text leads you to the conclusion that the millennium starts after Jesus comes.

And that's a premillennial position. And I trust as we leave today that you will pray for the coming of this kingdom, you will prepare yourself for the coming of this kingdom, and that you will win others to that kingdom. Father, thank you for our time together. I pray that the truth that we have heard today would help us in Jesus name. Amen. You've been listening to a sermon preached at Bob Jones University by Dr. Sam Horn. This is part of the study series about the second coming of Christ, and we hope you'll join us again tomorrow as we continue the series here on The Daily Platform.