1000-Year Reign of Christ - Revelation 20:1-6

Welcome to God First with Brian C. Thomas, a program committed to encouraging you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible.

Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, let's join Brian C. Thomas for today's message. Mankind is in constant pursuit of utopia, but the problem is mankind is trying to achieve utopia without Jesus. If we could get everyone to drive electric vehicles, if we could get everyone to become woke, that is what so many leaders of our world say today.

If we can just do, get everyone to do these things, then we can achieve utopia. And don't get me wrong, I don't have anything personal against electric or hybrid vehicles. As a matter of fact, I drove a hybrid Prius that I had as a rental car a few years ago and I actually enjoyed it. It was a smooth ride. I'm not crazy about the looks of it, but the riding experience was good. It did take me some time to get used to the way in which the engine idles down so low that it feels like it is shut off when you come to a stop.

So every time I'm at a stop sign or a stop light, I'm wondering is, is the engine going to start back up when I press the gas or am I going to be sitting there as a, as a sitting duck out in the middle of the road? But I don't have anything personal against those things, but folks that is not going to achieve utopia. I love the great outdoors. I love to be outside and enjoying nature, but how many know that because of the curse of seeing that is upon the earth. When I'm outside, I have to deal with the annoyance of gnats and mosquitoes and horse flies. And, and by the time you get to about the end of the summer, as much as I love the outdoors, I am ready for some cool fall weather to come into, to send those pests in for the winter season. But imagine a world in which those things will no longer be.

Some of you are dealing with back pain and you're having to have knee surgeries and shoulder surgeries, but imagine a world where those things will no longer be needed. And I know as I state that you're probably saying, yeah, when we get to heaven and that is true, but we're not talking about just heaven, the third heaven where, where God dwells, but I'm talking about right here on this earth, possibly as soon as the year 2029, because we're in 2022, we go through the seven year tribulation. And at that point, if that be the case, if the seven year tribulation were to begin this year, and I'm not predicting that it is, but I'm just saying, hypothetically speaking, if it were to, to begin, then we could be in this great wondrous kingdom that the Bible foretells that is going to come on the earth when Jesus comes back to rule and reign. But before this can happen, Satan must be dealt with because all the evils of the world come from Satan. One third of the angels and most of the adult population of the world follow him in rebellion against God. And we see these caricatures of him in a red suit with a long tail and horns and a pitch fork along with the depictions of him ruling over hell. These things are all influenced by his efforts to minimize the eternal danger of following him because folks contrary to these caricatures, Satan is not in a red suit with a long tail and horns and a pitchfork, and Satan is not ruling over hell, but Satan is real. He's called in the Bible, the devil 35 times, and he's called Satan 52 times.

Satan means enemy or adversary. And so we're going to look today at the 1000 year reign of Christ, but we're going to first look at the fact that Satan must be dealt with heavenly father. We thank you Lord for this time together. We thank you Lord for your word. It is our prayer, Lord, that all things that are spoken, that it be nothing but sound doctrine. May you be honored and glorified in all things in your name, Jesus, amen. So we're looking today at revelation chapter 20, verses one through six.

But before we get to our main text, I want to draw your attention to the book of Ezekiel chapter 28, verses 12 through 19, Ezekiel 28, 12 through 19, which speaks of the creation of Satan and his rebellion. We find there in our texts, son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre and say to him, thus says the Lord God, you were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering the Sardis, the topaz and diamond barrel onyx and Jasper, Sapphire, Torque, turquoise, and Emerald with gold.

The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were the anointed cherub who covers and I establish you. You were on the holy mountain of God.

You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created till iniquity was found in you. By the abundance of your trading, you became filled with violence within and you sinned. Therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God. And I destroyed you all covering cherub from the midst of the fiery stones.

Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground. I laid you before Kings that they may gaze at you.

You defile your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your trading. Therefore I brought fire from your midst. It devoured you and I turned you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who saw you. All who knew you among the peoples are astonished at you.

You have become a horror and shall no more be no more forever. Satan often indwells world leaders. And in this case, it's the King of Tyre that we see here in the book of Ezekiel. What we see from our text that it is the pride of beauty that led him to sin. Now since God is holy and cannot create evil, then the question is, well, who did? Where did evil come from? Well, what we have to understand is that Satan does not have the power of creation, but what Satan did is he, he took the forces of God that were created perfect and combine them in an imperfect manner to manufacture sin.

For example, look at table salt, which is one part sodium, a necessity of life, but combining it with other elements can produce a deadly poison. And so that is what Satan did. He took the things of God that were created good, the things that were created perfect, and he uses them in an imperfect manner to manufacture sin. Isaiah chapter 14, verses 12 through 21, I want you to turn there with me. It records the self-centered pride of Satan, where he repeatedly states, I will, with no concern for God's will. Turn there with me to Isaiah chapter 14, verses 12 through 21. The fall of Lucifer, how you are fallen from heaven, oh Lucifer, son of the morning, how you are cut down to the ground, you who weaken the nations for you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.

I will also sit on the mounts of the congregation on the farthest sides of the North. I will ascend above the house, the height of the clouds. I will be like the most high yet you shall be brought down to shield to the lowest depths of the pit. Those who see you will gaze at you and consider you saying, is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed its cities, who did not open the house of prisoners, all the Kings of the nations, all of them sleep in glory, everyone in his own house. But you are cast out of your grave like an abominable branch, like the garment of those who are slain thrust through with a sword, who go down to the stones of the pits, like a corpse trodden underfoot, you will not be joined with them in burial because you have destroyed your land and slain your people. The brood of evil doers shall never be named, prepare slaughter for his children because of the iniquity of their fathers, lest they rise up and possess the land and feel the face of the world with cities. As we see throughout this text, Satan is stating, I will, again, no concern for God's will. And we see the same mindset throughout our society today, but we see mankind say, I will fornicate, I will then have an abortion.

If there is a pregnancy, I will, I will, I will. And that is the way so many live today without a regard for God's commands, trying to achieve this utopian life by going by their own ways, by going by their own wheels and ignoring the ways of God. But folks, I'm here to tell you that we cannot have a utopia.

We cannot have success in life. We cannot have the blessings of God if we are going to reject his commands. Jesus said to be a follower of him, we must deny our own wheels and take up the cross and follow him. And it is our Lord's will that none should perish.

We find that in second Peter, Peter chapter three, verse nine. So as we come to our main text today, revelation chapter 20, verse one, we find the text tells us then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit in a great chain in his hand. How big and how heavy and strong of a chain does it take to hold Satan? Well, really the answer to that question is, is there anything too difficult for God? We serve a God who created all things, who created the earth, who created mankind, who created the universe. He created all things and there's nothing that's too big.

There's nothing that's too, too difficult for him. And so yes, there will be a chain that is going to bind and hold Satan. He's going to be bound in the bottomless pit. And this is the same bottomless pit from which the fifth trumpet locus of revelation nine verses one through two are released from. And then in verse two, he laid hold on the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years.

We see in this passage, the multiple names for the father of lies. We see he's called the dragon. He's called the serpent of old. He's called the devil and Satan and an angel arrest him.

That is going to happen in the future, which is still yet to come. And then in verse three of revelation chapter 20, 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 to the thousand years were finished. But after these things, he must be released for a little while. The only way to secure a righteous era is for Satan to be bound. Satan will be restricted from doing what he loves, which is deceiving mankind. During this 1000 year reign of Christ, there will be no influence of Satan because he will be bound in this bottomless pit, but he will be released for one last deception. And then he's going to be cast into the lake of fire. We find that in revelation 2010, we will come to that next week. And this will be where the antichrist and the false prophet will have been for a thousand years. And so we're going to find that there will be no influence of Satan on the earth during the time of our Lord's millennial kingdom.

But what is mind boggling is even without the temptation, even without the influence of Satan, so many will turn against Jesus Christ, those who have not yet received him, and they will follow Satan in his evil doing in those days to come. You are listening to Brian C. Thomas on God First. For more of Brian's teachings, please visit Godfirst.org to browse our extensive library of material. There you will find devotionals, blogs, articles, and audio messages available as MP3 downloads on various topics such as salvation, Bible prophecy, marriage, and the significance of Lesson Israel, just to name a few.

You can also sign up for our monthly newsletter and visit our web store. So please visit us at Godfirst.org. Now let's return to the conclusion of today's message. Now I want you to look with me over at Isaiah chapter 14 verses 9 through 11, which speaks of Satan's doom. He will be ridiculed, the Bible tells us, by kings of the earth. Isaiah chapter 14 verses 9 through 11 reads, hell from beneath is excited about you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the dead for you, all the chief ones of the earth.

He has raised up from their thrones. I laid you before kings that they may gaze at you. You defile your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your trading. Therefore I brought fire from your midst. It devoured you and I turned you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who saw you. All who knew you among the peoples are astonished at you. You have become a horror and shall be no more forever. So we find in this text that that would be those who are going to ridicule Satan, the evil ones of the earth who have been cast into this torment.

Imagine Hitler, imagine Stalin. They will say that he who deceives many today to believe hell is not real, but he's going to end up there himself and he's going to be mocked. In verse four, we find in Revelation chapter 20 and I saw thrones and they sat on them and judgment was committed to them. Then 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 reign with Christ for a thousand years. This verse introduces the marvelous reign of Christ on the earth.

This will be the utopia that the human race is yearning for. The Bible tells us in Isaiah chapter 65 that the animal kingdom will be at peace. There will be no more warring. It says that the the wolf and the lamb will lie down together and it says the the lion will eat straw like the ox. But notice that the curse will be lifted from all except the serpent.

He will continue to crawl on his belly due to his temptation of Eve in Genesis 3 14. This utopian kingdom that is going to be on the earth when our Lord Jesus comes back to reign is going to be filled with joy. Isaiah 65 18 through 19 declares it. It also tells us that there will be a significant increase in lifespans Isaiah 65 verse 20. It also tells us in Isaiah 65 verse 24 that prayers will be answered swiftly even while praying and sometimes even before praying that will be the the nature of things in this kingdom that is to come when our Lord comes to rule and reign on the earth believers in Christ will sit on thrones and judge and those who receive Christ meaning refusing the Antichrist are seen here reigning with Christ for 1000 years. You know, it states in the scriptures that six times in this chapter that the kingdom of Christ on Earth will be 1000 years but many theologians do not accept this as literal but there's a saying by one of my my mentors in the ministry.

He says that when the plain sense makes sense look for no other sensor else you end up with nonsense and so when the plain sense of 1000 years make sense then that is what we take it as a literal meaning but there have been many disagreements that have led to things like premillennialism and post-millennialism and our millennialism, but we are to take the Bible literally when the plain sense makes sense. This 1000 year reign of Christ is often called the millennium which is derived from the Latin words mille which means 1000 and annum which means a year and this kingdom of our Lord is going to be fulfillment of the prayer the Lord's Prayer when we pray your kingdom come our Lord's kingdom is still yet to come as in the future but it is coming to the earth and this is a kingdom that will never be destroyed as Daniel chapter 2 verses 44 and 45 declare now verse 5 of Revelation chapter 20, but the rest of the day it did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

The rest of the day it is the rejectors of Christ of all ages. They will be resurrected from Hades think of it is sort of like jail and sentence through to the lake of fire which you can think of as like prison at the great white throne judgment that is going to occur at the end of the 1000 year kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the second death verse 6 blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection over such the second death has no power but they shall be priest of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years. The word bless means happy and it is linked to holiness because all believers will be resurrected as holy and these will live eternally holy meaning the second death has no power over them.

The fear of death is probably the greatest fear of mankind which robs many of happiness and just look at what we've experienced over the last two to three years with covid-19 this fear of this virus a virus that you stand a 99% chance of surviving for the average person but this great fear has gripped the entire world and robbed so many of happiness robbed so many of peace. But we as believers in Christ should not fear death because Jesus holds the keys of death and Hades we see it in Revelation 1 18 and so the one who holds the keys and we are one of his we need not fear death. But this resurrection from the among the dead is found 49 times in the scripture and just as there are phases through the second coming of Christ with the Rapture of the church and the glorious appearing there are phases to the believers resurrection. We find first that the church is going to be resurrected at the Rapture of the church and then the Old Testament Saints and the the tribulation Saints coming seven years later, but John merges them all together as the first resurrection.

So let's look at it a little bit closer phase one the church age Saints. This is outlined in First Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 13 through 18 where the scripture tells us that day is coming when there will be a sound of a trumpet and there will be the shout of an archangel and the dead in Christ shall rise first. This is the Rapture of the church when only the dead in Christ will be resurrected.

So that is those from the day of Pentecost to the Rapture of the church that have lived and died that received Jesus Christ that is the church age. They will be resurrected from the dead at the Rapture of the church and then those of us who are alive and remain on the earth. We will also be caught up together with them, but this does not include the Old Testament Saints that resurrection is coming later at the end of the seven-year tribulation. So that is phase 2 the Old Testament and tribulation Saints. Look at the book of Daniel chapter 12 verses 1 and 2 it seems to place the resurrection of Israel after the tribulation Daniel 12 1 and 2 reads at that time Michael shall stand up the great Prince who stands watch over the sons of your people and there shall be a time of trouble such as has never was since there was a nation even to that time and at that time your people shall be delivered everyone who is found written in the book and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life some to shame and everlasting contempt. So this is sort of what I like again phase 2 of the first resurrection in which again the resurrection of the righteous the believers. This is going to occur at the end of the seven-year tribulation.

We saw in the weeks past in Revelation chapter 6 verses 9 and 11 it presents a picture of the tribulation Saints who have been martyred and waiting for the resurrection and the completion of their fellow servants and and brothers being martyred as a reference to the end of the seven-year tribulation and this is when the glorious appearing occurs and the setting up of the Millennial Kingdom. What determines which resurrection you will be in and I'm saying between the first resurrection and the second resurrection the resurrection to eternal life and the resurrection to eternal damnation what determines which resurrection you will be in it is determined by whether or not you have personally accepted Jesus Christ for your sins and his resurrection. Romans 10 13 says whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved but in contrast those who reject Christ will be in the second resurrection unto eternal damnation at the great white throne judgment. My plea for you today if you have never received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior to call on him call on him today so that you will be in the first resurrection profess him as Lord and Savior confess your sins and say Lord Jesus.

I am nothing without you. I'm eternally lost and so except the price that Jesus Christ already paid when he died at Calvary when he he shed his blood he he already paid the penalty that the Bible says is the penalty for sin is death with the gift of God is eternal life. So Jesus already paid the penalty but you must accept it come to Jesus today.

If you never receive him because we are looking forward to the day when we become priests of God and of Christ and we shall reign with him for a thousand years. This is a time in which God's law will be the mandate of the entire world. The Bible says the violators will be severely and swiftly punished. I'm looking forward to the Millennial Kingdom because we live in a society today where mankind debates and bickers over laws over things that are immoral.

Laws that allow mankind to take the life of an unborn child. But during this time when our Lord is ruling and reigning it says he's going to rule with a rod of iron and so there'll be no more debates about things like abortion. There'll be no more debates about the definition of marriage. There'll be no more debates about policy when it comes to the nation of Israel because the ways of our Lord is what everyone must abide by Heavenly Father. We look forward to that day Lord Jesus when you come back to rule and reign on this earth this 1000 year reign this 1000 year Kingdom and Lord we know you said in your word that there are going to be trying times that are going to come for those who put their faith and trust in you but Lord Jesus we call out to you today asking to give us the endurance Lord to to allow us to to persevere so that we not grow weary and Lord you are going to reward us in that day and Lord Jesus we just occupy until you come we occupying faithfully Lord we're waiting on you and it is our desire Lord that we be shining light so so use us Lord for your kingdom use us for your way allow us to shine our light allow us to to be the salt in the light of the earth Lord in this the sin sick world is this darkened kingdom that is darkened by evil but Lord the day is coming when you will come back and make all things right and we look forward to that day when you will rule and reign and there will be nothing but peace and joy and happiness and the entire earth will be filled with your glory so Lord we look forward to that time but until that day Lord we remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem blessings over the great nation of Israel and to the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever amen. You've been listening to the Bible teacher Brian C. Thomas founder and president of God First. Brian and God First reserve all copyright protection under applicable law. Our copyright policy is available at our website Godfirst.org. Until next time remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God.