Heaven on Earth - Part 3: When Politics are Perfect - Part A

You know, politicians are like everybody's favorite scapegoat. They're the reason all of the problems exist. Or if we vote one in, we expect them to solve all of the world's ills. And it's unrealistic expectations that we have of them. But at the same time, though we want them to do everything, there is less and less trust in the political structure in our country, even in our democracy. How do you trust these institutions? Sixteen American institutions were listed.

The least amount of trust was given to the United States Congress. I'm going to read to you something written by James Dent. Now James Dent was a columnist and humorist for the Charleston, West Virginia Gazette, a newspaper, and he wrote a few years back these words. A guy heard about an operation that would enable him to get a new brain. So he went to the hospital where the surgery had been perfected and asked the doctors what was in stock. Well, here's an excellent engineer's brain, they said. A finely honed, precise bit of gray matter.

But it will cost you $500 an ounce. Well, what else you got, asked the man. Well, we have a lawyer's brain.

It's a collection of shrewd, tricky little gray cells. It's $1,000 an ounce. Well, is that all you have, asked the man.

No, here's a doctor's brain packed full of anatomical knowledge. It's $5,000 an ounce. I don't know, the man said.

Do you have anything else? Well, then the doctors looked at each other and they motioned for the man to step forward over to a covered container. In hushed tones, they said, this is a politician's brain. It costs $250,000 an ounce. Wow, exclaimed the fellow. Why is it so expensive?

Well, the doctors told him, in the first place, it's hardly used. In the second place, do you realize how many politicians you need to get an ounce of brains? I couldn't resist.

I couldn't resist given the current political climate, and here's why. You know, politicians are like everybody's favorite scapegoat. They're the reason all of the problems exist, or if we vote one in, we expect them to solve all of the world's ills.

And it's unrealistic expectations that we have of them. But at the same time, though we want them to do everything, there is less and less trust in the political structure in our country, even in our democracy. In a recent Harris poll, they asked the question, how much do you trust these institutions?

16 American institutions were listed. The least amount of trust was given to the United States Congress. We just don't trust those that we vote in or appoint to political leadership. I read a story two months ago in the BBC about a village in Romania. True story. They recently voted in a dead guy as their mayor because they thought he was a better alternative than the living opponent.

No joke. Nikolai Ivasku, who had been the mayor for 20 years, died, but he won in the election by 23 votes. And when they asked one man, why did you vote for him?

He goes, look, I know that he's dead, but he's a whole lot better than the other guy. We just don't trust politicians. The ultimate form of government one day will be a benevolent dictatorship run by the Lord Jesus Christ, who will come back, repossess the earth and and hang a sign, so to speak, over his creation under new management. The United Nations building in New York has a scripture verse over its doors. Did you know that? They have Isaiah chapter two, verse four, written over the opening to the United Nations. It says, and they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn to make war anymore. Isn't that great?

But you know what? The United Nations hasn't been able to pull that off. No politician has been able to pull that off.

All those who visualize world peace can't pull that off. And after thousands of years of failed human governments, failed monarchies, failed democracies, failed autocracies, we're still yearning for that time. And that time is coming. And that time is in part described in Revelation chapter 20, when it's God's turn. And today we get a little bit of a glimpse into the political structure of the coming kingdom age. We saw last time or the last couple of times that one of the notable features of that era will be that Satan will be bound for a thousand years.

And another notable feature that we camp on today is that there will be those who will be ruling and reigning with Jesus Christ during that time. Let's look at Revelation 20. And we principally want to look at verse four through six.

But shall we just read verses one through six and get all in context? Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the keys to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the 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 not deceive the nations or he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years were finished.

But after these things, he must be released for a little while. And I saw thrones and they 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 in 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.

There's a few conditions that give us the political framework, the governing ruling framework during the Kingdom Age, the first thing I want to draw your attention to is the chronology and eyewitness chronology. Now, you'll notice that Chapter 20 begins with this little phrase, then I saw and then again in verse four and I saw and again, the second sentence in verse four and I saw the souls. Now, I bring that to your attention because in the Book of Revelation, John does that about twenty five times. And basically, he sees something in a vision, he writes it down, he sees something else, he writes it down and each time he says and I saw, then I saw and I heard, then I saw. And so he gives to us a chronological progression of a revelation.

Keep in mind, John is not making this up. This is a direct revelation from heaven to John about the future. Go back with me, if you would, to Revelation Chapter one and look at the first two verses of the book.

It's introduced this way. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him, that is Jesus to show his servants things which must shortly take place. And he sent and signified it by his angel to his servant, John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ and to all the things that he saw.

So you get the progression. The father gives the revelation to the son. The son gives it to an angel. The angel gives it to John.

John sees it. He writes it down. And it's chronological what he sees and what he writes. This is not a near death experience.

This is not a burrito with onion induced dream. This is a direct revelation from God about the future. And John writes it down. Now, the book of Revelation really is not that difficult to understand if you just read it at face value. In fact, in Chapter one, verse 19, the outline to the entire book is given, the angel says to John, write the things which you have seen, the things which are and the things which will take place after these things.

Meta tauta in the Greek, literally after these things. And so that's what John does. Chapter one, he writes about what he sees, the vision of the glorified resurrected Christ. Chapter two and three is about seven churches. And he writes about their condition and what Jesus says about each one.

Right. And these churches not only are seven local congregations, but they seem to also represent church history in its entirety chronologically. So he writes what he sees. He writes about the things that are that are going on in the churches. And then in Chapter four, there's a change.

It says after these things, same Greek construction, meta tauta after these things. And John is immediately caught up into heaven and sees everything about the heavenly realm and even what's going on on earth from a heavenly perspective. So he's caught up into heaven there in heaven. He writes about the throne of God. And in Chapter six through 19, he writes about the tribulation period, seven year period of judgment on the earth. At the end of that, in Chapter 19, Jesus comes back to the earth with the saints. And then in Chapter 20, and I saw and there's a thousand year period.

So we we can follow that chronology all the way through. Something that may interest you is that the pattern of the Book of Revelation is similar to the pattern of ancient Jewish weddings. You see, I don't know if you know this, but in ancient times when there was a wedding, the groom would show up at the bride's house unannounced. They knew roughly when he was coming, but they never knew what time of the day or night he would be coming. He would show up with a wedding party.

They better be ready. He would come to the bride's house, take her from her house to his house where the wedding ceremony would take place. After the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom would retire to the bridal chamber, consummate their marriage. There would then be a feast for seven days.

Anybody in the neighborhood could attend during the seven days, the bride and groom were in seclusion. And at the end of the seven days, the groom would bring forth the bride and present her, present themselves to their audience. And so we have in the Book of Revelation, the church beginning in Chapter four, caught up into heaven there for seven years.

There's the marriage supper of the lamb. Then at the very end in Revelation 19, the bride and groom, the church and Christ returned together. And so John is just writing what he sees.

And I saw it, I saw it, I saw it, I saw. And it's in chronological order. So this is what I want to get across. Your eternal life has stages to it. I hope by now you've abandoned the idea of, well, we die, we go sit on a cloud, we play harp for millions and millions of years, just so sort of do a whole lot of nothing.

That is as far away from the truth as you can get. There's different phases of your eternal existence. If you die now, you're caught up in the spirit and in heaven, you behold the throne of God, you await bodily resurrection. You then get a resurrected body at the rapture of the church. You then will return to the earth for a thousand years. You'll then enter into what's called the eternal state.

New Heaven, New Earth, New Jerusalem, which we begin to talk about next week. You know, sort of like your earthly existence, there are different phases to your physical, earthly existence. First, there was the gestation period. You're in a womb for nine months.

Anybody remember that? Of course you don't. But it's a continuation of your life. You're the same person that was in that womb. Then there was infancy and then toddlerhood and then adolescence and then adulthood. And then eventually there's the geriatric phase, all different phases that are very distinct from one another, but all part of your continuance. So it will be with your eternal life, different stages and phases. I love this text in Ephesians chapter two, verse seven. Paul says that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kingdom toward us in Christ Jesus. In other words, it's going to take God all of eternity to reveal and show so that you and I will discover and have adventures. That's how eternity is going to unfold.

It's going to be an ongoing revelation of really cool stuff. I know that didn't sound too theological, cool stuff, but it will be. So keep in mind, we are following what John sees given to him by God in chronological order.

Second thing I want you to notice about the political structure of that era is administrative authority. Look at verse four with me again. Verse four of Chapter 20. Then I saw or and I saw thrones, plural, thrones, and they, whoever they are, sat on them and judgment was committed to them. So we have thrones, plural, they and them are mentioned. Clearly, there is a plurality of administrative authority in the kingdom age because throne in the Bible can only mean one of two things, either judicial authority or regal royal authority. That's only how it's ever used. So there is some kind of plurality of authority.

OK, let's back up just a bit. Who is the ultimate authority in the kingdom age? Exactly, Jesus Christ. Because when he comes back, Revelation 19, 16, he bears the title King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

He's the ultimate central governing authority. And that's exactly what he was promised throughout the scripture. The Bible promises that the Messiah will come rule over the whole earth, which hasn't happened yet. And he will do so from the throne of David in Jerusalem. There are many, many, many promises that speak to that.

Here's a couple. One of the most famous is Isaiah Chapter nine. We read it every Christmas. Typically, unto us, a child is born, a son is given, his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, et cetera. And it goes on to say, and the government will be upon his shoulder and of the increase of his government and peace. There will be no end upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward. And then you remember when the angel came to Mary and announced that she's going to have a child and she was freaking out.

How can these things be? And the angel calms her down and explains and says, you will name him Jesus. And he says he will be great.

This is Luke Chapter one. He will be great and be called the son of the highest. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David. So that takes place here.

Jesus comes back to the earth. He's now king of kings and Lord of lords, ruling an absolute sovereign authority, but he's not going it alone. He has help. Not that he needs help, but he certainly invites it. I remember as a boy, I used to say when I was just a little kid, I helped dad today.

All I really did is kind of stand around and hold the hammer and mess things up. But he allowed me to be part of it because he liked that idea that we were doing it together. We're going to be or some group is going to be on thrones giving authority at that time. So notice I saw thrones plural and they sat on them and judgment or authority was committed to them. The question is, then, who are they?

Who are they? We're not really told, are we? Well, I guess the best answer would be they are the ones that God wants to sit on the thrones.

You say that doesn't help me a whole lot. OK, back up and ask this question. This is how we'll approach it. What group or who in the Bible does God promise that they will have a kingdom or administrative kingdom, sit on thrones and have authority?

OK, we can answer that. We can go all the way back to Daniel, chapter seven, where we read in verse 18, the saints of the most high shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. By the way, when you read saints in the Bible, you know by now it's not speaking of the dudes on the holy cards with the little halos around their heads. The glow.

These are real living people. Now you are in the Bible with the Bible call saints. Just simply means you're set apart by God. So Daniel seven, the saints will possess the kingdom. Also, in Daniel seven, verse twenty seven, it says, then the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people, that is, to the saints of the most high. So God promises that, first of all, Old Testament saints and would also then include New Testament saints, God's people. Will administrate the kingdom. Number two, Jesus himself said in Matthew, chapter 19, that his apostles, his twelve apostles would have a special administrative role. This is Matthew 19, verse 28. Assuredly, I say to you that in the regeneration. Literal translation, the second Genesis, the recreation in the regeneration, when the son of man sits on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Now, let me just ask a question right here. If the kingdom is now, as the Amillennialist says, if this is the kingdom of God, this is the millennium, then where are the Old Testament saints reigning? And where are the twelve apostles administering the twelve tribes of Israel?

So you get you get into all sorts of interpretive quagmire when you go that route. Well, we have Old Testament saints reigning. We have the apostles given special administrative duty. Also, the New Testament says that New Testament believers will also rule and reign. First Corinthians, chapter six. Get this. Paul writes, Don't you realize that someday we believers will judge the world?

Whoa. We're going to judge the world. He goes on to say, Don't you realize that we will judge angels?

I don't think some of the angels are too crazy about that notion, but. That's what it says in Second Timothy, chapter two, verse 12. Paul writes to Timothy, If we endure, we shall also reign with him. And there are many, many, many passages that say that we just don't have enough time this morning to go through all of them.

But here's a final one. In Revelation five, when the churches gathered together and were singing an anthem to God, among our lyrics in that song are these. For you have made us kings and priests to our God and we shall reign on the earth.

So it couldn't be any more clear than that. Old Testament saints, apostles and New Testament believers are going to be they and them ruling. That's Skip Heiting with a message from the series From the Edge of Eternity. Now we want to share about an exciting resource that helps you navigate your life circumstances so you can embrace your God given potential. I've enjoyed watching the growth and the ministry of my friend Levi Lusko. This month's Connect with Skip resource. Take Back Your Life, the new book by Levi Lusko.

Here's Levi to tell you about it. It's all around this idea of taking back your life. It's a 40 day interactive journey to thinking right so you can live right. And it's going to be really powerful and special, I think, for people to have this.

Not only is it in hardcover, which just makes me happy because I've never had a book release in hardcover, but it has a ribbon. So you'll be able to keep track of your progress through these 40 days. It would be an incredible gift to someone who is looking to grow in their faith or for any of us who want to maybe kind of do an oil change for your heart, a checkup on your wellness, on where you're at.

It'll deal with internal difficulties and help you deal better with external circumstances that are challenging as we explore how we can get to the very best version of ourselves that we are meant to be. Get the book Take Back Your Life with a donation of $35 to connect with Skip. Call 1-800-922-1888 or online at connectwithskip.com. This hardcover book by Levi Lusko will help you take back your life. It's a 40 day interactive journey to thinking right so you can live right. 1-800-922-1888.

God is our sovereign creator, but he's also a loving father. We want people all over the world to know they're not alone and to know God's caring love. And you can help make that happen through your gift today, which also keeps these messages you enjoy coming to you. Give a gift right now when you call 1-800-922-1888. Again, that's 1-800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate.

Connectwithskip.com slash donate. Thank you. Tune in tomorrow. As Skip Heissig shares about a perfect future kingdom you'll be part of when Christ rules the earth. The millennium begins with all believers. All those who enter into the millennium are either resurrected saints or mortals who are believers and made it through to the end of the tribulation period. No unbelievers.

The unbelievers have died and they're awaiting their judgment. Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection. Connection. Connect with Skip Heissig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.