Heaven on Earth - Part 1 - Part A

For a moment, try to imagine, and really it's all we can do, but imagine a world of perfect peace, a world of perfect law, perfect order, perfect justice. Everything's always fair. Sin is dealt with immediately.

All politicians are saints. I know you really, really have to stretch your imagination. Imagine a world where the health is such that if a person dies at 100 years of age, they're said to be an infant. Because of the longevity of man being restored. Imagine a world where kids can go out and play in snake pits and find the snakes friendly, and the snakes can find the kids friendly. Imagine a world where the food is overabundant even though the population has increased dramatically on the earth.

Now, that sounds like, to most people, pure fiction. What do you read when you hear that word? Sunny, tropical beaches, lush, green rainforests, maybe the crisp, white austereness of a snow-covered field. We all have some idea of what paradise is here on earth, which brings up a good question. Can we ever truly experience heaven on earth?

Can we get a taste of eternity during this lifetime? That's exactly what we'll explore today with Skip Heitzig here in Connect with Skip weekend edition. But first, here's more about this month's special resource. We know Proverbs 31, the go-to passage that describes the ideal Christian woman and wife. But let's be honest, that ideal can be as intimidating as it is inspiring. Here's Skip Heitzig with more. Can I just tell you, it's exhausting to just read that, let alone how on earth women could you ever do that?

Well, let me say, first of all, you can't do that in a day. He's not giving the 24-hour description of the virtuous wife. This is a woman over time. The most incredible women in the Bible and in history with two inspiring resources, a six-message CD collection from Pastor Skip on prominent women in Scripture, plus the book Seven Women by best-selling author Eric Metaxas. This bundle is our thanks when you give $35 or more to help expand the Bible teaching outreach of Skip Heitzig.

Charm is deceitful, beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Call now to request these captivating resources as our thanks for your generous gift, 800-922-1888, or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 20, and as you find your place, Skip Heitzig will begin today's study with a little history lesson. It was 40 years ago when a historian philosopher named Will Durant, a very famous one, made an estimation. He noted that at that time, in the 3,124 years of recorded history, there had been only 268 of those years that had seen no war. Which translates into 92% of recorded world history has been a time of war and conflict, no peace. And yet, that has been the very cry of people from the beginning, peace on earth. And if possible, even to create a utopia. Way back in the days of the philosopher Plato, he talked about an ideal polis, he called it, the city-state, ruled by a philosopher king in knowledge and equity, bringing peace.

He longed for that. The Roman government actually attempted it, and for two centuries, they brought in the Pax Romana, the Roman peace, and enforced peace by taking pirates and thieves off the seaways and the roadways. Then there was the Pax Britannica. For a century, Britain ruled much of the inhabited earth and promoted a financial security and growth during that time. But it was back in 1516 when a guy by the name of Thomas Moore, Sir Thomas Moore, wrote a book called Utopia. A fictional island where there was the perfect legal, political, economic state, the perfect place.

We've always dreamed of that. Karl Marx envisioned that. He thought if we could just deal with class distinctions and move them out of the way, that virtually every social problem would be solved. And that cry for peace is with us today. It's on the back of cars with bumper stickers, the most famous being visualize world peace, cry for peace. I was on a website yesterday, and I found a website that sells peace bumper stickers. There are 1,005 different peace bumper stickers you could buy. That is the cry of the human heart, peace on earth. And some politicians have even included in their promise for the future biblical language, millennial language. As an example, Adolf Hitler with his imperialistic Reich, his reign, said that it would cover the whole earth and last for a thousand years. How horrible that would have been.

Mao Tse Tung, the one-time dictator of China, said his revolution would dominate the world for a thousand years. Now, for a moment, try to imagine, and really it's all we can do, but imagine a world of perfect peace, a world of perfect law, perfect order, perfect justice. Everything's always fair. Sin is dealt with immediately.

All politicians are saints. I know you really, really have to stretch your imagination. Imagine a world where the health is such that if a person dies at 100 years of age, they are said to be an infant because of the longevity of man being restored. Imagine a world where kids can go out and play in snake pits and find the snakes friendly, and the snakes can find the kids friendly.

Imagine a world where the food is overabundant even though the population has increased dramatically on the earth. Now, that sounds like, to most people, pure fiction. That's a fairy tale.

That's to most people. But to Bible readers, we know that that's exactly what the Bible promises will happen one day on this earth for a thousand years when Christ rules and reigns. Now, for that to happen, we can quickly understand that this earth would have to go through a Reconstruction period.

We would call it an extreme makeover, an extreme makeover. Well, we have been for 10 weeks looking in the Bible at eternity. We've been following a Christian from the moment of death to going into the portals of heaven. We've looked at the reunion with other believers. We've talked about the resurrection of our physical bodies, the capabilities of those bodies. We've talked about the throne room of heaven, and we've talked about the Bema Seat of Christ.

And actually, we've just gotten started. We're now coming to the very heart of our eternal future in the next several weeks. And today, we discuss an entirely different phase of it, a phase, honestly, most Christians do not believe or not believe but really even think about. See, most people think you die and you go to heaven, you sit on a cloud, you play a harp, and you sing chants forever and ever and ever and ever.

It's sort of the idea that goes through people's minds. There were two Christians that were having a conversation, and one of them said, I have a one-way ticket to heaven, and I'm never coming back. And the other Christian said, well, you're sure going to miss a lot then.

I have a return ticket, frankly. I'm going to go to heaven, see Jesus in glory, then come back in power and glory to rule and reign with Him. Now, that second Christian had his theology right, I believe, and we're going to look at that this morning. But on a personal note, I want to let you know, the more I personally study about the future, about heaven, about the millennium, about the eternal state, I get really stoked. And it's going to not be sitting on a cloud singing, oh, for thousands and millions of years.

Heaven is way cool, and it's multifaceted. It's not monolithic. There are different structures and different phases to it, and chapter 20 introduces one of those future phases called the millennium. It is one of the most important chapters in the Bible. John Walvoord, who taught prophecy for 50 years at Dallas Theological Seminary, writes, There are few verses in the Bible that are more crucial to the interpretation of the Bible as a whole than the opening verses of Revelation chapter 20.

You know why that is? Because Revelation 20 tells us the climax of earth's history. This is where it all culminates, and once this phase is done, all of life as we know it on earth is finished.

It's the climax and the culmination. Now let's look at the first, let's say, seven verses together, and then we'll go back and make a few comments. 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 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, 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 pardoned 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. Now, when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison. First thing I'd like you to notice, the most obvious, is the extent of this kingdom age. When I refer to the kingdom age, I'm referring particularly to the thousand years that we're talking about. Notice the extent of it.

It is worldwide. Four corners of the earth are involved, and it lasts a thousand years. Six times in seven verses is that precise little phrase, thousand years, thousand years, thousand years, thousand years, thousand years. So how long is it going to be? A thousand years.

That's the extent of it. That's the millennium, and that word sort of gets lost with some believers. There was a theological student in school, a brand new one, didn't study that week. And so the test came on a certain day, and he looked down at the first question. The first question is, what is the millennium? He didn't know how to answer it. He said, the millennium is the same as a centennial, only it has a lot more legs.

He's thinking in terms of a bug. Well, unfortunately, there are some believers who don't have a better grasp on the millennium than even that. Now, chapter 20 of Revelation is simply a basic outline form of this kingdom age. There's not a whole lot of information given on it.

It's very, very minimal. The character and nature of it is not fleshed out here. There are hundreds, hundreds of verses in other parts of Scripture. All the talk about the kingdom age, about the only information we're given is that it lasts a thousand years. The great highlight is Satan is bound.

And just a few other details about it, which we're going to cover in weeks to come. Now, throughout the Bible, this millennium or this kingdom age is given several different titles. Matthew 19, verse 28, Jesus said, in the regeneration.

And in the original language, it means the new Genesis. In the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory. That's this era, the kingdom age. In Acts chapter 3, verse 19, the kingdom is called the times of refreshing. And in the same chapter, verse 21, the time of the restoration of all things. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 10, Paul describes it as the dispensation of the fullness of the time. So there's a lot of different titles this millennial kingdom is called.

Let me give you just a quick bottom line description. This is a time when the earth will have undergone massive topographical, geological, and climactic changes that will resemble very similar to the original design of the earth with the Garden of Eden. Now again, just try to imagine this. I don't know if you're like me, I love the outdoors, love going up to the mountains, love to go on a bicycle ride, love to smell the air after the rain. Wow, I love it. God's done a great job in making this earth, hasn't he? The earth is the Lord's, Psalm 24, and the fullness thereof.

And we get to enjoy it. Now, imagine an earth that is recreated like it was intended to be from the beginning in the Garden of Eden, and you in resurrected, glorified bodies, no aches, no groans, no complaints, for a thousand years. That's the millennium. Now, the very thought of the term millennium gets a little people, or some people, a little bit tweaked. You know, just the idea of a millennium. It seems that every thousand year mark on a calendar, people start to act strange. Do you remember the millennial madness just before the year 2000? Remember all the talk, the world's going to end, the computers are going to all freeze, and life as we know it is going to cease.

That's not that uncommon. In the year 1000, here's an article from Psychology Today, legend has it that at midnight on January 1st, 1000, the entire population of Iceland converted en masse to Christianity in the belief that they were about to experience the apocalypse. At the same time, in Rome, many expected the end of the world and prepared themselves in various ways, including giving away all possessions, doing penance, mortifying their flesh, and wearing sackcloth and ashes. The very word millennium, or the thousand year or 2000 year mark, evokes all sorts of emotion in us. I remember before the year 2000, in the late 90s, all of the groups that used the millennium mark as their target date. They said, by the year 2000, we want to end world hunger, by the year 2000, we want a drug-free society, by the year 2000, we want to find a cure for cancer. By the way, in the millennium, all that will be true.

All that will be true. The kingdom here then is given only in summary terms. If we were to study all of the verses in the Bible about the kingdom age, we would be doing it for months and months and months. There's a lot of literature on it in the Bible. Okay, that's the extent of it.

Now the explanation of it. Did you know that Revelation chapter 20 is one of the most hotly contested verses of the Bible? It's a theological battleground, and here's the battle lines. Are we to take Revelation chapter 20 symbolically, allegorically, spiritually, or is this to be taken literally, actually? Is this going to be an event in our future in time and space?

And it's that question that is the dividing line. So in explaining the thousand years, though it is mentioned six times in seven verses, very specific, let me give you quickly three main viewpoints about this idea of the millennium. First, and it's in your outline, is the pre-millennial view. Simply stated, Jesus Christ will return to the earth before pre-millennium.

He'll come back and then set up his kingdom. We believe, or that view believes, in the personal bodily glorious return of Jesus to the earth, where he will set up his throne and rule from Jerusalem over the throne of David for a thousand years and over the whole world. Now, if you were to just read the Bible without any other books, just read it simply, plainly, literally, straightforward, you would have a pre-millennial view. Even people who oppose this view will admit that.

A plain rendering will give you that interpretation. And this was once the dominant view of the early church. In fact, it's hard to find any other viewpoint until A.D. 190. The apostles believed this, the post-apostolic fathers believed this and wrote about it. It is the dominant viewpoint of the early church. Around A.D. 190, this group of theologians, scholars, down in Alexandria, Egypt, in a theological school, decided we can't take the Bible literally.

It has to be all figurative, all symbolic, and they sought to find shades of meaning below the surface of the literal text. By the way, when they did this, most of the rest of the church said that is heresy. The Bible is to be taken at face value. And many, here's just a sampling, many of the early church writers, Papias, the writer of the epistle of Barnabas, it's called Pseudo-Barnabas, I was reading this yesterday morning, that little book, fascinating, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Hippolytus all believed in a pre-millennial viewpoint.

That is, Jesus will come back to the earth bodily, physically, gloriously, and set up a kingdom. Here's a quote from Papias. You go, who on earth is Papias? Papias, tradition says, was mentored by John the apostle who wrote the book of Revelation.

He was one of his students. Papias wrote, there will be a millennium following the resurrection of the dead when the kingdom of Christ is to be established on the earth. Justin Martyr, who I mentioned, also said, quote, the city of Jerusalem will be enlarged and rebuilt just as the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah have declared. And he said, virtually all authorities believe that except those gnostic heretics. So that was the dominant viewpoint, the pre-millennial viewpoint. But not everybody holds to that. There is something called post-millennialism.

The terms, don't let them throw you, it's pretty easy to figure it out. Post, after the millennium. They believe that Jesus Christ will come back after a period of time where we, God's people on the earth, Christianize the world and present the world to Jesus Christ, present the kingdom when he comes back after a period of time, not necessarily exactly a thousand years. It's the idea that we're going to spread the gospel, Christianize the world, and the world's going to get better and better and better and so good that everyone's a Christian and we will then bring the kingdom and give it to Jesus. Now this is a viewpoint that was popular in the 19th century and early 20th century. The Industrial Revolution, scientific advancements had given people the idea that, hey, we are bringing in utopia.

We're really doing this. Now it's not very popular today. That whole idea fell off and so the fair question is, well, whatever happened to post-millennialism?

Here's the answer. World War I happened to it. The Great Depression happened to it. World War II happened to it.

The Nazi Holocaust happened to it. There was enough catastrophic events that caused people to go, oh, I guess the world isn't getting better and better, but rather worse and worse. You know, heaven on earth may not ever really be a reality until Christ returns, but that doesn't mean we can't introduce people to heaven while we're here on earth. In fact, we need to make the most of every opportunity we have to share the gospel and to make sure that no one misses heaven.

Well, that's where we'll have to end our study for today, but before we go, we wanted to let you know what's going on in our Connect with Skip Resource Center for May. Who comes to mind when you think of great, godly women? Probably Jesus' mother, Mary. Maybe Ruth, the unlikely ancestor of Christ.

But what about you? Here's New York Times bestselling author Eric Metaxas. Clearly, if God created us male and female in His image, it's leaning into who we are as women, if we're women, that is going to show God's greatness. Discover how the lives of some of the greatest women in history can show you the path to true greatness in your own life as a woman made in God's image. That's what you'll find in this month's inspiring resource by Eric Metaxas.

In every one of the seven women, I think you see a different side of femininity. Seven Women is our thank you for your gift of $35 or more today to help connect more people to God's Word. And right now, we'll also send you a special bonus resource, Pastor Skip's six-message CD collection on prominent women from Scripture. Visit connectwithskip.com slash offer to give online securely or call 800-922-1888. Remember, you can call us for a copy of today's message, Heaven on Earth.

Each copy on CD is just $6 plus shipping, and you can order the entire series From the Edge of Eternity for only $39 plus shipping. Call us today at 1-800-922-1888 or just go to connectwithskip.com. We'll continue to explore this concept of Heaven on Earth and whether or not the world can ever truly enjoy peace next time here in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, a presentation of Connection Communications. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His Word. Make a connection, a connection, a connection. Connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.