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. In a recent Harris Poll, they asked the question, do you trust these institutions? Sixteen American institutions were listed.

The least amount of trust was given to the United States Congress. Politics has always been a touchy issue. But would you be interested to know that there will be a time when that will no longer be the case? How is this possible, you wonder? Well, Skip Heitzig will explain that today here in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition.

But first, this update from the Connect with Skip Resource Center. What would it look like if God threw a party? Well, the Old Testament shows that the Jewish calendar is anchored with regular, mandatory holidays and celebrations.

And the Book of Esther says that God wants his people to experience light and gladness, joy and honor at such times. Sound like your family celebrations? Listen to this insight from Skip Heitzig about one of our own regular holidays, Valentine's Day. It's so simple to say, and it's so hard for some of us to believe. Happiness, Holiness and Holidays is a four DVD collection of celebration messages from Pastor Skip, messages that could be a game changer for your family. Take holidays from toxic stress to celebrations of light and joy.

Here's a sample. You are loved by God, not because you deserve it, but because, just because. That is his nature. It is his decision.

Imagine that foundation for the next holiday goes to Revelation Chapter 20. And let's join Skip Heitzig as he shares a very interesting story. He 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 1000 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 1000 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 1000 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 1000 years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the 1000 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 1000 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, an 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 25 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 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 and I saw and I saw and 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 a 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.

Okay, 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. And to us a child is born, a son is given, his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, etc. 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 gonna 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 it 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. Okay, 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?

Okay, we can answer that. We can go all the way back to Daniel chapter 7 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 that 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 7, the saints will possess the kingdom. Also in Daniel 7 verse 27, 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 it 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 12 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 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. You know, when God's kingdom is finally raining on earth as well as it is in heaven, everything will be different, including how that kingdom is ruled and what its politics will look like.

Yes, even politics and government will be perfect during the reign of Christ. And if that isn't something to look forward to and convince you to be a part of that kingdom, I don't know what will. Now before we wrap things up, we want to remind you to add Skip to your social media accounts. You can like his Facebook page, follow him on Twitter, and add him to your Instagram feed. And when you do, you'll get an inside look at his family life and more importantly, biblical encouragement right in your social media feed. And if you'd like to explore Skip's teachings on other topics from family to the book of Revelation, visit the teaching archives at connectwithskip.com. And if you'd like to order a copy of today's teaching on CD, it's just $6, plus shipping. Or order the complete From the Edge of Eternity series for only $39, plus shipping.

Order now when you call us at 1-800-922-1888 or when you visit connectwithskip.com. We'll continue to take a look at politics in a whole new light as we examine what that will look like during the 1,000-year reign of Christ, 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.