We'll be looking at this portion of God's Word this morning together. We'll be reading the first 10 verses. Revelation chapter 20, verses 1 through 10. Hear the word of the Lord. And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years and threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be released for a little while. And I saw thrones and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also, I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God. and who had not worshipped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection. Over such, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years. When the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle. Their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. But fire came down from heaven and consumed them. And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. May God bless the reading of his holy word. Please be seated. Let's go to the Lord in prayer together. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as we come to your word, which you have revealed to us through the Apostle John and the visions he received, Lord, you know, as Christians we have many different understandings of what this means. And Lord, I pray that you would give us grace, your church grace, as you have, even in the places we disagree. But Father, we desire that your truth is what remains with us this morning. Father, as I present my feeble understanding that you would use it for your glory. But encourage your church through your word. Through your Holy Spirit. We desire. To be more strengthened and conformed to the image of your son. So that we may bring glory to you as your bride. And we pray this now in this time as we look at this together in Christ name, Amen. Now perhaps you've heard this story about the monk who was working in the field one day, and a traveler coming through, came down to him and asked him, he said, hey, could you tell me something about that village down in the valley? What's it like? The monk said, well, where are you coming from? He said, I came from the village up in the mountains. The monk said, well, what was that like? He said, it was awful. I had to sleep on the cold ground. I didn't speak their language. I had to use gestures to try to communicate. And then they gave me this stew that was made with yak or something. It was terrible. I said, so what's this village down in the valley like? And the monk said, well, you'll probably find it the same way as you found the village in the mountains. Shortly after that, another traveler came by, saw the monk working in the field, asked the same question. Hey, you know something about that village down in the valley? Could you tell me about that? The monk said, well, where are you coming from? Well, I came from the village up in the mountains. The monk said, well, what was that like? He said, it was amazing. I've never slept on the ground before. It was really neat. I had to use gestures to try to communicate. I've never had to do that before, and that was exciting. He said, and they fed me this stew. I don't know what it was, but I just wanted to be a part of what they were doing, and it was great. And he said, how do you think, what's that village like down in the valley? monks said, you'll probably find it the same way you found the village in the mountains. A little story just to kind of communicate that, kind of have to concede that sometimes how we think about things can really influence what we see and what we emphasize. And we come to a passage, this passage of the Lord's Word that Christians have had different interpretations of for a long time. And I think we need to acknowledge that how you interpret this, because it's going to kind of dictate in a way how you're going to see history unfold. And the way you see history unfold is a certain way. It's good to be aware of it, but also to acknowledge that we have different opinions on this. And we definitely need to give each other grace in these opinions. And I'm not going to do a full justice to any of them. Even my own opinion on the thousand years. Because how you see that thousand years, or as the Latin word, millennium, can determine how you see the future unfold. And what history looks like. And in a sense, what you're kind of looking for. You know, to put it another way, have you ever been shopping for a car? It's time to buy a car. and you start researching cars you possibly want to buy, and then you're driving around, all of a sudden you see that car everywhere. You know, you never noticed it before, but because you're kind of looking for it now, there it is. Oh look, they're driving one too, and they're driving, okay. It's the same kind of thing. It's like, again, how you kind of understand this is kind of going to help play into how you see history unfold and the role of the church and what that looks like. So let's first off, and forgive the long introduction, but let's first off just look at, real briefly, the three views of the thousand years, what that looks like. You have what's called the pre-millennial view, or the pre-1000 years. And in this view, as history unfolds, things will proceed generally from from bad to worse, that the church will be faithful to try to Christianize the world, to spread the gospel, but at the end of the day, things will proceed from bad to worse, to the point that Christ has to return to change things, and then he ushers in a 1,000 year literal reign on earth with the saints, and then the end will come, the judgment and the end will come. That's the pre-millennial view in a very generic nutshell. And again, there's views within these views. You'll probably be upset with me, like, you didn't stress the—well, I'm sorry, I can only do a very general view of this. Okay? Now to go from that view, the premillennial view, let's go to the other end of the spectrum, which is called the postmillennial view. So post 1,000 years. Okay? And in this view, with the coming of Christ, we call the inauguration, when he came and inaugurated his kingdom on earth, when he came, when he taught, when he lived, when he was crucified, when he was resurrected, when he ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father, that Christ inaugurated his kingdom. And with that, Satan was bound. And so Satan's binding during this time, what we're looking at this morning, the thousand years, is the age of the church. That's now. That with Christ's first coming, he bound Satan. And this is the church age. And what's going to happen is the gospel is the power of God. There's an emphasis on the power of the gospel. It's not only going to change individuals. It's going to change institutions. It's going to change societies and nations. The world will be Christianized. And then Satan will be released for a short time. There'll be one final Armageddon battle, and then the judgment. And Christ comes basically at the end of the thousand-year reign. So it's a very positive. Overall, you can find some that are not as positive, but pretty much overall positive view of how history's gonna work out. When I say given a long enough timeline, you're gonna see changes. Yeah, we'll have some dips and falls, but overall, the whole world and the nations will acknowledge Christ and be Christianized, and then he'll return. Then you come to what's called the amillennial view. which actually is pretty similar to the post-millennial view, basically everything I just described except dials back the positive optimism a little bit. And it's going to emphasize more of the parable of when Jesus speaks of the wheat and the tares. That the wheat being the righteous in God's people and the tares being the wicked grow up together through all of the church age. The gospel does go forth. People, and at times, there's great upswings of Christianization, but not as positive as the post-millennials will say. And so, at the end of that church age, Christ will return. So, yesterday, we celebrated Reformation Day. I remember when Martin Luther posted his theses, Note the first thesis being all of life is repentance, and trying to start a dialogue with the Roman, the church at the time, that these things need to be looked at and considered. And so, if you've ever thought of that period of history as where those reformers, like Luther and then later Calvin, that somehow they just threw everything out that the church had, that's not true. One of the things that they didn't ask to have dialogue on and be changed was the view of the thousand years. They were in agreement with the church at the time, with very little change to that. And that is the all-millennial view. And so, here's my disclaimer. That's my view and the version I'm going to be teaching through today. Again, you could find other resources and go back through and study this on your own. And there's a lot to be said for the other views Christians have. to encourage one another with these views that give different angles to Christ's return. But as one commentator, I think, aptly wrote, one pastor, I don't think someone who holds a premillennial view or an amillennial view or a postmillennial view is gonna be disappointed when Christ returns and says, oh man, I wanted it to work out my way. I don't think that's gonna be the case. that ultimately Christ will reign, is reigning, will win, the saints will reign with him, and Satan and evil will be defeated and dealt with. On that, we can all agree. So again, you can ask my wife. She would probably agree to this. I'm not the most positive person in my personality. I'm the kind of guy that looks for the dark lining in every silver cloud. So I grew up with a premillennial view. And I'm not to say that you can't be positive with that view. I'm just saying it lended. For me, I was looking for every bad piece of news, and yeah, eventually Christ is going to get worse and worse and worse. Well, for me, to move to amillennial view, I'm one step away from negative. That's a good thing for me. And that's just where I've been as I've studied it and feel like, to me, it expresses scripture the best. But again, let's give grace to one another because we have different views on this. But let's get into it and look at the first verse. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. So here we have John's introducing the vision of how ancient serpent is going to be bound and tied up. Now, you know, we live in this age of movies, and perhaps you've seen movies such as The Princess Bride, and I only say that because it might help you understand what's happening here. Because in the movie The Princess Bride, it doesn't have to be that movie, it could be any story that you've seen where a grandfather is sitting with his grandson, and he's reading him a story. And he said, that's kind of how it ends. And then the grandson says, well, what about that guy? What happened to that guy? What about that character in the story? And he says, well, OK, let's go back up a little bit. And we're going to tell you what happened to that character and bring it back to the end again. And that's pretty much what's happening here, because in the last part of chapter 19, we had, in verse 21, the end of this great battle where the rider on the white horse, which was Christ, has defeated his enemies and thrown the false prophet and the beast into the pit. Verse 21, and the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who were sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh. So again, if we're going to move into chapter 20 and say, okay, well now what happens next in chronological order? there's a whole bunch more people to take care of. And so, and not just for seeing how that works out, but commentators have noticed that whenever John says, he says many times, then I saw, then I saw, to denote, I saw the next vision, and he's letting you know the visions he saw, the order he saw the visions in, not necessarily that the visions are in chronological time order, but whenever John says, then I saw an angel, You can take to the bank that that vision is gonna be prior in time to the previous vision. For example, Revelation 12, which talks about the birth of Christ. There's a lot that's happened before Revelation 12. All of a sudden, we're going back to the birth of Christ. And so, here we have that indication. We're gonna back up, we're gonna focus again. What happened to the dragon? What was he doing this whole time? He's been bound in a bottomless pit with a great chain. An angel sees the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. Just a quick note, that ancient serpent, it just calls to mind that the history, that what Satan has been doing has been, goes way back. It's not like what he's doing even now is any, all that different from what he did even in the garden in Genesis 3. He deceived God's covenant family, Adam and Eve. In a sense, you could say the first covenant community. What was the role of the covenant community? In Genesis, we understand that they're supposed to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, to rule over it. And he deceives them and they sin by telling them that God is not faithful to his promises. He uses a lie. God is holding out on you. You can do better going my way. And so they fall in sin. And if it's not for the Lord's promise and hope, even in Genesis 3.15, that the head of the serpent will be crushed and that the Lord is going to intercede on behalf of his covenant people. There would be no hope. So here we have, again, kind of that pedigree of who this ancient serpent is and what he's always been about to do. And yet here he is being pictured as one who is being bound and for 1,000 years. And again, some Christians say this literally is a literal 1,000 years. Now what's interesting is Saint Augustine, Augustine who held to this view of all millennial understanding that he said we are right now in the millennium. This is 1,000 years. He actually believed it was a literal 1,000 years. Obviously, that was proven wrong. Most people who hold this view think, to be consistent with the rest of the way they've been reading Revelation, that it's a figurative number. Again, it's a long time, a very long time, as compared with times of tribulation, which are described as, three and a half years or an hour in terms of Satan's rule. Like very, very short time versus a very, very long time. And yet, so for this very, very long time in history, the ancient serpent is bound into the pit and is shut and sealed over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years are ended. And then that he must be released for a little while. And we're not given any insight as to why Satan has to be released for a little while. Let's look at, turn in your Bibles, let's go through even the New Testament and kind of see where is it we can get this kind of understanding from, or where do people who view revelation this way get it from? Look at Mark chapter one, let's turn there together. And in the gospel of Mark, who is, you know, Mark, loves to move the action along. I mean, he he's moving quickly through the narrative. He's going from scene to scene. And verse 12 is he's describing very quickly the temptation of Christ. The spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals and the angels were ministering to him. And then in verse 14. Now, after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God. and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. And why is that so significant? You have Christ the Messiah who is tempted by Satan and doesn't yield at all, unlike Adam, the first Adam. Christ is the second Adam, doesn't yield at all. He overcomes Satan and immediately he begins preaching the gospel. Now the gospel of God, that's a word we translate for Evangelion. That was a Greek word. It was a message that they used, secular people even used that word. And it was a message that if there was, say, a battle, and the king sent messengers to the nearby towns to say that he had won the battle, it was the message of the gospel to them. This is the outcome of the battle. live accordingly, in a sense. We have either won, you may rest easy, or we've lost, get ready. So that gospel was a message to them, how they were to live accordingly. So here we have Jesus, who has overcome Satan's temptation, and he is proclaiming this gospel. saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. God's kingdom has broken in on the world. And if you have a king, he's got to drive out the current ruler. So let's continue to look at this. Let's look at Mark chapter 3. Just turn over to Mark chapter 3. And as Jesus is, he is healing, he is being accused of basically having a demon because he's able to cast out demons. And so the scribes are basically saying, well, he's got a demon. He's possessed by demons. That's how he can drive out demons. And Jesus says, if a kingdom is divided against itself, the kingdom can't stand. And if a house is divided against itself, the house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he's coming to an end. And then he says in verse 27, but no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man. then indeed he may plunder his house. You have this word of binding, this same word in Revelation of Satan being bound. And so what we have here is a picture of as Christ has come to earth the first time, that as he lived and ministered and as he suffered and died and ascended into heaven, as his kingdom is breaking in on the world, that Satan is bound. And he is bound. now going to plunder him. He's going to take from him what was his, people from every nation who gave allegiance to him. Turn to Luke, turn to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 10, and look at the 17th verse. Again, we'll see parallels. Luke chapter 10 and verse 17 to 72 returned with joy saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I've given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Because Jesus is sending out these followers, these disciples, and they're seeing the demons are subject to them. And he immediately recalls the fall of Satan from heaven. You see that picture in Revelation 12, and even here being cast into a pit. That the gospel is now going forth. That the deceit of Satan no longer holds sway. Not in the way it used to. Let's continue to look at some more. Look at John chapter 12, and look at verses 31 and 32. In John chapter 12, 31 and 32, Jesus says, now is the judgment of this world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. He's talking about his very crucifixion and resurrection and ascension, being lifted up from the earth. What he has accomplished is now going to draw people to himself out of the rule of Satan. So again, just to go back real quickly, we could look at, well, what's really so different about when Christ came and even the Old Testament and the people of Israel in the Old Testament? How has Satan's role changed somewhat? As the great deceiver, even with great success to deceive Adam and Eve, If you read through the Old Testament, you can see in many ways God's covenant community, the people of Israel, were deceived very well. In fact, so much so to the point that because of Satan's work, they were supposed to be a light to the nations. But instead, they compromised with the nations, they became like the nations and worshiped other gods, so much so that they almost lost their identity. When you read through Judges, it's right on the verge. God is intervening. He even prescribed Judges. He is withholding them or sustaining them. He even brings them into captivity into Babylon by God's purposes in a way to then bring them out and rescue His covenant people, but they're getting deceived to where their witness is gone. So here in the New Testament, we see that if Satan is abound in this age of the church, his power to deceive is quite limited from what it used to be, so much so that the gospel can now go forth and people from all nations can hear and believe the gospel and come to him. in a way that has not been seen before. In a way, the Lord Jesus, who is the perfect representative of God's covenant community, he is the true Israel. Satan threw everything he had at him, because that's his, he hates the witness of God's people in the world. To kill Christ, which seemingly seemed like a victory, yet Christ rose from the dead and overcame even death itself. So here you have, again, just in quick summary, Satan is bound. It was the coming of Christ and his ministry, all that he accomplished that has bound Satan, and yet Satan is now limited in what he can do. But again, the emphasis, don't forget this is limited, because it's quick to say, well, if Satan's bound in a pit, well, why do I see all this stuff happening? Looks like it's pretty evil to me. Well, again, he's bound, but he's not forever in the pit. And he's not permanently destroyed yet. If you want to think about it, think about the old mob boss who's been put behind bars. The mob boss is still able to carry out a lot of bad stuff, even behind bars, because he's got connections in there. And he's still the kingpin. But he's limited in what he can do personally. Which is why Satan, and why Revelation depicts it, where is he thrown behind most of his energy that he has? Behind the beast and the false prophet. They're the ones that he's kind of been using. as his boys, to carry out the deceit that he can. And even as Revelation 12 says, he was cast out of heaven, he's on the earth, and he's furious. I mean, he knows this is the end, and with all that he has, he's gonna use whatever he can, but yet he's still restrained during this period of the church on the earth. So we come to verse four. Satan is bound, we know he's gonna be released for a little bit of time. If that's what's happening now, if Satan is bound now, well, what's going on with God's people now, in a way? Who are these people in verse four that are on thrones? Thrones being just an easy picture of ruling and reigning. Seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also, I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God and those who had not worshipped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life. and reigned with Christ for 1,000 years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the 1,000 years were ended. This is the first resurrection. So first off, who are we talking about here? We're looking at, it says both those who have been faithful to Christ, they were killed, they were martyred, are now here. Also, we have those who have not received the mark of the beast. They haven't given in to the deception. They've been faithful to the end. They may not have ended up in martyrdom, but they've gone through the persecution, and they have come through. Or as Jesus says in the second chapter of Revelation, he says that if you are faithful to me, even unto death, I will give you the crown of life. That they have come through the persecution, some have been killed for the sake of Christ, yet here they are sitting on thrones. And we have this distinction that we have to talk about, about this difference between, we have, it's called the first resurrection, and we have the second resurrection. I think it's pretty clear in verse five that this second resurrection, I don't think anybody disagrees on this, regardless of your view, that the rest of the dead did not come to life until a thousand years were ended. That's the resurrection unto judgment. And when we're talking about Where the difference is, is we're saying, well, resurrection isn't resurrection. That's a word you only use for like a physical, your body coming back to life. There's also places where resurrection is used in a sense of a spiritual coming back to life. And that's what we'll look at some now. Where do we see this renewal? of being brought back to life even now. We turn to John chapter five. And Jesus says in verse 24, John chapter 5, 24, he says, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come to judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. So as Jesus is saying, as you hear my words, as you believe in me, you are brought from death into life. You come to life even now. Theologians, we use this term regeneration. That you are dead in your trespasses and sins. Dead people don't do anything, they're dead. But they're made alive through the Holy Spirit. They're a new creation. If you continue to read on, verse 27, and he has given him authority to execute judgment, Jesus says, because he is the son of man. Do not marvel at this for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. So even here, and there's other places we can look at, we'll look at one more, but there's places in the New Testament where this word resurrection isn't just limited to a physical resurrection, but a spiritual, of coming to life, of life being given. And then there's very clearly that the resurrection to the judgment is the physical one. The Old Testament speaks of there's only one resurrection to the judgment, not two physical resurrections, but just one. The reason that it's important is because this is where, Christians, we have a different view of what this first resurrection is. If this first resurrection is spiritual, then this is referring to the fact that the church, because of the gospel, is being brought to life even now. As Satan is bound, the gospel is going forth, people are coming to life from the dead, spiritually, even now. and they are reigning with Christ even now. Not fully, but in part. If we look at Romans 6, turn to Romans 6, verses 11 through 13, Apostle Paul uses the same kind of language in speaking of this. He says, even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead. and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. So here again, we're talking about coming back from the dead, and yet, I don't know about you, I don't have my perfect body yet. So just to say, it is, you can find in scripture that this could be speaking of a spiritual resurrection. And that the first resurrection, which protects from the second death, which that's the promise, blessed are those who participate in the first resurrection for the second death will not touch them. The second death is what the dragon and the false prophet and the beast and all the followers are thrown into, a permanent, continuing death and torment. And so here you have this first resurrection. Look at Exodus 19.6. Let's just think more, look a little bit more about how the church even now, having been come to life in Christ, are now reigning with Christ. And if you go back to Exodus 19.6, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel, the Lord says. to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Priests go forth and hold out the words of life, they intercede. A kingdom, that means there's a king, and that there's those who reign and rule with him. There's this idea of God's people on earth even reigning now. I'm not really gonna exercise you in your Bible turning. Turn to Revelation chapter one, we're gonna go back there. Revelation chapter one, even at the very beginning, In verse 6, to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priest to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Again, a picture of priests and a kingdom. Or even 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul. Turn to 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6, he really brings out this idea of God's people reigning. 1 Corinthians 6, verses 2 and 3. Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life? Paul's talking about there's this sense that we reign with Christ even now, but all the more so when we pass through this mortal veil, when our bodies die, that we are with Christ in the heavenlies. We move from an earthly reign where there is new life, and we, in a sense, are kings and queens with Christ. And when our bodies die, we're still reigning with him, but even in a more complete way, now perfected, and yet we still are awaiting that final resurrection where we get our perfect body and the judgment to come. Or in a sense, as C.S. Lewis says, once a king and queen of Narnia, always a king and queen of Narnia. If we reign with him now, we reign with him forever. So you have this picture of Satan being bound, and the gospels are the power of God for those who believe, changing hearts and minds, that they're being snatched from his grip, because they now belong to Christ, and that even those who have died in Christ, we begin our reign even here on this world now, but those who have died are with Christ, seated on thrones, reigning with him now, saying, Amen, Lord Jesus, I agree with you. How long? Bring forth your justice. And they're reigning with him even now. And we're gonna come back to that, but let me just, let's complete the passage and we're gonna come back and kind of sit on the saints, the idea of the saints a little bit. But when a thousand years are ended, Satan's released from his prison. He comes out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle. Their number is like the sand of the sea. Now, we read this morning from Ezekiel. Ezekiel's prophecy, many times called the fourfold unfolding of history. Prophecy, some of it has been fulfilled and some has not. The early part of the prophecy kind of parallels with Revelation in many ways. It's talking about the coming out of God's people from Babylon, from their captivity. Even pictured as dry bones being breathed to life and coming to life again. kind of a spiritual, in a sense, a resurrection, God's people coming out from Babylon back to Jerusalem. But there's the prophecy in this picture of yet from all four corners, even as we read this morning, there's going to be a great gathering of this Gog and Magog, Gog being this prince and ruler in Magog, and this picture of this countless number of those who really want to wipe out God's people. Their desire is to wipe them from the earth. And so, here it's saying that at the very end of history, Satan's gonna be released from this captivity that he's in. And now he's fully able to once again deceive the nations. Whereas before, he hasn't been able to gather that much strength, that now he can fully convince them that the only way for them to have what they want is to eliminate the people of God. You'll find parallels in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, and I'm not going to read that, but you can go there and read that later, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, where it talks about that before the end that the man of lawlessness, and he's not using as much of a symbolic language here as we get in Revelation, but there's a man of lawlessness who is being restrained, but he is going to be released. And before this great final battle, there's gonna be a great apostasy. It's gonna look like a great number are leaving the church. The deception is now full on. Satan has been released so again we're getting we're going back again we went back to see what happened to Satan during this church age what's going on with the the Saints during this church age the reign with Christ and now we're going to come back to Armageddon again and And it completes it again. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints in the beloved city. But fire came down from heaven and consumed them. And that's a parallel with the Ezekiel prophecy. And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were. And they were tormented day and night forever and ever. In Ezekiel, you find, as we read this morning, this picture of the birds eating the flesh of the defeated army of Gog and Magog. In Revelation chapter 19, you find that same picture of the birds eating the flesh of the defeated army. In other words, all to say that we're not getting two completely separate battles here. You're just getting the same final battle. And again, it's not much of a battle, for the Lord Jesus Christ defeats them with the word of his mouth. And that's it. So, So let's go back and consider this idea of saints, because you have to ask yourself the question. If Apostle John is a pastor, and he is, and he's writing to Christians who are going through what they're going through, even at this time, I mean, some are being beheaded, some are being crucified, some are being burned, but not everyone is dying. Some are losing their economic livelihood. You're having to be careful what you say. It's a tough time. I can imagine for them, again, where is the Lord Jesus Christ? Are his words true? And here the apostle John wants them and us to remember that we are currently reigning now. And why is that important? I know in a silly way a lot of times I don't feel like I'm raining very much. I go to the refrigerator to get milk for my cereal and I pour it out and there's just a dribble because somebody's put back an empty milk thing. I don't feel like I'm raining very much. That's a silly thing. In a much more serious way, when you lose your job and you're wondering where the next funds are going to come from, you don't really feel like you're raining that much. When you have to be careful about what you say, or even to speak the name of Christ, you don't feel like you're reigning very much. When you're afflicted with disease or even loved ones go to their death, a lot of times it may not feel like we're reigning very much. I can imagine that's what these first century Christians were going through. And yet, John wants us to remember these two things. Satan is bound. He cannot deceive to the degree that he desires. He wants to utterly destroy, but he cannot. The gospel is going forth. And we're called to remember our identity, that we reign with Christ. Let's just go to Ephesians 2, because this really is the best commentary on it. Ephesians chapter 2, starting in verse 1. Apostle Paul says, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. I mean, Paul is like pounding with a hammer to remember our present reality. Things are not what they seem. Because of Christ, because we died with him, we have been raised with him. We're a new creature. We have been made alive in Christ, and even now, in our part, we reign with him. And true, maybe in the way in which we reign with him, what does that look like? There's a professor, I thought he wrote an article years ago, his name's Dr. Michael Kruger. He wrote an article years ago about how, you know, in the New Testament, when you look at the New Testament, when it talks about the church and God's people, it refers to them as saints. It doesn't refer to them as a gaggle of sinners. And it's not to deny that we are sinners. So don't hear me saying that all of a sudden we're not. I'm not saying that. But that our true identity now is to be seen as saints or holy ones, clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And this is what he says. If instead of viewing ourselves all the time as sinners only, If instead we view ourselves as saints, then we will begin to see our sin in a whole new light. If we really are holy ones, that whatever sins we commit are a deeper, more profound, and more serious departure from God's calling than we ever realized. Our sin, in a sense, is even more heinous because it's being done by those who now have new natures and a new identity. Think about the Apostle John. The Lord Jesus Christ, through John, wants us to have this picture that we reign with Christ even now as saints. As we're able to say no to sin and live to righteousness, that's a new change from before we were made alive in Christ. And when we struggle with sin and we say no to sin, you're reigning. When we raise up our covenant families and teach them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, we are reigning. When we deal with cases, even with one another, it's what the Apostle Paul's talking about. Does this ascribe to God's word or does this not? We're reigning. And even as Revelation pictures the lamb, how does the lamb reign in chapter five? When John looks to the throne and who is on the occupied throne, it is the lamb who was slain. We reign in the same way our Savior does. We sacrifice for one another. we're willing to give our lives, which the world says, that's not reigning. You lost the whole idea of reigning. Christ says, that's how you reign with me. We join with him together in that. So as we see this picture of us being reminded of the fact that we're saints, It's also encouraging me to think of the loved ones, too, that we've lost who are in the Lord, that they began their reign on earth in Christ, and as they go to be with the Lord, we know even now they're reigning with him in his very presence before his throne. But now, even perfected, awaiting their body, their perfect body, when Christ brings heaven and earth together, the judgment is complete, and we reign with him in the flesh. as well. So, I don't know where you are this morning, as you have probably been inundated with your newsfeed. And it's tempting to see the darkness again as being very dark. In fact, you may feel like you live in a land that is always COVID and never Christmas. But Aslan is on the move. We're called to be reminded that we are reigning with Christ even now. And all the more so if Satan is restrained. Not only does it encourage us in our struggle, even against sin, but to live more and more into Christ, but how much more so to do what happened, to do what Israel couldn't do when it was ultimately deceived by Satan, but to actually be the covenant community, to hold out the words of life to the nations. Now is the time. Now is the time for the gospel to go forth. Because we're really coming to an end. I mean, even as Pastor Jaegar prayed this morning, In the end, it's really, you have this picture of who do you belong to, Christ or Satan? Christ who lives forever and all those with him who will live forever and reign forever? Or with Satan who will die forever and all those with him? Let's pray. Father, we again thank you for your word that you would reveal your truth to us. And Father, as we humbly admit that, Lord, as Christians, even on this passage, we have disagreements over how it all works out. We thank you that you reign, that you are king. We thank you that we were under your wrath, and rightly so. If it weren't for your kindness to us, we would be destined for destruction. Lord, fill us with the hope of our true identity. We are holy ones. Not so that we lord it over those or are filled with some kind of pride that looks down on those who don't know you, as if they're foolish in the sense that they just had our understanding, but Father, may we remember your grace to us in Christ and live accordingly and with boldness hold out your words of life to the world and to live faithfully before you. love mercy, justice, to walk humbly before our God, as we look forward to the time when you will return and bring all things to an end. I give you a thanks to this in Christ's name, amen. Let me invite the elders forward, who prepare to observe the Lord's table together.