20 of Revelation probably the the chapter that most people are familiar with and and Interested in and enjoy and so let's let's pick up kind of where we left off last week now I Remember that this chapter needs to be approached with a humility of spirit, a recognition of its difficulties, a respect for the honest interpretation of others, and avoidance of authoritarian and contentious statements. And I say that more for my benefit than I do any of you. Last time, if you remember, we looked at the four different approaches to millennialism. I suggested to you, in my opinion, that there are two that are viable, and that is historic premillennialism and amillennialism. And so I'm going to look at those this week, briefly at historic premillennial approach to it, and then spend more time with the amillennial approach, which has sort of been guiding us as we've gone through here. To the historic premillennialist, and I might just call them HPs from now on, The final sequence in Revelation begins not at chapter 20, verse one, but at chapter 19, verse 11. And so what we pick up with here in chapter 20, verse one, is a continuation of what we saw time before last with the casting of the beast and the false prophet into the lake of fire. Now let me interrupt just a minute. Catherine, when is your last Sunday with us? Next Sunday. Next Sunday. Okay, thank you. So, in other words, to the HP people, the last cycle in Revelation is 1911 through 20 verse 17 to 15. We see in the 19th chapter, if you remember, the summoning of the birds and there with the capture and defeat of the beast and false prophet, the downfall of the world powers that have been allied against the church. Their defeat then is followed by the binding of Satan and the 1,000 year reign of Christ and his saints. which at the conclusion of, you have the release of Satan, gathering of nations called Gog and Magog after the millennium, after the 1000 year reign, and the defeat of Satan and his casting into the lake. For the HP, let's just call them the historics, I don't like the HP. For the historics, with the enthronement of Christ after his resurrection and ascension, the beast and false prophet are manifested. Here, the overthrow occurs at the revelation of Christ's authoritative rule at the parousia, at his second coming. And in between these two comings, the initial coming of Christ and his second coming, in between these, we see, especially when God is active through his spirit in the church to advance the kingdom, We see Satan and his allies afflicting the church. We saw this with the seals and the trumpets and the bowls, especially the seals, which apply more to the church than others. Throughout the age in which we are now, God's grace is sufficient for the church. The lamb delivers them as we have seen over and over and over again throughout this. So at this point in time, we don't see a difference between the historics and the amillennials. The defeat of Gog and Magog, which is the final stage of victory over the lamb or of the lamb over Satan, the final opposition of the kingdom of God and his anointed, that's when he is destroyed. Now, as we look at these events in chapter 1911 through the end of chapter 20, we must understand that the background of this in the Old Testament is in Ezekiel. And I would encourage you to read Ezekiel chapters 37 through 48. And if that's too much for you, at least read 37 through 39. John takes these chapters in Ezekiel, and by the way, that is where Ezekiel looks at what we would call the Millennial Kingdom, where he looks at the final judgment of God, where he looks at the final blessings to Israel. John adapts these and he actually rearranges the events in Ezekiel to apply to his message. Now again, I'm speaking as a historic pre-millennialist now, okay? To give an overview of Ezekiel, the allusion to Ezekiel points to this section as a sequential picture, and again 1911 through 2015, a sequential picture of the consummation, not with a restatement of an aspect of the gospel dispensation from 20 verse 1 forward. The binding of Satan and the millennial reign of those who had not worshipped the beast or his image are equivalent periods of time, a thousand years. We saw that. Let me go ahead and read chapter 20 so we can see some of what we'll talk about. All right. Chapter 20, start at verse one. And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss 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 down into the abyss, and shut and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were completed. After these things, he must be released for a short time. And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. that is, the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshipped the beast or his image and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not live until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who has part in the first resurrection. Over these, the second death has no power. but they will be priests of God and Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years. And whenever the thousand years might be completed, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations, which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war. The number of them is like the sand of the seashore. And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. and fire came down from heaven and devoured them." That's it. And the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet were cast also and they will be tormented night and day forever. Then I saw a great white throne and the one who sat upon it from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every one according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Well, again, we see how the period of time of the binding of Satan and the period of time of the millennial reign are the same thing. So when we look at Ezekiel and the sequence there, what we see is a very well-known story of the dry bones. Anybody wanna sing them bones, them bones? The Valley of the Dry Bones pictures a resurrection, and I put that in quotation marks, of the nation of Israel in that chapter. Then you have the invasion of Gog and God's final victory over the evil one in chapters 38 and 39 This is a picture of the day of the Lord now in Ezekiel Gog is a person Magog is a nation In Genesis, Magog is a person. In Chronicles, Magog is a person. But Ezekiel recasts Magog as the land of Gog. Now, again, it's apocalyptic. Don't let that bother you. John takes them both as persons here. He kind of reverts to that. He cast these symbols in his peoples and nation. And this transformation that John uses was already seen in Jewish literature, especially Jewish apocalyptic literature, such as the Sibylline Oracles. Now, John, following this rabbinic tradition, and Ezekiel, as well as the other parts of the Old Testament I mentioned, reapplies the symbol to describe Satan's last assault against the people of God after they are with the Lamb. Okay, now in Ezekiel 38 9 we see something very unique in Old Testament prophecy and that is that the invasion against God's people takes place after they have been settled in the messianic kingdom All right, that is unique for Old Testament prophecy. That is very important for the historical premillennialist. As John arrives at the end and is going to establish the new heavens and earth, he wants the faithful to see with their eyes that evil has finally and consummately been put down. So at this point, God declares that he will vindicate his holiness before the eyes of his people in the history on earth. It's a visible earthly manifestation. Now, the two sections of Ezekiel are central to John's message here and how he adapts them. The birds are summoned in Ezekiel 39. The Lord tells Ezekiel to call forth the birds and the bees to come feast upon the dead armies of God. And this is followed by God setting his glory among the nations. John uses Ezekiel in his depiction. You remember now in Ezekiel 38, they have this invasion of God that comes after God has settled his people in the millennial, we'll call it kingdom, in Ezekiel it's just the kingdom, the consummate kingdom. And this corresponds to what we see in the 7th and 8th verses of chapter 20 of Revelation. John not only alludes to the symbolized events in Ezekiel, but he reverses their order. In other words, he uses an allusion to Ezekiel 39, Gog, Magog, before the illusion of the birds in that Ezekiel comes in 38. So we see what John pictures as two different battles according to the historic premillennials. We see him taking these two decisive battle or this one decisive battle in Ezekiel and making two out of it, the end of chapter 19 and in chapter 20. Now this is probably one of the greatest weaknesses of the historic premillennial point of view is that you take this picture of if John is using Ezekiel you take this picture of one event and you make two different events out of it. Now the response to that for historic premillennialist could be this is apocalyptic and that's a good response. but again notice that what John is doing differs from what Ezekiel did his source for the the visions that he's seeing or the symbols so uh the yeah are you going to touch on the temple Ezekiel's temple no because it doesn't come into play in Revelation 20 um but then that comes later in Ezekiel um I said to read it. Yes, do read it. Do read it. Because it's all, we'll get to that in chapter 21 and 22. That's where the Ezekiel Temple will come in. So we see the defeat of the beast and the false prophet in John 19 picturing the defeat of the historical representatives of evil during the age that we are now in. Then John pictures the defeat of Satan which transcends the historical dimension. So for the historic pre-millennialists the display of ultimate victory in history is paramount. And I'll say that again, to see the victory on earth in history is very key to the historical point of view. Now the correspondence between the secure dwelling of the people of Israel in the land of promise presented in Ezekiel 38 and the 1000 year reign of God's people with Christ in chapter 20 verse 4 is a key point of the historic pre-millennial point of view. So, like the prophet Ezekiel in his day concerning the Seleucids, so if we look at the events that take place in Ezekiel, the Gog and Magog thing, most people see that as pointing to, in the short term, the Seleucids that oppressed Israel between the time of the Testaments. Now, the Seleucids were, were a people that came out of Alexander the Great's kingdom and divided into four. But they were a very tyrannical people. John sees the same tyrannical blasphemous evils embodied in his day in the Roman Empire. And so along with its false religions and worldviews, he sees the day of the Lord as imminent because of how Ezekiel points to the day of the Lord is imminent in his time. Now, was John wrong in seeing that? Well, the answer, of course, is no. There was indeed a historical visitation, a day of the Lord, we'll call it a little d-day of the Lord, in the time of John or just shortly there after John's time. And I point that out by asking a question, where's the Roman Empire today? And so just as we have seen through all the seals, trumpets, and bowls, days of the Lord continue to come with all of those who gather against God's people, but there will be an ultimate consummate day. That is not imminent to John, though it is imminent to us. And what I mean by that, it could come at any time. So as with Old Testament prophets, New Testament prophets like John see their own day as backed up against the end. Yes? How is it not imminent for John, but imminent for us? Because it really was imminent for John, and it really is imminent for us. Well, I thought you said it wasn't imminent. Well, it wasn't imminent time-wise, chronologically, but it was imminent. We need to see imminent as meaning certain, not soon. And in scripture, especially in prophecy, especially in apocalyptic literature, imminent means certain. Imminent doesn't mean soon. In God's historical redemptive plan, that is true. And I think that'll come out next week. And I think I have that next week thing. And just so you make sure everybody understands what Joe just said, as you look at this from a historical redemptive point of view, nothing else has to happen in God's plan till the second coming. So the next thing to happen, the very next thing to happen is the coming, the perusal. That I would put in the chapter 20 verses 7 and 8, the Gog and Magog of chapter 20. And in Ezekiel, I would put that with the Gog and Magog. So it wasn't an individual man as Paul was talking about? Then I don't want to quibble, but if that's true, it's not imminent. But he has to come before this can happen. Well, yes, he does. You don't know he's not here now. That could be true. Yes. And again, imminent means certain. That's what we need to see. I think we are wrong when we say, well, I don't have to worry about it because I haven't seen Mr. Lawlessness yet. But the key thing here is to see how prophecy works. When the Old Testament prophets predicted or prophesied about the coming Messiah, they didn't prophesy His first coming and His second coming. The whole thing was pictured as one. And we are seeing the same thing from John as he pictures the end, but we may very well see that that end is not a one-time thing, but it's at least a 2,000 year thing according to how Jesus came once and it's been at least 2,000 years since he came, that sort of thing. But anyway, the key thing is imminent means certain. Now, we as a church understand the already not yet state of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God has come already, but it is not yet what it will be. The idea of the millennium is the unveiling on earth in history of the reality, the yet of the kingdom of God. Again, for the historical pre-millennialists, the kingdom not yet evident except to the eyes of faith. It began with the ministry of Jesus. It's realized now in believers, but it's not evident in unbelievers, but it will be revealed to all in history during the time of the millennium. God is going to openly reveal in history what has only been seen, only been evident to the eyes of faith at that time. That revelation is the millennial kingdom and this is the main point of historic premillennialism and a major difference with amillennialism and a strength of historic premillennialism, that it will be revealed at that time. Now, what is the meaning of the thousand year reign then? First, we have a first resurrection. It's the gathering of the faithful at the time of the return of Christ as pictured in chapter 20, verse six. Let me see something. All right. Oops. And this is the victory over the first death, which is never called first death, but there's a second death. So we kind of talk about a first death in that regard. These people will not see second death. All right. The historic premillennials points to 1 Corinthians 15 to explain this. Each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, after that, those who are Christ at his coming, millennium, then after millennium, when he delivers up the kingdom to God and the Father, when he has abolished all rule and authority and power. So that verse becomes very key to the historic premillennialists because it says you have the resurrection of Christ, you have the resurrection of those who are his at his coming, and then at the end and after what a period of time, it doesn't say in 1 Corinthians 15, then Christ will abolish all rule and all authority and power. The second resurrection is never mentioned, why? Because there's not one. There will be no resurrection after the second death. All there will be is the lake of fire and brimstone. There will be a resurrection of those who are Christ at his coming, and then the end, no further resurrection. So summary of the events, according to the historic pre-millennialists, you have the historical forces of evil that will be defeated at the coming of the Lord, the kingdom of God set up in history, visible on earth, has been hidden throughout the dispensation in which we now are in. For whatever duration that millennial kingdom and historic pre-millennialists, for the most part today, don't hold to a literal 1,000 year period. They understand that it just means God's completely determined time. So whatever that period is, whether it's a long time or a very short time, we will see and we will share in the revealing of the glory of the kingdom on earth in history. After this, and this is the great weakness of historic premillennialism, after this, Satan for one last time will gather his followers to battle against the Lamb and his people in the heavenlies. Now, why did I say great weakness? Because it is saying that there will be an interruption of Christ's final victory to Armageddon, if you will. The Armageddon we saw in chapter 19 with the birds gathering. and the Armageddon that we see with the Gog and Magog in chapter 20. In Ezekiel, we see again the birds and the Magog being one event. After Gog and Magog are defeated, the birds come. But all non-believers have died according to chapter 19, verses 18 through 21, but Satan still has followers in chapter 20. So anyway, again, that's why I say that this separating of the two Armageddons, this interruption of Christ's final victory, is one of the weaknesses of historic premillennialism. This defeat of Satan in the heavenlies doesn't mean that it's a different place. It just means in the spiritual realm. He will be cast into the lake of fire. And then after that, the great white throne judgment, and that involves the books of life. I mean, the books, the books for the dead and the books that is the book that is the book of life. And then death and Hades are cast into the lake of fire. They are no more. All right, so this is the historic pre-millennial approach to this chapter 20. Any questions, other questions or comments before we go into the amillennial approach and kind of go through this verse by, not verse by verse, but a little bit at a time. Anything else? When you say in history, do you mean like while we have time as we know it now? Yes. Yes, it will be whatever that is like or whatever that is will be like World War II. It can be pointed to just like World War II or the Vietnam War or whatever war you want to talk about. That Gog and Magog will be that kind of an event. That's what in history on Earth means. Who are the saints reigning over? They're just reigning. Well, who are you reigning over now then? You're already a kingdom and priest, so you're reigning over somebody now. So whatever that reign is... Well, it is. Well, it is. You're exactly right. But the answer to your question is the same ones you're reigning over now. Because you're already a kingdom of priests. So you're already reigning. So the question is not who are we reigning over, necessarily, it's that we're reigning. We're sharing in Christ's reign. Is Christ reigning? He reigns over all, we share in his reign. How we do that now? Don't know. But yeah, you're right, it's apocalyptic. But who will we reign over? Same ones we're reigning over now. I haven't done that this time because this is I'm giving you an HP and I pointed out some things that strengths of the historic pre-millennium and I pointed out that most pre-millennium now don't hold to a literal 1,000 years which is That would be royal blue this time. But yeah, that was just going through the different views. I wanted you to see that because it was important for me to say that we agree on a lot, but we focus on the disagreement for some reason. So yeah, it does. I agree with you. It does make it fun. I think it does make it fun. All right. All right. So back to the beginning is is the Amillennial approach to Revelation 20. The transition from chapter 19 to 20 is similar to the one we saw from the seventh seal to the trumpets in chapter 8 verse 1. It's the same that we saw in chapter 11 with the seventh trumpet to chapter 12, the woman who was with child and that sort of thing. It's the same one we saw from chapter 14, which pictures final judgment to chapter 15, when the bowl judgments are introduced. So this same cycle that we have seen over and over again, we're seeing over again now. So chapter 20, verse one begins with, and I saw an angel coming down from heaven. Importantly everywhere else in the apocalypse where you see and and it's directly followed by angelic descent or ascent without exception it introduces a vision that either suspends the temporal progress of the preceding section or introduces a synchronous section over and over again. In chapter one, 10 verse one, for example, we see the sixth trumpet interrupted by the interlude with a little book and the two witnesses. If you remember which, the two witnesses picturing the whole time of intertest, or interadvental time. Or this interruption reverts back to a time prior to the event that it just followed. For example, in chapter seven, verse two, the sixth seal, we see the sealing of the saints, and then the seventh seal. In chapter 18, verse one, we see the victory of the lamb over 10 kings, followed by the activities of Babylon. In each of these examples, the angel is described as having something. Okay. So every single time we see the picture of an angel coming down, holding something, we see this, this, this not continuation of the story, but either an interruption of it or a going back to the beginning. So that's the first argument that this is recycling, um, or recapitulation would be the better term for that. The end arrived at the conclusion of chapter 19. It was pictured with a lake of fire, as we saw. Now we go back to the cross resurrection ascension with the binding of Satan for the seventh cycle. The main concern of this chapter is not a 1000 year period, whether it be his binding or the reign of the saints. The main concern of chapter 20 is the overthrow of Satan. Everything else has been And you remember, I pointed out how recapitulation is not just recapitulation, but progressive recapitulation. The binding or excuse me, the lake of fire casting of the false prophet and the beast were much greater than the judgments that we've seen and everything before, but there's still a greater one. And that is what we see in chapter 20 with the binding of Satan and his being cast into the lake of fire. So the main concern here is the overthrow of Satan. Now, let me just point out some of these recapitulation ideas that we've talked about. In chapter 12 verses 5 through 12, in the connection with the life, death, resurrection, and ascension, and the coronation of Christ, if you remember that child was born, that e-child was born, and he was called up to heaven. All right, a very clear picture of that event. Satan then is hurled down from heaven, Michael and his armies, remember? cast him down from heaven. He no longer has standing at that time to accuse the saints in heaven, as he did Job, for example. All right, in chapter 20 verses 1 through 3, Satan is bound and cast into the abyss. His power over the nations is curbed, and instead of the nations conquering the church, the church begins to conquer, i.e. evangelize the nations. With the two witnesses in chapter 11, And with the events that happened in chapter 14 with the church, i.e. the woman being out in the wilderness and that sort of thing, we see a long period of power and witnessing for the church as she is nourished away from the face of the serpent, Satan, and the devil's influence is curbed. Well, in chapter 20 verse 2, Satan is bound. We have a long period of power for the church. The 1,000 year binding is the entire gospel dispensation in heaven. Souls of believers are already living and reigning with Christ. You remember chapter 7, 6, and those souls under the altar crying out, how long? We see that as being the same period of time where we are in heaven. We are already reigning if we have gone to be with the Lord. Again, notice how this reigning has been pictured before as when John tells us in the first chapter that he has, let's see if I can find it here right quick, that he has made us a kingdom priest to his God and father. Not that he will make us that way, he has made us that way. And then again, in Revelation 5 verses 9 and 10, We see that when the saints in heaven sing the new song to the one who is worthy to open the book that is sealed, it says that you were slain and purchased for God with your blood from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and you have made them, past tense, you have made them a kingdom and priest to our God, and they will reign on the earth. So we see this idea of the reigning as being something that has been told to us before. Again, in the chapter 11 with the two witnesses, and then in chapter 13, we see a brief period of most severe persecution as pictured in chapter 20, verses seven and eight. This most severe persecution is Satan's little season. This will be the most terrible and also the final manifestation of Antichrist persecuting power. This is where the man of lawlessness will come in, whatever he might be. Again, in chapter 20, we see a very similar thing when Satan assembles the army of Gog and Magog. And this is the battle of Har-Magadon or Armageddon as we've seen it. And we saw it first in chapter 16, verse 16. Again, chapter 11, chapter 14, we see the one and only second coming of Christ and judgment as we do here in chapter 20, verses 11 following. Again, remember now I'm speaking from an amillennial point of view now. So if you say that's not what you said before, you're right. All right, a vision of the entire gospel dispensation between the two advents of Christ is what we see in chapter 20. In previous visions covering this period, there were five enemies of Christ in the church that were introduced. Can you name them? Who's the biggie? Somebody say the dragon, Satan. And then you have the sea beast then you have the land beast slash false prophet you have babylon and then you have those that get the mark that follow those people okay so what happens next after these five are introduced is that four of these five over several different visions chapters 14 and 19 the doom of them the uh the judgment of them is pictured Then we see a description of the demise of the only one that's left, the dragon, Satan himself, in chapter 20. He's hurled into the lake of fire, and there's no more enemy left to afflict the church. Can somebody say amen? All right, here's your comparison, side by side, of these two approaches, okay? So, the line shows you where the disagreements are above it. Everything below it is really agreements in these two approaches. So for the Amillennialists, the Christ Advent, Cross, Resurrection, Ascension, Exaltation is pictured as the Millennial Kingdom as opposed to the Pre-Millennial view of this being the open historical revelation of the Kingdom of God on Earth. The long period of Satan's binding is compared to the church reigning with Christ in the kingdom. Now then, I'm not going to go over the bottom ones because they agree there. So verses one through three again, and I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years. he cast him down into the abyss and shut and sealed it over him so that he would not any longer or he would no longer deceive the nations until the thousand years were completed after these things he must be released for a short time now notice here we have this picture of the angel with a key now before we've seen this key twice we saw it in in chapter one in the hand of the one like a son of man And he was the one who held the key of death and Hades. He controlled death and Hades. In chapter nine, this key of the bottomless pit was given to a star that fell from heaven. All right. You've been in an apocalyptic long enough to understand that picture. But notice that it was given to this one, not that that person controlled the key, but he had to be given the key to it. So we see this key being, again, recapitulation from what we've seen before. Now the angel lays hold of and binds the dragon, the serpent of old, who is devil, slander, and Satan. An exact representation of what we saw of him or how he was described in chapter 12. Okay. Now this notice that it only takes an angel five times before in the apocalypse we have talked we have seen introduced to us a great angel a strong angel or michael the archangel taking care of things but here it's merely a regular old angel that can take care of satan satan is no stronger than any other angel much less, much lower than the Triton God. So we need not fear him. We need to, well, we need to fear him in the sense of awe, but we need not fear him in the sense of being afraid because it's a measly old angel, forgive me, takes care of him. All right. Satan's limitation is that he can no longer deceive the nations. Yes. earlier what Daniel said about when he's reporting or Michael reported to him that he had to fight against this guy for 20 days to get there. This was Michael. Yeah. Well, we're not told how long this Michael thing lasted in chapter 12. But yeah, chapter 12. But which part can you say is that I don't know that this angel I don't understand necessarily that similarity. You don't see the point of this not being a great angel Australia? No, I do. I recognize the devil is just an angel. We don't need to fear him. We need to respect he has power and that's about it. Well, just understand that according to the Daniel picture, they're always fighting for us. There's not a time that they're not. Well, remember, Daniel's apocalyptic. What does 20 days mean? Something that's repeated is something that's for sure. And your 10 is the complete period of time. So it's for sure the complete period of time. Yes, it's a for sure complete period of time. Not two of them, a for sure one. All right. Now, when is the binding of Satan? Well, when the Pharisees accused Jesus of casting out demons by Beelzebub, he replied, how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder it unless he first binds the strong man? The same word for binding. Jesus is saying that he did what he did at the time because he had already bound Satan or Beelzebub in some degree. When the 70 witnesses returned from mission claiming that the demons were subject to them, Jesus responds by saying he saw Satan falling from heaven as lightning. In John 12, Christ proclaims, now is the judgment of the world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. If I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to himself. When does Jesus say at that time the casting out takes place? When he is lifted up, okay? And then in chapter, and by the way, that's the same term of the casting that we see in chapter 20. Revelation 12 5 following again, it's the picture of the woman giving birth She gave birth to a son a male and her child was caught up to God and to his throne and there was war in heaven and Michael and you know the rest of that story it clearly shows that Satan was cast down as a result of the son the male birth being caught up to Heaven so again the time of the cross resurrection exaltation of Christ and All of these casting outs are associated with the first advent of Christ and his exaltation, not the second coming. The truth of the gospel has begun overcoming the deceit of Satan's lie and goes on even today. And we have repeatedly seen that Christ is sovereign over Satan's demonic forces throughout the previous 19 chapters of Revelation. If that's when, what is the binding of Satan? He can no longer accuse God's people in the heavenlies, according to chapter 12, but here he is unable to prevent the extension of the church to the end of the world, i.e. deceive the nations. He is prevented, in other words, from causing the beast, the false prophet in Babylon, from destroying the church. It is absolutely certain that through the preaching of the word as applied by the Holy Spirit, all, every single one of the elect from all parts of the world shall be brought from darkness into the glorious light of the gospel. Satan cannot stop God from bringing one of his elect people into his kingdom. So for some, this doesn't seem to be an adequate understanding of binding of Satan and locking him in abyss. I will admit to you that for decades, it was the biggest problem I had with amillennialism. I was a historic premillennialist for some time because of this. Is Satan really bound? Well, here's how one commentator put it. Only the individual who lacks the historic sense and is therefore unable to see the present in light of conditions which prevailed throughout the world before Christ's ascension can fail to appreciate the glories of the millennial age in which we are now living. So it's the lack of understanding how glorious the church age really is for focusing on all those seals and trumpets and bowls and things that we also experience that keeps us from understanding that Satan is bound adequately. Now, this isn't saying that the world's getting better and better and will eventually everyone will be saved. That's the post-millennial approach, you remember. But God's warning trumpets of judgment will not convert the world that is hardening itself against unbelief. The majority will always be on the side of Satan. The bowls of judgment are being poured out even now, so that for some, they experience these bowls of judgment of God. They are already the dead, who will not see the first resurrection. All right, so the devil is not bound in every sense. His power is curved and his influence limited with respect to one definite sphere, according to Revelation 20, and that is he will no longer deceive the nations. In other words, he can't destroy the progress of the gospel until the 1,000 years is completed. And that won't be completed until the very last elect is called into the kingdom. So what we've been discussing in chapter 20 is the binding of Satan's activities on earth Though on earth doesn't mean that Satan is visible. You remember what Paul said to the Ephesians, that it's not flesh and blood that we war against, but it's the world powers of darkness. It's the spiritual forces of evil. That's the idea of Satan's activities on earth. We will see the heavenly aspect of this in verses four through six, which described the condition of the victorious reign of the saints in heaven. Let's read those verses. And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. That is, I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who have not worshipped the beast or his image and not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand, and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not live until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection. Over these, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years. All right, very quickly, the thrones here tell us that we have shifted our focus from what happens on earth to what happens in heaven. It is a picture of the vindication of saints. Notice that we see the souls of these, but we've never told we see the bodies of these, and that's what we are assuming the resurrection would mean. These are departed Christians who have died, both martyrs and the rest of them. It's not just those who were beheaded, but also those who had not worshipped the beast and received the mark. So it's all believers who have died. We've already seen the picture of us sitting on thrones back in chapter 321 and reigning as we've pointed out already. And this period of time, i.e. after a short time of suffering on earth, we get to that thousand years of reigning, co-reigning in heaven. Why is it a short time of our suffering on earth? Our lives are merely a short time that must end soon. There are three and a half days in chapter 11, three and a half years in chapter 12, and that compares to the thousand years now of our reign in heaven under the altar as his saints. So, how do we support a thousand years of being figurative? Well, look at all the figurative terms in these verses. You have an angel holding a key. Now, does angel have hands? Angel's a spiritual being. Angel is holding a key. He's holding a chain. He has hands because in a hand he does. All that's symbolic. Satan is a dragon. Satan is a serpent. You have an abyss that holds a spiritual being. Well, how can an abyss in terms of a actual worldly thing hold a spiritual thing. It's locked. It's sealed. All of these are symbolic. A beast representing worldly things as we mentioned. A mark that we've already identified as not being a literal mark on a person is spoken of. So everything in this is speaking figuratively as we go through it. What's the character of our reign we judge with Christ? We're living with Christ now notice that as I read it. I talked about those They live and reigned with Christ and the others did not live Did you notice how I read that your version if you're following it probably said something like came to life now the word here is a simple verb that means lived and Can it mean came to life? Absolutely. It's called an aggressive heiress that describes the beginning of a continuing state. It can be, but that's an interpretation, not a translation. Now, let me read to you something that Jesus said to Mary. I am the resurrection and the life. Familiar with this verse? The one who believes in me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? We do not die when we die. We live. So when we read here that it's those who were beheaded, those who didn't have the mark, We lived and reigned with Christ. We didn't come to life as if we were dead thoroughly. We lived with him. Now, other characteristics of this period of time, we share the royal glory with him, the kingdom that we've talked about, and this is called the first resurrection. Recall that we've already seen souls under the altar. So this is picturing the translation of our souls from the earth to God's presence. And this is what Paul described as the gain of dying. I live for Christ, if I die, it's gain. Peter says that the gospel for this purpose was preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as people, as dead, that they may live, now not come to life, but they may live in the spirit according to God. Bodily resurrection comes in the second coming, verses 11 following, which we won't get to until next week. when the body will be raised imperishable, honorable, glorious, powerful, spiritual, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15. The unbelieving dead, those with the marks, did not live after dying. And from this we ought not ask, well, then what happens to them after that? Well, again, this is apocalyptic. Do we get a notion of what happens with Jesus' parable of a rich man and Lazarus and Abraham's bosom and Hades and that sort of thing? Well, we must be careful not to make a parable an allegory, but that's all I'm going to say about that. all right now they would live therefore come to life after the thousand years which is never said but implied they didn't live until after the thousand years but there is something that happens with the judgment we assume not assume we take to be bodily resurrection of living of the dead excuse me of the unbelieving and believing that stand before the great white throne judgment that we'll talk about next week let's pray Father, we thank you so much for the beauty of your word. Hide it in our hearts that it might give us courage and encouragement and hope during the times of darkness that we face. It's my prayer in Christ's name. Amen.