Sermon Tone Analysis

*“He Reigns”*

*Revelation 20*

 

Intro.

– We often go through life confused and disoriented.

We struggle to interpret things of life and this, in turn, affects our attitudes toward God, the world, and people.

We talked a little bit last week about the difference between interpreting life deductively and inductively.

In a nutshell, we either interpret the /details/ of life in light of a “Big Picture” or we interpret the big picture in light of the details.

I have had some conversations regarding the study of Revelation.

Because there are different ways of understanding Revelation and the end times in general, is there really a point to study?

I would have to say “yes.”

Regardless of your conclusions regarding the specifics and timelines etc., you emerge with a greater understanding of the nature of God, the nature of the Adversary (Satan) and the nature of mankind.

And this allows us to walk the road in front of us with greater clarity.

We can interpret the details of life better.

Up to this point, if you have not yet grasped the plan and sovereignty of God (power and authority), I hope that this will glare out at you this morning.

We will see a great contrast through this chapter as well as the entire book – the sovereignty of God versus the futility of Satan.

We continue our current study in the book of Revelation.

And we find ourselves in chapter 20.

Please turn there with me.

It is important that you are able to see for yourselves our text and so if you came without one today, we would be happy to let you use one from the back.

Revelation 20 you will find at the end of the Bible.

If you flip back a few pages from the back cover, you will quickly find our passage for today.

Everybody there?

Hear the word of the Lord…

*READ - Revelation 20*

I have to admit that it is difficult to study and preach on the nature of hell and eternal torment and I am really looking forward to the final chapters of this book when evil and sin are eradicated and we have heaven in the presence of God to look forward to.

We will look at the text in four points as we see that “He Reigns.”

First, we will see the *Temporary Triumph over the Dragon*.

We see this in the first three verses of chapter 20.

There are also two sub-points in this section pertaining to the character of God and the character of Satan.

We see an angel that descends from heaven and he is holding keys in his hand that belong to the bottomless pit.

This place, the bottomless pit, is elsewhere referred to as the abyss.

The abyss is like a prison house of demonic spirits.

In 2 Peter 2.4, the apostle speaks of a place where the fallen angels are chained and kept until the judgment.

Jude 6 says “And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.”

And in Revelation 9 we recall that a messenger from heaven has the key to the bottomless pit.

The angel with the key opens up the abyss, takes the dragon, throws him into the pit, shuts and seals it for a thousand years.

Nothing to it.

With regard to Satan, I think we often either overestimate or underestimate his power.

Some of us walk the Christian life as if there were no spiritual battle taking place.

On the other hand, many ascribe too much power to our foe.

I find it interesting that God did not personally apprehend and detain him.

It was an angel.

The angel seemingly has no problem overpowering this other fallen angel.

It appears as though he throws him around handily.

Satan is banished for a thousand years and our text says that he will be released.

In fact, it says he MUST be released.

(That’s noteworthy and we’ll talk about it more in a little while.)

And it says that this is after *the *thousand years.

Now this is where things get tricky.

In fact, some commentators state that this is perhaps the most divisive chapter in the Bible.

Let me just tell you that’s not intimidating at all as a preacher… The ambiguity revolves around the thousand years, or the millennial kingdom.

Most of the discussion pertains to the language being literal or symbolic and the timing of all the events of this book.

So with regard to the Millennium, there are godly folks who differ on their understanding of this portion of Scripture.

In fact, I probably have friends that hold each of the major views of the Millennial Kingdom.

If you have the ESV Study Bible, there is a great explanation of these views on pages 2458-2460.

Commercial: “This study Bible, I will say here, is probably the best one-volume resource you could possess for Bible study.

It provides overviews, maps, theology, Christian ethics, world religions and so much more – all in a 4 inch wide book.

If you don’t have one and are looking for something to enhance your understanding of God’s Word, I highly recommend it.”

Anyway, at the risk of oversimplification I offer the views in a nutshell.

Amillennialism would suggest that there is no future kingdom but that Christ reigns spiritually in our hearts when we come to Christ.

The events in the book of Revelation are symbolic and indicative of events that occur throughout the entire church age.

Postmillenialism and Premillenialism both believe in a literal millennial kingdom but disagree on how it is brought about and the timing of Christ’s return.

Postmillenialism believes that we will usher in the Kingdom through the preached Word of God among the nations and the advancement of the church.

We can so influence the world and culture as to redeem it.

And then Christ returns after to usher us into the eternal state.

Premillenialism (of which there are two camps) believe that Christ returns in order to establish the millennial kingdom and to reign over it.

This is the position I hold to and will attempt to explain briefly this morning.

I believe Scripture to be interpreted at face value unless you have indication to do so otherwise.

So when Scripture speaks of a literal thousand year kingdom, you need much more support to say that it isn’t to be taken literally.

However you understand these events, it is important that these are NOT doctrines to divide over.

They are not necessary for salvation – like the deity of Christ, the trinity, salvation by faith and the like.

You will find genuine believers that interpret these events differently.

Ok.

Pressing on.

Besides the details of these events, we learn a lot about the character of Satan.

Verse two identifies him in such a way as to be his indictment.

He is the dragon that we saw in chapter 12.

If you recall, this sign in heaven looked throughout history at the dragon’s attempts to thwart the plans of God.

We remember that he tried to usurp God’s authority when he was in heaven.

And then he was thrown out of heaven along with a multitude of angels who followed after him.

He deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden, as that ancient serpent, where she rebelled against God.

Through Herod he tried to kill the Christ-child.

And all throughout the rest of history, he has been active and continues to dissolve the testimony of Christ.

He is THE devil, the slanderer and adversary.

He is Satan, the enemy – the enemy of Jesus Christ and His followers.

It is interesting to note that his modus operandi is NOT to overpower, but to deceive.

This is his defining characteristic.

We see it all throughout Scripture and twice in our text this morning – here in verse 3 and also in verse 8.

If he isn’t deceiving people personally, he operates through individuals – namely false teachers.

As we have seen, there is often imitation of truth within the deception.

Satan used Scripture to try to tempt Jesus in the wilderness.

He and his unholy trinity imitate signs and wonders in the book of Revelation to try to deceive people.

And false teachers abound.

Doug and I have tried to communicate the necessity of believers to be discerning.

There is a LOT out there that “sounds” Christian.

But unless we are diligent in the Scriptures, we risk being deceived by false teaching.

Satan is characterized by deception.

God is characterized by sovereignty.

He merely needs to send an angel to carry out justice on Satan.

There is a key and God possesses all authority and power to carry out His plan.