Christ's Rule on Earth, pt.3 Rev. 20:4-6
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Introduction
Introduction
I feel so inadequate to speak on this topic, but as it is our text for today I dare not shirk this responsibility. I am with Spurgeon when he states, ‘I do not do it to amuse your curiosity by novelty, or that I may pretend to have the true key of the prophecies which are yet unfulfilled.” And am not making any sort of claim that I do have the key to unlocking these mysteries. However, I do claim that I am taking these words in their most basic literal sense. I am reading and studying them in that way because that is the most natural way to take them.
So then I take that the most natural way to understand the text under our consideration today is that there is a 1000 year reign of Christ on the earth, that believers alone will rule with Him, that there is a literal bodily resurrection of the just (the first resurrection) and a literal bodily resurrection of the unjust (the second resurrection); that there is a hell (lake of fire, which is eternal and is called the second death).
As for those who suggest this is not a literal thousand year reign of Christ on earth because it is only mentioned here, you need to consider the many OT prophecies of the kingdom, , or all of which speak of the kingdom in the end times. This was taught by the early church as well: Justin Martyr, mid second century said that properly instructed Christians were assured of a resurrection of the dead to be followed by a thousand years in Jerusalem. Irenaeus near the end of the same century believed in an earthly millennium during which the saints and martyrs would be rewarded (Mounce, R.H.)
I also need to mention that only those who are believers enter the kingdom reign. Those who are Jewish or Gentile believers who survive the tribulation period will enter the kingdom. We note this from Jesus teaching in not to mention that all of chapter 25 speaks of this time. The parable of the goats and sheep in particular. The unjust are destroyed in the battle of Armageddon that occurs when Christ returns as we read in chapter 19.
"Now what would the world be like? What's it going to be like? Well, from a moral standpoint it's going to be totally different. There will be no injustice. There will be peace everywhere, righteousness prevailing. And we'll talk about that in a moment. But before we look at that, what will the world be like just environmentally? All these environmentalists, you know, who worry and worry and worry about preserving the world, and I've told you before, if you think we've messed up the earth, wait till you see what Jesus does to it because in the Tribulation He's going to destroy the thing. But what will the world of the Millennial Kingdom be like?
Let me give you some insights from some in the field of science. Just listen to this. "The violent earthquakes and upheavals through the Tribulation time will have leveled all the polluted cities of a sinful world, the better to facilitate the erection of new, clean, peaceful communities at the beginning of the Millennium. These great land movements will also have eliminated the great mountain ranges and islands of the world, filling up the ocean depths and restoring gentle globally habitable topography and geography all over the world, as it had been in the antediluvian age before the cataclysmic upheavals of the Flood. As Isaiah the prophet has foretold, every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill shall be made low. The crooked shall be made straight, the rough places plain. The prophets also say the islands will flee away.
"This reversal of the topographic upheavals of the Flood, however, will not send waters over the continents again." In other words, they won't flood the globe. "Since much of the waters of the ocean will already have been re-elevated above the atmosphere, restoring in some measure the antediluvian waters above the firmament, the canopy of water. The worldwide draught of the first half of the Tribulation. The cataclysmic splashdowns of bodies from the heavens during the trumpet judgments and the intensified solar radiations of the bowl judgments will all have contributed to the translation of vast quantities of water vapor far back into the skies. The earth then would be sheltered, as it was before the Flood. Sheltered from the ultra violet rays of the sun and that's why people will live to be very old, like they did before the Flood." (GTY,Https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/66-74/the-coming-earthly-kingdom-of-the-lord-jesus-christ-part-2)
So that is just speculation that is true, but it does give us a calculated idea of what it will be like environmentally.
We have looked at the Rule of Christ affirmed by the incarceration of Satan, vss. 1-3
Now we need to look at the Rule of Christ Assisted by the saints, v.4-6.
Here I’m going to steal part of Spurgeon’s outline for v.6 and incorporate it here.
3 Great privileges of the Believer, namely,
A. We shall raised with Christ,
B. We shall avoid the second death
C. we shall reign with Christ,
as Judges/kings
as Priests
First of all,
A. We shall be raised with Christ,
Bear with me on this, I know that this doesn’t follow my normal verse by verse method, but because you have to have resurrection before you can sit on a throne to rule, I am taking it this way instead of dealing with the thrones first.
So then John sees thrones and those who are sitting upon them, and those who have been beheaded for their faith in Christ. But he sees them and notes that they lived and reigned with Christ. Now he doesn’t use the future tense, ‘they will live and reign’ but the aorist which is the Greek past tense. He sees them already living/raised from the dead and ruling with Christ. They are not still dead in the grave. They are raised. That is the normal way to read this.
Notice with me also he calls this the ‘first resurrection.’ If there is a first resurrection than there must also be a second. Now there are some who claim this refers to a spiritual resurrection, not a bodily one. But that cannot make sense in our text. If we say this is merely a spiritual resurrection then the second resurrection must also be spiritual. And nobody takes the second resurrection to be only spiritual. If the second one is bodily the first one has to be as well.
This is the first resurrection as it is called in vs. 5. It is the resurrection of all the saints OT and NT and through to this time.
Notice this is also a Beatitude, v.6
Blessed and Holy are those who have part in the first resurrection.
why does he say 'blessed and holy?' I suppose one could return to the beatitudes of for Jesus connection to this. This then is the fulfillment of Jesus words.
When we think about 'holy' we know that we are not holy apart from Christ. In Christ we are holy, and we are to be holy. Only those who are in Christ will see the kingdom of God so then only those who are holy will see the kingdom of God. John is not making then a statement of entrance to the kingdom, but of identity. Those who are privileged to enter the kingdom because of their faith in Christ are first of all blessed, and secondly holy. Else they could not enter the kingdom in the first place.
Now then, we can go to several scriptures to help us see the truth of the believers/our resurrection.
We have here the priority of the resurrection as Spurgeon puts it.
In Paul’s great treatise on the resurrection in Christ is the firstfruits of the resurrection. It necessarily follows this resurrection is also a bodliy one.
Christ was raised from the dead firstfruits, . Christ was raised bodily so are we. We have here the priority of the resurrection as Spurgeon puts it.
the priority of the resurrection,
where the bodily resurrection is the hope we are to comfort one another with.
. Christ was raised bodily so are we.
, “I count everything but loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake i have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ . . . tht by any means possible I may attain the resurrection of the dead.”
We have Jesus promise of resurrection from the dead in ; and 20:35.
And once again in Jesus words, v.39 “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shoud lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day
v.40 for this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him upon the last day.”
v.44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”
v.54 “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.”
The phrase ‘I will raise him up on the last day.” is common to all those verses. And they show us that we can be confident of being raised bodily. THere is no other way to take that. It is a bodily resurrection and it is a priority resurrection in that it is before the second resurrection which is the resurrection of the unjust.
We come to the second point I want to make,
B. The second death has no power over the believer.
See in v.5 the rest of the dead did not live until the thousand years was complete. and also v.6 “blessed and holy are the ones who have part in the first resurrection, upon them the second death has no power.
What is the second death? Well, we see this mentioned in where Jesus addresses the church at Smyrna encouraging them with these words, “the one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.” there is a first death, but that doesn’t hold a candle to the second death. All, believer and unbeliever alike will go through the first death. Only those who are lost, the unjust, the unbeliever will undergo the second death. WE see this lined out for us in , . John saw the great white throne judgment of the unjust dead. They are judged and then cast into the lake of fire which is called here the ‘second death.’ But that death has no authority over the believer. He lives and reigns with Christ a thousand years. A preview of the eternal kingdom. There is no fear of the second death for the believer. You will remember how the Lord said, “fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”().
Beloved we need fear the second death.
Finally, the third great privilege or blessing:
C. We shall reign with Christ, v.4, 6
And I saw thrones and they sat on them, and judgment was given unto them . . . and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years
Bu they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
We will be
Judges/kings
Priests.
First of all John saw thrones and those that sat on them. Who is he talking about? Who sits on these thrones?
Well we can go to and look at verses 13,14, 18, 22, 27. This tells us that OT saints will be sitting on the thrones. We have the NT apostles and all who left all to follow Jesus, , “I say to you in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses, brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.”
“You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
; . Then we have the NT Saints Paul speaks about in 1 Cor.
On top of that we have Jesus parable in in the parable of the ten Minas those who increased their minas were given authority over more cities.
Then we have the NT Saints Paul speaks about in who will judge the world and his words to Timothy “therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory . . . if we endure, we will also reign with him.” (,). this then is a promise to reign with Christ. We will sit on thrones judging the inhabitants under our jurisdiction.
And we have the promise in that we will share the throne with Him.
Now, as judges we will reign not in our own power, but in the stead of Christ. The fact is we will have our glorified bodies and be judging those who still live in the flesh. He will be the ultimate judge and will rule with a rod of iron. Sin will be met with immediate justice. No corruption involved. Judgment will be always just. Surely there will be those who do not agree with the judgment just as the people were not always satisfied with Moses judgments. But it will always be fair and just for all involved. Can you imagine how that will be. There will be no false imprisonments or punishments that do not fit the crime. The One who knows all things will be the judge and we will be the one’s carrying that out. The one who knows our hearts, knows all the facts about any situation, no one will be able to pull the wool over His eyes. That will be a fabulous time. It is a precursor, a living earthly example of eternal kingdom living.
Then we have the promise of being a kingdom of Priests,. Look at the promise given to the Saints in , where we are called a royal priesthood. And then in , where the saints are said to been made “a kingdom and priests to our God and they shall reign on the earth.”
Why will there need to be priests during the millennium? Because there will be unbelievers who will need mediators to bring them to Christ. Priests job was to act as the teacher and mediator between the sinner and the Lord. So there will still be that need, though there will be no sacrifices offered because Jesus was that sacrifice. Nevertheless, there will still be the need for a priesthood of which Jesus is the Great High Priest, in order to lead the worship of Christ and God the Father and the Holy Spirit.
I think we can say with very good certainty that OT and NT saints along with those who live and die, the raptured Saints and then those who die in the tribulation as mentioned here will reign with Christ in His kingdom.
In our text John sees those who have been beheaded/martyred for Christ during the tribulation because they would not worship the beast, nor his image nor take his mark. They are killed. But there is the promise here of resurrection and reign with Christ.
The Millennium is part of that reward for faithful service to Christ. Reward for not denying Him unto death.
John gives great encouragement to those undergoing persecution, those who are being tempted to turn away from the Lord, but who remain firm in their faith in Christ and resist the devil’s temptations.
We are privileged and blessed to be bodily raised from the dead; to have no fear of the second death, which is the lake of fire, and to reign with Christ.
by way of application:
"For throughout the New Testament, whenever the apostle wants to stir up men to patience, to labour, to hope, to endurance, to holiness, he generally says something about the advent of Christ. “Be patient, brethren,” says he, “for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” “Let your moderation be known unto all men, the Lord is at hand.” “Judge nothing before the time, till the Lord come.” “When the great Shepherd shall appear, ye also shall appear with him in glory.”
"let those of us who fear God and believe in Jesus take this to be a window through which we can look, when the house is dark and our home is full of misery, let us look to the time when we shall rise among the first, following Christ the firstfruits, when we shall reign with Christ, sharing in his glories, and when we shall know that the second death over us hath no power." Spurgeon, C. H. (1861). The First Resurrection. In The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons (Vol. 7, p. 351). London: Passmore & Alabaster.
Spurgeon, C. H. (1861). The First Resurrection. In The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons (Vol. 7, p. 351). London: Passmore & Alabaster.