WHAT IS THE MILLENNIUM? The thousand-year reign of Jesus on the earth after the Tribulation.
- Revelation 20:1-6.
- We don’t get a ton of information in this brief passage about it, but we want to unpack what we are told here as well as bring in the numerous Old Testament references to this time.
- Put the Millennium in its larger end-times context.
KEY PIECES OF THE PICTURE:
1. SATAN IS BOUND FOR 1,000 YEARS.
- Revelation 20:1-3, 7.
- This is not hell, but the abyss. Satan will be consigned to hell after the final rebellion that happens at the end of the 1,000 years.
a. Satan is taken out of the picture so that Christ can rule upon the earth.
- Satan’s departure opens up the opportunity for Jesus to rule as He desires on the earth without the Enemy’s opposition.
- Think about how different it will make the situation for people when there is no Tempter.
b. Why does it say that he must be released for a short time after the 1,000 years?
- We will discuss this more later in the sermon, but I think it has to do with proving once and for all what the nature of mankind is.
2. JESUS RULES ON THE EARTH, WITH THE SAINTS RULING WITH HIM.
- Isaiah 11:1-5; Isaiah 11:6-9; Isaiah 32:1; Micah 4:2-4; Micah 4:6-8; Zechariah 14:17; Matthew 19:28; Matthew 25:21, 23; Luke 19:17, 19; 1 Corinthians 6:2; 2 Timothy 2:12; Revelation 20:4-6.
a. Jesus rules on the earth.
- Isaiah 11:1-5; Micah 4:2-4; Micah 4:6-8.
- He has won the dramatic victory at Armageddon, as we discussed in earlier sermons in this series.
- Now He is going to rule on the earth for 1,000 years.
b. The saints will rule with Him.
- Isaiah 32:1; Matthew 19:28; Matthew 25:21, 23; Luke 19:17, 19; 1 Corinthians 6:2; 2 Timothy 2:12.
- Which saints? This is uncertain. Some believe it is all the saints: Old Testament, church age, people saved during the Tribulation, etc. Others think that the church age saints will not be a part of this ruling because of the Jewish focus of the Millennium. The Bible does not give us a definitive answer.
- We can say, though, that some of the saints will rule with Christ. As reward for their faithfulness and fruitfulness during this life they will be given various levels of authority to rule with Christ. This is enormously exciting and interesting – we will get to rule with Jesus. Work was not part of the curse. Work was present before the curse. Work became toilsome because of the Fall. Work still exists in the Millennium and eternity beyond that because meaningful work at something we are gifted at is something that brings meaning and purpose to our lives in the way that God designed us to be.
- This is what it means when Paul writes that the saints will judge the world (1 Corinthians 6:2). Not Final Judgment, but ruling with Christ.
- This what it means when Paul writes that we will reign with Christ (2 Timothy 2:12).
- The saints will be glorified and no longer sinful.
- I believe we will also rule with Him in the new heaven and new earth described in Revelation 21 and 22, but likely we will here as well.
c. The regular people this time starts with are those who have followed Christ and survived Armageddon.
- So this era will start with people who are devoted to Christ. Over the 1,000 years (and certainly pretty quickly into the Millennium), as new people are born there will be others who are not interested in following Christ, despite how wonderful the world is under His rule.
- The decrease of disease, the elimination of war, and the relative economic prosperity will lead to many babies, along with longer lives.
- This is why the Revelation 20:5 reference to “the rest of the dead” means the lost.
d. This shows what it would be like to have Jesus ruling people who still have a sin nature.
- Although the saints who we discussed a moment ago who are ruling with Christ are transformed and glorified, the people on earth living out of the Tribulation will still be “regular people,” that is, people with a fallen nature.
- So although this world is wonderful in many ways, it is not a perfect world. It is Jesus ruling over people who still have the ability to choose against Him. Disobedience is still possible (and, indeed, inevitable).
- People will live longer, but there will still be death.
e. Nature will be more peaceful during this time.
- Isaiah 11:6-9.
- This is where you get the famous time of lions laying down with the lambs.
- This might be a good moment to note that Jesus is in the business of redemption. And not just personal redemption, but He is also pursuing the redemption of the world in which we live.
f. This will be a time of peace and prosperity.
- Micah 4:2-4; Zechariah 14:17.
- Jesus will rule well. There will be no wars. The swords have been hammered out into plowshares.
- There will be economic prosperity as well.
- But the prosperity is tied to worship of the king. For instance, Zechariah 14:17 notes that failure to go to Jerusalem to worship will result in lack of rain. So this is a time that many wishfully long for today where your actions have a direct and obvious impact on what happens.
- This also pencils in the picture of why some would not love Jesus. They are not going to be left alone in their unbelief. And that may cause some resentment, despite the overwhelming goodness and greatness of Jesus’ kingdom.
g. Not everyone will embrace having Jesus as King.
- As I noted a moment ago, there is still the opportunity for people to reject Jesus. And that will happen in a significant number with Satan’s release.
3. SATAN IS RELEASED FOR A FINAL BATTLE.
- Revelation 20:7-10.
a. Satan will lead a rebellion.
- Satan is released to attempt to sow discord one last time.
b. There are a vast number of people who have lived under Jesus’ rule who join in the rebellion.
- This is telling. Even with seeing the goodness and greatness of God, there will still be people who will reject Him. They want to do things their way. Even having seen the justice, peace, and prosperity of Jesus’ rule, they don’t want it.
- Likely one significant aspect of this is people who do not want to do what’s right, but want to dwell in their sins.
c. The rebellion will not last long and fire from heaven will destroy the rebels.
- As I stated earlier, many people think that Armageddon is the final battle, but it’s not. It’s the final battle of the Tribulation. We went over it detail in previous sermons, so I won’t repeat those specifics. I will say, though, that you’ll remember that the Bible gives us (especially in Zechariah) a lot of details about this dramatic and involved battle.
- This one, however, is almost funny in its brevity and one-sidedness. You expect this final overthrow attempt by Satan to lead to a dramatic impasse or some stunning turn of events. But it doesn’t. It’s just a quick destruction.
- This is a strange analogy in a way, but it reminds me of a scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. There is a fight scene where Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) faces down a warrior with a curved sword. As they face each other, the opponent dramatically whirls his sword around, showing his obvious skill. Indiana Jones just pulls out a gun, shoots him from a distance, and turns to go on with his work. It’s a funny scene because the set-up makes it look like this is going to be a dramatic and involved sword fight, but the guy brought a knife to a gun fight. (I have heard down through the years that the scene was not supposed to be shot that way, but Ford was sick from food poisoning and unable to do the dramatic fight scene.) This final Revelation battle has that same feel: Satan is released, quickly creates this huge rebellion against King Jesus, and then – bam! – the whole thing is over almost before it began.
d. Satan will be consigned to hell forever.
- Revelation 20:10.
- This is the end for him. No more “one last rebellion.”
WHAT'S THE POINT OF THE MILLENNIUM?
- Why have a Millennium? Why not just end things with Armageddon and the close of the Tribulation and just go straight into final judgment? There are two major reasons, I think.
1. IT PROVIDES THE FULFILLMENT OF OLD TESTAMENT PROMISES TO ISRAEL CONCERNING KINGDOM COME.
- Zechariah 12:10-14; Zechariah 14:10-11.
- Israel is really important to the Millennium and plays a significant role in it.
- This is a rich and wide subject that is worthy of a lengthy sermon series, but we will have to limit ourselves here to pointing out the overarching idea.
- In the Old Testament there are many promises to Israel of “Kingdom Come.” A time when Israel would live at peace and in prosperity. A time when the Messiah would rule Israel. A time when the Jewish people would joyfully receive the Messiah and serve Him with their whole hearts.
- These, of course, did not happen when Jesus came the first time. Instead, the Messiah was rejected by His nation. This was part of the divine plan to bring salvation not merely to Israel but to the whole world. That rejection – and the church age that resulted from it – did not nullify the Old Testament promises to Israel.
- Now, finally, we see Kingdom Come finally come to pass.
- We know that God keeps His promises. The Millennium provides God the time to keep His promises to Israel of the blessed time that was prophesied.
- Just to give a couple examples (which we discussed in earlier sermons):
a. Zechariah 12:10-14 speaks of an amazing spiritual revival among the Jews.
b. Zechariah 14:10-11 speaks of Jerusalem physically standing out like a diamond.
2. IT PROVES THE FALSEHOOD OF ALL BUT ONE HUMAN EXCUSE FOR REJECTING GOD.
- Many will argue before Jesus at Final Judgment that it’s not really their fault that they committed all those sins. They were merely a victim of circumstance. If things had been different, they wouldn’t have done that.
- The Millennium definitively proves that even under ideal circumstances, people will often still reject God.
- What are some of the excuses that the Millennium destroys? Here are seven:
a. If there hadn’t been a Tempter . . .
- During the Millennium Satan is taken out of the way. Surely that would make all the difference.
- People might argue that they would not have sinned if they had not been tempted. It was Satan’s fault!
- Yet here we see that the removal of Satan does not eliminate all the willingness to sin.
b. If there had been a better environment . . .
- If the way the world had been would have been better, then maybe they would have done better. It wasn’t their fault – it was the surroundings they were in.
- Yet here we have a wonderful environment and some people still reject Jesus.
c. If I’d had enough time to experience God’s goodness . . .
- “In my life I didn’t get enough opportunity to see the goodness of God,” some might argue. Maybe they lived a short life or maybe they lived in a place or time where life was particularly difficult. Whatever the reason, they did not see as much of the goodness of God as most of us do. Surely if they’d seen more of the goodness of God they would have believed in God.
- But this too is shown false by the Millennium. Even seeing the full goodness of God for 1,000 years is not enough for everyone to follow Him.
d. If there had been a better government . . .
- “The world I had to live in was a mess,” some might argue. “If there had been a world that was governed better, I would have believed.” Again, that falls short. We have a world perfectly governed by a sovereign and wise Christ. Yet that will not be enough to keep some from desiring to pursue what’s wrong.
e. If I enjoyed a prosperous life . . .
- If this life had been marked by prosperity and abundance for someone, then they would have loved God. No, that isn’t automatic either. Here we have an era marked by prosperity, peace, and abundance and many will reject Jesus.
f. If good was rewarded and evil was punished . . .
- Many struggle with the unfairness of this earthly life. This is a theme not only of doubters, but the saints also struggled with it, most famously in the book of Job and in the Psalms.
- Down through the years, many have said that they would believe in God if the world was fair, if God showed His justice in this world. But if the world is unfair, then they can’t believe in God.
- Basically, they’re saying if they lived in a world where good was rewarded and evil was punished, then they would believe in God.
- The Millennium will be such a world. And yet many rebel against God at the end.
g. If I could have seen Jesus as He really is . . .
- Certainly the first time that Jesus came He hid His glory. People could see Him and not know that He is God.
- Some might object and argue at Final Judgment: “If I could have seen the glorious Christ, I would obviously have loved and obeyed Him!” That’s often not true, though. Here people have seen the triumphant Christ for 1,000 years and yet many still choose to reject Him and follow the defeated Satan.
- What this ultimately proves is the depths of the depravity of man.
- The depravity of man is an unpopular doctrine today. People like to think of themselves as “good people.” People compare themselves to those around them and think that they measure up pretty well. The problem, of course, is that we are not judged in comparison to those around us but in comparison to God’s perfect standard.
- The removal of Satan, the wonderful environment that the Millennium will feature, and the obvious and overwhelming presence of Christ are still not enough to keep many from sinning – to keep many from rejecting Jesus. The Millennium – this is important – definitively proves that the ultimate problem is the sin that is within us. The Millennium eliminates every other excuse. In this massively improved situation, many joyfully choose Christ, but many stubbornly refuse Him. It’s a death knell for the idea that everyone would love God if you just eliminated the mitigating factors.
- John MacArthur puts it this way: “Though Jesus Christ reigns in a . . . renewed universe, though He has absolute power over everything and everyone, . . . even though everything is exactly the way it ought to be, everything is right, everything is peaceful, there aren’t any wars, everyone’s weapons have been pounded into plowshares, everything is flourishing, all the economies of the world are doing very well, everything is prosperity on every front, . . . people will reject Christ.”
HOW SHOULD THE MILLENNIUM IMPACT HOW WE LIVE NOW? Live like Jesus is king.
- Philippians 2:10-11; Revelation 17:14; Revelation 19:16.
- There will be a time when everyone, willing or unwilling, will have to recognize Jesus as the King. We know that even kings will have to acknowledge that He is King of kings (Revelation 17:14; Revelation 19:16).
- The Bible teaches us that every knee will bow (Philippians 2:10-11). That does not mean that everyone will come to voluntarily believe in Jesus. As we’ve extensively discussed today, even under the best of circumstances that will not happen.
- A lot of what we’ve discussed this morning is to help you all to understand what is coming up someday, but it also serves as an opportunity for us to say, “I will live today with Jesus as my King!”
