Return of the King: Week 5
Earth’s Best Days
May 23, 2021
Scripture: Revelation 19:1-20:10
In our last message, we talked about “the best years of our lives” and how Jesus’ return will dwarf those memories.
God’s word says that the best of your best days are in your future. They’re recorded in the last chapters of the book of Revelation, and that’s what I want to walk you through today.
FORECAST
Two weeks ago, we looked at what the Bible has to say about some of the worst days for the people of planet Earth. The last 3 ½ years of the Tribulation period will be days of “great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world, until now.”
But after those days are through, comes the return of our King, and a 1,000-year period of His reign on the earth. Those are going to be really good days.
The Bible goes into great detail about them in Revelation 19 and 20.
As you do all of that, please join me in this simple prayer-
Lord Jesus, speak to my heart, and let your WORD change my life.
Amen!
A friend of mine is a huge Disney fan, and he told me
That when his kids were little, he would take them to see Disney movies whenever a new one was released. He and his wife knew that there would be a scary part, where the bad character would do something bad, and make their children frightened and want to leave before the movie was over.
Whenever they headed toward the theater, he and his wife would explain to the kids that the bad part wouldn’t last forever, and that if they waited it out, the good part would come, and they would be really glad they stayed until the end.
In some ways that little kid is still inside of each of us, and God knew that we would need some reassurance to get us through to the end of the real-life cosmic drama that’s coming soon.
So, God was careful to tell us that our world would have a bad part, but that good would triumph in the end.
That triumphant part is what we will be talking about today in Rev 19-20.
Last week we learned that for 3 ½ years, the Unholy Trinity of the Dragon, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet will have significant influence on the events of our world.
This diabolical trio will deceive as many as they can, and persecute Christians and Jews, and control the world’s banking system. This terrible time will culminate in the ultimate battle scene at the end of time, when the Euphrates River will dry up and an army of 200 million will march across the River and take up battle positions in the Valley of Armageddon, in northern Israel.
Literally, all hell is about to break loose when suddenly, a trumpet sounds, and the war ends before it begins as Messiah returns and slays His enemies with the word of His mouth.
Revelation 19:11 says…
And there was a white horse. Its rider is called Faithful and True, and he judges and makes war with justice. His eyes were like a fiery flame, and many crowns were on his head. He had a name written that no one knows except himself. He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God.
The armies that were in heaven followed him on white horses, wearing pure white linen.
A sharp sword came from his mouth, so that he might strike the nations with it.
He will rule the nations with an iron rod. He will also trample the winepress of the fierce anger of God, the Almighty. And he has a name written on his robe and on his thigh: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. Revelation 19:11-16
I like to visualize things as I read them. In my mind there is a picture of a CNN reporter, standing on one of the hillsides that surround the valley, whispering into his microphone about which armies are staging where, when suddenly, a trumpet blast drowns out his voice, and Jesus descends to end this battle in a way no reporter ever imagined.
Verse 19 says,
Then I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and against his army.
20 But the beast was taken prisoner, and along with it the false prophet, who had performed the signs in its presence….
Both of them were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. 21 The rest were killed with the sword that came from the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds ate their fill of their flesh. Revelation 19:19-21
But they didn’t stand a chance. After all the speeches, after all the persecution of Christians, after forcing every person on earth to worship him or die,
It’s all over.
It’s the end of the antichrist and his reign.
B. The Day of Christ’s Return:
Christ returns as the conquering hero
That in itself is an awesome day, but lets see what happens after he annihilates his enemies.
Here is a list of things that will happen:
1. The Antichrist and the False Prophet will be thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 19:20
Remember from a few weeks ago- The Antichrist is the Beast from the Sea and The False Prophet is the Beast from the Land.
The Lake of Fire is eternal hell.
Right now, the spirits of those who died in the LORD before now exist in heaven, but in spirit form. Remember, our true nature is spiritual first, fleshly second, so they are all alive, conscious, and enjoying the presence of the LORD in heaven.
Similarly, there is a place for those who rejected God called Hades. This is where the dead who died apart from Christ are kept until the White thrown judgement, where they will all be cast into the permanent hell.
This place refers to a physical place is called “Gehenna,”
Gehenna was the garbage dump of Jerusalem, and was a place that always had a raging fire going to destroy the garbage of Jerusalem, and even the dead who no one wanted to provide a decent burial for would be cast into.
Gehenna was the word used to describe that lake of fire because in the Jewish mind it was a cursed place, as the area that the later kings of Judah sacrificed children in the fire to worship Baal and Asherah. That sin disgusted them so badly that they turned that place into a stinking, flaming pile of garbage.
This was the picture Jesus always used to describe hell to those who followed him.
The Antichrist and False Prophet, will be the first to enter Gehenna, called the Lake of Fire in scripture.
It’s a lake of fire that constantly burns without consuming.
It’s the eternal place of the absence of God.
Hell is not a popular subject today, but it is the subject that Jesus spoke about most often as compared to other topics.
One of the favorite questions that skeptics will try to trip up a Christian with is this- “How can a god of love send people to this awful place?”
My answer to that is HE doesn’t- if you end up in hell it’s because you have chosen that for yourself. God honors your choices here on earth and allows them to shape your eternity regardless of your ultimate destination.
Once you have surrendered to Jesus and made HIM LORD and savior of your life, your Faithful, Godly service to Him now reaps rich rewards in heaven.
However, if you ignore God, shun God, mock God, and otherwise live your life apart from God, HE lovingly will honor your decision into eternity.
So, my answer to the question- how can a God of love send people to hell is- A God of love simply honors your choice. As a good God, He cannot do otherwise as that would be forcing you to live in a way that limits your free will. By definition, that’s kidnapping right?
Also for those who follow God, The removal of wicked people from this earth is a reward to those who followed Him.
There will be no more war, no more lies, no more deceit, no more bullying, no more crime, no more terrorism.
God will remove all evil from the world.
2. The armies of the Antichrist will be destroyed by Jesus’ words. Revelation 19:21
He won’t have to lift a finger. Just as He spoke the world into existence, He’ll speak the end of these armies.
The final verse of chapter 19 says…
The rest were killed with the sword that came from the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds ate their fill of their flesh. Revelation 19:21
I don’t know if you ever got into a fight with your brothers or sisters, or ever had to break up a fight with your children, but there is something about a parent saying, “ENOUGH! Or STOP” that freezes all actions.
That’s exactly what Jesus’ words will do here, except HIS word will cause the armies to fall dead right where they stand.
3. God’s avian clean-up crew will clear the battlefield. Revelation 19:21b
Not too much to say about that, but watching birds eat the dead won’t be pretty to watch.
Now
Chapter 20 opens with the demise of Satan. John says,
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding the key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand. Revelation 20:1
We’ve heard of the abyss before. In Luke 8, when Jesus casts the demons out of a man on the Sea of Galilee, they beg Him not to send them into the abyss.
Theologians believe the abyss is a limitless pit, where it feels like you are perpetually falling, but never hit the ground.
4. Satan will be bound and cast into the abyss. Revelation 20:1
Verse 2:
He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the abyss, closed it, and put a seal on it so that he would no longer deceive the nations until the thousand years were completed. Revelation 20:2-3a
I was thinking about this- a bottomless pit where he could fall for 1000 years. How do you make a pit that big?
The it occurred to me, God’s already made things that big. God could just chuck satan into the area between galaxies which are 2.5 million light years of nothingness. It’s called “darkspace.” Totally dark, no light, no air, no matter exists there, just that endless free fall of floating alone in nothingness.
Then comes the good part!
Jesus turns His attention from dealing with the bad guys to rewarding the good guys. So that, starting on that very day…
6. The martyrs and believers will reign with Christ. Revelation 20:4
Look at this:
Then I saw thrones, and people seated on them who were given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and who had not accepted the mark on their foreheads or their hands.
There is a principle in scripture that is pretty absolute-
God always returns more to us than we give to Him. Those who’ve given their lives for His cause will receive thrones to reign on.
What will we be reigning over?
The answer is-I don’t know exactly. Using my imagination, and the previous example of galaxies I came up with this-
Consider that there has been about 108 billion people who have lived so far on this earth.
Scientists conservatively estimate that there are over 200 billion galaxies out there.
So it’s very possible you’ll have a nice chuck of space you’ll be responsible for.
To put it into perspective- By the time he was 30, Alexander the Great conquered the entire known world. The philosopher Plutarch records that when Alexander the Great looked at a map and saw everything he now ruled, he wept, because there was nowhere else he could conquer.
Friends, if you have trusted in Christ, you will inherit and reign over an area that would make Alexander’s kingdom look like a grain of sand on a beach compared to the potential of the Quadrillions more territory or people than any ruler on earth has ever been responsible for.
Alexander had very small area of one small planet under his control. You may have a galaxy…or two.
When God says reign and rule, He isn’t holding back at all.
Again, this is not necessarily a biblically found truth that you will reign over a galaxy- I’m just saying that God is an extravagant God, and when He says reward, reign, and rule, He means it.
Those who are faithful to follow Him and resist worshiping the Beast, will also reign with Him.
Look at the rest of the verse:
They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. Revelation 20:4
1,000 years.
The word for “one thousand years” in Latin is, “Millennium.” So Christians call this final 1,000 years of planet Earth, “The Millennium.” It’s an incredible time that I want to tell you about.
The bible says that all those in Christ
They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. Revelation 20:4-5
Then he adds,
This is the first resurrection. Revelation 20:5b
There are two resurrections at the end of time. The first is the resurrection of the righteous at the rapture, when the saints who exist in spirit form get their eternal bodies.
The second resurrection is the resurrection of the unrighteous, unto eternal damnation. This takes place at the end of the 1,000 year Millennium.
Verse 6 says,
Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years. Revelation 20:6
That’s our future.
So Jesus returns, with lightning, and thunder, and a trumpet, and an earthquake. The earthquake splits the earth, so that Jerusalem is lifted up, and the land around it is changed.
We see this in
Zechariah 14:8-11 says,
On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it towards the western sea, in summer and winter alike. On that day the Lord will become King over the whole earth – the Lord alone, and his name alone. All the land… south of Jerusalem will be changed into a plain.
But Jerusalem will be raised up and will remain on its site… People will live there, and never again will there be a curse of complete destruction. So Jerusalem will dwell in security. Zechariah 14:8-11
The next action after Christ’s return:
5. Jerusalem will rise in elevation. Zechariah 14:10
Right now, the Holy City is at 2,700 feet. Which is not so high. Our highest elevation here in Trempealeau County is 1440 near Chimney Rock, so about half as elevated as Jerusalem is currently
However, in the millennium, it will be lifted up, like a throne for the Lord Jesus.
So what will this 1,000 years be like?
Jesus will be king. And He will rule over us like no earthly ruler ever has: with justice and love and no hidden or personal agenda.
The saints who participated in the first resurrection will all be there. We’ll have resurrected bodies, which, like Jesus’ resurrected body, will be eternal. We’ll never die.
Like Jesus after His resurrection, we’ll be able to eat, and to walk through walls, and to cover large distances in very little time.
In other words, the conditions we only briefly saw in the Garden of Eden will be our new reality.
The Bible has several passages that describe what life will be like during this 1,000 year reign of Christ. Here’s one:
Isaiah 11: 6 The wolf will dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard will lie down with the goat.
The calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf will be together,
and a child will lead them.
7 The cow and the bear will graze,their young ones will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like cattle.
8 An infant will play beside the cobra’s pit,and a toddler will put his hand into a snake’s den.
9 They will not harm or destroy each other on my entire holy mountain,for the land will be as full
of the knowledge of the Lordas the sea is filled with water.
Isaiah 11:6-9
Write this down-Isaiah 65: 21-25 for more about this.
In other words- your Work will be meaningful. People will live in harmony with Jesus on the throne.
This will last for ten centuries.
During the Millennium, we’ll experience what it’s like to have a righteous government. Because Jesus will be our Governor.
Isaiah 9 says,
The government will be upon His shoulders.
He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
7 The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end.
He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever.
Isaiah 9:6-7
TRANSITION
And then God will do something that I don’t really understand. Maybe it’s because His love is so vast, He refuses to give up on anyone.
Maybe because of His compassion. Maybe because there must someday be a final reckoning for all who do not trust in the Lord. And this reckoning comes when Satan is released.
Revelation 20:7 says,
When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison… 8 and will go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle. Their number is like the sand of the sea.
So apparently, like today, there will be a lot of people alive during the Millennium who are not true believers. The do the bare requirements, but their hearts are not really for God.
9 They came up across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the encampment of the saints, the beloved city. Revelation 20:7-9
The Millennium ends in a rebellion by all non-believers, led by Satan once again.
You’d think he would have learned his lesson: that Jesus is unbeatable.
But nope-
Then fire came down from heaven and consumed them.10 The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Revelation 20:7-10
6. Satan will be thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:10
Then comes what the Bible calls “The Great White Throne Judgment.” The judgment that separates the sheep from the goats.
Immediately following that will be the New Creation. We’ll learn about the New Creation next week. You don’t want to miss next week!
The New Creation is the New Heavens and the New Earth, which will replace our current Earth, and become our eternal home.
Conclusion/Application
Friends, blessed and holy are all those who share in the first resurrection! Rejoice and look forward to it, the best is yet to come!
But these promises are only for the believer in Christ.
Altar Call
PRAYER
