The Millennium

Intro: Well, this is the week that many of us has been waiting for for quite some time now. This Tuesday is election day, and I encourage each of you who is registered to come out and vote. Ronda and I will be casting our votes. I encourage you to spend some serious time in prayer for the election and the fate of our nation. Many Christians will be fasting along with prayer, seeking for God to intervene in the election and place his man in office. My girls I think are even more excited about the presidential race than I am. Jacqueline especially is a strong supporter of one of the presidential candidates, but I’ll let you find out from her which one that is.

This week we will find out whether the new president of the USA will be George W. Bush or Al Gore. In many ways, while these may both be good men with good desires, we know they are both fallible men. Wouldn’t you just love for someone to come forward who would lead our nation in truth and justice, with honor and power, with peace and goodness for all. Sometimes it is easy to get discouraged when we look at what we have in our nation. But let’s remember this morning that our God is in complete control. There will be no surprises for the Lord on Tuesday night. Our God has his plan firmly established for this world. And one day, the perfect leader will take charge, and we want to look at that leader this morning.

This morning, I would like us to look ahead into the future. I want to look past Tuesday, for I can’t really give you any predictions that I know will come true. But this is one of those good news/bad news scenarios. First the good news: For the Christians, our future is secure. 1 Thess. 4 tells us According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord for ever. Therefore encourage each other with these words. We call this the rapture.

Now for the bad news. For those who are left behind on the earth, there will come a terrible time like has never been seen before. There’s a series of books called “Left Behind” that many of you are familiar with. This week a video came out by the same title that talks about some of the things to happen. Revelation 13 talks about a great world leader who will arise in the midst of famine and sickness and death. He will offer peace, protection, and safety for all who will follow him. We call him the antichrist. He is called antichrist for he seeks to take the place of God. 2 Thess. 2 tells us Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for [that day will not come] until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. the antichrist will deceive all the nations, and set up a system whereby one can only buy or sell if he takes the mark of the antichrist - 666 - in his hand or forehead. We could study for weeks about the events in the tribulation period - and maybe we will in the beginning of next year.

But let’s look on to the good news: 2 Thess 2 goes on in verse 8 to tell us And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. If you think we have had a scandalous leader in Clinton, think what it will be like under the reign of the Antichrist. But the antichrist will face defeat. And we want to look at that defeat this morning. Look with me in Rev. chapter 19.

Read Rev. 19:11-20:6

Jesus Christ will come back to this earth and set up his reign for a thousand years. We call this time the millennium, from the Latin term for 1000 years. Let’s look this morning at a few things about this reign.