REIGN WITH CHRIST
Revelation 20:1-15
Key Verse: 20:6
Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
In the last chapter John saw a vision of the lamb’s wedding and the bride who was clothed in fine linen which represented the righteous acts of the saints. He was told to write “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” Then he saw a rider named the Word of God leading the armies of heaven to strike the nations with a sword that came out of his mouth. A call went out to all the birds of the air, inviting them to come and feast on corpses after the coming battle. Then the beast and kings of the earth tried to war against the King of Kings and Lord of Lord’s but they failed. The beast and false prophet were captured and cast into a fiery lake of burning sulfur. Then their soldiers were slaughtered with the sword that came from the mouth of one called the Word of God. The next vision reveals amazing good news, an often studied 1000 year reign, Satan’s ultimate defeat and what seems to be the final judgment of all people who ever existed.
SLIDE v1-3
Let’s see some amazing good news in verse 1-3. An angel descends from heaven with the key to the Abyss and chain in his hand. The angel arrested the dragon who appeared in chapter 12 and locked it up in the Abyss for one thousand years. Now John tells us that Satan, God’s archenemy, is the real identity of the dragon who caused much havoc in the previous chapters. In chapter 12, The dragon threw ⅓ of the stars to the earth and was cast out of heaven, so he tried to make war against those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus. He gave his power, throne and great authority to the beast of chapter 13 then people worshiped Satan, thinking he is invincible. In chapter 16, the dragon, the beast and their false prophet spit out demonic spirits to perform miraculous signs and gather kings of the world together for battle against God. It is amazing to see that Satan had amazing authority and power, but an angel overpowered him in a moment. One big question we wish to know most is why God puts up with Satan when he causes so much disobedience and suffering. Considering his power and bad influence, it seems like amazing good news that he would be unable to deceive people and trouble them for 1000 years.
SLIDE v4
Right after that John saw an impressive sight. Let’s read verse 4. “I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” The vision gives many things to wonder about, judges, the first resurrection and possibly one of the most interesting topics among believers, the thousand year reign with Christ.
SLIDE saints as judges
The first thing to wonder about are the judges on the thrones. Earlier there were 24 elders on thrones who worship and serve god day and night. These judges seem like different servants. We wonder what cases they might determine or preside over in their roles. Are they also resurrected people or spiritual entities? There is no further description of their origin. Jesus told his disciples they would sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Elsewhere, Paul wrote that believers would even judge the angels. John might be seeing himself in the vision without realizing it. It is possible they have extreme authority that transcends into heavenly realms.
SLIDE four cases
Next to wonder about is the special situation for those who were beheaded. There may be up to four groups: 1) those who testified about Jesus, 2) those who stood on the Word of God, 3) those who did not worship the beast and its image, and 4) those who did not receive the mark of the beast. 3rd & 4th might be a single category and it’s not exactly clear if these souls come from just the times we are studying in Revelation or much longer. Some might even include John the Baptist who was beheaded for his faithful stand on God’s word, but it might include other unknown prophets who died the same way throughout history. Because of the murderous power of the fiery red horse, people kill each other too often and believers are killed for Jesus’ sake all over the world. Beheading people makes a gruesome execution, and usually intended to shock and frighten political enemies. God has his eye on his people though and cares for their souls more than many sparrows
SLIDE Islamist murderers
Militant Islamic groups made a lot of headlines in the last decade by publishing videos of their murders. Many victims seem to be killed for their faith, rather than outright conflict against the Islamic groups. 20 Egyptian Coptic christians and one man from Ghana or perhaps Chad became unfortunately famous because of this persecution. They were just migrant workers trying to earn money when they were kidnapped in 2015 and beheaded along with other believers who were murdered. There is another very recent story from Democratic Republic of Congo about militant Islamic raiders killing Christians and beheading some. Many believers are killed this way in our times. If the visions of the beasts in chapter 13 turn out to be a worldwide movement or dictatorship, there will be a large number of people killed for disobedience. Many of them will also get beheaded.
SLIDE v4-6
John saw a special consideration for those beheaded on account of Christ and for God’s sake. They were raised to life and serve as priests of Christ and reign with him for a thousand years. It may be a comfort for some who knew the people who were killed in this way, but might make some others morbidly jealous. We have to wonder what their special mission or opportunities are as they serve the lord after being raised to life. We might worry we are missing out on something good. But I think it is not a good idea to seek beheading on purpose, to get a special priestly assignment. Elsewhere in the Bible all the believers are described as a kingdom of priests, so all will have something to do in that sense now and forever. It is better to remember the beheaded martyrs as a sort of special unit, set apart by God for a special purpose. Probably 99.9999% of these special servants are virtually unknown in the world and seem insignificant in world history. But God’s plan for them is very special. They sort of resemble the sons of Aaron whom God set apart in the Mosaic system and the 144,000 singers who were redeemed to follow the lamb wherever he goes in chapter 14. We can only imagine what they do as they reign with Christ. Yet, we have to thank God for their faithful witness, encouraging us to keep the faith and trust in God no matter what happens.
SLIDE v7-10
Next John described Satan’s release from the abyss. Verse 7&8 say Satan succeeds again in deceiving the nations and gathers people like the sand on the seashore for his last stand. In verse 9, they marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. This seems like the final confrontation between God and Satan. The attempt to conquer the camp of God’s people failed however. John saw fire come down from heaven that devoured the attackers so the city god loves is rescued without even a fight. This scene prompts an inspiring thought: all Satan may attempt or plot is ultimately limited by God and his destiny is to fail in his attempt to overpower or usurp God’s authority.
SLIDE v6
Since the Bible study theme is Reign with Christ and the passage mentions certain souls reigning with him for 1000 years, we should also wonder briefly about the time span because it is much discussed among believers, maybe even recently in the news. There are two ways that christians tend to view the thousand years, either an actual 1000 years on this earth as we know it, or as a metaphor or symbolic reference to a set time that God needs to accomplish his purpose. Each view has been incorporated into numerous theological schools of thought and various sects of Christianity. Each sect might have their own variations of a particular view. Each sounds intriguing to marvel about and each view produced many false prophecies regarding the beast and false prophet, the return of Jesus and the end of the age. Therefore, it is best to think humbly about those souls reigning with Christ.
SLIDE v6 and chart
In overall Christian history it seems that early Christian writers expected an actual thousand year kingdom on earth. Some years later the predominant view leaned toward symbolic and it was more popular for a long time. Maybe the famous author Augustine had the first big influence moving opinion toward the symbolic view. The actual thousand year view grew in popularity again from sometime around the early 19th century and is still growing in popularity.At the same time, some other fringe ideas also gained popularity over the last century. Let’s compare how either view, symbolic or literal, might play out for the souls John described reigning with Christ after being raised to life.
SLIDE Premillennial
The simplest literal view of the passage is called pre-millennial and seems to occur chronologically after the beast and false prophet rally the nations against God at Mount Megiddo. That plan gets thwarted as the leaders are captured and cast into a fiery lake of burning sulfur. Then all their followers are killed by the sword that came out of the mouth of the leader of heaven’s armies. In this scenario, the leader on the horse is considered Christ’s second coming. After that Satan is arrested and put in the abyss and the resurrected souls reign with Christ for 1000 years on this earth, though it may be badly damaged. (SLIDE v6) So what will the souls that have been raised to life do? The implication is that there are still people on earth and we might suppose the resurrected servants will somehow take care of them. They would likely have a resurrection style body similar to Jesus after his resurrection so they don’t need standard transportation to get here and there. They should coordinate infrastructure repairs to the world that was destroyed by earthquakes and other judgments, and should have some miraculous powers like the apostles had on their mission journeys. With that, the resurrected priests might heal anyone of any kind of disease and multiply loaves and fish at will. Under their care, we can imagine that people will live very long lives again, like the folks in Genesis, so a thousand years might be closer to a person’s lifespan and that would enable a substantial repopulation of earth. (SLIDE Jerusalem) At the end of those thousand years, most likely all of the people who survived the armageddon days will have died and a large part of the next generation would apparently follow the pattern of the world. They will fall for Satan’s ideas once he is released, forsaking God’s grace to them and revolting as we read. Following this chronologically, the last group would presumably gather around Jerusalem to destroy the camp of those resurrected servants.
SLIDE Amillennial
Considering the 1000 years symbolically, the most prominent theory is known as the amillennial view. It might seem odd because the simple number seems so easy to read. But if so many other things in Revelation have to be understood symbolically, there are reasons to consider it. For example, the dragon John observed in this and other chapters is not a physical lizard living in the sky, but a metaphorical representation of Satan. Likewise, it is hard to find an actual human woman standing on the moon, dressed up in the sun. That vision must be a symbolic representation of someone or something God uses to accomplish his plans. Understanding it is an option to see this chapter in a purely symbolic sense is interesting. (SLIDE Matthew 12:29) The predominant view is that it represents the time of christianity in general as the gospel spreads to all the nations. It assumes Satan is restrained from influencing the people, similar to Jesus’ strongman parable, so that missionaries may have success sharing the good news. All while political powers and other religions attempt to eliminate and corrupt the believers. One may ask if there is any way to clarify the association of a metaphorical 1000 years to something else. (SLIDE thousand years) A thousand years are only mentioned in three other places in the Bible outside of Revelation 20. Two of them are essentially the same verse. Psalm 90 considered God’s view of time, comparing a thousand years to a day and Apostle Peter quoted that verse in a discussion about the end of time. Peter seems to expect the lord to come like a thief, with such power that everything we see and consider to the universe will be destroyed. It resembles the fiery end of Satan and his army at the final battle. Peter called it the Day of the Lord. But that does not seem to be 1000 years, just an instant in time. So it’s logical to look for some way to identify the beginning of the day of the lord. (SLIDE Malachi) Maybe it is possible according to the prophetic promise in Malachi chapter 4:5-6. There God promised to send Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. Jesus himself testified that this promise was describing John the Baptist. So, it is metaphorically possible that his preaching and anointing Jesus could be the beginning of the day of the Lord that is represented by the 1000 years reigning with Christ and “the day of the Lord” can fit into the scope of chapter 20. (SLIDE v6) But what could be the situation for those souls he saw if this thousand years is just a code word, or metaphor, hinting at some other time span? They must be reigning with Christ as we speak. Serving some form of priestly tasks in his presence. They are set apart now, like the priests of the old covenant. Their resurrection must be somehow simultaneous with their death. In this theory, when Satan is released his last attack is focused on the Church, depicted as a city. He infiltrates all the Christian communities to lead them away from God, so they worship him instead of God. In this view, there would be rampant ungodliness in christian communities all over the world just before Jesus returns with power and glory.
SLIDE ESV Notes
There is an interesting note in one study Bible about this topic. After outlining the symbolic view and two variations of the literal view it says, “Each of these views is within the framework of historic Christian orthodoxy.” That’s very interesting, because we typically require one idea to be right and we like to proudly be correct. It is odd that a scholarly committee would not turn left or right to advocate one idea over the other.
SLIDE Post Millennial
There is another idea about the 1000 year reign called Postmillennial, meaning Jesus will return after the 1000 year period. It is more of a historically fringe idea and might not fit the historic orthodoxy. It might come up while evangelizing or disciple making because of recent headlines and political figures seem to promote something similar. It differs from other theories because it expects the transformation to a 1000 year kingdom to be the gradual result of Christian activity. It also has symbolic and literal 1000 year groups. The earlier adherents expected the world to change by God’s influence as believers shared the Bible until almost the whole world became Christian, but they expected the change in individuals believing one by one. Maybe the Jehovah Witnesses are one grop that keeps this view alive in our time. (SLIDE 7M) A later implementation proposes that Christians need to take over institutions and cause the whole world to become Christian or at least live as the Christian leaders require in preparation for the end of time. It might come up while evangelizing because it is appearing in the news these days as many christians are actively trying to take over things that influence culture and people. Many are criticizing their effort because it seems to be getting cult-like and possibly too influential for the world’s liking. It might seem enticing to exercise power in society, but it almost always seems to morph into lording over others and worse troubles.
SLIDE Historicist View
One far less popular theory about the 1000 years is called a historicist view that tries to align the time with events in world history or have it coincide with ongoing events. This is the least popular view in history and also has literal and symbolic ideas. One such theory considers Satan’s binding and Saints reigning sort of coinciding with Jesus’ ministry and church growth up to the destruction of the Jewish temple. In that theory Satan and the saints who came to life inhabit different sections of Hades, for a time less than an actual thousand years. Satan in the prison side and the saints in the paradise side. This is similar to the story of Lazarus and the rich man who are depicted in one or the other section of Hades. Since the place of the dead is destroyed in the next scene, we can only imagine the beheaded saints similarly fulfilling their priestly roles with Jesus in the good section of hades. They would presumably move on to whatever comes next at the same time Judaism could no longer function once the temple was destroyed.
SLIDE 11-15
The very end of the world as we know seems to be the subject of the next vision in verse 11-15. John sees someone sitting on a great white throne and the whole earth and sky disappear. Suddenly everyone else beside those who were beheaded are standing before the throne to face judgment based on what was recorded about them in some books and everyone’s destiny is determined. Death and Hades were then thrown into the lake of fire and so was everyone who’s name was not found in the book of life. Based on most end of time scenarios that we discussed this judgment is sudden, all at once at the end of time. The fringe views might consider this a separate view of an ongoing judgment that each person faces when they die, crossing over from this mortal life to eternity. It is most important to understand that Christianity proposes a definite judgment for sin and eternal consequences for rejecting the son of God in stubborn rebellion. Thank God he provides salvation and forgiveness for those who believe and whose names are found in the lambs book of life. Thank God that he gives us many chances to consider his amazing grace and repent. Thank God that we can be sure all evil doing and ungodly influences will be destroyed and justly punished in eternity.
SLIDE Key Verse
Considering various views of the 1000 year reign can be confusing and zealously adhering to one or the other can lead to grumpy arguments, demeaning accusations, even sinfully proud attempts to judge those who disagree with our view. There was a note on the study guide that encouraged the readers to lean toward a symbolic view. It is historically the more widely accepted idea, but it seems important to be open minded and considerate while thinking over the various ideas. Considering the fact that Christians have so many ideas about it, many prefer not to think too much about the millennium or find an idea that makes sense and keep it in mind. I noticed that in all scenarios, the day to day life of believers is not really affected. We have to put our hope in Jesus’ death to save us from sin, be his witnesses wherever we are, and look forward to eternity with him after we die or get transformed when God is done with the world as we know it. According to the passage, if we arae beheaded for the sake of Christ, we will experience a special opportunity to serve. If we are otherwise martyred for Christ it seems we would join the souls in the throne crying out for justice and looking forward to the very end. If we die by other means in the Lord, we will sleep with the same hope of eternal life in the kingdom that never ends.
Let’s read the key verse together and pray.