Revelation 20 Verses 1 – 2

• Is this Michael?  I mean we learn a little bit about the angelic strength of Satan in Daniel Chapter 10.  An angel is dispatched to answer his prayers, and it’s cool, the angel says to him in Daniel Chapter 10 verse 12, “from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words.”
• We often think that Daniel was Daniel and so he prayed and God dispatched the angel, but notice, Daniel’s prayer was heard and subsequently answered not simply because he took the time to pray but because Daniel set his heart to understand in humility before God…there’s an entire lesson in that verse, but not for tonight, just something to chew on…
• And so we see this angel is restrained for 21 days.  He’s on his way to Daniel and he says that the Prince of Persia, another title for Lucifer in the Bible, restrained him and Michael had to come subdue Lucifer to release Daniel’s messenger.  And so, here in Revelation 20, is this Michael?
• Could be but why not name him John?  You named him in Chapter 12…what I’m getting to is this.  This is not necessarily Michael yet Lucifer is necessarily chained!  Why?  Because this is God’s Word man.  This is God’s command, His will, His plan…and I like to see this.  I like to see that if God has spoken, the gates of hell do not prevail. 
• As we read through the pages of the Word and as we hang out with God and hear from Him and talk with Him and learn Him and get to know Him and His truth, I find myself at times worried that I can’t get it done man.  That I can’t overcome my anger, I can’t overcome my past…that I don’t have what it takes to bear the cross…but I’m encouraged.  If God’s Word is my marching orders...if God’s will is my aim…if His kingdom is my focus…then it’ll get done…may not be as I expected, may not be in my time frame…but here, God’s eternal eschatological plan played out in just a simple angel…bounding the father of all fallen angels…again, why…where’s the power…it’s in the Word man…so is what I’m doing, the direction I’m going…does it align with the Word??
• If not.  Snares all around man.  Troubles interminable.  Continuous strife, continuous offenses and continous frustration.  So I’m encouraged in the simplicity of power man.  Eyes up.  Heart set to understand, humility before the throne and authority and glory of God…Lucifer in chains…
• And notice, Satan is bound for a thousand years…the earthly millennial reign of Jesus Christ upon the earth has begun.  Understand the eschatological order presented in the pages of scripture.  It all kicks off with the rapture of the church.  Chapter 4 and we have the wonderful scene of the church in heaven through Chapters 4 and 5.  Then the seven year Great Tribulation period contained within Chapters 6 – 19.  Then Jesus returns, Chapter 19, and ushers in the 1,000 year reign or the millennial reign upon the earth.  Then the final judgment, the new heaven and the new earth and we all live happily ever after…

Revelation Chapter 20 Verse 3

• So Satan is bound but he is not yet thrown into the Lake of Fire or Gahanna which is where he will be for all of eternity.  Rather he is bound in the abusso or the bottomless pit which is such a horrible place that even the demons of Matthew Chapter 8 begged to be allowed to enter the swine rather than to go there.  But why?  Why not just do away with him once and for all right now?
• Well, God has a job for him to do.  We’ll see that in a moment when we get to verse 7. 
• But did you notice, I think its cool…says right there, the angel went to the devil and “shut him up.”  Shut up you dirty devil.  J

Revelation Chapter 20 Verse 4

• So the Great Tribulation is concluded, Satan is bound, Jesus is back and righteous reign is established.  Righteous reign?  Yea, check it.  Satan is gone man.  Mankind no longer has him to contend with but there still remains a formidable opponent, the flesh.  Men must yet still contend with themselves.  Their sin nature.  Those that are still in their flesh that is…which by now is not a very large crowd.  I mean the Great Tribulation took out the majority of the world.
• So who’s left?  Those that have somehow survived the Great Tribulation and we know of at least one group of those folks.  Zechariah 13 says that the remnant of Israel, one third of the nation that went into the Great Tribulation, the group that fled to the hills at the Abomination of Desolation, encouraged by the 144,000 to remain pure, not to take the mark…they’ll see Jesus and they’ll ask Him, “where did you get those wounds?”  This is found in Zechariah 13:6…and Jesus will say, “I got them in the house of My friends…”
• And at that moment, the remaining Jews will turn to Jesus.  We find that clear for us in Zechariah 13:9 and also Romans 11:26.  And so righteousness reigning, Jesus Himself King and Ruler of the world for 1,000 years, and who’s His crew?  We are!  Well we know that those that were raptured…as Rev 4 shows us…are in the spirit…they are in some sort of spirit form…I call it spysical…I know, another word I made up! J
• But here they are, here is the church, the bride of Christ…we saw in Rev 19 that the church comes riding back within the calvary of the King man…so what are we?  Are we spirit?  Are we physical?  Well, I would say…yes!  We are free from the flesh, we’ve been raptured right into heaven yet we sing…yet we sit at the Father’s table at the marriage supper of the Lamb…we have joy…we have conversation, we have relationship, we have love…so we’re not a cloud harpist!  HA!  We’re something else man…spysical! 
• And so what will we be doing?  Ruling and reigning man!  Why?  Because even though those living in the Millennium won’t be influenced by Satan, they still have their human nature to deal with…so they even think about ripping off a snickers, we’re there in that moment enforcing Christ’s righteousness…and oh by the way, don’t forget, we’re spysical man…eyes wide open to the spiritual side of all matters and so we see it before it even becomes a plan!!!
• A glorious time of peace will be upon the earth because righteousness will be enforced…

Revelation Chapter 20 Verse 5

• Who are the “rest of the dead?”  Simple.  Those in hell.  Those that have died in faith, saved by the atoning blood of the Lamb, they’re back!  Those that have died in the Great Tribulation for not taking the mark, not bowing to the Antichrist…those that have come to faith during that time…they’re back…sitting on thrones man living again!  So it’s simple here.  Those that have died in pride, died in disbelief and unacceptance of Jesus Christ…still dead for a thousand years in hades or hell.  And so the first resurrection is complete.
• What do you mean complete?  Well it began over 2,000 years ago with Jesus.  1 Corinthians 15:20 tells us that by Jesus rising from the grave, He has become the firstfruit of salvation unto God the Father and so He started it man!  And now it’s complete.  The resurrection unto life as the Bible would call it.  One resurrection remains right?  Obviously but the next resurrection is the resurrection unto condemnation…

Revelation Chapter 20 Verses 6 – 8

• And so a job yet to be done by the great deceiver…he is loosed for a short time to go out and tempt the nations…those that have been born in the Millennium, those living in enforced righteousness and peace because there’s no other choice…those that have not yet had the opportunity to decide whether or not to follow the Lord…and what blows me away…even though God Himself has been their King…their lives have been filled with nothing but goodness and peace, many will choose to reject Jesus…
• And then it dawns on me…no matter how good your life can get, if you are not simply in love with the Lord man…you’ll still be lost…and so yes I’m concerned very much with your days and with your trials and with your homes being at peace and with you being at peace but I am eternally more concerned with your connection, your walk, your relationship with the Lord…one on one.  That’s why the answer to any question…how can I be a better wife?  How can I love her more?  How can I respect him more?  How can I be a better parent, a better friend…how can I best handle this situation….the answer is always…grow in your relationship with Jesus…because that is where the safety is…that is where the power is…that is where the salvation is…
• Apparently, clearly, biblically…it’s not in the righteous lifestyle…isn’t that amazing!  The spirit rules the flesh man…and the center of the spirit is the heart…and so if your treasure is in earthly things, religious righteousness, outward peace then so too is your heart…when your heart belongs in one place only…in the nail scarred hands…And so Satan will be loosed to try the nations one last time, why?  Because God is love and love requires a choice.
• If April married me because I was the only man left on earth then that marriage would not be based on love but on the absence of any other choice…so too, God gives choice to each and every person…this is why ultra Calvinism, irresistible grace, universalism…this is all bad doctrine because it actually removes God’s love from the equation…
• And John mentions Gog and Magog here which is kinda odd because it would seem that from Ezekiel 38 and 39, Russia has already been destroyed and so I believe this is a spiritual title, not a physical title but rather the title given to the people who choose Satan, those that oppose Is-ra-el, (or the “governed of God”), just as Gog and Magog had done, although scripture does leave room in Ezekiel for this to be sort of Gog and Magog revived by the deception of the enemy…

Revelation Chapter 20 Verses 9 – 10

• Why surround the beloved city?  Who’s there?  Yep, Jesus…so they are deceived to the point that they come against the Lord, which the devil does to people every day, and in one moment they are consumed and their leader is done away with once and for all.  There it is, the demise of the evil one…one verse, that’s all he’s worth…

Revelation Chapter 20 Verses 11 – 13

• Who’s this?  Are these believers?  Those that accepted Jesus as their Savior?  Nope!  Very clear here in verse 13, “each one is judged according to his works.”  Not for the believer…the Bible is clear.  The doctrine of salvation by grace through faith is preeminent throughout.  Ephesians 2:8 – 9 is could not be more straight-forward, “for by grace you have been saved (salvation from what?  This white throne judgment and it’s result!) through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
• So will believers stand before this white throne judgement?  No.  If you’re a Christian, this judgment doesn’t apply to you.  Where are you?  On a throne man…ruling and reigning with Him!  You see you were judged when Christ was on another throne, not a white one, a wooden one.  He wore a crown not of gold but of thorns and as He took the judgment upon Himself for your sins and for my sins, He cleansed us from all of them and saved us from this…adding your name to the Book of Life…
• So how long is this judgment?  A split second man…no matter how many good works, if one bad…lost…each person, a split second…and the wages of sin are death…

Revelation Chapter 20 Verses 14 – 15

• All the old is over man.  It’s all done.  Satan, evil, sin, and all their babies…gone man.  The Bible speaks of the lake of fire as outer darkness, constant burning, filled with worms that eat the flesh, weeping and gnashing of teeth, eternal separation…how can it be all those things?  Because it is not America.  It is not Denver on fire.  There is no sun.  There is no water.  There is no morning…even the fire is not comparable to the fire we know.  This fire burns dark man…no party.  No Sex, drugs and rock and roll…eternally alone man and eternally buried in fire man…
• Entire movements today rejects the doctrine of hell…Rob Bell, the cults, Chad Holtz, Charles Gilihan…I don’t care.  Jesus didn’t.  The Bible doesn’t.  It’s right here, plain as day man…but these folks partner with atheists and universalists and speak of how can a God of love create a place so vastly horrible and I say to them, how can you accept Jesus’ sacrifice as payment for your sin, yet reject the very hell He saved you from?  You see you’ve missed that love offers choice.  You see you’ve missed the hell of the cross of Christ…and ultimately, where they’re going is to the root of that false doctrine…the rejection of the cross…you cannot accept salvation through the cross of Christ and yet reject eternal penalty if that salvation is rejected…you arrive at either universalism or straight up rejection of the blood of Jesus…both from the pit, man.
• No, what Jesus did for you and for me was heavy man…real and worthy of our attention because He saved us…from this…and it’s all done now…next chapter opens up with all things made new man…the end of the story for many, the beginning for many…which will it be for you?