Revelation 20A (2011)

Transcription

1 (2011) We ve spent twenty six weeks studying through the seven years of Tribulation SLIDE 20-1 In fact, our study of tribulation required about 7% of the time that Tribulation will actually last! In the twenty lessons we devoted to that topic, we repeatedly noted that Christ s return will put an end to this time SLIDE 20-2 And when Christ returns, He will set up His kingdom on earth The world has anticipated the moment of the Lord s arrival on Earth = since it was first promised in Genesis 3:15 The ancient world, the patriarchs, Israel s prophets and kings, the apostles and the saints have eagerly anticipated this coming day We too should have our eyes firmly fixed on the moment when the Lord will keep His promises to establish His kingdom in Jerusalem When we shall be there with Him to enjoy our inheritance among the nations So having studied about the Lord s return last week, you should reasonably expect that tonight I would begin to teach about the arrival of the kingdom and all it will contain But you would be wrong We ll be learning about the kingdom in the near future, but first we must spend a night or so on other matters that precede the beginning of Christ s rule Specifically, we must study events that take place between the moment of Christ s triumphant return to Earth and the first day of the 1,000 year kingdom We begin tonight by introducing the concept of an interval of time sandwiched between these two events And even before that, let s revisit the basis for our Tribulation timeline from Daniel 9 May be copied and distributed provided the document is reproduced in its entirety, including this copyright statement, and no fee is collected for its distribution.

2 2! of! 19 In Daniel 9, we saw the pivotal verse where Daniel learns God s plan to complete His judgment against Israel for their sins under the Old Covenant The verse was Daniel 9:27, which we ve consulted on numerous occasions SLIDE 20-3 Dan. 9:27 And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate. Let s review how our seven year period of Tribulation was given to us in this verse The verse begins by announcing that a seven year period (i.e., a week ) would begin with the signing of a covenant We know from past study this was the covenant between the antichrist and the leadership of Israel It allowed the Jews to restart sacrifice in a newly constructed temple Then we saw that the midpoint of the week is the pivotal moment in the seven years At this moment the sacrifice in the temple would end Next we learn that the antichrist will make the temple and the world desolate until a complete destruction is poured out upon the antichrist This happens at the end of the seven years when the Lord returns to destroy the antichrist, as we saw last week So the anchors of the seven year period are the beginning, the middle and the end And each half of this seven year period is designated in a variety of ways in Revelation, but the common manner is to count 1,260 days Since the Jewish calendar counts 360 days in a year, 1,260 days equals exactly 3½ years So the seven years can be divided into two haves of 1,260 years

3 3! of! 19 Now we re ready to move to look at a new timeline, also from Daniel SLIDE 20-4 Daniel 12:11-12 focuses on the last half of the seven years and specifically at events at the very end Dan. 12:11 From the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. Dan. 12:12 How blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1,335 days! Notice that in v.11 we see one of the familiar anchors again The verse mentions the moment that the regular sacrifice is abolished, which is the midpoint of Tribulation And then Daniel introduces an additional detail to the midpoint anchor He mentions the setting up of an abomination in the temple We later learned the thing set up will be an image of the antichrist that the world must worship Beginning at the midpoint of Tribulation, Daniel tells us to count 1,290 days until the abomination of desolation is gone After 1,290, these things will be undone Meaning, the abomination will be removed and the temple sacrifice will be restored Then in v.12, the timeline gets even more intriguing Those who are blessed of the Lord will be those who wait for and attain to 1,335 days The description of waiting and attaining conveys a sense of a period of testing or evaluation Only if one makes it through this period will that person be considered blessed Given the context, the definition of blessed must be to enter into the kingdom Falling short of the 1,335th day would mean not entering the kingdom, and therefore not begin blessed

4 4! of! 19 So Daniel tells us there will be 75 days to follow Christ s return but before the Kingdom will begin and everyone on Earth will be considered blessed SLIDE 20-5 The question then arrises why does this time exist and what happens in this time? The first answer is a simple and practical one There are things that must happen in preparation for the inauguration of the kingdom and the start of Christ s reign We already know one thing that must happen before the kingdom begins according to Daniel 12 SLIDE 20-6 The Temple must be cleansed of the abomination And this cleansing will require 30 days after Christ s return As we ll see when we study the life of the Kingdom, the temple will continue to operate in the Millennial And the Lord Himself will occupy that temple Is. 2:2 Now it will come about that In the last days The mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. Is. 2:3 And many peoples will come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths. For the law will go forth from Zion And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. We ll study more about the temple in the Kingdom in a future week, but for now simply notice that the house of the Lord (i.e., the temple) is the dwelling place of Jesus Jesus can t occupy a house that is desolated by an abomination, so the cleansing must precede the Lord seating Himself on the throne Therefore, we have a period of thirty days to wait for that moment

5 5! of! 19 Besides directing the cleansing efforts, what else might we and the Lord be doing during that thirty days? We have already seen some things that must happen The Antichrist and the False Prophet are killed, resurrected and then placed into the Lake of Fire alive Secondly, the armies were killed and their bodies must be removed, with the help of the birds Third, we still have the final member of the false trinity, Satan, hanging around So we learn of his disposition in chapter 20 Rev. 20:1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. Rev. 20:2 And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; Rev. 20:3 and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time. SLIDE 20-7 After Jesus and the armies of angels and saints have arrived on Earth, we see there are yet still angels serving in the throne room of heaven This makes sense, since the Father will remain in the heavenly realm throughout the entire 1,000 year reign of Christ on earth We will study the reunion of the Godhead later in chapter 21 The angel comes to earth with a single mission: to bind Satan He binds the dragon, Satan, and places him in the pit for 1,000 years Satan s time in the pit corresponds exactly with the time of the Kingdom And later in v.7 we see Satan released at the end of the kingdom Descriptions like this one help guide us into a literal interpretation of the 1,000 year kingdom of Christ ruling on earth

6 6! of! 19 The holding place for the enemy during the thousand years will be the abyss The abyss is the place we saw mentioned at various times during the judgments of Tribulation It is a place located in the depths of the earth where God is holding demons spirits until the day of their judgment SLIDE 20-8 This abyss is not Hell (or Sheol) The abyss is always described as a holding place for the spirit realm, specifically sinful spirits called demons At a future point, the abyss will be emptied and all demons will receive their final judgment Similarly, Hell is a holding place for sinful humans in the depths of the earth But like the Abyss, Hell is not the final state for anyone It will be followed by a final judgment and a permanent home elsewhere We cover this process at the end of chapter 20 So looking at our 75-day interval, we know the disposition of the false trinity, the armies and the cleansing of the temple must occupy this time in part And we can also assign other items to this time period based on a process of elimination To be clear, we can t assign these events to a precise sequence, though there are some clues for sequence available from time to time Nevertheless, our goal is simply to catalogue all that happens in this period of time before moving on to a discussion of the kingdom SLIDE 20-9

7 7! of! 19 First, we know the earth has been utterly devastated during the time of Tribulation Yet this is an earth upon which the nations of the earth will dwell So there must be a period of restoration before we occupy the earth Is. 65:17 For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. Is. 65:18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing And her people for gladness. Is. 65:19 I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people; And there will no longer be heard in her The voice of weeping and the sound of crying. This chapter of Isaiah is describing the Kingdom which comes to righteous Israel as God has promised And notice that at the start of the description of this kingdom, Isaiah mentions clearly a recreation of the earth for this time For students of Revelation, it s easy to confuse this description with a similar phrase John uses in chapter 21 When we reach that chapter, we ll see that John is describing an entirely new world completely unlike the one we know now Even the shape and dimensions of the future world are radically different from the one we have now But in Isaiah s case, the world he goes on to describe is the familiar world we know today More importantly, the world Isaiah describes is a world that still has sin and death, as later verses in this chapter show This tells us clearly that Isaiah is talking about a recreation of the present earth rather than the arrival of the new heavens and earth of Revelation 21 So the 75-days includes work to repair the damage done by the judgments

8 8! of! 19 Notice that the One doing the recreation is the Lord Himself Whether we have some role to play as well is unknown, but the Lord is personally involved for sure Next, we need to consider the citizens of the kingdom More specifically, we need to understand who will enter the kingdom and the physical nature of these citizens For example, we already know a few of the residents are present with Christ We know the saints who descended from heaven, including you and me, will be with Christ in resurrected bodies We also heard of Old Testament and Tribulation saints who will be the invited guests at the marriage supper of the Lamb But when do these saints receive their new bodies as we did at the Rapture? And what about the Jews who are alive on earth and were saved at Christ s return? Are they receiving eternal bodies for their life in the kingdom? And what about the believing and unbelieving Gentiles who were alive on Earth at the moment of Christ s return? The Lord uses the 75-day interval to address the situation of each of these groups SLIDE Let s begin with the OT saints We know they have been with Christ in spirit form since the day He removed them from Sheol at His resurrection But we haven t heard that they have received their new bodies, that they have also been resurrected Daniel gives us that description also in chapter 12

9 9! of! 19 Dan. 12:1 Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued. Dan. 12:2 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. Notice that at the end of the time of distress, Daniel s people (the Jews) will be rescued, just as we studied Then at that time many of those who sleep in the ground will awake to everlasting life The terms sleep and wake in this context are euphemisms for death and resurrection So the resurrection of Daniel s people (i.e., the OT saints) will happen at the moment of Israel s saving Somewhere in the 75-day interval, the resurrection will take place Also notice that the unbelieving Jew is not mentioned at this point They are simply promised disgrace This is because the resurrection moment for the unbeliever doesn t take place until a later moment Isaiah confirms this account Is. 26:13 O LORD our God, other masters besides You have ruled us; But through You alone we confess Your name. Is. 26:14 The dead will not live, the departed spirits will not rise; Therefore You have punished and destroyed them, And You have wiped out all remembrance of them. Is. 26:15 You have increased the nation, O LORD, You have increased the nation, You are glorified; You have extended all the borders of the land. Is. 26:16 O LORD, they sought You in distress; They could only whisper a prayer, Your chastening was upon them.

10 10! of! 19 Is. 26:17 As the pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth, She writhes and cries out in her labor pains, Thus were we before You, O LORD. Is. 26:18 We were pregnant, we writhed in labor, We gave birth, as it seems, only to wind. We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth, Nor were inhabitants of the world born. Is. 26:19 Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, For your dew is as the dew of the dawn, And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits. Let s skim through the passage to get the point In v.13, Isaiah says that Israel will only confess the Lord s name through God s power That is a reference to the end of Tribulation And in v.14 Isaiah says the unbelievers of Israel will not live In v.16 Isaiah says Israel sought the Lord in their distress, though they could only whisper a prayer Because the Lord s chastening was upon them This description lines up perfectly with what we studied in Zechariah 12 and the saving of Israel in Jerusalem Then in v.19 Isaiah says that the dead of Israel will live and corpses will rise and shout for joy as the earth gives birth to departed spirits This is a description of the resurrection of all the OT saints Along with the OT saints, the Tribulation saints will be resurrected at this time Rev. 20:4 Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The verse opens with a mention of thrones and ruling, which we will come back to later in our discussion of the government of the Kingdom

11 11! of 19! Our focus for now moves to the second sentence, where the John mentions the souls he had seen earlier in chapter 6 These are the Tribulation saints martyred for their faith As they died, they entered Heaven as souls only without new bodies as yet Now John says these souls came to life Obviously, these saints were never dead so the phrase came to life is a description of resurrection They obtained new eternal bodies at this point so they could participate in the Kingdom for the 1,000 years This resurrection takes place during the 75-day interval, since they must be ready to reign for the entire 1,000 years Next, we consider the Jews who were alive on earth at the point of Jesus return They were in their natural bodies, of course, and they haven t died yet So what form will they take as they join Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the rest of the OT saints in the land of Israel? Let s consult a few passages concerning God s promises to Israel in the Kingdom Jer. 31:31 Behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, Jer. 31:32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, declares the LORD. Jer. 31:33 But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD, I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Jer. 31:34 They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know the LORD, for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, declares the LORD, for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.

12 12! of! 19 This passage is well known to most Christians because it captures the name of the covenant created in Christ s blood, that is the New Covenant But notice this covenant was made with Israel, not with Gentiles per se We are grafted into this covenant, Paul says But it was intended for Israel And part of the covenant promise is that all Israel will be perfect in their obedience and knowledge of the Lord Notice in v.34 that when this covenant is in effect for Israel, no one in Israel will need to teach another to know the Lord Evangelism in Israel will be unknown Because all Israel will already know and follow the Lord with perfectly obedient hearts Secondly, in an earlier chapter Jeremiah says concerning the Israel of the kingdom Jer. 24:7 I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the LORD; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart. Again, all Israel will have a heart to know the Lord, but now we hear that they will return to the Lord with their whole heart There will not be partial obedience as they had been in Israel s past Instead, it will be 100% obedience That begins to tell us something about the nature of Israel in the Kingdom Next, Jeremiah describes Israel in the kingdom again in chapter 50 Jer. 50:19 And I will bring Israel back to his pasture and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan, and his desire will be satisfied in the hill country of Ephraim and Gilead. Jer. 50:20 In those days and at that time, declares the LORD, search will be made for the iniquity of Israel, but there will be none; and for the sins of Judah, but they will not be found; for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant. Even if one searches for sin in Israel, none will be found

13 13! of! 19 Ezekiel says something similar Ezek. 11:19 And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, Ezek. 11:20 that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God. God gives Israel a heart capable of keeping all His statutes and ordinances perfectly As one final reference, let s go to Zephaniah Zeph. 3:9 For then I will give to the peoples purified lips, That all of them may call on the name of the LORD, To serve Him shoulder to shoulder. Zeph. 3:10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia My worshipers, My dispersed ones, Will bring My offerings. Zeph. 3:11 In that day you will feel no shame Because of all your deeds By which you have rebelled against Me; For then I will remove from your midst Your proud, exulting ones, And you will never again be haughty On My holy mountain. Zeph. 3:12 But I will leave among you A humble and lowly people, And they will take refuge in the name of the LORD. Zeph. 3:13 The remnant of Israel will do no wrong And tell no lies, Nor will a deceitful tongue Be found in their mouths; For they will feed and lie down With no one to make them tremble. The prophet describes Israel in the kingdom and confirms that Israel will have no sin, tell no lies, etc. The only way these statements concerning Israel can be true would be if the nation is sinless, glorified Israel must be 100% resurrected as they enter the kingdom

14 14! of! 19 So we know there must be a resurrection moment for Israel at some point in the 75-day interval so that all Israel occupies eternal sinless bodies Before moving to discuss the Gentiles who were alive, let s return to Revelation 20 to conclude our discussion of the resurrection of the saints Rev. 20:5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. Rev. 20:6 Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years. In v.4 John described the resurrection of the Tribulation saints, and then in v.5 John says the rest of the dead didn t come to life until after the thousand years By process of elimination, the rest of the dead can only refer to unbelievers All groups of believer have already been resurrected OT Saints Church saints Saints who were martyred in Tribulation Believing Jews alive at the end of Tribulation (We will hold off on a discussion of the resurrection of the believing Gentiles who live through Tribulation) So in v.5 John speaks of a first resurrection, which implies a second resurrection The one who has a part in the first resurrection is blessed and the second death has no power over these saints They reign for a 1,000 years The Bible teaches that there are two resurrections Believers have a part in the first resurrection The mention of part reflects the fact that the first resurrection takes place over a series of events

15 15! of! 19 The first resurrection began with Christ s own resurrection Paul told us that Christ was the first fruits of the resurrection, the first to receive a new body 1Cor. 15:20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. Following Christ, the Church receives new bodies at the Rapture Next, the Two Witnesses are resurrected at the middle of Tribulation Finally, there will be the resurrections of the 75-day interval Collectively, these events are the First Resurrection And we are blessed to have apart in this event All unbelievers will be resurrected in a second event at the end of the 1,000 years We ll study this event more later at the end of chapter 20 That leaves us with one group unaccounted for in the 75-day interval: the living Gentiles At the end of the Tribulation, there were Gentiles living on the earth like the Jews We know that all living Jews were saved and received new bodies But there was no such promise for the Gentiles Some Gentiles are believers while others will be unbelievers The Gentiles who were participating in the armies fighting Christ were killed upon Christ s return But the there were unbelieving Gentiles on earth who were not in the army fighting Then there were believing Gentiles hiding from the antichrist and looking for the Lord s return Jesus spoke of both groups when He discussed the aftermath of His return in the Gospels

16 16! of! 19 Matt. 25:31 But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Matt. 25:32 All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; Matt. 25:33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. Jesus describes one of the events of that transpires during the 75-day interval Jesus will sit on His throne to pass judgment of those who are alive on earth at His Second Coming Notice that Jesus is on His throne as He passes judgment This throne will be in the Temple But at the moment of Jesus return, the temple is defiled from the abomination of desolation So Jesus can t begin this judging process immediately He will need to wait until the end of the 30 days for the Temple to be cleansed and the image of the beast to be removed This is why Daniel says that to be blessed, one must attain to the 75 th day Apparently, Jesus doesn t start the judging process until the 30 th day and it requires 45 days for the judging process to complete If you reach the end of that time, it will be because you have been found worthy to enter the kingdom Obviously, the judgment for whether you are worthy or not must be on the basis of faith, for entrance into the kingdom will not be on the basis of works As Habakkuk 4 says, the righteous will live by faith So as Jesus begins to judge, He is separating the sheep from the goats The sheep are placed on His righthand while the goats are on the left In the eastern culture, the right hand was the place of honor while left was dishonor or lessor honor

17 17! of! 19 So the sheep are believers while the goats are the unbelievers To the sheep, the believers, Jesus says enter my Kingdom Matt. 25:34 Then the King will say to those on His right, Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Then He goes forward to describe the basis for their entry into the Kingdom Matt. 25:35 For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; Matt. 25:36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me. Matt. 25:37 Then the righteous will answer Him, Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? Matt. 25:38 And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? Matt. 25:39 When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You? Matt. 25:40 The King will answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me. Much has been made of Jesus statements in this passage, and unfortunately much of it is completely wrong At first glance, Jesus certainly seems to be suggesting that good works were responsible for the sheep entering into the Kingdom But this interpretation would deny virtually every other page of Scripture and Biblical theology overall So we are required by the rules of interpretation to seek another answer that fits the context and the theology of Scripture generally Note in v.40 that Jesus speaks about these people having done works of mercy for these brothers of Mine Jesus is speaking about brothers who are in His immediate presence during the the judging moment, during the 75-day interval Furthermore, Jesus calls them brothers

18 18! of! 19 The logical conclusion would be that brothers means fellow Jews who came out of the Tribulation Therefore, the sheep were Gentiles who cared for the needs of Jews during the time of Tribulation Such acts of mercy would have been incredibly dangerous and potentially self-destructive during the antichrist s reign of terror in Tribulation What could explain a Gentile s willingness to oppose the antichrist s orders to protect Jews during a time when Satan is actively trying to destroy this people group? The only answer that comes to mind is faith in Christ A Gentile with faith in Christ would be motivated to help the Jews under these circumstances But these sheep seem surprised to learn they are to be rewarded Is it possible for a believer to come to faith and yet not understand what they believe? Yes, and the book of Acts is full of stories from the early church of believers who had been touched by the Spirit yet weren t able at first to understand what had happened to them Paul himself, the Ethiopian on the road with Philip, and others So these sheep came to faith by the Spirit but lacked someone to explain their faith clearly Nevertheless, they were motivated to protect Israel and help God s people, which is the fruit of the Spirit Lastly, Jesus attends to the unbelieving Gentiles Matt. 25:41 Then He will also say to those on His left, Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; Matt. 25:42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; Matt. 25:43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.

19 19! of! 19 Matt. 25:44 Then they themselves also will answer, Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You? Matt. 25:45 Then He will answer them, Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me. Matt. 25:46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. It s easy to see how this group is begin judged, since they lacked the fruit of the Spirit, since they didn t have faith Notice that the goats are going away into eternal punishment at this point So the believing Gentiles are going to live and be welcomed into the Kingdom While the unbelieving Gentiles are to die immediately and enter Hell to await the Second Resurrection This dichotomy gives rise to an interesting fact concerning the Kingdom There will be natural born men and women entering the Kingdom SLIDE And they still carry sin in their natural bodies They are also capable of marriage and producing children All the resurrected saints occupy eternal bodies and cannot sin nor marry nor have children But we are to rule over a world that still has sinful people producing sinful offspring Next week, we move into the Kingdom period proper, beginning with a discussion of the Kingdom s purposes