Revelation 20:1-15

1. Satan is bound and cast into prison for a thousand years – 20:1-3
1. an angel with a key – 1
1. all Christ's enemies, which were Satan's instruments have been removed
2. the devil is left, and only he stands in the way of Christ's kingdom; what will be done to him
3. there could be no Millennium, no time of peace, as long as Satan is loose
4. John sees an angel with a key and a great chain
1. the key
1. this key is for the door of the bottomless pit
2. the bottomless pit is not the lake of fire
2. the great chain
1. this chain is obviously not a physical chain, since spirits cannot be contained by physical things
2. whatever its nature, it will keep Satan restrained throughout the millennium
2. Satan is bound for a thousand years – 2
1. in this verse Satan is called by four different names
1. "dragon" symbolizes cruelty
2. "serpent" signifies guile and cunning treachery
3. "devil" is the deceiver, the tempter of men
4. "Satan" means the opponent, the enemy of Christ and His people
5. we learn from these names that Satan is a person, and not just an influence or principle of evil
2. the binding of Satan reveals to us that God can stop the devil at the appointed time
1. He can stop him without armies
2. when the time comes, God will send one angel to seize, handcuff and bind Satan and place him in chains in prison
3. the term "a thousand years" is found six times in Revelation 20
1. this is the only place in the Bible that there is a reference to the Millennium
2. there will be no millennium until Christ comes back to earth
3. this thousand year period must be important because of the emphasis that is being put on it
4. according to Jewish belief, the six thousand years of world history which is now drawing to a close, correspond to the six days in which God created the heavens and the earth
1. on the seventh day God rested from His labors
2. a day is as a thousand years with the Lord, and a thousand years as one day (II Peter 3:8)
3. by such reasoning, we have been on this earth about six days (almost six thousand years -- 4,000 before Christ and almost 2,000 since)
4. it must be about time for the Sabbath, the thousand years of peace
5. the Bible says, "There remaineth therefore a rest (Sabbath) for the people of God" (Hebrews 4:9)
6. the people of God refers to all saints, but primarily the nation Israel
3. Satan’s days of deception are over for one thousand years – 3
1. Satan is cast into a bottomless pit for one thousand years (literal)
2. Satan will be unable to tempt man for one thousand years [should deceive the nations no more]
3. after the thousand years, Satan will be let lose for a little season
1. some may ask, "Why"
2. remember, Israel will be in her own land for one thousand years in natural bodies
3. she will build houses and inhabit them; she will plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof
4. at the end of the Millennium there will be millions on earth who have never been tempted
5. if God did not permit them to be tested as were Adam and Eve, or you and I, then God would be a respecter of persons
6. all who are born during the Millennium must be tempted, Satan will be loosed for a little season
7. the Word of God does not tell us how long the "little season " will be
8. to these people, Satan will offer the same things he offered Adam and Eve, and the same things he offered Jesus
9. Satan will offer power and glory with himself to all who will follow him
10. many will rally around Satan in his last great attempt to take the Holy City, and to crush the saints and Israel in the earth that has been freed from the curse for one thousand years
2. the reign of Christ and His saints – 20:4-6
1. who are they who will reign with Christ in heavenly glory here on earth for one thousand years
1. these verses are extremely important and unique, for here alone is revealed who will share with Christ in the Millennium
2. who will be a part of the reign of righteousness and glory here on earth
2. the thrones – 4
1. the thrones seen here are not to be confused with the twenty-four thrones of Revelation 4:4
2. the thrones, that John now sees, point to the Millennial government here on earth
3. thrones imply seats of authority
3. these are not empty seats, for John says, "and they sat upon them"
1. who "they" are, seems to have troubled many
2. there must be something fundamentally wrong in their theories on Revelation, or they would not be in such straits of uncertainty
3. surely the sitters on these thrones are those to whom this authority is everywhere promised
1. the passages are not few in which those promises are given
2. the text itself states that these sitters upon these thrones are "priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him"
3. what reader of the Bible does not know that God's chosen and anointed kings and priests are none other than His true and faithful people
4. in the opening of this book, John spoke of himself and fellow-Christians as those whom God hath made kings and priests (Rev 1:5-6)
5. the living ones and the elders gave glory to the Lamb for making them "kings and priests of God," (Rev 5:9-10)
6. Peter pronounces his fellow-Christians "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood" (1 Peter 2:9)
7. these king-priests must therefore be God's ransomed people
4. their sitting upon these thrones is not an empty show
1. as Christ becomes the sovereign ruler of the earth, so must His victorious people participation in it also
2. are we left to deduct this by mere reasoning, for John says that "judgment was given to them"
3. once it was the fate of believers to be judged by the ungodly world-powers
1. Jesus told His followers that they should be brought before kings, and that they would think it a holy thing to judge them worthy of stripes, imprisonment, and death
2. but man's day has a limit, and then comes another order
3. God "shall put down the mighty from their seats" (Luke 1:52), and "exalt them of low degree"
4. then we shall be the royal judges, and they shall be required to accept the judgments of heavenly justice from God's immortal kings
5. those who once stood helpless at earth's tribunals shall judge, for it is written, "the saints shall judge the world" (1 Cor 6:2)
6. Christ, according to his promise, will "give us authority over the nations, to rule them with a rod of iron"
5. while the whole body of saints will participate in these rewards, it is shown that the martyrs of the tribulation, are also included
6. the tribulation saints will live and reign with Christ
1. "they lived" signifies the union of body and soul
2. as souls separated from the body, they never were dead
3. John had saw their souls under the alter in Revelation 6:9
1. John saw them, heard them, beheld them in white robes, and recognized them as still living and waiting, though dead as to their bodies
2. the living in which he now sees them, must be a living in that which was once dead
3. there is a resurrection of the bodies of dead people, but there is no such thing as the resurrection of the spirits of dead people
7. the rest of the dead did not live again until after the thousand years – 5
1. they lived, but their body didn’t
2. after the thousand years, the bodies of the wicked will be resurrected
3. the resurrection of the just and the unjust are at two different times
1. we learn here for the first time that the interval between the two resurrections is one thousand years
2. when Jesus comes in the Rapture, only the righteous will be raised
3. when He comes in the end of the ages, only the wicked will be raised and will appear before the great White Throne to be judged
4. at this time, the believer has already been resurrected, judged and obtained their reward
1. the time of reward for the saints is the time of their resurrection, and not before
2. otherwise they could not be thus enthroned, for enthronement is reward
3. those that sit on the thrones must be in their resurrected and glorified estate
8. since there is a "first resurrection" there must be a second resurrection - 6
1. the word "Resurrection" is never once used in the NT, except to denote the coming up again of the fallen body from the grave
2. the first resurrection takes place in stages
1. Christ the first fruits
2. the dead in Christ shall rise first(at the rapture)
3. we which are alive and remain (at the rapture)
4. the two witnesses
5. the tribulation martyrs
3. only holy people will have part in the first resurrection
1. only people who cannot be affected by the second death
2. only those who shall be priests of God and Christ will be raised in the first resurrection
4. the salvation of the believer is now complete
1. Jesus came the first time to redeem the soul
2. He is coming the second time to redeem the body
3. no saint will receive a glorified, eternal body until the Rapture and the first resurrection
5. the resurrection of the wicked is not a resurrection unto life, but unto eternal damnation
1. the righteous who share in the first resurrection are raised to receive glorified bodies in which they will live and rejoice forever
2. the wicked are raised to be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death
3. Christians do not die; the body rests in the dust, and the spirit returns to God who gave it
4. the wicked die forever, they die physically, and they will die spiritually throughout eternity in the lake of fire
5. the righteous are raised to die no more; the wicked are raised to be cast into the lake of the "second death"
6. the second death has no claim on those who are partakers of the first resurrection
3. Satan is let loose for a little season – Revelation 20:7-10
1. after the thousand years, Satan is let loose – 7
1. God uses even the most wicked beings to His own good and gracious ends
2. He allows Satan liberty, and denies him liberty, and gives him liberty again, not because the Devil or his malice are necessary to him, but to show his power to bring good out of evil
2. it seems a great pity, that after the world has rested for a thousand years, that this enemy of peace should again be let loose upon it
1. Satan is to the very last, the same depraved and wicked being he always was
2. he uses even the little time of freedom he has before being cast into the lake of fire to tempt, seduce, and deceive the happy and peaceful world
3. his purpose in deceiving the nations is the same as it has always been
4. when he led some of the angels astray he desired to overthrow God
3. even after having lived a thousand years in holy obedience, man is still unable to stand without the special help and grace of Almighty God – 8-9
1. this brief period of Satan's last freedom proves, that he is still Satan, and that man is still man
2. after a thousand years of bonds and imprisonment, the Devil is just as eager to tempt and deceive
3. after a thousand years of Paradise; man is just as liable to be tempted and deceived
4. Satan deceives a great number as the sand of the sea – 8
1. those deceived will be those that are still in their natural bodies
2. there will be millions born during the Millennium who will never have know temptation because Satan was in the pit throughout the one thousand years reign of Christ
5. those whom Satan deceives will march for Jerusalem and the camp of the saints, and will encircle it – 9
1. when the city is completely cut off from all outside help …
2. when they are completely compassed about with millions of soldiers …
3. when it seems that the case is hopeless and they will be wiped from the face of the earth, a tremendous miracle from Almighty God occurs
4. again the Creator is greater than the created
5. any persecution directed at the saints of God is directed toward God; in this case, God fights the battle by simply sending fire down from heaven
6. when God sends fire down out of heaven and devours the army around Jerusalem, there will not be one sinner left upon the face of the earth
6. the final end of Satan, who was once the highest angel of all – 10
1. the great deceiver is gone forever
2. if he never realized it before, he must surely realize it now, he deceived himself first and most of all
3. God was indeed all that He said He was: eternal and omnipotent
4. God had created space and time and all things; therefore He was and is King forever
7. Hell is real, and it is forever and ever – 10
1. it is a place of torment
2. it is a place of real fire
3. hell is a place of everlasting, unending punishment
4. the great white throne judgment – Revelation 20:11-15
1. the Judge is not named, but we have no difficulty discovering who He is – 11
1. "the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son" (John 5:22)
2. the Judge is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself
3. the despised, hated, crucified Nazarene is now about to judge the spiritually dead
2. heaven and earth flee away – 11
1. here is the unveiled presence of the Almighty
2. so dreadful is His presence that the very earth and heavens seek a hiding place
3. but they had no place to hide
3. a resurrection occurs – 12
1. no trumpet is sounded, for the sounding of the trumpet is for His beloved saved ones
2. these are not his people nor his friends
3. there is a going forth of eternal power, into the sea, the graves, Hell, and all the places where the souls and bodies of the unholy dead are
4. all the lost multitudes suddenly stand in the presence of the throne
5. not a one that ever lived and died, from the beginning of the world until then, is absent from that unblest congregation
6. the "small and great" are all there
1. the big sinners and the little sinners, the learned and the ignorant, the civilized and the barbarous, emperors and beggars, all alike are there
2. we read of no white robes, no spotless linen, no palms, nothing but naked sinners, before the unveiled majesty of the Almighty, awaiting their eternal doom
4. books are opened – 12
1. heaven keeps record of all the deeds of every person
2. all the thoughts and feelings under which we act are recorded
3. many human have lived and died of whom the world knows nothing; but the lives they lived, the deeds they did, the thoughts and they indulged, still stand written where the memory of them cannot perish
4. no human has ever lived whose career is not traced at full length in the books of eternity
5. whoever we may be, our biography is written, and nothing is omitted
6. these books are brought forth for the final settlement, if not blotted out through faith in Christ's blood before this present life of ours is ended
7. those that fear not God, and make nothing of trampling His laws, how will their case stand when those books are opened
5. another book is opened [the book of life] – 12
1. the dead are not judged from the Book of Life
2. they are judged "out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works"
3. anyone who is not listed in the book if life, no matter how virtuously and honestly they may have lived, there is no help for them
6. the resurrection of the wicked – 13
1. "the sea gave up the dead" the bodies without life
2. "death" represents the place where all the bodies without life are (grave)
3. "hell" is the place where all the souls that are separated from God are
1. all wicked spirits drop into hell immediately at death
2. hell is the prison which holds the wicked spirits until the time of their resurrection and judgment, then they will be cast into the lake of fire
4. both death and hell "delivered up" the dead that were in them (the time of reuniting the body and soul)
7. wherever they are, God is able to call them forth, and put their bodies back together
1. God can put their bodies back together in the same form as when they died
2. bodies will emerge from both land and sea
3. every unsaved person from every nation and every time will be raised in their old bodies to stand before God in judgment
4. these resurrected bodies will not be like the resurrected bodies of the saints, because they will experience pain and suffering
8. this is the time of judgment – 13 [and they were judged]
1. man will acknowledge that their condemnation is just
2. they rejected God’s grace and offer of salvation through faith in Christ
3. many will offered their own works as a payment for salvation
4. the measure of righteousness is Jesus Christ
5. none have achieved God’s standard, therefore they are condemned according to their works
9. at the great White Throne, the wicked will not be judged to see whether or not they are entitled to eternal life
1. that has already been settled
2. they will be judged to determine the degree of their punishment
1. just as heaven has degrees of reward, so hell has degrees of judgment
2. both are based on works in light of opportunity and motive of heart
3. it is not revealed how the more wicked will suffer more than the less wicked
4. how it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Tyre in the day of judgment, than for Capernaum and Bethsaida is an unanswered question
10. the outcome of the judgment – 14 [death and hell were cast into the lake of fire]
1. every body that had remained in the grave until the second resurrection, and every soul that had been locked in hell, are now cast into the lake of fire
2. there they will remain forever
11. "the second death" and "the lakes of fire" are identical terms, both are used to describe the eternal state of the wicked
1. the second death is not annihilation of the body or soul
2. some ask how can physical bodies burn forever
1. we don’t know how such a thing is possible, but God can do all thing
2. what about Moses and the burning bush
3. if these all should be mere symbols, the reality must be far worse
4. it is obvious that those who die as lost sinners have a terrible future to face
12. the book of life determines the place, but the great white throne judgment determine the severity – 15
1. all who are not found in the Book of Life will be cast into the lake of fire and tormented forever
2. there will be no back-talk at the judgment; the record will speak
3. God's record cannot lie; He knows every minute detail of our lives, and those details are on record
4. the only way to keep them from being brought out in the judgment is to have them covered by the precious blood of the Lamb