This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi. This is Pastor Tom. I want to welcome you to Revelation chapter 20.

This is day one of our look through this chapter. And as you might recall from
last week, we were looking through in Revelation 19 and 20 some end time events.
And we're focusing on the fact that understanding what's going to happen at the
end is crucial to understand what God is doing in your world and our world
today.

Just like understanding what happened at the beginning in the book of Genesis is
important, understanding what happens at the end in the book of Revelation is
just as important. Last week we looked together at the wedding supper of the
Lamb and we looked at the visible return of Christ. We looked at the Battle of
Armageddon and reminded ourselves of the perspective that you and I need to have
on the world today.

We'll come back to that again at the end of this week. This week together as we
look at Revelation 20, we're going to be focusing on two additional events, the
millennial reign of Jesus Christ and the great white throne judgment. The
millennium or the millennial reign of Jesus Christ is talked about in Revelation
chapter 20, the only place in the Bible that this event is talked about.

So that's why this is so important that we understand this chapter and this
event. Let me begin by reading with you verses one to four, which focus on what
this millennium, what this reign is going to be. "And I saw an angel coming down
out of heaven, having the key to the abyss and holding in his hand a great
chain.

He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil or Satan, and bound
him for a thousand years, for a millennium. He threw him into the abyss and he
locked it and he sealed it over him to keep him from deceiving the nations
anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for
a short time.

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. And
they came to life and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

" So this is it, this thousand-year reign of Christ. And before we get into any
details of this, it's impossible to talk about this without thinking about what
a wonder it's going to be. Think about what this world is going to be like with
him as the leader.

It's like the whole world like Hawaii without any mosquitoes, without any
tourists, just perfection everywhere because Jesus Christ is in charge
everywhere. What is this all about, this thousand years, this millennial reign
of Christ? We're going to focus on it the first three days of this week and just
get deeper and deeper into it each day.

Today I want to tell you, talk to you about three major ways of looking at what
this thousand years might be that have arisen over the years, particularly when
this thousand years might be. Tomorrow we're going to focus on some of the
questions that revolve around this thousand-year reign of Christ, and then the
next day we're going to look together at why. Why is God going to do this?

What is the perspective that he needs and wants us to have? But to begin, let's
just take the very broad view. Jesus Christ is coming again.

He returns. We talked about this this last week. He returns, and all the nations
see him.

All realize that Jesus Christ has come again. And then he reigns for a thousand
years. There are three particular views that have arisen over the years about
this thousand-year reign of Christ.

All of them, I would say, are biblical views. You can prove all of them from
Scripture. All of these views at one time or another have been held by good
Bible-believing Christians.

It's not like one of these views is these are the people that trust the Bible
and Jesus, and these are those other people's views. These are views that have
come to us down through the centuries from those who have trusted Christ, those
who believed in him. One of the reasons that there are different views is that
as you look at the facts in Revelation chapter 20, it's obvious that you and I
have to have the humility to understand.

We don't understand everything about this. There's one chapter that it's talked
about. It's a brand new thing.

All of a sudden, I would think Jesus has come again. He's established his
kingdom on this earth, and now a new heaven and a new earth. But we have to wait
a chapter for that.

There is a millennial reign of Christ first. So what does this mean? Here are
three particular ways of viewing this and the timing of this that have arisen
over the centuries.

There is the pre-millennial view, and that's the view that Jesus comes again
before the millennium. Jesus returns, and then there's a millennium. There's the
a-millennial view, which the word a means not.

It means there's not a literal millennium. And then there's the post-millennial
view, which is Jesus' return is after the millennium. Let's just talk through
each of those.

Premillennialism. The premillennial view is the view that the second coming of
Christ will occur before the millennium, and it's going to establish Christ's
kingdom on this earth for a literal thousand years. The duration of Christ's
kingdom will be a thousand years.

Its location will be on this earth. Its government will be the personal presence
of Christ as king, and it will fulfill all of the yet unfulfilled promises about
Christ's earthly kingdom that you see in the Old Testament and some in the New
Testament. Now, with each of these views, there are strengths and weaknesses.

The strength of this view is that it attempts to seek an understanding of all
scriptures relating to the second coming rather than ignoring those that are the
most difficult to understand. Its weakness is that it's often marked by a great
diversity in the teaching of the order of events. This a thousand years is only
referred to in Revelation 20.

How does it fit into the other events? So there's great disagreement about how
this might come about in this view. A second view is the post-millennial view.

That's the view that Jesus comes again after the millennium. It holds that the
kingdom of God is now being extended in this world through the preaching of the
gospel and the saving work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of individuals, and
that this world will eventually be Christianized and the return of Christ is
going to occur after a long period of righteousness and peace called the
millennium. Many people who have a post-millennial view would say this is not
going to be a literal thousand years.

It's just referring to a long period of time, very long period of time where
Jesus is reigning in righteousness through his church, through his people. This
view post-millennial is held by the least number of people today. It was held by
more people in the past when the world looked like a more friendly place, when
maybe you didn't get all the news of everything that was happening in the world,
and you could fool yourself into thinking, "Well, at least my little corner of
the world looks like it's getting better and better.

" But the truth is, we look at the world today and we think, "It doesn't look
like the direction God is working. This world is not getting better and better.
" Now, the strength of this view is an optimistic view of the power of the
gospel to change the world and the hope for the fulfillment of the Great
Commission.

But the weakness is practically, it's very hard to reconcile with history,
what's happening in the world, and biblically, it's very hard to reconcile with
the strong teaching of a final tribulation period. But there are those who are
strong Bible teachers who have held this over the years. And the third view is
what some call the all-millennial view, and that's that Jesus comes again
without an earthly millennium.

This is the view that until the end, there's going to be a parallel development
of both good and evil, God's kingdom and Satan's kingdom. And after the second
coming of Christ at the end of the world, there's going to be a general
resurrection, a general judgment of all people, and that the thousand-year reign
of Christ is not literal, it's symbolic of Jesus' work on the earth from his
resurrection until his second coming. This is the view that these are mostly
spiritual symbols.

And the idea that the millennium is what's going to happen between Jesus' first
coming and second coming spiritualizes much of what's going to happen. Now,
there are strengths and weaknesses to this view. The strength is that it answers
questions from the premillennial view about resurrected saints living in a not
quite regenerated world yet.

It answers questions about what's the millennium really going to be like by just
saying there's not going to be one. That's one of the greatest strengths of
this. The weakness is you have to see a lot of the second coming prophecies as
spiritual symbols rather than actual events.

And we know that some are symbols and some are events, but you have to see
almost everyone as simply a spiritual symbol, which is difficult to do as you've
seen as we've gone through the book of Revelation. So here are these views, and
this is more technical than usually we get into in drive-time devotions, but to
understand the millennium, you have to understand these views. These views are
focusing on your life and what's going to happen in your life.

This is not just about technical. These views are asking about your experience
as a believer in Christ, and the all millennial view is saying this is your
experience right now, or the postmillennial view or the premillennial view is
that this is going to be your experience in some day. In some way, you're going
to experience this reign of Christ.

Now, I think it's important for us to understand these three different views.
However, I have to admit that I have noted in reading believers, good biblical
believers who have these three different views that oftentimes we tend to get
caught up in arguing so much against the other person's viewpoint that we
actually tend to lose our compassion. We lose our sense of faith.

We lose our looking forward to the second coming of Jesus Christ. This is why
there are some older believers who their joke is I don't have the all millennial
view or the postmillennial view. I have the pan millennial view, and that is
that it's going to all pan out in the end.

That's a very goofy joke, but I understand where that comes from. It comes from
knowing that Jesus is in control. I can trust in him.

And it's not me figuring it out that's going to cause what God wants to happen
to happen. God's going to do what he wants, exactly what he wants in the end.
And I want to hold a view that recognizes that, that recognizes that God's plan
and promise is going to be accomplished in the end.

Why is there a thousand year reign? We're going to focus into that a little bit
more in a few days. But remember this, there's a thousand year reign because
Jesus is King, because Jesus is Lord, and Jesus will reign.

And so when you talk about the millennium or any other event in the second
coming, you have to always come back to Jesus. Now this may have sparked your
interest and you're going to go study the millennium some more. You should
always come back to Jesus.

This may be all you ever want to hear about the millennium in your life. If
that's true of you, still come back to Jesus Christ and realize that this is in
the book of Revelation for a reason, to remind us that no matter what, Jesus is
King. He is in control.

So let's recognize that for our lives today. As we pray together today, Jesus,
we recognize that you're Lord and King. And in this world today, there are many
who would flaunt your leadership and try to live any life any way that they
want.

But that does not mean that you will not rule, you will not reign. And so Jesus
reign in our hearts today, in our decisions, in the direction that we take, in
our conversations, in the things that we say to other people, in our faith, in
the ways that we choose to trust you, ways that other people see ways that
others may never see. Jesus, help us to take this recognition that you are going
to reign at the end of time and cause it, cause it to invite, to encourage, to
strengthen us, to allow you to reign to allow you to reign in our lives today.

We ask this, Jesus, in your name. Amen. Tomorrow, we're going to answer some
questions about the millennium.