This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to Day 2 of Revelation chapter 20. We're looking at the millennial reign
of Jesus Christ, the first three days of this week. And I read for you the first
few verses of Revelation 20 yesterday.

Let me read for you those verses and then add a couple today. Let me read for
you verses 1 to 6 to begin today. And as I read these, as I read it yesterday,
as I read this today, I'm sure there's some questions in your mind.

Let me read these and then we're going to answer some of those questions.
Revelation 20, 1 to 6. "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 sees the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil or Satan, and bound
him for a thousand years. He threw him into the abyss and he locked it and he
sealed it over him to keep him from deceiving the nations any more until the
thousand years were ended. And 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. They
came to life and they reigned with Christ a thousand years.

The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.
This is the first resurrection. 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. " There's a lot of
questions in these verses. In fact, what I've done today is just taken questions
from our research team who just reads through these chapters and lets me know
what questions they have.

So let me share with you the three major questions that I saw again and again
from our research team and then also take a look together today at some of the
other questions that came out of these verses. First major question in order of
the verses was what is this abyss that is talked about here? The Satan is thrown
into the abyss and what is the difference between the abyss and Hades and the
lake of fire and hell?

We're going to be looking at that even more as we walk through the rest of the
book of Revelation, but just a very brief answer on that one. The abyss and
Hades are pictures in the Bible of places that evil, Satan here, goes to await a
final and certain judgment. So that's sort of a waiting place, but not a waiting
place where you get a second chance.

It's a waiting place for the final judgment, which we're going to come to at the
end of Revelation chapter 20, the great white throne of God. The lake of fire
and hell are places of certain and eternal judgment. You might think of it, this
isn't a great picture, but it might help you, that if you're on trial and you
have already been convicted of a crime where you're going to be in prison for
life, you might go back to the county jail that you were in while you were on
trial for a time, that's a temporary waiting place, but you know what the
verdict is already.

And then you come for the final verdict before the judge and the judge declares
you guilty, you hear why you're guilty, and then you go to the penitentiary
where you're going to spend the rest of your life. That's the difference in the
Bible between those pictures, and we'll focus on that a little bit more together
this next week. A bigger question that many people had, a very personal question
was, what is this about a first and second resurrection?

And why, it says some of the dead don't come to life until after the thousand
years are ended, what does that mean? Before we talk about the thousand year
reign, you have to understand this first and second resurrection, because to
many of us, it's a little scary sounding. There's a resurrection and people
reign with Christ for a thousand years, but what if I'm not part of this first
resurrection?

What if I don't get resurrected? I know what you're thinking. If I'm not one of
these, do I have to stay like on hold for a thousand years somewhere?

What is God talking about here? What is the first and second resurrection? Well,
Jesus taught us about this.

In John 5, 28 to 29, here's what he said to us, "Don't be so surprised. Indeed,
the time is coming when all the dead in their graves," that's both believers and
unbelievers by the way, "all the dead will hear the voice of God's Son and they
will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to eternal life, and those
who have continued in evil will rise to judgment.

" You see, Jesus teaches us here that everyone in one sense is going to be
resurrected at the end of time. We think of resurrection as only a positive word
because we think of it in terms of Jesus, but at the end of time, everyone is
going to be resurrected. Everyone is going to stand before God and some are
going to be resurrected to life and some are going to be resurrected to judgment
and to death, some to heaven and some to hell.

So now it begins to get a little more clear, I hope. There's a first
resurrection and a second resurrection. When you read what Jesus teaches about
this, it clearly tells us that this first resurrection is when all believers
rise.

The spirits of those who don't know Christ are the ones who are waiting for
1,000 years. A place called Hades or Sheol that we talked about yesterday, a
place you might have read about in the Old Testament, that's the name for this
place where they await this final judgment that happens at the end of this 1,000
year reign of Christ, the first and the second resurrection. The first
resurrection is a resurrection to life and it's the resurrection of all
believers.

The second resurrection is a resurrection to judgment and it happens to all who
have not yet believed. I hope you noticed, to make this even more clear, in this
passage we talked about a first and a second death. Did you notice that in verse
6?

Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection because the
second death has no power over them. So what is that about? This makes it even
more clear.

The first death is our physical death, it's when you die physically, but you'll
be resurrected from that, you'll be given a new body. We all die physically,
believer, unbeliever, alike. Those who have trusted Christ, those who have not.

The second death is a spiritual separation from God for all eternity and none of
us have to experience that second death. Some will, but none of us have to, not
if we trust in him. As you and I look at what the Bible says about this first
and second resurrection, it's an encouragement to us to have humility in what we
believe because there's going to be a reigning with Christ for a thousand years
in this first resurrection.

If some are resurrected at the rapture and then during the tribulation other
people come to Christ, when will they be resurrected? We don't know the answer
to that. During the thousand years of people make a commitment to Christ, when
will they be resurrected?

We don't know the answer to that. There are some things we don't know. I want to
come back to that at the end of this day today and talk about what we do when we
don't know everything.

We do know that Jesus Christ is going to reign for a thousand years. We do know
that he's going to resurrect those who are his. Those are the major questions
that I see people have.

They want to know, "What is this abyss? " They want to know, "What about the
first and second resurrection? " They want to know, "What's it going to be like
for us to be reigning with Christ for a thousand years?

" Based on that, "What's it going to be like? " there are a number of more minor
questions. You don't ask them immediately when you read through this the first
time, but if you read through these passages again and again, you begin to
think, "Well, what about this and what about this?

" One question that comes to many people's minds is, "Wait, it says they will
sit on the thrones. Who are they? " When the Bible talks about those sitting on
the thrones with Jesus here, who are these people?

The Bible teaches that Jesus told his disciples, "You're going to sit with me on
twelve thrones. " That's an amazing truth to me. In other places, the New
Testament indicates that you and I, as believers in Christ, are with Christ
going to be judging angels and judging this world.

God is going to have responsibilities for you and I as we reign with him, jobs
for us to do, significant things that impact eternity and things that I can't
even imagine today. There are surprises in store. There's an eternity of
surprises in store that I can't imagine.

That's why there's a first and second resurrection, because there's a
resurrection to life and there's this resurrection to judgment. As brothers and
sisters of Christ, there are some believers, certainly the disciples and
certainly those who were martyred for their faith in this last time of the
earth, who will be sitting with Jesus. Another question that comes to mind as
you read through this passage is, "Are the only ones that serve and reign with
Christ those from this tribulation period?

" It says the ones who are reigning are the ones who were beheaded because of
their faith. It seems here to say that the only ones who get to reign with
Christ are those who gave their lives for Christ during this period. If that is
true, then where would I be if I was not one of those people?

I'd be in heaven. I'm not waiting a thousand years. Those are unbelievers.

If that is true and the only people that Jesus has reign with him are those who
gave their lives during the period of tribulation, then I'm in heaven and
they're here on earth reigning with him. Remember, there's still a heaven and
there's still an earth. We go immediately to be with the Lord in heaven when we
die.

Paul said to depart from the body is to be present with the Lord. I'm
immediately with the Lord when I die. So I'd be in heaven and they'd be reigning
on earth.

That is not extremely clear here. It says that they reign. It doesn't say that
no one else gets to reign.

So it's not extremely clear what's going to happen. This is all based on the
premillennial view that there'd be an actual millennium in the first place. Some
people think there's not even an actual millennium.

That's how you have to scratch your head a bit here. Some ask, who are the rest
of the dead that are talked about here? Those who did not come to life for the
thousand years, again, because I want us to get this.

These are unbelievers. These are unbelievers who have died during this time.
Others ask, where does this thousand years sit in history?

Well, that's an easy answer. At the end of the time of this earth, even those
who see this more symbolically still see this as a symbol of what's going to
happen at the end. This is a picture that Jesus is reigning at the end.

Not Satan is in control at the end. Jesus is reigning at the end. Some others
ask, is there going to be any death during those thousand years?

The answer to that one is, I don't know. This isn't answered. If Jesus is
reigning, is anybody going to die?

We're not told what will happen to those who come to Christ during this time or
those who don't come to Christ, not until the end of the thousand years. Now,
those last questions I just answered or didn't answer make you probably feel I'd
like to better understand this. These questions remind us that there is some
understanding of what's going to happen.

And we're going to focus on the why behind this tomorrow. There are things that
you want to hold on to that are truths in this passage. Hold on to the fact that
you are going to be resurrected in bodily form.

Hold on to the fact that you are going to reign with Christ someday. But as you
try to get into too many details about this, you realize pretty quickly God has
not given us insight into all the details about this. And I believe that is for
a reason.

We don't need all the details yet. Just enough to let us know this is going to
happen. Jesus is going to reign.

We are going to be resurrected. I know some believers who worry about those
details. I just want to remind you, God gave us all that we need to know.

We're going to live with him forever in resurrected bodies and we're going to
reign with him. Don't miss that. The fact that I don't know all the details yet
means I can trust him with those details.

Now some of you, you've got a more controlling personality and your feeling is
I've got to know the details because then I know he's going to do it. No, I know
he's going to do it because I trust him. And because of that, I know he's going
to take care of the details.

Even the little that is shown to us here causes us to realize he is a God that I
can trust. And the details of my life today and the details of my life as I head
towards eternity. And so Father, right now, we just pause to pray and we say we
trust you in the details.

We trust you in the details of our life today because you're a loving Heavenly
Father. And we trust you in the details of what's going to happen at the end of
time. You are not going to end this world in a way that is designed just to
scare us or frighten us.

You're going to end it in just the right way, in a way that causes the most to
be invited to come to you and causes you to get the greatest of glory. And so we
trust you. We trust you in the great plan and we trust you in the details of
your awesome plan.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Tomorrow we're going to look together at why there
will be a millennial reign of Christ.