The Millennium: Christ’s Future Reign on Earth - Part 3

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We return this morning to the millennium: Christ’s future reign on earth. A couple of weeks ago, I presented to you the biblical evidence for why we believe there will be a literal reign of Christ on earth. And if you weren’t here, I encourage you to go back and catch up because that’s important for you to understand what I am going to say today. 

Because of the biblical evidence that we considered last time, as a church, we firmly believe and teach premillennialism. That is, that after the second coming of Jesus Christ, He will renew this planet, restoring it to a pre-cursed version of itself. He will establish a worldwide literal kingdom and He will reign on this planet with His saints for a thousand years. That’s what we believe Revelation chapter 20 is teaching. 

I invite you to turn there with me this morning, Revelation chapter 20, verses 1-10. This text tells us, as we have discovered, what happens before, during, and after that thousand years. So far, we have considered verses 1-3, what happens before the millennium and that is, Christ’s binding of Satan. We have also considered in verses 4-6 what happens during the millennium: Christ’s reign with His saints. But before we leave this second point, I just want to take a moment to remind you briefly of what that time, those thousand years will be like. And I say, briefly, I’m just really going to describe it and there will be a number of references that will be in the notes that will be posted with the message. You can go back and look through them. But let me just mention them.

Here's what it will be like: first of all, only believers will enter Jesus’ kingdom. In Matthew 25:41, the judgment at the end of the tribulation, all surviving unbelievers are condemned to hell at that moment. So that means the inhabitants of the millennium will be all Jewish and Gentile

believers. Revelation 5, verses 9 and 10 says that Christ has purchased people from every tribe and tongue and nation, and they will reign on the earth with Christ. 

Our Lord will completely renew and restore this creation. In Matthew 19 Jesus calls that time “the regeneration.” In Acts 3, Peter calls it “the period of the restoration of all things.” Jesus will reign as king over the entire earth and that reign will usher in a thousand years of worldwide peace and prosperity. He will manifest His presence in Jerusalem. And its rebuilt temple will be the focal point of His worship.

That thousand years will be a time of grace and of joy and of righteousness and of truth and of justice. Jesus will abolish war. Physical disease and disability will vanish. The entire earth will become beautiful and fruitful, even those places that are barren today. Animals will not kill for food any longer, but they will live in peace and every legitimate interest of human life will be encouraged and enjoyed. That is just a taste of what that thousand years holds for you, believer. 

Now, having looked at the time during, we need to hasten on in our time together this morning. I want to examine verses 7 through 10 and discover what happens after the millennium and that is, Christ’s defeat of the last rebellion. Just before Jesus Christ destroys this universe and creates a new heaven and a new earth, there will be one last great act of rebellion against His authority. And these verses lay out several details about history’s last rebellion. Let’s look at those details together.

First of all, notice the timing of the last rebellion, verse 7 says, “When the thousand years are completed.” In verse 2, Satan is bound before the millennium and for the entire duration of the thousand years. In verse 4, the saints reign with Christ during the thousand years and now John fast forwards to the end of the thousand years, and that’s when the last rebellion of human history and of eternity will unfold. 

Secondly, notice the cause of the last rebellion, verse 7 says, “Satan will be released from His prison.” Back in verse 3, an angel threw Satan into the abyss, the sort of maximum-security prison for demons and in verse 7 that’s called “his prison,” and the angel locked him there. Now, he is released, possibly by the same angel. But notice this isn’t a jail break. He’s released obviously at God’s direction. Don’t ever forget Christian and particularly those of you who were exposed in your Christian life and experienced in the charismatic movement, don’t ever forget that God is and always has been and always will be sovereign over Satan. Satan is a created being as we will see in this text. In a moment’s time, Christ can deal with Satan. At God’s direction here, Satan will be released.

Why? Go back for a moment to verse 3. At the end of verse 3 we read this, “after these things”—the thousand years—“he must be released for a short time.” In the Greek text it’s very interesting. It literally reads, “it is necessary for him to be released a short time.” There is a divine necessity, a reason, in the eternal plan of God for Satan to be released at the end of the millennium. And we will consider that reason or rather, those reasons, in just a few minutes.

But let’s move on, verse 8, “and [Satan] will come out to deceive the nations.” Being locked in prison for a thousand years doesn’t reform Satan. As soon as he is released, he immediately returns to his former crime deceiving people against God. That career began in Genesis 3 with the deception of Eve. In Revelation chapter 12, verse 9, he is described as the “great dragon, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world.” And when he is released, he immediately seeks again to deceive the nations, that is, the entire population of the earth at the end of the millennium. He incurably evil heart combined with the opportunity afforded by his release from the abyss, that is the cause, the precipitating cause of the last rebellion. 

Now Scripture doesn’t tell us what Satan’s lies will be at that time, but whatever they are, they will be incredibly effective because notice number 3: the accomplices in the last rebellion. Verse 8 says, he will go “out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth.” Satan will recruit co-conspirators from the four points of the compass. His propaganda campaign against Jesus will be literally world-wide. And then John uses two interesting words: notice verse 8, “Gog and Magog.” John borrows those names from Ezekiel 38:2 where both appeared together. But in Ezekiel 38, as we have already seen, there it is describing the battle of Armageddon that occurs at the second coming before the thousand years. And in Ezekiel 38, Gog is antichrist and Magog is his empire—those who follow him. 

But here in our text, John describes the battle not before the millennium, but rather after at the end of the millennium. So, Ezekiel 38 is not the same battle at Revelation 20. But John borrows these names to make the point that this rebellion will be similar in kind and in scope. Here, likely Gog, refers to the human leader that Satan will recruit to lead this rebellion, and Magog to all who will join him. 

But who are these people? Who are these rebels at the end of the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ? Well, first of all, they can’t be true believers because Scripture is clear that true believers never reject Christ, they persevere because they are preserved by God. Scripture is equally clear that no unbelievers will enter the millennium as we saw a moment ago. That means there is only one possibility. These rebels are people who will be born during the thousand-year reign of Christ. And Isaiah 65:20 says there will be infants and youth in the millennium. 

So, where do these children come from? Well, they won’t be born to glorified believers because Jesus said glorified believers are like the angels, they neither marry nor given in marriage. That must mean that non-glorified believers, listen carefully, non-glorified believers survive the seven-year tribulation and enter the kingdom in their physical bodies. They will have children and their children will have children and so forth. Because of ideal conditions, they will multiply and live exceptionally long lives. These unglorified saints, here’s the problem, will still have the taint of original sin which they will pass on to their offspring. Every child born even during the millennium will be a sinner in need of salvation. I think part of our role during the millennium will be evangelism and many who are born during the millennium will likely be saved.

But sadly, as we see in our text, many will not. Christ will deal swiftly with those who openly rebel against Him. Psalm 2, verse 9, “You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.” Isaiah tells us that only those who resist in open rebellion will die young. And by young in that text, he means after more than 100 years of God’s patience with them. 

But many who are born during the thousand years will neither believe in Jesus nor openly rebel. They will be like those described in Psalm 66:3, “Because of the greatness of Your power Your enemies will give feigned obedience to You.” Although they will give Christ their external obedience, their hearts will still be filled with rebellion against Him. They will live long fruitful lives and have many children. And so at the end of the millennium, there will be many unbelievers who will be there and who will choose to join in Satan’s rebellion.

What is that rebellion? That brings us to number four: the plan. The plan for the last rebellion, verse 8 says, the plan is “to gather them together for the war.” It’s often been said that history repeats itself. It is also true that Satan has no new plans—no new tactics. This same expression used in our text is used back in chapter 16, verse 14 of the preparation for Armageddon before the millennium, and now here Satan is at it again. Again, after the thousand years, Satan will attempt to carry out the same plan: make war with Christ. 

Fifthly, notice the magnitude of this last rebellion. Satan’s deception will be profoundly effective, verse 8 says, “the number of them is like the sand of the seashore.” That figure of speech is used often in Scripture of a vast uncountable number. This is unimaginable. But at the end of the millennium there will be as many as the sand on the seashore who will rise up with Satan against Jesus Christ. 

What is the focus of this last rebellion? Number six: the focus, verse 9, “And they came up on the broad plain of the earth.” Earth can also be translated “land” as in the land of Israel, which is what I think it means here. Zechariah tells us that the catastrophic events, including that massive worldwide earthquake at the end of the tribulation, will reshape the world and it will reshape the land of Israel. Jerusalem will be lifted to a greater physical prominence and will be surrounded by a broad plain, Zechariah tells us. I think that is what is happening here. “They came up on the broad plain of the [land]” that is, the land of Israel. Verse 9 goes on: “and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city.” The word “camp” may simply mean the place where the saints are, but since that same word is used six times in the book of Acts for military barracks or a military encampment, it may be that is what John means here. But regardless, don’t miss the largest point, and that is that Satan’s rebellion won’t surprise God. Remember He’s the one who ordered him to be released. 

Satan’s armies, verse 9 says, will surround the beloved city, Jerusalem the capital city of Christ’s kingdom. Now don’t misunderstand. Jerusalem and the saints are not the ultimate target of this rebellion. They have gathered for one primary purpose and that is to rebel and to unseat Jesus Christ from His throne. That’s the purpose of this rebellion. 

That brings us finally to the outcome of the last rebellion. The outcome of the last rebellion. In the Garden of Eden, Satan and man together declared war on God. On this day, in our text, in the future, that war will finally end. And it will end with several outcomes. The first outcome is this: the human rebels will be killed by fire, verse 9 says, “and fire came down from heaven and devoured them.” Now if you are like me and I have encouraged you before, to read the Bible with a bit of a sanctified imagination. When you hear that description, when you hear about such a huge army coming from across the world surrounding the city of Jerusalem, what do you think is going to happen? We are primed at that moment to expect an epic battle like one of those in the Lord of the Rings. You know, you can go take a shower and come back and it’s still happening. That is kind of what we expect here. But just like Armageddon, this isn’t a battle at all. It’s a divine execution. Christ calls down fire from heaven and in a moment that fire incinerates every single enemy of His. The rebels are killed; their souls go to hell where they await the final judgment that comes in verses 11 to 15 shortly.

There is a second outcome and that is that Satan will be thrown into the lake of fire, verse 10, “And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone.” An unnamed being, perhaps the same angel in verse 1 who threw him into the abyss, now throws Satan into His permanent eternal prison. By the way, Jesus talked about this place and said it was prepared for Satan and his angels. Matthew 25, verse 41, Jesus says, “The Son of Man will say to those on His left [this is the judgment at the end of the tribulation] ‘Depart from Me accursed ones into the eternal fire [listen to this] which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.’” This morning, our Scripture passage that we began the service with is John 14, which describes Jesus saying, “I go to prepare a place for you.” Same Greek word here in Matthew 25. God has prepared a place for His own and He’s prepared a place for all those who reject His Son.

In the lake of fire, Satan will join two humans, two humans that he both recruited and empowered to lead the rebellion during the tribulation: antichrist and his false prophet. Look at verse 10, Satan is thrown into the lake of fire, “where the beast and the false prophet [notice this word] are also.” Now, we are tempted to just read over that. Don’t do that because this is a very serious, important and sobering statement. These two humans were thrown into the lake of fire back in chapter 19, verse 20 at the second coming. A thousand years later, these two humans are still suffering in the lake of fire. It is hard for us to hear; it’s hard for me to say. But you need to understand this: the lake of fire is eternal and those who are sent there by God will live and suffer eternally. This text completely along with many others, disproves annihilationism—the idea that unbelievers once they die if they haven’t believed they are just going to go out of existence. No, these two humans are still there a thousand years later. Their existence and suffering will be eternal. 

That brings us to the third outcome: the devil, antichrist and the false prophet will be punished forever. Verse 10 goes on: “and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” They: Satan, these two humans and the rest of the fallen angels, the demons who followed Satan, “will be tormented.” The Greek word “tormented” means “the infliction of severe suffering or pain.” Again, this is hard for me to say; it’s hard for you to hear. But this is what Jesus taught us. The lake of fire will be a place of unimaginable mental agony and physical suffering. They will be tormented, notice “day and night.” Now, that’s an interesting expression because the lake of fire is also called “outer darkness.” That is, it will be a place of complete darkness with no daylight and no light whatsoever. So, this figure of speech just means “continually” or “without interruption.” And then he adds, “forever and ever.” That sounds really bad in English but listen to it in Greek: “into the ages of the ages.”—“The ages of the ages.” The lake of fire is not temporary. It is eternal. There will be no end. In fact, that same expression “into the ages of the ages” in the book of Revelation John uses to describe Christ’s eternal existence in Chapter 1, verse 18; God’s eternal existence in chapter 4, verse 9 and 10; and the duration of Christ’s reign forever in chapter 11, verse 15. 

Can I say this as gently and graciously but as directly as I can, if you are here this morning and you die or Christ returns while you are still rejecting Jesus Christ, if that’s true of you this morning, if you die having rejected Jesus Christ, then this is your destiny. You will spend “into the ages of the ages” being tormented with the devil and all who reject Jesus Christ. 

Now, let me remind you of what is said at the end of verse 3. Go back there for a moment. “It is necessary,” literally, for Satan to be released for a short time. Now, we can see several reasons in our text. Let me give them to you: God will use the release of Satan and his subsequent rebellion described in verse 7 through 10 to prove five great theological realities. Let me just give them to you. Here’s what it proves; here’s why God does this; here’s why it is necessary to prove these things. Number one: Satan is totally incurably evil. A thousand years imprisoned in the abyss won’t change his evil heart or his violent hatred of God and His people. In fact, he will come out hating Christ more than ever and immediately lead a rebellion against Him. He is incurably evil.

Number two. Mankind is totally, hopelessly depraved. I mean, think about this: when Jesus was here physically during the incarnation, how did people respond to Him? Many rejected Him. Most rejected Him. When He is physically present on this planet reigning as its king, those who are there, many of them, will also physically reject Him even though He is here physically. You see, after experiencing His gracious rule and the peace and the fulfillment that comes from His reign and experiencing it for a thousand years, sinners will still refuse His grace and still reject His Lordship. A perfect environment and the physical presence of Jesus Christ will not change their hearts. Maybe you are one of those people who says, “You know, if Jesus would just show up and prove Himself to me, if He were here, I would believe in Him.” No, you wouldn’t. No, you wouldn’t. You see, let me make it personal. If you are not a follower of Jesus Christ without a changed heart, you don’t really want to be in heaven. You don’t really want to be in the millennium in the thousand-year reign of Christ. You would absolutely hate it there. And given the chance you would join the rebellion against Jesus Christ. That’s why my only hope, your only hope, is the gospel and a changed heart. You see, the only way that we will ever submit to Jesus Christ, that we will ever love Him and follow Him is if God changes our rebel hearts. If you are here this morning and you have never believed in Jesus, you need to cry out to the God that made you who sustains your life and say, “God, forgive my sins because of Jesus. Forgive me! Give me a new heart because Jesus lived a perfect life in my place, because He died the death I deserved to pay for the debt that I had earned. And then you raised Him from the dead. Forgive me! Give me a new heart.” That’s your only hope. Otherwise, even in a perfect environment you will continue to be a rebel.

Thirdly, hell is totally eternally deserved. Given a thousand years in a perfect environment under the rule of Jesus Christ, sinners will still have sinful hearts and they will choose the very first chance to rebel against Him. Chapter 22 of Revelation, verse 11 says, “Let the one who does wrong still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy.” You see, without the new birth, without a miraculously changed heart, after a thousand years on a perfect planet, under a perfect ruler, people will still be rebels. Oh, and by the way, sinners will still have their evil natures in hell, and they will continue to sin in their hearts against God every moment of their existence throughout eternity. That’s why there must be a hell and that’s why it is deserved. And that’s why, in part, hell must be forever because sinners will never stop sinning. They will be rebels though eternity.

Number four. Because of that, salvation must be totally irresistibly sovereign. The final chapter of human history proves that in a perfect environment with endless opportunities, with the absence of Satan, with perfect education, man will always choose evil apart from sovereign grace. You see, the problem is ourselves. David MacLeod recounts that years ago a series of articles appeared in the London Times about some of the same social problems that we face today, and the writer ended every article in that series with these words: “What’s wrong with the world?” After reading that series of articles, one man wrote this famous reply, “Dear editor, what’s wrong with the world? I am. Faithfully yours, G. K. Chesterton.” He was right. And that’s why sovereign grace is our only hope. Read Ephesians 2. Read what we were when God found us. We were dead in our sins. We were enslaved to our lusts. We were enslaved to Satan—to the mindset of the age. We were children of God’s wrath. We had no hope but verse 4 begins, “But God.” And God made us alive. That’s our only hope. 

Number five. Christ’s eternal rule is totally, divinely guaranteed. You see that in this rebellion when Satan and his demons and a massive army of humans gather against Christ, they are swept away in a moment. His kingdom is guaranteed. I love what Gabriel said to Mary at the announcement of His birth in Luke chapter 1, verse 32, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” Brothers and sisters, if you are in Christ, that’s your kingdom. No wonder Jesus taught us to pray, “may Your kingdom come.” 

By the way, the Lord’s table reminds us not only of what Christ did for us at the cross, but it also reminds us of His coming kingdom. Take a moment and prepare your heart to take the Lord’s table as the men come to serve us.

Our Father, we thank You that for many of us gathered here this morning, Jesus Christ is our Lord now. He is our King and we have acknowledged that. Lord, He is the King of everyone here whether they believe in Him or not. But Lord for many of us we have acknowledged that reality and we thank You that we are waiting for His kingdom. Lord, thank You for the promise that You have made to us. 

We thank You as well Father that for us who are the subjects of His Kingdom, You have given us this wonderful way to remember Him; to remember that one day, we will partake of these elements with Him as He promised in His Kingdom. Thank You that it points us back to the cross where He paid the debt for our sins so that we could be forgiven. It reminds us of the resurrection because He will again be with us, and it promises that one day we will be in His Kingdom where we will eat and drink together with Him. This little piece of bread and this thimble full juice, Lord, just remind us of a real meal that is coming when we will sit down with You.

Lord, I pray now that You will prepare our hearts. For those of us who know and love You, Lord, cleanse us. Help us to confess our sin. You have given us our conscience. You have given us the substance of the law written on our hearts. You have given us Your word. You have given us Your Spirit. And Lord, all of those things remind us when we sin and I pray that even now for everyone who knows and loves You, Lord, that You would bring to their mind through all of those mechanism specific ways that they have sinned against You that they have not yet confessed to You and sought Your forgiveness. Whether sins of attitude or word, thought or action. Father, may they confess them. We all confess them to you now seeking Your forgiveness not as our judge. You have forgiven us in the courtroom of Your justice and justification but rather coming to You now as Father, as our Lord taught us to do every day, confessing our sins and thank You that You have promised that if we will confess our sins, You are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So, Lord, we confess now resolving to turn from those sins. Thank You for the cleansing that You have given us that we can take of the table with clean hands and pure hearts. Receive the worship we bring in Jesus’ name. Amen.