God Will Have the Last Word

AI Transcript

Man. Thank you. Great to be back. Yeah, think about a year ago, I had another student that was, he was a pastor at a church in Lakewood and preaching through the book of Revelation. And he asked me to come and he asked me to come on the Sunday, they went through the seal judgments and then the trumpet and bowl judgments. I thought, dude, what are you doing to me? You make me do all the hard passages.

So I saw the Millennium, thought, this is it. Anyway, I love the book of Revelation. I love teaching it. I love getting people excited about it because it is a book. It's a book that you should be excited about. mean, usually we think of the book of Revelation as it's a book about judgment and gloom and doom. And it's so hard to understand. I remember when I grew up, I avoided the book.

until I was forced to write a paper on it seminary and literally forced to write a paper on chapter 20 on the millennium. And I'm not sure I solved anything with that paper, but it instilled a love for the book of Revelation in me that hasn't died down. And so I just love to teach and preach Revelation. And I'd love to demonstrate that all the songs we sung this morning, if you recognize them,

the words come right out of the book of Revelation. And that's because the book of Revelation is a book, it's not a book about the end times. It's a book about worship. And Revelation, if I could summarize the message, Revelation is meant to get you to worship God and the Lamb no matter what consequences it might bring you. And the whole book is about that. In fact, if you thumb through the book, just notice, starting in chapter four and five, and that heavenly worship scene.

And you look through the rest of the book, there's all kinds of Psalms and hymns that are sung by individuals or groups of people or angelic beings that demonstrate that the book of Revelation is meant to get you to break out in worship at what God and the Lamb have done just because of who they are. Sometimes I think we think, you know, worship is something that, you know, you get up Sunday and you go to church and...

We worship God because, you know, he's kind of been lonely all week long, and we've kind of ignored him. And so he's just waiting for us Sunday or Saturday, some churches meet Saturdays. He's just waiting for Sunday morning so his people come and worship and acknowledge him. And we, know, sometimes I get the feeling that, you know, we worship God because we think he needs it. We don't worship God because he needs it. We worship him because he's worthy of it. And that's the message of the book of Revelation.

It calls us to worship God and the Lamb no matter what the consequences it brings. And for the readers in the first century, a little bit unlike our day, for readers in the first century, the consequences could be rather dire. If you worshipped anyone else but showing your allegiance to the Almighty,

Caesar and the empire that was in control and the empire that was responsible for your prosperity and your peace and your safety and your well-being, the Roman Empire of the day, to show allegiance to anything or anyone else would be seen as kind of an act of treason and could bring rather serious consequences.

And I want to look at one chapter in the book of Revelation and how it addresses that. And that is the chapter on the Millennium. If I were to ask all of you and say, know, what idea or word comes to your mind when you think about the book of Revelation? Some of you might say the number seven or the Antichrist or the Beast or whatever. But I would bet that some of you would say the Millennium.

That thousand year reign that we find in Revelation chapter 20. And what I want to do is look at this from the standpoint of what is this chapter doing here? And what difference does it really make to you and I today?

What difference would it have made to the readers in the first century that were under pressure from a pagan empire and being called upon to worship God and the Lamb in the context of a world that said, no, you can't do that. Only Caesar and only this empire is worthy of your worship and allegiance. What would this have said to them? And then what does this passage say to us today?

Because we often think that the millennium is some kind of a theological concept. And it is, because I still get asked by people, you know, what's your view of Revelation? it amillennial or premillennial or postmillennial? You know, you amill, premill, postmill, windmill, whatever mill you are. And it's as if that's the most central feature of the book.

I actually think chapter 21 and 22 is the heart of the book. That's the grand finale. If you ever go watch a firework display, you wait for the grand finale at the end, that's Revelation 21 and 22. Everything is leading up to it. And this vision of how does heaven, how does this heavenly worship scene in Revelation 4 and 5, some of the songs we sung this morning taken right out of Revelation 4 and 5, where all of heaven is worshiping God and the Lamb.

How does that eventually come to earth?

In the Lord's prayer in Matthew chapter 6, He taught His disciples to pray, Our Father who is in heaven, hallow be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The as it is in heaven is Revelation 4 and 5. God's will and His kingdom is fully acknowledged in heaven, where all of heaven worships God and acknowledges who He is in His sovereignty. And the question is, how will that become a reality on earth? An earth that contests that.

An earth that does not acknowledge God's sovereignty. An earth that resists and opposes God and His people. Revelation 21 and 22 is the answer. On a new creation, a new earth, all of God's people, with God and the Lamb at the center, now worshiping Him.

But where does this millennium passage come in? If our main focus is on 21 and 22, that is the grand finale. The grand finale of the fireworks display. What about this passage about the millennium? Revelation says, 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 He bound him for a thousand years. Notice that reference, that ancient serpent. That takes you back to Genesis 3. Remember the serpent that deceived Adam and Eve? That's the same serpent that has for centuries and centuries and centuries been deceiving and wreaking havoc on this world and causing God's people harm.

Now that serpent has been bound for a thousand years. And He, that angel, threw him into the abyss. In Revelation, the abyss is the home of demons and Satan. And He locked him and sealed it over to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years are ended. After that, he must be set free for short time.

And then 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 about Jesus and because of the Word of God. They did not worship the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their forehead or their hands. And they came to life and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

and the rest of the dead did not come to life until after the thousand years. This, the saints coming to life and reigning with Christ for a thousand years, this is the resurrection, the first resurrection. And blessed and holy are those who share in that first resurrection. The second death has no power over them. The second death being the lake of fire, the final judgment. It has no power over them, but they will be priests.

of God and Christ, and they will reign with Him.

for a thousand years. passage.

Again, we could sit here and talk about the pre-millennial, post-millennial, non-millennial view and whatever. And in a way, I don't care which of those views you hold, but I want to ask, well, what's this passage doing here? And what does that say to you and I? For the record, I think that this is a picture of...

what God will one day do when he returns at the second coming of Christ. So I think it takes place in the future. We're still awaiting this. In fact, what is interesting about the book of Revelation, we often think of it as, you know, this is just kind of a prophetic vision of end time events, but it's actually also very carefully put together and crafted. I think John was a literary genius when he wrote this thing. Because what...

What's going on is if you go back several chapters earlier, you'll notice that the three primary enemies of God are introduced back in chapter 12 and 13, and that is the dragon, Satan, that goes all the way back to Genesis 3, that same...

Satan that had tempted Adam and Eve to sin and has continually tempted and deceived and harmed God's people and resisted God and His purposes. He's introduced first. And then two beasts are introduced in chapter 13. And then the city of Babylon is introduced in chapters 16 and 17. And then what John does is he begins to remove those three things in reverse order.

So in chapter 18, Babylon is removed. These are all three things that oppose God's kingdom. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. But on earth, it's resisted by Satan and these beastly figures and Babylon. And now what God is going to do is He's going to begin to remove them.

in order to make way for the new creation in chapter 21 and 22. So in chapter 17 and 18, he removes the city of Babylon that stands for the entire world, I think, in opposition to God. And then he removes the two beasts in chapter 19. And now finally, the main antagonist that lies behind everything, Satan the dragon, now he's removed in chapter 20.

And in the midst of His judgment and removal, you have this account of this millennium, this thousand year reign.

It says, saw the souls of those who have been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the Word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image, and they had not received the mark on their foreheads. They came to life and they reign with Christ a thousand years.

And I read that and I wonder why does he say that? Well, if you read the chapters leading up to this, this is just the opposite of how Satan treated them. Satan ruled over them through evil nations like Rome in that day. Satan ruled over them unjustly and oppressively, and he put them to death. Go back and read chapter 12 and 13. persecuted. Satan was the ultimate...

power behind all attempts to exterminate God's people in the first century and leading up into the present day. And by the way, used to read, and I do once in while, used to read a little thing, the voice of the martyr church or something like that, and it was just given accounts of, you know, we're not familiar with this in the United States of America. At least for now, I don't foresee...

any kind of widespread persecution for our faith for the near future. But you start reading about the church in different countries, and they are even undergoing more severe persecution than the first century church under...

And John is telling us it's ultimately Satan that lies behind all attempts to harm and try to exterminate God's people.

And now in a profound reversal, Satan ruled over them oppressively and unjustly. And he tried to put them to death. Now, they reign and they come to life. Just the opposite of how Satan treated them.

And it says they came to life and reigned for a thousand years. Personally, I think the thousand years is not necessarily referring to a long period of time. It's just a huge, complete number. If you look at all the other numbers in Revelation that refer to periods of time, it's like 10 days, 1260 days, 42 months, 3.5 years, and now a thousand years. What John is saying is...

What the saints will experience when God comes back and judges the power that lies behind all attempts to put them to death and to make their lives miserable and to oppose them. When God comes back to judge them, He will raise His people to reign for a thousand years. That is, what they experience will more than compensate for anything they suffered in this world.

That's the message of the millennium. What will happen to God's people when He comes and judges? And by the way, if you go back to chapter 17 through 20, you have all these judgment scenes. As I said, God is in the business of removing everything that stands opposed to His kingdom coming on earth in 21 and 22. So it's like this is a reminder, by the way, in the midst of all these judgments, God has not forgotten His people.

He will raise them. He will raise them up and vindicate them so that anything they suffered on earth will more than be compensated for. When God comes to reward His people and to raise them and vindicate them, that will more than compensate for anything. They had to give up.

or they suffered on this earth.

That I think is the message of the millennium in Revelation 20. Again, it ultimately doesn't matter whether you think it's post-mill or a mill or pre-mill or whatever. But that you understand in the midst of these scenes of judgment, God will not forget His people. God will raise them up and vindicate them, showing that anything that they had to suffer and give up, anything that they had to sacrifice,

anything that they had to suffer, God will more than compensate for that when He comes and raises and vindicates His people.

I remember hearing the story of a Chinese doctor here in the States. And I remember talking to him and he's a little bit hard to understand, not so much because of his accent, but because his speech was difficult for him. And he wore a hearing aid as well. And I learned more about his story. When he lived in China, his father,

was a pastor in communist China. And one day they sent the authorities to his house and they took his library, his books, and they brought them out in the street and lit a huge fire. And then they decided to throw him in and burn him to death while his son watched. This doctor I talked to. And then they proceeded to take the son and they beat him, tried to get him to renounce his faith in Jesus Christ, which he refused to do.

And that's why it was difficult for him to speak. That's why speech came hard for him. And that's why he was hard to understand. But I thought about that. thought, man, can you imagine that? I mean, is it worth that? To maintain your confession for Jesus Christ? I remember another story. The second year I taught at Denver Seminary, there's a student in my class from India.

And I became kind of friends with him and started to talk to him a little bit. And come to find out is his mother and father and brothers and sisters wanted nothing to do with him. Number one, because he became a Christian. Number two, because he decided to move to the United States and go to seminary and devote his life to Christian ministry. And so his family literally would not talk to him and disowned him.

And I thought, man, is that worth the sacrifice? I to lose your family, people you love, to have them turn in you and hate you and reject you and want nothing to do with you. I've talked to other students at the seminary who have given up lucrative careers.

to go to seminary and become a pastor.

and the scorn and the mocking and the ridicule that they've taken from their family. Family members saying, you're stupid to do that. You would give up a lucrative career to go pastor a small church somewhere? That's stupid.

And I wonder again, are they right? Is it worth the sacrifice?

maybe you've done something similar.

Maybe you have family members that won't talk to you. Maybe you have good friends that you used to spend a lot of time with and hang out with, but they don't want anything to do with you anymore because of your Christian faith. Maybe you have given up a promising career.

And you sacrifice that to serve Jesus Christ.

go in the mission field or something. And you wonder, man, is it worth it?

The message of Revelation 20 is...

It's worth it.

One day God will demonstrate that any sacrifice you had to make is worth it.

That's what the millennium is about. One day God will come and raise and vindicate His people and show them that anything you had to sacrifice was worth it and it was not in vain. You see, that's the message of Satan and the deceiver in the world is you're foolish.

You're foolish to follow Jesus Christ. You're foolish to sacrifice for Him. You're foolish to give up family and friends and careers. You're foolish to suffer ridicule or God forbid, you're foolish to give up your life for the sake of the Gospel or end up in prison in some country for the sake of the Gospel. That's stupid!

That's the message of Satan. That's the message of the world. But what matters in the end of the day is what God says.

Some of you are familiar with Eugene Peterson. He wrote the mess, kind of the translation, the paraphrastic translation, the message. And he wrote this little commentary that I really like on Revelation. It's called Reverse Thunder. It's kind of a devotional thing. And every chapter is entitled the last word on worship in chapter four and five, or the last word on judgment, the last word in salvation.

Chapter 20 is God's last word on whether your sacrifice was worth it or not. Satan does not have the last word. The world does not have the last word.

Your friends or family or me does not have the last word on whether your sacrifice was worth it. God has the last word. And one day in the future, He will vindicate His people. He will demonstrate to you and to the world that your sacrifice was not in vain. That anything you had to give up, anything you had to sacrifice,

was worth it. And when God vindicates you, it will more than compensate for anything that you had to give up. That is the message of the millennium.

See, all throughout the Gospels, all throughout Revelation, Jesus told His followers that they will hate you because they hated Me. He told His followers that you must lose this life in order to gain life in eternity.

And so I don't know what God may be calling you to sacrifice.

But the message of the millennium is, it's worth it. And one day when God returns, He will show that. One day when Christ returns, He will vindicate you and show you that, yes, it was worth it. Any sacrifice you had to make.

Let's close in prayer.