Advancing Christ's Kingdom: A Case for Amillennialism

To the Ruled Church Podcast.

This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. He is honored, and I get the glory. And by the way, it's even better, because you see that building in Perryville, Arkansas? You see that one in Pechote, Mexico?

Do you see that one in Tuxla, Guterres, down there in Chiapas? That building has my son's name on it.

The church is not a democracy, it's a monarchy.

Christ is king.

You can't be Christian without a local church.

You can't do anything better than to bend your knee and bow your heart, turn from your sin and repentance, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and join up with a good Bible-believing church, and spend your life serving Jesus in a local, visible congregation.

The Ruled Church Podcast. I am your co-host, Alan Nelson, one of the pastors of Providence Baptist Church in Perryville. I am flying solo today, no Eddie Ragsdale. Today, we're gonna look at a sermon preached in 2023 at my friend Joseph Allen's church, Lee Creek Baptist Church in Van Buren, Arkansas.

And I preached this message from Revelation 20 on advancing the kingdom of Christ. And I give a case, I hope, a helpful case, a positive case for all millennialism. So, as you're exploring this doctrine or thinking through these things about eschatology, I hope this sermon is helpful to you.

Here we go. A few months ago, of course, Joseph contacted me and asked me to preach on advancing the kingdom of Christ. I immediately thought, this is an absolutely wonderful subject to preach on, but it really took me a while to kind of think.

You know, I was like Harold said last night, I was assigned a topic. So, when you're assigned a topic, you have to think, what angle am I going to approach this important and biblical topic from? Where I finally settled was this, and maybe I'm wrong, but a good sermon on advancing the kingdom must necessarily consider eschatology.

And by the way, that's a great quote, if you want to keep that, you can keep that quote, maybe I'm wrong, Alan Nelson, and you can post that wherever you want. But I'd like to encourage you this afternoon to turn your Bibles to the book of Revelation,.

Chapter 20.

Revelation, chapter 20. If I were going to give this sermon a Puritan-esque title, you know, they give the title and then a long subtitle, it'd be something like this, physical distractions to kingdom advance, or a brotherly homily, exhorting Christians to pay heed to the spiritual nature of the kingdom of Christ expressed in his church, so as to move away from both golden age-ism and rapture-ready-ism, in order to face the coming days with courage before the Lord and commitment to advancing the gospel of Christ to the nations in glorious triumph.

Friends, they said, put that on, that'd take up a whole piece of paper, put that on there. But let me lay my cards on the table for a moment. The church, I believe, is God's plan A. I believe that we're not living in a time of parenthesis.

I believe that the church is a fulfillment. I believe that she is glorious. I believe that she is beautiful. I believe that she is what God is doing right now in the world. And it's in this place of Scripture, of course, as you know, that we are introduced to the thousand years, or what we call the millennium, and depending on one's interpretation of this text and others, it will put you in whichever millennial camp that you fall into.

If you're like me and you're born in the 80s, you also fall into another millennial camp. That's for another day. What I want to do this afternoon is I want to look at Revelation 20, verses one through six.

I'm just in a habit of doing this and nothing against any of the other brothers, just what I do. So would you stand just always, it's what I do, stand as we read the Scriptures. And plus, after lunch, it'll probably help keep the blood flowing and keep you from falling asleep.

Revelation 20, verses one through six. Then I saw, that is, this is a vision of John for the church. I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.

And he seized the dragon, the ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended.

After that, he must be released for a little while. Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands.

They came to life and reigned with Christ for 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 is the one who shares in the first resurrection.

Over such, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ. They will reign with him for a thousand years. Let's pray. Father, would you help us? Would you help us to understand the text more or not?

Even though there'll be some disagreements, but help us to find unity in areas that we do agree and love Christ together and seek as we leave this place this afternoon to have a heart and a desire and an excitement to advance the kingdom of Christ for the glory of our Lord.

And we pray it all in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Most of you are already familiar, there's probably a review here, but I will tell you the millennial camps as it were. And once you start talking about these, there's nuances all over the place, I understand, but let me just try to spread them out or lay them out for you.

We have the pre-millennial camps. So millennium comes from the term thousands. So you have the pre-millennial camp. That is Jesus is coming back pre-millennial before these thousand years to reign on earth.

You have the post-millennial camp. That is Jesus is coming back post-millennial after these thousand years, which they may be literally a thousand years in this system or just a long period of time.

These thousand years will be ushered in by the triumph of the gospel over governments and the earth will experience a golden age. I understand again, nuances in both of those positions probably in a minority position this afternoon.

I'm okay with that. And I don't wanna disparage these positions in any way or my brothers, I wanna link arms with you, but I'm gonna offer a pushback on both of these in this message. And I think both of them, for example, look to something physical that necessarily transpire before the new heavens and the new earth.

I think this leads into some misapplications of Old Testament prophecies. So the position that I'm advocating for in this message is the crazy position known as all millennialism. This position is gonna take these thousand years that we'll look at in this text and see them as a symbolic representation of the church age.

That is the entire time between the resurrection of Christ and his return. Now, before I dive into the text, I wanna note something. James Renahan, his new book on the 1689, he says that our particular Baptist forefathers in the 17th century, that they did not have a monolithic eschatology, right?

They had a variety of positions.

And he quotes Ian Murray, who says this, the particular Baptist had no party divisions determined by prophetic beliefs. So I wanna start this message by saying very clearly and as humbly as I can, this sermon today is not a polemic.

I want to set forth before you the all millennial position and why I think the reason I'm doing this is I think it's our most consistent foundation for advancing the kingdom of Christ. I believe this position that I'm giving you this afternoon is the most biblical of all the positions.

But in setting forth this position, I will inevitably point out some errors I see in other positions. But please, brothers and sisters, do not allow me to be uncharitable to you. If I'm uncharitable to you, please talk to me after the sermon, allow me the opportunity to repent.

It's not my desire in this message. It's not my desire to mock or ridicule your position. I have been influenced and blessed by many brothers from various eschatological camps. I've read various brothers of eschatological camps.

I wouldn't be who I am today if not for people holding even these other positions. What I wanna say to us this afternoon is these days are not the days for division. We cannot have division among healthy and solid Christianity.

When they come to lock us up, they're not going to ask you what millennial position that you hold to. So whatever your position, orthodoxy demands that you hold to a literal, physical, personal return of our Lord Jesus in visible glory to the earth.

And I believe all of us in this room will say amen and agree to that. There's two types of people in this room. I know there are those who are figuring out eschatology. If that's you, I hope you'll listen to this and I hope you'll be encouraged to maybe think through some of the things as you weigh in the balance of your eschatological position.

There's also those in here who are already fixed in your eschatology. Well, for you brothers and sisters, I ask that you just look over the areas that you disagree with and look to find the common ground that we both agree on in advancing the kingdom of God together.

I'm here to tell you this afternoon that the church of our Lord Jesus Christ is not on the defense. She is advancing.

And so it's not my desire this afternoon.

To preach a system. May we always guard and be careful not to take a system and force the Bible into the system. May we never stand behind the sacred desk and preach a system. I'm here for this afternoon to preach on behalf of my King.

I wanna preach Christ. So what I'm gonna do with this text is give you four truths from it and then we'll get to five exhortations. And that's just preacher lingo. Say, I've got nine points, but it comes across much better to you if I say I've got four points and then five exhortations and maybe it goes over your head that it's a nine point sermon.

So let's reread the text and then let's jump in here. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years and threw him into the pit and shut it, sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended.

After that, he must be released for a little while. Then I saw thrones and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands.

They came to life and reigned with Christ for 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 is the one who shares in the first resurrection.

Over such, the second death has no power, but they will be priest of God and of Christ and they will reign with him for a thousand years. It'll be impossible for me this afternoon to lay out the entire case of all millennialism in this sermon.

And that's not even my task. It's not even my goal, because my task is to preach about advancing the kingdom. What I'm trying to do is just lay a foundation here for advancing the kingdom. So let me give you four truths from this text that lay a foundation for this.

First truth, number one, Christ reigns now. Friends, our Lord Jesus Christ is reigning over the universe, not in the future, merely. He's reigning right now. In the text, it says that the saints that come alive and they reign with him.

That's in verse four. Then I saw thrones, a seat on them were those to whom the authority of a judge was committed. I also saw the souls, those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus,.

For the word of God,.

Those who had not worshipped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their heads. They came to life and reigned with Christ. That is, if they're reigning, Christ is reigning for a thousand years.

Now, the point to mention here is that Christ is reigning for these thousand years, these thousand years. It is my position here that these are symbolic because the book of Revelation is often symbolic.

Even these things that we've read already in verse two, I believe everyone in here would agree that when John says dragon, that's symbolic. It's not a literal dragon. It's a it's a it's an image of a dragon that is symbolic of Satan.

So there's symbolism here. Harold, last night, encouraged me by reminding me that Baptists love symbolism. That's right. I mean, we have this great ordinance that we we're Baptists because we believe in the symbolism of baptism, right?

We have this physical ordinance that we've been given. This physical ordinance, if you go to the baptistry, unregenerate, you come out a wet unregenerate, right?

That's all.

Baptism is a physical symbol of a spiritual reality. And that is you must be born again. That water don't do it, but it does symbolize a spiritual reality. Further, and all over the Bible, the number 1000 is symbolic.

Just a quick math reminder. I'm not into numerology and all that,.

But there's some things to think about. I think are important.

The term the number 1000 is just 10 to the third power, right? 10 times 10 times 10. It's just to symbolize, in my opinion here, a long and fulfilled period of time. Now, the number 1000 is used like this all over the Bible.

I'll give you three examples. Deuteronomy 7, 9. Know, therefore, that Yahweh, your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to 1000 generations.

Does that mean that God does the thousand and first generation? God is unfaithful to. No, that's not what the text is saying. It's using the term 1000 for a long, long, fulfilled period. First Chronicles 16, 14 and 15.

He is Yahweh, our God. His judgments are in all the earth. Remember his covenant forever. The word that he commanded for a thousand generations.

All right.

So we remember this.

For a thousand generations. Then we finally get to the thousand generation and we tell the thousand.

And first generation. You don't have to remember.

This anymore, right? Now, of course, it's it's being used symbolically or in Psalm 50, verse 10. For every beast of the forest is mine. The cattle on a thousand hills. God owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

Let's get to the thousand and first hill, right? And there God doesn't own the cattle anymore. No, no, of course not. We understand that the symbolism here or in Psalm 94, not chapter 90, verse four. I was reading this morning.

A thousand years is as yesterday in your sight. The idea of the psalmist saying before the Lord is this long period of time. It's like nothing compared to your eternal. Omnipresence and omniscience. There's more places, but but it is a consistent number in the scriptures used to symbolize a large quantity.

So my question is, why would we come to this text and expect something different? I think this is the plain and simple reading that the all millennial position is that the number is symbolic of this long period of time between Christ's first and second coming.

And that Christ right now,.

This is the point. Point one is raining, right? Do you believe this afternoon that Christ is on his throne?

Perhaps you disagree.

With this interpretation, but let me take you to Revelation flip there, if you are sorry. Ephesians, we're in Revelation. Go to Ephesians for just a moment. Ephesians chapter one. Again, we're in Revelation of maybe a more difficult, challenging book to interpret.

OK, this is easy to interpret. I believe Ephesians chapter one. Go to Ephesians chapter one and consider what's kind of start in the middle of a sentence would start in verse 19, Ephesians chapter one, verse 19.

And was the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ. Now, listen to this. When he raised him from the dead and seated him, not will seat him, seated him already at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and not just above,.

By the way, far above all rule.

And authority and power and dominion and above every name that is to a name, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he has put all things under his feet. How many things? All things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who feels all in all.

Friends, we have the already not yet tension of the kingdom. Christ reigns already in this age and in the age to come. He will reign in the new heavens and new earth. So Christ is reigning right now. Let me encourage you with this.

You disagree with some of the things and some of the interpretation. Fine, but let me encourage you with this. Jesus Christ is on his throne over every government, every nation, every so-called natural disaster, every virus, every demon over every particle of dust in the far reaches of the universe.

Christ is king over all of it. And we can celebrate this together. Secondly. Satan is limited now. First, Christ is reigning now. Number two, Satan is limited now. Now, I believe, as Brother Harold preached last night so well, everyone believes that Satan is limited.

But let me give you the perspective here from the text. What I mean is everyone who believes in the sovereignty of God, I should say. There are those out here who thinks Satan's on one side and God's on the other.

And they're duking it out. And we don't know who's going to win.

Of course not.

We know that Satan is under the sovereignty of God. But but the perspective from the text is then I saw the angel come down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.

And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years and threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until a thousand years were ended.

After that, he must be released for a little while. Here's John's vision of what is happening behind the scenes during this age. Satan has been bound, the text says. We all agree with this. Satan has been bound for these thousand years.

Now, my interpretation here is that he has been bound between the time of Jesus's resurrection until right before his return, when he must be released. But you say, but Satan is still active today.

Well, right.

I consider thou art very discerning.

Right. Yes, he's active today.

He's absolutely active in our world today. Abortion and pornography and homosexuality. He is running rampant over America today.

Satan is prowling around.

Like a roaring lion, seeking to whom he may devour. So you say, doesn't that negate your interpretation?

Doesn't that disprove it?

And I say, no. Why? Because Satan is specifically bound in a certain way. This is the point of the text. Verse three. And threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that what? He might not deceive the nations any longer.

This is the way that Satan is specifically bound now in this age. So let me give you some other text. The point is Satan is bound in this way. The son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil.

And at Calvary, what my argument is at Calvary, he did not just issue a future defeat of Satan, but he really defeated the evil. Let me give you some other text. Matthew 12, 29. You can write these down.

We'll go through them quick. Matthew 12, 29. Jesus says or how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed, he may plunder his house.

Now, the word that Jesus uses would be careful of this, but it is interesting to know the word Jesus uses for binding the strong man, the same word that John uses in Revelation 20. John, who would have heard Jesus say this, right?

He uses the same word in Revelation 20. Jesus, in other words, has bound the strong man. And right now he's plundering his goods. Every time a sinner comes to Christ, Satan's house is plundered. And John 12, 31 and 32.

Jesus says now is the judgment of this world. Now, will the ruler of this world not later, not later. Now, will the ruler of this world.

Be cast out?

And I, when I'm lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. So Satan, in other words, has been cast out in this way so that he is unable now to stop the advance of the gospel to the nations where Christ.

Will draw his elect.

From every tribe and tongue and people and language. Satan has no power over the church to stop the advance of the gospel. Or Colossians. 215.

He disarmed the rulers.

And authorities and put them to open shame. By triumphing over them in him. That is, the cross crushed the serpent. What I'm saying here is that John in Revelation 20 is showing us a behind the scenes picture of all that these texts are describing.

Satan has been dealt a death blow.

Through Christ's triumphing work,.

And he is unable, friends, to stop the advance of the gospel to the nations. He is a pit bull on a chain. All that thing can bark and it can hurt you. They can't stop you from getting in the house. Or let me give you another illustration.

On Monday, I was turkey hunting with my son and a church member. My oldest son is not here. The church member. And then Washita Mountains somewhere around 8 o 'clock that morning, an old gobbler stuck his head above the ridge.

And as we say, my church member blasted his face. He flopped around there for a little bit, then he quit. My son, because when you're the youngest on a turkey hunt, you will be charged with this responsibility.

He was carrying the turkey back to the vehicle.

And that old turkey.

Started flopping around a little bit.

That old turkey.

Started trying to peck my son on his back.

But guess what? We are confident.

That bird had been dealt.

A fatal blow.

He wasn't recovering.

His flailings were in vain. His rage we could endure for lo, his doom was sure. Friends, Satan has been dealt a death blow. He's locked up in this sense, threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer.

That is the whole Old Testament. God's working through national Israel. And there's others, you know, that come into that. But by and large, the nations are in darkness and deceived. But that is no longer.

Because Christ has triumphed.

Over the serpent.

He's been dealt a death blow. He flails about. He's raging against the church, but he has been severely crippled. And the church, friends, is guaranteed certain victory because our great enemy has been weakened so as to be unable to spread the gospel, the spread of the gospel over all the earth.

Christ is reigning now. Satan is limited now. Thirdly, the saints are ruling now. Now look at verse four. Then I saw thrones and seated on them.

Were those to whom.

The authority to judge was committed. Also, I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God and those who had not worshipped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands.

They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. So we know John is not talking about a physical first resurrection. He's not saying the bodies of of these beheaded came alive, but but the souls of the martyrs and these others, by the way, it's not just the martyrs, the others here.

So what you have here is a is.

Is a spiritual resurrection.

And then a bodily resurrection.

That happens just like you have a physical death and then a spiritual death, which is later mentioned as the second death. Of course, we're sinners. I'm saying there's a spiritual death in the sense that the second death is sinners being cast off into eternal torment in a place called hell, the lake of fire forever and ever and ever.

So what happens here?

Then we have the souls of the martyrs and those who have not worshipped the beast or taken his mark. This is all happening right now in the church. In other words, what John is saying is believers are spiritually resurrected and they're reigning with Christ.

Just let me point something out. Verse six. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection.

Over such over such.

The second death has no power.

Friends, I'm just going to tell you.

Right now, if you want the second death.

To have no power over you, you better be a participant in the first resurrection. This is actually all over the Bible to be resurrected is to be born again. Oh, I'll I'll I'll mention a couple of texts.

First, John 314. We know that we have passed out of death and what into life because we love the brothers who ever did. Whoever does not love abides in death. John 521. For as the father raises the dead and gives him life, so also the son gives life to whom he will.

So, friends, listen very carefully. And I know I'm preaching to a church, but but let me let me give a gospel call here to you for a moment.

If you are not resurrected spiritually,.

Then you're not united to Christ.

Doesn't matter if you've been baptized.

Or the matter if you've been going.

To this church for 50 years. Doesn't matter how much money you put in offering.

Doesn't matter even that you're showing up to a Saturday church conference.

If you're not born again, you don't see the kingdom.

You must come to Christ, repent of your sins, look to his work and believe the gospel. It is in the first resurrection that we're united to Christ. We're given spiritual life so that when saints in Christ die, this was also preached last night.

They don't go to some holding cell. They don't go to purgatory or God forbid you hold some sort of crazy theology that you just think.

The soul sleeps until the Lord comes back. No, friends, when the saint in Christ dies, his soul goes to glory.

Flip over again to Ephesians. This is a beautiful book. Ephesians chapter two again. You say, well, some of that's confusing.

I don't know if I agree all of that.

In Revelation 20. I'm not sure where I'm at. OK, well, you will agree with this. This is plain. Ephesians chapter two. It's plain, but it's a wondrous mystery. Ephesians chapter two. Let's start in verse four.

Two of the greatest words in the Bible. We were dead in sins. But what happened? Ephesians two, four. But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive.

There's a resurrection right together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. Now listen to verse six and raised us up with him. And listen to this, seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Friends, just as sure as you're sitting here in this place, if you're in Christ in a mysterious and glorious way, you're reigning with Christ right now, seated in the heavenly places. Isn't that wonderful?

Now, perhaps you disagree with what I'm saying about Revelation 20, but surely you would not disagree here. It's undeniable that the saints are seated with Christ in a mysterious way and the souls of those who are dead in Christ are with him right now as he reigns.

And the reason, if I may offer, why I think my interpretation is correct is not only these texts that we've examined, but also consider this afternoon why the book of Revelation was written. It was written to the seven churches in Asia Minor to encourage them.

To endure to the end. It wasn't given to them.

So that they could say, boy, this is great.

This is wonderful. And the church 2000 years from now is really going to be.

Encouraged by all this stuff. But this is just really sad for us right now.

I wish there was something here for me. No, friends. No, no, no.

That's not what John is doing. John is saying, don't you see?

Don't you see? You're reigning with Christ.

You win even if they kill you.

You still win.

You reign with Christ.

And the church is victorious. This is the already not yet tension. We die.

But we're trying.

Well, let's just give it quick baseball analogy and then we'll move to the fourth one. Suppose a man comes to bat. It's in the bottom of the ninth. The score is tied. Bases are loaded. The man walks up.

And the first pitch. Beans him in the face.

Bloods everywhere,.

Teeths everywhere,.

Knocks him unconscious for about three minutes. You say, man, that guy lost.

Look what he lost, lost the blood.

The teeth are gone. And then you realize, wait a second. He just advanced a runner. He just won. He just went to first base and it's through suffering that the church gains her victory. Fourthly, the kingdom is advancing now.

So Christ is reigning now. Satan is limited now. The saints are ruling now. And fourthly, the kingdom is advancing now. So I won't read the whole text again, but I just want to say this. Can we not see a wonderful and weighty truth being communicated in a way that our finite little peanut brains can wrap our heads around this symbolism in the text?

It's really both wise and beautiful for the church there. This is what is happening.

Behind the scenes.

And we get a glimpse of it all. Christ is reigning now. Satan is limited now. The saints are ruling with Christ now. And so if that's all happening.

As it were behind the scenes,.

What's happening on the main stage? What's happening right here.

On Earth right now?

And the answer is the kingdom is advancing now. The already is the kingdom advance now. The not yet is we don't topple governments or escape death or persecution. There'll never be a time in this age when it will not be necessary to say to a person who needs to be converted, you must take up your cross.

And follow Christ. This is the age in which we live, so it's happening in revelation right in the face. Think about this now when this book was written, it's happening right in the face of the Roman Empire.

And it has been continuing to advance for 2000 years in the same way. I want to be charitable to my friends,.

But this is why Paul's.

Not writing letters and fighting about Christian nationalism,.

Right?

Not fighting about these things.

Why?

Because they're preaching the gospel and the church is winning. We don't need governments toppled in order to be a triumphant church. In other words, the church in North Korea right now,.