End of Life, End of Times: The Necessity of the Messianic Reign Revelation 20 Part II

Last week what I showed you is that the

Old Testament theme has this future kingdom in mind.

This is pointing ahead to a future kingdom. This kingdom is known as the

Messianic kingdom that is promised in the Old Testament through three covenants that God made with Israel.

The Abrahamic, the Davidic, and the New Covenant. Each of these must be fulfilled.

God is a God who always keeps his promises. As Titus 1 -2 says,

He never lies. What I showed you last Sunday is that all these promises were made to the people of Israel and they all need to be fulfilled to that people,

Israel. Israel never had the full land promise of the

Abrahamic Covenant. They never had the land from the Euphrates to the

River of Egypt and the land they did have was ripped from them in the 7th century

BC at the hands of the Babylonians and they were taken into exile.

They were promised that the Messianic throne would be theirs forever as long as the kings followed the will of God.

What we know from the history of Israel is that the latter kings did not walk with God and so when they were driven out of the land, the monarchy that they had was also stripped from them.

There were also New Covenant promises made to Israel in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36 where the nation will finally believe in their

Messiah, Jesus, and enter the kingdom that is promised to them. As Jeremiah 31 -34 says,

No longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying, Know the

Lord. For they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest, declares the

Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.

That's the future for the nation of Israel. All of this is awaiting fulfillment and according to scripture, this can only be fulfilled in one place.

If it hasn't happened yet, then where is it going to be fulfilled? What I argued last week is that the future millennial kingdom described in Revelation 20 verses 1 -6 is when this will take place.

As we read Revelation 20 verse 6 last week, they, the resurrected saints, will be priests of God and of Christ and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

This kingdom is coming. It must come. God always keeps his word and he will do this in the future to his ancient covenant people,

Israel. This intermediary messianic reign takes place between two enormous events described in scripture, the return of Christ and the eternal state.

The eternal state, of course, is the new earth, when God creates an entire new planet where righteousness will reign forever.

But in between that period, between the return of Christ and the eternal state, is this millennial kingdom known as the 1 ,000 year reign of Christ.

And I argued for that last Sunday. Now this morning, I am going to show you the problems of the two views taken by some

Christians who say that there is no future millennium. And I just want to say,

I mean, these are people I respect and I've learned from them, but I do not share their convictions on how they view

Revelation 20. To remind you, all millennialists say there is no millennium, but Christ is reigning right now in heaven.

So what they argue is that Revelation 20 verses 1 through 6 should be taken figuratively.

So it's a picture. So this actual reign is not going to happen on the earth.

It's a picture. That's what a figure of speech is. Now, there's another position known as post -millennialists, and they also believe there is no future millennium, but they believe our world is going to get better as it is

Christianized. And this improvement in the world takes place as Christ reigns right now on the throne in heaven.

And that view is called post -millennialism because they believe Christ's return happens after the world has been

Christianized. Okay, so all this Christian influence, the world gets better, that's the reign that Revelation 20 verses 1 through 6 is talking about.

Now, the view that I hold to is called pre -millennialism because Christ returns before his reign.

Okay, so pre -millennialism, his return is before his 1 ,000 -year reign.

And I realize these terms might be confusing, and some of you are familiar with them, some of them maybe you've heard it for the first time.

But what matters is understanding the general idea of what these are. There are really two views.

Either there is a literal 1 ,000 -year reign, or there isn't, and it's figurative.

The opposing views to the one I argued for last week takes, as I mentioned,

Revelation 20 verses 1 through 6 as figurative. And in that sermon a week ago, I already began to show you why these two views are problematic by showing you the strength of the view that there must be a future millennium.

God must keep his promises to Israel. Now this morning, I'm going to show you the weaknesses of the other views and why

I would dissuade Christians from going that route or holding to them. As I mentioned last

Sunday, and I already mentioned, I respect the people who hold those views. It's not heresy to believe in non -millennialism and post -millennialism, okay?

I want to be very clear on that. But I do believe it's errant. So not heresy, but errant.

And I'm not saying I'm smarter than other people who hold to those views. In many cases,

I'm not, okay? But I believe they are not reading the text of Scripture correctly.

And we want to be as precise as we can be in our understanding of God's Holy Word.

Once again, you do not have to turn in a specific place in the Bible with me this morning, but I do encourage you to take notes.

I do encourage you to write down the passages of Scripture that I mention. So this is part two of the sermon titled,

The Necessity of the Messianic Reign. So the necessity of the 1 ,000 year reign of Christ.

Now what's interesting is that when you read the Bible from Genesis all the way to Revelation, you'll notice at the end of the

Bible that this pops up. Revelation chapter 20 verses 1 through 6.

And if Bible interpreters have not been carefully following this theme throughout

Scripture, the theme that there's these promises to Israel, and they haven't been fulfilled yet, and they must be fulfilled, then what

Revelation 20 verses 1 through 6 says might be a surprise. Remember I said last week, what's the point of this intermediary kingdom?

Why don't we just go straight to the eternal state? What's the point of having this period?

And I'm saying it has to happen because promises need to be fulfilled. Now some hold to a literal millennium just because they believe

Revelation 20 should be taken literally. So in other words, they read it and they say, well obviously this is describing a future event, but they don't come to that conviction based off of what the rest of the

Bible says. They come to that conviction pretty much just basically off of what Revelation 20 says.

And I'm glad that they see that, but I'm saying that there's so much more that needs to be seen of why this period is so important.

And the Old Testament demands it. These promises made in the Old Testament demand it.

Now if you don't properly understand these Old Testament themes, then you can see how some think there is no millennium.

And after Christ's return, we go straight to the eternal state. The core issue of those who do not see a future millennium is that the predictions of the

Old Testament are spiritualized. So instead of seeing them as a literal fulfillment, they're seen as fulfilled in the church, spiritually.

And this happens because some see Israel and the church as the same people of God.

And I showed you the problems of that two Sundays ago. You can hear that on our website if you haven't heard that sermon.

The New Testament makes clear that the church is a mystery revealed when

Christ came. The Apostle Paul calls the church a mystery in Ephesians 3, verse 6.

Jews and Gentiles, these two peoples, come together to form one body known as the church.

And what I showed you a few weeks ago is that the church, 99 % of the church, is made up of who?

Jews or Gentiles? Gentiles, right? Non -Jews.

So the Gentiles are the nations, the people from all over the world. But the church does not take away the promises to Israel.

Those still stand. The prophecies must be fulfilled the way God said they would, just like all the prophecies, and this cannot happen if they are spiritually fulfilled in the church.

If this is so, then Israel is cut short, but God would never do that.

He doesn't do that. He always fulfills His promises precisely as He said they would.

In fact, Eric and I were talking last week after the service, and what we were talking about is the fact that a

Jew who becomes a Christian, if you were to tell a Jew who becomes a Christian that these promises aren't for your people, that in fact the church replaces you, they think that's preposterous.

I mean, just ridiculous. As I showed two weeks ago, this view that the church replaces

Israel, it comes from people in the church, right? Because we have this bias, this internal bias that is there, where we do not respect these promises that have been made to another people.

So, the millennium is a must because I believe it brings to fulfillment the promises made to Israel in the

Old Testament. Now, this may sound like I'm being too specific. In fact,

I've been, indirectly anyway, called a hyper -literalist in my interpretation of the

Bible, and I don't believe that at all. Now, if you're a hyper -literalist, what that would mean, in my understanding, would be when

Jesus says, I am the door, it would mean he's a door. But of course, that's ridiculous.

Everybody knows that's a figure of speech. But when the Bible says something literally, we need to see it as literal.

We don't want to make that which is literal, figurative. So that's not something I want to be very clear on.

But what we must remember is that God's promises are fulfilled exactly how he said they would.

And he does this for a reason. He fulfills his prophecies so that when people look on, they will be amazed at God's exhaustive knowledge of the future.

People look on, and they say this is the fulfillment, and there's no confusion. And they say how great

God is that he is able to know the future so precisely that he says something ages ago, and then it comes to fulfillment much later on.

And by the way, we know that prophecies are fulfilled this way already in the

Bible. We have evidence of it everywhere in the New Testament. Isaiah said

Jesus would be born of a virgin. He was born of a virgin. Micah said he would be born in Bethlehem.

He was born in Bethlehem. Zechariah said Jesus would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, the colt of a donkey.

Jesus rode in on a colt. Isaiah gave vivid details about how

Jesus was going to be brutally killed. He was brutally killed on the cross.

And Zechariah said that he would be pierced, and he was pierced by a spear.

And when you look on at these fulfillments, these were said hundreds. There are some prophecies that are thousands of years, 1 ,500 years before Christ came.

And then you look at Christ's life, and you say that's exactly what this says in the Old Testament.

So they are fulfilled in a way that there can be no disagreement about the fulfillment.

The fulfillment is obvious. And as I say this,

I'm not attacking those personally who hold to a figurative understanding of the Millennium. I'm not saying that they're somehow inferior in any way.

But I am saying I do think it's an error that needs to be avoided.

And I even say too that some people who don't hold to the precise view that you hold to doctrinally, their reward might be greater in heaven.

There was a debate in church history between George Whitefield and John Wesley.

And John Wesley, they had a different understanding of salvation. One of them was a

Calvinist, George Whitefield, and one of them was an Armenian. And that would be for it.

I don't have the time to run through those different positions right now. We talked about them before in this church. But anyway,

George Whitefield was asked, Will you see John Wesley in heaven? And George Whitefield said,

No. And everyone's like, He says, John Wesley will be so close to the throne of grace that I won't be able to see him.

So that was a very gracious comment. In other words, he says his reward is going to be greater than mine.

But I disagree with him on this issue, and that's important. Whenever I disagree with someone doctrinally, that's the position

I'm taking. You may have a greater reward in heaven than me. But it doesn't mean we shouldn't take time to see precision in Scripture and to try to get as much right as we can as we read the

Bible. So I've thought about this in depth personally, and I'm going to be frank here.

The amillennial and postmillennial positions that I mentioned in the introduction, they have more in common with secular ideas of prophecy.

So when I say prophecy here, what I'm saying is predictions. Predictions made way back here, and it's fulfilled at a much later time.

Some of you heard the name Nostradamus. He was a 16th century French mathematician.

So I'm going to look at him here a little bit. And then I'm also going to look at Jehovah's Witnesses, which is a heretical religion, a false religion.

And they do something with prophecy that we need to see. And what I'm saying here is that there's a relationship here between faithful brothers in the

Lord who take the amillennial and postmillennial position and these secular ideas.

So Nostradamus, I'll start with him. He was a 16th century French mathematician who told prophecies that were so wide and so vague that you could fit an elephant through it.

And he did this because, of course, he didn't know the future. If you try to say something so general, anything can almost fulfill it.

He was not a real prophet, of course. And to see the fulfillment as figurative, when a prophecy is made and it has to be fulfilled precisely as it's said, if you take it as figurative, if you spiritualize it, it opens up the door for lots of different interpretations.

That Bible scholars disagree on. And it leads to confusion. I can't tell you how...

I get pretty frustrated when I read. I'm like, that's not what that's saying. And these are people who have

PhDs who are saying these things. That's one thing I love about Eureka.

You guys have common sense and I love that. You go to these places where these people are supposed to know everything and I'm thinking, people in the country know that this is wrong.

That's just a personal observation of mine. I told Mark one time, I said, you're my favorite kind of Christian.

And I can say that about all of you because you guys see things right. Now, amillennialism and postmillennialism, it muddies the clear teaching of Scripture, unnecessarily leading people to confusion.

But the prophecies are precise and we need to interpret them that way, as I've already said. So let me give you an example of this.

In Zechariah 13 .8, the prophet proclaims that one -third of Israel will be saved when

Christ returns. But if the church replaces Israel and this prophecy is fulfilled in the church, then what does one -third mean when it is fulfilled?

So if you believe this prophecy is to the people of Israel, the fulfillment is obvious.

But if it's not to Israel, if it's to the church, then what in the world does it mean? So if you take the position that the church replaces

Israel, then you have to spiritualize it somehow. So let me read one interpreter here who takes a figurative approach.

This is what he said. He said, Okay, so when

I read that, I'm thinking, that's not even close to what is right. Now everything he said is true.

God does do those things in his people. But that's not what that text says.

To take a vague approach muddies the clear waters. And there will be many interpretations where there is obviously one interpretation.

By the way, this is important as we understand Bible reading.

How many meanings are there to one passage of Scripture? One.

One. Now there's many applications, yes. But there is one meaning to every passage of Scripture.

There's a movement called post -modernism that tries to, you can say it whatever you want it to say. But that's not how you read anything.

And that's not how you read the Bible. There's only one meaning to the text of Scripture. So the interpretation of Zechariah 13 .8

is obvious. One -third of the Jews, or Israel, are going to be saved when

Christ returns to the earth. And two -thirds will die and be separated from God forever because they rejected their

Messiah. You see how precise that is? So let's say there's 14 million people, which is what there is right now of Jews on the earth.

You can do the math. So that's about 5 million or so people who are going to believe in Jesus Christ when he returns.

Now if the interpretations are vague, then it is more like Nostradamus and not

Bible prophecy. As one author said, you have as many interpretations as interpreters.

But we should all see the plain meaning of the text. Now what do those who take a figurative approach to prophecy have in common with Jehovah's Witnesses?

It has to do with the return of Christ. And let me explain this. So this false religion, and maybe they've come to your door.

They've come to our door across the street. It started in the late 1800s. The early prophets of this religion predicted the time when

Jesus was going to return. The time came and went, and guess what?

He didn't come back. But the prophet, and I'm using quotation marks here, he said that he miscalculated the timing of the return of Christ.

And so what did he do? He sets another date. The time comes and goes, and guess what happens?

Jesus does not return. In fact, there's a really funny, really kind of a laughable part to this story.

It's sad in one sense, right, because we don't want to laugh about anybody walking apart from Christ.

But this guy also predicted that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were going to come to the earth bodily.

And he said he was going to build a house for them. And, of course, he set a date.

They didn't come, so guess what did he do? He moved into the house. It kind of makes you laugh, but, again, it is very sad, though, as well.

So he's making predictions about the return of Christ. And what does this false prophet do?

He said, I got it wrong. My date was correct, but Jesus had a spiritual return.

He didn't have a physical return. He had a spiritual return. The Jehovah's Witnesses changed the scriptures to fit their false teaching.

The Bible clearly describes the return of Christ as bodily, not spiritual.

He's going to come right out of the sky. He's going to come right to the earth. And many in the present day who hold to a figurative millennium largely believe that the

Antichrist is a historical figure. And we had that sermon about a month back that the

Antichrist is a future figure who's going to have tyranny all over the earth. And the most common view is that the

Roman Emperor Nero was the Antichrist. And this view is known as partial preterism.

Now, not all Ammonialists believe this, but this is becoming a more popular view in the present day.

Nero was indeed a bad guy. I'm not saying that he wasn't a bad guy. He was a very bad guy who caused lots of problems for Jews and Christians in the first century.

But we already saw the portrait of the Antichrist several weeks back. Nero's terror was regional.

The Antichrist's terror is global. Every place on planet earth is going to feel his fury.

Nero's terror was bad, but it will pale in comparison to the havoc the future

Antichrist will have on the world, as we saw. So these are among several reasons we should see the

Antichrist as one who will reign in the future, as the New Testament clearly says.

So how does their understanding of the Antichrist make them do what Jehovah's Witnesses do in the prophecy, in interpreting?

Well, let me give you an example of this. There are two texts that describe Jesus defeating the

Antichrist at his second coming. And those are 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 8, and the most glorious picture of the return of Christ in the whole

Bible, Revelation 19, verses 11 -21. That sermon was,

I think, three Sundays ago. So if you read these, as we have already done, what you will see is that these are clearly describing

Christ returning and destroying the Antichrist at the end of the seven -year tribulation.

But many of those who hold to a figurative millennium cannot interpret these passages, 2

Thessalonians 2 and Revelation 19, as the return of Christ.

Because they see the Antichrist as a historical figure who lived in the first century.

So are you understanding me? These two passages, 2 Thessalonians 2 and Revelation 19, describe

Jesus' return, and they specifically describe him defeating the

Antichrist. So if those passages are referring to the second coming of Christ, then there needs to be a future

Antichrist. But what did they do? They say that it's somehow fulfilled in the first century, in 70

AD, when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. But you can't do that. So this is a classic example of understanding the text according to your inserting your own meaning and not taking the meaning of the text.

So that is what some amillennial and postmillennialists are forced to do. So what people should do, who hold to those positions, is abandon their view, since it has major issues.

But sadly, many stick to their guns, and they just keep holding to it. So I hope that you can see that to take a figurative view of the millennium has more in common with secular ideas of prophecy,

Nostradamus and Jehovah's Witnesses, than it does Bible prophecy. Now, we know how

Bible prophecy works. The prophecy is clear, and the fulfillment is obvious.

Where everyone looks on and says, wow, that is exactly what was predicted to a

T. God is glorified through precision in prophecy.

And the figurative approach does not honor the precision we see in scripture. And frankly, it brings less glory to God.

And yet, the whole reason that God created the universe is to bring more glory to himself. The whole story of redemption, from the fall to the very end when

God restores everything, all of it is meant to bring more glory to him. So if we understand prophecy correctly, it in fact brings more honor to God, more glory to God.

And we must see that. This is what the Lord said in Isaiah 46, verses 9 and 10.

He said, I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning.

And from ancient times, things not yet done. Saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.

So the Lord says, you want to see what I can do? I'm outside of time.

Because God is timeless. And we all live in time. And God says, I'm going to predict something that's going to happen.

And it's going to happen exactly how I said it happened. And then we look on and we say, only

God can do that. No creature could ever do that. And we see that, right?

We see people make predictions. We see weathermen make predictions. They're always wrong. Every once in a while they're right.

But people always make predictions and they're wrong. God's never wrong in his predictions.

So, I hope you can see this. And if you have any questions, I'd love to talk to you about it.

But here's what we must see. God fulfills all his promises, including the messianic reign of his son for 1 ,000 years.

And may we praise God for his glorious future plan. That's what I hope you see in the last two

Sundays. That we would praise him, that we'd see his precision and give him the glory that he is due.

Now, as we close, one question you may be asking is, well, where do we fit into this? Where does the church fit into these promises?

The scripture is clear that the church will reign with Christ for 1 ,000 years.

We will be there. Everyone here who knows Jesus Christ as their Lord, Savior, and treasure.

Revelation 5 verses 9 and 10 describes that people from all nations will reign with Christ.

And I mentioned before that 99 % of the church are people from all nations.

And so that's what it's referring to. In Revelation 20 verse 4 mentions that other

Gentile believers who are martyred during the tribulation will reign with Christ for 1 ,000 years.

In Luke chapter 22 verse 30, Jesus said that his disciples, the church, would eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

In other words, the church will reign with Christ over Israel for 1 ,000 years.

So the church is going to have a very special place in this messianic reign. Now what we have seen is that Israel receives their promises and the church shares in these promises because we are his people too.

And Jesus will reign on the throne that will not be overtaken by another. But when the 1 ,000 years comes to an end, what

Jesus is going to do, as 1 Corinthians 15 verse 24 says, he's going to deliver the throne over to his

Father. And then this is when the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are going to reign forever in the eternal state, which is described in Revelation 21 and 22.

And that sermon is down the road here. So I know this is a lot of information. And if you have any questions,

I'd love to talk to you. In fact, I received an email a while back, and I was glad to answer those questions.

And so please send me your questions. But I hope that you can see that a millennium does fit into God's master plan.

We should not be surprised by it when it shows up at the end of the Bible in Revelation 20.

We should know that right from the early pages of Scripture, the table was being set for this final earthly kingdom to be established before the eternal state begins.

Christ will win in human history. And as we have seen what happened in Minneapolis this week, we should rejoice in that.

There's so much evil out there. But Jesus is coming back, and He is going to win.

He's going to remove every evil authority that has been put forth in the history of the world.

And by His grace, sometimes the governments aren't as evil as they could be, but sometimes they are.

And even the good ones fall short. But Christ is going to come, and He's going to be the ruler we've always longed for.

And may we look forward to that day where we reign with Him forever in our glorified bodies.

Now next Sunday, we are going to look at something that is very sobering and very interesting, and that is the destruction of the universe.

So we've been going through this end time series in chronological order, and now we're starting to get to the later events here.

And this is going to happen after the 1 ,000 -year reign of Christ. Satan is going to be released for one final battle, and what's going to happen is he's going to be destroyed, and then

God is going to destroy this universe, planet Earth and everything here, and then He's going to create a new one.

So we're going to look at these over the next several weeks, and I look forward to opening up that with you. Now at this time, let's bow our heads in prayer.

Oh, Father, Your Word is so precise.

It's supernatural. It accomplishes everything it's supposed to accomplish.

As Isaiah 55 says, it's sent out, and it accomplishes what the rain and the snow do.

They're sent out, and they accomplish the purpose for which they were sent out. And when You send

Your Word out, it accomplishes that which it was sent forth to do, and I pray that You would do that in each of our hearts this day.

If there's any unbelievers in our midst, or any unbelievers who are watching on Facebook Live or listening to the audio,

I pray, Lord, that they would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they would turn from their sins, that they would bow their knee to this

King, this perfect King who is coming back. May they do that.

And my prayer for the rest of us, Lord, who do know You, that we would long for that day,

Lord, that You would fill us with anticipation. That's the whole goal of this sermon series, Lord, that You would fill us with this anticipation, this excitement, this hope that Jesus is coming back.

And may we live in light of that. May we please You in the way that we live in light of that.