Mike Bickle emphasizes the victorious reign of the saints during the 1,000-year Millennial Kingdom as described in Revelation 20, where the saints replace the Antichrist's empire and govern the earth. He highlights the total defeat of Satan, who is bound and imprisoned for a thousand years, demonstrating God's ultimate authority and justice. Bickle warns against the confusion surrounding the interpretation of this chapter, particularly the dangers of amillennialism, and encourages believers to understand the literal meaning of the text. The sermon serves as a call to recognize the significance of this chapter for the end-time church, equipping them for confidence and victory in Christ. Ultimately, the message is one of hope, as the saints are assured of their triumph over evil.

In the name of Jesus for this glorious chapter in the Word of God, Revelation 20. And I ask you to bless your Word right now. I ask that the Word would have that spark of divine life and revelation upon it. And I thank you in Jesus' name, Amen. Okay, Revelation chapter 20. We're looking at session two on studies in the Millennial Kingdom. Session two is the Saints' victorious thousand-year reign. The point of Revelation chapter 20 is the saints are victorious. Throughout the whole book they've been worn down. As Daniel chapter 7 describes it, that God would allow the evil one to wear down the saints. And now in chapter 20 they're victorious. They are replacing the Antichrist's global kingdom. He has been thrown out and they have been taken from the place of humility and obscurity and difficulty. And now they're ruling and governing the earth. The point of it is, is they completely replace the evil Antichrist empire. And that was always what was on God's mind back from Daniel chapter 7. That the evil empires of the world would come and go and there'd be one vast one just before the second coming of Christ. But God's idea was, is that evil vast world empire would be the context to train the people of God to rule the earth and replace that empire. Of course that would happen at the second coming of Christ. So the victory of the saints is declared with clarity in this chapter. And equally, even more pronounced in Revelation 20, is the defeat of Satan, the defeat of the enemies of God. The total victory of the saints and the total defeat of all that oppose and resist Jesus. So Revelation 20 is not one of those chapters that I believe we can afford to go without. We need to know Revelation 20. It's got a lot of confusion surrounding it because of the all-millennial school of theology and doctrine, which I believe brings great disservice to the body of Christ. It's more than just a theological opinion. It brings great harm and destruction and nearly obliterates the specific truth of Revelation chapter 20. So you don't want to go in that direction. But that has been the predominant mindset of the scholarship in the body of Christ recently. And so you read books on it and you're just hopelessly confused. Most people are. And I want to encourage you, you don't need to be confused. This chapter means what it says. Real simple. It means what it says, says what it means, and you can run with it. It's meant to be understood and believed by God's people. And so those of you that are doing a little bit more reading on this and commentaries, you'll get kind of your, you'll run into that. The all-millennial view of everything is symbolic and nothing means what it says it means. And this scholar disagrees with that scholar. No one knows what the symbol is. So we throw our hands up so no one can understand it anyway. That's an absolute lie. You can understand it clearly. It's really straightforward and simple. It just means what it says. And so the victory of the Saints and the defeat of darkness is what this chapter is about. It's a critical chapter. We cannot allow this thing to be just swept away in scholarly confusion. We have to get this chapter back and mainstream in the body of Christ. I have a lot of zeal about it because it's a chapter that's very, very relevant to the Saints, particularly in the generation the Lord returns. It will be one of the most important chapters to equip the end-time church for victory and for confidence. Let's read chapter 20, verse 1 to 10. I'm going to try just to read through it quickly and then we're going to look at the notes and break it down a bit. Then Revelation chapter 20, verse 1. John speaking, he said, Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven. This angel, he had two things. He had a key to the bottomless pit. Another term for the bottomless pit is the abyss. One translation says the abyss, one translation says the other one says the bottomless pit. He had a key to it because it's locked. Right now it's locked. It has to be unlocked. And secondly, he not only had a key, he had a chain in his hand. A real chain. Not an iron chain. An iron chain would be of no benefit to a spirit being. But a chain, we don't know what it's made of, but it's sufficient to bind Satan as these chains are sufficient to bind fallen angels and spirit beings. A real chain and a real key. Number 2, verse 2. He does six things. This angel, this mighty angel, I'm adding the word mighty, powerful angel. He lays hold of the dragon, which is Satan. He takes hold of him. That must be an intense moment in history. He puts his hands on him and Satan may draw back and says, nobody touches me this way. Of course, this angel might say nobody had the authority to, but in the name of Jesus, he takes hold of him. Satan has four different titles in verse 2. It's kind of like he's being indicted before the judge and all of his crimes are being laid out here before his sentencing and the titles are depicting his crimes. He's the dragon. He's the serpent of old. He's the devil and he's Satan. Each one of them depict a different dimension of his crimes towards humanity. Number 2, first he laid hold of him, but number 2, he binds him. He binds him. He puts his chain on him and it goes on for a thousand years. You're going to notice that the phrase or the time of 1,000 years is mentioned six times. It's literal. It's meant to be understood. He says it over and over, over a thousand years, a thousand years, a thousand years. And again, you don't want to throw it away to symbolism and say, I wonder what it means. It means a thousand years. Verse 3, first he laid hold of him, then he bound him and now in verse 3, which is the third day, he casts him into the pit. He incarcerates him into this pit, into this prison. Then he shut him up. He locked him away and then he put a seal on him. That's the next thing. And the purpose of laying hold of him, binding him, casting him to the pit, shutting him up and putting a seal on him, all these different terms here, there's five terms and then the sixth one in a moment of what happens to him is so that, here it is, he should not deceive the nations anymore until the thousand years were finished. But after these things, that's after the thousand years, he must, that's the key word is must, he must be released. So that's the sixth thing that happens. He's laid hold of him, he's bound, he's cast into the pit, he's shut up, he's sealed up and then he's released a thousand years later. After his temporary sentencing is over, he's released. And what he shows forth to the nations is that there was no rehabilitation at all. He is as evil and unchanged after a time of incarceration, after a time of discipline. It did not touch him at all. Okay, so now we pause on Satan. We're going to get back to him in verse 7. And so we're going to look at what happens to the victory of the saints here, verse 4. John says, I saw thrones and I saw they that sat on them. That's a phrase that doesn't tell us who the they is right here in the verse. But it's pretty easy to, you just go back to Revelation 19, it's clearly it's the saints. They that sat on them and judgment was committed or given to these saints and the idea is by God. They were given the responsibility for judgment, for government over the earth. Then, now this is in addition to seeing these on the throne, then he sees the martyrs. The martyrs are a subunit of the saints. The saints are the ones on the throne and the martyrs are a particular unit that are singled out within the larger group of the saints from all ages because they have a particular crisis at the end of the age. And so there's a particular encouragement to them, which we're very grateful for. And we know that they're the end-time saints. These are not the end-time martyrs. These are not the martyrs from history because these are the ones that were beheaded for their witness to Jesus and the Word of God. So far that could be any Christian martyr from the cross on. However, these are the ones who did not worship the Antichrist. So we know that they're in time now. They did not worship his image and they did not receive the mark of the beast upon their forehead or upon their hands. The Holy Spirit was very adamant to make clear he's talking about end-time martyrs. Some have tried to make all this symbolic and just kind of means anything. It means particularly it's believers at the end who because they didn't take the mark of the beast, they actually were martyred. This could apply to a number of us in this room. We don't know how it's going to come down. But I tell you one thing, verse 4 will be one of the most important verses of encouragement to the end-time church. Verse 5, the rest of the dead, that's the unbelievers. They did not live again or they were not physically resurrected until. Now unbelievers are physically resurrected. Unbelievers go into hell, they go into the lake of fire with a body, with a resurrected body and they feel the sensations of the lake of fire with a body. So understand that. Not only do the saints get a body to go into the New Jerusalem, unbelievers get a body. Jesus said in Matthew 10 verse 28, He said, He goes, don't fear the man that can kill the body. He says, fear Him. Jesus talked about His Father who can throw your soul and your body into hell. And in this reference, He's talking about the lake of fire. Fear the one that can throw your body into the lake of fire. So verse 5, the rest of the dead, the unbelievers, they did not live again until this thousand years period again. Six times it says a thousand years. Until it was finished. Now this is the first resurrection. Now He's talking the first resurrection. He's talking about the verse 4, those that were set upon thrones. That's the first resurrection. And then it gives one of the beatitudes in the book of Revelation here. It's the fifth one here. In the book of Revelation it says, blessed and holy is the person who has part in the first resurrection. And that's every born again believer. I mean, I don't know, that's more than that. Every believer, Old Testament and New Testament believer. Every believer, every saint, everyone that's believed in God by faith and received the righteousness of Christ, they will be a part of the first resurrection. Over such, the second death has no power at all. Which is the lake of fire. The second death is, you know, everyone dies the first time, but unbelievers die a second time. They go into the lake of fire. They go into a second separation. The first death is separation from their body. The second, their body and the soul are separated from God. It's called death. They experience death a second time. But over such, the first resurrection people, the believers, the second death has no power. But rather, they will be priests of God and shall reign with Him a thousand years. This chapter, as does the various other places in the book of Revelation, we have undoubtedly many different functions in eternity. But there's two functions that are mentioned over and over and over. The priestly function and the kingly function. Those two functions are mentioned Old and New Testament many times. The priest and the kingly function. And that's not the summation of all we do, but it's the foundation of what we do. Verse 7, now when the thousand years expired, when it ended, that's what it says again, Satan, remember back in verse 3, he had to be released. And now we're finding out a little bit more about that. Satan will be released from his prison. It is a prison. He will go out and deceive the nations of the earth, because for a thousand years he's been unable to. That's one of the real difficulties of all millennialism is figuring out why it is they can imagine Satan is not deceiving the nations right now, because they believe that all this is happening today and Satan is not deceiving the nations right now. That he is a little bit, but not fully. He's been restrained by Jesus, and so the nations aren't really deceived. The nations are in the greatest hour of deception, and they're about to go into the greatest deception ever known when they buy into the Antichrist regime. The nations are dynamically under deception right now. But for a thousand years they're not going to be deceived by Satan, but Satan's going to be released again to deceive them. That's the purpose. And he's going to, these nations, he'll go out, Satan, verse 8, will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog. And he's going to gather them together to battle. He's going to gather the nations, the nations that have been under the righteous leadership of Jesus for a thousand years. There will not everybody, by any means, but there will be a surprising amount of people that will say, you know what? We don't want him. We want to be our own God. And they will go to war against Jesus, hell having been in the midst of Garden of Eden-type environment for a thousand years, because they're not a thousand years old, but I mean the generations have unfolded, and the Garden of Eden scenario is going to unfold again. And they will be deceived, and they will go to war against God. And, of course, when they do this, when God judges them at the Lake of Fire, they can never ever say, I only disobeyed God because my environment was wrong, or it was bad, or it didn't work right. God will tell a whole generation of them, the earth was in near perfect conditions, the economy, the laws, the school system, the social dimensions, and you still rose up in hatred against me. It's a very, very, it says in verse 3 that Satan must be bound, and the reason he must be bound, because God's going to show forth the truth about Satan's inability to be rehabilitated, and He's going to show the truth about the sin of man's heart. And it's going to, oh, this is critical that it happens, because the next event that takes place after all this is in verse 11 to 15, the Great White Throne, when God judges them, but before they're judged finally and cast into the Lake of Fire, every argument will be silenced from history. That's a big, because of verse 7 to 10. Well, not only because of that, but that's a very, very important part of God's righteous judgment being manifest as righteous. Because, again, many people from the dark ages will stand up and say, if my life would have been better, if I would have had more money or lived in a different country or a different time, I would have been different. And the Lord's going to point to multitudes of millions that have been in the Millennial Kingdom under righteous, perfect conditions, and they rose up and hated God. He says, no, they bear witness against you. I know the heart of a human being. And so that's one of the great reasons for this is to create a theater of which Satan's evil and man's evil without God is fully manifest, openly manifest before the great judgment. Verse 9, then they went up against, went up on the breadth of the earth and they surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. Of course, that's Jerusalem. And fire came down out of heaven and destroyed them. It was a very quick battle. But the point of it is, is they sought to overthrow Jesus. As the serpent was released into the garden yet again, right here, when Satan was released out of prison, it was, it was, it was parallel to the serpent being released into the garden of Eden to lie and deceive. And then verse 10, Satan is, his, served a righteous purpose in his wickedness. And so now the devil who deceived them, now he's done away with. He's cast into the lake of fire and the lake of a brimstone where the beast, that's the Antichrist, and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented, all of them will be tormented together forever and forever and forever. And the next scene, verse 11 to 15, is humans are going to follow this place as well, this, this direction. Okay. Let's look at Roman numeral 1 at the notes. Revelation 20 provides the revelation about the length of the messianic kingdom or the millennial kingdom. This is the first time in the Bible that it's clearly designated as a thousand years. All through the Old Testament, we know that Jesus, the Messiah is going to rule on the earth. That's very clear. Many passages say it, but, and there's the idea, it's a long period of time because there's a number of passages that make clear it goes on hundreds of years, but we don't, just because the, the length of life in Isaiah 65, they said, if somebody dies at a hundred, they will be thought to be cursed. Life will go on exceptionally long, like, like life went on, like Adam lived to be 930 years. It will be life, longevity of life, like it was before the flood. And so just that point right there and others, other points as well, we know that, that like the millennium will be hundreds of years old just because if somebody lived to be a hundred and died, then they would be finished. But, but we don't know how, we don't know how long it is. Peter hints at it. He hints at it as being a thousand years. He doesn't say it directly, but now that you, we're reading Revelation 20, we look back at 2 Peter 3, verse 8, and it's obvious that's what he was talking about, but you didn't, he didn't quite say it directly. John comes on the scene by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, he says six times, it's a thousand years, it's a thousand years, it's a thousand years, it's a thousand years, and six times it's repeated. Okay, so what we find in Revelation 20 is the revelation about the length of the millennium, but we also find revelation about the function of the saints. Again, as kings and priests. And then we find the main theme of Revelation 20 is the final defeat of God's enemies, the final judgment of God's enemy. So that's the, the general idea of what this chapter is about. The saints are rewarded, they win, it looks like we're going to lose by the natural through the, as, as the great tribulation unfolds, and it says in Daniel chapter 7, verse 25, that, or Daniel 7, verse 22 to 25, that Satan or the Antichrist is wearing out the church. It looks for a minute like, are we going to make it? And then all of a sudden the great turnaround and we are totally victorious and vindicated before the whole world. It's a fantastic chapter. Revelation 20, verse 1 to 10 has two distinct sections in it, two distinct parts. Two stages of Satan's defeat and judgment. The first stage, as we found in verse 1 to 3, is his imprisonment. That Satan is going to be imprisoned for a thousand years first, because God has yet further use for him. And then, verse 7 to 10, we find out he has a desperate plan to make a comeback as the great criminal of the earth, to take over the earth. That plan fails. He wants to reassert his control over the earth again. Right now he's the God of this fallen world, right now. But he, he wants to get back into that position again and it doesn't work. And then he's thrown into the lake of fire. Okay, Roman numeral 2. The three main interpretations of Revelation 20. What is the millennium? The millennium just basically means the thousand year period. When somebody says the millennium, that's what it means. The thousand year period and it means also the thousand year reign of Jesus is what people mean when they say the millennium. That might be a new term to some of you in the room here. There's three basic positions of interpreting Revelation chapter 20. Only one of them is true. Only one of them is right. The other two are errors. The first one is called pre-millennialism. Pre-millennialism is the, is the interpretation that takes it literal, takes the book of Revelation literal except where the book of Revelation says it's to be taken symbolically. There's a number of times where the angel says I'm speaking symbolically right now. And when the angel says I'm speaking symbolic, then that next paragraph is symbolic. So pre-millennialism takes it literal. We take Revelation 20 literally. Now interesting, for the first 300 years of church history, the apostles, all the early church fathers, for the first 300 years, it was the only view that was proclaimed in any kind of a, I mean there could have been some guy off out of, you know, way out there who said something different, but it was the only view the church fathers held was the pre-millennial view. They took Revelation 20 literally. It's when Jesus will come and rule the earth. You can read the rest of that. Most of you understand that. Amillennial, amillennial, which is the, did not begin in any kind of prominence until Augustine, until St. Augustine came along in about 400 A.D. It's just a good, nice round number for his life. And I got the dates of his life there. He was the Bishop of Hippo in North Africa. Very brilliant man, but he introduced about 400 A.D. amillennialism, which I want to say it again. I want to say this tenderly but humbly, but I want to be bold about it because we have a lot of folks trying to sort out. It is a dangerous, destructive deception, amillennialism. It's not neutral. It's not, well, he's a good guy and he's a good guy. What's your opinion? It's not an issue. It's way, the idea that we understand it as two good guys with differing opinions. It is far more serious than that in this time of history. And though many godly men and women hold this view, they're godly. They have a genuine faith that does not reduce the destructiveness of this deception. Amillennialism is a deception. I will say it bold and the reason I need to say it bold is because I want this to show up when I stand before the Lord and say, I was clear, Lord, about it. I did not mince words because the predominant view of the scholarship in the world today in the body of Christ is amillennial and it is a serious error. It is a very politically incorrect thing to take this on because the whole scholarship of the body of Christ, most of it is switched over to amillennialism. I believe it is itself a sign of the times. Though very many of them, I don't know about very many of them, but a number of them are devout and godly men and undoubtedly many of them are, a lot of the scholarship going around the body of Christ using the name of Jesus, it is anything but Jesus, so I don't want to go into all that. But amillennialism sees it as this resurrection, this coming to life as being born again and all of it is being born again instead of resurrected physically, like it says, and it is all symbolic. Satan has been bound for 2,000 years since the cross. He cannot function in deceiving the nations in the way that the book of Revelation describes. Now, the reason it is serious, the reason it is, a lot of folks, again, they just take it as, you want to be humble about this, you want to be kind about it because there is, again, it doesn't mean the people are not godly because Peter in Matthew 16 is the premier example. Peter says, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, and Jesus says, my Father revealed this to you, Peter, you are the first one with living understanding as to who I am, and in the next breath, Peter said something, and Jesus said, get thee behind me, Satan. So it is very possible for a person to have living understanding in one dimension about Jesus and then have ideas that are inspired by darkness. Peter, the chief apostle of the early church, was the premier example of that. So it's not an issue of if somebody believes this, they're not born again or they're not godly. But again, I don't want to, in my affirmation of that, I do not want to minimize the destructive nature of this doctrine. And here's why it's so destructive for a number of ways. This is the doctrine that is going to clear the way, it's clearing the way right now for a global anti-Semitism and another holocaust. This doctrine will move the obstacles out of the midst of the body of Christ for this to take place. Nazi Germany was steeped, its theologians, in amillennialism, and they had nothing in the Word that said that God had a purpose for the Jews, because amillennialism makes it all spiritual, gives it all to the church. And I believe one of the great doctrines of demons in this hour, it's been going on for 2,000 years, but it is growing, is that the church replaces Israel. It does not replace Israel. That is a devilish doctrine that most not 100%, but the vast majority of people who hold the amillennial view buy into that. And that is a serious thing, because the church is going to be measured in the furnace of affliction related to the coming holocaust to Israel. And us standing by the Word of God, true to Jesus in the midst of this conflict. And it's this concept by itself, not only this, that will lead multitudes, I mean millions, to deny their faith and fall away from Jesus because they have no foundation to stand true, because it's all been taken away from them as symbolic. The Catholic Church has been one of the great proponents of amillennialism and have had some of the most horrible anti-semitic destruction of Jewish people based on this doctrine through history. This doctrine growing now in the midst of the evangelical church is a disaster for the end time church. It is a disaster. Not only does it clear the way for anti-semitism and the great holocaust, and the church, well the holocaust, that's coming. But it gives, it emboldens and empowers the church to be comfortable to do nothing about it. Now to just sheer humanity, love for humans, some believers that have this persuasion will do something about it. I mean there will be plenty of godly people that have this persuasion. They'll say, man, I don't find it in the Bible that the fact that they're Jewish, but the fact that they're human is good enough. So there will be some that will do this. But this will remove a strong argument in the midst of the church worldwide that we don't have any responsibility because in fact they are guilty of what they're guilty of getting. And that's what the great sham is when anti-semitism breaks out, is that in fact they are getting what they deserve. And again, the church will be measured. The church will be measured by God in this crucible of anti-semitism globally. And the end time church will be purified, not just because of that. That's one thing, will be purified because of the pressures of the anti-christ regime. But he has a particular interest to exterminate the Jews worldwide. And God is going to raise up the body of Christ to stand in the gap, to provoke the Jews to jealousy, and bring them to Yeshua, bring them to Messiah. It's critical that the church takes this serious. So it's not just an innocent kind of, well, you know, he went to that seminary, he went to that one, that's his point of view. Again, a lot of good guys, but it's so much more serious. I want to bring, I want to up the ante from it being one guy has one opinion, one guy has another opinion. Beloved, it is critical that we take end time prophecy in a direct, common sense, plain meaning way and not remove it because much of what we will do and decide under pressure is based on the fact we have the Word of God instructing us about what's happening. Then the other one, I just want to, I want to hit on the little thing hard because I want to be bold about it. I want us to be bold. And I want us to kind of play on the edges with this. Then the other view is post-millennial, and you could just read that on your own. And the most famous post-millennial guy in history is one of my favorites, Jonathan Edwards. It was, it's an error, but he had a whole lot of good things. He was, had significant error in that point, but he had a lot of other good points. There's nobody who does it just right besides Jesus, just so you know. I gave up on my heroes being perfect a long time ago. Okay, Roman numeral 3, Roman numeral 3, Revelation 20 unfolds in chronological sequence. The events of this chapter unfold one after the other. It's important to understand that. It's not recapitulation, as the amillennialists insist. It unfolds. One event, first Satan is bound, verse 1 to 3. Then the saints are put in thrones, verse 4 to 6. Then Satan's released, verse 7 to 9. He brings havoc to the nations. Verse 10, Satan's cast in the lake of fire. Verse 11 to 15, the unbelievers are cast in the lake of fire. Verse, chapter 21, verse 1 to 8, the new Jerusalem descends down to the new heaven and the new earth. And so right on up into chapter 21, verse 8, it's all chronological in its sequence. Now, if you're brand new with this, you think, what does that got to do with anything? Well, those of you that are studying the book of Revelation, some of it is parenthetical, and parts of it and other parts of it are a chronological sequence. But Revelation 20 is the events unfold one after the other. And that is commonly held by everyone. 99.9% of the people who are premillennial would commonly hold that, that it's chronological sequence right through chapter 20. Okay, let's look at it a little more specific. Roman numeral 4, the binding and imprisoning of Satan. Binding and imprisoning Satan. Let's read it again, verse 1 to 3. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key. There's the key. It's not a key, it's the key. There is something called the key to the bottomless pit, to the abyss. This is not the lake of fire. The lake of fire is a different reality. This is a temporary incarceration. This is the county jail before they go to the federal prison. It's true. The bottomless pit is a place where they go as a holding pattern. It's very non-delightful. It's not one of those, you know, what you would call it, prisons where they get an easy go at it. It's a heavy assignment, but it's far more severe afterwards. So, this angel, this mighty angel, I'm adding the word mighty, has a key, but he also has a great chain. And again, then he does five, yea, six things. And the reason I say five, yea, six, because five it says he does, and it doesn't tell us who releases Satan. Maybe it's the same angel with the key. You know, I'm just kind of saying maybe he does that one too. But six things happen to Satan, and this angel does five of them, and maybe even the sixth one. He lays hold of him, he binds him, casts him in the pit, shuts him up, seals him, and then later he's released. Hey, who is this angel? Some in the all-millennial camp want to say it's Jesus, that it's figurative of Jesus binding Satan. That's not who it is. It is an angel. There's three different mighty angels in the book of Revelation, I mean three angels that descend from heaven in the book of Revelation in this kind of way. And different times angels have keys in the book of Revelation. Now it's interesting, this angel must come down to the earth. He comes down from heaven to the earth. Why? Because in chapter 12, if you can remember chapter 12, verse 7 to 12, I don't think I have that on the notes, Satan is cast out of heaven to the earth. So the angel comes down because Satan, there's a time in the final three and a half years where Satan is in the principalities and powers of the air. They do their warring against the human race from a position of the heavenlies. But in Revelation chapter 12, it's really going to happen. It's not happened yet. Verse 12, verse 7 to 12, Revelation 12, verse 7 to 12, Michael and the archangels have this great war with Satan and his demons, and they cast him out of heavenly places, his position of advantage to come against. It's a place of strength. He loses it and he is enraged, it says. Revelation 12, verse 12, because the whole thing is in Revelation 12, it says in chapter 12, verse 12, he is enraged because he knows he has a very short amount of time once he's cast out of his position of the heavenly places. So it's interesting, the angel comes down to the earth to go lock him up. The angel's not getting him in heaven, he's down there. I don't know where he's at. Well, he's probably hanging around the Middle East in Israel and he's causing all kinds of trouble because he's not omnipresent. He can only be at one place at one time. That's true now. Satan can't be everywhere at one time. He can only be at one place at one time. This angel knows right where to get him. He's got a key to the Bible's pit. That's a scary key, but Satan sees that key, he knows what it is, and he has a chain in his hand that will bind him and he comes up to Satan. Oh my goodness, how dramatic is this? He lays hold of him. There must be a fit of violence. There must be an outburst of rage in that moment. Anyway, we don't have to worry about, think that through all the way because, but I like to think, oh my goodness, what is this going to look like? Okay, this is not the lake of fire again. The bottomless pit is not the lake of fire. The lake of fire comes next. Now, I have a passage here in Isaiah chapter 24, Isaiah chapter 24, verse 21 to 23. Isaiah 24, it tells us about other demonic spirits that are also literally thrown into prison. It's a very fascinating passage. It's not the end times. I'm going to read it to you. Isaiah 24, verse 21 to 23. It says, in that day the Lord will punish on high the host of the exalted ones. God's going to punish the principalities, the demonic principalities in the end times, and He's going to punish these exalted demonic powers in this day. This day is still yet future, and He's going to punish the kings that are on the earth. He's going to punish two groups, fallen angels and unbelieving kings, which are all demonized, because if they're unbelieving in that day, they're kings, and they're working together with the Antichrist, they're demonized. Okay, now look what happens in Isaiah chapter 24. It's a very unusual passage, but a very important one. All of them will be gathered together as prisoners that are gathered into the pit. The angels are going to go gather these demons and these demonized kings, and He's going to throw them into this pit. And it's talking about the bottomless pit here. Revelation 20, we only see Satan getting thrown in, but Isaiah 24, we see that Satan's co-workers are thrown into the pit as well, and they will be shut up in prison in this pit. And after many days, of course, Revelation 20 tells us it's a thousand years. After many days of being in the county prison, they're going to go to the federal prison. After many days, they will be punished, and ultimately the punishment is the lake of fire. Revelation 20 just unfolds this thing line by line. It's very fascinating, but it's more than fascinating. It's important that we understand it. The moon will be disgraced and the sun shall be ashamed. Why will the moon be disgraced and the sun ashamed? The sun will draw back in embarrassment. Why? Because Jesus will reign in Mount Zion in Jerusalem before His elders gloriously. The reign of Jesus will be so glorious, the sun is described as drawing back in embarrassment because Yeshua, Jesus, is shining brighter than the sun, and the sun draws back in shame. What a statement. The sun will be embarrassed one day when the Son of God shows Himself in His fullness, on the day when the principalities in heaven, the hosts on high, and the kings on the earth are thrown into the pit on that day that Jesus begins the millennial kingdom. That's at the very beginning of it. He outshines the sun, literally, the man Christ Jesus does. Okay, B, a natural chain obviously could not restrain a demonic spirit, but the Bible's clear that demons are restrained by chains, chains of some sort. Someone goes, what kind? How do we know? Nobody knows. If somebody says they know, don't believe them. We don't know what kind of chain binds a spirit being. Well, Jude 6, I have it in the notes, calls it an everlasting chain. Everlasting chain, so we know these chains can't break. We know they have a very, very long shelf life. These chains don't rust. They work forever. That's interesting. Everlasting chains are the ones that bind fallen angels, but they are chains nonetheless. They're not iron chains. They're something else. 2 Peter 2, verse 4, I have in the notes here, calls it chains of darkness. They're called chains of darkness, and they bind the angels that are in the holding pattern reserved for judgment. They're waiting in the bottomless pit. The bottomless pit or the abyss, one translation says abyss. The other one calls it bottomless pit. It's the same thing. That is the holding pattern for demonic spirits. Not all demons are bound there. A number of demons are roaming around the earth, and other demons are in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6, powers and principalities, rulers of darkness and wickedness. Now, this passage is talking about, this thousand-year incarceration is talking about a literal full restraint of Satan. This is not some symbolic restraint that's happening right now that we kind of see but can't see. No, throw that away. That is not anywhere close. It's talking about a complete literal thousand-year binding that keeps him from deceiving the nations for which he is doing right now is deceiving the nations. Okay, see, I give the four titles of Satan. I mean, I mentioned them. And again, these four titles, this is like the judge reading the crimes that the criminal has committed. This is, you know, at the bar of justice, four different titles are indicting him as a criminal, crimes against humanity and against God. And those four titles, he will not like those titles when they're read on that day. He goes into prison based on the truth of those four titles. And you can study those titles. Okay, top of page 3, D, a thousand years. I mentioned already John is the first one in Scripture to give the specific length of the messianic kingdom. The messianic kingdom or the millennial kingdom is synonymous. The messianic kingdom means the kingdom of the Messiah, Jesus. Or the millennial kingdom means a thousand-year kingdom. It's identically the same idea. If this is a new idea, if these are new terms to you. Again, Peter hinted at it in 2 Peter 3.8. And Moses hinted at it as well in Psalm 90. A little bit less direct, but it's there. The number is emphasized clearly and plainly is six times. Six times the thousand-year number is emphasized. Very clear, very plain. There is no biblical precedent for making this thing symbolic. Now, the reason John says it lasts a thousand years, the real point John is saying is it lasts only a thousand years is his point. His point is that the thousand years is a limited, restricted time frame for God to bring more truth into the open. Truth about Satan and truth about the wickedness of the human race before the great white throne later on in the chapter when they're all thrown into the lake of fire. He wants more truth to be openly displayed about the depths of evil of Satan and the human race that's at war against him. And this millennial, the millennial reign and then the millennial rebellion is the context that brings the truth out into full display. It cannot be disputed when all these events take place. And especially the fact that God has showed His plan. Even the unrighteous can read this chapter and know what Satan's going to do. And he comes out of prison and here they are. Revelation 20 will still be operative at the end of the millennial kingdom. And they will have their Bibles and they will have heard it and they will still go with evil having heard it clearly in the word and having had a thousand years of peace and they will choose wickedness. And when people say, why is the lake of fire? Why does it exist? Revelation 20 at the end and why is it forever? God's answer is going to be chapter 20 verse 1 to 10. He's going to say the events of Revelation 20 show forth the necessity of an eternal spirit that cannot be rehabilitated being incarcerated forever away from paradise. And this will make sense why it must happen because the human spirit is eternal. It's made of the image of God. Satan is eternal. It won't be, he won't be annihilated. He'll live forever but he cannot be rehabilitated because of his own will. And someone says that can't be. The Lord says, okay, I'll prove it to the whole human race in front of everybody. And billions of people will follow along right in suit with it with all the information. With all the information having experienced a perfect environment, atmosphere, agriculture, economics, social institutions, education, government, everything, the perfect economy imaginable. He says, they will rise up against me. Watch this. And when this is over, every mouth will be closed at the bar of judgment, which is later on in the chapter. Okay. E, one of the points of all millennialism, and I know a number of you say, I don't care about the all millennialism. I care about the other version. So quit, you know, getting me all prepared for not falling into all millennialism. No, because if you get into the end times and you begin to study it, your buddies back home will just kind of go, wow, heavy. I don't know anything you're talking about. And so they're not going to cause you any trouble. Who's going to cause you trouble is pastor so-and-so who got his master's degree and could talk Greek and Hebrew and they'll spin circles around you. You'll go, oh, I didn't know about that. And I'm just telling you, you don't need to be intimidated by that. It's just a ton of confusion. It really is. And, and most of them all disagree with each other. I read so much of it and the main guys all disagree with the other main guys. And there's no way to make the symbolism fit. It doesn't work. And I don't, you don't need to be intimidated by that. That's the reason I'm telling you this because some of your buddies were just, you know, they never went through all that. And so they will just think, man, I guess you're into the end times. I'm really not. I don't get it. I never can understand it. They say nobody can. And you can say, no, that's not true. That is not the truth. You can understand this. Well, nobody understands that. That's what pastor always says. And you're going to say, no, no, we're not going there. That, that argument is, is just a, it's just an inch deep. It's just, there's no credibility to that argument. And it's only our intimidation that makes us just stay ignorant continually. The end times are so intimidated that we can't grasp it. And remember the book of Revelation as the whole Bible was written mostly for illiterate peasants, which is the 95% of the human race all through history. It was written for people to understand. E, I have here, there are no symbolic numbers in the book of Revelation that can be substantially proven. There is not one number in the book of Revelation, not one that can be proven for sure it is meant to be symbolic. I have a whole list of them here. The four angels in Revelation 7 are really four. The three unclean spirits in Revelation 16 are really three. The three angels with the three last woes are really three. The 42 months and the 1,260 days are really three and a half years. The 12 apostles in Revelation 21, it's really 12. The 12 tribe of Israel is really 12. The seven thunders message are really seven. The four living creatures are, there's really four. The 24 elders, there's really 24. The seven stars and the seven churches in the seven lampstands, Revelation one is really seven stars, really seven churches and really seven lampstands. Every single one of them are literal numbers. And the idea that a guy with a double, triple PhD will write a sentence, well, the numbers are symbolic anyway, says I'm not, I'm open-minded, but I'm not so open-minded my brains are falling out. I am not throwing away the book of Revelation based on that sentence. No, I mean that. I mean that because if a guy with a PhD says that you read a book, you go, I guess that means I'm now doomed for the rest of my life to understand none of it. Absolutely, I have zeal about this because it hurts the body of Christ immeasurably. You can't understand the numbers. 12 means 12 every time. Seriously, a thousand means a thousand. That's it. So when a guy says in one sentence, you can't understand, they're all symbolic, they'll go, oh no, you know, go back to go, I mean to jail. Do not, I forgot. I always lost that game. Anyway, I get them all mixed up. Anyway, you know what I'm trying to say? Okay, let's go to F. Satan is a hundred percent bound. He is not restricted or limited. He is bound. He cannot deceive the nations. That's, that's what it says. That's what it means. The text requires us to understand he is in the bottomless pit under lock and key. It says it's six times laid hold of and chains sealed shut. It's like John says, father, I told it as clear as I could tell it. I can't make it any more powerful and direct than I said it. So you can read the rest of the notes on that. Let's go to the top of page four. Now I know you don't need any, I guess, pretty much common sense, but I just gave you a couple verses here to work with the, the argument that Satan is bound right now. He was bound at the cross. The book of acts does not show forth. Satan is bound after the cross in the book of acts at acts five, Satan filled the heart of Ananias and Sapphira. He's not bound. He's filling the heart of Ananias and Sapphira. That's a direct word. Second Corinthians four, Satan blinds the minds of unbelievers being the God of this world. Second Corinthians 11, Satan appears as an angel of light to deceive the church. Ephesians two, he's called the Prince of the power of the air that works in the sons of disobedience. Satan is, he's not bound. First Thessalonians two, Satan is the one Paul said, Satan is hindering me from coming to you. He's not bound. Second Timothy chapter two, Timothy, Paul tells Timothy, he says, warn those people, those weak-willed people that are so easily taken captive by Satan to do his will. People in the church who are easily led astray and taken captive to just do walk in lust and disobedience. Paul calls that being taken captive. Their will is taken captive. They can't say no to immorality. They can't say no to drunkenness. They can't say no to bitterness. And they're actually in the church and they're swept away by every passion that comes in front of them. They just lose their will and their resolve. It's called their will has been taken captive by Satan. Second Timothy chapter two, verse 26, Peter says it in 1 Peter 5, Satan, our adversary roams on the earth as a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour. He is not taken captive. Okay, let's look at I. The angel did six things. I've said all this over and over, but I got them listed there for you. Laid a hold of him, he bound him, cast him in the pit, shut him up, set a seal. And you want to study each one of those out a bit and get in your G12 groups, your small group discussions and break down each one of these six issues. J, John said, and after these things, Satan must be released. He must be because I've said it again, but I want you to see where it's at in the notes here. God wants to reveal the depth of human sin. He wants to show the perfect environment, but the human race still hates Jesus. Even without Satan helping them, they hated Jesus in his leadership saying came on the scene, it came right to the surface. And so God is then, uh, uh, uh, found openly, even before the, the unbelievers found to be just and true in his judgments at the lake of fire. And it's critical. This happens before the lake of fire. When it says these things must happen in verse three, Satan must be released. He must be released before the bar of justice at the great white throne before the Satan and the whole human race has its, I mean the unredeemed have their final judgment. It must be a, Satan must be released in order to show forth the justice and the wisdom of the lake of fire judgment. That's why he must be released again. That's why there must be a millennial kingdom. I mean, there's a justice of God before the, uh, uh, lake of fire judgment is executed. Okay. Look at Roman numeral five, the thousand year reign of Jesus with his saints. No, I love this verse four to six. I saw thrones and they set up on them and judgment was committed to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been behead for their witness to Jesus, for the word of God. These are the people again, it's in time martyrs. I mean, of course the martyrs through history are honored as well, but he's talking particularly about the end time martyrs in this, uh, in this, uh, uh, so it's a subunit because the, the, uh, the, the theme is the saints are on thrones and the sub theme is particularly the end time martyrs are going to be remembered in esteem. And the reason because there's going to be so many of them and we're going to preach this to ourselves and to others. And we're going to call people to stand strong because of this verse. I'm telling you, many of the saints will go into imprisonment and they'll go into death and right marching right into death and imprisonment whatsoever. We will be quoting this passage. If we stay true, we will only suffer for a minute and we will sit on thrones replacing the whole evil kingdom that's executing us right now. We take over the earth and they're thrown into prison. The great reversal is what this is about because they end up in prison. He says, well, this is Satan's in prison. Well, the verse I read in Isaiah 24, so are the demons and the evil Kings. They go to prison. We get out of prison speaking of the end time church and we get on thrones and they go into cells. It goes totally reversed. It's reversed in one more in a very, very short amount of time. This is, that's why this passage must be taken literal. It will be the strength and the encouragement of many of God's people. And they lived and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years, but the rest of the dead, the unbelievers, they did not live again for a thousand years. And the saints, it's called the first resurrection. Again, that's all believers, all old and new Testament believers are part of the first resurrection. Okay. Let's look at C. Let's look at C. I want to kind of wrap this up real quick here. The saints role in the millennial kingdom, they are priests and Kings, priests and Kings. As priests, we worship, we are involved in intercession. Beloved, the government of eternity is the house of prayer. As priests, we will worship. We love you, but we'll do more than worship. We will intercede and release the decree of the Lord through intercession with our resurrected bodies. I mean, honestly, this is true. You will be doing the house of prayer reality to the full degree for the rest of eternity. We will rule by interceding. That's how Jesus does it. And we will also mediate the knowledge of God to others. We will be the conduit. We will be the vessel to bring the knowledge of God to others, even to one another, to angels. We will be the priest. We will be in the position to stand before him and to be the conduit of life, to give it to the others. It's a gigantic point, but we're also Kings. When Jesus says that Jesus is King of Kings, he's not talking about just the defeated kings of the antichrist kingdom. He's talking about the kings over the nations of the earth that are saints. There'll be kings in natural bodies over the nations that are natural, unresurrected, that are born during the kingdom. There will be kings in the spirit that will have the spiritual government over those. It's like Jesus told the apostles. He goes, you're going to have the government over Israel. You'll be in a kingship position in the spirit over Israel, although there will be natural people reflecting it in the natural way as well. So these kings, when Jesus is King of Kings, he's King over natural kings in the millennium, and he's also King over spiritual kings. The saints will be assigned positions of rulership and government to administrate. And I put down here, kings that rule, they will have royal status, but they will have judicial responsibilities. It will involve evaluating. When we rule, and I'm using the we as kings. I mean, I'm using the we as the body of Christ. When we rule, we will evaluate the past. Even some of the war criminals will stand before the saints and be in the judicial process before God is going to share the government, even with people. We'll get into that at another time, but we're going to evaluate the past. We're going to help set the future action plans. We're going to appoint people in positions within the infrastructure. We're going to train them. We're going to manage them. There'll be a whole array of responsibility of government to the saints for a thousand years, and then the same, but at a higher degree on past a thousand years. Someone goes, what's that like? The word doesn't give us an insight. All the word is this. No, you're going to be priests and kings forever. Just know those two things, and know it's going to be really awesome during the millennial kingdom, even in your resurrected body, but know this, whatever that was, double it, and that's how glorious it will be on into the eternity past the millennium. Just know God has already thought it through thoroughly, and it's a great plan. He just says, don't worry about it. You just know you'll be kings and priests, and that's good enough for you. D, it says in verse four, I saw thrones and they sat on them, and there's a bitter debate as to who the they is, because it doesn't give the subject of the verb they, I mean of the pronoun they, the subject is not, they sat on them, is not specified. So we go, where's the they? And we go back to verse one. We can't find who the they is, but you know, you don't go back to verse one, because when you read Revelation chapter 20, there was no chapter breaks in the book of Revelation, as there was in any book of the Bible. You go all the way back to Revelation chapter 19, verse 14, and on into verse 19. It's all the saints that are with Jesus coming on white horses and bright garments. That's the they that is in context of Revelation 20. It's the people with Jesus at the second coming. That's the they. That's the subject that is before John when he's writing this. So he says, they will reign, talking about the saints, and you could follow the logic on the notes there and the different verses I have there. And then he says, but you know, that's not enough to tell you they will reign. He says, that's not quite enough to tell you they will reign. He says, I'm going to specify one group, because this group will be so large, not because the group is more important than the martyrs of the first century. I'm telling you, the end-time martyrs are no more important to God than the first century martyrs, or the martyrs in the Old Testament, in the Hebrews 11 Hall of Faith. The martyrs are the martyrs. The end-time martyrs are not more important. The end-time martyrs are so many of them, is the point. That they have a, not, they're not a special category. They have a special encouragement, because there will be untold millions of them. I mean millions. Here's, what Jesus says. I have it here in the text here, in Matthew chapter 24. You can look at your notes here, verse 21, talking about the great tribulation. Jesus says this, and we'll end with this. We'll just end with this, and you can just read the rest on your own. Have a worship leader come on up, whoever's leading it. It says, for then, there will be, Jesus said this in Matthew 24, for then there will be a great tribulation, such as never been since the beginning of the world, even until this time, nor shall there ever be. Jesus said there is coming a time of destruction to the earth, that there will never be a time that eclipses it. It will, World War II and the Holocaust will not be more severe than this. There is a time that is called the worst time ever on the earth to come. Here's what Jesus said, and unless those days were cut short, no flesh would have been spared physically. Nobody would have lived. The rage will be so intense, but for the sake of the elect who are being martyred in such great numbers in that day, the beloved, the martyrdom in that day will be preparing them to get out of the prison, onto the throne. The people in the thrones go into the prisons, the great reversal. Jesus said if I didn't cut those days short, no believer would have lived. No believer would have survived physically. Everybody would have been martyred if he didn't cut the days short.