Mike Bickle discusses the role of saints in the Millennium, emphasizing that believers will not only worship but also govern and teach in a restored society. He highlights the importance of understanding our future responsibilities in the Kingdom, which will be a direct reflection of our faithfulness in this life. Bickle explains that saints will have authority over nations, teaching them the ways of God and establishing justice, while also enjoying a close relationship with Jesus. He encourages believers to view their current lives as an internship for their future roles in the Kingdom, where faithfulness will determine their level of authority. The sermon concludes with a call to remain diligent and faithful in our current assignments, as they have eternal significance.

Kingdom, heaven on earth, it's the Saints ruling in the millennium. What will we do? What will the Saints do in the age to come? Because the statement I've been quoting over the this course, the preacher who said, if you don't think rightly about heaven, you won't ever think about heaven, or you'll hardly ever think about it. And if thinking about heaven is mostly far away on a cloud, playing a harp, you're gonna go, you know, I love to worship, but a billion years is a long time. You're gonna be on the earth with a physical, material, resurrected, supernatural body. And the society will be growing and increasing in the glory of God, and the nations will be fully discipled. Some people have the idea of the nations being discipled. You know the verse in Matthew chapter 28, it says, go, you know, disciple all the nations. Jesus identified what He meant by that. He says, teaching them to observe everything I taught. He's talking about every sphere of every nation being taught everything He said. And some, it's common today to read that, go to all the nations and reduce it to evangelize unbelievers. And that's really important to do that. But Jesus didn't say, go and evangelize every believer. Certainly that's included in that mandate. He said, teach the nations, not just the individuals, everything I taught you. We're talking about the banking systems, the agricultural systems, the educational systems, teaching them comprehensively the ways of God and them being manifest. And we do that a little bit in this age. I mean, we do it with all of our heart, but we gain only certain ground. But when the Lord comes, He's gonna lead that, He's gonna bring the nations under the full discipline of the Word of God. And I mean discipline in the most positive sense. All the issues of His heart, meaning that are in the Word, will be taught and manifest in all the spheres of society in every nation. Wow! But you will be as involved in teaching then, even more so than you are now. You'll actually have a teaching ministry, many of you, that is far beyond your teaching ministry right now. Many believers, their teaching ministry is three to five people. It's the children in their home and a few young believers. They encourage more than that, but they only teach three, four, five at a time over the, you know, and over the years that's kind of what they're teaching. It's still a teaching ministry. Other people teach, you know, a congregation of a hundred, two hundred people, that kind of thing, a Bible study. But I think some of you are going to be shocked that your actual teaching ministry is going to be far beyond that, on the earth in the age to come, and you're still in your internship during your 70 plus years on the earth. Well, one of the key passages we've looked at nearly every session, Revelation 20, I saw thrones and they sat upon them. And I believe that they goes back a few verses earlier, chapter 19, verse 14 in the book of Revelation. And judgment was committed to these believers. Now judgment, you'll notice this, I want to point it out a number of times, is the word that's used most in terms of a believer's role in the age to come, is judging. Another word that's used regularly, often, is reigning. Reigning and judging are synonymous. Because judging doesn't just mean pointing out what's wrong. It's pointing out what's right. Judging is not only pointing out what's right. It's establishing what is right. See, a judge exposes what's wrong, points out what's right, and then has the authority to establish it. Meaning the person has to walk it out. That's what a judge does. And the definition of judgment, or judging, again, is very deeply related to the word reigning. And it's mostly about setting in order what is right. Discerning it, declaring it, and putting it order, and putting it in order, and having the action plan to back it up, that it's actually established. Anyway, the saints will sit on thrones, not just in positions of honor in the assembly. They'll actually be on thrones. That's a very specific word. And decision-making over individuals and over the nations will be given to them. Decision-making. Have you ever seen yourself in this verse? That you would be involved in decision-making on the earth in the age to come. That's what it's saying. And then it goes on to say they lived and reigned. So now we're using the word reign or judgment. Again, they're very closely related ideas. And they'll reign for a thousand years. Then it goes on in verse 6, elaborates a little bit more. They'll be priests and they will reign. They'll have authority in society. That's what reigning is about. Reigning is having governmental authority in some level of a sphere of society. Not everybody's going to be over a nation. I mean, there's only 200 nations in the world right now. And there might be a few more in the age to come, maybe a few less. But there won't be a billion nations. There'll still be about 200 plus or minus. So everybody won't be the king of a nation. But many believers will have a role of responsibility, governmental responsibility, somewhere in the sphere of society. I was asking my research team to find out how many people are paid by the government. Like in our nation right now. That's a politically hot topic and that's not my point right now. But my point being there's 300 million people in America and about 10 million, it could be a little bit more depending on how you calculate the number, about 10 million have some sphere of responsibility in the government. So 10 million out of 300 million. So about 3% of the nation has some sphere of governmental authority to operate in, some sphere. About 3% of the nation. And I don't know what the percent will be in the age to come. But every believer won't be over a city and over a nation. But many will, but not everybody. Everybody, every believer will be in the city. But this passage is talking about those who overcome and who reign, have some sphere of responsibility in the societal order, the governmental order of the millennial earth. And they'll be priests. Paragraph A, understanding the millennial kingdom gives us insight, by understanding what we do there gives us insight into what Jesus is preparing us for now. There is a direct correlation, a direct correlation between what we do in this age and what we do in the age to come. Now some people that really excites them and it should. Other people that pressures them. I've had believers over the years say, that's pressure. They said, that means it matters what I do and don't do. I go, that's exactly right. That's the godly pressure. That's the urgency is a better word. It really matters what we do in this age. Not how big our impact is, but where our measure of faithfulness is. There is a direct correlation between our faithfulness in this age, what we do in faithfulness I'm talking about. Not the measure of our impact, but the response of our diligence of faithfulness to God. A direct correlation between that and our role in the age to come. What relationship will resurrected saints have with people on the millennial earth that have natural bodies? Because for a thousand years there will be millions that will have natural bodies. They'll be married and have children. Their children will grow up. They have to become saved. They're born in sin. They need a Redeemer. And the vast, vast majority of, you know, nearly everyone, if not everybody, says yes to the Lord. We don't know if it's strictly a hundred percent, but certainly the vast majority, if not everyone, says yes to professing Jesus' Lordship over their life. How do eternal rewards affect the role of the kingdom? There are, I gave a teaching once on seven, eight different, well there's, you could give a few more. There's probably about ten different types of eternal rewards that are identified mostly by Jesus. Not only by Him, but mostly by Him. About ten different categories, depending on how you categorize them. And those rewards do affect our, the way that we function in the age to come. And again, rewards aren't things we earn in the strict sense. And what I mean is we can't earn it. He pays us so much for doing so little. So we can't really call it earning. You can't be on a throne forever on the earth because you were faithful with humility in relationships. I mean you can't earn a throne by being a servant. But Jesus, through the lens of grace, gives us far more than we could ever earn by our faithfulness. Far more. Because it's through the lens of His grace and eternal rewards is Jesus expressing how He feels about how we loved Him in this age. Eternal rewards is not about us strutting in front of other people, but it's about Jesus feeling deeply and wanting to proclaim it and manifest how He feels about the way you loved Him in this world, in this age. And you want eternal rewards. You really want them. They're not about being over people. They're about proximity to Jesus and not being loved by Him, but functioning. I want to function as close to what He's doing as He's discipling the nations, bringing the nations, every sphere of life under the whole of the Word of God. Paragraph B. Daniel, this was one of his main revelations, is that human beings would possess the leadership of the nations. There was a time coming where all the nations, every sphere of every nation, would be possessed under the authority of believers. That was one of his major revelations. One of the first things that he saw in his visions. He has four visions in the book of Daniel. This is the first vision is Daniel 7. And this is one of the things that he highlights. The saints will receive the kingdom. Again, they can't earn it. God gives it as a free gift. And they will possess all of the resource of all the nations under them. All the natural and national resource. And they'll have it forever, forever, forever. Verse 22, And the time came for the saints to possess it. Not just to release the kingdom in the way we do now and to operate of the kingdom power, but to possess the entirety of the kingdom, every sphere, completely possess it. This is the word that David said about Jesus in Psalm 2, the great messianic psalm about Jesus, where He would possess the ends of the earth. They would, be entirely under His authority and His care. Entirely. Utterly possess is another way to say it. All the wealth, all the people, all the national resources, all the natural resources of every nation will be under the leadership of the saints. Paragraph C. The two functions that are most emphasized for saints is the fact that the saints will be priests and kings. It's, that's said a number of times. That's not the only thing, but those are the two most emphasized roles that resurrected believers will have those two roles in the age to come. Again, it's not limited to those, but those are the most emphasized. And as priests, we'll worship. We will proclaim the worthiness of God, because we will continually grow in revelation of God. And of course, we know that worship is an expression to a revelation of God. You want to worship with greater wholeheartedness, then grow in your understanding of God's heart, because worship is the response to a revelation, to the revelation of God. So we'll worship. And worship is not just the response of His worthiness and our awestruck attitude to it, but worship also releases the power of God. So worship is that, that personal response, but it does, it's more than a personal response. It releases the power of God. We will intercede. Forever we will function as the house of prayer. With the resurrected bodies, intercession will main, the government of the earth, of the millennial earth will flow out of intercession. Jesus lives forever to make intercession. The Father told Jesus in Psalm 2, ask of me, intercede that I would give you, bring into your full possession the leadership of the nations, your leadership over the nations. So Jesus intercedes in order that every area of every nation would come under His full possession. But not only that, we, again with our resurrected physical bodies though, get clear your body will be physical. I like to say it, you'll have an elbow, you'll have bones, you'll have flesh, but it'll be resurrected flesh. It won't be a corruptible flesh. You will have the same personality you have now, but in the full glory of God without any deficiencies. You'll still be you. You'll have your same ethnicity. You'll have your same gender. You'll still be you. People, when they see you, they'll recognize you. You'll be a little cuter, but you'll be totally recognizable. I mean, you'll just have the full glory of God's beauty manifest in you in every way. But it will still be you. And they will know you when they see you. But one of the things as priests, we will communicate the knowledge of God to others. You will continue to teach the ways of the Lord. What you experience, you will teach. You will make it known to others. So it's not just we worship and intercede as priests. We do communicate the knowledge of God to other people. We don't just stand in the gap between God's resource and the needs of the earth. That's intercession. We don't just reflect and proclaim and make known the beauty of God in our worship, but we teach what God's like and what His ways are like. So we'll be teaching priests as kings again. The primary word that describes kings with the two words would be judge and reign. But the word judge, I think, is probably used more often than even reigning. To judge is to evaluate. It includes evaluation. We will evaluate past events of nations, of situations, and make decisions as well as evaluating present and past and making decisions. That's what judging is. And setting things into order after the decision is made. You won't be kind of aimless with nothing to do all day. You will be working. Because remember that work back in Genesis chapter 2 was a blessing. Work with sin is frustrating. Work with toil, with sweat and frustration is the fruit of sin. Work isn't a judgment. Work with frustrating work is a judgment. Toil and the sweat and the weeds and the thorns and the thistles, that is the curse of sin. But not the work itself. Paul makes a startling statement. He goes, don't you know that you will evaluate the world? He's not saying, he's saying more, well he's saying, well let me just say you'll evaluate the world. I'm going to develop judgment a little bit more in a few minutes. He goes, verse 3, don't you know that you'll actually evaluate angels? Evaluate angels? He goes, yeah, don't you get who you are? You will evaluate angels. What's that mean? I don't know. But I know it's going to be important. And it's going to be a something that's real, not a arbitrary thing. Ruling or judging, reigning, call it reigning if you want, includes evaluating past, present situations, determining future action plans. When you rule, you don't just see what's wrong and define what's right. You set action plans in place. That's what, that's the very definition of ruling and leadership, means you set plans into place, into action. If a person says, I'm a leader, and they can only tell you what's right or wrong, but they never do anything, they never set anything into motion, I would question their leadership. Ruling involves appointing people to positions in the infrastructure. It's not just setting the plan in place, but actually appointing the people. But it's more than appointing the people. It's training them and managing them. It's managing the national resources that are under their authority. Again, there'll be, I'm assuming, millions of believers. I don't know the number. I mean, you know, my research team told me, I don't know if the word's right. I can't verify it because I haven't seen it with my own eyes. But 10 million people-ish, probably a few more, depending on how you define it, or have some sphere of responsibility in our nation. 10 million. So I may imagine how many would be in the age to come, be millions. But you'll, these people will manage people. They won't just say, hey, go do your job. They'll be involved with them. That's what leadership is. That's what reigning is. That's what ruling is. The reason I'm breaking this down is because I want you to, when I break this down and think about it, though I'm not sure I got it all, I mean, I'm sure I don't have it all clear. But some of the ideas, the broad strokes of what the Bible says are clear. The details aren't clear. Some of it is speculative. But I think about the future. So you can be in Bible school and think about when you're in a full-time ministry position in leadership. And you think about that clearly. You don't know all the details, but you can picture it. You're supposed to do the same thing about the age to come, not forget the age to come. You're supposed to think about it. I want to teach. I want to encourage people. I want to set things in order. I want to go to staff meetings where Jesus is leading the staff meeting. May end up I get the memo from somebody who's at the staff meeting. I want to be part of it. You know, when Jesus, we'll all have access to God by the Holy Spirit, there don't want to be a billion resurrected believers in every staff meeting, every head of state meeting that Jesus has in Jerusalem. There won't be a billion people there in every one of them. It's like when Jesus in the days of His flesh. He had 12 and He had 70. He had the nation He was blessing. Now it's different in the age to come because we'll all have the indwelling Spirit and we'll have access to Him in a very, by the Holy Spirit, in a very direct way. But as a man in his physicality, He will be on a throne in Jerusalem and He will rule. He won't just wave His hand and the nations all, you know, set in order. He will actually set in order. He will interact with saints. They will make decisions. They will judge. He won't just say, do this, do that. He'll say, I believe He'll say things like, what do you think is the best solution for that situation in that part of that nation? And you will give what you think. And part of judging is your personality will come out in the decision. You won't be, believers won't be, you know, automated where they're robotic. You know, give me the word and I will do it. You bet your very personality, there's several ways to do the right thing. And when it says judgment will be given to them, it really means their real humanity and personality will be expressed in it. I don't think He'll just automate, you know, robotic responses. But real people will really think, it's just like right now. The Holy Spirit prompts you. And there's decisions that your humanity is part of the decision. You know the Lord says, let's, let's, let's have, sometimes He gives real directives, but other times it's like, well you decide too. There's a, a number of ways a right thing can be done. And so there's a human dimension to it that's really amazing. Look at paragraph F. He tells the twelve, you will judge the twelve tribes. Not just you will receive memos from Me on every decision. You will actually judge. Yes, you'll be in deep interaction with Me. Yes, My Spirit will be leading you. But you will actually, in your humanity, express how God created you. And the twelve, just like the apostles in the early church, they had different ways of doing things. Peter, James, and John didn't have the same personality, and they approached things different. As did Paul and Barnabas. Luke 22, he says it again. He says, you'll sit on thrones. Not just a privileged position in a mountain mansion somewhere. You'll have a mansion. You'll have a house. You'll have a garden. Those sort of things. There'll be a lot of social events. But there will be an element of work that's done from a place of a throne. And I don't think there'll only be thrones over a nation. Here it's twelve thrones in one nation. And there may be a number of more thrones involved. Maybe a, a throne in every sphere of society. A governmental office. A governmental seat. And it's, might be a throne in a different measure of glory, a part of it. We don't know for sure. But these words, throne, are very, very intentional. And Jesus used them a number of times. We don't want to dumb them down and kind of make them obsolete to where they mean nothing. A throne is a real throne. It's a seat of power. It's a seat of government in society at some level. And judging really means making decisions, not just receiving memos. Top of page two. Jesus is the king over all the kings. There's two types of kings in the millennial kingdom. Two types. There's the millennial kings that have, that have natural bodies. Those, the men and women that were the unsaved survivors of the Great Tribulation, they get saved. And some of them, again I'll just use the number 200. We don't know the real number of nations. It's about how many nations there are now. Again there'll probably be a few more or a few less. We don't know. But using the number 200, there'll be kings in that sense, but there'll be all kinds of governmental positions with thrones related to that. But then there'll be resurrected kings as well. The resurrected kings will have the superior position of authority from the millennial kings with natural bodies. Revelation 1 verse 5, both kings, in my opinion, are being highlighted here. Jesus is ruler over the kings of the earth. That's talking about the people with natural bodies. But he made us. There's John the fisherman, apostle. He says, I'm a king too. So he's talking about resurrected believers. Roman numeral three. Resurrected saints will be in partnership with the kings of the earth. Paragraph A, Jesus will establish the infrastructure of the nations. Remember, every nation, every city, every town, every village, every, you know, principality, municipality, whatever they're called, every little local sphere. I mean in the human sense, we have many spheres of society. I mean many different levels of authority. From the guy that's over the library, to the guy that's over the school, to the guy that's over the school system, to the guy that's over the city council that's over the school system, to the guy, you know, it just keeps going on and on and on and on. Well there'll be social infrastructures, political infrastructures in all the nations, just like they are now. But Jesus will establish them through resurrected saints. Because that's the very definition of ruling. Some people go, how do you know that? I go, ruling means ruling. Ruling doesn't mean sitting in a chair and daydreaming. It means ruling. How do you know? Ruling means ruling. I mean a lot of folks are, they're so kind of blown away by this. How can we be sure? Thrones means thrones. Rule means rule. Judging means judging. It just means what it says. The Bible uses definitions of terms we understand and we're to understand what the term means. It just means that. Now the full ramifications, I'm sure, go far beyond anything I grasp. But this is exciting. I want to do my internship well. I'm in my internship right now. Been in ministry 40 years. I don't know how many years to go. I'm focused on being faithful. Not focused, focused on being popular and big. I want to be faithful. Because when I graduate my internship, then I get my assignment on the earth. I have an assignment right now, but it's a part of my internship. You know, nobody thinks it's strange that somebody would go to med school for 10 years, you know, and owe hundreds of thousands of dollars of, you know, loans to the med school process. You know, 10 years of school or whatever, it's different for different disciplines in the medical field. Then hundreds of thousands of dollars of payment. I mean, in long hours, sacrificial. I mean, the guy, the resident, the med school student studying all night. The other guys are partying all night, you know. Nobody thinks that's weird for someone or strange to do that for 10 years. And then the next 50 or 60 years, they live in the fruit of those decisions. Nobody thinks that's strange. But if a believer takes not 10 years of med school, but 70 years on the earth and does the same logic for a thousand year career, people think, what are you doing? What are you doing? Man, it sounds smart to me. I'm investing in my education right now. I don't mind long hours and sacrifices and losing out in the eyes of men because I'm in, I'm an intern. I'm in med school right now. I'm waiting for, to graduate and have a whole different career based on those few years of training. 70 years will be gone in a moment. David said, it's like a breath, like a breath paragraph B the resurrected saints, they'll oversee the work of the nations. That's the definition of reigning. Reigning means they're over the important things and the important decisions and the resources, how they're allocated in nations. That's what reigning means by definition. They determine the action plan. They're over the resource, the allocation. They're over the people. They have to train them, motivate them, oversee them, manage them. That's what reigning is. That's what a governor does. That's what, that's what it means to be a governor. You do those kinds of things. I, and I don't know all that we'll do, but the Bible makes it clear what people with natural bodies will be doing in the millennium, but the people with the resurrected bodies will be over them like the governors of the state. They're the, they're the primary leaders over those others that are working on the earth. And here's what those others will work on the earth, will be doing. They'll be training the nations. So if people with natural bodies will be, and you'll be over them, I have no doubt that, I mean, it's an assumption, but I think it's a biblically informed assumption. You'll be training the nations. That's part of being a priest. A priest's role is, a scribe and a priest is in training, restoring cities, restoring the land, restoring the atmosphere, cleansing it, establishing justice. There'll be kingdom businesses all over the earth. There'll be the judging of sin. Now, here's the question. Are angels involved in any of these things now? Are angels involved when a city is in a restoration process? You know, I think, again, the, I use the same analogy, the destroyed cities in Europe after World War II, although many nations have destroyed cities. Were angels involved at all? Was there a supernatural dimension with people? I'm convinced, absolutely. Are there angels involved in justice and businesses with godly men and women? Absolutely. Angels are serving in every, you know, many, many different ways. Well, if the supernatural dimension is helping now, how much more will the supernatural dimension be involved together with people with natural responsibilities? I believe the whole thing will be tightly connected together. The training of nations. It says that, verse 3 of Isaiah 2, many people, that multitudes of people, these are people with, with natural bodies from the earth, on the millennial earth, with natural bodies. It's not people with resurrected bodies, but these people will come to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. Beloved, a key part of the mountain of God's house is the New Jerusalem. They're coming to your house. I know it's the Lord's house, but you live in the New Jerusalem. And they'll be coming there and Jesus will be teaching His ways. I believe it's at this time He will be holding, seminars is not the right word, but He'll be holding conferences and seminars, I'm sure there's a far better word than that, for every sphere of life. He will teach agriculture. He will teach technology. He will have the greater wisdom than Solomon, beyond measure. And the saints will be involved in the teaching ministry, just like the 12 and the 70 were involved with Jesus in teaching even then, and then after His resurrection. He wants to manifest His glory through His people. He doesn't want to skip the step of going through His people. That was His idea. Paragraph D. There'll be the restoration of cities. Now many cities will be destroyed in the great tribulation. They will be rebuilt one by one. And I believe that the saints of the resurrected bodies will have an integral part in the ruling and reigning, the overseeing of even these kinds of things. Deep involvement. He says, well, what specifically? I don't know. But we know a key feature in the millennium is restored cities. Now we believe God for these verses now, for cities to be restored now. But that will only happen in part. They will be fully restored when the Lord returns. But these cities are under the ultimate authority of the saints. So being cities and nations and all the different stratas of spheres of society being under the saints, it makes a clear connection that the saints will be involved in the work that takes place under their authority. Isaiah 64, they'll rebuild the old ruins. They'll repair the ruined cities. They'll raise up the former desolations. It goes, look at into verse four, even the desolations of many generations. I believe that through 6,000 plus years since Adam, 6,000 years, you know, we don't know exactly, but ballpark, that's, that's, uh, history can be traced back. Wherever God's purpose has been manifest in a city, whether in a great measure or a little measure, and then sin or Satan has come and caused the destruction or the demise of that redemptive gifting on that city, even from generation past, all the redemptive giftings of every city will come to fullness at this time. I mean, there were some glorious things that happened in cities and to civilizations through history that had a redemptive dimension to them that sin and Satan, the process of that in time, those have been lost. They'll all be restored and brought to fullness. Stop at page three. There's much said about restoring the land, planting and cultivating gardens. One of the key verses is Amos chapter 9, verse 14 and 15, talks about the supernatural abundance. I don't know if I have that in the list there. No, I don't. Amos 9, verse 14 and 15, when there's quite a few verses, Joel 3, do I have that in there? Nope, not Joel 3 either. Okay, Joel 3 talks about the super abundance in the agricultural processes where the blessing of God, and I believe that the saints with resurrected bodies and the people with natural bodies, they'll all be one connected reality working together. I mean, it's not like saints with resurrected bodies will be digging holes or plowing fields, but I believe they will have insight. They will have the oversight. They will have the superior place of reigning and ruling. They'll have, I mean, the superior place of authority over that sphere of the earth. Paragraph F, establishing justice. Scripture makes it clear that there won't just be kings. Look at Isaiah 32. There'll be princes. There'll be those that are under kings. Some are called elders, governors. There'll be all spheres of governmental authority. Paragraph H, there'll be the judging of sin. Sin will continue in the Millennial Kingdom. People born, not with resurrected bodies. Don't worry. You go, oh no, I'm going to go there and sin. Oh no, I thought it was over. It will be over for you. After you're raptured and you get a resurrected body, there will, sin, you won't sin. Don't worry. There won't, you won't be tempted with, you know, the lust of the flesh type thing. You won't, that's not going to happen. But people on the earth will, although sin will be far more minimal than it is now. The devil will be in prison. The demons will be in prison. Jesus' leadership will be trumpeted. His ways is in the school systems, in the media. Righteousness will just be proclaimed and manifested in every sphere. But there's still everybody born will be born in sin and they'll need to become born again. And again, I'm, I think it's reasonable to assume that the vast majority, if not everybody, will say yes and make a, at least make a public profession of Jesus' lordship over their life. And there's quite a few verses that talk about sinners directly or they indicate the presence of sinners on the Millennial earth. But here's an interesting point. Is that in Revelation chapter 2 that believers with resurrected bodies will confront. They'll be part of the, of the legal system and the, the judicial process of confronting sin in the nations in the Millennium. They'll be a part of the process. It says here, verse 26. He that overcomes, I'll give them power over the nations. That means authority, authority to act, expose wrong things, set in place right things. But in this, he's going to highlight in verse 27, when Jesus says the authority or power of the nation's authority, that's not all negative. Most of that is positive. Setting an order, right things and right people, right plans, the use and allocations of resources. All that's a part of power over the nations. But in verse 27, he pauses. This is Jesus speaking in Revelation 2. He goes, they're going to actually be involved in government with a rod of iron. They'll dash nations or parts of nations to pieces. Talk about resurrected saints after the rapture confronting with a rod of iron sin that's on the earth still. They're deeply involved in the judicial process, the legal process, the punishment, the punitive dimensions of sin on the millennial earth. Now we know that Psalm 2, the great messianic Psalm where Jesus' ministry is described, he will rule the nations with a rod of iron. But here in Revelation 2, verse 27, Jesus says, and you, the faithful believers that overcome the temptations, that stay faithful, I will involve you in the confronting of sin in society during that thousand years. But that's how integral resurrected believers will be involved in the natural processes of the people of the millennial earth. I mean that's a big statement. Look at Psalm 110. Now this is at the beginning of the millennium. Jesus will judge the nations. Psalm 110. This is King David writing about the Messiah. Look, look what he'll do. He'll execute the heads of many nations, many countries. There will be war criminals. When the Lord comes, establishes His, His throne, He doesn't again, He doesn't wave His hand and all the, the criminals evaporate. No. They're rounded up. They're tried and they're executed. Now will that happen in one day? Probably not. There'll probably be a process. Because like the Nuremberg trials, the famous Nuremberg trials, 1945-46, where they brought the Nazi criminals, they tried them not to prove their guilt in this, in one sense. They already knew, everybody knew they were guilty. But it was to make a statement that would last for generations about justice and righteousness and the zeal that the new leaders had in Europe for that right, that unrighteousness, that evil to be punished. So the Nuremberg trials were not just about the bad guys being called bad. Everybody knew they were bad. But was about making a statement that would last for generations about righteousness and justice. So there will be a process of them being executed. It says in Isaiah 2, you can read it in context, when Jesus returns, He will rebuke nations. He, He will rebuke individuals. He will rebuke nations. He will rebuke governments and He'll set them in order. Some will be executed. Some of these unsaved survivors will get saved and others will be replaced. I mean there's all kinds of human processes when the Lord comes and judges between nations. I mean Matthew 25 describes this better when He judges between nations. It says there'll be sheep nations. There'll be goat nations. Some nations will be absolved and they'll be finished, obsolete after that judgment. Other nations will prosper. Jesus will decide the truth between nations as entities, national entities. He will rebuke the leaders of those nations. He will reward some, rebuke some, set things in order. The point is there's a whole process. It's not a the Lord comes, waves His hands, everything is made new in one second. That's not how it is. There will be a human process with a supernatural dimension of the restoration of the earth. Let's turn to top of page 4. There's two levels of government of the kings. And we talk about kings of the earth, but there'll be way more than kings. Again there'll be kings like in our language, senators, governors, city council persons, you know leaders at every district levels, state levels, many, many, many spheres of government. But we're only highlighting the kings, the very top. The saints, the resurrected saints will have the highest position of government over the people that have natural bodies. I believe it's parallel to the role of angels right now. There's angels over every city, over every nation. Just like there's demons assigned by Satan, the head of the demons over every city and nation. They're called principalities and powers. And here in Daniel chapter 10 we find there's a mighty angel when Daniel prays. These mighty angels fighting demons over nations. And then Michael the archangel helps the mighty angel and they push back the demonic powers and principalities. And all of this influences the human king. In this case it's the king of Persia is the one highlighted. So there's a principality, a demon of Persia, a really powerful one, I mean a high-ranking demonic power that's influencing the human king of Persia. Then there's an angel that's warring against that demon. Daniel prays, Michael comes, more demons, more angels of conflict and the human king is influenced by that battle. I mean the human king wakes up one day in a really bad mood, filled with anger and rage and all these really cruel demonic ideas. A demon is inspiring him and he sets these things in motion, these policies and pays back all these people and kills all these people. That demon is driven back by the prayer of the saints, angelic activity. It's another setting that king wakes up and he just has a feeling of goodwill. It says in Proverbs 21 that the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord. He moves it like channels of water. Angels are involved and the king has goodwill in his mind and his heart. In the United Nations, yes, Israel should become a nation, 1948. Yes, 1947 they declared it, 1948 they established it, Israel should become a nation. I mean where did that come from? That wasn't demons moving on people. How did that set up happen? There's the Holy Spirits involved, angels involved, those kinds of things. Here I have a verse in paragraph C, Ezekiel 9, where the angels judgment was coming to Jerusalem. In Ezekiel 9, judgment was coming to Jerusalem because of great rebellion against God. God dispatched angels that had charge over the city of Jerusalem, angels did. But these were angels to execute the people in Jerusalem, the rebels against God, the Jewish people who were standing against God. These angels had charge over the city, even more than the king of Jerusalem did. So I believe paragraph D, that the saints, their residence will be in the New Jerusalem. They won't, they won't be in a mansion on the Millennial Earth. They'll be in the New Jerusalem, that's where they'll live, that's their residence. They'll work on the earth, but again time and distance. I mean travel will be very, very, it will be effortless and you know near instant, like angels can move in and out between the heavenly realm and the earthly realm. And I don't think angels take much time to get from one city to the next. I don't understand, but it's quick, it's effortless, it's there, there are not prohibitive restrictions that, and so I believe saints with resurrected bodies will have an easy interchange between the New Jerusalem and their, their responsibility on the earth. Paragraph E, the example that I like to point to is in Acts chapter 1, where Jesus appeared with a resurrected body, but he's training men with natural bodies. So we got a man with a resurrected body, he's training people with natural bodies for 40 days. That's a window into how it will be for a thousand years. People with the resurrected bodies interfacing, even having meals with, training, teaching, fellowshipping, interchanging. Jesus had resurrected body, they had natural body, he ate their food, walked through the wall. And I believe that's a, that's a snapshot, a hint as to what some of the dynamics will be. We'll end with this. Notice how many times it says, paragraph F, the faithful. Not all the saints, all the saints will be in the city. All the saints will be loved by God. All the saints will have a resurrected body. They'll all have a, a glorious home, a mansion to live in. But not all the saints will have authority on the earth. Not all the saints. You know, you figure there's a couple billion saints, counting the great harvest that's coming, a couple billion, I don't know, two, three billion, I'm guessing, from history to present to the future harvest. Two or three billion. And I don't, you know, there's 200 nations, three billion saints. I mean, that's not an actual number, but I mean, the number's big. And I don't think all the saints will, will be, will be considered faithful through their time on the earth. They'll be loved, they'll be forgiven. They'll be in the eternal city as a free gift. They'll have access to God's heart. They'll be beloved. They'll be children of the Father. But Jesus makes it clear. Matthew 25. You who have been faithful, I'll make you rule over many cities. Matthew 19. Because you were faithful. Because. Faithfulness is real. You'll have authority over ten cities. This is actual. Jesus is not figurative. Verse 26, Matthew, Revelation 2. He overcomes. I'll give power over a nation. He overcomes. Will express, sit on my throne, which means participate in my government over the earth. The meek will inherit the earth. Now, we do that a little bit now, but the meek inheriting the earth is an eschatological statement. I mean, literally, the humble will be the government of the earth in the age to come. Really. Psalm 37 really develops this a lot. What's the, you know, it's this internship, this 70-year internship thing. Now, we can, because of the grid of God's, I mean, God evaluates our life through the grid of His grace, His editing process. We all have failures, setbacks, stumble, bad days. I mean, we do wrong things over the years. Here and there, some bad things happen. But we really repent. We really recommit. We really set our heart to be faithful. We're really forgiven. And the faithfulness is still intact. There isn't a person that doesn't have a lot of gaps in their faithfulness. So, don't read this and go, oh my goodness, I'm so far gone. I'm now 23. I've wasted four years. No, no. Got a long way to go. Sign up and go hard. You come up short, re-sign up. What's faithfulness about? Faithfulness is about the areas that are challenging. You don't have to be, it doesn't require faithfulness to do fun things. Faithfulness is how we respond to the assignments that are challenging. There's no affirmation. I don't know, it might even be the resistance. I don't even mean from the unbeliever, just even within the church. They're like, ah, you're just, they ignore you. They overlook you. But you're faithful. Nobody's watching. Nobody's awarding you. You got the out-of-the-way, the out-of-the-place job that nobody cares about. And you're not, nobody's paying attention. That's what faithfulness is about. Faithfulness is not an issue if it's fun and easy. I've never ever been challenged to eat a bowl of ice cream. That's never been a problem. Take a day off. Faithfulness is when I'm thinking, I don't want to do it. My flesh doesn't respond to this at all. I just want to, I want comfort. I want to chill out. I want to dismiss. I want to, I want to get out of the vortex of the responsibility of the difficult task. This tension. Faithfulness is staying in it. When men are not applauding you, doesn't look good in the flesh at this age. I mean, it doesn't have to look bad to be faithful. But think, man, I'm just being humble, and this isn't working. Well, the Lord says, oh, it is working. I promise you. You do that in very little areas, out-of-the-way areas, the difficult assignments. I promise you. It's all in my book. I promise you not one hour will ever be overlooked by me. Amen and amen. Let's stand. Lord, I want to be faithful. I want to be faithful. What we're going to do, we're going to stand. I'm going to pray over you for a moment. I'm going to have Wes and Dave come on out. Oh, they're down there. Okay. I was thinking of some title. The Brilliant Boys. I decided not to. They are brilliant, actually. Have them come out.