The Millennial Reign – The Revelation – The Millennium of Jesus

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

Do you ever find yourself searching for something bigger than you? For a community to be a part of? A place founded on truth and love? A place to worship the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and the Son of God? Welcome to Founded in Truth, where we're more than just a fellowship. We're a family. So welcome home. All right. Well, Shabbat Shalom, everybody. Um... Welcome back to our church, Founding the Truth Fellowship here in Rock Hill, South Carolina. So we are still in Paul, not Paul's apocalypse, John's apocalypse, his letter written to the churches of Asia Minor. And yeah, we're moving quite along.

This is a revelation, a revealing of Jesus Christ, Yeshua the Messiah, and that pulls back the curtain on the farce power of the devil and his manipulation of the nations and empires he leads and persuades to crush, kill, and destroy God's good world. And when the curtain is pulled back, we see the reality, the apocalypse, the revelation, what's revealed, that Jesus Yeshua is king, has been king, and will forever be king. And This week, I wanted to discuss a topic that had to do with a very specific demographic of people in the Roman Empire. They were highly educated, but due to economic circumstances, they found themselves in debt. to the empire severely, but they were smart. They were possibly the most educated generation of the first century in that era.

And it was how these 30-something-year-olds rose up and reigned over the empire. The millennial reign. Not even, I got one. We got one. Yes. Yes. Some of you, what is he talking about? Okay. The millennial reign, the reign of millennials. Okay. So actually, oh, I'm proud of that one. Actually, there's very few times, right? My wife's at home cringing right now. So this week, this week we are going to dare go where no church in the evangelical South has dare gone before. And that is discussing alternative views of the millennial reign of Christ. Okay. the thousand year reign. Yeah, the thousand year reign on earth where the devil is imprisoned and then released again after.

And depending on the tradition that you grew up with, you were likely taught or just assumed this is a very literal thing. Literal thousand years, thousand year time period where Yeshua is here on earth ruling and reigning, if that's what it says. Or the If you have a different background or tradition that you grew up, maybe you've never thought of it as literal, but more of an allegorical manner, pointing to a much deeper, impactful way of understanding Revelation. And this topic tends to trigger some people. Again, depending on your denominational tradition, And I'm a, I would be honest, I'm a bit nervous about exploring this topic today.

Because, and it's really just not this topic, I mean, it's anything really. If you have never known, like, if you've never known that there were other views to topics or opinions that you have, then it can seem very daunting to to even entertain or hear out an alternative view, right? Like if you never knew that there was any other way to see something, not even just biblical, anything, then it's a bit daunting. And sometimes, sometimes when that happens, we tend to feel a knee-jerk response and get defensive and feel the need to debate. Of course, I know none of us here know anything about that, So give me a little bit of grace today as we attempt to navigate this.

So from the beginning of this series, my hope has always been to give you guys tools, tools to navigate Revelation on your own, reviewing the major themes throughout the letter so that they're not foreign if you run across them, if you wanted to dive back into Revelation a lot deeper than we have, and I didn't want you to be surprised. I wanted things to be at least familiar or on a casual. You've heard of these things before. But most of all, my hope was to show you how John's apocalypse is a call to action for believers here and now to carry out their vocation as the ambassadors of Christ, not just not viewing it as just some kind of crystal ball that you look into, right? It's applicable now.

So that being said, are we ready? Okay, new year, right? The point of reference, the place we're camping out today will be Revelation 20, so you're welcome to turn there, but we're going to review it pretty quickly here, at least the first part of it, here in just a minute. Chapter 20 conveniently comes after chapter 19. Which is where we were at last week, right? So that's ordained, right? And so we camped out in chapter 19 last week, and we saw that the heavens opened, and we saw this scene of the return of the king. He's coming on a white horse, riding into battle against the nations that have gathered together to fight.

And this rider is, of course, Yeshua. And he's riding into battle already covered in his own blood. This is the theme throughout Revelation. And this is how he conquers. He conquered by being the slain lamb. And he is followed by the army of heaven, which just sounds awesome. And what were they wearing? What color? White, right? The clothing of those who overcome, washing their garments in the blood, made white. So Yeshua rides into battle and he throws the beast and the false prophet into the lake of flames, right? And he kills the armies of the earth using a sword, not in his hand, but out of his mouth.

The word of God is the weapon, the witness of the truth of his sovereignty. And so we enter into, we turn the page and we enter into chapter 20. And we start in verse 1. And we see that an angel comes down from heaven and binds the devil in a chain. And then he throws the devil, the dragon, into a deep hole for a thousand years. And the purpose is so that he won't be able to deceive the nations anymore. But he's going to be released after that for a short time. And we see what he's called. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan. That phrase sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Haven't we heard that exact phrase somewhere else in Revelation? Yeah, we see it in Revelation 12, 9. I think we have another slide. Yeah, come here. That's where we see it, right? So the great dragon was thrown out, the ancient serpent who was called the devil and Satan, the one who deceives the whole world. I find that interesting. Do you think that John might be trying to overlay the stories and other visions in Revelation? You know, Revelation 12 is when the child king comes about and something about the child king riding on the clouds of heaven in victory causes the dragon to be thrown down and cast down and lose his authority in heaven.

I love it. It's so neat. Love it. But right here, we notice the first three verses, we see the chronology, if you will, of the thousand year reign. And I want to point this out because John starts and ends it right here. He's going to fill in some details, but a thousand years is going to happen and then it's doom, it's over. And I found that interesting because he spends three verses on the scope of the thousand years here, yet he spends chapter six, verse one through chapters 18, 24 on the scope of three and a half years. Is that those neat? I don't know. Three and a half years, as we discussed. Verses four through six, you have the witnesses of Yeshua ruling and judging on thrones.

And then it says there's another people, the martyrs, The Gilatinians, they become the priests of God and of Christ, and they reign and rule with him for a thousand years. Here we go. Okay. They are the first resurrection. Verses 7 through 10, after a thousand years, the dragon Satan is released from this jail and goes and he gets all the nations to gather for this massive end times type battle. All the nations are coming together to fight for It mentions Gog and Magog, which were two nations that fought in this apocalyptic battle in Ezekiel. They surround the saints. Fire comes down from heaven, consumes them all.

And then the devil, the dragon, who was released, is now thrown into this lake of flames, lake of fire, along with the beast and the false prophet, and they're tormented forever and ever. Man, this story flows like a kaleidoscope, right? You turn it, and it's... Pretty cool. We have these flickering symbolic images meant to encourage and warn believers of the deceptions of the devil with the beast and the dragon and judgment. The throne room scene where the lamb is called worthy because it was slain. It conquered and overcame by being slain. The king fights by dying. He didn't die by fighting. It's such a backwards image in our mind.

And now John turns the wheel on the kaleidoscope once more, and he tells the fate of the dragon, the devil himself. The devil is bound. The nations are no longer deceived. Christ rules along with these witnesses or martyrs for a thousand years. And then, in what Revelation 16 calls the battle of Armageddon, it takes place. And so what's neat about this chapter, at least interesting about this chapter, unlike the rest of Revelation, is this chapter is a little confusing, isn't it? That was sarcasm, right? Come on, John, right? Yes. This chapter is a bit confusing. All of Revelation, kaleidoscope, but this chapter is where things are really starting to culminate.

We're about to get to the end. The new Jerusalem, the climactic new creation being birthed, God's good world finally being seen and raised up. The old world is gone. His kingdom has crashed into this one like a meteor and there's nothing left of the old. We're there. And it gets confusing because all of these images, we don't know how to take them. So we have souls under the altar in John 6, 9, the ones who are waiting patiently. But here, some of them seem to be resurrected, but other souls are not. I mean, unless they were beheaded. Unless you're beheaded, you're staying put. You're not part of the first resurrection is what the text says.

But the post-Gilatinians seem to reign and rule with Yeshua for a thousand years. And the thrones, did you notice that very first verse one, the thrones are laid out. Who sits on those? Revelation 3.21 says it's the believers that overcome. They will sit on the throne with Yeshua. That's a singular. These are multiples. Where's that coming to play? And then there is a second last battle where all the nations who come against and want to fight are destroyed. But we just saw that in the last chapter. Is it going to happen again? Where did they come from if all the nations were destroyed and struck down with the sword, but now they're going to be struck down with fire?

He calls down fire. They're consumed. But then after this second victory of destroying all the nations again, everyone else is resurrected and judged. And what's so confusing about that is we can lean on other biblical texts in the Bible, and we can also lean on extra-biblical texts, Jewish texts as well. We can't find anything Jewish or Christian that speaks about a double resurrection. Usually it's just one. Okay, what do we do with this? The henchmen, the cronies of Satan, are thrown into the lake of fire. But then there's a delay, a pause, a sudden pause in the story where before Satan himself, the dragon, is thrown into it.

And then there's even like this respite given where he's let out of jail intentionally to allow him to go and do his worst one last time. Again, why the delay? Why release the kingpin of all evil back into the world? How do we make sense of all of these elements? And I'm prefacing this on purpose to show you why some people, some people have a different view on when they read Revelation. Because there's a lot of moving parts. So the sudden pause is interesting. We see sudden pauses several other times in the book of Revelation. Between the sixth and the seventh seals, remember there's this pausing.

Judgment is paused. Stop until the people of God have been sealed in chapter seven. Then between the six and the seven trumpets, there's another Paul. Stop. This time when John is given the scroll about the loyal image bearers of Christ, a.k.a. the two witnesses. They're described like Zerubbabel and Joshua and Zechariah, the temple builders. They were killed and resurrected and came riding on the cloud of heaven. They were the king priests. And as a result, just like Jesus, their actions and their witness and their martyrdom mimicking Yeshua, caused the nations to repent. Two sudden pauses in the midst of dynamic, active scenes in John's letter.

And here we have a third. And this pause follows the exact same theme as the other two. We have the same elements, the suffering people of God bearing witness, martyrs, glorified as the true witness of King Yeshua. The priest kings, the royal priesthood or kingdom of priests who rule and reign with Messiah. Hasatan, the adversary, the accuser, well, he gets one last chance to do what Hasatan does, throw accusations. And here he does it toward the remnant. But not before Yeshua's reign is established here along with this special group of people who are resurrected. And something called the first resurrection.

Which is kind of weird because it alludes to there being two resurrections, but second resurrection, that phrase is never mentioned. It's just assumed. And what's so special about these martyrs? This isn't all martyrs. What's so special about these martyrs? The ones in the first resurrection that are going to rule and reign for a thousand years. What's so special about them? They get their head cut off. Yeah, it's gone. They got their heads cut off. They were beheaded. And thisis significant. Culturally, I like to think, how was Paul allegedly executed? It's not, yeah, with the head, yes. He was beheaded.

Why? Oh, well, they're just off with his head, you know, like ancient France, off with... No, this was a Roman tradition. Beheading in Rome was the execution that happened to Roman citizens. It held a sense of honor for Rome. So if you're a Roman citizen, you need to be executed. You wouldn't be burned alive or skinned or whatever, crucified. You would be beheaded because despite you being a disgrace... Rome's honor and the status of Rome that it has on his people will still be lifted up and beheading was a part of that honor and swift, merciful, all of that balled up. Paul was a Roman citizen. This is the death of that.

Now, could this be symbolic? I would love to think, if nothing else, that there's something symbolic about these specific martyrs being beheaded as opposed to all of the others that died first. all the different ways, right? Could this be, based on the culture, symbolic of kingdom allegiance? In other words, the full citizens that have devoted themselves to the empire of the world have turned their backs on it, and they're pledging allegiance to another king and another kingdom. And if that was a realistic scenario that actually took place, this would have been the execution, the turning away from empire that you were once a part of.

Hmm. I don't know. I'd like to think that. That seems to be the theme of the rest of the witnesses and martyrs and what John is encouraging of all the churches. Leave the systems and the empires of this world. There is a greater king and a greater kingdom that is not a part of it. Turn your backs to that and the way that they rule and reign and give your loyalty to Yeshua. Stop justifying and endorsing the evil and injustice of worldly empires. Stand, bear witness of the true kingdom, even if it costs you your life. So if this special group is symbolic of all martyrs, all believers that would give their full loyalty to Yeshua, what else in Revelation is symbolic?

What else in this chapter is symbolic? Well, the last few weeks, we've discussed a lot of stuff in Revelation that's symbolic. It's the product of the genre of apocalyptic literature. Is the thousand years mentioned itself symbolic? And if it is not, what do we do with John breaking his pattern of using numbers as symbolism throughout the rest of his letter? This one time, does it have a special case? And this is, we can explore this, ask the question. Where else in the Bible does the word 1,000 show up? Sometimes I guess it's literal, but many times it's a hyperbolic, symbolic number. Deuteronomy 7, the Lord is faithful, keeping his covenant of love to 1,000 generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.

I should hope this is symbolic because 1,001st generation is gonna fall out of God's love. Psalm 50, for every animal of the forest is mine, Lord, and the cattle on 1,000 hills. Not all the hills, but all the hills. Just 1,000. All the other cattle, it's ours. So this 1,000-year reign, this detail that shows up six times in six verses in the entire Bible are found right here in this chapter alone. What do we do with it? Well, over the past 2,000 years, I have good news for you. If you're asking, what do we do with this 1,000-year number? Over the past 2,000 years, man, we as believers, believers, have crunched and meditated and marinated and discussed and hammered out.

Took generations, hundreds of years, but we finally formed nice, neat boxes for your opinions to fall into. And there are three officially recognized standard boxes that your opinion is allowed to fall into. Now, within these boxes, there are a lot of smaller boxes. Ignore that. Three boxes you can choose to step in. You ready? The first box that is available for you to find your solution to this thousand-year reign is called premillennialism. Premillennialism has its foundation in viewing the text as completely literal. The thousand-year reign is literal. Christ will break through. He will return before, pre-millennial, before the thousand-year reign.

And upon him returning, he strips Satan of all power, binds him up, ties him up with a chain until the end of the thousand years where the devil's released, has one last chance to rile up the hearts of the wicked and in which he's going to be defeated, and them too, by Christ. He's then tossed into the lake of fire, and everyone is resurrected, judged on the white throne, and the wicked are thrown into the fire with Satan. And then comes the glorious new creation. That is a rough definition of box number one that does not do it justice at all. But that's it. That's the box. Yeah, yeah. Multiple van... two main little boxes inside of it.

One of them I like more than the other, but regardless, that's premillennialism. Literally, Christ will return for a thousand years and everything in the text is literal. The tendency of premillennialism as a box, don't take offense if you've already identified the box and this is your box and this is your home. The overall tendency is this view is a bit pessimistic. It anticipates and the worldview is that the expectation is that everything's just gonna keep getting worse worse worse worse worse down down down down down spiral I mean we'll have bumps and whatever but it's gonna eventually get so bad just bad bad bad bad so bad and that is when Yeshua will step in and so there's a huge emphasis on the hope that Yeshua is coming to bring justice and judgment and Because of the expected downward spiral of humanity.

And that's the negative of premillennialism. Just call it out. It tends to see the world and view the world, the bad things in the world, bigger than the good things. And some would accuse it as not taking the power of the gospel to the level it needs to be to actually make a difference now. In other words, There's so much emphasis, big scope. There tends to be an emphasis on the negative in the world and the hope that Jesus will come back and fix it, that there tends to be not a lot of motivation to do things now, to put energy into social changes now, to do mission work now, to actually do stuff now, mission oriented.

But hope, big deal. The second box, these are not in any order. Second box is called post-sufficiency. Post meaning the opposite of pre. And so the leaning of understanding is very similar to box number one. It's that the thousand year reign will occur, mainly in a literal sense, before Yeshua breaks through and comes at a second coming. In this view, there's only one coming of Jesus. There's not like a two, as you could assume from the text. And it's going to be after the thousand years. Now, This view is very optimistic, very optimistic for the world. The idea is that whenever this literal thousand-year reign starts...

Or it could be a symbolic thousand-year reign that doesn't have a specific start or end. It's a long time. But when it does start, Yeshua is reigning on earth, and the earth and societies around the world should reflect that Satan doesn't have any power. No deception is going on. Yeah, it's going to gradually get better and better and better and better and better. Take the parable of the mustard seed in Matthew 13. You start it slow, but over time, it's going to grow and conquer and overtake. And so when this type of golden age, which if Yeshua was reigning on earth, it would be, this golden age, it's going to continue getting better and better and better and better.

And man, that'd be awesome. Awesome. The most commendable thing about this box is its zeal for the mission of Christ. Post-millennial tradition tends to be heavily involved in social justice and carrying out the golden age of Christ that they believe is happening right then and there and gradually increasing. It's almost as if they're a part of making it happen. They're a part of putting their hands to the plow and bringing forth the reign of Christ. In the 1850s, Very heavily involved post-millennial influence in the abolitionist movements, right? Refusing to accept anything that didn't belong in God's reign because it's now.

It's now. This is what we stand for. It's the intruder in God's reign. And so we push out anything evil as an absolute intruder that is encroaching on God's reign. Yeah, pushing, pushing towards the culmination of new creation and Yeshua's return. The world as this box generally sees it is an ongoing golden process of progress. And although this specific view isn't mentioned too much, people will argue the opposite. That's fine. Have it. That's fine. Doesn't seem to be mentioned specifically in the early church writings. it was championed by the English Puritans. They were one of the many that pushed this.

They believed that a huge awakening was soon to occur amongst both Jews and Gentiles with Yeshua's return. Like I said, this box, 1,000 years, could be literal, could not, but it will continue getting better. This view historically kind of reached its peak of influence in mid-19th century, if you will, but it lost a lot of ground following the horrific tragedies of two, specifically one, very big conflict that affected everybody on earth, and it's called the Great War, World War I. You have this idea that everything's getting better and better and better, and this is the evidence. This is our mission.

We're participating in the golden age of Christ. Realistically, again, that's awesome evidence But then the Great War breaks out, and you've seen more bloodshed. I mean, the world collectively has never seen such awful horrors. That caused the world collectively afterwards to say, we can never let this happen again. It was that bad. What do you think that does for a type of view like postmillennialism? Eh. Eh, kind of sink back to premillennialism a little bit because things are getting bad and this is really bad and we want to focus more on the hope that Jesus is going to come back and fix this than things are going to be getting better and better because how can we come back from this?

That's realistically what took place in our history as Christians all over the world, right? It went back and forth. The downside, the negative trait generally to postmillennialism tends to be a bit too optimistic. Some critics would call it a bit too naive. It tends or the accusation is that it fails to see the gravity of sin and evil still manifesting in the world. And that's the trap of it. Now there's one more view that arguably was popular side by side in the early church with premillennialism. Lots of writings. And of course it wasn't the fully formed nice box of premillennialism that we have today.

But yeah, early church fathers discussed this topic Many of them seem to instigate this idea of premillennialism. And this view seemed to sit right beside it. And it was called amillennialism. Amillennialism. It means, literally it means no millennium. And yeah, postmillenniums get upset when we talk about amillennialism. But But it seems that there are two distinct categories in the earliest records we have of the early church. Those who wrote about the literal millennium that's coming, and then those who said, no, it's purely symbolic. Lots of famous church fathers on either side. Amillennialism stresses that the New Testament across the board knows only one future coming of Christ, right?

And the reason why it's called... Shouldn't be called amillennialism. The reason why it's called amillennialism is because in Greek, you know, you have, whenever you wanted to, what is it, negate a word, you'd add the alpha to the beginning of the word. Asymptomatic is a good way to do that in English. Asymptomatic means what? No symptoms. Okay, good, on the same page. So they believed in a millennium, but they believed it It started at Christ's first return and it extended across the ages until his coming again. In other words, we are in the reign of Christ right now and he rules through us. We are the hands and feet would be the go-to term that they would pull.

We are the hands and feet. We are the ambassadors or the emissary of Christ as Paul puts it. As soon as he was called Christ, that is when his reign started. His kingdom is within us, as the Tyndale Bible and the KJV quote Luke 17, 21. Satan was defeated 2,000 years ago, and if you're in this box, you're not waiting for Satan to be defeated in some future time, despite the world still falling into his propaganda. This box would see the dragon currently bound up, but his agents still at work, the beast and the false prophet. Now, I'm going to spend a little bit more time on this box, not because I'm trying to champion for it, but because I know, generally speaking, in this part of the country with the denominational saturation, we're unfamiliar with this idea.

So let's get familiar with it. The idea is that Satan has already been defeated, and an amillennialist would probably pull, he'd start by pulling with the gospel accounts, like in John 12, 31. Yeshua says, now is the judgment of this world. And now the ruler of this world has been cast out. As for me, I am lifted up from the earth and I will draw all people to myself. He said this to indicate the kind of death he was going to die. Yeshua is saying that the ruler of this world is going to be cast out. Do we have these verses? John 12, 31, cast out. What, isn't there somewhere in Revelation where Satan is cast out?

It's Revelation 12, right? The dragon is cast out. Satan bound up in Matthew 12, or Revelation 12, when he cast him out. We also have Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12, familiar scene. Yeshua's casting out demons, the demonic forces. And what do they accuse him of? They accuse Yeshua of using the power and authority of the devil to cast out demons. And how does he respond? He says, no, I'm not using the power of the devil. I'm just stronger than the devil. She was talking about binding up the devil here. At least that's what this box would assert. Luke chapter 10, when Yeshua sends out the 72, they return rejoicing, his disciples rejoicing.

Why? Because they've witnessed the power of God and God's authority over evil through themselves. Luke chapter 10, verse 17. And look how John says cast out, Matthew says bound. Verse 18. He replied, The assertion using these verses is that Satan was defeated and bound at Yeshua's first coming. And the amillennial box leans towards the understanding that we're called to have the ultimate hope and to look for Yeshua's return at any moment, right? But also... implement a kingdom rule now through our actions. They would believe that the thousand year reign is symbolic, purely symbolic, just like three and a half, 42, 666, two witnesses, 144,000 in Revelation.

It is a time when they would endure the wrath of the beast or fight against it and reign as God's images until the second coming, which a grand final display of divine conquest takes place in some type of final judgment. Matt, I think it's obvious which view you lean towards because you spent so much time on it. Oh, I really appreciate this view because I feel like it takes the best of both of these boxes over here. We have the ultimate hope, always looking to the future, always waiting for the king to return to enact ultimate judgment and justice. but it also reinforces the mission of what's expected of you as a believer right now. You don't have an excuse not to pray for people who are being persecuted.

You don't have an excuse not to run in the streets and protest against whatever principalities are out there and allow bad things to happen and allow injustice and a lack of mercy to be poured out. So I think there's a lot of benefits to this view or a lot of pros. Has a big negative. Lots of spray painting of things as being symbolic. Makes them fit easily in theology, really does. But the trap of the box of amillennialism or amillennialism is that, well, in making everything symbolic, you might also be inclined to make the reality of sin and atonement and the power of who Christ is symbolic. and it no longer carries the weight that it should.

These are the three boxes that you're allowed to choose from. You may not create another one. You can create one within it, but not outside of it. As the overview I just gave was not intended to be exhaustive, nor 1,000% accurately represent all of the different opinions that surround these three boxes. I can only imagine what's going on online right now. That's not what I believe. I don't post general themes of these boxes. Generally, we love our new jerk. I wanted to explain these things. If you've never heard these different perspectives on Revelation 20 and the eschatological views that are kind of pushed underneath them, I want you to be familiar with them so that when you go back, if you're interested in studying Revelation, you won't be caught off guard when you see in a commentary or you see the language used in And that you can be able to navigate it.

Yeah. So, like I said, amillennialism, definitely, I definitely use a lot of language when I preach. and do sermons that some would put in that box because that box has a type of eschatological view underneath it that's referred to as inaugurated eschatology. And that's the belief or view that we are indeed living in the end times. Right now, in those end times, we're inaugurated the life, death, and resurrection of Yeshua. And the power of promises and promises of God's kingdom are accessible now to us. I fully believe that. but they have their final culmination at his return. Yeshua's kingship and reign is here, but not yet.

And so we live out God's kingdom as if it is now. Again, as ambassadors, representatives, emissaries of Christ, as Paul says we are now. But we wait on the final full manifestation of everything that is. That eschatological view is not owned by this box, by the way. I'm trying to cut myself away from accusations. Every single view on the millennial I believe, has so many holes in it. Not one box is watertight at all. Nope. Cannot convince me. Because each box has to turn a blind eye to the foothold of another box, or at least downplay it. It's just, I mean, that is what it is. It is what it is. But what happens?

What happens when we take a step back from dogma and we look at data and relationships with each other? We look at the words of Yeshua and the magnificent claims of the New Testament without boxes. See, as humans, especially in 2022 United States, we are trained from a very young age to establish our identity by polarizing ideas and opinions. It's just how we roll. We push it onto our children. We are influenced by it on the media. It's how we're supposed to act. And this is a weakness in our culture. Because our culture teaches that your ideas and your opinions about things are your identity. Matt, why is that bad?

Because that's not who you are. And so we make things black and white and good and bad because if we dare entertain any other idea than others we currently have, it's a threat to the very identity that we believe we are. We can never grow. We can never mature. We can never consider. We can never use logic. We can never, and that's when you see people, and we all do it in certain areas of our life, when an idea comes out and your instant reaction is knee-jerk and defensive, you're threatened. Why are you threatened? You're threatened by something. You can entertain and look at other perspectives on things that don't need to be polarizing and evil.

They don't need to be labeled like that without committing to them. You can look and entertain boxes up here about verses in Revelation 20, which is a confusing chapter. You can do that without committing to another box. And you don't even have to choose a box at the end if you don't want to. That's okay too. All of these views and the men and women that have put energy into trying to decipher them out and put them together pledge allegiance to Yeshua. All of them. All of these opinions submit to the glory of God and None of them are trying to minimize the power of God, even if you want them to. And so when we hear an opinion concerning an apocalyptic text that is as clear as a kaleidoscope, and it causes us to have a knee-jerk reaction as if the heart of someone that has it isn't truly focused in the faith of God, that's the moment you need to look in the mirror and try to meditate on what kind of God you're actually serving.

No post-proliferation. amillennialist is going to be upset. If Jesus comes back and says, I'm setting my kingdom up right here for a thousand years, there is nobody that's going to be upset. Sweet. And no premillennialist are going to point to everyone else and say, I told you so. No, they're going to say, sweet. It's going to be great. No, no premillennialist is going to be ticked off if Yeshua returns and says, man, you were in it the whole time and now I'm coming. Like, new creation. Oh, it's going to be great. It's awesome. No poster. No one's going to say, told you so. Sweet. It's going to be great.

Six mentions across six verses out of 31,102 verses in the Bible spring forth such power bold and black and white and in weak-minded divisive attitudes toward other believers. And all three are faithful to those same six verses. Which one would John agree with? Well, that's what I want to know. You know how we're going to find that out? We're going to have to. I always want to say this. Hold on. You're just going to have to wait till you get to heaven and ask him. Or you're going to have to wait till heaven comes to earth to ask him. That's what pastors say when we don't know. Don't know. Don't know.

I know everybody probably thought we're going to learn exactly what Revelation 20 means and unlock the secrets of the end times. Now, today's message is about a cord of three strands not being quickly broken. It's a message about recognizing that your opinions and things that do not threaten the core faith of Yeshua are should not be used to divide the body of Yeshua. Because that, that is the pleasure of Satan himself. The beauty in these three main views is that each of them points out things that the others either have missed or are blind to. Each one has its Achilles tendon or heel, heel. None of them are watertight.

I definitely think there are some smaller boxes, specifically in this one, small boxes specifically in this one over here, that may be a bit more destructive. But regardless, some early, I guess you could say, you could call them post-millennialists. You could say that. We're anticipating Yeshua's return around 1000 AD. And just like Y2K, for those of us who got dressed up to be raptured, some of y'all have no idea what we're talking about. Oh my gosh. Yes. Man, you remember? Like 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, here we go. I think I looked at you. I was 10 or so. I looked at you. It's my mom. I looked at you and maybe you looked at me and said, oh, well, that was underwhelming.

I guess it's not. Poof, it didn't happen. Okay. Oh, the power went out. Tribulation, we're going to have to survivalist mode. We were rapture mode. We were ready to, let's go. Okay. I mean, that was the reality at the time. It got awkward. Maybe, maybe the thousand years of Christ's reign is the entirety of the church age symbolically. But at first sight, it seems difficult to view the millennial as that because anyone who is aware of church history specifically and world history would never say that there have not been satanic attacks or agendas carried out in the past 2,000 years. Somehow, the dragon is still working, whether he's bound and defeated or not, which is part of the discussion.

That's the beauty of the discussion. Perhaps the millennial is still in the distant, distant future, either by the prelude of the second coming or the time after. As if faithfulness to the biblical text is measured by zealousness of the Lord's return and the hope of his justice. Man, this box right here, premillennialism, that's the one. If faithfulness to the biblical text is measured by the power of the gospel being manifest to change the world, definitely post-millennialism. If faithfulness to the biblical text is measured by actualized hope and action in the present moment, ah, millennialism. I think the core hope is just so beautiful among them all.

But there's people that pull out punches and all the same. If you haven't guessed, although I could lean towards one view or another, I don't feel like we need to sit in a box, which drives some people crazy. That's fine. Logical thinkers. If you guys want a fantastic, fantastic, everybody say fantastic, fantastic commentary by one of the most humble scholars that has devoted his life to presenting the word of God in a way that is not biased towards any view. He just wants to show people the beauty of the words of God. The pros and cons of each of these boxes, even the cons of the one he admits he finds himself in, I would highly recommend the NIV application commentary of Revelation by Craig Keener.

Josh is a big fan of it. I am too. If you get the Kindle, Worth it because he reads it and he starts telling the most worst dad jokes all through it. Like Craig Keener is amazing. He's incredible. I put a link in the description of the video. You can check it out. Highly recommend. It's just his commentary over the entire letter of Revelation. Okay. That was a letdown. I wanted to come out here flying the flag of the opinion that I walked in with. Good luck. What if the point of Revelation 20 isn't the number 1,000? I dare say, what if? Give me grace. What if? What if it's in the opening verse? I saw, let's go back.

Can we go back to the verse? Yeah, Revelation. You're good. Thank you, Ethan. I saw an angel coming down and he held up, he bound up the dragon, Satan, for a thousand years. And he threw him down and he could no longer deceive the nations. And then we're going to go to the first verse of the next slide and the next one. There we go. Verse 4, that's what I'm going to say. Then I saw thrones. Then I saw thrones.

Love this, because if you're a fan of Daniel, you know instantly what this is directly correlated to. Daniel chapter 7. Can we review Daniel chapter 7 real quick? Just this section. You guys, who will give me like two minutes? Who? 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. Let's jump over to Daniel 7. Now, Daniel 7 is a prophecy about beasts trampling the holy people of God, kind of like the apocalypse of Revelation, just a little bit, right? And then you have this figure known as the Son of Man who seems to be killed by the beast, but he's vindicated, and he comes riding on the cloud of heaven to the throne room of God, and something about him being trampled on by the beast says, defeats the beast and this son of man figure inherits a kingdom that lasts forever right that's it's jesus it's yeshua right that's what he's known by the son of man throughout the new testament okay so starting in verse 9 uh we see um what's taking place here and i looked and thrones were set in place and the ancient of days took his seat was it plural or singular how many throne or thrones It's cool.

I don't know. And then we move to verse 13. After the big, big beast, the big beast is defeated. So the Son of Man, messianic figure, isn't coming from the Ancient of Days in heaven down to earth. He's coming from earth up to the Ancient of Days into the throne room to be inaugurated as this kingly figure, if you will. Yeah, that's talking about Yeshua and his kingdom, right? You want to keep reading and see the paradox of Daniel 7? Verse 26. So after this, the angel comes and Daniel's like, what does this mean? And the angel begins to interpret it. And this is what the angel says at the end when he's interpreting the vision to Daniel.

But the court will sit. So now we have people sitting and his power will be taken away, the beast, and completely destroyed forever. Then the sovereignty, power, and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all rulers will worship and obey him. So who gets the kingdom? Is it the holy people? No. Or is it the Son of Man? Because it says both. Because in the vision, the Son of Man is made synonymous with the people of God, right? Just like Jesus is synonymous with the people of God, right? He represents Israel or humanity.

Here's the point. Here's the point. The thrones in Daniel 7 were set out initially for the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man, Yeshua. But in the dual folding prophecy, the people of God rule and reign using the same language given to Yeshua. Just like what Yeshua says in Revelation 3.21, to the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne just as I was victorious and sat down with my father on his throne. There's an overlap. It appears this thousand year reign on earth, everyone is focused on. It doesn't appear like it's on earth at all, but it points to a heavenly reality.

And this is a black and white issue right here. Yeshua is reigning as king right now. All three boxes can agree with that in some regard. He is reigning with king right now. That's clear in the New Testament. Matthew 28, 18, all power and authority in heaven and in earth. All power in heaven has been given to Yeshua. All of it, 100%, and earth. 1 Corinthians 15, 25, for he must reign. He's reigning and he must reign until all the enemies are placed under his feet. John seems to be saying that in Revelation 20 that the martyrs, the witnesses, are already somehow reigning with him. Guys, we're going to read a little bit of Paul, and then we're going to conclude.

We're going to read Ephesians chapter 2, and I want you to see this language that's used here, specifically in verse 6, but I'm going to read all of it. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. Everybody say that. His great love for us Verse 6. Verse 6. seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. This isn't talking about after we're killed or martyred. This is a reality of our calling as faithful witnesses. Could John be speaking about this in Revelation 20? We'll have to ask him when we get to heaven. Let's see here. So Josh is here, right? Josh. All right. We got to throw in verses 8 and 9 to make him happy.

Ready? Ready? This is a calling, and this is what Paul is pushing believers to understand. There is a kingdom right now that is within you and a reality, a present reality. And you have a job to do to be witnesses and ambassadors of that kingdom. I believe the New Testament when it says Yeshua bound Satan in Matthew 12. But it also mentions Satan entered Judas in Luke 22, influencing him to do what Hasatan does, accuse Yeshua leading to his death. How do we reconcile that? Maybe, just as Revelation 12 is the cosmic version that launched out of the story of the manger, maybe Revelation 20 is the cosmic story of Judas and his betrayal.

I don't know. That's a neat idea. What did Yeshua make crystal clear? What is the very fabric of the glue that holds you together with other brothers and sisters in Christ? Not glues you to other Protestants. Not glues you to other Orthodox Christians. Not what is the glue that glues you to other messianic folk. No, what is truly the thing that glues us together as a corporate, diversive body of Yeshua, ministering, reigning, and tending to God's good creation? It is one thing, the victory of the Lamb. That's it. And the call to bear witness of that through patience and endurance. So like my kids love to do at home, guys, you can get inside of your box today.

And you can go to town. You can ride it down the stairs. Go for it. Have fun. Do it. But know the clear truth is that God himself is who wins the victory. And he does it to make death dead forever. The conclusion of that is a renewed creation that will blossom just as it did in Eden. As I said, some of you guys probably came today or tuned in specifically because you know how controversial this topic can be. Maybe some tuned in already being defensive of their view. My hope, my hope is, yes, that you'll leave a little bit more familiar and equipped to navigate God's word in a way that's fruitful for you in your relationship with him, but also for your witness to the world.

And I hope that you leave today with an attitude of looking at your brothers and sisters with humility, get the boxes off the stage. Forget the boxes. I hope that you will leave today with a reminder that you need to look at your brothers and sisters as part of the body and part of the coworkers and part of those enduring with humility, with patience, maybe with mercy, but specifically with grace when it comes to anything that you would disagree with. We need to stop looking for ways to lift ourselves up through our own opinions and ideas and start attempting to forge a collective identity in Christ that the world cannot ignore. Together.

That is how the world will see what we spout from our mouths actualize in a way that makes an impact. So guys, please hear what I said today. Please don't focus on what I didn't say or what you wanted me to say. We're called to make a difference in this world despite your box. You're called to bear witness and you're called to represent the lamb that has overcome. Victory has been declared. And so worship team, you guys can come up to lead us out and conclude worship services. But guys, I don't know where you're at today. This is definitely a message that would be more appropriate every four years in our political season.

But even now, when people are dying, we're resorting to a political mindset to try to argue about Instead of collectively saying, hey, how can we actually help? If you're pre, you should be praying and hoping. If you're post, you should be trying to send some aid. If you're I, you're doing something. I mean, do something in the face of atrocities when people are dying. Do something other than try to fight and add fire to conflict. Alvina Malkinu, our father, our king father, we thank you for this opportunity to come to your amazing word. And though it doesn't always make sense to us, specifically the revelation of John with the beautiful dynamic imagery, we know that you wanted us to meditate on it regardless.

And father, I ask in the name of Yeshua that the core message of your word would be embodied through your spirit in our hearts today. that when we walk out into the world, we will love our opinions and our ideas about your word, the things that don't really matter. We can celebrate those, but that those things would never be something that we would hold up to break relationships and destroy, that they would be edifying. Anything, Father, when we see conflict, I ask that you would allow us to have patience to stop, to breathe, and consider before I draw a sword, Is there a way I can break bread? Is there a way I can help instead of hurt? Is there a way that I can speak to someone to make a relationship stronger instead of tear one apart and contribute to isolation?

We thank you, Father. In the name of Yeshua, we pray. Please stand as we conclude with worship services. Guys, there's a lot of things going on in the world and in our lives. There's a lot of crises going on. There might be a crisis in your home. There might be a crisis in your life. Guys, we have a prayer team on either part of the stage here. And as we conclude with worship, meditate, meditate. Are there things in your life that, hey, you know what? I can leave here today. I can have someone pray with me today. Maybe there's a situation that you just want someone to join with you to cry out to God.

We have the warriors here. don't hesitate don't hold back the lord is our god the lord is one blessed is the name of his glorious kingdom for all eternity Hallelujah, Father. We thank you so much for this day and this Sabbath. We bless you. We praise you. We ask that you go with us. Protect your people, your body, and help us to be salt, light. Help us to display your kingdom here on earth. We pray all this in Yeshua's name. Amen. Hallelujah.