We jump straight into our chapter in Revelation today.

Revelation 20:1-3
1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.

We actually don’t see the word millennium in the Bible. It was a word coined by theologians to describe the 1000 years that takes place here in this chapter.

What is the bottomless pit?

• This word is only found in the book of Revelation.
• However, there are 2 other times it is found in the Greek in the New Testament and it is not the word bottomless pit but abyss.
• In Revelation 9 we have seen the bottomless pit, or abyss, represent the desert wastelands of Arabia – when the 5^th trumpet sounded and some and locusts came out of the bottomless pit.
• In Revelation 11 we discovered that the bottomless pit was referring to the dark ages and where France would make war against the scriptures.
• In Revelation 17, we also discovered the bottomless pit was the wilderness that the woman was in with the beast after receiving the deadly would and which she would eventually come out of when church would reunite with the state.
• Three bottomless pits all with different application. Just shows the importance of understanding the context of which it is given in.
• And in this case in Revelation 20, it is also again another different context.
• What is happening here?
• The devil, Satan, is being chained up and thrown into the bottomless pit for 1000 years.

What is this wilderness, this abyss, that he is thrown into?

• Genesis 1:2
  The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
• Before God ever created anything on the earth, the earth was called an abyss.
• The word deep means abyss.
• And that is exactly what will happen at the second coming. God is going to take His saints up to heaven – those that are alive and those that have died in Christ.
  • 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
    16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
• And wicked will all be destroyed.
  • 2 Thessalonians 2:8
    And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
• And earth is going to be returned back to its original state before God created anything. It’s going to be a bottomless pit.
• Jeremiah 4:23
  23 I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form, and void; and the heavens, they had no light. 24 I beheld the mountains, and indeed they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth. 25 I beheld, and indeed there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens had fled. 26 I beheld, and indeed the fruitful land was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of the LORD, by His fierce anger. 27 For thus says the LORD: “The whole land shall be desolate; yet I will not make a full end.
• It sounds like creation, yet this is not the beginning before God created anything on the earth.
• Yes, the first verse sounds like creation story right?
• But there’s mountains.
  • Mountains were created on the third day. There should have been light already.
• Birds have fled away.
  • There were birds before but now they are gone. Birds were created on the fifth day.
• There are cities.
  • That means there were humans. But they are all gone now. All the righteous up in heaven and all the wicked are all dead on the earth.
• Jeremiah 25:33
  And at that day the slain of the LORD shall be from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth. They shall not be lamented, or gathered, or buried; they shall become refuse on the ground.
  • All the humans are gone or dead. And Satan is not going to lament for them or bury them.

Satan is going to be bound by chains of circumstances.

• God is going to come and take everything away that is His. Not just the righteous people. But He is going to take away all life. No more sun. No more animals. All trees and vegetation will die. Earth will become a desolate wasteland – a fitting representation of the devil’s heart. Just blackness, darkness and coldness.
• God is going to let Satan rule on earth for 1000 years. But not before taking everything that is His.
• Satan will come to a total realization that he is nothing without God.
• But even then, this will not change his heart. Look at what it says in verse 3.
• Revelation 20:3
  And he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.
  • He will not deceive the nations anymore until the one thousand years are finished. He will have opportunity to deceive at the end of the 1000 years.

Is the one thousand years literal or symbolic?

• There is no need for time to be symbolic anymore as time prophecy has all been fulfilled already.
• Also, there is a significance of this period of time.
• If earth is currently 6000 years old (and not millions of years old as evolutionists say), and Christ is about to come very soon, it means that the 1000 years that will take place up in heaven is the seventh millennium.
• In this seventh millennium the earth will rest.
• In the Jewish system, when they worked the land, they would sow for 6 years, and then let the land rest on the seventh year.
• Leviticus 25:2-4
  2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to the LORD. 3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard.
• God is letting earth rest at this time. Rest from sin. It is going to be a Sabbath of rest for the land.
• Satan is bound there but he is not able to do anything.

What is taking place in heaven though while Satan is bound to the earth?

• Revelation 20:4
  And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
• Judgment will be committed to the saints. They are not reigning on earth at this time but in heaven with Christ.
• 1 Corinthians 6:2-3
  2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 3 Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?
  • We will judge angels even and this whole world.

What is the purpose of this judgment?

• We will have opportunity to go through the books of judgment that we saw in Daniel.
• Daniel 7:10
  A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, and the books were opened.
• The book of life, the book of remembrance of good deeds and the book of sin.
• Why is this important?
  • Because there will be people in heaven that we did not expect to be there and they are there. And there will also be people in heaven that we expected to be there and they are not there.
• We will have questions for God.
• And He will simply point us to His books of judgment which will be open for all of us to read and to see.
• We get to see the open record of everyone’s lives. And we get to understand the reason why God made certain decisions on people’s lives.
• In essence, we are judging. And we are going to discover that all the decisions that God makes in reference to the salvation or condemnation to each person will be just and fair and righteous.
• This is the reason why hellfire is not poured out at the second coming. God is going to give us a real chance to see if He made a mistake – if He needs to resurrect anyone or not. He is following the proper steps in this process of judgment.

Revelation 20:5
But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

Who are the rest of the dead?

• God’s saints are all in heaven already at the second coming.
• This must be referring to the wicked who are still dead on the They will be resurrected at the end of the 1000 years to face their final judgment after the saints are all settled with God’s judgment and decision.
• It is like the jury, having gathered all the facts, will recommend to the judge the final decision and execution of it.

However, the second part of this verse is actually not connected with that verse. It should be connected with verse 6.

• The statement – “This is the first resurrection” is incorrectly applied and attached to verse 5. It should be attached to verse 6 instead or the end of verse 4..
• Remember, in the original manuscripts when the Bible was written there was not verse or chapter divisions.
• There are 2 resurrections in the Bible.
• 1 Thessalonians 4:16
  For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
  • The resurrection of life is the first resurrection. That takes place at the second coming, the beginning of the 1000 years.
• John 5:29
  and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.
  • The second resurrection is the resurrection of And that takes place at the end of the 1000 years.
• So the rest of the dead are the wicked who are dead for 1000 years after the second coming.
• We have no choice as to whether we will be resurrected or not. Everyone will eventually be resurrected.
  • But we do have a choice as to WHEN we will be resurrected.

But now let’s read verse 6.

Revelation 20:6
Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

There is a blessing found in the first resurrection. That is the resurrection of the just, of the righteous.

• That is the resurrection to eternal life.

What will we be doing for a thousand years?

• We will be priests of God and will also reign – that gives the idea that we will be kings.
• Notice that in heaven there will be the mingling of religious and political. Only on the earth that is not possible as it always results in persecution.

What will we be doing as priests?

• Why do we still need to be priests? Christ is no longer priest.
• In scripture we find three main functions of the priest.
  • To offer sacrifices.
  • To make intercession.
  • To teach.
• We will no longer need to offer sacrifices of make intercession in heaven. So we will be teaching. But who needs to be taught at this time?
  • The other unfallen worlds and beings. They do not fully understand the plan of salvation.
  • There are even things that the angels desire to look into (1 Peter 1:12).
  • We will be sharing about what God has done for us!

We will reign as kings.

• We will be judging the angels (those that are lost) and we will be looking into the records of those that are lost and saved.
• Judgment will be the main theme during that one thousand years which we have already expounded on in the earlier verse.

And now we come to the end of the one thousand years.

Revelation 20:7-8
7 Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.

At the conclusion of the 1000 years, Satan is released from his prison. He is now able to go out and deceive the nations and all those that are on the earth.

• So it shows that Satan was bound to the earth and he was in prison with nothing to do. He had no one to tempt or deceive.
• This is the time that the resurrection takes place.
• God will raise up all the wicked back to life.

Gog and Magog

• What is the significance of Gog and Magog?
• Ezekiel 38:1-4
  1 Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him, 3 and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. 4 I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords.
• Gog and Magog were heathen nations that Satan would use to invade and attempt to destroy literal Israel. They had a vast army. But God would fight for them.
• You can read all about it in Ezekiel 38 & 39. It mirrors that last days that we read about in Revelation 20.
• Gog and Magog represents all the host of the wicked that will come against God at the end when Satan rally’s all of them to fight against Him

Satan will gather all the host of the wicked to battle against God whose number is as the sand of the sea. How are they doing this?

• Revelation 20:9
  They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.
• At this time, New Jerusalem has already descended.
• They are surrounding the city of God.
• Satan has deceived them into thinking that they can take over the whole city and claim it as theirs.
• This is truly righteousness by works in its totality. Wanting eternal life and New Jerusalem but having done it your own way.

But fire will come down out of heaven and consume all of them.

Why does God not destroy all the host of the wicked at the second coming? How come He waits 1000 years, resurrects them again and then finally destroys them all?

• Remember, God gives the saints 1000 years to investigate the records in heaven.
• 1000 years to determine if any of the wicked were actually wrongly judged.
• Of course we know that God will not make any mistake. He is loving and He also is just. God is too wise to err.
• But even though God knows that, he will give the saints 1000 years to look over the records. And only when the saints are finally satisfied, will then he does the final work of executing the judgment and destroying all the wicked.

Revelation 20:10
The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

The devil and all the wicked involved in the last day events associated with the mark of the beast have a special mention. They will totally destroyed.

• We already know that this forever is not actually an eternal burning. We studied into that back in Revelation 14. The lake of fire will eventually stop burning one day.
• But there will be a total destruction.
• Satan and all his angels will not escape from this. They will finally be destroyed. Sin will finally be eradicated from the universe one and for all.

Revelation 20:11-15
11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

We are taken back just a little before the final destruction.

• There will be a judgment.
• The book of life will feature prominently in this judgment.
• If our names are found written in the book of life we will be safe.

But notice the basis of the judgment.

• We are judged according to our works. It is mentioned twice over.
• Works matter.
• Works is what God will look at at the end of the day.
• Works is what we will be reading about in the book of life and the book of remembrance and the book of sin.
• Works is what even we can see today.
• Works is important!

We are not saved by our works. But a man without good works will not be saved because that is the fruit of their faith in Christ.

• Yes we are saved by grace through faith. And works is the fruit of grace.
• James 2:14
  What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?
• A man says that he has faith but does not have works.
• James asks this rhetorical question. Can that sort of faith save him? A faith that has no works?
  • Of course not!
• James 2:19-20
  19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
• Even the demons have a faith. But their faith does not produce any corresponding works.
• And then the conclusion – faith without works is dead.

We can know where we stand with God today.

• Just look at your works.
• Are you keeping commandments of God?
• Is the way that you are living being impacted by the faith that you have?
• Has your time coming to Revelation changed the way you live?
• Because a true faith will always change your behaviour, your actions, your works.
• A profession is nothing.
• Your attendance in this Revelation masterclass must impact how you live!
• Titus 1:16
  They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.
• Our profession means nothing. It’s our works that matter.
• Has your faith made you more faithful.
• Maybe you’ve changed your diet.
• Maybe you’ve decided I need to be a church more regularly.
• Maybe your music tastes have changed.
• Maybe you’ve stopped watching all those movies out there.
• Maybe your language has changed – no more cursing.
• What has changed on the outside?
• It’s time to take an honest look at the mirror.
• We will be judged according to our works.

The first death is not a respecter of persons. But the second death – that is determined by our works.

• What we do on this earth matters.
• Don’t ever believe someone who tells you it doesn’t matter. It is a lie of the devil. A deceptive doctrine that lulls people into a carnal security. It gives them a comfort on their pathway to hell, thinking that they are on their way to heaven.
• Throughout the book of Revelation, the saints of God, over and over again, are identified as keeping the commandments of God.
• Go back and read those 10 commandments. They are all about works.
• We’re not saved by keeping of them. But a person without any works in that direction will never be saved.
• May God help us today to see with clearer eyes. To help us understand our need.
• That if our works are rotten or not where they need to be today, that we would run to Jesus.
• Surrender your whole life to Him.
• Spend time in His word.
• He will do for us what we can never do for ourselves.