Revelation 20:1-3

April 18, 2021

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts around 18:35 in the audio file.

Series: Just Conquer #54

Introduction

Of the reasons that I chose to preach through the book of Revelation, a fair summary would be that I thought it would be good for us. It’s not that I have end-times fever. There was a decent amount of eschatology talk among us before 2020, and it’s easy to see how numerous events, and some of the commentary on those events, have promoted heightened apocalyptic awareness. I thought Revelation would be good before all of that.

I thought it would be good because many Christians disagree about the end-times within orthodoxy, among denominations, and even within our relatively small flock. That is fine because it is good practice to lock arms with some with whom we may lock heads. The way we learn to get along is not by ignoring all the tricky or difficult or personal subjects. This mindset is out of step the society around us, which makes it unique and important, even if not easy.

Another reason it’s good practice is to read the book of Revelation itself. It is possible to have very strong convictions based on very little details like those “without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions” (1 Timothy 1:7). Evolution is a great story, until you have to answer all the questions. COVID-19 has a higher survival rate than the COVID vaccine promises, and the prevalence of masks means that our culture has a high immunity from paying attention. My point is that it’s easy to get uptight about eschatology without wrestling with the inspired prophecy. Maybe we can’t answer every question, but we ought to try our best.

We also want to practice not being embarrassed. Revelation is revelation for our blessing and for our boldness. It is written that we might see the parody and envy of the false trinity, that we might recognize the tactics of deceit that are already at work today, let alone that will dominate in the Great Tribulation, and that we might love the Lamb and spend our lives for Him, even if it costs us our temporal comfort.

The book of Revelation corroborates from beginning to end that we have no need to be embarrassed about holding fast to Christ, to the Word of God, and to all that He has told us. His first coming scandalized the expectations of many, it won’t be surprising if the details about His second coming do likewise.

So I’m about to get us to look together at the Millennium. Of the 22 chapters in the Apocalypse, chapter 20 may provoke the most emotions (though the 666 and mark of the beast are particular attractions). There are camps based on the Millennium, and you should have an idea about them, not because this is a seminary class, but because we should all want the profit from this part of God’s inspired word, equipping us for every good work in our part of God’s story.

It’s okay that people have questions, and there will be more questions about the Millennium answered in the upcoming paragraphs. Also some of the difficulty comes from a failure of asking enough questions or being satisfied to easily with a “sense” or a system rather than what can be seen.

Let’s read verses 1-3, observe what is written, then see if we can interpret what sort of bind the dragon gets into and what the thousand years means.

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while. (Revelation 20:1–3)

Verse one introduces the prophet’s visi[...]