What Happens Next?
Revelation 20:4-6
“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. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 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.”
We are studying Revelation 20 and talking about the Millennium reign of Jesus Christ. Did you notice that the majority of the Book of Revelation is about the judgments of God upon the earth during the seven-year Tribulation? In chapters 4 and 5 we have two worship scenes described in heaven. Beginning in chapter 6 and going all the way through chapter 19 we are told about the sealed judgments, the trumpet judgments and the bowl or vial judgments. The Tribulation ends with the second coming of Jesus Christ and the final judgment on Babylon, the rebellious kings and their armies, the beast and the false prophet cast into the lake of fire, and then Satan being bound in the bottomless pit for a thousand years.
Interestingly, for the last week or so I’ve been talking about the Millennium reign of Christ that John only gives three verses to describe, Revelation 20:4, 5 and 6. And basically all they say is that the Tribulation saints that were beheaded, because of their witness to Jesus, are resurrected and they “live and reign with Christ for a thousand years.” And also, all those who are participated in the “first resurrection” will be “priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with Christ for a thousand years.” I believe that the “first resurrection” people include the Old Testament saints, the church age saints and the martyred Tribulation saints.
John only gives only a few verses here in Revelation 20 to tell us about this one-thousand-year period. But especially in the Old Testament, we have hundreds of references to it, and we have been talking for several days about the nature, the character and the conditions of this time of the perfect rule of Christ over the earth. It will be a fantastic time to live and be a part of.
We need to remember that besides the raptured church saints, the resurrected Old Testament, New Testament, and Tribulation saints, that only saved people from the Tribulation in mortal bodies will enter this millennium time period. These saved saints in mortal bodies, include the 144,000 Jews that were saved during the Tribulation, who were sealed and could not be killed. Also, there will be a national salvation of Jews at the very end of the Tribulation who will enter in mortal bodies. And no doubt, there could be millions of Gentiles who got saved and somehow survived the Tribulation who will enter the Millennium in mortal bodies.
These are the people who will be able to reproduce and populate the earth during the thousand years that we will rule and reign over with Christ. Remember that these people will be able to live long periods of time in the restored pre-flood environment of the earth. Millions upon millions, no doubt billions of people will be born during this time in mortal bodies. They will be born with sinful natures, just as we were and will need to trust Jesus Christ by faith to be saved.
You would think that everyone would want to get saved with Jesus Himself ruling in Jerusalem and probably most of these people will. There will be no devil and no demons to influence people to sin. There will be no public displays of wickedness or evil allowed to entice people to sin. But many of the people, that are born and living during this time, will outwardly conform to the rule of Christ and His laws and rules of righteousness, but inwardly they never trust Jesus to be their personal Lord and Savior.
Tomorrow we will talk about what happens to them at the very end of the Millennium. We read about this in Revelation 20:7-10.
God bless!
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