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Point of Grace International
PGI - December 04, 2022 Sunday Service
In our church we aim to make it feel like a home, where strangers feel they are part of the family, where smiles are overflowing and hugs are natural, because we believe that life is a journey, and that we are simply channel of blessings. In our church we value three things, gratitude because it's the proper response to God, excellence because God expects nothing less, and grace because we all need it.
Locations & Times
Point of Grace Church
15601 Sheridan St, Davie, FL 33331, USA
Sunday 9:30 AM
https://www.facebook.com/PGIFortLauderdale
LYRICS FOR TODAY'S SONGS
CCLI License # 1613304
CCLI License # 1613304
Sermon Notes
Revelation 20:1-10 ISG
Literary Analysis
1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven,
holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.
2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan,
and bound him for a thousand years,
3 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.
4 Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison
8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea.
9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, 10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
How to Interpret Revelation
The visionary level of interpretation (what John actually saw) and the symbolic level (what the items in the vision connote biblically above and beyond any specific historical reference) must not be confused with the third, historical level (the particular historical identification of the resurrected people and the other objects seen in the vision). Literal interpreters of the book (those seeing a one-to-one correspondence between the book’s images and only a physical reality) acknowledge these distinctions, but at critical points, including 20:1-6, they too often neglect the visionary and symbolic levels of communication by collapsing them into the referential, historical level.
A simple and fairly undebatable example of these three hermeneutical levels is the vision in 1:12, 20. This is clearly a vision (“I saw”) in which John sees “seven golden lampstands” (the visionary level). The “lampstands” are identified with the seven churches on the historical level, but there is no one-to-one physical correspondence between the lampstands and the churches (the churches are not physical lampstands!). The symbolic level of the vision is that the churches are pictured as lampstands. But why? One must try to determine why the churches are figuratively likened to lampstands to discover the symbolic meaning (at least part of the symbolic meaning is that, since lampstands were part of the old temple and light-giving in the OT, so the church is part of a new temple and gives the light of God’s revelation to others). Something similar is going on in 20:1-8.
Excerpt From: G. K. Beale,David Campbell. “Revelation.” Apple Books.
Context
Chapter 20 contains three further sections of the seven unnumbered series, continuing the sequence from 19:11 until the beginning of Revelation 21. The first short section introduces quite abruptly the incarceration of Satan for a thousand years, the ‘millennium’. It is remarkable to see the influence that these few verses have had on Christian theology through history. Different interpretations of this idea delineate major divisions within Protestant Christianity in the contemporary world. For an overview of the main views on the millennium, see the Introduction. As with every other part of Revelation, key to our reading needs to be understanding the individual texts in the context of the whole book, and it is evident that the use of Ezekiel 38 – 39 here and in the previous chapter points to these sections in John’s vision report as being closely bound together, part of his theological vision of the destruction of the forces of evil that has been anticipated throughout the text. We also need to pay attention to John’s use of other biblical and contemporary cultural images and ideas, and take seriously the symbolic nature of the text and the rhetorical impact it would have had on his first audiences. The great mistake here (as with other parts of the book) is to detach these episodes from what has gone before in Revelation or what follows after, and dislocate the text from its first-century world.
Excerpt From: Ian Paul. “Revelation.” Apple Books.
Millennium
The idea of an intermediate messianic age prior to final judgment appears frequently in Jewish literature (see the examples in 2 Baruch 40:3; Sibylline Oracles 3:741–759; Testament of Abraham 13A), but Revelation is unique in describing it as lasting for one thousand years. This round number suggests a long period of time, hence its common use by rulers or dictators who want to impress their subjects with the permanence of their regime, and as such it offers another counter-motif to Rome’s claim to be an ‘eternal’ city. But it also fits with John’s use of numerology, 1,000 being the cube of 10 (a natural number) and so expressing the holy presence of God on the earth mediated by the reign of the martyrs with Christ (v. 4). It also provides a contrast to the ‘three and a half years’ of the present age, and reverses the features of this age, so Satan is imprisoned rather than wielding authority, and the faithful are raised to life instead of being slain with the sword. The age of glory far outweighs the passing age of suffering. The term ‘a thousand years’ is mentioned six times (here and in vv. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), three times in relation to Satan’s binding and three times in relation to the reign of the martyrs. As elsewhere in Revelation, the defeat of evil and the vindication of God’s people are inextricably connected, a theme found throughout the New Testament.
Excerpt From: Ian Paul. “Revelation.” Apple Books.
Bottomless Pit/Abyss
The Abyss was previously the bottomless pit (corresponding in many ways to ‘the deep’ in the OT) which was the origin of evil powers. In ‘throwing’ the dragon into the abyss, there is a sense in which the angel is casting him back whence he came – though the correspondence is not exact unless we think that Satan is the ‘angel of the Abyss’ in 9:11 (which offers a nice symmetry though there is little textual connection). The abyss is treated as a prison, since Satan is locked in it, and this is made explicit in verse 7. The seal[ing] which has previously suggested God’s protection of his people from evil and judgment in 7:3 now protects the nations from being deceiv[ed]. As with the sealing of Jesus’ tomb in the Gospel accounts, the seal shows by whose authority something has been closed up, and means that it can be opened only with that person’s permission. In contrast to modern ideas about prison, in the ancient world the purpose of prison was less for punishment (which would follow later) or for the rehabilitation of offenders, and more to subdue them, protect others from harm, and force the offenders to recognize the power of the authorities as they awaited their trial and punishment which would follow the period of incarceration.
Excerpt From: Ian Paul. “Revelation.” Apple Books.
Online Supplement Resources:
1. YouTube - Reading Revelation - The Millennium by Reach Online
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a70dt8QYb_c
2. YouTube - How to Read the Bible: Apocalyptic Literature by BibleProject
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNDX4tUdj1Y&list=PLH0Szn1yYNedn4FbBMMtOlGN-BPLQ54IH&index=19
3. YouTube - Does the Bible Predict the End of the World? by Bible Project
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3_XU_BDbD0
Revelation 20:1-10 ISG
Literary Analysis
1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven,
holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.
2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan,
and bound him for a thousand years,
3 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.
4 Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison
8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea.
9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, 10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
How to Interpret Revelation
The visionary level of interpretation (what John actually saw) and the symbolic level (what the items in the vision connote biblically above and beyond any specific historical reference) must not be confused with the third, historical level (the particular historical identification of the resurrected people and the other objects seen in the vision). Literal interpreters of the book (those seeing a one-to-one correspondence between the book’s images and only a physical reality) acknowledge these distinctions, but at critical points, including 20:1-6, they too often neglect the visionary and symbolic levels of communication by collapsing them into the referential, historical level.
A simple and fairly undebatable example of these three hermeneutical levels is the vision in 1:12, 20. This is clearly a vision (“I saw”) in which John sees “seven golden lampstands” (the visionary level). The “lampstands” are identified with the seven churches on the historical level, but there is no one-to-one physical correspondence between the lampstands and the churches (the churches are not physical lampstands!). The symbolic level of the vision is that the churches are pictured as lampstands. But why? One must try to determine why the churches are figuratively likened to lampstands to discover the symbolic meaning (at least part of the symbolic meaning is that, since lampstands were part of the old temple and light-giving in the OT, so the church is part of a new temple and gives the light of God’s revelation to others). Something similar is going on in 20:1-8.
Excerpt From: G. K. Beale,David Campbell. “Revelation.” Apple Books.
Context
Chapter 20 contains three further sections of the seven unnumbered series, continuing the sequence from 19:11 until the beginning of Revelation 21. The first short section introduces quite abruptly the incarceration of Satan for a thousand years, the ‘millennium’. It is remarkable to see the influence that these few verses have had on Christian theology through history. Different interpretations of this idea delineate major divisions within Protestant Christianity in the contemporary world. For an overview of the main views on the millennium, see the Introduction. As with every other part of Revelation, key to our reading needs to be understanding the individual texts in the context of the whole book, and it is evident that the use of Ezekiel 38 – 39 here and in the previous chapter points to these sections in John’s vision report as being closely bound together, part of his theological vision of the destruction of the forces of evil that has been anticipated throughout the text. We also need to pay attention to John’s use of other biblical and contemporary cultural images and ideas, and take seriously the symbolic nature of the text and the rhetorical impact it would have had on his first audiences. The great mistake here (as with other parts of the book) is to detach these episodes from what has gone before in Revelation or what follows after, and dislocate the text from its first-century world.
Excerpt From: Ian Paul. “Revelation.” Apple Books.
Millennium
The idea of an intermediate messianic age prior to final judgment appears frequently in Jewish literature (see the examples in 2 Baruch 40:3; Sibylline Oracles 3:741–759; Testament of Abraham 13A), but Revelation is unique in describing it as lasting for one thousand years. This round number suggests a long period of time, hence its common use by rulers or dictators who want to impress their subjects with the permanence of their regime, and as such it offers another counter-motif to Rome’s claim to be an ‘eternal’ city. But it also fits with John’s use of numerology, 1,000 being the cube of 10 (a natural number) and so expressing the holy presence of God on the earth mediated by the reign of the martyrs with Christ (v. 4). It also provides a contrast to the ‘three and a half years’ of the present age, and reverses the features of this age, so Satan is imprisoned rather than wielding authority, and the faithful are raised to life instead of being slain with the sword. The age of glory far outweighs the passing age of suffering. The term ‘a thousand years’ is mentioned six times (here and in vv. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), three times in relation to Satan’s binding and three times in relation to the reign of the martyrs. As elsewhere in Revelation, the defeat of evil and the vindication of God’s people are inextricably connected, a theme found throughout the New Testament.
Excerpt From: Ian Paul. “Revelation.” Apple Books.
Bottomless Pit/Abyss
The Abyss was previously the bottomless pit (corresponding in many ways to ‘the deep’ in the OT) which was the origin of evil powers. In ‘throwing’ the dragon into the abyss, there is a sense in which the angel is casting him back whence he came – though the correspondence is not exact unless we think that Satan is the ‘angel of the Abyss’ in 9:11 (which offers a nice symmetry though there is little textual connection). The abyss is treated as a prison, since Satan is locked in it, and this is made explicit in verse 7. The seal[ing] which has previously suggested God’s protection of his people from evil and judgment in 7:3 now protects the nations from being deceiv[ed]. As with the sealing of Jesus’ tomb in the Gospel accounts, the seal shows by whose authority something has been closed up, and means that it can be opened only with that person’s permission. In contrast to modern ideas about prison, in the ancient world the purpose of prison was less for punishment (which would follow later) or for the rehabilitation of offenders, and more to subdue them, protect others from harm, and force the offenders to recognize the power of the authorities as they awaited their trial and punishment which would follow the period of incarceration.
Excerpt From: Ian Paul. “Revelation.” Apple Books.
Online Supplement Resources:
1. YouTube - Reading Revelation - The Millennium by Reach Online
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a70dt8QYb_c
2. YouTube - How to Read the Bible: Apocalyptic Literature by BibleProject
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNDX4tUdj1Y&list=PLH0Szn1yYNedn4FbBMMtOlGN-BPLQ54IH&index=19
3. YouTube - Does the Bible Predict the End of the World? by Bible Project
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3_XU_BDbD0
Listen to past Sermons anytime, anywhere with Spotify!
https://open.spotify.com/show/1PtjmWN3kTOagTfG1QPnbT?si=f76ab3059e7049beISG Material
Study & Reflection Guide
1. On the principle of interpretation, Millennium just like the other figures and numbers must be understood symbolically. The only question is, when did it start (12:7-17; 20:2-3) and when will it end? (“gather for war” 16:12-16; 19:19; 20:7-10)
2. If Jesus reigns symbolically for a thousand years, what's happening to the church (both the living and the departed) during this time? (1:19-20; 6:9-11; 14:1-5; 20:4-6)
3. What’s happening to Satan and his demonic angels during the time of Christ’s millennium? (hint: “so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended”, 20:1-3; Luke 10:17-20; Matthew 16:18-19; 2 Corinthians 4:3-4; Romans 1:16)
4. When Jesus comes back, Satan will be loose and will deceive the nations (20:3, 7-8; 19:20), they will gather for war against the saints (20:9; 16:13-14; 19:19). What does John say about their final destination? (20:10)
Study & Reflection Guide
1. On the principle of interpretation, Millennium just like the other figures and numbers must be understood symbolically. The only question is, when did it start (12:7-17; 20:2-3) and when will it end? (“gather for war” 16:12-16; 19:19; 20:7-10)
2. If Jesus reigns symbolically for a thousand years, what's happening to the church (both the living and the departed) during this time? (1:19-20; 6:9-11; 14:1-5; 20:4-6)
3. What’s happening to Satan and his demonic angels during the time of Christ’s millennium? (hint: “so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended”, 20:1-3; Luke 10:17-20; Matthew 16:18-19; 2 Corinthians 4:3-4; Romans 1:16)
4. When Jesus comes back, Satan will be loose and will deceive the nations (20:3, 7-8; 19:20), they will gather for war against the saints (20:9; 16:13-14; 19:19). What does John say about their final destination? (20:10)