Introduction:
Just a little over 65 years ago, on February 6, 1958, British European Airways flight 609, a charter flight bound for Manchester carrying 44 passengers, crashed on takeoff from Munich Airport in Germany. Adding to the great tragedy, some of the world’s greatest soccer players were killed on that day in 1958. Manchester United Football Club lost eight star players and would take years to reform. With so many of their star players lost, some despaired over probabilities of the club’s survival. In 1968, 10 years after that tragic day, survivor of that horrible crash and manager, Matt Busby took the team to Wemb’ley and won the European Cup final. Today Manchester United Football is one of the best-known soccer teams in the world. The late Matt Busby restored the Manchester soccer team to the great status it has today.

There is coming a greater restoration from the ashes of death and destruction, not of a team or city or a nation but of the entire world. Folks, the world crashes under the devil’s influence and man’s sin yet, Jesus Christ survived and He is coming to remake this world better than ever before. The proof of this is explained by John who saw in the aftermath of Armageddon…

I The Dragon is Imprisoned vv. 1-3

1. John again sees heaven open and an angel is dispatch. Notice Jesus did not do the binding but an angel whom Jesus sends to bind Satan with a great chain. It indeed must be a very great angel, possibly, Michael the archangel. This angel not only binds Satan with the chain (“chain” being a metaphor for restraining him), but he throws him into the Abyss and locks and seals the door. It is more than a binding that John has in view.

2. This also implies that all the evil spirits under his command will also be imprisoned. He is not only bound but he is thrown into the Abyss, which pictures a total removal from the earth. Remember in Chapter 9, we saw an angel come with a key to the Abyss, open it, and out of it came a horde of demonic beings who poured onto the earth. Now Satan is cast there and sealed in so no one can open up the pit from the inside or outside.

3. So, there will be a literal binding of Satan that follows the Second Coming of our Lord. It occurs after Jesus appears in His visible glory. Note the different names in verse two of this evil monster. The term “dragon” emphasizes his fierceness, his ferociousness, his cruelty, his oppressiveness. He’s called the serpent of old.
This term takes you all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Last he is called the Devil is diabolos, it means slanderer. Remember the book of Revelation tells us he is accusing the brethren night and day before the throne of God. Satan means the prince of evil spirits, the die-hard adversary of God.

3. The purpose for this removal of Satan is clearly stated here: “to keep him from deceiving the nation’s any-more.” You are well aware that this is what Satan has been doing throughout this whole church age and much more in these last days. He deceives them with lusts for power and greed. He deceives them about the true value of life. These lies have been poured into human ears from unseen and invisible powers for centuries.

a. The word millennium is a Latin word that means “a thousand years.” The phrase thousand years appears six times in the first seven verses of chapter 20. It is reasonable to assume this entire chapter is about literal events that will happen at Christ’s second coming to earth.

b. The millennium ends as John declares and Satan (20:3) must be loosed again. It seems to indicate Satan must be set free for a short period of time at the close of the millennium because the people born during the millennium must face a testing of their faith. However before we examine what this is all about John said, he saw thrones these are…

III. The Saints of God Inaugurated vv 4-6

1. The Scripture says we will reign with Christ. Somehow we will be involved in the expression of His will. We will be His agents, carrying out His wishes, carrying out His will in the world. Throne means the partner and assistant in the divine administration. — Luke 12:32–Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

2. Folks, all of the new world leaders, all of the governors, all of the prime ministers, all of the judges will have the delegated authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of the chiefs of police, all responsible for education, all of those who are responsible for the judicial process, all of those who are responsible for legislation, all who are responsible for what is going on across the face of the earth will be the saints who will have the delegated authority of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself to carry out His will everywhere.
3. What reason is there for a millennium after Jesus comes back?” Several reasons! The earthly Kingdom of the Messiah fills the scriptures of the Old Testament. The Scriptures direct our attention to this event, to this period of time prophesied in 2 Samuel, Psalm 2, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel and Zechariah. In the Old Testament, the prophets speak of a kingdom that is earthy. The nation Israel was promised a literal earthly kingdom. …but they also speak of a kingdom that is heavenly.

Revelation states, “They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. The thousand-year millennial kingdom is really phase-one of God’s eternal kingdoms. During this earthly kingdom the saints of God from the Old Testament and from the Tribulation will be raised and join the Church on thrones.

3. In verse 5, “The rest of the dead didn’t come to life until the thousand years were completed.” Who would be the rest of the dead? The unbelievers and the ungodly, they’re going to have a resurrection, too, but it isn’t described until the end of the chapter. He says then at the end of verse 5, “This is the first resurrection,

A thousand years of peace and blessing is to demonstrate, beyond question, the fact that everyone finds hard to believe: that we belong to a fallen race, and everyone is born with a fallen nature and without Christ rule we would fall into corruption.

III. The Devil & Demons Terminated & Tormented vv. 7-10

1. Revelation 20:7 says, and when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. As predicted in verse three, Satan will be set free at the end of the millennium. He will do exactly what he did before. He will deceive the nations. Nations (of course) are populated by peoples. People will be deceive-from the four quarters of the earth … the number of whom is as the sand of the sea (20:8). Satan’s followers will apparently come from the unregenerate population born during the millennium. People will be born and will need to be born again just like you and I.

2. This portion of Scripture has caused many people great concern. They ask, “Why Satan should be loosed for a short season? What purpose could God have in unchaining this monster after one thousand years of blessed peace?” The answer is, “The free will of man.”
All persons who enter the Millennium are redeemed people (see Isaiah 6o:2I and Joel 2:28). However, you must remember that procreation still takes place during this era of time because those who survived the Tribulation hour enter the Millennium with human bodies.

3. The believers upon the thrones possess resurrected bodies and do not bear children, but the others do. So, the children born during this one-thousand-year period are born with the old sin nature which has been an inherent part of man ever since the fall of Adam and Eve. Many of them, of course, accept Christ as their personal Savior, but many do not! In addition, since Satan is bound, there is little to tempt or deceive them. Satan’s release, then, is to determine whether or not Christ is real to these children of the Millennium, or whether they have been submissive simply because He ruled with “a rod of iron” The truth is revealed as millions follow the devil.

2. The reference to Gog and Magog in verse eight is similar to Ezekiel 38 &39, but it is obviously not the same battle because the time is different. In Ezekiel 38:15 the armies invades from the north, but the one in Revelation 20:8 comes from the four quarters of the earth. The judgment is also different. This battle in the book of Revelation and the one in the book of Ezekiel have practically nothing in common except the names. It will be a revise rebellion of old and just as in Ezekiel 38, Jerusalem will be attacked. … and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God…

3. We find in Revelation 20:9 and specified for us in Ezekiel 40-46, there will be a great millennial temple in Jerusalem, and a form of OT worship will be instituted. That is why Satan and his followers will go up to the beloved city (20:9). Apparently, Christ permits Satan’s army to surround Jerusalem, and then when they are assembled, fire will come down from God out of heaven and will consume them (20:9).

a) The millennium will be an age of peace, prosperity, and perfect environment, as well as a time when disobedience will be quickly judged. There will be no injustice. There will be peace everywhere, righteousness prevailing.

Yet, at the end of this period, apparently millions of people will follow Satan in rebellion against the Lord. This is evidence that a perfect environment cannot produce righteousness. Man is a sinner & because of his fallen nature is prone to evil.
Total depravity means there is nothing a person can do to save himself or gain merit before God. Nobody will be able to say God is an unfair judge for He will prove to the world the total depravity of man. Look at Genesis 6: 5, 6.

But total depravity does not mean that every person is outwardly as sinful as he could be. Total depravity does not mean that a person cannot respond to the gospel. “Total depravity” does not mean total inability. Ye must be born again and can if you want to be.

4. After the destruction of the armies of Satan, the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are … (20:10). Satan now joins the other two personalities of the unholy trinity, who had preceded him into the lake of fire by a thousand years. Immediately after Satan meets his final imprisonment the millennium comes to an end.

5. Satan has become the ultimate excuse of man for the evil in the world. Much of it does come from the devil, without a doubt. That is why he must be taken out of the scene before world-wide peace can come. But not all evil comes from the devil. God will impress upon humanity what Jeremiah declares so plainly, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?” That is why everyone needs salvation. —Invitation.

Conclusion:

God knows what goes on in your thoughts — your heart and your motives — there is no question but that the biblical picture of man is accurate. We are born with a fallen nature. The millennium will prove that to be true. As we wait for Christ’s return and His promise of a restored earth, He calls us to live in this evil world to endure and to live abundantly with joy (John 10:10).
I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

As Jesus left the earth to return to heaven, He left a promise that gives us peace no matter how dark the days: “And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matt. 28:20).