Corona Chronicles - Crown of Gold

Welcome back to the Corona Chronicles. We're approaching the end of this amazing. We book revelation and we're in Revelation chapter 20 which a lot of ink has been spilt on this chapter trying to decipher it but we're gonna put our minds together and give it a go today. So this is the first 6 6 verses. And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven having the key to the abyss and holding in his hand a great chain.

He seized the dragon, that ancient snake who is the devil or satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the abyss and locked and sealed it over him to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time. I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God.

They 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 rayed with Christ for a thousand years The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ.

Will reign with him for a thousand years. As you say, there's been a lot of ink written about this. And there is a lot of confusion about these these verses, and they are quite, you know, they are quite tricky and there are lots of different interpretations that the genuine Christians will have on this. But what I think the the the main thing you've got to do We can't go into all of that on on these little devotional things. But I think the main thing you've got to have is that that revelation is not chronological.

It's not going, you know, start here and and carry it on. But it's cyclical. And now we're sort of back in the time of this of this world now. So the thousand years of Christ. Remember a thousand years, it's a symbolic number, It's it's not an exact number of Christ reigning.

And that's now. We are in the thousands. We don't have to wait for this to come about. And it's basically what we're doing as a church in this thousand year reign of Christ. So we've got we've we've seen the end we've seen the end of all of the evil.

We had that in chapter 19. Now we're back in the battle that's really going on here and what the church is to be about, which is preaching the gospel. Yeah. That's right. I mean, it reminds me of 1 of those more modern museums where they've got like, you know, computer or interactive artifacts and you can look at it on the computer and you can sort of scroll your mouse and whip it round into all kinds of different angles.

So you can see the same thing from a hundred different perspectives in order to appreciate it. And that as you say is what is going on here. I think I did read something somewhere where someone had tried to equate numbers literally the whole way through to make them mean the same thing throughout, and it became an impossible tangle. So So that's right. And I think this is 1 of the things that we do see in the bible that after Jesus was resurrected, he was ascended to sit at the right hand of the father.

And he he began his his reign upon the earth. I read a clever tweet the other day where a chap had said Jesus went back to work from home. Yes. It went to heaven to rain from home as it were. And as you as you rightly point out, this is what the church is doing.

And I think the focus here as well as the church preaching the gospel is, what what is Satan doing in this time? And he clearly in verses 1 to 3 has been bound. You know, so there's a sense in which he's been tied up chained up, thrown into a prison and the door has been the door has been locked so to speak. And that really reminds us that although spiritual warfare is real and that Satan is a liar and he has his schemes and he fires his arrows, Ultimately, he cannot stop the progress of the gospel. He's bound in the sense that the gospel is going to go to every nation.

He's not gonna stop he's not gonna stop Christ fulfilling that purpose. So we're not to take from this that Satan can do nothing. No. But we're not to take this that he can stop God's plan. Yes.

It's like I mean, the the the old illustration is is of Al Capone. It was it was a, you know, gangster in in Chicago. I mean, he he was arrested and bound and put in in prison. Mhmm. But he still worked from prison.

Mhmm. His his, you know, awful gangster -- Yeah. -- sort of ways. And and Satan has powers we've seen -- Yeah. Yeah.

-- we've seen his lying powers and and all of that, but he's chained. Mhmm. And he's on a chain and it's like a a vicious dog. He he can run -- Yeah. -- but he he's pulled back in the end by Christ because Christ will have his gospel go out.

Yes. Because this is the most important thing. Yeah. To get this message out. Yeah.

And you see the ones that who are getting the message out. Are these ones that have been martyred, been beheaded? You know, they're the they're the Christians. And the ones that have come through the first resurrection, and we're told in in Ephesians that, you know, we we Even we've died in Christ -- Yeah. -- that's what a Christian is.

We've died to self, died in Christ. And we're sitting at the right hand of of Christ. Yeah. We're we're already resurrected. So it's what Jesus talked about being born again.

Yeah. You've died and you're born again. That's the first resurrection. And the second is second death is got to do with the physical body dying. Yeah.

Yeah. So these are Christians here with this message, with this chained -- Yeah. -- beast. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I think I think so. And and I remember in 1 of the sermons I did recently, I picked up a quote from somewhere and it was a it was a critic who was who was mocking the early church in the first few centuries. It's 1 of those quotes from that 1 quite those who said it or went, but it's lovely that it's true, you know. And he'd said, this mocha had said to a Christian, where is your carpenter now?

Yeah. And he said, where is he now? He's building her coffin your emperor. Yeah. Yeah.

And the point of it was that all is not as it seems, you know. And you might think he's just a wheatley and carpenter, but he's lord of heaven and he's waiting bury your emperor. Yeah. And that's what I guess these early Christians would have had a lot of comfort from this then because what's happened to those beheaded weak ones what's happened to those martyrs who died at the hands of the emperor. Yeah.

You know, they are reigning with the lord of heaven. That's where they are. So don't get things confused. Yeah. You know, They're not just in the ground even waiting for a future in darkness.

They are actually now raining over your emperor -- Yes. -- even though he killed them. Yeah. You know, it's so And and in verse 4, at the end of verse 4, it says and I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus. Mhmm.

And because of the word of God. And they had not worship the beast or his image. So, yes, you're absolutely right. They they worship the beast and the image, and and and perhaps this chained beast more of them, but it didn't kill them because they'd already gone through the first resurrection. But I think the thing is here what what I find, you know, this this and and and Jesus tells us that Satan is bound.

Yeah. He tells us he tells of disciples. That Satan is is is bound. Real but bound. And therefore, it is our job then to preach the gospel.

Yeah. Isn't it? Yeah. Because he's bound at we're the ones that are speaking that word out. So the church mustn't get distracted in trying to save the planet.

Yeah. Where's this come from? I I don't know. The the way you save the planet is by preaching the death and resurrection of Jesus. That is what all of this is about.

He's ruling. We're to take the word out. We might die, but we're never really die in taking this word out. Isn't it? Absolutely.

And I think we were just reflecting before we filmed this. I can't remember where it is now, a passage from Luke about when when Jesus sends the 72 out, you know, and 10. Yeah. And it it has they go out and proclaim the gospel and be about the work of the kingdom that Jesus sees Satan full. Forward out.

So it's in it's in the proclamation of the gospel that Satan's imprisonment is confirmed. Yes. And so as we keep preaching and as people keep being born again, Satan is almost continually being put deeper -- Yeah. -- and the locks getting tighter for you. You see what I mean?

And and and that is fantastic because perhaps some people have become that followers of Jesus even through this sort of little thing that we're doing. Yeah. And that Sain's lost, doesn't it? Jesus tells a story about a strong man, you know, keeping his property safe, his guarding his property. But a stronger man comes in and overpowers the strong man and steals from it.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's a picture of Jesus, the stronger than the strong man. He comes and steals. So every person that becomes a Christian.

And around the world, thousands every day are becoming followers of Jesus. Yeah. In our country, we don't hear about that sort of thing, but, you know, we were talking to a friend in in in Iran, and there are thousands of people becoming Christian and they're wrong. They are. Listen.

We've gotta stop there, but the gospel goes out.