Revelation Chapter 20
By Pastor Neil
Scripture: The Revelation 20
The Victory Celebration of the Ages
Chapter twenty of The Revelation is the great celebration passage of this book. Just in case the readers are worried that there is so much death and destruction that they can’t win, John shows them graphically just how complete the victory will be. There are a great many interpretations of this chapter that have been written even in just my lifetime, though that is getting longer and longer. People invent and reinvent ideas about what this one thousand years is about and just where it is that Satan will be sent. And many an evangelist has “made hay” on the Friday night of an evangelistic crusade as he/she portrayed the “lake of fire” and the likelihood that listeners who were not “right with God” were going to find themselves right there if they didn’t get their lives straightened up.
Over the years, I’ve just about decided that all the ways this has all been interpreted can’t all be right since people don’t all come to the same conclusion about how all of this is going to work out historically. What I think I am finding is that we may have been so hard pressed to find ways to get folks saved that we put all of our attention on things other than what is the great central truth here. It may indeed be true that this terrible fate that awaits the impenitent should be taken literally. It is certain that it should be taken seriously.
However, I think that there is, in the midst of this chapter, a glorious truth to be celebrated. And that great truth is that no matter what things may look like around us in “this old world”, as my Grandma used to say it, you can be sure of one thing, Christ is victorious now and in the end of the world. Whatever else happens to you, you want to be found trusting in God come what may. In life’s difficult times and terrible disappointments, the best answer will always be found when we trust in God for His guidance and help. He is the source of help and of all we can hope for. Circumstances won’t always be changed so that we like them better. But the promise of the presence of Christ is a certainty we can trust in.
John says in verse 6 of those who are in Christ, “Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them…” All of the mayhem that is threatened in this chapter for the impenitent is meaningless for those who remain faithful. This is a message John really wants his readers to see. The final victory of Christ in our lives today and in the end of the age is the true hope of all who trust in Him. No matter what you are facing, the message here is to keep trusting in God. This is your eternal hope!
