The King and His Kingdom / Revelation 19:17-20:9
The Prayer for a Kingdom
Tonight, we are going to look at the conclusion of the Battle of Armageddon and the thousand-year reign of Christ on the earth. But before we dive in, I want to point out something I love about the Gospels. As you read through them, you realize that the disciples didn’t exactly have the greatest resumes. There weren’t a lot of letters following their names. You had Peter the fisherman, Matthew the tax collector, James, and John. These were great guys, but they weren’t necessarily super brilliant. I love that because I connect to it. I appreciate the questions they asked.
One of my favorite interactions is in the book of Matthew, where they see an intimacy in Jesus’ prayer life that they didn’t see in their own. He would disappear in the mornings or pray all night after a full day of ministry. They said, “Teach us how to pray.” He gave them a passage you may be familiar with:
Matthew 6:9-13 (NASB)
’Pray, then, in this way: ’Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. ’Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. ’Give us this day our daily bread. ’And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen].’
Even as a non-believer, that verse was etched in my mind because before every football game, we would pray that prayer. You’d have all kinds of hungover athletes praying it because if that prayer would get you an extra touchdown, you’d pray anything the coach wanted. Everybody was a believer before kickoff.
One thing that always fascinated me is the petition that His kingdom would come. What does that mean? Is it a spiritual reign in our hearts—an intangible thing—or is it a real, literal kingdom? The answer is a balance of those two. Is Christ reigning on the throne now, fulfilling the Davidic promise of 2 Samuel 7? Yes. Is that the end of it? No. We see a partial fulfillment now, but a literal, physical fulfillment is still down the road.
The Cleanup Crew of Armageddon
In Revelation 19, we see the King coming to establish His kingdom. But before the reign begins, there is a grim invitation. An angel stands in the sun and cries out to the birds of the air, telling them to gather for the “great supper of God.”
Revelation 19:17-18 (NASB)
Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, ‘Come, assemble for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great.’
God calls for the scavengers to come and clean up the mess. History tells us that in this valley, the blood from this battle could be three feet deep in places. God calls in the cleanup crew ahead of time because He knows the scale of the destruction. We are seeing the backside of the Battle of Armageddon.
I’ve said before that I thought someone making a movie about Revelation would be really cool. I’m distancing myself from that idea a little bit now, because what makes movies great is conflict. You need a struggle between the protagonist and the antagonist to draw you in.
When I was in junior high, I was a total geek for WWF wrestling. Any other fans out there? Thank you—I’m glad I’m not the only one. I would pay money to watch Hulk Hogan. I’d have my Hulkamania shirt and headband on, yelling, “Come on, brother!” My favorite part was the script: Hulk would be in a submission hold by the Iron Sheik or Randy “Macho Man” Savage. His hand would drop once, then twice. If it dropped a third time, he was out. But right before that third drop, he’d start shaking. He’d start convulsing, he’d get his second wind, and he’d beat the tar out of the guy.
What captured you was the idea that the bad guy might actually win. It was the conflict that drew you in. But at the end of the Battle of Armageddon, there is no conflict. Jesus rides in on a white horse with a sharp sword coming out of His mouth—metaphorically speaking—and an unarmed army behind Him. It’s a one-man war.
Revelation 19:19-21 (NASB)
And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.
If this were a movie, you’d pay for your ticket and it would be over in ten minutes. There’s no struggle because He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is sovereign. He is the biggest and baddest on the block, and no one can oppose Him.
Understanding the Lake of Fire
In verse 20, we see something introduced that we haven’t seen before: the Lake of Fire. The Beast and the False Prophet are grabbed and thrown alive into this place that burns with brimstone. This is what we often think of as Hell.
Now, I grew up with the idea that if you died without knowing Jesus, you went straight to Hell. But biblically, it’s a bit more complex. If you are a believer and you die, where do you go? Paul says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” It’s also called Abraham’s Bosom. When a believer dies, they go immediately into the presence of God. They aren’t floating around like Casper the ghost, and they aren’t worried about us—when you’re in the presence of Almighty God, everything else fades in comparison.
But what about those who don’t know Christ? The Bible uses words like Sheol or Abaddon—a holding place for the wicked dead. It’s also called the grave or Hades. Is it Hell? Not yet. We know this because the first two occupants of the Lake of Fire are the Beast and the False Prophet.
Jesus gave us a warning about this reality in the Gospels.
Matthew 10:28 (NASB)
’Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
He is saying we need to get our vertical relationship right before worrying about anything else.
The Millennial Reign
After the battle, we enter the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth. Believers who survived the Tribulation—those who didn’t take the mark—will physically populate this kingdom in their natural bodies. We, the church, will be there in resurrected bodies, reigning with Him.
Revelation 20:1-3 (NASB)
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he threw him into the abyss, and shut [it] and sealed [it] over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.
This passage shows that the battle between God and Satan isn’t like Star Wars, where the light and dark sides are evenly matched. An angel comes down with a key and a chain, grabs the dragon by the throat, and throws him into the abyss.
I have a brother who is seven years older than me. When we were kids, there was nothing I could do to him. He’d pin me down, thump my chest, and do that thing where he’d let a string of spit hang down over my face and then suck it back up right before it hit me. I was powerless. That is the situation here. Satan is completely overpowered. He is shut and sealed in the abyss for a thousand years so he can no longer deceive the nations.
During this time, the earth is restored to a “pre-fall” state. In Isaiah 65, we read that the lion will lie down with the lamb. The survival of the fittest is gone. Creation will be lush. A man who dies at a hundred years old will be considered a mere youth. Christ will be reigning physically from Jerusalem. If you have a question, you don’t just pray; you could technically knock on His door.
The Fatal Wound of Humanity
You would think this would be the peak of human spirituality. Evil is dealt with, Satan is bound, and Christ is physically present. Yet, look at what happens at the end of those thousand years.
Revelation 20:7-8 (NASB)
When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore.
As the original inhabitants of the kingdom have children and grandchildren, the faith of the fathers doesn’t always translate to the children. We see this even today. You can have godly grandparents and still miss the boat for twenty years. By the end of the Millennium, there is a massive population that rejects God despite His visible reign.
When Satan is released, he drops his old trump card again: he gathers the nations for war. And once again, God intervenes instantly.
Revelation 20:9-10 (NASB)
And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Why does this happen? Why would people rebel in a perfect environment? It proves that the problem was never the environment, the influences, or the lack of God’s presence. The problem was them. James tells us that we are tempted when we are carried away by our own lusts. We don’t sin because the devil made us do it or because our parents were bad to us. We sin because we would much rather shake our fist at God and do life our way.
Human history is a cycle of this. Adam and Eve were in a perfect garden and chose the one forbidden tree. After the flood, Noah’s descendants immediately built a tower to make a name for themselves. God gave the Law through Moses, and the people ignored it. He sent prophets, and the people killed them. Finally, God became a man—the Incarnation—and we killed Him too.
Even in the Millennium, with Jesus on the throne, the human heart remains the same. We have a fatal wound: the desire to be our own gods.
Two Irrefutable Truths
This entire timeline proves two absolute truths. First, God is always faithful and exceedingly gracious. If I were God, I would have wiped us out a long time ago. I’m not that patient. I’m so glad He is God and I am not.
Second, man is consistently faithless and will always seek his own way. You might not like that, but it is the reality of our condition. Our preferences and our “spiritual journeys” don’t change the reality of what is coming. God has made a declaration about the end of the story:
Isaiah 45:22-23 (NASB)
’Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other. ’I have sworn by Myself, The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear [allegiance].
When the Creator of the world swears by Himself that every knee will bow, it means every knee will bow.
My challenge to you is to consider the claims of Christ. We’ve journeyed through Revelation, and it’s heavy. It’s not always “ice cream and sunshine” talk. But it is the truth. The best spiritual conversations won’t happen here in the pews; they’ll happen over dinner at Baja Fresh or in your living rooms as you wrestle with these things.
If you place your faith in Christ, keep the message clear: it is about Jesus and faith in Him alone. We aren’t hiding anything else back here. We are just pointing people to the person of Jesus Christ, because an end is coming, and He will set up His throne.