His Perfect Love

Matt VanderVen: In your study of the Scriptures, you've probably noticed the millennial reign of Christ spoken of quite often. But what is it? And when will it occur? Let's talk about that today on His Perfect Love.

We have a very interesting program in store for you today on His Perfect Love as we turn back to Chapter 20 in the book of Revelation. After the rapture of the church, the seven-year tribulation, and return of Christ, we're told that Jesus will reign in His kingdom.

The cool thing is, if you're a believer, you'll rule and reign with Christ. What will that be like? And when will it occur? Pastor Matt VanderVen will share some thoughts in just a moment, but he'll also explain some of the other views regarding the millennial reign of Christ.

Now, another teaching, as I mentioned, there's something called amillennialism. I think it's important from an apologetics perspective for everybody here to understand this and know this because I'm sure you're going to hear it. It may not be using these same terms, but there's several churches you walk into today or several conversations that can happen in the byways and highways where you'll hear people bringing up these ideas of, "Well, Jesus says He's been saying He's coming back for 2,000 years. Are we really believing that anymore? Maybe we just misinterpreted what He said. Maybe He's really not coming again and maybe He's not going to reign for a thousand years." There we go again, right back to where we were in the first century.

Amillennialism believes that there is no literal thousand-year reign. It's all spiritual as they would describe it. Basically, you go right from Christ's return to the new heavens and new earth. They almost negate all of Chapter 20 of Scripture. They justify that and they say, "Well, this whole idea, nobody in the church actually believed this." Except we have all the writings from the early church fathers. I have a whole list of it. We're living in such a day where all of it has been indexed and we have records of it all, and it's even searchable electronically.

I remember when I was in seminary, one of the things we had to go back and do is we had to read the early church fathers. We had to go back and translate the language so that we understood the original meanings of different things. Why were they saying this? What were the idioms of that day? Do you realize that before 300 AD, you will not find a single reference negating the rapture of the church, the harpazo that Thessalonians talks about in Chapter 4? You don't find anybody ever talking about how they don't believe in a literal return of Jesus Christ and a millennial reign.

It's only to the time of 300 AD that it's introduced by a man named Constantine. I'm bringing this up because it's important that we understand that. It came from Augustine and Origen, and they start introducing this allegory and this idea. You might be saying, "Pastor, I thought I was coming to church to read the Scriptures, not get a history lesson." This is important, though, because if we don't study our history, we're doomed to repeat the same things over and over again.

So what ended up happening is Constantine introduced what we know today as Roman Catholicism. He hijacked the term in the Greek called katholikos. You've heard me use that term before. That Greek term means universal. It was actually what you could define the church, katholikos, for the first 285 years. It meant universal in the Greek. It's what we would use in our modern vernacular. How many of you have heard the term non-denominational?

You've heard that term non-denominational. All of us here would declare we're non-denominational. We don't give our allegiance to a particular denomination nor our movement. We give our allegiance to Jesus Christ. We're not against denominations per se, but we don't necessarily adhere to the aspect of one thing being elevated over another. We believe all of God's word is holy and true and we acknowledge all of God's writings. Amen? That is what it is to be non-denominational. Katholikos was the first word for that: universal.

He took that word universal, katholikos, and he hijacked it and put "Roman" because Rome was in control. What he wanted to do was absolute power corrupts, absolutely. He wanted to turn around as a king and he wanted to more or less enact a way that he could force all civilians to convert to what we would call Christianity. He called it Roman Catholicism at the time. What he wanted them to do was then swear their allegiance to him. But he did it in a very interesting way because he says, "I want you to do that, but we're really doing it for Jesus."

Well, after the 300s, several hundred years goes by. By the way, that's when you move into more of a works-type mentality because those that had just been freed from the law and were no longer under the ceremonial practices as talked about in Acts. If you remember Acts Chapter 15, it was written in James' response, no other thing will be asked of you. You don't need to be circumcised, kosher diet, none of those ceremonial practices. It seems good to us, just abstain from sexual immorality, abstain from meat sacrificed to idols. You've read that in the book of Acts, maybe.

That was what was given to the church. That's why you and I are not kosher. We don't turn around and go and keep feast days. We're not required to by Christ. The reason for that is because in the book of Acts, we're told that the Jerusalem Council got together and weighed these things and came back and said no. Well, after that, the legalism sort of quieted down for a little bit because the Jerusalem Council gave the official word. That was James the Apostle, Jesus' brother, right?

After that whole thing goes down, then we see this quelling. Then we go into Nero and then martyring Christians on a pole with oil and lit on fire, used like a lantern. I don't know how else to say it. This is what would happen as he would ride naked around in his chariot in perversion in the garden that he had created. This is what he did; it's all in writing, you can go read it. But then you go to 300 and this man Constantine's looking for a way to exercise control. So he turns around and says, "Well, we'll just create a Roman katholikos."

Is that really universal anymore? No, you've just created a religion and a denomination. He creates this whole thing. From that point, you then go into the Dark Ages, Middle Ages, and then Dark Ages. Remind me what happened right around 600, 700, even 800 AD? Well, not only did Jerusalem after 70 AD, you know what happened, the temple was destroyed. We had Islam rise in the 500s and 600s, right? But then afterwards, we had terrible things where Christians were forcing men and women to convert.

If they didn't, they were being beheaded, killed, murdered. Do you know what that period of time was called? The Crusades. It was a terrible time in church history for us. We can't deny it was a black eye. That's why it's wonderful that we have a separation of church and state and we can practice and read our Bibles and come to faith as we see fit by the Lord. We thank you again for our service members that make that possible. But as we look at these things, it's really important because we see that from man's religion comes all of these evil and wicked things that God never intended.

That's what always comes at the hand of religion instead of relationship. That brings me to the last one, which is called post-millennialism. This position again is described, and I do call them brothers and sisters, certainly we don't have to divide over these things. But Jesus Christ returns at the end of a thousand-year reign. So what he would subscribe is right now we're living in a thousand-year reign. Now my Bible, and this is why the Lord probably had me go back over this, because my Bible tells me that the thousand-year reign is going to look a particular way.

It's not going to look like what Isaiah said in Chapter 5: they're going to call evil good and good evil. That's pretty much what's happening today in these last of the last days. But there are those that believe, even though there's a small margin, that believe right now the church is in the millennial age and that Christ is spiritually on a throne and that we are experiencing this and that we're going to go through a great tribulation. After that, and when I say we, He doesn't mean a rapture. He means we're going to go through it.

Then at the end of that whole thing, then Jesus comes. This is why so many in the church are turning around and going and buying bunkers and doing all these other things that are quite frankly non-biblical. So it's important that we just understand that the peace and prosperity that Jesus Christ is going to bring comes when He physically returns to Earth. We're going to look at some of the passages this morning that I'd like to just spend the remaining amount of our time here looking and being students of Scripture and letting God's Scripture speak to us about a literal millennium, about a literal return of Jesus Christ just as the word of God testifies.

So with that, would you please turn your Bibles to Joel Chapter 3, Verse 12. Joel Chapter 3, Verse 12. Thank you for your patience as I began that long-winded introduction here. What I want you to see is if it was true that we were living in the millennium or if the millennium had already occurred and we're at the end of it, then these prophecies that I'm going to read to you here this morning would have had to be fulfilled. I want you to test everything in the light of Scripture.

I want you to be a Berean as Jesus Christ had spoken to the church, right? I want you to be able to look at these things and say, "Have these things actually happened?" Because these are the things that are going to happen during the millennial reign. Are we living in the millennial reign? Or do we believe in a pre-millennium, right? That we're going to be raptured out, we're going to come back with Jesus, and then we're going to go through a thousand-year millennial reign.

Joel Chapter 3, look at Verse 12 with me. "Let the nations be awakened and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations." First question for you all: did Jesus Christ on His first advent come and did He go to Jerusalem and take Pontius Pilate's throne and say, "Hey, Pilate, get out of the way," and go and sit on the throne and say, "I am now king and here is what I'm going to enact no matter how much His apostles actually wanted Him to do that"? Did He in fact do that?

I'm sorry, did He do that? No, that did not happen yet, right? We would all agree that that didn't happen in Joel's day. It didn't happen in the first advent of Jesus. It is still to happen and I promise you according to the Scriptures, it will happen when He comes again. When He comes again, the Valley of Jehoshaphat is near the city walls of Jerusalem, and Jesus is going to judge the remnant of His people who survive the great tribulation. And we're going to be with Him.

Now let's look how He's going to judge it because has this happened? Please turn, hold your finger here in the Old Testament, we're going to come back here. Turn to Matthew Chapter 25. Let's look at Verse 31. Let's let the Lord string pearls here this morning. Matthew Chapter 25, let's look at Verse 31. I want to ask you, has this happened? Matthew Chapter 25, Verse 31. "When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory."

"All the nations will be gathered before Him and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats and He will set the sheep on His right hand but the goats on His left." We know this as the what? Sheep-goat judgment. "Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.'" Please underline that. When did I say that was decided or when did the Scriptures, should I say, say that was decided? Before the foundation of the world.

It's over and it's numerous times to count in Scripture where it describes from the foundation of the world, from the foundation of the world. He uses the same words over and over again so we cannot be confused by this. "For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me." Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, "Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You or thirsty and give You a drink?"

"When did we see You a stranger and take You in or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick or in prison and come to You?" And the King will answer them, Jesus, and say to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me." Then He will also say to those on the left, the goats, "Depart from Me, you cursed." That's what He calls them. "Into the everlasting fire." That's very specific of when He's going to do this.

As we read up there, the lake of fire, it makes sense, it's fitting. He doesn't say Gehenna at this point, right? He's not talking about hell as we understand it other than the eternal lake of fire. He doesn't use the other word for the grave, right? He doesn't use either one of those. No, He's very clear here. And He goes on and He judges those who He said just like the opposite of what He did a moment ago. "Hey, when did you ever do this for the least of My people?" And they said, "Lord, we never saw You, Jesus, as though it was You begging for food or bread or any of these things or a drink."

And He says, "Yeah, but when you turned around and ignored My brother or My sister that had a need, it was like you did it right onto Me." I'm paraphrasing here, but that's exactly what He says. He says then I will answer him in Verse 45, "And assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me. And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." Everybody see that? So again, did that happen yet? No. We can participate. It's good, right? It's okay.

How about have all of the nations fled to the capital? Where is the capital again? Jerusalem. Okay, how about we look at this? Hold your finger here, turn to Isaiah. Well, actually, you don't have that many fingers. Let Matthew go. Go ahead and turn your Bibles to the book of Isaiah, near where your one finger was Joel. All right, go to Isaiah Chapter 2, Verses 1 through 3. So right in the beginning here, we're going to turn to Isaiah. Isaiah Chapter 2, let's look at Verses 1 through 3.

I'll start reading and you make your way there. Isaiah Chapter 2, Verses 1 through 3. "The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem." This is the book we've been in on Wednesday nights. I really want to encourage you to come out for this. You'll see how it ties together everything. "Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it." That means all nations are going to go to Jerusalem. Has that happened? Okay.

"Many people shall come and say, 'Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways and we shall walk in His paths.' For out of Zion, Jerusalem, there'll be no rebellion, 'shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.' And He shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore."

During this thousand years, there's going to be no crime. Please see this with me: no war, no need for a police, no need for a military, no need for any of those things because of God's holy righteousness and His theocracy. Do you want to live in a kingdom like that? I want to live in a kingdom like that. That's why we don't want to ignore the thousand years or pretend it's a simile, a metaphor, or something, it's just a spiritual thing. No, I want this kind of a kingdom on Earth, and I want to reign with Christ or if nothing else I want to be a servant of my Lord Jesus Christ to wait upon Him in whatever He should need.

It's beautiful. He describes it, but all nations are going to flow to this capital. Since we're already in Isaiah, let's just turn a few books to the right and let's go to Daniel Chapter 2, please. Daniel Chapter 2. So again, I asked you, had that occurred? And you said no. Resounding that has not taken place. So again, all prophecy, all future. Daniel Chapter 2, let's look at Verse 37. In this passage, he is going to describe, you might remember Daniel's giving interpretation to Nebuchadnezzar on his dream and he's listing the kingdoms that will be.

We've covered this since we've been in the book of Revelation a few times, but it's good in context here of a millennium because we see that. And he describes the first kingdom and he describes the latter kingdoms, the Greeks, the Romans, the Persians. He describes all of them to a T, and then he describes His kingdom. So again, let's look at Chapter 2 of Daniel, let's look at Verses 37 through 44. "You, O king, are a king of kings, for the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory."

"And wherever the children of men dwell or the beasts of the fields and the birds of the heavens, He has given them into your hand and He has made you rule over them all. You are this head of gold." He describes the interpretation of the Babylonian Empire. "But after you, shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours, then another." What was that kingdom after the Babylonians? The Persians, right? The Persians and Medes, Medes and Persians. "Another kingdom after yours that's inferior and then a third kingdom of bronze which shall rule over the earth." And that was what?

And then the Romans. "And a fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron." That's Rome. "Inasmuch as the iron breaks its pieces and shatters everything and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break into pieces and crush all others." Good. So you've got the Greeks and then you've got the Romans. Verse 41: "Whereas you saw the feet and toes partly of potter's clay." Now he's introducing this new kingdom. Remember we read this, this is an amalgamation of iron and this pottery of clay.

And he describes it in great detail how it looks a little bit. How many of you heard the term a revived Roman Empire? It comes from these passages. Now, this is man-made, man's using these terms of what he's seen. But he's trying to describe when he calls it a revived Roman Empire, doesn't mean it's necessarily going to be an Italian Roman Empire. He is describing what was once like Rome, iron and strong, but this time it's amalgamated with the world and everything else and it's weakened because it's got a mineral that comes in here, this clay that weakens what used to be really strong with the iron.

So he tells us it's not the same as the Roman Empire, it's actually a weakened version of that. So he goes on, he says, "Whereas you saw," Verse 41, "the feet and toes partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, yet the strength of the iron shall be in it just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of their feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile." We haven't seen this kingdom yet. This kingdom hasn't come to Earth yet.

As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men. That's interesting. But they will not adhere to one another just as iron does not mix with clay, that's why it's divided. "And in the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be what? Destroyed." Please underline that. That's a qualification. He is saying that the kingdom that He sets up next is not going to be destroyed and never ends. Have we seen a kingdom that Jesus Christ on this earth has set up that has not been destroyed and never ended yet?

No, we haven't seen that and we won't see it until this other kingdom rises. This is what this kingdom will be in the latter of the last days and then right after that we already know at the end of the seven-year great tribulation that kingdom will come to an end. It shall be left over to the other people. It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms. That's Jesus Christ and His theocracy, and it shall stand forever. Forever, okay? He tells us this kingdom.

So we can know with 100 percent certainty here this morning that the millennial reign has not happened yet because Jesus hasn't established a kingdom as we read in Daniel that is forever and ever yet on the earth. It hasn't happened and none of us can debate that. There's nobody that can go back in history and this one, I call it the overwhelming confirmation because people could say, "Well, yeah, he could have established another kingdom or maybe within China or maybe there was something that happened in another part of the world." No, the last kingdom that Jesus Christ establishes is going to be forever and that will be His theocracy that will come at the beginning of the millennial reign. There'll be no other kingdom after that ever again. So we can't possibly be in the millennial reign yet. Hence pre-millennialism, which is what we've been reading in Revelation.

Turn to Zechariah, please. Zechariah in your Bible. I'd like to look at Zechariah Chapter 14. Let's look at Verse 9. He says, "And the Lord shall be King over all the earth in that day, it shall be the Lord is one and His name is one." So where is He going to be King again? It says over what? All the earth. Is right now Jesus Christ the King of the United States of America? No. I mean, yes, He ultimately is, isn't He? But is He on the earth? No.

If we just read the word of God, He qualifies for us what it will be like when Jesus Christ reigns. Are you excited about the millennium? I'm excited about the millennial reign. I want to be a part of God's millennial kingdom. I love this. If you're a born-again believer, you will be a part of that. It's wonderful.

You're listening to Pastor Matt VanderVen on His Perfect Love. You can hear the study from Revelation again when you visit hisperfectlove.org. That's hisperfectlove.org. We've expanded our podcast too. Look for us on oneplace.com and most of the major podcast platforms. The Calvary Chapel Harrisburg mobile app is another great way to listen to Pastor Matt's messages shortly after they're delivered.

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We have a midweek service too, Wednesdays at 7:00 PM. You'll find us at 20 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, PA. Go to ccharrisburg.org for more information. Well, that'll do it for today, but come back next time when Pastor Matt will again study the book of Revelation with us here on His Perfect Love. His Perfect Love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore.