As we continue in our study, this time we are turning the corner to the Millennial Kingdom Age. As we look at Revelation 20, we will find that on six different occasions in seven different verses, the term “a thousand years,” is given as a duration of the Kingdom Age, and so that is where we get our term the “Millennial Kingdom.” As we take that duration, the thousand years, as literal it’s a millennium, so we will call it the Millennium on occasion.
What we are looking at is really the third major section of the book of Revelation. I want to read a couple verses here and then go back to Revelation 1. We did touch on Revelation 20:1 already, but here is what it says, “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; and after these things he must be released for a short time.” So, here we see twice in the first three verses that “a thousand years,” is mentioned as the duration of this time. Let’s go back to Revelation 1 for a moment. Revelation very neatly divides this out into three sections in Revelation 1:19, where the Lord is speaking to John and He says, “Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.” So, there is the table of contents of the book of Revelation. First, write “the things of which you have seen.” That would be a description of what goes on in Revelation 1. This is present tense. He is seeing this vision of the Lord in all of His glory in Revelation 1. These are the things he has seen, and this really lays the foundation for the rest of the book. We see the descriptions of Jesus as found in Revelation 1 being replayed throughout the whole book. Part two however, is “the things that are,” that is in Revelation 2 & 3. That is the seven churches of Asia at that time and the Lord has special messages for each of these churches. These churches existed at the time of the writing of the book of Revelation. Then we have “the things which will take place after these things.” These are future events . . .
