It's hard to imagine that soon you'll be dating your checkbooks or any time you write the date, instead of using 1 you'll be using a 2 for the year 2000 or just 00 when you fill in that little year blank. You know that's something that I remember thinking about as a kid probably you did, too. What will I be doing in the year 2000? How old will I be? What will life be like? We're at the dawn of a new millennium. The 2000 year mark. For centuries, that has been a symbol of the future: the year 2000. It's sort of a scary number to some. I have an article from Psychology Today that says legend has it that at midnight January 1 in the year 1000, the entire population of Iceland converted en masse to Christianity in the belief that they were about to experience the Apocalypse. At the same time, in Rome, many expected the end of the world and prepared themselves in various ways including giving away all their possessions, doing penance, mortifying their flesh, wearing sackcloth and ashes. In a similar way, there is lots of anxiety over the year 2000. People are starting to call it Millennial Madness as people act with anxiety and emotion over the dawn of a new millennium. One watcher of trends said that there are 1,100 groups or individuals, both Christian and non-Christian, who see the dawn of the new millennium as having some cosmic significance. But also there's the idea that maybe things will get better. There's a new hope. It's interesting how many groups have set the year 2000 as their goal, so to speak. By the year 2000, we want a drug-free society. By the year 2000, we want to see world peace. Political rulers have talked about a millennium, a period of peace that will come upon the earth, utopia that would come upon the earth, and many have sort of played up upon this theme even in their speeches, their inaugural promises. George Bush spoke of his new world order and in 1991, in his State of the Union message, he said that nations of the earth, in his vision, would come together to ensure world peace. In 1980, at the Democratic National Convention, Ted Kennedy used Lord Tennyson's famous line, "Ring out the thousand years of war, ring in the thousand years of peace." Adolph Hitler, and I'm not trying to lump all these in the same category, promised a regime that would cover 1,000 years, his Reich would cover the earth. Mao Tse Tung also promised a revolution that would dominate the world for 1,000 years. A millennium, a time of peace, prosperity, that would cover every land on the face of the earth, was the idea.

In history people have not only tried this, but they have been sort of, sort of, successful temporarily. In the time of the Roman Empire, there was the Pax Romana, the Roman peace. It was a peace that covered the known world. The citizens of the Roman Empire were thrilled that finally a nation comes to power that can eradicate thievery on the highways and pirates from the sea and people felt secure---for a period of time. There was what's called the Pax Britannica, the British peace, when for a century they sort of calmed the world and brought a level of economic prosperity to many nations. What about today, though? Is it possible to have world peace? One former U.S. Secretary John Dullis said the world of today is very different from the world of past centuries. It cannot be ruled. Well, actually it can be ruled. It will be ruled. It will be ruled in peace, not by the United States, not by the UN, not by any earthly ruler including the Antichrist who will promise this, but it will be ruled by Jesus Christ. In the kingdom, the kingdom age, the millennium.

We come to chapter 20 which is one of the most important chapters in the entire Bible. It's one of those watershed chapters of the entire Scripture. It's about the kingdom age. Just the words sound great, don't they? The kingdom age. I remember as a child going to Disneyland and I saw the sign, "The Magic Kingdom". And so to hear about a kingdom age that will last 1,000 years is an incredible hope. We are gonna take some time in this section of Scripture. We could pass through chapter 20, 21, and 22 very, very quickly but this is the best part! We've already taken so much time in the bad part, the tribulation, this is the best part and the reason we're gonna take lots of time in this and really be introductory this morning is because there's a widespread ignorance even among Christians as to what the future kingdom, heaven, will be like. The ignorance is in writings, it is in songs, it is in hymns, it's in poetry. What exactly will happen after death? What will heaven be like? And what's the difference between the kingdom age and the eternal state? Is there a difference? Is it literal? Is it figurative? Are we gonna sit on clouds playing harps for eternity? What will it be like? It's interesting that, not long ago, a couple weeks ago, Time Magazine put out this cover: "Does Heaven Exist?" And of course you can always count on these magazines at Easter or Christmas putting some spiritual theme on the cover to sort of keep in time with the times, but it's called "Does Heaven Exist?" and they wrote, interestingly, inside of it, "In a curious way, heaven is AWOL. This is not to say that Americans think death ends everything or that they doubt the existence of heaven. People still believe in it. It's just that their concept of exactly what it is has grown foggier and they hear much less about it from their pastors. The silence is such that it sometimes seems that heaven might as well not be there."

So this morning we're gonna look at some of these verses, we're gonna read all the way down to verse six, but we're only gonna really cover verses one through three. Let's do that: "Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while. And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years."

This morning I want to look at a few different things in this text and that pertain to it. First of all, the time is revealed: a thousand years. Secondly, the terrain, that is, of the earth, will be restored. And that's just hinted at in these verses. I want to look at some others. And then finally, the troublemaker is removed and that's really the first three verses. Notice the expression: a thousand years. It is mentioned six times in seven verses. Probably just in case somebody would say, well it probably doesn't really mean a thousand years. It's repeated over and over and over again. A thousand years, a thousand years, he's bound a thousand years, they reigned a thousand years, and after the thousand years, it's mentioned six times in seven verses. Hence, the word millennium. Millennium simply means a thousand years. Before we just jump into our text, however, there are some things I need to say because this idea of a millennium has been a theological battleground for centuries. Just exactly what is the kingdom age? What will happen? Who will be there? How long will it last exactly? Is it literal? Is it figurative? And one's view, one's interpretation, of Revelation 20 is the pivot for interpreting the rest of prophecy because of the major viewpoints that this section can be approached with. Not everybody agrees on when the millennium will be, what heaven will be like, or for that matter who's gonna go to heaven. I heard of a patient who was waking up after anesthesia was wearing off and she heard church bells in the distance and she thought, I must be in heaven. And she said, then I saw Dr. Johnson and I said, no, I guess I can't be in heaven because he wouldn't be there. Who's gonna be in heaven and is there an eternal state or is there a period of time on the earth, this earth, before that happens?

There are three major viewpoints and I'm gonna cover them this morning. I'm not trying to be Theodore Theologian. However, because of the ignorance of this whole subject, it's important that we kind of briefly cover the viewpoints of the millennium, since we're gonna be talking about it. There is first of all the pre-millennial view. Simply put, Jesus will return to the earth before the millennium, then He'll set it up. A thousand year reign on the earth. This is a very straightforward approach. It's a very literal approach to the Scripture. It's the person who would read it and say I believe it just as it is written, that Jesus will return to the earth, that He will literally bind Satan for a thousand years, and set up a thousand year reign of Jesus Christ upon the earth from the city of Jerusalem. It's the viewpoint that says God has made a lot of promises to the nation of Israel. He promised them that they would return back to their land, which they did, but God also promised that they would have an everlasting kingdom from the throne of David. Their Messiah of the lineage of David would rule, literally, from Jerusalem---Mount Zion. That hasn't happened yet. The pre-millennial view says one day it will happen. This viewpoint says the world will be getting worse and worse and worse until finally God steps in, intervenes, and changes things. If you read the book of Revelation or any prophetic literature, obviously, and you just simply interpret it with the normal rules of interpretation, you will have a pre-millennial viewpoint. But there are others. And these others are also within the realm of Christianity.

There is the post-millennial view and just like the name implies, the idea is that Jesus won't come before the millennial kingdom, He will come afterwards. This is sort of a part literal, part figurative, interpretation. Yes, there will be a literal kingdom but I can't say it's gonna last a thousand years. That's sort of a figurative number. The post-millennial viewpoint is this: the kingdom of Christ on the earth will be brought in, not by Christ, but by us. The church will bring in the kingdom and present the kingdom to Christ and at the end of that period, He'll just come waltzing into His kingdom and we'll say, here it is! This was a popular viewpoint in the end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th century, especially in western civilization. It died out. Why? What happened? Well, World War I happened. World War II happened. The Great Depression happened. Viet Nam happened. And since this viewpoint says we're gonna bring in the kingdom by Christianizing the world, the world will get better and better and better, the viewpoint died because the world was getting worse and worse and worse. It sort of woke up a lot of people and they said, we can't believe in this anymore. So you don't have that many people believing in it, though there has been a resurgence of late in a post-millennial viewpoint. It's under a different name, however. It's called dominion theology or kingdom now theology. The idea is we're gonna Christianize the world. We're gonna take over the establishment. We're gonna take over places of power and establish the kingdom. The idea is that we must take over human institutions, we must take over the government, the Congress, the Senate, the presidency, the judicial system, and we'll bring in the kingdom through the body politic. They say we ought to be the rulers, we ought to be the educators, and we will literally take over society, the church will then say to Christ: here's the kingdom. Pat Robertson, when he ran for President, said, "If I'm elected President, we will be well on our way to presenting the kingdom to Christ." The idea is we do it. We bring in the kingdom and give it to Jesus.

Then there is also, this all within the realm of Christian thought, some of you may hold these viewpoints, there is the amillennial viewpoint. This is purely a figurative viewpoint. It says, just like the name implies, there is no millennium. We are amillennial. It's not literal. It's to be taken figuratively. It's spiritualized. This is just simply one big sign, one big metaphor. There's not literally a kingdom on a literal earth from a literal throne of David. There won't be a literal revived Israel, a literal throne in Jerusalem, or a literal thousand years. The church is the kingdom and the kingdom started, they say, from the cross, from the crucifixion and the resurrection. Satan was bound at the cross and now we're living in the millennium. This is the kingdom. The earth won't get better, the earth won't get worse, and it will just stay the same until God decides it is time to end it. People who hold that viewpoint say I know God made a lot of promises to Israel but, because they blew it, now all those promises go to the church. That we're a spiritual Israel. We're spiritual sons and daughters of Abraham. Now the problem I have with this, if this is the kingdom, I'm very disappointed. And if it's only to be taken spiritually, figuratively, why did God take a whole book to tell us it's not actually gonna happen? Here I'm gonna write a whole book that really says nothing except that it's figurative and none of that is really gonna happen---it already has. But that is the viewpoint. It is inconsistent. It's inconsistent because it says God made promises and curses to Israel and they get all the curses and we get all the promises. We get all the blessings that they forfeited. They get all the curses.

Well by now you've probably figured out that I am in the first camp. I am pre-millennial and the approach that we have taken in the many weeks that we have studied the book of Revelation has been a straightforward, literal approach to prophecy. I'll tell you why. Number one, this viewpoint fits the chronology of Revelation. In other words, in chapter six the tribulation begins. In chapter 19, the tribulation ends. There's a chronology. Chapter 19 Jesus comes back. In chapter 20, He establishes the millennial kingdom of a thousand-year reign on the earth. In chapter 21, He destroys the earth and makes a new heaven and a new earth and we go from the kingdom on earth to the eternal state in Revelation 21. Secondly, this has been the viewpoint of the early church up to about the third century. The very early church, from the apostles onward, believed in a literal reign of Jesus Christ on the earth. Justin Martyr, Ireneus, all believed Jesus will come back and establish, literally, a kingdom on planet earth. It wasn't till about 300 AD with Tychonius, later on Augustine who influenced the Catholic church, and the Reformed theologians that it was spiritualized and mystified. Third, there is a compelling reason to take prophecy literally because that is the best way to interpret the Scripture period. I remember somebody telling me how they were here on a Sunday morning and there were a couple visitors in the church and they were kind of listening as we were getting into the Bible study and she turned to her husband and said, my gosh, he's taking the Bible literally! It just blew her mind. I take the Bible literally. I stand guilty. And I take prophecy literally because how can you say, on one hand, well we don't interpret prophecy literally but we interpret all the rest of it literally? On what basis can you do that? And you opened a Pandora 's Box if you say a thousand years doesn't mean a thousand years, then what does it mean and who's going to give you the answers to what it means? It could mean anything you want it to mean when you leave the literal approach, it can mean anything.

In the book of Revelation everywhere we have seen numbers, right? And they're given very normally, very naturally, very literally. John said I saw. He saw seven churches, twelve tribes, twelve apostles, a third of mankind, two witnesses, forty-two months, 1,260 days, three kings, on and on. That's what he saw. And it seems that they're to be taken very normally, very naturally, and very literally. What do you do with all those numbers? If you say twelve doesn't mean twelve, seven doesn't mean seven, and a thousand doesn't mean a thousand, then it's anybody's guess as to what it means. But if you take it at face value, then there's a real kingdom for Israel from Jerusalem over all the earth with the Messiah from the line of David and it's going to last a thousand years. Do we need a millennium? That's sort of a good question but there's an obvious answer to it. Look around. How have we done with the earth? Do we really need a millennium? Oh yeah. We need help. But I guess the question would be better formed this way: why bother? Why hassle with coming back to the earth and spending time mopping it up and restoring it and living here a thousand years and then an eternal state of a new heaven and a new earth? Why not just go from one into the eternal state? There are a few answers to that. There's probably a lot more than what I can give but number one, the millennium is needed to redeem creation from the curse and from judgment. Remember, in the book of Genesis, paradise was lost by the curse that was put upon man for their rebellion and sin. In Revelation, paradise is regained on the earth. The curse is removed, not only that but God has leveled His own judgments upon the earth during the tribulation and pretty much trashed the earth. And so it needs help.

And this will answer all of the prayers of all of the saints for all of the centuries that Jesus told us to pray. He said when you pray, pray this: Thy kingdom will, Thy will be done, on earth [just] as it is in heaven. Why would Jesus say pray that if He wasn't gonna answer it? He will answer it. And the answer will be in the millennium. Who else can fix it? I haven't seen a government, a president, a United Nations, or an environmental group that's been able to fix things. In the early days of the automobile, when the Model T was the hot new car, was the car just about, one guy had his Model T on the side of the road, it was broken down, he couldn't get it started, which was typical of cars back then and even cars today. But cars were a lot simpler. You know, you used to hand crank them. Well he was out there and he tried to hand crank it and he tried to advance the spark but it wouldn't go. And he tried to tinker under the hood, it wouldn't work. Finally, a chauffeur limousine pulled up, back door opened, and a very stately energetic well-dressed man stepped out and said, do you mind? Can I try? And he tinkered with a few things and said, start it up. Boom---started right up. Then he introduced himself as Henry Ford. He said listen, I designed this car. I know what makes it work and I know how to fix it when it's broken. God created the earth and it's broken. And God knows how to fix it when it's broken. And God will do that in the millennium.

Secondly, the millennium is needed to fulfill all of God's promises to Israel. God promised David, 2 Samuel 7, a perpetual throne that can only be fulfilled in the Messiah. He reiterated that promise and confirmed it with an oath in Psalm 89. The kingdom is predicted in the Psalms, in virtually all of the prophets, Major Prophets and Minor Prophets, that there would be an earthly kingdom, as well as a heavenly kingdom. And the millennium is phase one to God's promises. There will be an earthly kingdom that'll last a thousand years; at the end of that time the earth will be destroyed. God will create a new heaven, we'll read about it in chapter 21, and a new earth because now all of the promises to the nation of Israel are fulfilled and the earth, though restored, is still tainted by sin and must be recreated and we'll see that. Thirdly, the millennium will reveal the depths of man's rebellious nature. You know how many people have, for years, said something like this: well we're just a product of our environment. Thus if we had a perfect environment we'd be perfect people. That's not the problem. The problem is not on the outside of man, the problem is on the sinful nature of man. And the millennium will prove that because they're gonna have a perfect environment but, though we're gonna be there redeemed, in redeemed bodies, after these earthly bodies are shed, there will be people at the end of the tribulation who get into the millennium. God isn't gonna kill all of the saints who survived up to that point. They'll go into the millennium. They'll have children. The Bible says in Isaiah that during that age, those that die at 100 years old will be considered infants in their death. So the longevity of man will be restored which means the reproductivity of the earth will be greatly increased like we've never known it before. And there will be some people who will volitionally follow the Messiah under His reign and some who will still rebel. And when Satan is released after a thousand years, he will gather up all those rebellious ones for one final rebellion. We'll get more into that next time.

But it all goes to show you, you can take a person out of the slums but the slums can still be inside the person. Man has a sinful nature and it's not the product of his environment, necessarily, it's not innocent and corrupted by what's around him, he has a corrupt nature. So that is the time---a thousand years. The time is revealed. Secondly, the terrain is restored. Now by reading Revelation 20, you wouldn't get all of this because this is a summary statement of the millennium. This is a chronology. Jesus will return to the earth, He will bind Satan, the saints will reign, there will be a resurrection, and then there will be a new heaven and a new earth. This is simply limited information that is given to us in a few verses. And if we were to deal with all of the places the Bible speaks about this kingdom, we'd be in it for months and months and months and months. I know we already have, but I'm saying just the millennium. We'd be dealing with some texts of Scriptures. But basically there will be a renovation of the earth. It'll be restored. It will go back to almost its original glory when God first created it. Now that's good news. The environmentalists are on alert, right? You know, we've trashed the planet. Look what man has done. And we've told you before, if you think we've messed it up, wait till you see what Jesus does with it in the tribulation. I mean, He really will mess it up. He will trash it. He made it. He will destroy it up to a point with great cataclysms. But then in the millennium He will restore its beauty. And there are so many beautiful texts, promises of Scripture, as to what the earth, the terrain, the environment will be like. God will make His environment perfect and holy and peaceful. Let me give you a few Scriptures and this is just a small sample, a small smattering. First of all the animal kingdom will be tamed. Isaiah chapter 11 and I'm reading this in the New Living Translation because of its color: in that day the wolf and the lamb will lie down together, the leopard and the goat will be at peace, calves and yearlings will be safe among lions, and a little child will lead them all. The cattle will graze among the bears, cubs and calves will lie down together, lions will eat grass as the livestock do, babies will crawl safely among poisonous snakes. Yes a little child will put its hand into the nest of deadly snakes and pull it out unharmed. In other words, the curse is removed. Honey! Have you seen Junior? Oh, he's just out playing with the snakes. Oh, ok. No need for zoos, animal parks, cages. I mean, I look at my dog and cat. It would be a wonder if they got along. But all of the earth will be tamed. When I was in Kenya and we were sitting in a 4-wheel drive, we drove out into this open plain and we found a lioness crouched under a tree and we drove up about fifteen, ten feet away from this lioness. And the guy said keep your window up. Don't roll it down. Don't stick your head out with your camera. Don't get out. Stay put. This is not the millennium. Secondly, the entire biosphere of the earth will be lush and this is good news, especially those of us who live in the deserts. Isaiah chapter 35 says even the wilderness will rejoice in those days, the desert will blossom with flowers, the deserts will become as green as the mountains of Lebanon, as lovely as Mount Carmel's pastures in the plain of Sharon. Springs will gush forth in the wilderness and streams will water the desert. The parched ground will become a pool and springs of water will satisfy the thirsty land, marsh grass, and reeds and rushes will flourish where the desert jackals once lived. Awesome! You don't have to worry about the aquapher being depleted and you can't water your grass. It'll be lush. Three, there will be the healing of disabilities. Isaiah 35 says when He comes the Lord will open the eyes of the blind, unstop the ears of the deaf, the lame will leap like a deer, and those who cannot speak will shout and sing. Jesus showed that in His first coming. He will really show it in His Second Coming. Perpetual health. No aches, no pains, no HMOs, no doctors, no Advil. Number four, there will be longevity and health. Isaiah 65 tells us never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days or an old man who does not live out his years. He who dies at one hundred will be thought a mere youth. No need for face-lifts, face creams, longevity magazines. You'll be there. Long life. Of course you, in your redeemed state, glorified state, not having the flesh; this really pertains to those during the kingdom age who are in their physical bodies before the resurrection. Then fifth, there will finally be world peace. You know, Gallup organization did a poll a few years back and they said what are the biggest concerns of Americans, if you could ask God one question what would it be? Fourth on the list: when will there ever be lasting world peace? Answer: at the millennium---not before. Isaiah chapter 2 tells us the Lord will settle international disputes; all the nations will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. All wars will stop and military training will come to an end. Did you know that verse is displayed today over the doors of the United Nations? That's what they're hoping for but that will never happen till Jesus takes over what He made. And when He does, and when the Word goes forth, Isaiah 2, from Jerusalem, from Zion, then they will beat their swords into plowshares. This is paradise regained and if you belong to Jesus Christ, that's what you have to look forward to. Paradise regained on the earth for a thousand years with your Savior.

There were two Christians that were talking and one said I have a one-way ticket to glory and I don't intend to come back here. The other person said you're gonna miss a lot then. He says I have a return ticket. I'm gonna go meet the Lord in glory but then come back to rule and reign with Jesus Christ upon the earth. And really that's the biblical viewpoint. Three and this really speaks to these verses this morning, the troublemaker is removed. Let's read the first three verses just so we can at least say we did it: "Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while." Now it's pretty obvious, right? This has to happen for there to be a millennium. How could there be a kingdom age for a thousand years if Satan's running around loose on the landscape? You can't have utopia and all the peace now groups that say we're gonna bring in peace, I mean, I'm all for working for peace but it's never gonna happen eternally until the troublemaker is removed. And here he is removed. He's bound.

This is one reason I take it literally and not figuratively because during this time of the kingdom, where is Satan? He's out of the picture! And that's the point. If we're in the kingdom now, then Satan has gotta be bound. I don't think so. Do you? You say well he was chained at the cross. Well, he's got a long chain then---terribly long chain! I don't consider that being bound in the sense that we read about it here. Peter said your adversary the devil roams around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may gobble up. Loose translation for devour. We wage spiritual warfare until then. He's not bound yet. Notice about this event, this removal of Satan, it says an angel laid hold on the dragon. This has gotta be a great moment for that angel. If that angel knows who he is today I'm sure he's just thinking, I can't wait till I get to go up and just grab that booger by the scruff of the neck and bind him for a thousand years! It shows us that Satan's power at this time will have been greatly diminished if an angel, a messenger of God, can perform this task. It's not Jesus, it's not identified as such in this text anyway, but an angel, an ordinary angel, becomes his jailer and leads him captive. This is Satan's day of humbling. For a thousand years as he's removed from the earth and that's gonna have to dramatically change the earth. There are no demonic philosophies anymore, no demonic ideologies any longer, and false religions, he is out of the picture and that is what makes way for the millennium. He thought at one time he was the top of the heap, right? Isaiah 14 says the devil said I will ascend, I will exalt my throne and I will sit on the throne. I will be like the Most High. God's reply: you will be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. And here he is bound.

Now the word pit you have read already in Revelation. If you've been with us, you remember in chapter nine, it's the abyss, same word, it's a place of incarceration. It is not hell. He'll be cast into hell and tormented later. This is a temporary place of incarceration. Remember in Luke chapter 8, the demons when they saw Jesus begged Him not to cast them into the abyss. Don't let us be incarcerated. We want to be free. And for the life of me, I don't know why Jesus granted their request but they were cast into swine and they died at that point. Earlier, we saw demon forces, Revelation 9, come out of the pit and cover the earth during the tribulation. Satan is king over them, it says in Revelation 9. He's the king of those of the abyss. Here, this is the cool part, he's not the king. He's the chief victim. And you'll see that when he's later cast into hell it's not like he's got a pitchfork and horns and fire and a little tail and he's tormenting people, sticking them, he will be the chief tormented one. Not the tormentor. He'll be the chief victim. And here he's the incarcerated one.

We're gonna cover more next week in this chapter but I wanted to lay a foundation of the millennium and I want to end with a couple of points to make it practical that we can take home and that can change the way we live, the way we think, the way we do business, the way we raise our families. Two points that come out from this. Number one, the kingdom that will come should motivate us now. Knowing there is a coming kingdom, we are to be watchful. Jesus said that over and over and over again. Be watchful in the way you live. There is a coming kingdom. Man may rule presently but not ultimately. Ultimately, God is sovereign and moves man like pawns on a chessboard and will perform His pleasure all throughout history---ultimately. When Nikita Khrushchev was in power in the former Soviet Union, he said that he promised that he would display the last Soviet Christian on public television. He'd eradicate Christianity and show the last one by 1965. Well we know that Nikita passed from the scene and has stood before the judgment bar of God to give account of his own life and his promise has not been fulfilled. In fact, Christianity has been shown to flourish in some areas of the former Soviet Union as God gets His kingdom out. All earthly kingdoms are temporary---what does that mean? Don't invest in them. Invest in your eternal kingdom. Lay up treasures in heaven, the Bible says. Seek first the kingdom of God, Jesus said, and all these things will be added to you. So if this is temporary, and God's kingdom is eternal, let's think about that one. Stay involved in your world, but live for the next one. Second lesson: Satan will be chained but he's not yet so be careful. It says that he is like a roaring lion roaming around seeking whom he may devour. Be careful. Paul said we're not ignorant of his devices. I hope that's true of you. I hope you're careful in the way you see things happening in your life that you're aware that you have an enemy and could it be that Satan has pulled the wool over some of your eyes? So, though you're coming to church, the whole idea of eternity doesn't really mean much to you. You're living your life in such a way that it's obvious you don't care about standing before God and facing eternity with or without Christ and that would be very, very tragic because Satan is the father of lies. And Jesus said I am the way and the truth and the life. And Satan comes, Jesus said, to kill, to steal, to destroy. Jesus said I want to give you life and give it more abundantly. And some of you are here today just because you admit, I've got a longing in my heart. I've got a hunger in my life. There's gotta be something more to life than I've already experienced. What could that be? Where could I find it? C.S. Lewis, the great scholar from Cambridge, said if I find myself having a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. You were. Bingo. You were made for another world. God created this world to be inhabited by you, but God will create His kingdom, He'll restore the earth to its former glory and then He'll create the new heaven and new earth. That's God's intention. And the reason you have that hole in your life, that void in your life, is that Jesus Christ, whose kingdom this will be, made you for a purpose: to know Him, to walk with Him, to love Him, to serve Him. And you'll be empty, you'll be filled with a big hole and void, until Jesus Christ comes and fills it. Because you were made for another world. His kingdom. Not this kingdom.