Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Numbers Mean in Revelation | New Testament | Revelation 20

Episode Date: November 17, 2023

You've probably heard a lot of talk about what 7s mean in the Bible... or 12s... or even 666. But did you know there are other important numbers that show up in Revelation? What do they reveal about God? Keith explores this and more on today's episode studying Revelation 20. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Prepare your heart to celebrate Jesus. Sign up to have the 'I Am Your God' Advent Devotional delivered directly to your inbox starting Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Revelation 20

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. There's a lot of talk in our day about being on the right side of history. We're told that we have to believe what our culture does or we will be left behind. We'll be left up by our kids or grandkids. Or worse yet, history will look back on us as being bad people because we didn't support the right things. Well, that's a powerful argument.

I mean, I want to be on the right side of history, don't you? I don't want to support the wrong things. I don't want to be like the people who supported slavery when it's obvious that it was an evil institution. But here's my problem with the right side of history argument. I think the people who make the case that Christians have to compromise their convictions, that they have to compromise their faith in order to be on the right side of history, well, I don't think those people know how history ends. Consider just a hundred years ago, a lot of smart people in the United States and Europe believed in eugenics.

When I say a lot of smart people, I mean Supreme Court justices, Congress people, people who held institutional power, they believed in eugenics, which is the idea that you can perfect the human race. In practical terms, eugenics was incredibly racist and it was set against people with disabilities. Those people were just going to be erased from our world. Now every sane person rejects eugenics. In fact, if you support eugenics today, you'll likely be erased. be called a Nazi because it's the Nazis who carried out eugenics to as a logical outcome. Here's my point. What was in vogue 100 years ago is outdated now, and what used to be believed then is mocked now. What is popular now will be outdated 100 years from now. So don't fall for the right side of history argument against Christianity, because the things the culture believes,

well, they come and go. They change. What they believe now is not what they will believe in the future. So if you want to be on the right side of history, get on the side of Jesus. Eventually, everyone will admit that he was right the whole time. If you've been listening to our episodes through the Book of Revelation, you know that numbers are important. Numbers are symbolic. For example, seven represents completeness or perfection. Four represents universality. You might say the four corners of the earth, the whole earth. The number six is one short, of seven. So if seven represents perfection, six represents imperfection, incompleteness, fallibility. And so if you have six, six, six, that is three times imperfection. It is the ultimate

imperfection. The number is 12 and 24 represent the fullness of the people of God. 144,000? Well, that's 12 times 12,000. Or the ultimate fullness of God's people. The number 1,000. represents an immense amount of time, a very long time. And that number 1,000 is an important number in Revelation chapter 20. Let's start though with verse 1. And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. In chapters 18 and 19, we've seen the dragon and the beast and Babylon have all been defeated by Jesus, who is the Lamb of God. Now he is reigning on earth. Verse 4. I saw thrones on which were seated those who had

been given authority to judge, and I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshipped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years. So I'm just reminding you that Revelation doesn't use numbers in a literal way. It's not talking about a literal thousand year reign. He's saying that the martyrs,

those who have been faithful to Jesus, will reign with him forever. Verse 7, when the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and May Gog, and to gather them for battle. In number they are like sand on the seashore. They march across the breadth of the earth and surrounding the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them, and the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur,

where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever. I think we are supposed to read this as God ridding the world of evil, of God repairing everything that is wrong with the world. If you lived in the Roman Empire, you would be encouraged to know that one day all the enemies that oppose you will have to face God.

God will hold them accountable. God will defeat his enemies. If you lived as a Christian in the Roman Empire, it did not feel like you were on the winning team. But as long as you are on team Jesus, you will win in the end. you will be on the right side of history. Here's verse 11.

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that was in them. and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. Every person will have to stand before God. Every person will have to give an account of their life. Some people's names are written in the book of life and some people's names aren't. Those whose names are not written in the book of life

will join the beast and the dragon in the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the place where all evil will be eliminated. This is absolutely necessary so that the New Jerusalem can come to earth, and that's exactly what happens in the next chapter. We aren't told a lot about this judgment in Revelation 20. It doesn't give us the details about hell, because that's not its purpose. John's main goal is to say that good will triumph over evil. This is the day that every Christian longs for.

When evil is eliminated, then God's God's. people can live in safety and peace and in a just world. But for justice to reign, first, evil must be eliminated. Can you imagine how much this encouraged the seven churches the letter of Revelation is addressed to? It was saying that someday soon the lamb will rule. Some day soon they will be vindicated. When you look at the world today, it's easy to give up on God. To say, well, I might as will give up and give in. Why live faithfully? Why fight sin? Why serve others if nothing changes? If evil in the end wins. Revelation 20 reminds us that what we do matters, that every person is accountable to God, that one day sin and evil will be defeated. So whatever you do, don't give up.

Stay faithful to Jesus. In the end, you'll be glad you did. And you'll be on the right side of history, because history ends with Jesus reigning. So don't get talked into giving up. on your convictions. Don't get talked into compromising your faith just so that you can be on the right side of culture. Instead, get on the right side of Jesus and you'll never be disappointed.