Starting the Millennium

I'm glad to say good morning while it still is. And thank you, Mrs. McLean, for that music. And especially for your poise. I know when things get a little muddled, it can really throw us off our game. I want to say greetings from Ambassador Bible College. I'm amazed how many former students are here, and I keep seeing others that I didn't realize.

So I'm thrilled to have you here. I've got a informational meeting, I believe, Tuesday after services, that I invite anyone who's interested in ABC, anyone who would like to have me talk you into coming. But I will say there are a lot of people here who you can talk to who have been, and they are the best advertisement. So glad to have that. I don't want to say much more.

I'll save my bad jokes for another time, because I realize right now I'm the main thing standing between you and lunch. So we're here at the feast, and I want to talk about starting the millennium. And that means maybe thinking a little bit about how we get to the millennium. Just reviewing quickly, we recently celebrated the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement. Those days are rich with symbolism. They represent major steps in God's plan of salvation. And it's good for us to think about what those days represent. Trumpets reminds us of great plagues, tribulation, before Christ returns, but of course also the resurrection of the saints. The Day of Atonement reminds us that God is reconciling all mankind to himself, and that Satan will be put away.

And then begins the millennial reign of Jesus Christ on earth for a thousand years, which we are representing here, having a foretaste, as Mr. Beams said. Now, I'll confess, when I was younger, I used to think about the feast representing the millennium, and I just thought Christ will return, and BAM! Everything that we read in those great prophecies will be here. Peace on earth, the animals changed, everyone in harmony. But today, I've come to realize that I don't think it will be quite like that quite so soon.

I've come to expect things to take a little bit of time. So I want to spend some time today thinking about what it will be like after Christ returns as the millennium gets underway. To do that, we want to review some of the prophecies, maybe even ask some questions that we don't always ask. To consider what the world will be like at the time Christ returns and the millennium is beginning. It's worth us thinking about some of those trumpet plagues and those seven last bowl or vials that would be poured off.

Poured off, poured out, you know. There will have been hail and fire, perhaps lightning, terrible storms. Revelation describes a foul sore on people. All the water on earth turned to blood. The sun scorching men. Darkness, where it says people will gnaw their tongues for pain. And then what we call the Battle of Armageddon. By the way, spoiler alert, Jesus Christ will win the Battle of Armageddon. We might say, great, we won! But from what we've just reviewed, it sounds like the earth will be devastated.

I'd like to turn to Isaiah chapter 6 and begin in verse 11. Isaiah 6 verses 11 through 13. Because this is after God had called Isaiah, he saw a vision of God's throne. God was asking who he could send. Isaiah says, send me. But Isaiah asks, how long? And he says, until the cities are laid waste and without an inhabitant, the houses without a man, the land utterly desolate, the eternal has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

But yet, a tenth will be in it. A tenth. And will return and be for consuming as a terebin tree. And I'll stop reading there. But you might say, really? A tenth? Well, that is what it says. There are some other prophecies that indicate that possibly there will be as few as only one tenth of the population of mankind left on earth when the millennium begins.

Now, I am aware some prophecies indicate a third, and we could debate and discuss whether those apply specifically just to the physical Israelites or not. But certainly the humans who survive into the beginning of the millennium will be traumatized by what they've witnessed. If you will join me in Revelation 6 and verse 15. Revelation 6 will read verses 15 and 16.

Revelation 6 and verse 15 says, "...the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, but also every slave and every free man." It covers about everybody. "... hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. And they said to the mountains and the rocks, Fall on us, hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, from the wrath of the lamb. For great is the day of the great day of his wrath has come." Who is able to stand? And I imagine perhaps the rocks will fall on some of them, but imagine some will survive.

And at some point, not long thereafter, Jesus Christ will be in Jerusalem. And the saints resurrected? It'll be a time when the trumpets have sounded. The plagues are complete. Satan will be bound and put out of the picture. But what then? What's it like at the start of the millennium? For you and for me? I hope to be one of those saints who are resurrected at the sound of the last trump, or if the time comes soon enough, transformed in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, as Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 15. If I'm one of them, if you're one of them, what is it we're going to see? What are we going to do starting off? There is a hint of that that fits with the Scripture I just read from Revelation in Jeremiah chapter 16. Jeremiah 16 and verse 16.

Jeremiah 16 and verse 16.

Of course, this is following a prophecy of what we call the second Exodus, which I won't describe. But it says, picking up in verse 16, Behold, I will send for many fishermen, says the Lord. That reminds me of Christ telling Peter that I'll make you a fisher of men. But I'll send for many fishermen, and they shall fish them. Afterward, I'll send for many hunters. They'll hunt them from every mountain, from every hill, out of the holes of the rocks.

Putting that together with that prophecy in Revelation makes me think that after the terrible plagues have ended, God, Jesus Christ, the new king, is going to send people out to find the survivors, and in some cases, to bring them to the Promised Land. Imagine if you have that job. Imagine encountering some people hiding in a cave. They've seen water turn to blood. They've seen the moon and the stars go dark. And they've seen a lot of death and destruction. Imagine now you get to tell them, the trouble's passed. You don't have to be afraid anymore. There's a new king. There's peace. Everything's gonna be okay. Come, come out. Let me show you.

How exciting will that be?

I'm reminded of a prophecy in Isaiah. I hope my current students are noting how many times we've turned to Isaiah during this feast. But it's a prophecy that Jesus Christ quoted early in his ministry in Luke chapter 4. If you'll turn to Luke 4 and verse 16... I should turn to Luke 4 and verse 16 as well.

Luke 4.

So he, and that's Jesus, of course, he came to Nazareth where he'd been brought up. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. When he'd opened the book, he found the place where it was written. And here he begins quoting from Isaiah chapter 61. He's read, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind. To set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And then he closed the book. He gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him.

Now, one of the reasons they were fixed on him is he stopped in the middle of a passage, and probably most of the people there knew there was more. We like to quote this prophecy and this passage in Christ's ministry to remind us that he was emphasizing in a way that he would come twice. He came first as a lowly and a meek sacrifice, but he will come again as the conquering Messiah. When Christ came the first time, he did preach the gospel to the poor, and he healed people. He didn't read the rest of that prophecy, which I'd like you to turn with me to Isaiah 61, and we will read. Isaiah 61, it's in verse 2.

He did read, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. That's when he closed the scroll. What he did not read was where it says, And the day of vengeance of our God. Christ didn't bring the day of vengeance in his first coming. As you well know, he will do that when he comes again. I just reminded you of the death and destruction that will come in what we call the day of the Lord. But here I'm going to confess something else that I haven't done in the past. I often would stop reading there and explain, Yeah, Christ will come and do all that again. But I didn't read the rest of the verse, which I do want to read now at the very end of Isaiah 61, verse 2. After the day of the vengeance of our God, it says, Christ didn't read that in his ministry. It goes on to say, To give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

It may be a fair guess to think that one of the top priorities after Christ has come, and as Handel wrote, quoting from Revelation, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ, seems then a top priority might well be to bring beauty for ashes, to comfort the people, to help them trade mourning for the oil of joy. And I believe, as spirit-born children of God, our role in this might be to help fulfill those prophecies. We need to prepare to help the world become as full of the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea.

I don't think that'll happen just instantly. It may well take some time. It intrigues me to think that God may allow the knowledge of his government and of his way to spread through the world, and perhaps to spread in a way that we would describe as gradually. He might not just stab his fingers. He may allow us to participate in that work. To me, that's intriguing and exciting.

I'd like to tell you a little of an experience that I've had in my life that helped shape my thinking on this. Now, over the years, many of our members have served at our summer camps. I'm curious, how many of you have served at or attended a teen summer camp? Yeah, that's about what I thought. And we've often pointed out that it's somewhat millennial. Of course, the feast is about the millennium, but when we go to serve at camp, we remove ourselves from the world, and we're a group of people striving to live God's way and teach about God's way. It's wonderful. But let me describe another camp experience that I had back when I was a young adult that seemed perhaps even more like the millennium. This was the chance that I had to serve at our summer camp that we conducted in the British Isles. We called it SEP Scotland. That camp would operate for three weeks in a sheep field on the banks of Loch Lomond. Some of you have heard these stories before, but bear with me. Before camp would start, though, we had a small crew to show up for what we called set up. Set up consisted of two weeks of a relatively small number of people building a camp, because before that it was a sheep field. So the small group of dedicated people would work hard to have the campers ready for when the campers arrived. Did I say campers? The camp ready for the campers to arrive. We set up a temporary kitchen, a water tower. We put up tents. We assembled bunks and more bunks. We had crews of what we called pooper scoopers to take care of the gifts the sheep left behind.

You could say that a small number of converted people were working hard to build an environment that would be suitable for bringing large numbers of not-yet-converted people so we could teach them God's way. Doesn't that sound like a lot like what the millennium will be?

And by the way, we loved it! It was the best time of my life in many ways, even though it was hard work. Boy, were we working hard! The staff arrived with a small crew at first, and over the course of a couple weeks more people would come, and so we could take on the bigger jobs later as it became a smooth-running organization. I can't help but wonder if the starting this setup will be kind of what it'll be like at the start of the millennium. Because when we started that process on that sheep field, we were scrambling. Sometimes all of us would work together. On that first day, we opened up the barn that served as a storage facility, and we were unloading equipment, carrying out all sorts of things. And we'd assign people. It's like, okay, those bunk frames, put them in piles over there. All the anchors for the floating docks, down by the beach. Move those tents down by the trees, where we'll set them up later today so we can have a place to sleep. Sometimes we're in small teams. A plumber would work with two or three people to start getting the water supply going. Then a few more people would start setting up those tents. Later in the day, we could move on to different tasks, separating the different sports equipment, putting together what would become the bathhouse, and so on and so on.

What will it be like for us when Christ has come, and the Battle of Armageddon is finished, and there are jobs to do? I can imagine, and this is my imagination, Jesus might quickly set up a group to travel and spread word that there is a new government based in Jerusalem.

How much power might He give us to work miracles? Will there be a crew assigned to heal the waters? I would think turning the waters from blood back into water would be a pretty high priority if people are going to survive. Speaking of healing, how many thousands or millions of human beings will be injured and sick? They all need care. People will be dazed and confused. Talk about PTSD. They all need counseling. They all need explanation. I can only imagine we'll be scrambling.

And I'm speculating a bit on this. I don't mind that when we admit what we're doing. You know, if ABC students might remember the term, duncle speculation. As children of God, we should not expect idleness when Christ's kingdom is here. We're not going to be floating on a cloud and strumming a harp. You know, that's not in the Bible. What is in the Bible is Jesus saying, he who is faithful and little is also faithful and much. I want to read the parable that Christ gave in Luke chapter 19. Luke 19, starting in verse 12. Luke 19 will read verses 12 through 19. Therefore, he, Jesus, said, a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. That sounds like it describes Jesus's position right now. So before he left, he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, said to them, do business till I come. His citizens hated him. They sent a delegation saying, we won't have this man reign over him. He took care of that. So it was when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him. Then he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first, Master, your mina has earned ten minas. And he said to them, he said to him, well done, good servant, because you are faithful and a very little. Have authority over ten cities. The second came, Master, your mina has earned five minas. Likewise, he said to him, you also be over five cities. I'm going to stop there, because the lesson that comes from the servant who did nothing with his mina is aside from my point today. What we see here, though, from the reward of the servants who used their minas, that they were faithful over very little. They were given more to do. Now, we might be tempted to think, hey, I'm in charge of ten cities. What a prestige assignment. Cushy job. No, it's not. Being in charge of anything is hard work. Come up here and talk to Mr. Dininger afterwards. When you're in charge of something, it's work, it's worry, especially if you do it well. Now, I've used William Barkley's commentary in preparation for some of my classes, and I like the way he comments on this. William Barkley said, the reward for doing good work is being given more work to do. And it is a reward, though. It's not a punishment. God did not create mankind to be idle. I believe we are happiest when we're occupied. Think of the first thing that God gave Adam, a job. Here's the garden. Dress it and keep it. I believe God wants us to be active in his family, including when we become spirit-born children of God, including, especially when we're at work rebuilding a world that's been devastated by the cataclysm that occurs at the end of man's dominion on earth. At the start of the millennium, it seems the earth is going to be devastated. And I believe that God is not just going to snap his fingers to make it a paradise. I think making the earth paradise may well take some time. May well take some hard work, hard work that you and I will get to share.

As I said, I've used some speculation to imagine what it will be like at the start, and I had to specifically in mind knowing I would speak early in the feast, because there's a lot of the feast to keep. There will be a lot of the millennium after we finish scrambling. God gives us the annual holy days each year to remind us he's got a plan. He's been working through his plan for ages, and he'll complete it. There are details that we have yet to learn, and I don't mind not knowing all of it in advance. I just want to be included in God's family. As we learn what he has for us to do next. One thing I firmly believe, whatever it is that he has for us to do next will not be boring. If we do well now, I'm confident God will give us much more to do in his kingdom, and I'm confident that what he gives us is going to be terrific.