Revelation 20:6 - Ruling With Jesus Christ

“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.” There should be no debate about the teaching of the Bible about the fact that Jesus is coming again. In John 14:3, Jesus said, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” At the ascension of Christ, the two angels told the disciples, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven." (Acts 1:11) The Book of Revelation begins and ends with a reference to Jesus coming again. “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.” (Revelation 1:7) "And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.” “He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:12 & 20) The Scripture is also very clear, that we who are believers, will come back to rule and reign with Him a thousand years! We discussed this yesterday. Today we want to answer the question about what does it mean that we will “rule and reign” with Him. Who will we be ruling and reigning over for the thousand years? I have come to the following conclusions after years of studying these end time events: After the rapture only lost, unsaved, mortal people will be “left behind” on earth. Remember, as we are caught up, and the dead in Christ are resurrected, we all will receive immoral and incorruptible bodies like Jesus has! (1 Corinthians 15:50-58) We are transported to heaven for a period of at least seven years, during which time the tribulation will take place on planet earth. The tribulation period begins with no saved people on earth, but immediately at the beginning of it, the two witnesses begin to preach the Gospel in Jerusalem (Revelation 11) and 144,000 Jews are saved and marked so they can’t be killed. They will also preach the Gospel throughout the rest of the tribulation, and I believe millions of people from every tribe, every kindred, and every nation and language group will be saved. Many of them will be martyred because they refuse to take the “mark of the beast”.  But millions will survive to the end when Jesus comes back with us to the earth. At Christ coming, the beast and false prophet are cast into the lake of fire and all those who took the mark of the beast and followed him will be killed. (Revelation 19:19-21) This means only saved followers of Jesus will be left on the earth and they will be still living in mortal human bodies. They will begin to repopulate the earth, and because the earth goes back to its pre-flood condition, they will be able to live in these bodies a thousand years as people did before the flood. (Genesis 5)  Millions upon millions of people will be born during this time as you can imagine. Since we came back with Christ with immortal bodies, our reward will be to rule and reign over these people during this thousand years! The Judgment Seat of Christ will determine the position of authority that we will be given, to rule with Christ, during this one-thousand year Kingdom time. Wow!!!! We have a glorious future if we are living for Christ now! That’s why John proclaimed in the final words of Revelation, “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” In the end, we win!