Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #5 of Revelation chapter 20 and we are going to read Revelation 20:4-6:

And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

In our last study we saw that God said these individuals were souls and were beheaded for the witness of the Lord Jesus.  The Apostle John was given a vision to see the “the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God,” and they are the elect that God saved and they were given thrones because they were adopted into the family of God and became “spiritual kings,” as well as prophets and priests.  When you are a king, you sit upon a throne and “to sit” means to rule.  Of course, we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.  Christ is the King of kings, but “in Him” we are also considered to be of royal blood and kings that reign with Him.  This is the image God is giving here. 

It is really a picture of two groups of people.  There are the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus who “had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands.”  The period of time for this group was during the church age from 33AD until 1988.  That is when the “firstfruits” were gathered and the 144,000 that are referred to in Revelation, chapter 14, are the firstfruits unto God.  It is not an actual number, but we do not know the actual number.  It could have been three million or five million people, but it is not the great number we would have thought would have been saved during the 1,955 years of the church age. 

You would expect that there would have been a greater number of people saved, but it was probably millions.  Of course, God indicates that He saved the best until last and saved the great number during the “little season” of the Great Tribulation period.  It was about a 17-year period from September 7, 1994 to May 21, 2011.  Again, we do not know the exact number, but it was tens of millions of people from the nations.  It makes sense that God did save the greatest number (at that time) because He had allowed the population of the world to explode at the time of the end, so there were about seven billion people in the world when God proclaimed that Judgment Day would occur on May 21, 2011.  All the nations heard that warning and God saved a great multitude, but it was still just a remnant of the whole of mankind.  Let us say that God saved 150 or 170 million people out of seven billion and, yet, it is really just a small percentage and well over six billion people will perish.   But God did save a great multitude at the very end and here in Revelation, chapter 20 we have both groups in view – the firstfruits and the final fruits or the great multitude that God saved during the last part of the Great Tribulation. 

It says at the end of Revelation 20:4:

… and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

These are the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and they “lived” because God saved them and gave them eternal life.  They reigned because they were sitting upon thrones and these souls reign with Christ, as it says in Ephesians 2:5-6:

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

The true believers live and reign with Christ a “thousand years.”  This reference to a “thousand years” is a reference to the completeness of whatever is in view, so this is the completeness of life and the reign with Christ.  How long will those that Jesus saved live and reign with Him?  It will be for ever and ever; it is eternal life and they will always be the royal family of God.  They will always be considered kings in God’s sight and, therefore, they live and reign with Christ eternally, or you could say they live and reign with Christ for a “thousand years.” 

Again, we have two groups of God’s elect people in view.  It says in Revelation 6:9:

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:

This matches the language in Revelation 20:4, which said, “andI saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God.”  The souls which were beheaded are identical to the souls that were slain for the Word of God.  When you are beheaded, you are slain or killed.  So Revelation 6, verse 9 is speaking of the same group of believers or those saved during the church age.  Again, it said, “I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.”  Then it goes on to say in Revelation 6:10:

And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

They were killed and God’s people have always been killed in various ways.  When we look at the church age, many of God’s people were killed physically by those within the corporate church for the sake of the Word of God.  When we look back to the time of the Reformation, there was the burning, beheading and hanging of the people of God.  What was their crime?  In some instances, it was because they wanted the Bible to be put in the language of the people and the Catholic Church wanted to keep the Bible in the Latin language; they did not want the Bible in the hands of the common man.  So they persecuted and slew some of the people of God for various offenses including doctrines.  The people of God maintained that the Bible taught certain truths and they were persecuted and physically killed for holding onto those doctrines, so they are crying, as it were, “with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”

At other times, the people of God were spiritually killed.  As a particular church or an entire denomination would turn into “another gospel,” it would drive the people of God out.  Finally, at the end of the church age, that is what happened in all the churches.  To drive out a child of God through the lies of false gospels is the equivalent of killing him or her.  We find that association in John 16:2:

They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

Here, God equates being put out of the synagogue, which was the Old Testament church, to being “killed,” even if they were not physically killed.  That was the case with the blind man that was given sight by the Lord Jesus Christ.  The blind man’s parents were fearful to answer the questions of the Pharisees because they feared they would be put out of the synagogue or, in other words, they feared they might be “killed” spiritually.  The synagogue was where the Oracles of God were and the people had a fear of losing God’s blessing.  It was the same thing with the churches.  They thought they were the ones that had to impart God’s blessing of salvation, so if you were kicked out of the church or were excommunicated, it was as if they were withholding that blessing and (in their eyes) you no longer have salvation and you would be killed spiritually.  God uses that kind of idea concerning the souls of those that were slain for the Word of God.  It applies to those that were physically killed or spiritually killed.  If a church physically killed someone, they were attempting to kill them spiritually as well.

Speaking of the souls under the altar (the firstfruits), it says in Revelation 6:11:

And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

Note the phrase “little season.”  We have seen that language before and it points to the Great Tribulation.  Remember what it said concerning Satan in Revelation 20:3:

And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

The Great Tribulation and the judgment on the churches and congregations took place during that 23-year period from May 21, 1988 through May 21, 2011.  It was the “little season” of Great Tribulation in which judgment began on the house of God.  In Revelation 6:11, God is speaking to the souls because they do not have their bodies and they are in their soul existence because they had died throughout the centuries of the church age and had gone to heaven in their soul essence.  Since it is not yet the day of resurrection, they live and reign with Christ in their souls.  And God said to them, that they should “rest yet for a little season.”  He is telling them there is just a “little season” or 23 years in which they are to rest and during that time their fellow servants and brethren shall be killed as they were killed.

So we see two groups of people.  One is the group in their soul existence and the second group would be very mysterious unless we had the rest of the Bible to help us identify these other “fellowservants” and “brethren” that would be killed during the “little season.”  And what happened during that time?  God’s people were driven out of the churches.  God brought judgment upon the churches and congregations of the world and He revealed this information to His people.  Even before He revealed it, the apostasy and falling away from the truth was getting so bad that more and more believers were leaving the churches or wandering from church to church looking for a faithful congregation.  Finally, God opened up the information from His Word concerning the end of the church age and He issued the command to depart out of the churches.  In a sense, from the perspective of the churches, these people that were leaving the churches and daring to say that the churches were under judgment were completely lost.  The churches felt these people had gone away from Christ’s church and they thought the churches were the custodians of salvation, so it was as if these people were killed.

Let us go back to Revelation 20 and we see these two groups, starting at the end of Revelation 20:4:

… the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

These were the firstfruits, the first group of people that were saved during the church age.  Then it says in Revelation 20:5:

But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

Here is the second group, or “the rest of the dead.”  They are the “fellowservants” and the “brethren” that Revelation 6:11 speaks of and “they lived not again until the thousand years were finished.”  The term “lived again” has the negative inserted with the addition of the word “not.”  The word for “lived again” is Strong’s #326 (anazao) and it is found five times in the New Testament.  It is found here and it is found once in Romans, chapter 14.  We will look at four of the five times it is used.  It says in Romans 14:9:

For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived…

The word “revived” is a translation of this Greek word translated in our verse as “lived again.”  Christ died, rose and “revived” or “lived again.”  It is a coming forth from the dead to life.  That is what is in view.

Also, it is found two times in Luke, chapter 15.  In the parable of the Prodigal Son who wasted his inheritance, then returned to his father, the father makes this statement in Luke 15:24:

For this my son was dead, and is alive again…

The two English words “alive again” is a translation of the Greek word, Strong’s #326.  The son was “alive again.”  Then the father explains to the older son why he is celebrating the younger son’s return, and he says in Luke 15:32:

It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.

We can see in these two instances and in the example in Romans 14:9 that this word has everything to do with the resurrection.  To be resurrected means you had been dead and that is why you must be resurrected in order to come back from the dead.  That is what God is saying in regard to this group of people He refers to as “the rest of the dead.”  They are the rest or the remainder of His people.  He had already brought to life these souls that had been beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God.  But there is another group and they are the great multitude, according to Revelation, chapter 7.  God would bring them out of Great Tribulation.  Let us go back to Revelation 7 and what do we find?  We find two groups.  It says in Revelation 7:4-5:

And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.

Then it goes on to list all 12 tribes, with 12,000 from each tribe, ending with Benjamin in Revelation 7:8:

…Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand.

There were 12 tribes of 12,000 each, totaling 144,000 and they represent the “firstfruits unto God,” according to Revelation 14.  This is one group of people.

Then it says in Revelation 7:9:

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

And then the question was asked in Revelation 7:13:

And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation…

These are those that came out of the “little season,” the 23-year period that followed the church age.  Then it goes on to say in Revelation 7:13:

…and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

So we have looked at three places in the Book of Revelation where God is showing us two groups of people from two seasons or two periods of fruit gathering.   There was the “firstfruits” or the 144,000 and they are the ones in their souls that were killed for the witness of Jesus.  And after that, there is the great multitude that came out of Great Tribulation, or as it says in Revelation, chapter 6:11, the “fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.”  In Revelation 20 there are the “souls” and there is “the rest of the dead,” the second group of people that can only identify with the great multitude.  Let us look at it again in Revelation 20:5:

But the rest of the dead lived not again…

In other words, they “revived not” or they did not come to spiritual life “until the thousand years were finished.”  The thousand years of Satan’s binding had to be finished.  The church age had to be finished.  Then Satan was loosed and the church age ended and the Great Tribulation began.  Of course, we need additional Scripture to tell us that it was not at the beginning of the Great Tribulation because there was the grievous 2,300 “evening mornings” in which virtually no one was becoming saved, but it was during the little season during the second part of the Great Tribulation that they would live again.  He makes that point and then God says, in Revelation 20:5:

… This is the first resurrection.

The salvation of the “souls” and the salvation of the “rest of the dead” is the “first resurrection.”  By indicating it is the first resurrection, God is indicating there is a “second resurrection.”  Of course, that is true because the “first resurrection” is the salvation of the spiritual nature of the sinner.  That is what God did during His salvation program; He sent forth the Gospel and people became saved or “born again” in their soul existence.  They received a new heart and a new spirit and had their stony heart taken away and they enjoyed the resurrection as their spirits came to life within them.  But that was only the first resurrection.  There is still another resurrection to come, the resurrection of the body.