4I 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 for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5(The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. 6Blessed and holy are those who have part 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.
20:4 - The fifth vision is of the thousand-year kingdom. John saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. As we have seen before, the twenty-four elders represent the assembly of the Church. Consistently through John’s prophecy, he has depicted God’s people as reigning with Christ (Rev. 1:6; 5:10), wearing crowns (Rev. 2:10; 3:11), having kingly authority over the nations (Rev. 2:26-27), and seated with Christ on His Throne (Rev. 3:21). As kings, the elders sit on thrones, as priests they are 24 in number (cf 1 Chron. 24). Jesus promised His disciples two things regarding the Messianic era: that they would sit on thrones, and that they would judge. This is exactly what John tell us here. In addition to the elders, John sees those whom they represent: The souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. This is an almost identical description of the martyrs underneath the altar (Rev. 6:9). These are the faithful who had not worshiped the Beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads on their hands (cf. Rev. 1:2, 9; 2:13; 12:9-11, 17; 15:2; 19:10).
They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The wording in the NIV is somewhat misleading here and should probably read ‘they lived and reigned with Christ’). Due to sin, Gods people have always fallen short of the ‘thousand years’. The men before the flood died in their nine hundreds (Adam at 930, Methuselah at 969, etc). David’s kingdom should have lasted "forever", meaning the symbolic thousand years, until the Secon Coming of Christ (2 Sam. 7:8-29; 1 Chron. 17:7-27; 2 Chron. 13:5; 21:7; Ps. 89:19-37; Isa. 9:7; 16:5; Jer. 30:9; Ezek. 34:23-24; Hos. 3:5; Luke 1:32-33); but they weren’t faithful and again man fell short. No one was able to usher in the thousand-year Kingdom until Jesus Christ came and did it. He opened the Kingdom for all His people. One thing that will become clearer as we continue is that the Kingdom is present both on heaven and earth. The saints are seated in heaven with Christ (Eph. 2:6), yet with Christ they exercise rule and dominion on the earth (Rev. 2:26-27; 5:10; 11:15). Jesus said that his Kingdom was not from this world (John 18:36). This only means that the source of the authority is in heaven, not on earth, the Kingdom is still on the world and in the world but not of the world.
20:5-6 - The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This refers to the unrighteous that have died apart from Christ. John is not implying that this group will live after the thousand years. David Chilton, in Days of Vengeance, says, "St. John is concerned simply to tell us about the Millennium itself, and his phrase means nothing more than that the rest of the dead are excluded from life and dominion for the whole period."
John says this is the first resurrection. What does John mean by this? It is often missed by most Christians, but the idea of two resurrections is firmly rooted in Scripture. Jesus taught that the resurrection had come now (John 5:24- 25), yet He obviously wasn’t talking about the resurrection of believers at the Second Coming. He was inaugurating the Age of the Resurrection, in which believers are now to be participants. John says blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection; they are not resurrected but they are sharing in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul talked several times about sharing in Christ’s resurrection (Col. 2:12; Rom. 6:4; Eph. 2:5-6; cf. Col. 3:1). John, then, sees baptism as the moment of the first resurrection for the believers that will guarantee them the second resurrection, and the knowledge that the second death has no power over them. Those who have partaken in the first resurrection correspond with everything John has already told us about the saints: They are blessed (Rev. 1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 22:7, 14), holy, that is saints (Rev. 5:8; 8:3-4; 11:18; 13:7, 10; 14:12; 16:6; 17:6; 18:20, 24: 19:8; 20:9; 21:2, 10); the second death has no power over them (Rev. 2:11); and they are priests (Rev. 1:6; 5:10) who reign with Christ (Rev. 2:26-27; 3:21; 4:4; 11:15-16; 12:10). It is important to remember, then, that through baptism, we have already been resurrected to eternal life and rule with Christ now in the present age. This first resurrection is taking place now; Jesus is reigning now; and that means that the Millennium is now.
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