Our Great God: the Consummation of the Ages (Part One)

Our Great God

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church

January 25, 2026

Our Great God: the Consummation of the Ages Part One

Psalm 92 says it’s a good thing to give thanks to the Lord. It’s also a good thing to reflect now and again on the greatness of God. That’s what we’ve been doing the past several weeks, considering the greatness of our God in creation, is salvation, and this week (and next) we’re looking at the greatness of God that will be displayed in the consummation of the ages.

I wonder how many in this room have ever heard a message on the consummation of the ages. It’s not a subject that is preached or taught all that often but the Bible speaks about it a lot, both Old Testament and New Testament.

This isn’t going to be a message about the last days. I’ve done a couple of series on the last days but this will be different. Consummation doesn’t mean end, it means completion or fulfillment. The consummation of the ages refers to the fulfillment of all God’s plans and purposes in this age, the age that began with Adam and Eve and comes to completion in the last chapters of Revelation.

It’s important to us because it lays out a glorious vista of our future as believers in Christ. Looking at the world around us can feel pretty bleak, but the Bible paints a glorious sunrise of forever future that nothing can corrupt or destroy. Paul says the future God has prepared for us will be so amazing it will dwarf every trial and hardship.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Rom. 8:18

Nothing gives us strength for today like having a bright and promising future! Pray.

The consummation of the ages will unfold in four big stages.

1. The visible return of Jesus to earth
2. The Millenium reign
3. Judgement Day
4. The renewal of heaven and earth

We’ll get to the first two today and the last two next week. I know that there are different viewpoints about some of these things and I am going to try to spend most of my time focusing on what most believers agree on.

1. The visible return of Jesus Christ to earth

All believers believe that Jesus is going to return to earth visibly and in power. Jesus said in Matt 24:

“So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. ²⁷ For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be

the coming of the Son of Man. Matt. 24:26-27

If someone tells you, “Jesus has returned! He’s teaching on a little commune in Arizona!” or “there’s a guy who says he’s Jesus and he’s going to be speaking at a rally, let’s go check it out!” you can know that’s not Jesus. When Jesus returns it will be visible to all and everyone will know it’s Jesus. Listen to what Jesus says about that day just a few verses later:

²⁹ “Immediately after the distress of those days “‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’

³⁰ “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. ³¹ And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. Matt 24:29-31

I don’t how exactly but on that day all the world will know and see that Jesus has returned. The first time he came he came in quiet obscurity in the weakness of a baby. When he returns he will come in the clouds with power and great glory.

Some Christians believe in a pre-trib secret rapture. That’s what I believed when I first became a Christian – in fact that teaching had a big part in opening my heart to Jesus. I have since more post-trib, but whenever Jesus returns for his church, we want to be ready and watching!

His return is the beginning of the consummation of the ages – the world as we have known it will never be the same again. The next stage of the consummation in my view is what’s called the Millenium.

2. The Millenium

Here I need to ask my amillenium friends to bear with me. I thought about passing over this and going right to judgement day, but in the end I felt that, at least from my view, would miss a significant stage in the consummation of the ages. So I am going to share my current understanding of what the Millenium is freely admitting that my understanding may be wrong. We can all heartily agree that Christ ruling and reigning in heaven right now and that his Lordship is advancing over the earth one soul at a time as people hear the gospel and believe in Jesus.

The word Millenium refers to a thousand year period (whether literal or prophetic language describing a long period of time) when Christ reigns over the earth. The clearest verse is found in Rev. 20 but first we need to know the context of chapter 19. John sees Jesus returning on a white horse, defeating the antichrist and his armies, and ruling over the nations with an iron scepter.

20 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. ² And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, ³ and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.

⁴ Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped 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 for 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. ⁶ Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years. Rev. 20:1-6

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command, there was a seismic shift from God being their King to them being their own king. All our problems come from rejecting God’s rule over our lives because we want to rule over our own lives. When we come to Jesus in faith, we are coming to him not only as our Savior but as our Lord, submitting our lives to his Lordship once again. That is the work of the Holy Spirit within us.

But one day Jesus will return to the earth (second coming) and destroy all those who actively hate and oppose him and resurrect all those who died believing in Jesus. The clearest reading seems to me that then Jesus sets up his kingdom over the remaining peoples in all the nations of the world. This weary world that has been under the power of the kingdom of darkness for thousands of years will experience the gracious, wise, and just rule of King Jesus.

It will be the fulfillment of Rev. 11:15 that says, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”

But who is Jesus ruling over? And who are those believers who were resurrected when he returned ruling over? Rev 2:26-27 says, ²⁶ To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— ²⁷ that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father. Rev. 2:26-27

Reign and rule over who? I suggest that Jesus and glorified believers will reign over the nations left after Jesus’ return. The Millenium is a period of time when Jesus will reign over a much improved but not yet recreated or perfected earth. Non-glorified people will still die, but as Isa says, if someone dies at the age of a hundred they will be considered to have died as a child.

The earth currently has over 8 billion people. When Jesus returns there will be billions of people living on the earth. Those who hate and oppose him he will dash like pottery but he will rule over the nations with an iron scepter. The power of God will restore the earth to some of its original state but non-glorified people still sin and will still need to die. And they would still need to either believe in Jesus for

salvation or reject Jesus and die in their sin.

I believe during this time the presence and wisdom of Jesus and glorified believers as well as the removal of the devil will cause many – probably most – to believe in Jesus and be saved. But sin is irrational and even in the midst of irrefutable proof and evidence, when Satan is released there will be some who follow him in rebellion against Jesus. That rebellion will be put down quickly and the next stage to follow is the day of judgment.

There is much more that could be said, and those who hold to other interpretations could also share their points, but what we can all agree on is that the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and he shall reign forever and ever, amen!

Finally I want to briefly consider what John calls the “first resurrection”. This indicates a period of time between when believers are raised up from the grave in glorified bodies and when unbelievers are resurrected to everlasting shame. We see that as well in 1 Thess.

¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words. 1 Thess. 4:16-18

This is our “blessed hope”. The moment a believer dies, they are with Jesus. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. But at the first resurrection all those who died in Christ will be reunited with their bodies, thankfully glorified and much improved!

If you walk through a graveyard and see the gravestones, it seems so final. I conducted a funeral last week for a dear woman who visited us just last month. Death feels so final. But the Bible says the day is coming when the dead, like Lazarus, will hear Jesus’ voice and will burst out of their graves in glorified, immortal bodies that won’t get tired or hungry or sick or die. They’ll rise to Jesus first and then those who are alive at his coming will put on immortality and so we will be with the Lord forever.

Nothing can encourage us more than the hope of the resurrection and being with Jesus forever. Let’s encourage one another with these words.