Kings of New Jerusalem

Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth."

(Revelation 5:7-10)

As we have already mentioned, there are two main roles that the saints will perform in the New Jerusalem. The first is the role of a king, and the second is the role of a priest. In the above passage of Scripture, we see that our Lord Jesus has made us both kings and priests to God our Father. In this section, we will discuss our roles as kings in the age to come.

And He said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called 'benefactors.' But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves.

(Luke 22:25-27)

Many view what our Lord taught in the above passage of Scripture as pertaining to this life only. In other words, their viewpoint is that we are to serve in this life, but in the life to come, we will be served. This viewpoint is essentially correct but not entirely accurate. As we will see in this section, specifically with regard to the children of God, whom the saints will reign over in the age to come, our reigning will be more akin to shepherding them than exercising lordship over them.

So Jesus said to them, "Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

(Matthew 19:28)

In my book, The Millennial Kingdom, I highlighted the above truth that our Lord Jesus taught us: in the kingdom of God, our Lord will place certain saints over others to govern them. Clearly, in the above passage, we see that the twelve apostles of the Lamb will govern the Lord’s saints. This does not mean that each apostle will have 25 million saints reporting directly to them. Rather, in the kingdom of God, there will be a hierarchy of thrones, with each throne having authority over a portion of the kingdom of God. Our Lord Jesus, in teaching on this subject, mentioned that some of His saints will be placed in authority over ten cities, and some over five cities, and so on (Luke 19:17-19). Similarly, the saint who governs ten cities, for example, will themselves be governed by the saint who has authority over the nation in which those ten cities are located. Thus, the lesser saint will report to the greater, who will in turn report higher up, ultimately to Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of all.

Jerusalem is built As a city that is compact together, Where the tribes go up, The tribes of the Lord, To the Testimony of Israel, To give thanks to the name of the Lord. For thrones are set there for judgment, the thrones of the house of David.

(Psalms 122:3-5)

We do not know exactly how many thrones will be made available to the saints in the New Jerusalem, but it must be a substantial number, because Scripture teaches that all saints who endure in this life will reign with Christ in the age to come (2 Timothy 2:12). The above passage of Scripture reveals that thrones (plural) will be set in the heavenly city for the purpose of judgment or reigning. Clearly, it will be the saints living in the New Jerusalem who will occupy those thrones for the express purpose of governing the kingdom of God. However, we must also understand the nature of the thrones given to the saints in the age to come, for these thrones will be thrones of authority to be exercised outside the city walls, not within them. What does this mean? It means that the saints will not be sitting on their thrones in the city while the children of God line up in queues at the city gates to wait for their turn to approach the saints so that their various issues can be judged. To understand how the saints will reign on the earth, we can look to the old covenant as an example. Before Israel had kings, she had judges. Those judges were appointed by God, and they ministered to the children of Israel by travelling in circuits around Israel, judging various issues in the towns and villages as they went. Similarly, in the age to come, the saints will not sit on thrones waiting for the children of God to come to them; rather, they will go to their constituents, so to speak, to exercise judgment in their towns and villages. However, we must remember that righteousness will dwell in the new earth. Thus, there will be no disputes among men over which the saints will need to pronounce judgment to settle, for all mankind will live together in complete harmony.

He has declared to His people the power of His works, In giving them the heritage of the nations.

(Psalms 111:6)

Who will the saints reign over in the kingdom of God? As we have already mentioned, it will be the children of God, whom we discussed earlier, that will be governed by the saints of God. We stated previously that, from the outset, there will be a population of approximately 25 billion people inhabiting God’s new earth. The above passage of Scripture confirms this truth, for in it, the Holy Spirit tells us that the Lord has given the nations as a heritage to His saints. In other words, part of the inheritance of the saints is the thrones that will be given to them to govern God’s people in various geographic locations in the new earth. One of the smallest settlements on earth today is a hamlet, which contains a population of between 100 and 400 people. If we take the estimated population of the saints to be 300 million and the estimated population of the children of God to be 25 billion to start with, it would mean that the vast majority of the Lord’s saints will govern settlements no larger than a hamlet.

The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

(Acts 1:1-3)

The above passage of Scripture provides a brief summary of what our Lord did during the forty-day period after He was raised from the dead. During that time, our Lord appeared to the disciples on numerous occasions and spoke to them about things pertaining to the kingdom of God. In the same manner, in the age to come, the saints will visit their constituents frequently to talk to them about things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Thus, the saints will feed the children of God with the word of God, for man shall not live by bread alone but by every word of God (Luke 4:4).

I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking," says the Lord. "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, "That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.

(Jeremiah 23:4-5)

The above passage of Scripture confirms that the Lord’s saints will feed the children of God with the word of God in the age to come. Again, we see that the saints will be likened to shepherds looking after the Lord’s flock. Thus, from what we can see in Scripture, the reigning of the saints will not be dictatorial, as this world’s rulers reign, but rather in the form of being shepherds to God’s people. As an aside, from a practical viewpoint, we must remember that whereas the saints will be awake 24 hours every day, their constituents will be awake for only 12 of those hours. Thus, when the saints are not performing their priestly duties or shepherding duties, they will enjoy fellowship and share meals with the Lord Jesus and the other saints in the New Jerusalem.

Finally, I must mention the point raised earlier about the saints who forfeit their eternal inheritance because of their chosen lifestyle of sin in this current age. These saints will also not receive any crowns or thrones from the Lord and thus will not be eligible to reign with their fellow saints. In the same parable where the Lord taught about the servants who received authority over ten and five cities, there was also the unfaithful servant who received none.

Michael E.B. Maher

The End of the Age

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