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Sermon preached on Revelation 20:1-10 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 06/01/2025 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
We continue this climactic section of Revelation where we are seeing the downfall of all our enemies. Babylon fell in Chapters 17-18. The beast and the false prophet were conquered last chapter. Today describes the fall of the dragon, Satan, that devilish serpent of old. Next time we’ll finish seeing the last of God’s enemies defeated.
Today’s passage divides cleanly into three main points. First, we’ll discuss verses 1-3 where we see Satan bound for a thousand years. Then we’ll discuss verses 4-6 which describe the blessedness of the first resurrection as those who reign with Christ for a thousand years. Third, we’ll discuss verses 7-10 which describe Satan being released after the thousand years where he will incite a final battle unto his own destruction.
We begin then with verses 1-3 and consider Satan’s binding. Let us remember that Revelation is full of recapitulation where various visions give us complementary pictures of the same timeframe. Here, the timeline again resets and we are drawn back to consider the period between Christ’s first and second comings. I discussed this timing in detail in Sunday School today, where I described the three main views of premillennial, postmillennial, and amillennial and advocated for the amillennial view. If you missed that, I encourage you to check the recording once it’s posted on our website. I will be presenting today’s sermon from the amillennial perspective which understands this vision to reset the timeline to roughly back to the events of chapters 12 and 13 where Satan was cast out of heaven and down to earth because of the work of Christ Jesus in his death, resurrection, and ascension. This passage then describes the period from then until the end of this age when Christ returns and ushers in the final judgment.
This vision begins with an angel come down from heaven with a key to the abyss, that bottomless pit. Back in chapter 9 that the fifth trumpet saw the abyss opened and a number of demons released that were like a plague of locust allowed to afflict unbelievers. Here instead, Satan is bound with a great chain and cast into this abyss, for a thousand years.
Remember back to chapter 12, the dragon was cast out of heaven down to earth because of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The dragon’s initial efforts were to try to afflict the woman and her offspring, in other words, the church and those who profess Christ. The dragon rose up the beast and the false prophet. Despite the dragon’s initial efforts to marshal these allies, now we see him bound and imprisoned in the abyss.
This action of Satan being bound was described by Jesus in Matthew 12:29. Speaking in parable Jesus said, “How can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.” Jesus came in his first coming to bind Satan so he could plunder from him those whom he held captive. Likewise, Jesus, speaking of the significance of his death, said in John 12:31, “Now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” Col 2:15 speaks of how Jesus disarmed the spiritual forces of this world and triumphed over them by his atoning sacrifice on the cross. Other passages could be cited the speak of how Jesus dealt an initial death blow to Satan by what he did on the cross. Revelation 20 helps us to understand that not only did that expel him from heaven, but there was even a way that it began to restrain his influence and hold on this world. 2 Thessalonians spoke similarly of a restraint that is in place right now, until that restraint is finally removed at the end.
Let me be clear, this is saying that apocalyptically, Satan is currently bound. He will be this way for a large period of time, symbolically described here as a thousand years, a time coinciding with this period between Christ’s first and second coming. Indeed, that time has now even exceeded a thousand years, showing that the number was symbolic, a fitting number to describe a long period in an apocalyptic vision.
It is usually asked at this point, how can Satan be bound when he clearly influences the beast and the false prophet during this age. How can Satan be bound when, in the words of 1 Peter 5:8, he is described as a roaring lion seeking to devour us? The answer is that Satan’s imprisonment is not an absolute binding of him. Rather the scope of his binding is very specifically told to us in verse 3. It doesn’t say he is bound completely. It says he is bound so that he might not deceive the nations any longer. You see, this is a major change that has happened between the Old and the New Testaments. In the Old Testament, Satan was not yet bound and he was in full force deceiving the Gentile nations. That is why so few of them came to know the Lord. But now in the New Testament, the strong man Satan is bound so that he can’t deceive the Gentile nations like he did before. That has opened the door for worldwide evangelism during this age. That allows us to bring the gospel to the nations and see a degree of conversion we never saw before. Indeed, we’ve seen in this “thousand year” period a great evangelism of the entire world.
But that doesn’t mean Satan doesn’t still have influence. He does influence the beast and its false prophet. He does tempt people. He is indeed a prowling dangerous lion. Even a lion on a chain can kill you if you get to close. By analogy, the Apostle Paul still did ministry from within prison, even writing and sending some of his epistles while himself bound. If Paul could still do wonderful things for the kingdom when bound, we are not surprised that Satan still can work a serious degree of evil while bound. The New Testament speaks of both facts, that Satan was conquered at the cross, yet he still tries to afflict us. That same dual truth is clearly found in Revelation as well.
A major application that comes from this first point is that this is the time for evangelism, far and wide. Since Satan is bound in this narrow sense, it means that there is now an avenue for the gospel to go boldly to all the world. Let us make the most of this time to give the testimony of Jesus to this world whose days are numbered.
Let us next turn to our second point and consider verses 4-6 and the blessedness of the first resurrection. Here, the scene changes and the vision shows us thrones. And there are people with authority to judge on those thrones. Surely, this is another glimpse into the heavenly throne room. We then see souls of deceased Christians. What I mean is that these souls that are seen are described as having given up their lives for Christ, having been beheaded in their testimony – remember this is an apocalyptic vision. These are the same souls, it says, who hadn’t worshiped the beast or received its mark. Now, while this might refer to just deceased Christians who literally gave their life for the faith, likely it’s a reference to all Christians who have died in the faith, as we are all witnesses for Jesus. John sees these souls here reigning and judging with Jesus.
These souls appear to describe the intermediate state for the Christian, what happens to a Christian after they die but before the end of this age when the bodily resurrection happens. These souls wonderfully participate in what is called here the “first resurrection”. This describes how Christians when they die, their soul goes to be with the Lord Jesus in heaven even while their body rests in the grave until the resurrection. Paul describes death as gain for the Christian in Philippians 1, saying that to depart and is to be with Christ. Or as he says in 2 Cor. 5, to be “at home in the body” is to be “away from the Lord”, and that “we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”
This blessed state of the first resurrection is something only Christians will experience, since verse 5 says that “the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.” This clearly refers to the non-Christians, in contrast to the believers who reign with Christ during the thousand years. Verses 11–15 clarify this by describing the great white throne judgment at the end of the age, when Death and Hades give up the dead in them. This portrays the bodily resurrection of all the remaining dead, who then stand before the judgment seat. The unbelievers “come to life” only in the sense of being raised bodily for final judgment, after which they are cast into the lake of fire, called the second death. Elsewhere in Scripture, we learn that unbelievers already experience conscious punishment in Hades (cf. Luke 16:23), but Revelation does not call this a resurrection. It is, rather, a continuation of their first death, with their final sentencing still to come. This unique glorification of believers at their death is explained with the beatitude of verse 6, “Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection!” We Christians, though we die, we find blessing, and we are holy, as those already exalted and beginning to reign with Jesus from on high.
That then is the other major part of this section in verses 4-7. It is not just about Christians going to be with Jesus when they die. Rather, it’s to recognize that Jesus is reigning during this age. This chapter doesn’t teach that one day in the future Jesus will start to reign and then reign for a period described here as a thousand years. Rather, this passage shows us that already, ever since his death and resurrection, Jesus has begun to reign as the Messiah Christ. That is what Jesus declared in Matthew 28, that in light of his victory at the cross, that “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” This is also what Phil. 2 says that after Jesus’ obedient death on the cross, “God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name”.
It has been asked, how is that we can affirm that Jesus is reigning when we look around and see so much opposition? Indeed, Revelation itself has shown the beast and Babylon exercising a lot of authority. If this interpretation is correct, that this thousand year time frame is symbolically representing the entire time between Christ’s first and second comings, then that would mean that Jesus is reigning at the same time as the beast and Babylon have already said to be reigning authorities. How can both be true? That question is often asked, but it is really a faulty question. Would we not say that God is still reigning on high even when the beast and Babylon exercise their authority? How then can’t the Messiah be reigning from on high, even in this situation? In fact, Psalm 110 explicitly teaches this. Psalm 110 says that the Messiah is to sit at God’s right hand until he makes his enemies his footstool. It goes on to say that the Messiah will reign in the midst of his enemies until then. Jesus began that when he ascended up into heaven and was seated at God’s right hand. Right now he reigns from the right hand of God, working to build his kingdom and take out all his enemies. Indeed, that is the very thing we are learning about in this section of Revelation. We’ve already seen how he will defeat Babylon and the beast and the false prophet. Today’s passage will go on to show how he will finally defeat the devil. Jesus indeed had been reigning from heaven ever since he ascended after his victory at the cross.
That leads us to transition to our third point to consider verses 7-10 on the release of Satan. When this symbolic period of a thousand years ends, Satan will be loosed from his prison for a little while. He will then lead one final effort to destroy the church of Jesus Christ. This is again describing the last battle. We’ve seen the last battle being revealed in Revelation now in several parallel accounts, describing some final climatic battle at the end, with the Christ coming to save the day. This further confirms that this passage is a recapitulation of the same history, because you have this thousand year timeline which then ends with another account of the last battle. In this case, the battle is called Gog and Magog which is a reference to the last battle description in Ezekiel. Yet, last chapter described the last battle by also referencing that Gog and Magog passage in Ezekiel, which confirms that the events in todays passage are parallel to the previous chapter and not chronologically subsequent. This battle here of Gog and Magog is the same battle as last chapter, and the same one back in chapter 17 that made war against the Lamb, and the same one back with the sixth bowl in the Battle of Armageddon, and so on.
So then, we are told again that after the long period of new covenant church history, there will be some final gathering of God’s enemies against the church. We learn a few important new details here. The last battle coincides with Satan’s release from his bondage. If that bondage meant he couldn’t deceive the Gentiles like he did before, this implies that at the end there will be one final great delusion. Presumably then no more conversions to Christianity will happen. This would be the time of the final strong delusion described in 2 Thessalonians 2. This will enable Satan to gather this final, evil army.
Notice how the army is described as like the sand of the sea. God promised to Abraham that his seed would be like the sand of the sea. It’s God’s people, the church, who are supposed to look like this. But this complements that unholy trinity we’ve seen with the dragon, beast, and false prophet. That counterfeit god will gather a counterfeit church to try destroy the one who is Faithful and True along with his people who hold to the truth.
Here, as this evil army surrounds the saints, we can recognize the apocalyptic imagery when it describes the saints as both like an army camp, and like the beloved city, i.e. the true Jerusalem. But when the battle presses against them, it is not the strength of the saints that wins the day, it is the divine fire that comes down from heaven. There is a time for fire from heaven and a time for no fire. This will be the time for fire to bring judgment on those who had followed the dragon into this battle.
Here, the devil is defeated finally, just as prophesied in Genesis 3:15. Do you understand that? This is the vision when Gensis 3:15 gets fulfilled in the full. Right now, Satan is bound and limited in what he can do. But, he still wields considerable power and is furious because he knows his time is short. Yet, here in verse 10 he is finally finished. His head is crushed and he is thrown into the lake of fire, Revelation’s way to describe Gehenna a.k.a. hell. This will be a place of eternal conscious punishment. There is no room here for the false teaching of annihilationism. The devil won’t just cease to exist. He will suffer a just punishment of torment eternally. Next chapter we’ll see this same fate awaits all who have not followed Jesus.
Trinity Presbyterian Church, I’ve hammered home through this series in Revelation the idea of complementary, parallel visions. That means that we get to see the same situation from different vantage points. For application purposes, let me summarize today’s differences from what we’ve studied recently. We had been seeing the dragon influencing and empowering the beast and false prophet to deceive people and persecute Christians – the church militant has to endure this. But today, we see that at the same time the dragon is also bound such that we can make genuine progress at converting souls from all the nations with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let’s not take this opportunity for granted by neglecting the call to evangelize.
Likewise, from the vantage point of the church triumphant this period of the saints reigning with Christ is described as a thousand years. From the vantage point of the church militant suffering under beastly persecution, the same time frame is described as just three and a half years. Both truths should encourage us. Right now we experience momentary affliction, but even when it gets its worst at the very end, Christ wins and so we win with Christ. Indeed, soon enough we will enjoy a lasting reign with Christ in glory. Let us have patience, encouragement, faith, hope, and perseverance while we await Christ’s return.
Indeed, it’s not just that one day Christ will be exalted. Already Christ is exalted, and he will be all the more at the end. And it’s not just that one day the devil will be defeated. Already he is substantially a defeated enemy, and his final demise will come soon enough. Hail Messiah Jesus, King of kings, and Lord of Lords.
Amen.
Copyright © 2025 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
