chapter 20, Revelation chapter 20.
And we are continuing with this series in Revelation,
but also this kind of a series within a series
on the end times, because as we've said,
pretty much every week, your understanding of the end times
greatly affects your understanding of the book of Revelation
and how you actually interpret it.
And so, I mean, if you kind of remember,
we were going through different views of end times
and stuff and we're trying to take everything
as it comes, right?
So we started with premillennialism
and dispensationalism and if this is a timeline, right?
We were saying, okay, according to dispensationalists,
what is the first thing that happens?
It was our first week that we covered.
The next cosmic event, it's gonna be the rapture, right?
Yeah, so remember believers, they're called up
and they meet Jesus in the sky
and then they're transported to heaven
and they stay there for the duration of the seven years,
right, of the tribulation.
That's what we talked about last week.
So this was the seven year trip
and we talked about that last week
and we were saying, you know,
I guess we cover it multiple weeks now,
but we were saying based on Daniel's 70 weeks prophecy
and we were trying to say, okay,
like how do we best make sense of that
and all that kind of stuff.
And if we're just still considering this view, right,
you've got the seven year tribulation,
but at the end of the tribulation, what happens?
What's the next thing in the timeline?
Anybody remember?
Yeah.
Yes, but Jesus returns, right?
Yeah, yeah, so Jesus returns
and he sets up the millennial kingdom here on earth
in that last 4,000 years, right?
Now, we're taking this in stride
and we're just trying to, again,
we're not saying this is necessarily right,
we're just looking at different views
and we're trying to take it in turn
and see what the Bible says, right?
So at the beginning of the millennium, something happens.
Jesus returns, but what else happens?
Got that answer too?
Satan's bound, exactly.
So the beginning of the millennium, Satan is bound.
And that is where we're gonna pick up this evening.
We're gonna talk about the binding of Satan.
So Revelation chapter 20,
and we're gonna look at verses one through three.
That's all we're gonna cover tonight.
So this is what the Bible says.
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven,
holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit
in a great chain.
And he sees the dragon, that ancient serpent,
who is the devil and Satan,
and bound him for a thousand years
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, all right?
So that's what we're talking about.
Pretty straightforward, it would seem.
And as we just said, dispensationless
and also historic premillennialists,
they would say after the tribulation
comes Jesus' return, the millennium,
and at that time, Satan is bound.
Now that's one view, all right?
Or I guess technically two views.
Dispensationalism, historic premillennialism.
But there's another view
that has to do with Satan being bound.
And we might not have ever heard of this one before.
Maybe you've encountered it.
Maybe you have some interaction with it.
But if we're looking at an alternative timeline,
and we were saying the 70th week
or the time of the tribulation
is the entire time period between Jesus' ascension
and Jesus' return,
and that time constitutes technically a millennium
or a long period of time,
well then they would say that Satan is bound sometime here
during Jesus' earthly ministry
or his resurrection, something like that.
And they would say that Satan is bound now
or back then, but continues to now
and is bound the entire time until Jesus' return.
Anybody ever encountered that view before?
Have you ever heard of it before?
Right, cool, I didn't think so.
So let's just see what the Bible says about that.
All right, so here's some key passages.
And I put key in quotations
because it literally is just passages about keys, right?
So did you notice there in verse one,
it said, I saw an angel coming down from heaven
and he's holding in his hand a what?
A key to the abyss or the bottomless pit.
Abyss, I do prefer the abyss here for the translation.
And this is a very big theme actually throughout Revelation.
So if we're gonna try, remember,
we're at the end of Revelation here.
And if we're gonna try to understand,
well, what does this key mean?
What does it refer to?
We should look at earlier uses of the key
and see what it relates to, right?
If you wanna understand the metaphor and the imagery here,
you need to see how John has been using it the whole time.
So the very first key passage I provided for you there
is Revelation chapter one, verses 17 through 18.
This is the very beginning of Revelation,
that first chapter, and this is what it says.
This is what it says.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead
but he laid his right hand on me saying,
so this is John, he's seeing Jesus.
And Jesus says, fear not, I am the first and the last.
I am the living one, I died and behold,
I am alive forevermore.
I have the keys of death and Hades.
So what does this mean?
Right, Jesus has the keys of death and Hades.
It's saying that Jesus is sovereign over death
and the realm of the dead.
Because remember, Hades in the Bible,
it refers to the realm of the dead.
So this is saying Jesus is sovereign over death
as well as the realm of the dead.
Now my question is why?
Why is he sovereign over that?
The Bible gave the answer right there by the way
in those verses.
Because he died but he is alive forevermore.
Jesus defeated death and so now he is sovereign over death
and the realm of the dead.
And this idea of sovereign power and authority
is actually connected to every one of those key passages.
So the next one occurs in Revelation 3.7.
And this is when he's addressing the church in Philadelphia.
And verse 7 says,
into the angel of the church in Philadelphia write,
the words of the holy one, the true one,
who has the key of David,
who opens and no one will shut
and who shuts and no one opens.
Now we're gonna have to get into this
when we actually go through the book verse by verse.
But this is actually a prophecy from Isaiah
that's being reiterated here.
But whenever the New Testament
is talking about David,
what is it normally associated with?
What are the key ideas and themes that come to your mind
when you hear David?
King and you're king of a kingdom.
Yeah, you're the king of a kingdom.
So in the New Testament when you hear David,
you think kingship, you think kingdom.
And also it relates to salvation
because Jesus is called the son of David, right?
And so this is saying that Jesus is sovereign
over salvation and the kingdom of God.
And that's what this is referring to here.
And so it's saying that Jesus is not just sovereign
over the dead and the realm of the dead and death itself,
but he is sovereign over spiritual life
that is imparted to others.
He is sovereign over salvation and the kingdom of God.
When Jesus opens the door to the kingdom,
no one's gonna shut it.
But when he shuts the door to the kingdom,
no one's gonna get it open again.
He's sovereign over all who enter, right?
And then you get this other one
in Revelation 9, 1 through 6.
Now y'all just hold on while we read this, okay?
Again, we will get through this verse by verse eventually,
so I'm not gonna get into too much details right now,
but Revelation 9, 1 through 6,
it says, in the fifth angel blew his trumpet
and I saw a star falling from heaven to earth.
And he was given the key to the shaft
of the bottomless pit or the abyss.
And he opened the shaft of the abyss
and from the shaft rose smoke,
like the smoke of a great furnace.
And the sun and the air were darkened
with the smoke from the shaft.
And then from the smoke came locusts on the earth
and they were given power,
like the power of scorpions of the earth.
And they were told not to harm the grass, the earth,
or any green plant or tree,
but only those people who do not have the seal of God
on their foreheads.
They were allowed to torment them for five months,
but not to kill them.
And their torment was like the torment of a scorpion
when it stings someone.
And in those days, people will seek death
and will not find it.
They will long to die, but death will flee from them.
Okay, so you see why Revelation is gonna be a fun book
to study verse by verse eventually,
and we will get there.
Cause there's a lot going on there,
but basically there's a lot of imagery here about judgment
and you can see the correlation between the plagues
that God put upon Egypt, right?
With the smoke and the locusts and all this kind of stuff.
So there's some cool stuff going on there.
But these are demonic powers.
It's a fallen angel who has the key to the abyss.
And what does he do?
He releases other demonic forces from that abyss
and they're wreaking havoc on the earth
and on the people of the earth except whom?
That's the key question.
Believers, right?
And so what this is saying is that Jesus has sovereign
authority to protect people from demonic forces, right?
If you're part of God's people,
you are gonna be protected by God from demonic forces.
He does not allow them to torment the believers
as he would the unbelievers here.
So this is a great reminder that Jesus has this
sovereign power to protect his people from demonic forces.
Now, we have all that in mind, right?
And we come back to Revelation chapter 20 and verse one
and we read that key again, right?
That there's this angel coming down
and he's holding the key to the abyss.
And so what is this telling us?
It's telling us that Jesus is sovereign
over the demonic realm and demonic forces.
Notice that's different, right?
In chapter nine, it was saying Jesus is sovereign
to protect his people from the demonic forces,
but this is telling us that Jesus has the authority
and the sovereign power over the demonic realm
and the demonic forces because that's what the abyss is, right?
It's the realm of demonic forces.
And so Jesus has that key,
he has the sovereign power over them.
And I want you to notice something else
that is really interesting about all these key passages.
Did you notice that they all take place
in reference to what they're talking about in this life,
in the church age, right?
Did you see that?
I mean, think back to chapter one.
Jesus holds the keys of death and Hades when?
Now, right now, he's the one who died,
but he's alive forevermore.
Does he hold those keys right now?
Yes, absolutely.
It's referring to now, not some future time.
Revelation three, seven, he holds the key of David when?
Now, is Jesus sovereign over salvation
in the kingdom of God right now?
Yes, of course he is.
Even chapter nine, remember,
it's talking about the fifth angel who's coming down,
this fifth angel that descends and all this kind of stuff.
Well, the fifth angel precedes the return of Christ.
Does he not?
And so what is this referring to?
It's referring to now, the time that takes place.
Right now, even Revelation 20 verse one,
is Jesus sovereign and does he have sovereign power
and authority over the demonic realm now?
Yeah, absolutely.
So it's interesting that all these key passages
in Revelation, if we're gonna study that imagery
and that metaphor, they all refer to the time period of now
and what's happening now, right?
So let's think about this.
Back to Revelation 20 verse one, the angel descends,
he's holding the key to the abyss.
We know that the key is associated
with Christ's sovereign power and authority,
but here's my question.
I don't have room to write.
What's the abyss?
I mean, some translations say bottomless pit,
other translations say abyss.
What is that?
Have any guesses, suggestions?
Okay, yeah, that's good.
Yeah, where some demonic forces are locked up.
Sometimes people will interchange this word for hell,
but I want you to understand that the abyss is not hell.
In Revelation, hell is referred to as what?
The lake of fire.
Right, that's the final eternal destination
of all unbelievers and demonic forces and demons
and all that kind of stuff, right?
So the lake of fire is hell.
The abyss is not hell.
In fact, the abyss refers to the spiritual demonic realm,
as Michael just said.
The abyss is this spiritual demonic realm
and it's interesting to think about this
because it's this spiritual dimension
where all the demonic beings and forces are,
but at the same time,
these beings are also simultaneously aware.
We're Satan today.
Walk it around.
Washington.
Oh no, there's a sermon in there somewhere,
but probably, probably.
So, but yeah, Satan is in the abyss
because it's the spiritual demonic realm, right?
But as you just said, he's also on earth.
How's that possible, right?
We need to think about this.
What's interesting is there's actually a parallel
to this type of place with regard to believers.
Anybody know what it would be?
The Bible refers to it as the heavenly places.
I want you to think about it like this, all right?
Listen to this, you can write this down.
I didn't put it on there.
Ephesians 2, 6 through 10.
This is what the Bible says.
Talking about Jesus and he raised us up
or it's God who raised us up with him, being Jesus,
and seated us with him in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus.
This is past tense.
This is saying post-salvation.
This is what God has done for you.
God raised you up and he seated you
in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus
so that in the coming ages, he might show
the immeasurable riches of his grace
and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace, you've been saved through faith.
What a great verse in the Bible.
And this is not your own doing.
It is the gift of God, not a result of work
so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus for what?
You know, for good works, right?
Which God prepared beforehand
that we should walk in them.
Where do those good works take place?
Here, right?
They take place here on earth.
And people see the grace that God has given us
and they experience the grace of God through us
and our good works.
But then the Bible also says,
we're seated in the heavenly places, right?
Isn't that an interesting concept
that we are simultaneously raised
and seated in the heavenly places
and yet we occupy earth?
It's this idea of heaven and earth meeting together.
And you can think back to the garden, right?
If this is the garden of Eden,
and the idea was that it was gonna be a meeting place
between God and man, right?
It was where heaven met earth.
And so heaven, God came down and met with man there.
And so the garden of Eden became this place
where heaven met earth and God and man met together.
Well, how does that happen in the New Testament
or the New Covenant?
Where do God and man meet each other?
And dwell in the Holy Spirit.
And that comes after salvation in Christ.
So Jesus, who is the true temple of God,
remember heaven has no temple, why?
Because you have God and you have the Lamb.
He's the true temple of God.
And so heaven comes down in Jesus
and we meet with God in Christ.
He becomes this temple for us.
And so that's how we are raised with Jesus
in the heavenly places.
We're simultaneously seated there
but we're walking on earth.
And so the heavenly places become this spiritual dimension
where believers are with Christ,
yet we still walk here on earth.
Well, the contrast to this,
because remember Satan can't create anything,
he just tries to do cheap knockoffs, right?
That's what you have with the abyss.
The abyss is where the spiritual demonic forces
meet with earth and they coexist in this area here.
And so you have the abyss.
It's not some metaphysical cloud in the sky place
or like dark just something place that doesn't exist
and you can't touch, it's a realm.
It's the realm of the demonic spiritual forces
but they still are walking here on earth.
And so this is really interesting concept
and you can even see that back in Revelation nine
when we were talking about how the angel comes down
and what does he do?
He opens the abyss and from the abyss,
they cause havoc on earth, right?
They're coming, they're in the abyss, out of the abyss.
They're dwelling in these places
simultaneously doing these things.
And so when you put these two images together
of the key and the abyss, it's saying that Jesus
has sovereign power and authority over the abyss,
the demonic realm, right?
And I want you to notice how this relates
to the verses that come after.
So look at verses two and three, right?
So Revelation 20 verses two and three.
And he sees the dragon, that ancient serpent
who is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years
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.
Now, in light of everything we just said,
when did we say every key passage takes place in Revelation?
Now, we gotta make sense of that somehow, right?
And so every, it takes place during the church age,
the entire time leaned up to Jesus' second coming.
And so if we're to be consistent in our interpretation,
we would have to at least consider the possibility
that Satan is bound during the church age,
since Jesus has the key over the abyss
and it always refers to the present time, church age.
So again, it might be not something
you have considered before, which is fine.
And so here's what we're gonna say.
Possibly if this interpretation is right,
it would be saying that Jesus has sovereign power
and authority to restrain Satan during the church age.
Does anyone disagree with that statement just on its face?
Would you agree Jesus has sovereign power
and authority to restrain Satan during this church age?
Yeah, okay.
Now, here's where we have to get to this important question.
It's one thing to say, well, this makes sense in Revelation,
but that's not the only book in the New Testament, is it?
So you have to ask, does the New Testament support
the possibility of this interpretation
that Satan is bound now?
That's what we'll consider.
Let's just look at a few passages together
and we'll do something really cool.
We'll just let the Bible speak for itself, okay?
So John chapter 12, verses 27 through 32.
This is Jesus talking and he says,
"'Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say?
"'Father, save me from this hour,
"'but for this purpose I have come to this hour.
"'Father, glorify your name,' and then this is awesome.
"'Then a voice came from heaven, I have glorified it,
"'and I will glorify it again.'
"'And the crowd that stood there and heard it said
"'that it had thundered, others said,
"'an angel has spoken to him.
"'Jesus answered, and he said,
"'this voice has come for your sake, not mine.
"'Now is the judgment of this world.
"'Now will the ruler of this world be cast out,
"'and I," this is great,
"'when I am lifted up from the earth,
"'will draw all people to myself.'"
Now, there's some important things to note there.
Notice how Jesus says the ruler of this world,
who's that referring to?
Satan says the ruler of this world will be cast out.
Now, what's interesting is that phrase,
I've got it in your notes there,
cast out is the exact same phrase as through
that occurs in Revelation 20 verse three,
where it says that the angel threw him into this pit,
it's the exact same phrase.
Jesus says Satan's gonna be thrown or cast out,
and Revelation 20 verse three says that the angel
threw or cast out Satan.
Same exact thing going on there.
And notice the connection there.
It's an important connection that we're gonna come back to
in just a little bit,
but it says Satan is cast out and Jesus is lifted up.
And notice this as a result of Jesus being lifted up.
What happens?
He draws all people to himself.
Right, that's gonna be important in just a few minutes.
So there's another passage here in Luke chapter 10
verses 17 through 20.
The 72 returned with joy saying,
"'Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.'
Meaning they had authority over the demons
and demonic forces.
And Jesus said to them,
"'I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven.
Behold, I've given you authority to tread on serpents
and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy
and nothing shall hurt you.
Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this,
that the spirits are subject to you,
but this is great,
but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.'"
That's a great word, just in and of itself.
But notice what Jesus is saying there.
He's saying that Satan and his kingdom,
his realm have taken a hit.
It is a fall, it happened like lightning.
And that Satan and his forces are subject to who?
Believers, those who have Christ,
those who have believed in Christ,
those who are indwelled by the Holy Spirit of God.
And so they're not able to do the things
that they always want to do
because believers have authority over them.
So there's a lot going on there.
There are some other passages I thought about including,
maybe you remember the time that Jesus was talking about
the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and people were saying,
well, you're casting out demons
because you are a demon and Jesus like that's ridiculous.
A demon can't cast out a demon,
a household divided against itself cannot stand.
And he says, you have to do something first
before you plunder a man's house.
What do you have to do?
You have to bind him up, right?
He says, Satan can't cast out demons,
it would be a contrary to his kingdom.
You have to bind him up.
But it surprised you that's the exact same word for bind
that's found in Revelation chapter 20.
Okay, so that's something to consider.
Didn't put it on there, something to consider.
All right, Colossians two, 15.
This is referring to Jesus.
He disarmed the rulers and authorities
and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.
And then Jude one, six says,
and the angels who did not stay
within their own position of authority,
but left their proper dwelling,
he has kept them in eternal chains,
gloomy, under gloomy darkness,
until the judgment of the great day.
Now, when you put these two verses together,
what do you get?
You see that it's saying that through Jesus's death
on the cross and his subsequent resurrection,
he disarmed the demonic rulers and authorities,
the principalities, the powers, he put them to open shame.
And not only that, it says that the angels that didn't obey,
the fallen angels have been kept up in eternal chains.
It's the same word for chain that's used of Satan
in Revelation 20 verse one,
where the angel had a key and a chain,
same exact word for chain there.
That's going on.
And they will remain bound in these chains
until judgment day.
So you have to ask a couple of very important questions
as you read these verses.
Number one is Satan, a fallen angel.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Emily Berryhill speaking, look at that, wow, okay.
Y'all are gonna have to really step it up
if she's the one answering.
All right, thanks Emily.
Yes, Satan is a fallen angel.
So my question is, does this verse in Jude apply to Satan?
Where it says that all these fallen angels
who did not obey have been kept in eternal chains
bound up until the day of judgment.
Would that apply to Satan?
Think of it, have to, if he truly is a fallen angel, right?
That he is a fallen angel who's bound up
in these chains and is kept there.
And so I think it has to apply to him.
And yet, do demonic forces have the ability
to persecute the church, cause harm to the church,
and try to thwart the efforts of the church?
Yeah, of course they do.
No one's denying that at all.
No one is saying that the kingdom of darkness
has nothing to do with the kingdom of light.
Of course, they're always persecuting God's kingdom.
They're always trying to do harm to God's people
and thwart God's efforts.
That's what they're always trying to do.
And so we see countless examples of this
throughout the New Testament, but the point is this,
whatever this binding in chains refers to,
it does not mean totally incapacitated.
Because the Bible clearly says here,
all these fallen angels are what?
They are bound up in eternal chains
and they are kept there until the day of judgment.
Can we all agree the Bible is true,
no matter what we think, right?
Yeah, so that is true.
Fallen angels, they are bound up in these eternal chains,
kept there until the day of judgment.
And yet, as we just said,
do demons actually move about and work and do harm on earth?
Yes, all the time, just read the stories in the gospels
about all the times the demons are up to no good.
Read the book of Acts and you see the sons of Sceva
and all these type of things.
Yes, it means that they're still at work.
So whatever bound up in chains means,
it does not mean totally incapacitated.
And so I want you to see this.
So Satan being bound does not mean
that he is totally incapacitated and unable to do anything.
And did you happen to notice
that the Bible never claimed that?
Did you notice that there was one specific purpose
for Satan being bound?
Look back there, you see it in verse, what is it?
Verse three.
So he's bound up, he's thrown into the abyss,
the pit, shut it, sealed it.
So that what?
He might not deceive the nations any longer.
That's the one reason that Satan is bound up.
His binding is specifically related to him
no longer being able to deceive the nations.
That's the respect in which he's bound up then.
And then look at this.
So it means that Satan no longer has the ability
to prevent the nations from believing the gospel.
Praise God for that.
And he has no ability to prevent the spread
of the gospel to the nations.
Praise God for that too.
And if you want further proof that this is
the entire reason he's bound,
just look ahead to verses seven and eight
in Revelation 20, this is what it says.
When the thousand years are ended,
Satan will be released from prison.
And what's the first thing he does
when he gets out of prison?
He'll come out to deceive the nations
that are at the four corners of the earth,
Gog and Magog to gather them for battle.
Their number is like the sand of the sea.
And so he is bound to prevent him from being able
to deceive the nations.
And when he's unbound, the very first thing he does
is he goes back to his favorite thing,
deceiving the nations.
And so you need to remember,
this is what Satan has been doing
ever since the beginning, right?
He's been actively deceiving the nations
from the beginning.
Just think about the people of Israel for a second.
God gave them a specific mission.
They were to be the lights to the Gentiles, right?
They're to be the lights to the Gentile world,
to show them that there is a God in heaven.
He is Yahweh to bring them into their community,
to show them the law of God
and how to live as the people of God.
That's what people of Israel were supposed to do.
Did the people of Israel do that?
No, they were constantly deceived by Satan.
Time and time again, they get saved by God out of Egypt.
Moses says, hey, I've got to go up on this mountain real quick.
I'll be back probably about 40 days.
What is the first thing they do?
I'll make another, I'll make a God for myself.
I've got a golden calf here.
We got a lot of gold from Egypt.
Let's just burn it down, fashion it into this thing.
And then you have Aaron,
who was actively part of Yahweh doing great things in Egypt,
going, this is your God who delivered you out of Egypt.
How do you believe that unless you're deceived
by Satan himself?
You look at the whole history of Israel.
It's just like that.
They go after false gods.
They make idols for themselves.
They're supposed to be this light to the world,
and yet they become a laughing stock to the world.
They get constantly captured by the world.
The nations mock them and go, where's your God now?
This, that, and the other.
Why? Because Satan deceived them.
Satan kept them from believing the truth.
And because he did that to the people of God,
he also kept the world from believing the truth.
Have you noticed how few missionaries
there are in the Old Testament?
I mean, you read about Jonah,
and there might be one other story in the Old Testament
about a person leaving Israel to go and reach a pagan nation.
You don't see a lot of missionary activity there, do you?
That's what they were supposed to do, but they didn't.
Satan deceived them, and he deceived the nations.
And yet, this is what's happening.
The Bible is saying, with Jesus' ministry,
and his death upon the cross,
and his resurrection, Satan is bound,
and he is no longer able to keep the nations
from believing the gospel,
and he's not able to stop the spread of the gospel.
You just look at the beginning of the church,
and you think it is impossible for this group of 12 people
to do anything meaningful with this message of a Messiah
and this thing that they're calling a church.
And here we are today at George's Creek Baptist Church.
How impossible does that seem?
12 people who were known by name,
who could have easily been killed by Rome
at any point in time,
who thinks that their mission is absolutely impossible,
and yet, what happened?
The nations believed the gospel spread,
the church prospered, and has been protected to this day.
Why? Because Satan cannot keep people
from believing the gospel anymore.
He cannot stop the spread of the gospel.
He can confuse people.
He can persecute the church.
He can have them believing all sorts of lies.
But when God encounters someone with the gospel
and the Holy Spirit convicts someone,
there is not a thing Satan can do
to keep that person from believing the gospel.
Amen?
And that's something I think we all should praise God about.
And think about it like this.
How much more does this make sense of Jesus' first words
to his disciples when he's resurrected?
It's our focus verse of the year, right?
Matthew 28, 18 through 20.
This is what the Bible says.
So Jesus has resurrected, he came,
and he sees his disciples.
And what does he say?
All authority, all authority in heaven and on earth
has been given to me.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you
and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.
Jesus is saying, I have the authority.
I have the authority over death and Hades.
I have the authority over salvation and the kingdom.
I have the authority over the demonic realm,
over the abyss.
I have all authority.
And because Jesus has all the authority
and he exercises that authority through his people,
he says to his people,
therefore go and make disciples of the nations.
Who's gonna stop you, church?
Satan can't do it anymore.
He cannot prevent the nations from believing the gospel.
He says, go and do what was previously hindered
and prevented because now no one can stop you.
No one can hinder you.
Satan will no longer deceive the nations.
They are mine.
The gospel will go forward and the kingdom will prevail.
That's a good message, is it not?
And so my question, can Satan and his demonic forces
still attack Christians and try to prevent the work of God
and persecute the people of God
and bring confusion and disorder?
Can he do that?
Yeah, and we see great examples of that all the time.
We see plenty of examples of it in our world.
We see Christians getting persecuted constantly.
We see churches that are being shut down
and they're just absolutely tearing themselves apart.
We see all sorts of confusion
and we know that God is not a God of confusion, right?
We see people believing all sorts of lies
and so believing this interpretation does not deny
that that is real and that is going on.
But what it says primarily is that, as I said before,
when God preaches his gospel through his people
under the power of the Holy Spirit
and the Holy Spirit convicts someone,
there is not a thing that Satan can do
to stop that person from believing.
He has no power to do that anymore.
He cannot stop that.
And the good news for the church is,
it means that our mission is possible.
Why can we go and make disciples of all nations?
It's not just because we have hope, we have a promise.
It's gonna happen.
It means that we don't have to worry.
No matter what Satan does and how he tries to attack us,
Jesus said that the gates of hell
will not prevail against his church.
It means that no matter what our governments try to do,
no matter what policies they put in place,
no matter how many churches they try to shut down
and what they try to make legal and illegal,
the church of Jesus Christ will continue until the end.
It means that nothing that Satan and his forces can do
can stop the kingdom of God from going forward,
can stop the gospel from going forward.
The church will prevail and Jesus will have the victory.
Praise God for that.
That gives me hope, especially when I'm going evangelizing.
I know that even if I'm not the wisest person
and even if I don't always know the right thing to say,
I know that there's nothing Satan can do in that moment
to prevent the person I'm talking to from believing.
If Jesus will come and the Holy Spirit will come
and convict that person, they're gonna believe.
There is a guarantee of success.
The Great Commission is possible
all because Jesus has triumphed.
He has won the victory.
He has bound Satan and Satan is not able to do
what he wants to do, which is keep people
from believing the gospel.
Now with that said, keep in mind,
and I'll end here almost right on time with you guys,
that there is coming a day when Jesus is gonna return,
but before then, it says that Satan has to be unbound
for a little bit, right?
It says before Jesus returns, Satan's gonna be unbound.
And the very first thing he does when he is unbound
is he goes back to prevent the nations
from believing the gospel.
He stops the spread of the gospel.
And what that should do to you, church, as it does to me,
is it means that we have a lot of work to do
and we have no idea how much time we have left.
Jesus could return at any second,
and I know that before then,
it means Satan's gonna be unbound.
So Satan and his demonic forces can be unbound
at any given time.
We don't know the day, we don't know the hour,
we don't know when it's gonna take place,
but when it does, it means that all of our efforts
are preaching and sharing the gospel
and trying to expand the kingdom of God,
we're gonna run up against the brick wall.
We need to get to work now, right?
We have work to do now and a mission to do now,
and we have a promise of success.
So this should inspire us.
We should be hopeful about this.
Even if you've never heard this interpretation before,
I hope you can see, if you're like,
okay, I wanna sit with it a little bit
and we consider it some more.
I hope you see, it is based on scripture
and what the New Testament says about all these key phrases
and helps us make sense of our mission as a church.
We can go and make disciples
because Jesus has authority over all things
and Satan cannot stop people from believing.
That's good news.
All right, any questions, any final thoughts?
Michael, you look here contemplating.
Someone could sculpt a statue out of your little,
your pose right there that you're doing.
I'm just gonna ask you a few questions.
So you think that's a theory?
Yeah.
I don't think that's a theory.
Well, so that's a good question.
Technically, every view of the end times
believes in some sort of rapture, right?
So this would be the dispensationalist view alone
that there's this unseen, secret type rapture
meet Jesus in the sky.
Historic premillennialism is kind of the same,
but it's a different view.
So historic premillennialism,
amillennialism and post-millennialism,
they would all say that the rapture
is Jesus coming halfway,
the church meeting him in the sky
in accordance with 2 Thessalonians chapter four,
which we discussed.
But then all of them would say
that then they escort Jesus back to the earth.
Because if you remember when we were talking
about 2 Thessalonians chapter four,
the Greek phrase that was used was used to describe
the Medi-King and then bringing him back to their city
as like a convoy, a parade.
And so premillennialists would say,
this is the rapture and then starts
the thousand year reign on earth.
Amillennialists would say that this is the rapture
and then here comes the resurrection
and then everybody goes back to heaven for the judgment.
So kind of everything all happens at once.
And then post-millennialism,
they're still getting it together about what they actually
believe and how to support it with scripture.
But basically some sort of version of this.
We might have a whole night devoted to post-millennialism
and the idea that things are always just gonna get better
and the whole world's gonna become Christians.
Oh, a lot worse.
Yeah, because people are believing lies,
but that's not the same thing as being unable
to believe the gospel.
You know what I mean?
You can believe a lie and that doesn't mean
that you don't have the ability to believe the gospel.
Satan has enticed people and it always goes back
to like the Thish analogy, right?
I always say Satan knows exactly what kind of bait
is gonna work on you.
So, you could never tempt me with something
that doesn't appeal to me, right?
If I've got season tickets to the Gamecocks
and I've got toilet paper at the house,
I don't need them.
So I'm just never gonna be tempted by that, right?
But I got season tickets to Clemson.
Okay, well that's a temptation.
That's something I might go for.
Well, Satan puts the bait out there.
He holds the temptation in front of us
and the problem is we like sin.
And so we go for it.
And so he knows what all these world leaders
and everybody else likes.
He puts that bait out there and then he just waits.
And he waits and you take the bait and he gets you.
So, anything else?