Sermon Tone Analysis

The twentieth chapter of Revelation presents us with some curious puzzles.

Who was the angel that bound the devil and what was the great chain that he used to do this?

In fact, what does it mean for Satan to be bound?

How will the saints judge during the thousand years?

What is the first resurrection?

What is the second death?

These and many other questions surface as one studies this intriguing section of God’s Word.

It is my opinion that the interpretation of this chapter given by the Reverend J. Marcellus Kik in his book, /An Eschatology of Victory/, is simply unsurpassed.

A lot of what I have to say is based on his work.

!

The Binding of Satan

The first three verses of Revelation 20 describe the binding of Satan.

Assuming that most of Revelation will be fulfilled in the future, premillennialists say that the binding of Satan will occur at the second coming of the Lord.

They argue that evil would not be present in the world if the binding of Satan had already taken place.

However, there are four passages in the New Testament that teach unmistakably that Satan is already bound, that he has been judged and cast into the abyss.

All of this took place during, and because of, the earthly ministry of Christ.

We’ll begin with Luke 10:18.

The seventy disciples whom Jesus had sent out to preach the gospel came back amazed that even the demons were subject to them.

Jesus replied simply, /I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven/ — a past event.

Because Satan had already fallen, the disciples had authority to trample him and his cohorts into the dust.

Matthew 12:22-30 is also to the point.

After Jesus cast a demon out of a blind and mute demoniac, the Pharisees accused him of doing so by the power of the devil.

In response Jesus made several things clear.

First, no empire can withstand the kind and degree of internal division that would be necessary for Satan to cast out Satan (vv.

25–26) without destroying itself.

Second, if the exorcism of demons requires Satanic power, then the Pharisees also condemn themselves and those who followed them because they too practiced exorcisms (v.

27).

In fact, exorcisms were fairly common among the Jews in the first century.

Josephus, for example, tells about exorcists who used Solomon’s ring to pull demons out of a man through his nose (Antiq.

8.45–49).

Third, in light of this the only acceptable interpretation of a real exorcism is that it was done by the finger or Spirit of God, which would also mean that the kingdom of God was already present during Christ’s ministry (v.

28).

But before a kingdom can be established, its enemy must be restrained (v.

29).

Thus, the fact that Jesus cast out demons shows unmistakably that Satan had been bound beforehand — that is, prior to the events of Matthew 12.

He was bound prospectively during the wilderness temptation.

Later, at the cross he was bound climactically.

This also fits in with our third verse from the twelfth chapter of John.

Here Jesus prayed that the Father would glorify himself in the death of his Son.

The Father responded in an audible voice that those who stood by heard but apparently couldn’t understand.

Jesus explained that the voice spoke for their sakes, so that they might understand that the judgment of their generation was at hand.

He said, /Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out/ (John 12:31).

Note here that Jesus used the word /now/ twice to emphasize the imminence of this judgment.

In fact, it was so close at hand that he spoke of it in John 16:11 as if it had already happened.

He said, /The prince of this world is judged/ (κέκριται: the prefect tense is proleptic, i.e., emphasizing the certainty of a future fulfillment).

Just as important is what Jesus said next in John 12: /And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me/ (v.

32).

Here the word translated /be lifted up/ literally means to exalt, to raise in dignity and honor.

So, ultimately, the lifting up of Christ refers to the fact that he will reign over his kingdom at the Father’s right hand.

When he does so, he will draw all men to himself.

But in John’s gospel the word is even more specific.

It’s not just that Christ will reign, but that he comes to reign by being lifted up in death.

The death of Christ, then, marked his triumph over the devil, which then opened the way for the gospel to go out to all the nations.

Before we look at the last of the four verses that show that Satan is already bound, let’s compare this to Revelation 20:3.

John wrote that the binding of Satan means /that he should deceive the nations no more/.

Because Satan has been conquered, he can no longer keep the nations in darkness, as he had done before the Lord’s first advent, when it was mostly Jews who believed.

Now that he is bound and the nations are no longer under his unrestrained sway, King Jesus will draw unto himself people from every nation, tribe, kindred and tongue on the face of the earth.

The gospel will triumph.

And our last verse is Hebrews 2:14, which says that Christ assumed a complete human nature so that /through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil/.

The death of Christ rendered Satan’s sway ineffective.

From these passages, we can put together a sound interpretation of Revelation 20:1-3.

Here’s what we have:

1.

The angel that bound Satan was Christ himself.

In the Old Testament, Jesus sometimes appeared as the angel of the Lord.

This seems to be what we have here.

This view is confirmed, I believe, by the fact that he was declared to be the only one worthy to unseal the scrolls of judgment in chapter 5.

If he was the only one worthy to unseal the scrolls that unleashed God’s judgment on apostate Jerusalem, then how much more so is he the only one worthy to bind Satan and cast him into the bottomless pit for a thousand years.

2. The great chain that binds Satan is the work of Christ (his life and especially his sacrificial death), and the key to the bottomless pit is the gospel (cf.

Matt.

16:19).

There is no literal chain or key.

The binding of Satan is figurative.

Through the gospel of Christ’s victory, Satan is restrained.

3. Satan was bound in regard to his deception of the nations.

He can no longer prevent the advancement of the church throughout the world.

This does not mean that sin will cease in the millennium or that everything will eventually be made perfect.

To the contrary, the fact that Satan is able to muster an army for a final rebellion (vv.

7–9) shows that he still has some power.

It does mean, however, that the gospel will prevail in the hearts of everyone whom God the Father elected unto life and for whom God the Son gave his life.

4. John says that Satan will remain bound for a thousand years.

He has already been bound for two thousand.

This means that the number one thousand is also figurative and was chosen solely to indicate a very long period of time.

!

The Reign of the Saints

The next three verses describe what the saints are, and will be, doing during the period of Satan’s binding.

Kik says that the key to understanding these verses is the end of verse 5: /This is the first resurrection/.

Premillennialists have a very odd interpretation of these words, claiming that they describe the physical resurrection of believers only.

After believers rise from the dead, Christ and his saints rule in Jerusalem for a thousand years and then comes the resurrection of unbelievers.

Thus, they maintain that there will be two resurrections, separated from each other by a thousand years.

This interpretation, however, is not what the Bible teaches.

According to the Bible, when Jesus returns he will immediately resurrect all men (believers and unbelievers alike), judge them, and send them to their eternal destinies.

The following verses support the idea of a general resurrection of all men.

Daniel 12:2 — And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

And Acts 24:15 — And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.

In regard to Revelation 20, the general resurrection and judgment of all men actually takes place after our text in verses 12 and 13.

John wrote, /And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works/.

Now, if there is only one resurrection of the dead, and if that resurrection occurs later in this chapter, then the first resurrection must be something else.

The word /first/ does not endorse a theory of two bodily resurrections, but rather two kinds of resurrections.

That this is so can be seen in John 5, where Jesus described the two kinds of resurrection.

The first is in verse 25: /The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live/.

This cannot be a bodily resurrection for two reasons.

First, the hour of this resurrection has already arrived: it /now is/.

And second, it is also a conditional resurrection: only those who hear the voice of the Son of God will live.

The first resurrection is the resurrection of the soul to new life in Jesus Christ.

Adam’s sin brought death to all mankind.

Because he didn’t die physically at that moment, it is clear that his ‘death’ was primarily spiritual.

It was a break in the communion that he previously had with his Maker.