PENTECOST
3
June
8-10, 2024
Pastor
Timothy J. Spaude
Text:
Revelation 20:1-6
“CHRIST’S COMPLETE
CONTROL OF SATAN”
This is going to be hard for you young
people to understand but there was a time when you could only watch cartoons on
Saturday mornings. Most kids who could get away with it would get up early to
watch those once a week treats. As an adult you wonder why. They always ended
the same. Dick Dastardly would try his worst but in the end be forced to say,
“Curses, foiled again!” Wile e Coyote would always be caught in the traps he
set for the Roadrunner. Tweety and Sylvester. Popeye and Bluto. The list goes
on and on where the plot lines are the same. Good beats evil. And we loved it.
And there is a reason for this. But it goes beyond cartoons and movies. I’ve
told you before about my wife, Chris. She’s a cheater. When she gets a book,
she reads a few pages to see if it is interesting and then reads the last
chapter to make sure it turns out the way she wants. It’s unAmerican, but I
understand why she’s doing it. It gets worse. We like to watch Packer games but
don’t like watching commercials so most of the time we record them so we can
skip the commercials. Once we get started watching the recording all of the
sudden she has to go to the bathroom. And she goes upstairs and I’m thinking,
“Why is she doing that when we have a perfectly good bathroom downstairs about
20 feet away from the family room.” You know what she’s doing. She’s checking
the score real time to see if she wants to watch. It’s not funny. It’s mean. I
can tell from her body language and interest or lack thereof in the game how
it’s going to end. I don’t like it, but I understand why she does it. Good must
triumph over evil. That Packers must beat the Bears! But you know in one way or another we are all
like that. We all love a happy ending. There’s a reason for it. It’s part of
the natural knowledge of God. Ever since the Fall into sin in the garden of
Eden part of the natural knowledge of God tells people that there is evil and
there is good and they want good to win.
That’s why the book of Revelation is
such a wonderful part of the Bible. It’s the last book because almost every
picture or symbol used there has already been used by God earlier in the Bible.
It’s important to read Revelation the way God intended it to be read. How is
that? He tells us right away in the first verse of Revelation (1:1) “The
revelation from Jesus Christ that God gave him to show his servants the things
that must soon take place. Christ expressed this revelation by means of
symbols sent through his angel to his servant John.” In
Revelation God uses symbols and pictures to communicate truth. You are
reading it as intended then when you do not take pictures and numbers literally
but as a picture that communicates God’s truth. The second thing God said right
off the bat is this in Revelation 1:3 “Blessed is the one who reads the
words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and hold on to the
things written in it, because the time is near.” You are blessed, made
happy, when you read Revelation and hold to what it says. So if you read
Revelation and it makes you scared or unhappy, you are either reading it wrong
and need to reread verse 1 or you are a follower or Satan who should be scared.
You are no followers of Satan so let’s
see how a right reading of Revelation makes us blessed and happy! The Apostle
John who received the Revelation tells us, “Then I saw an angel coming down
from heaven. He had the key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand. 2 He
seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, bound him
for a thousand ears, 3 threw him into the abyss,
locked it, and set a seal on it, so that he could no longer deceive the nations
until the thousand years come to an end. After this he must be released for a
short time.” It’s a picture. What do you see? A great beast that would be
scary except it is chained. Controlled. No new pictures here. The Bible already
has identified Jesus as the Angel of the Lord who controls Satan and the abyss
as another name for Hell. The 1000 years is not a literal time period any more
than Satan is literally a dragon with a literal chain. It signifies a long but
already determined timeframe controlled by the Lord. It’s a picture designed to
give the Apostle John and every other believer until Jesus comes back comfort.
Christ is in complete control of Satan.
But what about when Satan seems to be
having his way? What about the times we know from history where Christians were
persecuted and many even killed for their faith? What about what we know is now
happening with in Nigeria and other parts of Africa where Christians are being
killed for their faith? What about when you live in a country where evil seems
to win? Back to the book that you are blessed when you read it! “Then I saw
thrones, and those who were sitting on them were given the authority to judge.
And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony
about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshipped the beast
and his image, and they did not receive his mark on their forehead and on their
hand. They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 (The
rest of the dead did not live until the thousand years came to an end.) This is
the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one
who has a share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over
them. Instead they will be priests of God and of Christ. And they will reign
with him for a thousand years.”
Remember. Pictures. Symbols. Nothing
new in the book of Revelation. The 1000 years is not a literal number but the
long time period from the time John received the revelation until Jesus comes
back. The beast is a picture of Satan. The mark of the beast is not literal.
What is it that signifies someone is following Satan? Rejection of Christ. That’s
the sign or mark of the Beast Satan. All of us who were originally dead in our
trespasses and sins and made alive in Christ as stated in Ephesians 2 know that
the first death is from sin and unbelief and the first resurrection is being
brought to faith and when that happens the second death at the end of your life
has no power over you. You don’t cease to exist. You are not separated from
God. You continue to live reigning with Jesus until He comes back at the end of
the world. And when that happens the second resurrection for believers will be
when Christ raises our mortal bodies and makes them like His glorious body and
the fun really begins. The meaning of this vision is clear, simple and
comforting. Christ is in complete control of Satan and everything else and He has
set the time when He says enough and blows this world up and makes everything
new. Until that time, He is in complete control over Satan and his followers.
They are chained, controlled, only allowed to do what the Lord will use for His
plans and for good. And even death is nothing to fear for the followers of
Christ.
And now look how we are blessed for
reading this! We know what’s going on. Satan is behind the evil in our world,
our country our homes. And no matter what he tries, like my dear wife, we have
peeked at the last chapter and we know what happens at the end. Jesus wins! So
Satan, try your worst. Mess up our country by blinding the minds of unbelievers
so that they take pride in defying God and parade their defiance for all to
see. Go ahead and twist people’s morality so that they call sin good and God’s
good evil. Trick them into thinking the kind of love that is permissiveness of
sin and tolerance of perversions is really love when it is actually a kind of
hate that keeps people from experiencing the true love of God. We may shake our
heads but we will not wring our hands because Jesus has you leashed and you’re
going to have to say “Curses! Foiled again!” Satan, try your worst and
persecute and murder believers around the world. Try it here. All you do is
start the reigning of God’s people early. And they rule over you! Satan, try
your worst, trick us into messing up our marriages or destroying our families, put
us through hardships, afflict our bodies with diseases like you did with Job,
we know what’s going to happen. Our Lord Jesus is going to string you up by
that leash he has you on and then make everything new for us.
Christ is in complete control of
Satan. This is good news God wants you to know so you can have comfort and
confidence no matter what you see or experience. He wants you to know this so
that you will stay faithful even to the point of death. So be faithful even
unto death and Jesus will give you the crown of life. Amen.
