The End of Satan, Sin, and Death (Revelation 20)

Big Idea: God will ultimately defeat Satan, restore his people, and destroy evil and death.

When I went to seminary, I studied under a brilliant professor who originally lived in Indiana. As I got to know him, I found out the story of how he ended up teaching in Canada. He was part of a denomination that held a particular view of the chapter we just read. To pastor in that denomination, you had to agree with their view. The professor accepted a ministry assignment in Toronto, which let him adopt a different perspective. He joked that he came to Canada as a theological refugee.

He’s not the only one who faced this challenge. In fact, our church’s history is somewhat tied up in the debate over this passage. Twenty-five years ago, a pastor by the name of Paul Martin pastored a church on the west side of Toronto. He’d attended a school that held to a particular view of this chapter. He pastored in a denomination that held the same view. The issue was that Paul Martin changed his views, causing a disconnect with the church and denomination he served. This led to him beginning a church called Grace Fellowship Church, and a decade later, that church planted our church. We are here, indirectly, because of conflicting views over this passage.

This chapter has been the source of a lot of division and dispute over the past two thousand years. It is one of the most debated chapters among Christians, often causing intense disagreements over its interpretation.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Interpretations of the passage before us are not a matter of primary doctrine. We can offer charity to believers who understand the details of this passage differently than we do. As one theologian (Louis Berkhof) said, “The doctrine of the millennium has never yet been embodied in a single Confession, and therefore cannot be regarded as a dogma of the Church.”

Or, as R.C. Sproul once said, “I believe that when we get to heaven, we will find people there who held to all four millennial views—and they’ll all find out they were wrong about something!” So there’s room to disagree on this passage. I like what Ian Hales, pastor of one of our sister churches, says: “To divide over this is not a sign of biblical fidelity. It's a sign of spiritual immaturity.”

Three Views

That term “a thousand years” shows up six times in this passage. There are three major views of what this thousand years means. We could spend tons of time here, but let me give you just a brief overview.

There are three major views of how to interpret this text:

• Amillennialists believe that the thousand years are symbolic and are happening right now. Jesus is reigning right now spiritually through the church. Satan is bound, but not entirely powerless.
• Premillennialists believe Jesus will return to create a real thousand-year kingdom on earth before the new heaven and earth are established. There are two types of premillennialists: historic, the older view from the early church, and dispensationalism, a more recent and popular perspective from the last couple of hundred years.
• Postmillennialists believe the church will gradually change society, creating a peaceful and righteous golden age before Christ returns. This view sees the millennium as the culmination of Christian influence in the world.

How you understand the thousand years will make a difference in how you interpret this passage. My goal today, though, isn’t to resolve the thousand years as much as I would like to do that. If you want to sort that out, I’d recommend reading a book like Bryan Chapell’s Are We Living in the Last Days?, or a worksheet I developed a number of years ago.

We may interpret this text differently, but we can't ignore its message. We may disagree over some of the details, but every single one of us needs the message of this text. My goal is not to answer all questions about the thousand years in this sermon, but to demonstrate how this passage addresses our biggest issues.

Regardless of how you view the millennium, John’s purpose is to show God’s victory over our deepest needs.

The Problem with the World

This part of Revelation connects to themes from the beginning of the Bible. Genesis reveals the world's problems, while Revelation shows God's solution.

What is the problem with this world? Let me summarize the problem in three words: Satan, sin, and death.

• Satan — Satan shows up in Genesis 3 as the crafty serpent, humanity's great deceiver, and God's adversary. He uses manipulation and half-truths to drive humanity into rebellion against their Creator, setting the stage for ongoing deception, temptation, and destruction found in Scripture.
• Sin — Genesis 3 reveals how sin fractured our world. A single act damaged humanity’s relationship with God and poisoned human nature itself. The result was devastating: people became separated from God and struggled to maintain healthy relationships with each other. Like a deep wound in the human heart, sin left humanity spiritually broken and lost.
• Death — Death was not part of God’s original plan. Humans were made to live forever with God in paradise. Genesis shows that sin and death were unwanted invaders that disrupted God’s perfect creation. All of humanity is in danger of experiencing three kinds of death: spiritual death, physical death, and eternal death.

That’s what’s wrong with the world. In Genesis 3, Satan tricks humanity into sin, severing our relationship with God and bringing spiritual, physical, and eternal death into a creation intended for everlasting life with him.

What God Will Do

In Genesis 3, we’re introduced to Satan, sin, and death. In Revelation 20, we see the end of Satan, sin, and death. This chapter wants to show us what God will do to solve this world’s greatest problems. Three things:

God will defeat Satan.

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized 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. (20:1-3)

How did this whole mess start? It started with Satan deceiving humanity, and since then he’s been at war with God and with us. How does God respond to this? By imprisoning Satan. In this passage, Satan is thrown imprisoned and given a thousand-year sentence. For as long as Satan is imprisoned, for this thousand-year sentence, he’s not able to deceive the nations anymore.

What does this mean? Regardless of which view you hold, this passage teaches that your greatest enemy will be imprisoned and restrained. The cosmic enemy described in Revelation 12:9 as "that ancient serpent, the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world" will be bound and made powerless. For believers who have faced spiritual warfare, this divine promise of Satan's complete restraint is very good news.

Satan's power has definite limits. Our formidable adversary will ultimately be locked up and rendered powerless. As biblical scholar Jim Hamilton powerfully notes: "After long years and bitter conflicts across two Testaments and all of church history, the enemy of God and his people is finally seized. And he cannot break the angel's hold." This resolution to one of humanity's most ancient spiritual struggles offers profound hope to believers throughout the ages.

And that’s not all. If you look at verses 7 to 10, there’s even better news.

And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will 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 they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Revelation 20 connects to Ezekiel 38-39, depicting a final global rebellion against God and His people. Nations gather for battle, but a heavenly fire quickly consumes them. Satan's final destiny is to be thrown into the lake of fire with the beast and the false prophet. Their punishment is explicitly described: “They will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (20:10). This eternal sentence reflects the magnitude of their crime against an infinite God.

Your great enemy will be defeated. Satan has already been defeated at the cross, but he will be imprisoned and ultimately banished. That’s the first thing God will do. God will imprison and ultimately defeat Satan. Here’s the second:

God will restore his people.

God created humanity in his image to exercise dominion (Genesis 1:26-28). We were made to be royal priests, to rule the world on behalf of God. But sin got in the way, and after Genesis 3, we’ve been unable to fully carry out this mandate.

But now, with Satan locked up, God does something amazing. In verse 4, John sees thrones. In verse 4, he sees:

…the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

Verse 6 says, “they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.”

What is John recording here? People who were beheaded for their faith in Jesus are resurrected and reign with Christ in heaven. They will experience the joys Adam and Eve had in Genesis 2, which we have lost since sin entered the world in Genesis 3.

You were made to be kings and queens, ruling and reigning. Sin has robbed us of fulfilling this role as we should. But sin won’t have the final word. This group of people will reign with Christ.

And here’s the thing: Other Scriptures like 2 Timothy 2:12 and Revelation 3:21 and Revelation 5:10 teach that if you’re in Jesus, you will reign with Christ too.

Satan will be imprisoned. We are kings and queens in Christ, and we will one day reign with Christ as we were meant to do. We will sit on thrones alongside our Savior.

God will defeat Satan and restore his people to who they were meant to be. There’s one more thing God will do.

God will destroy evil and death.

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (20:11-15)

This last section describes the judgment of the dead. The earth and heavens flee. The dead are summoned before the throne to be judged. God renders righteous judgment. The wicked—those whose names are not in the book of life—are sentenced to eternal, conscious torment. It's a scary day for those without Jesus, emphasizing the need to understand God's grace and his wish for everyone to seek him while there's still time.

But it’s not all bad. Look again at verse 14: death and Hades are also thrown into the lake of fire. Death itself dies in the end. Death will die. What an end.

The main message is straightforward: the enemies of humanity—Satan, sin, and death—from Genesis 3 will be defeated as God restores his people to glory.

This morning, remember that God will defeat Satan, restore His people, and eliminate evil and death.

For those who haven't embraced Christ: Where do you stand with God? The invitation remains open, but time is limited. Turn to Jesus now for forgiveness and eternal life; he won't reject anyone who comes to him.

If you have trusted Jesus, there is very good news for you. God will ultimately defeat Satan, restore his people, and destroy evil and death. Regardless of how intense spiritual battles may appear today, victory in Christ is assured. Live with courage and faith, knowing that even when evil seems to triumph, God has already ordained the ultimate victory.