Reigning with Christ | Revelation 20:1-6 | The Bound Enemy and the Reigning King

In Revelation 20, John sees two striking images: a bound enemy and a reigning King. Pastor Mark Groen unpacks this passage to show that Satan’s restraint and Christ’s reign are not future hopes but present realities. The leash of the enemy is in God’s hand, and the throne is occupied.

This message calls believers to live with steady confidence, knowing that the chaos of the world does not dethrone our Savior. Jesus reigns now—and those united to Him share in that reign.

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Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon from First Reformed Church in Edgerton, Minnesota. Each week we dig into God's word, trusting that the Holy Spirit will continue the good work of sanctification in us. Have you ever been out on a walk and everything is peaceful, you're enjoying the weather, everything is good, and suddenly you see a dog coming at you. And I'm not talking a little yappy dog that might kind of scratch your ankles.

I'm talking about a big one. A big, scary, drooling canine that causes fear to rise up in you. In that moment, the animal coming at you might as well be a monster, right? Because in a millisecond, scores of thoughts race through your mind on how to protect yourself, and then suddenly, the barking beast comes to a stop, because they've come to the end of their leash.

The dog is ferocious, but the one who controls him has limited and restrained this animal. Now, in a sense, an experience like that captures the essence of what Revelation 20 is showing us about Satan. He is dangerous. He is loud.

He's intent on destruction. But he's chained. He's bound. The risen and victorious Christ has bound him.

He can snarl. He can threaten. But he cannot overcome the gospel, and he cannot snatch away those who belong to Jesus. That's the picture given to us this morning in this passage as we come to Revelation 20.

And we see this idea of restraint right away in these first three verses here. The image given for us is one that fully displays the absolute power of God over the evil that we have seen displayed for us in Revelation. We often think of the conflict between God and Satan as a conflict between two adversarial powers that are equal. Well, we don't really believe that they're equal.

God's got the edge. Good will prevail in the end, but I think we're prone to ascribing way more power in this battle to Satan than he actually has. Because this angel that we see here comes down from heaven and he has the keys to the bottomless pit and a chain. Now this is not Jesus on the white horse that we saw at the end of chapter 19.

He's not the one coming to bind the dragon. And it isn't God the Father himself achieving this restraint either. Notice it's an angel. It's a messenger.

Someone who has come from God to do this. And also notice it isn't a negotiation. The angel isn't coming to have a meeting, to work out a peace treaty here. The angel comes to bind the dragon.

And notice, there isn't a battle described for us here either. The angel just seizes the dragon. Now if we were to imagine an angel in conflict with a dragon, I'm pretty sure our minds would have something pretty dramatic. We would come up with something very spectacular.

My mind immediately goes to some sort of conflict, like it's at the end of a superhero movie. Trading blows, back and forth, lots of explosions. It's touch and go, you're wondering who's going to win. You have this confidence that the hero is going to win, but you're a little nervous about it, right?

And of course, my mind imagines all of these back and forth blows happening in slow motion. But John doesn't tell us about a fight. At all. There's no resistance.

There's no back and forth struggle. The angel seizes the dragon. And this lets us know who is in control. There is no battle.

Because Christ has the victory. He is the one who's in control. And here John makes sure that we understand who the dragon is by ascribing multiple titles to him. The seized one, as we see here, is the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan.

We can't mistake this dragon for some other enemy. This is not some random adversary. This is the adversary. This is the one who tempted our first parents.

This is the one who caused all the disaster when our first parents, Adam and Eve, were plunged into sin. Not a random adversary, the adversary. And thus far, this chapter, what we've looked at, has unfolded very clearly. But when we move from the binding and who is bound to how long this lasts, we end up looking at arguably a few words that are among the most discussed words in the book of Revelation.

Who would think that this phrase here, for a thousand years, would cause contention? Well, the issue comes not only with the amount of time, but also with the timing of this thousand year reign. Now when it was suggested to me that we work through Revelation, this was the passage that made me nervous. Because it's quite complicated.

All these differences of views on the millennium. And I'm not gonna lie, this was the hardest week of preparing a sermon I've ever had. Trying to make this as concise and practical as I can. We'll see if I did a good job or not.

But throughout history, there have been three main interpretations of these thousand years, and my goal here is to try and keep it simple, as I said, because ultimately what we want to do is we want to focus on the reign and rule of Christ. But so much of the discussion on Revelation centers on these few words that I can't just slide by without talking about it. So, as I said, there are three interpretations, and we're gonna keep it to that narrow scope and not move to various understandings within those three interpretations. So, the first approach is the premillennial view.

In other words, before 1,000 years. And in this understanding, Christ returns, he binds Satan, and then reigns on the earth for 1,000 years. And this binding of Satan takes place when he returns, and then there is a 1,000 year period of unprecedented righteousness and peace because Christ is reigning over an earthly kingdom. And like the other views that we're gonna look at here, it has been held by faithful Christians throughout history.

But many in the early church, and in other eras of a lot of persecution, they've held this view, and looked to it in a way in which Jesus would vindicate their suffering with a reign of a thousand years between his return and the final judgment. And so the early church under persecution and later eras had this as an idea that this is how they understand this and it gave them a sense of peace because all of their suffering was going to be rewarded. Now then, the second view that we'll mention today is called the amillennial view.

Now those who hold this view do not see that this thousand years is a literal period of time. In other words, it's not 365 days 1,000 times as you go around the Sun. The number 1,000 in scripture is often used to express the idea of abundance. So the best way to understand this is when scripture says in the Psalter, God owns the cattle on 1,000 hills, the psalmist isn't suggesting that the 1,001st hill isn't owned by God, right?

The idea of 1,000 is a lot, it's an abundance. So considering the majority of Revelation is symbolic and employs heavy imagery, the idea is that this is a symbol of a very long period of time. But, in this view, it also is the idea that this reign of Christ is taking place now. Satan is bound, Christ is reigning in his ascension over all the earth at the right hand of the Father, and this reign will end when Jesus returns at the end of history to judge the living and the dead.

So the big idea with this view isn't that it's describing a future era after Christ's coming, but interpreting what His resurrection and what His ascension have already accomplished as a symbolic picture of His present reign at the right hand of the Father. Then finally, we have the postmillennial view. So in this view, they have a symbolic view of the thousand years as well. It is in a period, once again, of 365 days, 1,000 times.

It's seen as a long period of time, but because it's called postmillennial, in this view they have a positive view of the culmination of history. In this view, the thousand years pictures a long period of time of the gospel advancing and increasing its influence among the nations, that Christ has this great influence, and when it comes to a certain point, this will culminate with His return. So it's a positive view of history, and Christ returns at the end of this period, because the Gospel has gone forth and advanced. Now in each of these views, as I said, there's variations.

All three of these understandings have had periods where they're more popular than others. And as I said, there's much debate about this. And when that is the case, strong opinions abound. Unfortunately, this distracts us and can cause us to miss out on the big point of the text.

When we avoid getting bogged down in speculation and debates, what we can do is we can find common ground between these different ideas. And that is that Satan is bound and that Christ reigns. That's the important thing. But before we move on to consider what this means for us, we need to take a note here that this doesn't end with the binding here.

It says Satan must be released for a little while. So take note of that word must. It's a reminder for us that this will happen because God ordains it. It won't be because Satan figures out a way out of his chains, or because a guard guarding Satan as he's bound falls asleep and Satan gets out.

Nope. This release is not a hiccup in God's plan where he has to adapt. It's a part of God's plan. The restraint is a part of God's plan, and so is the brief release.

Because, as we will see next week, it leads up to the final and complete defeat of Satan in verse 10. And so the idea here is that there's this leash that restrains Satan, and it is in the hands of the sovereign Lord who ordains history for His good purposes. Now I know that these three verses have been a lot to digest.

But that idea of Satan's restraint and Christ's reign and God's ordaining it all is the big point. That's what we've got to make sure we don't miss. But now our view is going to change a bit as we move on to the next three verses. The camera had zoomed in on Satan and the pit.

But now the camera is coming out and it's panning around. And it's moving over to the throne. And so our focus shifts from the bound adversary to God and to the saints who are reigning with Christ. And this scene change here is a dramatic one.

The pit fades away, and now we return to the throne room of heaven, from restraint to reign. The contrast here is dramatic. Not only in the setting, but in showing us the power of the Holy One. He is victorious.

And we are also shown in these verses, vindication. Throughout the book of Revelation, we have seen the suffering of the believers who are being persecuted for the name of Jesus. In the face of pressure that we can't even begin to comprehend, these brothers and sisters of ours remained faithful. They were beheaded because they wouldn't worship the beast or its image.

They refused the mark on their foreheads and on their hands. And they endured all of this because they trusted in the promises of God. They believed that Jesus was the true King, and the false god presented to them by the state, while powerful over their earthly lives, Caesar and the Roman state could crush them if they wanted to.

Even though the gods of this world had power, they trusted in the power of the ultimate God of history. They did all this. They trusted that the God who holds their eternal destiny was more important to be faithful to than saying, Caesar is Lord. They clung to Him instead of the things of this world.

That's who's being described to us here. And as vindication for their ordeal, John tells us, that they are now sharing in the reign of Christ. They come to life and they reign with Him. Now, once again, we get a little bit into the weeds here because there's different ways to understand this.

I don't want to get too bogged down once again, so we're going to move quickly. But some people believe that their resurrection here is speaking of a physical resurrection for those who are mentioned. Others see this as being a resurrection to life in heaven. So this first resurrection is a preliminary resurrection prior to a physical resurrection of the body at the end of history.

So, the reason behind this thinking is that John doesn't speak about the reign of Christ here as something in the distant future. He talks about it as something that is happening now. The idea expressed by John here is that all that's happening here is presently true. Why?

Because Christ is victorious. Because He has resurrected and He now has ascended to the right hand of the Father. Those that John sees here in this vision are those believers in the early church who were in Christ when they died. They are the believers who have gone before us and now they live and they reign with Christ.

And so the image of thrones and of saints here who are reigning with Jesus is meant to give us comfort and courage. While we believe that Christ will return to judge the living and the dead, we wait for that moment, assured that He is presently reigning now as our ascended King. You see, when John was writing down these visions here, these words that he wrote in Revelation, they were going to Christians who needed to hear this badly. They were under terrible persecution.

Their family, their friends had suffered death because they refused to bow the knee to the state and to the religious leaders of the time. They were under awful persecution. And they needed to know that those family members, those friends of theirs, their brothers and sisters in Christ who were martyred during these trials, they needed to know that they weren't forgotten and that they, as they were suffering, weren't forgotten either. And so John writes this down.

This vision is given to him for the purpose that they would know that these who had suffered have eternal life and they are presently reigning with Christ. And this right here, this idea here, is where this difficult passage needs to hit home for us today. The suffering that we see in our world, it doesn't mean defeat. We get down about the state of the world very easily.

Naturally. While we feel like the world is in a downward spiral of continual descent, and this world is continually bent towards evil, this does not mean that it is out of control. It does not mean that Christ is not presently reigning as our King, and that those who have been united to Him will not share in that reign.

Christ is on His throne. Regardless of what our eyes see, or our ears hear, or our hearts feel, He is there. And while the theological discussion surrounding this passage can cause our eyes to glaze over, because we just think these are academic debates, the overall idea of the passage is so unbelievably practical for us as believers. Because we feel as though our world is out of control, but it's not.

Our King is reigning. Just because we see rebellion against Him in the world, doesn't mean that He isn't on His throne. Just because people refuse to call Him King, doesn't mean that He isn't King. He is.

So when the headlines make us anxious, or the world feels hostile to us as Christians, remember that Satan is bound and restrained, that God is in control. The throne is occupied, and He will never be unseated from it. So what does this look like for you in your life right now?

How do these first few verses of Revelation 20 hit home for us? It means that when the noise of the world is overwhelming, you don't need to join in the panic. When sin seems to prevail, you don't have to descend into despair. You can stand firm because your Savior is seated.

He is at the right hand of the Father. His throne isn't empty. The throne in heaven isn't empty waiting for Him to take a place someday later as King. He is King now.

Jesus reigns now. And what this means is that while you pray for your children, while you share your faith with someone, while you offer forgiveness to someone who has wronged you, while you keep on worshiping when the world tells you it is foolishness, you are living as one who knows that you have a King in heaven. Your life as a believer is a witness to the reign of Christ.

Your life as a believer is a witness that you trust in the sovereignty of your God who loves you. The God of history, the one who brings all things together for your good and His glory. So depart from here with this confidence. The enemy is restrained.

The church endures. Christ reigns. And one day, every eye will see the King in His glory. May all glory be to our great God and King.

Amen. Let us pray. Great and merciful God, we are so blessed to know You that while we have our struggles and our difficulties, we know that You have united us to You and You are our King reigning over all things.

We pray that You would bless us with faithfulness to Your Word, faithfulness to Your Gospel, faithfulness to go and make disciples that all might hear and know the reign of Christ. We pray, O Lord, for that day when the knowledge of the Lord will be as the waters cover the sea. Make us Your faithful servants that this word of Your truth might go out into all the world.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon. For more information about First Reformed Church, head to our Facebook page or website, edgertonfrc.org.

Continue exploring the message of Revelation and the victory of Christ by visiting our full sermon series archive: Revelation Sermon Series Archive