- [Narrator] Why?
Why does Jesus need to return?
Why is it so important
that he returns to the world?
To conquer the devil.
Evil is not an abstract object with an impersonal existence.
That means that the question,
why did God create evil, is really meaningless.
Evil is personal, not impersonal.
It is an adjective,
not a noun.
It describes creatures who rebel against their creator
and do things their way instead of his.
God did create beings both on earth and in heaven
who are capable of becoming evil by their own free choice.
This resulted in evil angels and evil human beings,
apparently in that order.
Between them,
they are responsible for all the evils
in nature and history.
Genesis 3:1,
"Now the serpent was more crafty
than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, 'Did God really say you must not eat
from any tree in the garden?'"
The leader of the heavenly rebellion was the fallen angel
we call the devil
known by many names and titles Satan, Beelzebub,
serpent, dragon, lion,
murderer, destroyer.
He persuaded many fellow angels to join his bid
for a rival kingdom to God's.
Revelation 12:4 indicates a third of the angels.
We know them as demons.
Revelation 12:4, "It's tail swept a third of the stars
out of the sky and flung them to the earth.
The dragon stood in front of the woman
who was about to give birth
so that it might devour her child the moment he was born."
In scripture, both the devil and his demons
are given titles of authority and influence.
He is the world's ruler,
prince and even god.
Principalities and powers are what they are.
With the superior strength, intelligence
and ability of angels,
they are able to wreak havoc in human affairs.
They can manipulate us by inflicting disease on our bodies
and deceiving us in our minds.
Their most potent weapon is death
and the fear it brings.
Hebrews 2:15, "And free those who all their lives
were held in slavery by their fear of death."
They can divide us from God
and from one another and have done so
since the garden of Eden.
They're successful bid for power on earth
has been even greater than in heaven.
"We know that we are children of God
and that the whole world
is under the control of the evil one,"
1 John 5:19.
However, the devil is not God,
even if he wishes to be and may believe he is,
he is not omniscient.
He does not know everything
and is capable of making mistakes,
one of which was convincing Judas to betray Jesus.
John 13:27, "As soon as Judas took the bread,
Satan entered into him.
So Jesus told him, 'What you are about to do, do quickly.'"
He is not omnipresent.
He can only be in one place at a time.
This is a fact that many Christians appear to overlook.
Job 1:7, "The Lord said to Satan,
'Where have you come from?'
Satan answered the Lord, 'From roaming throughout the earth,
going back and forth on it.'"
Luke 4:13, "When the devil had finished all his tempting,
he left Him until for opportune time."
He is not omnipotent.
Instead. His power is strictly limited in two ways.
First and foremost,
he is no match for God.
From the beginning to the present,
he has been able to act only with God's permission.
Job 1:12, "The Lord said to Satan,
'Very well then.
Everything he has is in your power,
but on the man himself do not lay a finger.'"
Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
God is still in complete control.
Satan is no problem to Him
though he is to us.
This of course means that God allowed him
to take over our world.
There is divine justice
and that those who refuse to live
under the rule of a good King deserve a bad one.
There is also mercy because it causes us to desire again
the good kingdom.
Second, the devil was no match for Christ.
Jesus began and ended His public mission
by confronting the devil on his own territory
and successfully resisting his subtle
and seductive temptations.
For the first time in history,
an entire life was lived in freedom from his clutches,
breaking his monopoly hold on the human race.
John 12:31,
"Now is the time for judgment on this world.
Now the prince of this world will be driven out."
John 14:30, "I will not say much more to you
for the prince of this world is coming.
He has no hold over me."
The cross dealt him a fatal blow,
a victory over the principalities and powers.
Colossians 2:15, "And having disarmed the powers
and authorities,
he made a public spectacle of them ,
triumphing over them by the cross.
It is now possible for us to live free
from the force of evil and the fear of death,
thanks to Jesus' atoning death and interceding life.
Luke 22:31, "Simon, Simon.
Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat."
Hebrews 2:14-15,
"Since the children have flesh and blood,
He too shared in their humanity so that by His death,
He might break the power of him
who holds the power of death,
that is, the devil
and free those who all their lives
were held in slavery by their fear of death."
However, the ultimate victory is not yet complete.
On earth, there are now two kingdoms,
God's and Satan's,
good and evil,
light and darkness.
They are both expanding quantitatively
and qualitatively at the same time.
Matthew 13:30, "Let both grow together until the harvest.
At that time, I will tell the harvesters
first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles
to be burned,
then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn."
Why didn't Satan's kingdom end
when God's kingdom was reestablished?
If Christ had destroyed Satan and all his followers,
as well as defeating them,
the earth would have been uninhabited.
God made liberation possible through His Son.
Colossians 1:13,
"For He has rescued us from the dominion
of darkness and brought us into the kingdom
of the Son He loves."
Millions have now taken advantage of the opportunity.
Unfortunately, many more people
have either not realized the door is open
or have refused to walk through it.
It will be closed one day.
The kingdoms will not be able to co-exist.
At harvest, remember the Feast of Tabernacles?
The wheat and tares will be separated.
The poisonous weeds will be destroyed by fire.
A good God can not allow evil
to continue ruining things indefinitely.
He has to come to a halt at some point.
As a result, Satan's days are numbered.
His fate has been determined and set in stone.
Satan must depart when Jesus returns.
The world will finally be free of him
having been subjected to his evil tyranny
since the dawn of time.
Human history bears witness to his existence and character.
Because he knows his fate is sealed,
we can expect the devil's frustration to grow
as the end draws near.
Revelation 12:12, "Therefore rejoice,
you heavens and you who dwell in them,
but woe to the earth and the sea
because the devil has gone down to you.
He is filled with fury
because he knows that his time is short."
He will devote all of his resources
to a last ditch effort to reclaim his throne.
Fortunately, we are not unaware of his schemes.
2 Corinthians 2:11,
"In order that Satan might not outwit us,
for we are not unaware of his schemes."
While people are saying peace and safety,
destruction will come on them suddenly
as labor pains on a pregnant woman,
and they will not escape.
With the promise of peace and security,
he will establish a one-world government
based on a single religion.
In charge of each will be two men
who will accept his offer of status and power
once refused by Jesus.
Luke 4:5-8, "And the devil,
taking Him up into a high mountain,
showed Him unto all the kingdoms of the world
in a moment of time.
And the devil said unto Him, 'All this power,
I will give thee and the glory of them
for that is delivered unto me
and to whomsoever I will give it.
If thou therefore wilt worship me,
all shall be thine.'
And Jesus answered and said unto him,
'Get thee behind me, Satan,
for it is written,
thou shalt worship the Lord thy God
and Him only shalt thy serve.'"
They will be puppets under the devil's command.
This unholy trinity,
Satan, antichrist and the false prophet
has already been mentioned
as a terrifying counterfeit of God,
Christ and the Holy Spirit.
They will rule the world as never before
in the final years before Jesus' return.
It's no surprise that it's referred to
as the Big Trouble or Great Tribulation.
However, the devil's final fling will remain
under God's control and will be mercifully brief.
Their final act of defiance
will be to gather an international military force
intent on slaughtering
the seemingly defenseless people of God
who are now gathered in Jerusalem
with their risen Lord, Jesus.
This will be the final battle in a long history of warfare.
The plain of Esdraelon,
the valley of Jezreel
near the ancient fortress town of Solomon
on the small hill of Megiddo.
In Hebrew, Armageddon, is described in scripture.
Winston Churchill dubbed this sight
of so many fierce battles, the Middle East's Cockpit.
The roads that connect Europe to Arabia
and Asia to Africa pass through here.
It will be the devil's most egregious blunder.
The most fundamental tactical error
is underestimating one's opponent's strength.
Jesus will arrive fully prepared for the battle.
He will no longer ride to Jerusalem on a donkey
as a symbol of peace,
but rather on a horse as a symbol of war.
Zechariah 9:9-10, "Rejoice greatly Daughter Zion.
Shout Daughter Jerusalem.
See your king comes to you,
righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
and the warhorses from Jerusalem,
and the battle bow will be broken.
He will proclaim peace to the nations.
His rule will extend from sea to sea
and from the river to the ends of the earth."
Revelation 19:11, "I saw heaven standing open
and there before me was a white horse
whose rider is called Faithful and True.
With justice, He judges and wages war."
Jesus will only use one weapon,
the sword of His mouth.
Revelation 19:15-21, "Coming out of His mouth
is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.
He will rule them with an iron scepter.
He treads the winepress of the fury
of the wrath of God Almighty.
On His robe and on His thigh,
He has this name written.
And I saw an angel standing in the sun
who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair.
'Come, gather together for the great supper of God
so that you may eat the flesh of kings,
generals and the mighty of horses and the riders,
and the flesh of all people, free and slave,
great and small.'
Then I saw beast and the kings of the earth
and their armies gathered together
to wage war against the rider on the horse
and His army.
But the beast was captured,
and with it, the false prophet
who had performed the signs on its behalf.
With these signs,
he had diluted those who had received
the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.
The two of them were thrown alive
into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
The rest were killed with the sword
coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse
and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh."
Mark 4:39, "He got up, rebuked the wind
and said to the waves, 'Quiet, be still.'
Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
It will be the same voice that commanded the wind
and the waves to be still, Mark 39.
The verb, died down,
comes from a root meaning to be smitten,
cut off.
A whole army will now be slain with a word.
However, the two human beasts
who are behind it will not be killed.
They will be imprisoned and then thrown alive
into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
Revelation 19:20, "But the beast was captured
and with it the false prophet
who had performed the signs on its behalf.
With these signs, he had diluted those
who had received the mark of the beast
and worshiped its image.
The two of them were thrown alive
into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
They will be the first two people to be sent to hell
even before the day of judgment
because they are too depraved to stand trial.
Surprisingly, the devil will not accompany them,
at least not yet,
but God intends to use him just once more
before sending him to join his henchman in eternal torment.
Revelation 20:10, "And the devil who deceived them
was thrown into the lake of burning fire
where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown.
They will be tormented day and night forever and ever."
Meanwhile, he is to be exiled from earth for 1,000 years,
imprisoned in the lowest dungeons of the underworld,
unable to communicate with or deceive the peoples of earth.
Revelation 20:3, "He threw him into the abyss
and locked and sealed it over him
to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore
until 1,000 years were ended.
After that, he must be set free for a short time."
As a result, the world will finally be free of the devil
and his oppressive forces of evil.
Will the world continue for a while
or end there and then?
Who will fill the political void
left by the collapse of the world government
if it continues.
The Bible has another surprise in store for us.
In closing our question for the day,
what's the worship song that has helped you
feel closer to God?