One of the most satisfying moments in a movie is when the archenemy finally comes to justice and the evildoers receive their comeuppance. We can turn off the screen with a sense of moral resolution. That’s not a new theme. It ultimately comes from God Himself, and we see it illustrated in the Bible.

For example, Acts 12 opens by telling us about evil King Herod Agrippa I, who harassed the church and thrust a sword through the apostle James. Then Herod plotted the same for the apostle Peter. But at the end of the chapter, the tyrant donned his royal apparel, sat on his throne, and soaked up the adulation of the crowds who were shouting, “The voice of a god and not of a man!” (verse 22)

Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died. But the word of God grew and multiplied (Acts 12:23-24).

What a gruesome end!

Could that be a miniature portrait of the day of reckoning awaiting the devil himself?

All throughout Scripture and history, the judgments that have befallen evil men and women are foreshadows of the ultimate judgment Satan and his forces will face at the end of time. We know this because God has told us about it in advance.

Satan is a counterfeiter and a liar, and he’s a formidable foe. But God protects us from him and we can prepare for his attacks and suit up for the challenge with the armor of the believer.

So what’s ahead for our enemy?

What’s Ahead for Satan?

I can sum it all up in a single word: hell. Jesus Himself spoke of the “everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). The Lord gives the details in the book of Revelation. During the last half of the Great Tribulation, Satan will be filled with “great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time” (Revelation 12:12). He will empower a great world dictator—the Antichrist—to lead the armies of the world against the Jewish people and the nation of Israel. But just when all seems lost, Jesus will return, deliver the nation of Israel, and usher in a thousand years of peace on earth.

During the Millennium, Satan will be locked in a kind of supermax prison, known as the abyss or the bottomless pit. The Bible says, “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished” (Revelation 20:1-3).

At the end of the Millennium, Satan will be released for a moment before meeting his final end, which is described in one verse: “The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Revelation 20:10).

What’s Ahead for God’s People?

There’s another important point to make about this. Don’t think of Satan’s ultimate defeat as a future event. He is already defeated. He was defeated by the death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 2:14 says that God the Son became a man and died, “that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.”

Satan has been defeated, but he’s not yet banished and consigned to eternal hell, and that’s why he’s a dangerous enemy. You may know that the decapitated head of a poisonous snake is still deadly. One chef in China was reportedly making a rare delicacy known as cobra soup, and as he chopped parts of the snake for the stew, the snake’s fangs dug into his hand. Many poisonous snakes retain their biting reflexes for hours after death.

This phenomenon in nature seems to illustrate a spiritual reality about our old enemy. That’s why we need to keep our guard up, our armor on, and our eyes open. But remember, Satan is not omnipotent or omniscient as God is. He can be resisted. James 4:7 says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

He may attack your family, your job, your church, or your circumstances. But when the devil tries to “sift [us] as wheat,” as he did to Peter, Jesus prays for us (Luke 22:31-32). The Bible promises, “And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly” (Romans 16:20).

One of the ways we resist the devil is by remembering his days are numbered but our years are endless. The same book of Revelation that describes Satan’s final demise says in the next chapter: “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God” (Revelation 21:1-2).

What follows is the most visual, glorious, literal, and encouraging tour imaginable of our eternal home—the place Jesus is preparing for us.

I have no idea how the devil is plaguing you right now. Perhaps your heart is low, and your mind is anxious. Maybe you’re facing a grave difficulty. Jesus told us we’d face trouble in this world, but to be of good cheer because He has overcome it (John 16:33). The Bible says, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:2-4).

What’s Ahead for You?

Until we get to heaven, however, you and I have a cause to champion, a battle to wage, and a job to do. One of the most remarkable verses about the devil is at the end of John’s first letter: “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, NIV).

You and I, being redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, belong to God. Except for Christians, the entire world is under the control of Satan. That means we have a golden opportunity to hold up the resplendent cross of Jesus in a dark and demonic world.

When the seventy disciples returned to Jesus, they told Him how their ministry had been blessed, and Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18). That’s a mysterious verse, but it tells us any advance of the work of the Gospel is an encroachment on Satan’s territory. Whenever we praise God and honor Jesus, it hinders the devil’s schemes. Revelation 12:11 says, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was a young and successful Welsh physician with a promising career ahead of him. But when he became a Christian, he decided to enter the ministry and was called to a small church in a poor fishing village. Lloyd-Jones was still a young believer. He later recalled how Satan would sometimes plague him with doubts about his salvation and his calling to ministry. One day, the good doctor turned around and said, “I want to know, Satan, why would I rather talk about Jesus with the humblest fisher woman in Wales? Why would I love doing that more than I love talking about medicine with my peers and other men who have gone to the same schools as me and are of the same social class?”¹

His doubts vanished, for Satan had no answer for someone who would rather talk about Jesus and the Bible than anything else. Yes, we must be aware of Satan but not preoccupied with him. Our eyes should be on Jesus, our minds on Scripture, and our mouths full of the wonderful words of life.

The devil lost the battle a long time ago, and he’s awaiting a day of reckoning. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Victor—and in Him we’re on the winning side, forever.

¹ Sermon Illustrations, The Pastor’s Workshop, https://thepastorsworkshop.com/sermon-illustrations-2/sermon-illustrations-devil/.