What is the bottomless pit, and who holds its key? When the fifth angel sounds in Revelation 9, John sees a star fallen from heaven to the earth, and to him is given the key to the bottomless pit. When the abyss is opened, smoke rises like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air are darkened.
In this message from our series Revelation: Jesus Revealed – The View Behind The Veil, we open Revelation 8:13–9:2 to identify the unnamed adversary – Satan, who fell like lightning from heaven – and to see what Scripture teaches about the abyss: it is ultimately controlled by Jesus, who holds the keys of Hades and of Death; it is a prison where demons are held; it is where Christ preached to the spirits in prison; it is where Satan will be bound for a thousand years; and it is a place of smoke, fire, and darkness.
Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels. The good news is that God has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light, and the cross of Jesus Christ is the only bridge over the abyss.
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Sermon Notes:
Revelation 8:13 And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of
heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth,
because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are
about to sound!”
Revelation 9:1 Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven
to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit.
Revelation 9:2 And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the
pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened
because of the smoke of the pit.
I. THE UNNAMED ADVERSARY
Revelation 9:1 Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven
to the earth. To him was given …”
Isaiah 14:12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
Luke 10:18 And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”
Revelation 12:4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did
cast them to the earth:
Revelation 12:12 Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has
come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”
II. THE UNLOCKED ABYSS.
Revelation 9:1 “… To him was given the key to the bottomless pit.”
1. THE ABYSS IS ULTIMATELY CONTROLLED BY JESUS.
Revelation 1:18 I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive
forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.
2. THE ABYSS IS A PLACE WHERE DEMONS ARE INCARCERATED.
Luke 8:29 For He (Jesus) had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of
the man. For it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with
chains and shackles; and he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon
into the wilderness.
Luke 8:30 And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said,
Legion: because many devils were entered into him.
Luke 8:31 And they besought him that he would not command them to go out
into the deep.
Luke 8:31 And they begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss
3. THE ABYSS IS WHERE JESUS PREACHED.
1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He
might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,
1 Peter 3:19 by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison,
1 Peter 3:20 who formerly were disobedient …”
Romans 10:6 But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in
‘your heart, Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down from
‘above)
Romans 10:7 or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ
up from the dead).
Matthew 12:40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the
great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth.
4. THE ABYSS IS WHERE SATAN WILL BE CAST FOR 1,000 YEARS.
Revelation 20:1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the
key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Revelation 20:2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil
and Satan and bound him for a thousand years;
Revelation 20:3 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. But after these things he must be released for a little while.
5. THE ABYSS IS LIKE A FIERY FURNACE OF SMOKE AND DARKNESS.
Revelation 9:2 And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the
pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened
because of the smoke of the pit.
Matthew 13:41 The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather
out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness,
Matthew 13:42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing
and gnashing of teeth.
An old hymn to a honky-tonk declared
Dim lights, thick smoke, and loud, loud music
Is the only kind of life you’ll ever understand”
John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world,
and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Friedrich Nietzsche said, “When you gaze for long into the abyss, the abyss
gazes also into you.”
David R. Brower (quote)
“We are at the edge of an abyss and we’re close to being irrevocably lost.
The longer we refuse Jesus Christ, the deeper the pit of darkness becomes.
We are just moving down the steps deeper towards the abyss.”
Have you ever heard the hellish abyss version to the 4th stanza of Amazing Grace:
When we’ve been there ten thousand years, just suffering in the pit,
We’ve no less days to escape this blaze, than when we first got in it
Matthew 25:41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed,
into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:
The late pastor Adrian Rogers said “Hell was created for the devil and his angels. If you go,
you are an intruder.”
1 Peter 2:9 “… of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
The cross is the only bridge over the abyss
Oh the mighty gulf that God did span, at Calvary.
