Luke 10:18 (NKJV) And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”

Without going too much into WHY Jesus said this, it has long intrigued me as to WHEN Jesus saw what He did here and how it fits in the chronology: And how it might be related to the events of Revelation 12.

I believe the evidence points in the direction that Jesus sees in the disciple’s jubilant report of success in casting out demons in His name, not only Satan’s present loss of power, but the sign and foretaste that his ultimate downfall is already set and sealed in irreversible, irresistible motion. With this confirmation of what has begun, Jesus promises yet further success in the future, even power “over all the power of the enemy” (Lk 10:17-20).

Later, when the cross was most immediately at hand, Jesus would say, “NOW is the judgment of this world; NOW shall the prince of this world cast out” (Jn 12:13). The cross and resurrection would be the ultimate seal that all that would set in irreversible, irresistible motion the end of Satan’s cruel rule was NOW accomplished (“finished” / tetelestai).

I think all of this has something to do with what scholars have called, “the already and the not yet”, referring to the mysterious tension between what has been both newly fulfilled and newly revealed versus what remains to be fulfilled in light of the ‘unexpected’ revelation of Messiah’s coming, departure, and return to Jerusalem. It is what Jesus called, “the mystery of the kingdom of God” (Mk 4:11), and Paul called, “the mystery of the gospel” (Ro 16:25-26; Eph 6:19 with 1Pet 1:11-12).