Revelation 12:1-12 • Humanity Saved
Listen to the audio version of this message with the player below.
Transcript
(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
I'm going to ask that you look in your Bibles at Revelation chapter 12 this day, Revelation chapter 12.
As we think of our changing lifestyles due to the pandemic, I think of an older pastor that a lot of you will be aware of as well, who was required to shelter in against his will.
The reason was because a Roman emperor was requiring that he the emperor be worshiped and neither the pastor nor the people of the church would worship the Roman emperor. As a consequence, the pastor was exiled to an island named Patmos, and there he wrote to encourage his people who were being persecuted, not just in Rome but in different parts of the world, to keep them faithful to God and to His purposes. That pastor was named John, the Apostle, and early in the book of Revelation, he explained his purpose as he began to write back to the people who were going through their own trials and afflictions. John wrote, "I, John, your brother and your partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are now needed in Jesus, I was on the island called Patmos, on account of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus."
John perceived himself as put on the island of Patmos that he might be faithful to the purposes of God and actually equip the testimony of Jesus to go further and further. So what did God giving to write to the people who were being persecuted and in a time of trial? We don't have to guess about that either. Early in the book of Revelation, we are told, "God said to John, "Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are, and those that take place after this."
John's testimony and the testimony of the people to whom he wrote was to be strengthened by knowing what was and is and is to come.
As we think about that, it's not just an ancient tale. As a church, we have prayed for Pastor Wang Yi in China at the early reign covenant church because of his desire to worship as God requires and not as his government requires.
Pastor Wang Yi has been put in prison with a nine-year prison sentence. Before he went to prison, he wrote his people, words that may seem very familiar. He wrote this, "On earth there has never been a thousand-year government.
There has been a thousand-year church," saying something's going to last beyond this government. He wrote about what was and is and is to come to encourage his people when he could not be with them. He said, "Those who lock me up will one day be locked up by angels.
Those who interrogate me will finally be interrogated and judged by King Jesus.
When I think of this, the Lord fills me with a natural compassion for those who are attempting to imprison me. I pray, Lord, use me, grant me patience and wisdom that I may take the gospel to them.
That the awful things that were happening to him, knowing what was and is and is to come, made him strong for the testimony that he felt he was being called to even as he was in prison." He wrote, "Jesus is the Christ, the eternal living God. He died for sinners and rose to life for us. He is my King and the King of the whole earth yesterday, today and tomorrow. And for that reason, his testimony endures, as does the testimony of his people." It's not just supposed to happen to people long ago in Rome or far away in China.
Even as God's people experience trial and suffering and affliction, what keeps us faithful to the testimony of Christ, whether we're sheltering at home, whether we're out among businesses, whether we're out of business or in business trying to start again, always what is to strengthen our testimony is knowing what was and is and is to come.
That really is the message of Revelation chapter 12. If you have your Bible open, I'll ask that you stay there with me as we go through Revelation chapter 12. Revelation chapter 12 is smack dab in the middle of the book of Revelation. Often we think of Revelation as being a book about future events yet to happen. But because this is in the middle of the book of Revelation, John is reaching all the way back to the start of eternity and reaching all the way forward into the future of eternity. The dawn of humanity as well as the future kingdom of God are both in view in Revelation chapter 12. And for John to say, "I want you to be strong for the testimony to which you are being called " he begins by saying, "I want you to understand what was before he says what is and what is to come."
As he says what was, he actually goes way back to the dawn of humanity to have us understand the history that is before us and actually means that we're in a wilderness world for the moment, but that's not the final chapter.
If you are looking at your chapter 12 of Revelation, it begins with different images from the past of a woman and a serpent and a son.
The woman is described in verse 1. Do you see that there? Right at the beginning. John writes of a sign that appeared in heaven in his vision that we should actually be recognizing. Now a sign is something that refers to something else, typically something that's of even greater significance. So as John is writing of a sign, he describes it in the second half of verse 1, "A woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars." Now that's strange imagery to us that John looks back and he thinks of a woman who was surrounded by sun, moon, and stars. But it's not a new image actually. The image actually appeared earlier in the Bible in Genesis 37. Let me remind you of the account. When Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery, they were angry. And what made them angry was a vision that Joseph had. He dreamed of sun, moon, and stars bowing down to him in order to fulfill God's purposes.
Now the Apostle John, writing far in the future from that moment, looks back and says, "I saw a woman and she was clothed with the sun, moon, and stars as though in the purposes of God creation and the covenant that God is preparing through the covenant people are all being fulfilled through a line of descent that comes from the very first mother, the giver of life from Eve herself. And creation and covenant are fulfilling the purposes of God." Verse 2 tells us more about that. This mother of all the living was pregnant and crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth.
Where do you learn about a mother crying out in birth pangs? Again, way back at the very beginning of the Bible in the book of Genesis when Satan tempted Adam and Eve, God ultimately spoke to the woman because she had actually fallen to the temptation and said, "In pain you shall give birth. In agony you shall bear children."
Sounds awful, but it's not the end of the story because right with that prediction of how children would be born, God also said what would be the end of the bearing of children through the mother of all the living.
God speaking now to Satan said to him, "I'm going to put enmity, warfare between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. You are going to strike his heel, but he is going to crush your head."
At that moment what God, by that very first gospel prophecy in Genesis 3.15 said to Adam and Eve and to Satan, "There is going to be a child that comes from the agony of the woman." This world with all of its difficulty is going to result through the covenant purposes of God with the birth of a son who is ultimately going to crush the evil of Satan in the world. And here is John writing, he's saying, "Do you remember what happened?
God made a promise. He said this mother of all the living from whom the seed would come, a son would come who would not only fulfill God's covenant purposes, but would actually be the one who would rule over heaven and earth. That one shall come."
But it's not on the stage with no one else appearing. For with the woman in this sign, there is another sign, verse 3 of Revelation 12. Another sign appeared in heaven. "Behold a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and on his head seven diadems." Very strange language to us, but again, not a new image. We as a church went through the book of Daniel a couple of years ago. And when you're in the book of Daniel, you actually see this image earlier. When creatures of great evil come forth out of the sea, they have multiple heads, multiple horns, different crowns. And what we are being told is that this serpent has now become a dragon, red, the color of blood. That that serpent in the Garden of Eden has continued to express evil throughout the world, and now he is a dragon in influence, not only a dragon in power, but we recognize he has seven heads. And when Daniel was describing creatures of great evil, they have multiple eyes, multiple ears. They are able to sense things in the world beyond average human perception. Seven horns, excuse me, ten horns, not just two, but amazing power. We think of animals of strength in this world having two horns. Here these appearances of Satan are one of ten's horns, great power, and crowns on his heads as though there is power recognized by the dominions of earth, even though it is a dragon who is ruling for the moment. All this is God telling us things that we actually sing. You're going to sing it in a little bit. We sing "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" at Reformation Day time. It is that message that Satan, his craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate. On earth is not his equal. He has all kinds of perception. He has all kinds of power, and he will use it for evil. He has others to help him. Verse 4 says this, "Of that dragon that has so much perception and power, its tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth."
We've actually heard this account before as well in Isaiah and Ezekiel. Back eons before the writing of the book of Revelation. We've already had the prophets describe when there was a rebellion in heaven and Satan was cast to earth with those angels, demonic forces they become, who were loyal to him. And they become Satan's force in the world to try to create evil and despair and dissension among God's people. Because what Satan knows, he's read his Bible too, is that there is a son who will come who will crush him. And so Satan's work through the years is to try to stop that from occurring. The end of verse 4, "And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child, he might devour it." It's a strange view of human history. But we understand it, that from Eve forward, that woman who would give life to all the living and from whom Jesus himself would ultimately come to crush the influence of Satan, there is going to be now a great war as Satan tries to stop the birth of that son who ultimately will be his demise. And out of that war, there is this attempt by Satan to say, "When that child is born, if I can stop it, it will stop my own demise."
And so he waits for the birth and tries to stop the one who will crush him.
Time after time, if you're reading the Bible from that perspective, that what Satan, that roaring lion, that dragon, that serpent is trying to do is actually stop the coming of the one who will crush him, you begin to see the Bible in a new way. Time after time, the covenant purpose of God come within one life of being exterminated by the work of Satan and his minions on earth. Think of it. Just as soon as Adam and Eve begin to have children. You learn about Cain and Abel, one of whom murders the other in the first murder. Only one child survives. As the genealogies move forward, you learn that Joseph was born to Jacob and his brothers sold him into slavery, a terrible act. But it was God's plan by that one who was sold into slavery down into Egypt to rescue the whole family that would have died in famine had God not meant for good the saving of Joseph by the work of Pharaoh.
When Joseph's brothers continue to mature, one of them, Judah, was told he would be for the line of which the Messiah would come. But because of the evil of his children, only one of Judah's sons survives.
Pharaoh later, as the nation begins to grow in slavery in Egypt, ultimately begins to get scared of the Israelites. And so he has all the male children killed, except for one that we know of named Moses, who would become the rescuer of the people from whom Jesus would come. As that people get to the Promised Land and the kingdom of God begins to grow, the line of promise is secured through David. But David only survives because a spear's length of safety was provided between him and Saul. Saul tried to kill David, and God rescued David.
David himself is attacked by his own son, almost killed. And when David has children and grandchildren, a queen named Atholiah in Israel kills all the children and grandchildren of David, except for one who is saved by a nurse in the nursery.
Then the Assyrians and the Babylonians, when a queen inside Israel cannot accomplish Satan's purpose, great nations invade the nation of Israel. Assyrians, then Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans, over and over again, wiping out the royalty of Israel that would be David's seed, except one survives.
And because the foreign nations don't accomplish Satan's intent, there is a Jewish king named Herod when the son finally is born who says, "Kill all the infants of Bethlehem," and one survives.
His name is Jesus.
Over and over again, the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth so that when she bore her child, he might devour it. But that is not the end of the story. Ultimately, recognize the child was born and accomplished God's purposes. But what John is reminding God's people, even in this account, is your adversary is wicked and cruel and means to stop the birth of Christ in you as well. As you would trust in him, Satan knows that is his own defeat in your heart and life and family and world, and so he will try to stop you again. As Peter the apostle looked at what he knew about the Scriptures and read also what John himself would make plain, Peter himself said to all of us, "Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour."
Don't be dissuaded. Don't be dismayed. Don't be fooled. All the things that are happening before our eyes in this world that we look at in a material way, we look at injustice and racism and pandemics at nations at war, are talking about being at war. We look at economic ills and we think this is just all happening on a material level. And yet what God is saying is, "No, there is a spiritual assault on your soul. And the assault on your soul is to make you hopeless and despairing and turning away from a Savior who could rescue you eternally from the things of this earth." The fact that Satan is powerful, that he has wickedness even in this earth now to try to defeat us is not the end of the story.
After the woman is described and after the serpent is described, verse 5 talks about one more.
"She that is the woman gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to His throne." It's just amazing. There is the life and the legacy and the lordship of Jesus all in one verse. It's almost as though the apostle has taken the whole history of the Bible. What has happened? She gave birth to a male child. This mother of all the living has had the fulfillment of the prophecy from Genesis 3 15, come. The child has been born. And then what happens? He is able to rule the nations. In fact, he will rule the nations with a rod of iron. He is going to be Lord over all. But as her child was born, he was caught up to God and to His throne. What do you see there? There's the ascension and the enthronement of Christ even now until the day of fulfillment when He comes back again. Here we have the great message of the birth, the victory, the ascension, and the return of Jesus Christ. And it's all put in one verse. I mean, it's just John kind of relishing the notion. Here is Satan with all the wickedness and wiles of the centuries working against joy in our hearts. And John says, "But Christ has come and Christ has won and Christ will come again." And in saying as much, he is saying to people, "So stand strong. The testimony of your Savior is your hope and your strength." Yes, Satan may throw his worst at you, but Christ is victor and He is Lord. The fact that there is a future that is good, that we have a hope that is strong now, does not mean that we don't play heads up baseball now. It's still a wilderness world for the moment. And that is made clear as well. Verse 6, "The woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days." I've asked each of the earlier services, everybody who knows exactly what that means, raise their hands and nobody's raised their hand yet. Don't do it.
I don't know fully what it means, but I know the gist of it. What does it mean that this woman has finally born the child and he goes into the wilderness for 42 months? Do you recognize that what we're getting is we're getting a reversal of the slavery
and the persecution of Israel so many years ago?
From Egypt, Israel wandered for 42 years in the wilderness before getting to the Promised Land.
Now Jesus has come and as Herod begins to destroy all the infants of Bethlehem, Joseph is warned in a dream and he takes his wife and his child back to Egypt. They go back through the wilderness to Egypt for 42 months, echoing the 42 years of the wandering in the wilderness. But what you recognize it, it's a reversal of the slavery. It is now this one who is being saved because always after the wilderness there is a Promised Land. And as much as the commentators vary over their understanding of the 1,260 days, what nobody disagrees with is this is the period of the flourishing of the gospel in the period of the church age. That what God is doing is he is saying, "I have told you that Christ has come. I have told you that he has won, but there is still a wilderness time even as Joseph and Mary had to go down into Egypt again before the promise would be fulfilled." So we recognize that in this time we still live in a fallen world. There is still pain and hardship and difficulty, pandemics and difficulty of our times. But what we know is that is not the final chapter. The progress of the gospel is still going to occur so we do not lose hope. So that we would understand our times and what they are like. We are not simply told about the far past, but the world in which we presently live now. With that history of the wilderness experience, John next turns to a war in heaven that is ongoing. He describes that war in verses 7 and 8. Now war arose in heaven.
Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back. He was defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. We've actually heard this account before as well, way back in the book of Daniel. When the people of God were in slavery in Babylon, we see that Daniel was told they will one day be released. But before they were released, he saw in a vision how Michael, the leader of the host of heaven, God's armies, goes to war against the prince of Persia. That is not Walt Disney, but it is the leader of the ones who are enslaving God's people. And what Daniel sees is that what's happening on the political, material world level, that there is an earthly king who is enslaving God's people, that that king is going to be defeated by heavenly forces he doesn't even fully understand.
What we are made to understand is that the world that we see is not the only world. There's a parallel universe that we only see political and military and economic and relational events. But what is happening on a higher plane is that God is orchestrating the spiritual world in such a way that what he intends to bring about for his eternal purposes is being accomplished. And he has told us what will be accomplished as much as Satan may have charge of the wilderness planet. Michael himself will ultimately defeat the purposes of Satan with the purposes of God. Christ shall be the victor. There shall be that means by which God is fulfilling all that he intended. And we're intended to see that and to know it so that we see things that we can't overcome in our strength and our humanity. When we only see the world at the material and political and economic level, we are told even, remember, by Paul the Apostle, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities and spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. There's far more going on than you could see. And that can create fear in us until we recognize, no, heaven is the kingdom and the charge of Christ our king. And as much as we may not have control of this world as we see it, we recognize that there is a spiritual war being battled by Michael under the generalship of Jesus Christ who is following his Father in heaven to accomplish the purposes of God. And we must know that because Satan is not just working at the macro level in economics and wars and riots and pandemics.
Satan is working right in here too.
And you need to know that.
He has been conquered. But how does he work? Verse 9, this historic war has an intimate battlefield.
The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who was called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to earth and his angels were thrown down with him. The devil has been defeated, this Satan. Do you know what Satan means?
Satan means adversary.
And we understand that what happens as Satan orchestrates things in our world to destroy our hope is that he is trying to undo the birth of Christ in us, our hope in the one who is eternal.
How does he do that? He's not just called in the Bible Satan, he's called the devil.
Now at Halloween we make light of the devil. We put kids in devil costumes and we have cartoons and characters about the devil.
But the word devil means accuser.
The way that Satan conducts his war in here is by accusing us so that we would not believe that Christ is for us. It's verse 10, "I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of Christ have come. For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before our God.
Satan is crushed at the cross of Jesus.
No more does my sin attach to me as blame and yet Satan will come to me and whisper to my heart, this grace of God does not apply to you. Your sin is too great, it's persisted too long. You are not worthy of the grace of God so it does not apply to you."
When does Satan accuse? Did you catch that at the end of verse 10? He accuses, though he's been thrown down to earth, though he's been defeated, though Christ on the cross took the guilt for my sin. What does Satan still do? He accuses us day and night before our God, day and night.
I think you get it.
How our dreams betray us.
Our lusts, our longings, our arrogance come from places we can't quite explain and somehow they are vaguely true.
It may not be our dreams, it may be the recordings we play over and over again in our brains of what a parent once once said to us, of what a spouse now says to us, of our children's failings and we say to ourselves, "I am guilty."
It's not just you, it is Satan using all those guilt trips of parents and spouses in our past to carve deep ruts into our hearts that we fear we cannot climb out of.
Think of what it means. It's Father's Day and there is no father that believes I can stand before God in his heaven and be guiltless. We all know our failings. We all, if we're honest, say, "I've not been all that even I wish I could have been for children and spouse and others." And Satan will use that. He will come to our consciences to say, "I know what you did.
I know how you have failed. I know how you've compromised and you know it too.
Children are but the mirror of the failures of their fathers and look at your children with their failures and struggles. This marriage failure is your fault. This miscarriage is your sin come to haunt you. This difficulty in business, this difficulty with your child, the struggle in your family, we know who to blame, you're to blame.
And we are wired to receive it until Christ comes and says, "No, I have set you free."
Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of Christ have come. He has spent the penalty for sin upon the cross that you deserve. He is taking it all and it is not ours any longer. And we have to know that for when Satan comes and accuses our hearts, we have to be ready to say this is not the reality of the spiritual world provided by the Son of God.
My sin has been conquered. I am right with my God. This is the power that has come. Why do I need to say that?
Because the accusations that will come to us and in us have to be faced for what they truly are. They are at the very same moment, true and Teflon.
When Satan accuses us, what makes it stick?
We know there's an element of truth in it.
So what must we know at the same time?
The salvation of our God has come.
He has purchased me by the blood of the Lamb and those whose sin is covered by the blood of the Lamb, for them there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. He has set me free. The accusations will not be mine. And we can forget, I think about the great Scottish preacher Alexander White who talked about a preacher's meeting. And long after the meeting was done, there was an older man who just stayed in his home,
lounging seeming idle conversation.
At some point Dr. White said, I just asked him why he stayed.
And somewhat in jest, the older minister said, "Oh Dr. White, what word of comfort do you have for an old sinner like me?"
Alexander White wrote, "It took my breath away.
He was an old pastor, but beneath the jest I saw that he had lost the testimony of the gospel."
Dr. White said he didn't know what to say, so he just stood up and crossed the room and took the hand of the man who wondered what word of comfort there could be for an old sinner like himself.
And Dr. White just repeated the words of the prophet Micah, "My God delights in showing mercy."
Not much more was said, the older man left. But the next day sent a note to Dr. White, these words, "Dr. White, that word of comfort you gave has rescued my soul. I will never doubt him again. The next time Satan comes to accuse me, I will know what to say. I will say to my accuser, yes it's true, and you know not the half of it, but I have to deal with the one who delights in showing mercy."
That's who you have to deal with. Satan will accuse you. Our own consciences will bring us back into the ruts of our sin, but we have to deal, not with Satan, and not with the conscience ruts of our own life, we have to deal with the one who delights in showing mercy. And he sent his son to provide salvation for our souls. It's not just for old ministers. I think of how many people appreciated Kathy's and my ministry when she was so honest about struggles as a mom, and she said, "You know, when you think back about raising your children, you cannot but be haunted by some things of the past." And she has, she said, this file cabinet of mistakes in her heart that she's tempted to rifle through at times. But then she said, "I have to remember this. I never go through the file cabinet of my mistakes as a mom without remembering I only open the file cabinet with the key called mercy."
Can be dads too.
It's Father's Day.
Which of us could stand before God and be blameless?
And yet all of us who have named the name of Jesus will say, "Lord, I have an advocate in my place.
It's the Lamb."
And because of His blood, worthy is the Lamb to receive glory and honor and praise. Not me, but He stands before me. And because He has a word for me, I believe in the mercy of God for me. It's the Word of life. Verse 11 makes it so clear. "They who have conquered Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony." What is that testimony? We recited it last week. "Worthy is the Lamb who was slave to receive glory and honor and power because with your blood you purchase people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation."
Because of that purchase, "they who have been saved," verse 11, "said, love not their lives even unto death." Do you know it is possible so to love the testimony of the gospel that you are willing to give your life for the sake of it? Is that precious?
And what the Apostle John is saying is there are those who have so found the testimony, the gospel precious that they are willing to give their very lives for the sake of the Savior who has saved them. It is such good news. Verse 12, "Therefore, rejoice, O heavens, and you that dwell in them." There's a song to sing, "Despite my sin, despite my failings, worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive glory and honor and power for with your blood you purchase men for God from every tribe, language, people, and nation." You've made them a kingdom and priests. You filled up heaven with people who are foddled like me, sinful like me, and yet you call them purified priests because of the work of the Lamb. Verse 12 concludes it, "If that's the great message, the goodness and the glory of the gospel, woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows his time is short." It doesn't make sense. I don't want to end there. Woe to you because the devil knows his time is short.
No, that's actually the message of hope. We are warned. It's a wilderness time. And Satan will throw his worst at you to shake your confidence in the provision of Jesus Christ, but his time is short.
He will do what he can to shake you now. He will.
Don't you listen to him. You have an advocate. He is the one who gave himself for you and no matter what this world throws at you, you have one who loves you.
And Kathy and I were starting in ministry, I think, of the mining town in which I learned the account of an old miner who'd been injured in the mines early in his days, been in invalid for decades.
One time he was visited by a younger man who knew he was a believer and said, "How can you believe that Jesus loves you?
You've suffered so much."
The older man smiled and from his bed spoke to the young man. Yes, it's true. Sometimes Satan comes and he sits in that chair right where you're sitting and he says to me, "The men with whom you went into the mines now have healthy bodies and yours is broken.
They now have whole families and you have no family. They have fine homes and yours is decayed.
Does Jesus love you?"
The young man was taken aback by the honesty of the response and said to the older man, "What do you say? What do you say to Satan when he tempts you that way?"
Said the older man, "I take Satan by the hand beyond the mines to a hill called Calvary and I point to the thorns on the brow and the nail prints in the hands and feet and the wound in the side and I say, "Doesn't Jesus love me?"
It is a wilderness world and Satan will use the worst of it to shake your heart.
Listen, you have to deal with the one who delights in showing mercy.
He has come.
He has won. He is coming again.
Trust him.
He loves you. Father, I thank you for these people who gather for the message of the gospel that is our testimony in all ages through all trials. Would you yet be our strength and hope as we turn to you in the name of Jesus so that we who lose our confidence in you might at the same time have the gospel affirmed in our hearts by the work of your son. This we ask in the name of the one who loves us, the one who deals mercy for sin for him and to him we offer this prayer. In Jesus' name, Amen.