Champions (Rev. 12)

Revelation 12 gives us a panoramic view of our victory in Christ and the demise of Satan. In this chapter we see, in an allegory, how our God comes to the rescue of His people when we are under attack by our truest nemesis – the Devil. What happens on earth has its origin in the heavens. We’ll look at the things that take place in heaven and how those things affect us here on earth, but greater than this, we will see that the attacks of Satan on us is no match for the God in us!As I see it, there are two major divisions to this chapter. The first division takes place in heaven (Revelation 12:1-12) and the second division takes place on the earth (Revelation 12:13-17).  Think about this for a moment…Every Sunday we open service by praying the Lord’s prayer; Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done (where?) on Earth as it is (where?) in Heaven...” Because we do it so often, and many of us have been praying this prayer since we were little kids, we can lose sight of the reality of that phrase. In this prayer, we are praying for God to do on earth what He has already determined would be done in heaven. Now, we don’t have the wisdom of God and that’s why Paul reminds us thatRomans 8:26 NKJV26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.Keep that in mind as we go through these next 17 verses, because here’s the thing that I want all of us to walk away understanding this morning, thanks to the redeeming work of Jesus on the cross, we already have the victory!! Amen!!This chapter of Revelation has us working backwards in our faith. As we read these words we are operating by faith from a fixed position of victory. We are not hoping for something yet to come, but rather rejoicing in what Jesus has already accomplished!

Pray

The Woman, the Child and the Dragon

Revelation 12:1–6 NKJV1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars.2 Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.John opens this chapter by calling our attention to two astrological phenomena.In verse one there is a “great sign”. In verse 3 there is "another sign”. It’s somewhat obvious to me that what John is doing here is drawing our attention slightly away from the second sign in order to have us more fully appreciate the first sign.From the onset of this chapter we are to understand that this is the story of a Champion. The great sign is a woman clothed with the celestial bodies. The sun, moon and a crown of victory made up of twelve stars. Much has been made of this woman in chapter 12. Several thoughts have been offered to explain her presence. For instance, she is said to “[resemble] Hellenistic portraits of the Egyptian goddess Isis (Stephen Harris; The New Testament: A Student’s Introduction, p428). Or even Domitia, the wife of Domitian the Emperor (Alan F. Johnson, 513). Daniel Akin, Eugene Peterson, among others, believe this to be “an apocalyptic Christmas story”, one unlike we’ve ever heard  (Daniel L. Akin, Exalting Jesus in Revelation,209). And what is the Christmas story without the virgin birth? Hundreds of years earlier Isaiah prophesied,Isaiah 7:14 NKJV14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.So there is the possibility that this woman could be Mary, the mother of our Lord. This thought is also well believed in the Catholic church. Then there are those, like Robert Mounce, who considers this woman to be the true Israel made up of all of God’s redeemed people which he calls, “the messianic community, the ideal Israel … the church (Rev. 12:17)” (The Book of Revelation, p. 231). Finally, and probably the most agreed upon, is that this woman is the ethnic nation of Israel. This comes from what many see as a parallel with Genesis 37:9-11.Genesis 37:9–11 NKJV9 Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, “Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me.”10 So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?”11 And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind.John goes on to tell us that this woman is pregnant and laboring in pain. This is no braxton hicks contractions. This is game on! The baby is crowning and the woman is on the verge of delivering the child to be born.Congratulations! It’s a boy!!It is a male-Child Who is destined to “rule the nations with a rod of iron” (v5). This verse is a throwback to a prophecy about the Messiah (Ps. 2:6-9).Psalm 2:6–9 NKJV6 “Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion.”7 “I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.8 Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession.9 You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’ ”This is without a doubt our Christ! In Revelation 2:26-27 Jesus made a promise to the Believers in Thyatira that,Revelation 2:26–27 NKJV26 And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—27 ‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’— as I also have received from My Father;I told you that this is the story of a Champion, but what is a champion without a challenger?In verse 3 John sees “another sign” in heaven. It is a dragon standing at the ready to destroy the male-Child. Unlike with the woman, John leaves no room for question about who this dragon actually is. We are told plainly that the dragon is actually “…that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world” (v9).He has always been on mission to end the Messiah’s reign. All the way back in Genesis 3:15 we were told that the serpent would bruise the heel of the woman’s Seed, and in turn he would get his head crushed by the Seed of the woman. We can see the devil’s many failed attempts all throughout scripture, from Pharoah to Herod to the crucifixion of Jesus, Satan has never given up trying to kill the woman’s male-Child.The devil positions himself to devour the Child, but the woman and the Child are protected. As soon as the Boy comes out of the womb He is carried away into the presence of the Lord. It is possible that this is a reference to the ascension of Christ after He is resurrected where He is seated at the right hand of the Father interceding for His Church. The woman, on the other hand, flees into the wilderness where God has prepared a place of protection and provision for her.A passage of scripture that brings me comfort whenever I am going through a difficult time in my life is Hosea 2:14.Hosea 2:14 NKJV14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, Will bring her into the wilderness, And speak comfort to her.The Word of God reminds us that “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; The righteous run to it and are safe” (Prov. 18:10). Take comfort in the presence of the Lord this morning.

War and Worship

The next thing that we see in this chapter is war and worship.Revelation 12:7–12 NKJV7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought,8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.11 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.12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! 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.”There is war in heaven as Michael the archangel and his army stand against the Devil and his army. As the two companies fought it is stated that Satan and his army– “...DID NOT prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer” (v8, EMPHASIS ADDED). This isn’t the first time that Michael had to deal with this deceiver. All the way back to Daniel 10:13 we can see Michael defending God’s people. For some time, Satan has been granted access into the presence of God in heaven, we can see that clearly in the book of Job, but here we see that his access is denied. No longer will he able to accuse us before the Father.When the 70 disciples came back from their mission in Luke 10, as they are rejoicing over what they had experienced Jesus says, Luke 10:18 “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” And here it is! Satan is cast out of heaven and thrown down to the earth for a short time. This defeat results in shouts of triumph and the sound of rejoicing in heaven. There is an exclamation of praise because the challenger has been defeated! God reigns!“Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers, who accused them before God day and night, has been cast down” (Rev. 12:10).The defeat of Satan is brought about by two incredible weapons that every child of God has in their arsenal and according to 2 Cor. 10:4 “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God...” The first and most important weapon is the blood of the Lamb. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Heb. 9:22). It is this blood John says that “washes us from all our sins” (Rev. 1:5). Robert Mounce points out that the word John uses for Lamb here “...is used exclusively of the resurrected and victorious Christ” (Revelation, 132n18). The Lamb who still stands in the presence of God bearing the markings of sacrifice on your behalf (Rev. 5:6). It is His blood, precious and perfect, incorruptible and invincible that deals Satan his first death blow!Next is the weapon of the Believer’s testimony. If you have ever needed a reason why you should tell the story of how God saved your life, this is it. These brothers and sisters whom Satan accused before God day and night stood in victory because of the blood of the Lamb that covered them and the word of their testimony about His redeeming love. And they did it in the face of death! I love what Daniel Akin says about this,“Amazingly, the blood of the martyrs shows not the triumph of Satan but rather the triumph of the saints...” (Revelation, p214).What hope this passage provides for the people of God is that it guarantees us, as we come into contact with satanic forces in this life, we are coming into contact with a defeated power, no matter what our earthly experiences might reveal (Alan F. Johnson, Revelation, p516).This was the whole reason that Jesus came on our behalf, “...that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn. 3:8). Don’t be ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God to all who believe.What’s your testimony? When you leave here today, what can you tell your neighbor, the cashier, the waiter/waitress about the power of God’s love in your life? Let me help you out a little bit, 1 John 5:11 says that “this is [our] testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1 John 5:11). It’s as simple as that.1 John 5:4–5 NKJV4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?Satan is called the accuser of the brothers. As you survey your life, what are somethings the Devil might use to accuse you before God?As if having Satan accuse us before God isn’t bad enough, I think that it’s worst when we accuse ourselves before God. What am I talking about? Some of us spend more time talking about why God couldn’t forgive us for the things we’ve done  than we do declaring His promise from 1 John 1:9.1 John 1:9 NKJV9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.You spend more time talking about why He couldn’t love you, than you do clinging to Romans 5:8Romans 5:8 NKJV8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.More time is spent on magnifying how pitiful we are than how powerful He is! More time is spent sulking in your suffering than rejoicing over His sovereignty! Don’t help the devil destroy your name before the Father, stand on the promise of God’s word that “no weapon formed against you shall prosper” (Isa. 54:17). Rest in the love of your Father knowing that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). When the devil accuses you before the Lord you remind him that you are a new creation in Christ Jesus, the old is gone. The new has come. When he brings up your past, your failures and your shortcomings, you remind him of his future!Folks, I have not always been a pastor nor have I always been a Christian, and because of that the devil has an arsenal of accusations to hurl at me, but this I know for sure, none of those things can separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus! My sins may have been as scarlet once upon a time, but now they have been made white as snow! I know that I was 1 who strayed from the fold, but Christ found me out and returned me to my rightful place. I know that whatever I have done in this life, Christ has paid it all on my behalf and every tongue that shall rise against me in judgment the Lord will condemn.This is how I fight my battles, by trusting in the finished work of Jesus on Calvary!Can you say the same?Do you know the saving power of Jesus this morning?

A Way Out

This final section of  chapter 12 shows us how the Lord comes to the rescue of His people. How He makes a way out for those who trust in Him. The Devil is infuriated because the Child has escaped and he has been defeated. Not only that, but he has - forever - lost his access into heaven. However, don’t think that he is going to take his defeat easily. He is a persistent and opportunistic foe. That’s why the word of God tells us that he “walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pt. 5:8).Revelation 12:13–17 NKJV13 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child.14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.15 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood.16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.When the devil’s attempt on the Child’s life fails, he turns his attention to the woman who gave birth to the Child. The woman is persecuted for some time, but then God gives her “two wings of a great eagle” which she uses to escape to the wilderness where the Lord has prepared a place for her to dwell in safety. Psalm 91:1-4 poetically reminds us that trusting in the Lord is our only security.Psalm 91:1–4 NKJV1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence.4 He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.Notice that in verse 17, the Devil’s rage against the woman is now directed at her children “who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” We are talking about Christians! This chapter ends with a cliffhanger. We’ve seen the Devil attack the Child and the Child is delivered. We’ve seen Satan persecute the woman and the woman is saved. Now the woman’s offspring are the targets of the Deceiver's wrath and we aren’t told what happens to them. So let me ask you a question, if God has made a way out for the Child and if He has made a way out for the woman, what do you think He’s going to do for the church?Isaiah 40:31 NKJV31 But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.“You are of God…He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).The attacks of Satan on us is no match for the God in us!

Call to Respond

Close this time in prayer.I’m going to ask you to be open and honest this right now.First thing I want to ask is this, Do you know Jesus personally? Have you surrendered to the love and grace of the Father? If not, let’s do that today! The price for your life has already been paid and you can start fresh today if you will trust Jesus.Simply say, "Jesus, I may not understand it, but I believe it because You said so, I have sinned against You. Please forgive me pf my sins. I want to live my life Your way. Live in me so that I can live for you. Amen."The second thing that I want to ask you to do is this. If you have been living in defeat, if the attacks of Satan have been beating you down and you want to be set free and walk in the victory that is already yours through Christ, begin now to pray over your situation. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.