The victory of the Church over Satan Introduction THE VICTORY OF THE CHURCH OVER SATAN REVELATION 12-14 Today we go to war. Our series in Revelation brings us today to the great war described in chs 12-14. Today we meet a dragon and the two fierce beasts and we see God s people swept up into a cosmic battle between God and his enemies. But this is not the tense story of two equal combatants slugging it out. This is the story of God s victory over his enemies. And the story of God s people sharing that victory. And so I have called this message The Victory of the Church over Satan. And I am drawing my central theme from 12:11. Read. St Stephens Belrose June 28, 2015 You may remember the 7 letters to the Churches in chapters 2-3 each ended with a call to overcome. These were Churches each suffering persecution of some kind. And the Spirit offers a promise to those who overcome during this period of trial. But how does the Church overcome? How do we achieve victory? That is the question I am addressing today: the victory of the Church.
And while the Church of Asia Minor was already experiencing some opposition, the worst was yet to come. Over the following 200 years many Christians would lose their lives as the Roman Imperial authorities sought to stamp out this new movement. John s prophecy (that s what Revelation is) was written to help the Church to face this period of terrible trial. The visions John received were given and the letter he wrote describing them was written to strengthen the Church. More than that that: they were given to help the Church see how their response to persecution would serve the coming Kingdom. They were given precisely to help the Church overcome even the fiercest opposition. I am sure you remember in April this year how a group of Muslim gunmen forced their way into the Garissa University in N.E. Kenya. As I understand it they made their way to a Christian gathering and began to kill people who said they were Christians. Imagine facing that question under pain of death: are you a Christian? I wonder how I would cope with that question if my life was in the balance. Revelation was written to help Christians face exactly that situation. In their case the question would have been something like Will you publically acknowledge that Caesar is your Lord? Or Will you perform some public act of worship to Caesar? But the core issue was the same: if your life is at stake will you maintain your Christian confession? Or will you deny the Lord? What John learns is that this is the central battleground in the war between the evil one and the Church. And he learns how the Church can win a victory even in this terrible situation. So that s our theme today: the victory of the Church over Satan. And I want to draw out the threads of this victory by taking those three phrases from 12:11 in turn. But first let me set the scene by telling the story of Rev 12. The seventh trumpet has sounded (11:15). The victory of God has been declared in the heavens: The Kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever. Then as John looks up into the sky he sees the figure of a woman: clothed with the sun, standing on the moon and with 12 stars forming a crown upon her head. The woman is pregnant and cries out in pain as her delivery begins.
Then he sees an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns. The dragon stands before the woman waiting for the baby to be born so that he might devour the child. The woman delivers a son who will rule the nations and he is taken up into heaven and to his throne. So the dragon is thwarted in his plan to destroy this prince, this child who will be King. (Who is this child?) Then John sees a great war played out across the sky in which the archangel Michael and his angels fight the dragon and his angels. But the dragon was not strong enough and is cast down to the earth. Again the evil plans of the dragon are thwarted. Then John sees the dragon pursuing the woman. But she receives wings and flies to a place where she will be safe. The earth too helps her by protecting her from a great flood. Once again the dragon is opposed and thwarted. He is enraged and leaves to make war against the Church; against those who hold to the testimony of Jesus (17). John tells us that this dragon represents the devil or Satan (9). The dragon/devil then is implacably opposed to both Jesus and the people of Jesus. He seeks to destroy them both. But he is frustrated in every plan he undertakes. Frustrated and angry and very much alive and active making war on the Church. This brings us back to our central theme today. How can the Church overcome the evil one? In the middle of this chapter there is a great song of victory (12:10-12). It celebrates the victorious coming of the Kingdom of God and the defeat of the evil one who has been hurled down (10). And this victory is shared by God s people. Hence in v 11 They overcame him.. But how? How do we overcome the evil one? Firstly By (our faith in) the blood of the Lamb Explanation/application They overcame him by the blood of the lamb.. and I take it that what is meant here is faith in the blood of the lamb. So how does this work? How does faith in the blood of the lamb give us victory over the evil one?
Well I guess the first and obvious thing is that it gives us a defence against the evil one and his accusations against us. See how in v 10 he is described as the accuser of our brothers. There he is pictured accusing the believers before God. But it is also true from time to time that he tempts us to doubt our standing with God by accusing us. By reminding us of our sin and our failings in such a way as to undermine our relationship with God. How can we overcome this accusation? By our faith in the blood of Jesus. What does the scripture say? The blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin (1 Jn 1:7). And Rom 8:1 there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.. In Rev 7 John sees a great multitude of people standing before the throne and the lamb. They were holding palm branches and wearing white clothes (7:9). How did their clothes become white? They were washed in the blood of the lamb (7:14). The blood of the lamb cleanses us and reconciles us to God. We can stand before him forgiven and acceptable because of the blood of the lamb. And see how beautifully it is put in Rev 1:5d: To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood The blood of the lamb! Our defence against the accusations of the evil one. Illustration Martin Luther used to speak of encounters with the devil in which the evil one would read from a very long list of sins to dampen Luther s spirits and discourage him. At the end of the list Luther would say to the devil Your list is incomplete. Take a pencil and I will tell you of sins which you have missed. And at the end of that he would say Now write The blood of Jesus purifies us from sin (1 Jn 1:7). A great list of sins, every one cleansed by the blood of the lamb. Application But I think there is still more to be grasped here. When Jesus died on the cross a cosmic change took place. Jesus was lifted up. And the evil one was cast down. Read about it in Jn 12 and Col 2. And it s here in Rev 12 in this song of victory. It celebrates the coming of the Kingdom and the authority of Christ (10). Jesus lifted up. And it celebrates the fact that the accuser has been hurled down (10). In fact we are told this four times in vv 9-12. At the cross Jesus was lifted up and the evil one cast down. This is what we believe. And part of what it means to have faith in the blood of the lamb.
How does this help us to overcome the evil one? It means we are on the winning side! That our enemy has been defeated: cast out, hurled down, overcome. It means we need have no fear of the evil one. We have been set free from the power of the evil one to serve God (Acts 26:18). Friends we need to stand firm here. The evil one is real and stands opposed to us. He seeks to destroy us and the Church. But we must not live in fear of him. Christ overcame him and so can we. Illustration When Jesus sent out the 72 disciples they discovered that even the demons were subject to them in the name of Jesus. When they returned and told Jesus about this we read in Lk 10 that Jesus was filled with joy through the Holy Spirit. Do you remember what he said? I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. (Lk 10:18-19). How do we overcome our enemy? By our faith in the blood of the Lamb. Explanation This expression turns our attention from what the victorious Church believes to what it says; to its testimony. Testimony or bearing witness is a legal concept. In a courtroom the truth of a matter is established by the testimony of witnesses. In Revelation it is as though the whole earth has become a courtroom and the whole of history has become the proceedings of a legal case. The case which is being heard is the claim of 11:15: the kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our God and of his Christ and he will reign forever. And it is the mission of the Church to bear witness to this in the whole world. And in so doing play a central part in the coming of the Kingdom. I am pretty sure that is what was written on the scroll which only the Lamb could open and what is meant by the account of the two witnesses in 11:1-14. God wants his people to declare to the world that in Jesus God s Kingdom has come and his reign over the earth has begun. And he wants the Church to declare this throughout the earth. And we overcome By the word of our testimony
But this message, this testimony will be controversial. It will stir up opposition. Which brings us to the beasts of ch 13. Two beasts are described in this chapter. Let s take a look at these strange creatures. The first beast (13:1-9) exercises the authority of the dragon over the whole earth (7). His rule is characterized by brute force and by blasphemous speech. His seven heads each have a blasphemous name. In other words he makes claims for himself which rival God. And under his rule all the people of the world are amazed by him. They follow him and they worship him. When John first sees this beast it is coming up out of the sea. Very likely John has in mind that this brutal and prideful ruler exercises his rule from a distant land across the sea. He may well mean the Roman emperor. But the first beast in turn delegates his authority to a second beast. And this second beast (11-18) is a different kind of creature. He looks like a lamb. But his looks are deceiving. In fact he is a deceiver. He performs miraculous signs and so wins a following among the people. He is an astute administrator. He sets up tests for the people to root out his opponents and kill them. He builds a statue of the first beast and makes it come alive and to speak. He commands all people to worship the statue and kills those who refuse. He sets up a closed marketplace which includes only those who he has authorized and excludes all others. (That s what 666 is all about I think) John sees this beast coming out of the earth suggesting that this is the local representative of the foreign emperor. And behind both these beasts lies the dragon/the devil. Who then is in charge? Who is really the King? That is the question at stake here. In the kingdom of the devil and his two beasts it would be hard to maintain the claim that the Kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our God and of his Christ. But this is what the Church is called to do. And John makes it clear that this will cost them them dearly. The first beast was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them (7). The second beast has the power to kill those who refuse to worship his statue (15). So this is the battle which the Church is called to fight. And called to win! And how are we to overcome in this great battle? By the word of our testimony. By declaring the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ (12:10) to the world.
Application Friends, there is a lot I could say about this passage. These beasts represent the government of first century Greco-Roman world. They show how authority can be used in ways that are evil and how governments can be deceitful and blasphemous. And how they can do the work of the evil one in opposing and threatening the Church. I encourage you to study this yourselves and in your bible study groups. But for now I want to make one point. What we say about Jesus matters. Our testimony about Jesus matters. In fact it is the central battleground in the war against the evil one. The evil one will use any means at his disposal to try to make us deny Jesus. But we are Christians. We cannot and must not renounce our faith in Jesus. We must be like the Church at Pergamum who were commended by the Jesus because they remain true to my name (2:13). Jesus. And the story of Jesus. And the Kingdom of Jesus. And the Lordship of Jesus. This is the heart of the Christian faith and the Christian testimony. And this is what is at stake in every generation. Will the Church maintain its testimony to the Lordship of Jesus? I need to be very emphatic here. And the reason is that we have this constant tendency to shift our attention away to secondary matters; and particularly to ourselves and our own lives. So for example when we ask someone to give their testimony we expect them to tell us about their own lives and the difference knowing Jesus has made for them. And of course that matters and is good and important. But it is secondary to the testimony Revelation is calling the Church to. That testimony is about Jesus and how it is that the kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he will reign for ever and ever. John is preparing his beloved brothers and sisters for the day when some powerful person tells them on pain of death to deny their faith. On that day John wants the Church to overcome by speaking out into history the truth that Jesus is Lord; to speak it out and to suffer for it if necessary; but to speak it out nonetheless.
And we in our day in much more peaceful setting have the same duty. To maintain our testimony about Jesus. And in this way to overcome in the war against the evil one. And thirdly, the Church overcomes By our willingness to die for our faith Explanation The loud voice in heaven continues to celebrate these victorious believers who overcame because they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. They were willing to die for their faith. Application Friends, there is no shallow triumphalism in Revelation. There is no exuberant cheer-leading here. There is the somber awareness that the testimony of Jesus will cost believers their lives. See 13:10: This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints. And see 1:9 where John describes himself as your brother and companion in the suffering and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus. (See 14:12 also). There is victory here. There is conquest here. But there is also a threat to life. The stakes are high. I asked at the beginning how we would go if we were asked at gunpoint if we were Christians or not. What do you think? It is hard to say until we reach that moment. But I think many of us would struggle. Why? Because so much of our faith is about ourselves. We turn God s great cosmic purpose to renew the whole of creation into a story about how I can get to heaven. We turn this cosmic battle between God and the evil one into a story about how I recovered from some sickness or childhood trauma. We turn the great victory of Christ in the cross and the resurrection into the means by which I can get rich or succeed in my life. Or how I can have a more meaningful and fulfilled life. Of course these things matter to our loving heavenly Father: our eternal destiny, our health, our lives, our ministries, our healing. They matter because of the grace of God. But can you see how a preoccupation with ourselves will inevitably shrink our faith and our vision? And in the moment of crisis, when our lives are at stake and we have to choose between saving them and holding fast to our testimony about Jesus we will need a bigger faith, a greater vision. In the moment of
crisis we will overcome the evil one when we are willing to give up our lives rather than deny our faith. I know this is a hard question to answer but I need to ask it: are you willing to die for your faith? Are you? Conclusion So Revelation teaches us that we Christians are in the midst of a great battle against the evil one who is opposed to our Lord and to us. It calls us to win this battle. Indeed it celebrates our victory. How are we to overcome our spiritual enemy? By our faith in the blood of the lamb By the word of our testimony judgement: Fear God and give him glory they cry out because the hour of his judgement has come (14:7). And so the Kingdom comes on the earth: the Kingdom of the world becomes the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever. What kind of response does this call for? John tells us exactly in 14:12: This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus. To remain faithful to Jesus. May we in our time remain faithful to Jesus and so share in his great victory. By our willingness to give our lives rather than deny our Lord. To finish, Rev 14 pictures God s people as a victorious army. That s what the 144,000 means. They have the name of the Lamb and of Father God tattooed on their foreheads. They stand not in heaven but on Mt Zion. And they sing a new song; the song of the redeemed. And as they sing angels go out across the whole earth declaring God s coming