God and the Gospel Will Prevail I. Introduction: Revelation a. Intro to Revelation. i. Written to suffering 1 st century Christians. ii. Try to put yourself in their position. 1. You re standing firm because of your faith in God. 2. But as it keeps getting worse and worse, your mind starts to wonder. 3. How long is this going to last? 4. Perhaps your faith in God might start to weaken. iii. I believe the book of Revelation is written with this in mind. 1. To comfort the hearts of the suffering. 2. And to deliver one specific message to them. a. God is still in control. b. And He will punish the wicked. c. And He will reward the righteous. iv. What you have in the book of Revelation is a series of pictures which deliver this message. 1. One of my favorites is found in chapter 12. b. Revelation 12. i. Two main characters are easy to identify. 1. Dragon identified in verse 9 as the Devil. 2. The Child describe in verse 5 as one who would rule all nations with a rod of iron and was caught up to God and His throne. The Child is an obvious reference to Jesus. ii. Read Revelation 12:1-6. 1. I believe the Woman is representative of God s people as a whole (here referring to the Jewish nation). 2. But the main point is that the dragon tried to devour the child (vs. 4) but was unable. a. Satan tried to destroy Jesus. b. But he failed. iii. Read Revelation 12:7-12. 1. This one is a little bit harder to interpret, but I think we can get the basic idea. 2. I think the key is found in verse 10 when the text describes Satan as the accuser of our brethren. 3. The verses describe a war in heaven which Satan loses. 4. Satan lost the ability to accuse Christians of sin. Why?
a. Look at verse 11: he was overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. 5. Again, the point is that Satan lost. iv. Read Revelation 12:13-17. 1. I said earlier that I thought the woman was God s people as a whole. a. Earlier it was probably the Jewish nation. b. Here it seems obvious to me that it is the church (vs. 17). 2. But notice what the dragon does. a. He s mad, and he tries to destroy the woman. b. That is, the devil tries to destroy the church. 3. But, once again, he fails. a. In the picture, the woman is able to fly away. b. And the earth swallows up the flood which the dragon caused. 4. Verse 17 leaves the dragon with only one option. a. To make war with the offspring of the woman. b. That is, Christians. v. The theme. 1. The Devil fights against God, and the devil loses every time. c. This morning s sermon. i. Title: God and His Gospel Will Prevail. ii. While we re certainly not in the same situation as 1 st century Christians, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to be a Christian in our society. iii. Thus, we need to be reminded of the same lesson. 1. God will prevail. 2. The Devil may win some individual battles along the way, but he will not win the war. 3. That outcome has already been decided. iv. I want to look at two specific situations described in the New Testament that looked like bleak situations, and I want us to see what happened. II. The Great Persecution Arises Against the Church. a. Early on, life is good. i. Acts 2 contains a beautiful picture of the early church. ii. After the great sadness they felt when they realized they had crucified the Messiah. iii. They listen to the instructions of the apostles on what they needed to do. iv. But look at what happens next. 1. Read Acts 2:42-47. v. More descriptions. 1. Read Acts 4:32-33.
2. Read Acts 5:14-16. b. Acts 6-7 i. But then we get to Acts 6 and 7. ii. Introduced to Stephen. 1. Read Acts 6:8-10. iii. Because of this, Stephen is brought before the Sanhedrin Council. 1. He preaches a pretty similar sermon to what was recorded in Acts 2. 2. But the leaders of the Jews have a different reaction. 3. And they stoned Stephen. iv. The stoning of Stephen led to a great persecution arising against the church. 1. Read Acts 8:1-3. c. Acts 8:4. i. Here is an attempt to silence the church. ii. But notice what happens in verse 4. 1. Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. iii. An incredible reaction to a terrible situation. d. Here s the point. i. A bleak situation turns into a positive situation. ii. Instead of silencing the church, the great persecution caused the gospel to be spread around the world. iii. Before Acts 8, the church was limited to the people in Jerusalem. 1. Who knows what would have happened had the great persecution not arisen? iv. But the fact is that something bad turned into something great. v. The devil tried, but the devil failed. III. The Imprisonment of the Apostle Paul. a. Paul s life. i. Familiar to most of us. ii. We saw him in Acts 8 as Saul of Tarsus who was leading the persecution against the church. iii. Jesus appears to him as recorded in Acts 9. 1. Apollos is sent to teach him, and Paul becomes a Christian. 2. And immediately he begins to preach, fulfilling his mission to take the gospel to the Gentiles. iv. He goes on three missionary journeys. 1. Has great success.
2. But he suffers much persecution. a. Read 2 Corinthians 11:24-27. v. Doesn t even mention being imprisoned. 1. At the end of the book of Acts, we read about him being imprisoned in Rome. 2. Certainly not a positive situation. b. Philippians. i. One of the prison epistles. ii. Imagine how the Philippian Christians would have looked upon Paul s imprisonment. 1. Obviously great concern. 2. Paul was the one who had brought the gospel to them. a. Acts 16, Lydia and then the Philippian jailor. 3. What s going to happen to Paul? How s he doing? 4. What s going to happen to us? c. Now read Philippians 1:12-14. i. Paul tells them that what has happened to him actually has turned out in a positive way. 1. The gospel was actually furthered by his imprisonment. a. The opposite of what you would have expected. ii. How was the gospel furthered? 1. Vs. 13, he had the opportunity to preach to some who he would have otherwise never had the opportunity. a. Philippians 4:22 tells us that some of Caesar s household had become Christians. 2. Vs. 14, other brethren have become more bold to speak the word of God without fear. a. Others had stepped up in Paul s absence. b. They had seen how he handled his imprisonment, his faith and boldness, and they preach the word of God even more. d. The point (again). i. A seemingly bad situation that turns out positively. ii. Instead of harming the preaching of the Gospel, Paul s imprisonment made the Gospel be preached even more. iii. The devil tried (again), and the devil failed (again).
IV. Conclusion. a. Have you gotten the point? i. When times seem bleak, God can take it and cause good to come from it. ii. We are reaching a time in our country where our faith is going to be tested. iii. There may be some bleak times ahead. b. But we need to remember one thing. i. God and the Gospel will Prevail! ii. The devil may win some individual battles, but he will not win the war. iii. He may try, but he will fail. c. Where does that leave us? i. Turn back to Revelation 12. ii. Verse 17 tells us what the devil is doing to us. iii. But verse 11 tells us how we can overcome. 1. 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. 2. Our role will be to stand firm for God and the Gospel. 3. No matter what might happen. a. Lose our friends. b. Lose our jobs. c. Lose our freedoms. d. Lose our lives. d. Do you want to win? i. The interesting part of this is that we already know who s won. 1. God won; the devil lost. ii. Do you want to be on the winning or losing team? 1. Stand with God, and you will win. 2. Stand with the devil, and you will lose (just as he has, time and time again).