From the Series: Following Jesus in a Hostile World
Revelation is written for people who find it hard to follow Jesus.
Now that Jesus is raised and ascended to heaven, now that the Holy Spirit has been poured out at Pentecost, we are in the last days.
What is life going to be like in the last days, the days after Pentecost in Acts 2.
I think there is one big spiritual doubt chapter 12 is speaking to.
If my life is so hard, has the death and resurrection of Jesus made any difference?
This book was written towards the end of the 1st century when the apostles were mostly died off and it was looking like nothing had really changed.
Yes, there was a lot of excitement around the death and resurrection of Jesus Pentecost and so forth, but what had really changed.
The empires of the world are still staggering on doing all the evil they were capable of.
And these seven churches that Revelation is written to might have been asking, have we been kind of left alone here?
Has Jesus made any difference?
If Jesus has made such a great difference, if Jesus is who he said he was then why is my Christian life so hard?
Why does it feel like I specifically am targeted by the devil?
This is the big question I think should be at the back of our minds as we are listening to this text.
So lets take a look at John’s vision.
First we're confronted by this sign in the sky, a brilliant luminous splendid woman.
Can you imagine what she looked like?
She’s wearing the sun.
She’s standing on the moon, and she is crowned with 12 stars.
She takes your breath away with her power, her beauty, in her splendor.
But there's a great irony in this picture because this woman who is resplendant in power and glory, is also writhing in pain.
She's crying out in pain.
How is it possible for someone so powerful to be in so much pain?
She's crying out in the pains of labour in the agony of giving birth.
So keep that image in your mind; this glorious, powerful woman crying out in pain in the agony of giving birth.
Then in verse 3 we see another sign also in heaven this time it's a great red dragon.
I think it's red because it's bloody. It's got 7 heads. It's a monster.
7 is the number of completion, fullness.
Which means this dragon is fully completely evil. He's got 10 horns 10 is also a number of completion in the Bible.
Horns make you frightened.
They’re a weapon of power.
To have 10 horns is to have maximum power.
This great bloody dragon has seven diadems on his head.
7 jeweled crowns.
So this dragon inspires massive fear for being bloody, has maximum intelligence and has maximum wealth.
This is evil personified in its most extravagant luxury, it's most awful power, and it's dizzying intelligence.
He has a great tail that is able to sweep down a third of the stars of heaven.
Just imagine in your mind's eye this awful bloody wealthy powerful monster crouching in front of this woman who is in a very vulnerable place in spite of her glory and power,
writhing in the pain of giving birth.
The bloody dragon monster is ready to eat this child as soon as the child is born.
This is a scene of incredible danger and suspense.
We don't want this child to be born because we fear what will happen to the baby.
What kind of baby must this be?
When the baby is born we are told who this baby is.
Listen to these words. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to shepherd (or rule) all the nations with a rod of iron.
Does that description remind you of anything else like it in the Bible?
It's a reference to Psalm 2, which is a messianic song that is quoted in the New Testament as much as any other Old Testament passage.
And so this baby is born to be king, born to be the king of the world.
So, if this dragon can devour this baby there will be no Messiah, there will be no salvation, there will be no Kingdom of God.
But if this dragon allows this baby boy to grow up the dragon is doomed.
As soon as the baby is born he is snatched away and taken to God and to his throne;
And then the woman turns to run and flees into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God,
a place of protection from the great beast,
a place where she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
And now a Great War breaks out in heaven.
Michael, this powerful Archangel of God and his angels are at war with the dragon.
And the dragon and his angels they fight back.
We're told almost nothing about this war,
we can imagine this must be quite the clash of titans, rocking the whole universe—
but we are given no description of the war before its announced that the war is over.
That is something Revelation does more than once;
Some mighty battle between God and the forces of evil is mentioned that from our point of view must have been catastrophic and pitched,
from our point of view the battle between God and Satan goes on through the ages
but from the point of view of heaven where John sees this vision its over immediately.
In verse 7 we are given one little phrase, and they were defeated.
That’s all the description we are going to get.
The dragon and his angels were defeated and there is no longer any place for them in heaven.
Now we're told a bit more about who this great dragon is in verse 9.
The great dragon was that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan the deceiver of the whole world.
We met this serpent back in the garden of Eden, the serpent that spoke to Eve and tempted her.
Remember how Eve was told that one day one of her offspring would trample that serpent into the dust?
Well now this serpent is thrown down and his angels are all thrown down with him.
We're told six times in this passage that this dragon is thrown down.
Can you imagine in your mind's eye this great bloody monster spinning like a top as he crashes out of the sky, flopping to the earth, landing with a sickening thud in the dust.
I'm going to come back to this song in the middle of the chapter.
For now lets pick up the story in verse 13 because getting this drama into our minds .
So when this defeated dragon sits up and his brain clears after being bounced from heaven,
he stands up and he goes and pursues this woman.
We had a glorious picture of this woman earlier but now she becomes even more amazing.
She is given wings like the eagle, and she flies into the wilderness to a place
where she can be nourished for a time, times, usand half a time. The dragon now tries is third tactic.
He was defeated at the birth of of the male child, he was defeated in the great heavenly battle with Michael and his angels,
but now he's going to try blowing water.
In the Bible water is often a symbol of chaos and destruction.
Think of the flood of Noah destroying creation.
But now even the earth refuses to help the devil.
It swallows up the flood as fast as the dragon can spit it out.
And then wretching with failure, resentful and bitter
the pathetic dragon goes off to make war on the children of this woman- v 17
those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.
In other words Christians like you and me.
Now you know why the devil fiddles around with pathetic temptations attacking little people like you me.
He attacks us because we are all he's got left.
Because he was defeated in the war that really counted, the war to be king of the heavens, he now has to be content with pestering me and you.
There are two questions you might be asking as your imagination lights up with this incredible drama.
One is who is this woman?
And the second question what do we do about these odd references to time in this passage.
In verse 6 we're told first that this woman is nourished in the wilderness for 1260 days, and in verse 14 she is nourished in the wilderness for a time times and half a time.
To that first question first who is this woman?
She gives birth to the Messiah, the baby born to be king.
That is our biggest clue.
Who do we know gives birth to the Messiah?
Most obviously this would be Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Doesn’t this whole story remind you of the Christmas story in Matthew 2 where Herod hears that a baby is born to be king of the Jews and in jealousy he pounces,
trying to kill this baby Messiah and God dashes her and her baby off to Egypt in the nick of time.
I have preached Revelation 12 at Christmas as a way to get away from the syrupy sentimental thing we sometimes make of Christmas—
you could call this the War of Christmas.
But she must be more than just Mary, Mary in a way stands in for all the people of God in the Old Testament.
Here we might call her Daughter Zion.
The Old Testament often talks about Daughter Zion, Israel, in labor and giving birth.
Micah 4:10
Writhe in agony, Daughter Zion,
like a woman in labour,
for now you must leave the city
to camp in the open field.
You will go to Babylon;
there you will be rescued.
There the Lord will redeem you
out of the hand of your enemies.
And then in Micah 5 we read:
Therefore Israel will be abandoned
until the time when she who is in labour bears a son,
and the rest of his brothers return
to join the Israelites.
4 He will stand and shepherd his flock
in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
Daughter Zion, the people of Israel in the pains of labor through the centuries struggling towards that day of deliverance.
Struggling to give birth to the Messiah
But finally , she is not only Daughter Zion, not only the Virgin Mary,
this woman in Revelation also gives birth to other children, in verse 17,
all those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.
This is language Revelation uses for the saints, followers of Jesus who have conquered through their suffering and follow the Lamb wherever he goes.
This woman is the mother of the church, the people of God.
What a rich symbol is this woman.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, Daughter Zion, the mother straining to give birth to the Messiah in the Old Testament, and the Church.
She is a picture of how the people of God, including you and me have struggled for centuries to bring the Messiah to the world.
But what about these two time signatures.
Two times in this passage we are told that the woman representing the people of God, is carried off into the wilderness to be protected by God where she is nourished for a period of time.
In verse 6 we're told that it's 1260 days.
In verse 14 we're told that it's for a time, times and half a time.
When these numbers are used elsewhere in the Bible they refer to a time of waiting, of suffering, of wandering in the wilderness when they learn to depend on God.
Sometimes the Bible will talk about 1260 days,
sometimes it talks about 42 months,
sometimes it talks about 3 1/2 years,
and sometimes it talks about time times and a half a time.
In the book of Numbers we are told that Israel walked through the wilderness from Egypt to the promised land in 42 stages.
The Gospel of Matthew starts off by showing that the genealogy of Jesus the time of waiting for the birth of the Messiah is 42 generations.
If you look back to Revelation 11 John hears about a period of 42 months where the nations are going to trample over the the city of God.
“And I will grant my two witnesses authority to prophesy for one thousand two hundred and sixty days, wearing sackcloth.”
So these time references refer to a time of waiting, wandering in the wilderness, suffering, and a time when all the church can do is prophesy.
Don’t you feel the power of this vision!
Don’t you feel in your bones that its so true.
This is the life you and I are living as the those who keep his commands. Who has the patience to be a Christian?
Who can believe today that Jesus changed everything?
Who can believe that this Jesus that we worship, hidden though he might be, is in fact the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Why does it look like the powers of evil are still attacking us?
Why is the Christian life so hard if Jesus defeated Satan on the cross was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven to be with God on his throne?
This doesn't make sense!
But John would say, this makes perfect sense!
This is exactly the kind of pressure, suffering, persecution you should expect if this story is true.
If Jesus is the Messiah, if he defeated Satan on the cross, if he was raised from the dead defeating the ancient dragon, if he truly was ascended into heaven, beyond the reach of the dragon,
then it makes perfect sense that but now all Satan can do is make war on the children of this woman namely the church, namely you and me.
John is saying, right now it looks like the battle with Satan is awesome, awful—towering over our heads—but do not be fooled.
It looks that way because Satan has been defeated, he has been thrown down.
It’s a great optical illusion!
Here we raise the great shout from heaven in verse 10:
‘Now have come the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Messiah,[b]
for the accuser of our comrades[c] has been thrown down,
who accuses them day and night before our God.
11 But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony,
for they did not cling to life even in the face of death.
12 Rejoice then, you heavens
and those who dwell in them!
But woe to the earth and the sea,
for the devil has come down to you
with great wrath,
because he knows that his time is short!’
A couple of years ago Glenda and I had a chance to visit the Coventry cathedral in England.
This is a cathedral that was built in the 20th century after the old Coventry Cathedral was bombed by the Nazis in World War 2.
It's an amazing place and I would encourage you to visit if you ever get to England.
When a person walks up the steps to this cathedral there's a towering sculpture that looms overhead.
Michael the Archangel Towering over Satan.
Michael has clearly defeated Satan who is bound with chains but you get the sense as a little human being standing in front of this that this is big time stuff.
These are powers and principalities that are massive far beyond our imagining.
You get the sense that defeating evil in the cosmos is a gigantic task.
And as a Christian seeing this, you think, yes, that is how Satan feels to me sometimes.
But then you go from the outside of the building through the doors into the cathedral.
You've walked from the world into the church, into a place of worship, into a place where Jesus is enthroned.
And when you look to the front of the church behind the altar you see one of the largest tapestries that anybody has ever created. 75 feet tall.
And it's a towering image of Jesus seated on the throne.
And so as you're worshiping in this church you were literally sitting in front of this massive glorious image of Christ in all his glory soaring over you in resplendent beauty.
But as you look up in wonder at this image of Christ seated in triumph, you suddenly notice that this tapestry also has a picture of Michael and Satan.
But instead of Michael and Satan kind of looming over you in this picture it's a tiny little detail the artist has placed beside Jesus’ knee.
This is what the Spirit is wanting us to see and feel in this vision of Christ in Revelation 12.
Yes that Dragon is a powerful creature at first; but by the end of the vision we come to see him as a pathetic, little sniveling lizard.
He’s thrashing about in the throes of his humiliating defeat, and those death throes sometimes get you and me hurt.
But over all this vision we see the glory of Jesus Christ, the baby born to be King.
He is hidden right now—ascended in heaven.
There are plenty of little powers and principalities in this world that do not yet realize it,
but Jesus has taken his seat and has begun to reign.
And we too are beginning to reign with him.
Its interesting that in verse 11 the vision switches to talking about how the saints, you and me, have conquered Satan.
But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.
We, you and I, we conquer Satan, by clinging to the cross of Jesus.
So yes, there is so much about following Jesus will be hard.
Satan will use disease, persecution, technology, sex, food, mental illness, family troubles.
And if none of that works he will use sheer boredom.
But Satan does not do this because he is powerful.
He does this because he is defeated.
Because as verse 12 says, he knows his time is short.
I want to close by quoting the great hymn written by Martin Luther in the 16th century.
A Mighty Fortress is our God.
Luther was known for his battles with devil.
He was pestered and tormented by the devil all his life and it could make his days miserable. But listen to these words:
And though this world, with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God has willed
his truth to triumph through us.
The prince of darkness grim,
we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure,
for lo! his doom is sure;
one little word shall fell him.
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