Revelation 12:1-6
Who are the real enemies of the
church? Who are the real enemies of the
church? Some would probably give the answer that it’s our lawmakers. They make up rules and laws that
affect our ability to have a non-profit status, or that mandate things
related to health care, or they restrain what we can say or not
say. Some would say that the enemies
of the church are heretics, those who teach falsehoods, those who
proclaim a gospel, not the gospel of Jesus. Those who teach theology
are things that are not true about God and our savior, Jesus. Others would say that the enemies
of the church are not lawmakers or heretics, but the wolves in
sheep’s clothing. Some would go so far as to say
that the enemies of the church are Satan and his minions. And if you’re reading the book
of revelation, you would go on to say it’s the dragon and the
beast and the harlot and those marked with the mark of the beast. Those are the enemies of the
church of God. And the answer to the question,
who are the enemies of the churches is yes, it’s, it’s all of these
people from Ages past have set themselves up against God and
his church. But we get a picture in this
passage from Revelation. And I think you’ll see from the
examples throughout the history of the Bible, redemptive history,
you’ll see that ultimately Satan is the enemy of the church. He
just has a whole lot of people working for him and at his disposal. Satan is powerful. In fact, he
is super powerful. But as you read through the scriptures,
you recognize that he is still under God’s sovereign control. Maybe some of you have visited
a junkyard or a scrapyard and running the fence line was a
giant German shepherd or Doberman. And they were on a chain. And
they could only lunge so far and terrorize us so far because
there was a chain, a stake, a post in the ground. And that’s how
we should see Satan. He is God’s devil. He is under
God’s sovereignty and control. But here is a truth we must understand. He hates the church. He hates
the people of God. He despises the glory of God. And so as the gathered people
of God, gathered in the name and in the ministry and the reconciliation
and work of the cross of Jesus, we have been called out of the
world to live for God and Satan cannot stand it. We are, as a
church, an outpost of heaven. We are an outpost of heaven,
but we are what you might call building a church in the Wild
West or in Satan’s territory. And he does not want us setting
up shop. He does not want us preaching
the gospel. He does not want us winning lost
souls. No, He wants failure. He wants
the gospel to be snuffed out. And so the church of God, the
people of God can consider all these enemies of Christ and His
church. We can consider all these things
and be discouraged or overwhelmed or unsure. And we can say, does
my preaching or teaching or attendance in worship, does my Sunday school
teaching, does my service in God’s house, does it make a difference? Will the Church of God make it
to the end? Will we see through to the day
of the victorious coming of our Lord Jesus? Well, the book of
Revelation was written to people asking those sorts of questions.
It was written to us. It was written to the early church
so that when we become discouraged with how dark the world is, or
how evil wickedness has become, or whatever discourages us, it
was written to encourage us in one major thing. And that one
major thing is this, Jesus wins. Jesus wins. The opposition may
be great. Our trials and persecutions may
be difficult. Life on this earth may appear
dark and full of despair. The church may be nearly snuffed
out. But Jesus wins. That is the message of the book
of Revelation. And so this little passage, this
A couple verses here in chapter 12 of Revelation is meant to
encourage you with the hope of Christmas, with the hope of Christ,
with the hope of the glory of Jesus, our risen Savior. You see, the people of God or
the church of God have always been in various forms of hardship. But understand this, God always
provides richly for his people. He always provides richly for
his people who are in hardship. This passage leads us to consider
a couple of things. The first is this, we have an
age old promise. We have an age old promise in
the scriptures, where would you go Where would you go in your
copy of God’s Word to find the gospel of the Lord Jesus? If
your homework assignment for this afternoon was to go home
and flip through your Bibles and write a statement, what is
the gospel? What is the gospel of the Lord
Jesus? Where would you go? Where would
you look? Would you go to one of the four
gospels? Would you go to one of Paul’s
New Testament letters? Well, yes, you would. Would you
go to the Old Testament? Some may scratch your heads and
say, I don’t know if the gospel is really in the Old Testament.
Well, friends, the gospel is in the Bible from beginning to
end. The gospel, God saving sinners,
is all over the 66 books of the Bible. And you can go back to
the very beginning. You can go to the very beginning
and see that God is ultimate reality, that He exists, that
He makes all things, and that without God as ultimate reality,
you have no reality at all. And very quickly, as you make
your way through the Bible, you see the gospel clearly in Genesis
chapter 3. We read a story of Adam and Eve
in perfect fellowship with God, obeying His laws, and as our
children’s catechism says so well, they were happy and holy. They were in love with God, in
fellowship with God, in obedience to God, until one day Satan entered
the garden. As we read a few moments ago,
the serpent was more crafty than any of the beasts of the field.
And they had been listening to God day after day. And now the
serpent comes in and says, did God really say? The Bible is
not true, he seems to tell them. God cannot be trusted. He’s holding
back from you every good and perfect gift he’s keeping for
himself. You’ve got nothing. Open your
eyes. Unfetter yourself from this hardship
and this this tyranny he has placed upon you. Well, they did
so. They saw that the fruit of the
tree was a delight to the eyes, and Eve took it and gave it to
her husband also. And they ate it, but quickly
they were ashamed. They were naked. They were exposed. They tried to do what we always
do when we sin. We justify it in some way. We
fashion some fig leaves, hoping that somehow, someway, our nakedness,
our sin, and our shame will be covered. And in this first gospel,
in this first mention of God being gracious and kind, apart
from creation, apart from Him giving every good and perfect
gift, He comes to them in their sin and He says, where are you? He comes looking. What an act
of mercy. What a great gift of grace. Where are you? What have you
done? Who told you that you were naked?
And then he finally says, these fig leaves won’t do. And so he
sheds the blood of an animal, their sacrifice, and he covers
them. He covers their shame and their
nakedness and their sin. And he sheds blood in order that
they might have some form of life again. And there’s hardship
that comes. He pronounces curses. Satan,
you’ll crawl on your belly. Eve, your childbearing will be
difficult. Adam, work is going to bust your
knuckles and it’s going to be hard. And then he goes on to
speak of Adam and the pain and work and the thorns and thistles.
He speaks to Eve about the marital strife that will come. Your desire
will be for your husband, but he will rule over you. And then
to Satan, he says, you will nip at the heels of the offspring
of this woman. but her offspring will crush
your head.” And so war was declared. God said in a wonderful and majestic
way to Satan, it’s on. We’re at war with one another
and you’ll nip and nip and nip at the heels of my people and
my son, but your head will be crushed. your head will be crushed
and it will be a fatal blow, a deadly blow. And so the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ comes to us early in the pages of scriptures. And He speaks, He speaks to Adam
and Eve and to us, all who read the scriptures. He speaks to
us and says, one will be born from among you. And that one
born from among you will save the people of God. We read in
our confession of faith, we read that from Adam until Christ,
that the people of God were saved in the same way that we are,
that they were saved by faith in the promised Messiah. We live
on the other side of Messiah. We live on the other side of
Messiah coming and redeeming and dying and paying the penalty
for our sin, but it’s just the same. The gospel is still true.
God saves sinners through faith in Jesus. And this son, this
seed, this king, this Jesus, he would defeat Satan. And God
promises in chapter three, verse 15, Satan, you will nip at his
heels, but he will crush your head. Friends, this is an age
old promise. It comes to us on the pages of
sacred scripture, pages that are the first of the written
word of God from the pen of Moses. But these truths are rooted in
the reality of God and His eternal decree. These promises reach
back and back and back. And so we sing very well how
firm a foundation, how firm a foundation we have as the saints of God
to believe and trust and to put our hope in these ancient promises.
This is an age old promise, but it secondly speaks of an age
old battle. It speaks of a battle that has
been going on for centuries. No, no millennia. It’s been going
on for quite a while. You know, we think our situation
is unique. We look at the world around.
We read the headlines. We watch our morning news shows.
We look at things on our smartphones and say, look at what is going
on in the world. It’s a terrible place. It’s dark.
Sin has never been this bad. Evil has never been this wicked.
You know, there’s more of this, more of that. It’s never been
quite that bad. Well, friends, that’s just not the case. This
has been a wicked world since the garden. And you give men
and women and boys and girls a little time a little creativity,
a weapon of their choice, and you let them follow their wicked
heart. And friends, you’ve got problems. And those problems
are maybe more highlighted today because we are addicted to television.
We’re addicted to media. We know too much about what’s
going on in the world. And so we say sometimes, oh,
it’s come to this. It’s so bad. While possibly true, it’s been
bad friends for a very long time. It’s been bad for a very long
time. Our passage gives us, it gives us a glimpse of what is
going on in the world. And who are the main characters
in this age old battle? Well, simply put the woman in
our passage is the church. You see the 12 stars, she represents
the people of God, the complete people of God, the 12 tribes
of Israel. So you’ve got this woman who is in distress, that
is the church under persecution, under the tyranny of Satan and
under the hardship of life in this world. You’ve got this great
red dragon. Well, we don’t have to imagine
too hard to know who that is, it’s Satan. The ancient serpent,
if you go just a few verses down in chapter 12, it identifies.
This is Satan, that ancient serpent who is doomed. And then there’s
Jesus. There’s the mother of Jesus.
There’s Mary. And there’s There’s the church
of God at war with Satan. That’s what we see in this picture
of this age old battle. And we think things are uniquely
difficult for us. But if you walk through the scriptures,
If you walk through the Bible, you’ll see that Satan has been
attempting to derail God’s mission. He has been attempting to extinguish
the glory of God. Think about Adam and Eve and
how after all their hardship from sin and fallenness, God
blessed them. And he gave them boys. He gave
them Cain and Abel. But very soon we see brother
turn against brother and Cain kills Abel. And Cain goes off
to live a wicked life. But Adam and Eve are given another
son, a son named Seth. And from Seth’s line we read
in the book of Genesis that people began to call on the name of
the Lord. But Satan was still at work.
And he attempted to lure the sons of Seth into marriage with
the daughters of Eve. And we read up until the time
of the flood that the thoughts and inclinations of the people
were only evil all the time. And a very sad verse comes in
the sixth chapter of Genesis. God was sorry that he made man.
And he decided in his heart that he would destroy the earth and
all living creatures with the flood. But there’s a wonderful
little verse. We see a glimpse of God saving
a people for himself. It says, but Noah, but Noah found
faith in the eyes of the Lord. Noah found favor in the eyes
of the Lord. And then there’s Abraham. He’s
an old man. He’s supposed to have a child
of promise. He gets older. No child. He gets older. No child. He’s approaching that 100 year
mark. No child. And then Isaac. But
then God very strangely tells Abraham, go and offer your son,
Isaac, the one who you love on a mountain where I’ll show you.
And as he was in the act, of putting that son to death, of
giving him a sacrifice, is a sacrifice to God. God himself cries out
through the angel and says, on the mountain I provide and a
ram in the thicket was offered instead. And so we see God at
work through his people, but we see Satan continually attempting
to destroy. Rebecca is barren. But God gives
her Jacob. Jacob and Esau are at war with
one another, but at some point in time they make peace. Esau
goes his way. Jacob back to the promised land
after serving Laban. Moses takes the people of God
out of Israel, but what do they do shortly thereafter? They’re
dancing around a golden calf. saying, this is our God who brought
us up out of Egypt. And then we see the battle of
Saul and David, but God spares David’s life. We read of wicked
Ahab and his not so wonderful wife, Jezebel. And their daughter,
Athaliah, she attempts to wipe out the seed of God’s children.
And she kills every person in the royal family, but a nurse,
a helper in the family, sneaks Joash. and protects the line
of David and the seed of Jesus. And there’s darkness on Israel
as they fall into idolatry, as they are carried off into foreign
lands, as the Assyrians and the Babylonians come and take over
their land. And God comes in the midst. And
he says to them, the people who have walked in darkness have
seen a great light. Behold, this will be the sign, a virgin shall
conceive and bear forth a son, and his name will be Emmanuel.
And you read on through the Bibles of Haman, who would love to extinguish
the whole of Israel. But Esther, who was born for
such a time as this, is raised up and at the right place at
the right time by the good hand and providence of God. And she
saves her people. And then there’s Jesus’ birth.
And the visit of the wise men in Herod who can’t stand the
thought of a king greater than himself. Where is this king? We can’t find him. And so he
wipes out every child two years old and under, every boy born. but not Jesus. For Mary and Joseph
are warned in a dream and they make a flight, a run to Egypt
where God saves. And friends, we see throughout
the history of God’s people in the whole of the Bible, nothing
stops God’s plan. Nothing will stop God’s seed,
King Jesus, from accomplishing redemption. Over and over and
over, the serpent fails. How is that encouraging to us
as a church? How is that encouraging to us
in the 21st century, in 2015, now nearly 2016? God wins. Jesus reigns. Christ is victorious. Satan will be hard at work. All
his helpers as well, but the serpent fails. His helpers fall
short. The gates of hell will not prevail
against the church of Jesus. Oh, we may suffer. Oh, we may
be persecuted. There may be hardships. Heresy
may tear us apart. There may be disunity in the
physical body of the Lord Jesus on earth. but Satan will not
win. Martin Luther wrote such a wonderful
hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. And he reminds us as we
sing that hymn of Satan, his doom is sure. One little word, one little word. God must just only speak one
little word and it shall fail him. And so we have an age old
promise. We see an age old battle. And
finally, we have an everlasting Savior. This passage speaks of
the birth of Jesus. It speaks of the birth of the
Messiah. It speaks of the one in Psalm
2 that will rule on the throne of David, the one who will rule
all the kings of the earth. Most weeks, the salutation, the
greeting we hear from God through the pastor is grace to you and
peace from him who is. and who was and who is to come,
and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from
Christ Jesus, the faithful witness, the firstborn from among the
dead, and the ruler of all the kings of the earth. That is from
the first chapter of Revelation. And it reminds us, as it reminds
the hearers in the early church, that Jesus rules and reigns. He rules over the craziest despots
ruling in the most wacky countries in the world. You name the crazy
leader who’s making a nuke or who kills those who do not do
their bidding, whatever, Jesus rules and reigns over them. And
so we are reminded in this birth of an everlasting Savior, we
are reminded of the strength and the power and the might of
God. He will accomplish His plans.
The serpent may try as he may to to derail the train, to stop
the mission. But this son, Jesus, will rule
with an iron rod. And the passage goes on to tell
us that he’ll be caught up, he’ll be taken up to heaven where he
is protected, where he has ruled and reigned. And we have seen
God do this before. He took Elijah into the wilderness
and fed him from ravens. He took care of his people in
the wilderness of Sinai. And see, we remember, friends,
God always cares and provides for his people in hardship. And
he has sent a Savior, Jesus Christ, who wins. Satan will not prevail. He will not prevail. The church
will have peace and worship and witness and will live before
a watching world. Yes, there will be hostility
and scorn and the gospel may be attempted to be snuffed out.
The church will be persecuted. We’ll be alienated for our faith.
We’ll endure trials and hardships and even traumas because of our
faith. But God always provides, and He has provided a Savior,
one who can win this battle. But notice how He nourishes His
church. He keeps us in the wilderness. We’re not home yet. We’re not
in Zion yet. We’re not in the heavenly city.
But while in the wilderness, God will provide for us. Haven’t we seen in these last
few moments how God throughout the scriptures, he takes care
of Abraham. He takes care of David. He takes
care of Esther and all the Jews who are threatened by Haman.
He takes care of his people and so friends. As you live the Christian
life in this world that hates God, as you live out the faith
in this world that is under Satan’s thumb at times, we trust in Jesus. And we put our faith and our
hope in Him. And we think of old Polycarp,
the old man who was martyred in the early days of the church,
who was challenged before he was put to death. You recant
the name of Jesus and you’ll live. And he said, these many
years I have served Jesus faithfully, or Jesus has faithfully served
me, and I will not fail him now. And so we have the great grace
and the ability to live a faith like that, where Jesus has served
us well, and we can serve him faithfully. Our God provides
for his people in hardship. And in the wilderness, it may
be dark and it may be hard, but he promises never to leave or
forsake us.