MPC 28th March 2004.Revelation 12 - "Defeating the Accuser"
Phil Campbell MPC 28th March 2004.
Superstitions are funny things. And it's interesting how many superstitions come from fear. Fear of the devil. Fear of evil spirits. Think about it for a minute. I mean, did you know that's why people say God bless you when you sneeze? Because in the old days, the theory was, when you sneezed you blew out a few evil spirits. And if someone says "God bless you," it stops them getting back in. Terrific if you've got hayfever. But in the end, absolutely hopeless at overcoming the devil.
There's another superstition that says if you throw a pinch of salt over your shoulder it keeps the devil away.
I was in a shop up in the city that sold Chinese statues. And there was a pair of fierce looking carved stone lions. The label said that these were the same sort of lions they put outside Buddhist temples. They put these statues on guard duty at the front of the temple, because, they say, they scare off the evil spirits. And you're safe in the temple.
Which let me say quite bluntly doesn't work.
What about in more concrete terms? Getting rid of evil in the world. We see evil in our own society. And we say send in a social worker. We see evil somewhere else - maybe we'll send in armies. And think that somehow armies and regime change can overcome the power of evil. When the reality is, behind it all there's something bigger. The devil himself. Who can't be overcome so easily at all. Superstitions or not.
When it all boils down, no amount of "God bless you's" when you sneeze, no amount of stone lions, no amount of salt over your shoulder and no amount of bombers and tanks is going to help. There are all sorts of superstitions about how you can save yourself from the devil. And none of them work. That's the bad news. Now for the good news. The good news is, we don't need to save ourselves from the devil. Because we're going to see here in Revelation chapter 12, the hardest work has all been done already. And the job goes on in the most surprising way.
Now when we started this series a few weeks back, I made a couple of suggestions about how to read the book of Revelation. And I said when you're reading a description of a vision, then the best thing to do is try and see it in your mind. And instead of trying to decode everything, instead of trying to work out all the details, just sit back and imagine you're watching it all on video.
And I want you to do that today. Because what we're looking at is a very vivid vision. With a very simple message. I'll tell you the message now in case you miss it. The message is, Satan's defeated in heaven already. And on earth he will be.
That's the message. So let's have a closer look at the vision. It's a vision in two parts. And there are two battles. There's a battle in heaven. And there's a battle on earth.
And it's the battle on earth that you see in the first part of the vision.
It hits you in the face as soon as you start reading the chapter. A great and wondrous sign appears in heaven, says John, and it's a woman.
She's clothed with the Sun, she's got the moon under her feet and a crown of 12 stars on her head. And she's pregnant, and she's about to give birth. Now just imagine it. And she's crying out in pain, when suddenly this huge blood-red dragon comes into view. A horrible looking scaly thing with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads, and this huge dragon is flailing around with its tail and knocking the stars out of the sky. Special effects you wouldn't even see in The Matrix.
And it says in verse 4 the dragon's only got one thing in mind. And that's to wait for the woman to give birth, and to grab this newborn baby and eat it up.
And the woman gives birth. And we know why the dragon wants to kill the baby, because this is a baby born to be a real king. King of Kings. It's a boy, says verse 5; a male child born to rule the nations with an iron sceptre.
And suddenly, in this vision, just as the horrible seven headed dragon's going to eat up the one who's born to be king, verse 5 says the child is snatched up to God and to his throne.
And then the woman runs off and hides in the desert, because God's already prepared a place; and she's taken care of for three and a half years - 1260 days.
It's a pretty wild story. And there's more. Go down to verse 13. And this is a bit tricky, cause it sort of overlaps. He's chasing the woman, she's taken into the desert on eagle's wings, she's there for a time, times, and half a time - three and a half years, out of the serpents reach. And imagine this, verse 15, from the dragon's mouth comes a flood, a raging river that tries to sweep her away. And what happens? It's a cliff-hanger. But she's safe. The earth opens up in a gaping hole and swallows up the water.
And the dragon stomps off in a fury to find someone else to fight with. The rest of her offspring, it says in verse 17, those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
This dragon is very, very angry. Furious. With anyone who wants to hold on to the gospel. Anyone who follows Jesus.
Now I don't know how you went imaging all that in your mind's eye. But that's what you're meant to do. Imagine the scene before you try to figure out what it all means.
So you've got the child. You've got the dragon. And the woman. The three main characters.
Now if there's one thing that's obvious, the child in the vision is Jesus. That's the easy one. This baby who's born to be king. To rule over the nations. Clearly somehow a picture of Jesus of Nazareth.
The huge roaring, fire breathing, seven headed seven crowned monster, that's waiting there to eat the Messiah isn't so tricky either. Although there's a kind of double meaning. Crowns in Revelation usually stand for kings. And so the seven crowned heads are rulers and kings and Roman emperors.
But behind that there's something even more sinister. The heads are the kings and emperors on earth. But follow the neck down a bit and there's this dragon calling the shots. Who John tells us is the Devil himself. Take a look at verse 9. The great dragon, it says there, that ancient serpent, called the Devil or Satan who leads the whole world astray. The snake in the garden. The original tempter.
And in the vision, even though the devil's there controlling the kings and emperors of the world, even though he's sitting there waiting to destroy Jesus, even though King Herod kills every child in Bethlehem, even though Pilate nails him on a cross, what happens? God raises him up to heaven and puts him on the throne. Safe. It all happens in a flash in the vision, fast forward... but that's the picture. God's victory. No matter what.
Same with the woman. Now here's where things get tricky. Because in one way you look at the woman in the vision, and you say, well, the kid's Jesus, so this is his mum. Must be Mary. But look a bit closer and it's not.
And I want to suggest to you without getting too complicated, the woman in the vision actually stands for Israel. The people of God. Because at the start, she's wearing the sun and the moon and the twelve stars, and back in the old testament, that's a symbol for Israel.
And the point is, when you look at what happens, there's the dragon chasing after her, and what happens? God lifts her up on eagle's wings and hides her in the desert. Which is exactly what God says he did with Israel back in Exodus. And the dragon tries to wash her away, and what happens? In the vision God opens up a great hole in the earth, and she's safe. No matter what. He's tried to kill the baby. The Baby's been taken up to heaven. Tried to destroy the woman. She's protected by God. So then the dragon gives up on the woman and goes after the Christians. Verse 17. Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring - those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
And let me tell you, here's where the vision's starting to make a whole lot of sense to those first century Christians. The people Revelation was first written to. Because they know exactly what it's like to have the emperor breathing fire down their necks. They know exactly what it's like to be at war with the devil. They've seen Jesus crucified and rise. Now the heat's on them. And even though the swords are in the hands of Roman soldiers, at every point they know the devil's behind it.
That's the battle on earth. And they know what it's like first hand. So let's backtrack a little bit, and have a look at another perspective. And have a look at what's going on in heaven.
You'll see it in verse 7 to 9. And then here's the good part. You can see it all explained in verses 10 to 12.
Read from verse 7. "And there was war in heaven," it says. Imagination time again. Michael and his angels are fighting against the dragon; it's war. A huge battle. The dragon and his angels fight back. Verse 8, he's not strong enough, and it says they lose their place in heaven. The great dragon is hurled down - that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, he's hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
That's the battle in heaven. And it's all over. The good guys win.
What does it all mean?
But we need to ask, what does it actually mean? Because we need to keep remembering, Revelation is a picture book. Visions are visions. And the mistake most people make when they come to a vision like this is they get it mixed up with the reality.
The first thing we need to do is take a closer look at this dragon. The symbol for the devil. Now it's an interesting thing, sometimes a person's name can tell you a lot about them, sometimes it doesn't. My first name means lover of horses. And let me tell you, you couldn't get further from the truth. But if you have a look at the dragon, you'll see there in verse 9 that he's called the devil, or Satan. And they're both words that tell you a lot about what he's like. The word devil is the Greek word for a foul mouthed slanderer. That's his name. And that's his nature.
The word Satan is a little bit different. Because Satan is actually a job description. And it's a term that they actually used to use in the law courts. The Satan is the prosecutor. The adversary. The Satan is the one if you watch Law and Order or The Practice on TV is like the District Attorney. Pressing charges. Standing up in court and tries to prove that you're guilty. The Satan is the accuser. That's his job. "You call yourself a holy God?... I know what Phil Campbell's really like... he deserves to be punished..."
And he stands in God's court room accusing - and slandering. Worse than that, he does his best to bring people to ruin. Setting traps. Temptations. And what he wants to do most of all is make us fall. It's summarised there at the end of verse 9. Satan's job is to lead the whole world astray. There's nothing he wants to do more.
And you can see him in action in the court room in Verse 10. "The accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night." There he is in God's court room. Accusing. Pointing the finger. Slandering us, deceiving us, then accusing us before God.
Now I know I've told this story before. And it's burned into my memory because it's full of such deep seated childhood angst. It's a memory of my very first week at school. And I was playing in the school sandpit with David Hughes. And I thought we were friends. Now at the school I went to there used to be one very important rule. This was the biggie. The rule was this. "Don't throw stones in the playground."
Well, there we were playing in the sandpit, and David Hughes the tempter picks up a couple of rocks. And he says to me, Let's have a competition to see who can throw the furthest. You go first.
Now I was having such a good time that I wasn't really thinking much about the school rules. And I was generally pretty thick. So I took the rock David Hughes gave me and I threw it as hard as I could.
And you know, as soon as it left my hands, David turned around and he ran straight to the teacher and he dobbed me in - David Hughes the accuser. And he told Mrs Dawson, who really was a dragon, that I'd thrown a stone in the school playground. And I was in trouble.
Nice bloke, David. Well, I'm sure he is these days. But after that I didn't ever have much to do with him.
But can you see how that's a perfect picture of the way Satan operates here in Revelation 12? That's exactly what he does. He deceives. Then he accuses. He'll lead you into trouble - then accuse you for the trouble he's led you into.
Those are his tactics. That's the sort of thing you've got to expect. He tempts you; and then he stands before God and he demands justice. Demands punishment for the sin that he's tricked you into. I got into trouble, because I broke the school rules. That's justice. And justice says when you sin, you pay the price.
And let me tell you, in the end, that's the only power the devils got. The devil is always trying to use God's justice against us. By tempting. Then accusing.
So there's your picture in verse 7 to 9 of this dragon and his evil angels caught up in this wild battle in heaven. And please notice that the good guys win. And that after a giant battle the Serpent is thrown out of court.
Now let me say it again. Symbollic. That's a story made out of symbols. A vision John had, that's got a message. And the good thing is, here's one part of the book of Revelation where you're actually told what it all means.
Because it all gets explained by that voice that comes from heaven in verse 10 and 11. Make sure you listen to the voices in Revelation. Because usually they're explaining what it means. Start at verse 10. There's a loud voice that says this. "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down." That's the picture we've just seen. The battle. But now look at the next bit. Because here's what it means. The real battle's not a battle with swords and spears and firebreathing dragons. If you want to know how the devil gets beaten, have a look at this. Verse 11. And if you haven't followed anything else, take notice. "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.... And by the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death."
The voice is explaining the symbolic battle. And explaining the defeat of the accuser. So look at it carefully. Look at the way Satan's overcome, look at the way he's beaten and kicked out of heaven. The angels in the battle in this case are a symbol. The thing that really defeats Satan isn't swords and spears in heaven. It's this. And it's there in black and white. They overcame him (how?) by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. The witness of Christians who didn't love their lives so much that they bowed down to Caesar.
Now remember, Satan is the accuser. The one who stands before God and accuses us. Like my friend David in the playground. This is what he says. "He broke the rules. So punish him." He's the accuser. But now he can't. He can't accuse any longer. And it's all because of the blood of Jesus. The central fact of the Christian faith. The fact that Jesus made himself a sacrificial lamb. The fact that he stood in for us, that he took our place, that he was put to death for our sins.
See, whatever it is you've done wrong, if you've come to Jesus it's already paid for. Because Jesus took the punishment for it on the cross. He was your sacrificial lamb. Romans chapter 8 verse 1 says the same thing in plain language. "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death."
Now take yourself back for a minute to the playground. Imagine David runs up to the teacher to accuse me, and the teacher said this. "Well, yes David, he's done a terrible thing and he's broken the rules. He deserves to be punished by spending all lunchtime picking up papers in the playground. But there's no point you accusing him any more, because his punishment has been taken already. Someone's already taken his place and carried the cost. So all your accusing is just a waste of time. Get lost." I wish it had happened that way. It would have been great.
But the fact is, it has happened that way with God. That's exactly what God says to Satan. The accuser is hurled down, he's kicked out, because of this. He's got nothing to accuse us of. Because all your sins, all your rebellion against God, it's been paid for already.
And the fact is, every time you share that gospel with someone, every time someone turns to Jesus for forgiveness, it's another victory. The fact is, when you're telling people about Jesus, when you're sharing your faith, you're caught up in the huge spiritual battle. You're taking on the devil. And the good thing is, you've got a weapon that works.
And that's what John's vision says to those persecuted first century Christians. He says no wonder the devil wants to shut you up. No wonder the emperor doesn't want you talking about Jesus. No wonder you're being persecuted and locked up and whipped and sent into exile and put to death. No wonder people laugh at you.
Because the devil's going to do anything he can to stop us spreading round the gospel. Because in the end, if he's got nothing to accuse us of, he's out of a job.
So the Christians back then kept testifying. Kept talking about Jesus. Kept standing firm.
They knew what it was like to be persecuted by Satan. But they kept on testifying. Because they were confident in the blood of the lamb. So confident that they didn't even fear death. The voice from heaven says they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
Back in the year 110, about 20 years after these words were written, a Christian called Justin wrote these words. He says, "No one makes us afraid. For though we Christians are beheaded, he says, and crucified, and exposed to beasts and chains and fire and all other forms of torture, it is plain that we do not forsake the confession of our faith - but the more things like this happen to us," he says, "so much the more there are many others who become believers through the name of Jesus. Just as when you cut away the parts of a vine that have borne fruit, it bursts into flower, so it is with us."
Friends, I think we live in fearsome times. Christians, in a sense always have. Times when the Devil has been thrown out of heaven but still slashes round with his tail trying to bring destruction. Especially trying to stop us spreading around the news... that God's mercy is freely available. In the blood of the Lamb. So whatever you do, don't forsake the confession of your faith. Talk about it. Live it. Spread it round. Because the devil's not too worried about what you say when you sneeze. And he's not to worried by cloves of garlic or stone lions outside temples. And he's not in the slightest bit afraid of armies that promise to bring regime change. What he really hates is the simple gospel. The blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. Christians - who keep testifying, even in the face of fear and death. Because that... is the only thing that brings his kingdom and his rule undone.