Revelation 12:1-5, 7-8, 17
We’re at War!
May 20, 2012
The call comes in . . . we’re at war!
What will you do?
How will you react?
What will you wear?!
How will you defend yourself and your loved ones?
Will you defend them or pretend like everything’s okay?
What will you do?
How will you defend yourself?
Will you take the offensive, or will you be on the run, hoping to evade the enemy?
There’s a problem, though. This is not a natural war. It’s not a war we’re going to fight in the physical world. It’s a war unlike any you’ve ever seen, a war unlike any you’ve been part of. Well, actually, it’s a war you’ve already experienced, but maybe you didn’t get the call.
It’s a war unlike any other war which has been or will be fought in the history of humanity. You see, our battle is not with one another, as much as we might look at one another with disdain and enmity. Paul puts it best . . .
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)
Do you understand what Paul is saying?
The person who really irritates you,
that person who can’t forgive,
that person who is always spreading vicious lies and rumors and gossips,
that family member who always gets on everyone’s nerves,
that person who abused you, who lied to you, who cheated on you,
that boss who is mean spirited,
the spouse who struggles with addictions and anger,
the kids who don’t listen . . . you want me to stop . . .?
This is part of our battle. You see, our battle is not against one another, our battle is against forces of evil which is putting those temptations, those thoughts, those desires right in front of us, leading us to act one way, even though we know it goes against what we believe.
Our battle is against the forces of evil. It’s not against flesh and blood, but as Paul says, against the rulers, authorities, the powers of this dark world. He’s talking about satan, the devil, the evil one, lucifer . . . or whatever you want to call him.
But you see we don’t take this topic seriously, do we? We don’t want to talk about evil. It’s either too scary or we laugh it off. Only if you’re older than about 50 will you remember a guy named Flip Wilson. He was a comedian who loved to joke about the devil. Listen to what he said, but also catch the deeper truth ~
VIDEO from you-tube
I love watching those old clips and comedians. But there’s truth to what he’s saying. We’re tempted to justify all of our actions — “the devil made me do it.” We act like there are no consequences about anything in life. Then when we’re caught, we blame someone else. It’s a battle, it’s a constant daily battle and if we’re not equipped and ready for war, then we will lose the battle.
You ever wonder why we can’t reach our dreams? We’ve been talking about them for the past few weeks. What dreams has God has planted in you? We looked at Joel 2:28-32, where God reminds us He has given us the ability to prophecy, have visions and dream dreams. But all too often our dreams get squelched. Why is it?
Well, I wanted to give you an example from this past week to show that we are so susceptible to being brain washed that it is very, very scary. We are a product of what we allow to be filtered into our hearts and minds and soul. If we buy into certain lies, we’re going to struggle in life.
I recently met with someone who doesn’t believe they’re beautiful. They claim they’ve never loved themselves. Maybe many of you would say the same thing. Without getting into the deep issues — — we need to remember God created that person, and if God created them in His image, then they are beautiful. But, you see, they’ve bought into the lie. They believed mean-spirited children and mean-spirited adults. They’ve come to accept that there is very little worth in who they are, and the end result is that they are defeated.
Let me tell you satan enjoys nothing more than a defeated Christian, because a defeated Christian is a powerless Christian. And a powerless Christian is a worthless Christian. They’re a Christian in name only. They have no spiritual power to defeat satan or even to defend themselves from his attacks. They just wilt and succumb to arrow after arrow, insult after insult, abuse after abuse, until they become exactly what satan wants, a nothing.
You see, I’ve got good news and bad news, all in the same news . . .
We’re at war. It’s not the type of war you think about, we’re in a spiritual war. And you know who our enemy is — satan; and he will do all he can to defeat us.
Why do we have financial problems . . . that take all of our energy and attention?
Why do we have bitter unforgiving spirits?
Why do we have critical spirits?
Why do we sleep with person after person?
Why do think we can call on Jesus whenever we want and assume He’ll give us whatever we want?
Why? Why have we deluded ourselves? Well, you see, we have not deluded ourselves, someone else has deluded our way of living and seeing life.
To better understand why, let’s look at this scripture from Revelation 12 and understand that satan is real and he seeks to destroy us. We’ll also see why he seeks to defeat us. Let’s look at a passage which should rock your socks off ~
1 A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.
2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads.
4 His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.
5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.
7 And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.
8 But he (the dragon) was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.
9 The great dragon was hurled down — that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
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.
Now . . . before we get too far into this, let me say this ~ People have a lot of different views for who the woman is, she’s not Mary, most scholars view the woman as a symbol for the nation of Israel. The child is Christ, the red dragon is satan.
According to this passage, satan sought to destroy Jesus. Revelation 12:4 tells us as the woman was ready to give birth, satan was ready to devour her Child as soon as He was born. Remember, in Matthew 2, King Herod killed all the babies under 2 years of age. Who do you think was the driving force behind Herod?
Now notice in verse 7 ~ war broke out between satan and his angels against archangel Michael and his angels. Satan lost and was kicked out of heaven along with his angels. Verse 9 tells us satan deceives the whole world. John 8:44 tells us, satan is the “father of lies” and in 2 Corinthians 11:14, satan “masquerades as an angel of light.” He’s a deceiver — there’s no doubt about that.
Now we come to the key verse, Revelation 12:17 — 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.
Did you hear that sentence from the Apostle John? satan lost and was kicked out of heaven and he’s fuming mad. He wants to do anything he can to get back at the one who defeated him. He knows the One with all of the power is God. So, after he landed on earth satan resolved that he would now make war. But whom is he going to make war against? Against any person who believes Jesus Christ is the Messiah.
Let me make this real clear, if you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you’re under spiritual attack. You’re in a war, and you may not know it. And this is exactly what satan wants for you, because . . . and now catch this, it’s really, really important to know ~~
If you don’t know you’re at war, then you can’t fight! And if you can’t or won’t fight in your own war, then how can you be victorious, you’re losing the battle.
Ain’t this fun today?! Glad you came to worship? I hope so, because this is really, really important. I know I just said that, but you need to know, this is really, really important.
You see, satan will attack us on all fronts. He hits us where we’re weak, he hits us just where we think we’ve got it made. He hits us with surprise attacks when we’re not ready. He hits us from the front when we’re expecting an attack from our rear. He comes straight at us, and dares us to fight back. He’s good at what he does. He’s a master deceiver.
He’ll tell you things like ~
• I don’t need to go to church, I’m saved!
• After all, I don’t like the music, the sermons are too long, and I can’t bring coffee into the sanctuary.
• I don’t need Sunday School or Wednesday night Bible Study!
I know what I need to know.
• Forgiveness, it’ll be a cold day in hell before that happens!
• Serving others and God, that’s for others!
• I can cheat, everyone else is doing it.
• I can go drinking, mom and dad will never know.
• So, what’s a little puff, who’s it going to hurt.
• I’ll sleep it off.
• Nobody at work will know what I took.
• The devil, he’s got no power. He’s just a silly figure in a red cape with a pitchfork.
We should be living the life, we should be experiencing the joy and presence and power of Christ, but we’re not, are we? Too often, we’ve bought into satan’s lies -
Why is it that we don’t hit our dreams, which I believe are really to be great? Because we have bought into satan’s lies that we are not that good to begin with. We don’t believe our heart is really all that good. We have some fair moments, but for the most part, we don’t believe in ourselves one bit. We don’t really love ourselves as God desires us to love ourselves, we’re not happy. After all —
God calls us to be fully alive in Him. But remember that passage from Jesus ~ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10 ).
This is an interesting statement from Jesus. Why would He join these 2 diametrically opposed statements together? He is showing us what satan offers and what He offers.
God’s intention for you is fullness of life, but right now that life is opposed. God’s intention is life, but you must deal with an enemy who has a different agenda.
The world in which we live is a combat zone, a violent clash of kingdoms, a bitter struggle against evil forces who are determined to keep us from experiencing life. We’re at war.
Satan seeks to steal, kill and destroy you. His goal is to utterly destroy, decimate, demolish, ravage, obliterate; wholly, completely, utterly destroy you and lead you to cause someone else to be destroyed.
William Gurnall was a pastor in the 1600's, he wrote, “the devil has more temptations than an actor has costumes for the stage. And one of his all time favorite disguises is that of a lying spirit, to abuse your tender heart with the worst news he can deliver — that you do not really love Jesus Christ and that you are only pretending, you are only deceiving yourself.
we should have fullness of peace and joy.
To be fully alive is to be filled with an awesome awareness of how much God loves us.
It is to be totally convinced that, no matter our plight, God’s intention towards us is good, not evil.
To be fully alive is to be free from the fatigue of laboring in our own strength by relying in His indwelling power.
To be fully alive is to be totally free from our sinful past and all of its guilt.
To be fully alive is to be awesomely aware of God’s plan and purpose for our future.
Those who are fully alive are awake to God’s involvement in their lives.
They radiate a sense of wonder and awe.
They inspire others to become men and women of faith.
To be fully alive is to be fully accessible to God - His power, His purpose & His plan.
What a difference it would make if we really believed that God is not committed to our destruction, but to making us fully alive! John 3:17
TRANSITION - If this is so, then why is fullness of life so rare?
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).
This is an interesting statement from Jesus. Why would He join these 2 diametrically opposed statements together? He is showing us what satan offers and what He offers.
God’s intention for you is fullness of life, but right now that life is opposed. God’s intention is life, but you must deal with an enemy who has a different agenda.
We do not live in the pristine conditions of Eden. This is not Mayberry. This is not Disneyland. The world in which we live is a combat zone, a violent clash of kingdoms, a bitter struggle against malevolent forces who are determined to keep us from experiencing life. We are at war.
Satan seeks to steal, kill and destroy you. Destroy - utterly destroy, decimate, demolish, ravage, obliterate. Wholly, completely, utterly destroy something; to cause something to be destroyed.
William Gurnall was a pastor in the 1600's, he wrote, “the devil has more temptations than an actor has costumes for the stage. And one of his all time favorite disguises is that of a lying spirit, to abuse your tender heart with the worst news he can deliver — that you do not really love Jesus Christ and that you are only pretending, you are only deceiving yourself.
My friends, are you prepared for war!? Do you believe you’re at war? Believe it, prepare for it, because over the next few weeks, we’re going to talk about and learn more about how to take action.
