Last time we got a glimpse of the great spiritual conflict that is going on behind all the ungodliness and evil of this world. We have seen how the devil is out to hurt the heart of God. He does that by turning people away from Christ.
Last time in Rev. 12: 1-5 we ended with the woman (Israel) giving birth to a son (Jesus Christ). And the child was snatched up to the throne of God.
Tonight’s passage deals with the spiritual struggle behind the great tribulation—the dragon’s (Satan’s) attacks against the woman (Israel). PRAYER / READ verse 6.
The woman now flees for her life. What we are seeing here is the picture of the terrible holocaust of the end time—the great tribulation.
Israel is going to be severely persecuted by the antichrist in the end time. The Jews are going to have to flee for their lives. They flee to the wilderness of the mountains, hills, and forests—to every hiding place they can find.
But we have to keep in mind that the Jews are not going to be the only ones affected. The holocaust is going to be launched against the Gentile believers of the end time as well. There will literally be millions of Gentile believers slaughtered right along with the Jews. So all of these millions of people will be fleeing, trying to find any place they can to hide. But the beautiful promise that we can claim is that God has a place for His people to hide. He is going to save a remnant of believers. He is going to use this persecution to turn even more Jews to His Son, Jesus Christ. READ verses 7-9.
So now we see a war in heaven. Now don’t get confused here. This great struggle for the believer’s soul occurs in the spiritual realm. This is the picture represented in these three verses. The great struggle for the souls of Israel and the believers in the end time will be occurring in the spiritual world.
So the antichrist has launched this holocaust against Israel and the Gentile believers and these three verses show us what lies behind this holocaust.
1. First, the forces of the spiritual struggle are Michael and his angels, and Satan and his fallen angels. Scripture teaches us that God has assigned angels to look after and to minister to believers. Hebrews 1: 14 says, “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?”
Scripture also teaches that there are ranks and orders of angels, that there are various levels of authority among angels. They rule as powers over the spiritual world. This is true among both good and evil angels.
(Romans 8:38-39 mentions that there is nothing, including the angels nor demons, not any powers that will be able to separate us from the love of God.
Ephesians 1:21 tells us that Christ is above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given.
Ephesians 3:10 talks about the fact that the manifold wisdom of God will be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.)
Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6:12 that 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. So we should know without doubt that these angelic beings, both good and bad do exist.
Michael is one of the archangels who serves God. In Scripture he is presented as being above all the other angels. He is pictured as the guardian angel of God’s people. He struggles against the fallen angels who seek control over the nations and people of the earth.
2. Secondly, this spiritual war will be fought in the end time between the spiritual forces of good and evil. Satan and his angels will do what they have always tried to do: stamp out Israel and the followers of Christ. But there will be one difference this time and verse 12 tells us what it is. Satan “knows that his time is short.”
God will be ready to end human history so Satan will attack both Israel and the believers as never before. He will literally try to wipe out every Jew and Gentile believer that he can. He does this because every one he kills will not be able to accept Christ or lead anyone else to Christ. Once again, if that happens, it will hurt God and that is what Satan is out to do.
But the outcome of this battle will be that Satan and his fallen angels will be defeated and cast out of heaven once and for all. When this battle happens, Satan will never again be able to have access into heaven. We have to realize that Scripture tells us that Satan, right now, has access to heavenly places and to God. (Lk. 10:18; Eph. 6:12; Job 1:6f)
But this is going to be the final battle between evil and good. This is the picture that is painted by the book of Revelation. After this battle, Satan will be defeated forever. Daniel prophesied about this. Read Daniel 12:1
Keep in mind that while this battle is going on in the spiritual realm, Israel and the believers will be suffering here on earth. They will be suffering the worst horror ever launched on earth—the holocaust of the antichrist; all because of this dragon, this ancient serpent that we call the devil or Satan. READ verses 10-11.
Now we see that the victory and salvation are won by Christ. There are three things that I would like us to see from these verses.
1. A loud voice will shout out the victory, once for all. Who will this voice be? God’s people. We know this because the voice refers to “our brothers.” What does the voice declare?:
a. The great salvation of our God: God will be ready to launch the glorious day of salvation, the day of redemption, to bring every person who as ever trusted Him into eternity. God will be ready to save the whole world, making a new heavens and earth. The final triumph of salvation will be ready to take place.
b. Satan will have been defeated and cast out of heaven.
c. The great kingdom of God will now be ready to be established forever and ever.
d. The power of Christ will be proven. Every true believer will now live with God forever.
2. Secondly, the result of God’s salvation will be glorious: Satan will be barred from heaven. He won’t be able to accuse believers before God any more. Scripture tells us that Satan takes the sins of believers and throws them up into God’s face. He points out every failure of a believer. All to hurt God. (Zech. 3:1)
He tries to show God that Jesus’ death was a waste, that believers’ love for Christ and God is hypocritical, that the believer could care less about God and Christ, and that the believer is not worth all the pain and hurt. But Satan will be thrown down from heaven and never again be able to appear before God.
3. The third thing to note from these verses is that the weapons used to gain the victory over Satan will be threefold. These are the very weapons that Michael and the angels will use in the battle with Satan. What are the weapons?
a. The blood of the Lamb.
b. The word of their testimony, that is, by proclaiming the Word of God and by continuing to confess the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
c. By being loyal to Christ even to death. Note again that millions will die, but the believers will actually never taste death because God will transfer them to heaven into His very presence quicker than the blink of an eye. Why? Because they stood fast in Christ and refused to deny Him.
There’s a sermon in this but I will give the three main points of the sermon. The only way we can ever conquer Satan is to use these same three weapons: We must be covered by the blood of the Lamb, we must have a strong testimony for Christ, and we must be loyal to Christ even to death. READ verse 12.
This is the warning that is given to earth. Satan will be hurled to earth and will have one more chance to wreck and destroy all he can. And he is mad. Satan is cast from heaven but he is not destroyed—not yet. God actually will use Satan to bring judgment to the evil ones on earth.
God will allow the evil of earth to run wild. In the end, the evil ones on earth will seek a world leader who promises utopia on earth, they will seek the antichrist. Satan knows his time is short to create the worst devastation ever seen on earth. READ verses 13-17.
Now we see the devil launching an attack against the woman (Israel). Four points.
1. Satan severely persecutes Israel and all believers who refuse to deny Christ. This will be more than local or national, it will be world wide. There will be knocks on doors of frightened Jews and believers by the secret police as these believers are huddled in the corners of their homes.
The arrests and jailing will be efficient and quick and will include children as well as adults. The boxcars will roll once again as they have so often in history, packing Jews and believers together like herded cattle. The execution camps will be restored and the executions will be quick and efficient.
2. But the second point is that Israel and believers will be delivered by the wings of an eagle. This doesn’t mean that no Jew or believer will be killed because we have already said that there will be millions slaughtered. But God will give His people the wings of an eagle to deliver some on home to heaven and others to safety on earth. This persecution will continue for 3 ½ years.
3. The third point is that the serpent, the devil, will attempt to flood Israel and believers with tribulation after tribulation. The idea is a flood of trouble and persecution, attempt after attempt, horror after horror.
4. And lastly, there will be great help coming from the earth. God is going to use the earth to swallow up the flooding waters or attacks. This probably means one or both of these two things:
- The natural catastrophes of God’s judgment on earth will distract and require the attention of the antichrist. This possibly will save a remnant of Israel and believers.
- And the dragon will launch an attack on the rest of the woman’s seed. This seems to refer to the devil launching an even more aggressive attack against the Jews and believers who didn’t flee to other parts of the earth for safety. We have to remember that much of the earth is barren because of the seal judgments that have already occurred so hiding places are hard to come by.
So we close tonight with this thought. The attacks of Satan have always been devastating in that his attacks destroy human lives. So we MUST stand fast in Christ and proclaim victory of Christ over the devil. We know that people can be saved only through Jesus Christ. So this glorious message of salvation in Christ must be proclaimed to every man, woman, and child on earth. Jesus Christ is still their only hope of deliverance from the destruction of Satan, now and in the great tribulation.
So we must do as James proclaimed in James 4:7 – “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
