Jack Handey, in his book Fuzzy Memories, tells the story of a bully who demanded his lunch money every day when he was a child in school. Handey was smaller than the bully, so he simply gave the bully his money.
“Then I decided to fight back,” Handey says. “I started taking karate lessons, but the instructor wanted $5 a lesson. That was a lot of money,” he says. “I found that it was cheaper to pay the bully, so I gave up karate.”
Unfortunately, many Christians have the same attitude about Satan and the spiritual battles they face. It's easier to pay the bully than to learn how to fight him. (Greg Laurie, Lies We Tell Ourselves, Regal, 2006, pp. 99–100; www.PreachingToday.com)
What they don’t realize is that they are part of a much larger conflict – a cosmic conflict – which involves angels and demons on a grand scale. Behind the scenes, there is a war in heaven that’s going on, of which we are only a small part. However, because of that cosmic conflict, we have supernatural resources at our disposal to overcome the enemy in our daily lives.
So how do we do it? How do we win that war in our daily lives? How do we conquer the spiritual forces of wickedness? How do we overcome the “bully” who only wants to terrorize us so he can discourage us from even trying? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Revelation 12, Revelation 12, where we get a behind the scenes look at the cosmic conflict and how God’s people conquer in that conflict.
Revelation 12:1-2 And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. (ESV)
This is the first of four scenes in this cosmic conflict, and the first scene is a woman in labor.
Now, this woman is none other than the nation of Israel. In several places, the Old Testament describes Israel as a woman in labor (Isaiah 66:7; Micah 4:10; 5:2-3). And the sun, moon and stars here are clearly an allusion to Joseph’s dream in Genesis 37. There, Joseph, one of Israel’s sons, has a dream where he sees the sun, moon and 11 stars bow down to him, a 12th star. It’s a description of Israel’s family – the father, the mother, and 12 sons, who later become the founders of the 12 tribes of Israel.
You can’t miss the allusion here in Revelation 12. It’s clearly a reference to the nation of Israel, who throughout the Old Testament, like a woman in labor, anxiously awaits the coming of her Messiah and Deliverer. The first scene is a woman in labor.
The second scene is a dragon waiting.
Revelation 12:3-4 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. (ESV)
This red dragon is none other than Satan himself. He waits to devour the long-awaited child of the woman. He waits to destroy the long-awaited Messiah of Israel.
At one time, this red dragon was God’s highest archangel, but he rebelled against God and recruited a third of the angels to join him. That’s what it means when it says in verse 4 that “his tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven…” A third of the angels joined Satan in his rebellion.
After that, God pronounced his doom through the “seed of the woman” in Genesis 3:15. So Satan is out to get this “seed.” He is out to get Israel’s Child, the Messiah, who would fatally wound that old serpent.
We saw it when Jesus was born. Herod, in a satanically inspired plot, killed all the children in Bethlehem two years old and under in an effort to get at this new-born King of the Jews. However, God had warned Joseph in a dream, so he and Mary fled with Jesus to Egypt before Herod’s henchmen could get to Him.
Then Satan hounded Jesus throughout His entire life. The Pharisees were always trying to trap Him. The crowds tried to push Him over a cliff, and Satan seemed to succeed when they nailed our Lord to a cross, but did he succeed?
Revelation 12:5 She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne… (ESV)
That Child rose from the dead and is now seated in the place of all authority on God’s throne itself. This is Jesus, who will rule ALL the nations with a rod of iron when He comes again.
Did Satan succeed in destroying Israel’s Child, the Messiah? No! That Child not only escaped the dragon’s clutches; He rides on top of that dragon and controls his every move as the Sovereign Lord of every created being.
The first scene in this cosmic conflict is a woman in labor. The second scene is a dragon waiting, but in the third scene, here, the Son is ruling. The Child is in charge. Jesus reigns even over Satan himself and will protect his own.
Revelation 12:6 and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days. (ESV)
Or the last 3½ years of the Tribulation. There is no reason to take this number in any other way, but literally. At the midpoint of the Tribulation, Israel will be forced to flee from her land into the wilderness (or desert). There, God will protect her for 1,260 days until the day Jesus comes to set up His Kingdom on earth.
This will be the worst of times in earth’s history; but even then, Jesus is in charge and will care for His own people. That’s the point of these first three scenes, and that’s what we must believe if we’re going to overcome that “bully”, the evil one, in our everyday lives. If you want to conquer the spiritual forces of wickedness in your own life, you must…
BELIEVE THAT JESUS HAS ALREADY WON THE WAR.
Know in your heart of hearts that Christ has already conquered Satan on the cross. Be absolutely convinced that your Lord has already overcome the evil one.
Your Lord and Master is now on top of that dragon, and He will run that dragon into the very pit of hell someday. That’s the perspective you need if you’re going to be victorious in the fight against evil.
On the 50th Anniversary of D-Day (June 6, 1994), one of the major television networks interviewed two veterans who had been a part of the invasion of Normandy. The first interview was with a marine who had landed on Omaha beach. He recalled looking at the bloody casualties all around him and thinking, “We’re going to lose!”
The second interview was with a U.S. Army Air Corps reconnaissance pilot, who had flown over the whole battle area. He saw the carnage on the beaches and the hills, but he also saw the successes of the marines, the penetration by the paratroopers, and the effectiveness of the aerial bombardment. He looked at everything that was happening and concluded, “We’re going to win!” (Leith Anderson, Leadership that Works, pp. 164-165; www.PreachingToday.com)
Sometimes, in the midst of the battle, we lose perspective, and we feel like we’re going to lose. That’s when we need heaven’s perspective to see that Jesus has already won. Jesus has already conquered Satan, and that old dragon WILL fall.
It’s the fourth scene in this cosmic conflict. The first scene is a woman in labor. The second scene is a dragon waiting. The third scene is the Son ruling. And hallelujah, the fourth scene is Satan falling! Take a look at it, starting at verse 7.
Revelation 12:7-9 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil (or the Slanderer) and Satan (i.e., the Adversary), the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. (ESV)
This is what is going on behind the scenes in heaven. Michael, the archangel, is gathering his angels together, and he will drive Satan and his demons out of heaven. It hasn’t actually happened yet, because the context tells us that this takes place during the Tribulation, 1,260 days, or 3½ years, before Jesus comes again to set up His Kingdom (vs. 6, 12, 14).
You see, Satan is already defeated, but he has not yet fallen from heaven. He and his demons still have access to the throne of God. We see this in Job 1 when Satan is among the angels of God, accusing Job of having only a mercenary interest in the Lord. He tells God, “Job doesn’t serve you for nothing. Take it all away, and he’ll curse you to your face.” In Zechariah 3, Satan is with the Angel of the Lord, accusing Joshua, the High Priest of Israel. And in Luke 22, Satan has asked permission from God to sift Peter like wheat.
Satan is in heaven today, slandering God’s people before the throne. That old devil, the Slanderer, is slandering you and me right now.
He looks down on this earth, and he says to God, “There’s Pastor Phil. Look at him. His church thinks he’s a good man, but I know better. I know he serves you with mixed motives. There are times when he desires the praises of people more than Your approval. He’s a dirty, rotten sinner, Lord. Why do you put up with him?”
Satan is accusing us all of us every day, so if you have thoughts of self-accusation, or if you have thoughts of accusation against another brother or sister in Christ, guess where those thoughts come from. They don’t come from God; they come from the Devil, the Slanderer.
Verse 10 calls him “the accuser of our brothers;” but thankfully, we have an advocate, a lawyer, who defends us against those accusations. 1 John 2:1 says, “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
And there is coming a day when the Devil will slander us no more. The angelic hosts will boot him out of heaven, and he will not have the power to resist.
Revelation 12:10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. (ESV)
The devil, our accuser, will be thrown down! Satan, our adversary, is already defeated, and he WILL fall. Believe it, my dear friends, if you want victory in this life today. Believe that Jesus has already won the war. Then…
BOLDLY DECLARE YOUR ALLEGIANCE TO HIM.
Courageously testify that you stand with Christ, whose shed blood won the victory for you and all of God’s people. Confidently bear witness that Jesus is your victorious Lord and Savior through His death on the cross. It’s the only way any of us conquer our adversary, the devil.
Revelation 12:11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. (ESV)
We overcome Satan by depending on the blood of Christ and by declaring our allegiance to Christ, even if it means death. You see, the blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross, disarmed Satan according to Colossians 2:15. The cross rendered Satan powerless according to Hebrews 2:14. And when we testify that we belong to Christ, when we declare our allegiance to Him, we remind Satan that WE are on the winning side, that HE is a loser; and he can’t stand it.
Dr. Erwin Lutzer talks about a time he watched a program on the Animal Channel that showed a herd of buffalo and six lions. “The lions were plotting to have buffalo for dinner. So they found one buffalo that had strayed from the herd, maybe a couple hundred yards, and they went after that buffalo.
“One lion grabbed the heel of one back leg of the buffalo, the other on the other back leg. And they just hung on until that buffalo slowed to a stop. Then one lion hopped on his back, another went after his stomach. And from there on you can just visualize what happened. It was gruesome.
“But here's what shocked me,” Lutzer said. “There were perhaps 100 buffalo, if not more, all standing and staring and watching this go down. I don't know if buffalo can think,” he said; but if they could think, they might be saying to themselves, “Boy, am I ever glad that's not happening to me!”
Now, imagine if that buffalo herd decided to stop those lions, and together they ran thundering in that direction with their horns down. Those lions would have scurried away immediately. The lions would never have a buffalo for lunch, if the buffalo stuck together and utilized the resources God gave them.
“There's a lesson for us there,” Lutzer says. “First of all, Satan separates somebody from the herd. He makes them mad at the church and Christians, or angry because of some other reason. And once they're away from the herd, he intensifies his attack.”
However, instead of saying to ourselves, “Boy, am I ever glad that’s not me,” we must hang together as a congregation, close in on the devil, the slanderer, and go after the enemy of our souls. (Erwin Lutzer, “A Contested Universe,” Leadership Journal, Spring, 2012, p. 54; www.PreachingToday.com)
The Bible says, “Resist the devil and he will flee!” (James 4:7). All we need to do is stay together and utilize the spiritual resources God has given to all of us: the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony.
When I sense that I am in the midst of a spiritual battle, I enlist the help of one or two other believers to pray with me. Then I turn to Colossians 2:13-15 and read that out loud: “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”
After that, I turn to Hebrews 2:14 and read that out loud: “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.”
Then I say, “In the name of my Lord Jesus Christ and by the power of His blood, I command any evil spirits in this place to leave and go where Jesus sends you right now!”
As a result, I have seen Satan’s forces flee many times! We just need to believe that Jesus has already won the war and declare our allegiance to Him. If we do, Satan will flee; and one day, the angels will kick him out of heaven forever!
Revelation 12:12 Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” (ESV)
When the devil is kicked out of heaven, he will be really mad; and he will take it out on those who dwell on the earth.
Revelation 12:13 And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. (ESV)
He will pursue the nation of Israel.
Revelation 12:14 But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. (ESV)
That’s three and a half years: “a time” – one year; “times” – two years; and “half a time” – half a year. God will bear Israel away on “eagles wings” just like he did when he delivered her from the Israel in Exodus 19:4. He will protect her in the wilderness for 3½ years, the same time-frame we saw in verse 6 – 1,260 days. That’s 42 months or the last 3½ years of the 7-year Tribulation.
According to Daniel 9, the leader of a revived Roman Empire will sign a 7-year treaty with Israel. That’s what marks the beginning of the 7-year Tribulation that is yet to come on this earth. It will be a time of terrible suffering, ending with Christ’s return to set up His Kingdom. Well, during the last half of the Tribulation, the last 1260 days, to be exact, this world ruler will break his treaty with Israel and desecrate their new temple. Matthew 24 warns the people of Israel about this and tells them to flee when they see it beginning to happen. At the mid-point of the Tribulation, Israel will be forced from her land, but God will prepare a place for her in the desert. She will survive there until Jesus comes to set up His Kingdom on this earth exactly 3½ years or 1260 days later.
Revelation 12:15-16 The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. (ESV)
While Israel flees, Satan will try to destroy her, but God will not allow it.
Revelation 12:17 Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea. (ESV)
These are the rest of the Jews scattered all over the world, who became believers in Jesus. They will experience a horrific amount of persecution during the last half of the Tribulation. It will make Hitler’s Holocaust look like a Sunday School picnic. And yet, they will hold onto their testimony and keep God’s commands.
Let me tell you, if they can do it during what will be the worst time in earth’s history, i.e., during the Great Tribulation itself, then we can certainly do it today. We can overcome the forces of evil in our own lives!
All we have to do is believe that Jesus has already won the war and boldly declare our allegiance to Him. That’s what our persecuted brothers and sisters are doing all over the world today!
Skye Jethani, senior editor for Leadership Journal, talks about being in Cape Town, South Africa, for a gathering of world Christian leaders from 200 countries. One of the speakers was the Anglican archbishop of Jos, Nigeria. His name is Benjamin Kwashi, and he shared a story that was horrific and inspiring at the same time.
Jos, this city in Nigeria, has been rocked by sectarian violence for years now, primarily between Christians and Muslims. There have been endless cycles of violence and vengeance and hundreds of people killed. In March of 2009, a gang of people broke into the bishop's house to kill him. He wasn't home, but his wife was. They did unspeakable things to her, and they beat her and left her for dead. He found her, and she was still alive, but she spent most of the following year in recovery.
A year to the day after this gang beat her, in March of 2010, they came back. They broke into his home again, and this time they did find Benjamin. They dragged him out of his house, and they were about to kill him. They had machetes and clubs. Benjamin asked for just a moment to pray before they began. So he knelt there on the dirt and began to pray.
A moment later he felt someone holding his hand. He looked up, and it was his wife. Sky Jethani says, “I still can't believe the courage of that woman. She could have run, but instead she broke through this line of the same people who had attacked her a year ago and knelt with her husband to pray with him, knowing that her life was over as well.”
And then a moment later, he felt someone holding his other hand. He looked, and it was his teenage son. Benjamin begged his son to leave so that he wouldn't be killed as well. And his son said, “Father, they've all left. They're all gone.”
Why did they leave? Benjamin said he has no idea. And he knows they'll be back. (Skye Jethani, from the sermon “Church: The Wisdom of God on Display,” www.Preachingtoady.com)
Here was a family that depended on the blood of Jesus Christ and declared their allegiance to Christ. They stood strong with Christ against the devil. They did not love their lives even unto death, and the spiritual forces of wickedness couldn’t take it. There was spiritual power that those Muslim extremists couldn’t understand, so they became afraid and fled.
But even if they would have killed Benjamin Kwashi and his family, God’s people would still be the victors. That’s because their death is the entrance into the very presence of Christ, where all of us who know Jesus will witness Satan’s ultimate demise.
My dear friends, we can’t lose! So what will it be for us today? Will we cower in fear before a defeated foe? Or will we take our stand with Christ and watch that old devil run?
