The Lady And The Dragon

I ask you to take your Bibles this morning and turn to Revelation chapter 12 as we re-enter this book again. So I'm looking at my preaching calendar and I'm thinking, man, I've got to get back in the book of Revelation. We've got Reformation Sunday coming up and Thanksgiving Sunday and everything. So I'll just let you know right now, okay? I'm going to be preaching Revelation as much as I can so that there's not going to be a Christmas series.

We're going to preach on Christmas Day on a Christmas theme, but until then we're going to be in this book. Other than the other things that come up that will interrupt. You follow along now as I read Revelation chapter 12. 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 in the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and on his head 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.

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. 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. 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, the ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and His angels were thrown down with Him. 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.

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. 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 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 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.

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. 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. Let's pray. Father, now we pray that you would reveal to us again your great work on our behalf in this age. Pray, Father, that you would help us to refrain from speculation, but to understand this text of Scripture in the way that it was intended. We pray that you give us hope through this. We pray that you help us to endure because of this passage.

We pray that you would prepare us to live lives that are pleasing to you and that honor our Lord Jesus. Grant that to us as we begin to look into this passage today. We pray this in the name of our conquering King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. A pastor in Iran has been arrested and tried because, and is waiting execution, because he remained true to the gospel of Jesus.

Now, why did that happen? Well, we can look at that and say, well, it happened because a pure form of Islam has had an amazing resurgence in that part of the world. If you remember, the Ayatollah Khomeini, a radical Muslim cleric in the 70s, was exiled in Paris. He was an Iranian, and he was writing, communicating with people back home and was promoting this kind of radical Islam in his home country.

It happened. This pastor has been arrested because American foreign policy supported an unpopular monarch in the 70s and that caused a great hatred for the government that was there. And it happens because a revolution occurred in 1979 and overthrew the secular monarch and replaced it with an Islamic government That is why that Christian was condemned in Iran The church in the West even in America is weak and ineffective Why is that?

Well, we could look at all the contributing factors to that, because a secular worldview has pushed Christian influence further and further and further out to the periphery of our culture in terms of influence. We could say because our prosperity has encouraged the idolatry of materialism. And we could say because of the rapid pace of life, people just are finding it harder to spend time with God and to be devoted to Christ.

We could say because of the impact of the mass media. That is why the church is so weak and ineffective. And all those analyses of the pastor in Iran and the analyses of a weak and ineffective church are correct. Those are true. That's right. But is that all there is to the analysis?

Is that as far as we should go? Does that adequately explain why the persecution of the church exists or why the seduction of the church is so successful? Now, that analysis isn't wrong, but the point is it doesn't probe deeply enough. It doesn't go deep enough to tell us why those things are happening. If that's all that we have, if all that we have are these historical and social and economic factors, If that's all that we have to explain these things, then our ability to endure persecution and to resist seduction is going to be severely compromised.

We need heaven's perspective. We need a deeper analysis if we're going to understand why those things are true. And so the Apostle John gives us that perspective in the next four chapters of the book of Revelation, chapter 12, 13, 14, and part of 15. The underlying cause for the persecution of the Iranian pastor, and for Christians anywhere, and the reason for the underlying cause for the seduction of the Western church, is the rage of Satan.

That's what we've just read in chapter 12. And if you don't have that category in your mind, then you will not be able to understand what's going on and you will not be able to endure. You will not be a conqueror and you will fall to seduction. So what we find then in this chapter is a deeper analysis that tells us why these things are happening. Now I want to review a bit where we been in this book okay Because it been a while since we been in the book So let do a quick review Remember that Revelation is a letter It an epistle to the churches written to seven churches in Asia Minor They were suffering in the midst of persecution.

They were being tempted by the seductive ways of the culture around them. They were being tempted to compromise in their faith for Jesus. Of course, like any other epistle in the New Testament, It was written to those particular churches, but it's intended for us today in the 21st century. It's the word of God intended for us. This book was written for us and the world in which we live.

Now, you remember that the theme of this book, the whole purpose of this book, is to declare to us that the Lamb will triumph. The whole theme of the book of Revelation is the Lamb will triumph over all the forces of evil. Those forces that seek to persecute and seduce the people of God. The hope of that triumph should motivate the suffering church to endure persecution.

The hope of that triumph should empower the church to pursue purity in the midst of seduction. And so this book, you remember, calls for God's people to conquer in times of tribulation and temptation. You remember chapters 2 and 3 where these churches are identified. They are told, you must conquer. To him who conquers. Every one of those churches was told, to him who conquers, God promises this.

And we know that the rest of the book now is intended to help us learn how to conquer. The whole rest of the book is written to teach us how we can conquer in the midst of persecution and seduction. But we will only conquer, and here's absolutely key thought if we're going to understand this book. We will only conquer if we have heaven's perspective. If we face persecution and seduction with heaven's view in mind.

We need the view from the throne room. We need to see the reality of everything if we're going to conquer. If we're going to endure. If we're going to remain pure. We need that perspective. Now, God gives us that perspective in this book, but he gives it in apocalyptic form.

Remember what apocalypse means? In fact, if we were to translate this literally from the Greek... Our English version should say apocalypse of Jesus or apocalypse of John. Apocalypse. What is that? Apocalypse means to uncover, to unveil, to reveal.

So this book isn't about hiding. It's about revealing. But because it's an apocalyptic form, it uses symbols to represent realities. And so the symbolic character of the book uncovers the realities behind what we see. So here we are. We're looking at everything that's going on in the world, and we think we're looking at reality.

But in fact, what this book does is gives us these symbols so that we can see behind what we're looking at and see the real reality to get heaven's perspective. Because if all we do is look at what's going around us in this world, without heaven's perspective, we will certainly collapse. But what this book does through the symbolic nature of the literature is to get us behind what we see and to get heaven's perspective on what's really happening.

And with that perspective, we can handle the reality that's right in front of us. And we can remain pure in the midst of seduction and remain faithful in the midst of persecution. And we can conquer only as we understand what's happening from the viewpoint of heaven. Now, what have we seen so far? We have seen in the opening chapters that Jesus is Lord, that in a world that looks like it's in chaos, in a world that looks like everything is against us, we find instead that Jesus is Lord.

He is in control. We have seen that God is sovereign as He sits on His throne. And you remember that sea of glass before Him representing that everything is calm. That it may look chaotic here, but it's calm in heaven. God's in control. He's sitting on the throne in chapter 5 where the Lamb now executes, unrolls the scroll, you remember? and executes the purposes of God on earth.

The Lamb is executing the purposes of God. This isn't chaos. We've seen the seals and all the wars and everything that's going on around us and how that is the execution of God's purposes. Then we saw the trumpets and we learned that what's happening in this world, the reality behind what we see is the unleashing of demonic hordes upon a hard-hearted, unbelieving world preparing us for the exodus that is yet to come.

Now in chapter 12 we come to the heart of the book The heavenly perspective on who is behind the persecution and the seduction How he operates and how we conquer. If you get that perspective, you'll be equipped to endure and resist in this evil age. Get that perspective and you will have hope. And so from chapter 12, verse 1, through chapter 15, verse 4, we have a series of seven visions, all right, that equip and give hope.

Because what they do is reveal the spiritual realities behind what we see in our world. Now this is what we must grasp, that there are spiritual realities behind what we're seeing. And if we don't get a grasp on those spiritual realities, we will not have a grasp at all. And we will lose hope and we will not conquer. So we need this perspective of what's going on behind the scenes.

Now here John introduces you to the church and its adversary and the conflict that ensues in chapter 12. now we want to look at verses 1 through 6 this is the prologue if you will to the first vision here we're introduced to the church and its adversary the details of the conflict follow in 7 through the end of the chapter in my view verses 1 through 6 sets us up say here are the two adversaries in this conflict It gives us that. It tells us a little bit about the conflict. And in verses 7 through 17, then, it gives us a lot more details about how Satan is operating behind the scenes.

So let's look at verses 1 through 6. You follow them again as I read these. 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. And another sign appeared in heaven. behold a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and on his head 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 that when she bore her child he might devour it She gave birth to a male child one who was to rule all the nations with a rod of iron but her child was caught up to God and to his throne. 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.

Now as John looks into heaven, you remember the last vision, And he sees the temple opened up and he sees the ark there. And he's into the very inner sanctum of the heavenlies. And then suddenly, as he's looking up in heaven, all of a sudden these two particular signs appear. First, this woman who is peculiarly dressed in this brilliant garment with the moon under her feet and a crown of stars.

And then next appears this ferocious red dragon. What is that all about? All right, well, let's look at it. He's going to explain something about the woman first. Here's what he's telling us. You will conquer if you grasp heaven's perspective on your identity.

You will conquer. You'll be equipped to conquer if you understand heaven's perspective on your identity. Who is this woman? Her clothing is outstanding. a robe shining with the brilliance of the sun, the moon under her feet, a crown with 12 stars. What is that all about? Could this be Israel?

That's the question that comes to mind because it reminds you of what's going on in Genesis 37. You remember what happened in Genesis 37? Joseph has a dream, right? Joseph has a dream. What does he see? He sees the sun, which represents his father Jacob bowing down before him.

He sees the moon, which is his mother Rachel, bowing before him. He sees his brothers, all represented by stars. Eleven at that point, but you know Joseph is number twelve, bowing down before Joseph. That's interesting. It's the beginning of the nation of Israel. It's the beginning of the formation of Israel.

He's seeing in his mind the beginning of, you know what's going to happen as they bow down to him, ask for he has rescued them. The 12 stars certainly remind you of the patriarchs and the tribes of Israel. And then there the common theological beliefs of that day which were reflected in the Jewish writings But the people who read this would know the Jewish writings on the Bible at that time There was a certain way of thinking in their minds about Israel at that time.

For example, suppose you want to think about our country during World War II. What were some of the common beliefs? One of the common beliefs that you can see is, as you remember that, two posters come into my mind. and we're all familiar with them one is the poster of Uncle Sam saying right, I want you, right? and then there's the other one with the woman who's got the muscly arms she's got a kerchief tied around her head you've seen that, right? and I can't remember the captions we'll do this together or something it's talking about the people back home but the point is it shows a country that wants men to show up and do their duty not men who are forced to fight but men because they love their country are going to respond to Uncle Sam That's what we would be thinking, right?

And the woman with the strong arm going off to the factory, you know, these are people, we are in this together, right? Those are common themes from that time. We all know that. Well, during this time, they all had common themes running through their head. And one of them was this, that when Messiah would appear in the latter days, then Israel would shine like the sun, the moon, and the stars.

So people who are in this kind of a culture would look at this and think Israel. All right. And then look at verse five. This woman gives birth to whom? Who do you think that is? Well, it's Jesus.

Well, how do we know that? Well, look at the description. He's a male child. He's one who's to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. Now, turn back to Psalm 2, the second Psalm. The second psalm was written about Solomon.

And yet, as we look at it, we know, you know, Solomon didn't fulfill this, and so we started looking, the Jewish people started looking to the future, to someone who would fulfill this. For example, second psalm, verse 7, I will tell of the decree, the Lord said to me, You are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. you shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

We all know that's talking about Jesus. It's looking forward to the coming of Messiah who would fulfill this. And if that's not enough, turn over to Revelation 19. Revelation 19, this is the story of Jesus returning or the vision of Jesus returning. And we read in verse 15, From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.

If there's any question in your mind, you're not reading it right. So, verse 5 is telling us that this woman gives birth to Jesus. It's Israel. It is the old covenant messianic community that gave us Christ. And so she's Israel. But is she just Israel?

You know, those 12 stars could also represent the church because the 12 apostles represent the forerunners of the church, just like the 12 patriarchs were the forerunners of the nation of Israel. By the way, did you ever wonder about that, why there are 12 apostles? There's a reason for that. Just like the 12 patriarchs founded this nation, the 12 apostles founded this new holy nation.

There's a continuity there. There's something happening there. You see that. Look over to Revelation 21 real quick. Revelation 21. Look at verse 12.

It's talking about the new Jerusalem. It had a great high wall with 12 gates and at the gates 12 angels. And on the gates the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed. on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

You see them together again, the twelve and the twelve. We also noted, you remember in chapter 7, that the 12,000 from each tribe, the 144,000 also represent the church militant. And besides that, look at verse 17. this woman not only has the offspring of Jesus but what else verse 17 then the dragon became furious with the woman went off to make war on the rest of her offspring who are those on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus those two are her offspring that's us you see so what do we conclude well she's not just Israel but she's also the new covenant community of Messiah, which is the church.

So you have this woman representing first Israel which then becomes the new covenant community of the church You see that the woman But notice she shines with brilliance of the sun She's wearing a crown. The moon is under her feet. What's going on here? She appears in her heavenly and glorious character. She appears glorious here. This is the new covenant community of Christ.

If this is us, do you think of your way that? Do you think of yourself that way? Do you think of the church that way? On earth, she may appear fragile and weak. On earth, she may appear to be a battered and abused victim with a really unattractive history. but she wears a crown which speaks of victory over persecution and the temptation to compromise she is invincible this is god's perspective on us right this is god's perspective to us we look like a beat-up abused victim don't we but God's perspective is this is his glorious people victorious glorious people that's heaven's perspective nevertheless note as well that the women and her children will be exposed to persecution deception and corruption verse two going through labor pains birth pains and the agony of giving birth you know what's interesting about that word agony nowhere else in the bible and nowhere else anywhere in the literature that day is that ever used of giving birth.

It's always used of torture. In fact, the noun form of that word is tormentors. Now that's a very unusual combination. It's used of trial and persecution and it's never used of birth pain. So what's John communicating here? The community he gives birth to the king and to those who rule with him will suffer. they will suffer.

Although victorious, heaven's perspective is victory. Heaven's perspective is a glorious body. This is one that suffers. All through the Old Testament, you see that old covenant messianic community going through suffering The superpowers of the day the Assyrians the Babylonians even Israel to the north all of those countries playing with the people of God and then being conquered by them and so forth and being in tribute to them, suffering, even falling to the temptation of the idolatry around them.

In the 400 years between the Old Testament and New Testament, the Jewish people suffered immensely. The whole history of the Jewish people in those 400 years is one of incredible suffering. Some victory, but mostly of unbelievable suffering. And from the time of Jesus' ascension to his return, the Messianic community suffers horribly at the hands of her enemies.

That Iranian pastor will probably die. And the world doesn't care. Oh, it's making the news. But you don't see a whole lot of people standing up and saying, stop, that's wrong. All right? People don't care.

Did you know that more people have died for the Christian faith in the last 150 years than have died in the entire history of the church up to that time? Are you aware of that? Vietnam, Iran, all these places, are killing Christians. We are going through suffering. Yet God protects and preserves that community. So that what?

Those pains result in what? The birth of Messiah. And those who hold to the testimony of Jesus. so what he's saying here is this grasp your heavenly identity and you will be able to conquer from your perspective you may think that God's people looks like a battered, abused, beaten up woman but from heaven you are God's people wearing the crown of victory possessing an identity that no one else has and having the protection of God.

Listen, when we face the hatred of the media, the disdain of our neighbors, the rejection by the powerful people of this world what identity will you own at that time Which identity will you own The one of victim or the one of victor I remember so many years ago, one of my mentors in biblical counseling made this statement just stuck with me. You know, that was what? How long has it been now?

Twenty, twenty six years ago. Doc Smith saying, you have a choice between being a victim or a victor. No one can make you a victim. You have that choice. So when the persecution comes, what identity are you going to own? Are you going to have the identity of heaven, heaven's perspective?

Or are you going to have just an earthly perspective? He goes on, he says, you'll conquer if you grasp heaven's perspective. On your adversary. Who is this seven-headed, ten-horned, crown-wearing red dragon? What is that all about? Now all of us already are saying, well that's Satan.

Really? How do you know that? Why? Because kids run around on Halloween in red saying they're Satan? How do we know that's Satan? Let's look.

In the Old Testament, these grotesque beasts often symbolized the evil kingdoms that persecuted God's people. The word used was often Leviathan. That was the word that was used a lot in the Old Testament to refer to the powers that persecuted the people of God, or they were called a dragon. For example, in Psalm 74 and in Ezekiel 29, Egypt or Pharaoh is called a sea monster or a sea dragon.

Here's Psalm 74, verses 13 and 14. You divided the sea by your might. That's speaking of God. You divided the sea by your might. You broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters. You crushed the heads of Leviathan.

Isn't that interesting? heads it's not singular it's plural you crush the heads of leviathan in ezekiel 29 verse 3 god says behold i am against you pharaoh king of egypt the great dragon that lies in the midst of the streams in jeremiah 51 the monster is nebuchadnezzar and babylon in At 27, the monster, the Leviathan, the dragon is Assyria. At the time of John's writing, the dragon was Rome. The powerful country of his, the powerful empire of his day.

Which, like Egypt, harassed and persecuted the people of God. you see today that dragon can be vietnam can be indonesia iran the sudan america any kingdom or nation that hates and persecutes god's people for being god's people it's any political power that persecutes the people of God. Okay? That's what the red dragon is. His seven heads represent its claim to invincible power and might.

Remember, seven, complete. Complete power. The horns are awesome kingly authority. The crowns speak of usurped authority. The color red, the color of blood, expresses oppressive power. So this is any nation or king that because of its or his power lays claim to sovereign universal authority in opposition to the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, which was certainly happening in John's day.

It's happening today. But is it just the reigning powers? That persecute the people of God? Is it just the governmental powers? No. Verse 9.

What do we see in verse 9? And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who's called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. So, it is Satan. It is the powers that persecute the people of God, energized by Satan. It is Satan. Okay?

Anyway, let me... If you would ask your son... Okay, you'd ask your son. Son, how did you get those blue eyes? And he's four years old. He would say to you what?

I got them from God. Right? Now ask him that after he had Mr Pazma biology class And he will say I got it from the DNA I inherited from my parents Now which answer is right Both are right, you see. Both of them are right. One has a deeper reality. Not the DNA, by the way.

One has a deeper reality, but they're both right. And so here the dragon are the powers that persecute, but they are the powers that have Satan behind them. What are they? Are they Satan or the political powers? Yes. That's the answer.

Yes. It's those powers that are acting on Satan's behalf. Right? Do you remember when Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, in Matthew chapter 16? Do you remember that? And then Jesus said, I'm going to suffer.

And Peter said, stop! And he rebuked Jesus, said, you stop talking like that. You're not going to suffer. And what did Jesus say? Remember what he said? Get behind me, Satan.

What? That's Peter. Yeah, but who's behind that? See, that's what's going on in this chapter. It's the political powers energized by the evil forces of darkness. That's the reason for the hostility leveled against us.

Not just these governments that hate us, but governments that hate us because of the cosmic powers of darkness behind them, particularly Satan. Now, with that perspective, you're prepared to conquer. You know that behind your earthly persecutors stand forces of spiritual evil led by the devil. You think you're better equipped if you know who's really behind it all?

I don't know about you, but here's what happens to me. When I see governmental powers going what I consider the wrong way. All right. I think they're going the wrong way. If I see them persecuting the people of God. And that's the only thing I see.

I can despair. How can I change that? How can I change the government? How can I get it to turn the other way? What are we going to do? Oh, no, we're lost.

But if I see that Satan's behind it, I go, oh, guess what? He was defeated. So when you get that perspective you more prepared to conquer aren you Aren you You know that that kind of perception should motivate you that perspective should motivate you all the more since you know then that your struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against all the spiritual forces of darkness led by the devil.

You know, listen, and you know that if you compromise, you do not merely compromise with the world, you compromise with the devil himself. That should equip you then to stand. Alright, last thing here then. Okay? You will conquer if you grasp heaven's perspective on the conflict. So we got heaven's perspective, okay, on our identity.

Heaven's perspective on our adversary. Now heaven's perspective on the conflict. Alright? The devil has always been at war with God's people, and he's a powerful adversary. Verse 4, his tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. Can I show you something?

That is not angels. He's not sweeping angels down. You say, whoa, where do you get that? Well, remember, John is drawing from the Old Testament. Turn to Daniel chapter 8. Okay.

Everybody need to stand up and take a stretch? Alright. Alright. Daniel chapter 8. Maybe some of you can. Maybe some of you can let your children do that.

Daniel chapter 8. Alright. Now. A little bit of background. Daniel here is predicting that there's going to come this great power. It's this goat with a single horn.

That's Alexander the Great. He's going to defeat the Persians. And it says that that horn is broken off and four horns grow up in its place. And that one horn of those four gets very powerful. What he's describing there is when Alexander the Great died, his great empire was divided up between four of his generals. Those are the four horns.

One grew up that was very strong. That's the one in Syria, what we call Syria today. That was one of those four kingdoms And Egypt was the one in the south And this one of the four horns gets very strong That the power of Syria okay Antiochus Epiphanes IV is what he's referring to. All right, now, let's look at verse 9. Out of them came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land.

In other words, it's getting very powerful over the other three. It grew great, even to the host of heaven. And some of the hosts and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them. It became great, even as great as the prince of the host. And the regular burnt offerings was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown.

And a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offerings because of transgressions, and it will throw truth to the ground, and it will act and prosper. He's talking about these things that are swept down and trampled. He's talking about Antiochus Epiphanes when he roared into the Holy Land to take it from, at that time, Egypt. And what Antiochus did, Antiochus is this picture of evil in the future.

He's the guy that came in and desecrated the temple of God's people. He sacrificed a pig on its altar. Right? And he tried to destroy all the copies of the scripture. and he made it against the law to worship Jehovah and he killed anyone who would dare worship him. This is Antiochus Epiphanes. All right?

He's the one that he's talking about here. He's not only powerful but deceptive. Drop down to verse 22. As for the horn that was broken in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power. And at the latter end of their kingdoms, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles, shall arise.

His power shall be great, but not by his own power, and he shall cause fearful destruction, and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints. By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great. Without warning he shall destroy many, and she shall even rise up against the prince of princes, and he shall be broken, but by no human hand.

All right? Now, he's talking about trampling the people of God. If you jump over to Daniel 12, verse 3, here's the thing that ties it all up and those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever talking about the people of God the righteous remnant and the people of God God are like the stars, alright?

So Satan, standing behind these powerful persecuting nations, defeats and tramples the people of God from days of old. His tail sweeps them down and he tramples them. But the conflict intensifies. Not only does that happen, now Messiah comes. And although he fails to destroy the Messianic community in the Old Testament, he waits for the Messiah to appear.

And John gives us this grotesque picture. and it's supposed to be grotesque. He shows a woman about ready to give birth, that dragon standing right between her legs, ready to grab that child and eat it. He wants you to get the picture of how wicked this is and how evil it is with that kind of imagery. But what happens? The baby is born and he ascends into heaven.

And in fulfillment of Psalm 2, it's an abrupt statement, with split second speed, the dragon's lethal plot is foiled. He can't get Messiah. Now, that brief statement encapsulates all the life of Jesus, doesn't it? It goes like that. He's going to devour him. Well, what could he be referring to?

Well, think about it. Think about every effort behind, every effort to destroy Messiah. Herod, Matthew chapter 2, kills all those babies trying to get Messiah. He fails. In Luke, in Luke chapter 4, there's a story about Jesus being in Capernaum and the crowd tries to shove him over a cliff. Satan was behind that.

All right. There's John chapter 8. They pick up stones to stone him. Were they successful? No. And then there was Herod and Pilate.

And all behind all that are Satan's determined efforts to crucify and to destroy Jesus. but instead he ascends to heaven and shares the throne with his father. Since his plot to destroy Messiah has been thwarted, he turns his rage against the community of his followers. He continues to destroy through persecution those who hold to Jesus' testimony. Verse 17.

So you see all the way through from the stars to the Messiah to the offspring of the woman Satan is out to destroy and he never gets the job done God again, as he did with his son, foils the plot. Now what's going on? Let's look at verse 6. The woman flees to the wilderness. Okay, the woman flees to the wilderness. the Messianic community, the church, flees to the wilderness for 1,260 days.

Now remember, let's review a little bit. What's that all about? 1,260 days with 30-day months is what? Three and a half years. We see 42 months. What's that?

Three and a half years. We see time, times, and half a time. What's that? Three and a half years. So you see this all the way through the book of Revelation. When I say to you four score and seven years ago, what do you think of?

You think of Abraham Lincoln. You think of Gettysburg. You think of slavery. You think of the Civil War. You don't think 87 years ago. What happened 87 years ago?

Let's see, 19... You don't think that. When you hear three score and seven years ago, you immediately think, as part of our American mythology, that number immediately causes us to think of Civil War, slavery, Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln. All those things pop into our mind when that number comes, phrase that way comes into our mind. Same thing with this.

It's a symbolic number. You remember that those 1260 days, those 42 months, those three and a half years symbolize a time of suffering. This is what's going through their mind. When they hear that, they're thinking time of suffering. That's Antiochus Epiphanes laid seeds to Jerusalem for 42 months. Okay.

In 70 AD, General Titus marched on Jerusalem and besieged Jerusalem for 42 months. 42 years by exact reckoning, exact reckoning, the children of Israel were in the wilderness for 42 years. All right? We already seen this in chapter 11 verses 1 through 3 remember where the church is exposed to suffering but protected by God Remember it measured out We saw that that means protection but the outer courts are still trampled persecuted For how long?

For 42 months. So this represents the age of suffering that your church endures while Jesus is gone. But it not only represents suffering, it also, listen, it also represents refuge. It represents refuge. So the wilderness is where the church suffers, but the wilderness is also where the people of God find refuge. Just like Elijah.

Elijah went into the wilderness and found protection from Jezebel. You remember? He fled into the wilderness and was fed by ravens. Remember? Israel escaped to the wilderness from Egypt and was protected and miraculously nourished by God. So God's people will find protection and help from God in the wilderness of suffering until Jesus returns.

So again, Satan's plan of destruction will fail. That is heaven's perspective on the conflict. although Satan always has sought and continues to seek our destruction God will never renege on his promise to keep us do you realize that pastor in Iran may die that Christians in Vietnam will die Christians in China have died in Burma, in Saudi Arabia. All across the world, in Sudan, Christians will die, but the church will never, ever be defeated.

It will continue to grow and continue to be the people of God and nothing that Satan unleashes against it will succeed because Jesus has conquered and God will remain faithful every step of the way We may die I may die for the faith I don know Some of you may die for the faith but you can be sure of this Satan will never ever eradicate the people of God from heaven's perspective Satan's defeat is sure in fact as we're going to see in the next section Satan's defeat Satan has already been defeated and we defeat him by dying and we defeat him by the blood of the Lamb we are conquerors in a different way the Lamb of God is going to triumph the people of God will share in that triumph if you want to conquer if you want to be part of a conquering band then you must have this perspective you must get heaven's perspective on your identity on your adversary and on this conflict. Father, thank you for your word that opens up to us the realities that we must know if we will stand. Would you please, Lord, continue to teach us.

And Lord, more than that, don't just teach us. We pray that we would own these perspectives so that we will stand pure against the seduction of the world and faithful against its persecution. God, help us. Lord, I pray that this has not been an exercise just in understanding a text, but that you, by your Spirit, have brought to us this perspective so that we would be your people in this time.

God, grant us your grace as we are in this wilderness of suffering. Thank you for the refuge that you have provided for us in Christ. God, help us now to remain faithful. in Jesus name Amen