Overcomers
Revelation 12:7-12
February 25, 2007
In the
early years of my Christian life, I do not remember hearing a sermon on
spiritual warfare or how Christians are to deal with our adversary, the
devil; at least not one that made much sense. Once I began hearing
teaching and preaching on the subject, some of it tended toward both
mysticism and showmanship; neither of which finds Scriptural support.
Mysticism used the name of Christ as though garlic warding off a
vampire. It possesses neither good understanding of the name of Christ
nor proper understanding of the spiritual conflict with the adversary.
Showmanship can best be illustrated by many of the television preachers
that loudly prance about with heady swagger as they command the devil
back to the pit. Bold assertions using Christ’s name as a club to
swat the devil appeared to be glamorous and trendy.
Yet for all of the flawed teaching, I was no better off in dealing with
temptation and oppression. Scripture speaks of something much different
than the mysticism and showmanship that had captured my fancy. It tells
me to not give the devil an opportunity or place to cultivate sin in my
life (Eph. 4:27). Further, Scripture tells me to put aside bitterness,
wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and on top of it, be forgiving toward
one another (Eph. 4:31-32). Scripture warns of Satan’s influence,
therefore, submit to God and resist the devil (Jas. 4:6-7). That kind
of resistance implies turning from the course of temptation to walk by
faith in obedience to the Lord, even if it means suffering in the
process (1 Pet. 5:8-10). Rather than hocus pocus, be strong in the Lord
and in the strength of His might. That can happen only if I’m
geared out in the armor of the Lord—being clothed in Christ, in
all of His glorious sufficiency (Eph. 6:10-20).
While slowly growing in my own understanding, I’ve not been
living in the oppressive atmosphere of persecution that our first
century brothers in Asia Minor sensed. Everywhere they turned, they saw
glaring evidence of the devil’s work. It showed up in the many
temptations toward immorality, drunkenness, and revelry common to their
culture. The temptation to deny the faith and avoid insults, loss of
job, beatings, and imprisonment loomed daily. Could they survive as
Christians? That would have been a very realistic question faced day
after day. John’s message in Revelation offered a resounding and
emphatic, “Yes!” Because Jesus Christ overcame at the
cross, believers overcome the devil through Christ. John explains this
through vivid pictures. His 1900 year old message is as useful today as
in his day. We still struggle with temptation and the devilish
opposition to our faith in Christ. Can we survive as Christians? Look
and see!
I. The enemy overthrown
We’ve already seen how John represents the devil as “a
great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads
were seven diadems,” picturing his complete mastery of fallen
humanity (12:3). With his great tail he swept away a third of the stars
of heaven, demonstrating his power and strength (12:4). The devil
sought to destroy the Son of God born to redeem God’s people
(12:4). Not only did Christ overcome the devil through His death,
resurrection, ascension, and exaltation pictured in verse 5, but His
people also experience ongoing deliverance. John shows us the refuge
provided by God through Christ, the means to the refuge pictured by the
wings of the great eagle, and the omnipotence of the Lord that assures
our deliverance from the devil and his devices (12:6, 14, 15-16).
How are we approach spiritual warfare in our daily walks? That’s what John drives home in verses 7-12.
1. Heavenly counterpart
The earthly scene of verse 5 shifts to heaven in verse 7. The devil
sought to conquer Christ but instead, Christ conquered him at the
cross, verified by being “caught up to God and His throne.”
But how do you describe the cosmic impact of Christ’s death and
resurrection in apocalyptic language? Daniel 10 and 12 speak of
Michael, “one of the chief princes,” waging battle with
“the prince of the kingdom of Persia.” The answer to
Daniel’s prayer was held up due to the conflict taking place in
the heavenly realms between God’s servants and the devil’s.
Michael, both in Scripture and in ancient Jewish tradition, served as
Israel’s angelic representative and guardian. Jude 9 tells us
that he contended with the devil for the body of Moses. God’s
messenger to Daniel foretold of a future time of conflict led by
Michael, “the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your
people,” (12:1) when the overthrow of evil would take place. The
deliverance would be for “everyone who is found written in the
book,” that is what John calls, the book of life (Rev. 20:15).
With Daniel’s prophecy as the background, John writes, “And
there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the
dragon.” John’s language demonstrates that Michael and his
angels prosecuted the war with the devil. The heavenly representatives
were the aggressors against the devil and all of his evil emissaries.
Why did they press this war at this particular time? The implication
follows out of verse 5 as the child born, “who is to rule all
nations with a rod of iron…was caught up to God and to His
throne.” That was John’s shorthand version of
Christ’s death, resurrection, ascension, and exaltation as King
of kings and Lord of lords. Michael could press the war in heaven
because the war had already been won by Christ in His death and
resurrection. The centuries-long conflict between Michael and his
angels, and Satan and his angels, ended at the ascension of Jesus
Christ. The devil had no more ground to accuse the saints in heaven of
their unworthiness to dwell in such a holy place. Christ had conquered
on earth so that the heavenly conflict might ratify the effectiveness
and complete satisfaction in Christ’s death and resurrection on
our behalf.
“The dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong
enough and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven.”
Do you recall the opening couple of chapters of Job? The devil was
permitted in the Lord’s presence as an accuser; in this case
declaring the unworthiness of Job as God’s child. Satan
implicated God of being unfair to even His own righteousness in His
gracious treatment of Job. Zechariah 3:1 tells us of Satan accusing
Joshua the high priest in post-exilic Judah. And indeed, there were
certainly grounds to accuse Joshua for he “was clothed with
filthy garments” (3:3), demonstrating his unworthiness to belong
to the Lord. But the Lord God took the initiative to remove his filthy
garments and take away his iniquity. God told him that he and his
brethren “are a symbol, for behold, I am going to bring in My
servant, the Branch” (3:8). That prophecy pointed to the day that
all that God had done for Joshua would be vindicated by the Branch,
Jesus Christ. So, as Michael and the angels recognized the
effectiveness of Jesus’ death and resurrection, along with the
vindication of God’s righteousness in forgiving sinners, they
overpowered Satan and his angels, removing them from heaven.
2. Multi-tasking enemy
John furthers our understanding of the devil’s tactics by the
multiplied names that he gives for him in verses 9-10. Name piled upon
name indicates the extensiveness of Satan’s power and influence
against God’s people. He is called “the great
dragon,” a title indicating his great power and pervasive
exercise of that power over mankind. “The serpent of old”
takes us back to Genesis 3, where the serpent tricked Eve into taking
the forbidden fruit for herself and her husband. It refers to the
devil’s ploy to usurp God’s authority and to turn people
away from following His Word. “The devil” is the most
familiar title for our adversary. The name in Greek comes from the word
diabolos that literally means “to throw over or across, to
divide, set at variance, accuse, bring charges, slander, inform,
reject, misrepresent, deceive” [Hans Bietenhard, NIDNTT, 3:468,
quoted by Simon Kistemaker, NTC: Revelation, 362]. He slanders the
truth of God, just as he did with Eve in the Garden of Eden, saying,
“Did God really say that?” He brings charges against
God’s elect; he misrepresents sin as beneficial and promising; he
deceives people into believing lies. Through this deceptiveness,
“the god of this world blinded the minds of the unbelieving so
that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,
who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4). He is also called
“Satan, who deceives the whole world.” The title Satan
literally means “the adversary.” Kistemaker writes,
“Satan is at enmity with God and all those who serve and worship
him. He is the accuser and slanderer of God’s people”
[362]. None in the world escape his deceptiveness apart from
God’s gracious intervention through the gospel of grace.
That’s why Paul calls him, “the god of this world”
and Jesus called him, “the ruler of this world” (John
12:31). Paul warned that “the serpent deceived Eve by his
craftiness,” so professing believers must be on guard lest we
also “be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to
Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3).
3. Thrown down
Five times in verses 9, 10, and 13, John emphasizes and reemphasizes
that the devil and his angels have been thrown down. The aorist passive
verbs imply that the devil did not go down on his own but being
overpowered by Michael and his angels because of what Christ had
accomplished, they were thrown down. Why does he keep stressing this?
Verse 10 offers a good answer: “For the accuser of our brethren
has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and
night.” Do you ever wonder if God has accepted you? Do you ever
struggle because of your sin and unworthiness as to whether or not you
have a right standing with God? You can be assured that the devil
through the ages has long accused the redeemed of unworthiness. With
every sin and disobedience, he accuses God of contradicting His own
righteousness by accepting such unworthy people into His family. But in
the cross, Jesus openly displayed the righteousness of God in saving
unworthy sinners! God “displayed publicly” Jesus Christ as
a just satisfaction of divine righteousness through Christ’s
bloody death at the cross (Rom. 3:25-26). Because of the worthiness of
Christ in His sacrifice on our behalf, God’s righteousness is
forever declared in accepting us, not because of any merit on our part,
but because of the sufficiency of Jesus Christ on our behalf.
That’s why Paul added to the Colossians, “When He had
disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them,
having triumphed over them through the cross” (2:15). So, the
devil and his angels were “thrown down,” having no more
ground of accusation to bring against God’s elect!
II. The glory of the cross
Anytime that heaven breaks forth in grand elation and exaltation, we
have good cause to rejoice and be confident in Christ. That picture of
rejoicing is evident in this passage by the “loud voice in
heaven” offering yet another song of triumphant praise to the
Lamb of God. And so, we have cause to rejoice ourselves!
1. “Now” and the cross
Both the Greek and English text of the song in verses 10-12 begins with
“Now.” Since Revelation’s emphasis is “not
chronological time, which is of fleeting consequence but the governing
principle of time” through Christ, John uses this adverb to drive
a marker into human history [Kistemaker, 363]. “Now” points
to Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection and ascension. At that
singular marker, Satan was thrown down, conquered by the eternal blow
of God’s wrath upon His Son on our behalf. Every accusation of
Satan “before our God day and night” against God’s
elect ended at the cross! He is thrown down! The governing authority of
the dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems broke at
the cross and resurrection. While Revelation 20:10 will spell out the
final overthrow of Satan, and the end of all sin and rebellion, the
conquering took place at the cross. Jesus said of His death at the
cross, “Now the ruler of this world will be cast out” (John
12:31).
‘Ah,’ but you might say, ‘I still struggle with sin;
because of the sin that I commit I still feel the devil’s
accusation in my conscience that I’m not really a
Christian.’ Such are the devil’s ways, to get our focus off
of the cross of Christ, off of the One who satisfied eternal justice
through His bloody, propitiatory death, and onto our level of
performance. My friend, you are not saved because you do good things
instead of bad. You are saved because of Christ alone, or else you have
no hope of salvation. While Satan cannot accuse us before God any
longer, having been “thrown down,” he does accuse us in our
conscience. That’s why John emphasizes “now” in his
picture of Christ’s triumph. We are to live in the present
reality of what Jesus Christ has already accomplished on our behalf at
the cross and in the resurrection. John shows us heaven’s
viewpoint, a viewpoint that we are to adopt in our daily lives. We are
to live in the strong reality of the cross of Christ in the face of
Satan’s accusations against us.
2. The kingdom and the cross
Let’s begin with the latter part of verse 10 in considering the
power of the cross: “For the accuser of our brethren has been
thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.”
If God’s justice toward sinners is never satisfied, then Satan is
right in accusing the elect of being unworthy to dwell in God’s
presence. In other words, Satan is making a very good point, even a
just point—if God’s justice is never satisfied and He
accepts non-justified people into His kingdom. Again, the emphasis is
upon what Christ has already accomplished through His death by
satisfying everything that God demands regarding His justice in
forgiving sinners. If there’s no ground of forgiveness through
Christ’s justifying work, then the devil—that wicked,
malicious fiend and enemy of all righteousness—is right to accuse
us.
But “he who accuses them before our God day and night…has
been thrown down!” That’s the divine declaration that God
accepted the death of Christ on our behalf; payment in full has been
made! Therefore, “now the salvation, and the power, and the
kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come.”
The cross validated the effectiveness of God to save sinners. The cross
demonstrated the power of God to break the grip of Satan and sin over
us, welcoming us into His own family. The cross vindicated the
righteous, eternal rule of God over all creation, emphatically
declaring that neither death nor Satan nor sin can usurp His kingdom.
The cross displayed the sovereign authority of Christ as King of kings
and Lord of lords.
3. The “now” and the “not yet”
Notice the two-fold declaration in verse 12. Those in heaven have cause
for rejoicing because of what Christ has done, and because the devil
has been thrown down. But those still dwelling on earth have cause for
“woe” since Satan realizes that his time is limited due to
the cross and resurrection of Christ. He knows that his end is near, so
he displays his wrath upon humanity. “For this reason, rejoice, O
heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea,
because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing
that he has only a short time.” Though we might fret and worry
and grow despondent, nothing of the sort happens in heaven. Their
perspective on the effectiveness of Christ’s work—the
“now”—causes great rejoicing forever and ever.
Now, why does John tell us that when we don’t live in heaven but
rather still live in the realm of the “not yet”? His
purpose is to help us to adopt heaven’s point of view; to see
things as they truly are rather than as the devil wishes them to be.
That’s why the devil continues to accuse us, not before God since
Satan was thrown down by Christ’s ascension and he has no more
ground of accusation, but he accuses us in our consciences. His wrath
increases with the brevity of his opportunity to oppose our God (the
actual meaning of “time” or kairos in this case). As long
as we’re held captive by seeing things through the fog of this
world and our experience, we’ll not deal well with the
devil’s assaults and temptations. We’ll live as though the
great “now” of Christ’s work has not taken place.
Sometimes even new believers grasp this quicker than those of us who
have been Christians for many years. I read this week of the conversion
of a 14 year old Pakistani girl who came to Christ through the witness
of her friend. Upon confessing Christ, her family began to beat her and
insist on her returning to Islam. She refused. Her uncle took her to a
canal, put a pistol to her head, and demanded that she turn back to
Islam. She said, “You can kill me if you want. I will not leave
Christ.” Not satisfied, the uncle spied a deadly black cobra
swimming in the canal. He knew that the girl could not swim, so he
threw her into the canal in the path of the cobra, thinking that either
she would drown or die from the snake bite. Just like verse 14, it
seemed that God gave her eagle wings so that she miraculously escaped
and went into hiding. She told some believers helping her, “Jesus
was crucified for us. Can we not endure some of the same for
Him?” [“The Connection,” Christianitytoday.com,
February 23, 2007, taken from a “Voice of the Martyrs”
publication]. She saw things from heaven’s viewpoint and thus
bore up under the extremity of Satan’s opposition. Her motivation
was the crucified Christ. I believe that we can learn from this young
Christian, who, though living in the “not yet” realizes the
effectiveness of Christ in the “now.”
III. The Christian’s overcoming
The middle stanza of the triumphant song gives us the means that God
has provided for Christians to overcome the devil’s accusations.
Those identified as “they” in verse 11 refer to believers
now gathered around the throne. How did they face Satan’s
accusations and opposition triumphantly?
1. By trusting in Christ’s death
“And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb.”
The theme of Christ, the Lamb of God’s atoning death permeates
Revelation. Christ “released us from our sins by His blood”
(1:5). He “was dead and behold…alive forevermore”
(1:18). He is the “Lamb standing, as if slain,” who is
worthy because He was “slain, and purchased for God with [His]
blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation”
(5:6, 9). Because of Him, those coming “out of the great
tribulation…have washed their robes and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb” (7:14). He is the Child born on behalf of
sinners, “caught up to God and His throne” in triumph after
His death on our behalf (12:5). “He is clothed with a robe dipped
in blood, and His name is called the Word of God” (19:13).
The Christian’s confidence before the devil’s accusations
is the blood of Christ on his behalf. Christ’s bloody death
stripped Satan of his ownership over us and of his right to accuse us.
As we sang last Sunday night,
‘Till on that cross, as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied;
For every sin on Him was laid. Here in the death of Christ I live.
(“In Christ Alone,” Stuart Townsend and Keith Getty)
2. By applying the gospel’s effectiveness
“And they overcame him because…of the word of their
testimony.” What is the believer’s testimony? It’s
certainly not the power of one’s personal strength or
accomplishments. Rather, it’s the confession of Christ’s
sufficiency in the gospel. It’s not just the thought of it but
the open, verbal confession of Christ. To live each day in the reality
that Jesus Christ died and rose again for me, to know that my only
confidence before God is Christ alone, and to know that no power of
hell can uproot what Christ has done with finality, to realize that God
does not exact some saving means from me but that He is satisfied with
Christ, that, my friend, is the word of our testimony believed and
spoken that overcomes the adversary.
3. By persevering with singular devotedness
“And they did not love their life even when faced with
death.” Kistemaker comments, “These redeemed believers did
not value their lives more than the message of the gospel; they were
willing to offer their lives for the sake of Christ” [365]. Maybe
we succumb to the devil’s temptations because we attempt to hold
onto all the trinkets of this life rather than devote all to Christ.
Few epitomized this devotion better in the 20th century than the
martyred missionary Jim Elliot. When his brother left for Peru to serve
as a missionary, Jim wrote to his mother, “Remember we have
bargained with Him who bore a cross….Our silken selves must know
denial. Hear Amy Carmichael:
O Prince of Glory, who dost bring
Thy sons to glory through the Cross,
Let us not shrink from suffering,
Reproach or loss.
[From Elisabeth Elliot’s dedication page in The Journals of Jim Elliot]
Conclusion
My brethren, let us live in the reality of the gospel each
day—trusting Christ’s sufficiency, confessing the
effectiveness of Christ’s death and resurrection, and devoting
ourselves singularly to live and die for His glory. We’re in the
kingdom of the overcomers; let us live in that reality.
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