Sermon Tone Analysis

The War in Heaven

Good afternoon!

I hope everyone is doing well.

I know the game last night was not what most might have hoped for.

They started off so well.

What we need to always remember is that in the end God is in control of all things.

I believe that that even includes who wins the world series.

One of the primary themes that is seen throughout the book of Revelation is this constant battle that exists between the Kingdom of God and what we might call the Kingdom of Satan.

In fact the New Testament makes it seem like the normal experience for the church is to suffer tribulation and persecution because of this very battle that is occurring.

And then at the end of the age the church will experience the most intense persecution that she has ever experienced.

And in the end times there is going to be a satanically inspired leader, an antichrist, who is inspired and empowered by satan, and whom we have already seen introduced as the beast.

And the whole purpose of the antichrist is to destroy the rule of God by gaining power over the whole earth.

The antichrist will demand worship from humanity and those who choose Christ will experience martyrdom.

We have already seen that during this time of Great Tribulation God will assert his sovereignty by pouring out his wrath towards sin upon this earth.

This began with the blowing of the trumpets and their plagues.

And with the sounding of the seventh trumpet the last of these is to be experienced, the seven bowls.

The bowls will bring about what we read in chapter eleven as the destruction of the destroyers of the earth and finally the establishment of the Kingdom of God.

But, before we get there God wants to slide back the veil you might say so that we might see this war that has been occurring in the heavenlies ever since Genesis chapter three.

When Satan in the guise of a serpent attempted to begin the destruction of the earth.

The spiritual warfare that we are going to see portrayed in Revelation chapter twelve has always had a manifestation in the physical world as suffering and tribulation within the church.

Revelation chapter twelve is going to provide for us an explanation to God’s people here on earth why it is that we must face such evil and persecution.

But even in the midst of this evil we will see that Satan the entire time has already been defeated by Jesus and as a result we are able to resist and conquer Satan by the blood of the Lamb.

So look one of the difficulties always is that we have a tendency to want to figure out the historical realities behind the visions.

And there are going to be points throughout this passage that we are going to want to go.

Well this must be speaking of this moment in time.

Resist that temptation.

That is not the purpose of this passage at all.

This passages purpose is not to speak upon a past event in history.

Nor is it meant to speak of a future event during the tribulation.

This passage is about the plight of God’s people from Adam and Eve until today and continuing forward in time until Jesus returns.

Remember this is one of those interludes that Jesus provides so that we might see who is in charge and has been in charge from the very beginning.

This passage is meant to provide hope and courage to a people suffering tribulation.

Whether that be struggles today or the great tribulation that is yet to come.

So let’s start at the beginning in chapter twelve verses one and two which read.

The Woman

So we are introduced to this woman whom we are told is a sign to the world.

And it says she is clothed with the sun, the moon is under her feet, on there are twelve stars upon her head as a crown.

All of this language is meant to depict the grandeur and glory of this woman.

We want to try to assign specific reasons for each because there are twelve stars that crown her head and we want to quickly state that that is either the twelve tribes of Israel or their patriarchs being represented.

Or it is the twelve apostles.

Well, which is it?

The passage doesn’t state.

So you have to guess.

And here’s the thing.

I don’t believe that is what God has in mind anyways.

God presents this woman who is purely symbolic of something that we will get to in just a moment.

And we are to see that she comes forth onto the scene in grandeur and in glory.

That is what the focus is in this passage.

Oh but wait this verse says that she is also pregnant and near to giving birth.

And we are going to see later that she gives birth to a baby boy who we will see is clearly a reference to Jesus.

So who is this woman.

Well, there are three very popular ways of interpreting this.

First there are those we see Mary as being represented as the Mother of the Lord Jesus.

This is quite understandable.

There are those who see Israel as the people who will give birth to the Messiah.

This is a consistent picture that is scene throughout the prophets.

For instance Isaiah 66:7 states that Israel is to give birth to a son.

There are also those who see the woman as being representative of the church.

I believe that this position is actually a bit more difficult to understand in this context as Jesus wasn’t birthed from within the Church.

Rather the Church was birthed from Jesus death.

In the end however, I don’t believe that any of these is quite fitting of the chapter as a whole and the purpose of the chapter.

Paul gives us a clue as to the possible meaning of the heavenly woman in Galatians 4:26 where he writes “But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.”

Paul in this passage is speaking of the spiritual ideal Jerusalem.

This is a picture I believe of the heavenly representation of all the people of God though.

Not only Israel.

If we continue to carry this symbolism out and the apply to it the picture we are going to be given about the birth of the Messiah.

And here’s the thing I do not believe that this birth is actually pointing to the historical birth of Jesus from Mary and the same goes for what we will see as his catching up to heaven is not a reference to the ascension.

When we connect all of this well I believe that we begin to see the reality in this world of the impacts of the spiritual warfare that is constantly occurring just out of sight behind the veil so to speak within the heavenlies.

Then in verse three we are introduced to the antagonist in our great story and we read.

So I will cut right to the chase becasue I believe most of us would have no problem connecting the dots on this one.

This is Satan, that great serpent.

And listen we need to understand that Satan will always attempt to fool the people of God by presenting himself as a Christ type figure.

And I believe that is what we see in the sevens that are represented here.

In particular the seven diadems.

He sees himself as the complete ruler of all things.

We are going to see that when Jesus returns He is wearing many diadems.

The ten horns are a reference that goes to Daniel chapter seven and are symbolic of the great power of Satan.

Again we don’t want to get to caught up in the details of the vision because it’s not the details that are important but rather Jesus gives this vision for us to see a bigger picture that has been occuring from the beginning.

Then in verse four we read.

So a couple of questions that I want to address first that come from this passage.

The first is does Satan swipe a third of the stars from the heavenlies during the end times?

I do not believe that that is going to happen.

The second is does Satan take out a third of the angels either by luring them to follow him or killing some who stand with Jesus?

I do not believe that this is what this is speaking about either.

I do believe that what God give to us is a glimpse of the power of Satan however.

Remember this is not a picture into historic events rather it is a story in essence being played out before our eyes of the spiritual warfare that occurs all around us all the time.

And Satan our adversary is very powerful.

Then we see that he stands at the ready with the intent of destroying the child that is to come from the woman.

Satan stood ready to bring down the Messiah as He came forth from the people of God.

Then in verse five we read.

So, why do I say that this does not represent historical events.

Jesus was born into this world from the virgin Mary, he lived a perfect sinless life, and he died upon the cross, three days later he arose from the dead, and then he ascended into the heavenlies.

Not quite the same picture is it.

This is what this verse is saying.

That from out of the people of God a male child is to be born who will rule the nations with a rod of iron.

This is a clear reference to Psalm chapter two and specifically verse nine.

And then in our story here the child is almost instantly caught up to the heavenlies and is seated with God in the heavenlies.

And on top of all of those inconsistencies our vision so far has never left the heavenlies.

Eventually we are going to see images of earth, but all of this so far has been a spiritual representation of spiritual warfare all of which has occurred in heaven not here on earth.

The other difficulty in connecting this to historical event is that the ascension of Jesus into the heavenlies is never seen as a means of escaping Satan.