Immortal Combat

Spiritual warfare is conflict that . . .

Our reading for this morning has some of the most fantastic imagery in the whole Bible. There is a beautiful woman and a monstrous red dragon, there is a fight between armies of angels, and there is a epic journey where the woman has to evade the furious dragon. If you didn’t know any better, you might think I was reading a summary of some fantasy novel with elves and dwarves and magic.

But you do know better, so you can probably guess that there is deeper symbolic meaning within this story - some of which is even directly explained in the verses we just finished reading. The woman represents God’s people, the crown of twelve stars representing the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve disciples. The male child, this great threat to the dragon born from God’s people, is Jesus Christ. And the dragon, as the text itself explains, is representative of Satan, the accuser, the deceiver, the adversary.

This narrative tells us of Satan’s pursuit of the downfall of God’s people, seeking to accuse and condemn us before God. It tells us of God’s hand in bringing Jesus into the world. It tells us of Satan being thrown down from heaven by the work of Christ, the Lamb who was slain, and gives us some insight into the way He attacks God’s people to draw them away from the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus. It invites us to consider the spiritual warfare that rages on our behalf, a battle between good and evil, a battle between the servants of God and the servants of the great adversary, a battle for the immortal future of our souls. Although some might be tempted to discuss spiritual warfare as only symbolic or representative or hypothetical, it is a very real conflict with very real stakes.

. . . takes place behind the scenes.

To give us some better understanding about spiritual warfare, it might help for us to look at some defining characteristics of the conflict. Spiritual warfare is conflict that largely takes place behind the scenes. These battles take place so far beyond out ability to grasp and comprehend, it can be easy to dismiss them entirely. And part of that might be that they are literally outside of our ability to perceive, but part of that might also be how subtly the battle for our souls can happen. And the thing with each of the examples I’m about to share with you is this, they might just be the result of the different people involved and natural consequences, or they could be the subtle work of angels and demons fighting battles behind the scenes. I think the only real mistake we can make here is to say that there is no spiritual warfare at all or to say that everything happening is 100% the fault of angels or demons. It could be one or the other, it could be a little bit of both, but we have no way of knowing for sure.

Maybe you sleeping in and missing church was a result of your decision to stay up late the night before, or maybe there was a demon working to whisper anxieties in your ears or distracting you from checking the clock or otherwise working in subtle ways to make sure you miss church. Maybe you running out of time for weekly Bible Study or daily personal devotions is a result of you over-committing to things or managing your time poorly, but maybe there are demons working to keep putting things in your way that eat up your time and keep you from engaging with God’s Word. Maybe you failing to talk to a friend or family member about Jesus is a result of your fear of rejection, your concern over your own limitations, or your own forgetfulness or laziness, but maybe there are demons drawing attention to those concerns, to your own shortcomings, or distracting you at the perfect time to avoid a potential moment for the Gospel to go out.

But remember this isn’t a one-sided conflict. Maybe you hearing the right devotion or the right message at the right time is just a coincidence or a result of you seeking out the right resources for where you’re at or a result of careful preparation, or maybe there is an angel making sure that you here God’s Word when you need it most. Maybe you’re here on a given Sunday morning because of your dedication or because of your good habits, or maybe there is an angel working to make sure you’re hear to say the right thing to a person who needs to hear it. Maybe you introduce people to the faith and to the church because you’re always looking for an opportunity and because you have confidence in the work of the Spirit, or maybe an angel is pointing you in the right direction and whispering encouragement in your ears.

At any given time, there could be a battle waging all around us. Demons could be working to derail us and draw us away from where God wants us to be, while angels are working to bring us closer to God’s design. And we might never see this battle play out in the sky, we might only see the effects in hindsight days, weeks, or years later, but that doesn’t mean that the conflict isn’t raging.

. . . we have a role in.

There is a temptation when we think about spiritual warfare and the conflict taking place behind the scenes to dismiss our part in that conflict entirely. When we stop and consider angels and demons, all the power that they have, and how they can operate without us even knowing, it can be tempting to throw up our hands and say “there’s nothing I can do anyway.”

That would be true if God had left us alone. But He has given us His Word, He has given us the Holy Spirit, and He has given us a Christian community - the church - to support us in the face of spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare is a conflict that is sometimes beyond our understanding, but it’s a conflict we have a role in. Think of the story of King Leonidas and his three hundred Spartans.

Now, I’m mostly referring to the portrayal in the movie 300. The story goes like this, Leonidas stood with a relatively small force of Spartans at Thermopylae and fended off a massive Persian army for a time. When he and his soldiers stood together as a cohesive unit behind their shield wall, they beat back wave after wave of Persian troops. They were hopelessly outmatched, but when they stood together and used their gifts, they overcame insurmountable odds. But in the film, there’s a moment where some of the Spartans rush out into the enemy ranks and in that moment, isolated from the others, one of them is cut down.

I think it’s a helpful illustration for us today. When we stand together with our brothers and sisters in faith, with the mutual support and encouragement that comes from that, and we rely on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we can stand even in the face of this spiritual warfare. It is when we go our own way and cut ourselves off from church and from God’s Word that we fall, it’s when we stand alone that we are overwhelmed. So my challenge to you here this morning, and to anyone listening to this recording after the fact, to be in church - not just sometimes, not just half the time, not just most of the time. Every. Single. Sunday.

. . . has a foregone conclusion.

And the most incredible thing for us about spiritual warfare isn’t it’s incredible scale, it’s not the way we can stand firm by being connected to God’s Word and His gifts for us. The most incredible thing about spiritual warfare is that the end of the conflict is already a foregone conclusion. We know that at the end of the day, Christ has conquered death and sin and the power of the devil.

Satan has been called the great adversary, the deceiver, and the accuser. But through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, he can no longer stand against us, he can no longer deceive us, he can no longer stand and accuse us. We think about the spiritual warfare that Revelation gives us a peek into and we know that, at the end of all things, Satan and all who stand with him will be defeated. We don’t have to be afraid of the darkness overtaking us, of sin condemning us, or of death defeating us. We know that our God, our King, our Savior has conquered and we can stand firm eternally on His victory. Amen.