Rev 12:7-12

Sermon Text: Rev 12:7-12

Call to worship

Psalm 138:1–3 CSB

I will give you thanks with all my heart; I will sing your praise before the heavenly beings. I will bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your constant love and truth. You have exalted your name and your promise above everything else. On the day I called, you answered me; you increased strength within me.

11:08-12:00 2:40 - 3:30 4:01-4:45 8:13-

Passage:

Revelation 12:7-12

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 12

7 Then war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels also fought, 8 but he could not prevail, and there was no place for them in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was thrown out—the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the one who deceives the whole world. He was thrown to earth, and his angels with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say,

The salvation and the power

and the kingdom of our God

and the authority of his Christ

have now come,

because the accuser of our brothers and sisters,

who accuses them

before our God day and night,

has been thrown down.

11 They conquered him

by the blood of the Lamb

and by the word of their testimony;

for they did not love their lives

to the point of death.

12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens,

and you who dwell in them!

Woe to the earth and the sea,

because the devil has come down to you

with great fury,

because he knows his time is short.

Illustration:

Guy who hit me in the head - his brother had goons

Now fighting is obviously wrong and its sinful and I don’t condone it.

he was able to go throw the only punch because he knew that on his own he wasn’t a match for us - but he wasn’t alone - you aren’t alone either

On his own he wasn’t on his own

But when you consider your spiritual battles - I want you to be like the kid who punched me in the head - be bold. Know that you are intimidating and have victory not because of your own strength but because you have backup. You are united with Christ! We no longer need to let the devil push us around because we are united to Christ.

We are going to see that in the passage but first let me give a little background on Revelation

Text:

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 12

7 Then war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels also fought, 8 but he could not prevail, and there was no place for them in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was thrown out—the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the one who deceives the whole world. He was thrown to earth, and his angels with him.

Here is the backdrop. Jesus was born in the section we aren’t going to read and there was a battle in heaven. There are two sides: One side is the enemy. The devil himself, acting like a general over the various forms of evil. So when we think of the enemy, we need to think about it in terms of the devil and his demons, the sin in our own life, and the sin in the culture, the bible calls that The World.

But notice, God isn’t fighting. Michael the angel if fighting.

That’s because the enemy, Satan here, is no match for God. God is not battling someone of similar strength and power. He is fighting an underling. Its beneath him. The battle against the devil is something for God’s lackys to take care of.

And you see that he is defeated. The Enemy can’t even win against the Angels. But the real idea here, is that the death blow for Satan came when Jesus died and was resurrected. We don’t see that here, but the next passage mentions Christ’s blood. Christ won the battle in his resurrection and the enemy was cast down into the earth.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 12

10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say,

The salvation and the power

and the kingdom of our God

and the authority of his Christ

have now come,

because the accuser of our brothers and sisters,

who accuses them

before our God day and night,

has been thrown down.

Look what happens next: A loud voice comes and announces the reality of what has happened.

There is a major shift that happens. Before, the Devil was in heaven accusing us day and night. He was talking bad about us. He was pointing out everything we’ve done wrong:

You see that person right there: he is lusting all time!

Look at that lady gossiping right there. You call that person your child? look at how much they’ve messed up!

You hear it over and over. Imagine it this way: in those moments of shame. Those quiet times when your past comes back and is repeated to you over and over, telling you that you are no good. Telling you about all the times you’ve messed up. Telling you that you are dirty, worthless, unloved - not even just unloved but unlovable. The voices telling you that there is no way God is going to accept you.

Some people have that voice a lot, sometimes its a little. Those are accusations. And there was a time, when the devil was whispering that to God day and night. He was accusing you.

And he didn’t have to make things up. He wasn’t completely lying. We’ve done bad things. Look, I didn’t get punched in the head that time and some other times because I was so holy and following Christ. I wish that was the case! There was a reality to the accusations.

That’s how low we were.

Now imagine that someone you know is whispering in your ear about all the bad things that your spouse had done to you. Reminding you over and over, that’s gossip and slander right? How would you feel about your spouse?

You would be angry

Black Friday - I got angrier and angrier

But that’s not what God did!!

gospel

God heard all the bad things that you did, day and night he hears them. But instead of getting angrier and angrier, he turns to the enemy and says, “Alright, I’m going to solve that right now” And what does he do?

Gospel - defeating the power of sin.

Now here’s what’s so amazing - originally, the devil was whispering to God the Father about your sins night and day.

You want to know what’s happening now:

Hebrews 7:25 CSB

Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them.

Mira, the devil was accusing you night and day and Now jesus, God the son, is interceding for you. pleading for you. Reminding the Father about all the ways he is working in you!

Can you imagine that! Look it, you need to take time in your life, to reflect on the work Christ is doing for you. You need to see the way he is changing your life. You need to see how you are growing better. It’s hard sometimes, but Jesus is interceding for you, and he isn’t a liar.

You are united to Christ, He is working to renovate the image of God in you, making you more and more like Him. It’s a process no doubt, but the primary focus of Christ is in your successes not in your failures.

I have the Holy Spirit- I am being changed

Focus on growth you read your Bible more Attend church more

And when you do sin, when you do mess up, you know, of course, God isn’t happy with that. Of course, we can grieve him with our sin.

So we do need to make a difference between the feelings of shame for something in the past and the feelings of guilt and shame about something you are doing right now. Those are different things.

either you are killing sin or it’s killing you

The Holy Spirit convicting you of something that you are doing right now, is his love. Remember last week, we said that sin is actively destroying you. If the enemy can’t drag your soul to hell he wants to at least destroy your life now.

But God wants better for you. SO he is going to point out your sin. He is going to remind you that you need to stop that, because he loves you.

He is rooting for you. You are his beloved daughter, his beloved son. You never lose his love. So is on your side, pleading your case.

Let’s not focus on the negative self-talk, that’s what the enemy wants. Christ want’s you focused on Him.

And because of all this, because of his power we can have victory.

The enemy is too big for us to handle on our own - but remember the kid in the arcade - you aren’t alone. You have christ.

We never lose our standing

We are going to struggle because we aren’t perfect but even in the struggle we can still have victory

Look at verse 11

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 12

Who is the they: we are! Christians are! That’s what this is referring to.

Here is the reality, we live in contested space. the enemy wants control of this city, he wants control of your heart. He wants it all. But he is losing. He is lost. But it is still contested.

Christians, however, are having amazing victory in pushing back the darkness by the blood of the lamb.

here’s what that means:

It means that we can have victory - real victory - not because we are strong in ourselves but because we have the Holy Spirit with you.

I want you to face down the devil, not with fear but like the kid who punched me in the head. You have the bigger brother, you have the goon squad. You have the blood of Christ!

His victory is your victory. His power is your power. You are united with him in a real way. You don’t need to back down! You don’t need to be afraid! You got someone on your side!

Temptation comes your way, and you start to feel weak. What happens. the voice comes and says “look, you know you are going to give in. You know you can withstand me, why even fight it” It comes and tries to wear you down.

You need to stand up to that. Go to prayer. Remind yourself, Lord help me to remember that I have you with me! Let my spirit be confident that I am dead to sin. That I have you on your side. That I have victory by the power of your blood!”

You don’t have to be afraid! You won’t be perfect, you said that last week, you will mess up. That’s where you need friends around you who will help build you up and encourage you. Remind you of the truth!

And it goes on by the word of their testimony: Here’s what that means:

It means that as we live on mission for God, as we live fully committed to God, then we can really push back the darkness and make a difference.

When we live by the word of our testimony it means that our words match our life. We are weapons of righteousness.

So we are locked and loaded with our testimony, the story of how we got saved. We are locked and loaded with our Jesus got me through story. We are ready to tell people how God has changed me. this is the question people are asking - how does christianity affect a person like me.

But those words are also backed up with a life that says Jesus is my treasure. Sin isn’t my treasure, Jesus is my treasure. Not a perfect life, but different life.

So when someone sees you, they see that you are someone who is having victory over the devil and sin.

And they were able to live that way because they didn’t value their lives.

Sin is always valuing this life over God. We get consumed with the world and what it offers. Whether that’s money, power, sex, pleasure, acceptance. We want it. We crave it. And when we love it more than we love God we are falling into the trap of the enemy where we love

Word habit - focusing on God (4 times a week - here are the benefits

Prayer- spending time with God (that get’s addictive - prayer challenge)

Church - Sacraments

And mediating on him. Being thankful all throughout the day.

Your life matters and how you live your life matters because there is a war happening

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 12

12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens,

and you who dwell in them!

Woe to the earth and the sea,

because the devil has come down to you

with great fury,

because he knows his time is short.

Here’s what this means, there is still fight left in the devil.

Kamakazee

People try to drag you back into the chaos of your life.

Look, our city is contested space but we have the victory!

And we are just a small church plant. We aren’t even a full church yet, we are still a plant. But we are committed to creating a space where people can come, no matter their background, no matter their race, no matter their income.

Our area is growing in diversity and we want to be a diverse church, because that’s what heaven’s going to look like, so let’s start the party early!

But for this experiment to work, we need to know that God is calling us to be all in. And maybe he is calling you to be all in with Mercy Hill. Being all in with Mercy hill means that we give our time, we serve, we give our treasure, we give financially, and we give our testimony, we invite and share the gospel. We give all that to God.

So maybe you are here and you have been thinking about making Mercy Hill your home, hey, we invite you to join us in what we are trying to do!

We live in the victory that God has for us! We conquer by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony!

And the first step in all of this is the contested space your own life: Invitation

Lord’s Supper:

On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 

Benediction:

The LORD bless you and keep you;

the LORD makes his face shine upon you and be gracious to you:

The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.