Dragon Slayers

Revelation 12 ESV

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 heads 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, that 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.

Introduction: You have heard of the Movie, How to Train Your Dragon? Well the Dragon in this passage can not be trained. Who is this Dragon, Who is the Woman, Who is the child, and How can we Slay this Dragon?

In Chapter 11:7 we were introduced to the “Beast.” John is not going to leave us hagin’. For his readers, they learned that it is the Beast who will persecute and kill the Church, so this section of Revelation is set up to tell us who this Beast is and How Jesus is going to conquer the Beast. But the story does not begin with the Beast, Jesus through John says, “I need to go back, way back to explain who the beast is.

This is the Story of how...

24-Satan has lost his war.

Identifying the Characters:

The Woman:

First, the scene opens with a great sign appearing in heaven, whose content contains echoes of Genesis 37:9, where in Joseph’s dream Abraham, Sarah, and the twelve patriarchs are presented as a woman clothed with the sun, who also has the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. In the present scene the woman now represents faithful Israel,

The Micah 4 passage seems to allude to Zion being the daughter who gives birth to the Messiah in Chapter 5. The wilderness is actually Babylon and from their God will protect Israel and bring her back. So likely what John is seeing is the story of Israel. Satan attempted to destroy Israel through the exile, but God protected a remnant. It is out of this remnant that the Messiah, Jesus comes.

The other desert scene from the O.T. is the Exodus, and God preserved Israel then as well. Perhaps a tie into the parting of the Red Sea/Jordan as having the potential of sweeping Israel away.

The Dragon:

Clearly identified by Jesus through John is Satan

Reminds us of the ancient imagry - The Snake in Genesis 3, who is in a cosmic battle with Eve’s seed who will be bruised by the snake, but by whom whose head will be crushed.

The Accuser - Job, Satan’s job description was prosecuting attorney, to accuse people before God so he can make wise judgements, but his plan became sinister in that he enjoyed his job too much. He wanted human destruction, and so would do what he could to lie, deceive, devour people in their sin.

The imagry connects us with the fourth beast in Daniel 7 who also has ten horns, and if we were reading this as 1 of the 7 churches we might recognize the imagry that points to the Roman empire. Rome sat on 7 hills, and it had 10 provinces. - But more on that next week....

The 10 horns remind us of the 10 horned beast from Daniel's vision of the 4th beast in Daniel Chapter 7 which stands for 10 kings. This is also the same passage that speaks of the time, 2 times, and a half a time from which a boastful king arrises from the 10 kings. I think this is setting up the scene to connect Satan strongly with the Roman empire who is likely also interpreted to be this 4th beast in Daniel.

In Daniel Chapter 8, we get a depiction of the Roman Empire conquering Greece, and the ruler of the Roman Empire growing up to the host of heaven and throwing some down and trampling on them. This leader was boastful, and he will make a success of deciet by his hand. Likely a depiction of Caesar Augustus. So John here is directly tying Augustus to the work of Satan. - But here is where we may get the image of Satan leading 1/3 of the Angels in rebellion against God.

The child that is born is clearly Jesus.

Psalm 2 -The Messiah will be a shepherd who rules with an Iron Scepter & Revelation 19:15 - Jesus after ridding the world of his enemies be the shepherd who rules with an Iron Scepter

Birth & Ascension (Snatched up ie like the two witnesses the church in Chapter 11). This is short-hand for the whole life of Jesus which defeated Satan.

Michael - Michael is depicted as being the protector over the sons of Israel in Daniel 12:1, and also the one who fights the Prince of Persia during the exile in Daniel 10.

The Plot of the Story:

So John begins by using imagery that assumes time past (after all, the snake was present in the garden of Eden); but in the present narrative everything hinges on Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension. The awkwardness is simply a natural result of our being time-bound, and necessarily seeing everything in temporal terms with one moment succeeding another. But from the divine perspective in which John is here seeing things, the ultimate defeat of Satan took place through the death and resurrection of the Slain Lamb—and that is the perspective from which the reader is expected to understand the present imagery. - Gordon Fee.

25-Powerpoint: Ross’ - Three Dimensional Time again.

26-PowerPoint: The Bible/Gospel Story With what Satan is Trying to do.

Satan was pursuing Israel - Fleeing Egypt to the Desert. - The water to sweep Israel away

Babylon as being in the Desert.

But every time, God preserved a remnant.

Jesus is born, lives, dies, is raised, and ascends. - Defeating Satan, because he can no longer accuse humans on the basis of Sin.

Michael goes to war with Satan to displace him from his place in the heavenly court as the chief prosecutor of humans and overpowers Satan, because he has no more authority.

Satan now prowling the earth angry seeks to do whatever damage he can on followers of Jesus.

27-So, What is the impact of this passage? It is to say to the 7 Churches, Your present suffering, and persecution is Satan is angry he lost, and so he is doing what he can to destroy you and your faith. He couldn’t defeat God’s plan by destroying Israel, He couldn’t destroy God’s plan by devouring Jesus, in fact He was defeated by Jesus, and so now all he has before his time is up is to attempt to destroy you. Next week we will see his ploy on how he will use the Beast character(s) in the Book of Revelation to fulfill his desire to devour Believers.

But here is the encouraging News....

28-We slay Satan when we stick with Jesus.

From the Book, "Don't give the enemy a seat at your table." - Louie Giglio

If he had written the passage himself, Giglio says, he would have made it so that the table is secluded and set apart and only he and the Shepherd get to sit at it. But that’s not what Psalm 23:5 says. It says, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” Meaning, we sit at the table with the Good Shepherd, but the enemy is prowling around the table. He wants to sit down with you, too, Giglio says.

If we’re not careful, Giglio says, the devil will take a seat at your table without your permission.

Once the enemy gets a seat at this table, Giglio explains, he will start to speak to you. If you hear any of the following phrases (or variations of them) in your internal dialogue, you could very well have given the enemy a seat at the table, Giglio warns.

If You Hear These Phrases in Your Head, You’ve Given the Enemy a Seat at Your Table:

“You’re never going to make it.” Since the enemy is constantly trying to get us to trip up and stop following Jesus, he will try to convince us there’s no point in continuing. But, Giglio says, while the devil is telling you you’re not going to make it through the valley, the Shepherd is telling you he is with you in the valley.

“There’s something better at the other table.” This will invite you to compare another person’s God-given table to your own. Then you might be tempted to get up from the table (leaving the security and fellowship of the Good Shepherd) to try to get what’s at the other table.

“You’re not good enough.” If you really weren’t good enough, Giglio says, the Good Shepherd would have never left his throne in heaven to sit with you at your table. Just think about that for a minute.

1. Verse 11 here is both encouraging and instructional. It describes two parts of our victory: the finished work of Christ (the blood of the Lamb) as a sacrifice for our sins, and our believing in it (the word of our testimony). The second points to our need to personally receive Jesus’s work for ourselves by grace through faith, and this conversion becomes our personal testimony. The last part of verse 11 also indicates that when we receive the gift of a right relationship with God, we value our eternal life over and above our present one. We are able to let go of our old life and embrace God’s better eternal life for us, an upgrade we are willing to make even in the face of death for God’s purposes.

Two Ways we slay the dragon....

29-By Accepting Jesus’ gift of washing away our sins. v11

Using the courtroom scene - Jesus took the death penalty for our crimes - The Prosecuting Attorney can not accuse us anymore.

Once casting out a demon with some folks. I had a thought, will this demon call out my sin, what will I say? The demon said through the man to us, “You are weak.” To which I responded, But He is strong and I have have been washed by the blood of the lamb. I remember as we kept peppering this demon with the truth. “Christ has made a spectacle of you on the Cross, triumphing over you.” “You have no power over the blood of Jesus.” “He that is in us, is greater than you who is in the world.” The demon shrinked back and began to beg for us to be gentle.

One way we slay the dragon is to remind him and our selves that “In Christ Jesus there is now no condemnation.” The Enemies accusations fall flat and are just what they are an attempt at intimidation and deceit. It is an attempt at preying on our sense of guilt, but it is not real, and it is not the truth in Jesus.

The second is...

30-By Clinging to the Gospel. v 17

1. More than anything, Satan is out to attack our faith, our trust in the Lord, the one thing he can never possess for himself. “Satan likes to fill us with doubt. To accomplish this he plants questions in our mind about the goodness and love of God. When Satan approached Eve in the garden, his strategy was to cause her to doubt God’s goodness. He insinuated that God did not have her best interest at heart and that God was trying to keep her from what would be best for her” (Chuck Pierce, Restoring Your Shield of Faith [Minneapolis, MN: Chosen Books, 2004], 58).

It would be really easy to cave under the persecution that the 7 churches in Asia Minor were about to undergo, if they didn’t cling to the Truth. The Truth that Jesus conquered death, he was raised from the dead and so were they. This allowed them to truly face death with courage.

Cindy accused by police officer of shop lifting.

Conclusion: We can slay the dragon, and it is not as comples as you think. receive Jesus and cling to his truth.