The Devil's Rampage

I. Introduction
A. Revelation 12:1-6 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. 2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. 4 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. 5 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, 6 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.
B. Revelation 12:7-12a Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, 8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9 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. 10 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. 11 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. 12a Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them!
C. Rev.12:12b-17 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!” 13 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. 14 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. 15 The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. 16 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. 17 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.
1. The last sentence, “And he stood on the sand of the sea,” belongs to the next vision (ch.13), not to this one, so we’ll cover that next week.
II. Explanation
A. The first 11½ verses of Rev.12 depict Christ’s and His people’s victory over Satan in the cosmic struggle. Satan has been defeated by Christ.
1. But he is not dead. In Rev.12:12-17 we find him enraged and attacking the people of earth.
B. 12b “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!”
1. We start today with the woe to the earth part of the equation.
2. Though he knows he’s defeated, the devil is far from humbled. He is in full temper-tantrum mode.
C. 13 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. 14 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. 15 The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. 16 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.
1. First Satan tried to get the male child Jesus and He failed.
2. Then, he tried to wipe out the woman (who is the church), but he was prevented from doing so.
3. Why? Because God protects His church.
4. What does this mean? Do no bad things happen to His Church?
a. Obviously Satan has been allowed to attack and even subvert the church in a thousand ways.
b. But Jesus said, “I will build My church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Mt.16:18
5. This is similar to how Satan has been prevented from deceiving the world in Rev.20:1-3, and yet many are deceived (2Cor.4:4; 1John 5:19).
a. And it is similar to how Satan has been allowed to attack believers – as it says in the next verse! and in many other places, for example 2Cor:11:3, 13-15 – in spite of the fact that they’ve been sealed from spiritual harm (as we saw in Rev.7:1-8 & 9:4).
6. In other words, though Jesus allows Satan to attack and damage the visible church but He carefully preserves and protects His true bride.
7. An important thing to notice here is that this passage is a recapitulation of the story of the Exodus, when God’s OT people were pursued by the Pharaoh of Egypt, who is referred to in Ezekiel 29:3 as “the great dragon.”
a. Even though Pharaoh the dragon tried to stop her with water, God dried up the water and carried her on the wings of an eagle into the wilderness for safety. Listen to Exodus 19:4 “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings & brought you to Myself.” There He nourished her with water from the rock, along with manna and quail.
8. Even after the Exodus, when most of Israel proved themselves faithless (1Cor.10:5), there was a true remnant of believers God protected for Himself (Rom.9:27). And in the end, all of God’s promises toward Israel were fulfilled (Rom.9:6). But the true Israel was not the NATION of Israel, not even the fleshly descendants of Abraham, but those among the people who truly worshiped the Lord.
D. 17 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.
1. Who is “The rest of her offspring”?
a. If the woman is the church, then the rest of her offspring must be the individual members of the church, the people of God, you & me, the ones to whom this book’s written.
b. The point is, now Satan is taking his wrath out on individual Christians.
2. So, the bad news is that there’s an angry and malicious devil who has us in his sights. “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” – 1Peter 5:8
3. But the good news is that in spite of his desires and intentions, he cannot ultimately hurt those who truly belong to Christ. We are sealed by God, not against any physical harm, but against any spiritual harm. (Remember Rev.11:1-2, where the inside of the temple is protected, but the outer part is given over to the world to be trampled.)
4. As the WCF 20:1 says, we are free from the evil of afflictions. And that, my dear friends, is very good news.
5. Here in v.17 the two life patterns which are said to characterize these individual believers are: obedience and perseverance.
a. These folks keep the commandments of God – in spite of all the pressure they experience from their own flesh.
b. And they hold to the testimony of Jesus – in spite of all the pressure they experience from the world around them.
6. Another way of saying this is that they:
a. Say yes to Christ while saying no to their own sinful desires.
b. And they say yes to the word of God while saying no to what the people around them think.
7. Now obviously they don’t do this perfectly, or else the calls in this book for believers to repent wouldn’t make sense (Rev.2:5, 16, 22; Rev.3:2, 3, 19).
a. And so, the question to ask ourselves is not, ‘Do we constantly keep God’s commandments?’ but ‘Is obedience important to us? Is it something we very much want to do?’
b. And when we fail to obey the Lord, are we comfortable with that? Or does it bother us?
c. And what do we do about it? Do we go to the Lord in humble, broken-hearted repentance, or do we just move on, hoping to forget about it?
8. So, now we’ve talked about keeping God’s commandments. Let’s talk about holding to the testimony of Jesus.
a. The presumption behind this is that there is strong pressure from the world to let go of the testimony of Jesus, to deny His name.
b. In my opinion, this confirms the fact that in the world there will ALWAYS be pressure to deny the testimony of Jesus. That’s the way the world has always been and always will be till Christ returns.
c. And in one sense, that’s a blessing. If we got praised and rewarded by the world for holding the testimony of Jesus, it would be hard to know who was sincere & who was just trying to get ahead.
d. It’s easy to think you’re sincere until your testimony stirs up trouble.
(1) The seed sown among the rocky soil appeared sincere until the hot middle-eastern sun began to beat on it.
(2) The rich young ruler thought he was sincere in his desire for eternal life until Jesus said, “Go, sell all your possessions and give them to the poor. Then come, follow Me.” (Matt.19:16-21)
9. One of Jesus’ favorite questions to ask people was: “Who do people say that I am?” or “Who do you say that I am?” And among all the answers to this question, there were three basic replies:
a. Those who said, “You are who You say You are” and worshiped Him.
b. Those who said He’s not who He claims to be and repudiated Him.
c. But there’s another category. There were many people, perhaps the biggest category of all, who were torn. Part of them was attracted to Jesus, but they couldn’t go along with everything.
(1) they didn’t claim Jesus was an imposter. They didn’t say he came from the devil. They said positive things about Jesus, “He’s a prophet!” He’s Elijah!” “He’s John the Baptist!” “He’s Jeremiah!” “He’s the carpenter’s son.” “He’s a miracle worker!”
(2) And down through history this has continued:
(a) “He was a great moral teacher!”
(b) “He was a great revolutionary with regard to ideas.”
(c) “He was the most enlightened or the most evolved human being who ever lived!”
(3) I call the people in this group “adapters of Christ.”
d. So, we have three categories: those who accept Him, those who reject Him, those who adapt Him.
e. At General Assembly, many proposals are made, but then amended. And often, in the end, after the vote is taken, the moderator will say something like, “Mr. Smith’s motion passes as amended.”
f. And, trust me, many of the proposals NEED to be amended!
g. The problem is that many Christians are like this toward Jesus – WHO DOESN’T NEED TO BE AMENDED AND MUST NOT BE AMENDED. They approve of Jesus, they accept Jesus – AS AMENDED. It may be their own amendment; it may have been their pastor’s amendment; it may be their tradition’s amendment; it may be their favorite author’s amendment.
h. But in the end they don’t accept Jesus as He is. They don’t say what Mary said, “May it be done to me according to Your word.” (Luke 1:38)
i. They just aren’t comfortable with total surrender.
j. And as long as the Christians around them are accepting of their minor exceptions, they feel pretty comfortable. But Jesus says, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do the things I say?” (Luke 6:46)
10. Now I really don’t want to make any true believer feel uncertain about his faith.
a. But I also don’t want to make those who are fooling themselves feel like they’re safe.
11. It actually took quite a while for even the disciples to get over their objections, to get over their attempts to adjust Jesus, to fix Jesus, to improve Jesus.
a. Eight verses after Peter professed that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (In Matt.16:16) he rebuked Jesus for talking about being crucified (Matt.16:22). And none of the others accepted it before it happened, in spite of the fact that Jesus told them over and over again.
b. And even after Pentecost, most of them had big problems accepting the inclusion of the Gentiles, even though God had made it clear in a number of ways. It’s a temptation for all of us.
c. But like Job (Job 40:3-5), eventually they put their hands over their mouths and said, “Let God be true and every man a liar.” (Romans 3:4)
III. Conclusion
A. So, there’s an angry and malicious devil who has us in his sights.
1. He once thought he had a good case. Now he has been defeated by Christ and knows he has lost. And he is angry. He wants to do as much damage as he can.
2. He has no strategy, and no hope for success. He’s just angry and wants to do as much damage as possible.
3. In Les Mis, the revolutionaries had a strategy they thought would work. They thought the people of Paris would rally to their side if they began to stand up to the oppressive government. It didn’t work. But when it became clear that it wasn’t going to work, they didn’t surrender. They threw themselves into the battle like madmen. They said, “Let us die facing our foes! Make them bleed while we can. Make 'em pay through the nose.”
4. This seems to be similar to Satan’s attitude toward God’s people after being defeated by Christ.
5. We have a vicious enemy. He hates the male child born to the woman, but when he fails to devour Him, he goes after His mother, and when he can’t get the mother, he goes after her other children.
6. This helps us understand the world’s hostility. Ultimately Satan hates us because he hates Christ.
7. And this is one of the main reasons why there is so much trouble in the world! It’s not because of regional conflicts or religious differences. It’s not because of environmental deterioration or wealth imbalances. It’s because the devil is angry that he’s been cast down! And he’s prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour (1Pet.5:8).
8. It sounds quite scary, doesn’t it? But we must remember that the devil is God’s devil. He can only do what God gives him permission to do.
a. Our Father will not allow one hair on our heads to be damaged unless He knows it’s best for us.
b. Our Father is not only a skilled surgeon who knows just what procedure we need done, and has the skill to do it perfectly, but He loves us as His own children, more than we love ourselves.
B. I said earlier that the story is a recapitulation of the Exodus. The big difference is that here the water comes out of the mouth of the dragon. What’s that about?
1. This actually fits into a pattern we’ve seen before.
a. Remember the meaning of the sharp sword coming out of Christ’s mouth in Rev.1:16; 2:16; 19:15, 21, which symbolized the word of His truth?
b. Remember the fire coming out of the mouths of the two witnesses in Rev.11:5 destroying their persecutors, which symbolized how the gospel spells judgment and death for those who reject it?
2. Well, just as Christ’s sword coming out of His mouth symbolized the word of truth coming out of His mouth, and just as the fire coming out of the mouth of the two witnesses symbolized the dangerous gospel message coming out of their mouths, so the water coming out of the mouth of the serpent symbolizes the lies, deceptions and false teaching coming out of Satan’s mouth by which he attempts to destroy the church.
3. Just as the serpent deceived the first woman with deceptive words, so the serpent here attempts to deceive THIS woman with a flood of deceptive words.
4. As Jesus said in Matthew 24:24, “False christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.”
5. “Such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.” – 2Corinthians 11:13-15
6. It’s important that we know that false teachings are not just mistakes. They are satanic deceptions designed to turn the church away from Christ.
7. And so we must hold firm to the testimony of Jesus, that He was the Son of God and the promised Messiah, that God so loved the world that He sent Him to save those who believed in Him, that on the cross He died as our substitute – bearing the penalty for our sin, that the Scriptures are the very word of God, without error and fully trustworthy, that He is with His people even through the valley of death, that He is building His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it, that He will return at the end of history, creating a new heavens and a new earth, where He will dwell with His people forever – and all the rest.