Dear friends in Christ.
During World War II, one of the greatest weapons
that the allies had was their ability to understand the plans of their
enemies. Because they had broken the
enemy’s code, there were many times that they knew what their enemy’s next move
was and they were able to counter it.
Well, for us as Christians, the same thing is true. We have been blessed by the Lord, because
today the plans of our enemy have been revealed to us! Though satan had sought
to keep his plans from us and to lead us astray without even our knowing what
he was up to, it is the Lord Jesus who reveals satan’s plans to us in our
lesson today.
Now, if you haven’t already done so, I invite you to
turn with me to our lesson in Revelation 12, and we’ll take a look at the plans
that satan has utilized in an effort to win the victory over us. As John writes, he begins by taking us back
in time, in a symbolic way, to the birth of Christ. We see a woman, clothed with the sun, with
the moon under her feet and with twelve stars encircling her brow as a crown of
victory. She is pregnant and ready to
give birth, and from the context of the chapter, we quickly realize that this
woman represents the Church—the gathering of God’s believer on earth. It is through this Church, specifically the
line of David and the House of Israel through which the Savior came. He is the child with which the Old Testament
Church was pregnant with expectation for millennia, and as Chapter 12 begins,
John reveals satan’s plan to do away with the Christ. John writes, “A great and wondrous sign
appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet
and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in
pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an
enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his
heads. 4 His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to
the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth,
so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. 5 She gave birth to a
son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her
child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the
desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for
1,260 days." (Revelation 12:1–6, NIV84)
This was satan’s plan from the beginning! Ever since the Lord had promised Adam and Eve
that he would send a Savior, satan had been standing in readiness, seeking to
destroy the child so that we would have no Savior. He sought to destroy the Israelites by
leading them away from the worship of the true God, but the Lord always
retained many faithful people in Israel.
He tried to destroy the line of David when Queen Athaliah killed off all
of the royal family in Judah. Thus satan
hoped that he might do away with the line of the Savior and thus destroy the
Christ before he was even born! But the
Lord intervened and spared the life of Joash, the next king in David’s line and
the next ancestor in the line of the Savior. (2 Kings 11). Satan tried to destroy the line of the Savior
by turning the religion of the Israelites into Pharisaical rules and
regulations which ultimately kept people from learning about or understanding
the promise of the Messiah. Yet, the
Lord again kept the message of salvation alive in the hearts of many of his
people. Even when the Savior was born,
satan sought to destroy him when Herod ordered all the babies 2 years and
younger to be executed. But again the
Lord intervened and his son was swept away to Egypt. Satan sought to destroy Jesus by tempting
him, in the wilderness, but Jesus did not succumb to his temptations. Satan sought to destroy Jesus through the
Pharisees, Sadducees, Teachers of the Law, and other critics who constantly
sought to trap in falsehood, but they never succeeded. Satan tried to destroy Jesus by tempting
Jesus to water down his message or become simply a bread king as we’ve heard in
our Gospel lessons from John 6 for the past few weeks, but Jesus kept on
teaching the truth of God’s Word wherever he went, and never once watered down
the message. Finally satan tried to
destroy Jesus by raising up such a hatred of him that his own people chose to
crucify him. Yet, Jesus used this very
event to complete his mission. He
willingly gave up his life on the cross so that he could forgive the sins of
the world. He endured the very
punishment of hell in our place giving his life over to death, and thus destroy
satan, stifling and completely running his plan to destroy the source of our
salvation.
Even though satan sought to destroy Jesus and his
ability to be our Savior, Jesus completed his mission. He saved his people. He destroyed the power of the devil, and at
his ascension, Jesus was snatched up to God and to his throne where he now
lives and reigns over us. Though for a
short time the Church on earth enjoyed the physical presence of her Lord and
Savior, today, the Church is left to sojourn in the desert of this world. But even though we are living in the desert
of this sin-filled world, we are still being fed and nourished by the Lord and
his Word. We have the comfort of
congregations like this one, where we have the opportunity to hear the Word of
God on a regular basis; where we are cared for by our Lord and be built up in
our faith until the time when our Savior comes again on the Last Day! This is the 1,260 days that John writes about
here! Whether it is written as 1,260
days, 42 months, 3 ½ years, or time, times and half a time, it all means the
same thing. It is the symbolic time of
the New Testament Era—the complete amount of time that must pass from the day
of Jesus’ ascension until the day of his return on the Last Day.
But taking out Jesus was only part of satan’s plan! Not only did he want to destroy Jesus’
ability to be our Savior so that we would be trapped in our sins with no hope
of salvation, satan also wanted to take over heaven itself and become the new
god! Take a look at what John writes
beginning with verse 7: “And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels
fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he
was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon
was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the
whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. 10
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the
power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the
accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has
been hurled down. 11 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word
of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from
death. 12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to
the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled
with fury, because he knows that his time is short.”" (Revelation 12:7–12,
NIV84)
Though it is very possible that John here receives a
flash back to the day when satan originally rebelled against the Lord, from the
context, it seems more likely that John sees a picture of the war that took
place when Jesus was going to the cross.
It seems that even as Jesus is arrested (Luke 22:52-53) and is led to
the cross; even as Jesus is enduring the pains of hell and damnation; even as
God the Father seems to be distracted by the plight of his Son and he rejects
him for the sin that he has become on the cross, it seems that satan takes the
opportunity to storm the halls of heaven itself so that he might once and for
all overthrow the Lord, and become the new ruler of creation. Why does it seem this way? Because the only battle in which satan lost
the ability to accuse is the battle that ended with Jesus’ death on the
cross. It was after this battle, before
Jesus rose from the dead that he victoriously marched through hell itself
declaring total victory over our enemy, the devil. It is through this battle that the salvation
and the power of our God and the authority of his Christ came because satan,
the accuser of our brothers had been hurled down.
This is what John saw in our lesson today. He saw satan, as his plans come to ruin as he
lost the battle when he was defeated by Jesus’ death and resurrection. He saw satan as his plans come to ruin when
he went up against the angels of heaven and learned that he was not strong
enough to defeat the angels of God who fought against him and all his demons
with the power of the Lord God himself.
He saw satan defeated, losing his ability to accuse us of our sins
because through faith in Jesus our sins have been washed away. Our dirty, stinking, filthy, sin-filled
garments have been removed by Jesus and replaced by a robe of his righteousness
and holiness. No longer can satan accuse
us, because through faith in Jesus our Savior, we are at peace with God and
members of his household!
But even though satan has been defeated, he has not
given up. He is still fighting against
the Lord to this very day. Though the
first two plans that the Lord revealed to us today may have failed, satan is
very resilient. Even though satan is not
able to defeat the Lord of Hosts, and even though he is not able to defeat Christ’s
bride, the Church because the Lord has promised that the gates of hell will
never overcome her, satan has implemented a new plan—a plan that has been
working since the beginning of time!
Take a look at verse 13-17: “When the dragon saw that he had been hurled
to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14
The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to
the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for
a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. 15 Then from his
mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep
her away with the torrent. 16 But the earth helped the woman by opening its
mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17
Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the
rest of her offspring—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the
testimony of Jesus." (Revelation 12:13–17, NIV84)
Even though satan is not able to defeat the Lord, or
completely destroy the Lord’s Church, he still seeks to do everything he can to
separate the Church, and her offspring from the Lord. He spews out false doctrine in an effort to
overtake, dilute, and utterly destroy the truth of salvation. He slowly infuses thoughts of social justice,
social change and other social agendas into the messages that congregations
teach in an effort to change their focus from a message of salvation through
faith in Jesus to a message of making this world better for the benefit of all
society. He takes the message of God’s
great love that moved him to send Jesus to be our Savior to free us from our
sins so that we could be forgiven and live with him forever in heaven, and
begins to corrupt it into thoughts of God being nothing more than love. Thus the thoughts naturally follow that if
God is love he must love me no matter what, and if God loves me no matter what
it doesn’t matter how I live because God loves me for who I am. So, because God loves me for who I am, I can
then live in God’s love by loving others in whatever way seems best to me,
whether they be men or women. Thus,
through satan’s deception, the God who is love has been replaced by Love, which
has become, to many, a god. Just think,
how many congregations hasn’t satan infiltrated, diluting and even stealing the
message of salvation from God’s children, separating them from him and him from
them? How many times hasn’t satan’s war
against those who hold to the testimony of Jesus been effective enough to make
them turn from their faith and walk away from the Lord? How often hasn’t satan worked in our
congregation and been successful in separating some from their Lord and Savior
here at Grace?
Though I wish we were immune to satan’s plans, how
often hasn’t he sent anger and frustration rippling through our congregation in
an effort to separate us from the love of our God? How often hasn’t he sought to make even the
strongest Christians question their faith in God? How often hasn’t he sought to fill our hearts
with a lukewarm attitude toward worship and Bible study? How often hasn’t he sought to fill us with
the attitude that it is more important for us to be spiritual than it is for us
to be religious? How often hasn’t he set
parents and children against each other, pushing and pushing until children
simply refuse to come to church because the message is out dated or it simply
doesn’t speak to them anyway? How often
hasn’t he set husbands and wives against each other in arguments that are only
meant to drive a wedge between them and their God?
These are but a few of the ways that satan is
seeking even now to destroy us and separate us from the Lord Jesus, our
Savior. But even though he is seeking to
separate us, we have the benefit of knowing his plans, and as GI Joe would say,
“Knowing is half the battle!” The other
half is equipping and going on the offensive.
So, do just that! Equip
yourselves against satan’s schemes.
Build yourselves up in the Word of God through regular worship and
regular Bible study. Review the battle
plans with which the Lord has equipped you in his Word. Put on the full armor of salvation and speak
to the Lord with Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs on a regular basis. Live in the love that Jesus has lavished upon
you—the forgiveness of sins. Remind
yourselves daily of your baptisms, and seek to drown, your enemy every day
through sorrow over your sins and repentance.
Thus, strengthened by the Lord, you will be built up in your faith,
strengthened in your knowledge of forgiveness and ready to stand against your
enemy, because today the Lord has revealed his plans to you, and drawn you
closer to the Lord, your Savior, who has separated you from satan and made you
his own through faith in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
Pastor
David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
