War in Heaven, Hope on Earth: Revelation 12:1-17 | God’s People Will Stand Firm

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Revelation 12 paints a dramatic picture of a cosmic battle—the war between the forces of darkness and the triumphant reign of Christ. Satan, the great accuser, has been defeated by the blood of the Lamb and the word of the saints' testimony. Yet, though his ultimate fate is sealed, he rages against the church, seeking to deceive and destroy.

This sermon explores three key truths from Revelation 12:
✅ God’s sovereign protection of His people
✅ The victory of Christ and His kingdom
✅ The faithful endurance of the saints

Though the enemy continues his assault, the church stands firm—not by its own strength, but by the power of Christ. Join us as we dive into this passage and discover the hope and confidence we have in our victorious Savior.

Transcript of the Sermon:

Imagine a high-profile court case.

The prosecution is relentless.

They are bombarding the defendant with accusation after accusation, and they are determined to see that they are condemned.

And the evidence seems overwhelming, the case airtight, until in a stunning moment, the defense presents a decisive piece of evidence that completely exonerates the one who is being accused.

We've seen movies like this, right?

What happens?

The courtroom falls completely silent and the judge dismisses every charge and the once confident accuser, the prosecutor, is left humiliated because their case is left in shambles.

Well, now imagine that that prosecutor is Satan himself,

As we read in the book of Revelation just a few moments ago, the great accuser of God's people.

Day and night, he stands before God, pointing out our sins, insisting that we are guilty and unworthy of salvation.

But then the blood of the Lamb, the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ for our sins, is presented.

And that perfect sacrifice of the Lamb silences every accusation against us.

And the verdict is declared, innocent, ransomed, redeemed, righteous.

And this is the picture that's painted for us here in this apocalyptic vision that John sees in Revelation chapter 12.

In a cosmic courtroom, a battle between heaven and hell, between the forces of darkness and

we see that there is victory in Christ.

The dragon, Satan, he's cast down, he's defeated, he's enraged.

And though he can no longer accuse the saints before God, he turns his fury upon the church.

Yet in this passage, we see that God's people, they're not abandoned.

The woman in the story is protected. The child is enthroned. And the saints overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. So this morning, We're going to see three profound truths from Revelation chapter 12 today. We're going to see God's sovereign protection of his people, a theme we keep coming back to in the book of Revelation, the victory of Christ and his kingdom, once again, a theme that keeps being driven home to us in the book of Revelation, and then the faithful endurance of the saints, standing firm and continuing to fight against what we face in the world as God's people.

So as we see these three things, we're going to see that even as the enemy rages, the church is victorious. Not because of our strength, but because of the blood of the Lamb. And we come to this passage today with the same approach that we've taken throughout the book of Revelation so far. Our goal here is to understand the big picture. and to take away from the passage the same hope that the original audience of the book was intended to have. To have a trust in God's care and a trust in God's protection through the work of Christ, through everything that we may face. And so, we come to Revelation 12, verses one through six today, and we find this dramatic image following up what we saw last week. Last week, we saw the seventh trumpet. And there was that pronouncement of the kingdom of this world becoming the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. And we also saw that important vision of the temple in heaven. Well, to follow that temple in heaven, we see this great sign appearing in heaven. And this is one of those visions that's fascinating to me because I really struggle to imagine this. Maybe you can accuse me of having a weak imagination, but I don't have any idea what a woman clothed in the sun would look like at all. Not only do we have the sun involved here, but she has the moon under her feet. There's a crown of 12 stars. I struggle with picturing this in my head. But the point that we need to make sure that we understand here is that this imagery, once again, is pointing us to the Old Testament. This is Old Testament imagery. And if we slow down, we won't miss it. And so what I find to be helpful with this image, with this description, that we might struggle, like, what do we do with this? A woman clothed in the sun, she's obviously very large. First off, how does she survive being clothed in the sun? Second, she's large enough that her feet are on the moon, she has stars as a crown. What do we do with this? Well, it's helpful for me, and I hope it's helpful for you as well, to remove the specifics in this description here to understand what it's pointing to. So forget the clothes, the feet, and the crown. And what are we left with? The sun, the moon, and the stars. And that is language that we find all throughout the Old Testament. And the root of it goes back to a story that we know really well. It goes back to that story back with Joseph having the dream about his father, his mother, and his brothers. The sun, the moon, and the stars.

Remember that there. So often, in the Old Testament, when we hear that phrase, the sun, the moon, and the stars, we aren't really hearing about the sun, the moon, and the stars. We're hearing about Israel. That's the point here. We're drawing out here that this woman is based in Israel and specifically in Jerusalem. So having heard the seventh trumpet and hearing that the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and seeing this vision of the temple in heaven, we're now getting a vision. It's breaking us to the idea that Israel and Jerusalem, specifically, is birthing something new. There is something new here. From this reign of Christ, the church has come. And so the woman then is this early church that started out in Israel and specifically started out in Jerusalem. That is who the woman is. So as we keep seeing throughout Revelation, the early church is experiencing tribulation and persecution, and this is drawn out for us here once again, because the woman is crying out in birth pains and the agony of birth. This is the persecution, the tribulation, the difficulties that the early church is experiencing, and we know these things. We know what this is talking about because we know of the struggles that were experienced by the early church, not just from what we read here in Revelation, speaking to those first seven churches or here in these images, but also think about the book of Acts. and the persecution that the church received there. And then think about the letters of the New Testament talking about the persecutions that were occurring. And we also have other stories from church history about this difficulty of the early church. And this is telling us that this is an attack from Satan. All of these hardships and tribulations, that had been experienced are an attack on the church.

So the imagery gets more vivid because what do we see? We see this red dragon that's identified for us as Satan in the text, and it's described as having seven heads, 10 horns, and seven crowns. So it's a powerful dragon, and this is conveyed to us through this idea that this tail comes and sweeps stars out of the sky. And that's pretty easy for us to understand what's being conveyed to us there. The idea is that this dragon has great power for destruction. The casting down of these stars isn't meant to convey to us any malevolent feelings that the dragon has towards the stars. That's not what we're meant to feel here. What we feel instead is that the stars are a collateral damage of the rage that this powerful dragon has. So powerful that even just the swipe of a tail is removing a substantial number of stars from the sky in this vision. And the rage, once again, isn't towards the stars. The rage is towards the woman and the child. It's towards the church. He wants to devour the child, but as great as the power and rage of this dragon is, we see that the protecting power of God is greater. The child is caught up to God and to the throne, and there's also great protection for the woman, as she also has a place prepared for protection, and we see that she's nourished for three and a half years. So there's a lot that's going on here. But we wanna simplify this.

I'm gonna put this as simply as possible. So what is being described here is meant to give us confidence in the protection of God for his people. And this is a repetition of the theme that we saw back with the martyrs who overcame by the blood of the Lamb a few chapters back. This is a repetition of a theme happens a lot in Revelation, but it's this protection of God's people. Now, this explains the imagery of the child, but what about the woman fleeing into the wilderness? Well, in the first century, there was great persecution of the church, and we read that it began in Jerusalem, and the church was scattered. but God protected them. And the number of days here shows us that this was a long period of time where they had to endure, that this is going to be long, but God is going to provide. He will nourish them. He will keep them safe.

So this passage here, it's a vivid reminder for you and I That no matter how fierce the opposition is that is faced by the people of God, he protects them. Just as the child was caught up to God and the woman was given a place of refuge, so too does God preserve his church through every trial. And though we face suffering, we face persecution, we can rest in the truth that our security isn't in our own strength. It doesn't come from within us. We don't need to just be stronger if persecution comes. Our strength is in the sovereign hand of Almighty God. And that brings us to our next point, where we see this cosmic shift in this struggle. It expands to the earth.

And the scene shifts from the protection of the woman and the child to an all-out war in heaven, a battle that will ultimately reinforce the triumph of Christ over the forces of darkness.

So as we move to verse 7 here,

We see that a war breaks out in heaven, and Michael and the angels are at war with this dragon.

I wish I could get a view of the images that John saw in his vision, because like I said before, maybe my imagination is weak, but also because I'm guessing that this vision was more astounding than any way that I could imagine it.

It's amazing.

I would love to know what this looks like.

And the angels of heaven and those aligned with the dragon, they fight against the army of heaven, but it's in vain.

And we see that the dragon is defeated.

And we read that there was no longer any place for them in heaven.

And the great dragon was cast down.

Now that's an interesting statement, right?

So we get an understanding of this when we consider the whole of these verses together.

Why the casting down?

So what is Satan doing?

And what does the expulsion of Satan keep him from doing?

So here he's described as an accuser.

He's accusing them day and night before our God.

And now the devil is no longer able to accuse the people of God because he's cast down.

He's been kicked out of the courtroom.

Why?

Because they have conquered him?

Because the people who are being accused

We're stronger than the dragon?

No.

And when John says that they have conquered, we don't get any idea there that this is because of them, that they've somehow achieved this conquering by any power within themselves.

We read here that they conquer because of the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.

It is his work, and it is their confession of their faith in him that defeats the accuser.

Because of Jesus, Satan has no claim on the people of God.

Because the blood of Jesus was shed, the mouth of Satan is stopped.

Why?

Because we now have the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ credited to us.

We can't be accused because we are declared righteous because of Christ.

The mouth of the accuser is stopped.

We have been redeemed.

We have been credited with perfect righteousness.

And what we do here...

is we see that these people have trusted in Jesus for their salvation.

And there's a beautiful testimony to their faith in the midst of this tribulation and hardship because it says that they loved not their lives even unto death.

They trusted in the blood of the Lamb and in testifying to that perfect righteousness of Christ even in the face of persecution.

all that tribulation, all that hardship, they still confess Christ is Lord.

So take a moment and just breathe in how awesome this statement is here.

Our accuser has been kicked out of heaven.

In our sin, we stand accused.

We deserve to be prosecuted.

But because Jesus has overcome, the one bringing the case against him has not only been silenced, but he's been banished from the courtroom altogether.

And this vision from John gives us peace and hope.

In our lives, we feel great shame and guilt for our sin.

We understand that our sin is an affront to a holy God.

But because of the blood of the Lamb, we know that we do not stand accused.

We stand innocent, and this is a cause for great joy.

But it's also a very strong call to us to repentance and a call for us to turn from our sin.

The heavens are told to rejoice at the casting out of the accuser, and we should rejoice as we read this passage, but we also need to desire to live as God has called us to live because of the joy that we have for the salvation that he has given us by his saving grace.

And before we move on through the passage, I want us to dwell on two images that are given to us

in the book of Revelation, but also in this chapter as well.

Because here, we have this astounding, fanciful image of the dragon, right?

Multiple heads and a tail that can wipe stars from the sky.

But the other image I want you to think of, and it's in this chapter as well, this image I want you to call back to is the lamb.

Now in our minds, you put those two, the dragon with seven heads and the lamb in a cage fight, in our minds we know who wins.

There's no contest.

In fact, our view of the battle would probably be, you know what I bet would be more interesting than the battle between the lamb and the dragon is the battle between the multiple heads on who gets to eat the lamb.

That's what we would probably be thinking.

This lamb, they're tiny, weak, powerless, particularly against a dragon with seven heads, its tail can swipe stars out of the sky.

But who's the victor here?

It isn't the dragon.

It's the weak lamb.

He's not only defeated, he's cast down.

He is overcome, not by the power, not by might, but by the blood of a lamb that was slain.

It is through Christ's suffering that the dragon is defeated.

This lamb was slain for the sins of the people of God.

The wrath of God was paid for at the cross, and on the third day, the Lamb rose victorious over sin, death, hell, and the devil.

The dragon is defeated.

Your sins are forgotten, and the accuser is silent.

And the imagery of the lamb versus the dragon shows us the power of God because he accomplished this for us.

In the weakness of the cross, we have the power of the resurrection and the forgiveness of sins to defeat the dragon.

God accomplished this and he did it for you.

No wonder heaven rejoices.

God has rescued, he has restored his people in an absolutely overwhelming victory.

But while there is rejoicing in heaven, we see woe pronounced to the earth and to the sea because the dragon is angry.

The victory has been won, but for God's people, the war will continue to be waged.

And we are called to faithfully endure until the end.

While Satan is defeated and has no power to accuse the saints before God, he is still filled with rage.

His time is short and he knows it.

And though heaven rejoices, earth still faces the fury of this dragon.

His wrath is not against Christ anymore, but against Christ's people.

And this is where we now move to our third point, and we see how the church is called to endure in the face of this final assault.

And so, after seeing the victory in heaven, we follow the dragon to the earth where we find that there is warfare.

Now, we dwelled on the joy that we have in the victory through the blood of the Lamb, but that is an ultimate and eternal victory.

As I just mentioned, the war has been won, but there are still battles.

There are still persecutions.

There are still trials for the church of God.

So what we find here is a return to the story of this woman who continues to be given protection by the hand of God.

She's still in exile, but she's on the move, protected by substantial means that are provided by God.

And we read that she gets away with the wings of a great eagle and flies from the serpent to the wilderness, and she is nourished there for an additional long period of time.

So

The idea here is that God is protecting them.

God is protecting her.

And he continues to nourish her.

This isn't going to stop.

But we see as a part of this attack that this attack of the serpent is described like a river pouring out of the serpent's mouth like a flood.

So what's going on here is this idea of the deceiver spreading his lies.

He opens his mouth and they flow out in an attempt to overcome the woman.

But something unexpected happens here, right?

The earth helps the woman.

It opens up and it swallows this flowing water that we see as these lies of Satan.

And we ask, what's going on here?

Well, this is once again a call back to some Old Testament imagery.

So in the book of Numbers, there were wicked men who rebelled against Moses and against God.

And you may remember the story.

They met their end when the earth opened up and swallowed them.

So this vivid description here in Revelation is meant to get us to understand that God is protecting his people.

Because the earth doesn't control himself.

The earth wasn't sitting there and going, man, that dragon's mean, I'm going to help this lady.

No, God is in control.

He is protecting his people.

The earth is under the divine power and control of God, and so God does something amazing to deliver and sustain the church, this church that is experiencing this awful persecution.

And so why this imagery?

Well, by using this story from the Old Testament, calling back to it, it's not really the exact same story, but by calling back to it, what is being conveyed to the early church here and to us is that just like all the miraculous things that God did for his people in the Old Testament,

The same God has the same power to protect and preserve and nourish his people now.

And he's going to do it because he's faithful to his people.

But we read that this doesn't end the waging of the battle by the dragon.

It makes him furious.

And with the woman...

It's furious with the woman, and so he goes off to make war with the rest of her offspring, and we're told who they are.

It is those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

So when the woman is defended, the dragon brings the attack to the church throughout the earth.

So the battle is no longer just brought in this tribulation to the church in Jerusalem that they're facing.

It goes out to all the earth.

And so this final scene in Revelation 12 really offers us a sober but necessary reality check.

Yes, the war has been won.

Christ has triumphed.

The accuser has been cast down.

But the dragon is still active, still filled with rage, and still waging war against the church.

The fact that he goes after the rest of her offspring means that this battle isn't just for the early church.

It's for every generation of believers, and that includes us.

The attacks come in many forms.

Deception, persecution, temptation, cultural pressures that seek to sweep us up away with the flood of deception.

But just as God protected the woman, he protects us today.

We're his people.

So what does this mean for us?

It means that we stand firm in the truth.

The flood of deception is real.

But God's word is our anchor.

It means we trust in God's faithfulness because he sustained his people through the wilderness in the past,

And he's going to sustain us when we come to the wilderness as well.

And it means that we live courageously as those who, like our brothers and sisters being described here in the book of Revelation, that we are to live courageously and hold to the testimony of Jesus. Yes, the dragon is enraged, but he is a defeated dragon. His time is short. Our hope is eternal. So sisters and brothers, Revelation 12 reminds us that we're in a spiritual battle. But we do not fight this battle on our own. The victory has been won. And our call is to endure, to remain faithful, and to hold fast to the blood of the Lamb and to the word of our testimony of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So let us leave from here in that confidence. knowing that no matter how fierce the opposition we may face, the words of Jesus are true. The gates of hell will not prevail. That's a fact.

Christ's church is sustained and held up. The gates of hell do not prevail against the church. So may we labor for the kingdom, assured of this great truth. being God's agents to a lost and dying world.

Let us pray.

Great and merciful God, we are blessed to have your word and to have this imagery from John's vision in Revelation to remind us of your protection for us, to remind us of the truth of the words of Jesus that your church will prevail. We pray that we would live in that confidence that we would remember this story as we live our lives this week, that we would live boldly proclaiming the gospel, knowing that it is your truth and is the means by which you bring people to faith and the way you build your people up in faith. Grant us faith to persevere and to trust in the blood of the Lamb and to live out the word of our testimony. It's in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.