War in Heaven, War on Earth

So, I wonder how many of you have ever played this game, it's not a board game, or it's not really even a game, it's just something that you did maybe when you were younger. It goes something like this: how much money would it take for you to do, and then fill in the blank, right? Has anybody ever participated in that game or that conversation with friends, raise your hand. Okay, there's a number of you, and then half of you, you've never lived, so thanks for coming.

You can also do this kind of, you can initiate it yourself, you know, how much money would you give me if I did blank, right? Now I did a lot of this growing up in Georgia, this is part of what we do to kill time, since we didn't have power or electricity or ... I'm kidding [inaudible 00:01:58]. I didn't live in the woods with just a banjo. I lived in the Atlanta area. But growing up I had a bunch of friends, and we were young and goofy and all that stuff, and generally speaking, if we were to say, "How much money would you give me if I did," and then fill in the blank, it was usually something to do with, you know, doing a bike jump or maybe being down at this creek that was in our neighborhood where we would jump off this small cliff over the creek. You know, "How much you'd give me if I jump off the cliff over the creek and land it and don't die? How much will you give me?"

We were operating in very very small amounts of money, a quarter, 'cause we didn't have any money, right? We were 10 or whatever. Or it had something to do sometimes with maybe, "How much would you give me if I ate something that doesn't belong in my mouth at all?" I'm not saying I ever did that, but my friends did, they were ridiculous. But I would never have participated in something like that. Oh, I'm lying. I shouldn't start a message with a lie, that's probably a bad idea, right?

So yeah, we would do that kind of stuff. Now as we got older, the stakes would change a little bit, right? Kind of, you start to up the ante just a little bit. And I distinctly remember in college having a conversation with college guys, and we were having this conversation: how much money would it take for you to get in the ring one round with Mike Tyson? And we were literally setting prices on how much it would take for us to get in the ring with Mike Tyson. I can't remember what I said, I know I think the bidding started at least at a half a million dollars. And they're like, "A half a million dollars? You wanna die for a half a million dollars?" I'm like, "I'm not gonna die, I'm gonna run the whole time, I'm taller than him, I'll just be doing this the whole time and just running."

They're like, "You're gonna run for two minutes?" "Yes. I'm just gonna be in better shape so he doesn't kill me." So anyway, that was our conversation, right? It was basically ridiculous, but we were trying to figure out what's our price point. Ultimately what would be the price for what we would do, and does the risk, is it worth it? You know, we'd figure all that stuff out.

As I was thinking about that I was reminded of a statement that the now deceased, kind of famous billionaire Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar said. He said, "Everybody has a price. The important thing is figuring out what that is." Now he was doing that for some ill advised types of things. But I wanna assure that there's never been more of a devilish statement than that. Everybody has a price, it's just a matter of figuring out what that is. The reason I call it devilish is because you're going to see that kind of thing when we look into today, the book of the Revelation. At the very end of your copies of scripture, there's a book there called Revelation.

Now I don't want you to get too freaked out, because I know there's a lot of symbols and types that are in there, and don't worry, we're gonna be in one passage, predominantly chapter 12. And I'm gonna help us walk through that. But I'm gonna ask you to kind of stay with me as we do it. Now the thing is, is that the book of Revelation is an interesting book because many of like it because of chapter 20 and 21. What we love about the book of Revelation is that we know we've read the end and we won. Like that Jesus is lord, that all things had been made new, and all that. And by the way, super encouraging to read about that, right? That ever tear is going to be wiped away, and there's gonna be no more sickness or disease or death, and that literally Jesus Christ has made everything new.

And we love that about the book of Revelation. And I love that about the book of Revelation. But there are more chapters than 20 and 21. And those chapters are important too because it talks to us about where we are in the world that we live in and what that's going to look. And I wish maybe that I could give you something a little bit easier to digest, but I can't. This is going to have to be as straightforward as possible, I'm not going to be able to sugarcoat it because what Revelation teaches is that the people of God are going to go through hardship and difficulty and persecution and trial, and yes, many of them are going to lose their lives in their witness to Jesus Christ. That's what the book says.

In fact as John, who is the writer of this book by the holy spirit, as he's writing this, in that time there are people that are being martyred for the sake of the gospel, even as he's writing this. So, we can't really shortcut what is happening in the book of Revelation. And what we see is we see a real enemy, that is really active in the world who hates God, and hates God's people. He hates everything about God, and that's why, because he wants to be God, and he's mad that God is God. He actually creates for himself a parody of everything that God is. "Oh so God is father, son and spirit, I'll create my own unholy trinity, with a dragon and a beast and a false prophet, right? I'll create my own unholy trinity. Oh God has a kingdom? Well, I'll rule my own kingdom, I'll be the Prince of the power of the air and I'll have a kingdom set up to oppose God."

You see this is the nature of the enemy that we face, even though this is unseen. But this is behind so much. But the thing is, is that the enemy not only hates Jesus, but he hates Jesus' people. And that's why we have to pay really close attention, because what the enemy wants to do, is he wants to find out if you and I have a price. That's what he wants to find out. Everybody's got a price, the important thing is just finding out what it is. And the enemy, he wants to find out your price, when you just won't serve Jesus anymore, because it just costs too much. That's what he wants to find out.

Now when we look back, and we get to see behind the curtain so to speak in the book of Revelation, we get to see that. Now you remember the book of Revelation is an interesting book. It's apocalyptic in nature. And what I mean by that, that's a style of literature from the ancient world that you don't read in the same way. When you read apocalyptic literature, you're really reading symbol first. That's kind of the idea of how the style of this is written. That doesn't mean that you don't take the bible literally, it means that you're reading it in the literature in which it's given to you. You're reading it in the style in which it's written. Just like when you're reading poetry, you read it as poetry. Just like when you're reading metaphor, you're read it as metaphor. Just like when you read parable, you read it as parable. Now we're reading apocalyptic.

And that makes it challenging because apocalyptic goes sometimes from earth to heaven and back, and sometimes it goes backwards and forwards and sometimes it's now, and you're going, "Woo man, like this is hard sometimes to get a hold of." It is, but part of my responsibility to serve you well, is to help be a faithful guide as we walk through this passage of scripture, because my job here is to simply help us to see what the bible is communicating, because at the end of the day, we have to know what it says in order to do what it's talking about.

You see, we're a people of the bible here. And I know that we're going to read here in just a few minutes, we're gonna see a number of different symbols, and you're gonna be going, "Wait a minute man. My head's spinning." We're gonna walk through that, so we're gonna get to it. But I need you to hang with me to understand what the bible says, because at this church, we're not just a 10 ways how you can have a better Tuesday kind of place. This is a place where we take seriously that God has given us a word, God has spoken to us through his word. And so, we need to understand what it says even if we have to wrestle, even if we have to put our big boy and big girl hats on for a little bit, so that we have to dive in and think and wrestle a little bit, that's okay, that's good. Because when we get to that place, then we begin to know what it is we've been called to do. Then we get to know the revelation of who God is and what he says about the world.

You see, this isn't just about like life lessons with Jerry. Pull up a chair, let's have a little talk and then you can go your merry way and I hope I made you feel good about your week. That's really not what I'm trying to do. I'm not necessarily trying to make you feel bad about your week by the way, I like you and I wanna be liked, so it's not that. But I want us to just understand what God is saying, because when we do we can begin to start to say, "Well what does that mean I should be doing? How should I view the world?"

So, when you pull back this curtain where we're seeing both war on earth and war in heaven, we see it begin in Revelation 12, verse number one, it says, "A great sign appeared in heaven. A woman," and we'll come back to this symbol in just a minute. "A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and a crown of 12 stars on her head, she was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven. An enormous red dragon," we'll come to that in a second. "With seven heads and 10 horns and seven crowns on its heads. It's 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 it might devour her child the moment he was born. She have 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."

"The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1260 days." Now, when we begin to unpack this in Revelation chapter 12, we see lots of symbols. The good thing is, is that when you see lots of symbols, sometimes we have the grace of seeing an interpretative key that helps us to unlock what's exactly going on here. And the interpretative key in this passage is when it says that this male child who is going to be born, would rule the nations with an iron scepter. You see when we see that, what we know is that that is quoting directly from Psalm chapter two, and Psalm chapter two is a messianic Psalm, in other words it's talking about the messiah.

So, what we know when we see this picture in Revelation of this child who will one day rule the nations with an iron scepter, is that it's talking about Jesus. Now that we know that, we start to understand a little bit of the lay of the land. The woman who is pictured as having the sun above her and the moon under her feet, and a crown with 12 stars on her head, I wanna remind you how many tribes were there in Israel, 12, right? Predominantly this sign is indicative of faithful Israel, the woman, through whom this child would come. This is kind of the big picture idea, this is faithful Israel, the woman, through whom a child would come.

Now this woman also has some secondary symbolism associated with it is well, but it's still ties to Israel. The symbolism is also that of Eve, the reason being is because you see sun and moon, things that have existed kind of for all time, back to the creation narrative, and it's reminding us of the creation narrative with the first woman. Why is that important? Because the promise Genesis three, was that her offspring was going to crush the head of the enemy and his heel would be bruised, right? Another picture of the child. So even though this is faithful Israel, this woman, it's secondarily Eve, and then from that we can also interpret that it's also Mary. Mary because she is a faithful Israelite, through whom the child is actually going to be born. So this symbol has a few different looks.

Then you have the child which is none other than Jesus the messiah. And then you have a red dragon. Now I imagine you're probably able to figure out at this point who the red dragon is. Some of you are going, "Oh pick me, pick me. It's Satan, I know this one, right?" Well you're right, we don't know that until a number of verses later, but we do know that that's exactly who he is, and see how he's postured. The red dragon is postured in front of the pregnant woman who's about to give birth, so that the red dragon may devour the child and kill the child upon its birth.

You see it's a reminder. Satan hates Jesus. He hates the lineage of Jesus, and he hates Jesus himself. And by the way, this kind of what we see in the heavenly realms, was something that was played out at the advent of Jesus. You remember it right? Mary and Joseph? She's pregnant by the holy spirit, Joseph stays with her, doesn't divorce her, and then what happens is after Herod finds out that this is a promised king, notice what it says in Matthew chapter two, "When they had gone an angel of the lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, get up, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him."

You see, the enemy was behind Herod at this point, as a dragon waiting to try and devour the child. Why? Because he hates Jesus. That's the picture that we have in the heavenly realms here in Revelation chapter 12. And then we see that the bible actually describes in those verses that this child was snatched up to God, where he was with him. When it says snatched up to God, it's basically taking in the whole of Jesus' coming, his life and ministry, his death and resurrection, and his ascension. You can just bottle it all up, and they used the term, "He was snatched back up to God." So it encompasses the whole of Jesus' ministry.

But then if you would look in verse number seven, and what it goes on to say. "Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 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." So we look in and we see this picture, right? We see war that is going on in heaven that is breaking out. The interesting thing is, is that it seems as if what Revelation is showing to us, is that this happened concurrent with the advent, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. That it's giving us a picture that when Jesus came and lived and died and rose from the dead, and ascended back to the father, that now listen, war broke out in heaven and Michael took on the enemy, and the enemy was dismissed. It was hurled to the earth.

Now, why do I tell you all of that? I tell you that because it's important that we realize, and I'll come back to it in just a minute, that that I think is what we're talking about here. But since the enemy couldn't get Jesus, he tried, but he couldn't get Jesus, so you know what he does? He turns and sets his sights on Jesus' people. He hates Jesus, but he can't defeat him. And so, what he does is he turns his sights on Jesus' people. In fact we just finished reading through verse number nine in Revelation 12, but I want you to skip with me to verse number 13. Notice what it says, it kinda picks up in the story.

It says, "When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness where she would be taken care of for a time, times, and half a time," you're going what? I'll come back to that. "Out of the serpent's reach. Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. Then the dragon was enraged at the woman, and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring, those who keep God's commands and hold fast to their testimony about Jesus."

Pause right here, hold this. You see where it's talking about here, it says, "He got enraged at the woman, and her offspring, those who keep God's commands and hold fast to their testimony about Jesus." Do you see the symbol of the woman that started out as faithful Israel? Now is morphing into true Israel, the church. That it is those who are faithful to Jesus, whether Jew or gentile, and that symbol has now morphed into that even within our text, in terms of what it's talking about.

Now, given that this is the case, what we find real quickly is that this passage that we're dealing with here, is actually giving us an Exodus type of picture. It talks about a timeframe, three and a half years that this group, this woman, this people of God, are gonna be given wings of eagles when they're facing the great wrath of Satan, they're gonna be given the wings of eagles to go to the wilderness. By the way, the wilderness wasn't a bad thing, that was a good thing because in the Exodus theme, the wilderness was where the children of God were taken care of, where God provided for them, right? So this isn't a bad thing, like you're banished to a bad place, this is actually a place of provision, because that's what the children of God, the children of Israel, in the Exodus, that's what they found out.

We're in the wilderness, but God is providing for us, right? So the same thing is said here. And then it says, they're gonna be there for a time, times, and half a time. That's the same thing, that's Daniel language, Daniel chapter seven. And that's Daniel language for three and a half years, what has already been said, or 1260 days, or 42 months. Pick your timeframe, all right? But that's what it's referring to. Why is three and a half years an important number? Because of its symbolic nature. What is three and a half half of? Seven. Sorry to do math on Sunday, I know everybody's going, "Dude."

Three and a half is half of seven. Seven is a number of completion, a number of perfection. Three and a half is stating that completion hasn't come, perfection is not yet here, right? But the interesting thing is that Daniel chapter seven, when it talked about this kind of thing, that in the intertestamental period, hundreds of years after Daniel's prophecy, Antioch Epiphanies comes to the temple and disgraces it, and there's what's called the abomination of desolation in some terminology, that happens there at the temple, and it happened over a three and half year time period.

So, you actually see that play out even in terms of what Daniel said, happening in the intertestamental time, you know what I'm saying when I say that? The time between the testaments, when the old testament ended and when the new testament began, there was a 400 year timeframe. It was in that time that we're talking about. Now, that said, I'm reminding you that this passage symbolically is talking about an exodus of some sorts. That there's a lot going on in the world that we need to be delivered of. Just like the people of God, Israel, were delivered from Egypt. And do you remember the phrase that God used when he was reminding them of their deliverance from Egypt?

Listen to what it says in Exodus chapter 19, God says, "You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagles wings and brought you to myself." You see, now John the Revelator, by the inspiration of the spirit of God, is using the same kinds of illustrations, this idea of the exodus. You've been carried on eagle's wings. In fact, what's the dragon doing? He's spewing what?

Water.

Water. Much like the Red Sea. And what is God going to do? He is going to separate the water so that the people of God can be delivered. You see, what this is reminding us of in all of these symbols is this, "Though hardship and distress and persecution may come, and the enemy who hates Jesus is turning his attention to the people of Jesus, know this, I just like I did for my people Israel, am going to deliver the people of God, I am here for you, I'll provide for you, and I'm going to deliver you."

This is what we're reminded of in this passage of scripture. Now it doesn't sugarcoat the fact that we're gonna experience a lot of difficulty, but God is telling us that he's going to be there for us. Now, what you guys are seeing in chapter 12, I went from verse one through verse nine, and then I picked up verse 13 through the remainder. But I left out a chunk. Verses 10 through 12. You see, verse 10 through 12 is like a break in the action, and it's a song, it's actually structured like an ancient hymn.

And so, you've got this song that's a break in the action, and it's really interesting what it has to say, because when we begin to look at it, we start to see some additional things. Notice what it says, "Then I heard a loud voice and heaven say, now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They triumphed over 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. 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."

Here's what we see here, and by the way, stay with me for a minute because we're about to land in some places where you're gonna go, "Okay. Now you're gonna talk to me about what do I do? How do I think about this? What does this mean for me?" But you have to understand the material behind it first. See there's a loud voice in heaven. I don't know whose voice it is, it doesn't tell us. Could it be God's? Maybe, but I doubt it. Could it be the people of God? Probably. It's probably the elders that are mentioned in Revelation, or it be just the people of God, which I think the elders are a representative of the people of God. Do you remember how many elders there were? 24. That's 12 plus 12, right? How many tribes of Israel?

12.

How many apostles of the church?

12.

You've got the representation of the whole people of God, right? Faithful Israel, and the new covenant church, you've got now represented here. And the elders may be or the people of God are singing in a loud voice, and it's not important who's doing the singing, what's important is what's being said. Because what they're saying is, "Now have come the power and salvation and kingdom of our God, and the authority of the messiah." Why are we talking about the authority of the messiah? Here's why, because the accuser who accuses our brothers and sisters every day and he's nothing but an accusing machine, is being hurled down.

I love this part, because what this is reminding me of is that something happened in the heavenlies, when Jesus came, lived, died, resurrected and ascended to the father, something changed in the heavenly realms. The accuser got banished. Michael now had the strength because of Jesus to say, "You're gone." You see, when we read what we're reading here, we're seeing behind the scenes and what we're seeing is a twofold metaphor. We're seeing behind the scenes of a battlefield and we're seeing behind the scenes of a courtroom. You see, I'm trying to help you put all that together, because when we talked about Job, we saw the courtroom, when we talked about it last week, we saw a battlefield, and it's actually both. When we see behind the curtain in the invisible realm, we're seeing a battlefield and we're seeing a courtroom.

And here's what's happening in the courtroom right here. Jesus who has been born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, ministered the kingdom of God, died on a cross for the salvation of people who would put their trust in him, resurrected from the dead after giving his life for the sake of people, and ascends back to the father, so now he sits as our defense attorney, as our advocate, as our intercessor forevermore. Here's what he's determined, "Satan you are disbarred and you are dismissed from the courtroom. You have no place in here anymore, don't bring your accusations against my people, because I have settled it once and for all at the cross through my shed blood and my resurrection from the dead, you are gone. Get out." That's what he's done.

You see, that's the beauty of this. And you say, "Okay. How do we know that?" Because Jesus gave us a reminder of that, and Paul tells us about it as well. Listen in fact to what Jesus said in John chapter number 12. He said, "Now is the time for judgment on this world, now the Prince of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself." He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. You see, something changed with Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and ascension.

In fact, the enemy can't bring those charges against us anymore. You see, we saw that he could in the Book of Job, right? That he would come and he would come before God and he would say, "Oh man, Job's, you know ..." He's accusing Job about stuff. "Job won't follow you because he's got all this stuff. Job won't follow you, you take it away and he won't follow you." But what Jesus has done on our behalf, in his birth, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, is he's changed something in the heavenlies. Where the enemy can't bring those accusations against us anymore. He's not hearing it, he's disbarred, he's gone. He got hurled to the earth. No more charges.

In fact, Paul says that in Romans eight, listen to what he says, "What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? Here it is, no one, why? 'Cause he's outta there."

He's been tossed. Christ Jesus who died, more than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God, and is also interceding for us. We have an advocate, a defense attorney, an assessor that says, "Enough of the accusations against my people, I have taken care of them. You can say anything you want to, but here's the bottom line, Jerry, I know he's not been perfect, I know he's made mistakes, but Jerry, he's with me. He's with me. I have declared, listen, I've declared him not guilty because of my blood shed on his behalf. Not guilty, so no more from you. You're gone."

Now here's the thing, even though Satan has been dismissed from the courtroom, it hasn't changed the way that he still accuses. Even though the case is closed and not to be reopened, he's still who he is isn't he? He still brings accusations. And of the three ways that he brings accusations, he still can do two of them. One of them he can't. Let me show you what those are. The first one is this, it says, "Satan makes accusations to God about you." Right? That's what we saw in the Book of Job. That Satan will make accusations to God about God's people. Well he can't do that anymore. He's been cast out of the courtroom. What Jesus has done through is death, burial, resurrection and ascension, has changed those things. Nobody can bring a charge against us anymore if God is for us, and he's shown us that in Jesus, who can be against us.

But Satan also does this, he makes accusations to you about God. It's just like it happened in the garden of Eden, right? Where the serpent slithers on over, walks on over probably at that point before the condemnation of Jesus, but he comes on over and basically says, "Hey, God's holding out on you." Listen, that's what the enemy will do right now, he will sneak up on you and he will make accusations to you about God. He can't make them to God about you anymore, he's been banished from the courtroom, so what he's going to do, he's gonna try and see if he can make accusations to you about God. "God doesn't listen to you. He doesn't listen to you. He's not as good as you think he is. You think God will forgive you for that? God's holding out on you. God's not concerned with your best interest. God's abandoned you."

See this is what the enemy does. He brings these charges, listen, to you, about God. But he also has another way of accusing. He will accuse to you about you. He'll accuse to you about yourself. You know how that goes, right? "You will never change. You cannot change. You will forever be a victim of your past, don't even bother. You will forever be that." That's what the enemy wants you to believe. "You're useless. You're not loved. You're an embarrassment. You are more trouble than you are worth. You're too stupid." This is what the enemy does. He's accusing to you about you. Or maybe he'll change his tactic, depending on how you're wired. And his tactic will be this, "Wow, you are strong." He wants you to believe you're stronger than you are. "Wow, you deserve that. You're more important than others. You've got this, you don't need anyone or anything."

See this is what the enemy does in our lives. He brings these accusations to us about us, and he tries to take us off center, why? Because he hates Jesus and he hates us. And he doesn't want anyone or anything to remind him of that, so how do we deal with these accusations? How do we deal with these lies that he's telling us? How do we deal with that? I'm gonna tell you. The text tells us, right? Look at what it says in verse number 11, "They triumphed, they overcame the enemy 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." Did you catch it? "By the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimony." Let's take those one at a time for just a second.

By the blood of the lamb. This is how we triumph over Satan, by the blood of the lamb. Now let me remind you that the bible tells us over and over and over and over and over again, that it is only by the blood of the lamb of God that we have been saved, that we can be changed, that we can approach the throne of God, that we can be forgiven, it tells us over and over and over again. Look at what is says in Ephesians chapter two, "Remember that at that time, you are separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus, you once who were far away, have been brought near by the blood of Christ.?

What does first Peter tell us? First Peter chapter one, "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that were redeemed from the empty way of life, handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or a defect." And what do we learn in the book of Hebrews chapter 10? "Therefore brothers and sister, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus." You see, what we're reminded of in this passage is that the ... Listen, to overcome the enemy ladies and gentlemen, you better throw yourself headlong into everything Jesus is and all that Jesus has done. Your only hope against the enemy is in what Jesus has done and in Jesus' strength, not your own. You overcome him by the blood of the lamb. That's how we overcome him.

You have no other option. You think you're gonna represent yourself in court? You gotta be kidding. You've gotta be kidding. But he said a second thing too. By the word of our testimony. We triumph over Satan by the blood of the lamb and by the word of our testimony. Now let me pause here for a second. Some of us may read that say, "Are you talking here about like what are grace story that we should share with people, how we came to faith in Jesus, and that this is our testimony?" Sort of. It's bigger than that. Should we do that? Of course. And by the way, if you remember, you don't, but if you did, 'cause it was a long time ago, I kinda taught us on when we understand the story of grace, we actually have to understand it not just as something about us. The story of grace is first of all a he-story. It's a God story. Then secondly it's a we-story. It's a people of God story. Then it's a me-story. My place in the people of God. It's a he-story, it's a we-story, and then it's a me-story.

You see this is the story of grace, right? What God has done in Jesus Christ, how God has put together a people for himself, and then here's me in the midst of that. So should we share with people and show people what this looks like? Absolutely. But this is not just about what we say, it's also about what we do because Revelation is about our persevering obedience, not just what we yap on about. 'Cause I know a lot of people who ... Listen. Hmm. I have known a lot of people in my life, I'm sure that none of them are in this room, watching in TV, listening on the radio, I'm sure it doesn't involve any of you, but I've known a lot of people in my life, they can yap it up about Jesus. They look nothing him. This is not just talking about whether we can run our mouths and say God things. This is about whether or not, listen, we persevere in obedience.

Do you know why I know that? Because verse 17 that we read a few moments ago, gives us a clarity and picture of that. Look at what it says again in verse 17. "The dragon was enraged at the woman and went off the wage war against the rest of her offspring." Who are they? Those who keep God's commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus, if not just what they're saying, but they're living what they're saying. It's about who we are and what we do. You see, that's what we need more of in this world. More people who don't just claim to be Christians, but people who actually look like Christ. They sound like Christ. They smell like Christ. They live like Christ. I'm just a Christian.

You know, I've been all over the world. I've been in 35 countries in my life by the grace of God. And you know what's interesting in many of those countries outside of the western context? Of what they think of Christians? Because there are so many Christians that are just Christians in name only. They are culturally Christian. What are you? "Oh, I'm Christian." What does that mean to you? "I don't know, it means my parents were. It means that every now and then when somebody dies, I go to a Christian church to their funeral. It means that on Christmas and Easter, I go to a Christian church before we eat our big meal. That's what it means to me." That's not what we're talking about. We're not talking about somebody's who's just hypothetically culturally Christian, we're talking about people who know and love Jesus, and who actually live with his power and his life in their lives, that their words are affected, that their lives are affected, that their relationships are affected, that the stewardship of their stuff is affected. Everything comes through the lens of Jesus being lord of all.

That's what we're looking for here, a persevering obedience to Jesus Christ. Now, but what I can't bypass, and I need to just pause here for a minute, is that the form of this teaching that we have right here, in verses 10, 11 and 12, is in the form of a song or a hymn. I think that's instructive to us, because right here when there's describing a war that's going on in heaven, that affects things on earth, we have right in the middle of it a song. Why would we have, why would we have in the middle of war, a song? I'll tell you why. Because it can be a weapon. It can be a weapon. Worship through song, and by the way, worship is not just singing, but worship through song can be a weapon. Do you know why?

Because listen, it's not about how high we jump, it's not about whether your hands are in the air or they're not, it's not about whether you're bouncing or whether you're not, whether you're swaying or whether you're not, that's all fine, I'm good with all that by the way. But it's not about any of things, what it's about is whether or not our heart is prepared to listen to and be rolled over by the truth of who God is and that we're willing to receive that and walk in that truth. Sometimes we have to preach to our soul and sometimes we have to sing to our soul. And by the way, when we are singing to our soul, listen carefully, when we are are singing to our soul, we are also testifying to everyone that is around us in the room, that we believe that God is who he said he is, and we are also testifying to every single being in the unseen world, that Jesus Christ is lord, and he has bought me and I don't have a price. I've been bought with one, and I can't be bought. That's what we're doing.

So that's why those of us that kinda check out, because it's not about the rhythm, it's not about the style, it's not about the pace, it's not about any of those things, by the way, all of us can listen to any music we want to, every single day of the week. We have access to doing that all the time. So I don't care what your particular proclivities are toward music style of whatever, we're gonna do enough to offend and make everybody happy. So you're just gonna have to like that, but here what you need to do, because you're the people of God: get in on it! Get in on it! You know why? It's not about, "Well I don't really like this style, [inaudible 00:42:54]." Get on out of here. I'm not saying that really. Nothing but love.

But just a reminder, just a reminder, you're not here for just you. They overcame him by the word of their testimony. Their testimony. When we are singing together it is a powerful thing, because we are declaring to ourselves, to one another, to God, and to every invisible entity in the heavenlies, that God is who he said he is. And we are coaching our souls to believe that God is who he said he is, because sometimes it's just about the ministry of reminding. Sometimes we just need to remind ourselves who God is, what God has said, and what God will do. See if those things are true of us ... Man, you guys are bringing the preach out of me today. If those things are true, that we overcome Satan by the blood of the lamb and by the word of the testimony, that we're going to persevere in obedience, it's not just about what we say, but it's about what we do. That is going to give us the strength to see the realization of the last part of verse 11.

What does it say? "They triumphed over him by the blood of the lamb, by the word of their testimony," here it is, "They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." Write this down. To triumph over Satan, is to love God more than life. This is what Revelation teaches us. To triumph over Satan, is to love God more than life. You see, what Satan wants to hang out over us, what he was doing to the early church, what he was trying to do to John, when John gets exiled to Patmos, and he's writing Revelation, what's happening to the other apostles, who most of which would get killed for their faith, to many of the early church who were going to die for their faith, do you know what Satan keeps hanging over their heads? "You keep following Jesus and you're going to die."

Well what happens when we say, "So what? What else do you have?" That's all he's got. That's his greatest weapon. That's why first Corinthians 15 tells us that the last enemy to be defeated will be death. It's the greatest weapon the enemy has. "You're going to die, I'm gonna stand behind the powers of empire and we are going to rage against the people of Jesus such that you have hardship and persecution, and it may cost you your life." You wanna overcome the enemy? Then just love God more than you love your life. That's what he called us to anyway. "Love the lord your God with all your soul, and all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. And then love people."

That's what we've been called to. This is the heart of God. You see, when we're not so attached to the things of this life, when we're not so attached to money as it defines us, we're not so attached to possessions and stuff, we're not so attached to our own comfort, when we're not so attached to our security, and even our very lives if that's what it's gonna cost us to follow Jesus, what's he got on you?

You see, I love what Jesus said in John 14, listen to these words, he said, "I will not say much more to you, for the Prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me." Listen, why did Jesus say that Satan has no hold over him? I'll tell you why. Because he gave Satan nothing to hold on to. There was nothing in his life that Satan could hold on to, it's why he had no hold over him. "Oh Jesus, you're following after God, but this is going to be ugly, you're going to a cross." Jesus was like, "That's the plan. Next?" He's got nothing, nothing.

What if our lives were like that? What if we held on to Jesus so tightly and let him examine every place and every crevice and every shadow and every dark spot in our hearts, such that we weren't so attached to everything more than we were attached to Jesus. But our love for God was bigger, stronger, better. We give him nothing to hold on to. That's how you overcome Satan. So, what have you let Satan hold on to? What in your life have you let him hold on to? What's your price? What's your price? Hopefully, you don't have one.

Let's bow our heads together. We're gonna be going in just a moment, just a few moments, but I'm not done yet. So, if you don't have to get up or move, I'd ask you to stick for just a minute. Because what I wanna do is I wanna pray for us, but I also want us to be able to respond for a moment in worship. It's basically what we were teaching in the text, and I want us to be able to respond and remind our hearts, and remind those around us of the worth of the name of Jesus. 'Cause there is not another name under heaven by which people can be saved except the name of Jesus. That's what the bible says. And he's worth it. He was worth it then, he's worth it now. They valued Jesus of high regard, that in the early church they were willing to give their lives for him.

Is he any less worthy today? He's not. So father I pray that you should show us what it means to live lives of love for you, such that we love you so much, and we actually love you more than anything that the enemy could throw at us. Even if that means the cost of our very lives. Because we have read the end of the book and we do know that you win, we do know that you make all things new, that you will restore all things, so may we live not so attached to the things of this life that when, when accusations come from the enemy, that we get confused or turned around, but instead may we use the weapons of warfare that you have given to us, because of your strength, because of who you are. And may we even right now remind ourselves of that very truth. We pray in Jesus' name.

All God's people stand together, let's sing for a moment and then I'll be back up in a moment to close us out. So we remind our souls of that, we remind one another of that. 'Cause in this world that we live in, sometimes it just feels like all hell breaks loose doesn't it? Is it just me? It just feels like all hell's breaking loose. Everywhere you look, everywhere you turn, people are hateful and violent, and mean and violent, not so with you. Don't buy that. Don't start there. Press into Jesus. Love him more than you love anything. Then we can see the triumph of the enemy in our lives personally and, and the world that we live in. He's gonna make things right, he's gonna set things in order, he's gonna make all things new. We know that.

But in this time and in this place, we're gonna face some stuff. It's the world that we live in. But we gotta face it like Jesus' people. Like Jesus' people. And that we learned to overcome the enemy and his tactics and his accusations, so much so, that when he is accusing you about you, you so know what God has said about you, you so know what God has said he has done, that when you hear those things, you're like, "What? Get out of here. You don't know what you're talking about." But see, if we don't press into the word, we don't know what God has said about us, we don't know what God has said about himself, we don't know what God has said about the world, if we're not pressing in.

Maybe you're here and you've never come to faith in Jesus Christ. You've just kind of, you've come, maybe somebody brought you today, and you're one of those, you're like, "That's my second time today, I don't know anybody." Man, we're so glad you're here. Maybe you've never come to a place of surrendering your life to Jesus Christ. You heard in the message, and God has shown his love to the world so much that Jesus came and died on behalf of sinful people, which let me count them, oh yeah, that's everybody. Everybody's sin and come sure to the glory of God, put me at the front of the of the line. We can't save ourselves because God is always going to deal with sin, he's holy, he's perfect, he's righteous. None of us have ever measured up to that standard, except God was skin on Jesus.

And he came born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on a cross, because God poured his wrath out on his son, willingly, Jesus did this willingly, because it was the way for us to be saved, it's by the blood of the lamb. There is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. That's what God has said. And so, God determined to do this himself, because you and I, we could never do it. We could never fix ourselves, save ourselves, never be good enough. And maybe you're trying to be your own defense attorney. I'd encourage you to stop.

Try and say, "Well I'll represent myself before God." What are you gonna tell him? "I'm a pretty good guy, never killed anybody. Walk old ladies across the street, clean my room, pay my taxes, except for that time in 2012, that was a mistake, but nonetheless mostly I do all of that, right?" As if somehow, as if somehow, what you're saying is, "God I know you did this whole thing with Jesus, but that wasn't necessary for me. I'm good enough." That's gonna be your defense? That you're willing trample underfoot the precious blood of Christ, and suggest that God didn't know the right way to get done your salvation, but you could just do it yourself by being good? That's not the gospel.

The gospel is not about, it's not about what we can do, it's about what God has done in Jesus Christ, and our faith in him, because he's the only one that can be our sacrifice, our substitute. He's the only one that can be our savior, redeemer, help, hope, refuge. It's just him, no one else. Not you, not anybody. So, if you've ever come to a place where you've received Jesus, then maybe when we dismiss in just a second, maybe you'd come straight through the atrium into the fireside room, we'd love for you to talk with one our pastors or prayer partners about what it means to receive Jesus, to know him as your lord and savior, to have your sins forgiven, to have your life made new.

Father thanks for your words to us today, they've resonated so deeply in my own heart, I pray God that by your spirit you would resonate deeply in all of our hearts. And that we would learn to live the life of Jesus because of his life in us, not because we can will ourselves to it, but because your life is in those of us who believe. And may we give the enemy nothing to hold on to, therefore he'll never have a hold on us. Because we know that you're gonna restore all things and that death is not the end for us. So may it not be the thing that prevents us from following after you, may it be said of us that we don't have a price, because we've been bought with one, the precious blood of Jesus.

May we do that so the world would see Jesus. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.