”Heaven Wins, Earth Wails” | Wed PM | Revelation 12

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Revelation chapter 12. Here's what I've

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

labeled the passage. Heaven winds, earth

whales. Heaven winds, earth whales.

Revelation 12. I'll remind you, we we

went there several weeks ago now. We

were in Revelation 12. And it's remember

it's a panorama shot. It's a lot of

things going on and not all of them are

taking place in chronological order. So,

we have to keep that in mind when we

look at Revelation 12. It's really a a

broad view, a panorama shot of all that

God is going to do from the birth of

Jesus Christ to the eventual uh casting

out of Satan. We'll see that here in a

little bit. And so, there's a lot of

things that take place. In fact, let me

just give you a short list of the things

that are found in Revelation 12. By way

of review, this chapter communicates the

Messiah's birth. It communicates the

fall of Satan and a third of the angels.

It communicates Satan as the prince and

the power of the air. It communicates

Satan's hatred and war against Israel.

It communicates God's protection and

provision over Israel. And it does all

of this, like I said, out of

chronological order. So, it's best to

just keep this kind of backdrop in your

mind as we're reading and studying that

this is a a panorama shot. uh it's a

little different than maybe some other

passages in scripture uh even some other

passages in revelation in that sense.

Here's the outline that we have given

this chapter

verses 1-6

the great wonder

verse 7- 11 the great war

and verse 12-1 17 the great woe. So

that'll be our outline for tonight.

We'll just walk through the whole

chapter. Let's read it. All 17 verses to

begin with and then we'll go back and

we'll expound through it.

Hopefully the Lord will allow us the

liberty to do that tonight. Verse one,

chapter 12. And there appeared a great

wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with

the sun and the moon under her feet, and

upon her head a crown of 12 stars. And

she, being with child, cried, travailing

in birth, and pained to be delivered.

And there appeared another wonder in

heaven. And behold, a great red dragon

having seven heads and 10 horns and

seven crowns upon his heads. And his

tail drew the third part of the stars of

heaven, and did cast them to the earth.

And the dragon stood before the woman

which was ready to be delivered for to

devour her child as soon as it was born.

And she brought forth a manchild who was

to rule all nations with a rod of iron.

And her child was caught up to unto God

and to his throne. And the woman fled

into the wilderness, where she hath a

place prepared of God, that they should

feed her there 1,23

score days. And there was war in heaven.

Michael and his angels fought against

the dragon, and the dragon fought and

his angels, and prevailed not, neither

was their place found anymore in heaven.

The great dragon was cast out. that old

serpent called the devil and Satan which

deceiveth the whole world. He was cast

out into the earth and his angels were

cast out with him. And I heard a loud

voice saying in heaven, "Now is come

salvation and strength and the kingdom

of our God and the power of his Christ.

For the accuser of the brethren is cast

down, which accused them before our God

night and day, and they overcame him by

the blood of the lamb, and by the word

of their testimony, and they loved not

their lives unto death. Therefore,

rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell

in them. Woe to the inhabitors of the

earth and of the sea, for the devil has

come down unto you, having great wrath,

because he knoweth that he hath but a

short time. This is the verse that I

took my title from. Therefore, rejoice

ye heavens, heaven winds. Woe to the

inhabiters of the earth, earth whales.

Verse 13. And when the dragon saw that

he was cast unto the earth, he

persecuted the woman which brought forth

the manchild. And to the woman were

given two wings of a great eagle, that

she might fly into the wilderness into

her place, where she is nourished for a

time and times and half a time from the

face of the serpent. And the serpent

cast out of his mouth water as a flood

after the woman, that he might cause her

to be carried away of the flood. And the

earth helped the woman, and the earth

opened her mouth, and swallowed up the

flood, which the dragon cast out of his

mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the

woman, and went to make war with the

remnant of her seed, which keep the

commandments of God, and have the

testimony of Jesus Christ. So, I want

you to notice these three sections in in

the chapter tonight. We've already

looked at the first one a few weeks ago

in some detail, but I'm going to just go

through it quickly and give us a review.

So write down number one if you're

taking notes. There is the great wonder.

The great wonder in verses 1-6. And

we're given in these verses some

identifications. We have to identify

some of the characters that are here.

The woman is identified as the nation of

Israel.

The Catholics have for a long time

thought that this woman was Mary, but

that cannot be uh the case based on a a

plain understanding of the text. Others

have identified this woman as the

church. However, this can't be true

because the church does not give birth

to Jesus, but rather the opposite. Jesus

gave birth to the church. And so, it

cannot be Mary. It cannot be the church.

So, it's best to see the woman, and this

fits in the context very well. It's best

to see the woman as the nation of

Israel.

It's not uncommon in Old Testament

passages for the nation of Israel to be

pictured as a woman. Isaiah 54, Jeremiah

3, Ezekiel 16, and Hosea 2 all picture

the nation of Israel as a woman. So this

picture, this image is not new to

scripture, and it's it fits in the

larger context of scripture as well as

the context of Revelation. And so we

view the woman as the nation of Israel.

Next, there is the child. Who is the

child? The child should be viewed as

Jesus Christ, the Messiah. And verse

five g gives us a clear description of

Jesus as the Messiah. She brought forth,

she being the woman. So the Israel out

of Israel comes forth this manchild who

was to rule all nations with the rod of

iron. And her child was called up unto

God and to his throne. And so it

summarizes his birth, his life, his

death, his resurrection, his ascension,

and his ruling and reigning. All of that

is summarized right there in verse

number five. his authority. He shall

rule the nations with a rod of iron. His

ascension and her child was caught up

unto God in his throne. So the child is

Jesus Christ. The woman is the nation of

Israel. And then there is the dragon.

And the dragon is the devil. Verse 9

tells us very clearly and the great

dragon was cast out that old serpent

called the devil and Satan which

deceiveth the whole world. So the dragon

is Satan. And we have a few descriptions

that are given in verse 9 of the devil.

And I'll just mention these to you. I

don't like talking about the guy, but we

do have these descriptions given, so

I'll mention them. In verse 9, he's

called the serpent. It's a reference

back to Genesis chapter 3 and verse

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

number one, which says, "Now the serpent

was more subtle than any beast of the

field which the Lord God had made."

But by the term by the name serpent, we

could we could describe him as being

alluring or deceptive.

He's subtle. He's deceptive.

And then not only is he alluring, but he

is accuser. The word, the next word

that's used to describe him is the

devil. The the word devil is the Greek

word for accuser. It it literally means

accuser. Verse number 10 reiterates this

thought when it says, "And I heard a

loud voice saying, now is come salvation

and strength and the kingdom of our God

and the power of his Christ. For the

accuser of the brethren is cast down,

which accused them before our God night

and day." So he is alluring, he is

deceptive, he is accuser. And then it

says that it calls him and Satan in

verse 9. And that word Satan is the word

for adversary.

It it has a picture of in a court of

law. And this imagery, I want you to I'm

going to introduce it here. We're going

to come back to it a couple times before

we're finished tonight. But there is

this imagery, this picture of an being

in a court of law, in a courtroom. And

there is one who accuses us, who opposes

us in the courtroom, and that is Satan.

So that's the great wonder. There's a

quick review of where we've already been

a few weeks ago. Number two, notice the

great war. I'm going to have to slow

down here for just a moment and do my

very best to try and do some exposition.

So, there's there's a couple of things

going on in these verses. There's war in

heaven and then there will be wrath on

earth. So, let's not confuse the two

places. There war in heaven and then

later in the chapter there will be wrath

on earth. So, let's notice first the war

that is in heaven. When does this war

take place? And this is the topic of no

small debate among good Bible

expositors. There are good Bible

expositors who are opposite on this

belief here. Okay? So, I'm going to give

you both sides and I'll tell you why I

land where I land. It's one of those

places in the book of Revelation where

there's a lot of debate and and there's

good men on both sides. The question

that is often debated is if this war is

a reference to Satan's original fall

from heaven which has already been

mentioned in verse four. Is this his

original fall from say from heaven or is

this a second prophetic war that is yet

to happen in heaven?

Well, what do we know?

Is it a is it an original fall or is it

a coming war that will take place in the

midpoint of the tribulation? What do we

know? We know that at some point after

the creation of angels, Satan was a

created angel. He's a created being.

Some point after the creation of the

angels and before Genesis chapter 3, we

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

know that the devil was cast from heaven

and he took a third of the angels with

him. We know this to be true. Many

scriptures talk about this event. Isaiah

14, Ezekiel 28, Luke 10 mentions it. And

then here in Revelation 12 and:4 is a

pretty clear indication of that event,

that original fall that happened between

the creation of angels and Genesis

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3, some point in that window,

Satan fell from heaven.

We also know that Satan has had and

seems to still have some access to

heaven. Now, how this works, I don't

know. God doesn't tell us, so let's not

try to figure it out. But what we know

according to Job chapter 1 is that the

Job 1 · chapter mention

devil comes before God and uh to give

some kind of report. There's some kind

of way that the devil has access to uh

to God. And and I'll support that even

further from our passage in verse number

10. If you look at the end of the verse,

it says, "The accuser of the brethren is

cast down." How does he accuse the

brethren? Well, notice verse 10 says,

"He has accused them before our God day

and night.

So the devil has some access clearly has

some access to heaven. Now we don't know

how that works, but he's there accusing

you and I before Almighty God. So with

these things that we know, we know Satan

did fall. We know that he still has

access to God in some way.

What can we conclude about when this war

is going to take place? Could this be a

reference to the original fall of Satan?

Sure. Absolutely. I think it could be.

There's an argument to be made for that

interpretation.

However, I think it seems to fit in the

broader text of scripture to view this

as a second prophetic battle that will

result in Satan's eternal elimination

from heaven. That he will be uh

completely defeated. He will not be able

to return to heaven anymore. And I'm

going to show you why I think that.

Okay,

this fits well with the phrase that we

find in verse number 12.

the end of verse number 12, the verse

ends with a short time. You see that

phrase? What is the short time? Well, at

this point in the tribulation, at this

point in the book of Revelation, we are

halfway through the tribulation period,

which means that there are three and a

half more years left uh before Satan is

eventually defeated. So, this battle

that John is seeing is going to take

place at the midpoint of the

tribulation. So the short time is then a

reference to the final three and a half

years. So at best the devil has three

and a half years left before he is

permanently eliminated when he is cast

from heaven and he is cast to the earth.

So he's given three and a half more

years to do his work on the earth and

then God's going to eliminate him at the

end.

Th this is uh well supported throughout

scripture that the short time is three

and a half years. Let me uh even our

context verse 6 says has a 3 and 1/2

year reference. Chapter 12 6 they said

that they should feed her there that is

feed the woman the nation of Israel

they're going to feed her 1,23

score days. You know how many years that

is three and a half years. In verse 14

of chapter 12, the woman were given two

wings of a great eagle that she might

fly into the wilderness into her place

where she is nourished for here you go a

time and times and half a time from the

face of the serpent. Guess how many

times that is? That's three and a half

years. And then if you go to chapter 13

and verse number five, there was given

unto him a mouth speaking great things

and blasphemies and power was given unto

him to continue 40 and two months. So

how long is Satan continuing?

40 and two months. Guess how long that

is? Three and a half years. So, we put

all of these pieces together and it we

can conclude that whatever John is

seeing, it seems to be taking place at

the midpoint of the tribulation and

Satan is going to be cast from heaven

but given three and a half more years to

do his work on earth before he's

permanently eliminated.

So, that's the that's the short version.

Okay? There's much more and and you can

do further research on this, but that's

that's why I land where I land. I think

this is I'll give you one more. Can I

give you one more support? I don't have

my watch tonight, so y'all are in

trouble. All right, let me give you one

more support. In verse number 10, he

said, "And I heard a loud voice saying

in heaven, now is come salvation and

strength and the kingdom of our God and

the power of his Christ." Okay, this is

happening after Satan has been cast

down, for the accuser of the brethren is

cast down, which accused, that's past

tense. You see that? Which accused them

before God night and day. So if this is

a reference to the original fall of

Satan, when was he allowed to accuse the

brethren? Because according to this,

he's accusing them no more after this

battle.

Right? Y'all with me? So he cannot

accuse them anymore after this battle.

So if this is the original fall, when

was he accuser of the brethren? Because

there was no people alive. Make sense?

Okay. So that's why those are some

reasons why I think this is a second

prophetic battle that is that is coming.

Okay, where does this happen? It happens

in heaven. Who who does it happen? This

is interesting and I'll just mention it.

We'll go to point number three. Satan is

not fighting against God in this battle.

He's fighting against angels. Satan has

done a great job of creating a

counterfeit that uh pictures him as

God's opposite. So you have God and then

you have the devil and they're fighting

against each other. God's not fighting.

God's already won. Satan is not fighting

against God. Satan is not a God. Satan

is not equal to God. Uh Satan is under

the authority and the power of God. God

has won. Satan is defeated. And so in

this battle, God's just sitting on the

throne. He ain't even fighting. If you

look at the text, it's the in verse 7,

there is war in heaven. Who is fighting

the war? Michael and his angels fought

against the dragon and the dragon fall

and his angels. So, it's an angelic war.

And this devil has already lost.

Okay. Number three, the great woe. In

verse 12 through 17 of our text of this

chapter, uh there is the wailing that

comes on earth. Look at verse number 12.

Therefore, rejoice ye heavens. Why do we

rejoice? That's verse number 11. Hold

verse number 11. Don't read it yet. Hold

on to it. We're going to come right back

to it in a minute. Verse 12, though.

Rejoice ye heavens and ye that dwell in

them. Woe to the inhabitants of the

earth and the sea, for the devil is come

down unto you having great wrath because

he knoweth that he hath but a short

time. Here's what happens. Satan and his

angels fight Michael and his angels. The

devil loses. He's permanently cast out

from heaven. He's put down on earth. He

has a short time, only three and a half

years left. And the devil is a sore

loser. So when he gets back to earth, he

is an angry we we uh Christmas movies.

Um, we was watching these Christmas

movies and we we whenever our kids now

get an attitude and they start being

mean to one another, we say they're an

angry elf. Okay. So, if they're having

an attitude, that's an angry elf, right?

Right, Tucker? Are you an angry elf

sometimes? No. No, no, no. Okay. Uh, so

[laughter] when I I read this this

afternoon, I thought the devil comes

back to earth as an angry elf. Okay. I

don't mean no disrespect by that, but he

is mad. He is a sore loser. and he comes

back to the earth for these final three

and a half years full of wrath and rage.

And so that's why we say the earth wales

because not only is God's judgments

coming in these final three and a half

years, but now Satan himself is full of

wrath and he has three and a half years

to destroy um the people essentially

God's people. And so verses 15 and 16,

let me read down through there. And this

is pretty self-explanatory except for

one part and I'll I'll mention it to

you. and then I'll give you an

application. So he has a short time, the

end of verse 12, verse 13. And when the

dragon saw that he was cast to the

earth, so he realizes this is almost

over for me. I've lost. He persecuted

the woman which brought forth the

manchild. So who is he persecuting in

these final three and a half years?

Where is he engaging most of his

conflict? The nation of Israel, right?

So he's going to persecute the woman

which brought forth the manchild. And to

the woman we're given two great wings of

an eagle that she might fly into the

wilderness into her place where she is

nourished for a time and times and half

a time from the face of the serpent. So

he's got three and a half years. He's

going to persecute the woman. He's going

to persecute the nation of Israel. God

providentially

protects the nation of Israel for these

final three and a half years. What all

that entails, I'm not sure. There's a

lot of people who have a lot of ideas

about what two wings of a great eagle

could mean. Some even mean some some

even say that it's the United States

helping the nation of Israel. I don't I

wouldn't say that. We're just

understanding the context and what's

going on in the world. I don't know how

God's going to do it, but I know God's

going to protect the nation of Israel

during this time. That's what the Bible

tells us. Okay. Verse 15. And the

serpent cast out. This is really

interesting

and I don't know what it means. So I'll

just tell you on the front end. Okay.

And the serpent cast out of his mouth

water as a flood after the woman, that

he might cause her to be carried away of

the flood. And the earth helped the

woman. And the earth opened her mouth

and swallowed up the flood which the

dragon cast out of his mouth. It's a

really interesting picture, a really

interesting scene that takes place as

Satan attacks the woman. As Satan

attacks Israel, he comes out of his

mouth a great flood of water. Now,

there's a lot of debate on if this

should be taken literally or if this is

just a picture. I either way we we can

accomplish the purpose of the text.

Okay, the passage is not hindered in

this case with with however you choose

to interpret this. If it is literal,

that's going to be wild to see, right? I

mean, that's going to be pretty crazy

that Satan spews water out of his mouth

to drown the nation of Israel. The earth

opens up and the waterfall is created

and God spares Israel. That's going to

be pretty crazy. It could just be a

reference that Satan is using all of his

resources. He's doing everything he can

to destroy the nation of Israel and

everything he does, God spares Israel.

Could be that. Uh either way you take it

though, what we know is the truth of the

passage is that God is going to protect

his people during these final three and

a half years. God's people will be

protected providentially. So that's the

point. However you choose to interpret

that uh interesting scene. And then

verse 17, Satan is extremely angry,

seeks to torment the earth, especially

those who carry the name of Jesus. And

so the dragon was wroth with the woman,

and he went to make war with the remnant

of her seed, which keep the commandments

of God and have the testimony of Jesus

Christ. And so that's the end of verse

or chapter number 12. I want to go back

to verse number 11. And I want to leave

you with this verse because it is a

powerful powerful verse, a beautiful

verse of scripture.

The way to defeat Satan has always been

the same. It has always been and it will

always be the same. In the Old

Testament, it was the blood of a

temporary lamb sacrifice. The New

Testament, Jesus Christ comes and he is

the perfect spotless lamb and he dies on

the cross for the sins of the world. And

with his blood, you and I are redeemed.

It's always been through the blood of

the lamb. The Old Testament pictured the

lamb who would shed his blood for your

sins and mine. And verse number 11 says,

"And they overcame him." Overcame who?

They overcame the serpent, the dragon,

the devil. How did they do it? By the

blood of the lamb, and by the word of

their testimony. And they loved not

their lives unto death. Here we go. Let

me give you this picture, and we're

done. When we come to Revelation 12,

especially these verses 7 through 12 or

so, there is this imagery of a courtroom

where Satan has come before God, before

the throne of God. And before the throne

of God, he is accusing me and you of

sin.

It looks like this. Um, God,

did you see what Pastor John did last

night?

Did you see what he said last night? He

He does not deserve to be your child. He

does not deserve to pastor your people.

And and here's the sobering truth is

he's right.

I did do the thing. I did say the thing.

I don't deserve to be a child of God. I

don't deserve to pastor God's people.

But standing ne sitting rather next to

God is Jesus Christ.

And when Satan says, "Hey, did you see

what he did?" Jesus says, "Oh, I already

paid for that."

Oh, no. No. Don't worry about that,

father. Don't worry about that, Dad. I

paid for that one. That one is covered

by the blood of the lamb.

And so, you and I tonight, yes, we're

imperfect people.

How do we overcome Satan? How do we

overcome the evilness of the world? It's

the same way we've always done it. Same

way God's people have always done it. By

just trusting in the blood of Jesus

Christ. And with the blood of Jesus

Christ comes victory over anything that

would harm us. Jesus wins in the end. So

I hope that's encouraging to you

tonight. Let's pray and let's thank the

Lord for Revelation chapter 12.

Revelation 12 · chapter mention