Bible Story Rev: Chapter 12

Introduction

Would you open in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 12 as we continue in our series of studies in this rich last book of the Bible? In some Bibles, instead of the word Revelation, you will see the long word apocalypse. That word simply means the unveiling, the revealing. John, what you see right in a book, the Lord said to the beloved apostle John, who had been exiled to the Isle of Patmos for tribulation in the kingdom, for suffering, for the cause of Christ, as a faithful child of God, under the duress and open opposition of the Roman Caesars, particularly Domitian, at the close of the first century. The Bible says, all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, 2 Timothy 3.12. And we find the book of Revelation reflecting the fact that some would die in the Lord because of serving the Lord, but if they would be faithful in the face of death, they would receive a crown of life.

1. The Bible Doesn’t Tell the Devil’s Origin

Revelation 2 10. And if they would overcome the devil by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of God, they would one day walk the golden strand of glory. Revelation 12, verse 11. Chapter 12 opens with heaven. The devil who has done his best to put down the work of God by killing God’s people, becomes so bold that John sees in this panoramic vision, this apocalypse unveiling, sees the devil crawl right up into heaven. He is going to try to throw the Lord out. This is not a story telling where the devil came from. That he was once in heaven and that he is a fallen angel and the Lord cast him out. The Bible doesn’t tell us of the origin of the devil. Some people say, How about Isaiah 14?

O Lucifer, how art thou fallen from heaven? Well, that’s assuming that Lucifer is the devil, but in the context, we find that that’s a play on words, meaning the day star that once shone brightly, now is cast down, and it has direct reference to Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon in general. He’s not talking about the devil in Isaiah 14. Some people say, How about Luke 10:18, where Jesus said, I beheld Satan falling as lightning falls from heaven. Well, how does lightning fall from heaven? Suddenly, clearly, sharply. The Lord had just empowered his servants on the limited commission to go out and fight against the devil’s work. And he complimented them by saying, You did what I sent you to accomplish, and I beheld the work of Satan sharply declining.

2. The Great Enemy of Our Soul

Actually, the Bible tells us of the destiny of the devil and does not emphasize nor does it stress his origin. We need to be concerned with where the devil wants us to go, not where he came from. The emphasis of the Bible is that he is the great enemy of our soul. Be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary the devil as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist ye steadfast in the faith. First Peter 5 89. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. James chapter 4, verse 8. We also read in 2 Corinthians 2.11, we’re not ignorant of the devil’s devices, his cunning craftiness. And 2 Corinthians 11 says he beguiled Eve through his subtlety, and also that he’s transformed into an angel of light, and in his counterfeit religion, his servants seem to be the servants of God.

3. Victory Comes Through Perseverance

But the doctrines of demons, first Timothy 4.2, can never counteract the power of the gospel, God’s dynamite to save. Romans 1 16. We read of the wiles of the devil in Ephesians 6 11, and that Satan desires to have us, Luke 22 31, but we are able to war against the prince of the powers of this world as we strive to live for Jesus and stand up for truth and oppose error. Revelation 12 is really a pivotal chapter that shows the confrontation between heaven and hell, God and Satan, truth and error, right and wrong, and truth must prevail. There is victory and triumph for the saints of God, but it comes through perseverance. In fact, in the last of the book of Revelation, we learn that we enter into heaven and the golden street of glory through twelve gates of pearls.

Pearls are made through friction, tribulation, opposition, and thus children of God go home to glory through the gates of tribulation. If we suffer with him, we’ll reign with him. But if we deny him, he’ll deny us. 2 Timothy 2, verses 11 and 12. And so Revelation 12 is one of the outstanding passages. John sees in this vision unveiled before his eyes that the devil is very persistent, that he is very cunning, and that he almost gains the victory. This is a lesson the book of Revelation underscores again and again. And the only way we can overcome him as the saints of God is with the blood of Christ and the word of his testimony. By the word of God and the sacrificial system of Christianity, we can defeat the devil, but not without those things.

4. The Devil Takes Out After the Church

And in Revelation 12, the devil, when he is unable to defeat Christ, bounces back to the earth and takes out after the church of the Lord. And the church is rushed into the wilderness. A lot of people have made more out of this historically than is found here. It simply means that the devil is relentless in his opposition to truth. And though he could not defeat Christ, even in death, the bars of death, the gates of Hades, could not prevail against the Lord. He burst asunder the bands of death. Matthew 16, 18, Acts chapter 2. Up from the grave he arose. He was proved to be the Son of God by power in his resurrection from the dead, Romans 1, verse 4. And through death he destroyed the power of the devil that the devil had had over death, Hebrews 2:14 to 17.

For this cause was the Son of God made known, that he might bring to naught the power of the devil, 1 John 3:8. We’re always led in triumph in Christ, 2 Corinthians 2.14. God shall crush Satan under your feet shortly, as Romans teaches us very clearly. And we also learn in our study of Christ and Satan, that Jesus came to crush the power of Satan, Genesis 3.15. And so the Bible teaches that if we hold to God’s unchanging hand, if we walk with Christ through the crucible of suffering, the furnace of affliction, we shall overcome. But if we turn loose, if we turn back, if we fail to keep ourselves in the love of God, Jude verse 21, if we cease to hear him and follow him, we become like the sheep that went astray, Luke 15.

But as we follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth, Revelation 14, 4, we’re more than conquerors than him that loved us. Romans 8. And so chapter 12 of Revelation introduces the third major section of this book, which comprises the chapters 12 through 20. And I’ve labeled this in our outline the great battle, the constant confrontation between heaven and hell, God and Satan. In 2 Thessalonians 2, we learn that when the Lord does come, he’ll slay with the power of his might, with the breath of his mouth, the man of sin, the son of perdition, and the devil who empowered him, and who with great lying wonders had deceived even the very elect. Read 2 Thessalonians 2 as a corollary chapter with Revelation 12, and I believe you will see the triumph of truth, the power of righteousness is over against the power of evil.

5. When the World Helps the Church

Now there is pleasure in sin, but it’s just for a season, Hebrews 11 25. Ultimately, the wages of sin is death, Romans 6.23. But the devil’s dainies are disguised in such beautiful packages that many people of the world are enamored by them, overwhelmed with them, and lost because of them. And Revelation 12 tells us of the magnitude of the struggle, the battle between heaven and hell. And you know it says in chapter 12 of Revelation that the earth helped the woman. I believe the Bible teaches throughout that when the world helps the church, the church is in trouble. The church is not of this world, John 15, 19. John 18, 36 finds Jesus saying, My kingdom is not of this world. And any time the world helps the church, the church is receiving the wrong kind of help.

When the world helps the church, the church has too much of the world in it. And the old illustration is still apropos. When we go fishing, it’s all right for the boat to be in the water. But reverse that and get the water in the boat, and you’re in trouble. The Bible tells us that the church is distinctive, and that Christ will receive it unto himself without spot or blemish or any such thing. Ephesians 5 27. Much discussion is held through the years over who the woman in Revelation 12 is. Some say it refers to Mary, for certainly her seed would be Christ. And then later the imagery seems to change, and the church is the woman. The Bible does say in John 3 28 to 30, 2 Corinthians 11 2, and Ephesians 5 22 to 33 that Christ and the church are similar to the bridegroom and the bride.

There is New Testament analogy for referring to the woman here as the church. There are others, though, who teach, and this is interesting, that the woman mentioned in Revelation 12 really has to do with the new covenant. And thus both Mary and Christ and the church came out of the new covenant arrangement. Now, unless someone laugh at that and think there’s no possibility of that reference being accurate, read Galatians 4, 21 to 31. And the famous allegory that Paul used, inspired by the Holy Spirit, that mentions the two covenants, the old and the new, as two women, and ties us either to Mount Sinai or to Mount Zion, to the old covenant or the new, to Hagar or Sarah, to Ishmael or Isaac. And you’ll see some of the contrast that is built into chapter 12 of Revelation.

Perhaps the point is that New Testament Christianity ushered in through the new covenant, sealed in the blood of Christ, Matthew 26 28, a brand new arrangement. And out of that came the Christ, the church, the gospel, the system that will redeem us one day or condemn us. Jesus said, The word I’ve spoken unto you, the same will judge him in the last day, John 12 48. And Paul spoke of the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. So one of these days, the new covenant will be the standard of judgment with our lives before God in the great day of the Lord. And certainly the book of Revelation stresses that the great day of the Lord. In fact, it seems to build with magnitude to the grand finale of chapter 22 of the judgment bar of God and how the redeemed, the righteous, shall have overcome, and thus would have come over to live with God.

Thus, when it says the world helped the woman, that’s not a compliment. In 325, Constantine would make Christianity a demanded religion. He commanded people to go through the motions of being a Christian. But that won’t work. Men have to obey from the heart. That form of teaching delivered them to be a Christian. As we read in Romans 6, 17 and 18. And thus when it was forced upon men to go through the motions of Christianity, that was the death knell of Christianity, and the dark ages soon would ensue. So when we get the world helping a woman, we’re in trouble. There is one other view of the world helping a woman, though, that’s interesting, and that is because of the inner conflict in the Roman Empire, the Roman government had to forget about Christianity for a while and take care of its own problems.

And to that extent, and in that sense, the world helped the woman by leaving the woman alone for a while. There is some merit to that explanation. But all in all, Revelation 12 is the confrontation, the great battle between heaven and hell, God and Satan, truth and error, right and wrong, and ultimately the victory shall belong to the Lord and his people. Along the line there’ll be some temporary skirmishes won by Satan. In fact, that’s the whole key to the word Armageddon found in Revelation 16. Armageddon was a famous battlefield, a carnal conflict in Old Testament days. Deborah and Barak defeated the Philistines there. But the good King Josiah was killed there too. Elijah had a confrontation with the prophets of Baal, and many other illustrations of Armageddon which conjure in our minds the conflict between right and wrong.

Conclusion

How can we overcome the devil? By the blood of Christ and the word of his testimony. And thus Revelation 12 is a pivotal introduction to the last half of the book of Revelation. We’ll be introduced in chapters 13, 14, 15, and 16 to the dear friends of the devil, the beast of the sea and the beast of the land, raging, fomenting, false systems of religion, emperor worship, and the cry of materialism in the mundane hearts of men who will weep when in one hour so great riches will become to naught.