Rev 12:7 - "War in Heaven" 13 May 1997
Luke 10:1-12,16-20, [11:14-22.] 10:18 "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven."
Revelation 12
"There was war in Heaven"
We can't begin to understand this chapter unless we have a clear understanding of Bible teaching about heaven.
We all think of heaven as the dwelling-place of God. The perfectly happy place we go to when we die. The place where "the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd." (Rev. 7:15-17.) Angels & saints in glory live there. So how can there be "war in heaven" ?
Paul writes of "a man in Christ who was caught up to the third heaven .... Paradise." (2 Cor. 12:1-7.) That man was Paul himself, for he goes on, "To keep me from becoming conceited ..."
We have then at least 3 heavens.
This morning I want to show
1 what the 3 heavens are,
2 how we can understand this chapter
3 the nature of spiritual warfare, & how we are to fight.
4 The spiritual battlefield
First, I understand the three heavens to be:
1. The physical universe - the sun, moon & stars. The heavens that we see.
2. The unseen spiritual realm which interacts with people on earth & God in the 3rd heaven. This is the place of spiritual warfare which Paul writes about in Ephesians 6:12 (qv).
3. The highest heaven - Paradise - the dwelling-place of God and glorified believers.
Turn to Gen. 1. "In the beginning God created the heavens & the earth." (v1) Here we have the spiritual & physical realms created. He goes on to detail the creation of the physical, material universe. On the second day He creates an expanse, called "Heaven" in AV & NASB & "sky" in the NIV. This heaven is the setting for the sun, moon & stars, created on the fourth day, and the birds to fly, created on the fifth day. In one sense we too are creatures living in the material heaven, for we live in the same place as the birds, & have learnt to fly, and a few men have travelled to the moon. But the Bible does not speak of earth itself in that way. And if God is there in the beginning, the highest heaven, the dwelling place of God, the third heaven is also there in the beginning.
There is also the physical grave, for all the dead bodies of men & animals, and the pit - the abyss. This is a spiritual prison for the souls of dead sinners & fallen angels. This is spoken of as "under the earth.
These pictures may help ...
Schematic diagram of "the heavens & the earth & under the earth"
|
3rd Heaven |
Heaven, Paradise highest heaven |
Eternal dwelling of God, Christ; & angels, Dwelling of the redeemed awaiting resurrection; Nothing defiling |
|
2nd Heaven |
Spiritual realm, heavenly places |
Scene of spiritual warfare of angels, demons & man; area where our souls live & act; (Ephesians 6.) |
|
1st Heaven |
The heavens; the firmament (expanse) Physical universe, sun, moon & stars; (& earth, though the Bible doesn't speak of earth as such) |
Display of God's glory in material things; Ps 19. Air, Dwelling of material beings; birds, man & animals (Ps. 8:8) |
|
The grave |
The tomb, (Sometimes the pit) |
Place of bodies of physical dead; however they die |
|
The Abyss |
The pit, hell, outer darkness under the earth |
Place of dead sinners awaiting resurrection to judgement; demons in chains of darkness |
After the return of Christ, in the New Heavens & New Earth, there is perfect communion in the 3 heavens.
Man will be perfect in his resurrection body, & know perfect communion with God.
All that offends will be cast out & hell, the lake of fire, outer darkness, will be the dwelling of the devil & his angels, & unrepentant, unredeemed sinners.
As spiritual beings, people live both in the earth & the spiritual realm - the second heaven. We are "living souls" quite different from animals which have only physical life but no souls. Quite different also from angels who have spiritual life only, but no physical life.
Only as believers in Christ do we have access to God in Paradise - the third heaven, by the Holy Spirit.
This chapter in 17 verses describes Satan's warfare against God, against the Lord Jesus, against the angels, against the whole world, against Israel and against the church.
We will now consider the interpretation of the passage:
1,2 I suggest that the woman here is the spiritual, believing Israel, for Christ came as the promised "seed of the woman",
Once Christ is born, the woman becomes the church, comprises believing Jews & Gentiles, now one body in Christ.
3,4 The red dragon is Satan, always seeking to destroy God's declared plan of salvation which is through the "seed of the woman." First warring against Israel, seeking to lead her astray by worshipping other gods, then against the baby Jesus, then against the Lord Jesus by the temptations, then by Peter, seeking to divert the Lord from the cross. He stirred up the leaders & people of Israel to reject & crucify their Messiah. The 7 heads & 10 horns represent kings & empires which he incites against Israel & the church. The stars represent angels who joined his rebellion.
5 Christ is born, does the work of redemption given Him by His Father, & ascends into Heaven - to God & His throne. This is the third heaven, above the zone of spiritual warfare.
6 The woman flees to the desert, attacked by Satan & cared for by God for the duration of the Gospel Age (1260 days is the same period as the 42 months in chapter 11, & the "time, times & half a time" of verse 14.)
7-9 Satan has lost his attempt to destroy God's Messiah. Now he loses his authority in the second heaven. Now the Gospel of salvation through the blood of the Lamb can go out in power to the whole earth.
10-12 The saints in heaven rejoice, for Christ is seen to reign, & the accuser has no access to God, as he had when he accused Job. Now when Satan accuses the saints, Christ says, "They are washed clean by the blood of the Lamb." We can say to him in our testimony, with Paul, "Who will bring any charge against those God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus who died, was raised to life - is at the right hand of God interceding for us."
Satan exerts his remaining authority against the people on earth, knowing that his time is running out. Even sinners in his power suffer his wrath, for they follow him to their own destruction.
13- The dragon - the serpent, persecutes the woman - the church, to the end of time. God protects the woman & her children, for in spite of all that the dragon does against her, God continues to save sinners & deliver them from the power of Satan into the kingdom of His Son.
We saw last time that Jesus is now ruling the earth by saving sinners, preparing us for heaven, & not by destroying all sinners. He has sinners still to save, until the day when He comes in final judgement.
We are saved, but still living in a hostile world with an angry Satan using every weapon he can against us. He can not only use spiritual weapons, attacking our heart, mind & soul, but he stirs up sinners against us, to persecute us physically & attack our bodies. Satan has one advantage over us, because he is fighting in the spiritual realm where he is "the prince of the power of the air." We cannot see him, so we must try to understand his devices. That is why we must "put on the full armour of God, so that we can take our stand against the devil's schemes." (Ephesians 6)
The book of Revelation was written to the Ephesian church as one of the 7 churches. It is helpful to look at Paul's letter to the Ephesians to clarify the visions of Revelation. When I started preparing this sermon, I was expecting to turn at this point to Ephesians 6 to see how they were taught to fight against the devil. Perhaps we will next time.
Instead I have been directed to Luke 10 & 11.
Let us now turn to Luke 10 to hear the instructions from our Lord when He sent out the 72 disciples.
1. Look, pray & go.
2. We are sent out as lambs among wolves. Lambs do get killed by wolves, so we must expect trouble.
3. We are to announce the kingdom of God. The wonderful salvation & deliverance from Satan's power. Yet those who should welcome us as bringers of good news may reject us because they love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.
4. We are to understand that as we are going out in the Name of Christ, if they listen to us they are listening to Him, & if they reject us they are rejecting Him.
5. Believers are greater than demons & evil spirits. Nothing can harm us. Notice that! We can be killed, but we cannot be harmed.
6. Beyond the battlefield is heaven, and our names are written in heaven. Our place in heaven does not depend on us & our ability to fight, but on Christ & His victory.
7. Satan has been cast down from heaven, and cannot accuse us before God. Job was accused by Satan, & suffered as a result. Satan cannot accuse us, as he slandered Job.
8. They spoke against our Saviour, accusing Him of casting out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons. They will speak against us also.
9. Christ declared that he was proving that the kingdom of God was among them. He overpowered Satan & rescued his captives.
The point I want to make is that as far as we are concerned, the battlefield where "war in heaven" is now being fought is in the souls of people. The devil wants to take men & women down to hell with him, while God has a people to deliver from the devil's power, and bring them safe to Himself in glory.
Now look at Rev. 12:10-12.
The kingdom of our God comes in when Satan is hurled down. Christ has triumphed over Satan, and as we saw last time, He is using His Kingly authority to deliver His elect from the dominion of darkness, and to bring them into His kingdom of light. He doesn't immediately remove all evil from His Kingdom, but He allows evil to continue so He can deliver us from evil, as we pray in the Lord's prayer. We saw this also in the Bible study on the parable of the wheat & weeds.
Note that our Lord Jesus Christ gained His victory by the cross, and the saints are to overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb & by the word of their testimony; & even by being faithful unto death.
There is a spiritual war going on, and the battlefield is our souls, and the souls of those around us. Satan IS a defeated enemy; Christ IS victorious; our place in heaven IS certain, as it is secured by Christ, so why get involved? Why not sit back & enjoy the victory? That attitude was adopted by the Loadiceans (3:14-20) when they said, "I am rich, I have acquired wealth & do not need a thing." Satan had blinded them by giving them a false attitude. What did Christ say? "I will spit you out of my mouth!" We must not have an attitude which claims Christ's victory & sits down in the middle of the battle.
To reason like that is to be deceived by Satan & his arguments. He is always trying to deceive - he is the father of lies. He can lie from the Holy Bible by presenting one truth as the whole truth, challenging us to act in faith when in fact we are tempting God! (Matt. 4:5-7.)
To conclude:
We are living in the spiritual realm where the heavenly warfare takes place. The weapons used against us will be thoughts put into our minds, as Satan used Peter's natural desire for Jesus not to be rejected & killed to try to divert Him from His purpose. He will also put evil thoughts into the minds of sinners so they will oppose us and slander us to try to discredit us & divert us from our Christian witness. Healthy activities like sports can be made into obsessions which take over our lives. Even prayer can be corrupted. Satan can put thoughts in our minds about people & situations, so we think about them & do not pray for them. How often do we find when we pray that we are distracted by thoughts about those for whom we should be praying, rather than actually praying? Sometimes we find ourselves day-dreaming instead of praying, or even turning to the Bible or reading good books (& not so good books!) rather than praying. We must WATCH AND PRAY.
Our Lord's command is to "watch & pray" & this is where the battle is fought. The battle on Calvary was won by the prayer in Gethsemane. Peter lost that battle & denied his Lord because he did not watch & pray.
Our Lord's instructions to the 72 are a good example of this principle. I'll paraphrase 10:2, "Look and see, there are many people out there who need the good news of the kingdom. Pray that God will send messengers to them. See yourselves as the answer to your prayer. Go!"
The disciples went out and rejoiced that the demons submitted to them in the Name of Jesus. And Jesus saw Satan fall as lightning from heaven.
The spiritual war will be won by the church, by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of our testimony - our witness. Then "through the church the manifold wisdom of God will be made known to the rulers & authorities in the heavenly realms." (Eph. 3:10) Even Satan & his angels will see us glorified & seated in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. (Eph. 2:6) Then Satan will be finally forced to acknowledge that Jesus Christ IS Lord, before he is finally cast down to hell.
I will close with the words of encouragement to the church in Smyrna (Rev. 2:10,11.)