The Coming Hope: The Coming Victory

We're going to be in Revelation chapter 12 verses one through 17. If you want to find that in your Bible or up on the screen, your worship guide. We're going to read this aloud together. Let the people of God read the word of God.

A great sign appeared in heaven. 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 labor and agony as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven. There was a great fiery red dragon having seven heads and 10 horns, and on its head were seven crowns. Its tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven. He hurled them to the earth, and the dragon stood in front of the woman and was about to give birth so that he might devour her child. She gave birth to a son, a male who is going to rule all the nations with a rod. Then her child was caught up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God to be nourished there for twelve hundred sixty days. Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels also fought, but he could not prevail, and there was no place for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was thrown out, ancient serpent who has called the devil and Satan, the one who deceives the whole world. He was thrown to earth and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have now come because the accuser of our brothers and sisters who accuses them before our God day and night has been thrown down. They conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not love their lives to the point of death. Therefore, rejoice, heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea because the devil has come down to you with great fury because he knows his time is short. When the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who had been given birth to the male child. The woman was given two wings of a great eagle so that she could fly from the serpent's presence to her place in the wilderness where she was nourished for a time, times, and half a time. From his mouth, the serpent spewed water like a river flowing after the woman to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth helped the woman. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river, and the dragon had spewed from its mouth. So the dragon was furious with the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring to those who keep the commands of God and hold firmly to the testimony about Jesus. — Revelation 12:1-17

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

I know. I know. What are we doing at Christmas time reading about dragons, right? I know. The other churches, you get shepherds and angels right now. What a weird church. Why do we do this kind of stuff? And the truth is because we're people who need hope. We're people who need hope and it's actually been the practice of the church throughout centuries to read the book of Revelation at Christmas time.

Humans are people who could talk about Maslow's hierarchy of needs—shelter, clothing, food, and water—but we live on hope. In 1985, at Public School 121 in New York City, a teacher who was really frustrated with the dropout rate of her sixth graders invited a millionaire to come speak to her class. She invited this man named Eugene Lang, who had made a lot of money and was supposed to come and inspire the kids to remain in school. And as he stood up in front of this group of fifty-nine sixth graders, he threw his notes away. He said, "I'm not sure I have anything to say that's going to inspire them." So he said this: "I tell you what, if you stay in school, I'll pay for your college." And he began putting money away for each of the 59 students. Well, 90% of that class graduated from high school and went on to college.

Now, why did they do that? Because he gave them hope. He gave them hope and this is the kind of hope that is a biblical hope. The way we use hope in our language, it's such a weak word. It's a word that doesn't have a whole lot of meaning to it. "I hope it doesn't rain." What does that mean? "I wish it doesn't rain." "Hope you have a great day." I can't do anything about that. "Hope it's good." "I wish that well for you." We talk about hopes and every way we use that word implies uncertainty. Not sure what's going to happen. Wish good things for you.

The way that the Bible uses this word is much more like Eugene Lang and that sixth grade class. Hope is a certain future confidence. Hope is a certain future confidence and so today, we're going to look at the Book of Revelation again like we're doing through Advent. And I want us to look at the past, the future, and therefore the present.

The past and the future and therefore the present. And if I could summarize the theme of this sermon from DJ Khaled, he said this: all I do is win, win, win. That's the kind of victory that's actually held out for us, and we need to remember this.

Yet I want to guess that somebody here doesn't feel like winning is how they feel this morning. Does somebody feel despair this morning? Does somebody feel discouraged? Does somebody feel defeated? Anybody feel downcast this morning? Is there anybody in the house this morning? I'm asking you to talk to me. We need a scrap to cling to, a scrap of hope this morning. We need certain future confidence.

The War We've Already Won

So let's look at this passage together. The war we've already won. The Book of Revelation is a trip for us to read. Let's be honest. It's like nothing else, and we don't really know what to do with it.

Now, there are people in this room who are experts on the Book of Revelation. Do know that? There are people in this room sitting among us who are experts in the Book of Revelation. They are called children. Because children get what adults fail to get when we read the Book of Revelation.

We read the Book of Revelation and we're like, "Help me dissect this, pastor. Help me figure out exactly what this means and help me plot it on a timeline." Some of grew up in churches where had timelines and charts. But the reality is the people who most get the Book of Revelation are our children. Want a great activity for the afternoon? Open up this passage and ask some of your kids to draw it. And then may get this sermon.

The Book of Revelation is meant to be looked through, not looked at. It's meant to be a lens through which we view reality. It's like in the 1990s—okay, I'm that old. I was a youth pastor and we had all these posters we put up in the youth room. There were those 3D computer-animated posters that if looked at them and sort of crossed eyes because they looked like a bunch of colors and randomness, but when looked at them the right way, suddenly something would pop. That's what Revelation's like. And this is what's supposed to pop for us this morning: victory in the past.

That's what we read in verses one through six. This is the story of Christmas. This is Christmas according to the Book of Revelation. Now I've never seen this on a Christmas card. I dare you to put this on a Christmas card. But look at what we read here.

There's a woman—that's Mary. Giving birth to a baby. She's clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, the sign of blessing and favor from God. She has twelve stars around her symbolizing the twelve tribes of Israel. And out of her, God brings a baby—the baby. The baby we talk about all this time of year: Jesus. He is told here that He's the one who will rule with a rod of iron. That's Psalm two. That's a messianic prophecy of the King coming. This is Jesus. A woman gives birth to a baby. So far so good.

And then get to the dragon. Some of are like, really? I've seen a lot of nativity scenes and I've seen donkeys. I've seen some sheep and cattle, but never a dragon. A red dragon with ten horns and seven heads. Are sure that I didn't watch too many fantasy movies over Thanksgiving? No. No, this is true.

The identity of the dragon here is quite explicit. There are lots of things in this book that are not made explicit, but John wants us to know. What does he say?

The ancient serpent called the devil, Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.

This is an echo of Eden. This is that serpent, but he's all grown up now and he's a dragon. And all those heads and all those horns symbolize the various strategies and world powers and ways that he is at work to destroy and discourage and defame. All his various means.

The Bible affirms over and over again that there is a real, intelligent, supernatural, evil force in the world at work. The Bible calls Satan from Hassaton, which is Hebrew, which just means the accuser. And like we read in verse ten, he's called the devil, which is Greek diablos, which means slanderer. And I know that it's not very festive to talk about Satan at Christmas. Some of are like, "What church did I end up in this morning?" But many of have heard this before.

There are two mistakes when it comes to the devil. One is talking about Satan all the time as if Satan's under every rock, tree, and bush and is about to pounce on at every moment.

And some of you grew up in churches where that's almost all you talked about, and you have this idea that there are two equal and opposing forces at work in the universe, which is wrong. But the other mistake—and this is true particularly of smart people and successful people and people whose lives have kind of worked, which is a lot of you—we don't talk about Satan enough.

What John saw in Revelation 12 was what began on Christmas Eve. A dragon comes to destroy a baby, and this is just what happens. Herod, the king, sends a dispatch of soldiers to the place where the baby Jesus was born to kill the baby. And of course, Mary and Joseph flee. As it says here, they fled for a time. All the numbers in Revelation by the way are symbolic. They're not meant to be taken literally—not exactly four years here—but they fled to Egypt in the wilderness until the time that Herod could die before they returned to Nazareth, and the story continues.

The story shifts like lots of things in your dreams. In Revelation 12, in verse seven, it shifts the focus from earth up to heaven. And there's this battle that rages: Michael and his armies against Satan and his angels. There's a battle, but it's not a tie. And again, the Bible holds this out over and over again. These are not two equally opposing forces. There's a battle, but there's a clear winner.

Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—what does it say? He is what? Come on, y'all. Hang with me this morning. He is thrown down. He is thrown down. This is repeated six times in this passage: thrown down, thrown down, thrown down, thrown down, thrown down, thrown down. As if we just—just to make sure you got it right?

And then there's the summary statement in verse 10:

Now the salvation, the power, and the kingdom of God, the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down. He accuses them day and night.

Let's unpack that a bit. Something happens that's definitive, that's described here in verses seven through ten that's different—different from Old Testament to New Testament. Satan here is called the accuser who accuses the brothers and sisters day and night before what? Before the throne of God.

Now that jives really close with your Old Testament. If you study your Old Testament, you'll read the book of Job, and Satan is like a prosecuting attorney in the throne room of God, and he says, "Job, can I have my way with destroying Job?" And God says, "Okay." It happens again in the book of Zechariah where Satan appears before the throne of God to unleash all his attack on the priest Joshua. He's in the throne room, but something happens in verse seven. Something happens that squares with the earthly ministry of Jesus.

In Luke 10, Jesus sends out all His disciples and says, "I want you to go and do ministry." And then as they come back, He says, "I saw Satan thrown down. I saw Satan being thrown down." And this, of course, refers to the cross and the resurrection of Jesus where something definitive happens. Yes, there's this battle in heaven that's going on—Michael and his forces against Satan and his forces—but something on earth informs that battle and decides its outcome: the death and resurrection of Jesus.

I want you to picture Jesus ascending into heaven, and He steps into the throne room of God, and He's like, "That guy right there, he ain't going to stay. In fact, the word in Greek is 'bounced.' The devil is bounced." No, I'm serious. It's like Jesus the bouncer is like, "We got no room for him up here anymore. Get him out of here. I don't want to see his face anymore," and Satan is cast out. Six times repeated: He's thrown down.

What This Means for Us

What does that mean for us? He doesn't have access to the throne of God. He doesn't have access to make accusations.

Here's the thing about Satan: He's a good prosecuting attorney. He's got all the evidence. Standing before God in heaven, he could easily say of this guy up front delivering the sermon: selfish. Yeah, check. Focused on himself all the time. Yeah, check. Angry, check. Prayerless, check. Faithless, check. I mean, go down the list. And same for you. The accuser of the brethren would have plenty of raw material.

But here's the thing that's changed from Old Testament to New Testament: God isn't listening. He doesn't have access to an audience with God anymore. The Father is not listening because of the work of Christ. There is no longer a place for those accusations to be heard by God the Father.

If you are a Christian, if Jesus is yours and you are His, you stand perfect, clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And all those accusations—you know what? They still have a lot of substance. Still true, all the things I said about me. But God the Father is not listening. Satan has been bounced. He has no party to God's ear for this.

So here's the question: If God won't listen to that stuff anymore, why are you?

No, I'm serious. Why are you beaten up? Why do you walk around with your head down? Why do you feel like some of y'all like the worst Christian in the room? Like if we took a little boat, you would clearly win or lose, whatever that meant. Why are you listening to this? Why do you hang your head like somebody whose future is not certain, whose past is not completely decided, who is not truly and completely righteous in Christ?

All the ways that you have been listening to those things and beating yourself up, listening to Satan who speaks, whispers in our ear, accusations against the people of God. You should be listening to the promises of God, not the accusations of your enemy.

What are the promises of God? That you are adopted. You are secure. You are loved with an everlasting love. You are holy. I mean, I'm serious. Holy. And get this one, saint. Saint. I mean, it's so hard for us to remember the gospel. I thank God that he remembers the gospel. Aren't you glad that God remembers the gospel with regard to us? He never forgets it.

Enemies thrown down. He's still lying but only if you're listening. Victory in the past. All I do is win. But also victory in the future.

Victory in the Future

You know what, I want to particularly say this that we don't really dwell on this enough. Victory in the future. What does this life feel like to many of you? I bet it feels like my life. This is the phrase I use all the time: Two steps forward, three steps back. Anybody feel that one? Feel like you just can't get anywhere. Can't win for losing. We have this view like this is a hard place and Revelation speaks to that. It tells us of two advents, two arrivals of Jesus. The past one, the one we light all the candles about, and the future one. The one to come.

And this is what we read in Revelation 20:

I saw an angel come down out of heaven having the key to the abyss and holding in his hand a great chain and he sees the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, just in case you're not clear at this point, and bound him for a thousand years, he threw him into the abyss, locked him and sealed it over him to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time. When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison, will go about to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle. In number, they will be like sand on the seashore. They marched against the breath of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves, but fire came down from heaven and devoured them and the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever. — Revelation 20

Victory. Complete. Right? No more accusation, no more temptation, no more sin, no more sadness, no more feeling yuck, no more feeling guilty. No more deceit. No more confusion. It's coming. It's not a myth. It's not a story. Satan, the devil, the serpent, the accuser, the dragon, he will be destroyed. And all of that, all that goes along with that, which makes your life so painful, it'll be gone too.

Let me ask you a question. Which is harder for us to bear? Chronic pain or pain that has an end date? Pain that is unending or pain from a limited period of time? You know, boot camp, basic training for soldiers is supposed to be some of the worst of the worst, right? You go through this and it's supposed to be emotionally and physically taking people to their breaking point. But you know what helps a soldier going through basic training? They got a date, got a graduation date. Like I can get through anything as long as I know there's an end. There's an end point.

This is why Christians throughout history and throughout the world who most loved this book, who most memorized this book of the Bible and who've poured over it are some who have been in the hardest places. People in the Christians who walk through the Nazi concentration camps, the slaves in our country, people in China right now. The Chinese church loves the Book of Revelation. Early church in the Coliseum, the martyrs. They clung to this book because they knew there's a graduation date. There's an end coming and all the stuff, all this victory in the future, it is coming and there is at the end of the book of Revelation that all I do is win, win, win. That is right.

So this is why we need these two pictures. Confidence in what God has done for us in the past, the coming of Jesus, the crucifixion, the resurrection, the ascension of Jesus. Certainty that there is an end date coming where everything will be put right. This is why we need both of these things so that we actually have hope. So that we can actually live with hope today. And man, do we need hope.

Man, we need people who need hope. You know, if you study your American history, you'll study a lot about World War II. If you're in high school, you never get to World War II—it drives me crazy. But the history of World War II, especially the European theater, is marked by two big dates. You know what they are? D-Day, right? D-Day was when American and British troops all landed on the beach of Normandy, a huge invasion on June 6, 1944. It was a day that sort of turned the tide of the war. It broke the back of the resistance, and yet the eleven months that followed were the most bloody battles of the war. They were the worst. Everything that came after that, before there was Victory in Europe Day, which was May 7, 1945, when Germany finally surrendered in Berlin—eleven months of hell. That's what they walked through.

And you know, when we think about this, and I know this is probably an illustration some of you have heard before, but we need to lean into this: the cross was our D-Day. The back of our enemy was broken. Satan was thrown down. And yet the second coming, total victory, V-E day, surrender, defeat—that hasn't come yet. We live in this really difficult place, like France found itself in those years in between, in the bloodiest portions of the battle, in the darkest of days. And yet there's no doubt of the outcome. There's no doubt. The battle still rages even though the war has been won.

Living with Hope in the Present

This is why we need this last point: how do we live with hope in the present? See, Revelation 12 presents us with a really hard question. How do you look at this life? What do you expect? What are you thinking is coming? What do you think is going on right now?

And right here in Revelation 12, the picture kind of morphs again—like your dream states, kind of morphs. And you get a different picture of this woman who's chased and being and fighting and running. This woman is no longer just Mary but represents all of God's people, all who are Christians, all who are spiritual descendants of Jesus. And Satan, thrown down from heaven, is making war, and it is bad. It is bad, bad, bad. It is hard. And yet, this is where we need the past and the future to live with hope in the now.

There's a huge ship, the Queen Mary, that is in the harbor in Long Beach, California, and now it's a floating museum. The fascinating thing about touring the Queen Mary is that this World War II era ship was used both as a peacetime pleasure vehicle as well as a wartime cargo carrier and troop carrier. So you can go and visit the museum, and it's set up with a partition down the middle of the boat. You can go visit the peacetime version and then you can go visit the wartime version.

The peacetime version had 3,000 people on board and had this enormous estate dining room. You can go see the spread of all the forks—gold forks and spoons on the table in the estate dining room. I mean, it's set up for luxury, luxury, luxury. And then you walk across to the other side of the boat and you see the troop carrier. Bunks stacked high. 15,000 troops were on that boat. It's a great dichotomy between what is peacetime living and what is wartime living.

You know, the book of Revelation, this passage in particular, asks the question of us: are we at peace or are we at war? Which do you think is going on right now? See, your expectations are really defined by how you view the reality that you live in. What's normal? Who's our enemy? How our lives should go every day? Whether our lives have a sense of urgency and sacrifice or a sense of complaint and entitlement.

You know, American Christians, we kind of view life should be Cozumel all the time, right? Little drinks with little umbrellas, fruity drinks on my lounge chair. Can I have some more towels over here, please? But peacetime is not the reality. We live in a war zone, and there's a spiritual struggle that's being waged every day between God and Satan, truth and lies, belief and unbelief.

And look at what we see in this passage. The devil is waging war and he is filled with fury. The picture here is of a fire hose, right? The spewing water is a picture of him spewing accusations and deceit and lies, and he's just turned up the intensity of that in our lives. And so right now, if you are in the place of discouragement, despair, defeat, I have a word for you: we're at war. We're at war.

Why is the Christian life so difficult? Because we're at war. We expect a peacetime existence and we're surprised when it doesn't happen. I want you to think about that expectation and experience gap for us. Because if you expect war and you experience war, you're hard to beat. If you expect minimal struggle and you experience war, you're easily discouraged. You're easily defeated.

Things don't go right in your life and you're like, "Where is God? Is God even good? Is this even real?" And if you expect war and you experience minimal struggle, that actually tells us something else is going on. It's probably that you're fighting the wrong battles. It's probably that you've actually retreated and you're fighting the wrong battles.

You know, we talk about battles all the time. Battling to lose weight, right? Fighting to get into the right schools. Fighting to establish your business. The fight to stay on top of all the activities if you're a family, right? That you're supposed to do if you're in Raleigh. All the things you're supposed to be involved in. It feels like battles, but are we focused on the right battle? See, if you expect war because you read your Bible and you experience minimal struggle, it may be that you're not in the right battle.

For those who know we're at war and get pushed back, there are victories to be had in the present. And this is what's wild about this picture—because the focus shifts. You know, rightfully in our church we focus on Jesus all the time, right? He's kind of the main deal here. That's why his name is in the title of our church. We're really about him. But it's interesting how Revelation 12 shifts the focus from him and his winning to you, to me, and to ways that we participate in the winning of Christ in this world.

I want to point you to this. Look at verse 11. It shifts this focus, and I want you to notice how we win, how we conquer. And again, it's in line with the rest of the Bible. It's not by fighting. You know, if you've heard from Ephesians chapter six, we talk about the full armor of God. We make our kids draw that stuff at VBS—put on the full armor of God. You know, there's no armor on the backside because the call of the Christian in this fight is just to stand, not to fight, not to take a lot of ground. Stand still. Hold the line. Be faithful. Remember. And in this passage, it underscores the same thing in Revelation chapter 12.

The saints are conquering Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of testimony. — Revelation 12:11

Now, what is the testimony? The testimony is this: Christ came, Christ died, Christ was raised again, He's coming back. That's the testimony. And the reality, the call of this, is just to invest yourself, cling to the testimony, memorize it, know it, take it into you. Immerse yourself in this testimony. That's the victory.

This means that every act of faith—can I remind you this?—when you show up to church on a Sunday morning, that's a victory of faith. When you open your Bible, even if you do it once a month, that's a victory of faith. When you speak a word of encouragement to a sister or brother? That is a victory of faith. When you pray for someone else? Victory of faith. When you remind someone that this is true, all of this is true? That is a victory of faith. Every time you believe, every time you trust God, every time you remember He's coming back, every time you hope in Christ and refuse to despair, every time you hold your head up—victory. Those are all little victories.

And look, if you can't pull that off, I get it. But this is why God puts us in a spiritual family—so we can believe for one another, so we can encourage one another, so we can walk with one another, so we can remind each other what is true, so we can sing songs over one another. This matters, y'all. We're not called to an individual fight. We're called as an army. And if we forgot what it means to be a church, it is not a club. It is to link arms in a battle. And boy, do we need each other. Boy, do we need each other.

I'll close with this. I love the movie Independence Day. To me, this is what a Christmas movie should be like. And I want to highly encourage you to go back and watch Independence Day. This one stars Will Smith as a fighter pilot, and he's fighting aliens. So yeah, this is great, right? The whole Earth has been invaded by this alien force that's going to deplete the Earth of resources and kind of leave it as a trash bag. That's the premise of the movie.

So Earth begins to bond together. How are we going to fight this enemy? And they keep getting defeated. It looks like this is the end for everybody. Then they capture a ship and they realize, oh, we can defeat the enemy. We get this part now in a way we didn't before—by infecting them with a virus. Okay, we got that right. And so that will actually destroy their shields, and then we can shoot them out of the sky. So they do this.

They pull off putting a virus on the ship—the mothership—and it destroys the shields. Then all the fighter pilots come in with their F-16s and F-18s, all their missiles ready to blow this thing up. Well, they run out of missiles and come down to the very end of this battle realizing they're about to lose. The big giant energy weapon is opening under the ship. It's about to blow us to smithereens.

And then Randy Quaid—you know, from Christmas Vacation—he takes his jet and flies kamikaze straight into the bottom of the ship and destroys it. What's fascinating about it is not just that the sacrifice of the one defeats the many, but he actually demonstrates for the rest of the watching world how you defeat the enemy.

I love this movie. I think this is a great movie for us because Jesus has come and in the ultimate kamikaze move, He has laid down his life. He's broken the back of the enemy. And there will be a day when he comes and chases down all the enemy out of all the universe and it's all gone. But it's not this day.

Instead, he's shown us how to fight. He's shown us what it means to follow his footsteps and trust in the gospel and cling to the testimony and link arms with one another. And we get to participate today in the little victories that God is doing among us, even as we hope for the day when everything is put right.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let's sing to the word together. Would you stand with me?