1. "The future is naturally, normally a great concern of ours. The last book in the Bible, the book of Revelation, brings together both sets of concerns, the cosmic and the personal, the worldwide and spiritual realities for you and me tomorrow, and draws them into the focus of spiritual reality for us today."

2. "In our fallen world, as surely as political power comes, it goes. Our daily labors, political or otherwise, are so passing in their nature that even our most celebrated people are memorialized in stone and then forgotten."

3. "Friend, you understand the passing nature of things we undertake in this life. We cook a meal now which is eaten and forgotten, only to be succeeded by a thousand more such meals. We drive a car from one location to another, only to leave there in an hour or so to go somewhere else. And so on and on and on. What are our lives for, made up of so many temporary passing moments?"

4. "Christian, you have never met a trial that you will not outlast. Our God can cause floods to be thwarted and plots to fail. The mere fact that we have opposition does not mean that that opposition will succeed."

5. "I love how God had a place prepared for the woman to protect her and to nourish her. And I love where it is - in the wilderness. You think, well, that's silly. You don't go to the wilderness, the waste place, for protection and nourishment. No, no, no. You do if you're under God's care."

6. "Satan may well say to us, 'you are a great sinner.' Just always remember, when he does reply, 'yes, but I have a great Savior.' Never think of your sin without thinking of the Savior."

7. "Brothers and sisters, don't let threats purchase your silence. Pray for our teenagers to follow Christ in front of mocking friends. Pray for some of you who have hostile work environments. Pray for pastors who've gone out from us laboring in skeptical or indifferent communities."

8. "To the Christian, of course, death is more a promise than a threat. For us to conclude the time of militant strife and go to the time of triumph eternally. That's the confidence that you and I can have in Christ's service."

9. "Like Thomas Manton once observed, it is better to be a simple soldier on Christ's side than a commander of a whole army against him."

10. "I wonder how cheaply our silence has been purchased this week."

Observation Questions

1. In Revelation 12:1-2, what specific details are given about the woman's appearance, and what might these symbols represent in biblical imagery?

2. Looking at Revelation 12:3-4, what characteristics describe the dragon, and what specific action does he take regarding the stars of heaven?

3. According to Revelation 12:5-6, what two events happen to protect both the male child and the woman from the dragon?

4. In Revelation 12:7-9, what specific names are given to identify the dragon, and what do these names tell us about his character and activities?

5. Reading Revelation 12:11, what three specific means are given by which the believers overcome the dragon?

6. In Revelation 12:13-16, what specific methods does the dragon use to attack the woman, and how does God protect her in each instance?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why do you think John describes these visions as "signs" in heaven rather than just telling us directly about Satan's opposition to God's people?

2. How does the image of the woman being protected in the wilderness connect to other biblical accounts of God protecting His people in difficult places?

3. What significance do you see in the fact that Satan is described both as a powerful dragon and as an accuser who has been "thrown down"?

4. How does the description of believers overcoming "by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony" relate to the overall message of Revelation?

5. What does the dragon's pursuit of "the rest of her offspring" tell us about the nature of spiritual warfare in the church age?

Application Questions

1. When was the last time you felt pressure to remain silent about your faith? How did you respond, and what would you do differently now?

2. How has God provided protection or sustenance for you in a "wilderness" season of your life?

3. What specific accusations does Satan often bring against you, and how can you apply the truth of Christ's blood and your testimony to combat these?

4. In what current situation do you need to choose faithful testimony over personal comfort or safety?

5. How are you currently supporting brothers and sisters who face persecution for their faith?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Acts 7:54-60 - Stephen's martyrdom shows us how the first Christians valued faithful testimony above their own lives, just as described in Revelation 12:11.

2. Daniel 3:1-30 - Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego's stand against idolatry illustrates how God protects His people even through, not just from, fiery trials.

3. 2 Corinthians 4:7-18 - Paul's description of facing persecution while experiencing God's sustaining grace parallels the woman's wilderness experience in Revelation 12.

4. 1 Peter 5:8-11 - Peter's warning about Satan's attacks and God's promise to restore and strengthen His people provides practical application of Revelation 12's themes.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Relevance of Revelation for Understanding the Future

II. We Will Be Opposed (Revelation 12:1-17)

III. We Will Be Protected (Revelation 12:5-6, 14-16)

IV. We Will Testify (Revelation 12:11, 17)

V. The Call to Faithfulness in Testimony Through Suffering

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Detailed Sermon Outline

So what will happen? I don't mean with the offeratory, but in the leadership of the American military or with federal employees in Doge, in our relationship with Canada, what will happen in the war with Ukraine?

Inquiring minds want to know.

It's not just matters of the headlines or news stories that you and I are curious about what's to come. Even more, we would like to know personally what will happen with my job, what will happen with my kids, What will happen with my health?

The future is naturally, normally a great concern of ours.

The last book in the Bible, the book of Revelation, brings together both sets of concerns, the cosmic and the personal. The worldwide and spiritual realities for you and me tomorrow, and draws them into the focus of spiritual reality for us today.

For most of this year, I hope to be leading us through a study in the second half of that book.

Just a couple of years ago, Bobby Jameson led us through a 12-part study in the whole book of Revelation. Back in 2009, I'd led us through a 15-part study of the book. And it was that study that many of us who were here during those Sundays we didn't meet together during COVID in 2020 listened to at home while I led us in some meditation from the book via email.

So why this study now? Why turn again so soon to the book of Revelation?

Because its pressing questions are always so relevant.

What will finally happen? We want to know. We really need to know. People are always interested in this. Many have joined us since even that last series in Revelation.

And even for those who remember Bobby's series, or mine from 16 years ago, I'm hoping to spend 14 messages just on the second half of the book. It's beginning with chapter 12 this morning. So just as an example, that means that for Bobby, the chapter this morning, chapter 12, was one of four chapters he covered together in one message. Or if you go back to my series, it was one of three that I covered in one message in 2009. But chapter 12 is the entirety of our message this this morning.

And having been living in it this week, I feel I could turn this into a five part series very easily and I will attempt not to do that. But brothers and sisters, this is rich stuff here in chapter 12. So in this series we'll be able to look more specifically at these inspired and interesting parts of Scripture. And while I am quite sure we will not answer every question that could be raised about any chapter we study, we will certainly give more time for more light to break forth from God's Word. If you open your copies of God's Word to the book of Revelation, you'll find it divided into 22 chapters.

If you go in the books, the Bibles provided, to page 1034, you'll find our chapter, chapter 12.

The Apostle John, the youngest of the 12 disciples, received this revelation decades after his time he personally spent with the Lord Jesus. John here is an old man, exiled to the island of Patmos, about halfway between modern day Greece and Turkey, in the Aegean Sea. Chapter 1 will give you more circumstances of John that day. So why pick up our study at chapter 12 in particular? Well partly due to the fact that Christians are probably most familiar with the first five chapters of Revelation.

Out of all the chapters in the book. Chapter 1, the initial chapter. Chapters 2 and 3, the letters to the seven churches in Asia. Chapters 4 and 5, the throne room scene of God and His sovereignty. And then chapters 6 to 11 contain a certain pattern of talking about events.

It's a series of seven, three series of sevens. Seven seals, Seven trumpets, seven bowls. So just bear with me here for a moment. This is the structure of the middle part of the book of Revelation. It's a set of three sevens.

The seven is showing the completion. This is all of the wrath of God. But what's interesting in each of these series, while the same kinds of things are affected, the percentages destroyed get bigger. And they don't add up to one if you were to add them all together, they just get more and more and they usually exceed one. So what's happening is you're getting the same thing and yet it's not exactly mere repetition because there's a progress.

It's like a spiral moving forward as it intensifies. So you have the three seals, you understand the seals are not like arf seals, the seals are like on a document, like wax seals and they're broken and that means the scroll of history, that we've seen in chapters four and five, is gonna be opened. We're gonna be able to see what's there. John cries at first because nobody's able to open it, and then the Lamb comes and he opens it. History's gonna happen.

So that's the first series of seven. Then you have the series of seven trumpets. That's where what's there is then sounded out for all to hear. It's the same kind of stuff. You can read about it again here in these chapters, in chapters eight and nine.

And again, there's a pause always before the last one, before the seventh one. It's a kind of way of emphasizing. And that pause before the last trumpet is in chapters 10 and 11. And then at the end of chapter 11, the seventh trumpet is sounded. So we're picking it up right there.

At the beginning of chapter 12, where there begins a four chapter pause on these series of three. So the three seals have happened, the three trumpets have happened. Next up will be the three bowls as it's poured out. So there's that intensification. Seal opened, trumpet sounded out, bowl poured out.

We're pausing, we're stopping right here at the longest of the pauses before the last of the series of seven. So in a sense we're getting, we're starting with what will be the most intense summary of them all. We're picking it up at the beginning of chapter 12. Where we see these intensifying depictions of God's judgment, finally through the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven bowls, and they're beginning in the account between the second series of trumpets and the third and final series of the bowls. So this series of judgments are not best understood in a simple linear fashion.

That is, as we experience life on earth, we shouldn't try to find whether we're living in the time of the first seal or the time of the sixth seal. Trumpet or something like that. That is not how we're going to understand this book well. What the Lord has shown John and these seven Asian churches initially addressed in this vision and through this book, what he's shown us all is that God is the one who will have the final say on what happens in the world. That's made evident to us by the simple fact that the exiling political power that so changed John's life around 80 or 90 AD and ordered him away from his church in Ephesus to this isolated island in the middle of the sea into a cave on that island, that political power that had that kind of control is now studied in history classes.

And not just history classes, but in ancient history classes. The time of that almighty power has long passed. But the God who was sovereign over all that is still here. He still reigns. He's the one who revealed all of this to John.

It's good for us to start just by noticing that simple fact. Isn't that itself an interesting thing for a congregation such as ours, filled with people who've just ended government jobs or are just beginning them? In our fallen world, as surely as political power comes, it goes. Our daily labors, political or otherwise, are so passing in their nature that even our most celebrated people are memorialized in stone and then forgotten.

You wonder if that's true? Take a walk after church up through Stanton Park. Notice the man on the horse. Who is that? General Stanton?

Yeah, you don't even know.

And that's as someone memorialized on a horse blocks away from the nation's capital. You understand the passing nature of things we undertake in this life. And of course, most of what we do is even more forgettable. Oh, we cook a meal now which is eaten and forgotten only to be succeeded by a thousand more such meals.

We drive a car from one location to another, only to leave it there in an hour or so to go somewhere else. And so on, and on, and on. What are our lives for? Made up of so many temporary, passing moments. But you don't understand.

I'm an assistant secretary.

Friend, can you name the last three secretaries of that department? How about 10 years ago? Or maybe under President Hoover. President who?

See, we wouldn't know this as Christians. We come to know God through the good news of Jesus Christ's death on the cross for sinners like us. So most of you here this morning are members of this church. Many of you are visiting Christians from other places With us today, we're very glad to have you. Some of you are visiting, or maybe you've grown up here and you're a child of this church, but you're not yourself yet a Christian.

Oh, we really want you to come to know this God personally. This is the one who has made us in his image. And because of our sins, we are separated from God because he is good and holy and we are not. He will rightly judge us. And our only hope to be accepted by him is to come to know him personally through what he has done in Jesus Christ.

He sent his only son to take on human flesh, to be made a true person. Fully God and fully man, then Jesus lived a life of dependence upon God, relating to him in love as all of us should and none of us do. And he died on the cross as a substitute there as a sacrifice bearing God's wrath against the sins of all of us who would ever turn and trust in him. God raised him from the dead, and so we know he accepted that sacrifice as he presented it to his heavenly Father. We studied that year before last in the book of Hebrews.

Friends, what a glorious way God has made for us to come into a personal relationship with him. And yet, even for all that, we still wonder what our days mean, how our actions matter. We wonder very simply, what will happen to us? And that's where the vision that God gave to John so many years ago becomes freshly powerful for us sitting here today in the year of our Lord 2025. In this portion of Christ's revelation to John in chapter 12, which you can find again in the Bible is provided on page 1034.

We learn as God's people that we will be opposed, we will be protected, and we will testify. Let me just say that again. We will be opposed.

We will be protected and we will testify.

Now these don't divide neatly into three sections of the chapter, though the chapter is in three very neat sections. Rather, each of these themes is found in a number of places in the chapter, but that'll be the basic outline of my remarks. And I pray that as we study chapter 12 together now, God will instruct and edify and prepare and strengthen your soul for what lies ahead for you. So let's listen now to this dramatic portion of God's Word, Revelation 12.

And a great sign appeared in heaven.

A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains in the agony of giving birth.

And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon, dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child, he might devour it.

She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was caught up to God and to His throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God. In which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, 'Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. But woe to you, O earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short.

And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time and times and half a time. And half a time.

The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.

That last phrase is looking on to chapter 13, so we'll get to that in the next study. In this chapter, what do we learn about our future as God's people? First, we learn that number one, we will be opposed. Satan will oppose God's people.

Is persecution normal for our church age? Some scholars read the book of Revelation and see in it only a reflection of John's own situation, of the persecutions that he was facing or that he knew of, or could imagine the Roman government pursuing.

Others read it and see in it an account very different than that. Really an account only of a special situation at the very end of history, and that then and only then will break upon Christians.

But I ask you again, is persecution normal for the church in our age?

As I mentioned earlier, we're picking up our journey through this fascinating book at the beginning of a grand pause which is here both to explain and emphasize what will happen. That final set of sevens will begin with the seven angels appearing at the beginning of chapter 15. These three chapters before then, 12, 13, 14 give us the back story on evil in the world that is to be judged. Chapter 13 will show us two beasts. Chapter 14 assures us of redemption for the people of the Lamb.

Chapter 12 depicts both in summary of persecution and of redemption in one scene or series of scenes. And what we see most clearly in this vision is that Satan persecutes God's people. We're being given, as we are in the whole book, the sort of behind the scenes of history. But this is perhaps the thing that first strikes you in reading this chapter, whether it's there in verse 4 about the dragon's desire to devour the male child, to destroy Christ and frustrate his plans, or the fact that the woman too had to flee the dragon for her own sake, it's clear that Satan is the one who opposes us. That we're to learn from all this is made clear in that first sentence of the chapter where John lets us know that a sign appeared.

A sign is something visible that portends something else. Look over John chapter 20 for a moment. Just turn to your Bibles. Over to John chapter 20. This is the gospel that John wrote.

And right there toward the end of it, the last paragraph of chapter 20, look at the last two verses in John chapter 20.

If you're looking at your own Bible, you may want to make a note in there to look back and forth between these two spots. Now Jesus did many other And here he uses that same word, signs, in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written, these signs, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in his name. So friends, just as Jesus used signs to convey meaning and significance, so too did his followers. And John, John who wrote John's Gospel, we think, Recounts two signs here in chapter 12.

It's the first time he's called anything in the book of Revelation by this name. There is the sign of the woman here in chapter 12, verse 1, and then of the dragon in verse 3. Now because the woman is said there in chapter 4 to be about to be giving birth to a male child, how have people sometimes often initially read this woman? This sign of this woman.

Well, a sign sometimes, since she's going to be giving birth to a male child in verse 5, that male child is clearly Jesus Christ, because he's described as one who fulfills that prophecy that Sherry read to us earlier from Psalm 2, that he will rule all nations with a rod of iron. That male child is Jesus Christ. So some have suggested that this is a sign of the Virgin Mary. But the more you look at it, it's clear that doesn't fit. This woman and this sign is aggrandized as Mary never was.

And while it's certainly true that Jesus was, according to His human nature, born of Mary, it's also true that Jesus was the seed of the woman, promised in Genesis 3:15, discussed in Galatians. As Matthew and Luke help us to see, Jesus was, according to the flesh, a descendant of of David and of Abraham and of Adam. Jesus' human nature was Jewish. In Isaiah 26, the Lord specifically used the image of a pregnant woman to describe the nation of Israel. The crown of twelve stars there in verse 1 points us to identifying the woman not just with one Jew, Mary, but with the entirety of God's people from all the tribes.

Jesus himself taught that before his return there would be times marked by birth pains. So this kind of depiction of God's people is completely within the range of what we expect from the Old Testament and from teaching about Jesus. We're not surprised to find the people of God in the New Testament represented by the image of the church as the bride of Christ. Paul uses that image in Ephesians 5. In fact, John himself will tell us about this a little bit later in his vision.

If you look over in chapter 21, in Revelation chapter 21 verse 7, the bride who comes down from heaven, verse 2, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. So that's an image that John himself understands the woman as the people of God.

The other sign is clearly standing for the devil. I mean, look again at verse 3.

And another sign appeared in heaven: Behold, a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. So now the seven heads and the ten horns, I don't think are to be depicted.

They're simply conveying great power, great authority. And with those two main characters clear in this chapter, the story of the dragon's opposition to the woman of Satan's opposition to God's people, to Christians, to us, is clear. That's what this story is about. And while specific earthly events are not always signified by this detail or that, the overall message of spiritual conflict is clear. And we can't escape seeing here that Satan's power is both huge and it's limited.

Though this sermon isn't structured this way, this passage is very clearly in three paragraphs. The ESV has got it so clear, verses 1 to 6, 7 to 12, 13 to 17. I think if you note the use of the word earth, you can tell that the first and the last paragraph are kind of what's going on on earth, that middle paragraph is sort of a heavenly view of what's going on on earth. So if you know your prophets well, it's kind of like you got Jeremiah and then Ezekiel in the middle interpreting it all, and then Jeremiah on the ground again. So you've got the ground game, the meaning of it all, and the ground game.

So it's not like it's just a simple chronological sequence. But rather this afternoon if you try to stitch those together I think you'll see how that fits very clearly. On the whole the middle paragraph is describing this view of the events described from the earthly narrative in the first and last paragraph. So verse 12 is picking up where verse 6 leaves off. That's one way you could read it very simply.

As we read this chapter we see that Satan opposes God's people. His main persecution is not named at Mary. It's aimed at the church, Christians. You notice that pursuit of the woman in verse 13, it changes into his going off to make war on the rest of her offspring in verse 17.

So Revelation 12 depicts the truth that John was experiencing even as he was in exile. It was depicting the truth that the seven churches He wrote to in chapters 2 and 3 would know as they went through various trials from false apostles to wrong self-dependence. Satan, knowing his time is short, we see in verse 12, opposes God's people furiously. We read in verse 13 the verb, he pursues us. Friends, it doesn't make any sense.

He knows his time is short. He knows he's going to lose, but then rebellion against an omnipotent God makes no sense.

Sin, by its very nature, makes no sense. So we aren't surprised to see Satan doing something that we can see is entirely futile. Satan has always been attacking God's people. The description of spiritual warfare in the second paragraph shows that this was a reality before Christ was born. Look at verse 7, war arose in heaven.

Wow! I mean, among other things, this shows us that our battles are part of a larger conflict. What a picture, Michael and the dragon, each having angelic soldiers. Brothers and sisters, if we think that persecution for being a Christian only happens when a temple is going to be built someday in Jerusalem and a world dictator arises, then we are not picking up what he's putting down here. Then we think of ourselves now as safe, then we're in stand down time.

That's not true. John knew it wasn't true as an exile on Patmos. Those churches knew it wasn't true. The Malaysian government today stifles Christian publications. The Vietnamese government has for decades persecuted Christians.

The government of Belarus has cooperated with the theft and vandalization of evangelical churches in their land. The Bulgarian government has harassed evangelical believers and I'm sad to say I could just keep going through many Eastern European governments and we would find the same. Socially, there is open hostility to evangelical Christianity in many Western nations. Liberal Protestants have openly scorned Bible believing Christians for years, from the halls of academia to the courts of their denominations. And of course there's a long tradition of religious persecution in America.

The American colonies were marked by various kinds of such persecution, much of which would include Christians. And especially Baptists. Christian religious leaders throughout Latin America and Africa pray upon young, poorly taught Christians, deceiving them and fleecing them, false apostles. We know that various Muslim groups around the world violently oppose not just Christianity, the ideas, but Christians, especially Christians from Muslim backgrounds. Over the centuries, how many thousands of Christians have been captured by Muslims and forced to convert?

We may read of a Pakistani Christian family going into hiding after their son is accused by a Muslim boy at school of blasphemy because he possesses a Christian book.

27 years ago today, the declaration of war issued by the World Islamic Front, including Osama bin Laden, entitled Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, was issued. It stated that, and I quote, To kill Americans and their allies, civilian and military, is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it. Friends, I was pastoring this church three years later when 9/11 happened and people died at the Pentagon. Friends, this is real stuff. This Revelation, chapter 12, is depicting a spiritual battle that continues on even in our very days.

And I'm not even mentioning the well-known persecutions from history, from the Roman Empire, like Nero or Diocletian or Decius or modern tyrants like Mao Zedong, Friends, the fact is that between Jesus and now, millions of people have been harassed and killed. Not because of ethnic feuds masquerading as religious wars, but actually because they claimed to follow Jesus Christ and consequently refused to do something that was required of them by their community or government. No wonder Satan is described in verse 9 as the deceiver of the whole world.

This dragon leads the whole world astray. We Christians are not in some kind of truce time of spiritual neutrality in the world. If you've thought that, I hope your reflection on Revelation chapter 12 will disabuse you of that notion. The truth is in both this passage and our experience we're shown that we have reason to believe that persecution for being a Christian is normal in this fallen world just as Jesus said it would be. His followers would be persecuted even as He was.

It's not an absolute promise that each of us all the time in every way possible are to be persecuted, but that it is normal. Normal to the point that we are to expect it and not be surprised by it, because then we are alerted and we can prepare ourselves.

Pray that God use good government. To protect people made in His image from coercion.

How did Satan oppose us? I mean, in so many ways. Just as mentioned in this chapter include deception in verse 9, accusations in verse 10, his fighting against us and even making sure some of us are killed, verse 11, his wrath in verse 12, his pursuit of the church specifically in verses 13 and 14, This flood in verse 15 and 16, making war with all those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. Verse 17, friends, you see why I say we could do a five part series just on this chapter. There are so many things here we could explore.

Let's just look at verse 10 for a moment. Satan is called the accuser of our brothers. Okay, so what does Satan do? He accuses. Does that mean he lyingly makes false accusations to circulate among us about each other and cause pointless, needless division in the church?

Well, I know that sounds like Satan. I'm sure that's the kind of thing Satan enjoys and has a hand in. He delights in malice and lack of love that are evidence among a people who should be marked by grace. But I think the audience for these accusations here isn't us. It's God Himself.

That's the accusations he's talking about here. Satan is saying bad things about us to God. And while he may utter lies, it is his nature after all, he doesn't even need to lie to say bad things about us to God. He can just tell the truth.

If he just knows a tenth of our life, he's got material.

So there he stands accusing us. Who here can say not rightly accused of sin before the one true and holy God? Selectively, no doubt, twisted, no doubt, like he did with Job. We read in Job chapter 1, but Satan accuses us before God and such accusations, true and false, are echoed here as well against God's people even as they were against Jesus himself. You remember what Jesus taught?

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Oh, friends, when you're doing right and people are wondering, are you really doing wrong or even accusing you of doing wrong, don't worry about it. Be at peace. The Lord knows all. Give it to the Lord.

He'll make that plain. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you falsely, say all kinds of evil against you because of Me, rejoice and be glad. As great as your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Friends, persecution, whether it is us individually or corporately through legal means or simply social pressure, should call us together to study like we're doing right now and to pray like we'll be doing tonight. What we need to see, first of all, is that we will be opposed.

When you or I face opposition for following Christ, It's not that some new, unplanned, paradigm-shattering thing has happened. Oh, no. What is this? Friend, go read 1 Peter. You being persecuted for righteousness' sake is actually a sign you're on the right way.

You're on the way Jesus went.

We've been shown here in chapter 12. We will be opposed for following Christ.

So, there's much more we could say on that, but we need to keep going. I want us to notice number two, we will be protected. We will be protected. God protects His people. Did you notice that in our passage?

As surely as we will be opposed, so surely do we see that we will be protected. The male child there in verses 4 and 5 is the center of Satan's attention because he knows the prophecy in Genesis 3:15 that the seed of the woman would crush his head. So he knows he's got to get at this little thing as soon as it comes into the world. That's his only chance. So Satan would throw everything he could at making sure that that never happened, including, remember, all those countless Israelite boys that were destroyed in Moses' day.

Are all of those that Herod destroyed in his day. This child who grew up to be the one who would as Psalm 2 tells us, as we see mentioned here in verse 5, rule all the nations with a rod of iron. Friend, regardless of how menacing the dragon may seem, the simple mention of God's throne there at the end of verse 5 reminds us of God's omnipresent omnipotence.

Every place, God has all power.

And once this is pointed out, we see it throughout our passage. And we realize that this passage isn't dark and menacing, but it's realistic. It does describe last month. And it's actually confidence creating, because we see how God's involved, that God is involved for his people's sake.

Is a flood threatening? God sovereignly and providentially used earth itself to swallow it. What strength or wisdom do we ourselves have but what we've been given by him? Interestingly, this chapter does not present the kind of God that's popular right now in some social circles. The kind of distant God of the deists, maybe enough to create, enough to give us some cultural values to build a coherent culture on.

Oh, this God is downright embarrassing compared to that god. This God has his hands so dirty with involvement in history, he is all over the place. This God is active in the world. This chapter presents a God who is absolutely sovereign over his creation. The God of the Bible is involved in history.

In fact, he's even been involved in your week. He was sovereign over the Apostle John's exile and imprisonment. You can be certain that no trials you've experienced this week have slipped past his notice or even escaped becoming subservient to his plans to bless you and make you a blessing. I'm not saying by that I can tell you how that's gonna happen in your life. Sometimes we get to see things like that.

But I'm telling you I know from this that is what he does.

One small concern I want to allay is in verse 7.

It's a striking verse. Now war arose in heaven. This is a simple and accurate depiction of Satan's rebellion against God. We do not see it ever happening again. And the final chapters of Revelation are full of assurances that nothing like this ever will or could happen in the New Jerusalem that's to be our eternal home.

This happened in some unspecified point in eternity past, certainly before the story of the serpent tempting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden at the beginning of the book of Genesis. So we're talking pre-biblical times here. It's referring to some kind of rebellion. And all the history recorded in the Bible is played out in the period of this rebellion and spiritual conflict where the great dragon led his angels to oppose God and found in doing so, finally only defeat. According to the Bible, we can be assured that Satan's rebellion was a unique event and that his defeat has been and will be as well.

The final word on him comes over in Revelation chapter 20, verse 10, where we read, the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Friends, as we get closer to chapter 20, we will get closer to this idea of final everlasting judgment. And because I know that's a challenge morally for people today, I'm going to suggest an odd resource for you. Two 300-year-old sermons, both by Jonathan Edwards. I'm just going to tell you the names of the sermons.

You get to use your modern internet glories to figure out how you can read them. You know, but you can go find them in books if you have the books, but two sermons by Edwards that will help you on this. One, a longer one, is the Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners. The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners.

And the second one is shorter and sharper, the Eternity of Hell's Torments. The eternity of hell's torments. Having read both of these sermons multiple times, I'll just tell you I think Edwards understands Scripture in these two sermons correctly. If he makes a statement, I'm quite happy for you to talk to me about it, and I'm quite happy to defend it as what I understand the Bible to clearly teach. I wouldn't say that of all that anybody writes, certainly not all that Edwards writes, but of these two sermons, I would certainly say that.

It may help you as we get closer and closer to final judgment in this book.

Even before that final defeat, though, notice what's happening to us. God is preserving and protecting His people. I love the fact that this past week there has been an Arabic language conference with hundreds of Christians there gathering in the Middle East with excellent preaching from Sharif Faiyim and Conrad Mbewe. Rick Denham was there. He can tell you all about it.

A wonderful example of God having his people preserving his church even in some of the most difficult and inhospitable settings.

And what he does with his church corporately, he does with his children individually as we pass through trials and temptations. He sustains and feeds us. He gives life and warmth and hope and faith. You see that really even here in verse 11 where he refers to the devil, Satan, the accuser and deceiver being conquered. Oh, brothers and sisters, look at verse 11.

Find that word conquered and relish it. You're having a hard day or a hard week, relish that. So this church is gathering right now, even in days when that conquering hasn't concluded, but it has happened and is happening even right now. We just sang in our last hymn, Enslave it with thy matchless love and deathless it shall reign. We meet in the hope of the coming day when we shall soon sing, Lo, he comes with clouds descending, once for favored sinners slain, thousand thousand saints attending, swell the triumph of his train.

That's the approaching Christ in victory. He protects us even today. He promises even more in the days to come. Help is on the way. Hold on, my suffering brother, my suffering sister.

Hold on. The day is coming when Jesus will, as we read here in verse 5, rule all the nations with a rod of iron, and we will live to see that day.

All the suffering that you and I know today, whether directly from the malice of Satan or simply from the fallenness of our world, will come to an end. For the Christian trials are temporary. Christian, you have never met a trial that you will not outlast. Our God can cause floods to be thwarted and plots to fail. The mere fact that we have opposition does not mean that that opposition will succeed.

In fact, in the case of Christians, we know that all such spiritual opposition will finally fail. Look there in verse 6. I love how God had a place prepared for the woman to protect her and to nourish her. And I love where it is. Did you notice it's in the wilderness?

You think, well, that's silly. You don't go to the wilderness, the waste place. For protection and nourishment? No, no, no. You do if you're under God's care.

Just like with the children of Israel, he sends them into the wilderness, specifically not into downtown Cairo, to make it clear that he is the one providing. He sends them to this place where there's not an obvious way of physical sustenance they can do on their own, exactly to show that he will be their provision. He will take care of them. So here he sends the woman into the wilderness. Wilderness to protect her and to give her nourishment.

Those three and a half years that you see are not meant to be a period like three and a half as opposed to four, but it's the state of God's people however long are in between the state of the saved but not yet glorified. It's 1260 because that's only half of seven. Seven represents perfection, completion, maturity. This is half of that. What does that mean?

It means it's incomplete. It's immature, it's temporary. So 1260 is not as opposed to 1261 or 1259. It's a way of communicating this is temporary. This is not forever.

This is not the final state. This is where there will be for a time and God will provide for us. We can be sure that His provision for us in this life will only end when we enter His presence in the next as the dawning light of providence becomes the full light of glory.

Kids, many of you here today have Christian parents. That's why you're sitting here on a Sunday morning. I want you to hear this and I want you to understand something. So that you won't worry for your parents, but so that you will pray for them. Have you ever seen your mom or your dad face something really difficult, really hard.

Just think for a moment.

What this passage of the Bible is telling us is that nothing like that happens to any of God's people apart from God's letting it happen. We may not always see what good a bad thing can do. But the more we come to know what God is like, especially because He gave His only Son for us, we trust Him to know that all that He does is right and good. So kids, I pray that God will help you trust Him. But I would encourage you to pray for your parents.

When you're seeing them go through something hard, Pray that they can trust the Lord through it. If you're having trouble with that, talk to some of the teachers you have here. Talk to me or any of the pastors on the way out of the doors today. We'd love to talk to you about that, help you think that through, help you understand how God can work even with hard things. What a privileged position we are in as God's people.

That's why the first sign is represented as it is so gloriously clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, on her head a crown of stars. Brothers and sisters, we're part of that glorious vision of we're in Christ. Or you could say we are her other offspring that he mentions in the final verse of the chapter. So brothers and sisters, this vision shows us that we will be protected. We will be protected.

One more thing. About our future. We will be opposed. We will be protected. Number three, we will testify.

God's people testify. Look at verses 11 and 17.

And they have conquered Him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. For they loved not their lives even unto death. Verse 17, Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

How do our brothers and sisters conquer the accuser when he comes against us? Well, you see the answer in those three phrases in verse 11. First, by the blood of the Lamb. Remember we've noted that Satan is a liar. Satan can even make true accusations against us.

We are all sinners. That's why we must know all the things we were staring at last fall in Romans chapter 4. The righteousness of Christ is our only hope of standing before a good God. Christ alone is the ground of our acceptance with God. Satan may well say to us, you, are a great sinner.

Just always remember when He does, reply, Yes, but I have a great Savior. Never think of your sin without thinking of the Savior. Sure way to get depressed for no reason.

But he mentions another means.

Well, on that blood of the Lamb, I do want to encourage you specifically to study the Atonement of Jesus Christ. That's an unusually pregnant part of Christian truth for meaning. Grow in your understanding. Watch your heart's confidence swell as you do. Find some good books.

Any of the people around you who you think know the Bible and theology better than you do, just ask them. I'll tell you a couple of good ones, Leon Morris, the Atonement, very simply written, Leon Morris, the Atonement. I'll tell you another good one. J.I. Packer, In My Place Condemned He Stood, three of Packer's best essays on substitutionary atonement.

In My Place Condemned He Stood, J.I. Packer. But anyway, he mentions here another means of our conquering the devil in verse 11, the second thing, by the word of their testimony. So this is our account of finding God in our own lives. This is why we continue to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.

How else will Satan be overcome than by us standing here on this street corner for almost 150 years this week is our our birthday as a church. I think it's, what, 147 this year? Standing on this street corner proclaiming the same gospel week in, week out. Brothers and sisters, don't let threats purchase your silence. Pray for our teenagers to follow Christ in front of mocking friends.

Pray for some of you who have hostile work environments. Pray for pastors who've gone out from us laboring in skeptical or indifferent communities.

Pray for those we know and love that we've sent overseas. Jacob Hargrave, as he labors in Cambridge. Or Andy Johnson in Turkey. Or Lyle Weatherston in Australia. Or Freddie Hernandez down in El Salvador.

That they won't give in to the opposition that silences their gospel witness. And what about that last phrase in verse 11? They loved not their lives even unto death. You understand what they mean by that. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

They were willing to accept death in order to faithfully testify. The word for testify here is related to the Greek word martyr. So many early Christians ended up dying for the truth that they preached, that to be a witness became synonymous with being killed for being a witness.

We see it even in the pages of the New Testament. And the fires of persecution have raged hotter in many centuries since then. But to the Christian, of course, death is more a promise than a threat.

For us to conclude the time of militant strife and go to the time of triumph eternally, that's the confidence that you and I can have in Christ's service. Like Thomas Manton once observed, It is better to be a simple soldier on Christ's side than a commander of a whole army against Him. Praise God. Praise God for such witnesses in more recent days. I thank God for the wisdom of 21-year-old Jim Elliot's mind when he wrote, Father, take my life, yes, my blood, if Thou wilt, and consume it with Thine enveloping fire.

I would not save it, for it is not mine to have. It is not mine to save. Have it, Lord. Have it all, pour out my life as an oblation for the world.

Elliot didn't know what was gonna happen to him when he writes those words. He's just a 21 year old college student in his devotional time, getting his heart right with the Lord, lining things up as they truly are. Brother and sister, how's your testifying been this past month? February's just about done. How about just this last week?

Let's resolve afresh, even as we experience Satan's opposition and God's protection, to testify about the truth of Jesus Christ.

We should conclude, it was on this date in 303 A.D. that what's been called the Great Persecution broke out.

Very suddenly in the Roman Empire. Diocletian had been emperor for 19 years, and on this particular day, Diocletian had an edict posted in his capital city of Nicomedia, pertaining to the whole of the empire, ordering all copies of the Scriptures to be surrendered and burned, all churches to be dismantled, and no meetings for Christian worship to be held.

Praise God, many Christians loved not their lives even unto death. They knew that to testify and die was better than to not die at the price of their not testifying.

I wonder how cheaply our silence has been purchased this week.

I remember reading this remarkable letter of one pastor to another on the arrival of a Roman edict requiring general sacrifices to the pagan gods throughout their cities of Alexandria and Antioch. One pastor writes to another describing the result of the order: All cowered with fear. And of the more eminent persons, some came forward immediately through fear. Others in public positions were compelled to do so by their business, and others were dragged by those around them. Called by name, they approached the impure and unholy sacrifices, some pale and trembling, as if they were not sacrificing but rather to be themselves the sacrifices.

And victims to the idols. So that the large crowd that stood around heaped mockery upon them. And it was evident that they were by nature cowards in everything. Cowards both to die and to sacrifice. But others ran eagerly towards the altars.

That's one pastor describing to another. One historian later described what went on around the Mediterranean world When such order for pagan sacrifices came, quote, Similar scenes took place in Carthage, where the proceedings were in the hands of commission of five leading citizens. The altars in the temples were overwhelmed by the eager crowd of Christians coming forward to sacrifice. And the magistrates begged many to return the next day. Outside Carthage, entire congregations, in one case led by their bishop, apostatized.

Thousands of other Christians contrived one way or another to possess themselves of certificates of sacrifice to make it seem as if they had done so. In Rome also, crowds besieged the Capitol in their readiness to conform. And at Smyrna, the state gained its greatest triumph of all through the open apostasy of Eutychian, their pastor. All over the Mediterranean, Christianity lay seemingly in ruins.

That's not the whole story.

Remember the brief letter that Jesus wrote to the church in that very location, Smyrna? Revelation, chapter 2, verse 8.

And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, the words of the first and the last, who died and came to life. I know your tribulation and your poverty. But you are rich, and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation.

Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.

Friends, that brings us to the example of Pastor Polycarp. Many of you will know his name. For you, I repeat it for your memory's sake. Many of you don't. For you, I give this to you as a gift of encouragement.

In fact, today is the 1,870th anniversary of polycarps bearing witness for Christ and not counting his life as worth living without faithfully bearing witness to Christ. He was the pastor of the church in Smyrna, modern-day Izmir, where we have good friends John and Alana, Michael and Becky who live and work. One of the young men who would have heard that letter read out from Jesus Christ to the Church of Smyrna would likely have been Polycarp. He grew up to love the Lord and serve Him for many years as pastor of the church there in Smyrna. About 60 years after he would have heard this letter read in the church and Polycarp had served the church as pastor for many of those years, the call to worship the Roman emperor as a god went out again.

And since emperor worship was being freshly enforced, Polycarp was singled out as the pastor of the church. He was known as the aged pastor of Christians and was so particularly pressed by the police commissioner to say, Caesar is Lord, and offer incense to him in worship, knowing that if Polycarp would, then all the other Christians would just fold and follow. Polycarp?

Refused.

They began to threaten him and so took him to the circus, not meaning the place with clowns, but like the big auditorium. There he was brought before the governor for examination. The governor tried to persuade him to recant. Have some respect for your years, he said. Take your oath and I will let you go.

He told him, Revile your Christ. Polycarp replied, Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King and my Savior? The governor continued to try to persuade him, and Polycarp still refused. Then the governor threatened, I have wild beasts here.

Unless you change your mind, you shall be thrown to them. Why then call them up, said Polycarp, refusing to worship the emperor. Then the governor said, if you do not recant, I will have you burnt to death since you think so lightly of wild beasts. Polycarp rejoined, the fire you threaten me with cannot go on burning for very long. After a while it goes out.

But what you are unaware of are the flames of future judgment and everlasting torment which are in store for the ungodly. Why do you go on wasting time? Bring out whatever you have a mind to. So the governor completely at a loss sent out his crier to give out three times from the middle of the arena, Polycarp has admitted to being a Christian. Polycarp has admitted to being a Christian.

Polycarp has admitted to being a Christian.

At the crier's words the whole audience broke into loud yells of ungovernable fury. The destroyer of our gods who is teaching whole multitudes to abstain from sacrificing to them or worshiping them. And we know from the book of Acts and Ephesians on the right there, that meant it was unemployment, because a lot of them made idols. They cried out that he would be burned alive. And say the witnesses, it was all done in less time than it takes to tell.

He was bound to a post. They piled up wood. Polycarp lifted up his voice in praise to God, and as his amen sounded, ending his prayer, the men lit the fire and Polycarp was burnt to death.

As we've read today, they conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

Let's pray. Lord God, we thank youk for the frank truth of youf Word.

We thank youk for the depth of consolation and comfort.

And we thank you for the bracing challenge that we feel.

Pour out yout Holy Spirit on us. Cause us to be faithful. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.