Good morning, everyone. Good morning. This morning we will be continuing on where we left off in Revelation. Before we start, let's go to the Word and Prayer. Father, we are grateful for this morning. We're grateful for a beautiful morning that you've given us to gather together, Father. That's just a taste, a sign, a symbol of the grace that you show towards us. Father, we have no right to expect a sunny and beautiful morning and yet you have graciously granted that. And Father, as we look at that, we rejoice in that, but it calls us to look at greater things. Father, to look at the greater grace that you have shown us in Christ, to see the greater glory that you have revealed in Christ. and to rejoice in that and to worship you this morning for that. Father, that's what we gather this morning, is because we want to see Christ more, because we want to worship him together. And so Father, as we turn to your word this morning, we pray that that would be the result of our meditation on the Lord, Father, that our eyes would see the glory of Christ, that our hearts would feel the glory of Christ, and that our hearts would be moved to worship together. And Father, for that to happen, we need your spirit to be present in our midst. And so, Father, we pray that you would fill us individually and corporately with your spirit. Father, their eyes would be opened to see, and our hearts would be renewed to feel correctly that our desires, our hearts would be changed to be desiring to run after Christ together. Father, we pray that you would keep your promise to us today. Father, I pray for myself as well as I pray for those that you would. Father, I pray that you would fill me with your spirit. Father, that I would speak as though I were speaking in the very warmth of God. Father, I pray that you would guard my words and make them true and glorious to Christ, and that you would make my words a hope to those who are listening this morning. In Christ's name we pray, amen. So, the last time we were in Revelation, we finished the, yes. Absolutely, maybe. Is that better? This is going to be a challenge this morning, because I'm not allowed to move. I'll do my best, no promises. We'll see. OK, so I feel like the speakers are behind me. I'm blowing myself up. I'll try to ignore myself while I talk. Okay, so last time we were in Revelation, we were looking at the seven trumpets, and so this morning we're ready to start another section of Revelation. But before we jump into our passage this morning, I want, as we always do, to go back and get an overview of what Revelation is about and where we are in Revelation. And so we start with this summary statement. The Revelation of John is a Christocentric book that shows us the pattern of this world from Christ's first coming to his second coming. So that's going to be the topic that Revelation is covering. It's showing us what is Christ doing in this world from when he went to his father to when he comes again. And then the purpose of the book is this, that John wants us to see the spiritual realities around us, to recognize the dangers that face us, but in the face of all that, to know that God is going to win. And so the call of Revelation, the exhortation is this, is to wisdom, to look at the world and understand it rightly, to see what's going on around us, and to know that it's part of God's plan. And then second, to perseverance, as things get harder and harder, to keep running after Christ, and then ultimately to worship, which is at the core of Revelation. The things that happen on earth are small things. They're a temporal thing. Yes, there will be hard times, but the goal is a final day of worship, and we're marching towards that day. And as we've gone through Revelation, we've seen several things so far. We started with the prologue, where the risen Christ appears to John and claims that he has authority over the churches. He's walking among the golden lampstands, and then he has a message for the churches, which led to our first seven. As you recall, we had Six sevens and a seventh, they're all often just say seven sevens, but really six sevens and a seventh. And Revelation, as we get to our first seven, which was the seven letters to the seven churches, went through those and thought about the danger that was incorporated at the center of each of those letters. But then in the face of that danger, to keep our eyes on Christ, to love his promise and to follow his command. And then we always have an interlude between the sevens. And so we have this interlude, which is the throne room of heaven. If we're to keep our eyes on Christ, then Revelation takes us up to the throne room of heaven, where we can look and see the glory of God first, and then the glory of God revealed in Christ. But there we get something right at the center of Revelation, is that the glory of God revealed in Christ was first a conquering lion. There was an announcement of a conquering lion. And when John turned to look, it was as though it was a slain lamb, which calls us to see that Christ is the conquering lion. But right now, in many ways, he still looks like the slain lamb. The power of Christ is portrayed in weakness in this world, which is then run through the rest of Revelation. And then we went into the next seven, which were the seven seals. Since the lamb took up authority from his father and was worthy to open the seals, we start to break those seals and declare the plan of God for the rest of history. And as we looked over the seven seals, we saw that we had a general pattern for what history would look like. It would be filled with war and famine and plague and death. But in the face of all this, God was not inactive. In fact, he was working to preserve the people and to judge his enemies. And so we go through the seven seals, and the end of the seven seals is this, that through the plan of God, though it seems hard now, there are 144,000 sealed, 12 times 12 times 1,000, a full number, yes, a full number, a great number sealed for God. And to follow that up, to make it clear, 144,000 becomes a great multitude from every tribe and tongue and language and nation gathered before the throne to worship the Lamb. And then we had the next seven, the seven trumpets. Seven more angels came bearing seven trumpets. And they blew their trumpets. And we saw that there was a lot of parallels between the seven seals and the seven trumpets. But the big emphasis was between a quarter and a third. Things are getting worse. As we march through history, the judgment of God is always going to be on this world. But as we march through history, it gets worse. And it gets worse. But yet, God is still working in this world to fulfill his plan. And so we have the two witnesses of Revelation, another interlude. If things are going to get worse, what is the church going to do? We'll see that the church is preserved through all this. God, as he did for his prophets of old, provides for his church, provides for her to do her mission in the midst of this world. But at the end, the church will fail. The church will not win a temporal victory. But that's not the goal. We'll see in the end that they will be raised up by Christ and join him to rule. Which brings us to our section this morning. Now we're at the very center of Revelation. We're on the fourth seven. And so we're on the saga of the woman and the dragon. And I highlight this because We have seven. Anytime we have an odd number, something that builds like this, especially something so numerically written, usually there's something special about the middle example. And so if we go through the sevens, the seven letters to the seven churches, the seven seals, the seven trumps, we've got to the fourth, and we've got this story that actually starts to look like it doesn't have the seven pattern. As we go through Revelation, it's been really clear. We have seven churches, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. We have seven seals, the first seal, the second seal, the third seal, that's actually numbered. We have the seven trumpets, and each of them are numbered as well. When we get to the story of the woman and the dragon, we lose the numbering scheme. But we're right at the center, I'm gonna come back to that, and that's what we're gonna come to this morning. And so if you wanna open your Bibles, we'll be looking at Revelation 12 this morning. So you can follow along in your Bibles, or I'll have the text up here on the screen. So 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 12 stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon with seven heads and 10 horns, and on his head seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to 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. He 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 love not even their lives unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows his time is short. And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to 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. 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 poured from its mouth. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war with 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 sands of the sea. So as we look at Revelation 12 this morning, this is gonna be my proposition, my main point, is that this, as the church faces trial and tribulation on earth, and through the last several sections of Revelation, we've seen that that is going to be true, but as the church faces trial and tribulation on earth, she needs to remember three things. First, she must remember that she is on the front lines of a much greater war. She is on the front lines of a much greater war. Two, because of that, she has a very powerful enemy who is against her. She has a very powerful enemy who is against her. But third, she has a protector who is much greater. And so that's what we're going to see in this first section of the saga of the woman and the dragon. And actually, that's kind of the message of the whole saga of the woman and the dragon. We're not going to go through the entire thing. We'll come back next week and continue on it. But that's kind of an introduction to it. And so as we start to enter this story at the center of the book of Revelation, the first thing I want to do is give an introduction to the story. What is the saga of the dragon? And why is it here at the center of Revelation? And how are we supposed to understand the saga of the dragon? And then we're going to look scene by scene. So we're going to start with scene one, and we're going to see the woman and the dragon. We'll see a cosmic battle that is fought. And we'll see the result of that battle. The child is going to be victorious, and the dragon is going to be defeated. But then, at the end, we're going to see that the dragon has a hopeless retreat. And then we're going to come and look at us and say, this brings the battle to us. So that's the four points we're going to look at this morning. I want to start with an introduction. So we're going to look at the literature at the center of Revelation. Revelation is an interesting type of literature, kind of in the entire book, but the story right at the center of Revelation is particularly interesting, and I want to think about it and think how we are to apply it to us. So the first thing I want to do is go back to our seven sevens. So I said the pattern of Revelation, the outline that we're going to use is a series of seven sevens that happen in Revelation. So as we already went through this morning, we had the seven churches, and then the seven seals, and then the seven trumpets, Now we have the saga of the woman and the dragon. So a great sign appears in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon at her feet, and with a crown of seven stars. And a great sign appears, a dragon with seven heads and two horns. Then after this, we're going to see the seven bulls. We're going to return to our numbering scheme, the seven final judgments, and then the seventh, the end and the beginning. But as I've already mentioned, we're right here at the very center of our relation. We're at the center 7, which means there's something important or something different about this 7. There's something that is going to be rich and tangible in this 7. And so, as we look at this, we do see that it's a little bit different. I've already mentioned that there isn't a... Oh, those are church bells. We already mentioned that this doesn't look like it's numbered seven nines. I was afraid that was my phone. I was unclear why it was making that noise. We don't see the sevens like we do in the other places, but I don't want to do, as we start to go through this story, is show you that this is another one of the sevens. It just isn't numbered the same way. We don't have a number one, a number two, a number three, but as we read through the story, we see this sevenfold stories, actually seven stories back to back. There's seven chapters in this story of the woman and the dragon. And so as we go through, we're gonna see the first story is the woman and the dragon, the announcement of a child being born and being caught up to God. Then we'll see the second story, the child will be victorious and the dragon will be defeated. And so that first one is Revelation 12, verses one through six, and the second one is Revelation 12, seven through 17, so we've reached the end of chapter two. And then we're gonna get two more stories. We're gonna get the story of the first beast, and then the story of the second beast that rises out of the sea, the first half and the second half of chapter 13. And then we're going to see the Lamb appear, the Lamb with 144,000 standing on Mount Zion. And then we'll see three angels with an eternal gospel to proclaim to the entire world, and a voice from heaven that proclaims the message of God. And then we'll see a seventh story, the harvest of the earth. And so as we go through, even though there's not numbers, if you pay attention, there's actually seven stories in a row. It's one of the sevenths. It actually is organized the same way as the other sevenths. As you recall, as we've gone through, we've seen that the sevenths are often arranged in four, two, and one. So we had the first four seals, which were the four horsemen of the apocalypse, the two seals, which were the two questions asked of God, and then the end. We had the first four trumpets, which were judgments on the earth, the fifth and sixth trumpet, which were judgments on men, and then the final trumpet, the end. And so we should be able to, if this is part of that pattern, we should be able to see that as well. And it turns out it works out very well. The first four stories are the story of the attack of the dragon. The dragon is going to come and attack with all his might. He'll be failing at every point, but his attack is powerful. The fifth and the sixth story are the response of the land. And then the seventh story is, again, the end. It overlaps very nicely. But instead of, so far in the churches, the seals, the trumpets, we have been slowly marching forward in time. But as we come to the center section, we're actually going to take a big step back. And we're going to look at the story as a whole. This is going to be a place where we get to the center seven and can take in the story in its fullness and understand what the purpose is. outside of merely looking at the story of the Earth, but looking at the story of the cosmos as well, and the war that is going on, and how it involves us. So what is this story? We go through this story, and it's going to get really, really weird. And I'm going to say this story is an allegory, which, if we were going to define allegory, we'd say something like this. A story, a poem, or a picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning. And so we've all known allegories. We're going to come back to them in a few minutes. But as we go through this story, we're going to see all sorts of fantastic characters. We're going to see a dragon appear in heaven. We're going to see a prince born to fight the dragon. We're going to see a maiden in distress, a damsel in distress that needs to be rescued. We're going to see a beast rise up out of the ocean, and then a second beast right out of the ocean. And then we're going to see great angelic messengers coming with a message for the nations. If we weren't reading the Bible, we might think that we picked up a fantasy book and wonder, like, OK, what in the world is going on here? But the reason for that is we're an allegory. It is supposed to be almost a fantastical story. The reason we couldn't call it fantasy is because it's a true story, which is why it's allegory. It's something that's meant to make us feel a certain way. And so the purpose of an allegory is to tell a rich story that makes us feel a certain way. We see the characters in a new light. We understand something new about them so that when we interpret it, when we start to say, oh, this dragon is this, and this beast is this, and this beast is this, we felt a certain way about it in the story, and then we can see our world with new eyes. We see it with a new perspective as we start to tear apart the story. I'd come and say one great example of an allegory is the story of Norm. I think that's a story that most people here can relate to, have read before probably. I'll give a caveat. Lewis had some interesting theology which might have been problematic. But he was a great storyteller, and I think he understood this concept of allegory very well. So if we pick up the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe, we see a lion, and we see an evil queen, and we see a traitor prince and a stone table, and we can start telling the story, and it's a dramatic story, a fantastical story, that as you peer into it, you can understand things and start to say, oh, these represent different things. Another example would be Pilgrim's Progress, allegory that some of you might have understood where we have different characters and we can start to feel certain ways. When he goes to the dungeon, we say, why would you do that? They're like, oh, well, we all do that all the time. And so we look at it with a different way. And so we come back to the story of the woman and the dragon. See, it's a rich allegory, a story that's made us to feel a certain way and then to be interpreted, to give meaning to each of the symbols. We're going to say, OK, but now I've got a problem. How am I going to give meaning to all these symbols? How am I going to tear apart this allegory? Because I could start weaving all sorts of stories out of this woman and the dragon and start telling a hundred different stories. Where we're going to do this is we're going to go to the Old Testament. I feel like I've said that a few times. But the Old Testament is the root for what revelation is about. And so these images that we're pulling out aren't going to be completely new. They're going to be rooted in Old Testament imagery. If we go back to the imagery we find in the Old Testament, they're going to help us understand what is this dragon meant to be? Who is this prince? What is the damsel in distress? What is the first piece, the second piece, the angelic messengers? Once we get all that together, we'll start to understand what the story means. And so first, we read through the story, and we need to understand what the story feels like. We read it and we understand the fantastical story, and then we give an interpretation and take what we felt about the story and layer it on the truths that it is trying to teach us. So that's what we're going to do as we go through the saga of the woman and the dragon. And the first scene is why I call it the saga of the woman and the dragon, as we have the woman and the dragon. So we'll start and look at the first scene. We'll see that there's a cosmic battle being waged. So we come to Revelation 12. Verses one through six. 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 12 stars. She was pregnant and crying out in birth pains in the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon with seven heads and 10 horns and on his head 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 the 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. And so we start, and right from the beginning, we get this fantastical story. A woman appears. OK, that's normal. We have a woman character that's the start of the story. That's the last normal thing we're going to see in the story. Because as soon as the woman comes, she's clothed with the sun. She has the moon under her feet, and she wears a crown emblazoned with 12 stars. OK, well, that's an interesting woman. What is that? But this woman is pregnant, and she's about to give birth. And then we leave her. That's the setup. And then a dragon appears. And this dragon, for some reason, he really doesn't like the woman, but especially he doesn't like the woman's child. And so he doesn't attack the woman. He waits. And he waits to pounce. When the woman gives birth, I'm going to destroy that child because I hate that child. And then it says, he gathers a third of the heavens to join him in his revolution to come and destroy this child. Then we come back to the woman. The woman is ready to give birth, and she gives birth. She gives birth to a male child, and the dragon is there ready to pounce. But then something funny happens. Instead of this dragon, who seems to be very powerful, full of seven heads and ten-horned signs of supreme authority and power, that seven-headed dragon should have easily been able to devour the child, that the child is cut up to God and to his throne. And then there's a promise made that he will come and rule the nations with a rod of iron. And so the woman flees. The woman sees this dragon. The dragon has had his prey taken away, and the dragon gets angry. And the woman runs. She flees out into the wilderness. And we start to say, well, this seems like hopeless. The dragon is chasing the woman, and there's nothing for her to do. But in the wilderness, she finds a place, a place for 1,260 days, which we'll come to that again. That's our 3 and 1⁄2 years that we were dealing with last time we were in Revelation. So let's start to take apart this first scene in the story. So first we have a great sign up here in heaven. We see a woman, and she's clothed with the sun, the moon, and a crown of 12 stars. Say, okay, so we have this woman. This woman must represent something. And we ought to go to the Old Testament to understand what this woman represents. So we read Genesis 37 this morning. We come to Genesis 37 verses 9 through 11. I think this is the reference that we're making. This is the only time in the Old Testament we talk about the sun and the moon and 12 stars. Technically, we see the number 11, but we'll see that it actually adds up to 12. So we get to Genesis 37, one of Joseph's dreams, and it says, then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, behold, I've dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and 11 stars were bowing down to me. And so we have the sun, the moon, 11 stars, but then we have a 12th star as well. So we have the sun and the moon and 12 stars. But when he told it to his father and his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, what is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother? So we have the sun and the moon represents Jacob and Rebecca and your brothers, 11 stars. Indeed, come to bow ourselves to the ground before you, the twelfth star. And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the same love. And so we know this story. Joseph dreams these two great dreams that show that his entire family will come and bow down to him. And his brothers hate it. His father tells him he's a dreamer and to stop dreaming. His mother holds it in the back of her mind. The brothers also remember it, even though they don't like it. And it turns out, after a long story where Joseph goes down to slavery in Egypt, this comes true because he becomes The second in command of Egypt and his family comes down looking for grain. But we pulled this symbol. All of a sudden we have this symbol of the sun and the moon and 12 stars. And what did that symbol represent? It represented, let's put it straightforward, it represents the whole of the house of Israel. The sun and the moon and the 12 stars represent the whole of the house of Israel. And then I want to take another step back and say the whole of the house of Israel could be called the people of God or God's people. And so this woman, clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and a crown of 12 stars, are, in the most general sense, representing the people of God. And then we could talk about how the whole of Israel is representative of the people of God. We'll come back to that in a few minutes. But that's going to be our woman. So we've identified our woman, the people of God. But as we look at this woman, she was pregnant and crying out in birth pains in the agony of giving birth. What's that about? Why do we have this symbol of this woman crowned with 12 stars about to give birth? We again have to go back to the Old Testament. Once we've identified the woman, identifying the pregnancy is actually pretty easy. Go back to Genesis 3, another chapter we read this morning. We have the first rebellion of man. We have God come to the garden and ask Adam, why are you hiding from me? Adam says, well, I was naked. How did you know that? And so we get to this point where they all blame each other. And then God pronounces curses on each of them. But on the curse on the serpent, the first curse that he gives, this is what God said. The Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all lifestyle. And above all the beasts of the field and on your belly you shall go. And dust you shall eat all the days of your life. And we'll put enmity between you and the woman. Oh, interesting. There's, we'll come back to this, a dragon and a woman that don't like each other. But specifically, between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. And so we had this promise, something we often call the proto-evangelical outcome. I said that badly. You know what I mean. The early gospel, the first promise of a savior that would come to save the world. And the promise was a promise of a son, a promise of a male child who would come up and defeat the ancient serpent. And so we had this woman, and she's pregnant and about to give birth. And we're supposed to look back at the history of God's people and say, Yes, God's people were given a promise, a promise of a male child, and they had been waiting and waiting and waiting for that male child to come. And in fact, in all the great covenants of the Bible, at the very center of them is the promise of a child, except for one, the Mosaic covenant. We aren't going to go into covenants this morning. But with most of the great promises of the Old Testament centered on a son, we just looked at the Adamic covenant. the promised offspring of the woman who would come and defeat the serpent. We see the Abrahamic covenant. The Abrahamic covenant is at its core a promise of a son, a son who would inherit the nation of Israel. We see the Davidic covenant, the promise of a son, one who would take the throat of Israel and reign in the place of God. And so we have this promised son that keeps getting developed by each of the covenants of the Bible. And the Old Testament people of God had been waiting for this son. And so as we see this woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, a crown of 12 stars, and then we see she's pregnant and giving birth. We're supposed to go back and say, yeah, that's the promise of the Old Testament. That's the burden of what was going to happen. She's going to give birth to a male child. So we come back and we're getting ready for that. But then we have another sign in heaven appear. A great dragon. And so dragon, we could interpret this a lot of different ways. We might think of a two-legged or four-legged beast with wings that breathes fire. That probably wasn't exactly what was meant by this. This would be more like a serpent. Maybe a Chinese dragon would be a great way of thinking of it, of the symbol that we're using. Although that's not the big point. The point is serpent and dragon are a lot closer in meaning than we might see in English in our translations. And so we see this great dragon, and what are we supposed to see? We see there's a great dragon, but on this dragon, there are seven heads, 10 horns, and seven diamonds, seven crowns that this dragon is wearing. So we're supposed to say, OK, what in the world is this? Well, we've already gone there. We saw that the woman and the serpent were enemies for each other. So the Lord God said to the serpent, I'll put enmity between you and the world. And so when we see a serpent, a dragon appear in Revelation, we're supposed to come back to this and say, yeah, this is all making sense. This is really rich, picturesque language, but we're just walking through Genesis 3 right now and setting up all the characters of Genesis 3. But the serpent is a very interesting description. He had seven heads and ten horns with seven crowns on his seven heads. Some of those we're not going to find anywhere. The seven heads and the seven crowns we don't find in the Old Testament. But we do notice it's that number seven. It's a number that's meant to represent supremacy or perfection. And so this dragon at least thinks that he is the sum of all perfections, and he is powerful, much more powerful than the one can be. But the 10 horns we've actually seen before. We've had another beast in the Old Testament show up with 10 horns. Actually, I'm not going to talk much about that this week, because we're going to come back next week and talk about this more. But I want to note that the picture of the dragon is rooted in Daniel 7. So in Daniel 7 it says, after this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth that devoured in broken pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different than all the other beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things." And so these symbols still are mostly being taken out of the Old Testament. I'm going to come back and reinterpret this symbol next week, because I think it becomes much more important next week when we actually see the beast rise out of the ocean. But I want to give that reference so we've got that. We don't have a serpent with just weird configuration. These are pulling out of Old Testament references. And we come back and see the great dragon is saving the devil. And actually, as we go forward in a few minutes, we're going to see that Revelation, in case we missed that, specifically identifies the serpent is saving the devil, the accuser of the brethren. And he's fighting against the woman. And so we see at the end of this introduction that this great dragon was a ruler. He was a powerful being, but he'd fallen. And so we're just setting up the background story. This is the backstory to the gospel that we're setting up. So we come to the second half of verse four, and it says, and the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth. And so we've got it all set up. And what does he do? He stands before her so that he might devour the child when it is born. And again, we look at this, we say, that makes sense. The dragon was enemies with the child. God himself had said, I'll put enemy between you and the woman, between her offspring and your offspring. And so we come, but we actually see this as even more tangible. There's actually reality that happened behind this. The dragon, at the time of the promised birth, the promised child, did show up to try to destroy the child. So we get the story recorded in Matthew of the wise men coming and visiting the child. Herod gets upset. He tries to get the wise men to tell him where the child was. The wise men go and vanish their own ways. They don't have to deal with Herod. And Herod gets mad. So Herod decides to do this. Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious. Interesting, a word that we've seen already in Revelation 12. Herod became furious. And he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and all that region who were two years old or younger, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeroboam, a voice with certain drama, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted because they are no more. And so we're bringing the story closer. We started in Genesis 3 and gave the background. But now we're coming to the birth of Christ, to the dragon trying to destroy all the male children, to try to wipe out this promised child, to try to destroy the promise of Genesis 3. But we come back. And the dragon failed. And so we come back, and the woman does give birth to a male child. The promise came true. The promise that had been waited for for thousands of years was finally realized. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. Come back to this phrase in just a few minutes. It's a phrase out of Psalm 2. Actually, I had three passages I wanted to read this morning, Genesis 3, Genesis 37, and Psalm 2, and I had to throw one of them out. So I was really happy, Kurt, when you happened to read Psalm 2 this morning. I should have thought of that, but that worked out well. And so why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? against the Lord and against His anointed saying, we'll cast off their bonds and burst their chains from us. But the Lord sits in heaven and laughs and looks at them in derision, saying, I have said, Esther me, I have set my king on Zion by holy call. He says, you will break them as with the rod of iron. And so we have this promised ruler who is going to come. And so the male child is the promise that was given in Genesis 3 and the ruler who's going to represent the king, the authority of God. And the dragon's trying to kill it. But here's the surprising thing. The dragon's sitting there. He thinks everything's going well. He's about to pounce on this child. And the child is taken up to God and to his throne. And so what we've got going on in verse Five is really a recap in very picturesque and very, very low-density language of the story of the Gospels. Christ was born. Across his entire ministry, from his birth to his death, the serpent opposed him and tried to destroy him in any way that he could. And the serpent, he felt like he was about to win. He actually killed the promised son. But the promised son rose again and was caught up to God and to his throne. And so we have a recap of the story of the Gospels. This is what happened. And this is all still backstory to the saga of the woman and the dragon. But this is where we've been so far. And so we might say verse 5 is a recap of the Gospel. But then we note that there's an important thing. She gave birth, past tense, to a male child. The child was caught up, past tense, to God and to his throne. But in the center, there's a future tense, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. And so this child was born, the promised son was born, the one who would defeat the serpent, the one who would inherit the land, the one who would sit on David's throne, the one who would rule over the people of God. But it's not done yet. He is to rule the nations with the rod of iron, but he hasn't taken up his staff yet. He hasn't taken up his scepter to destroy the nations. We're still waiting for that. It's a future tense verb. And what are we waiting for? He got caught up to God, and now we're waiting for him to come back. That's going to be important. But then we're going to keep going through this. It says, the woman fled into the wilderness. The sun was taken up, the Savior was removed from the situation, and the woman was terrified. The dragon was still there, so she flees out into the wilderness, terrified of what might happen. But there she found that she had a place prepared by God. And so as we see the people of God, the promise came true, but then it didn't come to its ultimate culmination in its first scene. And so now the people of God are scared. They have an enemy that is still pursuing them. But in the midst of that, God still promises protection. And she's going to be nourished for 1,260 days. Again, that is our three and a half years. We talked about this last time we were in Revelation. three and a half, half of seven, the time between the fulfillments, between zero and seven to three and a half, we could say something like the time between the times. Or as I've said so many times in Revelation, from Christ's first coming to his second coming. And so during this time, she is to be nourished for 1,260 days. And so there's a promise, yes, the dragon is not furious with the woman, but there is going to be a protection. And what is this gonna do? It's gonna go from when the child came, to when the child is going to come back. And so that's going to be actually the center of this story, where she has a place prepared by God for 1,260 days. And that's the story we're going to tell in the saga of the woman and the dragon. The first scene is background. This is what's happened so far. Now let's tell this story, what happens with the woman in 1,260 days. So that was the first scene, back story, the story of the gospel from Genesis up to the Gospels. And now we find ourselves in the church age and say, what now? And so we're going to enter into the second scene. I'm going to split the second scene into two parts, because I want to think about two different things as we go through this. But we're going to start the second scene, and we're going to see that the child is victorious, and the dragon is defeated. So we come to Revelation 12, starting in verse 7. 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 so we go back, we look at the back story. And at the end of the back story, the child is cut up to God. And there's a promise that he's going to come back. He will rule the nations with the rod of iron. But we're waiting for that. But now we're starting to march forward in the story and say, OK, the child is cut up to heaven. Does that mean that the dragon is running rampant on the earth? Well, we're going to get to that in a moment. But first, we go up to heaven and say, the war wasn't done. The child went up to heaven, and he cast the dragon out. And so the great dragon was thrown down. The war was won, although it hadn't been realized on earth yet. In heaven, the war had been won. The dragon had been thrown down. He had been defeated. He had no longer any power left, no place in heaven anymore. He had been cast out. But as he got thrown down, he was thrown down to the earth. And that's going to be at the core of this story. It's that the dragon, being cast out of heaven, having lost the cosmic battle, has come down to earth, and he's mad. He's actually going to mention that several times. The dragon's mad. He doesn't like losing. He doesn't like where he's ended up. But as we get this victory in heaven, The child goes up to the throne and victory is declared. The dragon is turned down. The next thing we see is a great proclamation in heaven. 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 is coming. That's an announcement that the war has been won. There's a herald coming out and saying, the war's done. The war has been won. The kingdom is our God's. And there is no longer any danger. And why? Because the accuser of our brothers has been thrown out. Past tense, the dragon has been cast out of heaven. He used to be able to accuse them night and day before our God, but no longer. He no longer has any authority or any power to be in heaven. And so the war has been won. The dragon has been defeated. The people of God have been made secure. because the dragon cannot accuse anymore. But now we're going to turn back to earth and say, they have conquered him. And so they have conquered him. We have to go back and figure out all these pronouns. The they is the brethren. So we have the accuser of our brethren, the one who accused the 90 day before God. The brethren, they have conquered him, the dragon. So the church has conquered the dragon. How did he conquer him? By the blood of the lamb. By going back to the first story and saying, in that story of the gospel, in that story of the male child who was born to defeat the dragon, in that story of Christ giving his life as a ransom, as a redemption for his people, that's where the victory is. They loved that story. They took that blood and made it their own. and then end by the word of their testimony. And so they took that blood, applied it to themselves, and they testified before the world, we belong to him, we belong to Christ. But then there's a third thing. So there's two things. By the blood of the lamb, by the word of their testimony, joined together in affirmation and a true belief in the gospel of Christ. And then finally, for they loved not even their lives unto death. I'm going to come back to this, but this is actually the core exhortation of the saga of the woman and the dragon. We're starting to introduce what this is about. We're going to see that, yes, the battle has been won. Satan has been cast down out of heaven. There is no longer any war in heaven, any doubt about the final victory. There's nothing left to happen. But the battle on earth hasn't been quite resolved. We're going to see that in a few minutes. And as we wait for that, we have to love not our lives, even unto death, because we love that gospel more. There's a bifurcation here. You can love the gospel, or you can love your life. And those who conquer are those who love the gospel. and don't love their lives. We'll come back to that at the last point, though, because I think that is a really important point. They love not even their lives unto death. But then here's the culmination, the final conclusion of the message. It says, therefore, rejoice, O heavens. This is a great message. The ancient serpent has been cast down. Genesis 3 has come true. The sun has crushed the head of the serpent. even though the serpent had bruised his heels. Rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. But then there's a second message. But woe to you, O earth and sea. For the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows his time is short. And so as we enter the second scene, we see the war is won. The dragon has been cast out. He's been defeated, but he hasn't been completely eliminated yet. And he's fighting a retreat. He's running away from the forces of heaven, and he comes down to earth, and he's angry. He's angry, and he knows that he doesn't have much time left. He's grasping at straws. He is an animal cornered that is going to lash out at whatever he can lash out at. So woe to you, earth and sea. and all you who dwell in them, for the devil has come down to you in a great wrath. And so that's the first part of the second scene, is in heaven there's been a victory. but Satan has been cast down, and where does he go? To the earth. And so we get the dragon's hopeless defeat. And this is where we're going to find us. We see that the battle has been won. Victory has been claimed in the heavens, that the war hasn't been completely resolved yet. We're still fighting a retreating action with the enemy. So we come to Revelation 12, 13 through 17. It says, when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to earth, He pursued the woman. So we're actually jumping back into that first story. When the child was caught up to God, then we saw the woman fled into the wilderness. This is what? The dragon tried to go up to heaven to conquer that male child. The male child conquered the dragon and cast him down. Now that dragon's angry. At first, he wasn't going to destroy the woman. He just wanted to destroy the child. But now he's got nothing left. I'm going to chase that woman down here. So he comes to pursue the woman who had given birth to the male child. And then we come back, same thing. But the woman was given the two wings of a great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness. She was given an escape. When it didn't look like there was going to be an escape, she was given an escape. God came down to give her what she needed to run from the dragon. And she's going to be nourished for a time, times, and half a time. That one, two, and a half, three and a half years, the time between the times. And so there's a promise here. Yes, the dragon has come down to earth. He's come down to earth in great wrath. He wants to destroy the people of God. He wants to tear them limb from limb. But God says, I'm not going to let that happen. I'm going to protect my church until the end of the seven trumpets, and the church will fail, but will rise again. So we keep going, and we have this dragon. He doesn't like to stop. He tries to destroy the woman once. God gives her out into the wilderness and protects her. But then the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman has sweeped her away with the flood. I'm not going to do too much interpretation of these things to what the dragon is doing. The thing I think we're supposed to see is that the dragon is exhausting all of his options trying to chase down this woman. He tries to go and devour the woman, and the woman is given the wings of an eagle and flies away. And so the dragon's chasing her, and he pours out of his mouth a river of water to try to drown her. But, I'm sorry, lost my place. But the earth came to the help of the woman. Again, by supernatural events, the woman was preserved. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from its mouth. And so that's where we've walked through that story already in the first part, the dragon's angry with the woman, but the woman gets away. The people of God will not be destroyed by the dragon. The dragon isn't going to ultimately win. But then here, the dragon realizes he's been defeated in heaven. He realizes even his aims on earth are falling apart. And so now the dragon's just angry. So the dragon became furious with the woman. I hate this woman. And so what is he going to do? He's going to make war with the rest of her offspring. And that's actually where we start to find ourselves, is we have this great dragon. He's been defeated twice over. Defeated in heaven, defeated on earth, and now he's just angry. He says, I can't destroy the church, but I can go and try to destroy those who are part of the church. I can go and try to destroy the gospel. I can be a roaring lion seeking someone who won't let it devour. And that's where we find ourselves now as a dragon who has been completely defeated, but has not been completely defanged yet. He's going to go around and try to destroy the church. And specifically, we see it is the churches that the offspring of the woman are those who belong to the church, those who are believers in Christ, staying on those who keep the commitments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And that's going to be the story as we go through. We've gone through the first scene and the second scene. Then the rest of the scenes of the saga of the dragon are going to be what happens to the woman and to her offspring as this dragon goes and chases them down. And the exhortation is, yeah, you have a dragon that wants to devour you. And so you have to make a choice. You can either love the gospel and face the dragon's wrath. or you can love your lives, and you might keep them here, but you'll lose the gospel. And so, why do we defeat the dragon that's coming after us? We do it by the blood of the lamb, holding on to the gospel, by the testimony of Jesus, proclaiming that gospel to the world, and then by loving not even our lives unto death. So yeah, we've decided that there's a greater love than even our lives, and it's in the gospel of Christ, and we're willing to face the dragon, even though he's much more powerful than us, because we know the gospel of God. And so that's where we're going to end today. We end like any good multiple set story on a cliffhanger. And so we end with, and he stood on the sands of the sea. The dragons come down and he's filled with wrath. And he's going to chase down the people of God and try to destroy them in any way that he knows how. We'll come back next week and see how. So with that, we'll close our message. The application this morning is, yeah, we have an enemy. We have an enemy, but we also have a protector. And so we have to choose, what are we going to love? Are we going to love our lives in this world? Are we going to love the gospel of God? We can't love both in the same way at the same time. We have to choose one or the other. And those who defeat the dragon are those who love not their lives, and instead run after the gospel. So kids, two questions for you this morning as we close out our message. First, why does the church suffer while we wait for Christ's return? We could answer that in a lot of ways. There's actually a lot of layers to this question. But out of the saga of the woman and the dragon, why does the church suffer? And it's this. Because our enemy, the devil, hates his defeat. Because our enemy, the devil, hates his defeat. And he wants to destroy all who represent his conqueror. So that's why we suffer, why we wait for Christ's return. But then second, so what must we do while we wait if we have a powerful enemy, one who is seeking to destroy us? We must love Christ supremely so that we could give up even our lives without loss. We have to make that choice and say, which is more important, Christ and his gospel or our lives in this world? And there will come a time when we have to make that choice and say, I love Christ more, and I'm willing to give up my life With that, let's close in prayer. Father, we're grateful for your word. Father, we're grateful, especially for this passage, a fun passage, a passage full of imagery and war and battle. And Father, we enjoy those stories. But Father, we're more grateful that you've taught us through that story and opened our eyes to see the truths around us. And Father, we acknowledge we have an enemy, but we trust in you and our protector. Father, I pray that you would preserve us in this world, preserve us from the attacks of the enemy, preserve us from the wiles of Satan who wants to destroy us. Father, do that by giving us a heart that loves Christ so much that we'd be willing even to give up our lives. Father, our sinful hearts don't want to do that. Father, each of us need you to continue working in our hearts, giving us a greater desire for Christ. So Father, I pray that that would be the outcome this morning, that we would even more fully align ourselves with Christ and renounce our hold on this world so that we might defeat the driving force. Christ, amen. Amen. Let's open it up for any questions or comments or other discussion. You may.