Apocalypse: The Revelation of Jesus Christ
03/20/2005 - The Face of Evil
This has been a tragic week of violence in the city of Philadelphia. Over the last ten days there have been 23 reported homicides. The latest rash of killings has brought the death toll up to 78 so far this year, 12 higher than the 66 at this time last year. And as a result, Mayor Street has ordered a full review of police department policies, asked for a moratorium on the issuing of gun permits, set up talks with Governor Rendell to discuss gun regulations, and is considering getting help from the Pennsylvania State Police and even the National Guard. It is a crisis situation.
One of the lives that was lost a week ago Saturday night was that of a nine year-old boy named Wander DeJesus. He was gunned down in his North Philadelphia neighborhood while he was sitting in a van watching his Dad lock up his corner grocery store. And what brought that tragedy even closer to home this week was the fact that his schoolteacher is a woman who is part of our Valley View community.
And when these tragedies occur we all wonder, "Why? What a senseless act of violence." Our questions go way beyond "Who did it?" to "Why do these things happen? Why is there so much violence and evil in this world? And when will it ever end?"
This morning we're going to shed some light on those tough questions as we continue our series called Apocalypse: The Revelation of Jesus Christ with a teaching I've called "The Face of Evil." If you have a Bible turn with me to Revelation 12.
Revelation 12 is another crucial chapter that helps us understand why everything is happening the way it's happening in the Apocalypse. In fact, if we don't understand Revelation 12 we'll have a hard time understanding the rest of the story. In this chapter, once again we're transported to heaven where we see things from God's perspective. And the chronology of these events seems to be compressed which makes this chapter difficult to understand.
By now we're over halfway through the book and the horrible events of the Tribulation. And I wonder if you've found yourself asking "why" yet? Why so much death? Why so much violence? Why so much destruction? I have. Isn't our God a God of love and grace and compassion and forgiveness? Why all this judgment?
Which brings us to the most often asked theological question of our day which is, "Why is there so much evil in the world?" Well, Revelation 12 helps us answer that question.
Follow along as I read Revelation 12:1-11, A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. 4His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. 5She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. 7And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9The great dragon was hurled down-that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. 10Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
Now before we get into the details of the events described here, I want to make three observations that will help us understand why there is so much evil in this world. Revelation 12 doesn't give us the complete answer to that question. I doubt that we'll ever get that. But it does shed a lot of light on the subject. And the first observation is that Satan is real.
C. S. Lewis once said, "There are two equal and opposite errors into which we can fall when it comes to Satan and his demons. One is to disbelieve in their existence completely. The other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors."
While we don't want to obsess over the devil and blame him directly for everything that's evil in the world. We make our own independent contributions to that as well. We do need to come to grips with his existence. And if we don't, we're never going to understand why there is so much evil in the world. Because evil is more than a force. Evil has a face and the face is that of Satan himself. He is the face of evil. He is real and in this passage he's described in seven different ways.
In verse three he's an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns. In chapter 17 we're going to see this same ugly picture of Satan again. And I think anybody reading this, who was familiar with the Old Testament, would think immediately of the beast described in Daniel 7.
In Daniel 7:7 we read, After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast-terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth. It crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns.
Seven heads and ten horns. The number seven is the number of perfection and the number ten is the number of completion showing us that Satan is perfect and complete evil.
Next, he's called that ancient serpent in verse nine. And again we're reminded of the Old Testament and the first appearance of Satan disguised as a serpent in the garden. He's the one who introduced sin into God's perfect world. He's the cunning one who slithers around and hisses and loves to tempt us and ruin our lives.
Third, he's the devil also found in verse nine. The word devil literally means "slanderer." He loves to spread rumors and gossip and lies about God's people. He loves to lie to us. We can never trust him.
Fourth, again in verse nine, he is Satan . The word Satan means "adversary." He's our enemy. He wants us to think that he doesn't exist or that he's harmless or even our friend. But he's always against us. He's against everybody. He's public enemy #1. He only knows how to use people for his evil ends.
Fifth, still in verse nine, he's the one who leads the whole world astray, the whole world, not just a few people. He works on everybody. He's out to lead you and me astray. He can't do it, unless we let him. But he's always trying to lead us away from God. That alone is reason enough to explain much of the evil that we see in our world.
Sixth, he's the accuser of our brothers and sisters we read in verse ten. First he tempts us. "Watch that, say that, think that, look at that, do that, take that." Then he accuses us. "How could you watch that, say that, think that, look at that, do that, take that? You say you love Jesus? What kind of Christian are you? You're a fake. You're a fraud." He's the accuser. He loves to play those head games with us, and he's good at it. He's had lots of practice. He's been doing it for thousands of years.
And not only does he accuse us directly. The Bible tells us that he accuses us before God in heaven. "Look at your people. You call them Christ followers? They're not any different than anybody else. They abuse your grace and take advantage of your love all the time. What do you think of that?" He's the accuser.
And finally, he knows his time is short, it says in verse 12. So in that sense he's like a cornered animal. He's furious. By the way, do you want to follow someone whose time is short? Or do you want to give your life to the One who will last for eternity? Time is running out on Satan and he knows it.
Why is there evil in the world? Short answer, because there is an Evil One in the world. And why is there a Satan in the world? Why would God create him? God didn't create him, at least not as Satan. God created him as a beautiful, perfect angel, named Lucifer. And as with all God's creatures he gave him a beautiful, perfect gift, the gift of freedom. And with that beautiful, perfect gift, Lucifer chose by his own free will to disobey God because he was jealous of God and didn't like being number two. He wanted to be number one. And so he rebelled and took the world out with him. God didn't create evil in his universe. God can't create evil, because he's holy. Instead, God created a universe where evil was possible. And Satan took it from there. If God didn't create a universe where evil was possible then love wouldn't be possible either, because both evil and love need freedom to express themselves.
Well, then why doesn't God stop it? Why doesn't God put an end to evil? He already has through the cross of Jesus Christ. Satan was defeated at the cross and knows that he's living on borrowed time. God destroyed evil the best possible way, at its source. And I'm glad he did it that way, because otherwise he'd have to wipe me out and you out too, because we're not perfect, there's evil that lives in us. But because he defeated evil at its source we can live in God's goodness and grace for eternity. What an amazing plan! What an amazing God!
Satan is real. Second, God will not be defeated. There is no way God is going to lose this battle with Satan. Chapter twelve introduces us to two more key characters in the Revelation drama.
Look again at verse 1, A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
Who in the world is this woman about to give birth? At first we might think, "Maybe it's Mary, the mother of Jesus." And some scholars believe that. However, as you read further through the chapter it gets harder to see this woman as Mary. Instead, I think the woman is symbolic of the nation of Israel that gave birth to the Messiah. In the Old Testament, the sun, moon, and crown of twelve stars are symbolic of the nation of Israel with its twelve tribes.
The second character is Jesus. He's the baby described in verse 5, She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. Jesus is the male child that will one day rule the nations with an iron scepter.
That's right out of Psalm 2:9 where we read, "You will rule them with an iron scepter, you will dash them to pieces like pottery."
Revelation 19:15 quotes that same verse when it says, "He will rule them with an iron scepter."
In this battle of good versus evil, we know who's going to win. It's God. And one day Jesus will rule over the whole world with a scepter that cannot be broken.
Satan is real. God will not be defeated. But that victory will not come without a battle. And that's the third observation. Victory always involves a battle. There are four battles described in Revelation 12. Some take place in heaven and some take place on earth. First, there is the battle against Jesus.
Look again at verses 3-6, Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. 4His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. 5She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
Satan didn't want Jesus to be born. He tried everything he could to stop the birth of the Messiah long before Mary was ever pregnant. All throughout the Old Testament he used people and nations to try and annihilate God's chosen people, Israel, starting with Pharaoh and the Egyptians and then some of the pagan nations surrounding the Promised Land and then Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians and then Haman and the Persians in the story of Esther. And the battle raged right up to the birth of Jesus and Herod's attempts to kill all the male babies born in Bethlehem two years old and under. Pharaoh was a dragon. Nebuchadnezzar was a dragon. Herod was a dragon out to devour the child that was born. There's a battle against Jesus that Jesus won.
He was snatched up to God and to his throne, which seems to be a reference to his ascension and then the women fled into the desert to be taken care of for 1,260 days, or 3½ years. Now, time seems to skip around here. In the context of Revelation and the same time frame given in chapter eleven this may be a reference to God's protection of the nation of Israel, pictured as the woman, during the first half of the Tribulation period. The same time that God's protecting the 144,000 Jewish witnesses, along with the two terminators we met last week, he is protecting Israel.
Next there's a battle in heaven. Look at verse 7, And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9The great dragon was hurled down-that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
We don't usually think about war taking place in heaven do we? Heaven is a perfect place, isn't it? Well, sin and its fallout even threatened heaven itself. There was war in heaven between Satan and his angels, who became demons, and Michael and his angels. And guess who won? Not the dragon. He was kicked out of heaven and thrown down to the earth.
When was this war? Well some think it occurred in the distant past when Satan tried to become God himself and staged a coup on the palace. It didn't work and he was kicked out of heaven along with a third of the angels who fell with him and became demons. Verse 4 is used to support that idea when it says his tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to earth. The stars are sometimes used in the Bible as a reference to angelic beings.
Others believe that this event is still in the future and occurs during the Tribulation period, because it seems like Satan still has access to God, at least as in appears in the book of Job. It's hard to tell. Jesus said in Luke 10:18, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
I don't know exactly when this war takes place. But I do know that Satan loses it. He is defeated. And he's defeated by Michael the archangel whose name means "Who is like God?" See the irony here?
What did Satan want to become? He wanted to become like God. That was his original mistake. And who defeats him? The angel whose name means "Who is like God?" So the angel with that name defeats the one who tried to be like God. No one is like God. He alone is holy. The battle in heaven is won by God and Satan is thrown down.
The third battle is against the woman, the nation of Israel. Satan battles God's people. He always has and he always will. The power behind anti-Semitism has always been Satan. He hates the fact that God chose this nation to bring forth a redeemer who would defeat him forever.
Look at verse 13, When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent's reach. 15Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. 16But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.
When the dragon saw that he'd been hurled to earth he pursued the woman, representative of Israel. But she was given two wings of a great eagle to fly away from him. This is a beautiful picture of God's protection that's also mentioned in Exodus 19:4, "Y ou yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself." Again we have this parallel with the Exodus where God cares for his people during the Tribulation like he cared for Israel during the Exodus.
Yet, Satan still pursues the woman spewing water out of his mouth to overtake her, but the earth helped the woman by swallowing the water before it could sweep her away. This could be a literal flood or a flood troops that are in hot pursuit of God's people.
Look at verse 17, Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring-those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
The final battle is against all believers. It's against all those who obey God's commands and hold to the words of Jesus. That's you and that's me. Ephesians 6 reminds us that we are in a battle, a spiritual battle against spiritual forces of darkness. We see it everyday in our world and in our own lives.
I don't like the battle. I want it to be over. I long to be in heaven already. But I'm not. And as long as we're in this world, we're in the battle. But we can overcome. Look at verse 11, They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
We overcome by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. When Satan accuses us and tells us that we're a mess. The way to defeat him is to say, "You're right. I am a mess. I mess up all the time, which is why Jesus died for me and paid the price for all my mess ups." The cross is God's answer to our mistakes. The blood of the Lamb is how we overcome the accusations of the devil.
We're part of this victory when we love the Lord even above our own lives. That's what drives Satan wild. Death has no grip on the believer. Death for the believer is not defeat, it's victory, because death puts us right in the presence of the one we love the most.
Why is there so much evil in the world? Because Satan is real and he battles God and his people all the time. And like 9 year-old Wander DeJesus, sometimes we can get caught in the crossfire. But one day the battle will be over and Satan will be defeated and God will win. And those who know him will enjoy the fruits of that victory forever. Satan's time is short. God's time is long. His kingdom will reign forever. And we'll be a part of it if we believe in him.