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The episodes are the weekly sermons from 922 Ministries (St. Peter and The CORE) of Appleton, Wisconsin.
Again, welcome to week two. We pray that you're finding understanding about today, tomorrow, and understanding about the end when it all ends. That Jesus wins is the ultimate truth in the book of Revelation. And we're going to see that a little bit today. As I said at the beginning, we're going to fast forward right into the middle of the book of Revelation, chapter twelve. But before we do, I want you to think about this word: expectations.
Like you maybe have said before:
“I didn't expect that to happen.”
“What did you expect would happen?”
“You need to lower your expectations.”
“I have really high expectations.”
“Your expectations are unrealistic.”
Like all those different phrases, highlight words that you have probably used, said or thought about when it comes to expectations. And that word is, I would say, fairly central to our lives.
Like, just think about all the different areas of your life where expectations are in place. Something in the future is in play. Like, how many of you kids are in school? Still a couple more weeks to go, right? We're all excited. School's out for summer.
But there are expectations that your teacher has of you in the classroom, right? To be quiet when the teacher is talking, to, do your homework and turn it in. Like, there are expectations when it comes to school. Those of you have a job.
Your boss has expectations of you. You guys, in some ways are like my boss. You expect that one of us pastors is gonna get up here on Sunday and preach. It's an expectation. Like, what would happen if all five of us just decided not to show up on a Sunday and there was no sermon or message? Church would be a lot shorter. I know. No jokes like expectations.
And employees have expectations of their boss. Like, you will deposit my payroll on time, on a regular basis. You'll provide benefits that will help me and bless me. Expectations that I have, the ability to do my job, the training that I need. Expectations. Like, we have expectations at school, at work. We have expectations in relationships.
Like how many of you, when you got married, all the married people here raise your hand. Like, when you got married, you entered into marriage with expectations, right? And then after two weeks, you had to lower them or communicate them because you realize how important expectations are. And communicating them is important as well. Like, parents have expectations of their kids.
Kids have expectations of their parents. Like, all these things are true. And knowing what those expectations are and communicating them clearly are so important for people today, tomorrow, and as long as they live.
And you know all that. But I want you to understand an important truth today that connects to expectations. Why I believe that expectations, if you're taking notes. The tension in today, something I want you to hold onto about the book of Revelation. Expectations are everything.
I know you're like pastor Tim, that is a broad brush you're using right now. Like everything. Yes, everything. Like everything. When it comes to your emotional, physical, relational and spiritual resilience, everything. Like having the right expectations emotionally and spiritually are so important.
Let me show this to you with using my hands. If your expectations are over here and reality is over here, like this is just the way it is. If your expectations and reality are that far apart, the gap between where those two things are shows the emotional damage that can be done, the relational damage that is in play. If these things are not aligned, if they are unrealistic, if your expectations are here and reality is here, you will be affected in life. And so the goal expectations are everything. To get them in line, closer to the center, lined up.
Like spiritually, having the right expectations is everything when it comes to God, when it comes to the world in which we live today, tomorrow, and the end. Like God himself said, Jesus himself said many, many times there will be wars and rumors of wars. And yet how many people aren't paralyzed when wars and rumors of wars happen because their expectation is not aligned with reality? Like when people say, I just don't understand why it's so hard, why do I get tempted and fall so easily?
Like the Bible says, temptation is hard, the devil is at work. If your expectation is, he's never going to attack you, he's never going to come after you. Like you're kidding yourself, you have to have the right reality. Expectations are everything spiritually. And what about when things go bad and the book of Revelation is all about it's bad, it's going to get worse. But we don't want you to lose hope.
Like when things go from bad to worse in your life, you need to have the right expectations of God, of how you can deal with it and face it. So you might think I'm overstating things, but I don't believe I am. And I believe Revelation twelve is going to reveal to us two important expectations. Like two important expectations God wants for you to have about today, tomorrow, and the end.
Like God wants you to know this. He wanted 2000 years ago as christians to know this. They were in the middle of it being bad. It was going to get worse, but he wanted them to make it to the end to be with him. And he wants the same thing for you and for me.
These expectations are everything in order to get to them and truly understand them. I need to help walk you through Revelation chapter twelve for a minute and help you see what the trees are so that you don't miss the forest. Like, don't miss the forest for the trees. Like, Revelation is a book that's filled with a whole lot of amazing trees, beautiful trees, but if you get consumed by them, caught up in them, you'll miss the big picture, you'll miss the forest. There are some forest trues, but the trees help us get that insight.
So that's my goal today, is to give you some truths so you can help understand this section of scripture, so that we can have some application for our life that is vital and important when it comes to day tomorrow and the end in our relationship with God and our battle against the devil. So we're going to do a marathon of Revelation chapter twelve in only 30 minutes. We're going to have to sprint today, so I want you to see it all in its context, and we're going to unpack it. I'm gonna help you understand the section better so you can see the trees that are in this section, the visuals, the images, and I pray that you're blessed.
“A great 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.”
So as you're listening to the story, you start thinking of who's what. What's what? What does that mean? And I'm gonna help you unpack it.
“She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven. An enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its 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 it might devour her child the moment he was born. 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. The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken out care of for 1260 days. Then war broke out in heaven.”
The scene has changed spiritual realm.
“Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The 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. Then 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 Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They triumphed over 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. Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you who dwell in them. But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you. He is filled with fury because he knows that his time is short.’ When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle so that she might fly to a place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time out of the serpent's reach. Then from his mouth, the serpent spewed water like a river to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. But the earth swallowed the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of its mouth. Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring, her offspring, those who keep God's command and hold fast to their testimony about Jesus. The dragon stood on the shore of the sea.”
Like perhaps one of the most intense scenes in all of Revelation. I just got pumped reading it out loud. Dragons and things being spewed and battles being waged and the devil and his angels fighting God's angels. Like, how amazing is that visual in your mind? And now you're consumed by all the little trees that are distracting you.
And I don't want them to be a distraction because they help us, give us understanding of the forest. So as you heard it being read, I want to help you fill in some blanks to help understand the big picture of what God wanted his people then in their today to carry for their tomorrow to keep them faithful to the end. What did they need to know? What were the right expectations? So let's unpack the story just a little bit, blank by blank, verse by verse.
I'm not going to read it all again because it was up there already. The woman, how many of you, when you heard the first few verses, thought, when you heard the woman who gave birth to a child, thought of Mary? Many people do. It's not Mary. Like the other visuals and the other words in the context of the section help you answer it. It's not about a specific person, but a reference to, literally The Church.
Like, oftentimes, Jesus used the visual and image of the relationship that The Church has with God as a bride to her groom. Like Jesus is the groom and we are the bride. So the woman is not specific of a woman. When we get to the child, we're going to talk about who it is in just a second. But here's even more reason why it can't be just a woman or Mary, the woman.
The visuals of the crown, twelve. Like you see the word twelve stars on her head. Remember in Revelation, the number twelve is the number for the church, symbolic of the church. So what she's wearing in her head is identifying her as the church representative visual of God. You go to the end of the chapter, and when the dragon is going after the woman, but can't get the woman, the dragon then goes after the woman's offspring, which is believers, New Testament believers. We're going to see that in a second. So this woman had offspring. The Church has offspring. The Church has given birth to more people. Since the time of Jesus and his ascension, The Church has grown. It's called the Church Militant. All right, so the woman is The Church, which is important, vital in the story.
Next that you came across in the middle of that section was this number, 1260 days. The chapter before has it. It contains it in other places in Revelation. It also has a times, times and half time in this section, symbolic of the same visual and picture. In the last chapter, it also referenced 42 months. When you think of 42 months, how much time is that? Three and a half years. 1260 days is roughly three and a half years, not by our calendars metrics, but by Roman calendars would have been very fitting. It's symbolic of that.
The 1260 days represents three and a half, which is half of seven. Seven is the number for the Holy Spirit, the work of the gospel, God at work. When you cut something in half, you almost are creating the negative, the other side of the coin. So the Gospel advancing during the New Testament age is the Holy Spirit's work.
But three and a half is symbolic of the pushback by the devil, the pushback against the message of the gospel, the pushback to try and hinder the Gospel from being spread since Jesus ascension, until Jesus returned, there will be pushback against the Gospel by the forces of evil. We're in that age right now, so it's symbolic of the New Testament age that we're in, the New Testament times, Jesus ascension until Jesus returned. The scene that's being described is from that time to this time, and we're in it right now.
All right, so you got your visual, The Church. You got the time: from Jesus' ascension until he returns at the end of time. And then you get the other characters that are a part of this. You get the dragon. You're introduced him next.
Everyone knows who the dragon is. The dragon is the devil. It's right in there. It's the one that's identified for you right in the middle. It says he's called the devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. Very obvious visual. Who it is is easy to understand, but even more important is the symbolism and the description of him that I need you to hold on to to help when we get to the big truths and take away the forest points and application and expectations part of our sermon.
He's enormous. Revelation twelve says, like, he's big and he's bad. That's the dragon. His tail is so big, he swiped it through the air and knocked one third of the stars out of the sky. Stars are symbols of messengers of God, angels of God. Perhaps that's a visual to him wanting to rebel against God and taking several of the angels to his side. His color is red, the color of bloodshed, the color of death. Important.
And as the section goes on, as you read the whole thing, he's enraged, like he masquerades around the first section. He had a crown, too, one like Roman emperors would wear to declare themselves as gods. The devil wanted to be God. It also has the number seven in there, which is the number for the Holy Spirit. The Bible says the devil masquerades as an agent of light.
He tries to come across as God, deceive you, like all those things are real, of who he is. All those things should be sitting in your head right now to help understand what this section is all about. The early New Testament church was living in a time where there were false teachers, where there was the powers that be of government against them. We're going to see the allies and agents that the devil uses in the next chapter, even though we're not going to go through it. The beast of the earth and the beast of the sea, like the devil, allies himself with powers and forces that are real to destroy.
All right, now to the child. The child, yes, is Jesus. While the woman isn't a reference to Mary. Mary was a member of The Church. Jesus is a descendant and had a family tree. This section is emphasizing his humanity for a reason. Child, child, child. Even the child was snatched up to his throne. It's referencing the humanity that we share with him, the human hope that many people had for his coming.
The reference to he'll rule with the nations with an iron scepter is an Old Testament reference. David's descendant from David's throne. His kingdom will never have, will have no end. But I want you to see in there, I'm going to come back to it in a second, the dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth. For thousands of years, christians waited in anticipation for the arrival of Jesus. You know who else was waiting and watching? Satan for a purpose, to devour that child.
All right, last one. The woman's offspring. I already gave it to you. The woman's offspring are you and me. The woman's offspring would be people in Martin Luther's day. The woman's offspring would be all the christians who are part of the New Testament church. New Testament believers who are alive, like, as you hear the story unfold, there's three different scenes, earthly scene, spiritual battle scene, another earthly scene.
All involve the dragon. All involve the dragon going after God, his people, The Church, or his people. Like in the last one is the offspring. Now we're going to pack it, we're going to talk about it at the end. But I need to understand all those things, those trees that are in the forest, to take the big takeaways.
Right? You got it all in your head, or do I have to really have you confused? Maybe I've helped you just a little bit. With all that in mind, here's some big applications. Here are some big forest moments that will help play into the things that God wants us to know and to hold onto.
What are the right expectations? Because expectations are everything. We need to know what reality is for the today's and tomorrows of our life. So let's get some of these things right.
First in this whole entire section, some of the big forest truths that God wants us to have. The first one is this the spiritual battle then and today is real? It is real.
Like the devil has not stopped. We're still in the New Testament time. It is as real today as it was for them. I would actually argue that because so much time has passed, we might not see it with the same high level of importance that they did back in John's day as he was writing, like they were in the midst of it. The persecution was real.
Christianity was on the march. People wanted to stop it. Like, sometimes I think we take for granted the realness of the battle and we think about, well, we get to live in a christian nation, we get to freely go to church. There are no obstacles. The battle is real.
Point number two, big picture truth. The dragon is all over this section. Like, understand this. When it comes to the dragon, when it comes to the devil, he doesn't mess around and he isn't to be messed with on your own. Like, he doesn't mess around.
Like, he comes at you and he'll keep coming at you. He kept coming at God. In areas where he loses, he does not take his ball and run home. After he loses, he picks up his ball and goes after you again and again and again. Like, do not mess around with him. He is big and he is bad and he is mad.
And God wants you to understand that today and tomorrow. That's a huge forest truth in this section. But just as huge is this. The devil might be big and bad and he's mad. God is bigger and God is badder in a good way.
Like at every turn, the devil has lost. He came to try and undo Jesus, but he didn't. He threw everything at Jesus. He used agents like Herod, who killed all the children aged two and under in Bethlehem. But Jesus was spared.
Mary and Joseph ran off to Egypt, to the wilderness, to the desert. Important visual wilderness, desert safety, God protection. The devil came at him after he had been 40 days and 40 nights without food, tempting him in the desert, in the wilderness. He was spewing lies at him to get him to fall. But he didn't win.
Later on, when Jesus declared himself to be the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy in his hometown, they literally got mad. The devil inspired them to turn on him and they walked him to the edge of town and were about to stone him. The devil eventually got the religious leaders, the church of his day, who didn't believe in God to be the agents of his death.
But in getting him killed, he did not win. Because Jesus rose. Like, understand, at every turn, the devil is weaker than God. The devil has not won the gates of hell. When Jesus said, cannot prevail against the advancement of the Gospel.
That is true because Jesus Christ lived, died and rose, and is now on his throne of heaven. Like God's church is preserved. The Church of God, of believers, those who die in the faith. It can't be undone. The devil can't hold accusations against you because Jesus did it.
Jesus won't the scene of the angels battle you all like that. Scene like pretty cool. The angels fought the bad demons. They won, the devil got kicked out. It's not the devil rebelling against God.
This is a battle between Satan and his evil angels and God's angels. This is taking place in time, the spiritual battle where God's angels are fighting on our behalf to defend us and the devil wants to overthrow them. But once Jesus died and rose again and ascended into heaven, that was secure and done, that battle that no longer gets waged, like the devil lost.
And the last one, I want you to hold on to big pictures. So all those things are happening in this section. The devil's big, he's bad, he's mad, God is bigger, God is badder, he is loving and he preserves this church. The wilderness is a visual of God and preservation. It's a place where in order to survive, you need God.
Like the Old Testament believers, they didn't have food or water, but God provided in the desert for 40 years. Like in the wilderness, God provided Jesus with the strength. The wilderness is a picture of God providing a safe place to preserve his people. And he promises he will.
So you got all those big pictures in mind, right? So those main messages have these two truths that I pray that you'll hold on to have the right Revelation. Expectations, like for your life of faith today and tomorrow. If your expectations are off and they aren't in line with reality, when you get attacked, when you get knocked down, when people push back on you, when agents in our world, when there are false teachers in the church, where there are corrupt and bad governments that try and hold back Christianity, like you should not be misled, you should not think that that shouldn't be possible. God wants you to have the right expectations of the battle you're in and who God is and how you win the battle.
Expectation number one, here it is. As long as time goes on, here's what God wants you to expect and expectations. And this one is everything. Remember that Satan will wage war for your soul, your soul, and he'll use anything and everything to tear you away from God.
Like he'll use people in your life. He'll use false teachers from the church to lead you astray, to believe things that aren't true. He'll use others in our world to corrupt what you believe, to be influenced all around you. He will wage war for your soul. Woe to the earth of the sea because the devil has gone down to you. The angel's song is one of praise for God, but it is a warning to those who are alive. On earth, New Testament believers like he is. He's mad and he's fighting, and you need to know that he wants to destroy you.
He's filled with fury. His time is short. He was enraged. He went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring. That's you, and that's me today. And he will not stop until Jesus returns.
So understand, he is spewing things today to get you to be caught up in the flood and drowned spiritually. The Bible calls him the father of lies. The things that he spews out of his mouth are not true. He started in the garden of Eden, and he'll continue till the end of time to twist and to turn to get you to fall. He spews temptations that appeal, that draw you in, that even feel good in the moment, like he is waging war against your soul.
Understand the seriousness of that today and tomorrow. And whether you view him as a sniper who's got an accuracy that is like no other. Whether you view him as a mass murderer who can seek to kill people in multiples by other agents. Whether you view him as a serial killer who has an MO, well, you are the MO because you bear the name of Jesus Christ.
He can't win, but remember, you can still lose and be lost. Like, remember Jesus parable, the sower, and the seed? Some of it got cast on rocky ground. Jesus tells what that means. That's the ground on which the devil comes down and snatches it up. Like, that's Jesus. That's not Pastor Tim making this up.
Like the seed that grew on good ground. But there are weeds that came up in the midst of it, and they didn't get pulled out, and the weeds choked out the faith. The devil uses the things of this world to lead you away. You can still be lost.
He was defeated. He knows it. But you can still be devoured. Like, here's the biblical passage and the truth. You need to remember that he will wage war for your soul.
“When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time came.”
That was Jesus. Like, that was after the 40 days in the wilderness. He left him, but he's coming back. And if he did that to Jesus, I think he'll do it to you and to me.
“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
Not to play patty cake with, like, not just to hang out, to devour. Have the right expectations of who he is and his goal, and have the right expectation of God.
The devil has allies. The devil is in cahoots and has agents. You're gonna see that in the beasts in the next chapter. A great chapter. We're not gonna unpack that chapter.
Pastor Bill will circle back to it a little bit next week. But you and I also have an ally, and his name is God. Remember what I said before. The devil is big and bad. Do not face him on your own. But you are not in this battle on your own.
If you're taking notes. Until time ends. In this time and age of the 1260, until time ends. Remember, you plus God, with God as your ally. You plus God.
With God on your side, you plus God. And everything at his arsenal, you plus God, who is bigger and badder and defeated the devil. You plus God is greater than Satan. Every time. When God is on your side, with faith in Jesus Christ, he is your God. He preserves his church. Bad, it might get worse. But when it comes to Satan, the one who seeks to attack you, when God is on your side, you're greater than him.
Two reasons why. Remember, you plus God is greater than Satan. Because of God and his care. Because of God's care, God provided the place in the wilderness. God gave the woman two wings of a great eagle to get away.
God. When the devil spewed all the things, preserved The Church out of the serpent's reach. He used the earth to swallow up its. To open up its mouth and swallow the river that the dragon has spewed. That's God. God. God. God. God. With God as your ally.
Plant strong Jesus roots. Understand who God is. Celebrate God's care. He will provide for his church because he loves you and you are a part of his church. Like, hold on to that. Know that.
And then there's this. It's not just because of God's care, but ultimately because of Jesus blood. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Like, did you hear the song in heaven that was sung? That battle's taking place.
But Jesus, he died. He rose, he ascended to his throne. Like, it is done. It is finished. And you know what gives the victory to God's people now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his messiah.
The accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God, day and night has been hurled down. Like the devil until Jesus' ultimate victory could still accuse. God hasn't done it yet. You have to doubt it. Can he really do it? But when Jesus did all of that, it was done. It is finished. They triumphed over him.
How did The Church triumph over him? They triumphed over him by the blood of the lamb, their belief in the lamb, the blood of Jesus, because you have it on you, because you have been washed clean with it. Because he paid the price that we couldn't pay.
Satan can't win. In the end, he won't win. You need to hold onto that today and tomorrow. Expect God on your side. He will provide a way out when there is temptation, he will provide and care for His Church.
He'll preserve it today, just like he did. He always has. He always will. And the gates of hell cannot prevail against the kingdom of God. Jesus Christ said, like, that's the forest. Those are the expectations. Align them with reality. And as you do, remember Jesus.
“since the children have flesh and blood”
That's you and me. New Testament believers.
“He too shared in their humanity.”
He was like you and me.
“So that by his death, his suffering, he might break the power of him who holds the power of death, that is the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear”
You have nothing to fear with God on your side. When you think about the end, the devil wants you to doubt. But God left no doubt because he himself suffered when he was tempted. He's able to help those who are being tempted. When you are tempted, when the devil is attacking you, plus Jesus, his blood, God on your side, is greater than Satan.
Expect that. Celebrate that.
You have to have the right expectations.
The battle is real, but the victory has been won.
Praise God.