Center for Biblical Theology and Eschatology

Our Certain Triumph

by Pastor Steven R. Key

Date: 12/29/96
Location: Randolph Presbyterian Reformed Church
Text: Revelation 12:1-6

To the world at large Christmas is past. Whatever thoughts there were of Jesus are even corrupted thoughts. They are put away for another year. For the Church, however,and particularly the true Church of Jesus Christ, Christ lives not merely as a baby in Bethlehem, but as the exalted Savior. That birth of our Savior bore lasting significance. And so the Bible, while spending very little time on the actual birth of Jesus, expands instead on the significance of that birth and explains in numerous places the importance of that event in the whole divine plan of salvation.

Now one would not generally think of the Book of Revelation when thinking about the birth of Jesus. But also there is found the gospel of Christ's birth and its historical importance. Our heavenly Father saw fit to give to the Apostle John a vision of that birthof Christ even long after it had taken place. The fact was, Christ had already departed from this earth in His human nature,and that more than 50 years before. He had been crucified, had risen from the dead and 40 days later had ascended into heaven in the presence of John and the other apostles. Now, you know as well as I that when a man has died, his birth is no longer a point of focus in our thinking, especially as the years continue to pass after his death. But in this case the Lord gives John a vision of Christ's birth to record for our sakes. But the wonder of this vision is that we are given to see not only the birth of Jesus, but the fierce opposition to that birth that we rarely give consideration to, as well as the effect of that birth upon the world which is under the influence of Satan. And so we see in this text our certain triumph in the One born of a woman. Let us consider then under the theme:

OUR CERTAIN TRIUMPH

These 3 things:

I. THE GLORIOUS SIGN

II. THE BLOODTHIRSTY ADVERSARY

III. THE ALL POWERFUL RULE OF THE MANCHILD

WE ARE GIVEN IN THE VISION RECORDED BY JOHN A GLORIOUS SIGN.

WE SEE A WOMAN CLOTHED WITH THE SUN, AND THE MOON UNDER HER FEET,AND UPON HER HEAD A CROWN OF TWELVE STARS.

Her appearance is said to be "a great wonder." Now having recently given consideration to several texts in the Book of Revelation, I will mention once more that we have here a vision. That means that we have in this text much symbolism. You can understand that easily enough just by the language of the text. That this woman is clothed with the sun indicates that she is glorious in her appearance. She is a beautiful woman. She also has dominion of some sort. That is evident from the fact that she has the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. It is fair to say that this woman is the Queen of the Universe. But this Queen is also described in another way. She is pregnant. Not only pregnant, but full pregnant, ready to give birth.

It is what we read in verse 5 concerning her child that gives us the major clue as to the identity of this woman. For there we read that she brought forth a man child. And of this man child it is said that He shall rule all nations with a rod of iron. That expression should be familiar to you. Further, it is said that He was caught up to God and to His throne. That man child is Christ No question about it. He is clearly identified in Psalm 2:9 as the One Who rules the nations with a rod of iron.

That was the promise concerning the Messiah. For we read in the context of Psalm 2,"I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee." That refers to Christ. That refers generally to His coming. But more specifically, as is clear from Acts 13:33, as well as Hebrews chapter 5, that refers to Christ's resurrection. God begets His Son, as the Messiah, by raising Him from the dead. And so He says to His Son, "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.

Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." So that the One Who is to rule the nations with a rod of iron is the exalted,resurrected Christ. He is the One caught up unto God and to His throne. That is confirmed in Revelation chapter 19, as we shall see in a little while.

Now, with the man child identified clearly as Christ, we see that the woman is the mother of Christ. Not the virgin Mary; but the Church. That this woman is not the virgin Mary personally is evident from the fact that this woman continues to exist, and flees into the wildeness to be fed of God a thousand two hundred and threescore days. That number, as is seen in the rest of the scheme of this Book, is representative of the entire New Testament age. So the fact that this woman is pictured as still alive today completely rules out the idea that this is the virgin Mary. The woman is the Church, the holy seed, which culminates in Christ. That gives us a proper, well rounded understanding of the Church too, beloved. When God said to Satan immediately after the fall, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heal," that was not a promise limited to Eve. The woman receives the promise in her generations. So the woman seen by John in this vision, the woman that brings forth The Seed that crushes the head of the serpent, is the Church.

Notice, she exists both before and after the birth of Christ. This is not the only passage by any means which speaks of the Church as one in both Old and New Testaments. Acts 7:38 is another that speaks of Moses and the Church in the wilderness. And that is the truth revealed throughout Scripture. To separate the Old and New Testaments, to separate the Israel of the Old Testament and what Paul refers to as the Israel of God, the Church of Jesus Christ, is a grievous error. The Jews in the Old Testament speak now not merely of natural Jews, but those believing children of Abraham were the Church. There is one Church throughout the ages, one woman to use the figure of this text. That is further signified by the crown on her head, a crown which has twelve stars. Twelve is the number that signifies the whole Church, all the elect throughout the ages. In the Old Testament there are twelve tribes, and in the New Testament twelve apostles. The Church throughout the ages is characterized by the number twelve.

Still more, this woman is described as a Queen That also is significant. After all, just a few chapters later, in Revelation 17-19, we meet up with another woman clothed in royal apparel. She takes to herself the appearance of a queen. But the righteous Judge exposes her as the great Whore. That woman is Antichrist. This woman, however, is God's Church. And she is a queen indeed.

Before the eyes of God, she is a queen even from all eternity. For she has her existence for the sake of His Son. She will be the Bride of Christ! The whole universe is hers,that she might serve as a fitting Bride, adorned for her Husband. This is indeed a glorious sign! After all, we do not see the Church now as a Queen, except we look at her by faith. With our natural eyes we see a Church rendered quite ugly by her sin. We see a Church hated and despised by the forces of evil. But the real picture is given to John in a vision. This is the reality! The Church is a glorious Bride, even as Christ describes her through Solomon His type, in the Song of Solomon.

BUT HERE SHE IS DESCRIBED AS BEING IN TRAVAIL, READY TO GIVE BIRTH.

The question will certainly be asked: If this woman is the Church, the Bride of Christ, how can the bride be said to give birth to Christ? But the Scriptures, being viewed with the eyes of faith, give us the answer. For Christ is not only the child seen as being born of the woman. But according to Isaiah 9:6, He is also the Mighty God and the Everlasting Father. He is God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, given to us as a child and born unto us as a Son. He was in the beginning the Word, Who was with God and is God, and by Whom all things were made. So the Church is the

Bride of the Son of God. But what this woman brings forth is the human nature of Christ. And it is the birth of this Christ, His appearance in our flesh, that is spoken of in this vision where the woman is travailing in birth, ready to be delivered.

She had looked forward to this birth throughout the entire Old Testament. From the very time of the promise recorded in Genesis 3:15, she knew that she carried in her womb the Messiah. And the deliverance of that child is absolutely essential for her own life and salvation. The promise was that she would indeed bring forth that Seed. She didn't know when that Seed would come. Ever since the Church received that promise, she was in travail, waiting to bring forth that Holy Seed. As we do not know the time of Christ's second coming, the Church throughout the Old Testament did not know the time of His coming. Believing women in the Old Testament brought forth children with their eyes fixed on the promise. The Israel of God would be gathered from believers and their seed, through the Seed Who was yet to be born. And so women laid hold of the truth that they were blessed in child bearing. They didn't do everything to prevent the birth of children. The believing women brought forth children, in the hope of the coming of Christ, the promised Seed. Just as in the New Testament believing women seek to bear children in the hope of the promise. After all, Paul reaffirms the truth in I Timothy 2:15 that women shall be saved in childbearing. (And if you need to be reminded what that text means, or what it doesn't mean, I preached on it about 6 months ago. You may refresh your memory by requesting the tape.) But Christ will not return until every last one of His elect are born and gathered into His Church.

The woman of our text looked for that promised coming of the Messiah all through the Old Testament. With that promise in mind they suffered all the pains of childbearing. And gradually that promise was more clearly revealed. At the beginning it was the "Seed of the woman." That was the promise. That might be any woman. But it had also been made clear that from the first man would come two kinds of seed. That became evident in Cain and Abel. Soon the promise was narrowed down to the line of Shem. Later it is revealed to be Abraham's seed. Then Israel. And when Israel develops into twelve tribes, the holy Seed is narrowed down to Judah. Within the tribe of Judah it is limited to David's house and to David's royal line. And finally the promise culminates in the virgin Mary. But all belongs to the woman. That is the Church, a glorious sign revealing the wonder work of God's grace. And in the fulness of time she brings forth that "holy thing," which, as I explained last Sunday or the week before, is the human nature which the Son of God will receive, that He may be one with us and may tabernacle among us and may save us.

BUT BEFORE THAT GLORIOUS SIGN STANDS A BLOODTHIRSTY ADVERSARY.

IN THE VISION THAT ADVERSARY TAKES THE APPEARANCE OF A GREAT RED DRAGON, HAVING SEVEN HEADS AND TEN HORNS, AND SEVEN CROWNS UPON HIS HEADS.

He is, therefore, a great and powerful and bloodthirsty monster of very unnatural appearance. Of his appearance two things may be said.

In the first place, this serpent has a hideous appearance from the perspective of John and the Church. Remember now, this is his appearance to the believer, to the Churc, not necessarily to all who see him. And adding to his hideous appearance is the fact that he is red, the color of bloodshed and wrath. His is a destructive nature. He seeks to destroy and to kill.In the second place, the fact that he carries a crown upon each of his seven heads indicates that this dragon also bears a certain power and authority. The fact that he has ten horns adds to that idea.

For the horn in Scripture is a symbol of might and strength. This is an authoritative and powerful figure! But don't overlook the numbers here. Both seven and ten are numbers that symbolize completeness. The number ten is the complete number of something as it is limited by God's sovereign decree. A complete, yet divinely limited measure of something is indicated by the number ten. That this dragon has ten horns tells us therefore that his strength is limited by the sovereign decree of the Almighty God, and that he can do no more than what God has decreed for him. But this monster also has seven heads. The number seven, as I said, also marks completeness. But its symbolism is different from the number ten. Seven is a holy number in Scripture. It is generally used with reference to God's kingdom and its fulness by sovereign election. And used here with reference to the dragon's authority and power, seems to throw a very puzzling element into this picture. If the dragon's strength, as indicated by the ten horns, is limited by the sovereign decree and power of God, how must it be explained that at the same time this beast seems to have complete authority in the kingdom of God, as indicated in the seven crowned heads? The answer is to be found in the identity of this dragon. He is the deceiver. He has taken these crowns and placed them upon himself. God did not put them there. Still more, those crowns aren't even real! They are not made in heaven, from where comes all authority; but they are fashioned in hell. They are counterfeit! This dragon intrudes into the kingdom of God! That is a terrible intrusion, as we shall see! But after he has done all that God allows him to do, God will take those crowns away and grind them to powder, and cast that monster into hell!

That dragon, I say, is the devil, who is also called Satan, our adversary. His identity is left without question in verse 9 of this chapter. At the same time, it is not without significance that he is described symbolically as this great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns. That is a picture of course. The devil himself is a spirit. But the point here is that the devil does not stand alone as an adversary of the woman and her child. If you look at the next chapter, Revelation 13:1, you read of the beast that comes up out of the sea. That beast is the Antichrist!

What is striking, however,is that he also is described as having seven heads and ten horns. Here in Revelation 12 they are pictured as being on the devil. There Antichrist himself bears the same ugly characteristics. What does that similarity mean? It means that the devil himself is the power behind the Antichrist. The power and strength of Satan will be seen historically in the antiChristian world power. He is the instigator of the Antichrist.

Satan, therefore, does not stand alone in his opposition to the woman and her child. From the beginning of that opposition, in fact, he had many with him. When he fell in heaven, a third of the angels fell with him. That is why we read that his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven.

That is explained a little later as referring to the fallen angels, who are his servants and who belong to his kingdom of darkness. And since the fall of man Satan has added the whole human race to his kingdom with the exception of those whom God is pleased to give to His Son. That explains the development of the antiChristian world power. And all this serves to show us that the enemy is big, and he is powerful. He is a formidable adversary, a terrible monster of iniquity! That is all the more evident from what we read in the last part of verse 4.

OF THIS ADVERSARY WE ARE TOLD THAT HE "STOOD BEFORE THE WOMAN WHICH WAS READY TO BE DELIVERED, FOR TO DEVOUR HER CHILD AS SOON AS IT WAS BORN."

He does so knowing what he is attempting! He would kill the Christ! And so he would destroy the whole Church! The devil knows that the birth of Christ is indispensable for our salvation. And all through the Old Testament the devil knew that the woman would bring forth the Christ. The promise of Genesis 3:15, after all, was addressed to him (although not for him). And when God said, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall crush thy head," the devil did not say, "I don't believe that." He doesn't shun the Scriptures. I have told you before, Satan knows the Scripture far better than multitudes of Christians. That is why he is constantly trying to twist them and bring revision to them. But Satan doesn't say to God, "I don't believe that." Rather, he says, "I will keep it from happening!"

So the devil stands before the woman. He gives his sole attention to the Church. His other minions, those fallen spirits, can monkey around with the world. But Satan gives his full attention to the Church. And he watches very carefully. Satan does not have access to the Lamb's book of life. He must make his judgment even as we do according to the words of our Lord: " By their fruits ye shall know them". So he very carefully observes our walk of life and listens to our speech, in order that he might evaluate whether we have been taken out of his kingdom and given a place in the kingdom of God's dear Son. So that as we look at the development of Old Testament history, we may say that Satan listened very carefully when Isaac gave Jacob the blessing instead of Esau.

The devil turned his attention toward Jacob. Later he did not follow the ten tribes, but stood before Judah, from whom Shiloh would come. The devil knows where the woman is. He paid close attention when God sent Samuel to the house of Jesse. He was there to observe when Samuel called for that youngest son to be brought in from the field, and proceeded to anoint that son, David, to be king over Israel. And Satan soon became aware of the promise of Psalm 89:3,4: "I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations."

And all the while, throughout the entire history of the Old Testament, Satan was trying desperately to abort the Christ child. That he stood before the woman ready to devour the child as soon as it was born does not mean that he stood there for 4,000 years just waiting. He tried to destroy the holy seed all through the Old Testament. He tried desperately, I say, to abort the Child. All through the Old Testament you can trace the sign of the woman and the dragon. That is the sign in the death of Abel. But that sign is not just characterized by outward acts of murder. The devil is a deceiver.

The same sign is seen in the mixing of two seeds, the sons of God and the daughters of men. If he can get the children of the Church to forsake the antithesis, and to find fellowship with the world,he knows he will destroy them. So he constantly tempted the children of God, all in the attempt to destroy the Church and prevent the coming of Christ. And if he cannot get them to fall into his deceitful traps, he turns the forces of persecution against them. That you also find in the history of the Old Testament. And this great red dragon shows himself to be a powerful adversary! How else is it to be explained that at the end of sixteen hundred years, only a Church of eight souls is left in Noah and his family. The Flood became necessary. Else the holy Seed would have been killed.

The same sign is seen at the Tower of Babel, and in the history of Israel in Egypt. The dragon stood before the woman in the person of Pharaoh, who commanded all the Israelite babies to be killed.

And later, was there ever a nation so hated, as Israel in Canaan? That is the history of the woman throughout the Old Testament. The great red dragon stood before her constantly, seeking to devour the child who would be the Savior of the world.

But the devil does not have all knowledge. He made one mistake. And let's not forget God's hand in all this. God is the One Who alone is Sovereign. God is the One Who rules over all. God is the One Who is faithful to His promise, not only, but Who is Powerful to accomplish that which He has said. But the devil made one mistake. He did not try to destroy Mary. He lost sight of the promise that a virgin would conceive and bear Immanuel. That was his mistake. He looked for Christ to be born in Jerusalem, the city of David. And when Joseph and Mary came to Bethlehem, she who stood as it were at the heart of the Church, gave birth to the Son of God. The Church was delivered of her long awaited child. Christ was born, the man child Who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron.

AND SO THE TEXT COMFORTS US BY POINTING US TO THE ALL POWERFUL RULE OF THE MAN CHILD, WHO IS OUR SAVIOR.HE WHO CONTINUES TO OPPOSE US, BELOVED, IS A DEFEATED ADVERSARY.

The child which the woman brought forth is caught up into heaven. As we saw earlier the reference here to Psalm 2, it is evident that the child being caught up to God and to His throne is a reference to Christ's exaltation. Throughout the Old Testament it seemed time and time again that the dragon had the victory. But in every case God delivered His Son. He preserved the Holy Seed in the womb of the woman. In the fulness of time the child was born. And he was delivered from the murderous plot of Herod as Satan continued the attempt to destroy the Man child. For nearly 33 years the Christ of God faced all manner of opposition and persecution, until finally he was betrayed by one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot. And within a day of that betrayal, Jesus hung on the cross, crucified.

It seemed, at least for several hours, that the dragon had the victory after all. He didn't. The earth quake and the tearing of the temple veil and the opening of the graves showed that the dragon didn't have the victory. In fact, at the cross Christ accomplished the victory forever.

In demonstration of His victory, He rose again from the dead, and ascended into heaven, to take His place at God's right hand. That is our Christ, beloved!

He sits upon the throne and rules the nations with a rod of iron. The nations, in the Book of Revelation, are always the wicked nations.

They are those peoples who rise up against God and His Christ, who reject His Word and His reign over them. That Christ rules them now with a rod of iron means that He shall judge them and show His victory over them, and ultimately destroy them. He reigns supreme. His rule is an all powerful rule. The dragon was not able to slay Him. What man shall stand before Him? Let that be for your comfort, all you who are His. Our victory in Him is secure.

WE MUST HEAR THESE WORDS, BELOVED, BECAUSE THE SIMPLE FACT IS THAT WE DO NOT SEE THIS RULE WITH OUR NATURAL EYES.

It still seems, by all outward appearances, that the dragon reigns, that the great monster of iniquity has us always in the sights of his attacks. But that which we see with our eyes and experience of the persecution of Satan and his followers is explained to us in verse 6: "And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days." That the woman flees into the wilderness is due to the fact that when Satan sees that he has failed to destroy Christ, he hates the woman. The devil is an angry devil! And because he can no longer touch Christ personally with his hatred, he turns his fury to the Church. He will touch, as it were, the apple of God's eye! He persecutes her. Because he failed in his attempt to devour the Christ, he attempts to destroy Christ's Church.

And the woman flees. She flees into the wilderness, says the text, where God has prepared a place for her. That is an amazing thing. What is the wilderness? The wilderness is the world. The woman no longer has a land of Canaan. In the Old Testament she was given a definite land. But in the New Testament she no longer has such a place. She flees into the wilderness. In the waste howling wilderness of this world, she has a place prepared for her by God. Who would have thought that God would have His Church live in the midst of the world of sin and evil? But so we live. As pilgrims and strangers we live. For 1260 days, that is, all through this New Testament age until Christ returns to take us unto Himself, we have a place given us by God in the wilderness.

And here we are nourished and kept by God. In the face of fierce opposition and continual persecution, and even while seeing many go astray, we are nourished by our God, fed by His Word and strengthened by His Spirit.

And the point is this: The devil is defeated. He will continue to wage his attacks. He is indeed as a roaring lion, going about seeking whom he may devour. And there will come a time, albeit a very brief time, when he will again appear to have the victory, when Antichrist reigns. But those days also will be shortened for the elect's sake. For even the antiChristian world power is a defeated power. All is in the hands of Him Who reigns, our Lord Jesus Christ. So we find in Revelation 19 the alleluia chorus being sung. The Lord God omnipotent reigneth! In Christ He reigns, Lord over all. And the armies which are in heaven follow Him. "And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." He shall seize the beast and with him the false prophet that deceived those who received the mark of the beast, and this exalted Lord Christ shall cast them into the lake of fire. And the marriage feast of the Lamb shall be held.

Do you believe it, beloved? Blessed are all they who put their trust in Him.

Amen

Pastor Steven R. Key graduated from the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary in 1986 and was ordained in September of 1986. He was pastor of Southeast Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, of Randolph Protestant Reformed Church, in Randolph, Wisconsin, and is now emeritus minister of the Protestant Reformed Churches and member of Loveland Protestant Reformed Church in Loveland, Colorado.