INVINCIBLE CHURCH 10-20-24

Invincible Church Sermon Notes
10/20/2024
God’s Perfect Prophecy pt 2 – Revelation 12:10-12
Every true follow of Jesus knows without a doubt that the Bible is a supernatural book written by God. Since God is omniscient, He knows the past, present, and future—even before it ever happens! Bible prophecy proves this. There are prophecies in the Old Testament that are fulfilled later in the Old Testament.
There are prophecies in the Old Testament that are fulfilled in the New Testament with the first coming of Jesus. And there are many prophecies in the New Testament that are currently being fulfilled today. Then, God's perfect prophecy will be completed when Jesus comes back and carries out His 1,000-year reign on Earth.
God reveals all His perfect prophecies to us in His Word—the Holy Bible—and He tells us how they are going to come to pass. So, we need to dig into the Word of God so we can know Him better and understand the perfect prophetic revelations He’s given us more clearly.
It’s one of the tangible actions we ought to be intentionally and diligently taking as a true follow of Jesus to make sure we are fully equipped to be His faithful and productive ambassadors, warriors, servants, and saints for the Kingdom of God. This is what Jesus calls all of us to do!
It’s described as a "calling" because God loves us, but He doesn’t try to force us to love Him. So, God allows every person to freely choose to do good or evil during life on Earth and to receive salvation or condemnation from Him for life in eternity through His Son, Jesus.
Revelation 12:10-12 NIV 10 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. 11 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. 12 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.”
Chapter 12 of Revelation covers a broad spectrum of past, present, and future events. As the story is being told in verse 10, it says, the booming voice of an angel proclaims, “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Messiah.”
Because back in verses 7-9, it tells about a war in heaven between the archangel Michael and his angels, and Satan and his demons. Satan is called the “great dragon” here, so the ancient serpent and his demons were defeated and hurled out of heaven down to Earth.
Now, this battle isn’t talking about the first time Satan was cast out of heaven for his abomination against God before the creation of the world. It’s talking about a time in the future when Satan and his angels are permanently banned from heaven forever.
The way it works right now is that Satan has some limited access to approach God’s throne, where he makes accusations against man, God's creation, just like we saw with Job. The ultimate defeat of Satan was accomplished by Jesus at the cross, but thankfully, that’s not the end of the story in God’s perfect plan.
The time we’re living in right now is called the “Church Age,” which is obviously also part of His plan. It’s a period of time where God is showing the world His indescribable grace and mercy by allowing anyone who is willing to submit to Jesus as Lord and Savior for forgiveness of sin, so we can be reconciled to Him in heaven.
Only God knows how long this time period will last. Satan is furious and jealous about all this because he still wants to be God, but he can’t. Also, he chose to give up his place in heaven by rebelling against God, trying to steal God’s glory.
Which means Satan is stuck here, roaming the Earth with his demons, trying to disrupt and destroy life on Earth for as many of God’s people as he can—until Jesus comes back to set all things right once and for all. Then, Satan’s limited access to heaven will be cut off forever.
So, the strategy of Satan is to be the accuser of believers. This means that, right now, God allows Satan temporary access to His divine presence, and Satan uses this access to bring allegations against us to God because he knows God is a righteous judge.
Satan understands the magnitude of God’s holy, righteous, and perfect character. Satan also knows that our sin separates us from God, which grieves God deeply because He loves us so much.
Another way to look at it is if Satan can’t stop a person from being saved (and he can’t), then he at least wants to try and steal the joy that comes when we experience, encounter, and walk with God as our Heavenly Father in true fellowship with Him here on Earth.
Another amazing example of God’s perfect prophecy in all this is back in the Old Testament book of Zechariah, which shows us an example of Satan as the accuser of God’s people and the response God gives in this specific circumstance.
An angel shows the prophet Zechariah a vision of Satan, the accuser, standing before the Lord, making allegations against Jeshua, who is the high priest. Satan doesn’t cut any slack to anybody!
God says to Satan, “I reject your accusations. I am the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem. I rebuke you. This man is like a burning stick that has been snatched from the fire.” In the vision, Jeshua’s clothes were filthy, so the angel told the others standing there, “Take off his filthy clothes!”
Then he turned to Jeshua and said, “See, I have taken away your sins, and now I am giving you these fine new clothes,” which is symbolism for what Jesus did at the cross in cleansing us from our filthy sin. We need to understand that this kind of stuff is going on right now in the supernatural realm!
While Satan, the accuser of God’s people, wants to emphasize our sin to God so that we have to be condemned, God gives us mercy and grace and rejects Satan’s accusations against us—just like when God granted the devil permission to test Job.
Job’s faith in God and his perseverance in his circumstances proved his genuine humility to Satan, making the devil’s accusations against him false. Job didn’t give up on God, which became a victory for him in the spiritual battle against Satan, the accuser.
So, we can also rest easy in the truth that Jesus and the Holy Spirit intercede for us. Satan’s accusations won’t change God’s perfect plan and perfect prophecy to save all those who submit to Jesus as their Lord and Savior. It’s how God’s purpose for us is fulfilled for His glory!
Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and the Holy Spirit as our Advocate—who is in us when we become a true follower of Jesus are infinitely greater than the accuser of God’s people. So, when a follower of Jesus struggles with guilt and shame due to sin, the accuser is going to try to break our fellowship with God.
But Jesus intercedes for us! It’s how and why we can always confess our sin straight to God, and He “is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” We can have faith and trust in the truth that there is “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
This tells us the reality that we all face, which is—it doesn’t matter what time in history or what life circumstance a true follower of Jesus happens to be in—Satan is provoking spiritual battles any time and any place that he has the opportunity. So, praise Jesus for the truth that Paul tells us in…
Romans 8:28-32 NIV 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. 31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Every true follower of Jesus is saved from eternal condemnation in hell through the blood of Jesus! So, when Satan attacks us in spiritual battle, we can defeat him through the blood of Jesus that covers our sin and through the word of our testimony, which we maintain because of it.
The remnant of God’s people on Earth has always been outnumbered and outmanned by worldly standards. But God’s people don’t live by worldly standards—we live by the power of the Holy Spirit!
Accusations made by Satan will not stand against all those who have been forgiven of their sins through the sacrificial life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ! It’s the same for nations that truly follow God’s perfect moral plan. We see it all throughout history!
The Pharaohs are gone. Assyria lies in ruins. Babylon has fallen. Rome has crumbled. The Third Reich has been wiped off the face of the Earth. The Soviet Union has collapsed. And all enemies of Israel have fallen and perished from the Earth—and will never return in those forms!
But the nation of Israel still stands, because the God of Israel is all-powerful! The Savior of Israel still lives, because the Messiah of Israel is Jesus Christ. He was raised from the dead and is seated at the right hand of God. And He’s coming back to set all this mess straight!
Jeremiah 31:35-36 NIV 35 This is what the Lord says, he who appoints the sun to shine by day,
who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
the Lord Almighty is his name: 36 “Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,” declares the Lord, “will Israel ever cease being a nation before me.”
As long as the sun, moon, and stars give light to the Earth, and the laws of nature keep churning, the Jewish people and the nation of Israel will endure, survive, and exist. Because God is real—the God who created the universe and everything in it is also the God of Israel! The Word of God is true, and the promises of God will happen, because His faithfulness never ends, and His love endures forever! And He’s got a plan for us!
1 Corinthians 2:9-10 (NIV)-9However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”—the things God has prepared for those who love Him. 10These are the things God has revealed to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
Stay strong in the Lord and the power of His might! Fight the good fight! Finish the race well! Never give up! Keep pressing on in every spiritual battle and defeat the enemy every time through victory in Jesus!
Revelation 12 is clearly describing the life, plan, and purpose of Jesus. Jesus ascended to Heaven and will come back one day to establish His kingdom on Earth, and He’ll rule it with perfect judgment and prove God’s perfect plan will work!
Our responsibility—our part of the plan, our purpose, our job as a true follower of Jesus is to follow His instructions here on Earth until He calls us home or comes back to get us!
So, we’ve got to always seek God first in everything. And the way we do it is to love, pray, and be thankful; go, make, and teach disciples; and ask, seek, and knock on the doors of opportunity God gives us to serve Him! If we faithfully do that and teach others to do the same, we’ll please Jesus and bring glory to God’s name, which gives us real peace and true joy!
ILL: Daughter of a friend saying God is calling her to help these specific people!
God is at work in His invincible Church, and praise Jesus for the opportunities He gives us to serve Him!