INVINCIBLE CHURCH 1-19-25

Invincible Church Sermon Notes
01/19/2025
Enemy of The Faith – Revelation 12:9-17; 13:1-18; 14:1-5
Before we get started on the message, I need to explain some things! The Bible is the 100% accurate, holy, inerrant, and supernatural inspired Word of God. Other religions and writers may claim their books are “holy, accurate, and 100% supernatural true,” but that’s a lie. There’s inexhaustible tangible proof on both accounts.
Now, that being said:
Along with law, commands, instructions, history, prophecy, and literal communications and dialogue in the Bible, there’s also allegory, symbolism, analogy, parables, figurative, and literal speech. All of these are based on principles of truth.
When we read and study the Bible, we also have to consider the history, original languages, customs, and context of the times that the Bible was inspired by God. People ask, “Why did God put the Bible together like this?” Well, He’s smarter than we are!
A good explanation goes like this: allegories are stories with more commonly known ideas, events, and symbols that represent more uncommon ideas, events, and symbols. The clearest examples of allegory in the Bible are the parables of Jesus. Allegorical interpretation gives a deeper spiritual meaning to the text or story.
Jesus used parables to illustrate profound, God-inspired truth because people could naturally remember the stories better. He used bold characters and powerful symbolism. Jesus was a Jew, and parables were a common form of teaching in Judaism.
He also used graphic analogies with common elements that people would be familiar with, like salt, bread, sheep, branches, water, soil, etc. Jesus got to a point in His ministry where He only used parables to teach, and He’d only explain the deeper meaning to His disciples.
The reason is that there’s a very clear distinction between people who want to know God’s truth and people who are only interested in the false belief of their “own truth.” True followers of Jesus have spiritual discernment, the ears to hear God’s truth, and are given more of it.
People who reject Jesus, either intentionally or by default, can’t discern God’s truth. They can physically hear it, but they don’t spiritually perceive it. However, we have to keep speaking the truth to them until they decide to pursue Jesus, because faith comes from hearing the truth about the Gospel of Jesus.
Now, there’s always been some disagreement about whether certain texts are supposed to be taken literally or figuratively, and to what degree, especially with the Book of Revelation. There’s very little difference between allegory, typology, symbolism, and literal interpretation.
Once a person becomes a true follower of Jesus, they have spiritual ears to hear. Understanding the concepts, strategies, and reasons for teaching the truth in different ways gets easier to comprehend.
For somebody to insist that a part of Scripture has to be taken literally when God clearly intends for it to be communicated symbolically will cause people to miss the deeper spiritual meaning of the text or story.
I felt like I needed to say all that because we’re talking about the Book of Revelation for the next couple of weeks!
The Book of Revelation is kind of like a GPS that God has given us for “the end of time” before the millennial reign of Jesus. One of the key figures in Revelation and the end times is “the Antichrist.” His rebellion against God is what sets the stage for the final battle between good and evil.
In Revelation 12, the angels are in spiritual battle with the enemies of God, whom the Bible describes as the great dragon and his demons. They’re trying to deceive the whole world!
Now, Satan can’t win by his own authority because Jesus defeated him at the cross. So, there’s no way for Satan’s power to overcome the power of the Holy Spirit. Instead, he has to try and win through evil schemes, which means his strategy is deception and trickery.
If a true follower of Jesus is losing a spiritual battle, it’s not because Satan has overpowered them. It’s because we decided to rely on our own natural mind, ways, and power. That’s how Satan can override our thinking and trick us into functioning his way instead of God’s way.
This is why we must remember:
In spiritual battle, and in every decision we make, God always gives us the opportunity to seek Him first. That’s how we discern the action He would have us take. Alternatively, we can just barrel off into situations on our own and then have to deal with the consequences, whatever they may be.
Satan’s most common tools are manipulation and influence.
Now, we need to cover a lot of scripture today. So, the plan is: while we’re reading through the passage, we’ll stop and break some things down as we go, keeping in mind what we know about context, allegory, symbolism, analogy, parables, and figurative speech.
Revelation 12:9-17 (NIV)
9 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.
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!”
Stop right there.
God still allows Satan to approach Him, which means Satan is continually approaching God and accusing true followers of Jesus of all kinds of sin and wrongdoing. Satan knows God is perfect, righteous, and holy. For us to be with God in heaven, it requires us to be righteous.
Satan is clever. He knows that if we’re not righteous in God’s eyes, then we can’t be with Him forever in heaven. But—praise Jesus!—the passage goes on to say in verse 11:
11 They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.
The biblical principle of truth here is: we can’t win spiritual battles against Satan if we’re just passively following. A true follower of Jesus is bold and courageous! Following Jesus involves a two-part battle plan. Jesus already did His part with His blood at the cross. Now:
Our part is to speak the truth of who Jesus is through our testimony of salvation in Him. Winning spiritual battles requires both parts, and we know which part is often lacking. If we don’t do our part, then we forfeit the authority to defeat Satan.
Verse 11 finishes by saying:
... they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
God’s plan calls for us to love Him more than we love ourselves. This doesn’t make God selfish—it makes Him a great Father. He knows that it’s the only way for us to survive in the spiritual realm.
Verse 12 continues...
Revelation 12:12-17 (NIV)
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.
Satan knows his time is running out! He’s seen the prophecies and promises of God come true.
Satan thought he had defeated Jesus when he manipulated the Jews and Romans to conspire to execute Jesus by crucifixion. But Satan didn’t count on Jesus walking out of the tomb after God raised Him back to life!
Now Satan realizes he can’t defeat Jesus, and he knows Jesus is coming back. So, he only has a limited amount of time on Earth to:
• Steal
• Kill
• Destroy
• Deceive
• Manipulate
God alone knows exactly how much time Satan has left, but we know it’s running out!
Think about Satan’s mindset. He knows he can’t kill Jesus, and he knows his time is short. So, his last-ditch effort is to disrupt God’s plan by trying to destroy Israel, in an attempt to compromise who God is and derail His prophecy.
Revelation 12:13-14 (NIV)
13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman [Israel, not Mary] who had given birth to the male child [Jesus, who came through Israel].
14 The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times, and half a time [3 ½ years], out of the serpent’s reach.
Time is really short now.
Revelation 12:15-16 (NIV)
15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman [Israel, not Mary] and sweep her away with the torrent.
This suggests that some kind of supernatural event, activity, or disaster will be caused by Satan in another attempt to destroy Israel.
16But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.
Satan will unleash something overwhelming in an effort to destroy again, but God will open the earth and absorb Satan’s attack.
Pause and think about this: All of this is happening in the scope of end times and world events. But there are countless testimonies of God “swallowing up” disasters, hardships, tragedies, and more in the lives of His children.
One of the ways some people discover the reality of who God is comes through real-life dilemmas. These situations overwhelm them to the point where they can’t:
• Work
• Fight
• Struggle
• Or buy their way out.
It doesn’t always have to happen this way, but some people—and even nations—are so stubborn that God allows the consequences of their bad decisions to overwhelm them. This brings them to a point where they have nowhere else to turn for help but to Him.
When people are overwhelmed by something like a flood or fire and they witness God “swallow it up,” sparing them from total destruction or death, it becomes a powerful validation of God’s presence and power.
This is often how God reveals Himself to those weak in faith—or those who aren’t true followers of Jesus yet.
Revelation 12:17 (NIV)
17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman [Israel] and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.
Here, we’re introduced to the Antichrist, referred to as “the Beast.”
Next week, we’ll continue into Chapter 13!