Sermons from Lone
Rock Bible Church "Warfare: Future, Past and Present" After the birth of baby Jesus, King Herod tried to have Him killed. Whatever would have possessed him? Or...whoever? Let's get the big picture: 1. Overview (Revelation 12) 2. Focus on Christ (Matthew 2:13-23)
We are wrapping up the Christmas holiday time so we will be dealing with Bible verses from Matthew. At the same time we are talking about spiritual warfare as we prepare to deal with the armor of God so we will be bringing that element in on New Year’s Eve. Let’s go back in time to July 21, 1861. Southern forces had fired on Fort Sumter and the Civil War was on. In the minds of most people both north and south, it was likely to be a very quick war and hopefully a relatively bloodless one. That’s why on this particular day the northern forces under McDowell and the southern forces under General Beauregard met 25 miles west of Washington, D.C. Everyone was a neophyte. Everyone was new at war. There wasn’t anybody who had it all figured out. As a matter of fact, strategists tell us had Beauregard gotten his way as McDowell did, each intended to right-flank the other. Had that happened the southern forces would have walked right into Washington, D.C. and the northern forces would have walked right into Richmond, Virginia and two capitols would have been captured all at once. But it didn’t go exactly that way. War -- battle at that point -- was such a new thing to those folks and the first battle was shaping up just west of Washington, D.C. From the northern side it was called the Battle of Bull Run, the south called it the Battle of Manasses and neither side realized it would be the first Bull Run and the first Manasses because there would be more. Congressmen, wives, civilians, children, packed picnic lunches and drove their carriages to a hillside just east of the conflict in order to watch the show. War was on, but in the minds of the people it was entertainment, until the lead started to fly, until young men on both sides were taking large caliber hits and hundreds were dropping and dying. It looked at first as though the Union forces were going to prevail, but Beauregard had reinforcements arrive at a critical moment and the tide was turned. The northern troops fell into a panic and began to flee to Washington, D.C. The route that everyone chose was the route that they had come and it led over a narrow bridge across a river. When the civilians saw it they thought we’d better get out of here too and in a panic, abandoning their picnic baskets, leaving it all to the ants, they hurried away as well. But one of their carriages overturned right at that bridge, bottling everything up, creating massive confusion. Many more people perished because so many folks thought this was a game and not a war. It’s time the Christian community understands the war we are in and realize it truly is a battlefield in this life and not a recreation room. We are going several places in Scripture. We are going to begin in the book of Revelation and tiptoe into some deep water. From there we are going back to the Christmas story and I hope that the two will make sense lined up together, and from there to ourselves. We need to be prepared to put on God’s armor, to take our place deliberately and intelligently and seriously on the field of battle. What we will get from the book of Revelation will give us an overview of the conflict. Let’s go to Revelation 12. I need to say a few words about the book before we jump in. Probably no book of the Bible has been misunderstood nor argued about nor attracted so much attention as the book of Revelation because what is in there is mysterious and people are intrigued by it. That is deliberate. Revelation was written in a deliberately veiled form. It is a very unique kind of literature. There are many kinds of literature represented in the Bible. There is story literature, narrative, poetry, wisdom literature, legal literature, parables, and so forth. Revelation is called apocalyptic literature. It is the only book of the New Testament that is apocalyptic. The word apocalypse is translated Revelation. When you see it in your Bible, the word Revelation is translated from the word apocalypse which means to pull a veil aside in order to reveal a mystery. And it is, to be sure, a mystery. People have made a couple common mistakes with regard to understanding the book of Revelation. Before I go into those let me just say anybody who says they know exactly what the book says, does not. That we know. That being said, common mistake number one has been to say on the part of many that the book of Revelation is all history, that essentially everything contained in the book has taken place already in history and the proper understanding of history will reveal that it is a done deal. The problem with that view is that there is much in the book that honestly most folks would say has not happened yet, such things as the return of Jesus.That’s one mistake. Others have made an equally serious error in saying it’s all future. When you jump into the book of Revelation you will see the mysteries of the future unfold before your eyes even as they take place on the front page of the local paper. That, too, is an exaggeration. The problem with that is the first three chapters of Revelation set the historical setting for the book. There are seven churches, literal congregations like this one, situated in real places in western Asia Minor which is today Turkey, and they had this to hear. This is their mail. They were real churches with real needs. There is another way of looking at it. This gets a little complicated and that’s why so many questions remain unanswered. That is this: Following an understanding of this kind of writing from the standpoint of what is called typology. That means that Bible history does tend to repeat itself. I agree with that. It’s in the Scripture. In other words, a real historical event that takes place in Scripture at one point in the past will take place again on a grander scale somewhere down the road. That’s what I am seeing predominantly in the book of Revelation. We’ll talk about that in just a second. There is a problem with prophetic literature, and there is a lot of it in the Bible. It’s a problem to us; it’s not a problem to God. There is more than audience that has to benefit from this kind of stuff. There are seven real churches in the first couple chapters of Revelation. They needed to know this, but God who is the author of the Bible, who is responsible for the Scripture, realize they aren’t the only ones who needed to know. He knew, way ahead of the game, that you and I would need to know it and that there would be many generations of Christians down through the years who also would need to read this and benefit from it. There is the immediate audience; there is the distant audience; and there are all those audiences in between and it worked out just fine because church history revealed every generation since Jesus has been pretty sure it has been the last one and Jesus would return in their time. Oftentimes in this kind of literature we have to realize that everything doesn’t follow an exact chronological order. I believe that when we come to the 12th chapter where we will be for just a few minutes that is what is occurring. I believe that the 12th chapter of Revelation represents a broad scenario and illustrates an on-going, ages-long conflict between cosmic forces – those of Satan on one hand, and those of God and His angels on the other. I think that is what Revelation is telling us. I want to get into this for just a second and then transition from that back to the story in Matthew 2. I’m going to walk through Revelation 12 quickly and seek to
identify the high spots and the key characters. Please resist the temptation when reading
apocalyptic stuff like this to try to make sense of every detail. You are not intended to
know it. It was written to retain a sense of the mysterious and I believe it succeeds
marvelously. Revelation 12 – John the apostle is seeing a fantastic vision of a spirit world. 1
A great sign appeared in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her
feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; 2
and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. This business of the moon and the sun and the twelve stars gives it away. We had this imagery before. It goes back to Genesis 37. What happened there were the twelve sons of Jacob. They were the original people of God. We are talking about Israel here. This is Israel and God’s people and the birth of their nation. They started out with twelve. They had to go down to Egypt because of the famine and there they multiplied and came out under Moses 400 some years later. This is the birth of the nation; these are God’s people and the birth of the nation. She was with child. She cried out being in labor and in pain to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven. We are watching characters enter the stage as it unfolds. We know who this is – a great red dragon. Immediately we are thinking, “Bad.” If the music were sounding, this would be Jaws. 3
Then another sign appeared in heaven; and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads
and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. 4
And his tail wept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth and the
dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he
might devour her child. Two conflicting parties – we see them immediately. The great red dragon, of course, is Satan represented in history by this business of seven heads and ten horns. That is the Roman Empire. That was the reigning world empire at the time this was written. Every person in that day would have known that – the seven heads and the ten horns and so forth and all the diadems. What is happening here is this kingdom of the world, this earthly empire is being depicted as Satan’s and he is going to use it to advance his ends, foremost among them to destroy the offspring of God. That’s were it is going. And his tail wept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Probably a mention of the fallen angelic beings that is discussed earlier in the Old Testament. The Roman Empire, by the way, was the empire for whom King Herod, the wicked king, worked. When he goes after the babies in Bethlehem we’ll begin to understand why. 5
And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of
iron; It says in verse 5 that she gave birth to a son, to a male child. We don’t have to wonder who this is. He’s the one who is to rule all the nations with the rod of iron. Psalm 2 – this is Messiah. The second Psalm makes that very clear and here is the devil waiting to destroy. and
her child was caught up to God and to His throne. That’s about the quickest discussion of the life of Christ in all of Scripture. It simply says He survived and He ascended. He’s back; He’s at the throne of God. 6
Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that
there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days. That’s three and a half years, another symbolic figure that enters in elsewhere in biblical prophecy, probably meaning a time of trial and persecution. That three and half year period almost always means that. A time of trial and persecution. What have we here? We have a Messiah being born and being exalted to the right hand of the Father. It says that the woman fled into the wilderness. I’m going to take this to mean this is Israel. She is the mother, if you will, of Messiah and she is now dispersed among all the nations of the world. That’s precisely what happened. Israel was briefly intact during the that first century until A.D. 70. Then the Romans came in, flattened the city and the Jews took off once again and scattered around the civilized word. By the way, they are preserved. A conscientious Jew will tell you today what tribe he or she descends from. A little over 100 years ago they started going back to the land, started regathering, but for all those many hundreds of years they were scattered and were preserved as a group, as an ethic entity. 7
And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon
and his angels waged war, What happens next? There was war in heaven. Now we are talking about this cosmic, raging warfare that is going on. Michael is a good angel. His angels are the good guys waging war with the dragon. Here is the conflict – the good angels and the bad angels. We have talked about this for weeks. We know what is going on. This is going to be kind of a summary statement. They were not strong enough, there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. 9
And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and
Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were
thrown down with him. At some point along the way, and the text doesn’t make it clear, he no longer has the access to what we would call the third heaven and the presence of God as he did before. His area now is limited. It’s where we live and he is going to wreak problems. 10
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and
the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our
brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. 11
And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their
testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. 12
For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the
sea; because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only
a short time. That’s now. This is what we are facing today. We resist the temptation to rabbit trail into some of the details simply to say that this is angelic warfare that is discussed in the Old Testament, particularly in the book of Daniel, chapters 10, 11, and 12. How the forces which we cannot see with our physical eyes, God occasionally gives the glimpse, they are constantly at war with one another and we are caught in the crossfire. It truly is a battlefield. Satan has fallen and he mad because he knows he has only a short time. You see that in verse 12. Verses 13 and 17 continue a discussion of the conflict that continues down to this day. I am going to suggest that verses 13 through 16 are simply a rehash of verse 6. Verse 6 says the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God and she was protected. Jump to verse 13. 13And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to
the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. 14But the two wings of the great eagle were given to
the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished
for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. 15And the serpent poured water like a river out of his
mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. 16But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened
its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. This is a rehash again. The woman has fled into the
wilderness but history contains account after account of the fact that the Jewish people
have come under persecution wherever they have gone. Most recently, of course, we call to
mind the holocaust of World War II. This is where it is gone. They have always been under
persecution but God always been preserving them as the people of God. The conflict continues (look at verse 17) because this verse is where we come in. 17So the dragon was enraged with
the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, Who would that be? It tells us: who keep the commandments of God and hold to the
testimony of Jesus. These are Christians, and if you are a Christian you may think you are picnicking alongside the battlefield but you are not. The conflict is raging and we are in it. Matthew 2 is going to describe for us in miniature what the broad picture of Revelation 12 has done, only focused on Messiah, the baby Jesus. Let me give you a summary statement before we look at three episodes in Jesus’ childhood that are mentioned. This is what is happening: The devil, Satan, is going after baby Jesus. We think baby Jesus is sweet baby Jesus and who would go after a baby? The devil would, he would think nothing of it, without a qualm. The devil thinks abortion is great, applauds it. He has no problem with that at all. So we shouldn’t be surprised that what is about to happen in Matthew 2 I believe the devil here is suspicious that this baby born in the manger in Bethlehem could actually be Messiah. After all, the devil can see the star in the east as easily as a wise man. The devil is on some sort of an angelic wavelength so that when the host come from heaven and share the good news which shall be to all people, that unto you this day is born in the city of David a Savior – he could hear that. He wants to kill Him because his agenda includes wrath against the offspring, against God’s child. That is what is happening. He favors Messiah’s death. This is not the only time. He wants Messiah to die. He won’t catch Him in infancy, but later on at the end it is Satan who puts it into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray Him, to lead to the death of Jesus because Satan does not understand the cross. He may now, but he didn’t then. He didn’t understand that Jesus would grow up to be the perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God, who would shed His blood on the cross, thereby securing the eternity for millions. Had he known that, his tactic certainly would have been different. Angels cannot be saved. Angels are not redeemable. They are not created in God’s image. Only people are. Only people are candidates for God’s salvation. So the devil, at least at that point, seemed to have been confused. He went after baby Jesus in order to kill him because that is his M.O. Matthew 2 – this is the epilogue to the Christmas story. We love the Christmas story, all about a baby in a manger, angels singing, “Silent Night,” and all that. Of course, that’s kind of evolved to our own traditions that we celebrate. Christmas seems to be positive, but this is the epilogue; it’s not positive. The epilogue to the Christmas story is a true window on the way things really are in the spirit world and how they affect us. 13 When they had
departed, behold, an angel of the Lord Watch how the angels work. That’s our sensitivity in these Sunday mornings. What is the angel up to? The angel appears to Joseph in a dream. This is a good angel and he is on the side of God’s agenda. Certainly Joseph is included in that. He says, “Arise. Take the Child and His mother, flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.14 So he arose and took the Child and His mother by night, departed for Egypt. That’s 75 miles away, several days’ trek, leaving at night. Get out of there because the angels understand what is really going on. Had the angel not done this, we have no idea what might have happened. Herod, in his paranoia, was determined to kill the rival king. They went to Egypt. At that time in Egypt, probably a million Jews
lived. They would have found sanctuary there. That’s where they went and were there
until Herod died. Historians tell us Herod died in 4 B.C. by our calendar. Jesus was born
in 6 B.C., so a couple years anyway they are away in Egypt, that what was spoken by the
Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled saying, ‘Out
of Egypt did I call My Son.’ Here we have an interesting example of how the Bible interprets itself. “Out of Egypt did I call My Son.” Why would a prophet say anything like that? What would God’s Son be doing in Egypt and how does that prophecy relate? Israel, as God’s child, prefigures Messiah, the one perfect Child. So in Exodus 4, God refers to the Israelites as a nation, collectively, as His son, His firstborn (Exodus 4:22-23). Certainly that batch were in Egypt and He brought them out; He delivered them. What he is saying here is that as Israel was the firstborn, if you will, in a symbolic sense of the term. Israel is My vine, according to Isaiah 5. John 15 – Jesus is the true vine. Israel was the child; Jesus was the perfect Son of God. So to have Him coming up out of Egypt, all that does is reinforce the symbolism of Jesus representing the people of God. In any event, out He came. “Out of Egypt did I call My Son.” 16
Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, Remember, they, too, had been warned in a dream that they shouldn’t go back to Herod. They need to leave by another way and so they did. he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi. He is leaving no stone unturned. This literally is overkill. We are
probably dealing with one or two dozen little boys, populations being what they were at
this point. But again, no qualms about it. The blood of Israelite children is being shed,
which is why Jeremiah is quoted here about “a
voice heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children.” It’s a sad and tragic thing but do we see what is happening here? It exemplifies the cosmic conflict and the work of the angels. Herod is a pawn of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire is represented by that guy in red (Revelation 12). Herod is his pawn so he is going to kill these babies. The angels are coming and saying no, let’s get the key baby out and get Him to Egypt – which they did. So the people are weeping, and while Joseph and Mary and the infant are fleeing, they have no clue what is going on in the spirit world. Herod is being used to do the devil’s dirty work. It’s interesting that Herod the Great was not a true Jew, although he tried to be one in order to get some political clout with the locals. Herod was an Idumean. An Idumean was an Edomite. An Edomite was an offspring of Esau. If you study the history of the people of God, in the Old Testament particularly, there is on-going conflict always between the offspring of Jacob, which would include Jesus, and the offspring of Esau, always, down through that way. As a matter of fact, God says in the book of Malachi 3:2, “Jacob have I loved. Esau have I hated.” Ongoing, generationally enemies of God’s people and here we have the quintessential Edomite going after God’s Son. Fully in keeping with the pattern that has been established all along. Satan, remember, operates internationally. 19
When Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. Here he is, in Egypt. He has been there temporarily and the angel comes again, doing the bidding of God, saying you may go home now. 20
Arise, take the Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for those who sought
the Child’s life are dead.” This guy was as bad as his dad. The acorn didn’t fall far from the tree. So Joseph was warned again in a dream, more angelic help. He decided he would go to Galilee. He came to Galilee and went back to his home town, a little place off the beaten path, a little town called Nazareth. Nazareth of Galilee shared a negative distinction with many of the little burgs in Galilee and that is, it’s not worth much. Nothing really good can come out of there. That’s what is the key to understanding verse 23: They came and resided in a city called Nazareth, that was spoken through the prophets (notice this is plural): “He shall be called a Nazarene.” Spoken through the prophets – this statement is a summary of several Old Testament passages having to do with Messiah that indicate he will be despised and rejected and of poor reputation. Simply connecting him with his life there in Nazareth, his growing up years. The apostle in the book of Hebrews is saying angels are wonderful, but they are not people. God’s angels, the good angels, are the servants of people. As good as they are and as powerful as they are and as wise as they are and with all they can do, Hebrews 1:14 says, “Are they not all ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” That word “ministering” means “serving.” Angels serve God’s people, according to God’s agenda. With that in mind, realize we are living out the last verse of Revelation 12. We are living in a battlefield. We know who wins and we know who loses and the one who loses knows he is losing and in his desperation he is taking as many as he can with him. He still has an agenda against God’s people and we want to talk about that now. We need to remember a very key principle. Jesus is safe at home. He is at the right hand of the Father. He has been exalted to glory. His representative body, however, is here. It is us. When the apostle Paul was interrupted on the road to Damascus prior to his conversion, the voice from heaven, that of Jesus, did not say, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting the church? Why are you persecuting those nice people? Why are you going after the Christians?” The voice from heaven, the voice of Jesus, said, “Why are you messing with Me?” That’s huge because it is now the people of God who are the target of the enemy. We need to know that. The enemy is angry and he is determined and desperate. Do you ever wonder why, when you become a Christian, everything doesn’t just suddenly go well? It isn’t that way, We suddenly are awakened perhaps to sensitivities we didn’t know we had. Our conscience is quickened and situations sometimes intensify. Things stay difficult or get worse. Everything will be fine in heaven, but now we are on the battlefield. Things won’t be fine because of the nature of the battle. That’s why the apostle Paul would write to the church in Colossi a verse that could easily be misunderstood if we don’t grasp what is behind it. Look what he says in Colossians 1:24. “I rejoice in my suffering for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.” What? That which is lacking in Christ’s afflictions? You almost think Jesus didn’t suffer enough. He didn’t take enough sins on himself on the cross so maybe I’d better go out there and take a few. No, that’s not what is in view at all. From a legal standpoint, the sufferings of Jesus were complete once for all on the cross, but Jesus in His representative body is still suffering affliction until we are in glory. That’s us. The timer is still running. The enemy is still attacking. The body of Christ is still taking hits. If you are not aware of this, pick up the most recent mailing from Voice of the Martyrs. That’s the problem with the church in our culture. We are like those picnickers on the side of the battlefield, not really sure there is anything going on. But it is. And that’s why Paul could move from Colossians and that thought to where we are going in Ephesians. Put on the whole armor of God. Our enemy, the devil, prowls about like a ravenous lion seeking whom he may devour, Peter says. To these guys it is real. It is not a picnic alongside the battlefield. To be a Christian is a serious matter. It is serious. It’s an adult issue, you might say. Not for the childish, the immature or the weak of heart. When you share the gospel even with a child, be sure that child understands this is about sin and death and forgiveness and life eternal. This is about engaging an enemy and entering a struggle. This business of Christianity as a bowl of cherries until you reach a certain age is misleading. It is not like the first battle of Bull Run or Manasses. When I was in the service, briefly I had a company commander who was an Army Captain. His name was Lawson, I remember him very well. He was a striking picture of everybody’s idea of what a captain in the Army ought to be. Captain Lawson had been in cavalry and had in Viet Nam won a Silver Star. I was 18, very young and very impressionable and half scared most of the time. I respected Captain Lawson. If you went to his office it was either for something really good or for something really bad. I was in there once; it was good. He had a sign on the wall of his office that has stuck in my memory, “Do Something. Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way.” It just made me want to do something. He was right. As a veteran of combat, of serious warfare where people died, he came out with that. This is serious stuff. Do something. Lead, follow, or get out of the way, but realize the gravity of the situation. Eat your picnic somewhere else. There is a song we sing at Camp Elohim.: I don’t want to be, I don’t want to be a casual Christian Casual Christian – I don’t want to be a casual Christian. A casual Christian, it seems to me in the context of warfare, is at the very best a prisoner of war. At the very worse, a traitor or a stooge. Somewhere in between those, at least ignorant or confused. It doesn’t matter, a casual Christian is impotent, is a liability. I don’t see it in the Bible. It is my conviction that those who have concocted a third category of human being, when they say you have your spiritual Christian and your lost person and in the middle your carnal Christian, I think that’s heresy. It isn’t in Scripture that way. We are in or we are not and there is no room for casual on the battlefield. I don’t want to be a casual Christian, so I say ok, maybe this is the year I read through my Bible, finally. I’ve been thinking about it. We sang the song, “Lord, Lead Me on to Higher Ground.” It’s time for higher ground. This year I’m going to pick one of those forms up and I’m going to read through my Bible. I can’t think of a better start. This year, perhaps – and it’s going to land differently on all of us – this year I’m going to lead my family like I haven’t before. I’m going to love my wife. I’m going to treat my children with respect. This year I’m going to respect my husband. This year I’m going to see my parents as God’s umbrella over me and I’m going to obey and respect them because I realize now this is a battle and I’m in it and the stakes are high and the situation is grave. This year, this week, I am going to apologize because I know I have been wrong. I am going to extend forgiveness instead of being a child. This year I’m going to participate. I’m going to do that ministry that’s been bugging me to do. I’m going to do it. I’m going to show up there. I’m going to go on that trip. I’m going to give money. I’m going to give time. I’m going to do what I haven’t done before. This year I am going to step up, trust God, and engage in the fray. "Scripture
taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Jim Carlson 2006, Lone Rock Bible Church, Stevensville Montana, USA |