The King On The Throne


A Sermon On:

Revelation 12: 1 - 13: 1

Heidelberg Catechism Q/A 50



PREPARED BY

KEN GEHRELS

PASTOR

CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH

NEPEAN, ONTARIO



I'd like you to imagine.
Imagine, for the moment, what it would be like to be following the Ottawa 67's in their playoff hopes, coming closer to a national championship. Things look good till you wake up and hear the news that they had simply decided to quit, drop out, default to the other team. How would you feel?

Or imagine being in a business partnership with someone. It's going well. Sales are good. You're set to expand. And suddenly she pulls out on you. Leaves you holding the entire bag, and walks away. What would you think?

Or suppose you'd been diagnosed with a serious, but treatable ailment. The doctors spend a great deal of time and resources in the diagnosis. But just before you're set to go in for the vital treatment a phone call comes. Everything's called off. Period. No explanation. Can you imagine?

Confused, perhaps?
Troubled?
I wonder if there may be similar thoughts and feelings for those who read the Bible's account of Jesus' resurrection from the grave, His Easter victory over death, and the events that follow? Because the post-Easter chapters seem to narrate precisely such an inexplicable, illogical sort of pullout and retreat.

Everything seemed to be flying high! It looked as though nothing could possibly hold back the kingdom of God. Even death had been defeated! Surely it was the end of the road for the kingdom of evil. The disciples grow excited.
Oh, true - things aren't the same. Jesus no longer spends all his time with them. He comes and goes, appearing and disappearing, moving at will when and where he wants to go - physical barriers presenting no obstacle at all.
But, hey - what a tremendous leap forward. All this makes healing the blind and lame, and preaching from a boat seem like watery soup in comparison.

And then, suddenly, He goes away. This time for good! Perhaps you remember our morning reading from Luke 24. Jesus goes to heaven - taken up before the very eyes of the disciples. Gone!
And the perplexed disciples are left to try and figure out why. Why did he have to go? Why this seeming about face, this U turn just when it seemed as if the enemy would be routed once for all? It doesn't seem, on the surface anyway, to make a lot of sense.
Why is it that the general seems to abandon his troops when victory is imminent? What sort of strategy is this?
And to find an answer we are forced to turn our attention beyond the immediate circumstances of earth and gaze heavenward. We have to somehow gaze into another dimension of reality, into the spiritual dimension, the dimension of heaven and hell, angels and demon, God and Satan.

When we peek into that dimension, through the spyglass of scripture, we are able to understand the answer of the catechism as it regards the ascension of our Lord - Q/A 50 (p.881): Christ ascended to heaven, there to show that He is head of His Church, and that the Father rules all things through Him. And while perhaps not all answers are given to some of the deep questions in life, it at least gives us a rudimentary understanding of the big picture; it allows us to gain a fundamental perception of how the overall puzzle fits together.

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Revelation 12: 1 - 13: 1


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Here, in 18 powerfully compact verses of scripture, we are given an overall picture of the history of redemption of God's people. We see the ascension placed within that picture, and come to understand a little more of its significance within that history.

Allow me to walk you through this chapter.

The two main characters that leap out at us are the woman and the dragon.
That dragon is a terrible, frightfully powerful creature - large, rearing up on hind legs, overwhelming the sky, lashing his tail across the horizon and ripping out a third of the stars, much the way a dog's tail can easily scatter a layer of papers or a collection of figurines from a coffee table.
Seven heads with seven crowns is symbolic of his tremendous authority.
Ten horns symbolizes great power.
He has authority.....
and the power to back up that authority.

What he wants, it seems, he can pretty much get.
Who is the dragon? V.9 tells us - Satan. In Genesis, the first book of the bible, we see him do his initial destructive act through a serpent when he deceived Adam and Eve. Now in Revelation, the last book of the bible, the serpent figure returns; a giant serpent -- a dragon, a symbol of the terrible and powerful destruction that Satan seeks to bring into creation.

Alongside that dragon is a woman. As much as the dragon is loathsome, so she is radiant. Decked out in clothing better than anything Paris or New York could design -- the glory of heavenly bodies, the sun and moon and stars. That's a symbol of her intimate connection with the heavens -- indeed with heaven itself.

Who is she? She is the bride of God, the one who has been wooed by God, courted by God, cared for and - dare we say it - married by God! She is the special object of his attention. You can check out the prophet Hosea for a close-up of this image.
She is the symbol of the People of God.

And she, the people of God, is about to give birth.
It is an old testament picture we are seeing here - a reflection of Isaiah 66.7-9, where the People of God are about to give birth to people of new faith. Before she goes into labour, she gives birth; before the pains come upon her, she delivers a son. Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labour than she gives birth to her children. Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery? says the Lord. "Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery?" says your God.
It is a prophecy in Isaiah of the birth of the Messiah, the one in whom will come a new hope for faith and trust in the God of heaven and earth.

The woman and the dragon. Standing together in the heavens.
The woman preparing to give birth to the future of faithfulness to God. The dragon viciously opposed to any submission to God. And opposed to everything that the woman stands for.
There is tension.
Waiting.
And then the child is born, one who, we are told in a quote from Psalm 2, will rule the nations with an iron sceptre."You will rule them with an iron sceptre; you will dash them to pieces like pottery" (Ps 2.9). All other forces and all other rulers are just like cheap bits of red clay pottery compared to the power of the one with an iron sceptre.
There is none stronger than the one with the iron sceptre, not even a dragon with seven crowns and ten horns.
And the dragon knows that full well.

Enemy prepares to meet enemy. The eternal destiny of both is at stake. There is only room for one eternal ruler.
The words of Genesis 3.15, God speaking to the serpent, now come to life: I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed.
The child, of course, is Jesus Christ, the Messiah -
born out of the Old Testament People of God, born into the world to confront that pretender to the Cosmic Throne of Power, the dragon, the devil.

The prophecy is brief - a description of the life and ministry of Jesus is not given. That we can find from many other places. What we DO know is that the dragon was UNABLE to devour this child. He did NOT win!

The child is taken to heaven.
The woman goes into hiding.

And the scene shifts. Now we move to heaven - that other dimension of reality I was speaking about earlier.

Verse 7 is the key to the entire scene, giving us the setting in one short phrase - THERE WAS WAR.

WAR - that is what was happening in the spiritual dimension of reality.

The forces of the child, the forces of God, led by General Michael seeking to push out the pretender to the Throne of the Cosmos, the Dragon.
Like Hitler and his forces after World War II's D-Day invasion in 1944, the Dragon and his demonic hosts,who were evil, illegitimate occupants of lands not their own,counterattack the invasion which was designed to reclaim the land and push them out.
And like Hitler, the Dragon loses. He loses his right to enter the throne room, something Christ himself foresaw already in Luke 10.18, when, as the disciples returned from their mission of spreading the gospel with accounts of casting out demons and healing the sick, Jesus exclaimed -"I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven."
The name "Satan" literally means accuser. Once he was able to stand before the throne of God and accuse people of having weak faith, or no faith. We see this in the book of Job where Satan challenges Job's faith. But he can do that no longer. His entrance to heaven, try though he might, is forever barred.
He is powerless to enter in.
And he is powerless to keep God's children out!
So it is that the loud voice proclaims -
Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ... (v.10)

This is what Ephesians 1 proclaims:And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.So also Philippians 2:God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This is what stands behind the claim of Jesus in Matthew 28:All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me...
Christ is in charge.
He HAD to go to heaven to take his seat on the Cosmic Throne of Power. He had to return to the "Command Centre", so to speak, to help direct the conflict against the Dragon.

Hence his ascension.
If he had remained on earth, his ability to function as Commander-In-Chief of the armies of heaven, engaged in battle, defeating the forces of evil, finishing up the victory that was begun on the cross - Christ's ability to function would have been limited.
He needed to be with the Father.
He needed to be right where all the angels would report back.
From there he was able to send his Holy Spirit.
From there he is able to direct his heavenly warriors.
From there he is best able to care for all his earthly followers.

And that work, brothers and sisters, is still going on. The great conflict with the dragon isn't over yet.
We know that from everyday experience.
Revelation 12 confirms that.

Though the dragon has been evicted from the throne room of God, and is unable to attack God's people there, he can still cause havoc on earth.
And he does!
Ever since the Ascension of Christ, he has tried to destroy the community of God's faithful people on earth.
History gives grim testimony to that, to the words of Rev 12.17 -
Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring - those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

Roman empire oppression.
Reformation age persecution.
Present-day threats and persecutions in Muslim & communist lands.
The ongoing assaults of secularism in North America.

And were it not for the protection of God, for the careful, continual care of the one on the throne the Church WOULD be destroyed, drowned in a flood of evil.

THANK GOD THAT CHRIST HAS ASCENDED!!!
Thank God that He has sent His Spirit to comfort and guide and strengthen us.
Thank God that when we pray, we know the Spirit wings our prayers to the throne of the One who has the name above all names.
Thank God that this one, our heavenly brother, hears those prayers and sends us what is needed.

This, then, allows us to go on in life.
This allows us to face what will sometimes be desert-like experiences of faith, or times where we are engaged in spiritual combat. Yes there will be war. Yes there will be testing. Yes there will be times that call for great spiritual endurance.
But Revelation allows us to know that through these times things are not out of control.
We are NOT abandoned.
Jesus has been crowned King of all creation.
He remains in charge.

The King of Creation, the Head of the Church, will not let his community of saints, his church, be defeated.
The victory is his.
The final outcome is certain!