Overcoming – Four Principles in Revelation 12 (Part 13)

  

“And they overcame him because the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even unto death.” Revelation 12:11.

 

To conclude our consideration of the above verse, we’ve considered four principles of overcoming the enemy in Revelation Chapter 12; the blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony, not loving our lives even unto death, and living with Christ in the heavens rather than as earth dwellers.

 

Jesus Christ calls us to participate in His resurrection, in His very own victory. Jesus says, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Speaking of the spirit of antichrist, the Apostle John writes, “You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

 

Note than when we are in Christ that we “are from God.” We have not always been from God, but in Christ we are now from God. It is because we are from God that Jesus Christ is not ashamed to call us “brethren” (Hebrews 2:11). O dear friends, please do not be shackled and imprisoned in a false identity, for our true and eternal identity is in Jesus Christ and it is only in Him that we overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. Please do not define yourself by your experience, no matter where on the spectrum your experience might be; Jesus Christ must be our only source of definition and His Word must rule our hearts and minds and fill our souls.

 

God is glorified when we bear fruit (John 15:8), not when we insist that we are worthless trees. God is glorified when we behold Jesus Christ and focus on Him, not when we make ourselves the storyline, the center of attention – whether this be self-exaltation or self-abnegation, or anywhere in between.

 

The Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ is our way of life, and in this Way we know and experience Jesus Christ as our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, and glory in the Lord and in the Lord alone (1 Cor. 1:30 – 31).

 

For the man or woman who has taken up the Cross and is following Jesus (Mark 8:34ff), the book of Revelation is a message of hope, faith, love, comfort, and overcoming. It is a book that describes what it is to be a son or daughter of the Living God – to be among those who are faithful to the Lamb no matter what may come to pass. It is a letter that teaches us what it means to be victorious in Christ in the face of unspeakable evil; to be faithful to Christ in a world gone crazy.

 

Let me quote from the first meditation in this series:

 

“…the book of Revelation is a discipleship manual, not a crystal ball. John is not a kind of first-century Nostradamus. It is sad to see how this powerfully hope-giving book is turned into predictor-of-the-next-horrible-thing-that-will-happen-in-the-world. The British journalist G.K. Chesterton once quipped that “though St. John the Evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators.”” Discipleship on the Edge, Darrell W. Johnson, Regent College Publishing, 2004, page 380.

 

Regarding the two-fold purpose of Revelation Johnson writes, “It seeks to set the present moment in all its brokenness, violence, uncertainty in light of the unseen realities of the future…But more importantly it seeks to set the present moment in light of the unseen realities of the present. The fundamental conviction of apocalyptic is “things are not as they seem.” There is more to reality that we can know with our unaided senses and intellect and emotions. The great purpose – the pastoral purpose – of Revelation is to open up that more and see Jesus in the midst of it all.” Johnson, page 381.

 

Christ calls us to live in the words of Isaiah the prophet (Isaiah 60:1 – 2), “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; but the LORD will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you.” Christ is our light, Christ is our glory, Christ rises upon us and within us.

 

O dear friends, we live in a land of deep darkness, darkness that masquerades as light to many, even to professing Christians (2 Cor. 11:13 – 15; Isaiah 5:20). Your Father has not called you to escape, but to be a source of light and life to those around you (Isaiah 32:1 – 2; Matthew 28:18 – 20). Live for what is real and eternal, not for what is passing away, no matter how attractive it might be (2 Cor. 4:16 – 18; 5:7; Matt. 6:19 – 24; John 6:27).

 

Everyday people are making decisions, decisions whether to accept the mark of the beast, or whether to follow the Lamb (Rev. chapters 13 and 14). We can live with the beast on the earth as earth dwellers, or we can live with the Lamb on Mount Zion. We can live as those who are overcome by the world around us, or we can live as those who are overcoming by the blood of the Lamb, the Word of our Testimony, and by not loving ourselves but laying down our lives for Jesus Christ and a lost and dying world.

 

What is our decision today? What is my decision?

 

What is your decision?