Who Is Like God?

[00:00:01] In the name of Jesus. Amen. [00:00:07] It's kind of exciting talking about dragons. [00:00:13] It wouldn't be exciting if there were no protection from the dragon, right? It's not like you'd like to be in a dragon story that doesn't end well. [00:00:26] You kind of assume when you come to a dragon story that it's going to end well. In this one, we know the end, right? We're told the great dragon was thrown down. [00:00:39] Praise the Lord. [00:00:47] So here we go. Here's the exciting story that we get a window into from Revelation 12. This morning, Michael and his angels. [00:00:57] Now, war arose in heaven. Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. [00:01:08] And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the devil, and Satan, the deceiver of the world, he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. [00:01:23] And 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. [00:01:32] For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down. Who accuses them day and night before our God. [00:01:40] And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. [00:01:45] For they loved not their lives, even unto death. [00:01:49] Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. [00:01:53] But woe to you, O earth and sea. For the devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows that his time is short. [00:02:02] So we've got, well, saints and angels here fighting the foe. But it's by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, which is the word of Jesus, that the ancient foe is defeated. [00:02:18] So it's Jesus there at the center. Jesus the authority. Jesus, the one who broke the power of the devil, who threw down the dragon to the earth. I want to focus on that last part. [00:02:39] Therefore, rejoice, O heavens. Therefore, because the devil's been defeated, he's been thrown down. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. [00:02:48] But woe to you, O earth and sea. [00:02:54] For the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short. [00:03:01] Now, great for the heavens and those who dwell in them. [00:03:06] Do you feel like you kind of got the short end of the stick there? [00:03:11] Right. Woe to you, earth and sea. [00:03:16] Now here's the trick. [00:03:22] We often these days in the modern world, we think of heaven and earth as places. [00:03:28] You're either in Heaven or you're in earth or you're on earth, okay? But that's not how. [00:03:35] That's not how the ancients heard heaven and earth as places. I think it's because we're so fixated on what we can see and touch and measure and study in a worldly sense. You can see that with the progression of science and such, like the scientific method and learning to manipulate matter and things, to develop medicines and technologies that make our lives easier and such. And that's just taken off. And so that's kind of our mindset and we've lost attention to spiritual things. [00:04:10] And this is one of those places where we no longer read this quite like ancient people would have read them. [00:04:17] Okay? So. [00:04:23] When it says, therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them, that includes you. [00:04:31] Praise the Lord. Everybody take a deep breath. Sigh of relief, right? Rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. [00:04:39] Whoo. Thank you, Lord. [00:04:42] Jesus Christ has come from heaven to put you in the heavens. [00:04:47] St. Paul says he's done so right. He says in Ephesians 2 that you have been seated in the heavenly places with Christ. [00:04:55] Like past tense. You're seated there. You are in the heavens. [00:05:00] And so, like Jesus says to his disciples, like, I've given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and given you authority. [00:05:11] I'm going to actually read it here. [00:05:13] Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you. [00:05:22] He's telling them, I have set you in the heavens. [00:05:27] I mean, and that's the image too. I've given you authority to tread on because you've been lifted up, you've been set in the heavens. [00:05:38] I've seated you. You have been seated in the heavenly places with Christ. [00:05:45] We'll come back to that in a moment. So when you hear that, rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them, rejoice by faith. You are with Christ in the heavenly places. [00:05:58] But woe to you, O earth and sea. [00:06:03] Woe to you, O earth and sea. For the devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows that his time is short. [00:06:13] This is a good word of warning for us because. [00:06:21] By our sin we kind of plunge ourselves into the earth and the sea. So I opened back up to the hymn that we just sang. 5:22. [00:06:31] It was written by Philip Melanchthon, who was instrumental in the Lutheran Reformation, kind of Luther's co worker. He, you know, so to speak, and Wrote large portions of the Book of Concord, which is our. Sort of our governing documents, you could say, as Lutherans, our confessions that we look to. [00:06:56] To hold us in the truth. [00:06:58] So he writes this hymn. And by the way, hymns have different purposes, and this one seems to be to teach. I, like, sing this hymn. And you'll remember angels and what they do, right. And their purpose. And remember in context, Right. Not just sort of like popular angelology or something, you know, like popular sayings about angels that you hear in the mainstream. Right. But to remember the context of the spiritual battle and the way that God uses creatures to fulfill his will. [00:07:41] Anyway, in this hymn. [00:07:46] Sorry, I just noticed it as we were singing it, and so I have to find it now again, There it is. Okay. Verse 5. Okay. [00:07:56] As he of old deceived the world. He's talking about the deceiver of the whole world. That ancient serpent, dragon, the devil, Satan, as he of old deceived the world and into sin and death was hurled. [00:08:12] Into sin and death was hurled. [00:08:14] I wonder if he's actually thinking of this verse from Revelation, that he was hurled down to the earth and the sea. Okay. All that to say earth and sea. That's what they. That's what they represent is death. Think of the sea. It's the place where you die unless you're lifted up by something. [00:08:38] Right. [00:08:39] It's the place of chaos, where nothing stays the same. The waves are always moving and such. So not just in Christianity, but in the ancient world, the sea represented death and chaos and the earth. [00:08:54] God formed us from the Earth and he breathed into us the breath of life. [00:08:59] You can make all things out of earth, like all kinds of things. You could make a mud hut out of earth. [00:09:06] We make tools out of earth, go and dig, and we get the materials and we do things to them through technology that we've learned. We make stuff out of the earth. [00:09:20] But that earth, it doesn't. [00:09:23] It doesn't take that shape by itself. [00:09:25] You don't have a sword that. Just like you found because the earth made it. [00:09:35] Somebody's plan went into making that sword. [00:09:41] Like somebody kind of breathed into that sword, the idea, and it became sword, all right? Everything is made, not just of earth, but with purpose, from above. God made you and me, heaven and earth. Earth joined to heaven, earth with heaven, breathed into it, God's own spirit, right? And we became living creatures. And when those things are separated, when we're separated from our purpose, from our Creator, from His word, which he meant for us to hear and for it to Shape our understanding, our mind, our purpose. [00:10:29] We return to earth. [00:10:31] Then we're just like what God created me to serve the people around me. And when I turn into myself and away from God and his Word, I become just a bunch of earth that's going and, you know, harming others and myself. [00:10:48] Taking things away from their purpose, away from God's purpose, and working toward disintegration, things falling apart, death, right? [00:11:01] So, but woe to you, O earth and sea. You could think of earth as like earth apart from heaven, right? Earth that's lost its purpose. [00:11:16] And that's what we are in turning away from God's word, right? Then God gave us a fitting punishment to teach us. He said, dust you are, to dust you shall return. [00:11:29] You're going to return to earth. [00:11:34] So this is also how Scripture uses the word, the flesh, right? Like when Paul's talking about the flesh and the spirit. The flesh is like our. [00:11:48] It's when we turn away from God's word and are not receiving from him and just are turning to our own ideas and subjecting ourselves to enemies, to the devil, the world and our sinful flesh. Like Adam and Eve turning away from God and to the word of the serpent in the beginning, right? Eve sees the fruit, and then it's good for eating and attractive to the eye and it's desirable for gaining wisdom. [00:12:21] And she trusts the word of the serpent, turns away from God's word, which would make her thoughts, her heart, heavenly, right? She turns to earth and becomes earthly. So woe to you, O earth and sea. It's like, don't be found outside of Christ. [00:12:41] That's one way to hear that, right? Rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. How do we dwell in the heavens? By faith in Jesus. [00:12:51] Jesus lifts us up into his own life and gives us authority to tread on serpents and scorpions. [00:12:59] Over all the power of the devil. [00:13:02] Why not by our own power, not by some spiritual wisdom that we gained through, you know, hard work and a little bit of luck or something, right? Not through anything that we can gain again by hard work, simply by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus claiming us back from the devil and setting us on the course. [00:13:29] He himself is the course. He's the way, the truth and the life. [00:13:34] So all of it comes through Jesus as a gift. [00:13:38] He set you in the heavenly places and so you need not fear the dragon unless you turn to the dragon, unless you turn to the earth, away from God's word. [00:13:50] Well, now, right, Woe to you, because the devil has been Given to play for his short time. [00:14:04] And that also can lead us back to God, turn us away from what we've improperly come to love. [00:14:13] Alright? [00:14:16] Jesus in the gospel reading, he's sent out these 72 disciples and they come back to him with a good report. [00:14:27] They're like, jesus, it was great. [00:14:32] Guess what? You're not going to believe this, Jesus, but even the demons are subject to us in your name. [00:14:41] Jesus is like, whoa, cool. [00:14:46] He doesn't, right? He doesn't say that, but it's like that's what they're expecting, that he's going to be so excited and proud, right? Or wowed, you know, amazed. Even the demons are subject to us in your name. [00:15:05] And Jesus, I think he recognizes in their statement a pattern, an ancient pattern of pride, right? They're excited about their exalted position in being over the demons. [00:15:24] And he says, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. [00:15:31] His fall was one of pride. [00:15:33] It's like he lifted himself up into the heavens and he was cast down. [00:15:39] God opposes the proud right. [00:15:45] He casts down. You have cast down the mighty from their thrones and have exalted the lowly. That's the pattern. [00:15:53] So don't exalt yourself. [00:15:56] Don't hang on to the gift. Don't be like, oh, look at us, Jesus. [00:16:02] So he sets before them the ancient pattern, kind of says, you're following this pattern. And then he gives them a warning. He says, behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you. [00:16:20] Like, yeah, I have lifted you into the heavens and set you above all your enemies and notice where the power is coming from. I have. Right. [00:16:32] Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. [00:16:44] So don't hang on to your exalted position. Truly exalted. I've. Right? I've like, I've given you to tread on serpents and scorpions and all the power of the enemy. [00:16:55] That's cool. He has set you in the heavenly places in Christ, but it's in Christ. [00:17:03] So don't rejoice at your exalted position, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. [00:17:11] That's cool. [00:17:13] Remember or notice the passive voice there. Your names are written. [00:17:21] Don't rejoice that you have climbed up to heaven and inscribed your name there, right? Or that you have, you know, gradually overcome your sin through determination and attention to God's law. Or something like that. Right? Don't exalt that you feel like you're doing pretty well or that you're doing better than you were last week. [00:17:48] Rejoice that your names are written in heaven. [00:17:55] We have that exalted position not by anything that we've done. [00:18:00] We are set above our enemies and nothing can harm us. Not because we are able to overcome anything of ourselves, but we're there by God's grace, by the blood of the Lamb. [00:18:18] We're there because Jesus won the victory. [00:18:22] And we've been united, been united to Jesus in His death and resurrection through baptism and by faith. [00:18:32] We're there because Jesus is there and we're in Jesus. [00:18:36] It's all about him and his power. [00:18:41] You are there as long as you don't have anything to bring and show to God that you've done that you think is worthy of his praise. [00:18:52] Right? [00:18:54] You're there as long as you have sins that you can point to that you need forgiveness for. [00:19:01] Jesus forgives us as we confess our sins and and humble ourselves before Him. [00:19:08] You are in the heavenly places so long as you acknowledge the depths of your sin and repent and receive his grace. [00:19:22] You receive his glory as long as you don't seek your own. [00:19:28] You can say as long as, because like to seek our own glory is to turn toward ourselves and earth and pursue it. [00:19:38] That's how potentially we end up outside of Christ. [00:19:49] Christ has called us to glory in gifts not our own. [00:19:58] In Christ can say, I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. [00:20:03] In Christ. You've been seated in the heavenly places and nothing can harm you in Him. [00:20:10] In Jesus name, amen.