19th Sunday a. Pentecost OR St. Michael and All Angels “Victory in Heaven gives Hope on Earth”
September 29, 2024 Revelation 12:7-12
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Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,
You may have noticed that the picture on the bulletin cover doesn’t match with any of our Scripture readings today = it usually does. Today, Sept.29, on the church year calendar, is a minor festival called ‘St.Michael and All Angels.’ In years past, when Sept.29 fell on a Sunday, our assigned readings would reflect this recognition of God’s holy angels, and the role they play in serving God in heaven, and serving God’s people on earth. I don’t know why our readings do not do that today. But to recognize the role of God’s holy angels is worthy of our attention. What is their role? We could talk about quite a few things. But for today, let’s focus on this: the holy angels, including the archangel Michael, are empowered by the work of Christ, and they serve God’s people by enforcing Christ’s victory against Satan and against all evil angels & opposing forces.
One of the readings for the minor festival of St.Michael & All Angels is from Revelation 12, vs.7-12. You can find that on an insert in the bulletin. Let me read it.
7 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, 8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world— he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. 10 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, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. 11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. 12 Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! 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!”
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One of the greatest deception & lies of Satan is convincing people that he doesn’t exist, he’s not real; that he is just a mythical figure depicted in Scripture; like a handy cartoon character that symbolizes sin & evil. If you don’t think Satan exists, then you don’t think he’s a real enemy; & then you won’t be on guard against his dangers & temptations.
That means that he can work under the radar, & more effectively. The Scriptures speaks of Satan in real terms == just as real as God creating all things in six days, and as real as God creating man as male & female, and breathing into them the breath of life. Satan is as real as you are.
God created the angels = spiritual creatures with a purpose. Some of them rebelled & sinned against God; Satan was the chief culprit. It’s clear in Holy Scripture that Satan is a real being; and in a serpent’s form, he spoke with Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden, tempting our first parents to follow his lead, and disobey God’s command about that Tree of The Knowledge Of Good And Evil. The NT also clearly shows Satan as a real being when he shows up in the wilderness to speak to & tempt Jesus to sin, trying to ruin God’s plan of our salvation.
In Rev.12 we hear of the work -the military service- of God’s good angels; namely Michael & company, who fight against Satan & end his activity of accusing sinners before God day & night. Satan is depicted as a brutal prosecuting attorney who brings charges against sinners before the Judge. He accuses sinners of breaking the Holy Law & not being worthy of fellowship with God = now & for eternity. The good news from Rev.12 is that this accuser of all mankind is no longer in heaven to bring accusations against us. This Victory in Heaven Brings Hope on Earth.
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Satan’s rebellion, and removal from heaven, is one of those mysterious events that God tells us about, but it leaves us with many unanswered questions. We just have to accept that. For example, it’s very hard to get a good grasp of the timeline of when & how long this rebellion & war happened. With some Bible verses, the best we can say is that Satan led a substantial rebellion after the angels were created and before the fall of Adam & Eve.
How substantial? Do you recall from Matt.26, where Jesus said that He could immediately receive the help of more than 12 legions of angels = that’s about 72,000 angels who could’ve been ready to help the Son of God. Certainly that would be just a portion of the ‘heavenly host’, the ‘sabaoth’, the countless thousands that make up the heavenly armies of angels.
And how many evil angels are there? Revelation 12:4 indicates that up to a third of the
angels fell for the temptation that Satan later used on Adam & Eve. Namely his lie: ‘You will be like God.’ (which is the direction ‘artificial intelligence’ is going!) So, one third of thousands upon thousands is …. a lot. Which makes for us a very great, real enemy.
This text from Rev.12 reminds us of some verses from the book of Job. We’re told that after this war & Satan’s fall from heaven, God still kept tabs on Satan & what he was doing. Satan still sees one of his missions as bringing accusations before God against sinners. Without cause, Satan accused Job of being merely a ‘fair weather’ Christian (false faith). As long as things were good in Job’s life, he would praise God; but as soon as things turned bad, (Satan said) Job would curse God. Being an accuser is part of Satan’s nature & purpose.
And that’s what vs.10 said: “The accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.” That’s not a pleasant scene: the most powerful & evil angel kept reminding God about the sins of mankind, over & over, day & night.
The one who deceived Adam & Eve continued to remind God of the terrible, repeating pattern of damning sin in Adam’s descendants, including us. What makes these accusations dangerous is that …they are true!
The prophet Zechariah has a vision showing Satan engaged in this relentless work of accusing. This is from chpt.3, “Then he showed me Joshua -the high priest- standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, ‘The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you!
…. Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, ‘Remove the filthy garments from him.’ And to him he said, ‘Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.’ ” (Zech 3:1–4).
In this vision, we picture two things: we see Satan enjoying the cruelty of indicting & condemning sinners in the court of the Holy & Just God; and we see ‘the Angel of the Lord’, that’s the Son of God before taking on human flesh, who is there to defend Joshua the priest and, by gracious clothing, making the guilty innocent of all accusations. That is the Gospel message: the sinner who has Jesus as his or her defense & covering will win the case.
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The Gospel message is also in Rev.12. The accusation force of Satan is no longer effective because he has been defeated in a great a war; he was cast out of heaven, & thrown down to earth. “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. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world— he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” (vv 7–9).
That heavenly court is no longer in session. Satan has been cast out; & those that rebelled with him were also cast out, and no longer deserve the name ‘angel’, they are demons. Michael, one of the named archangels, & his troop of good angels were assigned by their Lord Commander to get rid of all the spiritual terrorists.
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It might appear that the source of this victory is the power of Michael & the other good angels of God, that -fortunately- they were just stronger than Satan & his angels. I don’t think that’s the best view of this. What is the source of this victory in heaven? Vs.11 tells us how the martyred Christians overcame Satan. It says, “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even to death.” The loud voice in heaven proclaimed what is the power & source of victory over Satan, for both God’s faithful people, and God’s faithful angels. It all depends on ‘the blood of the lamb.’
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Many Scriptures have made this clear to us: those words refer specifically to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, as the unblemished, perfect sacrifice, whose blood makes payment
for all sins of mankind. Full atonement, once & for all. The only thing in this universe strong enough to remove Satan as the accuser before God is: the blood of the Lamb of God. Satan, the accuser against sinners, is removed & replaced – because Christ paid the price of all sin. Christ is now the one who stands before God as the Advocate for all sinners, defending & interceding for us.
That is the picture John writes about in his first epistle. He says, “If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1Jn 2:1–2).
The apostle Paul also tells us of Christ defending us before the Father in Romans 8.
He says, “Christ Jesus is the one who died =more than that, who was raised= who is at the right hand of God, who is interceding for us.” (8:34). It couldn’t be more clear than that. The source of this victory in heaven, is the blood of the Lamb.
To picture it another way, we could say this: there is no individual more identified with ‘pumping iron’ than …Arnold Schwarzenegger. Even now at age 77, he still inspires men to go to the gym & lift weights to build up every little muscle in their bodies. It’s a competition to be stronger & more ripped than the next person. But, if we picture the archangel Michael as the
‘A-nald’ of the angel-world, who won the battle because he went to the gym more often than Satan, we’d be wrong = very wrong.
The key battle was not Michael confronting Satan. It was the Son of God himself confronting Satan & all the forces of evil as the sacrificial Lamb, whose blood was pumped out on the cross as the payment for all sin. Michael & his angels were not a heavenly ‘seal team 6’, who lifted more weights & did the dirty work. The Lamb did the work; then Michael simply enforced the cross-victory of the Lamb, casting out the evil-beings from heaven in Jesus’ name.
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It’s this VICTORY in heaven that brings us HOPE on earth. “Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” (v 12).
At first hearing, this doesn’t seem very reassuring. But hearing this truth isn’t meant to scare us, it just keeps things real for us. In spite of Satan’s wrath, we who dwell on earth have hope because Satan no longer has any standing to accuse us before God. As St.Paul says in 1Cor.6: ‘you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.’
Your sins are drowned in the waters of Holy Baptism, forgiven in the Absolution, pardoned thru the eating of Christ’s body & the drinking of his blood in His holy meal, you stand uncontested & forgiven before God in heaven. The very Son of God is your advocate & justifier before the Father; the accuser is now silent.
And not only that, the same angels who cast Satan out of heaven are the angels who guard & watch over us every day on this earth at the will of the Commander. Satan & his evil hoard do have some power; more power than we do. But we are not alone. The holy angels obey the commands of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ, who has all power & authority in heaven and on earth. Satan roams the earth, roaring like a lion; but he is toothless.
The promise of Ps.91 comes to mind: ‘he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.’ The holy angels are another gift of grace to all those who believe & are baptized into Christ Jesus.
If we fast-forward to chapter 20 in Revelation, we even get a glimpse of the finale of our story, and it bolsters our hope. It says, “And the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” (20:10).
Angels, Michael, Satan, wars; these are unseen things that we hear about, with not too many details, so we are left with many unanswered questions. We just have to live with that, in faith. In faith, we thank God for this real victory, in that real heaven, defeating our real enemy Satan. The war is won by our real Savior on the cross, by His blood, and carried out by Michael & the angelic hosts.
It’s plain for us to see that Satan is furiously working his evil temptations in the world, and is deceiving many people with his lies. The result is godlessness, selfishness, immorality, national wars & individual battles. But this news of heavenly victory makes a real difference for us, and for all those who are called to hope in the Lord but who struggle with the enemy. Our savior =our advocate= is risen and lives to enforce his victory to the very end. Resist satan and he will flee from you. (James 4) Your hope in the Lamb, & because of His blood, is secure. The victory of God’s angels in heaven brings hope to God’s people on earth.
Amen.