Author: Ryan Hale

Sometimes it seems like Jesus was trying to bring people close to him. He would stay in an area for a while and would heal many people while also teaching them about the Kingdom of God.

Other times, it seemed like Jesus was intentionally trying to drive people away by saying difficult things and setting the bar for following him very high.

If we every wonder what Jesus expects of us as his followers, we should simply look to what his disciples said and what Jesus said to those who proposed to follow him. As Jesus explained that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God, Peter got excited. He said, “We have left everything to follow you! What reward will there be for us?”

For the disciples, to follow Jesus meant that they had to leave their livelihoods behind. They had to leave behind any desires for wealth that they may have had. The riches of this world were no longer in reach for them because they found their treasure in their relationship with Jesus, the Messiah. They saw this as being more valuable than the riches that could be offered by the world.

But, of course, not everyone saw that yet. Jesus, in fact, was on his way to Jerusalem where he knew he would be handed over to the chief priests and put to death, and as he was going, people were coming to him looking to be part of his entourage, counted as one of his disciples. They needed to know, though, what that meant and Jesus, without hesitating, informed them:

As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

He said to another man, “Follow me.”

But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”

Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

Luke 9:57-62

These men were eager to be near the One that they saw as being important, even as great, but they may not have realized that there would be a cost:

You’ll be leaving behind your home.

You’ll be leaving behind your family.

It may not work the way that you think it will work. You think you’re coming to follow me? No, you won’t be with me. Go speak of the Kingdom of God

You are leaving your old life behind.

Everything that you thought you knew from before is over. This is what it means to follow Jesus.

Now, is that just for that time? Is Jesus speaking just to those three men? Or is he also speaking to us? Could it be that Jesus is saying the same things to us today and we are not listening, or misunderstanding the cost to following Jesus? Are we in the church not listening to Jesus when he explains to us what it means to follow him, or do we just prefer the riches of the world or the comforts of our homes and family? Do we prefer, instead, our old life, yet say that we are followers of Christ?

Those were the questions that these would-be followers of Christ had to face, and they are the same questions that we must confront today.

We live in Sicily based solely on donations. We’ve lived this way since June 2016 and haven’t lacked anything. Sure, there have been times where we have felt unsure that we would have enough, or unsure that God would provide, but we’ve always found that God has answered every time. We have always had enough.

And just as a side note, if you would like to give a donation or support our family on a monthly basis, you can see how you can do that over on our donation page! 😉

Anyway, from time to time, people ask me how they can live in the same way that we do. How could it be possible that we could live and work full-time to do the ministry work? Frequently, I think that they imagine that there is some organization that is itching to give away money and support some missionary to do something somewhere.

Of course, those types of organizations don’t exist – or at least I haven’t found them! – so I explain that I believe that there are people, churches, or organizations whom God has called to support the work that you are called to do, but you have to go find them. From there, I frequently begin to hear many different forms of feedback:

Well, you don’t understand. The culture is different here than in America.

Well, you don’t understand. The economy is different here than in America.

Well, you don’t understand. I can’t just go to someone and ask them to support me.

To which I simply respond… You’re right. I don’t understand. I suppose this all depends on God’s calling for you. If He has called you, I am sure that He will provide for you.

So recently, I heard a couple of people tell me: You know, I was surprised because I did this work and there were quite a few people who stepped in to help cover the expenses of the trip.

Exactly. God provides.

I was reminded of all of this as I read the beginning of Luke 8 today. Jesus was traveling throughout the towns of the northern regions of Israel, Jesus himself was financially supported for his travels:

After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

Luke 8:1-3

Jesus is proclaiming the Kingdom. His 12 disciples are with him, but it says that there are three other disciples, three women who had been cured of diseases and evil spirits. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna. And Luke points out that the women were supporting them. Luke never mentions, neither here nor anywhere else that I’m aware of, that the disciples were giving to the work – even though I suspect they were – but he makes specific mention of the contribution of these three women.

So, all of that to say that God is moving. God is working. And God provides for the work that He wants to have done.

Jesus continued to perform several different types of miracles, showing his power and authority over all things. Yet John the Baptist began to wonder whether or not Jesus was truly the Christ, the Messiah. He had been put in jail, so he sent some of his disciples to Jesus to ask and to confirm whether Jesus was the One, or if they should be waiting and looking for another.

Even John and his disciples had some incorrect expectations about who Jesus was and what he was going to do. Like many others, and even most Jews today, they assumed that the Messiah would overthrow Rome and restore the political nation of Israel. But they were wrong. That wasn’t what the Messiah was intended to do; instead, he would lead people out of their slavery to sin, not their slavery to the Romans.

Jesus responded that the lame are walking and the blind can now see. Those who have had leprosy are now healed and even the dead have been raised. Jesus’s reply was intended to tell John that these are all signs to show that Jesus’s words were true. He is the Messiah and John shouldn’t doubt. He should believe and wait and see. John had fulfilled the purpose that God had given him in the scriptures, but he had yet to fully grasp God’s complete plan.

John’s purpose was to prepare the way for Jesus. According to Isaiah, he would prepare the way for the Lord. He would make the path straight, make the mountains low and the valleys lifted up, and all of the uneven ground will become level. And the result of this would be that glory of the Lord would be revealed. You can read this for yourself in Isaiah 40, verses 1-5. This was John’s job. His role was to make this straight path. But how? With a shovel to move the dirt? No, by calling people to repentance.

But many are too proud to say that they are wrong. Many are too set in their ways. Many will not lay themselves before God and His plan. Instead, they insist on their own plan, just as we saw the most religious in Israel do. It was those who thought that they had God all figured out, who taught others and insisted that they knew what was right, who would not believe Jesus was the Messiah, who would not be willing to believe – despite all of the miraculous evidence in contrast to their beliefs – that Jesus was truly God standing before them. Here is how Luke records the difference between those who would believe and those who wouldn’t:

All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus’ words, acknowledged that God’s way was right, because they had been baptized by John. But the Pharisees and the experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.

Luke 7:29-30

So we see that the common people, and even the tax collectors, some of those considered to be the worst of the worst, the traitors, would repent and acknowledge that God’s way was right. They would believe in Jesus as the Messiah and give themselves to him. Why? Because John had called them to repentance and they were willing to give themselves over to God’s plan. Not continue in their own plan, but give themselves to that of God’s plan.

On the other hand, it was the Pharisees who would not. They would not respond to John’s call to repentance. They would not submit themselves to God’s plan. They would reject God’s purpose, stuck in unrepentance, unwilling to be baptized by John as a result of their pride and decision to have figured out everything about God and being unwilling to accept that they were wrong.

Where are we? Are we willing to see God at work and respond to Jesus for who he is? Are we willing to give ourselves to God’s plan in repentance, leaving behind our own plans? The question that was given to the Jews in the days of the John and Jesus is the same question that is given to each of us today. Regardless of who we are or where we are from. Regardless of our religious background, we each have this question to answer: Will you give your heart to Jesus and serve him?

Throughout the Gospels, one question that we could continue to ask ourselves as we read is: Who is Jesus? It seems that the authors are routinely trying, without necessarily explicitly declaring, to answer this question.

For example, yesterday, as I read Luke 5, it seemed that Luke was trying to answer this question with almost every one of the stories that he included. Here is what I mean:

In Luke 5, Jesus tells Peter to let down his nets in deeper waters. Despite not having caught anything after fishing all night, Peter and his fishing companions agree and bring in a catch of fish so large that their nets begin to break. The result is that Peter drops to his knees and worships Jesus as he performed a miracle that only God would be able to do as he demonstrated authority and control over nature.

A little later, a man with leprosy approaches Jesus saying that he knew Jesus could heal him if he was willing. Typically, a Jewish person would draw back, afraid that a leper, having a communicable skin disease, if they were to touch them, would infect them, giving them not only the disease as well but also making them ceremonially unclean. But that is not what Jesus does. Instead, he steps forward and touches the leper, showing that he is not only compassionate but that he is also both more powerful than the disease. Instead of the unclean nature infecting him, giving him disease and making him unclean, Jesus’s pure and clean nature overcomes that of the diseased and unclean nature of the man, healing him. Jesus then immediately sends him to the priest as a testimony to the Jews for what he had done for the man, just as it was commanded by God through Moses in the Law.

Go on to the next example… There is a man who was lame and unable to walk who is lowered down through a roof in front of Jesus. Knowing that the Pharisees were there, what does Jesus do? Instead of simply healing the man, Jesus tells him that his sins are forgiven. The Pharisees ask themselves, rightly, “Who is this that forgives sins?” Only God can forgive sins!” But of course Jesus demonstrates that he not only has the authority to forgive sins, but he also has the ability to make the man walk, and that is exactly what he does.

Then Jesus says that he has come to give forgiveness and call sinners to repentance.

Then he explains that he is the bridegroom who has come for his bride, even explaining that he is doing a new thing that people cannot, and even prefer to not accept.

And then we come to the beginning of Luke chapter 6 where Jesus’s disciples are picking a few heads of grain and eating them as they walk on the Sabbath. Jesus replies to the Pharisees explaining that David had done the same thing, and even worse by eating the consecrated bread, a bread that should have only been available to the priests. But Jesus explains that he is not only greater than David but has the authority to speak to any issue related to the Sabbath because:

“The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Luke 6:5

Jesus is saying that he himself is the one who can speak to the rules of the Sabbath. The One who is making the rules is the One with the authority, and Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. He is making the rules. He has the authority.

Can we see that Luke keeps telling story after story to answer this same question? Who is Jesus? Just in these few short stories, we can see these things about Jesus:

He has authority over, and can control, nature. No man can do this Only God.

He has authority over disease and sickness. What is more, he has authority over ceremonial cleanliness and uncleanliness. He isn’t made unclean. He makes the unclean clean.

Then Jesus forgives sins, something that the Pharisees rightly say that only God can do.

And then Jesus shows that he cannot only do all of these things, but he has authority over the Law. The Sabbath was established through the Law and Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, so he is the One who can speak to the writing and application of the Law. Only God can do this.

Luke does continue to ask and answer this question: Who is Jesus? Through his teaching and through his actions, Jesus continues to answer the question: I am God.

Jesus had grown and was now about 30 years old. He had been traveling in different towns, but returns back to his hometown of Nazareth where he had grown up with his family. He had been teaching in the synagogues and on this particular sabbath, he went into his hometown synagogue in Nazareth.

Jesus had stood to read the scriptures and he was handed a scroll that contained the prophecies of Isaiah. Jesus unrolled the scroll until he reached Isaiah 61 where he read these words:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Luke 4:18-19

Jesus read from Isaiah 61 verse 1 and the first half of verse 2 and then says:

“Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Luke 4:21

Before going on, here is a dramatization of this time in Nazareth. It isn’t precisely what we see in the Bible, but for a dramatization, I think it captures the scene pretty well and how the people felt – the good, the bad, and the ugly – of Jesus’s revelation to be the Christ, God’s annointed One.

The first thing that we see is that Jesus selects Isaiah 61, and in this passage in Isaiah, the annointed One of God is speaking. This is the Christ, the Messiah, that is speaking to the people of Israel through Isaiah, and now, Jesus reads it to the people in the synagogue in Nazareth and then tells the people that the scripture is fulfilled in their hearing.

Jesus is telling them that he, himself, is the Messiah. He is the Christ. He has come to:

Proclaim good news to the poor.

Bind up the brokenhearted.

To proclaim freedom for the captives.

To release the prisoners from darkness.

And proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Later, the Jews begin to think that Jesus may be the Messiah and they fill these words with a different meaning. They think that the “good news” for the poor is that Jesus will make them rich. They think that binding up the brokenhearted means that he will turn their emotional sadness into happiness. That he will remove the people from their captors, the Romans. That he will let prisoners out of Roman prisons. And that they will be favored by God so that the political nation of Israel will be restored.

But that is not at all what Jesus is referring to. Jesus isn’t a political king. He is much, much more than a political king. He is a spiritual King, the King of kings. He rules over not only the political nations of the world, but also all of heaven and earth. He rules over the evil forces and principalities of the heavens. No, Jesus has come to reveal his Kingship to the people, setting them free from everything that stands in opposition to the Kingdom of God, reestablishing God’s reign on the earth because he himself is the King.

A genealogy is a line of descent traced from an ancestor, according to the Oxford Languages dictionary. Why would someone want to understand their genealogy? Here might be a few reasons:

To connect with the past – who am I?

To understand the community to which I belong.

To know the legacy of which I am a part.

There might be other reasons, of course. America, for example, has famously been known to be a “melting pot” of peoples from across the world. The people who live there have come from across the world after just a few generations, but often we don’t know those geographical origins as they weren’t discussed in our families.

Whatever the individual case may be, it is clear that a genealogy is intended to provide a connection from the present to the past.

In Jesus’s case, Matthew (chapter 1) and Luke (chapter 3) both created genealogies for him. Why would they do this? What is the purpose?

The main reason is to connect Jesus to both his earthly and heavenly ancestors. Here is what I mean:

Jesus is a descendent from God Himself

Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph

Luke 3:23

the son of Enosh,
the son of Seth, the son of Adam,
the son of God.

Luke 3:38

In verse 23, Luke makes an allusion to Jesus’s adopted status by his earthly father Joseph when he says “so it was thought”. Luke has already explained Jesus’s virgin birth in chapters 1 and 2, so he is showing here that Jesus is Joseph’s son, although he is his earthly adopted father, not his direct descendent.

At the same time, Luke also traces Jesus’s lineage all the way back to Adam, the son of God. This shows us that there are now two people who do not have human fathers, neither Adam nor Jesus as both were created and formed directly from God, not born in the same way as the rest of us from human parents.

Jesus is a descendent of Israel through the line of Judah

the son of Amminadab, the son of Ram,
the son of Hezron, the son of Perez,
the son of Judah, the son of Jacob,
the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham,
the son of Terah, the son of Nahor

Luke 3:33

God brings about his plan to bless all nations through the nation of Israel. He had originally blessed Abraham who had Isaac and then Jacob, whose name was changed by God to Israel. Judah was one of Israel’s sons, and thus created one of the tribes of Israel. The Messiah was prophesied to come from the tribe of Judah (for example, Micah 5:2) and so Jesus is connected to this tribe.

Jesus is a descendent of King David

the son of Melea, the son of Menna,
the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan,
the son of David, the son of Jesse,
the son of Obed, the son of Boaz,
the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon

Luke 3:31

King David was from the tribe of Judah as was his father Jesse. As a descendent of David, Jesus is in the royal line from a human perspective, but also in the royal line from a divine perspective. Jesus is royalty and is worthy to be praised and worshiped for his royal heritage as well as his royal nature as the King in the Kingdom of God.

Controversy

There is controversy, of course, with regard to the genealogy that Luke presents as it differs in places with the genealogy that Matthew presented. A specific place in which we can look would be Joseph’s father, Jesus’s human and adoptive grandfather. In Matthew, he is listed as Jacob, whereas in Luke he is listed as Heli.

Quite a few theories exist as to why this difference exists, but here are a couple, just to give some explanation:

Matthew may have been listing Joseph’s line whereas Luke was actually listing Mary’s line. This isn’t clear because it seems to say that Heli is Joseph’s father, but the virgin birth also makes the situation challenging and to lack clarity given that Jesus didn’t have a human father, and having a human father is the only way that a genealogy actually works. So, it could be possible that, to show the human descendency of Jesus, Luke listed Mary’s ancestors instead of those of Joseph.

A second theory is similar in that Heli was still Mary’s father but Joseph is listed as as a son-in-law to Heli, thus showing a connection, although still through Mary’s ancestry.

There are several other theories on the differences, but I think that these statements are true, regardless of which statement you subscribe to:

First, both Matthew and Luke were looking at Jesus’s genealogy from the outside. It would be possible for two people to trace genealogies differently, especially when you add in typical human situations such as adoption, death and remarriage, or divorce and remarriage.

Second, the question of the virgin birth causes a significant challenge to writing a genealogy. Both Matthew and Luke acknowledge the virgin birth of Jesus, having been born directly from the Holy Spirit creating and forming Jesus within Mary, so this is a very difficult challenge to overcome in the midst of writing a genealogy.

And finally – but probably most importantly – none of the controversy about the specific line taken changes the most important connections that I’ve outlined above. The biggest question isn’t who Joseph’s father was, nor how the descedency arrives to him. The biggest question is: Who is Jesus? If we only had a genealogy as the evidence upon which we are relying, this controversy might be worthy of consideration, but it is not. Jesus performed miracles that only God could perform. Jesus died and was resurrected, a miracle to which hundreds of people attested and died to confirm. No, the genealogies are not the primary evidence that Jesus is who he claimed to be, but instead, they confirm the prophecies and confirm Jesus’s identity.

God’s plan for his people was that they would make Him known amongst all of the nations. Even from the very beginning of the nation of Israel, even from Israel’s grandfather Abraham, God said that His blessing would come upon Abraham so that all of the nations would be blessed. It was God’s intent that they would all hear of the One true God and all know Him.

And now, the time had come. God Himself would come to the earth to be the fulfillment of that blessing. Through Abraham, through Isaac, and through Jacob, who would be renamed Israel, would come One who would be the true Light to the nations.

Simeon was a man who understood what God was doing and was actively watching and waiting for God to move. It had been revealed to him that he would see the Messiah before he died. So, assuming that the temple in Jerusalem was the place to see God move, he went to the temple courts where he found Joseph and Mary carrying Jesus to offer a sacrifice in worship to God for what he had done.

Upon seeing the family, and most specifically Jesus, Simeon made an incredible declaration:

“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.”

Luke 2:29-32

Jesus was to be God’s salvation. He would save people not just from Israel, but from all nations. He would give revelation to the Gentiles. He would be a light to them. He would be the glory of Israel because he came from Israel, but he would be for all peoples.

This isn’t new news. This is the same news, the same plan that God had put in motion in Genesis chapter 1 and is continues all of the way to the book of Revelation, which includes us today. And God is fulfilling His plan by making Himself known through Christ. There is One God who has shown Himself, who has made Himself known, in three different ways: As the Father in heaven, as the Son Jesus Christ here on the earth, and through the Holy Spirit who was released to dwell in and among specific people in the time before Christ but now in all believers today.

Jesus, who is God Himself who has come in the form of a man, is the easiest way for us to relate to God because God decided to reveal Himself to us. That is why Simeon called Jesus a light for revelation for the Gentiles. Salvation isn’t just something that comes through Jesus. Jesus is salvation. A light for revelation isn’t just something that comes through Jesus. Jesus is the light for revelation. God has made Himself known to us. Jesus is God revealed to all men. Jesus is God and now we can each know God because we have known Jesus.

This light has come to all people, to both the Jews and to the Gentiles. And God invites each of us into His plan. This is a significant part of who we are made to be. We are to be God’s people, representing Him and making Him known in all of the earth. We are to tell people about God’s salvation, about Christ. We are to tell people about God’s light for revelation, about Christ.

I woke up this morning listening to a podcast by David Platt that speaks to this, to God’s plan for all of the nations, and I would like to share it with you. I found it online in a sharable format, so here is the video… Give it a watch:

In Luke 1, we see a contrast between two people who are presented with a revelation from God. The first one was Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist. The second one was Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Both of them had been visited by the angel Gabriel who had presented them news of a child that would be born to them.

In Zechariah’s situation, Gabriel spoke to him as he went into the temple to burn incense. He was there to serve God as a priest, to offer worship to Him. Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth had been barren and without children and had been praying for a child. Yet as Gabriel came to tell him that they would have a child, Zechariah didn’t believe what Gabriel had come to tell him. He prayed and wanted what God was now giving him, but he couldn’t believe that it was actually true because both he and his wife were old.

Because Zechariah didn’t believe, Gabriel said that he wouldn’t be able to speak until his words were fulfilled. Until the day that Elizabeth would give birth, Zechariah would be silent.

On the other hand, Gabriel also came to Mary. As far as we know, she had not necessarily been praying for a child. She was young. In fact, she was a virgin, so it truly would have been impossible for her to have a child. She asked a similar question to Gabriel as did Zechariah: How can this be? But Gabriel responds to Mary in a different way than he did to Zechariah. He explains that the Holy Spirit would come upon her, that God’s power would overshadow her and she would become pregnant.

Clearly, there was something different in the question of Mary than that of Zechariah. Yes, the words were slightly different, and we can probably draw distinction there, but just the reaction of Gabriel in both circumstances tells us what we need to know: Zechariah did not believe, but Mary did. He wasn’t willing or able to imagine that God could fulfill His word. Mary, on the other hand, believed but didn’t understand.

God wants us to simply believe Him. He wants us to seek understanding, and He will provide it, but first we must believe what He says.

Maybe we might wonder: But when did God ever reveal something to us through an angel?

Yes, right. He may not have come to visit us in a fantastical way, sending an angel appear to us, but He has given us His word, the word of God. We have the Bible. We have the words that God has spoken to us and He wants us to believe them.

And if we will believe them, we will be blessed as Mary was. God will use us, just as He used Mary. Through Mary, the Saviour of the world, the Son of the Most High, was given to us. God used this woman who simply believed, who simply said:

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.”

Luke 1:38

This must be our attitude as well. If we read and seek to understand God’s word, we can see a whole new point of view, a whole new perspective. We can be a people who have a purpose that is well beyond ourselves. We can be a people that can transcend this world. We can make the Saviour and Lord known to our world, making fruit and giving glory to God.

We prefer to talk about God being, in His very essence, love. We prefer mercy and grace. We prefer forgiveness.

But chapter 14 in the book of Revelation gives us the other side of the coin. It gives us a true understanding of what we are referring to when we talk about love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness. When you think about mercy, grace, and forgiveness, you must weigh it against the reality of the punishment that you deserve for what you have done.

In this case, God is a holy God. Perfect. Without blemish.

And yet, we are a sinful people. Rebellious. Willing to leave God and His plans and commands behind in a moment.

Because of our sin and disobedience, we deserve punishment. But even the word “punishment” doesn’t really capture what would come from God. That word, at least in my mind, brings about images of a momentary and temporary pain, disappointment, or lack.

That isn’t really what we are talking about. Because God is holy, his glory is infinite and eternal. And if God is robbed of His glory, what He truly deserves, then those that have robbed Him of it will receive His wrath.

And that brings us to verses 9 through 11 in Revelation 14:

“If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”

Revelation 14:9-11

The angel is saying that if worship and glory goes to another, in this case another that stands in direct opposition to Christ, the one who truly deserves the worship, the glory, and the honor, they will receive the wine of God’s fury. That wine has been poured into the cup of God’s wrath, and that wrath will be poured out upon those who have worshipped the beast. Jesus and the angels will be there to see the wrath that is poured out upon those who worship the one who stands in oppostion to Christ as witnesses to the wrath that God will put upon them.

I don’t always find it very easy to understand each of the intricacies and detail of the book of Revelation. That’s not to say it isn’t worth the time. I think it is. It just isn’t easy for me to try to dig into it and keep it all straight.

For example, in today’s reading in Revelation 12, there is a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and a crown of 12 stars. Then there is a dragon who appears with seven heads and ten horns, with seven crowns, one for each head. The woman has a child that the dragon tries to kill but is unable. Then the dragon tries to kill the woman but is unable.

The imagery is amazing, and again, I do think it is important to try to understand what John is saying through the imagery. I think he is trying to use the language that he has to describe what he is seeing, but at times it is difficult for me to follow or understand the detail of what is being said.

But I think that there are some pretty important points that we can get out of what we find here. For example, after the dragon is defeated, we see that a loud voice calls out and proclaims the following:

“Now have come the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.
They triumphed over him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.
Therefore rejoice, you heavens
and you who dwell in them!
But woe to the earth and the sea,
because the devil has gone down to you!
He is filled with fury,
because he knows that his time is short.”

Revelation 12:10-12

So, what do we see here:

First, we can see that salvation has come because the Messiah has come upon the earth. This is, of course, speaking of Jesus. It is speaking of the he who came to the earth to reestablish his Kingdom here upon the earth. God came in the form of Jesus to reestablish His kingdom.

But the Messiah did not come with weakness. He came to defeat evil. He came to throw out the ruler of this world. That ruler is Satan and he has been defeated through Christ’s death on the cross. While it seemed that Satan had won, Jesus rose again, stood back up, and lives again. Satan is defeated because his ultimate weapon is death, but death has now been defeated. If Jesus can overcome death, all of those that come with him can do the same. So what can evil do? It can kill, but as followers of Christ, we will overcome death to spiritually live with Christ forever. Satan has no more weapons that can defeat us.

But that doesn’t mean that he won’t try. He will continue to wage war. Satan knows that he is defeated, but he is in a rage and will try to take down as many people with him as he can. The dragon is now on the earth and is waging war against God’s people, against those who hold fast to their testimony about Christ.

So what does this mean? We must be ready to fight? Are we brandishing our swords and guns? No, of course not. While there are other religious leaders who call for the destruction of their enemies – Mohammed, for example – Jesus calls us to love our enemies. Our weapons here on the earth are the word of God, prayer, and telling others the Good News of what Christ has done for us. We allow God to use us to expand His Kingdom here on the earth, but we know that Satan, and those who choose to follow him, even if they don’t realize that they are doing it and think that they are doing God’s will, will continue to wage war against the people of Christ.