Revelation xii. 7.
THERE was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
We have a tendency in our modern world to take powerful images and dumb them down. The cross is a good example. A mother of a young girl that was going to be confirmed went into a store to purchase a cross. The sales lady asked the mother, “Do you want one with the little man on it or not?” Crosses are not respected for what they truly represent. After all, the Cross is an emblem of State Sponsored Capital Punishment. If someone wanted to kill a person in biblical times they would simply stab them or behead them. But if they truly wanted them to suffer in a cruel and ultimate way…The way our Lord did…They would be crucified on a cross. Today, people would think several times before wearing a t-shirt with an electric chair on it…But that same person would probably think nothing of eating a chocolate cross at Easter. I’m not saying we shouldn’t wear crosses. In fact, we should. We should just know their meaning.
Angels suffer much the same fate. There are angels of the month, birthstone angels, dashboard charms that say, "Never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly." Little yellow signs hang on the back windshields in cars and proclaim, "Angels on board." There are gardening angels, Mother's Day angels, Hallmark angels holding everything from Halloween Jack O' Lanterns to St. Patrick's Day shamrocks.
Fat blonde babies with wings play and frolic on every possible item. Chubby cherubs looking more like the Campbell’s Soup kids than anything that would cry, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty!" Millions of Christians in the East say at every divine liturgy “You thousands of archangels, myriads of angels, Cherubim and Seraphim, six winged, many-eyed, soaring aloft on their wings.”…While, in America, we put Angels on greeting cards, wallpaper, and tattoos…Yes, Angels are everywhere. Angels have become part of our popular culture in a way that Jesus and the cross has. In a way that really does not reflect reality. They have become ineffectual and are nothing powerful at all. Angels have become for the most part simply interesting popular symbols.
First of all…Angels are not human beings that have died. The truth is that ANGELS ARE EXTREMELY POWERFUL BEINGS… That are separate from mankind. We can read many instances of Angels in the Bible…An angel, Gabriel…Was chosen to announce the greatest event in all of history…Christ’s birth! When we read about other events Angels were involved in we see in scripture that in Isaiah 37:36 185,000 Syrian soldiers were slain by one of God's angels.
2 Samuel 24:15 Some 70,000 Judeans were killed because of David's sin. Revelation 7:1 Angels hold back the four winds from destroying earth.
In our Epistle today we read There was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. Against Satan and his minions. War in heaven? Now, there’s a thought for the manufacturers of religious greetings cards. St Michael reminds us that the usual condition of the faith is to be at war. We are always under attack by sin and evil. And we are expected to fight,
to be among those who loved not their lives unto the death. Like all Saints… Michael is an example for us to live by.
Saint Michael is the patron Saint of First Responders because of His courage. Because he stood up to the ultimate evil and cared not for his own safety….I think it is fitting that men and women that do the opposite of human nature…I had a psychologist tell me in 1988, long before 911, "It's fitting that St. Michael, the one who had the courage to go head to head with the Devil, is the Patron Saint of First Responders. Because they run into burning buildings and towards gun fire, telling themselves to go against the very way their brains are 'hard wired', people don't realize how difficult it is to go against everything your very nature is telling you not do".
Sad to say not all the heavenly host are holy. About a third are evil. Revelation 12:4
And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth...
The Devil has been dumbed down as well. My original mentor, Fr. David Booher, used to say that the greatest of the Devil’s victories was to convince people that he didn’t exist. He’s on Red Devil Razor Blades, lighter fluid and he’s used as a mascot for sports teams….From religious schools no less. Yes, the Devil has declared war on God and on all God’s creation…Each one of us is special. We are made in God’s image. We are so special that God came and dwelt amongst us in the flesh. He suffered and died so that we might not have to. So, you better believe that Devil hates us just as much as God loves us. Satan has declared war on us.
But…There is great hope…We together are the body of Christ; we together conquer Satan. We each have a personal battle, but each personal battle is not insignificant. Satan is defeated ultimately through the millions of defeats he suffers in the lives of individual Christians. Each personal battle is part of that process of defeating Satan.
Look again at verse 11 in our Epistle. How do we conquer Satan? By what means? “By the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony.” Thus, we do not defeat Satan by ourselves, by our own power. We defeat him by the “blood of the Lamb”. What does that mean? We defeat him by the confidence we have in Jesus Christ. So when Satan accuses us, saying, “You are guilty! God will never forgive you! You’re dirt!” we respond by saying, “Yes, I am guilty! But it says in scripture, "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the Propitiation for our sins."
Furthermore, look at the last phrase of verse 11: “They loved not their lives even unto death.” As Jesus says in John 12:24-25, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." Thus, when Satan says, “You’re going to miss out on life unless you commit this sin!” You can respond, Jesus says "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me". That’s how we conquer Satan by the blood of Jesus. But verse 11 also tells us that these brothers conquer Satan by “the word of their testimony.” What does this mean?
Think of it this way: Each of us conquers Satan in part through the encouragement of others. As we speak the Word of God to others – through preaching, yes, but also through speaking biblical truth in other contexts - God uses His Word to protect His people. So the author of Hebrews says: "All of you, brothers, take care, lest there be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But all of you exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," so that not one of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3:12-13) We are to “exhort one another” – that is the “word of their testimony”. You defeat Satan in your own life by the way you live your life and spread His Gospel. By this way, you help you help your neighbor not love their lives even unto death.
THERE was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
We have a tendency in our modern world to take powerful images and dumb them down. The cross is a good example. A mother of a young girl that was going to be confirmed went into a store to purchase a cross. The sales lady asked the mother, “Do you want one with the little man on it or not?” Crosses are not respected for what they truly represent. After all, the Cross is an emblem of State Sponsored Capital Punishment. If someone wanted to kill a person in biblical times they would simply stab them or behead them. But if they truly wanted them to suffer in a cruel and ultimate way…The way our Lord did…They would be crucified on a cross. Today, people would think several times before wearing a t-shirt with an electric chair on it…But that same person would probably think nothing of eating a chocolate cross at Easter. I’m not saying we shouldn’t wear crosses. In fact, we should. We should just know their meaning.
Angels suffer much the same fate. There are angels of the month, birthstone angels, dashboard charms that say, "Never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly." Little yellow signs hang on the back windshields in cars and proclaim, "Angels on board." There are gardening angels, Mother's Day angels, Hallmark angels holding everything from Halloween Jack O' Lanterns to St. Patrick's Day shamrocks.
Fat blonde babies with wings play and frolic on every possible item. Chubby cherubs looking more like the Campbell’s Soup kids than anything that would cry, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty!" Millions of Christians in the East say at every divine liturgy “You thousands of archangels, myriads of angels, Cherubim and Seraphim, six winged, many-eyed, soaring aloft on their wings.”…While, in America, we put Angels on greeting cards, wallpaper, and tattoos…Yes, Angels are everywhere. Angels have become part of our popular culture in a way that Jesus and the cross has. In a way that really does not reflect reality. They have become ineffectual and are nothing powerful at all. Angels have become for the most part simply interesting popular symbols.
First of all…Angels are not human beings that have died. The truth is that ANGELS ARE EXTREMELY POWERFUL BEINGS… That are separate from mankind. We can read many instances of Angels in the Bible…An angel, Gabriel…Was chosen to announce the greatest event in all of history…Christ’s birth! When we read about other events Angels were involved in we see in scripture that in Isaiah 37:36 185,000 Syrian soldiers were slain by one of God's angels.
2 Samuel 24:15 Some 70,000 Judeans were killed because of David's sin. Revelation 7:1 Angels hold back the four winds from destroying earth.
In our Epistle today we read There was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. Against Satan and his minions. War in heaven? Now, there’s a thought for the manufacturers of religious greetings cards. St Michael reminds us that the usual condition of the faith is to be at war. We are always under attack by sin and evil. And we are expected to fight,
to be among those who loved not their lives unto the death. Like all Saints… Michael is an example for us to live by.
Saint Michael is the patron Saint of First Responders because of His courage. Because he stood up to the ultimate evil and cared not for his own safety….I think it is fitting that men and women that do the opposite of human nature…I had a psychologist tell me in 1988, long before 911, "It's fitting that St. Michael, the one who had the courage to go head to head with the Devil, is the Patron Saint of First Responders. Because they run into burning buildings and towards gun fire, telling themselves to go against the very way their brains are 'hard wired', people don't realize how difficult it is to go against everything your very nature is telling you not do".
Sad to say not all the heavenly host are holy. About a third are evil. Revelation 12:4
And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth...
The Devil has been dumbed down as well. My original mentor, Fr. David Booher, used to say that the greatest of the Devil’s victories was to convince people that he didn’t exist. He’s on Red Devil Razor Blades, lighter fluid and he’s used as a mascot for sports teams….From religious schools no less. Yes, the Devil has declared war on God and on all God’s creation…Each one of us is special. We are made in God’s image. We are so special that God came and dwelt amongst us in the flesh. He suffered and died so that we might not have to. So, you better believe that Devil hates us just as much as God loves us. Satan has declared war on us.
But…There is great hope…We together are the body of Christ; we together conquer Satan. We each have a personal battle, but each personal battle is not insignificant. Satan is defeated ultimately through the millions of defeats he suffers in the lives of individual Christians. Each personal battle is part of that process of defeating Satan.
Look again at verse 11 in our Epistle. How do we conquer Satan? By what means? “By the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony.” Thus, we do not defeat Satan by ourselves, by our own power. We defeat him by the “blood of the Lamb”. What does that mean? We defeat him by the confidence we have in Jesus Christ. So when Satan accuses us, saying, “You are guilty! God will never forgive you! You’re dirt!” we respond by saying, “Yes, I am guilty! But it says in scripture, "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the Propitiation for our sins."
Furthermore, look at the last phrase of verse 11: “They loved not their lives even unto death.” As Jesus says in John 12:24-25, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." Thus, when Satan says, “You’re going to miss out on life unless you commit this sin!” You can respond, Jesus says "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me". That’s how we conquer Satan by the blood of Jesus. But verse 11 also tells us that these brothers conquer Satan by “the word of their testimony.” What does this mean?
Think of it this way: Each of us conquers Satan in part through the encouragement of others. As we speak the Word of God to others – through preaching, yes, but also through speaking biblical truth in other contexts - God uses His Word to protect His people. So the author of Hebrews says: "All of you, brothers, take care, lest there be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But all of you exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," so that not one of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3:12-13) We are to “exhort one another” – that is the “word of their testimony”. You defeat Satan in your own life by the way you live your life and spread His Gospel. By this way, you help you help your neighbor not love their lives even unto death.
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1 comment:
"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death."
If this doesn't make you bow down and thank God I don't know what does.
Really enjoyed reading your post!
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