This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Revelation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, March 6, 1994.

We look first tonight at Psalm 2. Let’s give our attention to God’s Word. Why are the nations in an uproar? and the peoples devising a vain thing. The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. Then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury.

But as for me, I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me, Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will surely give the nations as thy inheritance. and the very ends of the earth as thy possession.

Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt shatter them like earthenware. Now therefore, O kings, show discernment, take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence, and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, lest ye become angry, and ye perish in the way. For his wrath may soon be kindled how blessed are all who take refuge in him.” I’m turning over to the book of Revelation, chapter 12. We are reading from verse 1. A great sign appeared in heaven A woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

And she was a child, and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven, and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his head were seven diadems. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven. and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who was to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. And her child was caught up to God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God. so that there she might be nourished for 1,260 days.”

We remember, O God, your servants who worked diligently in the Word. We pray, Father, that the Word may benefit us, but, O God, may it benefit all of your children. Truly, by that Word you nourish your own, and by that Word you correct and instruct your own. Father, not just us, then, but your people throughout the world. And in light of what we have heard tonight with respect to the mission in Japan, we pray, O God, that your word would be most profitable there. Lord, may you nourish your people in that land. And by that word, may you be pleased to draw to yourself those who are being saved. hear us, Lord, this is our desire. Sanctify it through Christ and by your Spirit. Amen.

He will note in the bulletin that our series is entitled the woman, the child, and the dragon. We have dealt with the woman, and we are presently turning our attention to the child. The child is the promise. The child is the promise. the realization of that promise, the fulfillment of the promise, given to the people of God, specifically in their Old Testament form and shape. The Old Testament people of God, or the people of God under the Old Testament, come to us in the figure of the woman, and we have discussed her. By grace, by the miracle of God, she bears the promise to its birth. By grace, by the miracle of God, she bears the promise to its birth.

That is what you see transpiring here. as you read Revelation chapter 12. Now, with respect to the promise itself, we know how ancient that promise is. It was uttered for us in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15, where God declares and establishes enmity between the serpent and the woman, and between their respective seed.

Now, I realize that there is a debate among theologians, among exegetes of Scripture, as to the specific reference in Genesis 3.15. Is it exclusively individual, or is it also corporate? Interestingly, Gerhardus Voss said that it was the latter, it was corporate. But generally, Reformed interpreters have favored the former, that it is specifically and pointedly individual.

But whatever the emphasis of Genesis 3.15 There is no question about Paul’s reading of a later publication of that promise, specifically the promise as it is reiterated by God to Abraham.

In Galatians 3.16, Paul reflects on God’s promise to Abraham. There is a question about which specific expression of that promise Paul has in mind as he cites the promise that is given to Abraham. Since there are so many issuances of that promise in the record that we have given us in those chapters in Genesis that pertain to Abraham. But in one sense, it really doesn’t matter which specific promise is in view, since Paul’s point is that the promise is of a single individual, despite the usual and even natural sense that that promise might be given in many of the texts in which it appears. There is one text, however, that does stand out, and I have in mind Genesis chapter 22, verse 18, where God says to Abraham, “‘In your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.'” At least that’s how the New American Standard translates it.

This passage in Genesis 22 builds on the earlier statement we find in Genesis 12.3, which Paul himself has quoted in Galatians 3a. The point is, as Paul stresses it in that 16th verse of Galatians 3, the point is that Paul is focusing there upon the singular use employed by God, by Moses, in the record that is given.

Paul is saying that the meaning of Genesis 22.18 and, specifically and broadly, the promises that are given to Abraham by God, is the realization of the blessing in Abraham’s descendant, or seed, singular. Not his descendants, not his seeds, plural. And even further, Paul is bold to say that that individual, singular seed is none other than Christ.

Galatians 3.16. This then becomes the exposition of Paul with regard to all the promises that pertain to Abraham. Now, I challenge you to look through those promises and to review the content of them. Paul is obviously doing something with those promises so as to make it clear that the fulfillment of them is found in Christ, even capitalizing upon the use of the singular noun in the Hebrew. Seed, not seeds. In other words, through your seed. All the nations of the earth will be blessed through Christ,” says Paul. All the nations of the earth blessed.

Now, the promise will be anticipated in many whose stories are told throughout the course of the Old Testament, but few more significantly than Abraham’s son, Isaac. who is such a central figure in that 22nd chapter, Genesis. Do you recall what Jesus said with respect to Isaac on one occasion? He told the Jews in John chapter 8 that Abraham rejoiced to see his day and actually sought in the birth of his own son Isaac. When Isaac was born, So, says Christ, Abraham perceived the certainty of the promise, and rejoiced in that child’s birth as if the Messiah himself had come. Isaac, then, is one in whom the Christ became visible, even to Abraham.

And so it is with a number of figures presented to us throughout the course of the history of salvation, specifically recorded for us in the Old Testament. But just as the Christ, the promise, is visible in Isaac, so is the conflict that this Christ The fulfillment of this promise generates.

We move from Galatians 3 to Galatians 4, towards the end of that magnificent chapter. This text, Galatians 4, towards its conclusion, speaking about that conflict that comes into view, typified in the battle between two women, Hagar and Sarah. Of course, what is transpiring here, according to Paul, is something much more ominous than a domestic squabble between two women. And most definitely, what is being played out here is not some dispute that can be worked out somehow by negotiation. Let’s get Hagar and Sarah down to the counseling center and get this thing resolved.

What is being portrayed here at the end of Galatians 4 is an essential and perpetual hostility between these two. There is no mutual compatibility between them. The point will not be that they should learn to get along. The point is that they can never get along, nor will they ever get along. In viewing the scene then as it is truly and properly understood, The survival and success of the one means the destruction, the demise of the other.

Something of that enmity, that sworn hostility, that perpetual hostility coming to expression even in the analysis given us with respect to the division in Abraham’s household. There is one Old Testament story in which this conflict is powerfully illustrated. It is the one that presents us with the Old Testament dragon lady herself.

Some of you may know who she is. She bore the name Athaliah. Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. She was married into the royal line of Judah, into the house of David. When her son Azariah died, we are told that she rose up with a specific intention of destroying the royal seed, the descendants of David’s house.

You can see what was in the balance. You can also see what was coming to expression, that sworn, perpetual hostility, that enmity, conflict, inevitable in itself. If she is successful, it means, of course, the end of the promise of the Christ, who is born through the line of Judah, a promised son of David. We hear of God’s intervention. We hear how Jehoshaphat hid the remnant of David’s royal line, a child by the name of Joash, from this wicked woman until he would come of age, until he would assume the throne himself, coming out of hiding. for the purpose of putting Athaliah down. You can read about this in 2 Kings 11 or 2 Chronicles 22 and 23.

You see, when it comes to the promise which is in view now in relationship to the child portrayed for us in Revelation 12. When it comes to the promise carried along through the Old Testament, it is not merely a matter of seeing the Christ in the many who represent him before his actual coming, but seeing the extremities that he generates. seeing the hostility and the enmity that rises up around him and with respect to him. Warfare. The effort of Satan and his henchmen to destroy the cross. Behind the scenes, Revelation 12 tells us, there stands the great red dragon that seeks to devour the promise. But the promise, you see, is preserved by God.

However, identifying the child as promise, as we have done, and understanding the promise to be nothing less than Christ himself, and that in mortal conflict with the dragon, does not exhaust for us what is here for us in this vision given us of the child.

As we would understand what is here further given to us, however, we may be very, very confused. For example, we may be confused because we understand from the opening of the twelfth chapter that the scene described for us here is a scene in heaven. But we know that the events that now are played out before us in what is described in this twelfth chapter of Revelation are events that transpire on the earth.

Verse 5, she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, and her child was caught up to God and to his throne. It’s as if the scene changes. We’ve moved from heaven to earth. The vision is a vision in heaven, but the things that are described play themselves out upon the earth. This may confuse us.

If we fail to understand that the vision’s purpose in this regard is to convince us that earth’s events are in the control of heaven, and that the blessed participants in the drama of redemption and the elect of God—no, not simply the Old Testament saints, but the New Testament saints as well—are not only in heaven’s control, but they live securely in heaven. Our life is hid with Christ in God.

Colossians 3.3. We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 1.3. We, the people of God, the elect, are living, as it were, in heaven because of our relationship to, our union with, our Savior. The vision is of things in heaven the events are played out in the earth. The intent of the vision is to convince us, even while we are in the earth, that we live in the control of heaven, and even more, that we live in heaven. And that’s secure. And that’s secure. The warfare is extreme. The violence is depicted for us here. But we are secure in Christ.

But there are other things here that may well confuse us. The language of verse 5 confuses us. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who was to rule the nations with a rod of iron, and her child was caught up to God and to his throne. Now you know that Christ came into the world a child, but hardly remained a child, and certainly wasn’t taken up to God and to his throne as a child. So what in heaven’s name is going on here? You look at the verse and it doesn’t confuse.

It seems to be overlaid with mystery. Now, in unraveling this problem and dealing with this confusion, we may well be driven in directions that we don’t expect. The vision is concerned to present the great event related to the birth of the promise consistently under the figure of the child. Hold on to that. The vision is concerned to present the great event related to the birth of the promise under the figure, and that consistently, under the figure of the child, from beginning to end. that the birth, in view here in verse 5, stands in close connection with what we would understand to be the ascension. You catch that, don’t you? The child is taken up to God and to his throne. The passage then seems to relate the birth to the ascension. There is a close connection between the two.

But this close connection between the birth and the ascension now may force us to see the birth itself, the birth specifically spoken of here, as different from the literal birth of Jesus to Mary at Bethlehem. there may be some other consideration in view altogether. Now, not that we in any sense give up the doctrine of the birth of Jesus Christ, the truth of it, either historically or theologically. The birth in view here, however, may be one that is even more central to the accomplishment of redemption than the birth of Christ to Mary at Bethlehem. Could it be that the vision here is not of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, but of another If it is of another birth, what might that birth be? Let me suggest to you, this birth, standing in such close proximity to the Ascension, is nothing else but the resurrection of Christ at Jerusalem. Not the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, but the resurrection of Christ in Jerusalem.

Now, what leads me to this conclusion? You will note the passage that is quoted in relationship to this vision respecting the child. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. Where does that come from? Where does that come from?

It comes from Psalm 2. We read it tonight, did we not? Psalm 2, verse 9. It is a citation of Psalm 2, verse 9. Speaking of the child, now John writes He is the one who is to rule the nations with a rod of iron. That psalm, Psalm 2, speaks specifically of the birth of the Son of God when it says, Thou hast said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Psalm 2, verse 7. But I ask you, What is the day of begetting referred to in that second psalm?

Is it the birth of Jesus to Mary in Bethlehem? I challenge you to check the references to that psalm in the New Testament. to see how that psalm is used, and I dare say to you that the use of it is absolutely consistent. It doesn’t refer, so say the writers of the New Testament, to the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. It refers to the resurrection of Christ.

If you want an example of this very thing, I invite you to look at Acts chapter 13, verse and Paul’s sermon there to the people of Antioch of Pisidia. Building up to this from verse 32, and we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers. that God, verse 33, has fulfilled this promise to our children in that he raised up Jesus as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee. There it is.

This means then that what is in view in this statement we have here, Revelation 12.5, is nothing less than this. Israel’s hope and redemption is brought forth in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is seen as a begetting in which the Son enters into his rule. A begetting by which he enters into his rule He is rule of the nations, and that’s specifically in the language of Psalm 2, with a rod of iron. Now, this puts in front of us the last of the confusions from this portrayal of the child, you see.

I ask you, what do you think of when you think of the risen Christ? Joining the risen Christ to the ascended Christ, I ask you, what comes to your mind? Do not images of incomparable power come to your mind? Are there not running through your mind these thoughts?

A Savior, yes, who was slain in weakness, but now raised in power, raised to reign. This One who is absolutely and perfectly powerful, infinitely mighty, ruling in all of His strength, crushing the heads of all of His foes. Isn’t that what comes to your mind?

But set in front of you is a child. You get the point? set in front of you is a child, and that consistently. The genius of it, the sheer genius of it, so ingenious that the dragon will never understand it. Put in front of you is a child. You expect this regal figure, this king, this potentate, this almighty powerful individual, and what you are given is a child. Now, how is this child going to reign? How is he even going to pick up the wildfire? Entire theologies would translate Christ’s present brain along the lines of this vision of the all-powerful King exerting his rule and breaking heads with a rod of iron. Entire theologies have been created. out of that kind of a mindset.

But let me tell you, Revelation 12.5 is exegeting for you, authoritatively, Psalm 2.

And there is no other interpretation. There is none. That is the interpretation. The child is the one to whom you look. These theologies that have been conjured up now on the back of Psalm 2 and other passages would force to our consideration a program for Christian world domination. As if that were our goal and destiny. As if Christ’s interest is that he be recognized by governments the world over, backed up by legislation whose laws are enforced by great and mighty armies.

Hogwash. Absolute hogwash. and I’ll say it here without embarrassment or hesitation, this is why I am not a covenanter. The fulfillment of Psalm 2. You see, now, in the Day of Fulfillment, it’s cast under the figure of a child, a helpless child. And what might be the rod of iron which this child wields? His own identity as a child. That is his weapon. That is how he rules. His weapons are weakness, humility, utter dependence upon heaven and upon his Father. That is how he rules. These are his weapons. And it is by such weapons that he brings his own to himself, they being made over into his image.

Do you now begin to understand the weight and the significance of Jesus’ emphasis upon the child in his ministry? I direct your attention to Matthew 18, verse 3. I truly say unto you, unless you are converted and become as a little child, you shall not even enter into the kingdom of heaven.

The one who says that has himself entered the kingdom of heaven as a child, according to Revelation 12.5. And it is in the visage of a child, and the form of a child, that he presently exercises his reign.

Where is the humility? Where is the boast in weakness? Where is the confession of utter and absolute dependence upon heaven and upon our Father above? It is absolute genius, so profound, so incredibly profound, as to confuse devils, but even more glorious, in the end, to destroy them.

Of course you know that the one who is here portrayed as a child will come again. And he will not come as a child. He will come as a terrible judge with sickle and sword in hand to mete out judgment against all who have refused to become children for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. Our Father, be gracious to us.

The lesson that is set before us here is as difficult to learn as any. How is it possible for the weak to actually reign? The meek to rule? Those who are utterly and thoroughly dependent to be sovereign. In the world’s judgment, it is utterly impossible. According to your wisdom, it is the very truth of the Kingdom. O Father, help your Church, even as she would don the form of a child. looking to the Father. Indeed, after the similitude of the Savior.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.