Talk

A Cosmic Collision and a Ready Church

Louie Giglio

June, 23, 2024

Louie Giglio walks through Revelation 12-13, calling us to patient endurance, faithfulness, and wisdom in the last days. A moment will come when we must decide whether to truly lay down our lives for Jesus or live according to our flesh. What will you decide?

Key Takeaway

We can endure and overcome by trusting in the blood of the Lamb, using the word of our testimony, and believing in the power of life over death.

The world is operating on His timeline and will come to His conclusion and consequence. Christ is reigning, and time is running out on everyone else who is not submitted to the authority of Him.

In today’s text, we continue to see the gospel story threaded throughout the book of Revelation.

Through reading Revelation 12:1-6, we're confronted with the story of the Woman and the Dragon. In this, we see the story of the Gospel and how the dragon unintentionally liberated the captive (Jesus), ultimately leading to God's sovereign plan coming to fruition.

Because the Dragon was unable to take out its true target, the Son of God, it shifted its tactic to try to take out the thing that Jesus loved most: the Church.

Following Revelation 12, we read about the beast coming out of the sea in Revelation 13, where we are confronted with the reality of human kingdoms that have ejected God from the center of their lives.

The dragon goes after Jesus's disciples, but not directly. Instead, he targets political powers by giving authority to the beast.

The second beast, through false prophecy, power, and persuasion, is breathing life into the political structure to wage war against the saints, stealing the worship of the Creator, and redirecting the worship to Satan.

1 John 2:18 teaches of the antichrist to come and the many antichrists that are to come.

There is an unholy trinity that exists—the dragon, the state (Roman government), and false prophets/religion, that exists for the purpose of extinguishing the Church.

But the crux is knowing that God is over all things and has been since the beginning of time.

How do we, as the Church, respond to this?

By knowing the Church is central, made up of followers of Christ, and not exclusive to "a" church alone, but the body of Christ as a whole.

Governments will not be the light of the world; governments will be the end of the world.

We are directly encouraged by three things:

1. The blood of the Lamb (Revelation 12:11)

When bombarded by accusations, we look to Jesus, the only person able to overcome the accuser (diablo).

You can never move past the cross of Christ.

2. By the word of our testimony.

We must continually tell the story of the Gospel and how God has been faithful in our own lives.

We are today, and will be when that day comes, the city on the hill. (Matthew 5:14)

3. By our belief in the power of life over death.

Death is a doorway for overcomers.

We can overcome this because we do not love our lives.

We believe that in the end, Christ has already won.

“

"You need to start sharing the testimony of God's faithfulness in your life because that's how you overcome—is by hearing that story."

”

Louie Giglio

Discussion Questions

Are you submitted to the authority of God? Why or why not?
Louie Giglio reminds us that time is running out. Are you living with a sense of urgency in your daily life? How?
Have you ever noticed that the Gospel story was threaded in the book of Revelation, specifically in Revelation 12:1-6? How does that change your understanding of Scripture as a whole narrative?
How have you seen the enemy target the Church? What encouragements/reminders can you think of to help combat the attempts of the enemy to extinguish the Church?
How does knowing that Jesus is the ultimate authority give you peace when faced with political tensions?
Re-read Revelation 12:11. What opportunities do you have in front of you to share your testimony with those around you?
How have you seen the power of someone else's testimony change the trajectory of another person's life?
If someone were to look at your life, would it be a reflection of Christ? Why or why not?
Think through any areas of your daily life that steal your affection for Christ. What are those areas?
How does knowing that Christ has already overcome the world give you peace in current sufferings?

Scripture References

The Woman and the Dragon

1A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.

7Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

10Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:

“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.

11They 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.

12Therefore 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.”

13When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. 15Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. 16But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.

The Beast out of the Sea

1The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. 2The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. 3One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. 4People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?”

5The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. 6It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. 7It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. 8All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.

9Whoever has ears, let them hear.

10“If anyone is to go into captivity,

into captivity they will go.

If anyone is to be killed with the sword,

with the sword they will be killed.”

This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.

The Beast out of the Earth

11Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. 12It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. 13And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. 14Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. 16It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

18This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.

19Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm.

18Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.

15But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”

“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.

Louie Giglio

Louie Giglio is the Visionary Architect and Director of the Passion Movement, comprised of Passion Conferences, Passion City Church, Passion Publishing and sixstepsrecords, and the founder of Passion Institute.