Here there might be dragons
Grace and peace to you from him who is, who was and who is to come, and from Jesus Christ, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth (Revelation 1:4). Amen.
When European explorers set out across the sea, the unknown was a constant terror. Would they sail to the end of the earth and fall off into a bottomless abyss? Would they encounter strange places inhabited by titans, giants or monsters? When these explorers returned, mapmakers pored over the ships’ logs and began to fill in the great unknowns across the sea. Eventually, major rivers, islands, and ports were shown. But there were still the great expanses of ocean that was unseen and unknown. In such places the mapmakers wrote with trembling hands: “Here there might be dragons.”
They weren’t sure, so they imagined the worst.
Of course, we know they were being silly. In our technological age with GPS and satellites, surely we’ve learned there are no places where there might be dragons. But should we be so sure? Listen again: There was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The 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.”
There is a very real dragon that is ready to tear us apart and devour us. That dragon is Satan. He views this world as his personal killing fields. Not only does the great dragon, that ancient serpent, Satan, come at us. He also sends his demons, his little dragons to tempt and torment us.
Demons poke at you with fear. People are afraid of the virus or the vaccine; afraid of inflation and lockdowns. Employees are afraid of losing their job. Employers are afraid they can’t find people to fill their jobs. You could write: “Here there might be dragons.”
Demons prod you with apprehension and worry. What will happen when you send your baby off to college? What are you going to do if dad’s dementia gets worse? What will you do if you suddenly become a widow or widower? You could write: “Here there might be dragons.”
Demons tempt our culture so we become married to this world. We see how abortion is called “healthcare”, young people are confused about their sexuality, and living together is preferred to marriage. Over our culture you could write: “Here there might be dragons.”
Last week, a man in India was feeling good on his porch. An important part of the story is that this was feeling good because he was drunk. A baby Krait snake – which is highly venomous – bit the man in the leg. This surprised the man. It also made him mad.
He was so upset by the snake bit on his leg that this inebriated man picked up the baby snake and give it a little taste of its own medicine. … He started chewing on the snake – apparently to get some revenge on the creature.
But while he was biting the snake, the snake kept biting him – at least 10 more times in the face!
The man went to sleep that night … and didn’t wake up. The venom from all those snake bites killed him.
Satan is no baby snake. Scripture calls him the Ancient Serpent (Revelation 20:2). He desires to sink his fangs into us. Satan is a predator. Since the great dragon was expelled from heaven, he has brought his war to us on earth. He is the roaring lion looking for someone to devour. And what do we do? We play around with him. We don’t take him seriously. We ignore God’s warnings. We are inebriated with the ways of this world – the money, leisure and laughter. We don’t realize the danger we’re in. One bite of the serpent’s deadly venom can claim us for eternal death in hell.
St. John mentions Satan’s favorite way of devouring people. He says that the devil is the accuser who brings his accusations before God day and night. Satan tempts us to sin. We fall for his schemes and do sin. Then Satan goes in for the kill. Satan goes before God and says, “See, these so-called Christians really don’t follow you after all. They sin. They sin all the time. They keep going back to the same pet sins. They are like pigs returning to their filth and dogs returning to eat their vomit. So God, they belong to me and not with You. You already know this, God. So don’t waste your time with these people. They are never going to change. They will keep on sinning and sinning and sinning some more. Just hand them over to me because we both know that’s what they deserve.”
And do you know the worst part of Satan’s accusations? They are all true. We are rebellious sinners just like Satan was. We rebel against our Creator. We transgress God’s commandments. We trespass where we shouldn’t go. We remain static and don’t go where we should be going. There is a war going on inside of us between our sinful nature and our sanctified spirit. Our sinful nature allies itself with the devil. We deserve to be hurled out of heaven and spend an eternity with the great dragon and his demons in their hellish prison.
But that’s why we celebrate our victorious God and his victorious angels on today. The angels did their part in God’s plan to conquer, defeat and destroy Satan once and for all. Although the devil may win some skirmishes, the outcome of the war between good and evil has been decided. The great dragon has already been hurled down by Michael and the angels. “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.”
On Calvary’s crest, upon the cruel cross, Jesus Christ conquered. The message God sent to his churches in St. John’s day and still today is, “Appearances can be deceiving. Yes, there are still dragons out there. But, whether you can see it now or not, Christ has conquered the dragon. The devil has gone down in defeat. Satan has been stopped.”
It was to defeat the devil and all of our personal dragons that brought Jesus into this world. From that moment when the Christ Child first cried in the Bethlehem stable, the battle was engaged. At the beginning of his ministry, Satan, who managed over the millenniums to lead the world astray, tried those same tactics in the tempting Jesus. In the wilderness, he made appeals to Jesus’ senses. They were rebuffed with words of Scripture. Earthly power that would entice any normal individual was offered, and defiantly declined. A shortcut to the Savior’s years of suffering was suggested, and summarily rejected. There was no quick way for Jesus to save the sinful souls of this sorry planet. There was no smooth path to victory over the devil, or the many minor dragons he had spawned in this world.
While Jesus saw “Satan fall like lightening from the sky,” (Luke 10:18) it was here on earth where Jesus looked Satan in the eye and defeated him once and for all. It was not in heaven, but here on earth, where the greater victory took place, through the bloody cross and the open grave. It was there on the cruel cross that Jesus atoned for and removed the sins that Satan uses to accuses us. There on Calvary’s hill Jesus breathed his last and died in order to defeat death. Jesus rose from the dead and descended into hell to crash through its gates and stripped Satan of all his power.
So take courage. Rejoice. The Innocent Lamb defeated the Great Dragon! The Word conquered the Accuser! The Way, the Truth and the Life overcame the Father of Lies! Christ on the cross crushed the ancient serpent’s head! The Hand of God has silenced the roaring lion! The Gift of God is greater than the schemes of the Evil One! There is nothing left to fear.
The war is over, but Satan isn’t going away without a fight. He and his legions are still battling. They are going to tempt, tease and torment you. They will try to lead you to despair, doubt, and depression.
Jesus has given you mighty allies for these battles – his angels, his army host. The Old Testament often calls God “Yahweh Saboat” – “The Lord of Armies” (1 Samuel 1:11). God designed the powerful and wise angels to serve his Christians on the spiritual killing fields versus the Enemy who is rugged and relentless.
My mom used to collect angels. They were often friendly feminine angels or little chubby-cheeked cherubs. That’s not the way the Bible describes real angels. You don’t really want to be “touched by an angel” like the 90s TV series or walk around with an angel on “Highway to Heaven” like the 80s series. Angels are fearsome warriors They are combat veterans.
The angels are fiery six-winged seraphim. They are battle-tested two-winged cherubim. They are our guardian angels who will not will guard us in all our ways so that our foot will not strike against a stone (Psalm 91:11-12).
The angels protected God’s people by shutting the mouths of lions, walking in a fiery furnace, slaying 185,000 of God’s enemies and busting God’s apostles out of prison. They minister to God’s people as they did to Jesus in the wilderness and Gethsemane. St. Michael, the archangel – God’s five star general of his angelic host – commands his angel army. Ten thousand times ten thousand angels will protect God’s people, fight the last great battle against the forces of Satan, and gather God’s saints and take them to heaven.
The United States Strategic Command (StratCom) is located in about the middle of the country, in Nebraska. Soldiers from all six of the nation’s military services are working day and night, weekends and holidays, monitoring the world, and scanning the skies for potential threats. Even though citizens of the U.S. might not even know it while they work and play, eat and sleep, they are being carefully guarded by human forces — as effective as they can be.
So much more is God guarding the citizens of his kingdom from his command center in heaven! God has given his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. Nothing escapes the notice of God’s angels. God lets them see your struggles, and they know all your troubles – especially those things that might threaten to rip your faith away from God.
We cannot always see the danger or the Dragon or the demons lurking around us. We cannot always see the protection the angels provide us. Thankfully our heavenly Father sees and knows, as he sends his angels as ministering spirits to serve and protect us.
The maker of an early map of America wrote across unknown and unexplored regions such frightful comments as, “Here there are fiery scorpions,” “Here there are dangerous giants,” and “Here there are dragons.” A brave explorer, who was also a Christian, crossed out all these warnings and wrote in large letters, “Here is God!”
We can do the same. Over our economy, children and culture, we can write, “Here is God!” Over our cancer, hospital stays and mounting bills, we can write, “Here is God!” Over our worries, doubts, and death, we can write, “Here is God!” We can also add, “Here are God’s angels!” Amen.
“Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ.” Amen. (Revelation 12:10)