Jesus’ Victory

Revelation 12

Story to read: The Victory of Jesus
Bible: Revelation 12

1. A Christmas story you haven’t heard

Ask who knows the Christmas story. Everyone will.

Now tell them there is another one, hidden at the back of the Bible, and that most grown-ups have never noticed it. It has a mother and a baby in it — and a dragon.

2. The picture

A woman appears, clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and twelve stars on her head. She is about to have a baby.

And in front of her stands an enormous red dragon, waiting to destroy the child the moment it is born. A third of the stars of heaven have gone with him.

Be honest with the children: this looks hopeless. A woman about to give birth is not in a good position for a fight.

3. What actually happens

The dragon fails.

The child is caught up to God and to his throne — and that is that. It happens in half a sentence.

Whoa: are we already at the ascension? Yes. Because you already know the middle of this story from every other Sunday school lesson you have ever had. Satan kept trying to kill Jesus, and when he finally managed it, Jesus simply rose again.

The woman is not Mary — she is Israel, God’s people, the family Jesus came from. The dragon is Satan.

4. Told again, from above

Then the same story gets told a second time, from heaven’s point of view: war in heaven, Michael, and the dragon thrown down.

He loses that one too.

And now he is furious — because he has worked out that he is running out of time. Verse 12 says exactly that: he knows his time is short.

5. The pattern

Watch what he tries next. He goes after the woman, and the earth itself opens up and swallows the river he sends after her.

Even the ground is against him.

That is the pattern of the whole chapter, and it is worth saying out loud: however terrifying Satan looks, he is the one who always loses. He loses to a baby. He loses to Michael. He loses to some soil.

6. And how the church wins

Right in the middle of the chapter is the verse that explains the rest of the book: “They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.”

Not by fighting. By what Jesus did, and by telling the truth about it.

Memory verse: “They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” (Revelation 12:11)

Look for yourself

Two quiet minutes. Nobody has to say anything out loud.

The dragon is enormous, and it is loud, and it wants you to look at it. That is most of what it does.

So look at it properly for a moment — and then watch it lose.

It gets thrown down. Where are you standing when that happens? What does the ground do?

And then heaven starts singing. What does that sound like from where you are — far off, or very near?

7. Prayer

Jesus, thank you that the dragon has never once beaten you. Thank you that we win the same way you did — by what you have already done, and by telling the truth. Help us not to be frightened of things that look big. Amen.

Appendix: Ideas for leaders

Opening activity: Ask for the scariest film villain they know, then ask what happens to that villain at the end. Every time: they lose. Revelation says the real one is the same.

Craft idea: A dragon that is large and impressive on one side, and on the other side the words “still lost.” Children enjoy this more than you expect.

Questions:

1. Why do you think the dragon is described as so huge if he keeps losing?
2. What does it mean to “conquer by telling the truth”?
3. Is there something that looks scary to you that might be smaller than it looks?

Song suggestions: A victory song; something about Jesus being stronger.

Prep note: Children who know the Christmas story well find this thrilling. Let them make the connections themselves — ask “who do you think the woman is?” before telling them.