12 And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. 4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. 5 She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, 6 and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days…Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” 13 And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time.15 The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. 16 But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. 17 Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.
Let’s begin this morning with a quiz…no cheating and reading the footnote: Andy Williams sang a well-known song saying about Christmas that: “It’s the most wonderful time of the year…” Can you name three of the reasons that Mr. Williams gives for it being the most wonderful time of the year?[1] We would probably all agree that most of those reasons, although fun, might be a bit shallow and sentimental. But something else is going on.
In a recent book by Andreas Kostenberger and Alexander Stewart, the authors point out, Christmas in our country is not dominant at a religious level but rather at a cultural level. Or as they ask, what would happen if Jesus were completely removed from Christmas? And by that I mean what would happen externally, culturally? If that happened, if Jesus were completely taken out of Christmas, Americans would continue to celebrate with hardly an interruption. I think the authors are right:
People would still decorate their houses and workplaces, give and receive presents, take the day off work, go to parties, stand in line with their children or grandchildren to see Santa Claus at the local mall, listen to wonderful songs on the radio about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Jack Frost, and world peace, and watch an endless stream of movies featuring Santa Claus as the main character.
Cultural Christmas doesn’t need Jesus and so without him nothing would change. There is too much money at stake for store owners and besides Jesus has little to nothing to do with their revenue streams anyway. The financial side of Christmas has thoroughly shaped and molded its cultural expression. Our economy needs Christmas. What would happen if Americans stopped overspending and going into debt each December? As every economist would tell you, the economy would be dealt a serious blow. (The First Days of Jesus)
As much as we love all that surrounds Christmas, and to a degree we should love all of this, we cannot afford to do so without being brought once again to the purpose of it all, not Wal-Mart’s purpose, but God’s.
In my reading I came across an interesting scenario: Imagine someone was seriously reading through the Bible for the first time and even before reading it, they were convinced that what they were about to read was the absolute truth…again starting at the beginning without knowing its ending. This hypothetical reader just read how God created an amazing, beautiful world and how Adam and Eve believed the Serpent’s lie and chose to throw off God’s gracious rule to grasp hold of all the “good things” God was supposedly holding back from them.
What a breathtaking disaster! Our reader immediately begins to wonder; who is this descendent of the woman that the Creator promised would come to fix all of this? When will he come and conquer the Serpent and crush his head? When will he set everything right in God’s creation?
On and on he reads, seeing and hearing the promises of his coming, seeing those who seem to have some of the characteristics of this one who is waited for: Abraham, Moses, and David and others. And then finally, heaven intrudes itself and the One promised comes but when He comes there is no realization of this victor’s arrival in the earth except that which heaven itself brings.
What is more…not only is there no rejoicing that the ancient promise has come, but rather, there is conflict…cosmic conflict, life and death conflict, in fact there is a massive collision between heaven and the earth and we call this collision: Christmas.
We read in Matthew 2:3, “When Herod the king heard this he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him…”
Not only was the community disturbed and troubled at the birth but there was also disturbance in the cosmos.
Matthew 2:7 “Then Herod when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared…”
And of course, we see this disturbance at Christ’s coming in the consequences of people being uprooted and having to move around, often to escape death! The Magi were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod and so they departed and went home without returning to the king. The Lord then appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him of Herod’s design was to kill the child, and so they too departed and fled into Egypt.And the devil unleashed a fury of anger and hatred that we just as soon forget about and give as little consideration too as humanly possible. You all know the horror that was brought upon the mothers and fathers of Bethlehem.
Our reader then goes on to follow the life of the Promised One, and again, conflict after conflict until all to soon he reads of God’s promised One, the One who was to destroy the serpent, hanging on a Roman cross…Now our hope is that he would continue reading…that he wouldn’t stop at the cross before he reached the empty tomb! But for this morning’s considerations: If we are reading carefully we would have to conclude that conflict and Christmas go together.
The Bible gives us many reasons as to why Jesus came, can you list some of them? If someone were to ask you to use the Bible’s words and tell me why Jesus came, what would you say?
He came to save us from our sins…he came to burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire…He came not to destroy the law but to fulfill the law…He came to save that which was lost…He came to give his life a ransom for many…He came to call sinners to repentance…He came to do the will of the Father…He came to raise up those who believe in Him, on the last day…
But one that is often left out, in fact I found a list that supposedly listed all of the reasons the Bible says He came and sure enough, this one was left out on that long list. We read in John’s Epistle:
“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” I John 3:8
Jesus came to engage the devil, to engage sin, in deadly conflict…Jesus came to destroy him! This is where Revelation 12 comes in. I am going to do more summarizing for the sake of space but this is vitally important. We are going to go on an exegetical ride for this morning and the next, so hang on! Some of you may remember some of this from our study in the Revelation some time ago.
There has been much discussion of the identity of the woman in this chapter. Some say it is Mary, but Mary is not the queen of heaven, nor is she the mother of all those who are obedient as verse 17 describes her. The woman of Revelation 12 is the church, the people of God, the community of Messiah. And this has as its focus or emphasis the faithful in what we call the OT.
It is easy when reading the OT to focus on all the unfaithfulness, but we must remember that we also find faithful brothers and sisters throughout the first 39 books who believed and kept the promise alive, waiting for the coming of the promised child. The devil seeks to destroy the seed of the woman, even as early as Cain’s killing of Abel. But God overrules and Seth is born and the godly line continues. Sarah’s barrenness is no obstacle for God. Nor is Leah’s dishonor by Jacob even when SHE is the blessed one from whom the Messiah, the promise of Genesis 3 will come.
The OT faithful carried around in them the hope and the sufferings of the promised Messiah. The dragon unleashed all kinds of attacks to destroy the promise…evil kings, evil nations, God’s people being unfaithful, the enemy seeks over and over again to destroy the promise but the church, the faithful, prevails in anticipation of the One who will destroy the works of the devil.
There are so many examples of this, but let me give you just one. In 2 Kings 11 we read about queen Athaliah taking the throne in Israel. She was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, a wicked woman, who on her way to the throne thought to destroy all of David’s family, the entire royal family and had them all killed. We see evil and wickedness…but look harder. The promise of God was that the Messiah would come from David, but if all of David’s line is destroyed what happens to the promise? What we see is the Dragon…waiting…waiting to devour the child, the promise of God, the promise of Messiah, the promise of hope and redemption.
But there was one descendant of David who escaped, who was taken away and hidden. Joash was just a child and he was taken by the high priest, the servant of the covenant, the keeper of the promises of God and he is hidden away for 6 years…did you notice where Joash was hidden? He was hidden in the temple…in the bowels of the church…The church is his sanctuary, his refuge, the promise of God kept alive, nourished, cared for in the heart of the church of God. And when he came forth from his supposed death, when he is resurrected so to speak, he destroys his wicked grandmother and the throne and the promise of God, and the line of David is preserved.
The entire OT carries the promise of Messiah’s coming, the whole thing building up to this…The OT is about this promise, about Jesus coming that He might destroy the works of the devil. Think of Exodus one and two and how the enemies of God hoped for the destruction of Israel…the killing of babies…think of wicked Haman or even David and Goliath…that is not simply about a little boy who trusts God and kills a giant, this is the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent standing toe to toe.
That is the church, the faithful church, now portrayed in Revelation as the queen of heaven. It is the church that God rejoices over with singing. It is the church who is the bride, spotless, blameless and pure. And it is the church who like her husband has had war made against her by his and our enemy.
Christmas demands that we see the efforts to destroy the promise, to destroy Christ and how that promise is preserved in the shadow of the Dragon’s waiting and how the child is born and the victory of heaven is brought to man…that is the Christmas story. Not chestnuts roasting on an open fire, not beloved Rudolf…the intrusion, the greatest intrusion ever of the kingdom of heaven upon the earth.
And verse 17 in Revelation 12 is very clear, look at it closely, because this is where you and your children become intimately involved in all of this. Satan loses, Jesus conquers and ascends to His Father, and in wrath that no human can explain, the Serpent turns his attention from the promise that is now fulfilled to those who are the offspring of the promise…he has turned his attention…to you. It is not my intention to be melodramatic, but Christmas is a reminder that the Dragon is coming for you and for your children.
To be continued…
Prayer: Father, Your word is clear that we are in a conflict as Christians for the souls of men that is cosmic and I spend too much of my time apathetic and disengaged. Forgive me for my lack of urgency, laziness and indifference toward Your Kingdom and those who are my brothers and sisters. Give me grace to see, courage to engage and hope to live as one who is certain of my Savior’s victory and seeks to do the work that my Captain has set for me to do. In Jesus name, Amen.
Hymn: O Holy Night
[1] Kids jingle-belling, friends coming to call, parties for hosting, marshmallows for roasting, caroling out in the snow, scary ghost stories, (that one is surprising but maybe closer to the reality of Christmas) and tales of Christmas’ long ago.