Pastor Pat Edwards 12/18/2005
Grace Baptist Church in Bountiful, Utah

This fall the Saturday morning men's group read WILD AT HEART by John Eldredge. In one of the chapters he referred to the passage we'll be examining today. The reference wasn't new to me but the juxtaposition of Revelation 12 and the nativity accounts in the gospel was. It reminded me of how easily the whole purpose of the birth of Jesus get's slighted.

But it's worse than that. We now live in a world so secularized and politically correct that it's tough to even keep Jesus in the celebration let alone the unpleasant purpose for his coming to earth. We can run around declaring "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" but Costco and Target and various other big and little stores limit us to "Happy Holidays" and censor the word Christmas. Culturally, Christians will have to admit our holiday - holy day - has been kidnaped and the kidnapers are not asking for a ransom; they want to permanently adopt the holiday for themselves. So our holiday now lives in a new home with strangers. His name has been changed from Jesus to Santa, sheep and oxen have been traded in for reindeer, the stable for a cozy living room with a fireplace and Christmas tree. Elves and snowmen have replaced wise men and shepherds and everyone is concerned about what he'll give us and not what we give him.

Are things really that bad? Yup. So if we can't even shoehorn in the pleasant image of a baby boy born to be our savior how can we expect to talk about the gritty reality of how he accomplisheed all that? For the most part what we'll study today is the last thing most people of the world want to hear about at this happy holiday time of year. There may even be a few of you who want the subject to remain Christmas card perfect - a warm Mediterranean night, a midnight-blue sky dominated by a star of unimagined beauty shining down on a cozy stable inhabited by an attractive couple and their glowing, cooing, new-born son.

The cover of our ideal Christmas card may be the way it looked to the shepherds who visited the baby Jesus. But what did it look like if we walked around behind the stable, if we saw it from the backside, from the perspective of heaven and not earth. The apostle John answers that question in Revelation 12. Before we take at peek behind the scene let me remind you of a few things. The book of Revelation is apocalyptic literature. What John writes is not a newspaper or magazine account. It's also not history or biography or a letter home. The kind of literature that apocalyptic comes closest to in our culture might be the fantasy comic book. The images are wild and out of this world with characters and creatures unlike anything ever seen on earth. Sometimes the costuming makes it difficult to keep the characters straight. There is always a battle between ultimate good and evil and it's titanic in nature and extent. The drama is over-the-top; why talk when you can roar, why reason when you can act? The issues are not simply life and death, they determine the fate of the universe. And as we follow the battle we move from scene to scene so swiftly that sometimes it's difficult to keep track of the action and characters. That's what we'll see in Revelation so let's pull aside the curtain and see what Christmas looks like from heaven.

1A great and wondrous 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 his heads. 4His 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 he might devour her child the moment it 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 desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.

Most of us probably see the big picture immediately. A woman is about to give birth to a son who will rule all nations. But a dragon desires to destroy the child at the moment of his birth. Nevertheless the child is kept safe by being snatched up to God. His mother is also kept safe from the attacks of the dragon.

The easiest symbol is the son, the one who will rule all nations and is caught up to heaven and the throne of God. Surely this is Jesus. And the dragon waiting to devour him at his birth, to destroy him and his mother is surely the devil, Satan himself. But who is the mother in this scene? Mary, Israel, the church? The symbol is too large to be Mary, the physical mother of Jesus even though there are similarities. We know she knew sorrow, a sword pierced her own heart and that soon after Jesus' birth the family fled through the desert to Egypt. But most likely the woman represents what we can call the ideal Israel, the truly faithful people of God. God often speaks of Israel as his bride and the one from whom would come the savior.

So this first vision shows us the baby was not easily delivered to lie quietly and peacefully in a manger filled with sweet smelling straw. At the moment of his birth a battle raged in the heavens over this child. And the music we hear is not THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY or AWAY IN A MANGER but the theme from STAR WARS or the 1812 Overture for war is taking place.

7And there was war 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.

The scene changes to heaven and most likely is a flashback that takes us to events that occurred long before the birth of the child. And while we could rightly guess at the dragon's identity these verses make it clear that it is the devil. He has been cast out heaven. Perhaps Jesus is talking about this very event in Luke 10.18 when, He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

Another scene change: 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 Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11They overcame 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."

With the birth of Jesus there is a cosmic overthrow of all that has been. Salvation is made complete and the power and kingdom of God begin an advance that will only end in complete victory. This happens as people come to faith in Jesus, as they willingly submit their lives in obedience to Jesus. The movement in this scene makes clear there was never any doubt as to the outcome of this battle. Jesus moves from his entry into this world to his exaltation to the throne of God and we see the victorious and triumphant Christ. There's no need to go over all the details of his life - all that needs to be emphasized right now is his absolute victory and Satan's utter defeat. As we look at the stable we don't have to focus on the suffering and rejection this small infant will experience in life. Instead we can focus on his power and glory.

But things don't go quite so well for the devil. His role as Satan, a word that means adversary, changes from being the accuser in heaven to being the deceiver on earth. He still has power to bring great suffering to mankind and even though he knows his time is limited he will create as much suffering as possible.

Scene 3: 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 desert, 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 make war against the rest of her offspring-those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

In these verses the story is fleshed out for us. The dragon is now identified as the serpent, the same serpent who deceived Adam and Eve, the serpent who would strike the heel of their offspring but whose head would be crushed by that same offspring. Since the Son is beyond his reach his intent is to hurt the son by hurting the mother. When those loved by Jesus suffer, he suffers as well. We see that in Acts 9.4-5 when Jesus spoke to Saul as he persecuted the first Christians. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" "Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied.

The last verse of this chapter tells us the dragon, that old serpent, the devil is now busily making war against the rest of the woman's offspring - those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus. That's you and me and that doesn't sound very encouraging - but only if we forget what we've been shown. Jesus has been caught up to the throne of his Father. Salvation and power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ are permanently established. The war is over and we're just involved in the clean up.

We need to understand the birth of that baby in a stable is a declaration of war. As idyllic and wonderful as we try to make it seem in music and literature and the visual arts, it's violence and blood and death. That's the backside of Christmas that we neglect. But at the same time that Jesus' birth is a declaration of war it's also a proclamation of peace. For hundreds of years Americans have had a saying that means victory is assured, "The Marines have landed." Once the Marines are present we assume the ultimate victory will be our's because they are rarely, if ever, defeated in battle. What is true of the Marines is infinitely more true of Jesus. Once he entered the world through the body of Mary there was no question he would perfectly fulfill the plan of the Father, he would achieve salvation for all who trusted in him. That is our hope and joy.

As I started out saying, Christmas has been kidnaped and is unlikely to be returned to us. While it's essential that God the Son took on human flesh we need to remember he lived a sinless life sacrificed as a ransom for us. So don't bother trying to save him since he's already saved you. Don't get the roles mixed up and don't waste your time on an enemy and a culture that's already defeated. Instead declare the goodness of our Savior and the certainty of his victory. And remember Christmas isn't mushy, it's messy and that image of Christmas we're trying to save probably isn't the real image anyway. Peek behind the curtains, go around to the back side and praise God for the truth that is revealed in today's passage: Christ has overcome the evil one and because you are Christ's you will overcome him as well.