It’s Christmas, a time of family celebrations.
Do we know what we are really celebrating?
Well I want to share with you an unexpected, yet meaningful
and extremely interesting church service I had this Sunday at South Valley
Community Church, Gilroy, in preparation for the Christmas break.
This is not an attempt to stifle the Christmas spirit, only
to give you a real perspective of the world, and why things happen, and just
the awareness of what’s around us, and a reminder of how AWESOME God is……
The Dragon of Christmas – Revelation 12:1-17
Every year we enjoy the telling of the Christmas story from
the perspective of one of its many participants; Mary, Joseph, the Wise Men and
the Shepherds each tell a story about the nativity that is stirring and
beautiful. But what if we could look at the birth of Jesus from the perspective
of heaven? Would we still emphasize the same things about Christmas if we could
see the birth of Christ through heaven’s eyes? Well, fortunately we don’t have
to guess because the bible itself presents us with a picture of Christ’s birth
from a celestial, cosmic point of view. You won’t find this portrayal on any
Christmas cards or Nativity scenes. It isn’t recorded in the New Testament
Gospels of Mathew or Luke. It’s not even found in the more overtly theological
retelling of the story in the book of John. No, this description is found, of
all places, in the book of Revelations, the last book of the Bible. Today,
we’re going to look at Christmas through heaven’s eyes, and we’re going to find
four important insights about Christmas that are always overlooked in our celebration
of the most important event in history, Christmas.
1. The First
Christmas: A Heavenly Flashback
A. The cast (V.
1-5 NIV):
The woman: (The nation of) Israel.
The dragon: Satan.
… an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and
seven crowns on his head. His 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. V 3-4
The male child: Jesus.
“She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all
the nations with an iron scepter …her child was snatched up to God and his
throne.” V. 5
B. Act one War in
Heaven (V. 7-9)
The birth of the Son initiates war.
“Then there was war in heaven…” V.7a TLB
A great battle is fought.
“Michael and his angels fought against this dragon. This
animal and his angels fought back. But the dragon was not strong enough to win.
There was no more room in heaven for them.” V. 7b-8 NLV
The dragon is defeated.
“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. V. 9 NIV
C. Act Two:
Heaven Responds (V. 10-12a NIV)
The war is won through the birth of the Christ-child.
“Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom
of our God, and the authority of his Christ.” V. 10
Heaven rejoices as Satan is thrown down, defeated.
“For the accuser of our brothers… has been hurled down.” V.
11
But… look out below.
“…woe to the earth and the sea… the devil has come down to
you…” V. 12b
2. Intermission:
We wait… and wonder,
“Why is there evil in the world today?”
A. The dragon’s
days are few and he is furious.
“(And he is) filled with rage… he knows that he has only a
little time left.” V. 12b TLB
B. Unable to
defeat the Child, Israel and then the Church are attacked by the dragon. (V.
13-17)
“…he declared war against the rest of her children – all who
keep God’s commandments and confess that they belong to Jesus.” V. 17b TLB
C. What if Christ
had been destroyed?
3. Act Three:
Heaven’s Nativity Scene
A. Christmas is
God’s invasion of a hostile planet.
B. Satan wants to
stop God, the invader.
C. From Heaven’s
perspective:
The birth of Jesus was a declaration of war.
The birth of Jesus brought the world’s rightful ruler to
this earth.
The birth of Jesus signaled God’s invitation to the human
race.
Jesus Christ has already overcome the power of evil.
There’s the notes, and now to share a little, from what the
Pastor had explained….
Heaven invaded Earth at the birth of Christ.
Satan wanted to kill Jesus at birth. He was threatened by
his birth as he knew intuitively that Jesus would be King one day. So in a
rage, after Christ’s birth, the dragon (Satan), was so angry, that he came to
Earth and killed many, many children.
100 Million people were murdered in the 20th
Century by State related activities.
We actually live in Satan’s world here on Earth, and when
bad things happen, people blame God first. Bad things in life happen because we
literally live in a war zone, NOT because God doesn’t love us!
More people died after d-day, why, if Jesus came already?
Because the Devil has come down to us and is angry! The
Devil is capable of doing destructive things to people, and often God is the
one blamed. What a scam!
When Jesus was born, it was a rescue from heaven to save
people from the Land of the dragon, (Earth).
A Christian’s job is to rescue the perishing, by sharing
what they know about God, so that others too can be saved.
There is more evil in the world such as war, poverty,
murder, depression and famine, because of the dragon. This is not heaven here
on earth!
Remember it’s the dragon making all these bad things happen
not God.
Revelations 12 gives us the answers to all these questions.
Christianity is still the most powerful force for good in
the Western world.
Remember: God is the INVADOR of planet earth, NOT the OWNER.
If you are a Christian Satan literally hates you! He comes
to steal and destroy and get you to choose a lifestyle of sin. This is
sometimes why life seems to get harder when we become Christians. So be aware!
! Peter 5: 8-10 TM
Some bible references:
Revelations 12: 1-17
Genesis 37
Romans 9: 5
John 4: 22
Genesis 3
Isaiah 59: 19
Psalm 2: 6
Acts 1
Colossians 1: 13
Luke 4:18
Acts 26: 17-18
2 Corinthians 4:4
John 14: 30
Luke 4: 6
Galatians 1: 3
1 John 5: 19-20
1 John 3: 8
1 John 3: 16
1 John 4: 4
This was quite heavy, but an Awesome experience for me. Hope
you find this interesting too.
No comments:
Post a Comment