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12.27.20 Revelation 12 Guest Speaker · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Good morning. I hope that you enjoyed the Christmas holiday. To me, one of the most wonderful things about Christmas is how warm and familiar everything is. Like a Thomas Kinkade painting, the holiday has a certain glow of nostalgia. And there is something comforting, isn't there, about bringing out the same decorations we did last year, eating the same holiday dishes,
• 0:30
  singing the same Christmas hymns we always have, and hearing the same glorious message about the birth of the baby Jesus. It's reassuring to know what is coming every December and to enjoy well-worn holiday traditions with family and friends, maybe especially so after this tumultuous year we have endured. Yet there is danger lurking here.
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  All too easily, Christmas can become overly comfortable, familiar, and routine. We may find that the wonder and mystery of it all is smothered in a haze of Christmas lights, TV specials, and wrapping paper. So if you've had a little bit too much eggnog this holiday season, if the indoors have become a little too warm and stuffy,
• 1:34
  This morning I want you to open the door and step outside. There we find the air to be bracing but refreshingly cold. And we might look up into the night sky and appreciate a completely different perspective to the winter holiday. This morning we will be looking upon Christmas at some distance from what is warm and familiar.
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  we're going to consider Revelation chapter 12, a passage that you might not immediately associate with Christmas. And although this chapter might initially seem bizarre or even disturbing, I believe it offers us a fresh view on Jesus' birth. Indeed, this text puts Christmas in cosmic perspective.
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  Let me read the first six verses of this chapter to you.
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  a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and on his head seven diadems. 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.
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  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. 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. Let's pray together, shall we, for understanding and illumination. Father, I'm so grateful.
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  to have this opportunity to preach your word. And Father, we are thankful for the Advent season and all of the traditions that come with it. And yet, Father, if somehow our senses have become dulled, if everything has become too familiar, God, I pray that you would forgive us, and I pray that this morning that you would sharpen our senses.
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  rekindle, Lord, a wonder and delight in the true meaning of Christmas. And would you use this passage here in Revelation 12 to accomplish your good purposes? I ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Now I need to state right off the bat that I'm not going to cover every verse in this chapter.
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  And I'm not going to discuss various eschatological views or timetables or scholarly debates. Rather, following Pastor Danny's lead in this series, my hope is that by plunging into this text, we would not only see Christmas from a different perspective, a cosmic one, but also that fresh wonder and worship would break upon our celebration of Jesus's
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  birth. Christ is worthy, and he will be the focus. Yet my sermon will lead to him by exploring the three central figures of Revelation chapter 12, introduced in the first six verses. The woman, the dragon, and the child. First, the woman. Who is she? We read in this chapter that the woman gives birth to a male child.
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  whom we rightly infer represents Jesus, the Messiah. So we may think that the woman must be Mary. For a few reasons, however, I think that the woman does not symbolize Mary, but rather the entire community of faith, all of God's people. Here again, verse 1.
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  and on her head a crown of twelve stars. Now you may remember that in Genesis chapter 37, Joseph has two dreams. This is what is written about his second dream. Then Joseph dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.
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  but when he told it to his father and to his brothers his father rebuked him and said to him what is this dream that you have dreamed shall i and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you in joseph's second dream the sun the moon and the stars represent jacob leah and joseph's brothers who are the heads of the tribes of israel
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  In later Jewish tradition, too, the people of Israel are frequently symbolized by the sun, the moon, and the stars. So verse 1 is our first hint that the sign of the woman represents not Mary, but the people of God. And the imagery suggests something of their celestial majesty. Yet the woman does not only represent the old covenant people of God, that is, God's people,
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  before the birth of the Messiah. According to the chapter, after the child is born and then taken up to heaven, the woman flees to the desert and remains there until the designated time is fulfilled. This hardly fits Mary. More likely is that the new covenant people of God after the ascension of Christ are here described. Consider also verse 17.
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  Here, the woman is related to disciples of Jesus. So it seems clear, to me at least, that the woman of Revelation 12
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  pictures the generations of believers throughout history, both before and after the birth of the Messiah. What then is the dominant portrayal of the woman in this chapter? If I were only given a single phrase to characterize her, it would probably be, in distress. It starts as early as verse 2, in which the woman is said to be in the pains of childbirth.
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  But throughout the chapter, we see that the woman is under siege, being threatened and attacked by the dragon. Okay, okay, you might say, but what does all this have to do with Christmas? Well, it should remind us that Jesus was born to an oppressed and downtrodden people. We may forget that the Jews at the time of Jesus' birth were under the thumb of the Roman Empire.
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  In the song Mary sings before the birth of Jesus, sometimes called the Magnificat, she glorifies God as the one who brings down rulers from their thrones but who lifts up the humble. You see, the people of Israel were suffering under Roman rule when Jesus was born. Sometimes at this time of year, I fear that we romanticize Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem.
• 10:38
  as if it is some kind of couple's getaway or happy little trail ride. Yet the fact is that the census that Augustus decreed was most likely for the purpose of taxation. The census was a display of imperial control. The massive shuffling that the Jewish people underwent at that time must have been a brutal reminder that an alien power commanded their coming and going.
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  Every step of the arduous 80-mile journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem would have reinforced for Mary and Joseph that they lived in an occupied land under a harsh taskmaster. All Israel was groaning under the burden of Roman rule and crying out for God's salvation.
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  We would also be mistaken if we thought that the birth of Jesus, bringing as it does joy and peace, meant the suffering of God's people or the world would end immediately. Not at all. Indeed, it seems from Revelation chapter 12 that the suffering and persecution of God's people after the first coming of Christ is worse than before, not better. Did you catch that?
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  Christmas brings an increase and intensification of spiritual warfare on earth. Listen to verse 12. 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. We, the American church, though seemingly in the lap of luxury,
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  are actually now in the wilderness, in a place of trial and testing. Whether we realize it fully or not, we are being harassed by the evil one, but are protected by God. The good news of Christmas is that the Savior has been born, that his kingdom has begun to break into this world, but not that God's salvation is complete.
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  It is not complete, yet. The second sign of Revelation 12 is introduced in verse 3. And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and on his head seven diadems. Who is this? Verse 9 explicitly identifies the dragon as the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.
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  The dragon has pretensions to God's throne. He has real power but no legitimate authority. And he breathes out murder and lies. Verse 4 tells us that the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth so that when she bore her child he might devour it. Verse 4 reminds us that although Jesus' birth was heralded
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  Heralded by angels and welcomed by shepherds, not everyone received the news with wonder and delight. The spiritual forces of evil opposed Christ from the very start. There is a grim ending to Matthew's infancy narrative that is not often mentioned at this time of year. After Joseph is warned in a dream to flee to Egypt with Mary and Jesus, we read this.
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  Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation.
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  Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted because they are no more. There are few things that are sadder, more tragic, and more diabolical than the slaughter of innocent children. This is a part of the Christmas story we may wish to overlook, yet the book of Revelation has it right.
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  Satan tried to destroy Jesus from his very birth. Some of you may have seen the 2006 film, The Nativity Story. When I first sat down to watch this movie with my kids, I was expecting a feel-good Christmas story. But boy, was I wrong. The opening scene depicts soldiers charging into Bethlehem, ripping infant boys from their screaming mothers.
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  Swords are raised menacingly into the air and then brought down forcefully. I cringed. I didn't want to see that. I didn't want my children to see that. What was the sentimental and sappy Christmas story depicted in tranquil nativity scenes? But brothers and sisters, the airbrushed and dreamy Christmas story only exists in popular imagination.
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  commercial nostalgia. The first Christmas was not a cozy scene with cute little barnyard animals encircling peacefully a perfectly hushed infant. No, it was much more like a dragon of unspeakable evil crouched before the outstretched legs of a helpless woman screaming out in agony.
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  Would that the Lord use this text in Revelation to cut through the fog that has distorted our view of Christmas and makes it seem so unreal. One of the questions that naturally arises from tragedies like the slaughter of infants in Bethlehem is whether God will protect us and our children from such horrors. And this leads us back to Revelation 12 and to another question about the dragon.
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  What is the nature of the devil's attacks against the woman? And the inverse of that question is, what is the nature of God's protection of the woman? We have read in verse 6 that the woman flees into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of. Verses 14 through 16 depict God's miraculous deliverance of the woman from the dragon's attacks.
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  Yet notice the verses that appear in between, starting with verse 7.
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  that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.
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  If God has promised to protect his people, then would not his protection extend so far as to prevent Christians from suffering cruel and untimely deaths? The simple answer, which may be hard to swallow, is no.
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  God does not always prevent the killing of Christians, and he never promises to do so. Look at verse 11 again. Do you understand what the second half of this verse is describing? It is describing the killing of Christians. They did not shrink from death.
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  That is, they chose to hold to the testimony of Jesus even though it cost them their very lives. And the first half of the verse describes this dying as a conquering of Satan. What? How is it conquering to die? We need to recognize from this chapter that the devil's two most potent weapons are lies and human sin.
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  and thus his two primary attacks are deception and accusation. Notice again that in verse 9, the dragon is described as the one who leads the whole world astray. As the Gospel of John chapter 8 verse 44 says, Notice also in verse 10 that Satan is described as
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  the accuser of our brothers who has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. The dragon can accuse people of nothing before God but of their sin. Yet that is powerful accusation indeed. So how are the saints to withstand the dragon's assault? How are they to overcome him and to conquer
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  his two weapons. Verse 11 tells us, Sons and daughters of God can conquer the devil by the blood of the Lamb which washes away our sin and the word of our testimony which counters the devil's deception. That is what
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  The chapter means, I think, when it later says that the woman is not swept away by the serpent. Without deception, and without our own sin to accuse us of, the dragon is defanged. God thus protects his people by cleansing them from sin, guarding them against deception, and keeping them from compromise, even if that leads to an untimely death.
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  Brothers and sisters, the situation here in the United States could get a lot worse for Christians. A lot worse. There may be a day when Christians are fined or jailed for speaking the truth in love. Someday the violent mobs may be at our own doors. And if that happens, and if some of us even lose our lives by remaining faithful,
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  to Jesus, that will be no defeat. That will be victory. We will have defeated the devil and his schemes to destroy us. The paradox of Revelation 12 finds a strong parallel in Luke chapter 21. Let me read that for you, starting in verse 12. But before all this, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons.
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  And you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it, therefore, in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends. And some of you...
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  They will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name's sake, but not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance, you will gain your lives. Notice, some of you they will put to death, but not a hair of your head will perish. According to Revelation 12, this is what Christmas is about.
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  We're a million miles away from Thomas Kinkade paintings and figgy pudding. But this is why Jesus was born. It was to redeem a people by his blood who would testify to God's majesty and grace even unto death. And in death, we have the hope of eternal life. Well, we have considered the dragon and his deadly attacks. We have considered the woman in distress.
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  but ultimately protected by God. The third and final figure in Revelation 12 that we will contemplate is the child. Notice what is said about him and what is not said about him in verse 5. She, the woman, 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.
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  Now this is all that is said about the child in the entire chapter. But I could argue that the entire chapter pivots on this verse. The conflict between the dragon and the woman revolves around this child. Our intuition about the identity of this child is certainly right. He is the Christ, the Lamb of God, Jesus.
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  Obviously, in verse 5, there's some compression in the description of Jesus' life. But it may be surprising at first that only his birth and his ascension to heaven are mentioned. Where's the reference to his earthly ministry? And perhaps more startling, why in verse 5 is there no reference to his death and resurrection?
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  as important as the death and resurrection of Jesus are. We should realize that his death and resurrection are penultimate events. They are means to an end. Jesus died for sins and was raised so that he might reign as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords over the entire universe with his redeemed people at his side.
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  So yes, Jesus was born to live. Yes, Jesus was born to die. But especially at Christmas, we ought to remember that King Jesus was born to reign. He was the promised ruler of all nations. We see this emphasis even in the Gospel accounts. Why must Jesus have been born in Bethlehem? The Gospel of Matthew tells us.
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  And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. And what then does the angel Gabriel say in coming to Mary? The Gospel of Luke tells us, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son.
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  and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. Therefore, as we approach the infant Jesus this Christmas,
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  our reaction should not be, oh, what a cute little baby. Christmas is not about warm, fuzzy feelings. We are not to coo over the baby Jesus. We are to kneel. We are to bow down and worship. That baby in the manger is our master and Lord. That is not a rattle in his hand. That's an iron scepter.
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  Jesus was born to defeat evil and reign with God, and he would have us reign with him. So, in conclusion this morning, let us allow Revelation 12 to make its full impression. We would be wrong to sanitize the birth of Jesus, to domesticate the incarnation, to airbrush Christmas.
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  Christmas is not a season to retreat into a religious dream world where everything is warm, subdued, and comfortable. Christmas is a celebration of Jesus' entrance into our world, a world of brokenness, conflict, despair, and death. Two years ago, my wife Betsy and I were here in Denver for the holidays.
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  But do you know where we were on Christmas Day? We were in the emergency room at Good Samaritan Hospital. Betsy was experiencing deeply alarming neurological symptoms. And the whole world felt like it was crumbling around us. And in our distress, we didn't need eggnog, mistletoe, and holiday cheer. No, we needed the assurance.
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  that a real Savior was born into the real world, that he had chosen to dwell with us in the grittiness of real life, and that he could bring real help for our deepest problems. If you are someone watching this morning who assumes that the story of the baby Jesus
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  simply provides a congenial religious backdrop for the giving and receiving of presents, or is just mood music for Hallmark movies. Please pay attention to this chapter. The birth of Jesus is part of a vast cosmic drama, a war over human souls. It's easy to lose sight of this, I know, in all the trappings of the holiday.
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  But please do not hear the birth of a baby and merely say, oh, what a lovely story. This baby is the king. He demands your worship. He is worthy of your worship. And if you call upon him, he will save you from your sins and from Satan. And for all of us who believe, let's remember again.
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  that that baby so helpless so vulnerable was born to rule the world and now he reigns in heaven he is worthy of all your worship so as the holidays received let us march into the new year with confidence whatever troubles may come in 2021 whatever suffering lies ahead
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  God is protecting us. And one day, we will reign with the one who was born as king. Let's pray. Oh Father, it's no accident that the devil strategizes in a thousand ways to obscure the meaning of Christmas, to distract us in every possible way, to cloud this holiday and this season with all manner.
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  of distractions and deceptions. And God, please, use this chapter, Revelation 12, this cosmic perspective to shock us to reality of what the birth of Jesus is all about, why he came to be born into this world. And I pray, God, that it would inspire in our hearts true worship for you, God, Father.
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  Son, and Holy Spirit are worthy to receive our worship. And it's in the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.