Christmas – Christ victorious

So far in our series on Christmas we’ve looked at Christmas as a time of hope, Christmas as the birth of the King, Christmas as the incarnation (God becoming man), and today I want to look at Christmas as an invasion.

God becoming man, the birth of the King, our hope of deliverance, these things are all related in what could appropriately be called a Spiritual D-Day. D-Day is a designation the military gives to dates upon which some significant military action or event takes place.

June 6, 1944 is still remembered as D-Day. This was the day on which the Allied forces began their invasion of Nazi occupied Europe. The goal, of course, was to liberate mainland Europe from the Nazi forces. D-Day was the day of actual landing on the shores of Normandy, France. On D-Day, the Allied forces air dropped American, British and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight, and then began the largest amphibious invasion of all time, over 130,000 infantry and armoured troops were landed on five beaches: Uta, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. 195,700 naval personnel were involved in delivering these troops to shore.

Our own Mr. Woodyard can tell you of his experience that day as a driver for the landing craft. It was a nightmare scene in which thousands of soldiers died, but it changed the course of history.

As we turn to the book of Revelation to read John’s retelling of the Christmas story, this is the perspective he gives us. It is the Christmas story told with cosmic proportions, as a great spiritual battle.

At the beginning of our series we saw how Adam and Eve sinned against God by listening to the lies of the serpent. What they didn’t know at the time was that the serpent was at war with God, and their actions in direct opposition to the clear command of God, were acts of rebellion that placed themselves and all who followed them at war with God. 

Scripture clearly teaches that in our unsaved state, we are enemies of God. But there in Genesis 3 we saw that God promised to send a savior who would crush the serpent and his rebellion, and set things right between God and man. Isaiah told us the savior would called the Prince of Peace, because he would bring an end to the war, and he would heal us of our wounds, making us whole again. That’s the meaning of the Hebrew word Shalom.

As John is receiving a revelation about last things, about the end of the war, God puts a little perspective on things and pictures for John, and for us, heaven’s perspective of D-Day, the invasion of Satan’s kingdom by this Prince of Peace who will one day put a final end to the war.

Read Revelation 12.

From the beginning we need to understand that John is seeing a vision. Verse 1 says “a great sign appeared in heaven.” A sign is something that points toward the reality of something. The sign itself is not the reality. An exit sign on the interstate is not the exit itself, it’s just a sign that points to the exit.

So we need to look at these signs John saw and see what it is that they point to.

The first sign was a woman. She was

…clothes with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. – Revelation 12:1-2

The woman is the sign, what is the reality she points to? Scholars don’t agree on this. There are three main views regarding the reality of this sign.

The Roman Catholic view is that this is literally the virgin Mary. Lest you think I jest, here is a gallery of images, depictions of the virgin Mary as described here in Revelation 12. This is how Roman Catholics typically view Mary.

Now remember, this woman in John’s vision is a sign pointing to some reality. The sign is not the reality itself. Later in the chapter we’re told that the woman is protected from the violence of the dragon and that he goes 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. – Revelation 12:17

If we are to take this literally to be Mary, then we must also take this literally to mean that Mary is protected from Satan and that he goes off to make war on her other physical children. It just doesn’t make any sense in the context of the cosmic war John is describing for us here.

Those who hold to the reformed covenant theology view, believe that the woman is a sign pointing to the church universal.

In her you see the great cause of truth and righteousness embodied—she is, in fact, the church of God in all ages, the woman whose seed blesses all the nations of the earth. The glorious cause of holiness and God, incarnated in the church, is clothed with the splendor of light, and truth, and majesty…she is covered with the underived splendor of indwelling Deity, and her walk is bright with the reflected glory of holiness, while her crown of joy is found in her complete ministry as represented by the apostolic twelve. She is fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners. ¹

While I like Spurgeon a lot, I don’t agree with him in this case. First, the church is never pictured anywhere else in Scripture as a pregnant woman giving birth to a child, let alone giving birth to the child savior. At the most, the church, as a whole – never the individual believer, is pictured as a bride waiting for her wedding day. But never as a married woman giving birth.

Nonetheless, this is probably the view held by the majority of pastors in our denomination (PCA).

The third, and I believe correct, view is that the woman represents Israel. Throughout Scripture Israel is pictured as a woman, the wife of the Lord. The prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel both picture the nation as an adulterous wife.

More importantly, the imagery used by John in Revelation 12 represents the nation of Israel. As God declared to Adam and Eve that he would bring a savior who would be born of the woman, he continually narrowed down the specifics of which biological line the savior would be born to. Abraham was chosen, the Isaac his son, the Jacob. God changed Jacob’s name to Israel in Genesis 32:28. Jacob later has 12 sons. One of those sons was Joseph. Joseph was a dreamer. He had dreams of special significance. Dreams that foretold the future. In Genesis 37(.9-11) Joseph has a dream that the sun, the moon, and 11 stars were bowing down to him. When he told the dream to his father Jacob/Israel, his father responded by rebuking 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? – Genesis 37:10

Jacob obviously saw himself as the sun, his wife Rachel as the moon, and his twelve sons as stars. These twelve brothers became the fathers of the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel.

When John sees this imagery in Revelation 12, the sign includes these same elements and is pictured as woman in labor, giving birth to the savior. The prophet Isaiah pictures the nation as a pregnant woman in labor in chapters 26, 54, and 66 of the book of Isaiah. The nation was waiting for the coming messiah for thousands of years. That’s a long labor!

When reading Scripture, keep in mind that the simplest explanation is usually the best. These other views exist in order to make this Scripture fit the rest of the theological system that has been developed, whether it’s psuedo-worship of Mary, or the church being “spiritual Israel.”

The second sign John sees in the heavens is “a great red dragon.” We don’t have to speculate about the reality of this sign. John clarifies it for us later in the chapter.

And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world – Revelation 12:9

The dragon is pictured with 7 heads and 10 horns. The seven heads are 7 kingdoms of this earth (Rev 17.9-10). The 10 horns are 10 kings who will have power with the beast for a moment in time (Rev 17:12-14). The beast being the antichrist, these ten kings will be in league with him and under his authority. The dragon, Satan, is the ruler of them all, including the anitchrist himself.

This world is the dragon’s kingdom. He rules the kingdoms of this earth. It is his domain. He is the god of this world (2 Cor 4.4).

The birth of the king of kings as a human child is nothing less than an invasion of Satan’s kingdom by the Christ. Spiritual D-Day.

The dragon is not alone. One third of the angels of heaven joined in his rebellion against God almighty and have become what we term, demons. They were once angels of light. Powerful spiritual beings created before this physical world began. 

The dragon, with his army by his side and the entire world under his rule, stands waiting and ready to destroy the child this woman, the nation of Israel, is about to give birth to.

In this chapter we may see, as in a panorama, the entire conflict between the principles of good and evil, between God and Satan. We have before us the old original quarrel between the woman and the serpent with which the inspired volume commences, and a clear development of the first promise, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed.” ²

So Satan has found his main adversary as a young defenseless child. He is intent on his destruction, and he obviously believes he has the strength and power to carry out that destruction.

These seven heads are supplemented by ten horns, the emblems of power, for the prince of the power of the air is by no means weak; he has, in fact, more power than wisdom, having but seven heads to ten horns, and yet since according to the order of nature each head should have two horns, we may also say that he has not power enough to execute all that his wicked cunning enables him to invent. ³

So the woman is pregnant, the dragon is waiting to destroy the child, and she gives birth in verse 5. She gives birth to a son. The son that had been promised so long ago in the garden, the son that had been promised to Abraham, the son that had been promised by the prophet Isaiah.

…one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron

The nations of this world are the domain and kingdom of Satan, but Psalm 2, a prophetic Psalm of David, tells us that the Son of God would rule all the nations and break their rebellion with “a rod of iron” with which he would smash them like brittle pottery.

So Satan and his angels of darkness were all set to destroy the Christ as soon as he was born. And they tried. Matthew records the first attempt Satan made on Jesus’ life. He instigated King Harod to kill all the male babies under the age of two in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16-18). Joseph and Marry had to take the child and flee to Egypt for safety (Matthew 2:13-15).

Later Satan tried to tempt Jesus in the wilderness and get him to sin, it didn’t work (Matthew 4:1-11). Then when Jesus started preaching publicly, Satan stirred up a mob to try and throw him off a cliff (Luke 4:16-30). Again, it didn’t work.

Then on the cross Satan thought he had him. He thought he had won when he got the Jews and Romans to work together for the death of Jesus. But he didn’t understand the plan of God. The cross was part of the divine plan. It had to happen for our salvation, for our rescue. In fact, John reports for us here in chapter 12 of Revelation that it is by Jesus death that victory over Satan comes to us.

And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony… – Revelation 12:11

And then, even worse for Satan, Jesus didn’t stay dead. He rose from the grave back to life. Now Jesus’ spirit had never perished, but his resurrection broke Satan’s dominion over even the physical world. It showed his utter inability to contend with the King of Kings.

So he tried to devour the child

…but her child was caught up to God and to his throne

Satan was unable to destroy the child. He completed the mission for which he had been sent and then returned to the throne room of heaven. To the command center. He ascended to the heavens where he now sits enthroned at the right hand of the Father. He is even now interceding on our behalf. But when the time has come, he will return.

He has one mission yet to execute. John sees the vision of that mission in Revelation 19 & 20.

Now verse 7 begins another vision. This one details the war in heaven between Satan and his fallen angels, demons, and Michael and host of heaven. Up to this point, Satan has had access to the throne room of heaven to accuse the saints of their sins. We see this in the book of Job (1:6) when Satan comes before the throne and speaks with God concerning Job. Again in Zechariah (3:1) we see Satan as the accuser of the saints. But here in Revelation we see that the accuser is thrown out of heaven.

Satan is defeated and cast out of heaven by the power of the blood of the Lamb of God. This is the blood of Jesus shed sacrificially on the cross. Those who have faith and bow the knee to King Jesus are washed clean of their sins by his blood. It is because of this cleansing that Paul writes

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. – Romans 8:1

The righteousness of Christ has been imputed to us (Romans 5) and Satan may no longer accuse the saints of sins which have been carried away by the Lamb.

Satan has not stopped his accusing, he has just changed audiences. Since he may no longer accuse us to the Lord, he now accuses us directly. In this way he brings guilt and hampers us in our service to the King by accusing us of our sins in our own minds. He makes us feel unworthy, not good enough, like we’re lousy Christians. The purpose of these accusations is to discourage us and convince us to give up. He doesn’t want us serving the Lord and fighting the good fight so he seeks to discourage us with accusation.

So John tells us that Satan knows his time is short on this earth and so he pursues the woman, Israel. He attempted the destruction of Israel and the Jews in 70 AD when Rome destroyed Jerusalem. He tried again with Hitler and the Nazis. The destruction of Israel is still high on his list and we see it in the posturing of the Arab nations against Israel. We also see God’s hand protecting them throughout it all.

Frustrated by his failed attempts to destroy Israel, the great dragon turns his attention to 

…make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. – Revelation 12:17

That is, Satan persecutes Christians. We see that in the New Testament, with Saul persecuting the church. When he encounters Jesus on the road to Damascus, Jesus tells Saul he has been persecuting not the church, but Jesus himself. That is because the church is Jesus’ body and to persecute the church is to persecute Christ himself.

In the end we know that Christ has already won the war. D-Day happened. The earthly life of Christ was the turning point in all of human history. In fact, it is the defining event of all time. Even our dating system revolves around it. B.C. means “Before Christ.” and A.D. means “Anno Domini” which is Latin for “In the year of our Lord.”

Jesus life on earth brought victory over sin and Satan. It brought peace between man and God. It brought healing to our broken lives. It brought hope of our future glorification. His birth was indeed

…good news of a great joy… – Luke 2:10

This year as you celebrate Christmas I want you to remember all four of these lessons. Celebrate Christmas as

1. A time of hope in our salvation
2. The birth of the King
3. The incarnation, God with us
4. Christ’s victory of sin and Satan

Christmas is a time to celebrate. This year, let us remember what it is that we are celebrating.

 

1. Charles Spurgeon - http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/1237.htm
2. ibid
3. ibid