The Nativity (un)Scene

Service Notes

Bible Reading to Kids

Read Matthew 2:1-12 to the kids

Have them raise hands when they hear the word star

Call to Worship

To all who are spiritually weary and seek rest;

to all who mourn and long for comfort;

to all who struggle and desire victory;

to all who sin and need a Savior;

to all who are strangers and want fellowship;

to all who hunger and thirst after righteousness;

this church opens wide her doors and offers her welcome in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Bible Reading

The Christmas story occupies approximately 31 verses in Matthew whereas Luke’s devotes 74 verses.

Because of these verses people have constructed pageants and plays and have composed carols and cards.

Here is a picture of the Nativity Scene at my parents home. [SLIDE]

Today we look at Revelation 12

This is not the nativity story we grew up with, but is it the nativity story all the same.

Three characters in this vision given to John while on the Isle of Patmos; Woman, Child, and a Dragon

This is why I rearranged my parents nativity scene to the Nativity (un)Scene: [SLIDE]

Tinsley: Dad, please do not make Christmas about a dragon. Easter is not about unicorns and Christmas is not about dragons.

You know Jesus was hated and sought too be destroyed.

Do you know you are as well. The same enemy.

Families were left in mourning as Herod sought to find and kill the new born messiah.

At Christmas we rejoice in the incarnation; God becoming flesh. The birth of Christ.

Christ is the substitutionary atonement for our sins. Luke 19:10 “10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Christ comes to destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8 “8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.”

Revelation 12:1–5 (KJV)

1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

Pastoral Prayer

Nativity (un) Scene

John is given a vision of Christmas past

These are wonder. These are signs.

It is symbolic of something else.

Driving through KY we saw a sign for Elizabethtown. Was that the city? No, the sign is simply identifying something else that is. It is a symbol. It is a way to point you to the reality.

Woman, Child, and a Dragon

The Expectant Woman

Rev 12:1-2 “1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: 2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.”

Several women mentioned in Revelation

Jezebel in ch 2; represents pagan immorality.

Woman in ch 17; represents the apostate church

Woman who represents the bride of Christ, the church, in ch 19

Who is this woman?

Catholic view would be Mary; understandable but not correct.

Reformed view would be the church; exciting but misleading.

This is Israel.

Often in Scripture we see her travail and expecting that the Messiah will come from her. Isaiah 26:17-18; 54:1; 66:7-12; Hosea 13:13; Micah 4:10; 5:2-3; Matthew 24:8

Almost identical description given in Gen 37 by Joseph about his brothers

We learn that the promise to fulfill Genesis 3:15 “15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” will come through the family of Abraham. This family, this nation, is the woman we are reading about.

All very fascinating and important. We have two LifeGroups studying Revelation, you should get involved in them. Vs 6 speaks of a 3.5 year period during the tribulation.

Transitional statement: If the dragon could destroy Israel, he could wipe out God’s entire plan. He could make God a liar who couldn’t fulfill His promise. So a special object of Satan’s hatred and a special target for his destructive attack has been Israel, the Jews.

The Defeated Dragon

Revelation 12:3-4 “3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. 4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.”

The serpent we met in the garden

So, when this dragon saw that the High King had fashioned mankind in his own image, that he made them with rule over the earth, he was enraged. He burned with bitter hatred and longed to shatter these images of the One he hated most.

So the serpent in the garden is the devil (which means slanderer), and Satan (which means accuser), and the deceiver of the whole world.

Jesus calls him “the wicked one,” “the prince of this world be cast out”

The Pharisees call him “Beelzebub the prince of the devils.”

Paul calls him “the god of this world” and “the prince of the power of the air”

Satan the ruler of the evil system, but he’s not alone. 1/3 of the angels from Heaven.

The dragon would enjoy one great triumph: he would succeed in stealing the King’s glory by defacing the King’s image, woven into the very flesh and bone of these feeble humans.

Before the garden

Jesus speaks of seeing Satan being cast out of heaven. Luke 10:18 “18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.”

Satan’s fall must have occurred somewhere after the time the angels were created and before he tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

For, you see, the dragon too was a creature, having been fashioned by the King at creation, though not as a dragon, but as a magnificent prince.

Satan was attentive in the garden.

He did not overlook what was said in Genesis 3:15 “15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

The dragons attempt to stop the one who has come to destroy his works

Satan has sought to prevent this male child from coming. He moved Cain to kill Abel (1 John 3:12).

He moved Pharaoh to kill Hebrew baby boys (Exodus 1-2).

He moved Saul to kill David (1 Samuel 18:10-11).

He moved wicked Athaliah to destroy all the royal heirs of the house of Judah (2 Chronicles 22:10).

He moved Haman to plot genocide against the Jews (Esther).

He moved Herod to kill Jesus (Matthew 2). Matthew 2:16 “16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.”

But he failed!

What we learn of the dragon in Romans.

Paul has one sentence to say about Satan in sixteen chapters.

Makes reference to him in Romans 8:38 “38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,”

One verse. He will be crushed. Romans 16:20 “20 And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.”

What you need to know about this dragon

The dragon has been decisively defeated in the death and resurrection of Christ

The dragon is being defeated now by Christ through Christians who speak the word of God and put on the whole armor of God

The dragon will finally be vanquished and thrown into the lake of fire never to deceive or torment the world again.

Transitional statement: Because of Christ, today is not about a dragon. But without Christ. Today and every day would be about him. It would be about him holding us in captivity.

The Warrior Child

Rev 12:11 “11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”

Despite the dragon’s vigilance, the Slayer appeared at first undetected. The snake had not foreseen such a mystifying entrance. When he awoke to his danger, he recognized in terror his long-expected foe was the very Son of the High King.

What child is this?

The one promised in the garden

The one who will die on the cross for us

The one who will destroy Satan. Hebrews 2:14 “14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he (Jesus) also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;”

Satan doesn’t stop after the manger

During this temptation, Satan tried to get Jesus to violate God’s law and worship him instead of God. Matthew 4:1 “1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.”

The devil offered Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world” if Jesus would worship him. But Jesus did not do so.

Satan was the one who “put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him” (John 13:2).

Satan wakes up on the morning of the resurrection, as many do on Christmas, with great expectation and it is a nightmare to him

The great serpent looked upon the risen Jesus, bewildered. Then the terrible truth dawned upon the ancient liar with blinding brightness. He had not crushed the Crusher; he had slain the Lamb of God! He had not seen it! How had he not seen it? How had he not seen an altar of sacrifice in the Roman cross?

An altar! An altar for sins! Whose sins? Not the unblemished Son’s, but fallen mankind!

Whatever glory the dragon thought he had grasped in his terrible claws, the Son had just snatched away.

In the end, Satan serves to magnify the power, wisdom, love, grace, mercy, patience, and wrath of Jesus Christ.

Jesus destroys the dragons work in such a way that it will bring him shame. Col 2:15 “15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”

We live between the incarnation and the coronation

The incarnation the coronation. Rev 12:5 “5 And she brought forth a man child..

That’s the coronation. Rev 12:5 “5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron:

And in the meantime, He is caught up to God and to His throne. Rev 12:5 and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.”

The dragon couldn’t stop the birth of Christ, and he cannot stop His kingdom.

Today we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the only one who could slay the dragon.

Revelation 12:11 “11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”

"Fairy tales don't tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed." G. K. Chesterton

We know the dragon exists. We have seen him hurt so many. We see him lead many, as he did in the garden, into darkness and deception.

Satan is the one who has decieved the world. Rev 12:9 “9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”

I know his first lie on this earth, but I do knot know the latest lie that he has told you.

There is no doubt it concerns God authority.

When have you last heard “Hath God said?”

He desires to keep this world in darkness. 2 Cor 4:4 “4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

We have gained victory over the accusers accusations against us.

The dragon is called the accuser. Rev 12:10 “10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.”

Slavery to sin derives from Satan’s power of accusation

In the atonement, Jesus cancels the record of debt that results from Satan’s accusations of sin

Brothers and sister, when Satan accuses you of being a grievous sinner you look him in the eye and say, “You are right I am. But I have a greater Savior than my sin and He has given me salvation, power, a kingdom and the authority of my Messiah. I have been delivered and am safe from your accusations now and forever.”

This transforms our fight for holiness.

Jesus clothes us in the armor of his righteousness, he shatters Satan’s power of accusation so that there is “no condemnation”

Our treasuring Christ above all the promises of sin and Satan is part of the triumph in this war.

We should let Satan, the dragon, know his defeat. James 4:7 “7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” He has been defeated, and we have been given victory. Our task now is to live in that victory and make Satan know his defeat.

Transitional statement: So, no Christmas is not about the dragon. However, if it were it not for Christ we would be standing shaking in his shadow knowing that none of us could slay this dragon.

Closing

We will end today singing A Mighty Fortress is our God

May our study today allow your heart to rejoice as we sing.

The Prince of Darkness grim, We tremble not for him; His rage we can endure, For lo! His doom is sure. One little word shall fell him.

Citations

An Apocalyptic Christmas Story / Daniel Akin

The Dragon Slayer Poem / Jon Bloom

Birth of Christ in Cosmic Perspective / John MacArthur