in Heaven

Have you ever noticed how every single Hallmark Christmas movie is exactly the same?

Like the same characters and same plot and same everything.

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I talked about this last week.

If we’re not careful, we can tend to think about the Christmas story like a Hallmark movie. Where the plot id the same year after year movie after movie. We could rehearse the story from memory and it loses it’s impact on us. So last week we tried to look at the story of Jesus’ birth from a new angle. The Snake-Crushing King, the Messiah, was born.

This week I want to try and look at Christmas from Heaven’s perspective. And as it turns out, there is a super interesting re-telling of the Christmas story found in the book of Revelation. So, go ahead, get your bible out, and meet me in Revelation chapter 12.

Before we read this text, lets do a little background work.

Revelation was written by who? John.

John was one of Jesus’ inner circle. When Jesus wanted to really show his disciples something, he took Peter, James, and John with him.

After Jesus’ death and resurrection, John became a leader of the Jesus followers in a place called Asia Minor. Modern day, that’s the country of Turkey.

John got arrested for his faith in jesus and telling other people about Jesus, and he was exiled to an island called Patmos. -- Anyone watch the show Survivor in here? Kinda like that. Alone. No civilization. Having to fend for himself, find food, find water, build shelter.

And while he’s living on this island, God gives John this crazy vision of what is coming in the future. He wrote it down and we have it now as the book of revelation.

Revelation 12:1–17 ESV

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed 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. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads 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. 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. Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, 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. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went 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. And he stood on the sand of the sea.

Okay. Wow. This is definitely not your Hallmark Christmas story. This is not your grandma’s manger scene in the front yard.

We get this weird flashback to when Jesus was born, and there’s this woman, and a child, and a dragon, and a war. It’s nuts. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense on the first read. So let’s try to make sense of this passage of scripture together:

And remember, our goal is to see the Christmas Story from Heaven’s perspective.

Who is the Woman?

clothed with the sun, standing on the moon, wearing a crown of stars, she’s pregnant

Eve? ()

Israel?

Mary?

All three? Yeah probably. Many prophecies have multiple meanings.

Who is the Child?

Obvi the child is Jesus.

And the picture we get of Jesus here is that is a child destined to rule. Jesus is KING.

v.5 Rule = shepherd, Jesus is a king who cares, he takes care of us

Who is the Dragon?

Satan, “the accuser”, “the deceiver”

He’s the one who constantly reminds you of:

All the ways you’re not good enough.

All the mistakes you’ve made in your past.

He wants to throw your sin in your face.

He wants to trick you into thinking that God couldn’t love you.

He wants to deceive you into believing that you’ll never get better.

HE IS OUR ENEMY!

What does this mean for how we should look at Christmas?

The birth of Jesus was a declaration of war. (7-9, battle in heaven)

Declared war on sin, evil, suffering, death, Satan

There’s no playing around! We’re in a war! but so many of us are so preoccupied by our own little worlds that we miss the fact that bullets are flying and swords are clashing.

“Our battle isn’t against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and forces of darkness”

But so often we play around at being Christians. We might come to church sometimes. We might pray a couple times, we might even read the bible a little bit. But what should our lives look like if we really understood the battle going on? We’d be armored up, weapons strapped, ready to go.

The birth of Jesus unveiled the world’s rightful king.

The birth of Jesus unveiled the world’s rightful king.

Not only are we in a battle, but we know who are King is!

Jesus is King of the universe, not just the Jews or the church.

Jesus is King of the universe, not just the Jews or the church.

What is on the throne of your life right now?

Every other leader (religious, political, etc.) will be imperfect

The birth of Jesus signaled a warning to the human race.

The birth of Jesus signaled a warning to the human race.

Sin is a huge deal! Don’t play.

The birth of Jesus initiated God’s plan of salvation for the human race.

Jesus is a savior who saves and a king who rules.

The birth of Jesus guaranteed Satan’s defeat.

The have defeated him by the blood fo the lamb.

The have defeated him by the word of their testimony.