Word of Salvation – Vol.48 No.41 – November 2003

 

The Christmas ... Dragon?

Sermon by Rev A Quak

on Revelation 12:1-17

 

Scripture Reading:  Revelation 12:1-17

 

Congregation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Think of "Christmas" and what are the thoughts that come to your mind?

Peace and tranquillity.

Shepherds on a hill being serenaded by an angelic choir.

Magi crossing the desert on a quiet night as they make the long journey to Bethlehem.

A child wrapped in a blanket and hugged by a young mother with delight in her eyes.

Those are the sort of images many have when they think about Christmas.

But there is another side to the whole Christmas event that is not so obvious. It is a side that is much more brutal.

A side which has a multi-headed dragon that wants to eat an infant.

A side where mighty heavenly beings are doing battle.

A side which focuses on war, anger, frustration and enemy fighting enemy.

We don't often think of Christmas in these terms, but it is a reality. And to top it all off, we are heavily involved in this battle. That puts a whole new light onto the Christmas event, doesn't it? To see how it all fits together, we need to have a step by step look at this passage in Revelation 12.

The two main characters that immediately leap out at us are the woman and the dragon. The dragon is a terrible, frightfully powerful creature. Large and rearing up on hind legs, overwhelming the sky, lashing his tail across the horizon and ripping out a third of the stars. Seven heads with seven crowns is symbolic of his tremendous authority. Ten horns symbolise great power. He has authority and the power to back up that authority. What he wants, it seems, he can pretty much get.

Who is the dragon? Verse 9 makes the answer easy to find. The great dragon was hurled down, that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. The dragon symbolises the devil! His destructive acts first appear in Genesis, destroying the perfection of God's creation. Now again we see him in Revelation, wanting to destroy the only One who can bring perfection back into God's creation.

Alongside that dragon is a woman. Decked out in the glory of heavenly bodies, the sun and moon and stars. Obviously she has an intimate connection with heaven itself. Who is she? Well, when the text talks about her being pregnant and then about her giving birth to a male child who will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre, it is natural to think of this woman as Mary, the mother of the Lord.

But as we consider the text more closely, we realise the woman is actually an image of the church through the ages. In the early part of the text she is pictured as the one who gave birth to the Messiah, the one who would rule. In verse 17 her offspring are described as those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

The woman represents the church in all her glory. The precious people of God who have been called into His family right through the ages. She is the bride of God, the one who has been wooed by God, courted by God, cared for and, dare we say it, married by God! She is the special object of his attention, fully under God's protection.

It is the job of the woman, and of the church of Old Testament times, to bring forth the Messiah. She is pregnant and about to give birth. But the dragon is poised to devour the child. Satan doesn't want the Christ-child to be born. And he has been trying for centuries to have it stopped. The birth of the Messiah, of Jesus, is not just the result of Mary successfully having a baby. The birth of the Messiah is the result of the ancestral line of Jesus being protected through the centuries. Satan has been trying again and again to stop this line.

Had God not protected believing Noah, the line would have stopped and no Messiah would have been born. Later on in history, Sarah, the mother of Isaac, was taken into a harem, twice, by a pagan king. Had God not intervened by taking her out of there, no Messiah would have been born. And remember when Moses was born? Pharaoh decreed that all male Israelite infants be put to death. But God prevented Pharaoh from killing Moses and God used Moses to lead His people out of slavery and they became Israel from whom the Christ was born.

Then there was an occasion when King Saul nearly speared David before he became king. Had the plan succeeded, then there would have been no Messiah, for Jesus in His human nature came from the line of David. On another occasion the wicked Queen Athaliah tried to destroy all the royal seed of the House of Judah (2 Chron 22:10) but one infant, Joash, was hidden from her. Again, God protected the human ancestry of Jesus.

Even at the birth of Christ the dragon is present. But you might ask, well, where was he? You won't find him in the manger scene. No, the dragon was in the palace at Jerusalem, 9 kilometres down the road. Satan is down there working in the heart of a cruel man who was extremely zealous in guarding his position as king. He's called Herod. A man who would issue a decree that every male child two years old and under living in Bethlehem had to be put to death. This is the dragon at work, attempting once again to devour the child.

But, for all his attempts, the dragon was a colossal failure. The Child still lives. That puts a whole new light onto the Christmas event, doesn't it? All the biblical history we know, about Zechariah and Elizabeth, about Gabriel's announcements to Mary and Joseph , about the shepherds, the angelic choir, the manger and the wise men; all that biblical history can be reduced to a few sentences:

"The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne." (vss 4b-6)

Victory was secured through God who worked faithfulness in the hearts of a young couple, just betrothed, who believed the Word of God and acted on that Word, despite the difficulties it would bring into their lives.

That doesn't sound a whole lot like Christmas, does it? But it gives us a wonderful picture of the issues that are really at stake. There is none stronger than the One with the iron sceptre, not even a dragon with seven crowns and ten horns. The dragon knows his days are numbered. There is only room for one eternal ruler; and the great pretender, the dragon, the devil, was unable to devour this child. He did not win!

Now it would be great to be able to say, "and that's the end of the story". But it isn't the end. The child is taken to heaven. The woman goes into hiding. And the scene shifts to war. "There was war in heaven", says verse 7. The dragon knows he has lost the battle against the child, but he doesn't give up. Satan makes one last attempt to take over heaven. And notice who is fighting. It's the champion angel, Michael, and his army of angels. The seven-headed, ten-horned dragon may think that he has power and authority, but he has over-estimated his ability. There are those in heaven who have more power. They are equipped by Jesus, who rules over all.

Already once, right at the beginning, Satan has been thrown out of heaven but he was still allowed to have access to the throne of God on occasions. And from the book of Job we know that Satan used this privilege as an opportunity to accuse God's people.

But now even that privilege of access is taken away. This war resulted in the total and permanent banishment of Satan and his hosts from heaven. From this point on he is never allowed to come before God again with accusations against God's children or for any other reason. Satan is on the road to defeat. It is his D-Day.

But even though the dragon has been evicted from the throne room of God, and is unable to attack God's people there, he can still cause havoc on earth. Satan knows his days are numbered and that soon he will be confined to the bottomless pit. So he uses those last days to release a fierce storm of wrath against mankind. And that is where we come into the picture: the dragon "pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child" (Rev 12:13). Remember, the woman is the church, which includes us. The dragon "went off to make war against the rest of her offspring - those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus" (Rev 12:17).

We are combatants in the very same war that is being waged in heaven. But we don't need to be afraid. Our Saviour overcame the devil, and because of Christ, we are also those who overcome. Part of the hymn of praise, which is in verses 10-12 says:

"They (that means us) overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony ... 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."

Again, that puts a whole new light onto the Christmas event, doesn't it. We inhabit this battlefield that has been so vividly described by John. We are those who are ravaged by the dragon whom the Messiah had hurled down from heaven. We are a part of that battle until we leave this earth. Whether you recognise it or not, whether you feel it or not, you are at war. You may not be doing all your duty in battle. You may, by your lethargy and your negligence, be giving comfort to the enemy. But you cannot escape the battle.

Satan is pictured here in a symbolic way, but don't make the mistake of thinking he is a mythological being. The whole Bible teaches plainly that evil is headed up by a definite person who is antagonistic toward God. His only purpose is to do all he can to frustrate the fulfilment of God's plans. How does Satan do it?

Remember that his name means "accuser". He tries to frustrate the plans of God by getting us to accuse ourselves. It goes something like this. "How can I possibly call myself a Christian after what I did? I might as well give up trying to live a Christian life."

He tries to get us to accuse others by getting them to say, "if this is the place where I am supposed to be loved, well I don't feel it at all. What's the difference between the church and the pub? I might as well give up on the church."

He tries to get us to accuse God by getting us to say, "if God really loved me, then this difficulty in my life would not have happened. How can a God of love allow so much suffering? I can't trust God any more".

In the battle against us Satan will use every dirty trick in the book - lies, deceit, slander, accusation, hypocrisy, temptation, and much more, to neutralise God's children spiritually. Deceiving us into compromise. Seducing us into error.

Just imagine giving a Christmas greeting that goes something like this: "Merry Christmas! And by the way, you have a powerful enemy who hates you. He hates you because you love the Messiah that he hates. He hates you because he tried to destroy the Messiah but failed. He has been kicked out of heaven so now he's after you."

It means that you and I are in a battle. You know you have been harried into the desert by the evil one. You can hear him baying, and feel the sting of his nipping at your heels. Sometimes it seems as if the river that spews out of his mouth will actually sweep you away. But, and this is the comfort, which comes out of this passage: you will not be overcome. For we belong to Christ.

Our lives, our faith, our serving Christ are the weapons that the kingdom of heaven employs in its battle with Satan and his legions. And when that is not enough, God will open the earth to swallow that river of rage up. We do not need to be afraid even in the face of subtle and insidious strength. For the glorious fact is that, while we are engaged in a battle, it is a battle whose outcome is guaranteed. We are fighting an enemy who is, in fact, defeated.

After the Battle of the Bulge during World War II, one German officer described the capture of an American unit early in the fighting. Among the booty was a box that contained a cake. What was remarkable about the cake is that it had been sent to an American soldier from Boston and it was still fresh. The German described his feelings when he realised that the Americans had the resources to fly over cakes from home even in the midst of a war. He said that he knew then that they would never defeat an enemy that had such resources for the waging of the battle.

When we stand in Christ, we have that sort of support, and so much more. Behind the manger, and the child, and the shepherds, and the Magi, and the angels, a battle is going on. There is a strong enemy taking on the Messiah and His people. But "the child was snatched up to God" (vs 5b). And the "dragon was hurled down" (vs 9) to the earth. He may be strong, but he has lost. "Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4).

What a wonderful reason to celebrate, with hope, the arrival of Jesus.

Amen.