Those words that the choir just sang speak of a baby in a manger who. As the carol goes, came to earth to end all strife. That's quite a claim. to end all strife. What kind of baby could possibly do What kind of grown man could possibly do that?
Well, the thing about the Christmas story is that it's only part of the story. There's more to the tale of this baby born in Bethlehem.
So, for a few moments tonight, I want to tell you a story about this child of Bethlehem and about how he would go about ending all strife. In fact, it's not my story. It's a story that was first told by the Apostle John, a man who knew the baby of Bethlehem personally. We find John's story in the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. Revelation is an intriguing book full of incredible scenes and characters of epic proportion.
Much of the book of Revelation is told in allegorical language, in which signs and symbols are used to describe indescribable wonders and events taking place in history, both on earth and in heaven.
Sometimes readers of the book of Revelation get bogged down and distracted by all the wonders it contains. They begin trying to explain the story historically or scientifically as if John were intending to write a sort of user manual of sorts for the end of the world.
Now to be sure there are Things difficult to understand in this book. We don't have to pretend that it's all perfectly clear and obvious, it's not. But what I'd like to do with you tonight is to retell just one small portion of John's story. A part of the story that explains how a child in a manger at Bethlehem. could have possibly come to earth to end all strife.
Let's begin by reading the story in John's own words, and then we'll spend a few moments seeing how the rest of the Bible sheds light on the meaning of John's story. It's a story about a woman. A child. and a dragon. And it's found in Revelation chapter 12.
It goes like this. 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 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. 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 twelve hundred and sixty 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 love not their lives.
even unto death. Before we take a few moments to think about what this story means for us tonight, would you join me in going to God in prayer and asking for Him to help us understand what these things mean? and give us hearts that Believe what this story says. Let's pray. God in heaven, you have told us that every part of the scriptures is intended for our benefit.
for our instruction and correction and encouragement.
So please open our eyes now and help us understand what you mean. Lord, if this child of Revelation 12 has truly come. to end all strife. What a pity it would be for us to miss out on his strife-ending power and work. How sad it would be for us to be.
deceived into thinking that strife is inevitable. and that peace is simply the stuff of fairy tales.
So I ask you, O God, whose very word creates worlds and brings dead souls to life, speak tonight. and enable us to hear what you say. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, what is this fantastical story about? The best way to discover the meaning of an allegory like this one is to start with the details that are made explicitly clear and move from there towards the details that are less clear. One of the main characters and perhaps the most attention-grabbing character is the Great Red Dragon.
Now, even though this is the most attention-grabbing character at the start of the story, this magnificent dragon will experience no less than five separate defeats at the hands of the child and the woman. One theologian called him the five-time loser dragon.
Well, we know exactly who this dragon is. Verse 9 tells us the great dragon, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. The dragon is Satan. In John's story, Satan, the dragon, is seeking to devour a child. Who is this child?
Well, John doesn't tell us outright in these verses. He simply describes him as one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. All the way back in Psalm 2, the psalmist describes the Messiah, who is Jesus Christ, as one who rules the nations with a rod of iron. John himself, later in chapter 19 of Revelation, will use that same description again to describe Jesus Christ. the Son of God.
John also tells us that after the birth of this male child, he was caught up to God and his throne. This fits with what we know of Jesus. After his birth and earthly ministry, Scripture tells us that Jesus ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
So the child in John's story is Bethlehem's child, the Christ child, Jesus, the Son of God.
Now, if a dragon is waiting near a pregnant woman who is about to deliver Jesus Christ. Who must this woman be? I imagine our immediate guess would be Mary, right? The Virgin Mary carried Jesus in her womb for nine months, delivered him in Bethlehem at the appointed time.
However, if we continued reading the story, we would discover that Mary doesn't fit the profile. Remember, John's story is an allegory made up of signs and symbols. Mary was the literal mother of Jesus. But who does John figuratively have in mind here? This mother, whoever she is.
continues to be relentlessly pursued by the dragon for the rest of history. After the child is safely out of reach, she becomes the object of the dragon's fiery wrath. This character then represents the church. Those followers of Christ who prior to Christ's birth were preserved through countless onslaughts of the dragon in order to bring about the very circumstances which led to Christ's birth in Bethlehem. And after Christ's birth have grown and to the dragon's great consternation have continued to bear witness to this miraculous birth of Bethlehem.
This woman is the church. That faithful body of believers who for all of human history have been opposed and persecuted and maligned and accused by the dragon and by those who follow the dragon.
Now John tells us this dragon was eagerly waiting to devour the Christ child. Why would anyone want to do that to a newborn baby? That's the epitome of evil. That's wicked. The Bible tells us why the dragon hated this child.
We have to go all the way back to the very beginning of the story: the Garden of Eden. This is in fact the first place that we encounter the dragon. Genesis describes a perfect paradise where the first parents of the human race lived in perfect bliss. But the dragon, who was evil, appeared one day and tempted this couple to break God's law, and he succeeded. Adam and Eve broke God's law and brought condemnation on the entire human race.
The punishment was to be death. And so death came into the world on account of Adam and Eve's sin, and it spread to all people. All because this evil dragon, the serpent of Eden, tempted God's image bearers to break God's law, and they fell for the temptation. But God cannot be bested by an evil dragon. He promised that in time he would provide a way for Adam and Eve's sin to be reversed, a way for death to be undone.
He promised. to end all strife. And that solution would not only fix the sin problem of Adam and Eve's race, it would also eliminate the dragon's ability to ever again tempt and ruin the people whom God loved. This grand promise is found in Genesis 3:15. God says, I will put enmity between the dragon and the woman.
and between the dragon's offspring and the woman's offspring. God would ensure that a future descendant of Eve, her distant grandchild, would become the archenemy of the dragon. And listen to what God said would occur between these rivals. The dragon would bruise this child's heel, but this child would crush the dragon's head. The story that follows from Eden to Bethlehem is one long story of the dragon and his minions trying to destroy the line that would eventually culminate in the birth of Jesus Christ.
A series of murders and godless intermarriages and genocides begins to unfold, beginning with Eve's own son Abel, who was brutally murdered at the hands of the dragon's apprentice, Cain. But God gives Eve another child, Seth. It's not long before the dragon whispers evil notions into the minds of Seth's descendants, getting them to intermarry with Cain's descendants. The sons of God bore children with the daughters of man. and a whole generation of godless dragon servants is born.
But in the midst of these wicked families, God gives grace to one family, to Noah and his family. After the great flood, Noah's sons would begin to repopulate the earth with families who loved God and trusted his promise. and others who hated God and served the dragon. In time, God would raise up Abraham to be the preserver of the promised seed. This child who would end all strife.
But once again, it seemed that God's promises would be thwarted. Abraham's wife was barren. It was as if the dragon had unlimited means of denying the fulfillment of God's promised redemption. The theme of this story, however, is that the dragon is no match for God. Remember, he's the five-time loser dragon of Revelation 12.
And so God gave Abraham a son in his old age. Abraham's son Isaac. with sire jacob and Jacob would sire an entire nation. But the dragon would continue his relentless pursuit of the promised child's demise, and God would relentlessly thwart the dragon's plans. Egypt would order the death of all male children, but God would save Moses.
King Saul would throw a spear at David, but God would be David's shield. The wicked daughter of Ahab and Jezebel would seek to kill all the descendants of David, but God would preserve young Joash. In time, Jerusalem would be surrounded by the armies of the northern kingdom of Israel and their pagan ally, Syria. The dragon could wipe out David's line once and for all, but God would give a sign of reassurance to Judah. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel.
God with us. The dragon scheme would have to wait for another time.
Well, another time came. As emissaries of the dragon, under the authority of Queen Esther's Persian husband, sought to extinguish every descendant of Abraham. only to have their scheme turned against them and God's people saved. The day would finally arrive when the child to whom every prophecy and every promise pointed was born. Jesus of Nazareth, the miracle son of the Virgin Mary.
The Almighty Son of God was born in Bethlehem. Kings and stars and angels would attend to his birth. drawing the attention of Herod. who was himself a wicked dragon in his own right. Herod, like Pharaoh before him, would order the death of all the male children, but God, as he had countless times before, would keep his promise and save the promised child who was destined to end all strife.
The mother had birthed the child. The dragon was Ready to pounce. The stage was set for the climactic cosmic confrontation of the ages.
Now in John's telling of the story, he skips over this climactic confrontation, at least in chapter 12 of Revelation. But in his gospel, he doesn't skip it. He tells us all about this battle to end all battles. He tells us how this child, now a grown man, was falsely accused of treason and blasphemy and sentenced to death on a Roman cross. He tells us how for six hours he hung on that cross.
Finally committing his spirit to God and dying. It seemed as if the dragon had won. But moments before he died, he said something that would change the eternal destiny of countless souls.
Something that would reverse the curse that Adam and Eve's descendants had always lived under.
Something that would crush the dragon's head and truly bring an end to all strife. Jesus said, it is finished. In the very act of the dragon bruising this child's heel, this child, this savior, this victor crushed the dragon's head. You see, when Jesus said it is finished, he was not declaring defeat, he was declaring victory. He was saying that the damage caused by Adam and Eve listening to the dragon was reversed.
Redemption was given. The price of their lawbreaking, which was death, was paid. And it was paid with the death of Bethlehem's child. A child who never succumbed to the dragon's tempting voice, but obeyed the voice of God perfectly. In John's account in Revelation, John focuses on what happens after Christ's victorious crucifixion.
He focuses his attention on everything that Jesus' defeat of Satan at the cross triggered. And it triggered a lot. Satan has been filled with rage ever since that defeat. But he cannot take that rage out on Christ because Christ is the uncontested victor and is sitting on heaven's throne. The dragon, as we read, has been thrown out of heaven.
There is no way the dragon can touch the ascended Christ.
So what does he do? He attacks the closest thing to Christ. He attacks the woman. The mother. The church.
Those whom Christ has come to save. The point of John's story is that. Even though the dragon tries to hurt and damage those whom Christ loves. He can no longer do them any true lasting harm. He has been thrown out of heaven and rendered impotent.
John says it plainly in Revelation 12, verse 10.
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. You see, the very trait that gave this dragon his essential character has been removed.
He lived for the sheer enjoyment of accusing sinners of their sin before God's throne. But when Jesus Christ died in the place of sinners, he absorbed God's righteous wrath against our sin. This means that Satan, that dragon of old, lost his audience with God. Satan had spent his time bringing to God accusations against the redeemed, probably many of them true. But now that Christ has paid sin's full price, Satan's accusations are empty and pointless.
One pastor said it this way, the devil has been kicked out of God's courts. The teeth of this dragon's accusations have been crushed. along with his head. John's story does go on. The dragon continues to torment the church throughout history.
But ultimately the dragon will fail. The trouble he causes now is simply the death throes of a defeated dragon. writhing in agony as he draws his last breath. And the devil knows he is destined to fail. As John says in verse 12, he knows that his time is short.
Friends, why does this story matter? It matters because it shows us the way out of darkness. and into light. It shows us how to get free from the dragon's clutch. It tells us that Jesus did not come to simply give us subject matter for Christmas cards and a nice holiday at the end of the year.
Jesus came to kill a dragon. He came to pay for our sin. He came to put a stop to all the damage and the chaos and the misery that our sin has caused. Jesus came to end all strife. And the only reason there is peace on earth and goodwill from God toward man.
Is because of the fierce battle that Bethlehem's child has won. Jesus Christ has kicked Satan out of God's courtroom and turned that courtroom into a banqueting hall and now invites rescued sinners to come and feast with him in victory. The question that remains is: this: How do I get to that feast? John answers that question. In Revelation 12 verse 11, John says of those who stand with the child on the winning side, they have conquered the dragon by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony.
This sentence points us to the great doctrine of salvation by grace through faith in Christ. The dragon And our enslavement to all dragonly things is overcome through the simple act of running to Bethlehem's child for protection. When we trust and rest in this child-turned warrior for the salvation of our souls. The dragon's accusations against us. many of which hold up in God's court.
are dismissed. And we are declared innocent. Friend, if you live. in fear of all the guilt. of all the transgressions you have committed over the course of your life.
If you live in terror of a dragon too strong for you to overcome and resist by yourself. If you live. in dread of the one who alone possesses all joy. and peace and life and love. There is a way out.
Look to Bethlehem's child. Look to the dragon slayer. Look to Jesus Christ. Rest in his righteousness. and sufficiency.
and be saved. This is the story of Christmas. And it is good, good news. Let's pray. God of heaven, there are.
Dragons that threaten our soul. Dragons without. Dragons within. Thank you for defeating them all. That we might have peace with you for all eternity.
Indeed, you have sent your Son, that promised child, that great warrior and victor, and through him have brought an end to all strife. May we be eternally Counted among those who were part of his band, his happy, victorious band. Thank you for the Christ child. In whose name I pray. Amen.
Mm-hmm.
