Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

Every Who down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot

But the Grinch who lived just North of Whoville did not!

The Grinch hated Christmas!

The whole Christmas season!

Now, please don't ask why.

No one quite knows the reason.

It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.

It could be his head wasn't screwed on just right.

But I think that the most likely reason of all

May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

But, whatever the reason, his heart or his shoes,

He stood there on Christmas Eve hating the Whos…

This of course is the beginning of Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”…

What is Christmas about?

For many people Christmas is a depressing time of year...

Tis the season of divorce, the season of… suicide

Christmas is marked by greater emotional stress… for some have lost loved ones and maybe this year is there first Christmas without that loved one…

For others Christmas is frenzied, frazzled shopping… Buying more, spending more, getting more and having less . . .

So we run around trying to buy happiness, peace, joy and good will towards all men, while fighting with someone wearing pajama’s at Walmart…

Hopefully that is not our first thought as we come into this Christmas season…

What are the thoughts that come to your mind when you think of Christmas?

…

• 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… …

Maybe its time spent with family

The Christmas Ham on the table

Presents under the tree

Watching your children and grandchildren as they anticipate what might be in those presents.

I am sure that these are the sort of images we have when we think about Christmas.

For the next few weeks, we are going to take a break from our regular study through 1 Peter… And this morning I want to look at another side to the whole Christmas event that is not so obvious.

It is a side which is much more brutal.

This side involves a multi-headed dragon that wants to eat an infant.

This side is the side where mighty heavenly beings are doing battle.

It is 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.

Before we get to our main passage this morning, let me say this… I picked this main passage for the imagery that it has and want to point out an overlying lesson of it.

But I do not intend to fully pick apart this passage this morning, as I normally would if we were doing a full study on it…

and even though I would consider this first passage as our main passage… We are going to get a bit of a workout this morning at we look at several different accounts…

Meat:

That being said… please turn in your Bible’s to Revelation 12 …

(Read vv.

1-6)

And just so we are clear as to who this “Dragon” is… (Read vv.

7-9)…

I know I said that I wasn’t going to pick this passage apart… and I’m not… But I do want to share with you some of the imagery within the first 6 verses…

Imagery:

1. Woman = Israel

Rev. 12:1 “1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars.”

Some try to interpret the woman as being the Church, but the 12 stars would represent the 12 tribes of Israel… There are other symbols with the sun and moon references, but we can leave that for another time.

2. The Dragon = Satan

Rev. 12:3-4 “3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.

4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.

And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.”

Again, just in case this isn’t clear enough…

Rev. 12:9 “9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”

Yes, there are many symbols surrounding this dragon, the heads, the horns, the diadems, the stars of heaven… But our focus today is who that Dragon is… Satan… and what he is doing… “… stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.”

Which leads us to our 3rd image…

3. The Child = Jesus

Rev. 12:5 “5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.

And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.”

We have symbolized here the birth of Christ and His victorious ascension, but nothing is said about either His life or His death.

When you step back and think about what is going on here… and stop trying to wrap your head around all the different symbols that are mentioned… which are extremely important, please don’t think that I am trying to down play this in the least bit…

But just take a breath, look at what is happening and you will see exactly what is going here… The Birth of Christ is about to happen… Christmas is coming… and Satan is trying to prevent it… … He “… stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.”

Satan was in a battle to stop Christmas from the very beginning…

And just like any battle… he had specific targets that he tried to destroy in an attempt to stop Christmas from ever happening…

Satan’s Targets:

1.

The Human Race

Like I said… a little Bible workout today… Turn to Genesis 3… and we will see his first tactical move… (Read v.1)

When God created humanity, He made them according to His image and likeness.

Adam and Eve were created perfect, and placed in a perfect environment.

Yet Satan tempted them to sin…

He questions and twists God’s word… and we know the failure that followed… Adam and Eve both ate the fruit, Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent and all three recieved punishment…

Look at vv. 14-15 (Read)…

From then on, the human race was Satan’s main target… The race that was created perfect would now have to be judged.

Sin continued to have its way.

Satan attempted to corrupt the human race to the point where God would destroy everything that He had made… and he almost succeeded…

Look at Genesis 6:5-6… (Read)…

Because of that grief… God sent a Flood to destroy the entire world… seemingly walking right into Satan’s trap…

Except God spared eight people.

The human race was spared through Noah and his sons… and Satan's attempt to destroy the human race had failed…

Next Target…

2. The Nation of Israel

Four thousand years ago God gave a man named Abram a number of promises.

Look at Genesis 12:1-3… (Read)...

Among other things, God promised that the descendants of Abraham would exist forever and in Genesis 49:10, We see that the Messiah will come out of the line of Judah… it says...

“10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.”

So, in Satan’s mind… If the nation that came from Abraham's descendants, Israel, were ever annihilated as a nation, then…

1.

The Word of God would be untrue.

2. And the Messiah would never be born…

It is for this reason that Satan has paid special attention to Abraham's descendants.

In the Book of Esther we have an example of the attempted destruction of the entire nation… Look at Esther 3:8-15… (Read) (King Ahasuerus (A-has-u-air-us))…

This was Satan’s attempt, through Haman, to kill all of the Jews in one day… But Queen Esther stepped in… Even though it could’ve cost her her life, she said, in Chapter 4:16 “...

I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!””

And God used Queen Esther to, once again, providentially intervene and saved the nation from annihilation… again, if Satan would have been able to destroy the nation of Israel, then the promises of God would not be true… and Jesus would’ve never been born.

While Satan was trying to destroy the entire nation of Israel, he was also trying to snuff out a specific family line… That is the next target that I want you to see…

3. The Lineage of Christ

Genesis 22:18 is another promise that God had given to Abraham… it says… “18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.””

In explaining that verse… the Apostle Paul in…

Galatians 3:16 says… “16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made.

He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ.”