The War on Christmas
Notes
Transcript
As has been our tradition the last many years, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, some time that afternoon, after church, we decorate for Christmas. One of my personal convictions is that there should be no Christmas music, Christmas movies, or Christmas decorations until Thanksgiving is wrapped up.
So we hold off until after the turkey leftovers are safely in the fridge and the kitchen is cleaned up. And then—and only then—we watch “Home Alone” and start to look forward to Christmas.
We decorate for Christmas (for us, it never seems to happen before that Sunday). This is how it goes:
Meghann spends hours and hours getting the lights on the tree just right. And she takes them off. Then she goes and buys new lights, and does it all over again. Several hours later, when the lights are perfect, the kids are decorating the tree and pulling out the rest of the decorations. Ornaments and tinsel balls, a sock monkey to top the tree; stockings hung with care, everything placed around the house just so.
The last to be set up is the Nativity. Each figurine is unwrapped one at a time, and placed with exacting specification.
To appease this weirdo, the Magi are set a distance away from the Nativity. They weren’t there the night of Jesus’ birth; they weren’t there for a couple of years. Jesus was likely a toddler before the Magi found Him. It doesn’t matter all that much, but for accuracy sake—and because I’m a little quirky—the wise men (however many of them there might have been) are positioned a distance away from baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
The shepherds are there; they were there that night. They went running to the place where Jesus lay, per the angels’ instructions. They hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.
Everything is set in our nativity, just so. Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus; the shepherds, some animals, and the wise men a ways off.
This year, I had to order something for our nativity. Something was missing. Can you tell what’s missing? Any ideas?
I ordered...a dragon. I tried to find a dragon at Walmart, but their selection of red dragons is woefully lacking. So I had to order it from Amazon. This made for an interesting conversation.
The night after I ordered the dragon for our nativity, Meghann came out of the bedroom with her phone in hand and asked, “Um…did you buy a dragon?”
“I sure did!”
“Why?”
“For the nativity, of course!”
I ordered a dragon (actually four of them; to get the one I wanted I had to order a set). Let me tell you why...
This time of year is all family and friends, good food, hot cocoa and coffee, sitting in front of the fire (or space heater or on top of the radiator). It’s all so warm and cozy; it’s all lights and garland and cookies.
We set out the nativity and kids play with the pieces. As a young girl, Meghann used to steal baby Jesus and take Him up to her room to play until her mom got angry and made her place baby Jesus carefully back in the manger.
We sing: “Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright”—we sing these words, perhaps not realizing it was far from silent. There is much more going on than we have eyes to see and ears to hear: an entire drama behind the curtain. Amid the beauty and the moments of calm and worship, a war is being waged; it rages still.
Next to Mary and Joseph, across from baby Jesus, sits a dragon. Listen to the Christmas story according to John the revelator:
1 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have come the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.
11 They triumphed over him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.
12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens
and you who dwell in them!
But 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.”
Merry Christmas!
You might be disappointed this morning. If you came (or tuned-in) expecting a nice, comforting, retelling of the old familiar story—well, you’ll get some of that…kind of.
You might be disappointed this morning if, upon seeing the title of the sermon, you got excited and started hoping for a hot take on how to deal with people at Target or Walmart who don’t say “Merry Christmas” and only wish you “Happy Holidays.”
Or, if you’re concerned about your favorite coffee shop serving your $5 latte in a “winter cup” instead of a “Christmas cup”, I’m afraid I’m going to disappoint.
I’ve looked on for years with a smirk and a shake of the head (as well as a few opinions I try to keep to myself) at the supposed “War on Christmas”—“taking Christ out of Christmas” by calling it “X-Mas”, for instance.
Here’s an unpopular opinion: I don’t believe there’s anything wrong with calling it “X-Mas”. “X-Mas” actually has a long history among early Christians: counter-cultural, radical Christians. They couldn’t openly call it “Christmas” without inviting trouble, so they took the first letter of the Greek word for Christ (Xpristos) and put it there instead. ‘X’ was, and is, another way to say Christ.
So I smirk when atheists and agnostics think they’re being clever. They don’t realize Christ is still in Christmas, whether they try to ‘X’ Him out or not. I smirk and giggle a little when Christians get all riled up when something says “X-Mas”.
We can’t take Christ out of Christmas or anything, by the way. He’s the Ruler, the Sovereign, the Prince of Peace, Mighty God, Holy One. He’s not going anywhere.
He sits enthroned in Heaven and laughs at all the pathetic attempts to remove Him from what is rightly His. “X-Mas” is “Christmas”; “Christmas” is “X-Mas”—there’s no altering it.
The concept of a modern “War on Christmas” is just a bit of silliness if you ask me. It’s really much ado about nothing. This I believe.
And yet I know: there was (and is) a real and waging war. I set the red dragon atop our nativity for this simple reason: it’s biblical (more biblical than the wise men at the manger). It’s biblical and it is an important reminder that there was a war on that fist Christmas Day, and there’s a war be waged right now.
Listen to our good friend, Matt Proctor:
“In Revelation 12, John rips back the veil on the spiritual realm and we suddenly see Satan as he truly is. The angel of light is unmasked, and in its place, we see a horrifying, violent dragon. Huge and blood-red, the grotesque dragon spreads his leathery wings, malice dripping from jagged teeth, and sears his enemies with fiery, sulfurous breath.”
There’s nothing subtle about this description; it’s as real as it gets. As we picture this scene, even a child can recognize: this dragon is wicked.
My kids and wife know how weird I am, so when I set the dragon atop the nativity, Miracle exclaimed, with laughter in his voice: “A dragon!?! What?!?” Makai jibber-jabbered something I couldn’t quite understand. The rest of the family inquired what I was doing. I said, “Revelation 12. There was a dragon at the first Christmas.”
We are allowed, by reading Revelation 12 for Christmas, to peek behind-the-scenes at what was going on that blessed, holy night.
John sees a great sign—a large pregnant woman wearing a crown of twelve stars, preparing to give birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.”
The baby, described here with language from Psalm 2, is the Messiah, the Christ.
Who’s the lady? Well, she’s too big to be little Mary. The twelve stars likely refer to the 12 Hebrew tribes. This lady is Israel, the Messiah’s mother nation.
We’re here at the nativity, the Christ-child soon to be born; the hopes and fears of all the years, met in Him this night.
But suddenly, the calm and the beauty is interrupted by an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. His large tail sweeps a third of the stars from the heavens. John confirms who this enormous red dragon is:
9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
This dragon—the ancient serpent who lied to Adam and Eve in the garden, the devil, Satan—is bent on killing the almost-born child. He stands in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born.
We cringe, anticipating the baby’s bloody, violent end.
The child is born, the dragon lunges, we hold our breath … and at the last possible moment, the child is rescued by God!
You see, it wasn’t just King Herod trying to kill the boy (and all the boys in Bethlehem just to be on the safe side). It wasn’t just Herod; it was the devil himself. Praise God, Jesus was protected!
However, when the dragon can’t kill the baby boy and is thrown out of heaven, Satan turns to devour the woman. God miraculously rescues the woman, too. So, finally, in frustration and fury, the dragon attacks the woman’s offspring.
That’s us! The Church is the offspring of God’s Old Testament people. We are the descendants of the woman Israel, and that means we are square in the devil’s crosshairs.
We have an unseen enemy bent on our destruction. This is serious business. I believe we need to place the dragon right in the middle of nativity, so that we don’t forget this important truth:
WE ARE AT WAR
WE ARE AT WAR
We must never forget that we are at war. The Christmas story is not “a religious glow to warm a dark night.” Revelation 12 reminds us that we can’t sentimentalize the nativity.
It’s not just a cute little scene with bath-robed shepherds huddled around a manger-crib, telling the baby’s parents how cute he is. No, a dragon lurks outside the stable; this is cosmic warfare.
The birth of Jesus was not just meant to inspire a cozy Christmas carol session with hot chocolate warming our hands.
The birth of Jesus inspired a great war across the heavens, and now we are part of that battle.
What do we do? We walk out the stable door and, as the Psalmist says, we go forth “with the praise of God in our mouths and a double-edged sword in our hands.” (Psalm 149:6)
By all means, let us sing the Christmas carols, thanking God for the indescribable gift of His Son. But let us also be armed and on our guard against the dragon.
Let us go to war, smeared with the blood of the Lamb, armed with the Word of our testimony—worshipping Jesus, the One born that first Christmas Day, hunted by the dragon whose head Jesus would one day crush for us.
We are at war: the Church versus the Dragon.
There’s a story of a hobbit, a hairy little fellow named Bilbo Baggins who helps a remnant of dwarves reclaim their mountain home. The only problem: a deadly dragon named Smaug now lives in the mountain, so they can’t just walk back into their old home unawares or uncaring.
As Tolkien writes, “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.”
In other words, you should probably think about that dragon a bit more than you do. The fact is: we live near the dragon. Thrown from heaven, he now prowls the earth, and if we are to stay faithful, we must watch carefully for his attacks.
Be encouraged in this: Satan is not the equal opposite of God. I’ll let Matt Proctor make the Star Wars analogy: “Satan is not the ‘dark side of the force,’ with all the same powers as the ‘light side,’ only used for evil.”
While formidable and powerful, Satan is not omnipresent like God. He cannot be everywhere. So he works by infecting and then using godless government, false religion, and a pagan and immoral culture—all of which trickle down and affect each and every one of us.
Satan is a clever foe, a ruthless enemy.
We are up against it. Satan is out to “steal, kill, and destroy.” He’s trying to outwit us. But we are not unaware of his schemes.
The dragon represents the ugly side of Christmas, the upside-down, the dark underbelly of the story we love.
The Dragon is just as real as Jesus, though he is not glorious, nor will he be victorious.
This is how—when we understand what is truly going on—this is how the birth of Jesus is good news for us who believe in and belong to Him.
10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.
The birth of Jesus is good, joyous news for all people. A Savior has been born! Jesus didn’t just come to save us from our sins (though that is absolutely, wondrously true!)
21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.
Jesus was born, not to make us all warm and fuzzy or to give us a nice tabletop decoration or lawn art. Jesus came to save us from our sins AND Jesus came to save us from our enemy. The elder John, the revelator, wrote that this—saving us from our enemy—was the reason Jesus came.
8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
Jesus is the seed of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head:
15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Jesus has come to rule all nations with a rod of iron. Jesus is not destroyed by the dragon, but is exalted to God’s throne. The Son of God appeared…to destroy the devil’s work. Jesus crushes the serpent’s head and takes His seat next to His Father, exalted to God’s right hand where He remains both Lord and Christ.
Jesus avoided the dragon’s plot. He has conquered Satan.
This is why we sing (to worship the newborn King). This is why we exchange presents (to remember that because God so loved us He gave His Son). This is why we put lights our trees and houses (as an acknowledgement that a light has dawned).
We are at war, and
WORSHIP IS OUR WEAPON
WORSHIP IS OUR WEAPON
The dragon is after our worship. He wants for us to worship him instead of worshiping Jesus. Read Revelation 13 sometime and you’ll see that the defeated and furious dragon does all he can to get the inhabitants of the earth to worship him.
If he couldn’t kill the baby (and he couldn’t), he will settle for having the worship that belongs to Jesus directed toward him instead.
Our worship is an act of war; we refuse to worship the dragon or any other but the Christ-child. Worship is how this war is fought. Worship is how we defeat the dragon.
Satan wants to acquire our worship. That’s his goal. We will not relinquish our worship to another.
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have come the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.
11 They triumphed over him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.
The cross of Christ, the sacrificial death of the baby—Jesus who came to die, conquers the dragon, that ancient serpent. The blood of the Lamb born on Christmas Day triumphs over Satan.
The followers of Jesus’ testify to this, they worship Jesus for this, even unto death. We share in Christ’s victory over Satan by sharing the good news of what Christ has done and by remaining faithful to Christ even at the cost of losing our lives.
We worship because Jesus is victorious. We worship the Lamb of God who defeats the dragon because people need to hear what Jesus has done and why He has come:
Jesus has some to conquer that ancient foe! We worship because our friends and families and neighbors need to know that Jesus, and only Jesus, is worthy of worship.
We worship—in word and in song—to let the watching world know Jesus saves us from our sins, saves us from ourselves, saves us from the serpent, Satan.
In worship, we triumph because the One we worship triumphed.
>I told Meghann my Christmas sermon was going to include a dragon and a grammar lesson—what’s better than that? (Probably a sermon without a grammar lesson).
The grammar concerns a favorite Christmas song:
It’s “God Rest Ye Merry, [comma] Gentlemen”. The comma is after “merry”; it’s not “merry gentlemen” but rather “God rest ye merry”—the old English way of saying: “God make you strong, God keep you mighty, friends.”
It’s like Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men; it means they’re mighty, not filled with Christmas cheer. “Merry” in that usage means mighty/strong.
“God make you strong, God keep you mighty, friends.”
The song is a reminder, a prod, a prompt to ask the Lord for strength and His presence in difficult times when Satan tempts us to despair.
We sing that Jesus has been born “to save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray.”
We are strengthened by the truth that a Savior was born “to free all those who trust in Him, from Satan’s power and might.”
The dragon has no hold on us. The Christ Child has come to save us from Satan’s power, to free us from his might.
We are in a war that Jesus has already won—that’s the message of Christmas. This baby grows up and defeats the dragon. We continue to triumph over evil, over Satan, over the dragon with the weapon of our worship.
Let us lift our voices to praise the One who came to save. God keep you mighty, God make you strong, friends!