Warfare Christmas - Christmas

Revelation chapter 12.

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

If you have your Bibles, look at Revelation chapter 12.

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

We're going to call this Warfare Christmas.

We're picking up an anthology of visions that the apostle John has had.

He's been exiled to the island of Patmos.

God gives him an opportunity beginning at the beginning of Revelation and then moving into Revelation 4 with actually seeing what's happening in heaven.

By Revelation 11, he sees what's going to happen in the latter days.

You that have heard me teach Revelation.

In Revelation chapter 12, we talk about the rise of the Antichrist.

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

Then at the end of chapter 11, we see the 24 elders worshiping the Lord.

Look at verse 1 though of Revelation chapter 12.

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

It says, Now a great sign appeared in heaven.

The word there is Simeon.

It's the idea of an omen, it's the idea of a prophecy.

And so what's happening here is John is seeing something as he enters into this fourth dimension realm that is going to be a view of the behind the scenes.

It's kind of the behind the scenes of the barn, behind the scenes of the peaceful Christmas and the angels singing on high, which I think is awesome.

I mean, we have a manger scene at our house.

It's a really cool manger scene.

And we always put up the manger and I put straw on it every year, and it looks really cute.

And then we have to vacuum the straw a lot.

But it's all right there, and we have that.

And then we had a manger scene when you came in here.

This is behind the, this is this is what was happening behind the scenes at the first Christmas.

A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars.

I'm not going to go into the symbols of this as it relates to the latter days.

Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.

And another sign appeared in heaven.

Behold, a great fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems on its head.

There is a battle against the birth of Christ, this revolutionary that's about to be born, who has come not just as the savior of those who he will call to himself, but the scriptures say the savior of the entire world.

A world conqueror, a king, as the Magi called them through their prophetic words, and we believe possibly even Persian documents, not only with scriptures of some prophecy that even CNN did a number of years ago on the star.

There's growing scientific evidence of a star during this time called the King's Star.

That these wise men, these astronomers, were following to such an extent that Herod is frightened by the prophetic as well as the heavenly wisdom that they have as they follow this star.

And there's a battle happening in the heavenly.

Look at verse 4.

His tail, the dragon's tail, drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.

Some of us know that have been through some of our spiritual warfare classes of Satan being a worshiping angel, probably the worship leader in the heavenlies.

Isaiah 14 gives us a prophetic insight into what happened to Satan.

Isaiah 14, verse 12 says, How you have fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning, and how you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations.

Isaiah 14:12

Verse 13, for you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven.

I call it the five I wills of Satan.

The five I wills of Lucifer.

I will ascend into heaven.

I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.

I will also sit on the mount of the congregation of the furtherest sides of the north.

Thirdly, fourthly, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, and I will be like, this is important, I will be like the Most High.

Satan wanting to be like God, at the very core of all sin is pride.

The generation, the spontaneous generation in Eve that gave us sin.

And then Adam in the garden was to be like God.

Pride.

That will be all of our struggles in this room.

All of us will battle with pride our whole life.

And if you think you don't, you've really got a problem.

But he but his tail swept across the heavenlies.

This fiery dragon taking a third of heaven, and we believe those are demons.

And they were cast to the earth.

And the dragon stood before the woman, Mary.

Also a picture of Israel, who was ready to give birth, listen up, to devour her child.

In all of your Bibles, child is capitalized, the Messiah child, as soon as it was born.

So we read the story and we and we see this aspect of the elders of Nazareth realizing that Mary is pregnant out of wedlock.

And they talk about putting her away quietly.

What do they mean by that?

Satan is at work.

Demons are at work behind the scenes at Christmas.

Was it an abortion?

Was it to stone her?

And then the Lord comes and speaks to Joseph.

And then the gig's not up yet.

There's this guy named Herod, a king, begins to strategize about this coming king.

You see, the enemy is there to devour Mary, to devour her child from the beginning.

And there's a picture here of the way the enemy works in your life and in my life.

The enemy is always out to steal, kill, and destroy our lives.

This Christmas, I'm calling it Warfare Christmas because we've been born into a war.

Don't forget that.

And if we let our guard down, I don't care what your age is, you let your guard down, he will come and try to take us out.

Some of you young women in this room are gonna become pregnant.

And I can promise you, your pregnancy will be a struggle.

All pregnancies are, right, ladies?

Do I hear an amen?

But every child, listen, listen, every one of these children up here, the enemy wants to devour because they're created in the image of God.

And so and so we go into battle.

We enter into battle.

And the scripture says, she bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.

With a rod of iron.

And her child was caught up unto God and his throne.

Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God that they should feed her there 1,260 days.

So Jesus is born in spite of the efforts of Satan.

We know that Herod, when he realizes he's been faked out by the Magi because of a dream that they have warning them about Herod's plans, goes berserk.

He goes into the village there, all around the districts of Bethlehem, and begins to slaughter the, it's called the slaughter of the innocents historically.

And all those young males, two years and younger, he he murders.

He goes in and he murders.

And so and so Joseph, being warned in a dream, takes the baby into the wilderness and goes to Egypt.

Jesus was born to rule the nations with a rod of iron, church.

What does that mean?

What does it mean that Jesus came to rule the nations with a rod of iron?

It speaks of, listen, the intentionality and the authority and the power of a king.

He came proclaiming what?

That the kingdom of God had come.

Here's what's amazing about Jesus at Christmas.

It's how he came.

And it's how he fought the enemy.

He fought the enemy with love.

He fought the enemy with humility.

He fought the humility by coming with a life of self-giving and self-sacrifice, the opposite of what we would think in relation to human power.

He came in kingdom power, healing the sick, casting out demons, and proclaiming the kingdom of God.

Look at verse 7.

A war broke out in heaven, and Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, and they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.

So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old called the devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world.

He was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

So men and women, Christmas is a reminder of the coming of a warrior named Jesus, who has come into enemy territory, this earth, that Satan and his demonic hordes control to such a degree that trying to take Jesus off his task and his mission in the 40 days that he's in the wilderness says, This authority has been given to me, and Jesus does not contradict what he says because he knows it's true.

And so we come into this Christmas possibly really, really depressed.

Or maybe struggling.

Maybe it's been a tough year for you.

Some of you I know have lost your jobs.

I know some of you are on the verge of divorce.

I know some of you have been through devastation and you've experienced things both with friends and foes that have been devastating.

Some of you are carrying cancer right now.

Some of us here right now aren't healed of that cancer.

This may be your last Christmas.

I know of several people right now that are friends of ours.

This might be their last Christmas.

Because this is a battle, and the enemy comes.

But how do we fight this battle?

As we go into the new year, what do we do with what we see to be a warfare Christmas?

I love what comes next in our passage, and this is exciting stuff.

I wanted to preach this sermon like for weeks now.

I'm finally getting my chance.

Because I kept reading it and rereading it and rethinking about it, and here's what comes next, and it's so encouraging.

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now, from now on, church, from now on, so 2,000 years ago, now, salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come.

For the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down.

That accuser that calls you a loser, that causes you an idiot, calls you something that you heard maybe from coaches or parents or people all your life.

And you've and you've got this real, you've got this scripting that you've allowed to continue to be spoken over your life because you've believed it, and you've allowed strongholds and fortresses of the enemy in your hand has been cast down.

You can have a new script.

You can break the power of the accuser of the brethren because his salvation and his strength and his power and his kingdom has come.

Not coming, it has come.

It is ours, it is our inheritance, church.

It is your inheritance.

You do not have to settle for a subpar Christianity.

You can walk in kingdom power.

It is yours.

It is your inheritance, and you have to claim it though.

You have to believe it and you have to ask for it.

Here's what Colossians 1 says.

Paul says this strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, for all patience and long-suffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers.

He has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us or translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through his blood and the forgiveness of sins.

That is good news.

That's what Christmas is all about.

So in Revelation 5, predicting those days coming that will be ours in the latter days, and we're closer today than we've ever been before.

We're in days where one world government talk is being discussed all the time among nations.

Setting up for the rise of the Antichrist.

Here's what it says in Revelation 5 about the saints.

Listen to this.

And he has made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth.

Hello?

So I went out behind my barn yesterday.

It was cold out there.

It was eight degrees.

I wore these gloves so my hands wouldn't stick to this thing.

But this, men and women, is a rod of iron.

This is a rod of iron.

This is a rod of iron.

And we have been given an inheritance.

Revelation 20, in the last days, it speaks of us reigning on the earth.

Guess what?

We are co-victors, co-reigners, co-viceroys with Christ on this earth, called by God to enforce the righteousness of the kingdom of God through the Holy Spirit working in your life as you worship Jesus Christ.

And so here's what it says next.

Look at verse 11.

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives unto death.

Therefore, rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell on them, woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea.

For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.

Now I like the fact that Satan knows his time is short.

Because most Christians don't know that his time is short.

But the scriptures say that, and Satan and his demons know the prophecy, and they're really, really angry these days.

Because they know that their time is short.

And men and women, I can tell you this, and you that have walked with the Lord for a while, you know this is true.

The church today has never had such great opportunity to spread the gospel worldwide, to be empowered with the Holy Spirit, to walk in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, to worship with a freedom like we've never known before.

I mean, when I was a young believer, I remember back in the 70s going out to California and they were worshiping Jesus with rock and roll music.

I mean, it actually sounded like the Almond Brothers or Marshall Tucker or the Doobie Brothers.

And it was worship music.

I was like, this is the craziest, all I knew was hymns.

And I went back and told my friends, I said, you're a heretic.

You must have been with a cult.

And so there's been these waves of the spirit bringing in different kinds of music and different levels of authority and power that are coming to us, and the church is empowered like never before because satanic power is rising.

Have you figured that out yet?

Human trafficking alone has never been more pronounced as it is in Asia today.

The brothels of the young children that have been kidnapped and stolen from their homes across Asia and shipped in to service businessmen coming up from all over the world.

It's strongholds of power from the enemy, and God is strengthening his church.

So I see three things here, men and women.

Three areas that we carry a rod of iron.

Number one, the basis of our triumph in Christ this Christmas is they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.

It's what Jesus did.

It's not what you did, it's what Jesus did at Calvary.

He came at Christmas.

You young people, listen up.

Jesus came at Christmas to die on a cross.

He came to die on a cross for your sins.

He came to die on a cross to set you free so that you can walk in light, not in darkness.

Say that with me.

You can walk in the light.

I can walk in the light, not in the darkness.

I can walk in the light, not in the darkness.

That's because of the blood of the Lamb.

Because of Calvary and what Christ did at Calvary.

So, first of all, we've been given the blood of the Lamb.

Second, it says, and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.

Listen, demons know the blood of the Lamb.

Hello?

1 John tells us that demons even know about the blood of the Lamb.

That means nothing.

To believe in the blood of the Lamb will not get you to heaven.

Believing with our heart, and then in Romans 10, 9 and 10, it says, confessing with your mouth gets you to heaven.

So he says, the blood of the Lamb, and John says, by the word of their testimony.

Church, listen, you got to speak it out.

You gotta say it.

You gotta say it to the spirits of this world.

You gotta say it to Satan.

You gotta say it to demons.

And let me tell you, come a couple days from now, when all the presents have been opened and everybody's gone home, the enemy is going to come and he's gonna whisper despair and depression and loneliness and darkness, and you gotta tell him where to go.

You gotta tell him where to go.

He already knows where to go, but he's figured you don't know where he's supposed to go.

But now you know where he's supposed to go, so tell him where to go.

Your time is short.

Get out of here.

I'm a bloodwashed saint.

I'm a son of God, I'm a daughter of God.

Get out of here.

You have no place here.

I carry a rod of iron because I have the kingdom, his power, his Strength and his salvation.

And he'll he'll he'll he'll get out of there.

I'll tell you, he will.

He'll leave.

And then thirdly, he says, you overcome the Lamb by not love, listen to this, by not loving your life even unto death.

Now here's the irony.

If you really love your life, don't love your life.

Lose your life.

Don't love your life, lose your life.

You lose your life, you find your life.

Jesus said, for whoever desires to save his life will lose it.

But whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it.

Want to save your life?

Surrender everything to Christ.

You want to be, you want to find joy?

Surrender everything to Christ.

Want a happy marriage?

Surrender your marriage to Christ.

You want a better husband?

Surrender your husband to Christ.

You want a better wife?

Surrender your wife to Christ.

Want better kids?

I love it.

Amen.

Got a lot of bright kids up here.

Man, you better be on your toes.

Better be on your toes around here.

Surrender your family to Christ.

So here this Christmas, warfare Christmas, we've been given a rod of iron.

And the rod of iron is the ruler, Jesus Christ.

And he has given his salvation.

He's given us his strength.

He's given us his love.

He's given us his power, and he's given us his kingdom.

And the extent that we learn to walk in that will be the extent that we can walk in the freedom and the surrendered posture of the love of Christ in our life.