The Night A Dragon Tried to Eat a Baby

There's a lot going on in the life of Redeemer Church today.

There's more to come, even when we hit our last liturgical note with the benediction, and so I've been asked to preach a little shorter.

Good luck with that, just kidding.

But if I were to summarize my sermon today, I could do it really quick and we could be done.

I could say something like this.

I could say Jesus has won, jesus is winning, jesus will win forever.

Merry Christmas.

Jesus has won, jesus is winning, and Jesus will win forever.

In essence, forever.

In essence.

That is a summary of the first and second advent of Christ.

There's a beautiful Caribbean hymn that I was listening to this morning on repeat.

That I learned from a church in Nassau, bahamas.

It's called Jesus is the Winner man.

I love it.

That's really the story of Christmas.

The world is dark, sin is great, the curse is real, brokenness is broken, but Jesus came to win and win he has.

Would you take your Bible and go to Revelation, chapter 12?

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

Who doesn't like watching the quote-unquote good guy deliver an epic and decisive throwdown of the quote-unquote bad guy?

We love to watch good prevail over evil.

This started for me as a kid watching Saturday morning cartoons.

I mean, I still remember watching every single episode of Masters of the Universe and just finding great delight in witnessing He-Man at the end of every episode throw down Skeletor.

Or GI Joe defeating Cobra, or Optimus Prime leading the Autobots defeating Megatron and the Decepticons.

Anybody watch those cartoons too.

Okay, thank you very much.

But then I got a little older and I got into junior high and it went from Saturday morning cartoons to primetime and I was a huge fan of the A-team.

I mean, if you had a problem and you could find them, you better call the A-team Right.

I mean, I loved watching this.

It was predictable.

You could have written the script yourself, but every single episode the A-team overtakes the small-town crooks and then Hannibal would do that light, that victory cigar and say I love it when a plan comes together.

But then I got into high school and then I realized that there were actually real, real, important battles between good and evil, like the Eagles versus the Cowboys.

I mean, think about your favorite stories.

Think about your favorite movies the Jedi defeating the dark side, rocky taking it to Ivan Drago, harry Potter overcoming Voldemort, maximus defeating Commodus.

I saw Gladiator 2.

It was awesome.

Frodo and Sam throwing down Sauron and the powers of Mordor.

Story after story, movie after movie, show after show, sports season after sports season.

We see it, we love it.

It's even in music too Kendrick Lamar versus Drake, taylor Swift versus Kanye.

I mean there's epic battles everywhere and everyone wants the person that they perceive to be the good guy to win.

There are a few things riveting to the human soul, like watching the good guys deliver an epic and decisive throwdown of the bad guys.

And all of this, all of these examples, are shadows of the real battles of good and evil, light and darkness, right and wrong, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world.

I mean there's real evil in this world Evil people, evil agendas, evil forces, evil regimes.

I mean there are dark spaces in this world where blood-curdling, evil acts of violence are performed against human beings made in the image of God.

Day after day there's murder and greed and injustice and oppression and trafficking and terrorism and exploitation, and on and oppression and trafficking and terrorism and exploitation, and on and on.

It goes.

And people like us, although we can be misguided at times in discerning what is good and what is evil, we are relieved and we rejoice when someone steps in, brings justice to the oppressors, pushes back the darkness and cares for those who are afflicted by evil.

We love it, we crave it, we need it.

Did you know that there's a nativity scene in the book of Revelation that makes this cosmic battle of good and evil the focal point of Advent?

Battle of good and evil, the focal point of Advent?

A nativity scene that doesn't mention the shepherds and sheep, a nativity scene that doesn't mention the wise men bringing gifts from afar.

A nativity scene that doesn't even mention the angelic hosts singing glory to God in the highest.

This nativity scene paints a picture from heaven's perspective, from a heavenly vantage point, and lets us know that on the night that Jesus was born, there was behind the scenes, unseen by the human eye, an enemy lurking in the shadows.

And with that in view, I direct your attention now to Revelation 12, 1 through 5.

Let us hear God's word giving birth.

And another sign appeared in heaven.

Behold a great red dragon with seven heads and 10 horns on his head and 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.

Yes, you heard that right On Christmas night there was a dragon lurking to devour baby Jesus.

How many of you have a nativity set in your home?

Or some little Christmas decoration set in your home?

Or some little Christmas decoration how many of you have, along with Jesus and Mary and Joseph and the sheep and the shepherds, a dragon?

Well, he was there.

He was there.

I think, based upon this nativity scene in the book of Revelation, we may need to add a few stanzas to some of our beloved Christmas carols, like silent night, holy night, a dragon waits to take a bite.

Hark, the herald angels sing, a dragon lurks to eat our king.

Or how about?

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed, the dragon is waiting to chomp on his head.

Manger, no crib for a bed, the dragon is waiting to chomp on his head.

In the book of Revelation, john gives us a view of the nativity scene from the perspective of the unseen, spiritual realm.

There is a war.

There is a war between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness, and it did not take a break in the mid-bleak winter.

In fact, that great dragon, who is referred to as the ancient serpent, devil and Satan, down in verse 9, which we didn't read and I didn't read all of it because there's so much in there that would just pique our curiosity and I'm supposed to preach a short sermon today.

In there, that would just pique our curiosity and I'm supposed to preach a short sermon today.

But down in verse 9, this great red dragon is the old serpent from Genesis, chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

This great dragon is called the devil, the Satan, and right here on Christmas night he is seeking to end the war before Jesus could do what he was sent by the Father to do and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Now, there's so much that could be said and unpacked from these riveting paragraphs in Revelation 12, but here's the simple yet profound meditation I want to offer to you this morning on this third Sunday of Advent.

On this third Sunday of Advent, with the first Advent of Christ, jesus enters human history to begin his epic defeat of the greatest enemy of the human soul.

This Advent, I want to encourage us to rejoice and be relieved that Jesus was born to defeat our greatest enemy and invites us to live a life of victory in him.

That's the big idea this morning.

Let's rejoice and be relieved that Jesus was born to defeat our greatest enemy and invites us to live a life of victory in him.

When Jesus wins, his people win, and so it's time for the church to stop living like we're losers in a broken world and embrace the reality that in Christ, the winner man, he will always win, he will keep on winning and in him we will win forever.

And in him we will win forever.

Author Philip Yancey, who I honestly don't quote that much, has an amazing insight into this whole reality.

He says, from God's viewpoint and Satan's, christmas signals far more than the birth of a baby.

I love this.

It was an invasion, the decisive advance in the great struggle for the cosmos.

Jesus was sent.

Jesus was sent to save the world.

Jesus was sent to rescue a cursed and broken and fallen humanity.

There's something wrong in the world, right, and the good news of Christmas, the good news of the gospel, is that Jesus was sent to rescue it Not just the people, but the place.

He's going to make it all new and he's done what was necessary to do it, to do it.

And Christmas is about seeing that victory, seeing his win, seeing his rescue, seeing his renewal begin to unfold.

The good news of the gospel is that Jesus has won, jesus is winning and Jesus will win forever.

So Christmas marked not the beginning, the continuation of a war against the greatest enemy of humanity, a cosmic war that I already mentioned, that Jesus would win.

I think it's important to understand how significant this victory was and is.

There's evil in the world, but we understand from scripture and even from this picture of the unseen realm at the nativity of Jesus, that there's an evil.

Behind every evil, there is an enemy above all enemies.

I mean Jesus told us to pray and we pray every Sunday.

Many of us pray every day in our communion with the Lord and deliver us from evil, in fact in our family, as we've prayed that prayer throughout our lives, I understand it to mean the evil one, and so when we pray as a family and sometimes they get a little call off guard when we pray publicly in church, it's because we always pray and deliver us from the evil one.

There can be a preoccupation with the evil one, there can be a preoccupation with spiritual warfare.

But here's reality.

The devil is real, he is against us and we need to pray to be delivered from him.

And his minions and his minions aren't cute and yellow.

He's a roaring lion roaming about seeking whom he may devour.

He is the old serpent who has been deceiving from the beginning.

He's the accuser of the church and the adversary of every single one of our souls.

The devil hates us, is against us and may appear as an angel of light, but he does not want what's best for us.

And what we see playing out in the text I just read is that Jesus, our deliverer, is stepping in the humanity to stop him.

He must be stopped.

He must be defeated.

He must be defeated.

This dragon must be slain.

Actually, this is one of the primary reasons the New Testament communicates why Jesus appeared at his first advent.

I think this should be on the screen.

1 John 3.8.

The Apostle John says it this way the reason Critical word the reason the Son of God appeared or advented, the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

This is the reason.

The devil was at work, the devil was deceiving, the devil was destroying, the devil was disfiguring the beauty of God's created world.

And Jesus says I'm here to stop him.

Furthermore, the very first promise of the gospel and I could do a biblical theology tour, alongside a systematic theology tour, of how this just plays out, both in the storyline of the Bible, its biblical theology, and in the data that the Bible gives us from cover to cover, genesis to Revelation.

But just for this morning, the very first promise of what we call the gospel is found in Genesis, chapter 315.

And look at the way God speaks to the serpent who deceived Adam and Eve, genesis 315.

God says to the serpent I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring.

He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

In other words, in the wake of the devil's deception of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, god looks in the eyes of the serpent and says one day you're going down and I will send my deliverer to do it and he will take his heel and he will crush your head for good.

We could talk like that.

We can stomp heads in the kingdom of God, especially when we're talking about the head of the old serpent.

So in essence, here's what I'm trying to get at here.

Advent, be amazed by this Advent.

The birth of Jesus is declaring he's here.

It's Jesus.

The baby in the manger is the serpent crusher.

The baby in the manger is the dragon slayer.

Jesus is the long-awaited Christ, affirmed by the Father, empowered by the Spirit, who has appeared for this reason to destroy the works of the devil.

I hate the devil, don't you?

Come on, it's a little Pentecostal, baptocostal.

I hate him, he hates us.

He needs to go down.

He hates us.

He needs to go down.

And that's exactly what jesus came to do.

Jesus came to put him down.

Good riddance, devil, you're no match for jesus.

I mean, the dragon couldn't even take out a baby.

How pathetic.

So there's the vision of Revelation 12.

We're seeing this great dragon desperately waiting to devour the one who's destined to defeat him.

The great dragon waits for the dragon slayer to arrive so he can take him out when he's most vulnerable a little baby.

But he waits in vain, right, he waits in vain, just like he waited by the empty tomb in vain.

The Father will protect Jesus.

The Spirit will sustain Jesus, the angels will come alongside him so that he does not dash his foot against the stone.

Jesus is well protected.

He ain't going down, he's going to win.

But it doesn't stop the devil from trying right, he tries.

The devil not only tried taking him out in the cradle, the devil tried taking him out with the decree of Herod, when he made the decree to kill all the children under the age of male, children under the age of twood, when he made the decree to kill all the children under the age of male, children under the age of two in Bethlehem.

Did that work?

No.

The devil tried to take him out in the wilderness temptations.

Did that work?

No.

The devil tried to take him out with his legions of demons during his public ministry.

Did that work?

Some of them knows the right answer the answer is always no.

By the way, I'll keep asking, though.

The devil tried to take him out by turning Jewish religious leaders against him.

Did that work?

The devil tried to take him out.

This is so devious, this is so dastardly.

He takes one of his closest friends and he gets in his heart and he tempts him to betray him.

And Judas sells Jesus out for 30 pieces of silver.

But did that stop him?

The devil tried taking him out by turning the Roman government against him.

That didn't work.

I mean time and time again the devil, that great dragon, that wily serpent, tries to stop the deliverer from delivering.

And every time he tries he fails.

And even when the devil thought he finally had him defeated, when he was nailed to the cross, jesus took those nail-pierced feet.

Jesus took those nail-pierced feet, walked out of that empty tomb and stomped the serpent on his head.

Christ was born for battle and the good news is he's already won the war.

Christ's triumph over the devil began the very night he was born.

It played out in his victory over Satan's temptations in the wilderness.

It proceeded through his incarnational ministry as Jesus taught the truth to combat the devil's lies.

It marched on through his miracles whereby he reversed the damaging effects of sin and death and hell.

And then he sealed the victory on the cross and emerged from the empty tomb as heaven's champion.

And now Jesus is exalted to the highest place of Lord, as Lord of all, and we can't wait for him to come back and keep on winning.

He will make all things new.

Sin will be eradicated from the face of the earth, every tear will be wiped dry, everything broken will be made right, everything crooked will be made straight.

He will come back and he will finish it.

Jesus is a winner, man.

Since the birth of Jesus, the world has been experiencing what I would call the incremental throwdown of the devil in the kingdom of darkness.

And do not be misled the world is dark, the world is broken, the world is under the curse.

But let me tell you this the devil is not winning, he's already defeated.

If you go down further in Revelation 12, in your own reading, be amazed by this.

He is a mortally wounded dragon, you say.

If he's already defeated, why is he still wreaking havoc?

Because he knows, in the text that tells us, that his days are numbered.

And so, as one who is going through the pangs of going down into the lake of fire where he will be tormented forever and ever, he is scratching and clawing and flailing and whipping that tail, taking out as much as he can on the way down, because he knows he is defeated.

He is a deceiver but, on this note, he's not self-deceived.

He knows he lost.

Jesus has won.

Spoiler alert.

Jesus has slain the dragon, he has won the war and we are simply waiting for the end credits.

And you don't have to stick around.

There won't be an end credit scene.

When it's over, it's over, and Jesus will be on top.

So how do we respond to this?

Later on we read, beginning in verse 10 of Revelation 12, 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 has come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down.

I love that the Bible uses throw-down language.

You like that?

Thank you, I do too, notice the plural word here.

And they have conquered him.

Who won Jesus?

If we're in Jesus, we win with him.

We are more than conquerors.

How, through him, who loves us man, this is good stuff.

Jesus wins because we're in him.

We win with him.

I've said this before I like to win.

I love sports and I spent most of my young years doing all that I could to win, whether it be in football or in basketball.

Some of you know this, some of you feel this.

You're a competitor.

No matter how hard you try to win in a game, you will lose some.

And if you happen to be the star player on the team that the other people are counting on and you have a bad game, they lose because you're having a bad game.

But the opposite is true.

In the glory of his heyday, when Michael Jordan was on, it didn't matter who the other four players in the court were.

If he was on, they were winning.

It's that beyond, with Jesus.

He never has an off day, he never doesn't bring all his game.

He always wins.

And because we're on his team, we win too.

And they conquered him by the blood of the lamb verse 11, and by the word of their testimony, for they love, not their own lives unto death.

Therefore, here's what we do, here's how we respond.

Therefore, ready Rejoice.

Rejoice, o heavens and you who dwell in them.

How do we respond to Jesus having won, to Jesus who, at this present moment, is winning, to Jesus, who will win forever, who has conquered and defeated our greatest enemy?

How do we respond to this?

With joy, we rejoice.

We rejoice and we are relieved that Jesus was born to live and die and rise and reign in defeat of our greatest enemy.

And rise and reign in defeat of our greatest enemy.

So, this Advent, even though there are reasons why it might be appropriate to feel like it's a blue Christmas, even though we deal with the ups and downs of life in this broken world, even though there will be people not around the table who were around the table in previous years, either because they've gone to glory or not, or there's been a relational rift where close friends are not close anymore.

Maybe there will be less gifts under the tree, maybe there will be things that just are a little off this Christmas season.

I encourage you.

Although everything is not right in the world and everything might not be right in your life, please be encouraged, rejoice and be relieved.

At the end of the day, your ultimate sorrow has been relieved, jesus.

Jesus was born to defeat our greatest enemy and invite us to live a life of victory in him.

So three thoughts and then we're finished.

I want you to rejoice and be relieved in three ways.

Rejoice and be relieved personally.

The devil may be prowling around like a roaring lion, but he cannot devour you if you were in Christ, and there are many implications of this for you personally as a follower of Jesus.

In 2 Corinthians, chapter 4, it says that the God of this world, which is the devil, has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that they might not see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, that they might not see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

You're not blind anymore.

You can see.

What does this mean?

It means because you have an enlightened mind and open eyes.

You do not have to be duped by the deceptions of the devil.

You don't have to believe lies anymore.

In fact, as your mind is renewed in the Spirit and the Scriptures, you can become discerning.

You can tell the difference between good and evil.

You don't have to do what is right in your own eyes as you're faced with just the milieu of cultural dissonance between the way of God and the way of the world.

You can discern what doesn't jibe with Jesus, because you don't have to be deceived.

You can know what's right.

You can know what's appropriate.

You can know righteousness, you can know the truth and as you grow in Christ, you can learn to sniff out lies, because you're not blind anymore.

The devil can't deceive you.

Don't let him.

You don't have to be.

That's personally Rejoice, be relieved.

But there's more than that.

There's so many applications of this.

Let me give one more that I think is super huge.

One of the greatest paralyzing effects on the soul of a Christian man or woman is the weight of shame.

So often we don't worship with freedom, we don't serve with gladness, we don't live our lives in joyful obedience because we're carrying around with us the shame of our sin that has already been forgiven at the cross.

And one of the things the devil wants to do, as the accuser of the brethren, the adversary of the church, is to get you to live a limp Christian life because you are so weighed down by the false shame and guilt that the devil hurls at you when in reality, there is therefore now no condemnation for you in Christ Jesus.

Oh, we sin, I sin.

I've sinned today.

I will sin later.

Today, I will sin later, and I'm not saying it this emphatically because I'm happy about it.

I will fail, I will sin, but I have a Savior who has forgiven me all of my sins.

And when I bring my sin to Christ, I say I believe you, not the accuser.

Listen, man, it doesn't matter.

And I'm not encouraging you to fail, I'm not encouraging you to sin, I'm not encouraging you to plan out your failures, but when you fail failures, but when you fail, god will not love you any less than if you hadn't failed, and he won't love you any more if you fail less, whether you're having a good day or a bad day.

In Christ, you are completely and perfectly loved, forgiven, accepted, justified, redeemed, reconciled.

And so when you fail, do not let the devil come in and say see, you're worthless, you're useless, you're no good, you're always going to be that way.

You look at him and you take a note from Martin Luther.

Martin Luther who, I think, out of all the figures in church history, helps us the most deal with the assaults that we often experience from the evil, one who said something like this.

So, when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this I admit that I deserve death and hell.

What of it?

For I know one who has suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf.

His name is Jesus Christ, son of God, and where he is there shall I be also Say that It'll help.

So rejoice and be relieved personally.

You don't have to be deceived by the devil.

You don't have to be paralyzed by the devil's false accusations.

Let me transfer this now Rejoice and be relieved collectively.

I'll just make this brief, because Jesus has slain the dragon and won the war.

Here's what he has promised about us as a church.

I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

And I don't say that Not cognizant of the fact that we in particular, as a group of brothers and sisters in Christ who are covenanted together to make much of Jesus, have experienced many ups and downs and difficulties and setbacks.

One step forward, two steps back, as we've sought to make much of Jesus.

Guess what?

That's what happens.

Two steps back, as we've sought to make much of Jesus.

Guess what?

That's what happens.

But it does not in any way, shape or form change the plans of Christ.

He will build his church and when we step back and see what God has done through us Redeemer, jesus will say I've built it, that's exactly what I was planning to do.

So Christ has plans for his church and for his churches that cannot be stopped.

The devil, the gates of hell will not prevail against Christ's commitment to build his church and do exactly what he has planned to do.

Amen, finally, rejoice and be relieved missionally, personally, collectively, missionally, because Jesus has accomplished his mission to save the world, because Jesus has accomplished his plan to overcome death and the devil and sin and hell.

There are people all over Union City and beyond who are ready to come to the church because they're ready to come to Christ.

There are people who are ready to be transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's beloved son.

Here's one thing that we realize when we think about the victory of Jesus the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

There are a lot of people out there, my friends, who are going to be saved.

There are a lot of people out there who are going to come to Jesus and receive his saving grace and come under his saving rule and be a part of the family of God in the church, and so let's go and get them.

Let's have those awkward conversations with people that sometimes feel so forced when we seek to introduce people to Jesus.

Let's invite people to church and expect that, in the corporate worship of the people of God, god is here with us and he will meet with us, and part of what he will do is he will call out to people in their midst to turn from their sins and trust in the Savior.

Maybe that's you this morning.

Maybe you're here this morning and you feel defeated.

Life has not gone according to your plan.

You have experienced, to one degree or another, the harsh realities, the difficult consequences of choices you have made, and maybe it's starting to become clear that the choices that you have made and the way that you have been living, the problem is they're not in submission to the God who created you and sent Jesus to redeem you for his glory.

I can't promise you that you will no longer deal with the consequences of those choices, but I can tell you this you can be delivered today from the guilt of it.

You can escape the judgment that we deserve for it.

Today, if you turn from your sin and trust in Jesus, the dragon slayer, the serpent crusher, the savior of the world, he will forgive your sin, he will begin to heal your heart and you will begin to know what it means to truly thrive and flourish under his leadership in your life.

So maybe you're here today, and that's you.

Come to Jesus, let him rescue you.

He's won the war for you.

And, church, let's remember that there are many out there right now, in this holiday season, feeling the blues of this time, and they do not need to be manipulated.

They need to be encouraged that there's hope in Jesus, and so we share that good news.

Oh, church, let us rejoice and be relieved that Jesus was born to defeat our greatest enemy and invites us to live a life of victory in him.

We are more than conquerors.

Through him, who came down on Christmas because he loves us.

He won the war we could not win, and now we can overcome the daily battles because he's already won the whole war.

So we can say it this way joy to the world.

The Lord has come, the devil is defeated, the dragon is slain, the serpent is crushed, and thanks be to God who gives us the victory in Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Father, thank you for your son, the champion of heaven, your son, the champion of heaven, who is sent to destroy the works of the evil one.

And even though that dragon was lurking on that Christmas night, he could not devour Jesus because he would not have his life taken away from him.

He would lay it down in love for his people, in love for us, so that we could be freed from the dominion of the devil and so that we can live our lives in him, in his victory for the glory of your great and holy name.

Thank you for sending Christ.

May our hearts be moved to this place of just being relieved.

May we be brought to this place of rejoicing that Christ has come and he will certainly come again.

We pray in his name, amen.