This is my Christmas sermon. Revelation chapter 12 for a sermon I've entitled, How the Dragon Almost Stole Christmas. Here's what it says. A great sign appeared in the heavens, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and on her head she had a crown of twelve stars. And she was with child, and she cried out, being in labor and in pain, to give birth. Then another sign appeared in the heavens, and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth, he might devour her child. as she gave birth to a son, a male child, who was to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, and her child was caught up to God and to his throne. Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared for her so that there she would be nourished for 1,260 days. Frederick the Great was the king of Prussia in the late 1700s, known mostly for his political and military successes. He was also an interesting character when it came to religion. His father, Frederick Wilhelm I, had been raised as a Calvinist, but he was so tormented by the idea that he might not be among the elect that he insisted that his son never be taught predestination. Well, in spite of that, or perhaps despite his father, the son held those particular beliefs, as well as a few other Calvinistic doctrines. But on the other hand, Frederick the Great had an on-again, off-again friendship with Voltaire, the French atheist whose skeptical views were sweeping Europe at the time. On one occasion, Frederick was talking to one of his pastors in the court, and they were talking about the evidence for the existence of God. And the king said he had heard all kinds of philosophical and logical arguments, but he said, it seems to me if God exists, there should be a simple, obvious evidence for his existence that might be understood by anyone. Can you give me such a proof? His court pastor answered by saying, yes, your majesty, I can give you such a proof for the existence of God. In fact, I can prove his existence with a single word. And what would that word be, Frederick asked? Israel, your majesty, Israel. What the court pastor meant was that apart from the preservation of the Jews by God, it's impossible to explain their continued existence. I mean, if God didn't exist, the Jews would have long ago ceased as a people. I mean, even secular historians think that the two most interesting questions related to the Jews are these. First of all, why is it that Jews have been almost universally hated? And secondly, how have they managed to survive so long despite all the persecution they faced? Now, so the first question, there's a lot of suggestions that are made. Some say, well, anti-Semitism is motivated by sheer envy. In many parts of the world, in particular in Europe, the Jews have been quite successful, especially in the area of commerce and finance. Because Christians in the Middle Ages were not allowed to charge interest on a loan, Jews often filled the roles of bankers and financiers. Meyer Rothschilds was a courtier in Frankfurt. He established a banking business in the 1670s. So successful was he that he managed to put five of his sons at the heads of the great banks of London, Paris, Frankfurt, Vienna, and Naples. On the other hand, many Jews, especially in Russia and Poland, were dirt poor, and they were resented as much as the Rothschilds. Was it because they're outsiders? That false prophet Balaam did give a true prophecy when he said of Israel, from the rocky peaks I see them, from the heights I visit them, I view them. I see a people who live apart, who do not consider themselves one of the nations. Jews have been accused of being culturally standoffish, outsiders in whatever nation they reside. But many Jews over the centuries have tried to assimilate, but even for them, they're never allowed to forget, you're not really one of us. And think about it, the Amish are far more isolated from general culture than the Jews, and yet they're usually viewed with admiration rather than contempt. Is it the charge of deicide? They killed the Son of God? Many Jews are convinced that anti-Semitism finds its roots in the New Testament. But then how do we explain the anti-Semitism that existed before the church? No doubt, many so-called Christians have breathed in the Jew hatred that filled the air of their times and breathed out noxious fumes of disdain for the sons of Jacob. But killing Jews was a sport long before Jesus ever arrived. Opined one writer, he said this, Every other group is hated for relatively defined reasons. We Jews, however, are hated in paradoxes. Jews are hated for being lazy and an inferior race, but also for dominating the economy and taking over the world. We're hated for stubbornly maintaining our separateness, and when we do assimilate, for posing a threat to the racial purity through intermarriage. We are seen as pacifists and warmongers, as capitalist exploiters and revolutionary communists, possessed of a chosen people mentality, as well as an inferiority complex. It seems that we just cannot win. Why are they so hated? And being hated and persecuted, how have the Jews survived for millennia? That's what this chapter about the woman and the dragon and the child is about. And so to help you understand this age old conflict from a biblical perspective, we want to look at this part of chapter 12 of the book of Revelation to see God's plan and Satan's opposition to it and how it will all work out in the end. And then we want to learn something about God's faithfulness not only to his ancient covenant people, but to us as believers today as well. So let's pray and get into the text. Father God, I pray for grace and mercy as we look at this. Open up our heart and our mind to see how the dragon was not able to steal Christmas. So bless us to that end for we're asking Jesus' name. Amen. Well, the text breaks down into three parts. The first is simply the woman. That's one and two. Next we see the dragon. That's three and four. And finally, the child. And that's five and six. The woman. Pretty woman, walking down the street. Pretty woman, the kind I'd like to meet. Pretty woman, I don't believe you. You're not the truth. No one could look so good as you. Mercy. You know, there's four women in the book of Revelation. Two are hideous and two are beautiful. The hideous ones, Well, one was a woman in the church of Sophiatira, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. And she teaches and leads my bond servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent and she does not want to repent of her immorality. Behold, I'll throw her on a bed of sickness and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation unless they repent of her deeds. and I will kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and the hearts, and I give to each one according to his deeds." That hideous woman was a real one. The other repulsive woman is symbolic. She's found in chapter 17. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke to me saying, come here and I will show you the judgment on the great harlot who sits on many waters. whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality with, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immoralities. And he carried me away in the spirit to the wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones, pearls, having in her hand a cup full of abominations and unclean things and of her immorality. And on her forehead a name was written, which is a mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abomination of the earth. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus." Now in contrast to these two, there's two beautiful women. One's in chapter 19. We read this, It's a church who's represented as the bride of Christ in fine white linen, in contrast to this whore of Babylon who's drunk with the blood of the saints. But what of the other beautiful woman? She's described here in the first two verses. A great sign appeared in the heavens. A woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and her head was crowned with twelve stars, and she was with child, and she cried out, being in labor and in pain, to give birth. You know, the commentators of Revelation always have to ask this question, should we take these verses literally or symbolically? Well, the Holy Spirit makes it easier here. He tells us that it's a symbol, a sign in the heavens. But the question that we have to ask is, who does this represent? Well, the way we answer that has a significance to the way we interpret much of the Old Testament. Well, what are those answers that someone has suggested? One, it seems obvious, would be Mary. That's what the Catholic scholars say. To them it seems rather obvious. If Jesus is the child, as almost everyone agrees, then obviously Mary would be the woman who gave birth to him. The problem with this interpretation is, though, it doesn't work when you go through the rest of the verses. When did Mary flee into the wilderness? The Catholic Church teaches that Mary was taken up body and soul to heaven after her life. There's some debate on whether she actually died first or not, but the one who's caught up here into heaven is not the woman, but the child. Second interpretation that's usually given for this is the church, and that's what most commentators say. Believing that God has done with the nation of Israel as a nation, and that all the Old Testament promises have been transferred to the church, this woman would have to be the church. So some go as far as saying, well, the contrast, the Babylonian whore, that actually represents the Jews and Judaism. But here's the problem with that interpretation. Christ brought us the church. The church didn't bring us Christ. When Christ was born into the world, the Church didn't even exist. Paul said that the Church was made up of Jews and Gentiles, both with access to God through Christ, and he said that this was a mystery of Christ, which in other generations had not been made known to the sons of men, which has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit. The Church began on the day of Pentecost with the pouring out of the Spirit upon all God's people. That is the sign of the new covenant. God still relates to Israel under the Old Covenant, which means that they are still under a curse, the curse of Moses, because he said, Now in the New Covenant, the Spirit replaces the law so that now the law is internal, written on our hearts, rather than external, on stone. So now God not only bids us to fly, but he gives us the wings. Now, all this is to say that the woman cannot be the church. It's not a chicken or egg thing. It's hard to know which came first, but in this case, it was the church, not the church that birthed Christ, but it was Christ, in a sense, who birthed the church. Well, then who is it? Well, I would argue that it's Israel. It's through that nation that the Messiah came, and that's why Jesus told the Samaritans, the woman, that salvation is from the Jews. All of the church, or all of Israel's history was moving towards that day. As Paul said in Galatians 3, 4-5, he said, Now I think the woman represents Israel is borne out by the description of her. Notice what it says, that she's clothed with the sun, and the moon is under her feet, and on her head there are 12 stars. Can you think of an Old Testament story that someone saw a person with 12 stars around him? of a young Joseph. After having a dream where he saw his brother's sheaves bow down to his, which they correctly interpreted and understood that it meant that someday they'd be bowing to him, he said, I have another dream. Listen. He said, behold, the sun and the moon and 11 stars were bowing down to me. He related it to his father and his brothers, and his father rebuked him and said to him, what is this dream that you've had? Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come and bow ourselves down before you to the ground? Brothers were jealous, but his father kept these things in mind. So it seems pretty clear to me that we should take this woman as representing the nation of Israel. And by the way, the image of Israel as a woman in labor pains, hoping to bring forth the messianic age is one that's used a number of times in the Old Testament. In Isaiah 26, Starting with verse 16, looking back on their experience after Israel's final redemption, the prophet speaks of Israel's travail. He says this, "'O Lord, they sought you in their distress. They could only whisper a prayer. Your chastening was upon them. As a pregnant woman approaches the time of her birth, she writhes and cries out in her labor. Thus we were before you, O Lord. We were pregnant. We writhed in labor. We gave birth, it seems, only to the wind. We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth, nor were the inhabitants of the world born." That brings us to the second thing we see in the text, so the dragon. Now obviously, I've never given birth. But I've been there on four occasions when my wife did. And as an observer, I think I can sum it up with this. It's looked and sounded like it was kind of painful. And it must be memorable for the women who go through it because almost all women can rehearse the event and the time and how long they were in labor for each pregnancy and the delivery. But are there any ladies here who were in labor for 1,500 years? I don't think so. That's how long the labor pains lasted for Israel waiting to bring forth the Messiah. And rather than a doctor and a mask and a gown waiting to catch the baby, this woman has a dragon waiting to devour her child. Look what it says. Then another sign appeared in the heaven. And behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth, he might devour the child. You know, there's many images and legends of dragons found around the world. Some of the artwork looks very similar to others. Some of it looks very similar to models of dinosaurs reconstructed from their fossilized bones. Cassio Dio, the Roman historian, records an incident. He said this. One day when Regulus, a Roman consul, was fighting against Carthage, a dragon suddenly crept in and settled behind the wall of the Roman army. The Romans killed it by order of Regulus, skinned it, and sent the hide to the Roman Senate. When the dragon's hide was measured by order of the Senate, it happened to be amazingly 125 feet long, and its thickness was fitting to its length. Now, the other thing that's interesting about dragons is they're often connected with the underworld. In some cultures, they're worshipped along with snakes. In the Book of Job, God speaks of Leviathan, which seems to be a fire-breathing sort of reptile who lives in the sea. God speaks of him not as a mythical, but as a real creature. And of course, we know that no creature can breathe out fire, because that'd be as ridiculous as the idea of some kind of fish giving an electrical charge that's in the water. It's just nonsense, right? Well, here the dragon is symbolic. We're told that it's another sign that appears in the heaven. A few verses later, John makes clear that Satan is the one being symbolized here. Now, the seven heads and the ten horns has to do with the empires that will exist at the last time. But one of the things that teaches us is that Satan works through political powers in the world. That's not hard to believe today, is it? And as for his tail, which swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to earth, that seems to refer to the angels that Lucifer took with him when he rebelled against God. But the important point here is that he's looking to destroy this child as soon as he's born. Now, how long has Satan been waiting to devour this child? Well, here, the woman's child, he tried to destroy that one even as far back as the Garden of Eden. Do you remember when the curse was placed upon the serpent? So the Lord said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock and wild animals. You will crawl on your belly, you will eat dust all the days of your life. 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. Listen, Satan understood the promise of a Redeemer who would come from a seed of the woman. he would someday bring about the doom and destruction of Satan. And since the devil first heard this announcement, he's done everything in his power to keep that promise from being fulfilled. How quickly did he go to work? We see that in his scheming in the next couple chapters. First, he caused Cain to rise up and kill Abel. Perhaps one of these two is the promised seed. If Cain kills Abel, Abel won't be the deliverer, and Cain, as a murderer, can't be the deliverer. Then when the Lord began to develop the godly line of Seth, Satan thought to pollute the race by making human-demon crossbreeds. It almost worked. Eight people only survived the flood. And later on, when it became clear that the promised seed would come through a descendant of Jacob, the devil introduced Pharaoh to murder the baby boys by feeding them to the crocodiles in the Nile. Do you know what Ezekiel 29.3 calls Pharaoh? A dragon. How many times did Satan inspire Saul to try to kill David? Wipe out David before his promised child comes, and salvation's promise ends. Or what about Athaliah, who murdered all of her grandsons who were in David's line with the hope that she would remain queen? Only one of them survived, Joash, who was rescued by his aunt. If that child would have died, none of us could have been saved. What of Haman in the book of Esther, who tried to rid the world of the Jews? God thwarted his plan so that he ended up hung on the same gallows he constructed for Mordecai. What of Antiochus Epiphany? He attempted to destroy the Jews, as was prophesied by Daniel. And what happened when the Messiah finally did arrive? Who put it in the heart of Herod to try to murder this born child, king of the Jews? By the way, have you ever noticed how many times God's people have to flee? Moses from Pharaoh, David from Saul, Elijah from Jezebel, Joseph and Mary from Herod, and Paul from everybody. But here's the interesting question. If the Messiah has already come, and Satan was unable to thwart his mission, why does antisemitism still continue? I mean, the majority of the Jews today emphatically reject Jesus as their Messiah, and in doing so, aren't they on the devil's side? then why does he still have such a hatred for them? Why the Inquisition in Spain, the expulsion from England, the pogroms in Russia, the Holocaust in Germany? Why the growing Islamic threat against Israel and the increasing hatred of the Jews in modern times? There was just a recent attack in Brisbane, in Australia, where they murdered a bunch of Jews on Hanukkah. One half of all the United Nations resolutions have been against Israel. Just about the only thing the United States is united on is condemning Israel. Let me give you a couple quotes from Hitler, which I think bring out a perspective on this. Here's what he said. The Ten Commandments have lost their validity. Conscious is a Jewish invention, a blemish, like circumcision. Or this one. The heaviest blow which ever struck humanity was Christianity. Bolshevism is Christianity's illegitimate child. Both are inventions of the Jews. Or this one. Do you not appreciate the depth of the National Socialist Movement? Can there be anything greater or more all-encompassing? Those who see National Socialism as nothing more than a political movement know scarcely anything of it. It's more even than a religion. It will create mankind anew. Listen, Hitler hated the Jews because of what they brought to the world. First of all, the transcendent moral code, meaning a standard of objective moral values which everyone is held accountable to, including Nazis. And the second is Christianity, which he called the heaviest blow ever to strike humanity. He hated the Jews because it gave us God's law and it gave us God's Messiah. Now, in expressing his deep hatred, he was simply venting the venom that Satan, his master, had. All anti-Semitism, whether from the Nazis or the KKK or the Muslims or on college students, is satanically inspired. The devil and his followers hate the chosen people because the devil hates the God who chose them. That brings us to our last point, though, the child. This is five to six. Now, I would imagine that almost all mothers, as they hold their newborn babies, have great hopes for what their child will grow up to be. When I was just a little girl, I asked my mother, what will I be? Will I be pretty? Will I be rich? Here's what she said to me. Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be. The future's not ours to see. Que sera, sera. Doris Day's mother might not have known what she would be, but Mary knew what her son would grow up to be. It says in Luke 1, 30 to 33, the angel told her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you've found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will give him the name Jesus. He will be great and be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and ever, and his kingdom will have no end." Simeon. knew what this promised child would be. We're told that he took the child in his arms and blessed him and said, Now Lord, you're releasing your bondservant to depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the presence of all people, a light of revelation for the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. Now the intent of the dragon was to devour the woman's child as soon as it was born, but that would not be the case because look what it says, It's talking about Jesus' resurrection and his ascension. Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared for her so that she would be nourished for 1,260 days." Now notice the destiny of the one whom the Magi sought out as he who was born King of the Jews. He will reign with a much more extensive boundaries than over Israel. Indeed, he's going to reign over the entire earth. All the nations will be his. Do you recall what Satan did in the temptation? It says he led them up and showed them all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. I believe that wasn't just the kingdoms at that time, but probably all the kingdoms through all time. And the devil said to him, I will give you this domain and its glory, for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you worship before me, it shall be yours. Jesus answered and said, it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Satan knew the promise of Psalm 2, that someday the Son would have the nations as in his inheritance. What the devil was doing was showing Christ the panoramic view of all the nations and the treasures that it has, suggesting that he could bypass the cross if he just genuflect once. Would he receive the kingdoms after he worshipped Satan? Even if he did, he would have lost our souls. But Christ knew what had to happen to forgive your sins and mine, and to purchase our salvation. He had to go to the cross. An emblem of suffering and shame. Listen to the words of Leon Tucker on this. He says, Then the man-child, the woman's seed, went to the cross. But this cross was not only his death, but his cross was the death of death. He, like David, who used the sword of Goliath with which to slay Goliath, took death, the weapon of Satan, and destroyed him who had the power of death. Praise God. Then they sealed him in a tomb. But what are tombs to the triumphant one? What is an underground prison of the dead to the one who holds the keys to death? Death could not hold him. The grave was not a victor, but he was a victor over the grave. He came up from the grave in his resurrection and went to heaven in his ascension. He was caught up to the throne of God. A great company saw him go. He was taken up, 500 saw him go. He went to the throne of God. The dragon did not devour him. He ever liveth and is at the right hand of the majesty on high. The woman's man-child is safe, and the universe is safe in his sovereign keeping." And then he adds this. But does this bring the conflict of the ages to an end? By no means. For now, at the end of the age, the conflict will be renewed with the wrath of the dragon, knowing he has but a short time left. The man-child will soon take up his kingdom and reign. It's after he's thrown down to the earth that the dragon seeks all the more and earnestly to destroy the woman that is the nation of Israel. Intense persecution of the Jews will come in the last days by the Antichrist, but for at least a portion of that nation, they will flee into the wilderness where they have had a place prepared for them by God, and she will be nourished for 1,260 days. What should we take away from this in closing thoughts? I'll give you several of them. Here's the first one. Some thoughts concerning the place of Israel in the plan of God. Listen carefully. The locomotive that pulls the glory train we call salvation is Jesus Christ. But the track on which it travels is the history of Israel. Israel is not just simply the first stage of a rocket that broke off and burned out after the Messiah arrived. Rather, not only God's work in the Old Testament, but also in the New Testament is bound up with that nation. Jesus was and always will remain a Jew. The apostles were Jews. According to the apostle Paul in Romans chapter 11, salvation came to us Gentiles because the Jews rejected it. And according to that same apostle, God's focus will return to Israel once the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. The Church and Israel are not the same entity, but they are intimately connected and their destinies are intertwined. Here's the second thing that we have to say concerning the importance of God fulfilling his promises to that nation. You know, one of the most tender and comforting promises to Christians found anywhere in the Bible is in Romans chapter 8. When Paul asked this question, what shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who's the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died rather was raised and is at the right hand of God who intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ which is the love of Christ? tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, just as it's written, for your sake we're being put to death all day long, we're considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things we are overwhelmingly conquerors through him who loved us. For I'm convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. But have you ever wondered why it is The next thing that Paul turns to after this exaltation and praise of our internal security is to ask whether God's word of promise to Israel has failed. Why does he do that? Listen carefully. If God fails to keep his promises to the nation of Israel, there's no reason you should trust that he'll keep his promises to you. Some argue that Christ is the seed to whom all the promises of Israel have actually been made. Yes, that's true. But does that rule out special blessings for the Israelites as Israelites? Listen to what Isaiah 2-4 says. In that day, the branch of the Lord will be beautiful. Who's the branch of the Lord? It's Jesus. And the fruit of the earth, listen to this, the fruit of the earth will be the pride and adornment of the survivors of Israel. The fruit of the earth means those who are saved. It will come about that he who's left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy. Everyone who's recorded for life in Jerusalem. When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughter of Zion and purged the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning. Just as Jesus told his disciples, Abide in me, and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He abides in me, he bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. Cannot we expect that when Israel is finally redeemed and connected to their branch, that they will finally produce fruit? In Isaiah, the fruit of the earth is the conversion of the nations. It's through a redeemed Israel in the millennium that God converts the world. Here's the last thing I have to say, though, concerning our confidence that he will fulfill his plans and keep his promises for us. We can be confident that Christ, in Christ, all the promises of God are yes and amen, because they will be for Israel as well. No man, No dragon can keep God from fulfilling His plan through His Son, Jesus Christ. And if that's the case, you should bank everything you have on those promises. Look forward to that day and long for the coming of His Kingdom. because it's going to be glorious, and you'll want to be there. Let's pray. Father God, I thank you for the grace and mercy. I thank you for the fact that you keep all your promises, including to your ancient covenant people. Now we know at this point they oppose the gospel. Paul says that they're enemies of the gospel. But we also know, he told us, that they're beloved for the sake of the fathers, because you intend to save them yet. And that's what Romans 9 to 11 lays out. In the meantime, Lord, we want to pray for the nation of Israel. We want to pray for those Jewish people who are there who have not received Jesus as their Messiah, and for the ones who already have. And I thank you that the church is growing in that land. But Father and God, it's not only growing there, it's growing throughout the world. And we can trust that you're going to call in all the elect. So help us to put all our faith and confidence in your Son and in your eternal plan that you are revealing even before our eyes. So bless us to that end. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.