Christmas from Heaven’s Point of View

Christmas Eve, 2008

Revelation 12

Exordium: Here we are looking at Christmas from the other side of the manger, from the perspective of Christ.  How does it look from heaven’s point of view?

Explication: The Bible contains two passages that help us here:
Hebrews 10: 5-10 tells of the attitude with which Jesus entered the world, attitudes of submission and obedience to the Father. Jesus said, “Lo, come to do your will.”
In Revelation chapter 12, He unfolds to John the spiritual side of the struggle that culminated in the birth of our Lord. It will help us to look at Christmas from their perspectives to understand all that is involved in this wondrous night –Christmas Eve.
We focus on Revelation 12 now and Hebrews 10 later.

I.    WE LEARN ABOUT THE GREAT STRUGGLE

The woman is one side of the conflict. The woman is the Church in the Old Testament and the New. She is the people of God. From Heaven’s point of view she is radiant with beauty, fair and lovely as a bride. She is clothed with the sun, the moon is under her feet, and she wears a garland of twelve stars. Could this be the ecliptic, that group of constellations that encircle the heavens and comprise the zodiac? At any rate, Her essential beauty is seen here.

How different is our view. We see the problems, the divisions, the wounds of the Church of God, but God sees her beauty as a bride adorned for her husband.

And the woman is with child, just as Virgo in the constellation is pregnant. The child is about to be born. It is Christmas Eve; this is the Christ-Child.

The dragon is her antagonist, her mortal enemy.  He is ferocious, fiery and red. His seven heads point to his great knowledge. His ten horns speak of his great power.  His seven crowns tell us of his thirst for authority. This is Satan the great deceiver, the father of lies, that old serpent. He stands before the woman to devour the child as soon as he is born.

Here is the great struggle- It goes all the way back to the creation. After Adam and Eve’s fall God put a curse on the serpent saying.  “I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. And he shall bruise our head, and you will bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)