Posted: 17th December, 2011

The Ultimate Focus of Christmas

We are about to enter the most stressful week of the year…

The week before Christmas,

where all through the house,

not a creature was peaceful, not even a mouse.

The reason is simple, the reason is clear:

The message of Christ was not anywhere near.

The only thing meaningful was shopping and buying;

Christ was absent, His heart must be sighing…

Christmas has become one of the great stress days of the year. Lost is the coming of the Messiah. Lost is the battle He waged for the souls of mankind. Lost is the great victory His battle has accomplished for the world.

Wait a minute… Battle? Victory? Yes. You see, there is much more to it than simply the birth of Christ, as tremendously important and crucial as that is.

Today, I would like you to pause and see just a bit of what was involved in the coming of Jesus Christ and the associated battle.

To do this, we go (as surprising as it may seem!) to the 12th chapter of the Revelation. Revelation 12 bursts open with “a great sign” appearing in heaven (v1). This is the sign of the woman who gives birth to the child (v2). At the same time, another sign appears in the heavens; but, unlike the sign of the woman, this sign is a horrible sign. It is the sign of the dragon, who is introduced in Revelation 12:3-4: “Then another sign appeared in heaven: An enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads.” We are told unambiguously who this dragon is. He is “that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray” (v9). This is the dragon who is filled with rage and fury, and who “stands before the woman who was about to give birth so that he might devour her child the moment He was born” (v4).

Who is this child whom the dragon is waiting for in fury to destroy? We learn more of who he is: “[the woman] gave birth to a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron” (v5). This child is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. What we are witnessing in the rage of the devil seeking to devour the child is fierce warfare surrounding the coming and birth of this male child. Why this fierce warfare? Simple. Because “the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil” (1John 3:8); and because without this promised Child, the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no deliverance and salvation from hell.

In the birth of Jesus, we have the invasion of God upon this earth. Every aspect of Christ’s life manifested that invasion. There is nothing in His life that escaped warfare. From His birth onward, His life was a life engaged in warfare. There was no escape for Jesus. There was no running away. Jesus Christ was born for war. It waged fiercely from before His birth, continued through His life, and culminated on the cross; for in this war, Christ was born to die.

Jesus’ life was warfare against hell unto death. It is this Jesus who wages war against sin and Satan at every step. It is this Jesus who is driven into the wilderness to fight the devil for forty days and forty nights. It is this Jesus who returns from the wilderness and casts out demons. It is this Jesus who rebukes illness and wickedness. It is this Jesus who confronts the legalism of the Pharisees and rebukes them again and again to their faces. It is this Jesus who calls them whitewashed tombs and hypocrites. It is this Jesus who calls down into the depths of the grave and awakens the dead: “Lazarus come forth.” It is this Jesus who, in His entrance into the realm of the damned, sets the captives free. It is this same Jesus who feels the nails of soldiers smash Him to the cross and hears their sneers and taunts as they watch Him die. But it is also this same Jesus who is raised victorious from the tomb and ascends triumphant into heaven (Revelation 12:5).

Christ came. He lived. He died. He rose again. He conquered. He did this because he loved us, and He did this for His glory.

Friends, this is reality. As the hustle and bustle threatens to overwhelm you, adjust your focus and remember: That little baby in the manger grew up to reveal Himself as the Commander and Chief of the Lord’s armies; the One who would say to Joshua, the commander of Israel, “Take the shoes off your feet, the ground upon which you are standing is holy ground.”