Joseph’s Dream and the Dragon, A Christmas Tale

 

You can watch the video of this message here. 

Introduction

So, this morning and for the next few weeks, we are going to take a break from our intense Matthew series and focus on Christmas. When I was a kid, like all Aussie kids, I loved Christmas. As I got older it kind of lost its specialness for me. Even for some years as a Christian minister I did not have that much fondness for the Christmas holidays because of what it had become in the West.

This is because Christmas has become re-paganized in much of our culture. Many Christians do not prioritize Christmas celebrations at Christmas. In fact, most churches do their Christmas outreaches two or three weeks before Christmas, so that they don’t conflict with people’s Christmas plans. They know that people don’t prioritize the gathering at Christmas, even though Christmas means: gathering to celebrate Christ, Christ’s Mass. Many people now work on Christmas day because so many restaurants are open now, that for many people it’s just an opportunity for overtime pay. Too many families go into debt at Christmas and spend the months of January and February paying off that debt. And in many other ways Christmas has been reclaimed by the world and Christians have, in my view capitulated to that a bit. Because of this I lost a lot of my love for Christmas.

But several years ago this all started to change for me. Kirrily and I were in France for a mission trip and we went along to this choir practice for a Christmas carol event. The missionaries we were working with were helping the people practice. These French people, and if you know the French you know this is a big deal, were singing these traditional English Christmas carols in English. I asked why they did this? The missionary said, “Because the ancient connection of these songs to their culture, means so much to them.” Guess what, many of these choir singers were atheists. But here they were in a church, learning to sing about Jesus on Christmas. I thought, wow. That’s cool. This was 12 years ago, and this stuck with me, and I began to realize over the next few years what an incredible gift Christmas was to the West and what we had lost by giving in to the culture.  

Christmas is not a mandated festival in the New Testament. That is not how it became important. Christmas became so important in the West, because the Church went out of its way to set aside December 24^th and 25^th to remember the birth of our Lord. Because Christians were so dedicated to this, Christmas ended up eventually becoming a national holiday around Christendom. I came to realize that one of the reasons we are losing this in the West is because, we, the Church have forgotten to carry on this tradition with the same heart and passion as our ancestors.

The Bible does not say we must hold any day to be special. We can see them as all alike. But it also says that we are free to hold some as uniquely special. And this heart’s desire to do this, helped changed the West. I came to realize that I wanted to be a part of carrying that on in my generation. I have found my love for Christmas as a celebration of Christ has been increasingly renewed in doing this. Christmas is important. Because of this we are going to focus on Christmas over the next few weeks and see how the scriptures can inspire us about this glorious celebration.  

Instead of our Matthew series this morning we are going to begin with Joseph’s dream in Genesis 37 and then talk about women in the sky, dragons, and angels fighting and slaying fallen angels. We are going to talk about the Christmas story from the perspective of Revelation 12.

Being a book filled with symbolism there are different ways to interpret many passages in Revelation, but I think chapter 12 is a very clear Christmas message when you read it in light of the Biblical passages it is referencing. You might have a different interpretations of this chapter, that is fine. But this morning I want to show you that John is talking about the Christmas story and its impact on the world. So, our sermon this morning is called: Joseph’s Dream, and the Dragon, A Christmas Tale.

This is a famous passage and it gives us an awesome window into God’s plan, but first let’s read Joseph’s dream,

Genesis 37:9-11 –

“9 Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 10 But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?” 11 And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.”

This is a famous and powerful dream, but you may be wondering, how on earth does this relate to Revelation 12, the dragon and Christmas? Well, we shall see that in a moment, but first, we need to understand the purpose of apocalyptic literature, which is what Revelation is:

The Purpose of Apocalyptic Literature (Daniel 10: 1-14) – When people hear the word ‘apocalypse’ they think of the ‘end times’. But that is not what the word means, it simply means ‘revelation’, in the sense of to ‘pull back the curtains’ (like at a car show) or to lift the lid on something. In fact, the correct title of the book of Revelation is: the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ.

The book is not first and foremost about the end times, though it does talk about that in parts. It is primarily about Jesus, and therefore its primary purpose is to reveal to us more about Jesus Christ and his glory with an increased emphasis on his divinity and glory. That glory will be fully revealed on the final day when Jesus returns.  

The apocalyptic literature in the Bible, which is filled with visions, is not just about prophesying the future. It includes prophecy, and a lot of apocalyptic literature does predict the future, but its primary purpose is this: to give us insight into the supernatural world, and into God’s plans and purposes.

We know the supernatural world is real, and we know God’s purposes are real, but we can’t see either of these things unless they are revealed to us by him. This is what apocalyptic literature does. It gives us a window into the supernatural world, and often, it is showing us what was happening in the Spiritual world when things were happening on earth.

Angels and demons are fighting around us, and grand battles are happening in the heavenly realm, as we speak. There are many examples of this in the Bible, Revelation 12 is one, but let me give you another one just before we get to that.

The Apocalypse of Daniel (Dan. 10:1-14) –

“10 In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a word was revealed to Daniel, who was named Belteshazzar. And the word was true, and it was a great conflict. And he understood the word and had understanding of the vision. 2 In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks. 3 I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full three weeks. 4 On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river (that is, the Tigris) 5 I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. 6 His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude. 7 And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great trembling fell upon them, and they fled to hide themselves. 8 So I was left alone and saw this great vision, and no strength was left in me. My radiant appearance was fearfully changed, and I retained no strength. 9 Then I heard the sound of his words, and as I heard the sound of his words, I fell on my face in deep sleep with my face to the ground. 10 And behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. 11 And he said to me, “O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you.” And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling. 12 Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. 13 The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia, 14 and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come.”

I just share this to make a couple of points:

1) This vision is an ‘apocalypse’, the word ‘revealed’ in the Greek Old Testament is the same word translated ‘apocalypse’ in Rev. 1:1.

2) What is this vision revealing? It is revealing a battle in the supernatural realm that has been happening since Daniel began to pray (v.13). How cool is this? Pretty epic.

There are other really cool examples of this in 1 Kings 22, 2 Kings 6. And of course, many of the visions in Revelation do the same thing: they give us an insight into the spiritual battle that is happening, when events are happening on earth.

Revelation is not all future (Revelation 1:19) – It is also important to understand that not all of Revelation is future, “19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;” (KJV). Revelation does not just deal with the future end times, but gives us an insight into things past, present and future. In fact, the book is not linear, like say the gospel of Matthew is. It is partially linear, and partially jump’s all over the place, like the book of Jeremiah, or the book of Isaiah. If you read Daniel 7 and 8, you will see they are set before the events of Daniel 6 but placed after them in the book.  

This is common in Hebrew writings and it is normal for apocalyptic literature. Because its main purpose is not to tell a story but to reveal to us the things God is doing, that we could not know, unless he told us.

God does this to build our faith in him and strengthen our hope. As one of my friends likes to say, the facts of our situation may look daunting, or impossible to overcome, we may look like we are losing, but if we could see with God’s eyes we would see how we are actually on the winning team.

Passages like Revelation 4-5, 7, 14, and 12, all jump outside of time, to give us an insight into this important truth: in the midst of our battle against evil, God is still redeeming his people, building his church and defeating evil. Let’s now jump into Revelation 12 and look at the Christmas story from a perspective you may not have looked at it before.

The First Noel (Rev. 12:1-6) – John gives us an apocalyptic image of what was happening at the birth of Christ in the supernatural realms –

“12 And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. 4 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. 5 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, 6 and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.” Ok so what is happening here?

The woman? Who is the woman, well Joseph’s dream in Genesis 37:9 helps us work that one out –

“9 Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me. 10 But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?”

Who is Joseph dreaming about? The tribes of Israel, plus his dad, who is Israel, and his mum, who is an Israelite, bowing down to him. So, the imagery of the sun, the moon and the stars represents Israel, that is clear from Genesis 37:9-10. The twelfth star is obviously Joseph.

So, this woman in Revelation 12 has to be either a) faithful Israel, or b) the faithful Israelite woman Mary, because this woman gives birth to the King of kings. In fact, I think it is both faithful Israel, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and I will show you why as we go along.

Who is the dragon? Well verse 9 answers this for us: “9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world…” What is this dragon, the devil, seeking to do?  

“And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it.” The dragon is waiting to destroy the child that the woman gives birth to. In fact, Genesis 3:15 predicted that very situation: “15 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.” The dragon wants to destroy this child who is about to be born, why? Because he knows that this is the ‘he’ who will defeat him. Because of who this child this:

Who is the Child? Verse 5 answers this decisively – “5 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…” Now there is only one child that this can refer to: we have here an Israelite woman, who is giving birth to the King of kings, because he rules all nations, a child who the devil wants to destroy. This can only be one child: Jesus Christ, our Lord.  

And, therefore, this woman is Mary, and we are being given a window into what was happening when Jesus was born, of this faithful Israelite woman. Remember Herod was poised to kill the coming Messiah, and obviously Satan was behind his evil plans. But remember Mary and Joseph got away, and fled to Egypt, as the Angel told them.

The devil was not able to defeat this child, but instead this child grew to be a man who defeated the devil, and then is caught up to God and his throne. And Jesus sits there to this day? No wonder the devil is so angry.  

Why the devil hates Christmas (vv. 7-12) – We also see here why the devil hates Christmas so much. Not only was the devil not able to defeat the child, he was getting his behind handed to him, by the archangel Michael and his army, while Jesus was defeating him on the cross. John gives us an image of this heavenly battle being fought, when Jesus was on the cross, let’s read –

“7 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, 8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. 10 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 have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. 11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. 12 Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

Now you might at first read this, and ask yourself, come on Matt, where does it say that this is happening during the cross? Well, here’s how we know that is the case:

From Genesis 3 we are told that it is the Messiah who will defeat the devil. This passage tells us that after this fight in heaven, Satan is defeated and cast out of heaven. Job 1 and 2, and Zechariah 3 all show us that Satan still had access to heaven in the Old Testament era, to accuse the saints. However, 1 Peter 5:8 shows us that he is now on earth – “Your adversary prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” This fits very well with Revelation 12:12, and we are told this event removed the accuser from heaven.

What happened in between these events? The cross.

John also tells us this: “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come…” When did the salvation of God come? In the ministry of Christ, and it culminated on the cross, when Jesus achieved for us salvation. And it was on the cross that Satan was truly defeated.

Colossian 2:13-15 –

“13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”

Who were the “rulers and authorities” that he put to shame? The ruler of this world, the authorities with the power to accuse us before God, the spiritual enemies of God’s people. It was on the cross that Satan and his angels were defeated.

John states it even more clearly: John 12:31-33 – “31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.”

The cross shook the supernatural world - The cross defeated Satan. John is showing us that when Jesus defeated Satan on earth on the cross, Michael the archangel was pounding him into the pavement in heaven. We know that Jesus’ death shook the spiritual world, look what Matthew 27:51-54 tells us:

“51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 54 When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

Jesus’ death and resurrection shook the heavens, because God’s power in Christ was defeating sin, death, and the devil, and now we can conquer over him by the blood of the lamb because the accuser has been cast down – “11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” Our witness for Jesus helps to defeat the devil.  

The devil tried to stop the birth of Jesus, the first nativity, because it signalled the time for his defeat, and he WAS defeated by the child who was born. Now he roams like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour: “12 Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

The devil is a defeated general waiting for his last stand. The reason there is a war on Christmas, and all things Christian, is because he is seeking to take down as many people with him as possible. He hates hearing Christ proclaimed, so if can make Christmas about anything else, he will try.

Satan’s War (vv.13-17) – We live in the midst of his war, every day –

“13 And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. 15 The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. 16 But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. 17 Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.”

We have here again the imagery of the woman and the dragon seeking to destroy her. There are two ways we can look at this:

1) This is still Mary, who was a faithful Israelite woman, and the dragon pursued her and tried to get her, but she hid in Egypt. The problem with that interpretation is this is happening after his being cast out of heaven, which happens after the cross.

2) So, the other way to take it is this: Satan is coming after faithful or believing Israel, to destroy her, because it was faithful Israel that brought forth the child. Often apocalyptic imagery can have double meanings, as we already talked about, which is why debating it can be so much fun.

We actually know when this happened: when Israel was destroyed by Rome, according to Jesus’ word. Obviously, Satan tried to use this war, and the chaos (which is what waters often symbolize) it caused, to destroy the faithful Israelites. But history tells us that the believing Jews and other Christians listened to Jesus’ words, and fled Judea, when they saw Jerusalem starting to be surrounded by enemies.

So, the devil expelled his fury on the land of God’s people. I recommend you read the Wars of the Jews, his fury was brutal.

But the devil is not finished with his war: Rev 12:17 – “Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.”

Who are the women’s offspring who obey God’s commandments and believe in Jesus? Christians, of course. All who believe in Jesus, whether Jew and Gentile. Satan hates us because we will one day dance on his grave. And he hates Christmas, because that is the day we celebrate his nemesis, our Lord, being born to achieve his victory. It is finished, it is as good as done. The devil is defeated, the rest of history is a mopping up expedition.

Conclusion: Resist the devil, celebrate Christmas – This is why it is so important that we celebrate Christmas, prioritize making it about Jesus, and use it to proclaim the victory of Christ. Because every time we do, we twist the knife in the devil’s heart a little more and we glorify Jesus.  

-        It’s not our job to finish of the devil’s defeat, Jesus has done that. It’s our job just to do our part in spreading God’s kingdom a little more, and when we do this we help conquer him.

-        There will always be a culture war on Christmas, because the devil hates it. We should just be faithful witnesses of Jesus, love people, say Merry Christmas with a smile, and share the message of Jesus as much as we can. And prioritize publicly celebrating Jesus at Christmas, before anything else.

-        We are the champions, my friends, and we’ll keep on fighting to the end, Satan is the loser, we are the winners. We are the champions, because our God has won for us the victory. Enjoy it. Let’s pray.