Like this:

Christmas as we are used to it Many families around the United States and around the world have the tradition of reading the Christmas story aloud to all of their children. Many families will sit in a home next to a fire place, with beautiful lights adorning a magnificent tree in the corner and they will, together, remember the story of the birth of Christ as a family. This is, actually, a very Jewish thing to do…very biblical. More times than not these sorts of customs –the Christmas cantatas, concerts, family readings –focus on the Christmas stories that we find in the three Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. These are the accounts of Christmas that our children act out in plays, that our choirs sing of on the Sundays leading up to Christmas, which Christmas songs speak of, and that decorations and traditions all call to memory. The Christmas story, as we are used to it in the Bible, is a very peaceful time with exotic visitors, angels singing in joy, and cute animals hovering over a sweet little infant who just happens to be God. It’s quaint, very memorable, and a wonderful moment that we find so much peace and calm in. God came so quietly and humbly into His creation, into our world, and we remember and love the story of it.

However, what if I told you that there was another Christmas story in the Bible, one that addressed things about Christmas that we often over look? What if I told you that there were not just the three accounts of Christmas that we get from the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. What if I told you that there was a fourth account of Christmas in the Bible –one that we are either unaware of or one that we don’t speak of, perhaps because of a lack of understanding? This forth account is an account that is much darker and more dangerous than the polite ones found in the Gospels. An account that whispers of angels and demons, wars, of humanity being confronted with the utmost evil. It is a story about a child that is threatened by a great red dragon; it is a story about the return of a king. What would you say to that? It sounds more like a C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tokien fantasy story than a Biblical narrative. The truth is that there is a fourth account of what took place at Christmas time in our Bible; but it is an account of what took place on a realm that is nearly always unseen to human eye and often forgotten. It is the account of Christmas that John of Patmos had revealed to him and that he recorded in the often misunderstood and avoided final book of the Bible –the Book of the Revelation of John; and it reveals to us the true nature of Christmas and the true nature of what God accomplished with the coming of Christ.

Prayer

When you think of ancient Israel, what type of governmental or ruling structure do you think of? Generally we think of a Kingdom or a Monarchy, and rightfully so. We think of King David, or Saul, or Solomon. We think of a man who rules over the country from throne, just like any monarchy. But it wasn’t always so. Israel as a Monarchy, with a man as King, was actually a relatively late development in nation’s life. In fact, the Old Testament indicate that God never really intended for Israel to be ruled by a man as a King. He foresaw it, I believe; but He did not want it to be that way.

If you think back to the first ruler that the nation of Israel really had, when it was a large group of people and not just a small family, it was who? Moses. Moses was really the first major leader of Israel. It was Moses that delivered the Israelites out of Egypt and to the very edge of the promise land. After Moses, Joshua took over the reigns of Israel, and led them on military conquests to eradicate their enemies in the promise, one of which you will remember was Jericho –where he led the Israelites in marching around the city blowing their horns and trumpets until the walls came tumbling down! After Joshua came what is called the Age of the Judges. The judges were individuals that God rose up during times of national crisis, when the whole of Israel, or one of her individual tribes were threatened from outside forces. During all this time, Israel was actually led spiritually by a series of prophets –Moses was actually the first of them – and most of the time those prophets showed up, as God led them to, and spoke into the lives of Israelites. The interesting thing about all of this though, is that it isn’t really an individual that is leading Israel, at least not human. You see, in reality, each and every ruler that Israel has up the formation of a Monarchy with a king serves simply as a middle man, or woman for that matter. Even Moses Himself did not rule over Israel. He, in essence, simply conveyed the will and words of God to Israel. It just appears as though he was ruling the nation. The fact was that God was ruling Israel through these different individuals.

God as King of Israel –Deuteronomy 32:8-9 Let me read something to you here that will shake you up a little bit –something that we often times don’t catch. I’m going to read this to you and I want you to just think about the implications of it: “8 When the Most High God1 apportioned the nations, when he divided humankind, he fixed the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons gods; 2 9 the LORD’s own portion was his people, Jacob his allotted share.” This is Moses speaking here, and it is in the Bible…it’s not some fantasy novel that I’ve picked up; so we must take this very seriously. Moses indicates that God, at some point in history, separated the people of earth into nations and that He appointed a “Son of God” to the head of each nation. Now, whenever you see “Sons of God” in the Old Testament, it is almost always a reference to angels. Men would “Sons of Adam” or “Sons of Man,” and angels are “Sons of God” –hence the significance of Christ being referred being referred to as both. These “Sons of God” seem to have been appointed as the rulers of the heads of these nations, and had the duty of keeping the nations accountable to God. But the interesting thing is that God did not appoint one to be the head of Israel. He took Israel as His own. He was the personal King of the Jews –ehhh, ehh, are you seeing the connection yet?

Now remember though, Israel gets a king named Saul, and then one named David, and then Solomon, and so on and so on. But, I thought God was king. I thought God was King of the Jews? There seems to be a discrepancy. Let me clear it up for you. Turn to 1 Samuel 8 in your Bibles, if you want to follow along: “When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges [there’s that word again] over Israel…But his sons did not follow in his ways, but turned aside after gain; they took bribes and perverted justice. 4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah [a city], 5 and said to him, “You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.” They wanted to be like other people around them, instead of how God wanted them to be. Hmmm, there’s a sermon in that, but perhaps for another day. Moving on 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the LORD, 7 and the LORD said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. 8 Just as they have done to me,1 from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you. 9 Now then, listen to their voice; only — you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.” 10 So Samuel reported all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. Samuel goes on to tell them, and essentially prophecy to them, about all the nasty nasty things that the kings of Israel would do: drafting their children into armies, taking many of their daughters for wives, taxing them, and taking their live stock and food. However they did not listen…picking up in 1 Samuel 8:19: “But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; they said, ‘No! We are determined to have a king over us, so that we also may be like other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.” God was King of the Jews until they dethroned Him and demanded a man essentially take the position that belonged to God. Jews, being the classic example of humans, chose something or someone else over God for terrible reasons. They did not have faith that God would do for them what He said He would, and so they dethrone Him.

This is how Israel became a Kingdom of Men instead of a Kingdom of Heaven, a Kingdom lead by mortals and sinners instead of a Kingdom lead by the Most High God; but what does this have to do with Christmas? What does this have to do with the vision of the Dragon, the lady, and the child in Revelation chapter 12 that John of Patmos recorded?

The coming of the Christ Recall what the often forgotten story of Christmas in Revelation said of the male child that John saw being born in his vision. It said, “And she gave birth to a son, a male child who is to rule all the nations with an iron rod.” The word “rule,” in the Greek, is poimainoo, which means first and foremost “to lead, to tend, to look after, to watch over, to care for, to herd,…and to shepherd.” It was Christ that referred to himself as the “Good” what –The good shepherd. Christ is that child being born, He is the child who grew up and became a King. His contemporaries yearned desperately for the return of the King, the return of the shepherd, for the return of God to Earth to rule over Israel. And Christ was that God. He came to Earth to reclaim the throne of God, the throne of the world; but most importantly…most importantly, He came to reclaim the throne of the realm where everything was lost to begin with. It was in the heart that the sin was first committed that divorced us from God, and it is in the human heart that Christ must be crowned King. You see, as go our hearts, so go our actions. As go our actions, so goes our society. As goes our society, so goes our country. As go our countries, so goes our world. Christ came as a politically subversive force that is to be sure; but He came to reclaim the throne of God that is in our hearts. He came to be the King of your individual life. He came to break heaven into your heart so that His Father’s desires will be done in your heart as they are in heaven. He came so that the Kingdom of Heaven would live on inside of you, and because it lives on inside of you it lives on in your actions, your homes, your cities, your states, your countries, and your world. Where the Christian lives and where Christians are gathered, so should live the Kingdom of Heaven; a Kingdom characterized by love, forgiveness, deep inner healing, total and complete acceptance, mercy, grace, peace, joy, comfort. A kingdom characterized by a group of people who forsake all to follow the will of God, even if it means death…even if it means death on a cross.

Christ must be the King of our hearts before He’ll ever be able to be king over your actions and over your Church. Friends, this Church will not ever be a force to be reckoned with in this world and in the Spiritual realm until He becomes the King of it, until we lay down our rights and privileges, until we lay down our crowns before Him. Christmas is about the end of world. It is a look into heaven where what God says and desires is done. Where Christ is the King of your heart. You were created for this. The turmoil and chaos inside of us all is a heart meant to be ruled by God being ruled by men. When will you become like Israel, tired of the Kings that have failed you so miserably. When will you yearn for Christ to be King of your heart?

Advertisement