Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. Tonight, I’d like to move on to another topic for the time being. If we see something from the Geisler camp, we can write about it again, but for now, it looks like there’s nothing going on. Therefore, with Christmas coming up, I’d like to share what I preached on this Sunday as the guest preacher at my church.
We often think of Christmas coming and having it being a season and joy of celebration. The Messiah has come! Peace on Earth! Goodwill towards men! Let’s celebrate the joy that has come to the world.
Unless you’re a mother in Bethlehem within two years of the birth of Jesus and your young boy has been slaughtered by a bloodthirsty king refusing any competition.
Or unless you’re a family that has been torn apart over who this new person Jesus is and you have father against daughter and brother against sister, as Jesus prophesied.
Or unless you’re the Pharisees and Sadducees who have doom pronounced on your system for the rejection of Messiah.
Or unless you’re a town Jesus ministered to who rejected him and was told that Sodom and Gomorrah would have it more bearable than you do.
Or unless you’re in Jerusalem around 70 A.D. where you’re forced to have to eat your own children just to survive or have yourself cut open by the Romans so they can get to the valuables you swallowed.
Now don’t get me wrong! Of course we can all celebrate the salvation we have in Christ and that far outweighs any temporary sufferings that we are undergoing and will undergo, but let us remember that when Christ came, while he came as a little baby, it was not a mild act on the part of God.
The original Christmas day, was D-Day.
Hence, when I preached this message, the text for my sermon was Revelation 12. I believe that that is John the Revelator giving us his version of the Christmas story. John often gives a heavenly perspective on earthly events in the book. What we find at that point is that John is telling us that when Christ was born, there was really a heavenly battle taking place.
At Christmas then, we celebrate an act of war.
This act of war was the greatest act of all. It was not that Christ came into the world and turned it upside-down. Christ came into the world to turn it right-side up. To this day, it is being turned right-side up. Whenever you go out and do evangelism, you are making an act of war on enemy territory. You are fighting for the hearts and souls of men with the tempter who is wanting to say “Mine” and yet having his influence lessened by the preaching of the cross of Christ.
We are New Testament saints. Paul says that we are a new creation. Let us live as if we are. We have been empowered by the Holy Spirit and we ought to live different lives. We ought to! So rarely do we. It is as if we are convinced that we are still under the old covenant.
When Christ comes, he changes everything and we dare not live in the world as if it was still the old world and we dare not live our lives as if we were in the old covenant. How can we preach the message of transformation unless we really believe that we are transformed?
For those of us who are men, when we go to the movies, we often watch the hero fight the bad guys in hand-to-hand combat or have a perfect shot with a gun or have the coolest gadgets and drive the best cars. We often wish we could be the hero, but in reality, we do get to play such a part. We get to play a part in God’s story. We can be heroes for Jesus in the ultimate battle of good and evil.
I grew up in the gaming industry. I still enjoy that industry. When we play games, we want to be the hero in those. Once again, we do have that chance. This is the most serious game of all however. There is no save point to return to. There are no cheats. There is no reset button. Every decision you make in this game is an important one.
We are after D-Day. Our message is to proclaim V-Day. We can be sure of one great fact as we fight the fight and play the game. We will win. Now we as individuals could suffer defeat, even defeat to the point of death, but ultimately, we know that we are going to win. We are on the winning side and it is the side that cannot be defeated. It is not even a competition. How many of you would like to play a game and know that whatever happened, victory was guaranteed? Well now it is!
This Christmas, celebrate with friends and family by all means, but celebrate by another means. Celebrate an act of war by proclaiming the good news of V-Day. For Christmas, be a hero.