A Christmas Poem - God's Revealed Savior

God’s Revealed Savior

God Veiled His Son from human view

God drew a plan on what to do

The Son and He saw humanity’s curse

Mankind’s sin would only grow worse

A bloodline from Adam and Eve had been decreed

From Adam to Abraham came the Seed

A nation born from slavery’s hate

Israel would grow and exist as a gate

God the Son would open the door assigned

In Mary’s womb humanity and Deity did align

The One Who omnipotent, with worlds at His command

Would be veiled in weakness, with soft infant hands

Omniscience whose knowledge knew no bounds

Would be veiled in frailty uttering cooing sounds

The One who Omnipresent in time and space

Would limit Himself to human space

Though veiled in flesh His deity remained

A cross was his destiny, with his blood to be stained

Revealed he was, died he did

The guilt of sin, its penalty to rid

He rose and ascended, his body now changed

            The Revealed Savior accomplished what had been arranged

Where did the Magi come from?

Daniel 2:12 Because of this the king became indignant and very furious and gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.

Matthew 2:1-2 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, 2“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”

How God worked through a teenage boy to preserve a critical element in history
So who were these mysterious Magi from the East?  Many have offered their theories over the years - but the one that has stood the test of time more than any other is that these who came to worship the Christ child, two years following his birth in Bethlehem, can be traced back to the days of Daniel.

We first meet Daniel in his book when he was but 15 years of age.  He, along with his fellow Jews, were taken away captive to Babylon in 605 b.c (that's over 600 years before the birth of Jesus).  In Babylon there was a religion that was dedicated to worshipping various Babylonian deities, chief of which centered around the false god Marduk and astrology. 

An angry King is soothed by God's word
King Nebuchadnezzar, ruler of the Babylonian Empire, had a dream one night that frightened and alarmed him.  When he consulted his counselors and magicians, none could give him the meaning.  God was showing that the religion of Babylon was more of smoke and mirrors than reality.  When the King issued a death decree on all the wise men of that day (including Daniel), Daniel, the text tells us, gained favor in the sight of the chief executioner. 

With God there are no surprises and no accidents
All of Daniel 2 records how Daniel spoke to his three other friends (the guys who would be cast into the fiery furnace in Daniel 3) and prayed to the Lord for wisdom.  God gave him the interpretation and Daniel spoke to the King about the meaning of his dream.  What God had shown Nebuchadnezzar was the entire sweep of history leading up to the days of Christ's birth.  Furthermore, as a result of God's work through Daniel, the King was convinced to drop the death decree and spare the lives of the Magi in Babylon.

Babylon would be conquered by Persia, but the Magi would still remain
In Daniel 5 we see the final night of the Babylonian empire.  In history the fall of Babylon to Persia occurred in 538 b.c.  By this point Daniel is in his eighties, and the Jews have been in exile for nearly 70 years.  Still clinging to the Lord, Daniel is shown in Daniel 6 being thrown into the lion's den.  After God preserves Daniel through the night, sending his angel to shut the mouth's of the lions, King Darius decrees that the governors of the now new empire, Persia (called Satraps), be cast into the Lion's Den.

So where are the Magi?  Undoubtedly Daniel is still working among them.  At the end of Daniel 6, Darius issues a decree that all people everywhere are to dear the God of Daniel.  Many scholars believe Daniel may have given Darius the words to write.  This act of toleration enables Daniel to act as a missionary among the court of the Magi.

The prophecies of Israel are made known to the Magi
When we come to Matthew 2, over 600 years later, the Magi relate to Herod that they were following a star that had appeared to them in the East some two years before.  This star evidently pointed them to one "born King of the Jews".  Now where did these otherwise pagan Magi, of the Persian religion of Zoroastrianism, derive their understanding of the "King of the Jews"?

Undoubtedly there is only one conclusion:  God used Daniel some 600 years before to relay to them of how God was going to send a Messiah to Jerusalem from a Jewish bloodline.  Though the Pagan system of the Persians would persist, this one truth from scripture would be preserved up to Jesus' day. 

The East would bow to the God man
It would then come, in the fulness of time (Galatians 4:4), that a star (or something like it) would appear in the skies over what is now modern day Iran.  For two years these Magi would travel.  The star would lead them to a home in Bethlehem.  There they would meet Mary, Joseph, and Jesus - the only sinless toddler!  Undoubtedly God had been orchestrating this meeting for over 600 years!  Through the life of a young boy Daniel, God would preserve a group of Pagans who down through the centuries would preserve a nugget of truth whose fruit would not be born until the days of Jesus. 

What the facts about the Magi tells us about the significance of Christmas
Once the Magi arrived, God's grace led them to the God man - whom they bowed down aand worshipped.  If anything, Christmas reminds us that God's plan to seek and to save that which was lost involved time, involved unlikely characters and involved the scriptures.  Truly God's Word does not return void - since the written word points us to the Living word - Jesus Christ.   

How God's love would triumph over Satan's Hatred

Revelation 12:7 And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war,

In this third and final episode of John's vision in Revelation twelve, we see him doing a couple of things:  first he is expanding in more detail upon the previous scene in Revelation 12:4-6 and second, he is including some of the details from the scene in Revelation 12:1-2.  When he does this, we are getting a complete picture of history as scene from both the visible and invisible realms.  Clearly one of the themes associated with this vision is the wrath and hatred of satan for God, Christ and the people of God.  All of these events center upon the moment when Christ entered into time on that Christmas night.  The question we want to know the answer to is: why does satan hate Christmas?

1. Satan was expelled from heaven.  Michael, the archangel and chief guardian over the nation of Israel, led the offense against the angelic rebellion.  We cannot imagine the scale of the battle - being that the combatants would had numbered in the trillions.  We cannot imagine the power involved in such a fight, since scripture records how one angel for instance would wipe out 185,000 human soldiers. (2 Kings 19:35)
That ancient battle did take place, and as a result, Satan and his minions have been on the assault ever since as a result of their defeat.

2. Satan hates the nation of Israel
There are two reasons why Satan would hate Israel.  First is because Michael, the one who led the effort to cast him out of heaven, was assigned guardianship over Israel (please note Daniel 10).  Undoubtedly Satan's memory is still fresh.  But even moreso Satan's hatred for Israel stems from the fact that through that nation, and through the bloodlines of men like Judah and David in its history, God brought God the Son from eternity into time.  No doubt Satan tried to foil God's plan, but of course as scripture reveals, Christ was born, was crucified, raised from the dead and will return once again.

3. Satan hates God's people
As you look at this text, you find out that Satan as turned his attention to accusing and persecuting the people of God.  Revelation 12:11 reveals - “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death."  We read of further details in Revelation 12:17 - "So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus." 

These verses points to the saints of God who have lived throughout the ages of the Old Testament as well as this current church age.  They also speak of those saints who will endure to the end of history leading up to Christ's return.  All believing Jews and Gentiles in the Lord Jesus Christ embody the reality to which the hope of Christmas points: the victory of God through Jesus Christ. 

As we close today's blog, I'm reminded of a 500 year old hymn written by Martin Luther entitled "A mighty fortress is our God".  In that hymn we find these words:

"But still our ancient foe, doth seek to work us woe; his power and wrath are great, and armed with cruel hate, none on earth is his equal."  Then later on in the hymn we find these words: "were not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing; Just ask who that may be, Christ Jesus it is He; Lord Sabaoth His name, from age to age the same, and He will win the battle."

Christ's defeat of Satan and the demonic realm

Revelation 12:3-4 Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. 4And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.


Demons, Angels and the war in the heavenlies
John, the human author of the Book of Revelation (along with the Divine Author, God the Holy Spirit), takes us now into "Episode Two" of this grand vision of history leading up to and beyond that Christmas night.  It is here that we get a clear view of the origin of the demonic realm, the great fight in the heavenly realms leading up to Christ's birth, and the warfare that will continue until the end of time.

1. The Great Red Dragon. This is none other than Satan himself.  We see him appearing as a serpent in Genesis 3:1.  His nature as a Dragon, as "that serpent of old", is full and complete, as seen in the repetition of the number seven.  According to Old Testament passages such as Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, Satan was not always Satan. He was created as an angel, a chief Angel, perhaps the chief choir director of the angelic hosts.  He was "Lucifer", the "enlightened one", who in focusing upon his created beauty became prideful.

2. A third of the stars.  According to John, Lucifer rebelled and seduced 1/3 of the angelic host to follow him in a massive revolt in heaven.  This revolt might very well had occured either between days 1 and three of the creation days described in Genesis 1, Psalm 104 or perhaps shortly after the completion of the creation described in those same chapters.  We know that angels are described as "stars" since we see such description in Job 38:7. 

Some of these "fallen ones", these demons, had reblled so badly as to "lose their former estate" and were chained in the darkest regions until the time of the final judgment. (Jude 6)  Others of these fallen angels were permitted by God to roam over the earth and torment people, as seen in the eight or nine occassions where Jesus performed exorcisms in Matthew, Mark Luke and John. 

Lucifer Himself is currently "Prince of the power of the air" and "a god of this age".  (2 Corinthians 4:1-6).  He is roaming to and fro over the earth, along with his demonic hoards, seeing whom he may torment, destroy and blind to the truth of God. (1 Peter 5:8).

3. Stood in front of the woman.    John next writes that This Dragon stood in front of the woman, awaiting to devour her child.  Clearly Satan, though powerful, is still a creature, being that he did not know when exactly the day nor hour would occur for Jesus to enter into this world.  He is behind the persecutions of the Jews throughout the Old Testament.  Galatians 4:4 tells us that Jesus was born into this world in the fulness of time.  Despite the Old Serpent's best efforts, the Christ-child was born.  The Virgin Mary was that woman, who in the bloodline ordained from God from Eve, through Abraham, through David would bring to bear his purposes in her. 

4. The One born a king will rule as The King In Revelation 12:5-6, we see a summary statement from the moment of Christ's birth in Bethlehem to when He will return to earth to rule and reign as King.  Satan will attempt to destroy Israel in the days leading up to Christ's return.  God will have provision for protecting her in the last 31/2 years leading up to the second coming of Jesus Christ. 

5. Christmas reminds us that God finishes what He begins, He has defeated the enemy
Just as God would accomplish His purpose in the birth of Christ in His first coming, the purpose of God will reign supreme in the Second coming.  The outcome of the warfare is sure.  Christmas reminds us of the victory of God in Jesus Christ: His birth declared victory; His cross won victory; His resurrection and ascension confirmed victory; His word communicates victory and the Soon return will demonstrate to all that He alone is the victorious King of Kings and Lord of Lords.   

Revelation's view of the first Christmas

Revelation 12:1-2  A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; 2and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth.

Who Knew?  Christmas is spoken of in the Book of Revelation
When you think of Christmas, your thoughts may turn to the accounts written at the beginning of Matthew and Luke - and certainly those records are the primary sources from which we understand that first Christmas.  Or perhaps you may think of the prophecies and promises of Christmas from the Old Testament - some of which we have explored already in this blog over the past couple of weeks.  But what about the last book of the Bible?  The Book of Revelation? 

Amazingly we find not only what was going on in the angelic realm the night of Christ's birth, but we also get a front row seat to the whole of human history from creation until Christ's return.  In three episodes John relates the vision of what went on in the heavenly realms on the night of Christ's birth (Revelation 12:1-2); followed by a second episode detailing the rebellious career of Satan from creation  until Christ's return (Revelation 12:3-6).  The third episode is a more detailed revelation that helps the reader fit together the information from the first two episodes. (Revelation 12:7-16). 

Episode 1: How much was riding on the night Christ was born
In the opening verse John sees his first vision: a woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet and twelve stars.  As we survey scripture, we quickly find out that these are various descriptions of the nation of Israel it has existed throughout history.  Being uniquely called by God through the bloodlines of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Genesis 12; 15; 17; Deuteronomy 7:7-8), Israel above all other nations was chosen to be the recipient of His law and promises. (Romans 9:1-3)  The idea of "a woman" is ultimately referring to Mary herself - since the prophecies concerning the virgin birth of the Messiah culminate in her. (Isaiah 7:14)

The twelve stars are in reference to the twelve tribes of Israel.  We see twelve stars referring to the twelve patriarchs from whence these twelve tribes would derive in the dream of Joseph about his brothers in Genesis 37.  The moon, being a reflector of light, shows us another apsect of Israel - she was to reflect the glory of God to the nations.  Clearly God is rehearsing to the readers of John's book that it was through Israel that He would bring forth the Savior.

So with the entire history of man and Israel pivoting upon the birth of the Savior that Christmas night, we see Mary crying out in the pain of labor.  As much as Jesus Christ was God in human flesh, as much as his birth was unique in being a virgin birth, the remaining details of the birth remind us that what took place that Christmas night was real. 

What John will reveal next tells us that more was going on than meets the eye.  As much as this was a physical birth, what was occuring in the heavenly realms the night of Christ's birth would reveal just how much this one night would forever change the landscape of both history and eternity.  More to come. 

A Poem - God's Loving Christmas Gift

God’s Loving Christmas Gift

Human hatred, an infinite rift

God sent the son, His loving gift

The plan of love, divinely drawn

Sent to a world that was all but gone

This gift was wrapped in a virgin’s womb

A savior to save from sin’s awful tomb

The pain of love, would be of great cost

To seek and save the ones who are lost

Mary would weep at the foot of his cross

God would experience the pain of loss

Darkness that day could never conceal

The loving gift god sent to reveal

The little infant born to die on a cross

To seek and to save those who were lost

The price of love, the gift was spent

He did the work for which he was sent

They pierced his heart, the deed was done

Death and hell appeared to have won

Christmas began at a virgin’s womb

its hope would end at an empty tomb

The price of love, never to die

He can be yours, if by faith you rely

The significance of Christ's birth to biblical Christianity

Isaiah 9:6-7 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah the prophet wrote these words over 750 years before that first Christmas night.  In this one verse we discover two towering truths about Jesus Christ: He would be born and He existed from all eternity.  What may seem at first to be a contradiction is actually central to identifying the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus was virgin born as a true human being
Isaiah first of all identifies the Messiah as having a beginning.  In another passage, Isaiah 7:14, we discover that this birth will be a virgin birth.  This unusual detail is a cornerstone of the Christian faith for a couple of reasons.  First of all, it was a man who had broken God's law in the garden of Eden, and so a man would have to pay for the damages done by the giving of his life.  Unfortunately when God cursed humanity and the earth, all of humanity inherited the sin nature from Adam. 

Which leads us to the second important truth about the virgin birth of Jesus - that Jesus would not inherit the sin nature.  According to 1 Peter 1:18, the sin nature of Adam is transmitted down through the father's side of the human bloodline.  Since Jesus did not have a human father, He could not inherit the sin nature.  This is vital, since a sinless Savior is required to represent sinful man before a Holy God. 

Thus "Jesus" refers to Jesus Christ as truly man.  He would be "a son" given, "born" and having a beginning as it touches his humanity. 

Christ is Eternal God
Isaiah continues on describing the prophecy about the Messiah as being fully and completely God.  When we speak of "Jesus", we speak of His full humanity.  When we speak of "Christ" we are referring to Him being fully God.  Thus before Jesus Christ became a human being, He had pre-existed from all eternity.  Each title given here by Isaiah points us to this truth:

1. As Wonderful, Christ is shown to be beyond human comprehension. 
2. As Counselor He is God full of wisdom
3. The Mighty God is referring to His Divine Nature
4. Everlasting Father speaks to Him sharing the same nature as God the Father
5. Prince of Peace speaks to His Deity revealed through His humanity

Jesus Christ as God is equal in importance to Him being the virgin born man, since God alone can provide salvation (Isaiah 43:10-11).  Therefore in one verse, Isaiah gives us the entire sweep of the Bible's teaching on the identity of the one who was to be born in Bethlehem.  He as One person was fully God and fully man.  He who has always been would become born, having a beginning.  Without this event, salvation and the truth of God's word would had been jeopardized. 

Thinking on Christmas from the cross to the throne

Luke 1:46-47 And Mary said: “My soul exalts the Lord, 47And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.

As we continue reflecting on the meaning and purpose of Christmas, we will continue surveying the books of the Bible in our effort to see Christ.  The Gospels portray Christ, and in Acts we find Christ preached. 

As we come into the various letters written by the apostles to different churches, letters which we call "epistles, we discover that Christ is being explained.  In those letters we find statements concerning the true meaning of Christmas.

In Romans He is God over all, forever praised, and is born, touching His humanity, from the seed of David.  In 1 Corinthians He is my sanctifier and in 2 Corinthians the glory of God is revealed on His face. (2 Corinthians 4:6).  In Galatians he came in the fulness of time to redeem those under the bondage to the condemnation of the Law.  Ephesians tells us of God's eternal decree to send the Son to purchase salvation.  Philippians reveals that God became man and Colossians unfolds for us that Jesus Christ, in his full humanity, is the fulness of the Godhead bodily - since He shares in the same undivided Deity as God the Fathjer and God the Holy Spirit.

1 and 2 Thessalonians emphasize His soon return.  1 Timothy 3:15-16 speak about God in human flesh, coming to this earth.  Titus reveals Him as our great God and Savior and Philemon pictures Him as our forgiveness.  Hebrews details Him coming from eternity into time, prasing God for the body, the womb of Mary into which He would enter and take upon himself a human nature.  (Hebrews 10:4-5).  James tells us that He is God with no variation of shadow or turning.  1 Peter reveals Him to be the spotless Savior and 2 Peter shows Him returning in the glory of His Father.

In 1 John He is the endurance of salvation and in 2 and 3 John He is the believer's health of salvation.  Jude tells us that He has promised to preserve all true Christians until the end.  Revelation, that great book at the end, shows us that He is King of Kings and Lord or Lords.

In His first coming he came as unknown, in His second coming He will be known by all.  At Christmas He came as a weak, frail baby and in His second coming He will come as the Omnipotent Ruler of all.  In His first coming He came to redeem and in His second coming He will come to reign.  In His first coming everyone question who He was and in His second coming all will conclude that no one has ever been like Him. 

Truly Christmas is shadowed by the cross, however it points us to the time when Christ will come again, showing Himself to be the One who sits upon the throne. 

Thinking on Christmas from the Cradle to the Cross

Matthew 1:21-22 “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” 22Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

Yesterday we began considering the whole Bible in light of Christ's first coming, and traced God's redemptive plan from Genesis to Malachi.  We ended at the cradle and today, we will journey from the cradle to the cross.

Seeing Christ in the Gospels
The cradle of Bethlehem is spoken of in Matthew and Luke's Gospel and the cross of calvary is spoken of in all four Gospels: Matthew, Mark Luke and John.  In these four books we see Christ portrayed.  We come to understand God the Son coming from eternity into time to live a perfect life, die a sinless death and raise to victory over death, hell and the grave. 

In Matthew we see Christ our King.  he is King as it touches His lineage back to King David in the Old Testament and He is King as it touches His Eternal pre-existence as God the Son.  He is the King who came, taught, healed and was rejected by His own people.

Mark shows us Christ the suffering servant.  He came to die and give His life a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45).  Though Mark does not gives us the early life of Christ, yet it focuses our attention as to why he was born - to die.

Luke portrays Christ as the Son of Man, full and complete humanity.  He is the Master who calls his disciples to die to themselves and live for Him.  Luke the physcian, the great doctor who penned this gospel, points us to the Great Physician Jesus Christ.  Luke begins His Gospel with the early life of Christ: His birth, His presentation at the temple and the shepherds.  We see 72 names listed in Christ's geneaology - stretching from Adam to Christ. 

John, the beloved Disciple, pens for us the glory of Christ as God in human flesh.  In John's record we see emphasis upon Christ's undiminished Deity and perfect humanity.  We see John's fondness for the number seven in telling us His version of Jesus' life: seven signs or miracles and seven times where Jesus identifies Himself as "I am".

What Christmas is all about
Now all four of these Gospels take us to the cross, then the empty tomb and then His ascension.  When you put them all together, you have a complete picture: the babe in Bethlehem would be the Savior on the cross.  The Savior on the cross would rise again, demonstrating Himself to be the God of glory.  This is what Christmas is all about.

Thinking on Christmas from Creation to the Cradle

Luke 24:44 Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

As Jesus was speaking to his disciples prior to His ascension into heaven, He was pointing back to the Old Testament Scriptures that spoke concerning Him.  It is true that even though I may not be able to find Jesus Christ in every verse of the Bible, yet from every verse of the Bible I can get you to Jesus Christ.  As we think about Christmas today, and how the Bible focuses so much on what Christ would come to accomplish in His First Coming, as well as what He will accomplish in His second coming, I want to take these next several blogs and survey the whole Bible in light of Christmas and beyond.

From Creation through History we see Christ
As we start at Genesis we see Christ the creator.  The Gospel of John tells us that without Him nothing was made that was made (John 1:3).  Christ is the Origin of all things, Who along with the Father and Holy Spirit, as One God created the Heavens and the earth.  In Genesis He is Creator.  As you go through the rest of the Old Testament books, we discover Christ pictures or spoken of in the following ways:

In Genesis He is my Creator.  In Exodus, my Redeemer.  Leviticus, my Perfect sacrifice.  In Numbers, He is the God who leads me and in  Deuteronomy, the Living God.

From History to the Prophets we see Christ
 In Joshua He is the Captain of my Salvation.  Ruth tells me He is my Kinsman Redeemer.  In Samuel He is my Prophet and in Kings and Chronicles He is my Sovereign God.  In Ezra He is my Faithful Scribe and in Nehemiah He rebuilds what the enemy has torn down.  In Esther He is the God who is always on time. 

In Job He is the the midst of my suffering and in Psalms he is the Song of my salvation.  Proverbs tells me His is wisdom and Ecclesiates reveals Him to be the meaning of life.  Song of Of Solomon presents Him as my beloved Bridgegroom.  Isaiah, the prince of the prophets, shows Him to be Holy God.  Jeremiah shows Him to be the one who weeps and Lamenatations, the one who mouurns.  Ezekiel shows him to be the Glory of God and Daniel tells me His is the fourth man in the fiery furnace.

Hosea shows Him to be the Faithful spouse and Joel shows me the Holy Spirit whom He would send to help.  Amos communicates Him as the Plumbline of Truth and Obadiah reveals Him as Humility against my pride.  Jonah reveals Christ as the one who died, buried and rose again, the Great Foreign Missionary coming to seek and save the Lost.  Micah tells me there is no God like Him and Nahum reveals His way in the whirl wind and the clouds to be the dust of His feet.  

Habbakkuk understands Him to answer my prayers and Zephaniah tells me that He rejoices over me with singing and quiets me with His love.  Haggai unfolds Him as the treasure of all nations and Zechariah shows the purpose of His first and second comings - to provide salvation and bring forth His glory.  Malachi, that great last prophet, tells of the time up to His first coming, and that He will come again as the Sun of Righteousness with Healing in His wings.  

From the Prophets to the Cradle we are led to meet Christ
After Malachi, 400 years passes, with heaven closed and no word from God.  Israel was awaiting the arrival of their King, their Messiah.  Then we come to Matthew and we find out that the long awaited Messiah would be born in Bethlehem's cradle.  By the time Christ would die on the cross, 109 propecies would be fulfilled.  The shadow of the cross was never far from the cradle.