The Last Telling of the Christmas Story, Part 5

Michael & Satan by Guido Reni

As we saw yesterday, the second secret message of Revelation 12 is that there are forces of evil set on the destruction of the Church.

The moment we become witnesses for Jesus Christ, the moment we try to bring him forth to the world, we become targets, targets for Satan. Satan will try everything in his power to stop us from being witnesses for Jesus.

The story is told of a meeting that Satan had with some of his head demons. They were talking about how they might stop the Christians. One of the demons suggested, “Why don’t we try to get them to believe that God does not exist?” Satan replied, “No, they won’t fall for that. They have seen too much of the evidence of God’s existence in their own lives and in creation.”

Another demon suggested, “Why don’t we try to convince them that God doesn’t really care about moral behavior?” But Satan replied, “No, that won’t work either, because they have their conscience and the Bible to tell them that God does care about right and wrong.”

Finally, a third demon suggested, “Why don’t we convince them that they have all the time in the world to get the message of Christ to other people?” And Satan said, “That is the perfect plan. That will defeat them.”

Satan will try to convince us that we have all the time in the world to show and tell about Christ to others. He will try to get us to slow down in our witness for Jesus. And failing that, if Satan cannot stop us in that way, he will try direct persecution and pain. But no matter what Satan throws at us we must remember this Scripture:

“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)

We have already overcome Satan through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. Christ in us is more powerful than Satan who is in the world.

Harold Miller writes,

Suppose you are alone in your house with your preschool children, and an intruder enters. If you doubt your power over the intruder, your love for your children offers no consolation, and your house becomes a place of terror. But if you have undisputed control, you don’t mind someone coming into your house.

The universe is God’s house, and an Intruder has entered and is even now desecrating the house. Many times when we see him walking around, we are on the brink of terror. We need not fear, however, since he and our Father met head-on in combat in the tomb, and God emerged the undisputed Victor! We are safe from the Intruder.

This is the message of Christmas, and Easter, the most fearsome enemies we can face have been overpowered by the One who loves us.

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