If you haven't figured it out yet, it is a celebration, and we got a lot to be excited about with Christmas. And not to pull any punches, I'll just tell you right off the bat, I want to try to stir your affections for Jesus this Christmas Eve. And we could admit that we know Christmas is about Jesus, but we want to actually make it about Jesus and celebrate him today. So welcome. We're glad that you're here getting ready for Christmas Eve Eve. A little while back, we were just talking about in our house, and one of my kids asked me, they said, dad, what movie are you going to talk about this Christmas Eve? I said, movie. It's Christmas Eve. I'm going talk to about Jesus, not a movie. But then they pointed out, well, it's like last year you talked about elf and the elf code. And then the year before that, you talked about Grinch. And then the year before that, you talked about Charlie Brown. We just want to know what movie you're talking about. Like, all right, you got me. I like movies. And you guys know, if you're here on church on Christmas Eve, wherever you're at when it comes to faith, you know the holiday of Christmas is about the coming of Jesus Christ. But even though that you know that perhaps for some of you, maybe you're more familiar with a movie than you are actually the gospel. Because if we start talking about some Christmas movies, maybe you can get excited and we can kind of share some quotes back and forth, and you can feel qualified for that conversation and even energized by that conversation. But if I said, hey, Luke 210, let's go there, and you're like, I don't know if I could quote all that story. I'm familiar with it, but maybe not that familiar with it. So I'm trying to build some bridges here. I'm trying to find some connections of maybe some common ground of a movie, and then let's get to some deeper stuff. So you want a Christmas movie? Here's your Christmas movie. Die hard. Okay, we're going there. We're going die hard. And I know there's, like, this debate on whether or not die Hard is actually a Christmas movie or not. We're not going to have that debate. I'm the only one with the microphone. So it's a Christmas movie. Now, by the end of this, you hopefully will realize that diehard might be the most Christmas movie of all Christmas movies ever made. We just need to better understand it. Now, if you ask most people about diehard being a Christmas movie. There's probably some understandable rejections that, no, it's not a Christmas movie. You have one guy taking out a bunch of bad guys that are holding a bunch of hostages by these terrorists. That's not a Christmas movie. It just happened to take place at a company Christmas party. Doesn't make it a Christmas movie. For a Christmas movie, you might think, well, we need reindeer and we need snow and we need presents, or at least a manger. We need those kind of things. And if you think that maybe it's because you don't really understand Christmas, and if you did understand Christmas, you might see how much of a Christmas movie die hard actually is. Now, I want to just be clear. I'm not, like, promoting diehard. You're going to have family conflict if you go home and be like, Pastor Jake said we should watch Diehard tonight. I didn't say that. Okay, don't put that on me. I'm not endorsing this movie. I saw the tv version. I was like, okay, I'm going to talk about it. I got to look it up. I saw why it's rated r. I wouldn't watch it. So if you got that, it's okay to have some standards on what you entertain yourself. So I'm not saying go home and watch Diehard, all right? What I am saying is I think we need a bigger, broader, more violent view of Christmas. And if we did, it might improve our appreciation of Jesus Christ and our celebration of what actually gets accomplished at Christmas. Now, oftentimes when we think of Christmas as christians, we can go right to the Manger scene and we get this beautiful picture of Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus lying in a manger. You got shepherds there, you got wise men bringing gifts. And if that's all that we see, maybe we're missing something. Maybe we've domesticated Christmas a little bit, and the real thing is rated r. And we've kind of softened what's actually happening, and we can tend to do that as christians. I think maybe the biggest example of that is churches love to decorate their kids'wing in the story of Noah and his ark because there's animals, right? Put a giraffe on the wall. Let's play this like this is cute. It's like a zoo. Kids will love this, right? Never mind. It's a story about God's judgment wiping out most of the people on earth. But, hey, it's a draft. Let's just go with that. Could it be that when we just kind of boil down Christmas to this sweet little manger scene. We're missing what's really happening at Christmas. And if we're missing what's really happening at Christmas, maybe we're not celebrating it like we should. Now, I bet that the first Christmas was a lot more stressful than what we can tend to make it out. The young couple traveling a long ways for a census under roman oppression without finding a place to stay. But it's also a really magical time. I mean, the star in the sky guiding the way, angels showing up, travelers bringing gifts. There's a lot going on. But I'm telling you, if that's all that we see on Christmas, I think we're missing a perspective that would deepen, enhance a more intense celebration of Christmas. Let me read you a Christmas passage that tends to not get read at Christmas time. I think it's the diehard of Christmas passages. This is revelation, chapter twelve. Here's what it says. 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. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns. And on his head, seven diadems. 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. 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. And then it goes on to talk about this war in heaven between Michael and his angels against Satan. Not our Michael, the archangel Michael. When kids get excited about Michael, what did you know? He's not going to tell you those stories. And you get this peek behind the curtain because we can just see the manger scene. But if you can pull back the curtain, what we're being told is there is something so much grander going on. Like, we look and we see a baby, but behind the curtain there's a dragon being slain. We can look and we can see a lamb, but behind the curtain there's a lion. And guys, here's what I want you to get. There is so much more going on in the Christmas story than just Jesus being born in a manger. The birth of Jesus is a devastating blow to the enemy in the middle of a cosmic spiritual war. Now, I know that can kind of sound weird, but I'm telling you, the birth of Jesus was a devastating blow to the enemy in the middle of a cosmic spiritual war. And all of human history has been building to this. That's why Christmas is such a big deal, the beginning of history. Everything has been kind of culminating at the coming of our savior, our messiah. In fact, when you read the Christmas story, you remember the section in the beginning of the gospels that you tend to skip in your Bible reading plan, the genealogies, because you can't pronounce all those names. Why are they in there? It's so important because the author is telling us this birth of Jesus has been building for a long time, and it's connected to a promise. In fact, in Matthew, it starts with Abraham. Like, you remember the promise, the covenant that God made with Abraham. He's faithful to his promise. You see it in Jesus or in Luke. He goes all the way back to Adam. Like from the beginning, everything has been building to Jesus Christ. If you go back to Adam and Eve, remember them in the garden, and they got deceived by the serpent. And when that happened in our relationship with God was broken. God made some promises at that time. He told Eve that there's going to be a seed. Eve is going to have a descendant someday that's going to fix this problem. And then he said to the serpent, you're going to strike his heel and he's going to strike your head. It's like, that sounds poetic. What does that mean? It's like someday this seed of Eve you're going to wound, but he's going to absolutely destroy you. And everything has been building to this. It's all about Jesus. So when you get this grander picture of Christmas, you understand, like, oh, why did Jesus come? Here's some things that says, this is one John three eight. I just wanted to share the last part of the verse, but when I shared it for the slides, I just gave him the whole verse. So you get to hear the first part, and you'll be happy about that. Says, whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil. For the devil has been sinning from the beginning. So I don't know what kind of Christmas parties you got going on. I just wanted you to hear that first part. But this is what it says. The reason the Son of God appeared, that's Christmas. Was to destroy the works of the devil. Or how about this one? This is in hebrews two. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself, Jesus, likewise partook of the same things, flesh and blood. That's Christmas. Jesus coming. God putting on flesh that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who, through fear of death, were subject to lifelong slavery. Guys, that's a diehard Christmas. You see that one guy beating the bad guys and setting the hostages free? Merry Christmas. You get what's happening here? Now some of you are doubting, so let's go back to revelation twelve. I want to read the passages just after where I stopped before. Kind of get a better idea of this. This is what it says starting verse seven. Now, war arose in heaven. Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 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. 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? That would have been a great spot for an amen. Right? No, didn't count. I had to tell you to prompt that. You see what is happening at Christmas there. The accuser has been dealt with. That one who says, do you know what she does? Do you know what she said? Do you know what he does? Do you know how guilty they are? Did you know what he was thinking about? Just accuses you. Do you know how guilty they are? That one has been dealt with. Are we starting to kind of feel the victory of Christmas, the depth of meaning of what actually gets accomplished at the coming of Jesus? Let me read it again and I'll put a twist to it to help it. Maybe it sink in. Now listen to what he's saying now. War arose in heaven. Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down. You can cheer, let's, like, talk some trash to this, right? The ancient serpent who is called the devil, and Satan the deceiver of the whole world, he was thrown down to earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, merry Christmas, like, our enemy was dealt with. And when you get this, there's a veterans dayness to Christmas. We understand Veterans Day. We remember people who left home to go and fight and die for our freedom. And when you get that, you understand at Christmas we have a God who left. Like this is Philippians two left. The comforts of heaven put on flesh to fight and die for our eternal freedom. And that's what we're celebrating. That's why Christmas is such a big deal. Not just a baby in a manger, but what was eternally accomplished at the coming of Jesus Christ. It's a celebration of our freedom. So, yes, we're going to do the candlelight thing, right? And I'm just going to give you some instructions now. Let it happen. Okay. I know there's always a few people in here that think I could do this more efficiently. And you bring out your own lighter. That's not what we're happening here. There's a symbolic happening at the candle. And I got to say it, every year we're going to get to the balcony, but here's what's going to happen. There's going to be somebody come down this row and they're going to light right up here, you guys. The rest of this service depends on you two, okay? You could wreck this whole thing if you don't get this right. They're going to light their candles, and then it's just going to spread back and out, let it happen, because it represents the gospel of Jesus Christ. Started with just a few, and it spread and it spread and it spread. And that's our hope. But for it to spread, we got to really understand what's accomplished. And when we do this, we're going to sing silent night. But it's not because the first Christmas was this kind of night of peace. It's because the first Christmas brings us peace. And what a beautiful picture. On one hand we're seeing a baby born, and in the other picture there is a dragon being slain. But the connection is, because the dragon was slain, we can have peace. That's the kind of peace that we can have. And when you get that, how precious is Jesus? How worthy is he of our worship? How excited are we that he came? And what we want to do, church, is we just want to say, jesus, we love you. We are so grateful for you. Like, we talk about, yeah, Christmas is about Jesus. It's about Jesus. And then we just go and we be about all these other things. And I know you got a lot of stuff happening this holiday, and those are good things. I hope you have a great Christmas. I hope you have a good time with family. I hope you get the things that you ask for. I hope you enjoy great food. But we would all agree that's not what Christmas is about. It's about King Jesus. So for these next 2030 minutes, my request and plea for us is, could we just make it about King Jesus? Could we just say this Christmas, I just want King Jesus to know I love you. I am so grateful for you. I want us to act and sing like freed people, like we're the hostages. And he came and he set us free. And we're in love with our Jesus. Amen. Amen. Let's do it, church. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you would awaken us to what really is going on at Christmas. That we can see a peaceful manger scene. But we know behind that was a war where our enemy got dealt with and we can have peace. Because you set us free. That we are no longer slaves of sin. You beat sin, Satan, and death. And I pray that we would see Jesus. Us, God with us, Emmanuel, as our rescuer. And we would be so excited to be set free that you would be pleased with our praises, that you'd be honored and worshipped by your people. We pray this in your name. Amen.