Christmas on the Island of Patmos

The story of God’s redemption of his people climaxed in the fullness of the times when God became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:1, 14). Christmas is the time we should remember and celebrate as the birth of the “seed of the woman” who would crush the head of the serpent as God promised in Eden when the Gospel of God’s grace was announced for the first time (Gen. 3:15-16).

In Revelation 12, the Apostle John paints a vivid picture of not only the incarnation that we joyously celebrate at Christmas, but the decisive and climatic victory of the “Seed of the Woman” who is Jesus Christ, who overcame for us death, hell and the devil, which was the goal of his birth in Bethlehem (Heb. 2:14-15; 1 John 3:8). In our sermon today, we will look at the multiple redemptive-historical facets of the significance of Christmas that the Apostle John shows to us through his apocalyptic vision, and we will be reminded that from the beginning of redemptive-history in the Garden of Eden and through the rest of the Old Testament, the hope of the elect was a child who was to be born.