The bigger picture of Christmas is a cosmic

being fought between good and evil.

[The angel] Gabriel appeared to [Mary] and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!” Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!” —Luke 1:28-33 (NLT)

This “King” wasn’t born in a castle, with all the royal trappings, in Jerusalem or some other great city, but in a stinky, smelly

, surrounded by animals and hay in a backwater town called Bethlehem.

The Jews saw all the things happening to them and believed that if the world

them could be fixed—remove the Romans, restore the Kingdom of Israel—all their problems would go away.

The circumstances of our lives—good or bad—have never reliably

our satisfaction with life.

The enemy works his destruction not so much by the wars that go on around us as the war that goes on

us.

As long as we live as

, we are at the mercy of the currents of life.

We have met the enemy, and he is us. —Pogo
All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. —Romans 3:23 (CEV)

The answer can never really come from a king who only defeats the enemies around us so much as a king who defeats the enemy

us.

Jesus came to change

, which would then change the world around us.

That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.” —Luke 2:8-12 (NLT)

In Jesus the Kingdom of God fully came into this world, and it spreads as souls welcome him into their lives and place themselves under his

.

Jesus came to set captives free, to invade our world and destroy the works of the devil through the most powerful force in the universe –

.

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Church-Wide Series, Coming in Mid-January: “One At A Time”