An Advent sermon on John's imaginative retelling of the Christmas story in Revelation 12:1-5a: the woman clothed with the sun, the great dragon, the birth of a male child "who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter," and the cosmic battle between good and evil that is joined by his making his home among us. John the poet-pastor weaves the first Advent and the second into one seamless account of the victory of Jesus Christ over sin, death and devil, told from the perspective of heaven where the many events of Christ's incarnate life—birth, holy life, transfiguration, sacrificial death, resurrection and ascension—are perceived as one wondrous event of salvation.