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00:01 Well, next week we'll be celebrating Christmas. It's hard to believe that it's already here, but next Friday it'll
00:08 be time when we celebrate the birth of the child in the manger. It's a great
00:13 time of the year as we celebrate this wonderful event, especially for families with young
00:19 children. I can remember when our children were young telling them the stories of how Jesus came to earth and
00:27 our kids then later would like to have plays and dramas where they were in the play. One year our oldest daughter even
00:33 wanted to be the donkey that Mary wrote on. But other times they would sometimes use their stuffed animals or dolls and
00:39 they would have a good time remembering the birth of Christ. And when you're young, a young child, this is probably
00:46 the view that you have of Jesus. just a cute little sweet little baby in the manger. But as we get older and we
00:53 mature, we begin to ask more questions about who is this babe in the manger?
00:60 There's a well-known Christmas carol that asks that question. What child is this who's laid to rest on Mary's lap is
01:07 sleeping? Whom angels greet with an anthem sweet while shepherds watch are
01:13 keeping. Now this morning we want to answer that
01:18 question, who is this child that we celebrate his birth on the 25th? We'll
01:25 be asking the question, who is he? But we'll go beyond that and also be looking at the question, what did he do? And
01:33 then finally, each one of us personally will want to ask, how shall I respond to
01:40 him? But for the answer to these questions, we won't look at the text of the Christmas Carol. Although that is a good
01:46 text, but instead we'll look at a different song. A song from the last book of the Bible, the book of
01:52 Revelation, the song of heaven. Now, when we mention the word
01:58 revelation, we usually get one of two responses. One response from some people
02:03 is, "Oh, no. I can't understand that book. I don't even want to try and too
02:08 controversial. I'll just ignore it." The opposite extreme. Some people, oh boy,
02:14 that's my favorite book. And they like to get a copy of the Bible in one hand and a copy of today's newspaper in the
02:21 other hand and see if they can find today's current events in the Bible.
02:27 So the frequent use of the book of Revelation is either you don't use it and ignore it or then the opposite
02:34 extreme, you abuse it and try to make it say something it doesn't say. So, I won't go
02:40 into a whole lot of detail about the book of Revelation, but before we look at our text, I do want to remind us that
02:47 the book of Revelation was actually written in an actual historical time to
02:53 historical people who were struggling with real problems. Therefore, it was a
02:59 message that would apply have meaning to them. You see the Christian churches
03:04 about 1900 1950 years ago in Asia, Asia Minor, we call it Turkey today, but in
03:11 the Bible it calls it Asia. They were undergoing some extreme difficulties.
03:18 Many of the churches were battling false teaching.
03:24 Some churches, their doctrine was okay, but their lifestyle was not okay.
03:29 Immorality was prevalent. And we see some rebuked for that. Others, they might not have been in open immorality,
03:36 but their commitment to Christ had grown cold. They'd left their first love. They
03:43 become lukewarm. Another problem that some of the churches were facing was that there
03:49 could be negative economic consequences if you were true to Christ. Following
03:55 Christ and his teachings could bring about problems with your business. And
04:00 in some areas, the society was quite hostile to the
04:05 early Christians. And in much of the area that was addressed in this letter,
04:12 the government was hostile. Now, unfortunately, the things that we
04:17 see on this screen have not disappeared. And when I just put those things on the
04:24 board, you might think, "Oh, we're talking about today's time." And yes, churches today, Christians today are in
04:32 similar circumstances in many places of the world. Well, not only were they
04:37 facing these problems, but some of the churches were facing persecution.
04:42 Some areas were worse than others. Now, in some areas, the persecution was not too bad yet. Oh, there would be some
04:48 insults. people condescending, looking down, saying bad things about you. Sometimes
04:55 there were economic disadvantages. Sometimes there were even threats and occasionally there were a few that might
05:01 have been arrested. And so some of the church members, the Christians were paralyzed by fear. And so they were
05:08 being tempted to be disobedient to Christ because of their fear. And they
05:14 weren't living like they should. They were not doing what Christ had told them to do because they were afraid. And they
05:20 had a good excuse. Oh, it's against the law. I can't do that. Quite a convenient excuse. But if the
05:28 choice is to either disobey God or to disobey man, it's always best to obey
05:35 God. Disobedience should never be directed towards God.
05:41 But there were other situations where the persecution was not just a threat. It was very real. in the church in
05:47 Pergamon when that church was addressed that mentioned the name of a person who
05:53 had been martyed killed because of his faith and his witness for Christ. And
05:58 the church to Smyrna was warned there is a serious persecution coming. Some of
06:05 you will go to jail. And they were told be faithful unto death.
06:11 Just as Jesus was faithful to God unto the point of death, we're encouraged
06:17 also to be faithful to death with the reward of the crown of life.
06:24 So these churches, they had real problems. And the people in this
06:29 historical situation, they needed encouragement. They needed hope. So, if
06:34 we ignore the original setting in the book of Revelation, we're probably going to be off base in a lot of the
06:40 interpretations that we come up with. But there's another reason I'll just mention briefly on why it's sometimes
06:47 difficult to understand the book of Revelation. In addition to the fact that we just forget about the first audience,
06:53 the literary genre is a combination of three different types. We see it's a prophecy. We see that it's a pastoral
07:01 letter. And we see that it's an apocalypse. Now, the pastoral letter, I've already
07:08 mentioned many concerns why John would want to write a pastoral letter or why
07:13 Jesus told John to write this letter to the churches. We see the concerns such as the false doctrine, the immorality,
07:20 people being lukewarm in their commitment, looking good on the outside, but on the inside their heart was far
07:27 from God. Persecution was increasing. people were going to jail.
07:33 And so some were remaining faithful, but yet they were suffering.
07:39 They needed encouragement. Others were compromising or denying their faith. So
07:44 they needed to be warned that they would suffer the results because of that. So,
07:50 Revelation was written as a pastoral letter to bring comfort and encouragement to those being persecuted,
07:56 but also to warn those who were being tempted to deny Christ. And when we look
08:02 at the word apocalypse, that might remind you of some movies that have used the title apocalypse in the title of the
08:09 movie, Apocalypse Now, for example. And in movies that use that title, we
08:15 can get a little idea of what apocalypse means because there's always violence, a
08:20 massive struggle. Apocalyptic literature is something we're just not familiar with today. But
08:28 back in the days when this was written, it was a very common form of literature.
08:34 couple hundred years before Christ up until about a hundred years after Christ which was a very common genre of
08:39 literature and it had different characteristics. For example, it used many many symbols.
08:46 Numbers are very frequently symbolic and seldom are meant literally.
08:54 In our text today, we heard the number seven mentioned several times. Seven
08:59 being a symbol for completeness or wholeness. Today we're going to see a
09:05 lamb that has seven horns and a lamb with seven wings. What does that mean?
09:11 And we're going to be introduced to four living creatures. And each of these have six wings and they're going to be full
09:18 of eyes both in front and in back. So some of the images in apocalyptic literature seem to be drawn from fantasy
09:26 and they can be quite bizarre. Another common theme of apocalyptic literature is that God is going to
09:33 intervene in a dramatic cataclysmic way to overthrow evil and to establish his
09:41 kingdom to establish good. So we see great cosmic conflicts portrayed using
09:47 vivid imagery. And so by using this vivid imagery, the
09:52 book of Revelation creates for the people that are reading it a world that's filled with visual images that
09:60 will help them to find a heavenly perspective looking up from the difficulties they're facing. And it will
10:08 help them to endure the difficult times and remain faithful to Christ.
10:13 Well, our text in the book of Revelation today begins in chapter 5. Before that,
10:18 in chapters two and three, we see the seven letters to seven different churches. And that's when our eyes are
10:25 focused on the difficulties that the churches are facing. But we also see
10:30 some of the victories they've won. We also hear warnings to the churches not
10:36 to succumb to temptation, not to deny Christ. But we also see encouragements
10:42 that are given. But after looking at the situation here on earth, then when we
10:47 get to chapter 4, suddenly the view shifts to heaven. And now we're made
10:55 aware of the fact that while everything's happening on earth, that's not all there is to reality.
11:03 God is reigning in heaven. In chapter 4, we get a glimpse into heaven and we get
11:08 to see into the very throne room of God and we see God is on the throne. Despite
11:16 the difficulties on earth, God does reign. Even though we might get
11:22 discouraged and want to give up, even though we might sometimes ask, "Is it worth it to be faithful to God?" We see
11:30 a resounding answer. Yes, God is on the throne. And in the throne room in
11:35 chapter 4, we see God is being praised. Ceaseless worship is taking place as
11:42 four living creatures, probably symbolizing all living creatures. And as
11:48 24 elders, probably symbolizing all of God's people, the people of faith, the
11:54 people who accepted Christ as Lord and Savior. These creatures and elders, they
11:60 are bowing before God, worshiping him for who he is. He is holy, almighty,
12:08 eternal. And they're praising him for what he has done, how he has created the
12:15 world, how he is working his plan out in the world, and how he has a plan for a
12:20 new creation. And then we come to chapter five, our text, the song of heaven. And this song
12:28 is going to help us understand better who is the one whose birthday we
12:34 celebrate on December 25th. What has he done?
12:39 And how can I respond in a meaningful appropriate way to him? So looking at
12:46 the text we see, then I, this is John inspired by Christ to write to the
12:51 churches. Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back
12:59 sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud
13:04 voice, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?"
13:10 So, we see God is on the throne, but in his hand, he has a scroll, a big scroll,
13:19 but it's sealed up and it can't be opened. Now, commentators vary on what that scroll might be, but it probably is
13:27 describing in detail the conclusion of salvation's history. We see salvation
13:35 history beginning back at the beginning of the Bible, the book of Genesis, chapter 3. We see a hint that someone is
13:42 going to come who will crush the power of evil, the power of Satan. And throughout the Old Testament, we see God
13:48 developing the creation plan. And then most fully, we see his salvation plan with the birth, the life, the ministry
13:55 of Jesus culminating in his sacrificial death and resurrection.
14:01 But now between that event and his second coming,
14:06 what's going to happen? It's all sealed up. We don't know what's going to happen. So, probably in this sealed
14:13 scroll, we have the divine decrees that are announcing God does have a plan. He
14:20 is going to triumph over evil. There will be judgment of sin and those who
14:26 reject Christ. But there's going to be victory, eternal life for those who believe in
14:33 him. So, we go ahead. No one in heaven or on earth or under
14:39 the earth was able to open the scroll or look into it. And I began to weep loudly
14:46 because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.
14:53 So we see John's grief, God's redemptive plan, the conclusion of salvation
14:58 history, it's sealed up. God's triumph over evil. It's sealed up and this
15:06 cannot be opened by just anybody. There's nobody can be found to open it.
15:13 But we go ahead. One of the elders said to me, "Weep no more. Behold, the lion
15:20 of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered so that he can open
15:25 the scroll and its seven seals. There is one who is worthy to open the
15:31 scroll. There is one who has conquered and he alone can open the seals to the
15:38 conclusion of salvation history. So who is this one? Well, he's described as the
15:45 lion of the tribe of Judah. Now, some of you have seen in the movie the chronicles of Narnian have been
15:51 introduced to Ashelon, the lion there. Well, that's where they get that symbol
15:57 from right here. But where does John get this symbol? It comes from the Old Testament. Way back in Genesis 49,
16:05 Jacob, Israel, the father of the 12 sons who became the 12 tribes of Israel, is
16:11 giving a final blessing to all of his sons. And this is what he says about his son Judah. He says, "Judah, your brother
16:19 shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Judah is a
16:25 lion's cub. The scepter shall not depart from Judah.
16:32 And we see in the genealogies of Jesus that Jesus in the flesh is a descendant
16:38 of Judah. So Jesus is described as being the lion of Judah.
16:45 He is also described as being the root of David. Now where does this come from?
16:50 Comes from Isaiah 11:es 1-10. I've given just a brief excerpt from that. There
16:57 shall come forth a chute from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit, and the spirit of the
17:04 Lord shall rest upon him. With righteousness he shall judge the poor.
17:09 He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips, he shall kill the wicked.
17:17 Remember, Jesse was the father of David. There's a connection. The root of David
17:23 we see coming from the chute a chute coming from the stump of Jesse. What is
17:28 all this talking about? You might remember about a year ago at this time there was a sermon from second Samuel
17:36 showing that God had promised King David that someone would reign on his throne
17:41 forever. Of his kingdom there would be no end. But yet the reality was
17:50 David's dynasty was no longer reigning on a physical throne in a palace in
17:56 Jerusalem. Jerusalem had been conquered by the Babylonians. And since then there had
18:02 been no king reigning. So it looks like this glorious tree, this kingdom of David had been cut down. Only a stump
18:09 was left that was dead. But no, it's not dead. A branch is coming forth and the
18:15 branch is the same as the root that gives it life. Jesus is going to be the
18:21 king sitting on the throne of David forever.
18:27 So in this text we see once again who is Jesus? Well, he is the root of David.
18:36 He's the lion. He's the root of David. He is the conqueror.
18:41 He is the Lord. He is the King. So someone is found worthy to open the
18:48 scroll and he is the lion, the Lord, the conqueror. He is the root of David, the
18:53 coming reigning king. And when we continue reading, we find out more about
18:58 this one. between the throne and the four living creatures. And among the elders, I saw a
19:04 lamb standing as though it had been slain, with seven horns, and with seven eyes,
19:11 which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and
19:17 took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne.
19:23 It's kind of strange, isn't it? We're told a lion is coming.
19:29 But yet when he looks, he doesn't see a lion. He sees a lamb.
19:36 The lion is the lamb. Or at least the lion looks like a lamb. But again, it's
19:42 not an ordinary lamb. We see the lamb is one that has been slain.
19:50 This is imagery going back as far as the early parts of the Old Testament. You
19:56 remember in the book of Exodus, the story of the Passover lamb, the children
20:01 of Israel were captives. They were slaves in Egypt. God sent plagues on the Egyptians. And the 10th plague was that
20:08 the firstborn of all of the Egyptians would die. But God had a plan so that
20:13 his people would not die, so that they could be saved. And that plan was each
20:18 family would take a perfect lamb and sacrifice that lamb and then put the
20:24 blood of the lamb on the sides and the top of the door. And when the death
20:29 angel came and he saw the blood of the lamb on the door, he would pass over those houses and the people inside would
20:36 be saved. The people of Israel were redeemed,
20:42 freed from slavery. They were saved. Their life was spared because of the
20:48 blood of the lamb. Also in Exodus we see that daily in the
20:53 worship of the people lambs would be sacrificed one in the morning, one in the evening.
20:59 And then of course the symbolism of lamb is picked up in the suffering servant passages of Isaiah. Isaiah 53. The
21:08 description of the one who comes as God's servant. He is described as a lamb
21:14 that is led to the slaughter. And then when we get to the New
21:19 Testament, the beginning of the ministry of Jesus, the time of the baptism, when
21:24 John looks and he sees Jesus coming, what does he say? Behold the lamb of God
21:32 who takes away the sin of the world. So the people familiar with the
21:38 sacrifice of lambs, they realize this is the one who will pay the penalty for our
21:45 sin. He will die as a sacrificial lamb.
21:50 But we see the lamb is standing. He's no longer dead. He was sacrificed,
21:57 but now he has life again. He has been resurrected.
22:02 And we also see the lamb has seven horns. Seven being the number for completeness. Horns being a symbol of
22:09 power. In other words, he is fully powerful, all powerful, omnipotent. And
22:15 with the eyes, that means he sees everything. He knows everything, omniscient.
22:21 So when we see who Jesus is, we see that he is a lamb, a sacrificial
22:28 lamb, but yet has been resurrected. And he as he has all the power in the
22:37 world, and he has omniscience. He can see and know everything.
22:42 In other words, we see in this passage that Jesus is the savior.
22:48 So we continue to read in our song. And when he had taken the scroll, the four
22:53 living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a
22:58 harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
23:06 Now the four creatures are probably representative of all creatures in
23:11 creation. The 24 elders have already been introduced in chapter 4. probably
23:17 representative of God's people. And we see that they are falling down before
23:24 the lamb. Falling down is a sign of willing submission,
23:30 bowing before the rightful ruler, before the Lord, before the lion of Judah. They
23:38 are giving an act of worship and praise. And one encouraging thing we see here,
23:45 notice the bowls of incense. What do they contain?
23:50 The prayers of the saints. Sometimes when we're surrounded by
23:56 difficulties and we pray and we don't get an answer like we want, when we want it, we wonder, has God heard our
24:03 prayers? And the people back in the day that received this, that's what they were wondering. God, why don't you do
24:09 something? But their prayers have been heard. Their prayers are being presented to the one
24:16 who can unseal the scroll, who can bring about the rest of God's redemptive plan.
24:23 He can answer the prayers. So we have encouragement that our prayers too are
24:28 heard in the throne room of God by the one who is the Lord, by the one who is
24:34 the Savior. And this is how the song goes. Well, I wish I could sing it, but the notes are
24:41 not included. At least not in my copy of the Bible. I'd love to have had that original composition with the melody and
24:48 the rhythm, the chord charts. But we do have the text.
24:53 The text, worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals. For you
24:60 were slain, and by your blood you ransom people for God, from every tribe and
25:06 language and people and nation. And you have made them a kingdom and
25:11 priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.
25:17 So the text of this song of heaven tells us what Jesus has done.
25:23 But before we look in detail of what Jesus has done, let's go back and review. Remember we said we're going to
25:29 answer three questions today. The first question, who is Jesus? From our text,
25:35 we've seen that he is the lion of Judah, the root of David. In other words, he is the Lord. He is the King. And we've seen
25:42 that he is the slain yet resurrected lamb, almighty, omnisient. He is the Savior.
25:51 And now the second question we want to look at and answer from this song text.
25:57 What has he done? What has he done? The first thing we see
26:03 in the song text that talks about you are worthy to take the scroll and open the seals because you were slain.
26:12 Jesus died for our sins. We see throughout scripture that sin
26:17 brings death. Genesis chapter 3 that we heard preached on just a few weeks ago. God told the
26:24 people in the garden, you can eat of the tree of you can eat of every tree in the garden except one. But if you eat of
26:30 that tree, the consequence is what? Death.
26:37 Spiritual death, physical death, eternal death. The sacrifices in the Old
26:43 Testament are meant to put vividly before the eyes of people how serious sin is. and that sin does bring death.
26:52 Then in the New Testament, we see the familiar verse, the wages of sin is death.
26:58 And we see that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. Christ paid the
27:03 penalty for our sins so that we can be forgiven so that we can have a right
27:08 relationship with God and be reconciled to him. The second thing that we see is a
27:15 continuation of this thought. You were slain and by your blood you ransom
27:21 people for God. Jesus redeemed us from slavery to sin.
27:30 The word redeemed has really a technical meaning and that is to buy freedom for a
27:36 slave. Slavery was a very integral part of the Roman world to which this letter
27:44 first came. And in many cities there would be huge auction blocks where there would be
27:50 slaves sold at auction. And so imagine there's some slave who's big, strong,
27:56 muscular slave, hardworking person, and he's on the auction block. And the bidding starts going and the bidding
28:03 gets higher and higher and higher. And finally, a huge price is paid, maybe a
28:09 hundred million ringot, if they had ring it back then. But a huge amount was paid
28:15 and the slave was was bought. But the owner did not say, "Now you're going to
28:21 have to work even harder." No. The owner said, "You're free.
28:28 I bought you to set you free from slavery."
28:34 We are slaves to sin. Jesus paid a price much higher than a 100red million
28:40 ringit. He paid the price of his own life, gave his own blood, and he bought
28:47 our freedom so we will no longer have to be slaves to sin.
28:53 Just like the blood of the lamb in Exodus freed the people from death and
28:59 freed them from slavery in Egypt, Christ's blood, the blood of the lamb,
29:05 frees us from slavery to sin. The song continues, "You ransom people
29:12 for God from every tribe, language, people, and nation." The good news of
29:19 the gospel is that Jesus Christ is not just for a few select individuals
29:25 this morning. We have several races represented in our congregation. He died for all of us.
29:33 And when you go beyond our congregation into the clang valley, my goodness, almost every race on the planet earth, I
29:40 think, is represented here in this clang valley. Christ died to redeem people from all of
29:49 these ethnic groups, all of these nations, all of these language groups, all of these people, Christ has died
29:56 for. All who call on him, regardless of their
30:01 background, will be saved through faith in Christ. So, we see that Christ broke
30:07 down the racial and ethnic barriers that divide us.
30:14 There's one thing we all have in common. No matter what our background is,
30:20 Christ will save all who call on him in faith. And when you do come into God's kingdom,
30:26 then everybody else who has accepted Christ is your brother and sister,
30:32 regardless of their race. There is no longer barriers between the different ethnic groups within the family of God.
30:41 Our con our song continues, "You have ransomed people from every tribe,
30:47 language, people, and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to
30:53 our God." So we see that all believers, regardless of the background, all
30:59 believers are now part of a kingdom of priests. When we think of kingdom, that
31:04 just means we serve the same king. We have all bowed before King Jesus
31:11 acknowledging him as the rightful king of our lives. Priests, what do priests do? Well,
31:18 priests are intermediaries between men and God. So, our role now living in this
31:26 kingdom of God is that we take the needs of people to God. We pray for them. We
31:34 help them to find God. And we take God's message to the people, the message of
31:41 salvation, a message of encouragement, a message of hope. We take God's love, his
31:48 grace to the people. So, so far we have seen who is Jesus.
31:54 He's the Lord, the King. He's the Savior. And we've just looked at what
31:59 did he do? He died for our sins. He redeemed us from slavery to sin. He
32:06 broke down racial and ethnic barriers and he has made us a kingdom of priests.
32:13 The last question we want to look at now is how shall I respond personally to
32:20 him? So be thinking based on what we have seen, based on who Jesus is, based on
32:28 what he has done, how does he want you to respond to him?
32:35 But before I give a few suggestions of some possible responses to him, let's look at the response that took place in
32:42 heaven. We're going to see that there's a big crescendo of praise as more and
32:49 more people join in this song of praise. Then I looked and around the throne and
32:56 the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels numbering myriads
33:01 of myriads and thousands of thousands. Huge numbers, more than can be counted,
33:09 are swelling the chorus. And they are saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the
33:15 Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor
33:23 and glory and blessing." Yes, Christ is worthy.
33:30 He was faithful unto death. He did what God called him to do. And
33:36 now he has been exalted. He is worthy of everything. It rightly belongs to him.
33:43 And then the song of praise swells even more to a greater crescendo. And I heard
33:48 every creature in heaven, every creature on earth, every creature under the
33:54 earth, every creature in the sea, all that is in them. They were saying to him
33:59 who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and
34:06 might forever and ever. and the fitting response to such a
34:13 magnificent outpouring of praise and worship. Amen. So be it. And then notice what
34:22 happens. It all starts over again. The elders fall down again and the praise
34:28 continues. It's reminiscent of what we find in the old hymn, Amazing Grace. Do
34:33 you remember that last verse? How does it start? When we've been there 10,000 years,
34:40 we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. And the praise
34:46 of God just continues and continues and continues. Well, that was a response in heaven.
34:54 How will you respond? Ask yourself the question, how will I respond
35:00 to Jesus? I've made a brief list of some appropriate responses. They're more of a
35:07 general nature that can apply to all of us in a general way. But as I mentioned these, try to think of something
35:14 specific as a response that God wants you to make.
35:20 First response would be to do like the elders in heaven. bow before Jesus,
35:26 acknowledging him as the rightful Lord, the rightful king, the rightful ruler of
35:32 our life. Not only at the beginning of your walk with Christ, when you come to faith,
35:39 that's how we first come to faith. It's when we bow before him. But every day we need to continue bowing down. Just like
35:47 we saw the elders and then they bowed down again. Because the tendency is even
35:52 though we have allowed Christ to be Lord of our life and we've acknowledged him as the rightful ruler, there's still
35:59 part of us daily that wants to rule our life. How do we respond daily? Bow before
36:07 Christ. Allow him to be Lord and King. A second response.
36:14 Not only do we bow before the lion, we bow before the lamb, before the savior,
36:20 responding in faith to Jesus, confessing our sin to him, repenting of our sin.
36:28 And again, repenting of sin takes place more than just once at the beginning of salvation experience.
36:35 If you're like me, you've continued to sin after you were saved.
36:40 If you're like me, there's probably not a day that goes by without sin.
36:46 We need to continually confess, live as if we have been redeemed because
36:52 we have been redeemed and ask God for the power and the strength to live free
36:58 from the power of sin. We are no longer slaves to sin.
37:04 Another response is to turn our eyes towards heaven, towards Jesus. The situation that we face today in some
37:12 respects is similar to what the early Christians were facing. Remember some of
37:17 the things they were facing? A society that was not especially friendly to
37:22 Christians. Business environment that could bring about economic penalties if you were
37:29 Christian and did your business in a Christian way. a government that was sometimes
37:36 hostile towards Christian. Even other believers whose lives are not
37:42 bringing glory to God because they have fallen into immorality or they become so preoccupied with other things that their
37:49 love has grown cold. Love for God has grown cold. And so today we sometimes
37:55 might find ourselves asking, is it worth it to stay faithful to God or should I
38:01 deny Christ in this little area or this little area? So we might be facing some of the same
38:08 difficulties. But when we look to heaven, look away from the situation
38:13 around us and remember Christ is on the throne. He is opening those seals.
38:19 Redemptive history is coming about. There is going to be judgment. Good wins
38:26 over evil. God wins over Satan. And we want to be on the winning team. When
38:32 we're faithful to Christ, we know that we then will be reigning with him. Not
38:39 only in eternity, but we can also have victory in this life reigning with him.
38:45 So turn your eyes on Jesus when things of the world tend to want to pull us
38:51 away. Another response to serve as a priest. I know I
38:57 don't mean go join the Catholic Church, take a vow of celibacy, a vow of poverty,
39:03 but you don't have to wear a clerical collar to be a priest. A priest,
39:09 remember, is the intermediary between God and man. That's who you are. Think
39:15 specifically, how can you help somebody else in their relationship to God? How
39:21 can you help someone take their needs to God? Of course, you can pray for them,
39:27 but you might be able to do something else concrete to show the love and the grace of God.
39:33 Also, try to think of someone that God wants you to take the message of his salvation to. You have neighbors. You
39:40 have friends. You have family members. You have colleagues at work. You have people that if you were conscientious
39:47 about it, you could start to build relationships with. God wants you to take his message to
39:53 them. You're a priest of God. And you're a priest for all peoples.
39:60 I've mentioned family. I've mentioned friends. Yes, we want to take the gospel to them. But there are other people that
40:06 we might not consider friends. We might even consider enemies because they are
40:11 of a different ethnic group, different race, different religion. But yet God is
40:16 redeeming people from all of them. And the way he does it is when we share the gospel with them so they can respond in
40:24 faith. A final response that we can give to
40:29 Jesus, give him the glory, give him the honor,
40:35 give him the thanks. It all belongs to him. So give it to him.
40:41 That includes of course our times of corporate worship. It also includes times of private personal times of
40:48 worship. But more importantly than what we do on Sunday morning is that we bring glory
40:56 and honor to Christ through our daily life.
41:02 I don't know about you, but I find it's a lot easier to come and sing for 20 minutes on Sunday than to live
41:07 consistently day after day after day when I run into people that are not praising God. See, if I come here, I'm
41:15 surrounded by people praising God and I can join in and sing. But when I'm out there, I'm around people who don't even
41:22 know God. Therefore, how can they bring glory to him? So, my daily life, how am
41:27 I going to respond? and think specifically your life. What in your life is not bringing honor or glory to
41:35 God? How can you through your daily life bring honor?
41:41 This year at Christmas, we're celebrating the birth of the baby in the
41:46 manger. And we've just heard a wonderful song in heaven that describes who this
41:52 one is. Remember the song that we started off
41:58 with? It's asking the question, who is this child?
42:03 We've also asked the question, what has he done? How can I respond? But an answer to this question, who is this
42:09 child? This Christmas carol goes on and gives a good response. This is Christ the King.
42:18 That's who he is. And how do we respond? We haste to bring him Led. Haste. Hurry.
42:26 Do it now. Don't wait until next year. Don't wait until your kids are grown. Don't wait until you've retired. Do it
42:31 now. Bring him L. That's just another word for praise and glory. Through your
42:37 lips, through your thoughts, through your actions. Haste to bring him L. This
42:43 year, as we celebrate Christmas, let's remember who Jesus is more than just a
42:49 baby in a manger. Remember what he has done for us and respond appropriately.
42:56 Let's pray together. Almighty God, we give you thanks for your love for us. We thank you
43:03 especially for how that was shown in a concrete way as Jesus was obedient,
43:08 faithful even unto death as he died on the cross for us. So we thank you for
43:15 the cross. We thank you for your love. And help us to lift our eyes up. Help us
43:21 to take our eyes away from the things that surround us and discourage us and distract us. And to realize that you
43:28 indeed do reign. You are high and lifted up. You are victorious.
43:36 Father, I pray for those today who have never bowed before the lion of Judah, the root, who have never acknowledged
43:43 Jesus as Lord or King, who have never accepted the forgiveness of the blood of
43:48 the lamb. I pray that today they would come to you in repentance and faith. And
43:53 father, for those of us who have acknowledged you as king and accepted you as savior, I pray that you will show
43:59 us specific ways you want us to respond to you in this Christmas time as well as
44:06 throughout the year. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
