All right, we're gonna end today with a word that I hope starts your Christmas week off. We're here, right? I mean, it's here. It's happened. So lemme just say hello to those of you here in Chesterfield, in overflow, in Chesterfield, those of you at Fenton, in overflow, at Fenton, those of you at Mid Rivers Grants Trail, and those of you who are watching us around the country and around the world, we are going to celebrate today. But what's the word we're gonna end with? What's the word we're gonna kick off our, uh, our Christmas week with? Well, there's a lot of 'em that we could come up with, right? How about this one? Worship. Now, I know we've already been doing this, but I want to take you someplace. I want us to look at something together that might surprise us, that could lead us to a, a level of worship that, that just rolls right into the Christmas week. So lemme pray for us and we'll get started. Father, we come before you now and, uh, we're asking for your help. We've got, many of us have lists in our heads of things that we think we need to do this week. We've got stuff at work, we've got stuff maybe even at school. We've got stuff at home. We've got all of these things on our to-do list. But Lord, I can't think of anything more important than for us right now to stop, to pause, to remember, to reflect on what you have done for us. So I pray that you'll grab our attention. I pray that you'll draw us in as we hear a familiar story and at one place together, maybe a part of the story that's so freaky. We didn't even think we'd be talking about it at Christmas, but I pray through all of the power of your word and through the presence of your Holy Spirit that you'll help us. Now, we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Okay, so it's me and Robin. Uh, she's my wife. And, uh, well, not everybody knows that. So, uh, I'm this close to making you stand up. So, uh, so, so, so it's me, Robin, and our guide. It's just the three of us this time, and we're making our way through the checkpoint. And when you go through a checkpoint, there's like, you know, depending on the checkpoint, there's, there's fences and there's gates, and there's barbed wire, and there's, uh, in this case, there are soldiers with machine guns, and you're going through a checkpoint, right? Because we're going into the West Bank, we're going from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. Now, let's just go ahead and say, in the last couple of years, things have not gotten better. They've gotten worse. Let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Amen. Amen. So we're making our way through, and, uh, it's just the three of us, and I'm trying not to nerd out. We, we get through the checkpoint and we're kind of rounding the, the things, and I'm going, you know, and I'm pointing things out to the guy and he goes, yeah, I know I do this for a living. And so, you know, and so I'm, I'm, I'm dialing it back. I'm dialing it back. Uh, but it's just, it's just, it's just like we're heading to the Church of the Nativity. Now, if you've done this tour before, there's a church that was built centuries earlier on top of what some people say is the place where Jesus was born. Do we know that that is where Jesus was born? No, we do not. I cannot tell you that with all certainty. I don't need to. If you know your geography, if you know your history, if you know your Bible, we're close. I mean, we're in those hills, and we, and we, we, we, we, like 3000 years ago, a shepherd king was anointed there. It's David. We heard a little bit of this story last week, 2000 years ago, an angel, one of these other worldly beings announces to some thoroughly freaked out shepherds that the best news ever had happened. A savior has been born to you where exactly where a prophet named Micah said this Messiah would be born like 700 or so bc Let's look at this verse. This is one of the classics in the Christmas story, but you Bethlehem Raha. Now if Raha is just the district of Bethlehem, so he's kind of dialing it in though you are small among the clans of Judah, that's one of the tribes of Israel. Out of you will come for me. One who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times that from old of ancient times. It could mean like reaching back to the time of David. This traces back to David. There are some that says, no, it's, this is an eternal being. I mean, all we know is this Messiah is going to be born in Bethlehem, and we're close, we're there, and we're winding through the hills. And I am sure as I'm standing here and she is my witness, we round a corner in the car and there are shepherds scooting a flock along a hillside. And I'm like, are you kidding me? God, are you trying to make my heart explode? We're close. We're close to the reason today for why we're gonna worship. We're close to the reason those angels came unglued that night. We're close if you with us a couple of weeks ago. We're close to this thing that the angels long to look into. Do some of you remember that? These angels long to look into part of the story We're close. A couple of weeks ago, we started this series by, uh, discussing the eternal king, the timeless one, the one who existed before there was time itself. And somehow he squeezes into human frame. He squeezes into our existence as one of us. Then last week, uh, we were reminded of, of the humble king. And and there's so many parts of this. He does, he sets aside his glory, he steps into the story. But then Tim told us he puts a towel over his arm and he serves us in the most profound of ways. Today, we will celebrate the arrival of the victorious king. Y'all ready for that? But I just want you to understand it may not be what you expected. You see, when we, when we look at, at the, the, the images and the, the symbols that point towards this victory, when we look at the flat out prophecies of Isaiah, when we look at some of this, it might not be what you expected or it's what we need. It's just not what you expected. I start talking about victory and you've got things in your head already, if it helps at all. It wasn't what a lot of other people expected, either, like John the Baptist, that's not his denomination. It's just, it's just John the Baptist. 'cause he baptized people, okay? And, and, and John is a contemporary of Jesus. In fact, uh, they have a connection. John has his own miraculous sort of birth story. He was born to, to elderly parents who did not think they were gonna have a baby. His mom's name is Elizabeth. She's related to Mary. This is the mother of Jesus. And when nobody is buying Mary's story of this once in forever pregnancy that she has, who does she go to? Who does she hang out with? It's Elizabeth. Elizabeth believes her. Elizabeth blesses her, says some of the most beautiful things in the Christmas story. Elizabeth and Mary are close, right? And they both have these baby boys. About the same time John grows up, he is the forerunner of Messiah. He's the one clearing the path for Messiah. Jesus would later call him the greatest prophet ever. But even John, even John didn't see what was Okay, let's just stop there. We're gonna jump from Bethlehem to another location. Now just keep your seat belts on 'cause we're gonna move to three different locations. Here we go. Now we're moving to a place called Bethany, across the Jordan or Bethany beyond the Jordan. What is this? This is a location where John as an adult is doing his ministry. This is where John is preaching. What's he preaching? Y'all Messiah is coming. You better be ready and you better repent. Oh yeah. And as a public way to tell people that you need God, even if you're religious, I want you to get in this Jordan River and I'm gonna baptize you. That water isn't gonna change you, but we're gonna tell the world that you need God's forgiveness. That's John's ministry. And he's there at Bethany, beyond the Jordan. And then we read certain day, next day he says, behold. Now, behold is a, it's a great word. We don't use that word enough. It comes up in the Christmas songs all the time. We just sang. Behold, didn't we? Behold the Father's love beyond all comprehension. Behold, what that word means is, Hey, pay attention. Look, I don't want you to miss this. Grapple with this. Think about this. Don't blow past this. Behold, we should use that word more, shouldn't we? Behold your messy room, behold our credit card bill after Christmas, behold that sunset, behold the way that little one looks at her mama, We should use that word behold more often. John says, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now, for some of you who have been around the church block more than once, and you've heard these stories more than once, you are now running the danger of hearing those words. The way you hear something in a, like a church, Easter or or Christmas pageant. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. I need you to understand it. Pact a lot more punched than that. Okay? First of all, I don't even think John knew fully what he was saying there. Prophets often didn't know the full meaning of what they were saying. He's inspired, he's saying stuff off the world. Take away the sin of the world. In the Greek, that word is cosmos. You could read that. Hey, look, this is the one who's going to purge the universe of all brokenness and sin. Now, does John know all that he's saying there? I I don't think so, but he knows this much. That's Messiah. He's the one I've been talking about. He's the one we've been waiting for. And then he says something really interesting. I myself, I, I I, I didn't know him. I a minute, you just got through telling me that they're related, that they grew up together. Now, we don't have any of this in the scriptures, but I don't think it's too big a stretch to say that these fellas knew each other, that they like at big family gatherings, extended gatherings. I mean, their moms were good friends. They had to have seen each other at the festivals and the feasts in and around Jerusalem. And John's going, I didn't know this guy. That's not what he's saying. He's saying, I had no idea he was Messiah. And then God reveals it to me through his spirit. He reveals it to me. And if you read the story, he's essentially describing the baptism of Jesus. This has already happened. Lot happened. We talk about this every spring. Spirit of God descends in a tangible way, audible voice. You are my son and whom I am well pleased. John's got a front row seat to all of it. He's starting to figure this out. Ho ho. He's Messiah. Who knew? Who knew I grew up? Who knew? Now, did all of the puzzle pieces fall into place? That moment for John? I don't think so. I want you to understand, as you read the gospels, remember, these people are figuring this out in real time. We're looking back through time and it's so easy for us. It's like, oh, it's obvious. No, he's trying to figure it out as he goes. I'm telling you, this was a surprise. Like this was a, this was a big one. So do you ever get surprised? Please don't. Please don't be that person that goes, you know, Greg, I rarely am shocked by things. I am such a good prognosticator that I am not surprised. Well, good for you. You must have gotten in on Bitcoin real early, right? I mean, you bought, you bought Apple stock in 1980 and didn't sell it in the nineties. You, you, you were listening to Taylor Swift on MySpace because you knew she was gonna be a big deal. All right? So good for you. But for the rest of us, we get surprised, okay? I want you to turn around and just hang out with some people around you and tell 'em the last time you were really, really surprised. Go ahead, just tell 'em the last time you were absolutely gobsmacked, Okay? Okay. So Christmas is a time of surprises. Uh, how many of you, I'm just curious. Each of our sites everywhere, living rooms, wherever you are, just quick, quick survey. How many of you, the surprise that you described was a good surprise, okay? How many of you, it was a not so great surprise. Yeah, it's true, isn't it? They break both ways and, and when they're, when they're good surprises, we, well, we'll come back to that in a second. When they're not so good surprises, we're left a little unsettled, aren't we? Sometimes it's like, man, I I thought you were better than that. Or sometimes it's like, I thought we were doing okay. Or what do you mean those can't be my test results? I mean, we could just go on and on. Right there, there are surprises. And what then what happens then is you, you start to have questions and you start to feel a little even disillusioned, right? I want you to know that a little bit of that was going on with John the Baptist. You see, if we go to Matthew chapter 11, part of what we'll see there is that now he's in prison. There's a horrible king who answers to Rome and he's tossed John in prison. And John is beginning to have second thoughts about, is Jesus the Messiah? I mean, this guy is the greatest prophet ever. And he's going, I did I get it wrong? He sends some of his disciples as emissaries to Jesus, and they ask Jesus, Hey, John just wants to know are, are you the one? Now, the reason I bring that up right now is that at this Christmas season, things are moving and they're chugging, and you're looking around at all of the other people going, man, y'all believe this stuff. And I don't know, or I used to believe it, and I don't know. I want you, your takeaway today comes early. Here it is. If you are experiencing doubt because of some stuff that has blown into your life, you are not alone. Jesus, it's in this story by the way that he calls John the greatest prophet ever after John has said, yeah, I'm having doubts, man. I love the way Jesus handles him. It's just so sweet. It's so good. He gives him scriptures. He said, you go back and you tell him this is what's going on, king. I just want you to know you are not alone. And I think it's way better to say these things out loud, to pray about it, to find someone and say, I don't know anymore. But let's just stay with John for a second, because what's going on here is John is disappointed with the way Jesus is doing things. Frankly. You see, John had expectations. We've talked about this now for a couple of weeks, but let's just say it again. There were, from the very beginning in Genesis, we saw this, there were these promises of one who is going to be born of a woman who is going to deal with evil once and for all. That's the promise. And then all throughout the Old Testament, we just see all of these promises. Sometimes it has to do with like, uh, there are like flat out prophecy. Sometimes it's these images and symbols that keep coming up, but they start to build over time throughout what we would call the Old Testament. And one of the things that we read there is that there is one who is coming, who's gonna deal with evil, and he will reign forever and ever. And so people began to realize that there is a coming king, and this king is gonna deal with the enemy, and people are hanging onto that. And in, in Jesus day, this is exactly what they are hoping for. Please God send Messiah the king so that he can deal with the enemy. I think this is what John was wanting. In fact, we won't go into it too far, but I'll just tell you that there are, are there were, uh, other writings not in scripture, so not biblical, but there were other writings of, of people who were expecting somebody to come in these in the last days. And he was described as a kind of a warrior lamb. And he's just gonna be the one he's gonna, he's gonna defeat evil. He's gonna deal with the enemy. That's it. We have no idea what was rumbling around in the head of John. I know the, I know the spirit inspired him to say he's the lamb of God. But let's just say it one more time. Prophets didn't know everything. You, you only see it clearly looking back, I can tell you that if you listen to, or you read some of the, the, the preaching of John, he expected judgment. Like you go read them, that when he's preaching, he's saying things like, y'all, Messiah is coming and judgment is here. The acts, he says, is this close to the root of the tree. It's coming. John expected Messiah to show up, deal with sin, deal with the enemy, and that would be it. And he was right in a way. I mean, Messiah did come and he did deal with sin, and he did deal with evil. But can we just say out loud, he did not annihilate all of the enemies of God when he first showed up. And aren't we grateful for that? Romans five says that while we were so powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. That's me. What John couldn't see that we can see more clearly is that these prophecies we're describing to advents, there is the birth of the king, and there's the return of the king. When you start to lay them all out, there are these two advents, these two arrivals that are coming the first time he will come in humility and vulnerability. This, this is, is is what we see, uh, at Christmas, right? This is what we celebrate at Christmas. But he will return in all of his glory and power, and he will deal with suffering and death and evil. And that'll be it once and for all. And that's the return of the king. By the way, next weekend, we're gonna just barely touch on this, okay? It's gonna be very interesting as we celebrate Christmas, for anyone who needs a a, a word of hope, y'all are gonna come back, right? Can we just agree to that? Is everybody coming back? Okay. And bring 5, 10, 15 of your closest friends, because it's gonna be good, alright? We're gonna do this together. But on the first advent, when the king is born, he comes to what? To redeem us. What do the angels say? A savior has been born to you. He comes to save us. Well, how's he gonna do that? By giving his life as a sacrifice. We're getting there. Now, Jesus knew this. Nobody else expected this. Jesus says in Mark chapter 10, uh, I I didn't come to, to, to, to be served. I came to serve. But then he takes it another layer, and he says, I came to give my life as a ransom for many. This was the, this was the, the promise. All along this was the promise. You see all of those weird practices in, in the Hebrew worship cycle and sacrifices and all of that stuff, the images and the symbols and the metaphors, it's all pointing to this. Uh, all of those, those, those, uh, those, those, uh, images of, of, of a lamb that just keep showing up in the Hebrew story way back in Genesis 22, difficult story. Isaac and Abraham are walking up a mountain Mount Mariah, it's where Jerusalem is. It's where the temple is. It's, it's all, it's all there. But they're walking up this mountain. And at one point, Isaac asks a haunting question, if you know this story, and says, Hey dad, if we're gonna make an offering here, where's the lamb? And this heartbroken, faithful, obedient. Father Abraham says, even more than he knows that he's saying, the Lord will provide the lamb, son. And he did. He did. When you get to the Passover, the there's a spotless lamb, a, a, a lamb without blemish. That is, that that dies as a substitute for each family on the night of the first Passover. And then you get to those prophecies in Isaiah, where Isaiah says, there is one who is coming who will suffer for us. He will be pierced for our transgressions. He'll be wounded for our iniquities. That's our sins. And then he says, the peace that we get to enjoy, it's because the punishment is gonna land on him. And then these very disturbing words, Isaiah 700 years earlier says, he will be led like a lamb to slaughter. And some of you at this point are going, this is the part of the story that I don't like. This is the part of the story. That's weird. It's gross, it's brutal, it's too graphic. And I couldn't agree with you more. But one more time. These sacrifices don't change people's standing with a holy God. God says all along, listen, I don't need these animals. I'm looking on your heart. But I'm gonna use these images and mi and, and, and symbols and metaphors to teach you something about the ugliness of sin and the high cost of forgiveness. We don't like talking about this. I don't like talking about this. I don't like admitting to you that I have fallen short of God's standard. I I have sinned. I still sinned. I don't like saying that out loud, but that's the truth about me. I, I, I I've, I've made a mess of things and so have you. We've hurt ourselves, we've hurt God, we've hurt each other. We've rebelled against him, and we've thoroughly made a mess of things. Ho ho, ho. You could almost hear the chestnuts popping. It's so Christmas Eve here, right? Listen, it gets worse. We can't do anything about it. I can't change things between me and God. I can't make things right. I need a God who is so loving and so powerful that he will come and rescue me. Now we're there. This is the good news in the city of David today. A savior has been born for you. That's what the angel is saying. He's coming for you. He's rescuing you. See, I need a God who will forgive me. Well, how's he gonna forgive me? Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, forgiveness is a form of suffering. God is going to suffer. God is going to absorb the debt. God is going to take this upon himself. See, I want you to understand, if you really want to get to the depth of the story of Christmas, here it is, the Son of God on the transcendent, that transcendent moment on the cross takes on all of the punishment, all of the pain, all of the shame, all of the consequence of all of the sin upon himself. And somehow because he is God, he exhausts the power of it all. But the only way that is possible is for the Son of God to be born. That's why we celebrate One more time. Let's just read this is, this is, uh, Luke chapter two, verse 11. We need to go on ahead and just, and just read this today, in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is messiah, the Lord. And then the angels say, glory to God and the highest and on earth, peace to those on whom his favor rests. So here's the next question. Y'all talk to each other. I'm gonna get answers from you this time. What do you do when you get shockingly good news? Alright, go ahead. Just go back to each other. What do you do when? Like, what's your reaction when you get shockingly good news? Okay. Alright, so here we are. We're we're, we're talking about Christmas. We're, we're talking about all of these things, but now we're getting into the realm of like shockingly good news. Like, uh, I know sites have a fantastic answer. So somebody at a site just scream out your answer. If you're one of the overflow areas, just tell everybody else in the room. Go ahead, I'm gonna give you a second. Do that right now. Yeah, that was awesome. That was awesome. No, really, I I guarantee you it was awesome. I know the wisdom of these sites. Okay, now somebody here, when you hear shockingly good news overhear, somebody said scream. Okay, tell others. You tell others, right? You gotta share it. What else? Anybody got anything? Celebrate You. Celebrate, right? All of these things, you applaud. You do all of these things, right? You, you, you fall down on the ground and you roll around. You don't know what they, ah, it's great, it's great news. Hold onto that. Now I want to take you to one other place. So we went from Bethlehem to Bethany, beyond the Jordan to, well, I don't know where we're going, okay? Because technically it's not in our plane of existence. What I want to take you to a book that we spent a while studying a couple of three years ago. It's called The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Some of that book is freaky. It has caused arguments within the church. It doesn't have to, if you'll recall and you were with us, we wanna understand the context of it. We wanna understand what's being said in the early parts. We wanna all agree on what's being said in the late parts. And then there's that swirly middle where it's okay for people to have disagreements. Okay? We're not even going into the swirly middle. Okay? So here's what I want you to know. The oldest living disciple, the last disciple alive, it's John, not the Baptist, but John the disciple. He's the guy who writes the gospel. He's the one who writes and records this thing. Now, he's living in a time where there is an emperor who is very threatened by people saying There is another king, the king of kings and the Lord of Lords. You see this, uh, this, this, this, uh, well, his name was Dmi Domi was demanding people to worship him across the Roman Empire. In fact, there are many, many places in the, in the ancient literature that say it was required of people to refer to him as Domus eight Deus. What does that mean? My lord and my God, history tells us he even required his wife to refer to him as my Lord and my God, which is something I do not recommend. This guy was incredibly insecure. He killed, uh, like one of the Roman leaders who named a spear after himself. Instead of after doit, he killed somebody once when he, they, they introduced him the wrong way. When he entered a party, this guy wanted to be in charge and he wanted to be worshiped. And John is leading this group of Christ followers who refuse to bend the knee to Caesar. He gets exiled to an island just off the coast of Turkey. And at some point he has, I don't know what else to call it, but a vision. There is something that now happens where God is going to encourage John. He's gonna give him words for the churches in the region. He's gonna give him a glimpse of the future. But before he can do any of that, he needs John to be very clear on who holds the future. John, one more time before I show you a few things of how it's all gonna end. I want you to know who holds the future, who's going to make this happen? So we get to chapter four, and John begins to describe some pretty freaky stuff. He says, here it is, behold, right? I mean, look at it. It says, and behold a door standing open in heaven. Now guys, we're not gonna go into all of this. I'm, this is not the Marvel multiverse. This is not, we can talk about different dimensions of reality. I'm fascinated by some of this stuff. I don't know or understand it all, but I love talking about these things. I will just say, John is now at a place where he's going to enter into a realm that we can, we, we, we can just only imagine. But I believe God was saying something to him. You see, I think the biggest mistake we could make these days is to, to, to imagine God too small. My God is big enough that I can just keep running down these roads. I can listen to quantum mechanics. People talk about things. I can, I can, I can kind of noodle around on the theory of everything. 'cause my God is that big. Okay? So John says, I was invited into something and he in this vision now begins to see what I will call the control room of the universe. He sees the throne of God and he quickly runs out of words to describe it. He talks about flashes of light and rumbles of thunder. He talks about like translucent stones. He's trying to describe all of these things that we as humans in three dimensions we can barely understand. At one point he says, there are these other worldly beings and they are surrounding the throne of God. And what are they singing? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. And then he describes others who now begin to join. It's like this echo of worship that is surrounding the throne of Almighty God. That's chapter four. You see, chapter four, one writer puts it this way. If we wanna learn anything from chapter four, it is this, it is that the worship of God is the heartbeat of the cosmos. This is chapter four, but now we're going to chapter five. In chapter five, we're going to see not the worship of God the creator, God the Father, but we're going to see the worship of one who is the pivotal history of all the pivotal figure in all of history. You see, if you wanna understand Christmas, then here we go. If you wanna be surprised, then here we go. If you wanna be led to worship, then here we go. Because it be at the beginning of, of chapter five, John uh, says, says, uh, I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne. Now this is the Lord God Almighty and all of his multidimensional glory. I saw a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. There's so much imagery here, so much symbolism here. We're not gonna go into all of it. Let me just help you with this. God is helping John to understand something because in those days, Caesar would hold a scroll and it was his symbol of authority. It was sealed, it had writing on both sides. It had his titles and his names, his official names as Caesar. And he was said to be the only one who was worthy, the only one who was allowed to unbreak the seal. The only one that was allowed to open the scroll. He is the only one. You get it? This is what's going on. God is trying to get a word to John. This emperor wants to be worshiped. This emperor wants everyone to think that he is in charge. And now God gives John this vision and says, you need to know the plan for how it's all gonna happen. The plan for how history ends, the plan for how I am going to deal with the world destroying schemes of the evil one. It's all in my hand. John, I want you to understand I got this, but then there's a question that's asked a mighty angel. We're, we're told, asks, who is worthy to break the seal and open the scroll, but no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. Now, I want you to imagine in this vision, try to put yourself there. This question echoes throughout the cosmos. Who would dare take this? Scroll out of the hand of God Almighty. Who would dare to say I could make this happen? Who would dare grab this skull and not collapse under the weight of it all? John says, no one showed up. No, no one said anything at first. And he wept. And wept. Okay, lemme just do a little side comment here. I think I see people reacting that way today. I think it's what explains the despair and the defeatism and the cynicism and the, the anxiety of today. When we look at this world and some people say, yeah, there's just no way it can be healed. There's just no way that anything could make it right. Listen, that's what you say when there isn't hope on the horizon. But there is one who was standing there with John. And in this pause when John is weeping, this one who is with him says, what are now gonna be familiar words? He says, weep. No more behold The lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered so that he can open the scroll in its seven seals. Now, these are Old Testament titles for Messiah himself. He is the lion of Judah. He comes from the family of David and he has conquered, I want you to see this now. It's past tense. It's already happened. He has conquered, what John is hearing is, hey, whatever now unfolds from history on forward, it's because of a victory that has already happened. He hears the announcement of the triumph of the lion of Judah. He sees that he is the one who will take the scroll from God Almighty. He understands what is going on. And obviously whose John saw was Jesus, right? I mean, we know that he's the line of Judah. He's the one. But I want you to see now this, this, this hostess person that is with him says, behold, pay attention the lion of Judah. Now watch this, because when he turns and he looks at the center of the universe, look at what he says he saw. And then I saw a lamb looking as if it had been slain standing at the center of the throne. Now here we go. Here we go. A lion. I love lions. They are cool and frightening and uh, awe inspiring. And if you ever hear one roar in the wild, you won't forget it. A lion can generate a sound up to 115, 120 decibels. You have any idea how loud that is? A rock concert, getting after it for a minute can get up to that many decibels. A turbo fan jet engine, you're about 200 feet away from it. And it starts to take off. It gets up to 115, 120 decibels. It is loud. How can they generate such, such a volume? Well, as it turns out, human vocal cords these folds in our skin, in our voice box, our larynx, they are kind of triangular when it forms and then the air comes up and vibrates. And that's how we make sound because of fatty deposits and things you don't wanna know about lion's throats. Uh, what what happens is when when the folds are there, it it actually is more of a square shape, which makes it much more efficient, much more stable, and it makes it a lot easier for like air to flow so they don't have to generate the same pressure from their lungs as we do. And when they roar, I mean they can roar. I mean, after all that talk, don't you think we should hear a lion roar? Okay, here's the thing. Cover junior's ears hold grandma's hand. This is the roar of a lion. Oh, did you feel it? I love the roar. There are so many reasons that a lion roars. I'm just gonna give you two of them and then I'm gonna be done preaching. But you gotta hear me. Lions will roar sometimes to defend their territory, to warn the adversary not here. And sometimes in the middle of a light night, a lion will roar to call in the pride come to me. I'm telling you that'll preach. All I'm saying is I love the power of a lion and I love the image of Jesus as the ferocious lion of Judah. Come on. But at the end of the story, what John gets is not that he gets a lamb and, and and in the Greek a little lamb. Now guys, again, these are all symbols. It's not like he's looking at a little lamb. But what's going on here? John says, I was told that the triumph had happened and I turned and I look and what I saw was a lamb as if it had been slain. That's too cleaned up a lamb. That is if it had been slaughtered. Do you know what John is saying? He said, amen. I'm just, who's gonna take control of all of this? And they said, behold, look right there at the center of the universe. And what does John say? He says, oh yeah, I know him. I've seen him. That's my friend. The crucified Lord. That's what he's saying. John was the only disciple who is willing to stand at the foot of the cross next to Mary. John is going, I know you. I've seen you gang. I want you to understand the surprise of Christmas where all of this heads, the reason that we've spent this time on this today is because God will win. But you need to know the battle has already been fought and Jesus has already defeated the enemy. Here's how one theologian puts it. Richard A says, God overcomes the world not through a show of force, but through the suffering and death of Jesus. Now, we gotta let that sink in. The sacrificial love of our king is somehow the victory that will destroy the world destroyers. Nobody will ever dero the lamb of God. He is the lion of Judah. He is the king of kings and the Lord of lords. But if we were really going to take a look at all of this right here at the end, what we would say is that the cross looms large and the prophecies and the looks forward and back always come to the cross because a war was waged and the enemy was defeated and the blood of only one was spilled. And because of that, we are free. What do you do when you get the best news ever? What do you do when you get shockingly good news? You could scream, you could clap, you could celebrate. You most certainly want to tell others, but I think you worship. I think you worship glory to God in the highest and on earth. Peace to those on whom his favorite rests. His favorite rests on us. Not because of anything we've done, but because of what we have received. What do you do when you've heard the most shockingly good news ever? You celebrate. That's why those angels were so undone in Bethlehem that night. Bethlehem, I'll just tell you this now to come full circle. It is not lost on me that if you're a shepherd for very long, that you will see the birth of a lamb or two. It is not lost on me that that night it was shepherds who were the first to be invited to celebrate the birth of the lamb of God. It always points to the one who can make things right and he was born in Bethlehem. That is good news. It's good news for anybody who's worn down. It's good news For anyone here who thinks, well, I wonder if God has forgotten about me. It's good news for anyone here who says, there's no way God could forgive what I've done. It's good news for anyone here who's been pushed to the side and you wonder, does anybody even see me? For anybody who is worn down, for anyone who is worried for who? Anyone who's about to head into this week going, I don't wanna miss it. Is Christmas still for me? I want you to know the victorious king came for you. What have we been saying for the last few weeks? You are the beloved. You are the apple of his eye. It's your name that's carved on his palms. Y'all remember the stuff we've been talking about these last few weeks? It's all coming, rushing together. And if that's true, how about we just take our cue from the shepherds, let us go and see this thing that has happened. Should we not now enter into a time of worship and communion here at the end, you have your elements. And if you're ready to take these uh, these elements, then in just a minute we will do just that. But first at each of our sites, and here, I think we should prepare our hearts with one more time. Worship. Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.