Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] We know the story. Among the first to hear about Christ's birth were shepherds, shepherds outside the city limits of Bethlehem.
[00:00:13] And they were working, probably by the light of a fire at night, when all of the sudden the darkness exploded with angels singing. Even as we have heard this morning from our kids.
[00:00:32] Now we have to realize that these men who are mostly described or seen in our Christmas plays are just. They're kind of quiet, props off to the side.
[00:00:45] But these men would have been more like the cowboys of the day.
[00:00:49] They would have smelled like animals and sweat.
[00:00:54] They were outside of the city limits, on the fringe of society.
[00:00:59] And yet at Christmas, God chooses to give them a glimpse into heaven.
[00:01:06] As these galactic cosmic creatures show up and begin to sing, praising God, Luke tells us, saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among men with whom he is pleased.
[00:01:25] These men who fought off beasts to protect their flock would have been shaking in their sandals.
[00:01:35] And as Lina says, they were sore afraid.
[00:01:39] Some of you with your KJV. You know what that is, Ms. Pam?
[00:01:45] Sore afraid.
[00:01:48] They were so afraid.
[00:01:50] Scared.
[00:01:52] But why in the world back in Luke, and why in the world are shepherds such a part of the Christmas story?
[00:02:03] Why does God go to them with this otherworldly view?
[00:02:10] This song, this chorus, this declaration that God is in charge was the same sort of logic we see in the book of Revelation.
[00:02:23] We see a vision of heaven that was given to another shepherd, a pastor named John, who's been exiled for preaching the gospel.
[00:02:35] Remember, John tells us that he saw the Word made flesh. He saw the flesh.
[00:02:45] He saw God in flesh, walking, talking, eating.
[00:02:50] He stood at the foot of the cross as blood splattered on his face.
[00:02:58] John, who saw him raised from the dead, has declared, no, this is reality.
[00:03:08] The Lamb that was slain is ruling and reigning, and for that he has been exiled.
[00:03:16] He has been sent to the Isle of Patmos to work in the mines until he dies.
[00:03:23] And God has chosen to give him a vision of the angels singing to Jesus so that he would endure.
[00:03:31] He's chosen to give him this vision that he will then give to the churches so that they would endure in persecution. They are to understand that in heaven right now, even as we sing today, Jesus is being worshiped as king. Jesus is in control.
[00:03:50] So do not fear. And go tell it. Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills, and everywhere with the shepherds who saw probably some of the same angels that sing in heaven in Revelation standing before them at Christmas.
[00:04:09] These shepherds, as they see into heaven, are to be Bold with their witness. And it's the same thing the churches in Revelation are to do but notice. As we make our way toward the end of chapter five, John, who has seen so many things already unfold before his eyes.
[00:04:28] Notice verse 11. He says, Then I looked. And at this point in the last two chapters four and five, John is like that little kid who's telling you a story and they've seen things they can't believe.
[00:04:42] I saw this and I saw this and. And then this happened, and then this, and then this and then this. That's what John is trying to describe. And as he sees this vision into heaven, I saw so much.
[00:04:55] It was so overwhelming. And then it was this, and then it was that.
[00:04:59] Notice then I looked.
[00:05:02] So far he has seen Jesus unveiled as God's king.
[00:05:09] Remember, the question has rung out throughout heaven who is worthy to take the scroll meaning who can be God's king and execute his plan?
[00:05:18] Who can bring about all of the blessing and cursings to earth as history unfolds? And there is only one, the Lamb who was slain. And as soon as he comes on the scene, there is worship in heaven among all of the creatures.
[00:05:35] And John is overwhelmed by this.
[00:05:39] And he says, and then I looked and I heard around the throne. And the living creatures, remember the creatures, four of them. One with the face like a lion, one with a face like a man, one with the face like an ox, one with the face like an eagle. These creatures that are there to protect the throne, it's unapproachable. And the elders, 24 of them, who represent the saints and offer the prayers of the saints. So all power and authority around the throne, they're worshiping the Lamb that was slain. They are declaring he is worthy because he ransomed to people from God, from the nations. They are declaring all of this. And then, and then, and then the voice of many angels.
[00:06:29] Added to the number of these angels is the voice of more angels.
[00:06:35] John, where did they come from?
[00:06:39] Beyond the throne.
[00:06:41] Worship begins to move out into this spiritual realm.
[00:06:46] And innumerable angels notice, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands upon thousands. You cannot count the number of heavenly creatures who are worshiping the Lamb.
[00:07:03] We don't know what this was, is what he. Exactly, Saul.
[00:07:07] But again, we have to have good angelology.
[00:07:13] These would have been fierce creatures, all kinds of them.
[00:07:18] Loud, thunderous, galactic surround sound that would have shaken his soul, overwhelmed him.
[00:07:35] Just like the shepherds at Christmas who were so afraid.
[00:07:41] But notice what they're saying. Notice with a loud voice, earth Shaking soul, shaking voice. Notice their declaration.
[00:07:52] Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.
[00:07:56] We've already heard that song in another hymn. And now they affirm that all of heaven, all of the creatures of heaven, all of the angels, yes, the Lamb that was slain, he is worthy again.
[00:08:11] We are to see Jesus standing there with scars from the crucifixion, where nails went through his hands, pierced side. We are to see the risen Christ. All of the language thus far describing Jesus standing there as the one who is being worshiped. The Lamb who was slain, he is worthy. Now remember, the word worthy means to declare worth. And it's closely associated with worship.
[00:08:46] And we've talked about this idea of worship in our minds. We should see a set of scales.
[00:08:53] And on one side you have God. And what is God worth?
[00:08:58] The weight and gravity of God. What is he worth? What could we put on the other side of the scales to declare his worth? That's what worship is, to give God what he is worth. Our praise, our life, our money, our resources. What is God worth?
[00:09:17] Everything. We could put everything on the scales and it still would not equal his worth. And. And that's what we see heaven doing here. Because next we see a list of seven words trying to describe the worth of God, trying to communicate how is he worthy? What is he worthy of? Heaven doesn't have enough words to describe how much Jesus is worth. They can't find enough words.
[00:09:53] Heaven, the wisdom of heaven, the resources of heaven.
[00:09:59] What can we come up with to say what Jesus is worth? And there's not enough notice.
[00:10:07] Worthy to receive power. It is as though every one of these seven words is a weight to put on the scale and it's still not enough.
[00:10:18] And it's also seven of them. What do we know about seven? In Revelation, it describes completeness or fullness.
[00:10:25] What they are saying here is Jesus is worthy of all, all praise and all rule. Notice. He's worthy to receive power. This word means the right to rule and wealth. He's. He's worthy of abundance. He's worthy to have everything given to him.
[00:10:42] He's worthy of wisdom. Jesus is the One who knows all things, and he knows what is good. So he should be the one making decisions and might. This refers to strength or power over your enemies. He is worthy to be exalted as one who has conquered all of his enemies.
[00:11:02] And honor. This means to lift up, exalt, put on a pedestal above everyone else. He is worthy of the throne of exaltation above every other power and glory. This is another word for weight, put all on the scale for him and blessing.
[00:11:18] This word blessing is where we get the word eulogy at someone's funeral. We speak good words about them.
[00:11:26] Jesus is worthy of all the good words, all the praise.
[00:11:32] And so these angels in heaven, it just spreads into realms unknown.
[00:11:39] Echoing yes, he is worthy, and he is worthy of it all because he was slain. But it doesn't stop there. Notice verse 13.
[00:11:50] And I heard every creature in heaven. And then we don't know if it moves from the angels to people who were already in heaven.
[00:12:01] Creature in heaven and on earth and in the sea and all that is in them, saying so here the worship goes from every corner of heaven to then every corner of earth.
[00:12:21] All that Jesus created in heaven and on earth, begin to praise him, begin to join with what's going on around the throne. Yes, we go Back to Genesis 1. All living things that he created.
[00:12:40] We could think of a lot of animals that joined in here, a lot of common animals, but I like to think of the more obscure animals.
[00:12:47] Frogs, giraffes, crickets, leopards, mole rats.
[00:12:58] I don't know why I thought of mole rats, octopus, dragonflies, hedgehogs, pelicans, anteaters, manatee, walrus, woodpeckers, leviathan. Everybody's getting uncomfortable at this point.
[00:13:23] Shrimp.
[00:13:27] There is this echo throughout heaven that begins to invade every nook and cranny on the planet, all saying this, Jesus is worthy.
[00:13:39] Jesus is worthy. And notice what they say to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Now, what do you notice here?
[00:13:49] Chapter four, the one on the throne is worshiped. We said, that's God.
[00:13:55] And here also there's one beside him, the Lamb, who is worshiped. So there's two people worshiped here.
[00:14:03] Who are they?
[00:14:05] Well, we would say the one on the throne is God, the Father, and then the Lamb is Jesus his Son, who he sent to be slain, who's been raised and ascended, as we read in Acts, to his right hand.
[00:14:20] This is Jesus at the right hand of the Father.
[00:14:24] But what should be mind blowing to us here is we see Jesus receiving the same worship as the Father.
[00:14:31] Equal worship.
[00:14:32] They are equal.
[00:14:34] This means Jesus isn't just another level of spirituality.
[00:14:40] He's not just another angel or force. Remember, throughout Revelation, I think it's twice, maybe three times, John sees an angel and he bows down to worship him. And what does the angel say? No, no, no, no, no, you don't worship me.
[00:14:56] You worship the Lamb.
[00:14:59] The Lamb is worship of all the glory and all the power and everything we would give God, because he is God, notice, be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever, notice forever, throughout eternity.
[00:15:15] He is worthy of the worship of God, the same worship God gets. And that's important because it's not as though Jesus went to earth and he did his job. So he gets back to heaven. And for a certain amount of time, God the Father says, okay, you can stand up here with me, son.
[00:15:35] I'm gonna allow you on stage with me.
[00:15:39] No, they're equal, they're one.
[00:15:43] And they deserve the same eternal, forever and ever worship. Jesus deserves to be on center stage with God the Father. And we might ask, just as a side note, where's the Spirit here? The Spirit is the one who is revealing all of this.
[00:16:00] The Spirit is the one who's showing us all of this. So he's there too, unveiling what is true about Jesus.
[00:16:11] And then notice. And the four living creatures said, amen, or high church, Amen.
[00:16:20] And the elders fell down and worshiped. So there's this boomerang effect that we've gone through from Revelation 4 to 5 to back again.
[00:16:32] Worship has just moved through the. From the throne out into heaven, all the way to earth. And it comes back to the throne and the elders fall down again. And yes, he's king, he's Lord, he deserves it all.
[00:16:48] A few points here in this scene, we see first of all, the extent of Jesus humiliation.
[00:16:57] We see just how far he humbled himself at Christmas.
[00:17:03] Because we know what John tells us when the Gospel of John begins.
[00:17:08] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
[00:17:14] This is where this place of worship is, where Jesus was before he took on the womb, before he came at Christmas. This is where he was.
[00:17:27] So we see here just how far he humiliated himself for our good.
[00:17:35] Remember when Jesus is praying to the Father and he says, father, return to me the glory that I had with you before the foundation of the world.
[00:17:44] So this is where Jesus. This is the glory that he had before taking on flesh. So we see just how far he humiliated himself to die for our sins.
[00:17:56] Ruler of all things, created ruler of the world.
[00:18:01] Angels bowing down and worshiping him. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands worshiping him. And he steps away from that to become a baby.
[00:18:16] Mind blowing.
[00:18:18] And it tells us something about him, that he would choose to do so from this place of rule, authority and worship, humbled himself to take on flesh and die.
[00:18:31] Notice the seven words. Again, from power, ruling to become a man, a slave, a curse on a cross. Surrendering to a Roman cross from a place of power to the cross, from this place of wealth where we look at him, we say, it's all his.
[00:18:52] He created it all. It's all his.
[00:18:55] We think with the apostle Paul, that though he was rich, he became poor for our sakes.
[00:19:02] Everything was his and he chose to be born to peasant nobodies.
[00:19:11] It is said of Jesus, as he lived, he had no place to lay his head.
[00:19:17] His home, the throne of God in heaven, ruling and reigning to homeless from wisdom, from all wisdom.
[00:19:28] Knew everything, still knows everything.
[00:19:33] But he did choose for a time to be limited to a specific place where he would even say about his second coming, only the Father knows.
[00:19:42] He chose to limit his knowledge and wisdom for a time.
[00:19:47] It's not as though Jesus walked around and it was all fake.
[00:19:51] No, he really knows everything.
[00:19:54] No, he chose to limit his knowledge for a time.
[00:19:59] The one who knows everything and should have been making all decisions stepped away for a time.
[00:20:06] Notice he stepped away from all might.
[00:20:10] The one who deserves what this means is to just destroy and wipe out all of his enemies with his power that he possesses.
[00:20:19] He became a helpless baby who his parents had to hold his head up for him.
[00:20:25] That's how weak he became.
[00:20:28] From all might to the weakness of a helpless child, ultimately to weakness that was overcome with sin and death on the cross. As he dies for our sins from a place of all honor.
[00:20:43] Notice the seven words to humiliated and shamed as a clown king who was whipped and spat upon and then lifted up on a cross. So Jesus deserves to be lifted up above all heaven and earth and worshiped. And yet he chose to be lifted up on a cursed cross and humiliated by those whom he created.
[00:21:07] Notice from the place of glory.
[00:21:10] Be rejected by men for their own glory, for their own power. Men who wanted power healed him from blessing.
[00:21:22] Jesus deserves all blessing. He deserves every good word of praise that has ever been sung, created, said, read, written.
[00:21:31] He deserves it all. But he chose to be cursed on the cross where he would cry out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[00:21:43] Not blessed, but cursed by God.
[00:21:48] Deemed a blasphemer, profaned.
[00:21:53] We see the extent of his humiliation. And I do want to encourage you this Christmas.
[00:21:57] I don't know this Christmas to just soak in that you hear the songs, you gather, see the pictures, the nativity scenes.
[00:22:12] Think about he was where he was before he chose to do that.
[00:22:18] Think about the extent of his humiliation. But in this we see the glory of humiliation.
[00:22:26] Heaven exalts him for his humiliation. Notice he even all throughout these hymns. And then what we're going to see in revelation is he's continued from this point on to be called the Lamb.
[00:22:38] That's Jesus title in Revelation is the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain. It's used 28 times of him.
[00:22:46] And so heaven doesn't forget what he's done in becoming the Lamb.
[00:22:53] That the lion became the Lamb is not lost in heaven, and it's never lost in the worship of heaven. We're not going to forget about the Incarnation and the Cross in heaven. Zillions of years from now, we're still going to look at Jesus and say he was the Lamb that was slain.
[00:23:13] And we will honor and exalt and praise and lift him up for his humiliation, taking on flesh and dying for our sins.
[00:23:22] He will be known as the one who receives all glory for defeating death. How did he defeat death? He became a sufficient payer for sin. How did he do that? Taking on flesh and dying for sin? And he will be forever known for that.
[00:23:38] It will never end.
[00:23:39] Inherent in his eternal glory will be the truth that he set his glory aside for a time.
[00:23:46] We see the glory of humiliation. And you know what that's supposed to do for us?
[00:23:50] We're supposed to understand that that is the way to our glory.
[00:23:55] When we look at Jesus and we say, okay, what's the way to glory?
[00:24:03] How do I get glory? What does glory look like? What's in humiliation?
[00:24:09] If you want glory, it's the way of the Lamb.
[00:24:12] You humble yourself.
[00:24:14] We see that in Scripture. You humble yourself. And to those who humble themselves before the Lord, he will do what he will exalt you.
[00:24:22] And Jesus humbled himself to the extent of the cross. And now he is lifted up and given the name above every name, then everyone will bow and everyone will confess that he's Lord. So the way to glory is through humiliation. And that's going to be important as we move through revelation. Because Rome, the beast, they exalted themselves through intimidation.
[00:24:46] And we always remember the way of the Lamb who exalted himself through humbling himself, humiliation.
[00:24:53] So if you want to win, you want to conquer, you want to rule with Jesus, you follow the Lamb, not the beast, not the dragon.
[00:25:02] And it means at times you're willing to suffer, you're willing to let go for the sake of others.
[00:25:11] You see, God does give us power and he does give us authority. At times we do have responsibility and we should have ambition to lead others. But it is always to be leveraged for the good of others.
[00:25:24] This is the way of the Lamb, and we're to be reminded of that at Christmas. But it begins with this.
[00:25:30] So where does it start? Where does this way of glory and humiliation starts? Well, it starts today by coming before Jesus and declaring to him, everyone here today in your heart saying, no, you are worthy of rule, meaning you rule my life.
[00:25:46] I'm not worthy to be king.
[00:25:49] I'm not sovereign, and I'm sinful. And so you come before Jesus, remember the seven words, and you say, no, you are worthy of all rule, including my life. You are worthy of all wealth, including anything that I have. And so you say to Jesus today, everything that I have, you have given me. And here it is.
[00:26:10] It's a blank check. You write it, because what I have isn't mine anyway, it's yours. And you say, he is worthy of wealth, meaning money, time, skill. You don't say, this life is mine. You say, no, Jesus is worthy of all that I have.
[00:26:26] And then you say, he is worthy of all wisdom.
[00:26:29] What does that mean? Well, you turn from the foolishness of living as though there is no God, or God's irrelevant to your life. And you live with a fear and trembling. There is a God who created me and I live before him in wisdom.
[00:26:45] You turn from the pride of trusting yourself, and you say, no, God, you are worthy in Christ of all might. You turn from the idea that you can save yourself, earning, working, trying to work your way out of guilt and condemnation. And you say, no, Jesus, you are worthy of might because you have accomplished at the cross and in your life and resurrection what I can never do. And so I repent of my might and I trust in your might. You are worthy of giving all of my trust and dependence to you.
[00:27:18] You turn from self exaltation. You stop living as though you are the center of the world. And you say, no, Jesus, you are worthy of all honor, in everything you do. You begin to spotlight him. How do you do it? Paul tells us in Galatians, we boast in the cross.
[00:27:35] So anything that we achieve in this life is nothing compared to what Jesus has done at the cross. He deserves to be exalted. And we highlight the cross in everything that we do. We exalt the cross. He is worthy of all honor. He is worthy again of all glory. And we stop stealing his glory.
[00:27:55] We stop taking things off the scale.
[00:28:00] We say, no, you are worthy of it all. What can I put on the scale today that would declare you are worthy of my life, my time, my prayers, my Words notice you are worthy of blessing.
[00:28:14] We turn from silence to start speaking good of Jesus, meaning we witness how many were. I've been stuck on this one word blessing this week because I've thought about this. How many words do we use that are just wasted words that are used for self exaltation when Jesus is worthy of all the good words.
[00:28:42] And so we think often, how can I speak good of Jesus?
[00:28:47] How can I be strategic in speaking well of him and exalting him in every conversation?
[00:28:55] Sometimes we're awkward when it comes to sharing the gospel.
[00:29:00] I know I'm guilty of this because I don't talk about Jesus as much as I should and so it feels unnatural.
[00:29:09] But he's worthy of all blessing, meaning he's worthy of every word you can speak.
[00:29:15] And so you offer that to him just like the shepherds at Christmas.
[00:29:21] Once the shepherds saw Jesus the Lamb in Mary's lap, what did they do?
[00:29:26] They left. And Luke tells us, glorifying and praising God for all they had seen and heard. Now think about this.
[00:29:36] They joined in with heaven, which is what revelation is about. You join in in the worship.
[00:29:41] And just like the angels were saying, glory to God in the highest, they glorify God and they praise him for all they had seen and heard. What had they seen and heard that night?
[00:29:52] Heaven worshiping the baby, the Lamb that would be slain. And they began to worship. And what else that we're learning in Revelation? Witness.
[00:30:03] The worship of heaven led to their worship before the manger, which became their witness to the world.
[00:30:10] And just like the church in Revelation that is declaring, no, Caesar is not Lord, the Lamb that was slain is Lord. These shepherds would then have to live their life fear of pagan kings like Herod while they went to tell it on the mountain.
[00:30:27] They risked their lives.
[00:30:32] Maybe we don't risk our lives daily, but our worship should be our witness daily. Ordinary people in Richmond, Kentucky, teachers, electricians, stay at home. Moms, accountants, office administrators, plumbers. I know that's not as exciting as all the animals I listed earlier.
[00:30:55] Ordinary people who stop and join in heaven's worship constantly.
[00:31:00] I was, I was driving to church this morning.
[00:31:02] Beautiful day, nice and warm, warmer.
[00:31:08] The sky was. Sky was brilliant.
[00:31:11] And I just thought, above all of this, the Lamb is being worshiped right now.
[00:31:18] And we come in this janky warehouse and we join in.
[00:31:23] Then you know what we do after joining heaven in worship?
[00:31:28] We go and we tell that in a lowly manger, the humble Christ was born and God sent us salvation. That blessed Christmas morning.
