P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD

And to each of you listening here on this wonderful Friday, Ken and I and our entire Voice of Prophecy team want to wish you a very, very Merry Christmas. A Christmas with Jesus in it. A Christmas that promises more of Jesus for the coming year. Wherever you are listening today — at home with loved ones or maybe on the freeway as you travel to see that someone special — I just hope you know that we’re thinking of YOU right now, praising God for you, and loving you in our Lord Jesus.

And a word of love and thanks to the people at all of these radio stations. You’re still there pushing the buttons and aiming the satellite receivers up at the sky. We know you’re on duty here on the 20th of December, and we want to remind you, too, that God loves you and WE love you.

You know, for four years now, we’ve been playing special selections from Handel’s Messiah, and this message today brings that tradition to a close. I think we’ve played the best 20 selections, and we have just the one left for you. And it’s kind of interesting to me that the song we’ve selected, BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD, comes in Handel’s Messiah right AFTER the so-called Christmas section. There are songs like “For Unto Us a Child Is Born,” and “There Were Shepherds Abiding in the Field,” and “Glory to God.” But then there’s usually an intermission, followed immediately by this song, #22, BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD. And you know, I get a very real sense here that Handel is saying to us, even here as we close out 2002, “All right, Christmas has come . . . and gone. The Baby-in-a-manger part is over. The wrapping paper has been put away. And NOW, what are you going to do about this Man, this Lamb of God?” Friend, here on Christmas Day, but even more as we look to the future, that is the most important question our radio ministry can pose: “What will you do about this Lamb of God?”

We dug up something kind of interesting that took place exactly 59 years ago. On Christmas morning, back in the year 1943. And our U.S. president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, delivered one of his famous fireside chats. World War II was going on, and some of you listening here on Christmas Day around the planet on Adventist World Radio experienced the horrors of that global conflict in a firsthand way. And the President talked very frankly about LOOKING AT the destruction of war, the casualties. Here’s what he said:
“The war is now reaching the stage when we shall have to look forward to large casualty lists — dead, wounded and missing. War entails just that. There is no easy road to victory. And the end is not yet in sight.”

In essence he was telling a war-torn world: “This is what we face. There will be death. Look at it hard. Even on Christmas Day, the news is stark and sobering. There will be dead bodies laying in the snow before this is all over.” And he reminded us all to behold the pain, the sacrifice, that would make everyone free again.

If you ever get the chance, in Washington, D.C., to visit the new FDR exhibit, by all means, do so. It’s an incredible, moving sight, with quiet water fountains, and this strong, silent statue of a crippled man, who once told us we had nothing to fear but fear itself. And carved on the brick walls as you move about the exhibit are excerpts from some of his most important speeches. Perhaps you’ve heard this one, which he gave in Chautaqua, New York, back on August 14, 1936. And again we get this sense of LOOKING, of staring directly into the eyes of death, of the destruction caused by evil. Listen:

“I have seen war,” he says. “I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. . . . I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. . . . I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives.” And then these three quiet words: “I . . . HATE . . . WAR.”

And here in this most important of Messiah songs we find the entreaty of heaven itself, spoken through the prophet John the Baptist in John 1:29:

“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (NKJV)

And friend, here at Christmas 2002, I can’t give you a better Christmas present than the biblical advice found in those five words: “Behold the Lamb of God.” Stop whatever you’re doing and look. Turn off the TV and look. Set aside your pile of presents for 15 minutes and look. Look at Him. Think about Him . . . not so much the mangers and the carols, but what He did for you as the LAMB of God. If on this Christmas, you and I get presents and sing carols and eat pie and watch twinkling lights, but don’t behold the Lamb of God, then we’re the most foolish people in the universe. Because God is reaching out to us with His own Fireside Chat, telling us: “I hate war. I hate sin. I hate death. So please . . . look. Behold the Lamb of God.”

And here in this studio, as we record our final new message for this calendar year, our Christmas greeting to you, I have more to say to you than “Merry Christmas,” and “Thank you for your financial support,” etc., etc. I have this too: “Behold the Lamb of God.” Because, you know, this radio ministry spends something like 5.5 million dollars a year for the sole purpose of adding to John the Baptist’s invitation: “Look over here! Look at who’s coming down the road toward the River Jordan. It’s Jesus. And He’s the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.”

Do you know what our mission statement is? Let me read it to you word-for-word:

“The global mission of the Voice of Prophecy radio ministry” — and we really are global this week — “is to proclaim the everlasting gospel of CHRIST, leading people to accept JESUS as their personal Savior, calling them to unite with His church, and nurturing them in preparation for His soon return.”

That’s it. In a nutshell, we have as our goal to come on the radio 260 times here in 2002 and say to anybody who tunes in: “Behold the Lamb of God.” And in 2003, we’re going to say it 260 times again: “Behold the Lamb of God.” And we’ll keep saying it until we really CAN behold the Lamb of God, who’s also a triumphant and returning King in the clouds of glory.

Here’s soloist Annie Herring on the contemporary album, Handel’s Young Messiah, singing “Behold the Lamb of God.”
MUSIC: BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD / 2:45 + :23