David Platt Messages
David Platt Messages is a podcast that highlights sermons from teacher, author, and pastor David Platt.
David Platt Messages
Three Days That Change History (Including Yours)
All of history hinges on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In a world filled with brokenness and suffering, Jesus alone is able to address our ultimate problem, the problem of sin and evil. It’s sin, including our own sin, that separates from God. In this Easter message from Revelation 5, David Platt invites us to find new life in the One who died as a sinless sacrifice and who rose again to conquer sin and death. The risen Christ deserves endless praise for who he is and what he has accomplished for our salvation.
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You are listening to Radical with David Platt, a weekly podcast with sermons and messages from pastor, author and teacher David Platt. I want to show you how what we're celebrating today, on Easter the death of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection from the grave has massive implications for every single one of our lives in this room. And that leads me to the passage I want to show you in the Bible today. So it's actually in the last book of the Bible called Revelation. If you have a Bible, feel free to turn there to Revelation, chapter 5. If you don't, no problem, the verses are going to be up here on the screen. This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible for many reasons, but let me set the screen. This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible for many reasons, but let me set the stage.
Speaker 1:So this book of the Bible called Revelation is written by a follower of Jesus named John, who was one of the first people to go to Jesus's tomb 2,000 years ago and find that it was empty. And after that he spent his entire life telling people about who Jesus is and what Jesus had done, and it cost him. He actually wrote this book of the Bible from an island where he had been exiled as a prisoner because of his faith in Jesus. And this book is unique because it's filled with incredible imagery and symbols. The verses we're about to read contain a picture of heaven in the future that's filled with fascinating imagery that shows why the death and resurrection of Jesus is, in a sense, the most important event in all of history and why it has power to change your history forever, which I know is a bold statement. But just look at it with me. We're just going to go verse by verse and I'll explain the imagery along the way. So in this picture of heaven in the future, john writes. Then I saw in the right hand of him, who was seated on the throne, a scroll written within and on the back sealed with seven seals.
Speaker 1:Now I'm not going to be able to go into the detail of all the symbolism here for the sake of time, but the big picture. So when you see the one who's seated on the throne, that's a reference to God. And in this right hand there's a scroll with writing that's sealed with seven seals. And the way a scroll like this worked in the first century, when John was writing this, was you'd have a scroll. You'd break a seal and then read what's on the scroll to a particular point. Then you'd come to another seal, then you break that seal and then go until you get to another seal, and so on. And in this part of Revelation, when a seal is broken, what it symbolizes is the enactment in history of what's on the next part of the scroll. So if you read the next chapter, revelation, chapter six, you see that every time a seal is broken, whatever's on the scroll comes about in history. And this scroll, so big picture, contains God's purposes for the world, for a world that's caught in sin and evil and injustice and suffering and pain and war and death. This scroll contains the end of all these things. That's what's written on the scroll, like the ultimate triumph of justice and peace to reign on the earth. So you just imagine being one of the original readers of Revelation hearing this in the first century, getting this picture.
Speaker 1:So Christians in the first century were facing severe persecution and suffering. Some of them were being killed for their faith in Jesus, others imprisoned, exiled, like John is, and they were hoping like surely one day this suffering is going to stop and obviously we're not in those same shoes. Right now, by God's grace, we have freedom to gather like we're gathered right now, but we can still feel all of those questions in our lives in this world, right, our lives in this world, right. We look around us and we see evil and injustice and suffering and pain and war and death around the world in conflicts Just open up your news app In poverty, injustices like I learned even more about in some recent time I was in Southeast Asia, where children are being trafficked for unimaginable evil and not just around the world, but in our lives. Every one of us is familiar with hurt and brokenness and relationships and pain, and we all know what it's like to see somebody we love walking through sickness or suffering. And we all wonder in the middle of it all, will this ever end? Don't we all long for a day when peace and justice and love and life reign and evil and sorrow and injustice and death are no more? Would that not be awesome? Of course we all long for that, which leads to what John writes next.
Speaker 1:So in verse 2, he says and I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals? And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. So follow the picture here the scroll containing the ultimate eradication of evil, the defeat of sin and death in the world, the final removal of all suffering and hurt and pain, coming of God's kingdom on the earth, where peace and justice will reign forever. It's all written on the scroll. So who is able to open it? Who's able to break these seals and bring these things about? And if you look at verse 3, it says there was no one. It says it twice no one, no one who was worthy or able, is the language? Nobody able to open the scroll and bring this about. And John is weeping loudly why? Because he's getting a glimpse of the world and all of our lives in it. If this is all there is and just put yourself in his shoes Just imagine for a moment. This is all there is Evil, injustice, suffering, death, and that's it forever. This is what I always say to atheist friends of mine who believe there's no God and just this natural world. That's the end of the story.
Speaker 1:I think of Richard Dawkins, a renowned evolutionary biologist, avowed atheist. He put it this way. He said in a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are gonna get hurt, some people are gonna get hurt, other people are gonna get lucky. And you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is at the bottom no design, no purpose, no evil and no other good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference. Dna neither knows nor cares, dna just is and we dance to its music. Can you imagine saying that to victims of horrible injustice or evil, from child trafficking to the Holocaust? You just weren't lucky. There's no justice in the end, no purpose in any of it. Evil is just people dancing to their DNA and you deal with it.
Speaker 1:That's why John is weeping, because he's looking at a future where sin and evil and injustice and death are the end of the story and no one can change that. That's the language nobody. And think about why that is? Because we are all sinners, every single one of us, even the best of us, the kindest of us, the nicest of us. We've all succumbed to sin in our lives in various ways. It looks different in our thoughts, our desires, our words, our actions, but we have all, in one way or another, sinned against God and others. We've all turned aside from God to ourselves, including John, who's writing this, and he knows he can't bring an end to sin and suffering because he's a sinner himself, and the same is true for every one of us. But this is where I want you to see the first of four truths about Jesus in this passage. Number one Jesus is able to address the ultimate problem, which is the problem of sin and evil in the world. Let me give you maybe another illustration that'll help here.
Speaker 1:Have you ever, either as a child or as an adult with children, been to one of those arcade places where you put money on a card and get to play all kinds of games, and every time you play a game you get a certain number of tickets, based on how you do so? Chuck E Cheese is what immediately comes to our mind, and with nightmares some of us, that comes to our mind with a longing to stay as far away from this place as possible. Other children, though, love it, and nowadays most places have it all electronic, but there are still a few places and they all used to be this way where you would get physical tickets right. That looked something like this so you go around from game to game. I think about taking my eight-year-old son and three-year-old daughter not long ago to one of these places and we're playing games and just to yeah, put it out there. We're not really racking up the tickets as we go from game to game. And when you get to the skee-ball game, where you're supposed to roll the ball up the lane and into the hole, and your three-year-old daughter just promptly picks the ball up and chunks it straight at the hole, the likelihood of it going in the hole dramatically decreases. So we spend all this money on the card and it comes time to go over to what they call the redemption counter right, the place where you can trade in your tickets for a prize. And I'm over here counting the tickets to see how much we have to spend the few tickets we have.
Speaker 1:And while I'm doing that, my three-year-old little girl, an eight-year-old, recently adopted son who all of this is new to him he's experiencing this for the first time. They're looking up at these prizes and way up at the top they see these massive stuffed animals and their eyes are lighting up and they say, daddy, we want that. And I'm like we don't have enough tickets for that Inside. I'm thinking we'd have to be here a year, I think, in order to get this stuffed animal. So soon their eyes start to come down to the remote control car and the eight-year-old says, all right, I'll get the car. I'm like, buddy, we don't have no tickets for that either. So then their eyes keep coming down.
Speaker 1:My three-year-old's looking sees like a lava lamp, which I totally don't get. I just don't understand the whole and none of it. I don't understand it, but that's a whole other story. She's like, daddy, let's get that. And I say, baby, we can't get that either. And as their eyes keep coming down, so does their excitement, until they're like well, dad, what can we get? And so I squat down there next to them, look through the little glass case. I'm like, well, here's an eraser which you have no use for whatsoever in your life at this point. But you get an eraser which you have no use for whatsoever in your life at this point. But you get an eraser. There's a piece of candy like a gummy bear. I think we have enough for a gummy bear. And they're like what? Why only that? Why can't we get what's up there? And I'm like, and they're like what? Why only that? Why can't we get what's up there? And I'm like we just don't have enough tickets. This is what we can get.
Speaker 1:So that's maybe a way to picture what's happening in this text, but here the stakes are obviously much higher. Like top shelf prize is eternity with God who made us and loves us, forgiveness of all your sin, destruction of death, the end of evil and suffering no longer separated from God, and the angel here is looking for somebody who's able to usher all of that in. And you can just imagine the roll call of history like who has enough tickets? And nobody. No one can step up, nobody in the Bible. Abraham, moses, david, isaiah, daniel, peter, john all of them look down because they don't have enough tickets. They sin just like everybody else, and not just in the Bible.
Speaker 1:Look throughout history. Who in history is gonna walk up to the throne of the God of the universe, take the scroll from his hand and usher in the end of sin? Buddha, muhammad, the latest New Age psychic, your favorite music star or sports player, the CEO of that company or the president of that country? No, and, for that matter, you or me? And what are we gonna offer? Our Western achievements and affluence. God, here's my house, here's my car, here's my job, here's my accomplishments, here's my 401k. Are you impressed? No, none of us and no one else.
Speaker 1:That's the language here in Revelation 5. Nobody has enough tickets because all of us, even the best of us, have sinned against God and others. And sin is the problem that none of us can solve by ourselves, no matter how much money or success or even good works we have. The halls of history are lined with men and women who have all sinned and at the end of it all, every single one of us finds ourselves standing at the redemption counter of the universe, with our highest hopes on the top shelf, and the only thing we can do is bow and say I don't have enough tickets. So, ladies and gentlemen, this is the ultimate problem, and if somebody isn't able to address this problem, then sin, sorrow and death are the end of all of our stories. But look at what happens next.
Speaker 1:Somebody breaks the silence of the scene in Revelation 5, verse 5. See it with me? One of the elders said to me weep no more. Behold the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. And then, verse six between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain.
Speaker 1:Now again, just get the imagery here. We can't dive into it all but feel how shocking this is. So somebody shouts weep no more. Because there is a lion, imagery of a conqueror who can open the scroll and bring an end to sin and suffering and death. So John, starting to wipe away tears from his eyes, turns to look for this roaring lion. But what does he see? Instead, he sees a lamb that looks like it's been slaughtered. So what is that imagery about?
Speaker 1:Even earlier we were singing praise to the lamb and some of you are like I don't get this. These people worship sheep. What is happening here? And blood. Well, follow this. This is the second truth I want to show you about Jesus. He's able to address the ultimate problem because Jesus has paid the ultimate price.
Speaker 1:So this imagery of a lamb goes all the way back to near the beginning of the Bible, second book of the Bible called Exodus when God's people were slaves in Egypt and God poured out his just judgment on the sin of the Egyptians. But God's people were saved from that judgment through the sacrifice of a lamb. That was a substitute, so you may have heard before of the Passover. It gets that name because when God's people put the blood of a lamb over their doorpost, god's judgment due sin passed over them, and I don't have time to explain all of that story. But the overall point was that the payment or penalty of sin is death, and so the lamb was a substitute sacrifice. It died and its blood was shed instead of people dying as a substitute for them. And this is what the Bible teaches about Jesus.
Speaker 1:In fact, john, who's writing this book in Revelation, also writes one of the four accounts we have of Jesus's life. Listen to how John introduces us to Jesus in John 1 29. Behold the what Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So don't miss the connection here. Jesus is the lamb in Revelation 5 who was slain. And what the Bible is saying is not just about Israelites and Egyptians in history, but about you and me and every other person in the world, all of humanity, you and I in our sin. We all deserve the just judgment of a holy God. We all deserve death and we will all, at some point in our lives, die as a result of the reality of sin in our lives. And if we die in our sin, we will experience eternal judgment due our sin. But the good news of the Bible, the greatest news in all the world, is that Jesus came to be our substitute, to die for our sins. Now start to put these two truths together.
Speaker 1:Jesus is able to address the ultimate problem because, unlike anyone else in all of history, jesus never sinned. John later writes in the Bible you know he appeared in order to take away sins and in him there is no sin. Jesus never sinned one time, which means Jesus did not deserve to die. But that's the whole reason he came. He came to die as a substitute for our sins, to pay the price death for your sins and my sins. 1 John 2, 2,. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins, and not only for our sins, but the sins of all the world. Anyone in the world who will trust in him. Jesus has paid the ultimate price. He died to pay the price for your sins.
Speaker 1:Then listen to one other verse. In Jesus, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace. Think about that. No matter who you are or what you've done, jesus has made a way for you to be forgiven before God for all of your sins, and that's possible not because you do enough good works, but because of God's grace. God loves you so much that he sent Jesus to shed his blood so that you could be forgiven for your sins, redeemed and restored to have relationship with him. Which then leads us back to Revelation, chapter five, verse six.
Speaker 1:Did you notice? Between the throne and the four living creatures, among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain. So it's a lamb that looks like it's been slaughtered. But what's it doing? It's standing. Slaughtered lambs don't stand. So how is that possible? Well, here's how. Follow the imagery, because this lamb who died is not dead anymore. This is the third truth about Jesus. In this imagery, jesus has conquered the ultimate enemy death. It's what we celebrate, particularly today.
Speaker 1:Not just that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Yes, that, but if he was still dead, then death would still be the end of the story. But, ladies and gentlemen, death is not the end of the story. Jesus died on a cross, was laid in a tomb. A stone was rolled over that tomb until three days later when John and others went to that tomb and found that it was empty. And in the days to come, jesus who died, appeared to John and multitudes of other people before they watched him ascend to heaven. I'll never forget the first time I went to Israel, to the place where Jesus's tomb was, is, and we got there and the guy who kind of brought us all together, he said I do not know why you have traveled thousands of miles to be here. There's nothing to see. Why did you come To see nothing? It's like ah, it's a great question, but that's the truth that we celebrate today.
Speaker 1:The grave of Jesus is empty and so many people have sought to deny this. Islam teaches that Jesus didn't even die on a cross, much less rise from the grave. This, by the way, a theory invented by Muhammad six centuries after Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. Others have claimed Jesus' tomb wasn't actually empty. The disciples just went to the wrong tomb and ever since that day, people have been going to the wrong tomb. If only somebody would check next door. Others have said the disciples were just delusional, hallucinatory at best, when they claimed they'd seen Jesus alive after he died. But even the thought of resurrection from the dead was virtually inconceivable in both Jewish and Greco-Roman thought in the first century. Yet hundreds of people all of a sudden claimed to have seen Jesus, some of whom ate, drank and talked with him. Hallucinations don't normally eat and drink. In addition to all that, it wasn't in these disciples' best interest for them to proclaim that Jesus was alive, knowing that they would and some of them did lose their lives for it or were exiled for it.
Speaker 1:Pascal said I believe the witnesses that get their throats cut for their testimony. When you look at the facts, the physical resurrection of Jesus is not only historically verifiable but extremely personal, because Jesus did this for you, for you Right where you're sitting. He did this for you, for you, right where you're sitting. He did this for you so that you could be forgiven of your sin, so that you could be redeemed, restored to relationship with God forever. He did this for you. The Canadian scientist GB Hardy put it best. He said when I looked at religion, I said I have two questions. One has anybody ever conquered death? And two if they have, did they make a way for me to conquer death? I checked the tomb of Buddha and it was occupied. I checked the tomb of Confucius and it was occupied. And I checked the tomb of Muhammad and it was occupied. And I came to the tomb of Jesus and it was empty. And I said there is one who conquered death. And I asked the second question did he make a way for me to do it? And I opened the Bible and discovered that he said because I live, you shall live also, which leads to the fourth and final truth about Jesus.
Speaker 1:In this passage, jesus deserves the ultimate praise. You jump down to verse nine in this scene in Revelation 5. It all comes together with them singing a new song saying worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals? For you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God, from every tribe and language, and people and nation, all of heaven, with people from see it, every tribe, every language, every people, every nation singing this song Worthy are you to take this scroll and open its seals to bring an end to sin and suffering and death? Why? Because you were slain Because you shed your blood on the cross to ransom people. That word ransom literally means to redeem or to purchase people to pay the price for sin, so that sin and death will not be the end of the story of everyone who trusts in Jesus.
Speaker 1:Just imagine this scene Everybody standing totally silent because none of us is able to pay the price to usher in redemption.
Speaker 1:We're standing there with John and everybody else in history looking with despair into an eternity, with no hope before a holy God. It's in the middle of that scene that something starts to rumble and the silence starts to break. As we're standing there with our measly tickets, jesus, the lion-like lamb, steps to the front and he says I have enough tickets, I have paid the price for all of you. Lay your tickets, lay your good works, all the stuff you're trying to do aside, trust in me, the blood I have shed in love for you. And when you do, you can know that sin and suffering and evil and death and the fallenness and emptiness of this world will not be the end of your story. Eternal life will be your story no more sin, no more sorrow, no more suffering and no more death, forever and ever. Jesus has made this possible for you. We hope you've enjoyed this week's episode of Radical with David Platt. For more resources from David Platt, we invite you to visit radicalnet.