Zach Zehnder: How many of you have been to a Brazilian steakhouse restaurant before?
Zach Zehnder: How many Come on both campuses hands up.
Zach Zehnder: Yeah, here at I Street, I'm seeing maybe half the people in the room.
Zach Zehnder: Omaha got one not too long ago.
Zach Zehnder: Texas, the Brazil downtown.
Zach Zehnder: I've had the opportunity twice in my life and randomly they were both about four years ago in a month-long period to visit a Brazilian steakhouse.
Zach Zehnder: And if you haven't been to one, let me just tell you it's a vegetarian's nightmare.
Zach Zehnder: Right, it's all you can eat, but it's centered around premium cuts of meat, and so it's glorious in my mind as a person that loves to eat meat.
Zach Zehnder: And so the way it works is you'll go and you'll order, of course, the all you can eat, and then, like most all you can eat places, they'll release you to the salad bar, and so on.
Zach Zehnder: My first experience I went up to the salad bar and I filled my plate with all the healthy things like salmon and ham and candied bacon.
Zach Zehnder: You know, all that salad stuff Went back to my table.
Zach Zehnder: Then they give you these little Brazilian bread rolls, which are just fabulous, and just inhaling it.
Zach Zehnder: And then the moment you sit down and eat the bread rolls, then the waiters just descend on you with skewers of meat that they just cut right on your plate.
Zach Zehnder: And I'm talking.
Zach Zehnder: They bring everything at the beginning the bacon, wrapped chicken, the pork, the sausage, the veal, the sirloin, the duck.
Zach Zehnder: They bring it all.
Zach Zehnder: And at Brazilian steakhouse, in order to just keep the experience going quick, you don't even have to talk.
Zach Zehnder: That's what they want.
Zach Zehnder: They don't want you to talk.
Zach Zehnder: You just hold up a green card which says yes, I want that meat, slice me some.
Zach Zehnder: And then a red card which is like I'm going to hold out for the next thing, or I'm tapped out or I need to take a break.
Zach Zehnder: And so I realized the first experience I went.
Zach Zehnder: These Brazilian people are smart.
Zach Zehnder: They release you to the salad bar, then they fill you up on these low expense rolls and then they bring out the good but not the best caliber of meat Right away and they want you to just green card everything.
Zach Zehnder: And that's what I was doing Everything, yeah, I'll take it all.
Zach Zehnder: I'll take it all so that finally, by the time the best thing came out the filet, after only five minutes, I was already on red and I realized I really struggled with my experience that day and I re-strategized and I thought, if I ever get back to a Brazilian steakhouse again, I'm on to them first and I will do this the right way the next time.
Zach Zehnder: And so a month later comes I get this beautiful opportunity again.
Zach Zehnder: I order the deluxe premium All you can eat, everything included.
Zach Zehnder: I go to the salad bar, but this time I only take the candied bacon.
Zach Zehnder: I restrained myself to just one of those beautiful little bread rolls, because who can resist one?
Zach Zehnder: And then all these guys descended on our table and all my friends, they were green card, and all this bacon, wrapped chicken and veal and sirloin, and I was red carding the whole time on all of that stuff.
Zach Zehnder: So finally, one of the waiters came up to me and said sir, you paid for and all you can eat meat experience.
Zach Zehnder: What is it that you would like?
Zach Zehnder: I said well, I'm really glad you asked.
Zach Zehnder: I'm here for the filet.
Zach Zehnder: And then, finally, out of the back kitchen I see a glorious, beautiful man With a skewer of meat that looks and is the filet, and he comes to my table and says would you like some filet, sir?
Zach Zehnder: And I said yes, how many would you like?
Zach Zehnder: And, in the spirit of LeBron James, I said not one, not two, not three.
Zach Zehnder: I went all the way up to seven and I really believe that I experienced my little Brazilian slice of heaven that moment, on that day.
Zach Zehnder: How many of you know that in the book of Revelation there's a lot of times a banquet and a feast happening, and I just happened to believe that feast may look a little more Brazilian than you might thought.
Zach Zehnder: I'm just saying vegetarians are going to have a hard time with today's message, but we're glad you're here.
Zach Zehnder: I maximized my experience.
Zach Zehnder: Not only did I maximize my eating experience, but I knew I would one day use this as a sermon illustration.
Zach Zehnder: And so for four years I've been carrying this thing in my backpack and I'm really glad I got to use it today, by the way, brings me great joy.
Zach Zehnder: But I think what happened at that Brazilian steakhouse restaurant is what a lot of us do in our spiritual lives, in our lives in this world.
Zach Zehnder: I think there's a lot of good things coming at us in this world and we green card yes, yes, yes.
Zach Zehnder: We bring everything good in so that spiritually, there's nothing left when God is here and we're on red card, even though he is the best.
Zach Zehnder: And so today, what I want to tell you is that the best of what we can experience in this world is just a foretaste of what we will one day experience in heaven.
Zach Zehnder: And we're in this series on the book of Revelation, and we call this series Unveiling, and God is revealing something to us.
Zach Zehnder: He's unveiling something to us.
Zach Zehnder: In fact, the word Revelation, the word apocalypso, does not actually mean end times or doomsday or final battle, like a lot of times we talk about it.
Zach Zehnder: The word apocalypso in Greek means unveiling or revealing, and so this is a revelation and unveiling of a vision that Jesus has that he's giving to John to write down to first century Christians, many of whom were scattered and persecuted.
Zach Zehnder: And so we've been in it for a couple of weeks.
Zach Zehnder: Last week we looked at seven letters written to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3 and in this particular vision that he's writing to the churches, he's writing these letters to instill courage in them, to hang on, to stay faithful to what they know is true, and now he's going to give them a picture of the end, what is best, so they don't settle for anything in this world.
Zach Zehnder: Now there's a difference with them and us.
Zach Zehnder: In their world, they were experiencing real persecution, real suffering.
Zach Zehnder: They did not live in a country where they could come and freely worship God like we live in, and so I think a lot of times the way the enemy distracts us in western American Christianity culture is the best way he does that for us is he just distracts us with a lot of good things.
Zach Zehnder: They were dealing with a lot of bad things.
Zach Zehnder: We deal with a lot of good things, and when we settle for what's in this world, we lose sight of what's the best.
Zach Zehnder: It was written to this group of people that was persecuted and scattered, and even though it was written to them, we also can gain something from it.
Zach Zehnder: That message of stand firm and hang on and hold on to what is true and here's the end, isn't it beautiful is what we need as well.
Zach Zehnder: But I do love the words of Pastor Matt Chandler and I believe every one of us has said this in the last few weeks and we'll probably continue to say it that revelation it cannot mean to us what it did not mean for them.
Zach Zehnder: It doesn't mean things for us like in our modern day that it did not mean for them.
Zach Zehnder: So again, the message is the same Hang on, we can have hope.
Zach Zehnder: You can live with courage, and we need that message today.
Zach Zehnder: Today we're looking at Revelation, chapter four and five, and I really believe that if you want to understand the entire book of Revelation, these are the two most important chapters because it really helps frame the entire rest of the book, and I'll talk about that in a moment.
Zach Zehnder: The difficulty from here on through the end of the Bible because Revelation is the final book is that you're gonna start to see many of the characteristics of apocalyptic literature that really come in display at a heightened level.
Zach Zehnder: And so one of the things we've said about apocalyptic literature is they use many images and metaphors and visions, and colors and numbers, and all of these are primarily symbolic.
Zach Zehnder: And so apocalyptic literature does a beautiful thing that allows us to see things in a different way or to transcend, kind of our own language into a place where we can picture something, and so it does a beautiful thing in that.
Zach Zehnder: The difficulty in the apocalyptic literature is to not get so focused on the symbols that you lose sight of the main thing.
Zach Zehnder: Keep the main thing, the main thing.
Zach Zehnder: God bless you, and a picture of that is gonna happen here in chapter four, and I wanna just show it to you.
Zach Zehnder: In fact, I'm gonna read all 11 verses of chapter four, but I want you to tell me at the end what the focal point of the chapter is.
Zach Zehnder: Don't worry, I'm gonna give you a hint.
Zach Zehnder: I'm gonna put the word in a different color and you might say it I don't know 14 times in the next couple of minutes, so it ought to be obvious.
Zach Zehnder: Both campuses.
Zach Zehnder: Let's say the word when we see it on the screen.
Zach Zehnder: Revelation, chapter four, verse one.
Zach Zehnder: After this, I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said come up here and I will show you what must take place after this.
Zach Zehnder: At once I was in the spirit and behold, a stood in heaven with one seated on the, and he who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and Carnelian, and around the was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.
Zach Zehnder: Around the were 24, and seated on the were 24 elders clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their heads.
Zach Zehnder: From the came flashes of lightning and rumblings and peels of thunder, and before the were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the there was, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal, and around the, on each side of the, are four living creatures full of eyes, and front and behind, the first living creature like a lion, the second like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight.
Zach Zehnder: And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes, all around and within, and day and night, they never cease to say holy, holy, holy is the Lord, god Almighty, who was and is and is to come.
Zach Zehnder: And whenever the living creatures give birth and creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him, who is seated on the, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before Him, who is seated on the, and worship Him, who lives forever and ever, they cast their crowns before the saying worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created.
Zach Zehnder: So come on church.
Zach Zehnder: You said it 14 times already.
Zach Zehnder: What would you say is the focal point of Revelation, chapter four, the throne, and namely the one who is seated on the throne, everything else happening around the throne.
Zach Zehnder: That's good.
Zach Zehnder: We got some bacon, wrapped chicken and veal around the throne, but it's the filet at the center.
Zach Zehnder: Vegetarians, I was trying to think like for you.
Zach Zehnder: It's like falafel and tofu is around the throne and the avocado is there in all of its glory.
Zach Zehnder: Can you relate now Trying to bring you into?
Zach Zehnder: Everybody loves the avocado, so God is seated on the throne.
Zach Zehnder: That's the best, that's the good thing.
Zach Zehnder: Now we see a lot happening around the throne, so I wanna show you just a couple of those things.
Zach Zehnder: You can kind of understand what's happening here.
Zach Zehnder: There's, first, off, it says 24 elders around the throne, and that number 24, it actually only shows up in the New Testament to describe the elders, and so most scholars of course agree because 12 plus 12 equals 24, that the 24 is representative of the 12 tribes of Judah, 12 tribes of Jacob in the Old Testament, the sons of Jacob that were chosen by God to represent him to the rest of the world, and of course, then the 12 apostles in the New Testament that were chosen by Jesus to represent him to the rest of the world.
Zach Zehnder: And so scholars believe that the number 24, then, is representative of all those who believe in the Old Testament and in the New Testament and beyond.
Zach Zehnder: The word elder in Greek does not mean angel or messenger.
Zach Zehnder: It designates a human being on earth.
Zach Zehnder: And so what are?
Zach Zehnder: Who are the 24 elders?
Zach Zehnder: But the elevated saints of God, representative of all those who believe in Jesus and who have been cleansed by his grace and where his victory as their own, which means church.
Zach Zehnder: The elders around the throne are those that believe in Jesus.
Zach Zehnder: It's you and it's me.
Zach Zehnder: If we profess a faith in Jesus and, by the way, there's nothing new happening in Revelation that you have not already.
Zach Zehnder: Nothing is like shocking or like a 180 turn, cause Jesus even said this in Matthew, chapter 19, 28.
Zach Zehnder: He said truly, I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of man sits on his glorious throne, you have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.
Zach Zehnder: So there we have it.
Zach Zehnder: This is just referencing what Jesus has already said.
Zach Zehnder: Jesus who's already got a vision of what this looks like?
Zach Zehnder: The 24 elders around the throne.
Zach Zehnder: That's you and that's me.
Zach Zehnder: That's all who believe in Jesus, and I really like that, because then, when we look into scripture and it talks about us being co-heirs and reigning with Christ.
Zach Zehnder: I like the fact that we're not just so distant from him, but we are right around the center of the throne of God, worshiping and praising him.
Zach Zehnder: That's gonna be pretty awesome to reign with God and be co-heirs in that sort of a setting.
Zach Zehnder: Next, the moment depicted uses words like lightning and thunder, and lamps are blazing and they're on fire.
Zach Zehnder: The spirit of God is there, a sea that looks like crystal is there, and again, we can go deeper into all of these, but all of these are representative of just this word the power that surrounds the throne.
Zach Zehnder: John is wanting us to see that this moment.
Zach Zehnder: It's not docile or boring, it's awe-inspiring, it's powerful.
Zach Zehnder: Then, surrounding the 24 elders, we see four living creatures.
Zach Zehnder: They each take on a different form an ox, a lion, an eagle and a man.
Zach Zehnder: And, by the way, these four forms, they were shown already in visions in Ezekiel and Isaiah.
Zach Zehnder: So again, nothing new.
Zach Zehnder: But these four creatures.
Zach Zehnder: What do they have?
Zach Zehnder: They have six wings, and so we know these are angelic creatures, but there's something interesting about them in this particular setting that you have to see.
Zach Zehnder: Verse six says that these creatures had eyes in front and behind.
Zach Zehnder: Verse eight also says their eyes were all around them and within them, and so I like this image that Revelation is trying to show us, that when the angels who think about it had eyes to see anything and everything all around in all of its glory, when they could see everything, they did one thing.
Zach Zehnder: What did they do?
Zach Zehnder: They worshiped God.
Zach Zehnder: They could see everything in all of its beauty and glory and splendor, and when they saw everything, their one response was to worship God.
Zach Zehnder: I think we get distracted by beautiful things in this world, good things, things with glitz and glamour, but if we could see it all at one time, we would do what the angels did, who said Holy, holy, holy is the Lord, god Almighty, who was and is and is to come.
Zach Zehnder: And as the angels said these words, the 24 elders around the throne they fell down and they bowed to Him and they worshiped and they joined with the angels and they said Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created.
Zach Zehnder: Wow, so here's the truth.
Zach Zehnder: I want you to see in chapter four that what is centre in the end deserves to be centre now, especially for elders, for those that believe, for those that profess faith.
Zach Zehnder: And so my question to you is is God, is Jesus, at the centre, is he enthroned in your heart?
Zach Zehnder: Or have you allowed, I don't know, good things to come into this world at the expense of pushing God to the side?
Zach Zehnder: Or I could say it this way, because what is at the centre is the thing that we worshiped.
Zach Zehnder: What is worshipped in the end deserves to be worshipped right now.
Zach Zehnder: So what, and or maybe who, are you worshipping?
Zach Zehnder: I like the way that Pastor Edmund Clowney says that.
Zach Zehnder: He says in it's speaking of these chapters in worship, he said, God gathers his people to himself as centre, and failure to worship consigns us do you feel this way To a life of spasms and jerks, at the mercy of every advertisement, every seduction and every siren.
Zach Zehnder: And without worship we live manipulated and manipulating lives.
Zach Zehnder: We move in either frightened panic or diluted lethargy, as we are in turn alarmed by specters and soothed by placebos.
Zach Zehnder: If there is no centre, there is no circumference.
Zach Zehnder: People who do not worship are swept into a vast restlessness epidemic in the world, with no steady direction and no sustaining purpose.
Zach Zehnder: And so, again I ask are you far too easily pleased with good things that you're not worshipping the best thing who deserves and is worshipped now and forever.
Zach Zehnder: What happens in chapter four is only half the story, though, because we actually can't have chapter four without the events of chapter five happening, and they go together and they're beautiful.
Zach Zehnder: They're so beautiful.
Zach Zehnder: In fact, nt Wright is one of the most popular modern day scholars of the Bible, and as he was studying one day, he saw his professor, who just looked really giddy, and NT Wright asked him so, professor, why are you so happy today?
Zach Zehnder: And he says because today I get to speak about the second greatest chapter in all the Bible Revelation, chapter four.
Zach Zehnder: And NT Wright said, out of curiosity, what's your favourite chapter?
Zach Zehnder: And he said Revelation, chapter five.
Zach Zehnder: And so I apologize if I get a little giddy and excited as we open this up and see what it means for us.
Zach Zehnder: I'll be truthful with you.
Zach Zehnder: As I was working through this message, there have probably been count them on two hands the times in my life when I have been preparing for a sermon and I have literally wept and cried aloud because of what God showed.
Zach Zehnder: You cannot miss what God is doing in these two chapters.
Zach Zehnder: Revelation five.
Zach Zehnder: I want you again to say what the main focal point is.
Zach Zehnder: It's going to change, but I got the word highlighted for you, don't worry this one.
Zach Zehnder: Then I saw in the right hand of him, who was seated on the throne, a written within and on the back sealed with seven seals, and I saw a mighty angel.
Zach Zehnder: A mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to open the and to break its seals.
Zach Zehnder: And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the or to look into it.
Zach Zehnder: And this is John Weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the and look into it.
Zach Zehnder: And so here we are.
Zach Zehnder: We're still in the throne room, but now we're focusing on the right hand of the one seated on the throne, and in the right hand is a scroll which has seven seals on it.
Zach Zehnder: Obviously, of course, it's of utmost importance If it's going to be the focal point in the final and maybe greatest book ever written.
Zach Zehnder: It's important.
Zach Zehnder: We also know it's important because it has seven seals on it.
Zach Zehnder: If you know about numbers, the number seven in Revelation means complete, and so we know this is a completely sealed message.
Zach Zehnder: Also, we can see from the text that there's writing on the scroll in the front and the back, signifying as well that this is a complete message, and so you could say that the scroll is a completely sealed, complete message that no one in this moment can open, and it's amazing and awe inspiring, as everything was in chapter four.
Zach Zehnder: It causes John to have emotions that lead him to weep loudly, because we can't actually experience or see that moment, because no one is found to be worthy.
Zach Zehnder: No one is found to be worthy.
Zach Zehnder: Now I want to jump forward for just a moment, but I don't want to lose momentum, because you got to know.
Zach Zehnder: One thing about this is we actually we know what the scroll contains, and this is why Revelation four and five is so important to understand all of it.
Zach Zehnder: We know what the scroll contains.
Zach Zehnder: You want to know what it is?
Zach Zehnder: It's the book of Revelation.
Zach Zehnder: How cool is that?
Zach Zehnder: Because we see that next week in chapter six, they open it up and we open the first seal and then the second seal and the third.
Zach Zehnder: It's the book of Revelation.
Zach Zehnder: It's the good news, it's how everything ends, and so picturing in that moment like everything is there, we can see it all, and yet we can't because no one is found worthy.
Zach Zehnder: Verse five is the good news because obviously we get it opened.
Zach Zehnder: We see chapter six through 22.
Zach Zehnder: It opens.
Zach Zehnder: How does it get opened?
Zach Zehnder: Verse five and one of the elders said to me weep no more.
Zach Zehnder: Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has past tense conquered so that he can open the and at seven seals.
Zach Zehnder: What does this mean?
Zach Zehnder: Again, old Testament imagery.
Zach Zehnder: Many of you might know from your Old Testament that God set a set of laws before the people, a description of what a life in relationship with him looked like.
Zach Zehnder: And when someone failed to live up to that that's what the Bible calls sin they had a rigorous process for how to pay and atone for that sin.
Zach Zehnder: And many times what it would look like is the high priest in that day would take the sins of the people into a room called the holy of holies, in the tabernacle or the temple, and there he would present an innocent lamb, a firstborn without defect, and that would temporarily pay for and atone for the sins of the world so they can be cleansed again.
Zach Zehnder: And so when this is talking about the Lamb of God, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, it is referencing, of course, jesus.
Zach Zehnder: There's so much in these two chapters, but I don't want you to miss this particular point that when John was weeping, it was an elder that attended to him.
Zach Zehnder: It was an.
Zach Zehnder: It was someone who believed.
Zach Zehnder: It wasn't an angel, it wasn't a messenger.
Zach Zehnder: In fact, I love what Lewis Brighton in his revelation commentary says.
Zach Zehnder: He says in the vision that has the most to do with redemption and salvation of God's people and with the resulting triumphal reign of Christ, an elder attends John, not an angel, he says.
Zach Zehnder: Who better than an elevated saint who himself has gone through suffering but now is at peace before God's holy presence, to tell John to stop weeping by urging him to look at the Lamb of God?
Zach Zehnder: The elder has the honor of pointing John, in the midst of his tears, to the victorious Lamb of God.
Zach Zehnder: Brighton says this imagery is reminiscent of the honor of proclaiming the gospel that God gives to his church, his people on earth, an honor that not even the angels or even the four creatures have in this measure, which means that when there is weeping and when there is suffering in this world, who does God choose to say?
Zach Zehnder: Hey, look to the Lamb, look to Jesus, hey, stop that suffering, because we know in the end it works.
Zach Zehnder: Who does he choose?
Zach Zehnder: Not an angel, not a winged creature.
Zach Zehnder: He chooses you and me.
Zach Zehnder: So when someone is suffering, we get to be the ones that share the good news and say look, behold the Lamb of God, the lion of Judah, the root of David, past tense has conquered.
Zach Zehnder: So when someone is suffering and again I know the suffering that we may experience in this world likely is different from the suffering many were experiencing for century Christianity, but there is a lot of suffering right now there are people that are sad, people that are lonely, people that are struggling with depression and anxiety and purposelessness and meaninglessness.
Zach Zehnder: And in the middle of all of that, we as elders get to come and say behold, look, there was no one worthy, but now there is.
Zach Zehnder: His name is Jesus and he's making all wrongs, right?
Zach Zehnder: I thought one of you would be excited about that.
Zach Zehnder: Then he goes into more detail and I'll read the end of chapter five and we'll close it out and the focal point changes once more.
Zach Zehnder: It's been a throne, it's been a scroll, and now it is the Lamb, and between the throne and the four living creatures that among the elders, I saw a standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
Zach Zehnder: He went and he took the scroll from the right hand of the one who seated on the throne.
Zach Zehnder: And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down, before each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints, and they sang 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, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.
Zach Zehnder: Then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice worthy is the oh, you didn't say it loud.
Zach Zehnder: Come on.
Zach Zehnder: Worthy is the, who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.
Zach Zehnder: And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth, and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying to him who sits on the throne, and to the be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.
Zach Zehnder: And the four living creatures said amen, and the elders fell down and worshiped.
Zach Zehnder: Wow, yeah, come on.
Zach Zehnder: Come on, a couple of you wanted to clap.
Zach Zehnder: Just everybody clap right now.
Zach Zehnder: It's good.
Zach Zehnder: And, as I mentioned earlier, jesus in the Old Testament, he now is the Lamb of God, who doesn't temporarily take away the sins of the world, but has permanently taken away the sins of the world.
Zach Zehnder: And in this vision in Revelation 4 and 5, we get to see the slain but risen Lamb of God, which shows us that what we see in Revelation 5 has already happened before.
Zach Zehnder: This moment has already happened.
Zach Zehnder: You've already seen this, actually from earth, and what we're being welcomed into right now is heaven's perspective on when this moment happened.
Zach Zehnder: And some of you may be like what are you talking about?
Zach Zehnder: And I'm really glad that you're asking what are you talking about, because I'll tell you what I'm talking about.
Zach Zehnder: Let me explain.
Zach Zehnder: Jesus came down into this world.
Zach Zehnder: He died on a cross.
Zach Zehnder: He then, three days later, rose from the dead.
Zach Zehnder: And when he rose from the dead, he then spent 40 days roaming around giving final instructions to his disciples, of which his words, his final words, are recorded in Acts 1, chapter 8, which tells them that they'll receive the power of the Holy Spirit and they'll be witnesses to the ends of the earth.
Zach Zehnder: And then Acts 1, verse 9, come on, if we can show that on the screens.
Zach Zehnder: It says and when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up.
Zach Zehnder: Do we have that?
Zach Zehnder: Yeah, lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
Zach Zehnder: And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?
Zach Zehnder: This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.
Zach Zehnder: The disciples got a glimpse of the ascension from earth, but it says there was a cloud that separated them from seeing anything that happened above.
Zach Zehnder: And so what do we have in Revelation 5?
Zach Zehnder: We have the ascension of Jesus on the other side of the clouds, because this is the slain but risen Lamb of God that, as he enters into Revelation 5, he's already done what he's done.
Zach Zehnder: He has past tense, conquered, and this, in Revelation 5, is God's welcome home party for his son, who is the lion of Judah, the root of David, but the Lamb of God that's taken away the sin of the world.
Zach Zehnder: It's done, it's completed, and we get to see things from the other side.
Zach Zehnder: And so I came to tell you that what is happening present tense, right now and forever, on the other side of the clouds deserves to be happening on this side of the clouds.
Zach Zehnder: Who is at the center on the other side deserves to be center right here in Omaha.
Zach Zehnder: This is God's welcome home party.
Zach Zehnder: And John, in the middle of weeping and elder, says hey, weep no longer, look, it's the slain but risen Lamb of God.
Zach Zehnder: And look, he's taking the scroll out of the right hand of the one that seated and he's opening it.
Zach Zehnder: He's found worthy and Jesus is there.
Zach Zehnder: And he's opening up seal one and opening up seal two and he busts all the seals open to show us 17 chapters of beauty that comes of how it will finally end for those that hang on, for those that have courage, for those that have hope that, in the middle of whatever this world brings, it's all going to end well, wow, wow.
Zach Zehnder: This season and Christmas.
Zach Zehnder: It's not some six pound infantile baby Jesus, ricky Bobby.
Zach Zehnder: It's about a bloody conquering King who became a lamb.
Zach Zehnder: But he's also a lion, and the sole goal of your life is to not get caught up in this world and say yes to anything good things, indifferent things or bad things but to stay centered on the slain risen Lamb of God, because the world will keep coming at you and in light of this awe inspiring throne, I don't want to set up my incredibly boring, docile throne with whatever throne I can come up with in this world.
Zach Zehnder: I want to say I'm laying all of that to the side, because you, who are worshiped on the other side of the clouds, deserve all of my worship on this side of the clouds, and he does for you too.
Zach Zehnder: And so my challenge or call to action for the week and then we'll wrap it up is this I want you this week, this week, I want you to red card something of this world, say no to something of this world, so that you can say yes to God.
Zach Zehnder: Maybe for you it's limiting what you do in your free time and maybe you won't stream one season of a particular show and instead you'll spend that time just worshiping God.
Zach Zehnder: How cool would that be.
Zach Zehnder: Or maybe for you this is how I'm feeling at this morning is maybe for me.
Zach Zehnder: What I can do is I can put a higher number on my pledge amount than I initially attended, because that'll also be a way to help me say no to more things next year in this world so I can say yes to God.
Zach Zehnder: I don't know what it is for you, but I came again with a message that the one who is worshiped on the other side of the clouds deserves to be worshiped on this side, and it's this beautiful picture in God's throne room where we see all of this come together, and some of you might be like that's really great, that's a really awesome image, but Zach, I'm not worthy.
Zach Zehnder: I'm certainly not worthy to open the scroll, but I'm also not even worthy to be in God's presence, because you will see, by the way, the one thing that stands no chance in the presence of God You'll see that very clear next week is anything unholy.
Zach Zehnder: It's no chance destroyed in the presence of God, and so that ought to leave us with weeping and sadness, because then there's no place for us.
Zach Zehnder: But when we look at the image again, we see 24 elders around the throne, and the elders are you and me.
Zach Zehnder: And so something had to happen, and what did happen is we've already shared it.
Zach Zehnder: The Lamb of God became slain and rose from the dead, so that His gift, his victory, now becomes yours.
Zach Zehnder: In fact, isaiah 1 says it this way come now, god says, let us reason together.
Zach Zehnder: Though your sins are like scarlet, though you've made a mess of things, though you're stained, though you're bloody, they shall be as white as snow.
Zach Zehnder: Did you notice?
Zach Zehnder: It snowed this morning.
Zach Zehnder: I don't know why I'm so angry right now.
Zach Zehnder: I was yelling that's a good thing.
Zach Zehnder: They shall be white as snow because these elders man, they're wearing white robes and they're wearing gold crowns, because everything has been atoned for and paid for, and so if you believe in this Jesus, then you don't need to cower in fear when you approach God and His throne.
Zach Zehnder: Is the amount of reverence acceptable?
Zach Zehnder: Oh yeah, it's a powerful moment to be in the presence of God, but not fear.
Zach Zehnder: In fact, the author of Hebrews says then let us, with confidence Can you imagine the ones who are unworthy, the ones who don't deserve it?
Zach Zehnder: We can, because of what God has done, with confidence, draw near to the throne of God that we would receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Zach Zehnder: And so who or what is the center of your life?
Zach Zehnder: Is the one that is now forever being worshiped on that side of the clouds, being worshiped on this side in your life?
Zach Zehnder: Will you stand, god?
Zach Zehnder: We come before you today and gosh.
Zach Zehnder: We're really grateful that you showed us this beautiful vision.
Zach Zehnder: God, we're unworthy on our own.
Zach Zehnder: We've made mistakes, we've got sins that are like scarlet, bloodied and messy us up, but we receive your grace anew today, and all of those sins would be white as snow.
Zach Zehnder: We wear white ropes and we wear golden crowns, not because of what we've done, but because of what you've done.
Zach Zehnder: And I pray, lord, that this would be a turning moment for many of us in our stories that, if we're off the path, god, we would come back on the right path.
Zach Zehnder: That, if we're saying yes to things of this world, that we would say no to things of this world so that we can worship you and glorify you like you and only you deserve.
Zach Zehnder: And that's what we're going to do, god.
Zach Zehnder: We're going to worship you because you're worthy.
Zach Zehnder: We pray this in your name and together, both campuses said Amen.
Zach Zehnder: This morning, after reading a text like that, what's an appropriate response?
Zach Zehnder: What's?
Zach Zehnder: How do we respond to God's goodness, to God's power, to God's majesty, to God's might?
Zach Zehnder: Here's what I want to ask you to do.
Zach Zehnder: I want to ask you to not cower in fear, but to approach God with reverence and confidence.
Zach Zehnder: In this moment and as we sing, I want to ask you to step out of your comfort zone and practice what is already happening now and will be going forever in heaven the absolute worship, praise and adoration of God.
Zach Zehnder: And so, if you are physically able, here's what I would love for you to do I would love for you to bow In reverence to this holy and mighty God.
Zach Zehnder: If you are not able to bow, if you're not able to kneel, I would ask you to raise hands and praise and surrender and adoration.
Zach Zehnder: It is I could not.
Zach Zehnder: It is the only appropriate response that I can see from this text that when all the angels saw everything in all of its glory, it's the only thing they could do.
Zach Zehnder: And as the angels did it, the 24 elders fell down and they laid their crowns and they worshiped God.
Zach Zehnder: And so the invitation is free, and so the invitation is free To worship this God.
Zach Zehnder: He is worthy.
Zach Zehnder: If he's getting it on that side of the clouds, he deserves it right here, right now.
Zach Zehnder: Let's worship our God.