SPEAKER_00: We studied through books of the Bible here at the Village Chapel, and I am so excited to be leading us through the last of the 66 books in the Bible, the book of Revelation, and uh our library we call the Bible overflowing with all different kinds of uh literature and and the way God is just revealing himself to us in so many different ways, 40 different authors, 1500, 1600 uh year period of time, and people from all different walks.
SPEAKER_00: And here's God working so hard to reveal himself to us.
SPEAKER_00: And the book of Revelation is just a great, great one to end the canon with.
SPEAKER_00: It combines uh apocalyptic literature, prophetic literature, and uh letter or epistle as it's called.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm so grateful, by the way, uh Scotty Smith last week did such a good job walking us through chapter four of Revelation, because chapters four and five really are two sides of the same coin.
SPEAKER_00: They're a look into the throne room of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And um, let me throw up on the screen for you just a couple of the points, just to remind you what Scotty had pointed out to us.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, we saw the occupied throne of heaven, the awestruck occupants of heaven, and the God-centered worship of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And he just did, Scotty did a great job of highlighting that for us from chapter four and pointed out that God-centered worship uh consists of, includes the idea of informed minds, inflamed hearts, and engaged hands.
SPEAKER_00: So, so true.
SPEAKER_00: Scotty's got a 14-week um study guide coming out on the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: I highly recommend it to you.
SPEAKER_00: Be looking for it from New Growth Press.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's sort of based on his book Unveiled Hope, which was all about revelation.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna pull one quote from that as we slide into chapter five, and here it is.
SPEAKER_00: Scotty says, we have a sure hope because of what Jesus accomplished in the past upon the cross as the Lamb of God.
SPEAKER_00: We have a living hope because of the present occupied throne of God in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, that's it's really powerful.
SPEAKER_00: It isn't just a book about, you know, some kind of epic story that doesn't in any way intersect our lives or have any impact on our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is an amazing story that is both uh reasonable, intellectual, and existential.
SPEAKER_00: It impacts you, it impacts me in the now, as well as describes some things that have already happened, some things that are happening, and some things that are about to happen.
SPEAKER_00: And so we'll see that as we go through it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, in our study today, the focus of uh uh Revelation shifts from chapter four, where it's all about uh God the Father on the throne as Lord of all creation.
SPEAKER_00: And in chapter five, it shifts now to God the Son, who is the Lamb of all redemption, and he's standing near the throne, and that will be the focus uh today.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be introduced to some new images like a significant scroll, a very unique and significant scroll.
SPEAKER_00: You may be uh familiar enough with Revelation to remember that.
SPEAKER_00: It's closed or sealed with seven seals, and then there comes along a strong angel uh who asks one of the most significant questions in the entire Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Who is worthy to open the scroll?
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
SPEAKER_00: It's not who's able, it's not who's strong enough, it's not who's clever enough to figure it out, it's not any of that, it's who is worthy.
SPEAKER_00: Also, like the image of a that John says it's a strong angel.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if there are some weak angels.
SPEAKER_00: It just you you you you hear those kind of uh adjectival modifiers, and you know, you kind of picture, well, this is no Barney Fi Fi angel, this is a strong angel, and he's asking a question like that who is worthy to open that scroll to break those seals?
SPEAKER_00: There's a pregnant pause of silence after that question is asked.
SPEAKER_00: You'll hear that as we get there, and then all of a sudden we hear some weeping, and it's John, the apostle, and he's weeping.
SPEAKER_00: Why is he weeping?
SPEAKER_00: And we don't want to miss the meaning of that and the importance of that.
SPEAKER_00: One of the elders, and we're not sure which, steps in and responds to John's weeping by pointing to Jesus, who describes him as the lion of Judah, the root of David, and the lamb who was slain.
SPEAKER_00: And uh a strange lamb because of seven horns and seven eyes.
SPEAKER_00: What do they represent?
SPEAKER_00: What could they possibly be?
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's a lot of falling down, as uh Scotty told us last week, a lot of falling down in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: And here we'll have three different hymns that will be sung in Revelation chapter five.
SPEAKER_00: And uh 24 elders are reintroduced and myriads upon myriads, thousands and thousands of angels.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna stop introducing it and we're just gonna read chapter five.
SPEAKER_00: So if you've got your Bible, I hope you'll open it up and uh, or if you have a digital one, swipe there on your device.
SPEAKER_00: I love to hear the rustle of pages and the swiping of glass.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, before I do, let me pray for us, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: As we have prayed in the past, uh, open our eyes that uh, Lord, we might see uh a clearer vision of your truth, that we might gain a greater faith in your power, and a more confident assurance of your love toward us.
SPEAKER_00: And we pray this in the name of Jesus our King.
SPEAKER_00: Amen and amen.
SPEAKER_00: So chapter five begins like this.
SPEAKER_00: And I, John speaking, saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, and that's God the Father, a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals.
SPEAKER_00: Now, your English translation may say, not book, but a scroll, and that's more likely the idea of what they would have had back then.
SPEAKER_00: Um, books start to come into play as uh uh some of the ancient papyrus gives way to parchment, and uh and then they start to bind books a little bit differently than they bound scrolls, but either way, the idea is this is a mechanism of writing.
SPEAKER_00: And verse one tells us it's written inside and on the back.
SPEAKER_00: Now that would be unusual for scrolls in ancient time.
SPEAKER_00: They typically couldn't bear the weight of ink and the amount of ink on both sides.
SPEAKER_00: So this is pretty fascinating.
SPEAKER_00: Um, this is a scroll or a book that is just overflowing, it's full, it's got a lot to say, and it's very unique because it's in the heavenly realm and it's sealed with seven seals, meaning it's very precious to God in a way, and uh in a way that we probably can't even understand, but it's very precious to God, and the question's gonna come up.
SPEAKER_00: I saw a strong angel, verse two says, proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?
SPEAKER_00: And so this voice, this strong angel, steps forward and you know, must I mean what does that mean that John says, I saw the strong angel?
SPEAKER_00: He looked like the rock, you know, just kind of big guy and and and just looked really powerful, and he just, his voice just rang throughout the heavenly vision that John is having here.
SPEAKER_00: Who is worthy to open this scroll?
SPEAKER_00: And this is really powerful.
SPEAKER_00: All right, over the book and to break its seals.
SPEAKER_00: No one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it, John says.
SPEAKER_00: So there was this silence, no answer to the angel, no one stepping forward, I can do it, or no one stepping forward to say anything for just a moment or two.
SPEAKER_00: I mean sometimes that moment or two lasts a little longer than we want it to, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: And then sometimes at just the right time, somebody steps forward to remind us again, and for me, and again and again, of something I need to be reminded of again and again and again, because I so easily forget, and the broken world around me keeps shouting at me day in and day out that this is what's important, this is the thing that really matters, this is the throne that really matters, when really there's just one throne that really matters, and that's this throne that we're reading about right here.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So he is weeping, and he describes it this way when there's no one in heaven and on earth or under the earth was able to open the book, verse three, verse four.
SPEAKER_00: I began to weep greatly, John says.
SPEAKER_00: So that's not just a little tear dripping, that's just heaving, convulsing greatly greatly is is what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, weeping and sobbing profusely because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a hunger and a longing on the part of John.
SPEAKER_00: Um and and I believe because he's an apostle and he because he's a pastor, it's not just for him to be able to look into it, it's not just for him to be able to see what that book says, but he wants the world to know what's in that book, and he wants the world to hear the message of that book, and if it doesn't get open, the world will not hear, the world will not understand what is on God's heart.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's weeping.
SPEAKER_00: One of the elders said to me, and doesn't say which one of the twenty-four elders uh that were already introduced to us uh last week by Scotty in chapter four, but he says, one of them steps forward and says, Stop weeping.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome, so as to open the book and its seven seals.
SPEAKER_00: And I, John, saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders, a lamb standing as if slain.
SPEAKER_00: And that's such an interesting comment.
SPEAKER_00: Standing as if slain.
SPEAKER_00: Probably must have had some kind of wounds, it looked like mortal wounds, and yet it was standing.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had scars in his hands.
SPEAKER_00: Scars, a scar on his side.
SPEAKER_00: And he took the time to show those to his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Thomas in particular, who said, Unless I see the scars, unless I touch his side, I won't believe he's risen again.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus shows up and shows him those scars.
SPEAKER_00: Here is the lamb who's standing as if slain.
SPEAKER_00: And there's some more unusual descriptions here of him, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And he came, this lamb came, and he took it, that book or that scroll, out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne.
SPEAKER_00: This is just amazing, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: There's so much here.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, I want to point out to you, uh, as we have in the past, Revelation continues to reach back into all the other 65 books of the of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Here alone we have um references that go all the way back to to Genesis, to Isaiah, Ezekiel, to Daniel, to, you know, there's just so much here.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus.
SPEAKER_00: There's there's so much here, Zechariah, there's so much here in Revelation that is the it's just the perfect book to close up the canon, as I said, because it keeps saying, look how all of this connects to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Look how all of what's been written before by the prophets and by the apostles as uh, you know, pointing forward to this great hope of glory we have in the person and work of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And this lamb who is standing there with the seven horns, and in biblical thinking, horns could represent authority.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus himself said, God the Father had given to him all authority.
SPEAKER_00: And so seven horns, seven being the number of completion in biblical thinking, and the horns being authority.
SPEAKER_00: God the Father had given Jesus, the Lamb of God, the root of David, the Lion of Judah, all complete, if you will, authority.
SPEAKER_00: And the he also had seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, that was referenced from chapter one as well, uh, sent out into all the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And we were told there that each of the churches, the seven churches in the seven cities of Asia Minor, Jesus gives John a letter, uh, actually through an angel or a messenger, and it's sent on to these churches.
SPEAKER_00: So uh how they all relate right there, or is this just uh a reference to the sevenfold ministry of the Holy Spirit himself?
SPEAKER_00: And so it's the complete work of the Spirit in our lives, um, it it could be a number of things.
SPEAKER_00: That's one of the reasons I'm so fascinated with this book, is because I can't nail it all down.
SPEAKER_00: And if we get too sidetracked trying to do that too literally, as Scotty said last week, uh we'll miss the point because we're looking at the pointers, and the pointers are pointing to something else, not to themselves.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's right.
SPEAKER_00: So he came, this lamb did, took it out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne.
SPEAKER_00: And when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down.
SPEAKER_00: There it is again, some more falling down before the lamb, having each one a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
SPEAKER_00: And you can kind of see that this that's a great visual image of prayers ascending, you know, like incense ascending up.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's just really great, isn't it, when you think about it.
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: They sang a new song, verse 9 says, and there'll actually be three hymns here in this chapter reminding us how important singing is when it comes to our worship of God.
SPEAKER_00: Um, they sang a new song saying, Worthy art thou to take the book and to break its seals, for thou wast slain.
SPEAKER_00: Singing here to the lamb, and didst purchase for God with thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's the reason why Jesus, the slain, the lamb that was slain, Jesus the lion of Judah, Jesus the root of David.
SPEAKER_00: This is why he's worthy.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he's accomplished something, he's worthy, proved himself worthy by doing what?
SPEAKER_00: He purchased for God with your blood people from every tribe, tongue, and people and nation.
SPEAKER_00: And you have made them to be a kingdom of priests to our God.
SPEAKER_00: So they're not just set free to go do whatever they want, they're not just set free and just kind of skipping off into the distance on their own, but they've actually set free to really become all that God intended for them to become.
SPEAKER_00: See?
SPEAKER_00: A kingdom, first of all, with a king.
SPEAKER_00: The king is Jesus, a kingdom of people who live together, and uh the peace of God rules their hearts, the love of God flows in their relationships, and uh and there's substantial, you know, uh transformation in our lives when we submit our lives to the love of God and to the healing power of God in our lives by the Holy Spirit in our uh horizontal relationships.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And so because you have done that, these this these people are singing, these creatures are all singing, uh, because you've done that, you're worthy to take the book and to break its seals.
SPEAKER_00: You've purchased for God with your blood, your sacrifice, the lamb who was slain, right?
SPEAKER_00: People from every tribe, tongue, and people, uh, group and nation, and you've made them to be a kingdom and priest to our God, and they will reign upon the earth.
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
SPEAKER_00: Then John goes on, and I looked, and I heard, and by the way, you see you you we read that over and over and over again in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: This is not like me, you know, not like me trying to remember a dream that I had at some point.
SPEAKER_00: This is not me sort of in my own imagination, kind of running wild with my anxieties and my fears and my, you know, all the crazy little thoughts I have in my head about stuff, and then waking up the next day and going, Kim, you wouldn't believe it.
SPEAKER_00: I had a dream, and this one-eyed dog was chasing me and barking and drooling, and then it mean must mean something, you know.
SPEAKER_00: No, this is a vision that was by divine initiation revealed to John.
SPEAKER_00: And he was told to write this down, and so he does that, and he writes this song down, this hymn, and then he looked and he heard, and so in his vision, he's seeing things, he's hearing things, and he's taking notes.
SPEAKER_00: The voice of many angels around the throne, and the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them, myriads of myriads, thousands of thousands.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, so many he couldn't even count them.
SPEAKER_00: Just mass numbers.
SPEAKER_00: Just a huge, uncountable number of people and thousands and thousands of angels, thousands and thousands of them, plus these living creatures, plus these elders.
SPEAKER_00: And they were all saying with a loud voice, here's the second hymn worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's amazing.
SPEAKER_00: So worthy, first of all, in the first song, are you to take the book to break its seals?
SPEAKER_00: So this these both of these songs directed at the lamb, the lion, the root, right?
SPEAKER_00: And worthy, this time, it the focus is on the fact that the lamb was slain, and yet he's to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.
SPEAKER_00: And that's so upside down in our own thinking that someone who suffered, that someone who died would somehow or another accomplish these kinds of victories and receive this kind of adulation in the heavenly realm and accomplish this amount of salvation on behalf of you and me.
SPEAKER_00: That's really powerful when you think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.
SPEAKER_00: And in the whole process, he's just being worshipped, right?
SPEAKER_00: Every created, verse 13, every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea and all things in them, and by the way, I gotta stop there and remind us every created thing is everything except for the creator himself.
SPEAKER_00: You can draw one big giant line in all of reality.
SPEAKER_00: And on one side of that line is where God sits, God the Creator, God Almighty.
SPEAKER_00: And then on the other side of that line is every created thing.
SPEAKER_00: That's where you are, and that's where I am, and that's where everything else is.
SPEAKER_00: And all of creation right now is groaning.
SPEAKER_00: And all of creation right now is longing for things to be set right.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why this is such an amazing book for us to be studying at this particular moment in history, at this particular moment in your life and in my life, the hope of glory, the revelation of Jesus Christ, right?
SPEAKER_00: And every created thing which is in heaven, on the earth, and on the earth, and on the sea, and all things in them.
SPEAKER_00: I heard saying, John says, and this is the third psalm, or the third hymn, if you will, to him who sits on the throne.
SPEAKER_00: And so now the the praise and the worship is directed to God the Father again.
SPEAKER_00: And then also to the Lamb.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, so now there's this connection, the Lamb and the Son of God, and and God the Father, and they're both to receive the praise that is due to God.
SPEAKER_00: Again, folks, if you ever had any question about the person of Christ, is he just One among many?
SPEAKER_00: Is he just another world religious leader?
SPEAKER_00: Is he just another rabbi?
SPEAKER_00: Just another person who came along and started a religious movement?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's the Lamb who was slain.
SPEAKER_00: He's the lion of Judah.
SPEAKER_00: He's the root of David.
SPEAKER_00: He's the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: He's God the Son.
SPEAKER_00: He's one with the Father, as he even claimed, made that very public claim and bodacious claim, bold claim.
SPEAKER_00: And if he was lying, it makes him quite a megalomaniac, somebody we shouldn't listen to, somebody we shouldn't take seriously.
SPEAKER_00: But if he was telling the truth, and what John is seeing here is true about Jesus, then yes, he deserves our worship.
SPEAKER_00: And so he sees every created thing saying to him who sits on the throne, God the Father, and to the Lamb, that's God the Son, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: And I love forever.
SPEAKER_00: What a beautiful word in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00: When you live in a world that is uh where there's just such a great amount of planned obsolescence, you know, all of our computers are out of date when?
SPEAKER_00: Pretty much the day we bought them, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Certainly six months later, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Um our our phones get replaced, and they're again, it's just planned obsolescence.
SPEAKER_00: You know, people are just constantly having to replace things.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because they don't last forever.
SPEAKER_00: And here is this one thing in all of reality, the fixed point on the horizon, if you will, the infinite reference point.
SPEAKER_00: And it's God Himself, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And to him be blessing, honor, and glory and dominion forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: And then I got to read the last verse and just make a couple of comments.
SPEAKER_00: And the four living creatures kept saying, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: That means truly.
SPEAKER_00: That means indeed.
SPEAKER_00: And they kept saying it, in other words, going, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, you know, on and on.
SPEAKER_00: And I love, you know, I love to think of the four living creatures as sort of the first uh four-part harmony, S-A-T-B.
SPEAKER_00: And I'd love to see, you know, uh uh how they how they split that up.
SPEAKER_00: Did the ox sing bass, you know?
SPEAKER_00: What was the the the human one sort of the the baritone?
SPEAKER_00: Was the eagle singing the high parts, you know?
SPEAKER_00: Because whenever you see a uh a men's quartet or whatever, there's always some guy that can sing so high up, so loud a pitch.
SPEAKER_00: And when you watch him, it seems like his face gets all red because he's singing such a high note, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the four living creatures here, they kept singing, Amen, Amen, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And the elders fell down and worshipped.
SPEAKER_00: And this falling down is not a bad falling down.
SPEAKER_00: This falling down is to do what they were exactly designed, precisely designed to do.
SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the reasons I love it so much.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So, what do we learn here, man?
SPEAKER_00: Chapter five, just amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, when you and when you put it together with chapter four, whoo! It is a wild ride indeed to be able to just peek into.
SPEAKER_00: And what we can't tell from reading four and five is is did John he look through this door?
SPEAKER_00: It tells us at the at the beginning of chapter four there.
SPEAKER_00: Did he did he go in or did he was he just looking in and gazing and seeing all this from a little bit of a distance?
SPEAKER_00: We don't really know.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what's clear to us he gets a glimpse of the throne room of heaven and what's going on in there.
SPEAKER_00: Many of us have had some kind of numinous experience when we felt the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: I suppose you might have as well.
SPEAKER_00: It may have been when we stood facing the, you know, majestic rocky mountains, or when we walked along the shoreline of the Florida Gulf.
SPEAKER_00: I've I've been seeing people on Instagram posting pictures of that, you know, at sunrise or at sunset, and witnessing that that that kind of thing God does with the brilliant collision, you know, of yellow, blue, and purple and fiery orange.
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
SPEAKER_00: I never knew all those covers uh colors went went together so well, but God does it and does it over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and sometimes when we look at the mountains or when we look at the ocean, or maybe just looking up into the night sky, uh, like Kim and I last night were looking up in the night sky and it was just amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it was clear enough here in Nashville.
SPEAKER_00: Um not only could you see the moon, which is like a quarter of a million miles away, you know, 250,000 miles away, but you could see the planet Jupiter, which is 389.9 million miles away.
SPEAKER_00: And you could also see a star called Vega, and I looked it up.
SPEAKER_00: It's 147.2 trillion miles from Earth.
SPEAKER_00: And we're seeing the light of that star Vega after it left Vega probably years ago, but that light at the tr traveling at the speed of light is getting to us, and we're getting to see that.
SPEAKER_00: It's pretty amazing.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a it can be like the kind of thing where you look at it and you go, Oh, cool, there's some rocks up in the sky and some some gases that are, you know, where light is trailing in it, and and that isn't that cool.
SPEAKER_00: Or you could be saying to yourself, look what the artist, God, has done.
SPEAKER_00: He has put together at the sunset at the beach, orange and yellow and blue, and he has with the mountains, he has built all of these amazing, craggy things and put some, you know, like Scotty was talking about the Alps uh last week.
SPEAKER_00: That just, you know, blows my mind.
SPEAKER_00: I love watching them on the Tour de France because the cyclists all go up into the Alps, and it's just amazing what God has done.
SPEAKER_00: And do we end up seeing that these things are pointers, not the point themselves, that these things are road signs pointing us to the destination who is God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: For those who are watching with eyes to see, all of these amazing experiences are a part of creation.
SPEAKER_00: And God has gifted you and gifted me with the capacity for awe and astonishment.
SPEAKER_00: And it should lead us to the conclusion that all of these experiences point us to God Himself, the Lord of all creation, as chapter four, and as the emphasis was in chapter four.
SPEAKER_00: And then ultimately, as we think about that and we wonder who is worthy to open the scroll, who is it that can connect us with God and God's word of salvation?
SPEAKER_00: There's really only one, chapter five tells us.
SPEAKER_00: And it's the Son, the Lamb who was slain, the Son who is the Lord of all redemption.
SPEAKER_00: And so I love chapter five for that.
SPEAKER_00: We folks are created as worshipers, and John was eyewitness to that experience in its fullest sense in this vision.
SPEAKER_00: How amazing to have one eyes open in the very presence of God in the throne room of God, and to be in such close proximity to God's white hot holiness and worthiness.
SPEAKER_00: Bent knees and bowed heads would be the only proper response.
SPEAKER_00: And the word worship is actually closely related to an ancient word of falling down like this, of prostrating oneself face down before the object of one's worship.
SPEAKER_00: May the Lord give us knees that bend easily, and heads that bow eagerly before Him.
SPEAKER_00: May the Lord help us to raise the empty hands of faith and our voices along with them to receive grace and to declare his worthiness.
SPEAKER_00: So here we have God the Father seated upon the throne holding a book with seven seals on it.
SPEAKER_00: The strong angel asks the important question that opens the possibility of a pervasive problem in the universe.
SPEAKER_00: Who's worthy?
SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden there's this silence, and John begins to weep because apparently no one is.
SPEAKER_00: The elder steps forward and says, Oh, don't weep anymore.
SPEAKER_00: No need to weep anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And he points with just a a great comforting uh hand, I'm sure, upon John and this encouraging word of the hope of glory.
SPEAKER_00: The lion, the root, the lamb is worthy.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, folks, is no flat Stanley.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you ever had that to play with when you were a kid, but Jesus is no one-dimensional character, and I love the book of Revelation for the way it portrays Christ in so many different ways.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but here we have Jesus, the Lion of Judah, with the roaring strength of majestic truth and authority, and it's just amazing.
SPEAKER_00: He's resolute in his righteousness and his sense of accomplishing justice in his world, in his creation, right?
SPEAKER_00: He needs to be a lion like that.
SPEAKER_00: At the same time, he's the root of David, which reminds us that Jesus became one of us.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what enables him, see, to take our place on the cross, to substitute himself for me and for you on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He's one of us, he dies in our place.
SPEAKER_00: He who knew no sin became sin on the cross, so that we might be set free from the penalty of our sin and the power of our sin.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus, the lion of Judah, combined at the same time with the root of David's, combined at the same time with the lamb who was slain, the lamb, the one who is weak and gentle, tender, vulnerable, approachable, just like a lamb.
SPEAKER_00: And as we sing so often, who would have thought that a lamb could rescue the souls of men?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, the lion, the root, the lamb, he's the only one worthy to open the scroll.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the one who will be the final judge, who will take injustice seriously enough to demand justice as the lion.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is also the lamb who will sacrifice himself in our place so that justice might be accomplished in the great wisdom of God and in his awesome mercy put on offer to you and on offer to me salvation purchased by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I love this about him.
SPEAKER_00: Folks, this is why when John was weeping, see, if all that news doesn't get out, how will people know?
SPEAKER_00: And so he wants to make sure that someone is worthy to open the scroll.
SPEAKER_00: All right, let me throw a few things up on the screen for you here.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation 5 reminds us that because Jesus is worthy, the seals will be broken.
SPEAKER_00: The scroll will be opened.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the word of the God who speaks to bring the message of redemption and salvation will be heard, and it's God who has assured that.
SPEAKER_00: It is God Himself who is worthy to open the word of his salvation, the word of his covenant, the word of his promises.
SPEAKER_00: And as I said, drawing, reaching back and drawing images from Genesis, Exodus, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, just showing us that for a long, long time, God has had this plan that has found its fulfillment now in the person and the work of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so he receives universal praise and rightly so.
SPEAKER_00: God is our Almighty Creator, and so he deserves our praise.
SPEAKER_00: And everything and everyone that exists is under his sovereign authority.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why this divine throne is the central and primary feature of chapters four and five.
SPEAKER_00: Because we want to see who's sitting on that throne, who's standing near that throne, who are all these people aiming, who are all these creatures aiming their worship at?
SPEAKER_00: You see, we all know the world is broken.
SPEAKER_00: We know, we recognize that we need salvation.
SPEAKER_00: We need help from the outside.
SPEAKER_00: We can't handle justice like the Lion of Judah can.
SPEAKER_00: We just can't bear that.
SPEAKER_00: None of our politicians, none of our civic leaders, none of our groups of people who have gotten together and decided, well, we know what's right.
SPEAKER_00: None of them can handle justice properly.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lion of Judah can.
SPEAKER_00: And he came as one of us, the root of David.
SPEAKER_00: He came as one of us and then laid down his life, the Lamb who was slain.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's that unique combination that we find in Jesus alone that makes him worthy to open the scroll of God's message of salvation, God's covenant promises.
SPEAKER_00: He's the only one possible that could possibly be worthy to do all of that.
SPEAKER_00: And there's no darkness anywhere of any kind, deep enough or impenetrable enough to evade the sudden dissolution of the light of the glory that flows from the throne of heaven and from the face of this Lamb who was slain and who yet lives.
SPEAKER_00: And so, secondly, our hearts will rejoice with irrepressible worship, just like we see happening in all of chapter 5 to every living being that's mentioned there.
SPEAKER_00: Irrepressible worship.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, worthy, worthy, worthy.
SPEAKER_00: And they just can't stop saying, Amen, amen, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Truly, truly, indeed, indeed.
SPEAKER_00: And amen could be translated verily, verily, Jesus used to say it that way as well.
SPEAKER_00: And what he meant was, this is really true.
SPEAKER_00: You can count on this.
SPEAKER_00: See, and I don't know where you're at today, but I know my feelings undulate, maybe yours do too.
SPEAKER_00: My sense of connection with reality undulates in this dear disorienting isolation that we have going on and the way the world is changing so dramatically.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and yet, above it all, what we are given here is a glimpse into the real reality, the heavenly realm, um, and the way things really are when we see how God is on the only throne that really matters.
SPEAKER_00: Our hearts rejoice with irrepressible worship, singing songs, extolling the unique worthiness, absolute holiness, unparalleled beauty, unmatched majesty and authority, and irresistible glory of the one who is the lion, the root, and the lamb.
SPEAKER_00: No one else is like him.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, he, because Jesus is worthy, he will reconcile people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation to the holy God and also to each other, and he's the only one that can do that as well.
SPEAKER_00: Um, laws can't do that, political movements can't do that, cultural movements can't do that.
SPEAKER_00: What we need is a significant heart transformation.
SPEAKER_00: And this can only be done by the King of Hearts himself, who is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Who would have thought that a lamb laying down his life like this could rescue the souls of men?
SPEAKER_00: Rescue me from my fears, rescue me from my anger and my outrage, the kudzu of our culture that covers us up and is choking us to death.
SPEAKER_00: Rescue us from our prejudice, from even the ugliness of racism that is frankly in all of our hearts at some level, in some degree.
SPEAKER_00: And we must repent from it.
SPEAKER_00: We must turn away from it.
SPEAKER_00: But I can't do that on my own.
SPEAKER_00: See, I can't handle justice, and I also can't even handle mercy appropriately.
SPEAKER_00: I need the Lion of Judah, who became the root of David, to also be the lamb who was slain.
SPEAKER_00: I need him to be all of that in my life, and you need him in your life to do that as well.
SPEAKER_00: And when we start to realize that he has done that, he's accomplished that, and he wants to begin to transform us and change us and set us on a course to where he will renew all things one day, whatever the eschatological sequence ends up being, I will have an irrepressible amount of worship just to sing his praise.
SPEAKER_00: And to do that, standing next to people from every tribe, every nation, every tongue, every people group, every color, whatever you want to, whatever categories you want to put up there, I just can't wait to see and experience that beauty, that wonderful harmony of all those voices singing, all hail the power of Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Ah, it's gonna be awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Fourthly, he is all at the same time the lion, the root, and the lamb, and therefore Jesus embodies the entirety of the gospel of God's grace on offer to us.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Like I said earlier, I don't know if you know this or not, but the worship the word worship is closely associated with the idea of falling down on one's face.
SPEAKER_00: And so here we have all of this falling down going on, and it it is so appropriate as a response, and I love it that they appear to all be doing this so willingly and eagerly and all that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00: And yet there's some of us that resist, some of us that for now don't want to acknowledge Jesus as the lion, the root, the lamb, the savior we need, the king of hearts.
SPEAKER_00: For now, falling is an invitation.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a privilege, it's an honor, it's a joy for those of us who are falling before him.
SPEAKER_00: But the day is coming when it will be a summons.
SPEAKER_00: The day is coming when it won't be optional anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
SPEAKER_00: What might keep you from falling now and doing what you were created and designed to do, to worship Him?
SPEAKER_00: Just a few quotes and I'll let you go.
SPEAKER_00: Carl Bart, Christian worship is the most momentous, most urgent, most glorious action that can take place in human life.
SPEAKER_00: You see, what that's because this is what we were created for, folks.
SPEAKER_00: And if you really want to find your place in this world, if you really want to discover what life is really all about and what causes your soul to flourish, and what will cause you to overflow with inexhaustible joy, uh, unassailable joy, is it's going to be worshiping him.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so why not, again, why not start now?
SPEAKER_00: Um, Stephen Charnock, a Puritan divine, English Puritan from the 17th century, says, When God and his glory are made our end, we shall find the silent likeness pass in upon us.
SPEAKER_00: The beauty of God will by degrees enter upon our soul.
SPEAKER_00: And that's so beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: I need more of the beauty of God in my soul.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta tell you, that is so true.
SPEAKER_00: I'm recognizing that more and more each day.
SPEAKER_00: And by God's grace, he's transforming and changing me.
SPEAKER_00: Um and then one more quote, William Temple to worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, and to devote the will to the purpose of God.
SPEAKER_00: You should, we could all just do so well to just meditate on each of those phrases and ask ourselves if we're if that's how we're responding to God.
SPEAKER_00: Let me close with this.
SPEAKER_00: Our TVC kids have been looking at the C.
SPEAKER_00: S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis books, um, uh, The Chronicles of Narnia.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter eight of C.
SPEAKER_00: S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis's The Lion, the Witch in the Wardrobe, uh, Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Beaver tells Susan and Lucy about Aslan, and the girls uh seek reassurance about him.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, is he a man?
SPEAKER_00: says Lucy.
SPEAKER_00: It's really awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Aslan a man?
SPEAKER_00: said Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Beaver sternly.
SPEAKER_00: Certainly not.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you, he's the king of wood and the son of the great emperor beyond the sea.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you know who is the king of the beasts?
SPEAKER_00: Aslan is a lion, the lion, the great lion.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, said Susan, I thought he was a man.
SPEAKER_00: Is he quite safe?
SPEAKER_00: she asks.
SPEAKER_00: I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.
SPEAKER_00: And that you will, dear, said Mrs.
SPEAKER_00: Beaver, and make no mistake, if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else silly.
SPEAKER_00: And then Lucy responds and she says, Then he isn't safe.
SPEAKER_00: Safe?
SPEAKER_00: said Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Beaver.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you hear what Mrs.
SPEAKER_00: Beaver tells you?
SPEAKER_00: Who said anything about safe?
SPEAKER_00: Of course he isn't safe.
SPEAKER_00: But he's good.
SPEAKER_00: He's the king, I tell you.
SPEAKER_00: Is he worthy to be the king?
SPEAKER_00: To be the king of your heart?
SPEAKER_00: To be the king of our hearts together?
SPEAKER_00: He is.