Who is Worthy?
Ai Transcript
Hey, good morning. It's good to be with you this morning. you have a Bible, we're in the book of Revelation. Revelation five is where we're at this morning. So you can begin to make your way there.
My name is Mark. If you're just visiting, it's my privilege to open up God's word. I'll say this about this passage. It's always my privilege to open up God's word with you. But this chapter in particular has stirred my soul, my affections for Jesus, my joy in Jesus and my prayer for you this week is that you would get a bit of that, a bit of what I had the privilege of experiencing this week in God's word. So Revelation five is where we're going to be at now.
Every summer there's a formula for a blockbuster. It's usually a superhero movie. One of the reasons that the movie studios do this is because it's so financially lucrative. It's a tried and true formula, but it's lucrative because we...
In the end, it's our story. In the end, it's a story that we want. I say this all the time. Every superhero movie is a longing in our hearts, a cry for Jesus. It's what we want. And so whether you recognize it or not, there is this angst in us that's desiring us as image bearers of God for someone, someone who is worthy, usually someone from outside of us to come and rescue and redeem. And so every superhero movie falls
as a narrative arc, which really reflects the gospel. Some call this a memory trace, that there is this longing, there's this place, there's this angst for someone or something that we can't quite get our hands on here, but we know it's out there somewhere. And again, it doesn't matter whether you're a Christian or not, across time and place and culture, this memory trace just kind of resounds in the mind of humanity.
C.S. Lewis, who was a master of the English language to say the least, he knew that there was not an English word to describe this, but there is a German word. It's called Sehnsucht.
Zane's here's how C.S. Lewis puts it. Zane's look is that unimaginable something the desire for which pierces us like a pain, the inconsolable longing for we know not what it is the secret signature of each soul.
the incumminable and unappeasable want, the thing we desired before we met our wives or made our friends or chose our work and which we shall still desire even on our deathbeds. Lewis would often talk about how there is this longing for something that is not in this world, which means that we are probably made for another world.
We see this all over the place the the rightful king that returns whether it's Aragorn or Beowulf or King Arthur the chosen one Neo from the matrix the sacrificial leader could be Broto or Harry Potter we see it in our poetry like Dylan Thomas rage against the dying of the light or and we hear it in our songs even songs that are written today or Maybe a few years ago 20 30 years ago you too. I still haven't found what I'm looking for
If you listen carefully, you'll hear it in so many Taylor Swift songs. Honestly, there is this existential angst. There is this longing. There's this longing for some sort of deliverance. And there's this question, who is worthy? Who is worthy to do it? Who is worthy to...
bring me to the spot where I think I need to go. We all feel the brokenness of this world. I don't need to belabor that. Like we can turn on the news and we can see that there are wars and famines and preschools being bombed across the planet. And we become numb to it because we can't possibly enter into all that pain, but we see it in our own country. And we see a brother assassinated and we see the Colorado's 13th school shooting on the same day. But we don't even have to go beyond that, right?
This week I was going to play tennis and as I was going there all of sudden cops blocked off the road. There was a dead man on the road after a road rage incident and someone was shot right a few minutes before I got there. Brokenness. But we don't need to go there. We can go in our own homes. We can go in our own relationships. We can go in our own minds and our own hearts and all of that just stirs this longing again. Like who is worthy to set it right? Who is going to...
set things right. We echo the psalmist, how long lord, how long will you forget me forever? And it stirs in us, zane zucht as CSU would say, it stirs in us the question of our passage, who is worthy, who is worthy to do this? Well, we're in Revelation 5 and it's the second half of
the scene in Revelation of the throne room of God. So if you weren't here last week, let me just recap what we saw last week after Jesus gave his message to the seven churches, the first apocalypse, the revealing happened for John. He was taken up and he gets this vision of heaven and in the vision he sees God is on the throne and it really is too awesome for words. The best that John can do is,
it seemed like or it had the appearance of a sea of glass and there's lightning and thunder and there's these four creatures with different faces and there's the 24 elders that are all worshiping and there's these angels and they're worshiping God as creator over all. is the theme of chapter four. God is worshiped as the creator and sustainer of all life. It's so it's so awesome and so beyond our finite minds it almost seems
like a dream. It almost seems like a fantasy. But here's the thing that you and I have to really get our hearts around this morning. It's not a dream. It's not a fantasy. It is actual reality.
And we are the ones that are living in the fantasy, the dream, the shadow lands as C.S. Lewis would call it. Or let me help illustrate it another way. So the TV show on Netflix, Stranger Things, Spoiler alert, but it's been out for a few years. It takes place in this kind of idyllic, nostalgic Midwestern town in the 80s and things seem good, but it doesn't take long to realize that in this
Midwestern town that there is a parallel reality running alongside them and it's called the what? The upside down right and in the upside down the upside down is a world of darkness and evil and shadows and monsters and there's this tension that's the whole plot of the TV show but here's the thing
The Bible, what we see in Revelation four and five, that there is that same kind of parallel, but we're the ones living in the upside down. We think we live in the land of solid reality and light and goodness, but just stepping back, no, we're in the darkness. We're in the land with monsters and evil and all the brokenness. And Revelation four and five shows us what is ultimate reality. This is what's really, really true.
And this is what we need to wrap our lives around this morning. So let's jump into this because as the scene continues to unfold in chapter five, we realize some things are happening that we did not see in chapter four. There's new details that emerge in chapter five in this scene of ultimate reality. This reality that isn't far off, some place in the universe, some place we will go one day when we die, but this ultimate reality that is
present now but like if we could pull back the veil and see into the throne room of God in this place right now it's happening now this isn't a future hope this isn't something that will happen one day right now in this room God is being worshipped
Whether you join in that worship or not, God is worthy of your worship right now. And every now and again, there's some convergence where or the old Celtic theologians would call it thin places. Every now and again, the veil between heaven and earth where we see in our five senses every now and again, that veil gets very, very thin and you sense the ultimate reality. You sense the transcendence, but most of the time we don't.
That doesn't mean it's not there. It doesn't mean that it's not running parallel to our lives right now. This is what's happening right now. So the vision continues to unfold. Verse one of chapter five, listen carefully. This is God's word. John writes, then I saw.
And remember in the book of Revelation, it's not what happens next because what happens next isn't always chronological. But what does John see next? He says, then I saw something that he hadn't seen in chapter four. 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.
John sees that in God's right hand, however that looks, this unapproachable light, in some way, or form, in the right hand, that's his power, his authority. He's got this scroll, and on the scroll, it's written.
on the front and back. is odd that this is this is communicating something to what's on the scroll. Well it doesn't tell us explicitly what's on the scroll but from context most common most theologians think what's on the scroll is the plan of God the plan of God for the redemption restoration the judgment of evil that the restoring of all things. This is the plan of God but it is sealed and it is sealed by seven seals.
seven in Revelation is this symbolic number for perfection for completion so it is perfectly sealed the plan of God to rescue and redeem and restore all of creation and set the universe right it is on this scroll it's perfectly sealed and then a search goes out in verse 2 I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice our question who is worthy
Who is worthy? Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seal? He goes on this search in the throne room of God, but beyond that to the ends of the universe with this loud voice searching for the worthy one. Now what we need to do as we enter this passage, John intentionally slows down the narrative.
Don't jump ahead. Enter into it. If you're a follower of Christ, you have the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we need to ask the Holy Spirit to illumine our minds and our imagination to feel what John is feeling in this moment. This is why he's slowing it down. There's this universal search. There's this angst like someone has to come. Someone who is worthy has to come and break the seal so that the plan of God can move forward. Verse three says, and.
No one, no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or look into it. The search goes out to all the universe and there's no one.
Again, if we slow down and we try to feel what John feels, the next verse will make sense. Verse four, and I began to weep loudly. Or you could say, I began to wail because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or look into it.
He's been told that he's going to see the things that must soon take place. He's been told that the plan of God is going to be revealed to him and now the plan of God is in the scroll, but there's no one worthy. And he's desperate. He's broken. Imagine how you would feel if there was no redemption, no hope.
that there was no savior, that there was no future. Humanity just ends in a inglorious death, maybe by at the hands of one another or some asteroid or something. And the atheists are right that it's all meaningless and pointless and pointless. This reality, this feeling is hitting John like a brick and he's undone. There's no one worthy in all the universe for the plan of God to move forward.
And then it says, verse five, and one of the elders, so remember these elders, 24 of them, 12 representing the 12 tribes of Israel from the Old Testament, 12 representing the disciples, these angelic beings, one of them comes to John and gets his attention. so John takes his eyes off the center of the throne room and he turns towards this angel, this elder. And the elder says, weep no more.
Weep no more. Behold, it's the command of Revelation. Look, 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. The lion of the tribe of Judah. This is fulfillment of the prophecy. In Genesis 49, Jacob is blessing his sons. And when he gets to Judah, he gives this, I think it's verses 10 through 12. He gives this blessing on Judah. And he says, Judah, you're going to be like a lion. You're going to raise up, you're going to defeat the enemies, you're going to rule over not just Israel, you're going to rule over all the nations. You are a lion, Judah.
It's coming true.
Not just that, he's the root of David. The promise to David is that one would come who is worthy to sit on your throne and rule and reign forever. That one is the Messiah. He has come. And in fact, he has conquered past tense. Remember the message to the seven churches. If you overcome, if you conquer, then this blessing will come into your life. Well, we can conquer. We can overcome because the lion of the tribe of Judah first has conquered.
so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. So the line of the tribe of Judah. Think of the image that might come to your mind in that moment.
What does this look like? I was thinking about this this week and trying to picture what I would be feeling when the elder would say that to me. And so I asked Chachi Petit to help me out here. So I've got this lion. He's got a crown. He's got blood on his face from having just devoured his enemies.
This is what John, I think, is feeling and picturing and very, very slowly now as he's been told this great news that the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Messiah has come and conquered and is able to open the scroll. he has been told all that, he begins to lift his eyes, turn his eyes back to the throne. And we see this in verse six. This is very important because this is disorienting.
says in between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a lamb. What? I've been told that the lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered and he lifts up his eyes and he says I saw a lamb. In fact the word there is not just lamb it's Arneon it's used 25 times in the Bible 24 of which is in Revelation it means little lamb.
I saw a little lamb. didn't see, remember the important thing is what did he see next? He thought he was about to see a lion with blood on his face and a crown on his head, majestic and regal, but as he looked up he sees a little lamb standing as though it had been slain. This is wild, right?
This lamb does have blood on his face. This lamb's neck has been slit. This lamb has blood on its chest. But it's not the blood of his enemies. It's his own blood. He's been slaughtered, but he's not laying there dead. He's standing. It's Jesus. Death. Burial. Resurrected.
And this lamb has seven horns. Again, seven perfection, completion. Horns represent power, authority, and might. This little lamb has omnipotence. He is all powerful. And with seven eyes, eyes represent wisdom. He has perfect wisdom. He is omniscient. He knows all things.
This lamb has seven spirits of God. saw that that's the Holy Spirit of God sent out to all the earth. This lamb by the Spirit of God is everywhere. He is omnipresent. This is a distorting kind of apocalypse for John. He thought he would see a lion and this would make sense, but he sees a little slain lamb. But this lamb is all powerful, all knowing, all
omnipresent all the things. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb. Each holding a harp. is they're worshipping him now and the golden bowls full of incense which are prayers of the saints and they sang a new song.
Of course they sing a new song because new revelation has come to them. And they tell us why this lamb is worthy to open the scrolls. For reasons. Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals. For you were slain. You were slaughtered. This is the lamb.
Mark Oshman (19:36.78)
The lamb imagery is the fulfillment of all the lamb imagery leading up through the Old Testament. This is when Abraham is with Isaac, his son on Mount Moriah, and God stays his hand and doesn't sacrifice his son. Genesis 22, eight says God himself will provide a lamb for the burnt offering. This is Exodus 12, five, the Passover lamb where the blood of the lamb was put over the doorway of the houses and the destroying angel would pass over all that had recovered by the blood.
of the Lamb. This is the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. The Lamb led like a slaughter to his death. This is the Lamb that John the Baptist said in John 1.29, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. You are worthy because you were slain. You laid down your life. Number two, and by your blood.
by your own blood you ransomed people for God. Number two he ransomed people for God. His blood was the purchase to to buy people back from the penalty and the payment of sin and death. He ransomed people back but not just a people like Israel. Number three people from every tribe and language and people and nation. He is the lamb who ransomed people back. And finally number
Verse 10, and you have made them a kingdom and priest to our God and they shall reign on the earth by his blood, by his sacrifice. He has made them a kingdom. It is the original intention of God for God's image bearers that we would be a kingdom of God's people on the earth and that we would also be priests on the earth. By the Lamb, this is our role. Not someday in the future, today.
Today, this is our role that we are co-heirs with Christ. are representatives of the kingdom. We have been purchased by the blood. We have been transferred from the domain of darkness, the stranger things, upside down world, and brought into the kingdom of the Son God loves as co-heirs with Christ to reign with Him and to be priests. What did priests do? They offered up prayers. They mediated between God and man.
that they represented. So this is our calling, our role today to mediate, to buy the proclamation of the gospel, buy our good works, buy our loving of our neighbors and the nation to usher more into the kingdom of God so that they too can become a kingdom of priests and heirs with Christ. This is why the Lamb is worthy.
But the worship service now for the lamb does not stop. It gets bigger. The worship circle expands and it expands exponentially. Look at verse 11. Then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voices of many angels numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.
Maybe you were counting there. That's seven blessings. It's a perfect blessing. This is perfect worship of the lamb. Now, this is really important. What we saw in chapter four, God on the throne, at very end,
This is an echo of chapter four. God on the throne worshiped as creator. Verse 11 of chapter four. 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. John as a Jew is fiercely monotheistic. And yet the worship of God on the throne is now worship of the Lamb. And he has no problem with that.
Because the Lamb is God. This is our triune God. This is the Trinity on display. Don't let anyone ever tell you, whether from the kingdom of the cults or false teachers, that Jesus isn't to be worshiped, that Jesus isn't God. Point them to Revelation 4 and 5.
He gets all of the praise, all of the glory, all of the same things of God on the throne because he is God. But did you also notice he's worthy to receive power, wealth, wisdom, and might? We can't give those to God. But we can and we must give the last three an honor and glory and blessing. This is our role. We honor the Lamb. We give him glory. We bless the Lord.
And it says, myriad of angels, of thousands of thousands. So this worship scene from the throne expands and all of sudden, 100 million angels show up to worship the land.
That's quite a worship service, but it goes beyond even that. Verse 13, and I heard every creature in heaven and on the 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 lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever and ever. This is all of creation.
Paul talks about this in Romans 8, that all of creation is groaning as a woman in the throes of childbirth, pangs of childbirth, longing for this day. Well, this has come now in the Lamb to rescue and redeem. says, and the four living creatures said, amen, and the elders fell down and worshiped him.
This is an amazing passage of present reality that is happening right now and we're invited to join in. We have to ask the question though, and I said this in week one, that the book of Revelation was not given so we could speculate about the future. It was not given so that we could be kind of entertained by these apocalyptic images.
The book of Revelation was given to those seven churches and by extension to us to make a difference in our lives. So we should ask the question, what difference should this make now that we know what ultimate reality is in Revelation four and five? What difference is this meant to make in our lives?
It's meant to not only give us a vision of ultimate reality, it's meant to give us a lens by which we see our own lives, to see earth clearly. So how is the vision of heaven, how does it help us see earth clearly? I'll say five ways. There's many more, but at the center of reality is one who suffers. This is how God
chose to display himself as a little lamb, yes an omnipotent lamb, an omniscient lamb, an omnipresent lamb, but a little lamb who's one who suffers. Our God is, this is just a reminder, our God is not a God who is indifferent to our suffering, who is indifferent to the brokenness of the world. Our God isn't even a God who doesn't know of that. He knows of all suffering intimately.
Like we see the suffering on the other side of the planet. We can't possibly enter into that. We don't have the capacity for that. But God sees every tear, every heartache, every brokenness, everything that is wrong in the world. He sees it and he feels it. He's suffered more than all of humanity combined. And he knows that that means he knows where you're at this morning. He knows what you've been through. This is really important.
He was a lamb who was slain. He carries with him into all eternity the wounds that he suffered for you and for me. This is why the old slave spiritual song rings true. Nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Nobody knows but Jesus. At the center of reality is one who suffers.
Which brings us to the second one. At the center of ultimate reality is grace. Costly grace. The lamb goes to the cross because of us. The lamb goes to the cross instead of us. This is costly grace. There is no cheap grace on the throne room of God. He laid down his life. This means that God is not keeping score.
He's not wondering if you're gonna, if your good deeds are gonna outweigh your bad deeds. He's not wondering if you're gonna do enough to get your life together to come to him someday. You never could do that. But you can come to him through the blood of the lamb, grace upon grace upon grace. At the center of reality, we work from victory, not toward victory. Did you see this already, the past tense?
The Lion of Judah has conquered, has overcome. The victory has been won in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lamb. The victory is there and we partake in the victory. We're not hoping someday that we'll overcome. We're not hoping someday that victory will be ours. Victory is ours today, right now.
number four at the center reality we see that the way to fullness of life is the way of the lamb.
This is important for us. This would have been really important for the seven churches facing persecution, suffering, a tyrannical government that was burning our brothers and sisters alive, that was throwing them to lions to be devoured, that they had no power, they had no political influence. It was really important to them. But what about us?
What if we do have power and political influence? We don't rule like the lion. We go in the way of the lamb. The lamb.
The is not just the means of our salvation, it is the model of our sanctification. I'll say it again. The cross doesn't just save us, our lives are to be cross-shaped. This is the upside down nature of the kingdom. We give ourselves away. We get low. We sacrifice ourselves because our King sacrificed himself. This is what Jesus said all the time. If anyone would come after me, he must...
take up the throne and dominate his enemies. No. If anyone would come after me, he should knock out anyone that's opposed to me. No. He said things like this, if anyone would come after me, he must take up his cross daily and follow me. Here's the thing about taking up a cross.
It requires some humility. You got to get low. It's heavy. You cannot carry a cross and a sword at the same time. Anyone carrying a cross in the first century was going to one place and everyone knew it. Their death. This is the upside down nature of the kingdom. We exercise the power of the kingdom by laying ourselves down for the sake of others, even our enemies. Listen, that...
That is not a message that will build churches today, but it is the message of the kingdom. We get low. We get low. This is why Jesus teaching that the greatest power in the universe is weakness of sacrificial love.
When Jesus taught on the kingdom of heaven in the sermon on the mount here's how he started it. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of peace of God. Blessed are those who are
persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven at the center of reality we see that the weight of fullness is life is not
as dominating but as the lamb who was slain. brings us to the last one. At the center of reality we realize where history is going. All of history is going to the feet of the lamb. He is worthy of all praise. All creation will praise him. We could either join him in glad praise now or in forced submission later but he will be praised. It's where it's going.
So let's join him now. Let's join him in his upside down kingdom with his upside down values so that the kingdom of God expands. Imagine if we wrapped our lives around these truths at Redemption Parker. What if we wrapped our lives around ultimate reality? Imagine how purpose-filled your life would be.
It would be full of purpose. You would be living for a different kind of king in a different kind of kingdom. Imagine how passionate our worship would be as we join in the course of four living creatures and the hundred million angels and 24 elders and all of creation. If right now we join in that course, imagine if we lived into the reality that right now we are a kingdom and priest to our God interceding and reconciling our neighbors and the nations to God.
Imagine how fearless we would live if we held before us ultimate reality. Even death could not stop us. If you had no fear of death, no fear of losing anything in this side of eternity, and you knew this was your promised inheritance and you lived like that, how much different our lives and our mission would be here. Who is worthy? Jesus alone.
Who is worthy to open the scrolls? Jesus alone. Who knows all things? Jesus alone. Who is all powerful? Jesus alone. Who is everywhere at all times? Jesus alone. That's why he is worthy for all worship. If you haven't met Jesus today, you can get that thin place and come into the kingdom of God by grace alone through faith alone. You simply just say, Lord, I want you as the king of my life. I believe you are the lamb who was slain for my sins in my
place. trust you. I give my life to you." And the Bible says, in that moment you will become a new creation. In that moment you will be transferred from the domain of darkness and brought into the kingdom of the Son of God. Don't wait for that. If that's already your story, renew your mind to that truth. See, Mary had a little lamb. His soul was white as snow. And anywhere his father sent, the lamb was sure to go.
He came to earth to die one day, the sin of man to atone. And now he reigns in heaven alone. He's the lamb upon the throne. Amen. Let's pray.