We remember that from last week, correct?
And what's interesting is if you look at the end
of Revelation chapter four,
do you remember one of the main things
that it was focusing on?
It said that God was worthy to receive glory
and honor and power because of what?
Because he created all things and by his will
all things existed and were created.
So as the vision in Revelation chapter four ends,
it's focuses on creation.
And what's interesting is in many ways,
the vision of Revelation chapter five,
its focus becomes on recreation, new creation,
and redemption.
And it's basically getting us to ask this question
of what the fate of the world would be
if there was no savior?
What humanity's fate would be if there was no savior?
And as I was studying it, it kind of reminded me,
I don't know if y'all have seen,
around Christmas time they show a bunch
of the old classic Christmas movies.
Have y'all seen the one, the year without a Santa Claus?
Oh, it's an old, I mean it's from like this,
I was gonna say it's an old one,
but then I was gonna say a year.
I don't want anyone to think I'm being offensive
by that year, but it was made in the 20th century.
So it was, you know, it's back there,
I was born in the 20th century, so I'm not saying anything,
but like 1960s is one of those stop motion,
like claymation type pictures,
but basically the premise of the movie was,
Santa Claus is sick and he doesn't know
if he's gonna be able to do what he has to do,
he sees his doctor and his doctor basically says,
well listen, no one even believes in Santa Claus anyways,
so you need to just take the year off,
have yourself a holiday and don't go deliver presents.
So that's the plan and basically some elves
are trying to get him to do, you know,
go deliver presents and everything.
But what's interesting is at one point,
a little girl writes a letter to Santa
and it's got a picture of her on the front,
colored in crayon and she's crying
and it says, I'll have a blue Christmas without you.
And of course, she starts singing the famous song,
I'll have a blue Christmas without you
and it's supposed to pull on your heartstrings
and everything and it's forcing you,
or forcing Santa at least to consider
how people feel about him being absent,
what the lack of his presence would mean come Christmas time.
And the whole point was to say,
well what would Christmas be without Santa Claus?
And Revelation five is asking us,
well what would the world be without a savior?
What would humanity be without Jesus?
How sad would this world be?
How miserable would we be?
How hopeless and depressed would we be without Jesus?
What would our fate be?
I mean, if we didn't have Jesus,
we'd be left in our sin, correct?
We'd be destined to pay the price for our own sin.
We would be forced to stand before God on judgment day
without a mediator, with no protection whatsoever.
We would literally have to stand before him
and we would have to endure his wrath
and it would be a just punishment, would it not?
If there was no one to pay the price for our sin
and so if we did not have Jesus sorrow, would be endless.
And so as we read this section in Revelation five,
the point is to show us that we need Jesus
but it also shows us how Jesus actually wins the victory
for us.
And so you look at verse one with me.
The Bible says, then I saw in the right hand of him
who was seated on the throne, a scroll written within
and on the back and sealed with seven seals.
Now we see a number of different scrolls
all throughout scripture
and especially ones in relation to apocalyptic literature
and things like that.
Oh, we found the microphone, sweet.
So one of the first ones is in Ezekiel.
So if you wanna write down the reference is Ezekiel chapter
two and I believe it's verses nine through 10.
Yes, Ezekiel chapter two versus nine through 10.
God hands Ezekiel a scroll and it has writing
on both sides of the scroll.
And what's interesting is in the beginning of chapter three
of Ezekiel, he says, eat this scroll.
And he says it tasted like honey.
And there's a whole nother message there
but we're not gonna get into that tonight.
But there's another one that we read about.
It's not so much a scroll as it is a book
and it relates to this.
And that's in Daniel chapter 12 and verse four.
And that book, that book that Daniel had,
it had writing all over it.
And the Lord tells Daniel to shut the book
and seal it up until when?
Until the end.
That's right, until the end.
And so this scroll here that we read about in Revelation five,
it might be an illusion to the sealed book of Daniel
where God said to seal up this book until the end.
And so you get the sense that, well,
maybe this is the end if we're finally gonna have
the unsealing of this book.
And what is in the scroll?
It's God's entire plan of redemption.
It is God's entire plan of redemption.
And the fact that it has writing all over it
is an indication of the thoroughness of God's plan.
That not a single detail has been left out of this plan.
It is a comprehensive plan of redemption.
And so redemption didn't just happen by accident,
in other words.
God didn't just happen to look out at Adam and Eve
and say, oh no, they sinned, what am I gonna do now?
And he didn't just continue to watch mankind fall deeper
and deeper and deeper into sin and then say,
what am I gonna do about this big problem?
The Bible says in Ephesians chapter one,
before God created anything, he had planned redemption.
And you have this sealed scroll with writing all around it
which is meant to say that this plan is comprehensive
and thorough and every detail is written down.
And the scroll is sealed with seven seals.
And here's the problem.
We read about the problem in verses two through four.
This is what it says.
And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice,
who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals.
And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth
was able to open the scroll or to look into it.
And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy
to open the scroll or to look into it.
And so the vision slowly gets to the reality
of this bad situation that John is beholding
where he says no one is able to open the scroll
and the reason they're not able to open the scroll
is because no one is found to be worthy to open the scroll.
It's not, when you're thinking about the scroll,
don't think about if you got some paper
and you just kind of put some tape over it to seal it up.
Because remember, we are reading apocalyptic literature here
so it's not that simple.
Because what we're gonna see in the next few chapters
of Revelation are the actual unsealing,
the pulling back of those seals.
And each one, it's not just a little tape
keeping the scroll down, each one has to do with events
that are gonna take place in human history.
So it's not, why can no one come
and just pull the tape back on the scroll?
Why can't someone do it?
Why would you have to be worthy to do that?
It's because the events that are gonna take place
require a certain person to oversee those events.
When you begin to see the war that's gonna come
and all that's gonna take place with the horsemen
that we're gonna read about in Revelation 6
and all these things to follow,
you have to have a certain person
who is going to be able to oversee all the events
that are gonna come with the unsealing of the scroll.
And they said, no one is found to be worthy to do that.
There's no one in heaven,
meaning there's no angelic being or cherubim or seraphim
or anything like that who can do it.
There's certainly no one on earth, that's us,
we're not worthy to do it.
There's no one under the earth, he says.
No one in the realm of the dead
who is able to come and open this scroll.
And notice what the Bible says.
John's not just upset about this,
it says that he began to weep loudly.
And what's interesting about that phrase,
weep loudly, in the Greek,
it's typically only used to describe people
who are mourning the loss of a loved one.
So if you can think about that,
and I mean, many of us have lost loved ones,
I mean, I can think of some in our church recently.
If you think about the sorrow and the agony
and the heartbreak that comes with losing a spouse,
or losing a brother, a sister, a mother, a father,
and the pain and the agony that comes out there
and how much wailing and weeping there is,
that's the phrase that's used in the Greek here
to describe how John reacts when he realizes
there is no one who is worthy to open this scroll.
Now here's my question to you, why is it such a big deal?
See, we don't want to read through scripture too quickly
and just go by this and go, okay, well John was upset,
no one's found to open the scroll,
we all know Jesus is gonna come and do it.
The question I want you to think about,
would you have cried?
Would you have mourned?
Would you be weeping?
Do you understand why it's so significant
that this or crucial that this scroll be opened?
What's the big deal behind it?
Why must this scroll be opened and why is John so upset
that no one is found worthy to open the scroll?
You think John knows what's in it?
No.
All right, that's right.
Yeah.
That's right.
Yeah, that's, I mean, a different way of saying the same thing, basically, is, is,
genes on the right track there where John understands that in order to move forward
with redemptive history, certain things have to happen.
And the things that have to happen are contained in the scroll and the scroll
was never going to be unsealed unless someone's found to be worthy
to open that scroll and open those seals.
And if those things don't happen, then God's plan doesn't move forward.
So Jesus at this point, he's already died on the cross, right?
Sins are paid for.
Praise God. He's already resurrected. He's ascended. Praise God for that.
The problem is salvation doesn't end there. And if the scroll remain closed,
then we would all die and the plan doesn't move forward.
There is no eternal rest for the saints at that point.
There is no final judgment at that point.
There is no righting the wrongs of the earth at that point.
There is no sending people to their eternal punishment.
There is no welcoming people into glory.
There is no new heavens and new earth resetting the earth and the
world to the way that God intended in the first place.
You are stuck in essential limbo in this situation where nothing moves forward
ever because the plan can't move forward because it's written in the scroll.
The scroll has to be open.
That's why John is weeping. Wow, because he realizes every single Christian,
even though our sins are paid for, our eternities are in the balance because the
things that must take place, which God said earlier in Revelation,
the things that must take place are written in the scroll and no one is
found worthy to open the scroll.
We're all in a world of trouble if that scroll was not open.
And so John is longing for the scroll to be opened and he is in despair at the
fact that no one is found worthy.
I want you to notice what happens next in verses five through seven.
We'll have to do this part quickly or at least pick up next week.
But the Bible says, and one of the elders said to me, weep no more.
Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered so
that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.
And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders,
I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain with seven horns.
It was seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the
earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him,
who was seated on the throne.
Now, as you can see here, there are a couple of titles used for Jesus to show
that Jesus is the Messiah.
And the first one that you see here is that he's the lion of the tribe of Judah.
Now, this is a messianic reference.
Does anybody know where it comes from?
With his reference by, with his reference by, if you had said Genesis,
I would have given you the probes, but nine through 10.
After our two year study in Genesis, Michael of course knew that, of course.
Of course. So Genesis 49, 9 through 10.
This is the blessing upon the sons of Jacob.
And the Bible says, Judah is a lion's cub.
From the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He stooped down.
He crouches a lion and as a lioness, who dares rouse him.
The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler staff from between his
feet until tribute comes to him.
And to him shall be the obedience of the people.
And the Bible is saying here that Jesus is that lion of the tribe of Judah,
which means that he alone has the right to rule and reign over God's kingdom.
He has the dominion because the Bible says here, the scepter shall never depart from him.
And so this is a way of showing Jesus is worthy because he is descended
from the tribe of Judah. He is the lion of the tribe of Judah.
He is worthy because he alone has the right to rule and reign over God's kingdom.
But then you get a second title, which is the root of David.
What does that mean?
The root of David.
Well, it's a fulfillment of God's promise to David that we find in Second Samuel,
Chapter seven, where God specifically promised David that there that he was going
to have an heir and that that heir would be the king over a kingdom that would be eternal
and that this king would sit on the throne of that kingdom forever and ever and ever.
And he would never be dethroned and the kingdom would go on forever.
This type of language is also used in Isaiah, Chapter 11.
And Isaiah, Chapter 11, verse one, the Bible says, there shall come forth a shoot from the
stump of Jesse and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
So that's Isaiah 11 one.
And then you go down in Isaiah 11 10.
And this is what the Bible says there.
In that day, the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples of him,
shall the nations inquire and his resting place shall be glorious.
And so what's interesting too, if you read Isaiah, Chapter 11 and read the whole chapter,
it actually speaks of the new creation that this root of Jesse is going to bring about.
And so this is the Bible saying that Jesus is the fulfillment of that as well,
because Jesse obviously fathered David and Jesus is descended from David.
And so he is the root of David.
So the Bible is saying here, Jesus is worthy because he is the lion of the tribe of Judah,
who has the right to rule and reign over God's kingdom.
But he's also worthy because as the root of David, he is going to be the one who brings
about God's new creation.
It's not enough for him to just be king.
He is going to be the one who is bringing salvation to the people of God and new creation
for the people of God, which we're ultimately going to see at the end of Revelation.
And now here's the really interesting thing.
You might have noticed it before, but I want you to notice again what the one of the 24
elders says to John in verse five.
So John's crying and one of the 24 elders comes to him and he says, weep no more.
Behold the lion of the tribe of Judah.
So, behold, someone's here.
Hey, your crying is no one's worthy, but behold, it's a lion, the lion of the tribe of Judah,
the root of David, and he is conquered so that he can open the scroll and it's seven seals.
But what's interesting about that?
That's right.
So originally I was titled in this message here in a lion and seeing a lamb because in
verse five, he hears about this lion and so he turns around and what's he looking for?
A lion.
But what does he see when he turns around?
In verse six, he sees a lamb standing as though it's been slain.
I mean, it's like pulling the wool over your eyes there, right?
The elder says, hey, no need to cry.
Behold a lion.
And John turns around and he says, it's a lamb.
And there's nothing really impressive about this lamb, is there?
It's a lamb that has clearly been slain and yet it's standing.
And it's important to note there too, when the Bible says as though it had been slain,
it's not saying that Jesus merely had the appearance of one who had been slain, but
wasn't actually, that's not what it's saying.
It's saying the impressive thing is this lamb has clearly been slain.
It's been slaughtered.
And yet somehow this lamb is standing.
And so it's actually a reference to Jesus's resurrection.
The fact that he is standing tall, even though he has clearly been slain and
slaughtered, it's a reference to his resurrection.
He is our Passover lamb who was slain for our sins, but he rose from the grave
by the power of God and he defeated sin, death and Satan.
And that is how he won the victory thing.
So that's what the important thing to note here and understand is that the
lion actually conquers as a lamb, not a lion.
He is the lion of the tribe of Judah, but he doesn't conquer as a lion.
I mean, that's what people wanted him to do all throughout his ministry, right?
Just do away with Rome.
Just go and be our king.
You can lead us.
You can deliver us.
And yet Jesus did not deliver people through destruction and through
conquest and things like that.
He delivered through death.
By sacrificing himself by laying himself down as a substitute for us.
And so the triumph comes through death, not destruction.
And the lamb that John sees here is not like any lamb you've ever seen.
Is it not only is it clearly slaughtered and yet standing?
This lamb, as it appears here, has seven horns.
What's that about?
Seven horns.
He's using that reference Bible again.
Yes, so a horn would symbolize strength or power and seven.
This one's the easy part.
Perfect.
Yeah, that's right.
Seven symbolizes perfection.
And so the interesting thing about the fact that you have this slain lamb that
has seven horns is it's the Bible's apocalyptic way of saying, even though
this lamb has been slain, he is alive and he has perfect and complete power and strength.
No one took his life from him.
In other words, the one who possesses perfect power and strength laid down his
life as a sacrifice.
And not only does he have seven horns, but we also see seven eyes.
Right.
So seven horns and seven eyes.
This one's real easy.
What are the eyes?
Yeah, that's a good thought.
And that actually could be part of it for sure.
What else?
But that's right.
There you go.
So the seven spirits of God sent into all the earth.
Now this one should be an easy one for everybody who's been with us from the
get go in revelation.
What does the Bible mean when it says the seven spirits of God?
Yes, the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
Right.
So when the Bible says seven spirits of God is referring to the fullness of the
presence of the Holy Spirit.
And so notice this when you have a risen lamb, one who is standing yet those
slain, you have the seven spirits of God going out to all the earth or the
fullness, the presence of the Holy Spirit going out into all the earth.
And that's exactly what Jesus said was going to happen.
Right.
And in John 16, 17, he said, nevertheless, I tell you the truth.
It is to your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away, the helper will
not come to you.
But if I go, I will send him to you.
And then in Acts chapter one, verses eight through nine, the Bible says, but you
will receive spirit or receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.
And you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the
end of the year.
And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up
and the cloud took him out of their sight.
And so the Holy Spirit has gone out into all the world only because the lamb
was slain and resurrected and ascended and is now standing in heaven victorious
with all power.
And so the Holy Spirit goes into all the earth.
And so we see this lamb go and look at just the authority that lamb has.
You and I cannot do this.
Please understand that.
He walks right up to the throne of God, to the father himself and grabs the
scroll out of the right hand of God.
Who else in all of creation could do something like that?
The Bible says we can't even look at God and live, let alone approach him and
live, and yet this lamb who was slain walks right up and grabs the scroll.
It proves that he is worthy.
Only he can take the scroll and open it seals.
And only he can begin to put the father's plan into motion and usher all
things toward eternity.
And so there's a lot more we can say, a lot more we'll get into next week.
But I just a few implications of this just very quickly is that number one,
we're utterly helpless without a savior.
Are we not?
If we did not have Jesus, not only are we dead in our sins doomed to eternal
wrath and punishment, but if we did not have Jesus to even open the scroll,
God's plan could not move forward.
He is necessary for the continuation of God's plan and the restoration of all
things.
And so without a savior, we are hopeless.
The other thing I want you to remember about this passage is that God is not
passively sitting on his throne uninvolved in human affairs.
When we're tempted to look at our world and say everything's out of control,
where is God in all this?
Why isn't God doing anything?
You need to remember he's got a scroll that's got writing on all sides of it.
He has not overlooked even one detail.
The entire unfolding of redemptive history and everything that's going to
take place in human history is written in that scroll.
Scroll and God is making sure that all things happen according to his will.
His plan will be done.
And so he's not just sitting up there passively watching our world go by.
The other thing to remember is that Jesus alone is worthy.
You and I were not worthy to open that scroll.
You and I are not even worthy to redeem ourselves or to save ourselves.
No amount of walking the straight and narrow and just trying to live a good life.
No amount of that is going to be worthy.
Lord, are we recording?
Are we doing anything? Oh, we are recording.
I'll be careful what I say.
I was going to reference an event that happened today, but I've talked with
people at other points in time and throughout my life who have who are
operating under the mindset that to be a Christian means that I am responsible
for my destiny that I profess faith in Jesus.
And as long as I can walk the straight and narrow and just do everything right.
And according to the book, then I can make sure that I'm saved.
Why? Because I'm doing it.
I'm in control of it.
And the Bible is saying here, you're not.
You're not good enough.
You could try to live the best life you possibly could.
And it would still fall short.
You could try to live perfectly from here on out.
That doesn't excuse everything you've already done.
You mess up one time and the Bible says you have transgressed the entire law.
You are not worthy to save yourself.
You cannot do it.
You cannot live that life of perfect righteousness.
You cannot atone for your own sins.
See Psalm 49 for that answer.
No man can offer his life for the redemption of another man because their
life is too costly.
We can't do it.
We are stuck in John's situation where we say who can come and do this for us?
And we see a conquering lion who looks like a slain lamb.
Jesus alone is worthy and we need to remember that.
And we need to remember that.