So that song, Who is Worthy to Open the Scroll, that's where we find ourselves in chapter
four and five in a very interesting place.
But before we dive in, the last time you found yourself in awe of God, anyone that wants
to share, a couple people, when was the last time that you just kind of sat in a place
of awe and wonder?
Anybody?
In prayer, okay, yeah, a lot of times, right, God meets us in those prayers, absolutely.
Others?
Listening to music, a big amen to that.
That's one way that the Lord really engages my heart is through music, absolutely.
Yeah.
Over here, Randy.
And you hear the bells chime for baptisms in professions, absolutely, absolutely.
Others?
NICU babies, right, so this coming from a NICU nurse, right, absolutely.
Someone said something over here?
Oh, just babies, just babies in general.
Okay.
The moon, it was really cool a couple weeks ago, but not since then.
But no, okay, that's fair.
The moon, nature, absolutely.
Some more.
Sleeping, okay, the Lord connects with you while you're sleeping, okay.
Any others?
A pond, so just nature, just kind of serenity is when the Lord meets with you.
I don't know too many people that get met, you know, at a 4th of July parade, right,
that all of a sudden you just feel that of the Lord, right, because there's a lot going
on, but a nice pond.
So nature plays a giant role.
I've said this before, right, I don't know too many people that get up to the Grand Canyon,
right, and just look at it and go, that's cute.
Right, no, I mean there's something, there's something awe and wonder this next summer.
We're gonna take the boys and do some national parks.
And so I know we're gonna see some just creation that God created, right, and just be like,
man, we are not in Indiana anymore.
That this is just, there's awe and wonder to a lot of creation, but for me, it was the
birth of my three boys.
That there was in that moment, just looking at them on the warming, it's a warming container,
is that what it is, what is that called?
Care.
Incubator, thank you, or just warming thing.
They were being warmed, I don't know.
But I just was looking at them and it was the Lord meeting me in excitement, in terror,
and just kinda D all the above.
It was a very spiritual moment for me, right, and maybe you found that with the birth of
your children or grandchildren, but where we're gonna find ourselves today is a very
different place of awe and wonder.
Because as we've talked about, this is the end.
This isn't creation, we're not in Genesis.
This isn't the historical books.
This isn't even Jesus on earth in the gospels.
This is the end.
This is where we are going to find ourselves, whether anytime we're here bodily on earth
or we'll already be in glory, but this is the end, the alpha.
This is the omega, the beginning, the end.
And the first where we have to just kinda camp is the throne room of God, right?
This is heaven's throne room.
This vision of the heavenly throne room in Revelation 4 and 5 are gonna focus on God's
sovereignty in Christ's worthiness as the lamb who was slain, as Evan talked about.
This passage exalts God's reign over all creation, and we're going to see the centrality of Christ's
work of redemption, and this passage will emphasize the atoning work and the triumphant
work of Christ.
So throne room, what does that mean?
When you think in 2024, we don't think of throne rooms anymore because we don't live
where there's a king, right?
That the throne room in medieval times and times when there were kings and queens, it
was a very sacred place.
Not just anybody could go into the throne room.
You had to either be invited in, brought in to very different things, or you were part
of the magistrate, you were part of the king's inner circle.
All those hold true in this passage.
In Jewish culture, the vision of the heavenly throne room in Revelation draws on imagery
of the Jewish temple and the tabernacle.
An ancient Jewish understanding, the inner sanctum of the temple, or the holy of holies,
was seen as the earthly representation of God's heavenly throne.
This parallels John's vision where God is seated on that throne and he's ruling from
heaven showing a continuity of the Old Testament worship practices.
But Isaiah, we're going to stand a little bit on what Isaiah did when it came to Isaiah's
vision of God's throne.
Because Revelation 4 echoes back to Isaiah chapter 6 where Isaiah sees the Lord sitting
upon a throne high and lifted up.
This depiction of the heavenly beings crying out, holy, holy, holy, ties to Revelation
as the prophecy of this throne room and what God is going to do in it.
So the vision and the heavenly throne room is now going to be engaged by John.
So the first section is verses 1 to 11.
I'm going to read verses 1 and 2 of chapter 4.
After this, so after the letters, I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven.
And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, come up here and
I will show you what must take place after this.
At once I was in the spirit and behold a throne room in heaven with one seated on the throne.
So what's interesting is you have the door.
You have this door to heaven, this vision now.
Notice how John is in the spirit for a cup of coffee and for lunch and a conversation
with Pastor Jim.
Where is one of the only other times we see that being used for moving from a person from
one place to another?
That they were caught up in the spirit, that the spirit is the one doing the moving.
Huh?
Nope.
Stephen, close.
Close.
We haven't ordered yet, but we're sitting there.
No.
Oh, you're right there.
You're a staff member.
You already get lunch.
Someone pivot off Evan and you're in seminary now.
So actually for a public announcement, Evan, you're not allowed to answer any questions
anymore.
So Evan said baptism and we're right there.
What happened after that?
Now it's been downgraded to coffee.
Yes, it's been downgraded to coffee.
The spirit drove Jesus to the wilderness.
So the spirit, this is very spirit like to bring people into this new reality going from
Jesus' baptism to the wilderness, whole another sermon series.
But now John is caught up in the spirit and he sees this door.
And John is invited, think about this.
John is invited to come up to see things from a heavenly perspective.
That gets me right here.
Because as a pastor, I'm supposed to think of things and look at things from a heavenly
perspective, but it's really hard.
It's really hard because of just who I am.
And to look at things from a heavenly perspective is a signal shift that we're going from earth
now to heaven itself.
And to be able to get, that John's being able to give, be given that perspective.
Things have to change.
Life will never be quote unquote the same.
It's one of the reasons why Adam and Eve were not allowed back into the garden.
It's another reason why when we go to heaven we stay there.
Because we are in the place of absolute perfection.
We are in a place that has only been described by the Bible, by Ray Bolt songs and all of
these other things of what we think heaven will be like.
But we never think about that when we get there, the perspective, the mind we will have,
the heart we will have is completely different.
It has been glorified.
Because our bodies will be glorified, our minds, our hearts, our spirits will be glorified.
We have absolutely no idea what that's like here.
So as we go through these next couple weeks, that is the perspective that John is not only
being given, but that John takes as he writes.
That he's looking at things from a heavenly perspective.
The open door shows the access of this divine vision of God's kind of initiative in the
book of Revelation to really extend his sovereign grace.
I can only imagine the comfort, the comfort that John got when he was up there.
The comfort that John got from a heavenly perspective.
Because a heavenly perspective should be a perspective of comfort, a perspective of peace.
Because that's what we are going to live in when we get up there.
Now the historical context, one of the things we have to look at whenever we look at all
these kind of symbology of the book of Revelation is that during John's time, emperors were
often depicted enthroned in power with their authority seen as divinely given.
John's vision contrasts this, showing the true authority resides in God alone.
This reflects a theological challenge to the political claims of Rome.
Saying that God's kingdom is not of this world.
Keep that nugget, keep that here.
If we go to Ezekiel 1, it describes a vision of heaven and God's throne.
Both visions, that one and Isaiah, emphasize a transcendental majesty of God as supreme
control over all creation.
And I think that that's, I want to pause there for a minute, because if I'm John, I've walked
with Jesus, I'm there at his death, I am there with his resurrection, I see him, I'm there
at his ascension.
John has first hand knowledge, first hand experience with the death of the savior of
the world, him rising from the dead and ascending into heaven.
So John has a perspective none of us have.
We take it on authority, we take it because we can, that it's true that there's been eye
witnesses to this, but we take it, if we're being honest, on faith.
John is being brought into a reality that Christ had talked about, Christ had taught
about, and he is now seeing it face to face.
So there's a throne.
He's brought in to see a throne where God seated, is seated upon it.
This is symbolizing God's absolute authority and sovereignty over everything.
The descriptions of Jasper and Carlinian as later in the text, emphasizes God's holiness
and his majesty.
This image of the throne underscores that God alone rules the universe with complete
sovereignty and nothing happens outside of his will.
The reason why we're hammering on this is because what's going to come?
Because there's going to be a problem, because there's going to be a battle, because there's
going to be an evil, because there's going to be all of these things that are going to
try to derail the final act of the world and John is being told from the beginning, I've
got this.
I am the one standing on the throne of thrones.
King of kings, Lord of lords, sovereignty of all sovereignty, I got this.
I'm starting to see why John would be comforted in this place, in this vision.
His scriptural point, Psalm 103.19, the Lord has established his throne in the heavens
and his kingdom rules over all.
This Psalm emphasizes God's sovereignty, echoing the vision in Revelation 4 where the throne
is the center of all creation.
Right now we go to worship.
From there we go to worship in verses 8 through 11.
Now, like I said last week, it's going to get a little weird.
We're going to see some things and the four living creatures, each of them with six wings,
are full of eyes all around and within.
Day and night they never cease to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was
and is and is to come.
And wherever the living creature gives glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated
on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him who is
seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever.
They cast their crowns before the throne saying, worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive
glory and honor and power.
For you created all things and by your will they existed and were created.
Time out.
How many of you have ever gone into a service mid-worship?
I'm not asking if you're always late to church.
That's not my question.
But if you've gone into a service, some of you, Rosemary, and if you've gone into a service
mid-worship, it can be a little strange because in worship there kind of seems to be an on
ramp and an off ramp in the way that we do service here on Sunday mornings.
That we have worship that leads to things, that leads to this, that kind of get us back
hopefully about an hour and 10, we're done and we're gone.
There's a, again, on ramps, off ramps, starts and stops to worship.
And understand that you come in mid-song, you come in song one or two of a three song
set, it might be hard to kind of engage unless they're playing a song that you love and you
immediately can get in there.
It's almost like we kind of got to get warmed up for worship.
Think about what John is walking into.
This is not worship at Munster Church.
This is not worship at First PCA.
This is not worship of Faith Church or St. Paul's Lutheran.
This is very, very different.
And it starts right off the bat.
The four living creatures, each of them with six wings, the dream, starting to sound like
a nightmare, full of eyes all around and within.
What does that even mean?
And they never cease to say, holy, holy, holy.
So what are these four creatures?
Well, the four creatures represent creation.
That all creation worship God, that worship God continuously.
They symbolize God's completeness in the way that he is to be worshiped.
Some of us, we're starting to bind a little bit because we're being told what to do.
And if we're being honest this morning, there are some people here, I know you don't like
to be told what to do.
Why?
Because I've had to tell you to do stuff before.
And I know you don't like it for whatever reason, but we as a culture, we don't like
to be told what to do.
There's something that we kind of buck against.
We find friction in it.
We're our own people, don't tell us what to do.
All of those things here, not only are we being directed and told, this is the expectation
of heaven.
Have you ever thought about that?
That the expectation of heaven is worship.
And for all of you here that don't like singing, yeah, let that feel a little awkward.
That's what we're gonna do.
Why wouldn't we do that?
Oh, pastor, so for eternity all we're gonna do is sing to the creator of creations?
Yeah, it's right here.
Oh, what about when the bears are on?
Trust me, the bears are not in heaven.
That is not my judgment of their season so far.
That is just what it is.
Understand that a revelation, heavenly perspective is nothing about how we think about our day
to day.
You think about the transition you go through from death to new life in glory.
You think about the loved ones that we've lost.
Maybe even this week, sorry, actor off, but it's right there.
You think about Jeff going to sleep on that day and waking up in glory.
Waking up to this and this is the goal.
But here's gonna be an earthly slider.
Some of us are like, that's it?
And some of you are dealing with disappointment right now.
You gotta get to that perspective and I struggle with it too because there's so much here.
There's so many symbols and ideologies and worship and God centered things that I go,
it's a little much.
This is it.
This is the goal.
This is where we're all going to go, those that are in Christ.
How do we know?
The 24 elders representing the 12 tribes of Israel, Israel, I can say that word, 12 apostles
symbolizing the completeness of God's people.
The phrase holy, holy, holy echoes Isaiah 6-3 highlighting God's absolute holiness.
The elders cast down their crowns before the throne acknowledging that all glory belongs
to God alone.
The climax of this chapter is found in verse 11, worthy are you our Lord and God to receive
glory and honor and power for you created all things.
This declaration of God as creator affirms not only God's sovereignty but his sovereignty
extended to creation.
That God's sovereignty falls on the just and the unjust.
His grace is extended to the world.
From the Old Testament to the New Testament is under God's authority.
We see the number 12, number of completeness in the Bible.
We see that doubled signified the totality of not only God's people but God's love, complete
love for you and me.
Because you have the 12 tribes that were divided up, benihonored by God himself in the Old
Testament to the 12 disciples called by Jesus, you know the top scholars, the first class
at Disciple School at MIT, no to tax collectors, to fishermen, to your average Joe and Jane
church goer.
He has called them and he has completed them in him.
Why are we doubling down so much on who Jesus is?
Because the next weeks we're going to need him.
We're going to need Jesus to step in because the stuff that's going to go down in the coming
chapters we will not be able to get through ourselves.
So the worthiness of the lamb, that is chapter 5, the 14 verses we're going to read first
1-4.
Then I saw, if that wasn't enough, 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.
And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll
and break the seals?
We just sang that.
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, John, began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll
or to look into it.
So right away we see a problem, that there's an issue.
What is this scroll?
What is going to happen?
Why can't John do this?
John was given the title, the disciple that Jesus loved.
Why couldn't he break the scroll?
Why couldn't he be a part of the solution?
Chapter 5, John sees a scroll in God's right hand sealed with seven seals.
The scroll represents God's plan for history, his decrees of judgment and salvation.
So then the problem arises, who can open it?
Who can open the scroll?
Who is worthy enough to open the scroll?
But no one in heaven and on earth, above or below the earth, isn't that interesting?
We read that in the beginning of the Ten Commandments.
That was God designed all of that.
He even on Mount Sinai is saying, I am the one doing all of this.
If you don't have an understanding of God's sovereignty at this point, I don't think you
know what it is.
Or in this may hurt, you don't want it.
You go, I need a little of my own sovereignty to make this thing work.
No, you don't because nobody was worthy.
I've been to church my whole life.
I did catechism.
I did Sunday school.
I even taught it.
Great, you can't open the seals.
You can't break the seals and open the scroll.
I'm looking in the mirror.
I pastor.
I can't open it.
I help lead in a denomination.
I can't do that.
Nobody can do it.
What we need to understand here, Ezekiel helps us.
Ezekiel 2, Ezekiel also sees the scroll written on both sides symbolizing God's message for
his people.
The imagery of the scroll in both Ezekiel and Revelation emphasize God's revelation
that it's comprehensive and cannot be fully understood or enacted by anyone except the
one who he alone, God, appoints and that is who?
Jesus, the worthy lamb.
Verses 5 and 6.
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 amongst the elders I saw a lamb
standing as though it had been slain with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are
the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
Told you it was gonna get weird.
One of the elders comforts John by pointing to the lion of the tribe of Judah, a messianic
title, messianic, obviously, messiah, capital M. But when John looks, he sees not a lion
but a lamb standing as though it had been slain.
The lamb is Christ who through his sacrificial death has conquered death itself.
So let's do a time out here.
John's with Jesus, three and a half years teaching, healing, doing all the things.
Gets killed on a cross.
Gets put in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.
Three days later, rise again, shows himself.
They're all scared in a room.
He comes and then he ascends into heaven.
John is there at Pentecost, right?
He sees the start of the church.
But let's ask a simple question.
Outside of the fear of the Romans, outside of the political pressures, let's say four
days after Jesus rises from the dead, let's just call it a Wednesday, okay?
Is life really different for John?
Does he get to see the culmination of any of this?
I've always thought about this.
That, okay, you see Jesus, he does, you know, Thomas touches the hands, you know, the holes
in the hands, touches his side.
But then like, what is the next day like?
You think about that.
I think about that usually a day or two after Easter, like we have this huge, wonderful
service.
We sing some amazing songs.
We praise that death has been conquered.
Jesus, yay, all of these things.
But then like Wednesday comes.
And like, oh yeah, Easter was a couple days ago.
But think about disciples.
Granted, their life was on the line, so they'd had it a little bit different than us, or
a lot of different.
And understand, he never saw any of this.
Like Jesus didn't come like this.
But he's coming this way now.
And John is just kind of taking it in.
To me, it's phenomenal in kind of a mind-blowing sense that what John is experiencing is Jesus's
Messianic promises of the end times.
The Lamb's worthiness comes from his work of redemption, his atonement, his work on
the cross.
He alone is worthy because he is the one that atoned for the sins of the world through his
blood.
Historical context, what people in first century would be, or second century would be reading,
that the imagery of Christ as a lamb draws on to Passover, the Passover lamb.
The lamb was sacrificed to protect the people of Israel.
Do you see how it's all starting to come together?
So what do you do with that?
He's worthy, he's going to do this.
He's going to break these seals, he's going to read the scrolls, so what are we going
to do?
Some of us are like, okay, the battle's on, evil's coming, let's go.
Some of you are like, I have no idea, I'm just going to hide because I can't handle
it.
No, what are we going to do?
We're going to worship.
Did I hear groans?
I may have just heard a couple of groans, like more worship?
Oh my heavens.
You need to get to a heavenly perspective on this.
9 through 13.
And they sang a new song, okay, so there's a playlist here.
They sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the scroll and open its seals, for
you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language
and people and nation.
And you have made them a kingdom and a priest to our God and they shall reign on earth.
Then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the
voice of many angels.
Now we enter angels into this.
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.
And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and
all of them saying to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor
and glory forever and ever.
So more worship and now more get brought into it.
When do we see a host of angels in the gospels?
Birth, the shepherds, right?
Heralding Jesus coming as a baby.
Jesus ain't no baby anymore.
He's not coming that way.
We covered that in the first sermon.
They are bringing, they are worshiping the lamb who takes the scroll and heaven erupts
with worship.
So what does that mean for us in 2024?
When we go through things in life and we feel Jesus just kind of come on in and bring us
through it, what is the response?
Worship, thankfulness, praise, adoration.
Worthy are you to take the scroll or worthy are you to see my marriage restored or worthy
are you that that relationship with that coworker has now been made whole?
Worthy are you when we sit down at the table of reconciliation?
Worthy are you as we celebrate another year of birth?
Worthy are you, worthy are you, worthy are you.
It puts everything on Christ where it's supposed to be.
Verse 11 and 12, myriads of angels and all creation worshiping the lamb, declaring these
things.
This worship is in response of Christ's redemptive work, underscoring that all creation, and
I'll close on this, all creation exists to glorify God and the lamb.
Let me say that again.
All your creation, all, every aspect of your life, my life, Munster Church's life, all
of it exists to glorify God and the lamb.
Verse two, Paul writes that God has exalted Christ and given him the name above every
name.
Revelation five's universal worship of the lamb fulfills that scriptural truth, showing
that Jesus is the one worthy of worship by all creation.
So what do we have to behold as we leave chapter five?
Behold the lamb who was slain.
That's my conclusion.
That there was a death here.
This chapter reminds us of the centrality of worship in our life and our believer is
the life, death, and resurrection and ascension of Christ who reigns as king.
So what should our response be as we enter chapter six next week?
May our hearts be filled with awe, filled with gratitude and reverence for the lamb
who was slain, for that thing that you're not proud of, for that mistake that you constantly
make, for that thing that is in your life that is tearing your relationship with Jesus
apart.
Jesus died, was slain for that thing.
And that should be our response.
Awe, gratitude, and reverence who is now worthy of all glory, praise, and honor.
I leave you with Hebrews 12 and then we'll go to some personal application.
Looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, for the joy that was sent before
him endured the cross, your cross, my cross, despising your shame and my shame and is now
seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
So what do we do with this today?
Trust, embrace, not acknowledge, even the demons do that and they shudder as James tells
us, acknowledge God's sovereignty.
Trust his plan that is unfolding in your life and in the world.
Huh, kind of interesting we need that going to a pretty soft political season.
Embrace God's sovereignty even when things seem uncertain, remember who's on the throne,
it's not you, it's not me, it's not Munster Church, it's not any politician, it's God
himself ruling.
Second, worship, we need to get in the habit of worshiping, worship Christ as the lamb
who was slain for your sins and my sins, yet let your life be a reflection of gratitude
for his sacrifice.
Third, rest in Christ's finished work.
To me that is powerful, Christ alone is worthy to open the scroll because he has finished
the work of redemption.
And fourth, proclaim Christ's worthiness, just as the heavenly host proclaimed Christ's
worthiness, we too are called to declare his glory to those around us.
Share the good news of the lamb who was slain as we walk into chapter six next week.
Let's pray.