Jesus the Lion!
(Revelation 5:2-10)
1. People love exciting events:
A recent (March 2010) AFP article hit the presses this week:
CHICAGO (AFP) – People fell onto a bag of cash like a pack of hungry piranhas after more than 100,000 dollars tumbled out the back of an armored truck onto an Ohio street, local media reported.
The bag split open after it fell off the back of the vehicle Wednesday and the driver drove away without noticing...
Workers at a nearby flower shop helped police gather up the money in boxes. Several people ended up bringing some of the cash into the police station.
But only about 10,500 dollars had been recovered by the end of the day, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
"We're hoping that more people do the right thing," Whitehall Police Sergeant Randy Snider told the paper.
2. Palm Sunday, the week before Jesus' resurrection, was an exciting day.
What, exactly, happened on Palm Sunday?
3. Were Jesus' disciples wrong to expect Him to establish a kingdom on earth? No.
4. The two tracks of messianic prophecy are closely related to Palm Sunday.
Michael Brown writes, "[Rabbi Sa'adiah Gaon] explained that there would be two Messiahs, the Messiah son of Joseph (mentioned explicitly in the Talmud in b. Sukkah 52a), who was associated with a time of victory mixed with hardship and calamity, and the Messiah son of David, who would establish God's Kingdom on the earth" (from The Jewish Tradition of Two Messiahs, Radio Bible Class, 2004; quoting Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, Vol. 2 by Micael Brown).
5. The correct understanding is that there is ONE messiah who will come TWO times!
Main Idea: Jesus Christ is the multi-faceted center or our faith. Although we cannot take in all His glory, we must embrace what God has revealed to us about Him.
I. The Worthy LION (1-5)
(show photo of angel)
John is eager to see the scroll opened. The reason is stated by Matthew Henry: “Those who see most of God, are most desirous to see more; and those who have seen his glory, desire to know his will.”
A. Jesus ALONE is worthy
B. He is the Lion of the tribe of JUDAH (show photo of lion)
• Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?
• The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Genesis 49:9-10
C. He is the ROOT of David
The root, in that He is David's Lord (as per Psalm 110:10); a sprig or branch in that, according to the flesh, He descended from David….
D. He has TRIUMPHED
1. Over the curse
2. Over death
3. Over His enemies
4. Over the devil
II. The Worthy Lion is a LAMB (6-7)
(show photo of lamb)
A. Who had been SLAIN
B. He has great POWER
C. He sees ALL
D. He takes the SCROLL
Scrolls were typically 15 feet long (average) and it was undesirable to write on both sides…..Seals indicated privacy or a violation of privacy… In this scroll, as each seal is broken, events emerge from the scroll as though packed and condensed…
Daniel 9:24 "Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy."
• Perhaps the scroll is that final set of sevens, necessary to bring in "everlasting righteousness."
• Ezekiel 2:9-10 "Then I looked, and I saw a hand stretched out to me. In it was a scroll, which he unrolled before me. On both sides of it were written words of lament and mourning and woe."
III. The Worthy Lion Who is A Lamb is Worthy of WORSHIP (8-10)
(show photo "composite")
A. Each had a HARP
We have long associated harps with heaven, and with Scriptural warrant.
From Reader's Digest:
My friend Agnes is an accomplished harpist who frequently plays for weddings, receptions, parties and other such events. She is also blond and has an appropriately cherubic face. She was on her way to an engagement at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, and stepped into an elevator with her large golden harp. Just before the doors closed, a distinguished gray-haired man stepped on. As the elevator rose, he looked thoughtfully first at her and then her harp and asked, "And just how far up are you going?" (Reader’s Digest, Margaret B. Ellis, Mobile, Ala.)
• Who were the 24 elders?
B. Each had a bowl of INCENSE
1. Psalms 141:2, "May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice."
• ``prayer (they say) ascends with those spices which are mentioned in (Song of Solomon 4:14) ; and at the time that prayer ascends it is perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, and of this the holy blessed God asks, "who is this that comes up", &c. F9 (Song of Solomon 3:6) ;''F9 Raya Mehimna in Zohar in Exod. fol. 48. 3.
F11 Yalkut Simeoni, par. 2. fol. 40. 3.
• and they say, prayer is greater than all offerings F11. See (Revelation 8:3).
2. In modern church talk, worship means music and prayer means prayer; but in the Bible, prayer is one of the most crucial acts of worship…
3. Many of us only know how to bring requests to God; we do not know how to pray -- and to pray so as to worship God.
C. They glorified the Lamb for His BLOOD purchase
1. Only God is to be worshipped, thus the Lamb is God
2. Prayer is a form of worship, thus it is wrong to pray to anyone other than God.
D. They worshipped the Lamb for how He EXALTED His people
1. A kingdom (spiritual)
2. A priesthood (each of us)
• The Jews speak of nine hundred and six thousand millions of ministering angels, that stand constantly before the Lord F13 Yalkut Simeoni, par. 2. fol. 69. 1.
Conclusion
1. Do you know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, as the lamb slain for you?
