WWWW.WORTHYOFWORSHIP
RE 5:1- 14
Intro. I am a sports fan. My wife would probably say that I am a fanatic about sports. She can attest that when we got married back in 1982 that the highlight of our honeymoon was the last game before the NFL strike.
I have my favorite teams and players or participants. I love boxing and for years I had a favorite boxer. Not only was he the heavyweight champion of the world but he professed hid Christianity openly and freely. The TV camera’s would show him in his locker room before a fight singing hymns and choruses to God. That was how he prepared himself mentally for his big contest.
His name was Evander Holyfield and he was from right here in Georgia. I really looked up to this man. One day, I saw on the news how he had fathered a child with one woman while he was married to another woman. I was devastated. I touted his faith as something we could emulate. Someone that Christians could look up to as an example of how we should live and show our faith to the world.
He had disappointed me. I realized then that there is no one here on this earth worthy of our emulation. In fact there is only one person in the history of creation who is worthy of our emulation and worthy of our worship.
. Our scripture this morning tells us who that person is.
. The apostle John had been exiled to the Island of Patmos and there, God gave him a revelation, a vision of Heaven and what was to come.
. Here in chapter 5 of that Revelation we find John in the throne room and this is what he saw and heard.
. Re. 5: 1-14, Then I saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who was sitting on the throne. There was writing on the inside and the outside of the scroll, and it was sealed with seven hseals.
2And I saw a strong angel, who shouted with a loud voice: “Who is worthy to break the seals on this scroll and open it?”
3But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll and read it.
4Then I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll and read it
.5But one of the twenty-four elders said to me, “Stop weeping! Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David’s throne, has won the victory. He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
6Then I saw a Lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered, but it was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the twenty-four elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the sevenfold Spirit of God that is sent out into every part of the earth.
7He stepped forward and took the scroll from the right hand of the one sitting on the throne.
8And when he took the scroll, the four living beings and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people.
9And they sang a new song with these words: “You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it.
For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.
10And you have caused them to become
a Kingdom of priests for our God.
And they will reign on the earth.”
11Then I looked again, and I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living beings and the elders.
12And they sang in a mighty chorus:“Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered—to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.”
13And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang:“Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.”
14And the four living beings said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb.
. The first thing we see here is Who is worthy to take the scroll and start the Gods final judgment process for human kind.
. Who is worthy of such divine authority?
. Vs 3 says that they looked everywhere for someone worthy of this honor and privilege and for just a minute found no one. And the apostle John began to weep. Was no one worthy of this honor?
. You know we spend our lives searching for people to whom we can look up to. To whom we can try to emulate and call role models.
. We look to actors and sports figures and military people and even people within our families but it seems that some way some how, they always disappoint us.
. That’s because there is no one here on this earth who is worthy of this honor.
. Then in verse 5 one of the 24 elders says stop crying, there is one who is worthy of this honor. There is one who is worthy of this and we should worship Him because of all of creation only he is worthy.
. You see He was there in there midst all the time. There was one who was worthy of their praise and worship.
. One who was worthy to open the scroll and start this process. Because of who He was, He was worthy to be praised.
. This same person who was in their midst all the time is the same person who is in our midst all the time.
. That person is Jesus, and He is the only one worthy of our worship and praise.
. We can search and search for someone to emulate, someone to place our faith and trust in but until we find Jesus we will always be disappointed.
. Jesus is the only one who is worthy of our worship.
. Next we see WHY Jesus is worthy of our worship.
. Vs 9 says that, “You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it.
For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.
. He is worthy because He gave His life for all mankind.
. He alone is worthy because no one else can or will give himself over to die for all others.
. He is worthy because He gave himself as a ransom for us.
. Romans 3:23 says that “ all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
. Romans 6:23 syas that “ the wages of sin is death”.
. We are all held captive to sin and we must be ransomed.
. There must be a just price paid for our release from this captivity.
. The elder said that Jesus, The Lion of the tribe of Judah, The heir to David’s throne, all descriptions of Jesus, has paid the ransom. He Is worthy.
. Several years back, there was a secular book titled Ransom and they made a movie based on parts of it. In the movie, a rich mans son was kidnapped and held for ransom. The kidnappers sent the ransom demand and the father refused to pay the ransom saying that they would kill his son anyway. He then went on TV and placed a reward to anyone who could tell him where his son was. The story went on and he finally got his son back.
. God could have refused to pay the ransom for us. He could have said, they deserve death. After all, the wages of sin is death. They had their chance and they blew it and I’m not going to pay the price that is required for their salvation.
. But He did. He had a third of the triune God come to earth in Human form to Die for us. To be slaughtered as a ransom for us so that our freedom from sin and the punishment for those sins was paid for.
. Why is He worthy of our worship and allegiance? Because he paid the price for our sins guaranteeing our freedom from the punishment and death due to the sin in our lives.
. Our passage then tells us that because Jesus is worthy of our worship because He paid the ransom for us so what does that worship mean for us?
. Vs 10 says that, 10And you have caused them to become
a Kingdom of priests for our God.
And they will reign on the earth.”
. What does this make us?
. This makes us priests when we accept his sacrifice for uor sins and worship Him. This gives us access to God that was restricted before Jesus paid the ransom for us.
. Before Jesus paid the ransom, only the priests were allowed into the inner sanctum of the tabernacle or the place where God dwelt or beyond the curtain in the tent of meeting. There were many names for the inner sanctum or holy of holies.
. When Jesus died on the cross, when He was slaughtered as our scripture tells us, the curtain that only the priests could go beyond was torn in half giving all access to God making us equals with the priests and giving us direct access to God.
. We are priests of God through the blood of Jesus Christ.
. We find recorded in Leviticus chapter 8 the institution of the priesthood. God commanded Moses to bring Aaron and his sons and ordain them as priests of God. They were the ones who were to be able to go into the holy of holies and be in God’s presence.
. God commanded Moses to Slaughter a Ram and place some of this blood on the right earlobe and the right thumb and on their right big toe.
. This way they had the sacrificed blood on their ears so that they could hear the words of God, on their hands or thumb so that they could do the work of the Lord and on their big toe or foot so that they could take the word of God with them everywhere they went. They were consecrated In there whole being and set apart for God.
. When Jesus Shed his blood for us. Not only did we get it on our ears, thumbs, and toes: we got His blood all over us.
. We have been covered by His shed blood therefore consecrating us as priests of God to the whole world.
. There’s an old hymn that says “ have you been to Jesus for His cleansing power, are you washed in the blood of the lamb. Are your garments spotless are they white as snow. Are you washed in the blood of the lamb.
. The Blood of Jesus that washes our sins away also makes us priests of God and gives us access to the one who is worthy of our worship.
. When you worship and accept Jesus, what you become is a priest of God forever.
. Once we find Jesus and acknowledge that He is worthy of our worship because of what He did for us on the cross and become His priests, where are we supposed to worship Him.
. Where do we worship the one who is worthy of our worship?
. The final verse in this chapter tells us .
. Vs 14 says, 14And the four living beings said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb.
. We worship Jesus on our knees. Submitting to His lordship over us and our lives.
. We kneel at the foot of the cross and give Him the honor and praise position that He deserves as the one and only who is worthy to be praised.
.Just like the 24 elders who when they realized who Jesus was and what He had done and could do, they had no other alternative than to kneel and worship the one who was worthy.
. I want to close with a story this morning.
. A man was walking through an art gallery when he came upon a picture of the Lord Jesus dying upon the cross. He stopped and looked at the beautiful portrait of Calvary's love. As he stared into the face of Christ, so full of agony the gallery guard tapped him on the shoulder. "Lower," the guard said. "The artist painted this picture to be appreciated from a lower position."
So the man bent down. And from this lower position he observed new beauties in the picture not previously shown. "Lower," said the guard. "Lower still." The man knelt down on one knee and looked up into the face of Christ. The new vantage point yielded new beauties to behold and appreciate.
But motioning with his torch toward the ground, the guard said, "Lower. You've got to go lower." The man now dropped down to two knees and looked up. Only then as he looked up at the painting from such a low posture could he realize the artist's intended perspective. Only then could he see the full beauty of the cross.
Is the same not true in worship? Only as we position ourselves lower and lower in humble submission can we behold more fully the glories of our wonderful Lord.
[ From David Moore's Sermon "In and Around Heaven", Sermon Central, 2008. ]
Folks we can spend our whole life looking for someone to emulate. Someone we can call our hero.
. All of creation was looking and waiting for someone worthy to be called our King, our Savior , our Lord.
. This glimpse of the throne room in Heaven shows us that there is only one who is worthy of our worship.
. That person is the Lion of the trbe of Judah, The heir to the throne of David. The Messiah, our messiah, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
. Can you truly say that you worship him today.
. Can you truly say that He is your Lord and that you have been covered by His blood making you a priest of God forever.
. Have you been covered by His blood but you are not living like a priest of God?
. That can change right here right now.
