Revelation 5: 1 – 14
Undeserved Titles
1 Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” 3 But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. 4 I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. 5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” 6 Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. 8 And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. 9 And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. 10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” 11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. 12 In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” 13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, forever and ever!” 14 The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.
I have this habit of giving people nicknames. At first I wanted to say it was a bad habit, but sometimes assigned names to people seem to be okay. For example it has been a blessing when I run into people I know by sight but not their names. To save embarrassment I just greet them as ‘brother’ or ‘sister’. So now you know if I or anyone else greets you with this title they most likely have forgotten your name.
I use to call other people by certain titles but after reading the bible I refrain from doing so today. For example, when I was a kid I went to a Catholic Church and school. I would call the priests ‘father’ and my real earthly father ‘dad’. You might now begin to understand why I am so messed up. Having my eyes and mind open to the wonder of God’s Word I began to read the bible with much passion and desire. I started with the first book of the New Testament – The Gospel of Matthew. When I came upon chapter 23 I was floored. It reads, “Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.”
Seeing this I started on a dangerous path – I began to meditate on the Scriptures and ‘think’. I ask myself why anyone would want to be called ‘Father’ when this title belongs to God Almighty. How can man take an undeserved title to himself?
After doing some investigation I found out that these men who take upon themselves the undeserved title ‘Father’ additionally claim that they are Almighty God’s representatives on earth. Say what? Where does it say that? To me this is pretty scary stuff. This is plain and simple mockery of our Precious Holy Adoni Yahweh, Father God.
How about this title – The Highest Most Reverend So and So.’ Is anyone paying attention?
The book of Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 says, "And He (God) gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers, For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."
The word is "pastor" is the Greek word "poimhn" and means "shepherd." It is used 16 times in the New Testament and translated "shepherd." Only in Ephesians 4:11 is it translated "pastor." Vines defined the word as: "a shepherd, one who tends the herds or flocks' (not merely one who feeds them. It is used metaphorically of Christian’s pastor. A pastor then is the Lord's "under shepherd" the overseer of the Lord's congregation. He is called a "pastor teacher" in Ephesians 4:11 which denote his twofold ministry. He is to shepherd the Lord's flock and to be a teacher of God's word.
It is not biblical for a minister to use the title "Reverend." The word is found only once in all the Bible and is not a reference to a man, but to Almighty God. We read in the book of Psalms 111 we read in verse 9, “"He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: Holy and Reverend Is His Name."
Clearly only God is to be revered and in holding the reverence of God we exercise godly fear, knowing that who He Is and of His absolutely power over all things. That is certainly not a attribute of a minister of the Gospel, an under shepherd who pastors a local congregation of believers. We are to respect our pastors who minister unto us, but we do not fear them and stand in awe of their power, as we are to our God and Creator. The reverence this word speaks of is reserved for God alone.
To sum it up for me it is a matter of conscience. Some may defend the use of the word "Reverend" saying is simply a matter of semantics of no importance. If they have this easy way about them then why insist or continue to use the title? No, I think that anyone who uses this title does not know the Word of God or is personally insulting my Holy Master.
To me this is not a joke. We all need to treat our Holy Creator with the utmost reverence. Is everyone clear with this vital point?
Today we are going to see another title given to our Holy Adoni Yeshua, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He Is Worthy!
1 Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals.
The fact that the scroll is sealed demonstrates its great, official importance. The number of seals demonstrates the divine perfection and completeness of its contents. The number seven was seen worldwide as the number of divine perfection. It also demonstrates that it contains within itself the whole plan of God. It is complete in itself.
In the law of that time an important will or other official document had to be sealed by seven witnesses. It could then only be opened by an authorized person. The same is clearly true here. But it’s even greater importance lies in the fact that it was on the Sovereign God’s right hand. It clearly contains within it the will and purpose of God. Thus once it is opened His purpose will be carried out and His will will be done.
In chapter 29 of the book of Isaiah we read about a sealed book, “9 Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunk, but not with wine; They stagger, but not with intoxicating drink. 10 For the LORD has poured out on you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, namely, the prophets; And He has covered your heads, namely, the seers. 11 The whole vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, “Read this, please.” And he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” 12 Then the book is delivered to one who is illiterate, saying, “Read this, please.” And he says, “I am not literate.” 13 Therefore the Lord said: “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men. 14 Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work among this people, a marvelous work and a wonder; For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.” 15 Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the LORD, and their works are in the dark; They say, “Who sees us?” and, “Who knows us?” 16 Surely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; For shall the thing made say of him who made it, “He did not make me”? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?
It is sealed because the people have refused to listen to the prophets, and therefore prophecy will be withheld. It must await a future day. Now prophecy will be opened up and fulfilled. In Ezekiel 2.9-10 Ezekiel receives a scroll written within and without, as here, and ‘there was written in it lamentations and mourning’s and woe’. The scroll here is partly patterned on that scroll for its description and contents are similar. In Daniel 8.26 Daniel is told to ‘shut up the vision for it belongs to many days to come’. Now the vision will be revealed and come into action.
Here then we have a scroll, perfectly sealed, written within and without and full of lamentations and mourning’s and woe, which contains the vision of future days and is about to be opened up. It contains the fulfillment of prophecy.
2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” 3 But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. 4 I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside.
Our Holy Ruler sometimes wants us to think. We tend to run on emotions. So, let us stop and think about this situation. This scroll is in the hand of our Holy Father. I would be unworthy to call out, but if I could, I would say, ‘You Father, You can open the Scroll.” Am I right? If you notice though our Heavenly Father has the scroll on His open hand not in His hand. It is indicating that He wants someone else to come and pick up the scroll out of His hand and open it.
I guess John was so amazed at the scene of Heaven’s Throne room that he forgot about The Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ, Whom he just saw ]remember back in chapter 1?] He Is The only One Who has the right qualifications to fulfill this important task.
5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
The idea of the lion of the tribe of Judah comes from Genesis 49.9-10 which reads, “Judah is a lion’s whelp; From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; And as a lion, who shall rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.”
Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
If weeping needed to be done, it should have been done now. For look and behold our Holy and Precious King bears the wounds of the cross. The great overcoming Lion turns out to be a slain Lamb. The victor turns out to be a bleeding victim. But the lesson is that it was only through His becoming a victim that He has become the victor. Only His death has made possible the fulfillment of the purposes of God.
At the beginning of this study you have seen how it is important to give credit to only One Holy One. It Is to our Holy and Worthy Lamb of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Have you ever seen the movie, ‘The Passion of the Christ’ by Mel Gibson? I have witnessed people killed through my time in the military, in mission trips, with my work with the police department, and in life itself, but in all truth I had a really hard time watching this movie. It only depicted a small iota of what our Great and Holy Lord Jesus went through. Yet when I think of This Holy One and Perfect Lamb of God going through what He did for a filthy sinner like me, I have a really hard time.
I want to share something with you to admire, appreciate, love and be more devoted to our Great Master and Messiah. For some of you, this might be very uncomfortable. You are going back in time a little with me and celebrate Sabbat HaGadol, the selection and inspection of the Passover Lamb.
On the 10th of Nisan you are to go and select a lamb for Passover sacrifice. After picking up the lamb you take it home with you. You are to keep it in your house. I can just imagine this little creature be scared and when you bring it in your house it finds some place where it cowers in fear. At night this little innocent baby sheep most likely keeps you awake as it cries because it misses its mother. I can imagine people coming up with some creative means to comfort this little animal. Some might put a clock near the lamb to maybe make it think it will remind it of its mother’s heartbeat. Some might turn on a radio to keep it company with sound. Some might even bring it into their bedroom to make it not feel alone. The purpose of bringing home is to examine it for 4 days so that you can determine it does not have any defect. I see more than this. I believe our Lord wants this to be personal to you. He wants it to be part of your family. After the first day I can see your kids or grandkids playing with it. After awhile this little lamb starts to feel less afraid and might even get into some mischief.
At my house we have these three little dogs. They look like sheep. In fact their name is derived from sheep. They are called Cattones which means in French ‘cotton’. My wife has one which is called Violet. My daughter adopted a male and she calls him ‘Miles’. The people who have the litters called her and said that they were having a hard time getting rid of a little runt from another litter, so my daughter took this one also. She named her ‘Trixie’. I guess by default this little one took a liking to me.
Trixie has a very tiny mouth so the vet needed to pull a couple of teeth. In order to do this they had to put Trixie asleep. My mean wife had me be the one to take Trixie to the vet. As the nurse came to take Trixie in the back Trixie look at me it seemed as though she was pleading for me to not let the nurse take her. The nurse picked up on my emotion and assured me that they would take good care of Trixie.
I went to work and kept calling home to see if the vet had called and told us that Trixie was alright. In the afternoon I was contacted to go and pick her up. I was very pleased.
Now, however, my heart is moved to share a different outcome. You see on the 4th of Nisan you had to pick up your little lamb and carry it to the Temple. And just like I felt handing over Trixie to the nurse, here you have to hand over this little trusting innocent lamb to the priest.
He takes your little lamb and slices its throat and walks this shocked baby lamb as it struggles to breath to the side of the altar where it pours out its blood on the side. Then the lamb is skinned and placed on the altar. After it is cooked it is handed back to you where you take it home so you can have your Passover dinner.
I find it very interesting that in Scripture it says that if any of the lamb is left over it is to be consumed in fire. Usually a lamb is for a family of ten. I start thinking that a small lamb would hardly be enough to feed that many people. Then I start to think about what treatment this innocent trusting little lamb went through. I think I am not eating it. My heart is broken for it. This is what our Holy Father wants us to remember about what His Son, The Lamb of God went through. Do you see now how horrible means our Holy God had to take in order to forgive filthy sinners like you and me. What His Holy Son had to endure for us? At once I say I am truly sorry Lord for my sins while at the same time I say, ‘Thank You O Great and Mighty Precious Lamb of God.’
He Is not only the slain Lamb, He Is also the Lord of Creation. Under His personal control are seven great powers (horns), seven all-seeing powers (eyes). These are the seven chief angels who control all earthly activity. The horn in prophecy is ever the symbol of power, it is the means by which a beast exerts its authority and accomplishes his will. It regularly represents kings. Here it represents those who are greater than kings.
It is quite interesting that our Lord and Savior now appear to John as the Lamb of God because reference to our Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God is only found in John’s writings. In John’s Gospel He Is the Passover lamb, slain as a sacrifice for sin and as a guarantee of safety from the wrath of God and of deliverance through His power. Our Mighty King has taken away the sin of the world. It is through His sacrifice on the cross that the purposes of God can unfold. What An Awesome Holy God Is He?
7 He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. 8 And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. 9 And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. 10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”
The release of the scroll by the One on the throne, Who Is Father God, demonstrated the authority and rightness of the Lion of Judah and Lamb of God, our Lord Jesus Christ for the task in hand. The Lamb Is recognized as having the right and authority to open the scroll, for it is released into His care. Thus the One worthy to open the scroll had to be extremely powerful, and yet have been offered as a sacrifice on behalf of the world which the scroll will affect.
When this happens the living creatures and the elders fall down and worship Him, and the elders, the representatives of the church on earth, break into singing holding each in their hands a harp and golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of God’s people. Here we see their priestly function. They are represented as presenting men’s worship before God
The idea of prayers as incense is taken from the words of Psalm 141.2, ‘Let my prayer be set forth as incense before you, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice’. The golden bowls were those used in the Holy place and the Holy of Holies for the use of the priests. It is clearly the elders’ responsibility to gather the prayers of God’s people and pass them on to Him.
The prophet Isaiah informs us in chapter 42 of his book verses 9-10 where singing a new song occurs because something new is about to happen.” Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; Before they spring forth I tell you of them.” Sing to the LORD a new song, and His praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,
You coastlands and you inhabitants of them!”
The presence and actions of the Lamb produce a different song from the elders than that we see in chapter 4 verse 11. It is a new song, the song of redemption. The one thing that has fitted the Lamb for His task is that He has bought for God, through the offering of Himself, people from every nation under Heaven.
As a kingdom of priests we will reign on earth in the forthcoming days. It is a statement of confident assurance in our future wellbeing. We will reign on earth, as one day they will be resurrected and reign with our Lord Jesus Christ over the universe. Wow!
11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. 12 In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” 13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, forever and ever!” 14 The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.
The number of angels is a simply a way of declaring that their number as being too large to count. In the court of God are angels without number.
These angels now add to the worship of the Lamb. Their cry is sevenfold, an indication of divine completeness, and in it they acknowledge His worthiness for what He is about to do. He was given all authority and power in Heaven and earth. Now, will begin, the full realization of that gift, until all is put under His feet.
Earth then gives its reply. This is, of course, in vision. And in that vision John sees every living thing on earth glorifying God and the Lamb. Nature does naturally what man will not do. The fourfold nature of their cry is an indication of the involvement of the whole earth for four is the number of earth. So Heaven and earth proclaim the worthiness of God and of the Lamb. And the living creatures say “Amen’ to creation’s worship, for they are the representatives in Heaven of that creation. And the elders fall down and worship, for they are the representatives of the people of God. The conjunction of the worshipping of the One on the throne with the worshipping of the Lamb is evidence of our Lord Jesus Christ’s full divinity.
We worship You O Mighty King.
