“From Weeping to Praise”
Revelation 5:1-14
Today I am beginning a four-week sermon series on the Book of Revelation.
Revelation is so named because that’s exactly what it is.
It’s a revelation which the Lord revealed to His apostle John.
It’s a letter of hope and encouragement for those who are being persecuted for their faith and for those who are wondering if good really will triumph over evil.
It was given to enable Christians to keep the faith in the midst of so much that was pushing back on that faith.
It introduces us to the new clarity, the new vision that Jesus’ Resurrection makes possible in our lives.
(pause)
Imagine receiving an envelope with these words written on the front: “TO BE OPENED BY THE PERSON WHO DESERVES TO DO SO.”
How would you know if you deserved to open it?
As one writer put it, “we are all overdrawn at the moral bank.”
The thought of being “deserving” at once makes us search our consciences and discover, no doubt, all kinds of things that might disqualify us, all kinds of sins we have committed, all kinds of unjust things we have done, all kinds of ways we have fallen short—missed the mark.
That is the situation at the beginning of Revelation Chapter 5 where we find ourselves looking through John’s eyes at the throne room in heaven.
God is holding a scroll sealed with seven seals.
In it is God’s plan to defeat evil and usher in the full coming of God’s reign.
“But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open” it or “even look inside it.”
And this shows us a realistic view of the deep-rooted problem that we, and it seems, all other creatures face.
No one deserves to open it.
And so, John begins to weep, realizing that there is no hope.
There is no hope for the defeat of evil.
There is no hope that things will get better.
There is no hope.
Have you ever felt as if there is no hope?
I think we have all been there.
We live in a world that is plagued with this disease of hopelessness.
You might sit in your kitchen in the morning with your cup of coffee, scrolling through the news.
You read about senseless violence and acts of terrorism and war.
You read about disturbing crimes—and perhaps it makes you wonder—is God really present and ruling this earth?
Maybe you have sat in a lecture hall with a college professor who goes out of his or her way to talk about the foolishness of Chritianity and a God who allegedly died on a cross.
He or she speaks about the foolishness of anyone who would believe in such a God and that such a God is in control of this world.
The professor makes you and others like you out to be losers.
He or she makes it clear that people who really know what’s what don’t believe like you do.
And sometimes you may be tempted to wonder if the professor is right.
Perhaps you sit down in an office filled with your co-workers.
They talk about the things they did over the weekend, and they look at you like you have a second head when you tell them that you spent two and a half hours at church on Sunday morning for worship and Sunday school.
And right now, as we sit in this sanctuary, the majority of our neighbors are either still asleep or in their pajamas watching t-v.
Sometimes we might feel like a small, seemingly insignificant little group.
We live in a world where being Christian is considered less and less as being glorious or victorious.
And perhaps it makes you wonder what’s going on.
And this is why the Lord allows us to take a seat inside His throne room today next to the Apostle John.
This is what the Lord is doing as we hear these words that John wrote in the Book of Revelation.
Today, God pulls back the curtain to give us a glimpse of reality—a reality that we don’t see on this side of heaven, except by grace through the eyes of faith.
And as John wept at the seeming hopelessness of it all “because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside” one of the elders comes to him saying “Don’t cry. Here is the One who can do it.”
And Johns sees “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 “went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne.
And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb…
…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.
You have made them to be a kingdom of priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.’”
Who can break the seals of the scroll on which is written the triumphant future of God’s reign?
Who is in control?
The Lamb who was slain.
The One who is also in the center of the throne room on the throne.
This is Jesus.
He is the One who controls the future—our future, the future of His Church, the future of everything.
And why?
Did you catch this?
The song being sung said, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and” you bought us for God with your blood.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the One Who gloriously rules over our future.
And He holds that honor—He won that honor because He is the One who lowered Himself by becoming a human being and humbled Himself all the way to the point of dying on the cross to redeem us from death and give us eternal life.
He humbled Himself and died so that we, and all who believe, will be a part of His glorious kingdom.
That’s a reality.
It’s a very well documented historical reality, that Christ died on the cross for your sins and for my sins.
He is the Lamb that was slain.
And more than that—He then took His life back from the grave.
He rose, victorious over death.
And there were all sorts of eyewitnesses of His resurrection from the dead to attest to the historical reality of His resurrection.
And now He sits in heaven, in the throne room, at the right hand of God, and He rules over His kingdom.
He is the exalted King!
Remember, this is God pulling back the curtain and revealing for John and for us the present reality of heaven.
Listen again.
John wrote, “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 elders.”
In heaven’s throne room surrounding Jesus, the once slain but now very much alive Lamb of God are the angels—tons of them—too many to count.
Sometimes I think we tend to forget that there are angels because we don’t see them.
But there are so many of them.
And they are there, surrounding Jesus in heaven, worshiping Him.
And there are four living creatures that also surround the throne.
There’s some debate about what those four living creatures are.
But based on Ezekiel 10:20, these living creatures seem to symbolize a specific category of angels called the cherubim.
Finally, there are twenty-four elders who are surrounding the throne.
The interpretation of whom these elders stand for is undisputed.
In the Old Testament, there were twelve tribes of Israel which made up the people of God.
In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus entrusted His saving good news to the twelve apostles, who spread the saving message of Jesus all over the world to bring people into Christ’s kingdom.
Twelve Old Testament tribes of Israel plus twelve New Testament apostles equals twenty-four elders who, along with all the hosts of angels, surround the Lamb.
The twenty-four elders also represent the believers in Christ—they are the Christian Church.
They are you and me.
And what are the angels and the living creatures and the people of the Church doing in heaven?
It says, “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!”
They are praising their risen and victorious Lord.
They are worshiping Him for the victory He won over hell, death, and the devil.
It’s a victory that they are presently experiencing in heaven.
And then, as the revelation continues, all creation, which must include the trees, the grass, the worms, the crickets, the cats, the dogs—all creation joins the heavenly chorus in the next verse of the song.
John says, “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, for ever and ever!’
The four living creatures said, ‘Amen,’ and the elders fell down and worshiped.”
Wow, what a reality!
Does it occur to us why the Lord decided to reveal this revelation to the Apostle John and to us?
Why would God tell us these things?
It’s because of where we started this morning, right?
It’s because John belonged to a church in his days of the late first century A.D.—a church that didn’t look all that victorious.
A Roman-Empire-Wide persecution had broken out against the Christian Church.
Believers in Christ were being tortured.
They were being killed for their faith.
In fact, that’s what happened to the other eleven apostles.
John was the only of the twelve apostles who hadn’t been put to death for his faith in Christ.
John was sitting in exile on a prison island called Patmos.
He had been exiled because of his faith.
Being a Christian didn’t seem very victorious.
The Lord knew how easy it could be for His people to become discouraged.
So, He gave John a dose of reality—a large dose of heavenly reality.
They needed to know that the reality of things in God’s kingdom is not what they seem to be here on earth.
Christ was slain to redeem us.
But now He lives, and now He rules.
Do you see it?
That’s the reality right now, too.
THE reality.
Christ rules.
And one day, we’re going to join that heavenly choir and sing the praises of the Lamb as we gather around Him in the throne room of God.
And this means that present-day persecutions and the horrible crimes committed don’t mean God isn’t in control.
It simply means that the reality of Christ’s rule is hidden right now in a world corrupted by our human sinfulness.
But Christ has died for us to redeem us from this world of sin.
Our victory is found in Christ’s cross.
And so, come Lord Jesus, and fully reveal this victory.
And this reality of what’s going on right now and what we will one day be doing in heaven—this means that we are not the losers for being followers of Christ.
We are actually winners because of Christ and what He has done.
We await that victory to be fully revealed when our King returns on the last day.
And this reality also means we are not wasting our weekends away when we gather in this place, even for two hours or two and a half hours on a Sunday morning.
We are here to join our voices with voices unheard right now—voices in heaven—to sing the song of the Lamb who was slain because He has saved us and because we need to remind one another of this victorious reality that is ours already.
So, sing we will—sometimes on tune, and sometimes off key.
Sometimes from a song in a hymnal which was once a contemporary praise song set to tunes from the taverns and bars long ago, and sometimes from songs written more recently.
And that is good and right.
Because when we join the multitudes already there in the heavenly throne room, worshiping Jesus face to face with Him that is going to be one glorious song of triumph and thanksgiving.
And if you are looking forward to that, in the name of Jesus, please let me hear you say “Amen!”
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You that You don’t leave us guessing as to the final resolution of good triumphing over evil.
We thank You for a glimpse into Your heavenly throne room.
We thank you for the hope this provides.
And most of all, we thank You for the Lamb Who has died and shed His blood to purchase us for You simply because You love us.
In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray,
Amen.
