In chapter four of the book of Revelation, John describes a scene in heaven which is beyond words. God is seated on the throne. He rules the universe. He has the right, the authority and the power to end the world. And he is surrounded by living beings that John has never seen before, and cannot adequately describe with the limitations of human language and experience. Worship of the most extraordinary kind overwhelms his senses. Now in chapter five, John continues his dramatic description of the scene in heaven. He sees a throne and someone sitting on it whom he does not even attempt to describe, but in his hand there is a scroll. There is writing on both sides of this scroll and it is sealed with seven seals. A call goes forth for someone to open the scroll, but no one is found who is able to open it. John understands the enormous significance of the scroll and begins to weep at the terrible calamity that he feels. But just then, he is told: “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.” John immediately turns to see this great lion that has just been described to him, but he does not see a lion. He sees a lamb. And not just any lamb, but one with death wounds. John can see the blood and the open wounds with which he has been inflicted.
What a shock it must have been for John to look for this great lion who would rip the seals with his great claws, only to see a small wounded lamb. But it is the lamb who walks up to the One seated on the throne and takes the scroll. And in the subsequent chapters, as he opens the seals, scenes come forth that set in motion the events of the final days of earth’s history. When these events are released by the Lamb, they rush forth with power and fury, and all the host of heaven fall on their faces as they worship the Lamb. It is an incredible and astonishing scene.
A paradox is a seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true. Here is a paradox. How can a lion be a lamb? The two are opposites. One is the hunter and the other the prey. One is placed in a cage with iron bars; the other in a petting zoo. We have all heard of an oxymoron. It is where seemingly contradictory terms are combined. It is an oxymoron to talk about jumbo shrimp, fresh frozen food, or a holy war. We talk about a cool heat, or a deafening silence. A lion-like lamb is an oxymoron. The terms do not belong together — except in heaven. Here the lion is the lamb. His power was found in his death, because with his death he purchased the souls of people, and he was thereby made worthy to open the scroll.
What is the meaning of this strange imagery which introduces the unleashing of end-time events? The first thing that this tells us is that we can rest in the fact that: God’s strength is disguised as weakness. The secret to God’s great strength is in his apparent weakness. Look at the Lamb of God dying on the cross. Was there ever any greater appearance of weakness on the part of God? They taunted him and said, “Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:40). The irony was that he was able to come down from the cross, but chose not to. What God was doing was the most powerful act that he would ever perform. Greater than the creation of the world, and greater than bringing the world to an end, Christ’s redemptive act on the cross was God at work in his greatest hour. His strength was hidden, but it was God’s most powerful moment. In this humble act of God, the devil was shamed and robbed of his power. We will never know, this side of heaven, what terrible struggles took place in the spiritual world between Palm Sunday and Easter morning. But one thing we do know: the lamb became a lion.
We keep wanting to have displays of power and have people see that we are on the winning side, but God is content with the appearance of weakness. His purpose in this is profound. What if God always won? What if good always triumphed and doing the right always paid tremendous dividends. Everyone would flock to God and follow him. People will do the things they benefit from personally. And people also want to be on the winning side. It makes them feel important. So God could actually win the world over through a consistent display of power. But where would people’s hearts be? Would they love God for himself, or for his power? Would they love him or fear him? Would they want God to use their lives, or would they want to use God for their own purposes?
What about a God who appears to be weak? What if it looks like evil is winning and most people are on evil’s side? What if people who follow Christ are ridiculed and even persecuted? What if it becomes a disadvantage to be a Christian? What then? Then only the people who truly love God follow God and live for him. Only those who love God for who he is, rather than what they can get out of him, dare to be called by his name. Only those who love the truth, regardless of how weak or irrelevant it is made to appear by the world, will follow the truth. It does not take courage to follow what everyone else believes and does, it takes courage to follow the truth when others do not understand and belittle what you believe. It takes courage to do the right thing even though you are punished for it at work or school. It takes courage to stand up for what is right when everyone else thinks you are wrong. These are the kind of people God wants for his followers. Anyone can take the easy road, and you don’t have to be much of a person to do it. But Jesus said we must, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it” (Matthew 7:13).
Think of the humility of God as he tries to do his work through us. Think of the humility of God as he decides to come to earth to take on himself the form of a man. What power was hidden in this apparent weakness! Isaiah prophesied about him saying, “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). Such willingness to submit himself to weakness, and yet what power!
We are uncomfortable that Jesus asks us to join him in his weakness. While he was here, he said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). He often asks us to do the opposite of the way the people of the world think. Jesus said, “The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:11-12). Strength from weakness. He said that we were not to resist evil with force (Matthew 5:39), and backed it up with his life. The Bible says, “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. ‘He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.’ When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:21-23).
The appearance of weakness is not a concern of God, for it is his strength. God is not interested in appearances, because he is interested in reality. The reality is that he rules the universe despite what anyone thinks, and he will bring the world to its appointed end. The Bible says, “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. . . . But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him” (1 Corinthians 1:25, 27-29).
The second fact that we can rest in is that: God has a plan. It is important to understand the significance of the scroll in this chapter of scripture. There is a scroll. There is a plan. It is written out by the hand of God and it will be fulfilled. God has a plan and he is vigilantly carrying it out. History is headed somewhere. The scroll is written on both sides, from end to end, so that there is no room for anyone to add to plan of God. The Hindu faith does not believe that there is a direction to the history of the world. Hindus believe that life continues forever as it is through cycles. On and on, over and over life goes on ad infinitum. This is the reason they believe in reincarnation. No one ever dies, you just reappear in a different form. There is no purpose to life and no direction.
But the Bible teaches that God has a plan, and this plan for the world is revealed in the book of Genesis, the Gospels, and ultimately in the book of Revelation. The Bible is clear about what the plan is, for it says, “And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment — to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:9-12). Here is God’s great plan for the world: that your life will result in the praise of God’s glory. He has formed the world for this purpose, and he will bring about the end to the present world system so that the validity of your life and his plan might be seen by all.
God will win in the end because there is a scroll. The plan is in his hand. No team ever goes onto the field without a game plan. They learn the fundamentals of the sport. They watch films studying the tactics of their opponents. They figure out how to counteract the maneuvers of the other team. If the other team tries their usual game plan, they will go with plan A. If they try something else, plan B is developed. Sometimes they will double-team a player. They might try an end run. But they always have a plan. If ever a team just wandered out onto the field just to see how things would go, they would certainly lose. God has a plan. He knows the opponent perfectly. He will use his own game plan against him — and he will win in the end.
The third fact that we can rest in is: God is in control. God’s humility is born out of confidence. You can be humble when you know that you are going to win in the end. You don’t have to overpower everyone and everything. Sometimes we look around at the world and it seems like evil is winning, but we have the scroll, and we know who wins in the end. God is in control. Appearances are deceiving. Things are not always what they appear to be. The lion is a lamb, but the lamb is also a lion.
Remember the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane? The guards came to get Jesus, armed with swords and clubs. Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of one of them, but Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:52-53). Jesus was completely in control, even though he allowed it to appear that others were in control of him, and even of history.
On October 30, 1974, Muhammad Ali and George Foreman squared off in the boxing ring in Zaire. Ali had dubbed it “The Rumble in the Jungle.” Foreman was heavily favored, and considered the hardest puncher in heavyweight history. Ali did something in that fight that no other fighter had ever dared to try. He held up his arms against his face and leaned back against the ropes allowing Foreman to punch away at him for eight rounds. The strongest boxer in history beat on Ali until he could punch no more. When the right moment came, Ali bounced off the ropes and knocked out Foremen, sending him into retirement. Ali called his technique “rope-a-dope.” Even though it looked like he was losing the fight, and losing badly, he was in control the whole time. He took all those punches because he knew he would deliver the final blow.
God is using the “rope-a-dope” technique on the world of evil. Just when the devil and the antichrist amass all their armies, and have spent themselves fighting the Lord and his people, just when it looks as though the kingdom of God is on the ropes, God will deliver the final blow. Just when it looks like evil will win, God steps in. Just when it looks as though evil will have the final word, God will destroy it with his final word. The Bible says, “For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:7-8).
We usually think of the imagery of a small, young lamb to be harmless. But listen to what happens when the Lamb opens the fifth seal: “Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?’” (Revelation 6:15-17). The Lamb of God will conquer all the powers of the earth. They will prefer death to facing the lamb. And when that happens, God will share his kingdom with us. Not only does God ask us to share in his weakness, but he will also ask us to share in his strength, for the Bible says, “They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings — and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers” (Revelation 17:14).
So I want to say to you today: “The struggle is worth it. The battle may be long and it may be weary. It may appear that you are losing. But keep leaning on God, and while this may appear to others to be weakness, it is your strength. And you will triumph in the end.” Paul said, “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).
The power of evil is only an illusion. It is counterfeit. The Bible says, “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. . . . So then, brothers, stand firm. . . . May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-17).
The Lion has roared. The Lamb wins.
Rodney J. Buchanan
January 13, 2002
Mulberry Street UMC
Mt. Vernon, OH 43050
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION (January 13, 2002)
1. Does it appear to you that the world is getting better or worse? Is evil winning or is good triumphing?
2. What is your source of hope and strength in a world where evil seems so often to be in control?
3. What purpose could God have for giving evil such a long leash? Why doesn’t he do more about it?
4. What benefits are there to God’s kingdom for it to appear that evil is winning and that “good guys finish last”?
5. What significance is there to the fact that the scroll was written on front and back with no space left for anything else to be written?
6. What does it do for you to realize that God has a plan for the end of the world?
7. Read 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8. How is God at work in ways which we cannot see? What is he doing according to these verses?
8. What did it look like to the disciples as they watched Jesus being crucified? What did it look like to the devil? What did it look like to God?
9. What does the world look like to you? What does it look like to God?
10. What is your attitude toward the future?
