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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?