The Lion of the Tribe of Judah

Today I'd like to read the fifth chapter of the book of Revelation. It's brief, only fourteen verses, and later on in the message I want to add the first eight verses of chapter six. Fourteen, in fact the only fourteen verses of Revelation 5. And I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals.

And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals. And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. And I wept much that no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.

Then one of the elders said to me, weak not, lo, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne.

And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb, holding a heart each, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, worthy art thou to take the scroll and to open its seals, for thou wast slain and by thy blood didst ransom men for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and hast made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on earth. Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all therein saying, to him who sits upon the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. And the four living creatures said, Amen. And the elders fell down.

The events of the past week have not yet hit us in any material way. We can still drive up to the gas pumps and have our tanks filled. The streets are no more dangerous than they were two weeks ago.

And it's possible that in another couple weeks, the wars and the earthquakes and the falling of men from high places will quiet down and most of us will go back. But if we have our eyes open at all, how can we miss the fact that at this moment there is enough uncertainty and disruption and danger going on all around us to at least arouse us somewhat from our slumber. If we have any sense of what's going on at all right now, it's almost as if we're like at the bottom of a mountain where long ago it was prophesied there would be a landslide that would come down and engulf the village where we live.

For centuries, those prophecies were ignored. But now we are seeing movement up there on that mountain and we begin to wonder, is this the beginning of the end? Could it be that those fanatics who've been warning us the past two years will turn out to be right? We look at that mountain and we hear these strange sounds and we feel the ominous vibrations under our feet and begin to experience that sick feeling which is known as helplessness. You know, when things go wrong and there's something that you can do about it, that's not so bad.

But when things go wrong and there's not a thing that you can do but watch. And it can be especially frightening for Christians who have never in all their lives always played it safe, with only a few exceptions, never exposed themselves to anything more dangerous than a drive down the freeway or a trip to Miami. This can be disrupting to Christians who even in their prayers manage to hold God far enough away that their lives are never disrupted.

Who manage to avoid any message of truth, letting it get any further than maybe here, or any even thought of God that might, or to confess their sins with shame, or to cast away their idols, sometimes gravitate to those doctrines which make them, and all the time avoid any contact with people who might possibly make them feel uncomfortable. But now the mountain begins. There's no way out of this village where we are.

During this time, we need to ask ourselves, while it's only still a few little rocks tumbling down, we need to ask ourselves this question. Is the Christ that we say we worship, Lord over that mountain? Or is he merely something we keep close to ourselves for good luck? When the landslide starts to come, and we know it will, will it be his landslide? What kind of Jesus have we in fact been worshiping all along? For most of us, it will turn out to be a Jesus who's about this big. Big enough that you can stick him in your pocket, carry him where you want to, and small enough, you know, so that you can take out of his doctrine and teaching what you want to take, and leave the rest, and go on your way.

And then no wonder, when we begin to see the mountain tremble, we start getting scared. But the Jesus who was crucified outside Jerusalem 20 centuries ago, and who rose from the grave, and manifested himself to his disciples, and has all during these generations guided the footsteps of those who have truly... This Jesus is Lord, not over our puny little lives alone, not just over our clubs for nice people, and our ecclesiastical kingdoms. He is Lord over the whole earth, and he is worthy to break the seal on that scroll on which are written the judgments of God on this earth.

And when he begins to break the seals, the judgments will no longer be things merely written down, they become events, they happen. The four horsemen begin to ride. In other words, the Lamb of God, who by his blood has overcome the sin of the world, is also the Lion of the tribe of God.

When I... I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say, as with a voice of thunder, come. And I saw, and behold, a white horse, and its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering to conquer. When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, come.

And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that men should slay one another. And he was given a great sword.

When he opened the third seal, I heard, and the third living creature said, come. And I saw, and beheld, a black horse, and its rider had a balance in his hand. And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures say, a quart of wheat for a denarius, three quarts of barley for a denarius, but do not harm the oil and the wine.

When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, come. And I saw, and behold, a pale horse, and its rider's name was Death. And Hades, the region of the dead, followed him.

And they were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill with the sword, and with famine, and with pestilence, and by wild beasts of the earth, especially in the light of the things that we see going on around us right now. I believe it means several things. The first is this, that we really have to get into our heads, that Jesus Christ is not only the Savior of the world, he is its judge.

And when he begins to break the seals, the day of grace is ended, and the day of judgment has begun. And he will just as faithfully, just as faithfully as he held to that road of self-emptying and humiliation, to lay down his life on that cross, so that not one human being would ever have to be barred from the kingdom by sin, and just as faithfully as he brings light, even now, in resurrection power to anybody who opens his heart, offers salvation through his blood, just so faithfully, when that hour comes, will he judge this earth, and he will purge it of every lie, every deception, every injustice, every murder, every form of idolatry, and every evil thing. There is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, or hid that will not be made known.

What you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the ear in the private room will be proclaimed from the housetops. Every sin that is not buried under his blood will come out, and everything that cannot bear the light of his blazing glory will begin to feel the fire of his judgment. Now the second thing, as we look around and read with any fear of God, chapters 5 and 6 of Revelation, to conclude that this hour of judgment is near, the fact that the scroll is sealed with seven seals, it indicates that God is restraining things, he's holding them back.

See the astonishing thing right now is not that the shadow of war is growing larger and larger over the earth. The astonishing thing is not that men are falling from high places from an American to the military government in Thailand. That's not the astonishing.

The astonishing thing is that God did not... How come he allows war? The question ought to be, how come he hasn't allowed much more? Hasn't already given over the human race to its own evil devices? And if you think he has already, man wait for... How come the living God has, for instance, permitted this nation to go so long without law... Approaching the hour when those seals will be broken, and they will be broken by the very hands that were wounded for this earth's transgression. And when that hour comes, nobody will be able to say, oh, but you didn't give me a chance. You never warned me.

Nobody told me these things. Walk with Jesus Christ in the power of his death and resurrection. We have nothing to... For thou wast slain, and by thy blood didst redeem men for God from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made them a kingdom, and priests to our God, and they shall rule on the earth.

Now notice he doesn't promise that while he makes us a kingdom of priests, that we're going to just sail right on through, you know. No tribulation, no difficulties, no pain. He doesn't say that.

He will be with us no matter what we're going through. And these little disruptions that many of us are experiencing right now in our lives, and these minor skirmishes with a kingdom of evil that are coming in against many of us at this moment, are very, very, very minor troubles that we have that cause us so much anger. To believe that he is Lord even over the crazy stuff that's going on right now.

Call for us to get on the people. We are not here to build churches, and start movements, and establish kingdoms of our own, and make a name for ourselves. We are here to proclaim from the housetops that the one who is soon to judge the earth is now its savior.

We are here to call men from every tongue, tribe, nation, and people to draw near to him. Oh everyone who thirsts, come to the water. Come.

Come everyone. Buy for yourself wine and milk. Now the Lion of the tribe of Judah has not yet begun to break the seals.

When he does, we will know it. It won't just be another bloody outbreak in the Middle East. It will be the beginning of Armageddon.

And it won't just be a vice president resigning in disgrace. It will be presidents, and kings, and juntaes, or whatever you want to pronounce them, falling all over the earth. Meanwhile, the Spirit of God speaks to the Church of the Redeemed and says, wake up! Shake yourself from the dust.

Tear off those chains of unbelief that are around your necks and harvest. Beginning right where you are among the people where God has put all authority in heaven. Go therefore and teaching them to observe whatever you would encourage that person.

All the lies of the evil one that hold that. Draw that person to the foot of the cross in whatever way this is meaningful to him or her. And we pray father for the believers assembled here that you will open our eyes, oh God, to see what we have been called to be.

And father to admit how lacking in substance and how weak and how frail have been these lives that we've claimed to be yours. We pray father that you just help us to get our eyes, our critical eyes of our brothers and sisters, and bow before the cross today and be raised strong to do your will. Grandfather that in the days ahead we may live with vision and that our lives as well as our message may have power.