Revelation 5

Now, can you turn to the book of Revelation, please, in chapter 5? Revelation, chapter 5, and let's read the verse number 1. And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven nor on earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.

And one of the elders saith unto me, Weak not, behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.

And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four and twenty elders fell down before the lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing.

And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them heard I saying, Blessing and honour and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen, and the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and for ever. Now that's a reading.

Chapter 4 and chapter 5 of Revelation are, I think, my favourite chapters in the Bible. They're chapters full of wonderful aspects of heaven and of worship toward God and toward the lamb. In chapter 4, the theme is worship towards the throne sitter, and it's all about creation in chapter 4. You get that in the last verse of chapter 4. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power for this reason, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

So chapter 4 is all about creation. And chapter 4 is all about the throne, the throne of God. And John is taken up in a vision into heaven from the Isle of Patmos, where he was serving hard labour, and he's taken up from that scene into this, and he is given a vision of Jesus Christ, the revelation of Jesus Christ, and a revelation of heaven.

That's chapter 4 and 5. And chapter 4, the first thing he sees, the dominating aspect of heaven. I don't know what you think you'll see when you get to heaven. People think they're going to be running around looking for Moses and Abraham to have a wee chat and see about things, but when John gets to heaven, the thing he sees is the throne.

And everything is described in relation to the throne. Things that are around the throne and before the throne and toward the throne and out from the throne. It's all about the throne.

And God sits on the throne, and we don't have a description of God per se, but John uses earthly language to describe heavenly realities, and the language is the best he can do. And so he speaks of God in terms, descriptive terms, drawn from earth. And you come to chapter 5, and it's not so much the throne and God sitting on it and creation.

It is worship toward the Lamb for redemption. And it's the Lamb in the midst of the throne, and it's all about redemption. And the redeemed sing, and every other created being doesn't sing, they say.

The song of the redeemed is for the redeemed. So angels never sing, they say. And you have a wonderful song of redemption in chapter 5. And it's a wonderful thing this morning for us to echo the sounds of heaven here in this room, as we too have sung the song of the redeemed and offered worship.

And that's just an echo of what is happening in heaven even at this moment in time. I sometimes wonder where loved ones are who've passed on into glory. And most of you here knew my dad, and it's three years since he passed into glory.

And sometimes I sit and think about him, and I wonder where he is in reality. Where is he? What's he thinking? What's he saying? What's he singing? And I see him here in Revelation chapter 5. This is where he is, and this is what he's doing. And so this section of Revelation is a lovely section.

It is the calm before the storm, really, because you have the day of the Lord, as we heard about yesterday, begin to unfold from chapter 6 onwards. The church is gone from earth, and we thank God for that. And the day of Christ will be starting and going on in heaven where the day of the Lord goes on in earth.

And the day of the Lord begins at least with the time of tribulation and the great tribulation, the time of Jacob's trouble, the seven-year period of Daniel's seventieth week. It's all there. And you have the unfolding of the cycles of God's wrath upon earth.

That's yet to happen, but will happen. By the way, the word wrath in your Bible is almost exclusively used about God's anger poured out on earth, as opposed to God's eternal judgment. And so the wrath of God is going to flow, and it will flow in cycles, three cycles.

Three cycles of seven over a seven-year period. It's like a telescope getting pulled out. The seventh of each cycle is the next seven.

And so whether it's a Russian doll or a telescope pulled out, that's the imagery. But you have the breaking of the seals, and you've got the blowing of trumpets, and you've got the pouring out of the vials of wrath. And it takes seven years, and it starts slowly, but it increases in frequency and intensity.

We know that because the Lord Jesus described it as the beginning of sorrows. And the beginning of sorrows is the birth pangs. That's the imagery.

And I was born out of due season because I had no intention or desire to witness the birth of my children. And peer pressure meant I had to be in there. And I actually passed out when my third child was born.

So for health and safety reasons, we stopped at three. My health and safety. But anyway, the idea of birth pangs is this.

You've got to witness it whether you like it or not. And the birth begins slowly, and the birth pangs increase. They get harder and they get faster until the moment of release, the moment of joy.

And at the end of the seven-year period of tribulation, the moment of joy is the manifestation of Christ as he comes in revelation and in glory and establishes kingdom upon earth for a thousand years, the millennial reign of Christ. But before that all happens, John is taken up and gets a vision of heaven. Matthew 24 and Matthew 25 speak of the same things.

But the Lord Jesus is describing them from an earthly perspective to his disciples. Matthew 24 and 25, for remember the tribulation is primarily focused upon Israel, although the impact is felt throughout the whole world. But Matthew 24 and 25, the Lord Jesus tells his disciples what this is going to look like when you're on earth.

John has a different perspective because he's not on earth when he sees this. He's in heaven. So his perspective is from heaven to earth, and the description of it bears that character.

He sees it from the divine standpoint as God is pouring out his wrath upon earth. The Lord Jesus sees it from an earthly perspective in Matthew 24 and 25, but it's a description of the same thing. And before it happens and starts, you get this.

What a beautiful chapter it is. And it begins with this. It begins with, I'll try and say this without sputtering, anthropomorphic language.

I'm not going to try that twice. And it really just is the idea that God is described as having human function and attributes. In order for us to understand his character, remember this, God is spirit.

And so this is a vision, and it's using this language of the human body to describe divine attribute. So, for example, you read about the eyes of the Lord. Now, God doesn't have physical eyes.

And you speak about the feet and the hands and so on. And it's just to describe to us the character and function of deity in terms that we can understand and appreciate. And so John sees in verse number one, the right hand, that is the palm, the outstretched hand, the images of God's hand as if it were stretching out an invitation.

And there's something sitting on it, something across the palm of the right hand. And he says that on that right hand, in verse number one, there is a book. Now, of course, they didn't have books bound as we have them in those days.

It was a scroll. And there are two features of this scroll. It's written within and on the backside of it, and it's sealed with seven seals.

So there is writing in this scroll, and there are seals upon the scroll. Now, I don't have time to do this, but if you went back into the book of Jeremiah in chapter 32, you would see an example of this scroll in action in the purchase of land. It is a title deed.

And Jeremiah is given strange instruction because the nation is about to be taken into captivity. The armies of Babylon are on the borders. And God speaks to Jeremiah, and he says, Your cousin is trying to sell a piece of land.

No wonder he is. It's like someone in the east of Ukraine standing there wanting to sell the farm of the Russian tanks just about to roll around the corner. That's the equivalent of it.

And Jeremiah is given an instruction. Your cousin wants to offload his land before the army comes. Who's going to buy that land? No one's going to buy that land.

Jeremiah, you go and buy that land. That's the instruction. Buy it off your cousin, Hanumel.

And the process of purchase is described. By the way, the reason the land had to be bought was a sign from God to the nation of Israel that you're going to be removed from this land, but you'll be brought back to the land. So this land is worth buying.

You'll get it at a bargain because he's selling it, but you buy it. And when the captivity is over, the nation will come back and bury the title deeds and preserve them. My point is just this.

The title deeds are described in the same way that this is described. And so you have title deeds. I used to be a lawyer years and years ago.

And one of the things I didn't like doing was property law. I only did it for six months and I was done. And in property law back home in Scotland, you had title deeds in those days.

It's all changed now. But you literally had title deeds that went back hundreds of years. The documents.

And apart from worrying about getting a skin condition when you handled them, you would see in the inside of them all the details of the property and the ownership and the title, and it would go back. The title would be traced back from owner to owner to owner within this title deed. But on the outside of the title deed would be a summary of it.

A summary so you don't need to open it and read it. That's what you have here. It's written on the inside and the outside.

It's a title deed. And what is the title deeds of? It is of God's creation. And it is of that which Satan has taken control of through sin.

And it is the deeds are actually the description of how God is going to redeem that and remove sin from it and reclaim it for himself. It's God's redemptive purposes. And there's a hand stretched out from the throne.

And the question from the angel in verse 2 is, Who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof? Who can not only read this, but who can execute it? Who has the right? Who has the power? Who has the authority? Who has the progeny? Who is able to redeem for God? And of course, no man is found worthy. Michael the archangel, not him. Abram, Moses, Isaac, Jacob, not them.

There's no one found worthy. Who is able? Who's got the character, the heritage, the integrity, the right, the ability, the power? Who? No one. And it's no wonder that John weeps.

For you see, in this point of this vision, if no one can be found, all is lost. All is lost. And he weeps.

I know some of you like songs that speak about no tears in heaven. Well, unfortunately, John is in heaven and he's weeping here. So that's a problem.

But anyway. And I wept much. I wept much.

And the answer comes to him from one of the elders. Whoever you think they are. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not, weep not, behold.

And you have this beautiful description. Of a redeemer that is found. Who is worthy.

Now we know who that is. But let's just see how John found out who he was. He says the line of the tribe of Judah.

The root of David. Hath prevailed. Now we heard about, yesterday, About what we call trainers.

Training shoes. Sport shoes. And a passing aside.

Now if you've got a pair of trainers. And they're a Nike pair. Then you've got a pair of trainers that bear a Bible word.

That word prevailed is the word Nike. In the Greek. And it means triumph.

That's what it means. It means victory. And it's here in the Bible.

And the idea is just this. The line of the tribe of Judah. The root of David.

Hath prevailed. Hath triumphed. Who is this? This is the Messiah.

The one of the messianic line. Hebrews 7.14. It is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah. Of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.

Priest after the order of Melchizedek, obviously. But he's of the tribe of Judah. He's of the messianic tribe.

Judah is described in the book of Genesis as a lion. As a lion's whelp. And described in terms of being a lion.

He couched as a lion. As an old lion. Who shall rouse him up? The scepter shall not depart from Judah.

Nor a lawgiver from between his feet. Until Shiloh come. And unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

You see this description is that there is a lion coming from the tribe of lions. And everything that is characteristic about Judah in terms of strength and fierceness. And devastating destructive power.

That's what the lion speaks about. This one is the epitome. The embodiment of all of that characteristic.

It is the lion out of the tribe of the lions. He hath prevailed. He hath triumphed.

It's the Messiah. This is the Messiah that Israel waited for and sought for. And did not see in the Lord Jesus.

This is the one that they thought would take off the rope of Roman bondage. The one who would lead an army to victory. This is the one I think I mentioned the other day there.

This is the one I think the Greeks were looking for when they said we would see Jesus. He had just raised Lazarus from the dead. He had just come into the city of Jerusalem and been hailed with messianic proclamation.

Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. They said we would see Jesus. But what Jesus did they want to see? They wanted to see the lion.

Well John wants to see this lion. And he turns around and instead of a lion he sees a lamb. That's what the Lord Jesus said to these Greeks.

Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and died abideth alone. He spoke of his death and sacrifice. That's the Jesus you'll see.

And you'll see him soon on a cross. We would see Jesus. This is the one who is the root of David.

Even though Satan tried to cut off that line time and again. And you remember even just as he was born. You remember Herod's attempt to destroy the line of David.

But you know as Isaiah 11 speaks about this is the root of David. This is the Messiah. And he's the lion.

But he is the lion which is a lamb. A lamb as it had been slain. It's interesting if you like words that.

The word for lion in the Bible. Is the word that is used of a sacrificial lamb. The word for lamb.

Usually sacrificial. Behold the lamb of God which beareth away the sacrificial lamb. But in the book of Revelation it's a different word that's used.

It's not the word for a sacrificial lamb. It's the word for a little lamb. It's a diminutive.

And 29 times. In the book of Revelation. This word.

This idea. Comes. A sacrificial.

Lamb. No a little lamb. You see the sacrifice is over.

He's not bound for sacrifice. Sacrifice is done. But he still bears the marks of his sacrifice.

As it had been. Slain. This is a lovely thought and it's.

It's a true thought. Lovely thoughts are not always true thoughts. But this is both.

And the thought is just this. That the Lord Jesus Christ. Throughout the eternal ages.

Will bear the marks of his suffering. And we will see them. And we will not need bread and wine in that day.

The symbol will give way to the reality. But just as on a weekly basis. Through those symbols.

We are particularly drawn to be remembering. The death and suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ. In that day.

We will look upon the lamb. And they will be a continual reminder. To us.

Of the price of our redemption. And he saw the lion. That was a lamb.

And the lamb. That was a lion. And this is the one.

Who will govern. He's got seven horns. And this is the one.

Who is God. With omniscience. And omnipresence.

And all the rest of it. The seven spirits of God. Sent forth into all the earth.

And he comes. And he takes the book out of the right hand of him. That sits upon the throne.

What's he going to do? He's not just going to break the seals. But by breaking the seals. He's going to execute the contents.

And he's going to implement the contents. And it begins. In chapter 6. Seven seals.

The seventh opening up into the other three. And then opening up into the other three. Trumpets and the vials.

And so on. And you have got God's redemptive plan. Outworked on earth.

As it comes to its culmination. And he takes it. And he's going to open them.

And break the seals. And when he takes the book in verse number 8. The four beasts. These four living creatures.

That you're introduced to. In chapter 4. Probably the same as those in Ezekiel. And these divine messengers.

These divine executors of the throne of God. Are there. And the 24 elders.

I think the priestly representation of the redeemed. But they're there. And they fall down before the Lamb.

And every one of them harps and vials. Golden vials full of odors. Which are the prayers of saints.

That's another subject. Did you know that every prayer that you've ever made. Has not just fallen upon the ears of God.

And then gone into nothingness. It's fallen upon the ears of God. And then been stored in heaven.

Every single prayer. Prayer. And just as the incense.

Ascended to God in the Old Testament. Continually. Then that of which incense speaks.

Which is the prayers. Are offered here in worship. It's a marvellous thought.

That what can be offered in a. Almost in a thoughtless fashion sometimes. Has significance beyond the moment. Golden vials.

Which are the prayers of saints. And they sing a new song. Here we are.

What a song it is. Thou art worthy. We sing that song sometimes.

Worthy is the Lamb. And here in glory it's sung. Worthy art thou.

Are thou it worthy to take the book. And to open the seals thereof. Why for thou was slain.

And has redeemed us to God. From everywhere. And from among everyone.

Out of every corner of the earth. From every language. And dialect and skin colour.

And background. This is a global thing. And from the whole of humanity.

The redeemed will be there. And the theme of worship is this. Thou art worthy.

For thou has redeemed us. By thy blood. And has made us.

Those who are priestly. And those who will rule. We will rule with Christ.

When he comes. And then the rest of creation is joining in here. Angels.

And they are saying with a loud voice. Worthy is the Lamb. They don't speak about redemption.

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches. And wisdom and strength and honour. And glory and blessing.

You're almost running out of superlatives and words there. And then every creature. And you can.

You know if you like music. You've got the quartet and then you've got the 24. And then you've got the whole lot of them.

And then everyone joining in. And some writers liken it to this. If you stand on the seashore.

You don't have far to go from where I live down to the sea. And if you stand on the shore. And you watch the waves break upon the beach.

And wave after wave after wave after wave. It's almost hypnotic as you stand and watch them break. And this is what the worship of the Lamb will be like.

It will be like the waves breaking upon the shore. Ceaseless. Endless.

Out of redeemed hearts. Out of deep gratitude. And an ever developing appreciation of the infinite glories of the one who died for us on the cross.

Remember this. The character of God is not bound by limits. God is infinite.

And it means he is infinite in his love, his mercy, his grace, his righteousness and his creativity. I mean it only took him six days to make what mankind would find impossible to discover. You know, man and their signs think that when they discover something it's as if they've made it.

They're only actually finding out what God has made and what's been there all the time. And the harder we look, the more we find of God's wonderful creation that he has put into place. Six days it took him.

Our God is infinite in his creativity. You'll never get bored in eternity, even the most restless among you. You'll not be bored.

Places to go, things to do, things to say. Endless. We can't actually think about that because we're bound even in our creativity.

There's an end to it. But not God. And we look forward to that day.

That day of reunion with the redeemed. That day of meeting the Saviour. That day when the pale echo on earth will be transformed into the reality of what it is to see him and to worship him with all the redeemed.

That's going to be someday. We look forward to it. But in the meantime, what a pleasure it is and what a joy it is to echo that sound here upon earth.

I'm quite sure the singing's better in heaven than it is amongst us on earth. I'm quite sure it must be. So what must it be like to be there with the thousands of the thousands singing his praise and his worship.

Let us lift our hearts again. We've remembered the one who is no longer the sacrificial lamb. We've remembered the one who is the lamb as it had been slain.

Our Saviour is not on a cross. Our Saviour is on a throne. And that's the Saviour we remember today.

The one who died for us and rose again and now sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Let's just pray and give thanks. Father, we bow in thy presence to give thanks again for the Lord Jesus.

Just for this short meditation upon him we thank thee our Father for those glimpses of glory given to us and we think of how difficult it is to fully comprehend and yet our Father we love to sit and ponder it and to think of what it must be like to be there and to be part of that worshipping throne. Father, as we're here in service we pray our God to help us have that heavenly perspective. Bless us throughout the rest of the day we pray.

We think of thy word as we listen to it. Give help Father to receive what is given to us in ministry that it may be fruitful in our own lives. We thank our Father of the Gospel later we pray for thy blessing upon that as well.

And for food and fellowship now our Father we thank thee in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.