
PODCAST
Worthy Is the Lion-Lamb
January 26, 2025 | Brandon CooperThe sermon focuses on Revelation 5, where no one can open a sealed scroll containing God’s plan for history until the Lion of Judah, the Lamb who was slain, is revealed as the only one worthy. The Lamb’s victory was achieved through sacrifice, not military might, prompting heavenly worship and praise directed at the Lamb’s worthiness. The sermon emphasizes the importance of worshiping the worthy Lamb, which helps believers maintain their spiritual orientation during times of confusion and uncertainty.
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TRANSCRIPT_______________________________________________+
The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
Well, good morning church. You want to go ahead, grab your Bibles. You can open up to Revelation. Chapter Five. We’ll go through Revelation, chapter five this morning. As you’re turning there, there’s a line that you hear every now and again in movie trailers, especially it says something like, If there’s only one man for the job, and then it goes on to, you know, it’s Bond or Bourne, or Burt Macklin or something like this, because there’s a task so difficult or so delicate that there’s only one person on earth who can pull it off, whether that’s saving the world or leading the nation or fixing your plumbing problem. Today we get the ultimate only man for the job story here in Revelation, chapter five. Now, just in case you weren’t here last week, or a refresher for those of us who were some context we are, remember, in the throne room of heaven, John has is in the Spirit. He has this vision of the throne in heaven, the Father, God Almighty, seated on the throne the heavenly being surrounding him, praising him ceaselessly, praising our indescribable, transcendent, holy creator. It was this tremendous vision, of course, although it could feel a little bit static, because day and night, they just keep saying, holy, holy. Holy is the Lord God Almighty. And so it’s this kind of like, okay, this is just on repeat. I’ve seen it, and I can move on now. But all of a sudden, here in Revelation chapter five, there’s this moment of crisis or drama or tension, where all of a sudden we’ve got a job that only one man, we hope can do. So that’s where we enter in. We’re going to look at the problem. That’s the job, right? That needs to be done, the person, the only man, and then ultimately, the praise that results as we go through this chapter, those three scenes, a Scene one, chapter, five, verses, one to four. The problem. Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll. But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside so it’s like it’s taken a moment for John’s eyes to adjust to the incandescent majesty of the scene in chapter four. But now that his eyes are slowly catching on, he notices that the Creator there on the throne the Ancient of Days, is holding a scroll. We’re told it’s got writing on both sides, and it’s sealed with seven seals. And I’m sure that number seven has no significance whatsoever in Revelation. Now, where do we go when we have questions about things like, what’s the scroll? Why does it have writing on both sides? Why is it sealed? All that stuff, we go to the Old Testament, the Old Testament. And sure enough, we’re going to find that John here is drawing from two Old Testament sources, Dan and Zeke, and it’s going to help us know what the scroll contains. So first of all, Book of Daniel. We just did this in our last sermon in Daniel, end of November. Daniel, chapter 12, verse four, we hear the angel saying to Daniel, but you Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. And this is at the end of this long vision chapters 10 to the first part of chapter 12 in Daniel, where Daniel is given a vision, not just of the next few centuries, although there was that, but then also it kind of blurs into the vision of the end itself. But it’s not time yet for all that to happen. And so the scroll is sealed. What’s going to happen in human history is sealed at this point. Then we look at Ezekiel, chapter two, verses nine and 10. Ezekiel says, Then I looked and I saw a hand stretched out to me, and it was a scroll which he unrolled before me. On both sides of it were written words of lament and mourning and woe. So there it’s written on both sides interestingly, and these are words it’s unrolled. And so these are words that his ego gets to read. He’s actually supposed to eat the scroll, symbolically, I’m pretty sure he’s supposed to eat the scroll like ingest the word so that he can then proclaim the coming judgments. You put these two together, what is in the scroll? It is God’s plan for human history, including the coming judgment. It’s God’s plan for how everything will shake out. We’ll see next week, by the way, that we mean like literally shake out. But hang on until next week. So the. Fact that God is holding this scroll in his hand means that he literally holds human history in his hands, that he has control over all of it. It was very unusual to write on both sides of a scroll, in part because then you could read it. And the whole point of sealing it was that you couldn’t read it, but that means that the scroll was completely filled. They had to use up all the blank space because it contains every detail of human history. That’s what this is getting at. So every detail God has absolute sovereignty over all that is coming in human history. And if I could just mention that should give us such tremendous peace as we go about our lives knowing there is nothing that happens that catches God by surprise, where he goes, that wasn’t written, that wasn’t how this was supposed. No, he knows what’s coming, and of course, we know the end, which we’ll talk about here, even in a moment. Well, remember, Ezekiel is told to eat the scroll to be filled with God’s Word so that he could proclaim what is coming to the people he sent to speak to. But here the scroll is sealed so John can’t read it, which means John can’t proclaim it. Now the scroll is sealed until the right time. That’s what we saw in Daniel until the time when history is meant to unfold, when God’s plan is going to be launched. Well, guess what? Jesus came. He lived the perfect life. He died substitutionary death on the cross, and He rose in triumph from the grave, which means we are now in the last days, like since Pentecost, at least, we have been living in the last days. These are the End Times. Every now and again, you’ll hear somebody go like, I think we’re living in the End Times. Yep, we have been for the last 2000 years, and we will continue to be for the next 2000 years, or two minutes. I don’t know we should be ready for both, but the point is, we’re in the last days, so it’s time to open this. It’s time to read it, right? But there’s a problem, because the angel asks Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll, and that is who has the right to be given authority, not just to disclose God’s plan, but also to execute it, to put it into motion, like reading this scroll. It’s not just like reading a book. It’s more than that. It would be like reading the Emancipation Proclamation, where in the act of reading it you are freeing the slaves, or like reading a will as a lawyer, something, where in the act of reading it, you are bequeathing possessions to people. And so that’s what we’re talking about here, by the way, both really good analogies for what this scroll is talking about anyway, because that’s our salvation, right there, right? We’re freed from our slavery to sin. We’re given our inheritance, the riches of glory in Christ. So it’s time to open it. Let’s, let’s, let’s read it and set the wheels of God’s perfect plan in motion so that we can get to where history is headed to. We can get to the consummation what we’ll see in the last few weeks of Revelation, those moments where there is no more death or mourning or pain or crying or anything like that. But it is God’s perfect forever kingdom, the new heavens and the new earth. But no one is worthy. No one is worthy, not in heaven or on earth or under the earth that would seem to be angels, humans, all other creatures and demonic powers which we’re grateful they’re not worthy to open it, of course. But even still, that kind of three fold division should make us think of the second commandment, which says this, Ezekiel, 20, verse four, you shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. We get that same three fold division that seems important to me, because especially where we were just last week in chapter four, where we have this tremendous focus on God as creator. We worship Him because He created all things, as we saw in chapter four, verse 11, and so if he’s the one who made all things, of course, it makes sense why this would be true. Mere creatures, even if they’re spiritual beings, like angels, they’re still creatures. Mere creatures are incapable and unworthy. We talked a lot about this last week. We’re not supposed to trust creation. We’re supposed to trust the Creator. We shouldn’t worship creation. We should worship the Creator and so kind of pull all these together. I put it a little bit bluntly, but humans aren’t going to solve the problem of human history as human history proves like clear we don’t have the resources within us, and so we are unworthy. That has some implications, by the way, for our daily lives, for how we think about the world. It certainly doesn’t mean that we give up or anything. Like that, like we still seek to do good, but we do so with humility, knowing that we are not going to bring the kingdom by our mighty efforts. So it gives us a humility when it comes to politics or our service or something like that. It’s why we pray Your kingdom come. Instead of we got this, we’ll take care of it. Okay, you know your kingdom come, and we plead with God for that to happen. So John feels the weight of the problem that no one is worthy to open this scroll, which means human history is stuck, and he begins to weep. There’s no hope for our future. He breaks down in tears. It’s worth asking at this point, what makes you weep like this? And is it a longing to see God’s promises unfold? And the answer, by the way, is probably yes. Like, why do we weep at funerals? Because we are longing for the day when death will be no more. We are longing for God’s promises to unfold, and so our weeping turns into this pleading sort of prayer, because again, think what happens if the scroll remains sealed, there will be no perfect forever kingdom, the perfect justice that we’re promised, eternal life on broken peace, everlasting love, like if the steel does, the seal doesn’t get broken, the scroll doesn’t get opened. Then, then this life is what we get. The wicked prosper, and that’s that. Take grotesque examples, an evil man who who kidnaps and then traffics at risk children, and how does his story go, if this scroll doesn’t get opened, means he lives in luxury and dies in peace, and that’s that I don’t know about you, but that’s a huge problem for me. Like I am longing for more than that, like that reality would be enough to keep me up at night weeping. Is anyone worthy so glad you asked. Second scene person verses five to seven, then one of the elders said to me, 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. Then I saw 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 had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. So there is no creature worthy to open the scroll. But don’t weep just yet, because there is one who is worthy, the Lion of Judah, the Root of David, because He has triumphed, he is worthy to open the scroll. Now, the Lion of Judah, the Root of David. These are two great titles taken from the Old Testament, both of which point to Christ’s majesty as king. So the lion from the tribe of Judah is taken from Genesis 49 verses nine and 10, says Jacob, blessing, Judah. And he says, You are a lion’s cub, Judah, you return from the prey, my son, like a lion. He crouches and lies down like a lioness who dares to rouse him, the scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet. So it’s a little odd, by the way, that he blesses Judah in this way, because, of course, Joseph is the one who’s ruling at this point. And yet, he says, no, it’s actually Judah is going to be the one who rules all nations, ultimately, because of his military victories, if he pulled in some more texts. And so this is a title, then that celebrates the Messiah’s victory over his enemies. Again, the imagery would continue if we kept reading in the passage. You know, what does a lion do? The lion goes out and and fights, hunts, wins, and then returns to its lair in triumph, sated and content. And isn’t that just exactly what Jesus did, the lion from the tribe of Judah who goes out and wins his victory in his defeat, of course, on the cross, wins his victory, rises in triumph, and then returns not to his lair, but to his father’s throne. We read this in Hebrews one, verse three after he had provided purification for sins. There’s the victory. He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven, where, by the way, we see him right now. That’s the lion from the tribe of Judah. Then the Root of David comes from Isaiah 11. I’m gonna read verse one and verse 10, because we gotta see how these kind of fit together here. So Isaiah. Seven. Verse one, A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse, from his roots. A branch will bear fruit. In that day, the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will rally to him, and as a resting place, will be glorious. Now you read this and you think verse one makes a lot of sense, Jesse, that’s David’s dad. And so this is, we’re talking about David’s lineage here. David the who is, by the way, the king from the tribe of Judah. So these already go together, right? So David the king from the tribe of Judah, and that the tree seems to like, get cut down during the exile, like there’s no king on David’s throne anymore. But a shoot is going to come out of it, out of the stump. And then that means it’s a branch in David’s tree, in the family, okay, that all makes sense, because Jesus is a descendant of David, a distant descendant of David. But then you come to verse 10, and you go, what? Because that same branch in David’s tree is also called the root of Jesse, so the Son of David is the one that David’s dad comes from. I’m not an arborist, but that’s not how it works, roots and branches and all that stuff. How can the branch be the root of the tree also? And of course, we know the answer is because the son of David is also the Son of God, who is even worthier than David to reign on David’s throne, which is why David writes in Psalm 110 the Lord Yahweh said to my Lord like I’m king and I’m calling somebody Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for My feet. There is the greater than David, who is the son of David. And so these two images go together, of course. This is the lion from the tribe of Judah, Judah, who is David’s descendant. This lion has won a great victory, as lions do, of course. But that word victory is key here too, isn’t it? He’s triumphed, right? He’s won the victory, same word that we see throughout the seven letters, I know if you remember this, if you were here for our seven letters series, but each letter contains a promise given to the one who is victorious. That is, we’re supposed to overcome, to endure in Christ, and then we have these promises that are given to us. Well, here we see how we can be victorious. We only conquer, we only overcome, we only endure. Because the lion conquered first, our victory depends on his. But how did the lion triumph? And here’s where it gets really interesting. Notice verse five, one of the elders said to me, the lion of the tribe of Judah. So John hears about a lion, and then he turns and he sees a lamb. That’s be really important for next week, by the way. So hang on to that he heard and then he saw, they’re talking about the same thing, right? Okay, but he hears about a lion and then he sees a lamb, and not just a lamb, but a lamb that looks like it has been slain. You put those images together and you go, words like shocking or ironic, don’t even begin to do it justice. This is absolutely contrary to every expectation we have for the image, like a lamb that looks like it’s been slaughtered. That’s what lions eat. So how are they the same thing that doesn’t even make any sense. What are we talking about here? Who is the lamb? The clearest reference? Because, of course, we’re going to the Old Testament. It makes sense of this. The clearest reference is the Passover Lamb, the lamb that the Jewish families slaughtered during the Exodus the night of the first Passover, so that the Angel of Death executing God’s judgment on Earth would pass over their homes. And of course, lambs are then slain throughout Israel’s history in the sacrificial system. And it all kind of culminates in Isaiah 53, and verse seven, when it says of God’s suffering servant, he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, which is exactly the word that’s used here. It’s not just slain, but slaughtered that this lamb has experienced. So the Lion of Judah is the Lamb slaughtered in place of his people. As Isaiah 53 says, He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds, we are healed. We need both these images, don’t we? We need a lion to conquer sin, but we need a lamb to cover sin, to make atonement for us, so that we can be reconciled to. God brought back into a right relationship with Him, and here, as grant Osborne says, we see how the victory was actually achieved, not by sword, but by sacrifice. Christ was indeed the conqueror, but his victory was won on the cross. That’s why John the Baptist, when he saw his cousin walk by getting ready to begin his public ministry, said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Because that is exactly what Jesus does in his death and resurrection. And resurrection, by the way, is key for the slaughtered lamb to triumph. He has to defeat death. He has to rise from the grave. That’s the victory over sin and death, and that, by the way, is what we see here as well, because this Lamb, who was slaughtered on our behalf, a sacrifice for our sins, has seven horns and seven eyes. Now a horn is in the Old Testament, and really throughout the ancient Near East, a symbol of power could actually just be a stand in for the monarchy, like the one who is reigning, the one who has power. We saw this in Daniel. Again, we get the RAM that had one giant horn, that was a really strong RAM who conquered everybody else. So if we got seven horns, seven the number of perfection, means we’ve got he’s perfect in power. This lamb is perfect in power. The slain lamb has become, in essence, the conquering RAM. And then seven eyes. Eyes are, of course, a symbol of knowledge and even presence, like I see you. I’m here with you. I’m among the lamp stands, as we’ve seen drawn from Zechariah four. We keep going back to Zechariah four. That’s where the lamp stand comes from, and its connection to the spirit we read in Zechariah four, verse 10, the seven eyes of the Lord that range throughout the earth. God’s eyes are in everything. Put these two together again, perfect in power, perfect in knowledge and presence. What do we have? We have this lamb is omnipotent and omniscient, which is interesting, by the way, because those are words we reserve for God. And then we’re told these seven horns and seven eyes are the seven Spirits of God, or the seven fold Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Of course, this makes sense as well, because the Spirit of God is how Jesus is acting and present in the world. Now, that’s why Jesus said to His disciples, right before he was betrayed, crucified, and all the rest said, it’s better for you that I go away, because my father’s gonna send another comforter. He’s gonna send the Spirit who will be with you and will be with you in power, which is important, because, of course, remember, we’re called to conquer and triumph and overcome too, to the one who is victorious? That’s supposed to be us, and Christ was victorious. So Christ sets the pattern for us as Christians. We also fight battles. We fight spiritual battles, but not with military might or political strength like Jesus. The weapons we fight with are our endurance, our purity, our faithfulness, even to the point of death, which, remember, is a live issue for the people who are receiving this letter, this apocalypse, some of them have already been put to death. More of them are being threatened with death. And martyrdom looks like defeat, just like the cross looked like defeat, but it actually seals our victory, because it appropriates his victory that was won in defeat and in his rising from the dead. When you think of victory, is this what you think of? Is this the kind of victory you think about, or are you hoping for something else? I think what Paul says in Philippians right to live is Christ to die is gain to live is Christ meaning we emulate Christ, we imitate Christ, which, of course, means imitating Him in His faithful endurance of the suffering he experienced at the hands of wicked people. And then to die is gain, right? So murdered him, death is actually victory and not defeat. So all our victory, then, is in Christ and for Christ, because, after all, it’s only Jesus who is worthy to open the scroll, only Jesus is worthy to open the scroll. And by the way, that’s not because you weren’t born yet when this was written, right? Had you been there, you wouldn’t have been worthy either. Our only hope of victory is in him. He alone is worthy. How worthy love. Look at verse seven. This is how worthy the sheer audacity of verse seven, I mean, just the unmitigated chutzpah. He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. There is no one worthy in all creation. And then this lion lamb waltzes up to the throne, making his way through throngs of angels, the 24 elders, the four living creatures who are casting their crowns down in front of Almighty God. He says, Excuse me, make way. Takes the scroll out of the Father’s hand, and in so doing, takes control of human history in his life and death and resurrection without a word of rebuke from our Creator. Except it gets even better, because now we turn to praise. Let’s keep reading rest of the chapter, verses eight to 14, and when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. 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 purchase for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth. And I looked and heard the voice of many angels numbering 1000s upon 1000s and 10,000 times 10,000 They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders 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. And 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 forever and ever. The four living creatures said, Amen, the elders fell down and worshiped all these heavenly beings fall down and worship the lamb. This is absolutely shocking, especially given the father’s silent approval. I mean, this is the same God who says in Isaiah, 42 verse eight, I am the Lord that is my name. I will not yield my glory to another. And here he yields it willingly to Jesus. He goes, this is right. This is proper. This is what should be happening. You should be on your faces before the lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, the suffering servant, the Lamb who was slain. It just could not be any clearer this lion Lamb, Jesus Christ is very God of very God Light from Light of the same essence as the Father. Jesus Christ is God. I’m not saying this is the only passage you go to, but in your evangelism, when you’re talking to somebody who’s going, we were never meant to worship Jesus as God, you could take them right here. When you’re talking to Muslims and Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses, you go, you explain this to me then, because here is all of Heaven worshiping the lamb in the presence of the Father, and the father says Not one word of rebuke, and every one of them has a harp. That’s why you get the vision of the angels playing harps and like fireside cartoons and stuff. This is the the liar of Psalms, by the way. So it is, of course, a symbol of praise, and they’re holding a golden bowl of incense. That imagery is taken from the temple. You could read about it in Exodus 30, if you want. What’s interesting here, though, is that the golden bowls of incense are the prayers of the people. Except that’s not the first time that’s happened, because Kyle already read it for us. Psalm 141, verse two, may my prayer be set before you like incense. May the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice. So these bowls of incense hold the prayers of God’s people. Pull all the threads together. What do you have here? The Lamb’s victory represents God’s answer to the prayers of His people. How many times have God’s people cried out? How long Lord will you stay silent forever? And God goes, no, because Jesus is coming into the world to win the victory that you are looking for. And these go together, by the way, the harp and the golden bull incense, because what is prayer but implicit praise? Because if you’re going to pray to God, is because you believe that God is able and good and merciful and loving, so praise is is an act of prayer. We praise God in the act of prayer. And so it’s no surprise then that we read praise next as this heavenly multitude sings a new. Song. Now, a new song is a song that is composed to celebrate God’s latest saving act. So the first new song that is written is in Exodus. 15 right after the Passover the Exodus, they marched through the Red Sea on dry ground. And Moses composes a new song of praise to God Almighty. Isaiah, 42 which we looked at earlier, talks about the new song that will be sung in the new Exodus, when God leads his people, not out of physical slavery, but out of spiritual slavery. That’s what happens after Christ. Well, this is the newest and greatest act. Then what is it that the lion lamb has purchased people for God by His blood. And how was he purchased? Why has he purchased us? This is what redemption is, right? When you buy back something that was lost, the closest analogy we have in life today would be a pawn shop, right? You sell your wedding ring because you can’t afford food that week. But then you do all you can, you know, take an extra hours, whatever, get the money to redeem your wedding ring, to purchase it back. Now, there is an ironic means here. It’s not money, it’s the lamb’s blood. Leviticus, 17 reminds us that the life is in the blood inward. He gives his life for us. So we think this is weird, though still like blood or life in exchange for a people, but Exodus already prepared us for this, because it was that Lamb that was slain that redeemed the people and purchased their freedom from slavery. In Egypt, that’s exactly what Jesus is doing. He is purchasing our freedom from slavery to sin, except it’s a really complicated slavery, because we willingly chose it. And we’ll give you an example of what that might look like. It’s a graphic example, for sure, but this would be like a woman who sold herself into prostitution in order to fund her heroin habit. And you think, okay, she’s a slave now. She belongs to her pimp at this point, yes, but she put herself there. And you say, Brandon, that’s a graphic image. And I say, Yeah, you know what? It’s a biblical image. Also is exactly how the Bible describes us. I mean, this is Hosea, right? God says, take an unfaithful wife Gomer, and she runs back to her pimps, and Hosea, the faithful husband, has to go and buy back his wife from the men to whom she sold herself into slavery. That is what God has done for us. Jesus is the faithful husband who comes and buys us back, and who is the US persons from every tribe and language and people and nation for descriptions for this group. Of course, we know what four means in Revelation, right? Like the four corners of the earth are the four winds of heaven, four means all of creation, the whole earth and people are coming from all of it. Interestingly, by the way, those four terms are repeated more or less seven times in Revelation. So we have a perfect number from the four corners of the earth and the whole earth. This is the fulfillment of Genesis 12, verse three, when God promises Abraham that he will be a blessing to all nations. And here are all nations being blessed in the seed of Abraham, who is Jesus Christ. And then we’re made to be a kingdom and priest, which we talked about already, because that shows up in Revelation. One, verse six, it’s taken from Exodus 19, when, when God is constituting a people Israel, he’s making them into a nation. He says, you’ll be a nation. You’ll be a kingdom of priests. And so in some sense, this group here is the new Israel. And in so doing, being a kingdom and priest, we are fulfilling the vision of Genesis. One. Why did God make us in His image? After all, he put us on earth to rule in his place. That’s what ancient Near Eastern kings did. They’d set up an image of themselves in a town and go, This is mine. I reign here. We’re the image of God on earth, reigning as his vice regents. Except we didn’t do so well. Did we? Adam and Eve were called to be that. But they failed. They decided to make themselves King. They usurped God’s throne, and so they were kicked out of the garden, and so God calls Israel to be a kingdom of the priests to try again. They also fail. They’re also kicked out of the promised land. But Jesus succeeded where Adam and Eve and Israel failed. This is what makes Matthew four so interesting, by the way, because you’re reading Matthew four when Jesus is tempted by Satan, and you’re going, Okay, wait. Is he the new Israel? Because he keeps quoting Deuteronomy. So where Israel failed in the desert, Jesus succeeds in the wilderness. Or is this meant to be Genesis chapter three, again, because you get that same sneaky snake showing up, tempting. Jesus, but Jesus succeeds where Adam and Eve failed. And the answer, of course, is yes, both we failed as God’s image bearers. Israel failed as God’s nation. Jesus is the second Adam and the new Israel, and he succeeded where we failed. Don’t you love this book like I told you, biblical theology is for nerds. It’s so rich. There is so much here, so many reasons to praise him. No wonder they praise him here. And John looks again in the circle widens. There are hundreds of millions of angels. In other words, angels beyond count, and they’re all crying out. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. He’s worthy because he was slain. He’s worthy because of his defeat. As George Elden lads says, Christ’s worthiness and ability to break the seals of the scroll of human history are dependent on the victory he won by his incarnate life, if he had not come in humility as suffering Savior, He could not come as conquering Messiah. But still, this is interesting. They’re crying out worthy to the one who was defeated. We call winners worthy who gets our applause and our adulation. It’s the gold medalist. It’s the politician who wins a decisive election. Do we ever call worthy the person who stopped in the middle of the race to help the teammate who had fallen down, or the politician who loses an election because he won’t compromise his integrity? That is a Christian worthiness. That is worthiness like the lamb. What sort of worthiness is it? They say that Jesus is worthy to receive. Count them with me now power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise. Seven shocking. I’m as shocked as you are. Believe me, seven fold praise. In other words, Jesus is worthy of all praise. Jesus is worthy of our consummate praise. And you think, Man, this is so good, and then it radiates out even further. Right? Every creature, not in rebellion against God, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and the sea, all that is in them, they all cry. In other words, all of creation cries out. Why? Why is creation crying out because they are celebrating the new creation that has come in Christ. Remember, creation itself is groaning for redemption, because it’s in bondage to our sin, and here is its relief. And they’re crying out glory, glory to the father, to him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ. And this raucous song of heavenly praise is all because Jesus took control of human history. So it’s worth asking now, how are you responding to that truth? Our big idea, our takeaway, is so simple this week. He’s worthy. He’s worthy. So worship Him like that’s the only response we could possibly have. That’s the only response we see in this chapter. But I know what you’re asking. You’re asking, what does that look like? Practically, great question. Let’s talk about it. It means that you let the vision of the triune God’s undeniable worthiness center your life, just like he is in the center of our praise, especially when you get disoriented, those times when it seems like no one is in control of human history. You think, I don’t know what’s going on here. It’s in those times when circumstances are confusing. You you need to fix your eyes on Jesus like a pilot. I’m not a pilot, nor the son of a pilot. I do have a friend who’s a pilot, so I’m hoping this analogy is right, or Dave’s walking out. But as a pilot, you are trained to keep your eyes on the horizon so that you know that you’re not going like this or this or this or this. But what happens, of course, when you’re flying in the middle of the clouds, a storm, even something like that, you can’t see the horizon anymore. You are taught then to keep your eyes on the instruments, the gages that tell you whether you’re going like this or this or this or this. Your they have to be taught that, of course, because your instinct, my instinct, our instinct, would always be to trust our spatial orientation and kind of usually know which way is up, you don’t. You don’t. At that point, the bad idea. In the same way, when circumstances are tough, when we are flying through storms, we cannot trust our spiritual orientation, our spiritual instinct. We need the reorientation of praise. What is our horizon? What are our instruments? It’s the word of God. Telling us about the Word of God. Made Flesh. We keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, Christ, and that kind of worship helps us. I could go a lot of directions with this. I really like something Dennis Johnson said in his commentary on revelations, where we’re going to land today. No pun intended. We’re flying. But worship helps us guard against what he calls credulous cynicism. Credulous. Cynicism. We are cynical, and we are oh so cynical. Get on social media. We’re cynical. Okay? We are cynical because people have failed us, your parent, your pastor, your president. We’re cynical because people failed us, but we are credulous because we trusted them in the first place. What were we thinking? We thought people were going to usher in the kingdom. This is the problem of idolatry that we talked about last week, right? Like I thought I could trust this person to usher in perfect justice, and he didn’t do it. And now I’m cynical. I thought this relationship would bring me lasting joy, and it didn’t. And now I’m cynical, I’m confused and I’m broken, and the solution to that is praise, the only one who is worthy of our worship. Praise the only God, man for the job. Now, how do we keep our eyes on him? Of course, you know this. I’ll be so brief. One answer is meditation. Right? We get in the word that is about, the Word made flesh. We’re in the Word of God. Of course, we’ve seen that throughout this passage, which will lead then to right prayer. We get to have intimacy conversation with this lion lamb. How remarkable is that? Why would we ever stop talking to him? Of course, we’re not supposed to, and we know what happens to our prayers. They’re right here in the passage, there in the throne room, before God, and we do it in community, because God did not save you as an individual. He saved us as a people from every part of the earth. What I’m talking about here is the is Philippians four. Now, most of you, if you’ve been in the church for a while, you know Philippians four, six and seven, and you know Philippians 4:8. What you don’t know is Philippians four, six to eight. Let me explain what I mean by that. Philippians four, six and seven. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ, Jesus, great verse when you’re flying through storms, right? But it doesn’t stop there. That’s not the end of the letter because you’re like, Okay, prayer, petition. Got that. What else? Help me out here, Paul, I’m struggling, and he says verse eight again right afterward: finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. But what can you think of that is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy? Jesus Christ. So let me shorten that because there are a lot of words to remember when we shorten it for you so you can remember it. He’s worthy. So worship Him. Think about him. Fix your eyes on him. Treasure Him above all creation, because nothing else in all of creation is worthy of that sort of treasuring. I want to close even though I’m going long. But you know, this is good stuff, with a poem by Malcolm Guite called Oh Rex Gentium, which means oh king of nations. We sing this. When we sing Oh, desire of nations and oh come upon Emmanuel, but oh king of nations, it is a prayer to Christ, our King, the lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, is a prayer to Christ, our King, from rebels who forget to praise him, which is you and me. It’ll be up on the screen because I know poetry can be hard to follow. I’m just listening to it, but, but let this be even your prayer now as I read it aloud, oh king of our desire, whom we despise, King of the nations, never on the throne. Unfound Foundation, cast off cornerstone, rejected. Joiner, making many one you have no form or beauty for our eyes, a King who comes to give away his crown, a king within our rags of flesh and bone, we pierce the flesh that pierces our disguise. For we ourselves are found in you alone come to us now and find in us Your throne, O King within the child within the clay. O hidden king who shapes us in the play of all creation, shape us for the day your coming kingdom comes into its own. Read that and remember he’s so very worthy. So let’s worship him to join me in prayer. Now, Jesus, you are worthy to receive all our praise, our power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise you are. Worthy of it all, because in you is the perfection and majesty of God. You alone are worthy to take control, not just of human history, but of my history, of our histories, of our lives, and so we fall before you now in the sort of worship that says you are king, and I will not pretend to be king of my life any longer, I so willingly devote myself to you and your glory, Lord. Would you make that truer of us as we leave here today. Take your rightful place, not just on the throne of heaven, but on the throne of every one of our hearts. We pray for Your name’s sake, amen.