Revelation 5:13-14 - Worshipping the Redeemer

“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, I heard saying: "Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!" Then the four living creatures said, "Amen!" And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever.” Today we begin a new chapter of study in the Book of Revelation. For the next several days we will be discussing, chatting about, Revelation 5 where we find all creation worshipping the Lamb who is the redeemer! You might have noticed that I began our study with the last two verses of the chapter that describe this worship. In this chapter we will see at least four compelling reasons why we should worship the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, as our Redeemer. In chapter 4, John had a vision of heaven and the worship scene that was taking place. That chapter ends with all creation worshipping God the Father who is sitting on the throne as the Creator of all things. “The twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: “You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created." (Revelation 4:10-11) I don’t think I can emphasize this too much but before we can worship the Lamb as our Redeemer we must first acknowledge and worship God as our Creator! The other day in a restaurant parking lot, I had the wonderful privilege of praying with a dear man to receive Christ as his personal Lord and Savior! It was a glorious moment to experience this as he, with tears, cried out to the Lord to save him. But before he did that, some two and a half hours earlier in the restaurant we begin a Bible study. And we started in Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  I told him if you can believe the very first verse of the Bible you can believe anything else in it! I’m convinced that it would take more faith to be an atheist than it would to believe in a Creator God! I was thinking the other day that really there are only two religions in the world. One is the truth of the Bible that teaches us that God created us in His own image. But that sin marred that image and separated us from God. And God provided a sacrifice for our sin through His Son Jesus Christ and if we repent and by faith believe in Him we can be saved! The other religion is the religion of humanism. This religion denies God’s redemptive plan that we find written in the Bible and instead believes that man is smart enough to save himself. Adam and Eve were the first two humanist. They decided they could be their own god and didn’t need to obey and believe the God who created them. And it has never changed since then. Romans 1:20-25 confirms this: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man--and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” Today we still chose to either worship God the Creator and Jesus Christ the Redeemer or we chose to worship the creature, ourselves!