How do you watch your favorite television shows? Who here waits for seven o'clock on a Thursday night? I don't know what comes on seven o'clock on Thursday night anymore. Who here's like a once a week, it comes on TV, I watch it, I deal with the commercials kind of person.
Couple people, okay. How many of y'all will start at 10 minutes late so you can fast forward through commercials? See, we don't have cable anymore. We cut that.
How many of you will wait and just watch and just power watch something online? Okay, that's even a little bit different now too. I remember when I was younger and I was working at a closed circuit television station. Back in the day, if you want to watch your favorite television show again, you had to wait for it to come on syndication.
A lot of times our shows, we didn't even know about it until it got on to syndication. I remember power watching Law & Order SVU at the TV station. It came on like six hours in a row every afternoon and everybody that worked there got addicted to it. And so we all put up mirrors over our edit base so we had the one television in the studio and we had the perfect place to sit the television so we could all watch it in the mirror over our workstation while we were working.
Now I'm a Netflix guy now and I kind of have to be careful because I get to the point to where I find a show and I get obsessed with it and I start watching and watching and watching. People do this too, I know I'm not the only one. But how many of you will re-watch a television show? I kind of show you've watched just, of course, yeah.
Meredith watches The Office and that's like her show to always re-watch. And I get it, it's like 20 minutes long, it's like right, perfect time like we were doing something, like you need to just have something on. And because of that, I mean I've watched The Office a lot. Now anybody, is anybody not familiar with The Office?
The general concept. You know, any like character driven TV show what I found out in is if I watch it more than once, I like to watch just one character, like a new character each watched through. And like the last couple of times I've been stuck on watching Kevin on The Office. I want Kevin to have his own TV show.
Like just that guy is awesome. When we started this revelation series, in a lot of ways it was like re-watching a television show for me. Because this has been a book that I've just read and read and read and what I found out was, it's kind of like re-watching a TV show. Like you find that one character to pay attention to.
You find that one new thing. How many times have you watched a television show for the sixth or seventh time? And you finally got something. You finally saw something.
It's like, okay, wow, yeah, that's it. And that some ways what it's been like, what's been interesting is, is I'm kind of, to give you an idea of what's going on, I'm seeing something a little bit different this time around, but I think that it's something that we need and that God wants us to know. In the book of Hebrews, it says that, the word of God is active and alive. It's sharper than any double-edged sword.
It penetrates our soul and our spirit, our joints and our marrow. And it shows us the attitude and thought of our mind. I know there's something about when we've read things more than once, where we know it so well, like we're not waiting to see what happens next. We're actually truly able to just be kind of calm and sit and situate ourselves.
And every time when we get ready for a series, I kind of ask myself a few questions. I'll give you a little bit of inside baseball into my preparation process. How do we talk about this book or this passage of this idea? How do we talk about this in a way that lists Jesus up and shows us more of who he is?
What does this reveal about Jesus to us? And how do we follow him better? I actually write these things out most of the time, just kind of keep things in sync. And what's so funny, I'll laugh about this, because I remember doing this exercise about a month and a half ago, and I realized, we typically don't go to, we treat revelation like a very different book of scripture.
Don't we? We wouldn't assume the things from revelation we just assume about, we're gonna read John. We're gonna read Second Corinthians. It's one of these ways that sadly, we're gonna read our Bibles.
And so this time around, for me, what I've been seeing is something that's just a lot more personal than what I ever thought I would read and I would see in Revelation. What I realized this past week is, even though this is probably my 25th lap around the book, I'm probably for the first time ever actually just reading it, like a normal book of the Bible. So we can relax. I mean, even preacher finds new things sometimes.
Even the preacher realizes that things have to just be normal. But this morning I'm excited about, you know the last few weeks, the first week we talked about Revelation chapter one and about power, about who truly has power. And last week we talked about Revelation chapter four, and what does it mean for God to be at the center of all things. And this week we find another single idea, a single word that's coming across this passage, just clearly, and that's the word worthy.
I'm gonna talk today about what does it mean to understand Jesus' worthy and what does it mean to live a life of understanding that Jesus is worthy. So we're just gonna start in Revelation chapter five versus one through five. We're gonna kind of separate the story up a little bit today, but this is what we read. And this takes place literally right after what we talked about last week.
So then I saw a scroll on the right hand of the one who was sitting on the throne and there was riding on the inside and the outside of the scroll and it was sealed, it was sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel who shadowed with a loud voice, who was worthy to break open these seals on the scroll and open it. But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll and read it. And then I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll and read it.
But one of the 24 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 it's seven seals. So this story has been set up for us pretty well. We've kind of had it, we've done some back-end stuff this last few weeks, normally every week right now, kind of like, okay, these are these main things.
This is what we for the most part understand these to be. But we've kind of, all the characters that we're gonna deal with, we've already met this characters, the location of where this is at, what we talked about last week, the numbers we talked about how there's this fascination with numbers and revelation, there's no real new information for us. We do the quick recap, John is in the throne room of God and God is sitting on the throne and then underneath his feet is the sea which represents all of the dysfunction and frustration that we find in the world. All the thing that brings us pain and worry and causes anguish, God's feet are literally standing on it and around him are two sets of heavenly beings, 24 elders which represent God's redeemed people of God, Old Testament, New Testament, Old Covenant, New Covenant.
And these four living creatures that represent all of creation that are protecting the holiness of God and they have encircled in and they're worshiping him constantly. We read about these seven seals and we talked a couple weeks ago about how sevens this number that pops up in revelation a bunch because it means completeness and totality in unity. And so we find out that God has this scroll in his right hand and that somebody needs to open it, but nobody can open it and John is pretty worried about this because he realizes his scroll, it contains the plan of God, the plan that he's been waiting to unveil, the way that he's going to finish the rescue, to finish redemption, to finish his story and that nobody is worthy to open it. The scroll is written on front and back which signifies that it is full, like it's absolutely full, there's no space left to finish it, it is completely done.
And this plan of God must take place but the qualifications of who can open this is pretty tight. He's sad because he said, I want to see God's plan. I wanna see it finished out and nobody can read this or can enact this. This is an angel came to him and said, it's all right, there's somebody who came.
The lion of the tribe of Judah, the sea of David, the Messiah, he can open this. This idea of a lion of the tribe of Judah, this is like a really, really heavy image to any Jewish person, especially in this time period. They've been waiting for Messiah, they've been waiting for the anointed one to come and to rescue them and to overthrow whoever is ruling Jerusalem to kick them out. This has been like 400 years of constant rebellion, like some of them taken, some of them last and some of them get squashed down pretty bad but this is lying and the best way we can kind of describe this is a level of pride in who they are that would be like the guy on the 4th of July who has the American flag tank top from Walmart with an abald eagle on it, like riding a tank.
We laugh about that, like it's like that, even the symbol of a lion had been outlawed by the Romans in Jerusalem because there was such a level of intense Jewishness to this. The tribe of Judah goes back to the 12 tribes is where they've been waiting for David, they've been waiting for this warrior king, this man who hundreds of years before had united the entire country, he provided safety and security and expanded their borders and he began his son built a temple, like this was like the golden age of who they are and this lion has represented that and this lion has the ability to get them in such a united front that the image had been outlawed by the Romans. And now this is kind of who we would expect to see this. I mean, sometimes we think this is exactly what we need, right?
Like if we need something, if we feel like we are in trouble, if we're God's people and we're waiting for redemption and rescue to come then this idea of a lion sounds really good, right? Like it's a picture from scripture and then lions are also kind of scary. Like we're on vacation in Colorado a couple of weeks ago, a couple of weeks ago and there were signs everywhere, mountain lion area, I mean I know mountain lion is not what they're talking about here but like I would want to be a mountain lion would you? Like you read about the Audubon Zoo they had a poomah get out yesterday?
That sounds fun. Like this is the kind of figure we want. Like if we feel like we are being oppressed or things are being taken care of and we need to be rescued and we need to overthrow people, we need to run them out. Men a lion would be really cool, isn't it?
Like this is just triggering every single thing John probably expects to see and everything's God's people who have prayed for and wanted. I mean if God is truly the only one who's powerful, if he's the center of everything in the world and there's one thing that one person can do but they have a special kind of power, it makes sense. To have this idea, this figure that's part of their religious background, to be the one person who can control and make all these things happen. Does that make sense?
Like this is the person who should do it. This is what we read in scripture. Verse six, six through ten. And then I saw a lamb that looked as though it had been slaughtered but it was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the 24 elders.
And he had seven horns and seven eyes which represent the sevenfold spirit of God that has sent out to every part of the earth. And he stepped forward and he took the scroll from the right hand of the one sitting on the throne. When he took the scroll of the four living beings and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb and each one had a harp and they held gold bowls filled with incense which are the prayers of God's people. And they sang a new song with these words, you were worthy to take the scroll and to 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. And you have caused them to become a kingdom of priests for our God and they will reign on the earth. It's a little bit of a different image than we expected, wouldn't it? You know, I think that if I was reading for this for the first time, I would expect to be like a cages open and a lion breaks forth and he's snarling and he releases himself and trips among the nations and eats all those who were doing bad things.
Like that's kind of what we expected in this but instead we see this, this lame. It says standing as though he has been slain. It's all the respect that worthy thing. He is worthy to do it.
Like we really, it's all, how many of them do Disney maybe to sword in the stone? Like this King Arthur legend, like a kid all gangly and it's like that age that a lot of little boys get to where they're feet are too big for their body. Imagine he had a little peach fuzz mustache and he grabs this so we're in all these big nights stronger armor and stuff and then like using all their might and effort to get this and he goes and he pulls it out and he falls it down so he didn't expect it to happen. But he's the only one who could do it.
It's like we, it's kind of like that. It's like this is not the person we expect to be the one to be able to do this. Like do you want to send somebody and take care of all this stuff? It looks like he's already been beat but this lame.
This is the first time we see Jesus actually talked about in this book. He puts things into equilibrium because he's qualified to do something and he absolutely has the right to do it. He's the one who can do this. And Jesus is truly worthy to fulfill God's plan on this earth because he's different.
He's completely different from what we might assume he would be, what he would do. It's interesting that image, that image. Standing as though he was slain, he's there holding the marks of his sacrifice as he takes this scroll from the hand of God. He steps up amongst, like I said, this whole throne room is not going to list the bullet points.
It's more like we have to draw a picture to see things like he goes and stands next to God amongst these beings, the right hand of God and takes the scroll from him. This lamb is this another classic Jewish image, just an image of sacrifice, of the perfect sacrifice. But we don't see him dead. We see him living, showing the marks of what he has done.
That kind of changes things. You expect him to be cleaned up a little bit, wouldn't you? But he's not. We see here that power is completely reinterpreted as faithfulness unto death.
It's a different idea of power. You know, sometimes I think that we get frustrated and we feel like we haven't experienced anything that can really help us to call Jesus worthy. And we have these things in our life. And you might have some.
You might be doing some right now. You might be listening to this and saying, Chad, you're talking about worthy, worthy, worthy. All experience is a bunch of junk. And now you're telling me this person standing up.
He's already been whooped. This doesn't make that much sense to me, man. This sounds kind of crazy. I wish we would have stuck to another normal book of the Bible this summer.
But we can't understand and experience this power of Jesus until we've accepted this power like this over our life. This is like saying a new song. This isn't just a song that John has never heard. It's not like when you get on your vehicle with your friends, have you heard the song?
I'm not heard the song. Listen to the song. It just hasn't shown up in the book yet. But this idea of this new song, and it shows up several more times in this chapter, is that this is a song that has never been sung before that cannot have been sung before.
It can only be sung because Jesus is worthy. Because he's taken this scroll. And he has the ability to open it and to begin enacting the plan of God. And because of that, that time is qualitatively different.
But there's a distinction of time before he had the ability to do this and after he had the ability to do this. And I think that it's really hard for us to process. Sometimes what does it mean for us to have a clean break with our sin? Because we've never actually tried to break from it that much.
The biggest lesson about worth that we can learn from this passage, I think is that distinction is that confusion is that confusion point between the lion and the lamb. Because for so many of us, we've never gotten to that point where we can see Jesus as the lamb. We want that lion. We need that lion.
We want to keep him in a tiny pet carrier and open him up and he'll grow and he'll get somebody for us. Or we just think of him as the lamb. Because if this is interesting thing, the more I've read this and I've prayed about this and I've read and I've researched and I've thought we've got the picture all backwards. We want the lion to be the force of Jesus that goes out for us and for that lamb to be the thing that just we deal with.
But oftentimes I think we have to flip that around. I think for us to understand this just this dimension of who Jesus says that we have to be willing for him to come into ruthlessly root out the sin that's in our lives. For him to be aggressive with our heart. For him to be aggressive about the things that are holding us back from him.
And for us to have the ability to say I'm willing for you to clean up at this level. And then for us to share that Jesus is about self-sacrifice and the power that changes things with other people. For that directive. We've gotten this image flipped around a little bit.
Some of us struggle to see either one of them. Some of us have never gotten a point where we can understand Jesus as self-sacrificing for us. We're all right with that as a conceptual reality. Jesus came to save us from our sins.
But we're not willing for Jesus as self-sacrificing love to pour out over our hearts. And to open ourselves up to experience him as worthy was we have let him save us from what we know is stopping us the most. For his grace and for his love and for us to understand what forgiveness truly means so that we can see how he is the only one who can do this for us. For us to know Jesus is worthy means we have to understand and have experienced him as both the lion and the lamb.
So make some worth worthiness as an after-effect of Jesus living his life with his father at the center of all things. And then when we begin to understand worthiness is when we've lived a life with Jesus. There's both lion and lamb who's at the center of things. We're willing to engage with both parts of that message.
To let him be ruthless with our heart, which he does so and all we love. And then for us to see that he's leading forth across this land and self-sacrifice and love. That's what makes him worthy. That's what made him worthy enough to take the scroll.
But that's what makes him worthy enough for us to be going to give ourselves over completely to him. Jesus, this morning I ask for us to understand how much you have us and that your love does not proceed forth in some gushy way or careless way. But that it does so because you want what's best for us. And then we get to the point to where we say, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to know what you have for me.
Where we can trust you because you're the only one who can actually save us. And Jesus, so many times I know in my heart it's not that I think there's somebody else that can do it besides you. I think I can do it for myself. And that's not possible.
But Jesus, you were the only one to have the ability to save us and to have the right to save us. And you did it not by annihilation but by sacrifice. And what would help us to understand you in a fuller way and a bigger way? We pray.
Amen.