Sing It! Revelation 5:6-10

Okay, here we are in Revelation chapter 5, kind of the middle of the passage, verses 6-10 here, middle of the chapter. And one of the things, I've shared this before, but it continues to grab my attention. And that is that here is a narrative description of the heavenly scene where you and I will be someday, but it could be as few as minutes away. We might not finish this class before we see this, in which case it would replace the need for studying it. Okay? Right? And that's exciting stuff. And the other thing about it that I think is really cool is this is home.

Various ones of us have had maybe one, maybe more places where you look at it and you say, ah, this is home. We move into a place and we want to make it home, don't we? We do things to make it home. Ultimately, this is home that we're reading about. This is home where the Lord is. This is home where we have our citizenship. This is home where our name is in the book of life. That's home.

So let's read verse 6 here, and I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders a lamb standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. John is again saying, and he says in a sense that he witnessed the things that are recorded in these verses.

Why would he keep underscoring, I saw, I saw, I saw? Why is that important? Why doesn't he just write it? Why is it important that he saw? He's attesting to it. He's a witness. That's right. He's attesting to it as a witness. From the very first verses, it was a legal certification. That was the form in which it was written. This is a legal certification that I am writing what I saw. And so he is testifying.

That's the value in it. He additionally goes on from time to time and says, behold. In other words, he wants the same thing that's grabbing his attention to grab yours. He wants the thing that is in his mind as a mental picture to be in yours as well.

So then it says in this description, a lamb standing as if slain. This reference to Christ as the lamb draws from, among other Old Testament passages, the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. And Isaiah 53 is, all we like sheep have gone astray, gone everyone to his own way. The Lord has laid the iniquity of us all on Him, like a lamb led to slaughter. Our Lord took our sins upon Himself. So here's the picture. Isaiah 53, the seventh verse has the Messiah described as like a lamb led to slaughter, taking the penalty due for sin on our behalf.

Now in the New Testament in Revelation, outside of Revelation rather, it's only John's Gospel that directly refers to Christ as the Lamb. It's interesting, the only places in the New Testament where Christ is called the Lamb are the Gospel of John and the book of Revelation written by John. And here, in this book, it is the name most prominent all the way to the end of the book of Revelation. It's the name used for Christ, the Lamb, or a Lamb, more than any other in the whole book of Revelation.

Yeah? Would that fact be because John was the author and Matthew and the other writers wouldn't have the same, well not attitude, but the same, why is it characteristic of John? That's a good question. Art asked the question, why is it characteristic of John? Why does only he have the lamb that was slain? And I'm not sure I have a certain answer for you, other than to observe that it's really true. I would suggest this, however, as a possibility, and that's John is the one author of the four Gospels, of the four Gospels, and each of them has a different author.

He is the one author that seems to have an intensive connection to the priesthood and the Sanhedrin. I mean, he's the only one that talks about the high priest and the Sanhedrin gathering together, and Nicodemus, and he even has It has a meeting. He is the one that gets Peter into Caiaphas' house, the high priest's house. There's even been speculation that John was himself a priest, and therefore the sacrifice of the Lamb would mean more to him than any other. He is at least very well connected to these priests.

If not, possibly, and I think you have to leave it at that, possibly a priest himself. spend more time with Mary? I think there was a lot of feedback from that and I've read some commentaries that say that some of the things in the different Gospels and stuff probably were accounts from Mary. Okay, yeah. Real interesting.

And I'm not quite sure what the connection is with the Lamb, but there could be a connection there, possibly. John had definite responsibility for connection with Mary on into the last of her years. The last time she's mentioned personally is in Acts chapter 1, but the indication there at the cross is that the Lord said to John the Apostle, you know, You're responsible for her. Behold your mother, right?

Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting. He is the one apostle disciple who is described as being there personally. So that may also have had an impact. Here's John, who's the one we know most certainly was there, mentioned by name to the point where Christ could speak to him from the cross. And that may also have had an impact. Can you imagine?

Here's John looking up and saying, that's the Lamb. That's the Lamb. And as he goes through this book, what's amazing is he keeps calling Christ the Lamb all the way to the last chapters. And this is amazing stuff. On into a time when you're in the new heavens and the new earth. On into the time when there's no more mourning or crying or pain in all the Things that were horrible and awful of this world are long past. Still, Christ is the Lamb. Isn't that something?

It will be interesting to be in a place where there's no more sorrow or mourning or crying or pain, but still to look upon Christ our Savior and to say, He died for me. He was the one who gave His life for me. He is the Lamb slain for me. It should have been me. But out of incredible love, He's the Lamb. Isn't that amazing to ponder? On into eternity. On into eternity. Let's take a look. And by the way, the Lamb slain in our place goes on into the last chapters. Okay, page 2 there. Well, here's another thing that's interesting.

Only John of the New Testament authors calls Christ the Lamb. But there is a difference, not a huge one, but a slight difference between Revelation and the Gospel of John. In the Gospel of John, Christ is called the Lamb, which is a sheep that is less than a year old. In Revelation, the specific word is used, Christ is the Little Lamb.

Isn't that interesting? The little lamb. That means this little lamb that just come out of the mother. Typically this word for little lamb was used for a lamb that seems like a week old or less. Isn't that something? Christ is the little lamb. Now this Christ who is the little lamb The lamb that was, the little lamb that was slain, Christ the little lamb, the lamb that was slain, will be the one who carries out wrath in the next chapter. Christ the little lamb, the lamb that was slain, will be the source of light in the new heavens and new earth for all eternity. I'm using the land as a metaphor, almost being an actual item because of Hebrew references. Yeah, the sacrifices. Yeah, all that imagery would be in their minds. Of course. Yeah. Even in the New Testament. Christ our Passover. Christ our Passover. Yeah. Exactly that. Exactly that.

Then it goes on, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. One of the things we've said here is that when John refers to different symbols, that those symbols are not to be understood just by, it sounds like this, or it makes me think of this, or it feels like this. But every single one of the symbols that he uses has basis in the Bible, probably the Old Testament. And in this case of the horns and the eyes, those are indeed things out of the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, a horn or a horned, of course, comes from an animal having a horn like a ram, used for defense and for attack. Horns can be used to hit suddenly with force, knocking someone down.

I've experienced that myself. I went over to help my friend Al Lytle, a sheep farmer and a really nice guy. His sheep wasn't though. His ram was not. His ram waited until I was distracted looking down at something and made sure that I kissed the ground. About the third time, though, I learned to start listening for that clomp of the feet and turned around and gave him what for in the nose and then it stopped. But anyway, I have experienced it.

The symbolism of the horn or the horns can mean either power is in a good way or in a bad way. If you look through the Old Testament, the place where that word shows up, horn or horns, Both good and bad examples of power are used. Obviously, here, in referring to Christ, the intention is to convey power in a good sense. Power in a good sense. Here, Christ the little lamb is described as having seven horns.

If you look at that literally, that's just kind of weird, isn't it? Yeah, if you look at it literally, it's weird. Why the number seven? Well, The number seven, we'll get to in just a minute. One thing, we won't go over it, but this meaning of horn or horns, this is in this box that's on the left lower side of page two. And those are all the different New and Old Testament instances of the meaning of horn. So we're not just inventing a meaning of what this symbol stands for. we are drawing upon scripture, and as you can see, multiple references in the Old and New Testament.

Yes? In the Old and New Testament, we see this number 7. Is that some type of assumption of newness or completeness? Yeah. Next page. Answer to your question here. On page 3, a 7 is the number of completeness, the number of totality. And some of the ways in which that shows up is God made the world in six days and rested on the seventh. So even in creation, the very first chapter and into the first chapters of the Bible there, the number seven is the complete creation time. And then when you get into the Old Testament law, the Jews were required to observe The Sabbath, right? The seventh day is the day of rest. That makes a complete week. And then that idea of seven continues on. How long were they to let the land rest? What was the interval? Seven. So you work six, and then the seventh you let the land rest.

That's the complete time. And then they would have seven times seven. is their year of jubilee. So you go on and on, this pattern of seven continues. We're going to see as we go through the book of Revelation that seven keeps showing up again and again and again. How many years is the tribulation period? Seven. It's not complete until seven, right?

So this picture of completeness comes out of the Old Testament again and again. Remember, what we said is the percentage of Revelation that comes out of the Old Testament, about 70%. So, just another example, you can use the Old Testament to help interpret the book of Revelation a little more than two-thirds of the time. And that's one thing that a lot of people when they go through Revelation notes, what on earth is this crazy book about? When the reality is two-thirds of it and a little bit more, 70%, comes straight out of the Old Testament. So if you look at the Old Testament source for what's in there, it's clarified two-thirds of the time.

Add to that a few other things like when it says this is this, this is this, this is this, this is this, and I filled about a whole page, two columns with those kinds of reference where it explains in the passage what it means. Revelation is not as puzzling as it might first appear. Now, what's interesting, you get into this passage here in verses 5 and 6 First Christ is called a lion, then he's called a lamb.

Isn't that interesting? Why would those two be put right next to each other? Does that seem kind of strange? Yeah. First off, it comes to my mind, in Jewish religion you had to have two witnesses in court law. And I think this is kind of too He was a lion and he was also a lamb. Yeah, what you find is there isn't just one statement of what Christ is. You find multiple references and this is one of those kinds of examples where knowing who Christ is is something that's not puzzling or mysterious but we get multiple references to who he is. and lots of indication as to what his character is and what he has done and what he's accomplished. Right? Good. Any other ideas? Why would we have lion and lamb right together? Do those cross-breed very well? Not so much, right? Yes? Indicates he can carry a raft. Yeah.

God is a God of infinite and eternal character, but all those characteristics. He is a God of, you talk about wrath, why does that matter? He's a God of holiness. That's why. He is a God who rules and reigns. That's why the lion. Yeah, and also a God who has that compassion, gentleness, a willingness to sacrifice himself on the part of another. Yeah, yeah. All of his character gets expressed. This shows a contrast of different parts of Christ's character. Another reason. See another hand go up here? Another thought? Ah, the difference between his first and second coming. Was he not in his first coming more portrayed as the Lamb? Is he not in his second coming more portrayed as the Lion?

Yeah, exactly that. Christ is not only the one who died for us and sacrificed himself for us, but he is also the one who is the coming reigning ruler. He has both of those right together. That's him. Those two contrasts right there. You can see on the chart there, the lion refers to his character in the second coming, the lamb refers to his character in his first coming, the lion speaks of his majesty, the lamb speaks of his meekness. Contrasts in character are the reason for having these otherwise what would seem almost opposite symbols right together. It's because of the Lord's character.

The lion, he is sovereign. The lamb, he is a savior. The lion, he is a judge. The lamb, he is judged. Isn't that something? What a contrast. The lion speaks of the government of God. The lamb speaks of the grace of God. Wonderful contrast, actually. Wonderful contrast. Isn't it amazing? This is the one with whom we've been identified. Here's one more question.

When we're identified with Christ, which one of these animal symbols were we identified with? The Lamb. Yeah, Christ the Lamb, right? slain for us. It was the lamb as the picture with whom we were identified. Between these two. Both of these are true. But our identification comes out more boldly and strongly in the picture of the lamb. It's kind of a paradox that Christians eat lamb. Should we not do that? Hey, switch to pork. There we go. Oh, boy. Maybe not. Okay. Let's take a look at page 4, which has verse 7 at the top.

And He came and took the book out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne. Remember when Kurt was going over this with us, what was the sentiment of John when the invitation was first put out there for somebody to open this book. What happened to John?

He was crying. He was just, oh no! Because he was looking for the instant answer and the instant fulfillment and the elder said, stop crying, you know, wait a heavenly minute here, okay? And so it's just a matter of, you know, the elder was right, that told John to stop crying. Here he is. Here is Christ, the one who is qualified because he was the Lamb, qualified because he's the Lion. Fully qualified. He's the one that they just sang a song about, he's worthy. That's the one that came and took the book.

And there wasn't any, ah, ah, ah, ah, don't touch. There wasn't any, I'm not so sure. Not so fast. None of that. It was, this one is qualified, unquestionably. He is the one who can come and take the book. Which as we explained was not a book in the sense that we have a book bound on one side, but rather a scroll. Yeah?

I don't know, I just have this kind of analogy that when John took his eyes off of Christ, then it's all a farce. And that's how we are too, because we look at the world today, and if we didn't have to look at Christ, then we would be falling apart and crying too.

Yeah, it really kind of brings the question forth, is Christ in view? Where are you looking? You know, if there's this horrific weeping going on, have you seen the Lamb? Have you seen the Lion? Are you beholding Him? Yeah. It raises that question, doesn't it?

See, we may not be quite like John when we're sitting there trying to record this thing, you know, for posterity in the last book of the Bible, but But still that question raises itself, doesn't it? Are we weeping because we don't see the Lamb? Are we weeping because we don't see the Lamb? Are we weeping because we don't see the One who is fully and unquestionably qualified? With several sevens? Complete, complete, complete? That One?

This book is not just some ordinary book, is it, either. This isn't just some ordinary book that, oh, anybody could open one of those. I could buy one of those books. No. This is a very special one. Only the singularly qualified lamb, lion, is the one who could receive this book and open the seals. It's interesting. there was a time in the Gospels when Christ was handed a book, a scroll. He opened it to Isaiah chapter 61 and he read the first one and a half verses of Isaiah 61 when that scroll was handed to him. But he stopped in the middle of the second verse. Why? Because that second part of Isaiah 61 verse 2.

It's about his second coming. And he was reading it about his first coming. Now, at this time, when he takes this scroll on the heavenly scene, it's about what? His second coming. Okay? Isn't that cool? So the first scroll he gets handed and he reads about his first coming. The second scroll he gets handed and it's about his second coming. Here we are. This is also a matter of timing of the Father.

Timing of the Father. Remember Acts chapter 1? What did the disciples ask Jesus when He was on the Mount of Olives ready to ascend? Is now the time that you're going to establish the Kingdom for Israel? And He says, no, the Father gets to call the shots on that. What's the father doing? Right here. Now's the time. Now's the time. The father is the one who gives the son, the lion, the lamb, the special scroll. The one that says, it's time. Now's the time.

Here is the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world, was promised from the day man first chose to take the path that God had forbidden. Don't eat of this fruit. Was foretold to generations and hundreds of prophecies. Some have counted about 300. Was born of Abraham's seed, then Judah's, then David's, and Bethlehem's, fulfilling every prophecy about His coming. Was God's sacrifice for us who could not buy our own way out? Was crucified, buried, resurrected, ascended and seated in the heavenlies? And that one, fully God and fully man, was the singular one who could take the scroll and open it.

Let's take a look at page five there. So we're reading about this pivotal moment in history, this moment that could be as close as moments away. And guess what? This event we're reading about, you are going to see it. It's interesting, you can read about things in the Gospels, and are you ever going to see those events? No. This is what we're reading about right here, you're going to see it. You will have front row seats. Okay? You. You will have front row seats. You'll be there. Isn't that cool?

In verses 8 and 9 it says, And when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fall down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, and I'll break it off there, this idea of a harp and a new song are, guess what, right out of the Old Testament. Remember we said 70% of Revelation is out of the Old Testament? So we have several references in Psalms There, Psalm 33, 1-3, reference to the harp and a new song. Psalm 144, 9, reference to a new song and a harp. Psalm 141, 2.

And on here is the point of prayer and incense, which is the latter part of verse 8. And then prayer and incense again, now in Luke, chapter 1. So you've got multiple references there. Now, something else, gold and bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. What are the bowls made of? Gold. Now, what does that say about, what does God think of our prayers? Are they just kind of cheap? Eh, just another prayer. What does He think of them? What's His valuation of our prayers? What's that? Finest quality. Finest quality. Yeah, alright. What do you think of when you think of gold? Precious. Precious, right? And of course the Old Testament reinforces that left and right. Also purity. Purity, yes. Purity and high value. Okay? High value.

What this is telling you, He didn't just say, you know, in some kind of clay pot bowls. No, your prayers, those go in golden bowls. OK? The prayers of the saints. What that's telling you is this is what God does in His valuing of your prayer. A lot of times we can easily begin to think, OK, I wonder if this is getting anywhere. I just wonder sometimes if my prayers aren't bouncing off the ceiling. This is a cool verse because it says your prayers are valued.

Highly valued. In heaven, they're held in golden bowls. Golden bowls. The Lord places high value on your prayers. And guess what else? They get there. They get there. They don't just bounce off the ceiling. The Lord doesn't say, well, heavens, you know, it's like email, I just lost it somewhere. Maybe the ISP has it. No, it's not like that. They get there. And when they get there, they are highly valued. Yes, Mary? Yes. Sweet smelling to the Lord. A sweet savor, as it's sometimes called in Scripture.

So this is another really neat thing to look at. We're not just finding out what is this heavenly scene like where we're going, but we're also finding out What does the Lord do with those prayers that we have right now? What does the Lord think of them? Do they get to the heavenly scene? The answer is yes. What does the Lord think of them?

They are highly valued. They're precious. That's cool. That's neat stuff. And that's valuable every day for us to know, isn't it? The prayers are not just bouncing off the floors of heaven. and dropping back, the prayers do get there. And they don't just lie in some stack in a back room. No, they're right there in the heavenly scene in golden bowls. They're highly valued. They get there. Yeah?

I don't know if I can put this in words, but it's kind of interesting that John, who uses the land that no longer was it necessary. You know, you don't see anywhere in here that it says, because you followed the law, because you did this, or because you did that. Like in Isaiah, where God says that he turned away from his people because they were not doing the things they were supposed to do. They were not following the law as they were supposed to.

But here, it's all because of Christ. The Lamb. So John, the word Lamb is so essential to the entire church. Yeah. And that's the thing. You look at these elders that are here representing the raptured church. They're there. They're there. And there's no question of their qualification to be there.

And not only that, the things that we see promised in chapters 2 and 3, the elders have those things that are promised. Rewards and position, they're right there. And never in question. Never in question. Let's take a look at page 6 where we have verses 9 and 10.

Worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God and they will reign upon the earth. So here is a declaration of praise. Whose is the praise coming from? Pardon?

Well, in other words, what you have is the four living creatures who, in what we studied before, appear to be angelic creatures, okay? Created beings, but angelic creatures, and then the elders, the heavenly elders, redeemed. Now, let's ask the question, are any of the angels redeemed? No, we have no indication that angels are redeemed.

What's interesting is that you look at contrasts. Here are angels, created beings, apparently all created at once, do not reproduce, all created at one time, at one point in time given a window of opportunity to make a choice for or against the Lord. The indication, and we'll see it from Revelation chapter 12, is a third of the angels, spelled with Satan, chose to be fallen angels for the rest of eternity. No opportunity for redemption. We, however, are described in this scene as the ones on the scene who are redeemed.

That's why I think they've already passed it, but Ephesians 3.10 says that you and I, as we live here, are angel school.

The angels look to us to learn about God's grace and God's character. Isn't that amazing? The angels, God says, you want to learn about my grace? Watch those people down there that are believers. Those are the ones you're going to learn about my grace from. because that's where my grace has been poured out. The angels who have been learning God's grace and learning about the expression of God's grace and mercy poured out upon us are there with those who are redeemed, that's us, together proclaiming Jesus Christ is worthy.

The lamb, the lion, that's the worthy one. Worthy are you to take the book and break its seals, for you were slain. This is the lamb part, right? Purchased for God with your blood from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, Jew and Gentile. You have made them to be a kingdom and priest for our God, and they will reign upon the earth.

So that lamb, the little lamb, is being declared worthy here to open the seals. The little tiny lamb, the young one. The one that's about eight days old or less. As we studied last week, both Jews and Gentiles would recognize that only the person qualified to open the scroll could do so. This is because of the character of the seventh sealed scroll. And this isn't just some sort of a nice song, but it's a public proclamation that the Lamb is worthy to open the seals and the scrolls.

His heavenly beings are witnesses to His worthiness, and we will be there. You'll be getting to sing this, folks. These are words you're going to be saying. you're going to have the privilege of making this declaration we just read about right here. And it might be just minutes away. Yeah.

Was there something in Jewish society about songs, meaning something in particular? Because there was Mary's song, and I think there was Hannah's song, and there was a song, something to do with Moses' horse and rider or something, right? So there was, you know, this has been a picture throughout Songs are often looked upon as something that fit momentous and pivotal moments. And you just say, here's Moses' song as they get through the Red Sea. I mean, that's obviously a real pivotal moment, you know? So far as the human beings are concerned, we just came, we just walked through a miracle, right? This is a pivotal moment. It was just about to be, all you Jews are just dead. And by miraculous intervention, the Lord delivered them all.

So there was the song that describes God's miraculous intervention. That's Moses' song. At pivotal moments, songs are sung. The book of Psalms is a collection. It's basically Israel's national hymn book. A collection of songs for pivotal moments. One of the things that we find out as we read through the Psalms is that a lot of times we can identify what the event was that that Psalm ties to. And this is one of those. This is going to be one of those pivotal moment songs where, okay, he's worthy.

This is the thing that John cried over because he didn't understand. He just wasn't willing to wait a heavenly moment. He didn't have Christ in view when he started to sob. He didn't have the revelation Paul had. Yeah. Yeah. Here he was on the scene and just, you know, he didn't get it.

But we will. We will. We will be there. And we will look at it. This is the lamb. Is he worthy? Yep. No question. No, hey, we better give him a test, you know. We better go, you know, run something, you know, past the CSI lab over here. No. He's worthy. No question about it. He's the lamb.

So we'll get to be the ones declaring that. And we'll be the only ones on this scene declaring it who have been redeemed. Not even the angels will have that privilege. We will be the ones. The redeemed ones. Is that the Lamb? Yep. It's the only reason I'm here. Eh? It's the only reason I'm here on the heavenly scene. with front row seats. It's the only reason I can say that. He's the Lamb. I know it. I know it. Isn't that neat? Good stuff, isn't it? Wonderful stuff. Questions? Ponderings? Exasperations? Inspirations? One thing I just thought about, I mean, that's another reason why this is not just a lamb, but it's a Passover lamb.

So he was qualified and worthy on the basis of that. And that was the thing that the lamb had to be perfect, right? When you look at qualifications, you have to look at a number of things. And matter of fact, we kind of had those bulleted briefly on this list. at the bottom of page 4. But that's not all. You've got all these prophecies, which when you go into detail includes about 300 points of prophecy. He's got to fulfill those.

As the Lamb, he has to be fully qualified. He's got to have the right family lineage, which up until 70 AD you could check on. That's why the author of Hebrews, I believe it's in chapter 7, could write, it is evident that Christ was descended from Judah. When that book was written, you could go and check the genealogies and see that it's evident that he was descended from Judah.

There are a great number of qualifications that all have to come together, hundreds of them, in order for this to be a true declaration worthy. worthy, worthy. By every measure, worthy. And the Passover lamb is certainly one of those sets of qualifications. What's necessary for this lamb?

Along with that, the red heifer. I don't understand all that, but supposedly they're looking for the red heifer that would have blood that would cure by something so that they can actually move into the tribulation period or something. I don't understand all that. That's something we'll actually get into when we get into this later set of chapters here in Revelation. So we'll get there. Other questions? Thoughts? Comments? To me this is just spine-chilling, goosebumps, wow kind of stuff.

And it's not because I'm a prophecy nut. I'm not. I love studying the book of Revelation, but I'm not a prophecy nut. What excites me about this is the revelation about the Lord and the fact that so much is revealed about a place that we will be, most certainly, and could be very soon.

That's what excites me. This is home. This is home. Home with Christ, the Lion, the Lamb, our Lord. Okay, let's pray. Lord, as we look at this, this is exciting stuff. This is deep stuff. And this is, in spite of the fact that we could use the word fantastic, it's not fantasy. But it is instead John's description of reality. Reality that We ourselves will see, and I hope it's soon. And we just entrust the rest of our gathering here this morning to you and to your hands. We give you thanks, we give you praise, we give you glory and honor. You indeed are worthy. In Jesus' name, Amen.