The book of Revelation has always intimidated me. There are so many different interpretations and people get quite fired up over it. Molly has asked me many times to lead a bible study on the book of Revelation and I would quickly find something else that I felt would be more beneficial to study. Which is unfortunate because the book begins with a blessing for any who read its words. Chapter 1 verse 3 says, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.”
But sometimes out of fear and sinfulness we see our own way as a better blessing than God’s way. And he loves his children so much that sometimes he needs to force his blessings on us. So what did he do for me? Last year in seminary I was required to take a Greek exegesis class through the book of Revelation. HA! In order to pass the class and eventually graduate from seminary I was going to have to be blessed.
So here I am today preaching from the book of Revelation telling you that I was blessed far more abundantly than I ever expected. I am now excited to share with you just a bit of the joy of understanding this book.
It’s unfortunate that it is a book that incites such debate and confusion. The book was intended to be an encouragement to believers. Anyone should be able to pick it up and read enough to overcome any difficult circumstance, any discouragement, and find glorious hope to persevere.
I don’t intend today to survey the entire book of revelation, but I do want to jump right into the turning point of the book which is the source of our hope. Chapters 4 and 5 are meant to be taken together as one scene, with chapter 5 being the scene which should change our lives. But as you listen to the words written in chapter 5, note that the power that we need to overcome our own circumstances comes in a completely unexpected package.
Follow along with me in Revelation 5 starting in verse 1.
Clearly the book of Revelation is full of symbolic imagery. The symbols are there to invoke a reaction out of the reader. It heightens our emotion over the story. Instead of telling us, “Jesus stood up and took his position of authority.” It makes a dynamic, powerful statement about the desperate nature of the situation, about the character of the Savior, and of the results of seeing such authority on display.
Much of the imagery is taken from a strong Hebrew background of Old Testament texts. Important in Revelation are numbers. The number 7 most specifically in this chapter represents perfection. The image of seven horns and seven eyes isn’t meant to make you picture a creepy looking bloody sheep, but to signify that this Lamb holds all power and sees everything. The seven spirits doesn’t necessarily mean that there are seven spirits but the perfect Spirit which brings to life all dead hearts. It goes throughout the entire earth gathering people from every tribe, language, people, and nation.
Most importantly, John is trying to connect the hope for victory to the hope that OT saints had from Genesis on forward. God gave Adam dominion over all the earth. Adam was to be king and rule in righteousness over creation. But he failed. All of biblical history points to the promised king who would one day come and rule the way Adam was supposed to. All of the bible leads us to long for a particular man who would be worthy to assume this lofty position. “The Lion from the tribe of Judah” is taken from Genesis 49:9. The root of David is taken from Isaiah 11. The Lamb imagery comes from the Passover Lamb that the Jews sacrifice to celebrate God covering their sins and death passing over them in Egypt. Also, Isaiah anticipated a Messiah who would be like a sheep led to the slaughter in Isaiah 53. All of these pictures to lead the Hebrew to hope in a coming king who would gain victory over sin and the curse.
Other symbols include the scroll itself spoken of in Ezekiel 2, as well as in Daniel where God says the scroll will be sealed until the end of time, and the one who would open it would be “like a son of man” who would take it from God himself and when he opened it would unleash judgment on the unbelieving nations.
Most people think this symbolism is confusing making it difficult for anyone to really want to study the book. We wonder, if I need to have the Old Testament memorized in order to understand Revelation, then it will be a long time into eternity before it makes any sense.
But I think you can get the point even without understanding the details of the symbolism. So let’s take a look now at the message of Revelation to see if we can be blessed and encouraged.
The stage of this scene is actually set in the previous chapters. Usually if you hear a sermon from the book of Revelation it will be from chapters 2 or 3, from one of the letters to the seven churches. This was where I was at until recently. It seems to easy to teach from these chapters because they are much more straightforward. They are physical churches with identifiable problems. It is easy to match the problems of those churches to a contemporary issue and then call for repentance. Again the number seven is used to suggest that the seven churches aren’t the only churches this book is addressed to but to the entire church in all places and throughout time.
The letters to the churches describe multiple issues that the church faces and warns us to not fall into the same traps. Most of the issues surround three things: temptation to fall into sin, pressure to cave into cultural oppression, and failure to guard against bad teaching. All of these things are actually intertwined and one will usually be accompanied with the other. In the first century, these churches dealt with heavy persecution from both the Jewish religious establishment as well as the Roman government. In order to soften the pain of such oppression, false teachers encouraged all sorts of theological compromises. Often times behind the scenes in these compromises there is some scandalous sin that a false teacher is trying to cover up. Each of the letters ends with a call to repent and persevere with a promise of a reward to the one who overcomes these trials.
But if you don’t continue past chapter 3 then you will miss the hope for victory. A sermon stuck in chapters 2 or 3 can become legalistic as it only provides a picture of the problem, not the source of the solution. Chapter 5 is the key to helping navigate the book of Revelation. It can be broken down into three phases which provide for us a transition from the earthly battles of the churches to the confusing, symbolic spiritual battles that follow in later chapters.
So let’s take a look a little closer at chapter 5 and see what these phases look like.
In verses 1–4 we see John introducing a bit of a problem. We have moved from the dire situations the church is struggling with on earth into a glorious throne room scene. In chapter 4 we see a spectacular description of God sitting on his throne. All of the spiritual world recognizes his authority. He commands respect. He holds all power. The sight of him strikes fear into the hearts of people. The picture of God on his throne is meant to shock us into realizing that no matter who sits on the throne of Caesar, who dwells in the White House, or whoever leads any group of people, their authority is nothing compared to God’s awesome authority. But you should finish chapter 4 wondering, “Great. The church is on earth really struggling with temptation, oppression, and false teaching, and God is sitting on his throne. How does that help us overcome these things?”
That’s what John felt in verses 1–5. He saw God sitting on the throne holding a scroll. Remember that the scroll represents the authority to bring about the judgment that Daniel and Ezekiel anticipated. The church is in trouble and desperately needs someone to rescue it, to bring justice to its oppressors. Someone must come and open the scroll in order to end this trouble for God’s people. But the drama heightens, because “no one in heaven, or on earth, or under the earth was found worthy to open the scroll.”
And it leaves John weeping. This is where we are left in the letters to the churches if there is no one able to bring victory on behalf of the church. Each of the churches is given a command to repent and persevere, but they cannot do it on their own. They need someone to do it for them.
You may ask, “Why doesn’t the one sitting on the throne, God the Father, just bring about justice?” This is the dilemma of the ages. How can a good God be merciful and just at the same time? If the Father is going to bring justice on the earth, he is going to have to punish every sin. This doesn’t give us hope. We are trapped in a recurring cycle of sin. If God were to just forgive us, he would not be just, he would be a wicked God who doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong. If he were to punish everybody, he wouldn’t get to put his loving mercy on display.
The answer is in verses 5–8. The angel says there is no reason to despair anymore. There is no need to weep over this dilemma. God has provided a Way for justice and mercy. He is called “the Lion of the Tribe of Judah,” “the root of David.” He is the one that all of the Old Testament anticipated, but the solution to our dilemma is not what we would have thought. It isn’t God simply wiping everyone out. It isn’t God taking his church out of the world. The solution to our sin problem is a bloody Lamb.
Verse 6 is one of the most remarkable statements in the book. John saw a Lamb standing as slain with seven horns and with seven eyes. He is holding up what appears to be contradictory pictures. A bloody, broken, innocent little creature but pictured with the symbolism of all of the power and understanding that only God himself holds. It is a picture of what our Savior accomplished on the cross.
Our victory is not gained in political maneuvering or displays of military might. Our victory is not obtained in self-determination and simple mutual accountability. Jesus already obtained the victory on the cross. That shameful death that only the lowest criminals experience. The death that represents the ultimate curse for the Jew. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1 the cross is foolishness and a stumblingblock to those who don’t believe, but it is the power and wisdom of God for our salvation. Our hope is in the bloody Lamb, but he doesn’t stand there weak and trembling as though he is going to pass out from a lack of blood. He is powerful and victorious. By his death he has proven himself worthy to take the scroll and impart its judgments. His victory over all that the church faces is founded in sacrificing himself. The greatest power in the world comes through the greatest display of humility.
Then, after seeing this amazing sight, the song in heaven changes. In verse 9 we see that the heavenly beings started singing a new song after witnessing this amazing Lamb standing in authority. The mood has changed. We went from what appeared to be a hopeless situation on earth where God’s people continue to fall into sin, fall under the hand of oppression, or fall into false doctrines, and now we see the path to victory, beholding the Lamb of God. There is no longer reason to weep. No reason to despair. The victory that we desire has already been obtained for us. With this imagery of victory obtained we can move into the rest of the book to see with new eyes what is going on in the world.
While there are a few different major ways to understand the book of Revelation, I believe that the spectacular visions of judgment that follow are symbolic pictures of what is actually happening behind the scenes of our lives right now. Chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation are glasses we put on to correct our vision. In the first few chapters we simply see earthly circumstances of sin, persecution, and false teaching and there is no hope to overcome them. But when we put the blood stained glasses of the Lamb on we can see that there is a spiritual battle going on and the Lamb has already defeated the enemy for us.
So where do we go from here? How do we look through these new lenses in our own lives?
I want to think about it through four perspectives: one who does not yet trust in Christ, from the perspective of our nation as a whole, to the individual believer, and finally to the local gathering of believers.
First, if you have not put your trust in Christ, this book is not good news for you. This scene only provides hope for the saints, those who put their trust in Christ. If you put your hope, your confidence in anything else, the following chapters of disaster are not pretty. Some seek their happiness in wealth or political influence. Others seek it in a nice conservative family life. All of it leads to the same place, more sin and despair. The remaining chapters of Revelation describe the continued hopelessness of those who aren’t covered by the blood of the Lamb. The slain Lamb releases his wrath on all sin-cursed creation. It is so terrible that the non-Christians are calling for mountains to fall on them because they believe that will feel better. God’s anger toward sin is hot! It will burn like a raging fire. There is a story that my pastor told of a family whose home was surrounded by a raging wildfire. There was no escaping its flame. But before it was too late, the father remembered the burn pile out in the field in the back. Earlier that week he had just cleaned up the yard and home and burned all of the trash. Surrounding the pile was nothing but charred remains of trash and singed grass. There was nothing left there to burn. So he picked up his family and buried them in the pile laying on top of them trusting that this place could not be burned since it had already once been burned through. The wrath of the wild flames quickly passed by them destroying everything but what had already been burned.
In the same way, the wildfire of God’s wrath is soon coming, but he provided a place of refuge where his wrath already poured out, at the cross of Christ. Your only hope is to put your trust in Christ who took that raging flame upon himself on the cross for all who trust in him.
Secondly, and just briefly, as we wrestle with the direction of our country based on recent decisions of our government leaders and as we are heading into campaign season to elect new leaders, let us remember that our hope is not in the government. To despair or become discouraged over what happens in the newspaper is to lose sight of the spiritual realities which guide our lives. We are thankful that we get to participate in relatively free public discourse in this country, but we must not put our hope in these things for peace and eternal joy. This country was founded to curb the lasting influence of sinful people, but as we can see today, nothing can keep us from the effects of sin except for the slain Lamb. No matter how the elections turn out or what the Supreme Court says, our hope is in the slain Lamb who stands victorious and will soon set all things right.
God is on the throne. The slain Lamb is standing in power and authority. His Spirit is wandering throughout the earth gathering people from every tribe, language, people, and nation. His plans will not be thwarted. Our work is to simply proclaim this truth. Lift high the cross of Christ for people to see so that they will see him as their hope for a peaceful life. Join in the song of the angels glorifying the Lamb and trust that He will bring about his redemptive work in the world.
Thirdly, how can this vision of the victorious Lamb change your own life? So much happens in our lives to shake us up. We wonder how we will ever get through this season. Sometimes we just want to curl up and pretend that what is happening around us doesn’t exist. Currently there are some really discouraging things happening in my extended family that makes me want to pack up and move my family to Africa just to get away from it all. This world of sin brings so much pain into our lives. There are many times where I pray that it will just all be over soon, that Jesus would come back quickly and we could get on with the no more pain and no more tears part of the story.
The good news is that the Lamb hears every one of these pleas! Look at the end of verse 8. After the Lamb steps onto the scene in all his glory, the creatures fall down in worship and they present to the Lamb “golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” This scene doesn’t just present Jesus as glorious and mighty, it shows him as accessible. In the throne room of God where nobody can stand before the eternal Father, Jesus stands in victory with the concerns of his saints right along with him. This reminds me of Hebrews 4:16, we can confidently approach the throne because the Lamb stands there victorious on our behalf. We don’t need to despair or weep without hope because we know that our concerns go right to the throne room of God and when we look to him we are reminded that victory has been obtained for us and one day it will become a physical reality.
This truth changes my response to difficulty. I am less quick to get annoyed or frustrated over difficulty when I remember there is a spiritual battle that is raging behind the scenes of this world. And knowing that I am ill equipped to fight in this battle, it leads me more quickly to prayer and the word the only effective weapons in this fight.
So whatever your struggle today, don’t despair. Christ stands victorious over it. One day he will wipe away every tear from your eye. Cast your cares upon him. He hears your prayers. They rise from the golden bowls as sweet smelling incense in the throne room of God and he acts on behalf of his saints by sending His powerful Spirit to work for their good.
Finally, consider the purpose of gathering here on Sunday mornings. Why do you come here with these people? Why do you come to sing songs and listen to sermons? Do you come to get a spiritual pick-me-up? Do you come to get some helpful hints for healthy living? To meet with good friends? Or maybe you come because it just seems like the right thing to do on Sunday mornings?
There are seven churches addressed in at the beginning of the book of Revelation who lost sight of the purpose for their corporate existence. They have particular struggles with faithfulness in the face of temptation, in the face of cultural oppression, and in the face of internal carelessness over false doctrine. Over the life of this church Emmanuel has likely faced all of them while succeeding and failing in various measures. If you look at each of the letters to the churches in chapters 2 and 3, each one ends with a promised reward for “the one who conquers.” The reality is that without Christ, every church is destined to failure. But the glorious truth is that Jesus conquered on our behalf and all the rewards which he earned he freely offers to us in salvation! Come to worship on Sundays to see the slain Lamb standing victorious over all your sins, all your oppression, all your temptations, and to pray to God that his Spirit would renew affection for his glory for the incredible work Christ did for us. Come to see the Lamb, and after seeing the Lamb standing victorious in glory pray that you would leave here today singing a new song of hope-filled joy!
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