I know you probably don't need me to tell you this, but your life is a drama. Some of you wish it wasn't such a drama. Your life is a drama of sadness and celebration. Your life is a drama of hope and despair. Your life is a drama of joy and grief. Your life is a drama of dreams and disappointment. And I want to, this evening, have you look in with me at one of the most dramatic scenes recorded in all of Scripture. I think this brief sermon is going to be unlike any that I've preached, because I basically want to describe to you this scene, because in this scene is an invitation - an invitation to own the deepest of sadness, an invitation to celebrate the only thing that is truly worth the celebration of your life.
What Makes You Sad and Celebrate
It's been said that your heart is most revealed by what makes you sad and what causes you to celebrate. You can take your church Bibles and you can turn to Revelation 5. That's page 1030 in the church Bible. This is John helping us to look into the very throne room of God. God is seated on the throne, and he is holding in his hands a scroll, a scroll that's sealed with seven seals. That scroll is God's redemptive plan for the universe. In that scroll is the culmination of all things. In that scroll is the hope of everything that God has made.
And a sovereign God holds that scroll. And one of the angels asked the question of the ages, "Who is worthy to take the scroll and to break its seals?" Who's worthy to carry the hope of the ages? Who's able to carry the hope of every person who's ever faced the brokenness of the Fall, who's ever faced the discouragement of living in a fallen world, who's ever faced broken government and broken family, broken hearts, who's ever faced the ravages of sin wherever it can be found? Who's worthy to hold the hope of all that is?
What a question! Where is hope to be found? Who really holds our hope? Listen - you're hoping in something. You're grabbing a hold of something and saying, "Maybe this will fill me. Maybe this will satisfy me. Maybe this will heal me. Maybe this will deliver me." What a dramatic moment. What a dramatic question. Who is worthy? Who is worthy? Who is worthy? And there appears, in this moment, to be no one worthy, no one in heaven, on earth, or under the earth, or around the earth, there seems no one worthy, and John in the face of that begins to weep.
He gets how important this is. If there's not one worthy to hold the scroll, if there's not one worthy to open its seals, if there's not one worthy to bring to culmination all that God has promised, the earth is damned, there is no hope! And John gets how dramatic this moment is, literally the hope of the universe is sitting in this moment, and he begins to weep: "What if there is no one worthy?" And one of the elders says, "John - you don't need to weep, because there is One who is worthy." And he identifies this One as the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
It's the Root of David, the One who has conquered. Those names can only point to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God who took on flesh, the Savior of the world. He alone is worthy. He is the Lion, that great conqueror of sin and death. He is the Lamb, who lays down his life. And if you look there at verse 6, "And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne." (Revelation 5:6-7) The only one who is worthy, the Lion of Judah, the Root of David, takes the scroll. He who is hope holds the plan of the hope of the universe in his hands. He alone is willing to carry our hope. And as he stands and he takes the scroll, the elders begin to sing this song: "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth."
You Are Worthy
(vv. 9-10) You are worthy. Why? Because you were slain. You were willing to leave the glories of eternity. You were willing to come to earth. You were willing to take on human flesh. You were willing to suffer again and again and again. In ways, every day of your life was a day of suffering. You were willing to face injustice. You were willing to have your body beaten and tortured. You were willing to have your Father turn his back on you, unthinkable as it could be. You were willing to die, so that your people would have hope.
You are worthy because you are the perfect Lamb of God, slain for the redemption of the world. And what did that death do? That death ransomed people for God. You see, the drama of the universe is not the drama of ill health. It's not the drama of bad finances. It's not the drama of broken human relationships. It's not the drama of sickness and suffering. Here is the principle, central, epicenter of the drama of humanity: that human beings were made for relationship with God live completely separate from God.
That's the drama! We were made for God. Our humanity is found in living in a relationship of love and worship and service of God. We were made to live, not for our glory, but for his glory. It's unthinkable that we would live separate from the God that we were created to commune with. And so the Lamb came, and by his blood, we were ransomed; we were bought back to God, bought back for relationship with him; restored for community with him; adopted as his children. But that's not all. He ransoms us so that we would be a kingdom of priests to our God and reign with him forever, a kingdom of people who find the deepest joy in their heart in the access that they have to God, the deepest celebration of their hearts in the worship that they now are welcomed to offer to God.
And bestowed on them is an honor that I don't think we yet are able to grasp - that we will reign with him forever and ever and ever. Sin no more; sadness no more; suffering no more; death no more - for thousands and thousands and millions and millions of years. And we will sing this song again and again and again and again, and we will care to do nothing more than sing this song again and again and again. We will have been given back our humanity, because we were made to have lives that are a hymn to his glory.
Good hymn, isn't it? As the elders sing that hymn, the angels can't help but join in. And myriads of angels and thousands and thousands of angels in this cascading swell of praise begin to sing, and before long, every creature that has breath begins to sing, and before long, the universe is in this chorus of song: "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" (v. 13) Think of a scene where everything that is is singing one song - the noise blows your mind, it vibrates your eardrums, you can feel the chill down your spine, you can feel your heart vibrate, but you want more of this song because this song is your glory; it's your hope.
Now why has God ordained for John to write this scene for us? Why is it on the pages of Scripture? Why are we allowed to look in and listen in and hear this cascading praise, see this scene of sadness and celebration, of true and reliable hope? Here it is: so that you would start singing now. You weren't meant to wait for eternity to sing that song. You were created to begin to sing now: "You are worthy to receive honor and blessing and glory and power." Sing now! Sing Monday morning! Sing Tuesday afternoon!
Don't Stop Singing
Sing Thursday evening! Sing Saturday! Don't stop singing. Get yourself ready, get your voice prepared, because you're going to be doing a lot of singing. And brothers and sisters, hear this: if every song you sing first starts with your heart, then hear this: it's more than your voice that should utter a hymn. The way you approach your finances should be a hymn to the glory of the Lamb. The way you use your physical possessions should be a hymn to the glory of the Lamb. The way you invest your time and energy and abilities and gifts should be a hymn of glory to the Lamb.
Husbands, the way you treat your wife should be a hymn of glory of the Lamb. Wives, the way you respond to your husbands should be a hymn of glory of the Lamb. Workers, the way you work should be a hymn of glory of the Lamb. Students, the way you study should be a hymn of glory to the Lamb. Start the song now. Receive the hope now. I would say to you: have you placed your hope in the hands of the Lion Lamb? Have you trusted him for his forgiveness? Do you live for his glory? There is one place where hope can be found.
It is in the Lion; it is in the Lamb. Sing. Sing. Sing. And don't stop singing. Let's pray: Lord, we are so very very grateful that, by your grace, you have written this scene for us. And as we look into this moment, we're reminded of what is truly important in life. Oh, we celebrate your grace, we celebrate your power, we say, "You alone are worthy." And yet, we would confess that we don't always live that way. We live for self-glory. We get captured by the temporary shadow glories of the created world.
We find ourselves addicted to a catalog of god-replacements. We would rather have our definition of comfort and pleasure than we would have a life lived to your praise. And so we would pray for your forgiveness. And we would pray for your deliverance. Help us, that we may live according to the purpose for which we were created, and that the Lion Lamb would be our hope and our joy, our motivation and our strength, our wisdom and our power. Lord, I pray this for friends who are here, for families who are here, for husbands and wives who are here, for students and professionals and workers, and for all us.
I pray that as we face the struggles of a fallen world, in disappointment and grief, physical suffering and toil, that we would run to you for the comfort that only you can give, that you would meet us as only you could meet us, in those moments of sadness. And would you, by your grace, turn the saddest of moments into moments of celebration? Lord, we would pray for our neighborhood, for our city, for our nation, for the world, that in fact, people of every nation and tribe and language would come to know the hope that can only be found in you, that citizens and leaders would turn their hearts to you.
Lord, I pray that you would help us to be committed to the work of your kingdom, an investment of our gifts and our time, our energies and our monies. And we would pray that all of these things would resound for your glory, and would result in a hymn of praise to you. In your name we pray, amen.
