And so, what we're seeing now with the heavens open and with the glimpse of the lion and the slain lamb and how that's being worshipped and all these other things, the seven horns, seven eyes, all of these things are actual, like visual presentations of specific doctrines and specific redemptive acts that you and I probably already know, but you get a visual of basically the gospel, right?

That's what we're looking at today. Yes, last week we looked at the first two scenes, right? The third scene is a scene of the sealed scroll. And so, what I want you guys to see, the scroll contains a promise of fulfillment of redemption of mankind, and that's basically what you're going to see being played out in chapter five.

So if you were to visualize redemption, and again, obviously this picture doesn't capture every nuance and every aspect of the gospel, but if you were to picture God humbling himself and becoming a man to be sent as a sacrifice for our sins, the way the Bible describes it is as the lion of Judah becoming as a slain lamb, and that's how it's visually presented to us.

And obviously that's clear, the gospel message, right? It says that the scroll was in God's right hand, signifying his control and authority, that God has the final say over all of this. And part of the reason why they can't open up the seal is because God's the one who put the seal on this.

So not anybody can open this up. No creature can just come and open this up. It says that there's writings inside, and basically it's full, signifying the completeness that you can't add to it or take away from it because the scroll is already full. It is complete. There's nothing more to be written, right?

So everything that is going to say, everything that is going to happen, it is already written. There's nothing that's going to change, and that's what it signifies when the scroll is full front and back, right? I'm not going to go through all the passages, but in Ezekiel 3.10, in Psalm 139.16, Isaiah 29, Daniel 8, they all have this very similar vision where they see...

I'll just read Ezekiel 3.10, it says, "And he spread it before me, and it had writing on the front and on the back, and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe." So you see in all these various passages where there is a description of the drama of redemption being played out, and it says that all of this was already recorded, right?

That this was not just some God looking down history and figuring out, okay, maybe they're going to do this, and he just happens to be a really good fortune teller. He says the reason why it's written is because God has already determined it, and it is full inside and out, so nothing's going to be changed.

So everything that is written in it will take place. It says, "It is sealed up with the seven seals, signifying that the words can only be released by someone who has authority." Typically, in the Roman culture, if something was extremely important, it was required by law to have at least seven witnesses, right?

The Bible asks for two or three witnesses, but again, in the Roman, when it was something very significant, there had to be seven witnesses to testify. So it may be playing off of that idea, possibly, but again, in the Bible, the number seven obviously is a representative of something complete, final, and typically we say that that's the number of God, 777.

So when it says that there are seven seals, it signifies that God is the one who has the authority, and God's the one who shut it, right? So therefore, no one can come and just open it up. In verse 2 and 4, if you read it, it's John's response to what's going on, and he says, "And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seal?' and no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or look into it, and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it." So if verse 1 is a description of the scroll and that God's redemptive plan, in order for that to be opened up, somebody who had to be worthy had to come and open it up.

So in verse 2, it describes who can open it up, right? And so the first thing that I thought about when I saw that scene is when you're in a marriage ceremony, I don't typically do that, and I have my own reasons why I don't do that, but you've probably been to a wedding where the officiant would ask, "Who gives away the bride?" Right?

Now, nobody in there is like, "Well, I don't know. You giving it away?" You know, everybody knows who that is. You're just role-playing, right? And the purpose of doing that is to proclaim that the two families have come together and they have the blessing. And so, of course, if you didn't bless them, they wouldn't be there.

You spent all that money and preparation for all of that. But they go through that drama to basically say, publicly proclaim, to act out, to leave and cleave. The father says, "I," you know, "whoever is giving away this bride," and then you would act that out. So, that's what it reminds me of in verse 2 when it says, "Who is worthy?" It's almost kind of like a setup to point to Christ, right?

And then they kind of act out like, well, they went and searched everywhere. Like did they really not know? You know? I think this was the setup. It's kind of like, "Who is worthy?" And so, they looked everywhere, heaven and earth, and no one could find anybody worthy. And then we find John weeping because no one was able to open it up.

I mean, John already knew what it would mean if that thing could not be opened up because salvation of mankind, right? Names of those who are written in heaven are all probably written maybe in this scroll. And if you can't open it up, it means condemnation for the world.

So, again, I already mentioned that. So in this gospel drama, verses 2 and 4 is a description of the hopelessness of mankind. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, right? So verse 1 is the setup. 2, 3, and 4 is kind of like the book of Romans, verses 1, chapter 1, 2, and 3.

Everything Paul says in the book of Romans leads up to all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So, in this gospel drama, we end with John weeping because there was nobody worthy. Who can save us? Who was, "Oh, what a wretched man I am. Who is going to save us from this body of death?" And that's kind of like John's weeping in this text.

So these four verses is the natural response of all mankind, represented by John's weeping. Scene 4. Scene 4, Jesus is proclaimed as the Lion of Judah, signifying the rightful kingship over Israel. So we talked about that last week, like when you think of the lion, what does it symbolize?

Strength, right? Kingship. And so when we say the elders come along, and in verse 5 it says, "And one of the elders said to me, 'Weep no more. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven scales.'" So the next scene is the elder comforting John.

The Lion of Judah, meaning Christ who fulfills the prophecy that he comes in the lineage of David, the Lion of Judah, he has conquered. It doesn't explain here how he conquered, what he conquered, obviously you and I know what that means. But he says, "That person that you've been looking for heaven and earth and under the earth that you couldn't find, there he is, the Lion of Judah." And so what happens?

He's the only one who was able to conquer. And when he points, and again, this is probably one of my favorite passages in the Bible, because of the imagery. He says, "The Lion of Judah has come," and then in verse 6, "And between the throne and the four living creatures among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though he has been slain." So he said, "The Lion of Judah, the King has come." So the elders proclaim that this scroll that no one can open, the Lion of Judah, the King, the conqueror has come, and he conquered.

And then when they turn around, obviously you would think that they're looking for a king, right? They're looking for something mighty. And that's exactly what the Jews were looking for. They were looking for a Messiah to come riding on a horse and basically slaughter the Romans and put them back in their place.

When they turn around, what do they see? They see lambs, not just any lamb, a lamb that's been offered for sacrifice. And it says it has seven horns and seven eyes, symbolizing complete omnipotence and omniscience. I don't think I left that portion blank for you. And the horn typically in the scriptures and at that time represented power because that's what the rams would typically use for its strength.

So when the Bible uses the term horns, it often represents authority or power. The fact that it has seven horns and seven eyes represents its omnipotence and omniscience, to know all and basically who is that a description of? Who's omniscient, who's omnipotent? Only one being, God himself. So this lamb of God, he says this lion of Judah who's going to come and conquer and open the scroll that no one else can open, turn around, they see the lamb of God who is God himself, right?

Who's slain. Those of you guys who, I know very few of you read the book, Darkness and the Glory. I think some of us read through it and then we went through the, during the small group time. But in that book, Dr. Harris describes basically the cross from every different angle.

He describes the cross from Christ on the cross looking out and he quotes Psalm and it's Jesus himself saying, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He describes the cross from the Father's view, right? And he goes through passages in the Old Testament where the Father is speaking of his Son.

He describes the cross from a demonic point of view, like what the demonics saw. He describes the cross from the disciples' view. He describes the view from the other thieves that were hanging on the cross next to him. So he describes the cross, basically what he does is he takes every single angle that the Bible gives in every perspective, from the top, from the bottom, from the side, and he basically systematically puts all these views together so that you would not only get it from our point of view as people who have been redeemed 2,000 years later, human beings removed from the culture, and like what does the cross look like to us?

But he gives us a complete picture of the cross, right? It's a little bit difficult to read because his paragraphs aren't clear, but once you really understand what he's doing, I mean, I've never read a book that actually is that thorough in perspective of what's happening on the cross.

And one of the things that always intrigued me about that book was how he described, again, this is not just his imagination, he would go to these scriptures and he said, "Imagine what that would have looked like from the angel's point of view." The angel's point of view. And obviously even the demonic point of view, this is a God that created them and that they worshipped, they served, and now he's beaten and he's naked and he's hanging upon the cross and he actually, who was the creator of the world, completely helpless, and the sin of mankind is hanging upon him, that what they must have seen and how strange of a sight that must have been for them, right?

So I always think about that, I was thinking like, yeah, I can imagine what that would have looked like, but imagine what that would have been like for the angels. It would have been mind-blowing, like what is going on? And I think of this picture of the elders coming and saying, "The Lion of Judah has come and conquered, so do not weep." And they turn around, they see a slain lamb.

Now we imagine it in our head, but imagine who that is that's slain. That same God that these angels and creatures and elders have been worshipping now is just lying there limp and without power, right? I mean, I think that's the power of the imagery of what is being presented to us in chapter five.

It's one thing to describe it with our words, another thing to be able to see that visually, and that's what John is describing, right? So the lion comes as a slain lamb. And again, in Isaiah 53, 7, it says, "He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth." And that's how Christ and his redemption plan is described for us in Isaiah 53.

Scene five. Scene five, six, and seven is a reaction to this redemption, right? So scene one is the throne of God. Scene two is the creatures and the elders bowing down in worship. Scene three is the scroll that contains life and redemption, that no one can open it up.

Scene four is the pointing of the slain lamb who shows up and he conquers. And then scene five, six, and seven is a response to that. So collectively, all seven scenes is the total collection of the gospel from beginning to the end, from God to the final scene. So starting from scene five, it begins with the worship of the creatures and the elders.

In light of what the lamb of God does, they fall down and they worship the lamb. The word for worship in the Greek, the most common word, there's about nine different words and three most prominent, and out of the three, the word that is used more than any other word is the word proskuneo, and literally just means to fall down or bow down.

True worship in scripture is always described as a reaction. It's always described as a reaction in the presence of something magnificent, something bigger and awesome. And you can't help but to bow down and worship. So whether you travel and you see this beautiful scenery and it just causes you to say, "Wow." Or somebody's performing on stage and maybe a cello solo or pianist or somebody who's singing and they're just so good at what they do, and in the presence of that, you just look at it in awe and say, "Wow." That was really good.

Or the NBA finals going on and one of the players are out there and he's doing ridiculous shot after shot and at the end, it's like, "Wow." You're just floored like, "Wow, he can do that." So the Bible always describes genuine worship as a reaction when you're confronted by the almighty God.

That's why I think it's extremely important. It doesn't matter how hard you work. It doesn't matter how often you come to church or maybe even, you're doing all the right things. But if you're not encountering God, your worship is just you trying your best to be a good person.

If we're not encountering God in our life and in our public life or whatever, if you're not encountering God, every good thing that you're trying to do is you trying to muster up enough strength to be a good person. But real worship happens as a result of encountering God.

So whether we're talking about prayer, whether we're talking about obedience, or whether we're talking about quiet time or Bible study or Sunday worship, that the end goal for all of that is to encounter God. But if you're not encountering God, maybe because that's not your goal, it's just to do it.

Sunday you're supposed to, so you do it. You're supposed to pray, so you do it. You're supposed to read, so you do it. But you're not really digging to know God. You're not digging to encounter God. Then no matter how much we try to muster up genuine worship, you're not awed by anything.

If you're not being awed by the glory of God and the various things that we learn about God, then again, worship is just us trying harder. So you look at the response of what happens is in light of the Lamb of God who sees, right, Lamb of God who conquers, who's able to open this up, it breaks out into this worship.

So what we're seeing here is just a natural response. It starts with the creatures and then every time, remember we talked about that last week, the creatures seem like the worship choir directors. They're the ones who first initiate worship and it says that every time they initiate worship that the elders bow down and worship, right?

And they hold harps and golden bowls which represents prayer and singing. And so again, the description in the rest of the verses is basically a worship scene. It's a corporate worship taking place because of what Christ has done. And then in the new song, they break out and then they break out a new song which symbolizes newness.

Isaiah prophesies about this new order, the new world that he's going to bring as a result of this redemptive work. And so that language of newness is all over Revelations. We're going to be given a new name. There's going to be a new Jerusalem, new heaven and new earth and all things will be made new.

And so here again, the end result of redemptive plan is all things are made new, right? And so in this heavenly scene, they're breaking out into this new song because of what the slain lamb has done or is going to do, is going to make all things new. And again, the content of this drama is redemption.

In verse 9, it says, "And they sang a new song and it says, 'Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seal, 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.'" Sixth scene, the creatures begin to worship, the elders bow down on worship, and then the next verses 11 and 12, the angels, they chime in.

So it kind of has this chain reaction of worship. It begins with those who are the closest to the throne of God, to the lamb, and then the next outer circle is the elders. And then after the elders, it kind of has a chain effect. And all the angels up in heaven, it says, "Myriads and myriads, thousands upon thousands." It almost kind of has an anticlimactic thing, it's like myriads and myriads, and then you would hear billions of billions, and you'd say thousands of thousands.

So in my mind, myriads and myriads is much bigger than thousands and thousands. But again, whenever you see the scripture recite something in multiplication of the same number, it basically means an uncounted amount. So it doesn't necessarily mean 1,000 times 1,000. That's the way that they would express something that was uncountable.

You may have thousands upon thousands or tens upon tens or whatever number is being repeated and being multiplied, it means that there is, it's a number that you can't count. So we're not supposed to read that and say, "Well, 1,000 and 1,000." So myriad sounds like a lot more number.

So basically what they're saying is all the created angels basically respond in worship as a result of what Christ has done. So the picture that we see in heaven of the throne of God is these creatures and the elders are 24/7 crying out, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty." And then the picture that results from the redemptive plan and what Christ has done is also the creatures and the elders bow down and worship.

And then now it has a ripple effect among the angels, and the angels are crying out and worshiping. And the angels represent the congregation in heaven. So you kind of see a corporate picture of heaven. So when people talk about, "What am I going to be doing in heaven?" We're going to be joining them in chorus.

If you've tasted the sweetness of true worship before God, that's something that I believe that you're going to look forward to. If you've ever experienced ecstasy in the context of really worshiping God, where all of your problems, kind of like Job, in the midst of all of his suffering, that God shows up and all he does is shows up.

And in the context of seeing his glory, he says, "Now I have seen everything." And he's satisfied, "I can die." There's no explanation of why he suffered. There's no answer to his life. God just shows up and he sees his glory, and then all of a sudden everything's good.

If you've ever experienced true worship, not attended some conference or heard a good message, but worship where you lose yourself, where you sense his glory or you get a glimpse of his glory and there's nothing like it. You see something that you can't possibly explain. And so if you've ever truly experienced that, you might look at this and say, "Wow, I get to be in the part of this.

I get to worship God close up with these angels." If you've never experienced that and you don't understand what I'm saying, you've just seen God from a distance and you like God, he's important to you, but you've never experienced this true worship, then this is going to be a very strange scene for you.

To go to heaven and what are we going to be doing in heaven for eternity? This is what you're seeing. This is what God is inviting us to do. The author of life is at the center and all of creation is coming to worship. And it's declaring the same glory that was attributed to God the Father, all glory, honor, and power belongs to the Lamb of God.

Worship of the Father, worship of the Son. And then the final scene, all created things in verse 13, "And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them saying, to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever." So in other words, every description here in verse 13 is a description of everything.

Everything that is not in rebellion against God is going to be worshiping God. So at the end, before he comes and he redeems his church, he's going to first come to purify his creation. All that is going to be burned up in judgment is going to be judged. And only things that are going to be remaining are those who are going to remain in eternity in worship of God and his Son.

And that's what the Holy Spirit is leading us to. That's the final scene. So whether you're a pre-trib, post-trib, amillennial, premillennial, postmillennial, whatever millennial and tribulation view that you may have, one thing that we all agree is Christ is going to come and there's going to be a white throne judgment and what we're going to see in chapter 6, 7, 8, all the way to chapter 16 is that now he's going to start to break the seal.

And with every seal that he breaks, he's going to come and with every judgment that he brings, he's purifying the world of all the rebellion. And at the end of these judgments, what's going to come is those who are going to remain to worship. What was lost at the fall.

God created us to be his image bearers for the purpose of worshiping God. But when Adam and Eve decided to rebel against him and sought their own glory instead of glorifying God, they died. And so that is what's being restored in redemption, is to restore creatures who are created for the purpose of worship to be recreated for the purpose of worship.

And so that's the scene that we see. And it's the same, again, same praise and honor that is given to God the Father is given to the Lamb. So we saw in the beginning this drama start with the creatures, the elders, and so it is fitting that it ends also with the creatures and the elders and they cry out, "Amen," meaning we affirm.

So starting from next week, we're going to see each of the seals being broken. The Lamb of God, this redemption that the plan that he has, he's going to begin because he is worthy now, because of what he has done, he's able to break these seals and eat, which every single one of these seals that he breaks, there's going to be a rightful judgment that's going to come upon the world.

So the question that we debated, we started out with is, is the church going to be going through this tribulation or is this something that we're going to be safe from? And I told you that my personal view is I believe that we are going to be sustained through the tribulation, meaning that the church and the world is going to be set on fire, meaning with persecutions and trials and famine and those who persevere to the end, those who make it to the end, it says they will be saved because their faith is going to be tested.

And I think every single Christian, even today, even though we may not have a knife or a gun or a bomb threatening that if you come to church you're going to die, your family's going to suffer, I think every single Christian in one way or another, your faith is tested.

You're being tested today. You may be aware of it, may not be aware of it. Where your heart is, the idols that you worship, sometimes the test that comes where you choose God today or you're going to deny God, sometimes those type of trials are very clear, like you do this and you don't do this, but some of the hardest trials and testing that comes into our lives are the ones that you don't even realize it's a trial.

You don't realize that your faith is being tested, right? Your faith is being tested with riches. Your faith is being tested with temptation, of possibility of future, fear of not having if you are too serious about God, making certain decisions that's going to cause you to move away from comfort.

Your faith is being tested. You may not be aware of it. Maybe you are aware of it. But every single one of us, every single Christian, there is no Christian where the faith is not tested. In fact, the ones who don't recognize the testing is probably you're the one in the greatest danger.

And the end result of it is those through the testing, whether you are poor or rich, whether you are in danger or you are living in comfort, the end result is will you worship God? Will you worship God in trials? In fact, a lot of Christians worship God better when they're under trial.

Will you worship God in peace? Will you worship God when you're out on missions? Will you worship God when you're at home? Will you worship God when you're surrounded by encouragement? Will you worship God when you are the only one standing? Will you worship God when you have money?

Will you worship God when you don't have money? Will you worship God when you have opportunities or don't have opportunities? All of these things will test to see are you a worshiper who are worshipping in spirit and in truth? Because again, at the end, the purpose of redemption is to take us and join this scene, this heavenly scene of worship.

We're just seeing a drama presentation of it, but in the end, this is where we're headed. Let me go over some of the discussion questions with you. What was the most sacrificial thing that someone has ever done? I'm not talking about outside of God and outside of your parents.

What is one thing that you can remember that somebody did for you that was the most sacrificial? I'm not talking about the greatest gift. I'm not talking about the most expensive gift. I'm talking about the most sacrificial thing someone has done for you. Take a few minutes to think about that and share it with the group.

If you can think of something, how did that affect you and how did that affect your relationship with that person? Number two, when was the last time you responded to the revelation of God and what he has done in true worship? Or not, "Hmm, that's good. I should feel this way." But really, when you found something about God and what he has done and just couldn't help but to praise God.

When was the last time you remember where you worshiped God in that way and how did that affect you? Number three, do you typically see Jesus as a lion or as a lamb? I'm only giving you those two choices because that's how it's presented to us today. Typically what is the picture of Christ that you have?

Is he hanging on the cross? Do you typically see him on his knees washing his disciples' feet? Do you see him walking on water? What is the picture when you think of Christ? What do you see? And how does your view picture of him, how does that affect your worship?

And then four, take some time to discuss again. This is one of the questions I think I gave last week was, what practical thing you can do to enrich your corporate and private worship of our God? Okay? All right, so let me pray for us and then I'll let you guys get into your groups and take some time to discuss these questions.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for Christ. We thank you for what he has done. We thank you for the image that you've implanted, Lord God, through your word that we can visually see how the lion of Judah became a lamb who was slain, that we may have life eternity, Lord God, in you.

I pray that this truth would never become dull and old. I pray, Father God, that you would renew and cause us to remember not just the details of what has happened, but that this was sacrifice that was given for me, for my sins, so that I may live, that you would renew us again, Father God, to worship as all creation worships you.

Help us, Lord God, to join them in worship, that you may receive the honor that you are do. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.