Behold

Today we have the pleasure of hearing God's word from Jeff Kreisel.

And Jeff is one of our supportive missionaries here at CMPC.

And Jeff labors at USAPHA or the Air Force Academy with RUF.

We just prayed for RUF at Colorado State.

We support Wes Calton at Colorado State and Jeff at USAPHA.

So please give attention to God's word.

All right, well, good morning, everyone.

As Andy said, my name is Jeff Kreisel.

I serve as the RUF campus minister at the Air Force Academy.

I also serve as a brigade chaplain in the Army Reserves here at Fort Carson.

So kind of I got a foot in both the blue and the green worlds.

My family and I, we've been here for eight years working at the Academy and at Fort Carson.

My wife, where is she?

She's somewhere.

Where is she?

Oh, there she is.

Anyway, my five kids are here.

Get a chance to meet them.

They're all amazing.

We love being here.

We've loved it every moment of these past eight years.

It's kind of a beautiful merging or marrying of the different things that we love.

I'm a military brat, Army brat.

I've never known a day outside of the military.

We love the gospel.

We love college students and we love the mountains.

And so we kind of get to see all four of those things interweave through our time here.

A good example of this would be a couple months ago over MLK weekend, we took about 84 of our

cadets to Crested Butte for our annual winter retreat.

And throughout the weekend, I had several amazing conversations with college students as they were

trapped with me on chairlifts throughout the day.

They couldn't get away.

It's perfect ministry.

They've kind of made a joke of it over the years.

They call it ski chairlift discipleship with Jeff.

And because they know that if you sit on a chairlift with me, you better come prepared to like tell your entire story because I'm just going to keep on asking you questions.

But yeah, it's a beautiful merging of the things that we love.

I love snowboarding.

I love snowboarding with cadets.

But if I'm being honest with y'all, my body hates being above a certain elevation for too long.

Above like 9,000 feet of elevation, my body just kind of falls apart.

I honestly can't remember the last time that I didn't get some degree of altitude sickness when I was up in the mountains for more than a few days.

And I have tried every tip and trick that you can find on the interwebs.

And I'm telling you, nothing works for me.

It doesn't matter how much water I drink or electrolytes I inhale or Advil I take or carbs I take before I go.

My body just doesn't like the higher elevations.

Yes, you can feel me.

I can stand a few days, but there always comes a point when my body says enough is enough and I have to come down, right?

Well, this morning we're going to consider a passage in the book of Revelation, Revelation chapters 4 and 5.

Revelation 4 · chapter mention

And it is a passage that I would argue will take us into the theological stratosphere.

A passage that takes us to such spiritual heights that it will take your breath away.

Like you don't really know how to cope with the reality of being this high.

You'll feel lightheaded.

You'll feel a little woozy.

This morning, God is inviting us to enter his heavenly throne room.

There is no higher place.

No spiritual reality higher than this.

But the reality is due to our fallen nature, due to our finitude, we can't handle such great spiritual heights.

God is too holy for us.

If we were in his direct presence, we couldn't survive.

It's like trying to fly in an unpressurized cockpit.

Like you have to have something standing between you and him in order to survive.

His unfiltered presence is too much for us to handle.

But out of God's kindness, he has given us apocalyptic literature, like the book of Revelation,

so that we can, in a very real sense, enter the heavenly places while we are still fallen and finite.

I like to compare the book of Revelation with my students to like wearing a VR headset, right?

It's like we naturally can't enter God's throne room.

He is infinitely holy and we are not.

But with this kind of like VR headset on, we are able to like safely like navigate, enter the spiritual stratosphere.

But just because we're safe when we approach God's word in Revelation 4 and 5,

it doesn't mean that it won't take your breath away.

It will.

And so I have a long scripture reading.

It's two chapters, but I'm going to cut a little bit out.

So if you guys have your bulletins, please open those and follow along with me as I read.

Revelation 4.

After this I looked, and behold, a door standing opened in heaven.

And the first voice which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said,

Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.

At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven with one seated on the throne.

And we can jump to verse 6.

And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures.

Each of them with six wings are full of eyes all around and within.

And day and night they never cease to say,

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.

And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne,

who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him,

who lives forever and ever.

They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power.

For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.

Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll,

written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals.

And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice,

Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?

And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it.

And I began to weep loudly, because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.

And one of the old 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 seals.

In 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,

and when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb,

and they sang a new song,

saying,

Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals,

for you were slain,

and by your blood 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.

This is the word of God for the people of God.

Let me pray for us.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,

who was and is and is to come.

Lord, I pray that you would help us to behold you more clearly this morning,

that we would behold Christ,

the slain lamb who takes away the sins of the world.

We pray all this in his name.

Amen.

All right.

So, the book of Revelation was written by the Apostle John

while he was on this desolate island in the Mediterranean Sea called Patmos.

Nowadays, this island has a reputation of being one of the quietest Greek islands.

It has a booming tourist economy.

It's kind of known for its beautiful beaches.

It's a place that you want to go.

But 2,000 years ago, it was not a place that you wanted to go.

It was a place where criminals were exiled.

I like to think of Patmos kind of like the Alcatraz of the Roman Empire.

So, why was the Apostle John exiled to Alcatraz?

He was an old man at this point in his life.

He was probably around 80 to 90 years old.

So, he wasn't exactly a physical threat,

but John was exiled here because he was deemed a social threat

to the social peace of the Roman Empire

because this man would not shut up about the good news of Jesus Christ.

He wouldn't stop talking about Jesus.

Day after day after day,

John refused to worship Caesar as Lord and God.

And that's a key phrase in this passage.

He refused to worship Caesar as Lord and God

because Jesus alone was his Lord and God.

And as a result of him taking the stand,

refusing to worship Caesar,

many early Christians followed his lead

and also refused to worship Caesar as Lord and God.

And as a result, during this time,

under this emperor,

approximately 40,000 Christians were brutally murdered

for their refusal to worship Caesar just like John.

And so, they're trying to contain John's influence.

Now, I don't know why John was not a martyr

like all of the other apostles.

Why, in God's providence, John survives.

Maybe it was because he was an old man at this point

and they just thought like,

hey, he's going to die soon anyway.

Let's just exile him to Patmos or something.

Or maybe it was because his followers had become so large

that maybe an uprising would result

if they did murder him in a public way.

And so, whatever the case may be,

they chose not to martyr him.

Instead, they exile him

so that they could contain his influence,

so they could stop him from influencing others

in their refusal to worship Caesar.

And so, they send him to Patmos.

Now, I will say that I think that if the Romans

had the gift of hindsight,

John, there's no way John would have survived.

He would not have been exiled to Patmos.

They would have taken care of him

just like they did all of the other apostles.

Because when John was exiled on this deserted island,

God powerfully worked through him

in a way that 2,000 years later,

we will forever feel its ripples.

You see, it didn't matter where John was.

God was going to speak through John.

Whether through his words or through his pen,

God was going to speak through John.

And when God speaks,

the light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness cannot overcome it.

Those were John's words in his great gospel.

You see, while John was in the darkness of exile,

he receives a vision from God

that would come to be the book of Revelation,

and this book, through this vision,

would light up the world.

It would light everything up.

One scholar put it this way,

John creates for us a new conceptualization of the world.

He is giving us a new set of glasses

by which to make our way through the broken world.

You see, Revelation isn't just a vision of the future.

Revelation is a glimpse into heaven.

And when you get a glimpse into heaven,

you start to long for it.

And when you start to long for heaven,

you start to become a citizen of heaven,

even in the now.

And when you start to become a citizen of heaven,

you start to pull that heavenly reality

into your present tense.

You start to bring heaven here.

One of my favorite TV shows is the show Silo.

It's on Apple TV.

It just came out with its second season,

and it's such a cool show.

If you haven't watched it,

you should totally check it out.

So the show is set in a world

that has just endured some sort of apocalyptic,

like cataclysmic event

that forced all of the human survivors

into this underground shelter.

that they call the Silo.

And it's a self-sufficient city

that inhabits about 10,000 people.

So the show is set hundreds of years

after the cataclysmic, apocalyptic event.

And so you have these 10,000 people

who have been living underground.

They don't have any conception

of what the world looks like

for years and years and years,

generations.

In an effort to prevent

all of these inhabitants

from opening the Silo doors

and exposing the entire population

to some form of toxic radiation,

the leaders of the Silo

decide that it was in the best interest

of the Silo

to destroy every remnant of life

before they entered the Silo.

So the inhabitants

have not only never seen the natural world,

they have like no mental conception of it.

No mental conception.

They have no idea

what a beach looks like.

They have no idea

like what a beautiful mountain backdrop

in Colorado would look like.

Or like a beautiful sunset

or a rainforest

and all the animals of the earth

or like the clear night sky

in which you can see

thousands and thousands of stars.

They had no mental conception

of the world

in which they were actually living.

But then something happens

in the first season.

A little spoiler alert, sorry.

There's a little children's book.

In this children's book,

it predates the Silo.

It predates the cataclysmic event.

And this children's book,

it's a picture book.

And it contains these like vivid images

of what like a healthy world

actually looks like.

And this book starts to circulate

around the Silo

and instantly the inhabitants

by looking at the images in this book

received a new conceptualization

of the world.

The book gives them a vision

of the invisible world

that they were unfamiliar with.

It shows them

how the world should be.

And so the protagonists in the show,

they become evangelists

of this little children's book.

And they just keep,

they keep showing it to other people.

They're like,

see, look.

Behold, like this is the real world.

This is what our world should look like.

Revelation 4 and 5

is kind of like that book.

And John is urging us also

to stop whatever we're doing

and to look at the vivid images

in this book.

He's saying to us,

look,

like this is what the real world

is supposed to look like.

This is the world you were made for.

Behold these images.

They will completely change your life forever.

They will light up the darkness.

They will give you a new conceptualization

of the entire world.

So there's three things in this passage

that John wants us to see.

He doesn't just want us to see.

He actually commands us to see them.

The Greek word for behold is edu.

And he uses it as an imperative.

He's using it as a command.

He's commanding us to see

three vivid imageries

that he believes will change our lives.

So the first thing he wants us to see

is a door.

And it's a door that leads to heaven.

A door that leads

like to the ultimate spiritual reality

that is behind our physical reality.

That explains our physical reality.

Revelation chapter 4 verse 1.

Revelation 4:1

He says,

And after this I looked

and behold.

Look.

Pay attention.

A door standing open in heaven.

John is exiled

on this deserted island

in Patmos, right?

And the door just shows up

where he stands.

Now, I would argue that

throughout human history

everyone has been like

frantically looking for this door.

It's a door into

this deeper spiritual reality

that will explain

why we experience

the things that we experience

on the physical plane.

It's a door that will answer

our deepest questions

like why am I here?

And what is real?

And where did matter come from?

And where did the mind come from?

How should I live in this world?

Where is the door

to a happy, beautiful, flourishing life?

In Genesis 11,

the inhabitants of earth,

they tried to build a tower.

The Tower of Babel.

A stairway to heaven.

Why were they trying

to get to heaven?

Because they're trying

to find this door.

In the New Testament,

we see the Pharisees

and they believe

that strict obedience

to the law,

that's the door to heaven.

That's how we enter

God's presence

is through my own effort,

through my own working

and striving.

You see,

it isn't just

the Old Testament

and New Testament people

that are striving

for this door.

Like literally every religion

and philosophical system

is searching for this door.

Be it existentialism

or like mysticism,

skepticism,

stoicism,

pantheism,

atheism even,

nihilism even,

they're all looking

for a door.

They're looking for

the good life.

They're looking for answers

to their questions.

They're trying to,

in a sense,

get out of this

inhospitable silo

to see the world

for what it's supposed to be.

I love taking my kids

to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.

And my favorite exhibit

goes between like

the gorilla exhibit

or the lion exhibit.

But I'll be honest,

it's like every time I go,

I always feel really bad

for the animals.

They look like they're

kind of going crazy

in there, right?

You know,

zoologists call

this phenomenon

zookosis.

They essentially

lose their minds

because they're not

in a habitat

that is suitable

to their flourishing.

And so they pace

back and forth.

They just lay down

and they just sit there

all day

not knowing

kind of what

the actual habitat

that they were designed

to be in

looks like.

And that is

essentially

a good description

of our world.

We all suffer

from zookosis

to some extent

because we have no idea

how this world

really should be.

But we're all trying

to find the door

that will give us

the answer

to those questions.

Now some people

will look to other people

to be the door, right?

They look to politicians

like they're the door

to a good life.

They're going to bring

heaven to earth.

Or some view

like the wealthy,

the celebrities

as the door.

Like that's what

beautiful looks like.

Some people would view

like technological innovators

like Elon Musk

or something.

Like he is going to lead us

out of the inhospitable,

inhabitable silo,

out of the zoo

and into like the promised land

of like technological innovation

and AI or whatever.

Other people turn

to philosophical minds

like Plato

and Socrates

and Kant

and Hume

and Nietzsche

and Marx

and Albert Camus.

Like all of these

different philosophical people,

we will put our hope

in them

to take us

to the door

that will explain

our existence.

And the reality

is that every single door

that the world

has tried to enter,

it leads to some form

of idolatrous worship.

Because here's the thing,

when you walk through

any door

looking for heaven,

worship is always waiting

on the other side

of that door.

It's always waiting.

Political worship,

celebrity worship,

technological worship,

philosophical worship.

Have you ever walked

through the gates

like to go

to an SEC football game?

Like,

for some people,

you are entering

into their house

of worship.

Heaven on earth.

Have you ever walked

into a Taylor Swift concert?

Have you gone

through those doors?

For many people,

that is a place

of worship.

Ever walked into

a Louis Vuitton store?

For many,

that is a place

of worship.

That's where they believe

heaven meets earth.

But according to Revelation 4,

there's only one door.

And you won't desire

this door

unless you get a vision

of what lies

behind the door.

Until that vision

breaks into your reality

and sets your imagination

free and offers you

a new conceptualization

of what life should be

and could be.

So,

here's what the exiled

John discovered

on this desolate island

in the middle

of the Mediterranean.

He wants us to see

that there's a door.

And it isn't somewhere

like out there

that we have to like

find.

Right?

It's right

there.

It's everywhere.

He's on this island

and this door

is open

right where he stands

right in front

of his face.

It's open.

All he has to do

is walk

right through it.

See,

he doesn't have to

like fly

like,

you know,

like John,

Michael,

Wendy,

and Peter Pan

to go to this

other reality.

He simply

steps into it

right where

he is.

You see,

for the apostle

John,

heaven,

it refers to

this other

reality

that is actually

not so far away

as we may think.

It's actually

right here.

It's close at hand.

It's all around us.

It's a reality

that intersects

and informs

our visible,

tangible

reality.

Yes,

sin separates

us from

this reality.

but it's

not spatially

far away.

Now,

why is this

so important?

It's important

because this

means that it

doesn't matter

like where you

are or what

you're going

through.

God is there.

According to

Revelation 4,

you're never

truly alone.

Through faith

in Christ,

you have heaven

there.

you're never

trapped in a

silo,

even when life

feels like a

dark dungeon,

even in exile

on this

desolate

island,

standing in

God's presence

was just a

doorway for

John.

And the

door is,

in fact,

according to

John in

his gospel,

a person.

It isn't

like a

philosophical

thought or

an ethical

framework.

it's a

person.

The door

is none

other than

Jesus himself.

John writes

in his gospel

in chapter 10

verse 9,

Jesus says,

I am the

door.

If anyone

enters by

me,

he will be

saved and

he will go

in and

out and

he will

find pasture.

So wherever

you are,

like whenever

you pray in

Jesus' name,

you step

through the

door into

the heavenly

throne room

of God.

That's

unbelievable.

Like wherever

you are,

whenever you

gather with

fellow believers

for corporate

worship,

you step

through the

door.

Like church

isn't just

some country

club with

like-minded

people.

It is where

God meets

with his

people,

where God

dwells with

us.

And what

do you call

the place

where God

dwells with

people?

that's

heaven.

We get a

glimpse of

it.

We get to

taste it.

Not in its

fullest sense,

but we get to

experience heaven

even now.

John is

saying that

wherever you

are, like

whenever you

sing Christ

centered songs,

you step

through the

door and

you join this

eternal,

never ending

choir of

worship to

God.

Wherever you

are, whenever

you forgive

other people,

as God has

forgiven you,

you step

through the

door.

Wherever you

are, whenever

you work

with purpose,

with the

purpose of

glorifying God,

like through

your work and

in your work,

you step

through the

door, wherever

you are.

In Acts

16, the

apostle Paul

and Silas,

they're arrested,

they're beaten,

and they're thrown

in jail.

But to their

Philippian jailer's

surprise, the

jail cell was

actually a door

into the

heavenly places.

And therefore,

even in prison

while awaiting

trial, Paul and

Silas can't help

but sing.

They worship,

they're praising

God even in

prison.

Remember, when you

walk through the

door, worship is

always waiting on

the other side.

You see, Paul and

Silas carried this

new conceptualization

of the world

with them wherever

they went, even a

prison cell.

And so when this

earthquake strikes

and it opens

their jail cell,

they don't take

this as an

opportunity to

run away.

Well, why?

Because they were

already free.

Like they may

have been in a

jail cell, but

they were no

longer in the

zoo.

They were freed

from zookosis,

right?

They were already

experiencing the

joys of heaven

even in prison.

And they wanted

to share this

freedom, this

joy.

They wanted to

share this door,

this Jesus, with

the Philippian

jailer who was

now thinking about

taking his own

life because

certainly he would

be punished

greatly if all of

the prisoners

escaped under his

watch.

But that's not

what Paul and

Silas do.

They stay in the

jail in order

to show him

the door.

They're saying,

see, look,

behold, a

door is open,

is standing

open in heaven.

It's right here.

This is the door

to human flourishing.

This is the door

to joy in the

midst of sorrow.

This is the door

to life eternal.

This is the joy

to human flourishing

in an inhabitable

world.

This is the door

to the worship

you were made

for.

All right.

Second thing that

John sees that he

wants us to see

is found in

verse 2.

It says,

at once I was in

the spirit and

behold, there's

that word again,

a throne stood

in heaven and

one seated on

the throne.

You see, as soon

as John goes

through the door

into the heavenly

places, he sees

something.

He sees a

cosmic throne

and someone

is sitting on

the throne.

The throne

isn't empty.

It's not an

unoccupied chair.

Like, you have

to imagine that

with everything

John's gone

through and

everything that

he's going

through, you

have to, like,

think that maybe

at some point

he started to

wonder, is

that throne

in heaven

unoccupied?

Like, he's

watched all of

his closest

friends die.

Like, they've

all died for

their faith and

thousands of

others.

Like, he was,

in a sense,

the last man

standing.

The emperor's

reign of terror

was underway

and he was

feeling the full

weight of it.

Like, how could

God be on the

throne and yet

allow all of

that suffering

to happen?

allow all this

hardship to

happen?

Why was John

starving and

alone and

exile and

pateness if

God was on

a throne?

You know, they

say a picture is

worth a thousand

words.

You know, while

John's particular

questions about

why things were

happening the way

that they were

happening, those

questions weren't

directly answered.

This image of

God sitting on

a throne spoke

well over a

thousand words

to John's

soul.

Like, this

picture, this

image of an

occupied throne,

it tells us that

God is in

control, even

when life feels

out of control.

It tells us that

God is sovereign

and he's good

and he has a

plan, even when

life doesn't make

much sense.

this image tells

us that our God

has the best

sight picture of

human history,

past, present,

future.

He sees how it

all works

together.

I used to be an

air traffic

controller when I

was in the Air

Force and every

now and then I

would get a

pilot that would

think they had a

better idea than

me.

You know, and I

would say, hey,

traffic, three o'clock,

two miles, report

traffic in sight,

they'd be like,

I don't see

anything.

You know, I'd be

like, well, he's

there.

I see things that

you can't see and

God has the best

sight picture of all

human history.

Like, well, things

like death and

injustice and racism

and persecution

grieve God to his

core, he's big

enough to, like,

take, like, these

broken, dark things

and then speak

gospel light into

them.

I'll never forget a

conversation that I

had with one of my

elders when we were

attending a church in

Dallas while I was in

seminary.

And this was a man who

had experienced

unfathomable hardship,

like, immense

suffering throughout his

life, like, more than I

could ever begin to

fathom.

And so he tells me his

story.

And I mean, I hear his

story and then I asked

him, I said, how can any

of these things that

you've been through work

together for good?

And he looked at me and

he said, he said, Jeff,

God uses our hurts to

make us holy reflections

of him.

See, I was asking, are

you sure that God is on

his throne?

And he tells me God

uses our hurts to make

us holy reflections of

him.

In other words, yes, he

is on his throne.

And then he went on to

say this.

He said, God writes pain

into our stories to

redeem our stories so

that we can use our

stories to tell his

story of redemption.

And then he said one of

my favorite lines, our

God makes broken things

beautiful.

Yeah, he's on his

throne.

Listen, it is this truth

of God's sovereignty, of

his reigning and ruling

over all things that

drives these four

creatures in Revelation

to just worship and they

sing unceasingly.

They praise.

Verse 8, holy, holy,

holy is the Lord God

Almighty who was and who

is and who is to come.

Like, I know, like, I

purposely took them this

out of the reading, the

descriptions of these

four creatures, and they

seem really weird, right?

They have different faces

and they got, like, six

wings and, like, eyeballs

are, like, covering them

from top to bottom.

We don't really know what

to do with these creatures,

but don't miss the forest

from the trees, my friends.

A lot of people, when they

read Revelation, they miss

the forest from the trees.

The four creatures aren't,

like, some weird mystical

beast that we will one day

encounter in the new heavens

and new earth.

They simply represent all of

creation.

All of creation.

But that isn't a simple

truth, right?

Like, John is telling us that,

like, everything in creation,

like, from the smallest

molecule to the largest

celestial body, everything

exists in a constant state

of praise to the God on the

throne.

And then the worship service

gets even better, right?

It isn't just creation

singing God's praises, but

all of God's people join into

the song, represented by

these 24 elders.

Like, once again, don't miss

the forest from the trees.

Most likely, the 24 elders,

they simply represent the 12

tribes of Israel in the Old

Testament and the 12

apostles in the New Testament.

In other words, they

represent all of God's

people.

They represent all of those

who looked forward in faith

to Jesus and walked through

the door, and everyone who

looked backwards in faith to

Jesus and walked through the

same door.

They start to sing, chapter 4,

verse 11,

worthy are you, our Lord and

God.

You catch it?

Who did they identify as

Lord and God?

It wasn't Caesar.

To receive glory and honor and

power because you created all

things, and by your will they

existed and were created.

But then something happens

during the worship service in

heaven around the middle of the

song.

An angel stands up, and he has

this booming voice so loud that

every square inch of all

creation can hear his booming

voice.

And he says this.

He says, who was worthy to

open the scroll and break its

seals?

And in response, let's just say

that the crickets join the

song.

Verse 3, and no one in heaven or

on earth or under the earth was

able to open the scroll or to

look into it.

So silence sets in.

Like no one is worthy to open

the scroll.

What is the scroll?

Well, it contains the entirety of

God's plan.

Past, present, future, it

contains the meaning of life.

It contains the answers to our

biggest questions.

It contains the path to a

flourishing life.

It contains God's plan to make

all wrongs right.

God's plan to make all sadness

untrue.

God's plan to bring heaven to

earth, to marry the two for

eternity.

Everyone longs to know what's on

this scroll, but no one can

open it.

No philosopher, no politician,

no celebrity, no innovator, no

athlete, no scientist, no

software engineer.

No one can give a sufficient

explanation for the meaning of

the universe.

And no one can provide a

decisive solution to all the

problems that we see in our

world.

The injustice, the prejudice, the

sickness, the cancer, the war,

the death.

Like no one's able to open the

scroll.

No one is able to get us out of

the zoo.

No one's able to free us from the

silo.

And then weeping breaks in.

Verse 4 of chapter 5 says,

And I began to weep loudly,

because no one was found worthy to

open the scroll or to look into it.

And it's at this point that John

looks at our weeping world, and he

gives us the last command to

behold.

Chapter 5, verse 5.

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 seals.

And immediately, like, hope sets

in.

Like, both of those terms, the

lion of Judah, the root of David,

they were biblical images, biblical

terms of the messianic expectations

of a warrior king coming to conquer.

The Messiah is going to be strong,

and he's going to be powerful.

He's going to be like Aslan, right?

He's going to overthrow evil, and

he's going to bring justice to the

poor and the oppressed.

But then we have, like, the plot

twists of plot twists.

You see, John is expecting to turn

and see a lion moving towards the

throne of God to take the scroll

from his hand.

But that's not what he sees when he

turns.

The lights went out.

Ooh.

Instead, he turns, and he beholds

a slaughtered little lamb.

He sees a little lamb.

It's like John the Baptist.

Behold the lamb of God who takes

away the sins of the world.

And this, my friends, is when the

oxygen leaves your lungs.

This is like the highest of heights

in the theological stratosphere.

It leaves us speechless.

The one who conquers, the one who is

worthy to open the scroll and give us

the meaning of life, the plan of God,

that one is a little lamb who went to a

cross.

And why did he go to the cross?

Well, he went to the cross because of us.

He went to the cross instead of us, and he

went to the cross for us.

Why?

To open the door to the throne room of God.

To tear down the barrier that stood between

our fallen natures and God's holy presence.

To invite us into that eternal, everlasting

choir of praise.

It's the image that turns the world right

side up.

It's the image that says to a weeping

world, there is a cosmic plan.

And the lamb of God is at the center of

that plan.

Your life is soaked with meaning because

God is on the throne.

But that doesn't mean that your life won't

be easy.

He's saying, look at the lamb.

He's slaughtered.

Just as he suffered, you too will suffer.

But don't lose hope.

Wherever you go and whatever you're going

through, because of Jesus, you carry heaven

with you.

The throne is occupied.

The slain lamb is always there interceding

on your behalf.

And the door into God's presence is always

open.

My friends, these three images, when taken

together, will give you a new conceptualization

of the world.

They'll free you from the zoo.

And they'll drive you to worship.

Amen?

All right.

Let me pray for us.

Heavenly Father, you sit enthroned in the

heavenly places.

And through Jesus, the door, we get to enter.

We get to be in your presence.

We get to dwell with you.

We get a glimpse of heaven now.

And I pray, Lord, that as we leave from this

place, that we would be portals to heaven wherever

we go.

That we would be, in a sense, the wardrobe.

That we are the touchpoint between heaven and earth.

That we would bring heaven into our homes.

That we would pull heaven into our work.

That we would pull heaven into our neighborhoods

and our schools.

We pray that people would see heaven in us.

They would ask us about the hope that we have.

And that we get to tell them about this open door.

Just like Paul and Silas to the Philippian jailer.

A door to freedom, to joy, and to life everlasting.

We pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.