"Myriads of Myriads" Revelation 5:11-14 Sunday Evening Worship Service

Well, what a great way to end our musical portion this evening with the hymn to joy from I think it was from Beethoven's the end of his ninth symphony, uh that melody.

And but the words were actually really pertinent, especially that last stanza.

It says, Mortals join this happy chorus, which the morning stars began.

The significance of that should not be overlooked.

That is an open verbal invitation of us to join corporately in the worship of God.

I don't know about you, but when I saw that we were going to sing that last stanza of that song, I was immediately drawn into the throne room of God that John writes about in Revelation chapter 5.

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

We get this picture, John looking in the future of this magnificent choir that's being formed together in heaven.

And here's what's happened: they've been searching who could possibly open the scroll.

Who is worthy to open the scroll that will start off the last phase of God's redemptive act for mankind in his world?

Who is worthy?

And they figured out it's Jesus who is worthy.

And now Jesus is coming to open the scroll, and this is what we've been waiting for.

This is the culmination of our anticipation of hope as believers.

Jesus is opening the first scroll, and we will start the last phase of God's redemptive act for the world.

It's exciting.

And when we see this in Revelation chapter 5, a large crowd has already gathered around the throne room of God, but it grows and it grows and it grows until the scripture says that all of creation is now involved in singing praises to our God.

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

Listen to what John writes in Revelation 5 and verse 11.

John says, Then I looked, remember, he's looking in the future, then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, and the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands.

Amazing.

Nobody could count the number that were there.

Myriads and myriads and thousands of thousands.

The number was so large of people that were in the throne room that we will be part of in heaven that nobody was able to count.

Myriads and myriads and thousands of thousands.

I remember back in October of 1997, I came to the Stand in the Gap on the National Mall.

It was the biggest gathering Promise Keepers had ever had.

Some of you may have been there at the 1997 gathering on the National Mall.

My oldest son Ryan and I had volunteered.

We signed up to be volunteers.

So we got there early in the morning with a thousand or so other volunteers.

And shortly after our meeting was over, the men began to come.

And they literally came from all over the world.

And it was amazing how we filled that national mall.

I remember late in the morning we were singing, uh, we were in a session of singing worship back to God.

Just all these men.

And I stopped singing just to take a look around.

And as far as the eye could see, from the Capitol Dome, well beyond the Washington Monument, stacked shoulder to shoulder, were men just praising God at the top of their lungs.

It was literally myriads and myriads of men, thousands and thousands of men.

But then it hit me.

This is still earth.

And this is merely a choir practice.

This is a men's choir practice for what we're about to do together in heaven, when all of us will be together and we will be praising God forevermore.

The Apostle John points out that what we will be doing together in the body of Christ, we'll be praising God together.

It'll be the largest choir that has ever been put together.

And so what we were doing that day, as great as it was on the National Mall, was merely men's choir practice for what's yet to come.

John continues in chapter 5.

He said, There was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with one voice, Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

And he says, And every created thing which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all things in them, I heard them saying, all said at once.

They said, To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.

And John finishes this section.

He says, And the four living creatures, those are the David Joneses of heaven.

Those are the choir leaders of heaven.

He says, the four living creatures kept saying, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen.

They kept repeating Amen as they heard the worship.

They kept saying, Amen, Amen.

And then it says, the elders, the 24 elders, fell down in worship.

They were blown over.

They just fell down in worship.

Worship in heaven here, as John describes, will be anything but subdued.

Now I know there's many churches, Emmanuel's not one of them, but in many churches across the country, the worship of God or the reverence of God is considered very formal, very quiet.

And there's time for that.

There's time for restraint and reflection before God.

But I would submit that there's nothing like bringing God's praise to a loud crescendo.

You can never be more reverent than you're pouring your heart out and singing praises to our God.

And that's what we see here.

And it seems like as they're praying, as they're praising God, the doxology just keeps continuing as they're searching for and calling out words, different words that would possibly be adequate to describe who God is.

They're praising God the Father and Jesus the Son, the line of Judah, the Lamb of God.

And they can't describe all of the things about them.

And that's why John says, they record, he says, they say that the Lamb of God will be praised for his power.

He'd be praised for his riches, his wisdom, his might, his honor, his glory, and his blessing.

Certainly God is all of those things, but now in the presence of him in the throne room, all of us will be acknowledging who he is.

And we will sing this forever.

Words after words, people will be calling them out and they'll be singing these words about who God is.

Verse 13 indicates that not only the angels will sing, but John writes that every created thing which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all things in them will praise him.

Didn't the apostle Paul predict this?

He predicted this was happening.

Philippians 4, 10-11.

He said, At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.

Paul predicted it.

John wrote about what he saw, and we will all participate.

Isn't that cool?

We're going to be there someday.

And then it seems like John writes, as the whole universe, they conclude this heavenly anthem of praise.

At one point in the heavens, we will all conclude that with praises, at least at this moment, that we're singing back to God.

And those living creatures, they're the choir leaders, will begin to shout, Amen, Amen, Amen.

They kept repeating, Amen, Amen.

Amen is a strong biblical word.

It means everything that was just said is totally true, and everybody who just said it is in a complete agreement with it.

So they're praising God and they're describing who He is.

We are all doing that in heaven.

The four living creatures saying, Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen.

And at the height of this crescendo of worship, the 24 elders will then fall down on their faces in worship before God.

It's the thing that John describes that he did in Revelation chapter 1.

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

He writes about it so vividly because he did it himself.

Remember Revelation chapter 1, John puts his eyes on Jesus the first time that he sees in heaven.

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

And he sees Jesus not as the one that was walking with him as he was a fisherman, not the one that Jesus saw speaking to the scribes and the Pharisees, but he sees Jesus in his resurrected self and now in all of his glory.

It's probably the same way he saw him in the Mount of Transfiguration.

And John sees Jesus in all of his glory.

And Revelation chapter 1 says, John fell on his face like a dead man.

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

It was as the life had just been sucked out of him.

He was so overwhelmed by the glory of God that he fell on his face like a dead man.

And here, at the culmination of the worship, the elders put their face to God Himself, Jesus the Lamb, and they fall on their faces in total worship.

Friends, this concert tonight was outstanding.

And Laura, you've done an incredible job with these children.

But this is merely choir practice for which you get coming in the future.

And it was a good choir practice we had tonight.

Friend, you may be here tonight and you may be asking the question, why?

Why all this fuss about Jesus?

Why will every knee bow at the name of Jesus?

Why?

Why?

I'm gonna answer that question for you, but I want to let you know up front that now that I tell you the answer, you're responsible, you're accountable.

See, about an hour ago, as you maybe you were driving here, you may have said, I don't know any of this stuff, and therefore I'm not accountable.

I'm gonna tell you a story quickly, and but I need to tell you up front that now you're accountable.

So let me quickly summarize it for you.

The reason why we're bowing down before Jesus, why this is so important, why this will factually happen in the future, is because God loved us and he created us.

And he created the whole universe.

It seems just like for us, we are the center of his universe.

He loves us that much.

But there's a problem.

We have a sin problem and a selfish problem, and we're separated from God.

There's a gap that has been built.

God hasn't built it, we have, by our sinful tendencies.

And a lot of people try to do a lot of things then to reach God, to span that gap, maybe run as fast as you can, do all the good works, get all the degrees, gain all the money you can if possibly you could possibly reach God by doing that.

But we'll still fall short.

The scripture says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

But God still wants to have that relationship with us, so he says, you know what?

Since man can't span that gap to me, I'll span the gap back to man.

And here's how I'll do it.

That gap requires a perfect sacrifice, and those humans fall far short.

But I'll send my son, Jesus, God in the flesh.

He's perfect, he can perform a perfect sacrifice, and that's exactly what he did.

He sent Jesus to be born of a virgin named Mary in a city called Bethlehem, just outside of Jerusalem, 2,000 years ago.

And the only reason that Jesus Christ came was 33 years later, that he would willingly go to a cross, shed his blood, die an incredibly painful death.

Literally suffocate on the cross.

And in doing that, that was the completed sacrifice.

He paid a debt he didn't even owe.

A debt that none of us could ever pay.

And he did it willingly because he loves us.

And he's willing to lay down his life for us.

And what does he ask in return?

Not your money, not any of your earthly possessions.

He just wants you to accept that gift freely and receive him as your Lord, who paid that penalty for each one of you.

My friends, let me make perfectly clear.

Now that you know the story, if you've never made a decision about Jesus before, you have to make one now.

Nobody gets out of this world without making a decision about Jesus.

But let me warn you, the decision you make about Jesus here on earth, now that you know the truth, will affect your relationship with him for all of eternity.

Let me be clear.

If you accept the thing that Jesus did, that he died on the cross for each one of us, if you accept that as your gift, your payment has been made.

You're paid in full, you have no owe nothing.

And therefore you'll be welcomed when you pass from this earth to a place called heaven.

You'll be welcomed into heaven.

Free of your sin, all the debt has been paid.

That's what the Bible says.

That's why they're there before the Lamb, worshiping Him.

They're worshiping God for what He did to save them.

But, friend, the Bible's just as clear for those who reject that.

Say, now I'll do it my own way.

I'll get my degrees, I'll spend my money, I'll take my chances.

The Bible's just as clear that God has prepared a place for those who reject him.

And it's a place of separation, eternal damnation with no hope of recovery.

Friend, I hope that's not describing you.

If you're here tonight, there's never been a time that you put your faith and trust in Christ, the one that the children were singing about, the one that John is describing here.

Friend, do it before that you don't know when their time is up.

I've shared this before.

Let's take, for instance, September 11, 2001.

Not a single man, I would submit to you, not a single woman woke up that morning in September 2001.

Man fixing his tie in the mirror, a woman putting on her makeup.

Not a single man, not a single woman looked in the mirror that day as they were fixing themselves to go out for their day of work or whatever they were doing, and looked in the mirror and said, Today's my last day on earth.

And yet thousands perished a few hours later.

And I would submit that many of them are lost for all of eternity.

Presented with the truth, they said, That's okay, I'll do it my way.

Friend, if you're here tonight, there's never been a time you put your faith and trust in Christ.

What are you waiting for?

We don't know how much time we have.

Eternity is at stake.

I hope you've made that decision.

If not tonight, I hope you will make that decision.

So you too, as all of us, can join in the praise of Jesus Christ as we sit before the throne forevermore, praising him for what he has done for each one of us.

We're merely having choir practice here tonight.

The future's coming.

Will you join us there?

Let's pray as we close.

Father, I pray tonight if there's anyone that's here who does not know you.

Father, I pray that you'll give them no rest.

You'll stir their soul, you'll bring them to a point in their life where they just need to respond.

They're accountable now to the truth.

They know why the plan was unfolded, why we're here praising God tonight.

And so I pray, Lord, that you'll draw them in.

Thank you, Lord, from those of us who do know you.

Thank you for the shed blood of Christ.

We often ask, where would we be without Jesus?

And so we're thankful for that.

And Father, specifically tonight, would you work in the hearts of those children who sang these songs tonight?

Lord, would you raise them up in homes that love you and teach about you?

And Lord, would they, if they haven't already, someday make a decision for you.

So they will continue to praise you forevermore.

And we'll be grateful for how you will work through them in the future.

We praise you for this night that we've had in Christ's name.

Amen.

You have been listening to Emmanuel with Pastor Jesse Johnson.

You can find more resources like this at ibcva.com.

Here is a parting word from Pastor Jesse.

If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, ibcva.com.

If you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, DC area, we'd love to have you worship with us, Kurt Emmanuel.

We're located in Northern Virginia.

And for more information about when and where we worship, check out our church website.

I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.

But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.

Now may God bless you this week if you speak constantly.

Serve the Lord faithfully and share the gospel for the Lord.