Something To Sing About: A Tale of Two Kingdoms (Week 7)

Twin, almost 21 years ago, I was I was standing right down here, and there was an aisle in these seats, and all of the groomsmen had come out, and all of the bridesmaids had come out, and the music had stopped, and I and I walked down the center aisle that way.

Now, my grandma, who did not know what was happening, thought Joey got cold feet.

He is out of here.

But what they didn't know is I had a plan.

I walked to the back of the room, and there was a microphone there and some rose petals, and I sprinkled rose petals down the aisle, and I sang as those back doors opened, and my bride to be walked through them.

And I could say the words that I sang.

I sang a song called Out of My League by a guy named Stephen Speaks.

It says, I love her with all that I am, and my voice shakes along with my hands.

Because it's frightening to be swimming in this strange sea, but I'd rather be here than on land.

Because she's all that I see and all that I need, and I'm out of my league once again.

Now saying them, it's cute, you know.

Would have been really weird, I think, if I had just stood there at the altar and said those words.

But singing brings a little bit more of an oomph to them.

As I watched her walk down the aisle and I sang, She's all that I see, and she's all that I need, and I'm out of my league once again.

Like, yeah, that gets it said a little bit better.

Singing and music are one of the wonderful parts of the human experience.

You think about the fact that God didn't have to make things that way.

Didn't have to make it so that harmonies work together and are pleasing to the ears.

But it's not just that it's pleasing to the ears.

Singing actually accomplishes something in our heart, in our soul.

That's why we attach singing to important moments in life.

It's why we sing at weddings.

It's why there's music often at funerals.

It's why we sing to our friends happy birthday.

Because singing gets it said a little bit better than happy birthday.

We even do this with our sports teams.

We sing, hang on, sloopy, sloopy, hang on, right?

See?

It gets it done a little bit better.

Why not just say it?

Why not just say, hey, congratulations.

I'm sorry for your loss.

Happy birthday, pal.

Hang on, Sloopy.

Because singing does something with our emotions when words just don't get it done.

And that's what we will see in Revelation 5 today.

That when we encounter things that are glorious, the right response is to sing about them.

And I want to encourage you today, the band will play a little bit more, but we have the choir with us and we have you with us because while instruments are important, we see throughout the Psalms that instruments are important and elsewhere.

But the theme of heaven's praises is the voices of the saints saying words to a tune.

We say right things and true things, and we give them oomph when we put a tune to them.

And so that's why this morning's sermon title is Something to Sing About.

Because what do you do in a room or in a situation where words just aren't enough?

Put those words to a tune.

And you sing.

But before we get to the singing, we have to walk through some sorrow to show us what there is that is worth singing about.

And so, Revelation 5.

I have four headings this morning.

The first three I'll preach.

And then the last heading, I'm going to bring out the band in the choir, and we will sing through it together.

The first heading is the scroll.

The scroll.

Now, just to remind you, the scene that we're in, Revelation chapter 4 shifts scenes, and John, who is documenting Revelation for us, who's writing down all that he has seen, has been brought into a supernatural vision.

Revelation 4 · chapter mention

Revelation is a series of supernatural visions that John experiences, and Jesus has told him, write down everything that you experienced.

And in the first three verses, we see letters to churches that are both struggling, they're persecuted, and some of them are compromising.

And so chapters four and five link the first couple chapters with the latter half, where God's plan of redemption and justice comes to fruition.

And for those who are suffering, chapters four and five give great hope.

For those who are compromising, chapters four and five give great correction and encouragement to repent.

In chapter four, we experience the throne room of God where his bright glory is bursting forth from the center of the throne room with such beauty and grandeur and holiness that John can barely describe it in words.

And then there are four angels that are around the throne that worship him, and then 24 elders on thrones that surround them.

And we finished last week with them worshiping.

Well, now silence to some degree falls upon the throne room because of this scroll, verses 1 and 2.

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?

Now the scroll, what's interesting is in John's time you would have written on papyrus.

And papyrus was made of a plant that was stringy, sort of like celery, where you'd, you know, you could pull it in strips, sort of like string cheese, perhaps.

Maybe that helps.

And so it was stringy and grainy.

And so you when when you would paste it together, you would paste some of them this way, and then you would crisscross and paste some of them this way.

Well, you could sort of follow along that writing on one side with the grain would be easy when you flipped it over to write against the grain.

You know, if you were trying to write on celery that was stacked up like this, your pen would be bumping all over the place.

So they typically just wrote on the front side of papyrus.

But this scroll has writing on the front and the back, and the symbolism there is that it is full.

It has much to say, and the seven seals on it let us know that it is both important and that it is complete.

Now we will see in the following chapters what is in this scroll, namely, God's plan for both the protection and redemption of his people and the judgment of his enemies.

And so the question that the angel asks is of utmost importance.

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

Who is the one who is worthy to unfold the scroll so that we can see, and so that the plans of God might come to fruition?

It's a very important question.

And in verse 3, we hear a solemn answer.

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

The search is pretty vast.

No one in heaven, so no supernatural being, no angel, even of the highest orders.

No one on earth, so no living being, no pastor, no evangelist, nobody with a billion YouTube followers, or under the earth, meaning the place of the dead.

So not even the great heroes of the faith.

Not King David, not Queen Esther, not even Mary, the mother of Jesus, not Abraham.

Nobody is found worthy to open this scroll.

So that sort of causes me to ask the question well, what does it take to be worthy?

Is it strength?

Someone who's strong enough to break the seals?

Well, we have a mighty angel in verse 2 who's making the announcement, it surely can't be strength.

He would do it himself.

Is it position?

Well, we have 24 elders around the throne, all of them on thrones with crowns on their heads.

Surely one of these has position enough to open the scroll.

Is it greatness?

Someone who really made a splash for God while they were alive?

Well, the search even reaches under the earth.

Abraham, Moses, David, none of them.

Elijah, Isaiah, none are found worthy.

What about education?

Is it somebody who has enough education to read what's on the scroll?

No one is found worthy.

No one was able to open the scroll or look into it.

No.

I want you to feel the weight of what that news means and why John responds the way that he does.

The second heading is the sorrow.

So we have the scroll and then we have the sorrow.

And verse 4, I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.

The Greek is that he began to weep and weep and weep.

Perhaps you have been in a moment of great despair yourself or with someone, and it's not simply tears that are coming down your eyes, but sobs that that cause your chest to heave and rack your whole body.

This is what is happening to John.

Well, why such an emotional response?

No one being able to open the scroll, no one being worthy to open the scroll has horrifying ramifications.

Namely that both the redemptive purposes of God and the justice of God will never come to fruition.

John has just written letters to churches, churches like Smyrna, where he said, Do not fear what you're about to suffer.

Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, and you will be tested.

You will have trib tribulation.

But be faithful unto death.

Jesus says to them, and I will give you the crown of life.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.

These are the types of promises that John has just written.

If you endure, if you continue to hold on to Jesus and do not compromise, your death in this life will be worth it because you will not be hurt by the second death.

And now no one is worthy to open the scroll.

And so the redemption, the saving, the bringing of his people into heaven will not be accomplished.

And judgment on the enemies of God and justice for those who have been persecuted will never be meted out.

Some of you older saints, I have noticed with my parents and with others in our church that the older you get in Christ, often you are more eager to be home with Jesus.

And imagine today if news came down that there is no home with Jesus.

That's why John is racked with selfing.

And I just wanted to sit in that for a moment.

Imagine all of the martyrs who have laid down their lives for Jesus, who were burned at the stake for the cause of Christ.

Missionaries the world over.

Whose graves nobody knows where they're at.

Never having their deaths for the cause of Christ justified.

This is the sorrow that fills the throne room.

What is it then that will make someone worthy?

It's not strength or position or skill or education.

Worthiness is about enactment or the ability to do something.

So it's not just the person who can get the scroll open.

It's not somebody who's able to read it.

But it's somebody who can actually accomplish the plan that is written in the scroll.

And the plan requires two things.

It requires saving God's people and justice for his enemies.

Who is able to do these things?

Psalm 49 tells us that no one is able to rescue another, to redeem another.

I cannot lay down my life for you, for your sin, because I have sinned myself.

See, this is at the center of humanity's problem.

That sin, our choosing to do things our way instead of God's way, our desire to sit on the throne of our lives instead of allowing God to sit on the throne of our lives, is called sin.

And it breaks everything.

It breaks our relationships with one another, and it breaks our relationship with God.

And the consequences, rebellion against the holy God is so significant that the consequences of sin, just one, just one sin, the consequences of one sin is death.

Not only in this life, but in the life to come, in a place that the Bible calls the lake of fire.

And so in order to be brought back, to be reconciled to God, something has to happen, and we're incapable of doing it ourselves.

We can't be moral enough or give enough money to church or have enough marks on our attendance, church attendance sheet, or do enough do-gooding in the world to outweigh the balances of our sin problem.

And so whoever worthiness has to do first with saving people, bringing people back to God.

And worthiness also has to do with judgment, bringing justice to God's enemies.

Who will enact the plan?

And nobody raises their hand.

No one in heaven or on earth or under the earth.

And John weeps.

But then some of the sweetest words that you will ever hear in the Bible.

The scroll, the sorrow, thirdly, the solution.

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 he can open the scroll and its seven seals.

Now you may not recognize those names.

Perhaps you do.

We actually sang about them this morning.

Maybe you didn't know what they meant.

Our God is a lion.

The Lion of Judah.

Maybe you're like, I don't know.

What does that mean?

It's roaring with power.

If you go back to the book of Genesis, there is a prophecy that is given from Jacob to one of his sons.

See, the sons of Jacob end up being the twelve tribes of Israel, and one of them is Judah.

And to Judah he says, You are a lion, and the scepter, the king's staff, will never leave your tribe.

There's this prophecy over the tribe of Judah that Judah will be a lion, that there will be a king, that there will be a victor that will come from this people group.

And so for generations, the Israelite people waited for this king, this lion of Judah to come and to bring victory over their enemies and restoration to the people of God.

Well, perhaps you've heard of this man named King David.

He's the King David who conquered Goliath with a stone and a sling.

And he becomes the king of Israel, and he is from the tribe of Judah.

And so maybe this is the guy.

And David is plagued with, as much as he did good, he's plagued with sin.

And we realize quite quickly in the story that no, this is not the lion of Judah.

And the prophecies in Isaiah talk about the line of Judah, not lion, the line, the lineage of Judah being cut down to a stump.

So that hope for a lion coming out of Judah was slim to none.

But maybe you have seen before, maybe with one of those pesky stumps in your own yard, you cut it down, and then next spring there's a little green shoot that pops up between some of the cracks and crevices.

This stump that was cut down yet has life in it.

And that's the picture of the root of David.

So David's lineage cut down to a stump.

And yet this little root, this little sapling shows its life.

And of course, both of these references are to Jesus Christ, the second person in the Trinity, God, the Son.

Who comes from the tribe of Judah and is a lion.

I love that song.

Our God is a lion.

Lion of Judah.

He's roaring with power and fighting our battles.

Every knee will bow before him.

And so John is enlivened.

Perhaps the tears begin to dry up.

And then he turns and he looks, perhaps ready to see the lion who is ready to open the scroll.

And between the throne, verse 6, 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.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

I thought we were talking about the lion of Judah who has conquered.

What's with the lamb?

Who looks pretty pretty beat up.

The lamb as though it had been slain.

This is the great, what we're encountering here, brothers and sisters, is the great truth of the gospel and the great work of our risen Savior, Jesus Christ.

Now you can't try to put what John is seeing into a picture.

D.A.

Carson, one of the greatest New Testament scholars alive, says it's not that there are two creatures there, the lion and the lamb.

The point is the lion is the lamb.

He goes on to say one of the things apocalyptic literature does so well is mingle the metaphors.

So the aim is not that we would be able to draw this, that you would be able to go to your ten-year-old and say, hey, draw the lion lamb with seven horns and seven eyes.

Your 12-year-old would probably be like, Mom has fallen off her rocker.

The picture here is that the lion is the lamb.

And the lamb has seven horns, so this is a symbol of perfect power, omnipotence.

And the lamb has seven eyes, perfect knowledge, sight, omniscience.

And the lamb looks at his as if it had been slain.

And this is at the center of Christianity, namely that Jesus Christ is the Lion of Judah who has conquered, and the way that he has conquered is by becoming the slain lamb.

Not by ascending to a throne on this earth or coming with armies of heaven's angels, but by humbling himself.

Leaving heaven, putting on human flesh, living the perfect life that we could never live, and dying a perfect death as a substitute in our place.

Taking our sin upon himself and being crucified, put in the place of the enemies of God that we might be brought into his family by faith.

This is how the lion conquers as the lamb.

And the song picks up this theme in verse 9.

And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and 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.

This lion lamb is the hope of the world.

Because he is the only perfect one, sinless one who is able to enact God's plan for redemption.

Because he is sinless, he is able to lay his life down as payment for your sin and bring you back to God and into his family.

And because he is the righteous one, and because he did not stay dead in the grave, he's standing there.

That's part of what John intends us to see.

I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain.

So past tense, slain.

Present tense, standing, alive.

And righteous.

The only one worthy of bringing about God's justice in the world.

So what does this mean for us?

A couple things.

The first thing is this.

I don't know what it is that brought you here today.

But the only hope that any of us has of escaping what the Bible calls the second death, hell, the lake of fire.

The only hope that any of us has is to place our faith in this lion lamb.

The lion of the tribe of Judah who has overcome who has conquered by laying down his life for you.

The only pathway, let me say it as clearly as possible.

The only pathway is to have our sins forgiven, our relationship with God restored, and the hope of heaven is to repent of our sins, say to God, I'm sorry, I don't want to live this way anymore.

I am sorry for putting myself on the throne of life when you should have been on the throne.

And to place your faith, your trust in the finished work of Jesus.

Yes, I believe that Jesus Christ did die and that his sacrifice on the cross is sufficient to forgive all of my sins.

And I believe that he rose again as the down payment that I will one day rise and be brought into heaven with him.

That's your only hope.

Not only in this life, but for sure in the next.

And so if you're here today and you're not a follower of Jesus, I just I want to invite you to know him today.

To place your faith in him today.

You don't have to say any magic words or do anything, you know, special.

You can just talk to God.

You might say something like, God, I'm so sorry for living the way that I do.

I'm so sorry for wanting to be in control.

For doing things my way instead of your way.

I don't have all the answers yet.

But I trust you.

Would you forgive me of my sins?

And would you bring me into your family?

And God will do it.

So maybe that's you today.

And you need to respond to the work of the lion lamb.

And maybe you're here today.

And the question is, what do I maybe you are a Christian.

And the question is, what do I what do I do with this?

One of the there there are many things.

There are many things to do.

I want to encourage you with just one of them.

Namely to follow in the pathway of Jesus Christ who wins through suffering.

I don't quite understand how Christians would think that you can follow in Jesus' footsteps and avoid suffering.

That makes no sense, logically.

That we would follow our teacher, follow our master, and to say, I'm glad you suffered.

It's not for me, bud.

I was thinking this week, I was away at a pastor's conference, and I was thinking of what are if if I when I'm done at CBC, when the Lord takes me home or calls me elsewhere, and this is one of the questions that was posed.

What would your congregation say about you that were some of the most important things?

One of them, I hope, and if you've been around here for the last year as I've taken in the preaching responsibilities, I think one of them you could probably say confidently is that we have a good theology of suffering.

That is how the lion conquered and it is how his kingdom moves forward.

In little ways and in big ways.

It might be sharing Jesus with my neighbor makes me really uncomfortable.

Great.

You get to follow in the footsteps of your master.

And for some of you it may be that following Jesus costs you your life.

And this is why Paul tells us that we can have joy in all of our afflictions because this life is not the end.

And so the question I have for all of you is how will you follow your master in the pathway of suffering until the realities of Revelation 5 come to fruition.

You have ransomed people by your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation.

And there are yet, as I prayed earlier, over three billion people in the world who do not yet know that Jesus paid the price for their sins.

Can you imagine?

Imagine the news.

The news that just came into the throne room is don't cry anymore.

You don't have to cry anymore.

Because the Lion of the tribe of Judah and the root of David has conquered.

He has conquered sin and death.

You don't have to cry anymore.

There is forgiveness for your sins, and there is a way back into communion with God.

This is cause for great rejoicing.

And three billion people in the world don't have the Bible in their language.

And so they don't know.

No missionary has yet gone to their land to learn their language, to row to their village.

This is part of why John weeps.

This is part of what drives me.

I believe with all of my heart that there are some in this room who will give your life to overseas missions.

So that every tribe and tongue and nation and people will be realized.

Can you imagine being the one bringing that news to somebody's ears for the first time?

Being the one to say, you don't have to be, you don't have to cry anymore.

You don't have to be in bondage to the weight, the unbearable weight of Islam anymore.

There is one who has overcome.

Who can forgive your sins and bring you back into relationship with God and you will live with him forever.

Because it's not good enough for me to just tell you what happens next.

Like I mentioned earlier, there are moments in life that demand more than words.

That demand more than talking, even much loud talking.

You know, sometimes when I get loud, it's helpful.

But there are moments that require more than that, that require instruments that even more so require singing.

For us to take right things and good things and glorious things and put them to a tune and shout them from the top of our lungs.

And this is one of those moments.

When this news breaks in the heavenly throne room, it is a massive juxtaposition to just what happened.

There's so much sadness and there's so much mourning because no one is worthy to open the scroll.

But then, as this news comes, weep no more, for the lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered.

He is worthy to take the scroll and open its seals.

Here's what happens next.

This is the fourth heading.

The singing.

So we have the scroll, the sorrow, the solution, and finally the singing.

And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and 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.

Me reading it out loud just doesn't quite get it done, does it?

So why don't we stand together?

And the band and the choir will help us begin to turn this corner.

To turn this corner from sorrow that is in the throne room to joy that is in the throne room, because the lion of the tribe of Judah has overcome.

Let's lift our voices together and sing of the one who is worthy.

Now you would think that that was enough.

But it's not enough in heaven.

Then I look.

So the first song is the players we've already heard.

The four creatures around the throne and the twenty-four elders.

Not enough.

Not enough for this news.

A little bit more.

Verse 11.

Then I looked and heard around the throne.

And the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering myriads and myriads and thousands of thousands.

Try and draw it.

Goodness gracious.

And they're saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who is slain.

To receive power and wealth.

And wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

So this is how the crescendo works.

And so my encouragement, it kind of in the back.

So I can't quite hear you guys.

And so we gotta we gotta follow the pathway of heaven here a little bit louder as we think the revelation is worthy of the land.

Let's sing it on a straight head.

At the message of your name, Jesus, the name is power, but he wants such a modest name to be bugging.

Like we did at the beginning.

Some of you weren't in the room.

But it doesn't stop there.

I heard a voice.

And I heard a creature.

Every creature.

So it's not enough.

The four angels around the throne in the 24 hours.

We need more.

Myriads and myriads and thousands and thousands of angels.

And I heard, John says, verse 13.

Every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them.

Say, To him who sits on the throne and to the land, be blessing, and honor, and glory, and might forever and ever.

And the four living creatures said, Amen.

Let it be.

And the elders fell down and worshiped.

I've been in a couple rooms, not my own, but in other people's homes, with really good surround sound.

It does not compare to what John is experiencing when he can't describe what his ears and what his heart are exploding with.

When he he says he can't see it, he surely can't see it.

Everything in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is within them are singing blessing and honor and glory and power be to the Lamb.

And so, this is so we have choir with this.

This is kind of choir rehearsal.

This is rehearsal for that day.

And I would just challenge you.

There are more people who don't yet know the song.

And it is the responsibility given to the church to reach them, both in our neighborhoods, until and to the ends of the earth, until the gospel and the Bible and a healthy church are within reach of every one, everywhere.

So let's not just sing it today, though I want you to sing it with all of your heart and all of your might, but let's sing it with our lives.

That there is one who has overcome the lion of the lamb who has been slain to redeem people from every tribe and language and nation and town.

Let's sing it.

And every knee will bow before the head.

For the sins of the world, his blood breaks the chains, and everything will bow before the lion and the lamb.

Everything will bow before him.

Open up the gates, make break before the kid up the guard of the state.

I thought it was the light.

Everything will fall before the body.

God, we thank you.

We proclaim your greatness and your worth.

And God, we thank you so much for these pictures in the book of Revelation we see of what's happening around your throne room, God.

May we carry it in our hearts today as we go.

God.

May we connect with you.

God, we worship you.

God, we say you are worthy.

You are the only one worthy of giving our praise.

God, may we put you first in our lives this week, God.

And may we receive boldness from your spirit to share the purpose and the hope that we have because of what Jesus, the Lion of the Lamb, has done for us.

God, would you transform us as we go this morning, God?

We thank you so much.

We pray all these things, God, in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Thank you, Jesus.

There will be people up to pray to pray with you if you want someone to pray with you.