Sermon Tone Analysis

Title:        Who Is Worthy.

Text:        Revelation 5:1-14.

CIT: Jesus, the Lamb of God, the Lion of Judah is worthy of worship.

\\ Theme:            God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are the only entities in the universe worthy of worship.

Purpose:  Worship~/Praise~/Salvation.

Introduction

 

        One of the great tragedies of English fiction was published in 1623 — Shakespeare’s /Macbeth/.

Near the end the queen, Macbeth’s wife, dies.

By this time Macbeth has so lost his conscience that he was unable to feel anything.

He tells of his weariness in the following lines:

 

  Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

  Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

  To the last syllable of recorded time;

  And all of our yesterdays have lighted fools

  The way to dusty death.

Out, out brief candle

  Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

  That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

  And then is heard no more.

It is a tale

  Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

  Signifying nothing.

Four hundred years later, many people still agree with Macbeth.

History has no pattern.

History has no goal.

As Solomon would say in Ecclesiastes, /“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”/

The Christian view, the biblical view is that God has a plan, He has a script for the future of the universe.

In Revelation 5, we find a scroll written on both sides which emphasizes this as clearly as any passage in God’s Word.

In our Scriptures, we see God’s plan unfolding.

Jesus knows all about the breaking the seals and all that is to come.

He is in charge of making sure God’s plan is carried out.

We see something else in this chapter, God’s plan includes Jesus, the Lion of Judah, the Lamb of God at the very center of all that is happening in God’s plan.

I invite you to travel this road with me this morning noticing “Who Is Worthy.”

Notice first,

I.  The Scroll and the Seals (Rev 5:1-7).

/And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals.

Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?”

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

/So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it.

But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep.

Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.”/

/And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.

/

 

       Do you feel the drama building around the throne concerning the Savior and the scroll.

In these verses John identifies the scroll and he emphasizes its importance.

The scroll contains the events of the Tribulation period, and is the summary of what God is going to do in human history to bring it to an end.

First, see

 

       a.

The Identity of the Scroll.

The scroll is not given a title.

Scholars have debated exactly what the scroll represents.

Some say it is God’s last will and testament.

There can be little question in my mind that the scroll is God’s Judgment Scroll.

It contains His plans to condemn wickedness and reward righteousness.

God has a plan, a purpose and its written on this scroll.

We can also learn something of its identity as the scroll was described as: (1) Being written on both sides, which tells us it contained a lot of information; (2) It was sealed with seven seals, which tells us it was an important document and it was private.

b.

The Importance of the Scroll.

The scroll contains much more than the seven seal judgments that we read about in chapter 6.

When you are reading through Revelation 6, you will find that when the seventh seal is opened, it reveals the seven trumpet judgments of which the last one announces seven vials or last plagues to be poured out upon the earth.

The scroll actually contains everything that is shown to us in Revelation 6 through 22.

 

       Also see that God didn’t let just anyone make this pronouncement, He used a /“mighty angel”/ which implies the importance of the message.

The /“mighty angel” /also spoke with a /“loud” /voice.

Loud voices are mentioned in other places in Revelation to denote the importance of what is being said.

The importance of the scroll.

I think the greatest importance of the scroll is to point out that only One person in all the universe is worthy to open and read its contents.

The angel said in a loud voice, /“Who is worthy.”

/  Then we are told that /“No man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth” /can unseal the book.

No historian can foretell it.

Nor spiritualist nor astrologist can tell it.

No religious leader has had it revealed to him.

The sadness of it all leads John to literally cry until an elder points out the Lamb.

c.

The Introduction of the Savior.

One of the elders urges John not to cry because there is One who is worthy and can remove the seals, the Lamb.

The Lamb is found the center of everything.

In the very midst of the throne, the four living creatures, and the twenty-four elders.

Can I say, Jesus is still the center of everything.

Amen.

Look with me and see:

 

                1.

He Is The Lion.

In describing Christ as the /“Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David” /the elder is referring to the Messianic promise given to Judah in Genesis 48:10.

/The scepter shall not depart from Judah,/

/Nor a lawgiver from between his feet,/

/Until Shiloh comes;/

/And to Him shall be the obedience of the people./

The One to whom the scepter belongs, the Messiah, comes from the Tribe of Judah.

Jesus Christ, the Messianic Lion of Judah, will reign over all the earth.

He is the Lion.

Then,

 

                2.

He is the Lamb.

What a paradox: Lion and Lamb.

It is as the Lamb where Jesus’ power is revealed.

Notice, that this Lamb is an unusual looking Lamb.

This Lamb has seven horns, which speak of His omnipotence, His power.

He also has seven eyes which represents the seven fold Spirit of God.

Words cannot give credence to who Jesus really is.

Next see:

 

 

II.

The Savior and the Song (5:8-14).