A Worthy Kingdom

In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

Worthy is one of those words that is hard to describe. In a simple definition it would mean to have worth, but worth is subjective to the people. A Lamborghini might be worth $250,000 to someone but it isn’t worth that to me. I have many other ways to use a quarter of a million dollars.

In Revelation 5, hundreds of thousands of angels, living creatures, and elders were celebrating Jesus and shouting, “Worthy is the Lamb” referring, of course, to Jesus Christ. As we approach Easter we begin to think more about the suffering of Christ and His resurrection. Revelation 5 provides a vivid contrast of Jesus on the Cross 2021 years ago. Then the people were cursing, spitting, throwing things, and demanding His death. In Revelation we see Jesus as worthy of all power, honor, and glory.

A closer look at the meaning of the word in Greek shows us that it means that Jesus is deserving, dignified, considerable, and worthy of respect. What a contrast to our greatest leaders today who fail to deliver promises, insert their feet into their mouths, prove to be living double lives, or lack integrity.

Fortunately, Jesus can be trusted with our respect and admiration. He is deserving beyond what we even know or can comprehend!

Kingdom-mindedness Recognizes Jesus as Worthy

When we recognize Jesus as worthy, we are operating with a Kingdom Mind.

Jesus, who died for thy sins, is worthy to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. We can never ascribe too much to Jesus. But He is worthy also to be believed, in preference to Satan, unbelief, the world, or appearances; to be trusted with all, for all, before all; to be loved more than any other, in opposition to any that would rival Him;... to be followed, wherever He may lead us, through evil report or good report; to be preferred to ease, pleasure, wealth, health, to anything and everything. Jesus is worthy to be our example, our confidant, our king, and our all. He is worthy of all He requires, all we can give, all His people have done for Him or suffered in His cause.[1]

Yesterday I bought gas for $2.59 a gallon. Just 2 months ago it was 60-70 cents cheaper. The stock market is up and down. Plywood is worth more now than ever and TV’s are becoming so cheap they are almost disposable. But the Leader of the Kingdom of God is worthy of all.

Jesus is not worthy because of what He does – miracles, life, light, door, healer, etc. Winkie Pratney puts it this way,

“God’s right to rule our lives is not founded in His eternal power, creation priority, or ability to save, gift or love us. It is founded on who he is, not what He does.”

King David wrote:

Psalm 27:4 NIV

One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.

Psalm 93:1 NIV

The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength; indeed, the world is established, firm and secure.

In Paul’s words…

Philippians 3:8–11 NIV

What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Those are powerful expressions! Paul is trying to pass on to us the passion that says “I want to know Christ!” This is first and foremost. Certainly, there are many blessings that come by knowing Christ but the 1st and greatest is that we understand that He is worthy because of who He is – nothing on earth compares.

The Kingdom of God is worthy of our time, talents, and treasures.

Jesus is Worthy of Our Time

We all realize that time is valuable. If you are like most people, you are working at least 40 hours a week. Some of you put in up to 70-80 hours a week. In addition to the demands of work on our time, there are responsibilities to your families, friends, church, school, and more. In fact, using your time wisely is one of the biggest challenges in our lives.

Pick up your phone. If you have an Iphone go to Settings/Screen time. What is your average per day? How much TV are you watching? See what I mean? Managing time is difficult (and you lost an hour last night).

In one of Jesus’ parables, He tells the story of a bunch of people that didn’t give the Master the time of day by refusing to attend a banquet…

Matthew 22:2–10 NIV

“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Hey, we get it. There are a lot of other things going on. Our lives demand our time. But, if we are not making time in our lives to spend time with Jesus, to know Jesus more, and to worship Jesus… aren’t we doing the same thing that the no-good guests did to the king in this parable?

Jesus is Worthy of Our Talents

In the book of Matthew chapter 25, Jesus describes the Kingdom of God as imminent (Parable of the Ten Virgins) and missional (Parable of the Talents). By missional I mean that the Master expected the servants to be investing their bags of gold (talents).

In a quick summary, the master of an estate gives his servants different sums of money based on his expectations for that servant. The servant was then expected to invest that sum and make a profit. “In the Roman Empire slaves could earn wages and bonuses and acquire property hence they would have more incentive to look out for the master’s property than slaves in many cultures do.”[2]

The first two servants do well,

Matthew 25:16–17 NIV

The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more.

But, the 3rd guy decides to be lazy and just bury the money in the ground. When the master returned, he gave him back his money and a backhanded compliment…

Matthew 25:24–25 NIV

“Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

Things did not go well for him. The master was furious…

Matthew 25:28–30 NIV

“ ‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Jesus is worthy of our talents and He has invested in each of us. He has invested us into our families, our workplaces, our communities, and into our church. What are we doing with the investments that He has given us?

Worthy of Our Treasures

The Kingdom is like a treasure in a field.

Matthew 13:44 NIV

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

Imagine a man who's out digging in a field - someone else's field - and he hears a clunk. He digs around a little bit more, and there really is something there. He puts down his mattock, picks up his spade, and clears away all the dirt. And what he sees is the top of a chest. He looks around, but there's nobody there. He starts to get excited. So he digs all round till he can open the lid. And when he does, he just about falls over backwards. It's got gold and silver and diamonds and rubies and emeralds and sapphires. This treasure will bring him immeasurable wealth. He covers it back up, races into town, places his house on the market, places his car on the market, sells his Harley and his boat. He doesn't care what it takes: He's got to have that field, because he's got to have that treasure. Do you know what that tells me? It tells me that when the Kingdom of God is our treasure it becomes an all-consuming passion. (Mat 13:44)

When we get to the point that we realize the worthiness of Jesus, we willfully surrender our time, talents, and treasures for being in the Kingdom of God.

Let Our Voices Sing, “Worthy is the Lamb”

Malcom Muggeridge began his professional life believing in the promise of communism. He gave up that dream in the 1930’s. A little more than 30 years later he gave his life to Christ in 1969. He wrote:

Thinking of Jesus, I suddenly understand that I know nothing...and for some reason begin to laugh hilariously, which brings me to the realization that I understand everything I need to understand.

I hope to one day be a part of Revelation 5 declaring,

Revelation 5:12 NIV

In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

The Kingdom of God was the primary message of Jesus. It is a worthy Kingdom and He is a worthy KIng. It was the message that He wanted to convey to the people of Israel and His followers. Did they comprehend? Do we, as His disciples today, comprehend?

Because He is worthy, He has a right to our time, talent, treasures – to all of our lives!

In Mary Gautreaux’s book, Kingdom Minded, she describes going to a piano music recital. Of course, there is a big difference between someone who just started learning and someone who is a master. The piano under the hands of a master comes alive and seems to have a life of its own. The same is true when we allow the most worthy, Jesus, to have our lives.

Romans 12:1–2 NIV

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

I want to share with you these thoughts from Mary’s book:

Each of us have just two choices in life. The first is to keep letting the world play us. We can drift along and let life happen, pretending that we are the ruler of our own life, the king or queen on the throne of our own hearts. We can be afraid to trust God. We can refuse to surrender anything to God and let our moods and feelings and circumstances dictate our actions. This kind of life results in chaos and discord. It sounds like a terrible mess because it is a terrible mess; so much potential wasted.

The excellent choice is to let the Master play. He is the One who made us; He is the One who knows best and can see perfectly where we have come from and where we are going. He is truly the most qualified to run our lives. He can take everything He fashioned inside of each of us and use it for the highest good of others, and, more importantly, for His glory. We must choose to let Him transform us into His own image, as we were created to be.

[1] Smith, James. Daily Remembrances. www.sermonsearch.com. Accessed March 10, 2021.

[2] Keener, C. S. (1997). Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 25:14). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

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