← ArchiveHidden RevealedThe Worthy One (Revelation 5:1-14)DateSeptember 18, 2022SpeakerJared MitchellTextRevelation 5:1–14Passages in this sermonJohn 3:162:39Revelation 54:41Philippians 221:39Matthew 725:29Revelation 4:827:15Ephesians 228:211 Peter 128:351 Peter 229:022 Corinthians 5:1735:30TranscriptMachine transcribed. Click any line to jump there.0:00Music playing. Music playing.0:30Music playing. Well, good morning, church family.1:00It is a joy to gather together today. And it's an honor for me to be able to stand up here before you and to be able to preach the word of God for us. My name is Jared, and I'm the worship pastor here. And today we get the opportunity, by God's grace, to do the things that we do every single Sunday when we gather. As we get to fellowship together, we get to pray together,1:26we get to sing together, and now we have the opportunity to study God's word together. And I'm so thankful, as always, to Matt and the band and the praise team and the choir for leading us in worship so well. And I know that every Sunday that I have the opportunity to preach, I mention that, but that's because there's never a Sunday that I am not so thankful1:53that we have worship leaders here that are faithful to serve week in and week out, and we are grateful. So if you've been here the last few weeks, you know that we're in a sermon series through the book of Revelation. And there's this moment on our church staff and in our church office when Pastor Josh walks into the office and he asks you if you want to preach.2:18And you get excited, but you also start to get a little nervous. Because if you know Pastor Josh, you know that you really never know where he may ask you to preach from. And I've got to be honest, these text assignments are not getting any easier. I'm waiting on John 3.16, but I'm afraid it may never come. But in all reality, I'm thankful that we have a church2:45and we have a pastor that leads us by preaching through the entirety of the Bible. And we're challenged here on Sundays to even look at the hard books and to deal with hard passages. And we challenge ourselves to deal with hard things because we believe that the closer we look at this book, the closer we look at the Bible,3:14the greater we will see Christ. And I hope that you've been paying attention over the last two weeks as we've begun to study the first few chapters. And our goal in studying this book and our goal today is to put Jesus front and center. So today we'll be in chapter five, but as I have studied over this last week, I keep going back to chapter one,3:42where Jesus has put front and center from the very beginning in chapter one, which reads, to the seven churches in Asia, grace and peace to you from the one who is, who was, and who is to come, from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth, to him who loves us and has set us free from our sins by his blood4:11and made us a kingdom and a priest to his God and father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. I believe that Charles Spurgeon said it best when he said, what will we preach about but Christ? And what would we sing about but Christ? Who would we read about but Christ? And who would we live for but Christ? So today we'll be in Revelation chapter five and we're going to get a whole lot of Jesus.4:41And I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want it any other way. Let's pray together. God, we are thankful to gather together as this body of believers and we are thankful to be able to fellowship, to pray and to sing and now to study your word. And all together we declare that you are worthy of all of the praise and all of the glory.5:08And now, as we open your word, would you open up our eyes to see? Would you open up our minds to understand? Would you open up our hearts to receive? God, we thank you for your son Jesus who died on a cross for our sins. So that if we repent of our sin and we put our faith in him, then we could be adopted as sons and daughters. So God, we thank you.5:39We believe that you are good and we trust you. We pray this in the name of Jesus and we all say, amen. Amen. Now, I want to tell you a little story. A few weeks ago, I was hanging out with my daughter Presley and we were hanging out at our house and we were downstairs in our craft room and she was working on this little craft with construction paper. I think she was making a camera. So she has her scissors and her markers6:08and for about 30 minutes, she's going to town on this and she gets to this point where she wants to cut a hole in the middle of it because this is where she's going to put her eye, like when she takes our family portraits, right? So she can see. And she starts to go a little too fast and before you know it, she cuts the entire thing in half. And it's this moment, right? Where you see your child start to understand what has just happened but as the parent, you're way ahead of the situation, right?6:38Like you know what is coming. So the clock is ticking. Presley looks down. She understands what she has just done and she loses it. She starts to cry out, Daddy, my camera, the construction paper, my camera is ruined. I need you to come and fix it. So real quickly, I run over there and I try to put some tape on it7:07but she's real clear, no, no, no, no, no, tape will not fix this. So she calls out, go get mommy, she'll fix it. So I try to tell her that even her mom will not be able to fix it like she wants to but she insists. Well, somebody's got to fix this problem. Who is going to fix it? So a couple minutes go by and I finally convince her to let me fix it with some tape and she plays with it7:36and it's not really what it should be and I think she knows that. Like she's playing with it but she keeps looking down at that tape that we've put to fix this mistake and she knows that it's not what it should be. So church, let me just ask you the question. Do we ever do this with our lives? That we see brokenness around us or we see brokenness in us and we just try to put some tape on it8:06and we live with it for a little bit but we know that because of our brokenness, our lives are not what they should be. So today in Revelation with Jesus front and center, I believe that we're going to see our problem, our sin, we'll see our brokenness and I pray that we would see a solution that is far greater than any quick fix that we could ever make on our own and that we would respond with worship and faith.8:36So join me in chapter 5, verse 1. This is what John writes about what he has seen. Starting in verse 1, Then I saw in the right hand of the one seated on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides sealed with seven seals. I also saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice,9:03Who is worthy to open this scroll and break its seals? But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open this scroll or to even look at it. Verse 4, So I wept and I wept because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to even look at it. Now to this point in Revelation, the Lamb has not yet made an appearance, but the text is setting up for the Lamb to come9:32and take center stage. But early in these verses, our eyes are drawn to a scroll. And it is in the hands of the one that is sitting on the throne. This scroll, it has writing on both sides. It is sealed shut and it is to be seen by no one. And if we could put ourselves in this scene, that when the judge is on the throne and he has a scroll in his hands,10:02there's a desperate desire to know what it says. We've seen this play out in life. You have that scene in the courtroom where the judge is handed a piece of paper and more than likely this piece of paper is going to determine someone's future. So there's a desperate desire all across the courtroom. People are waiting for that piece of paper to be peeled back and for the words to be read. So in this text,10:31we see that the one on the throne has this scroll. But it's not that he's holding it tightly for it to never be opened, but he's holding it out in his right hand for someone to take and open. This is a big moment. So John is looking around and he hears this question. Who is worthy to come and open this scroll?10:59Who can do it? So he's waiting for someone to jump up. Surely there is someone that can open this scroll. But as the question is asked, he is met with silence. And I imagine that this is one of those times that the silence is deafening. And as the silence is drawn out, you can see that there is despair11:29starting to fill his heart. And then we see John let out this emotion that he wept and he wept because there was no one found worthy to open this scroll. There was no one found worthy to even look at it. And this is a problem for all of humanity. And it seems that there is no solution. So John weeps.11:58And maybe you can relate. Like when my daughter, on a small scale, she breaks this little camera and she weeps and asks the question, who can fix this? You look around. You look at the news. You open up your phone. You look at social media. And you see the world around you and you weep. And you ask the question, who can fix this? Because every day, we wake up in a broken world12:28and we ask the question, is there anyone? Just recently, I have friends that are in Memphis. and just last week, they had to lock themselves in their homes because there was a shooting happening in their very neighborhood. And I have friends who are pastors in Ukraine that I've been able to serve with and over the last six months, they have not only lost their church,12:58but they've lost everything. I have friends that I've served with in Haiti and right now, they're working in this orphanage and they don't know where their next meal is coming from. And I hear these stories and it makes me want to weep. And I know that all across this room, we look at our own lives and we walk through seasons of suffering and we weep. We get a scary diagnosis or we have a hurting family member.13:27We have a broken relationship. I know that the list could go on, but it's not lost on me that there are hurts all across this room and even if we don't say it out loud, we're asking in our heart, is there anyone that can fix this? Because we live in a broken and fallen world and we are prone to ask the question, is there anyone? And if we're honest13:56as believers in the room, if we're honest with ourselves, we know what the Bible says. We know that Jesus is the solution to our problems, but do we believe it? Does this truth change us? Because we have it in our heads, but do we believe it in our hearts? And don't miss this, that this is the question14:26that all of Scripture is asking. And this is the answer that all of Scripture is pointing to. And just look at the books of the Bible that we've been able to study here as a church over the last year to a year and a half. About a year and a half ago, we looked at the book of Exodus and they cried out asking, is there anyone that can save us and lead us out from this wilderness? We looked at the book of Judges14:55and they cried out saying, is there any king, if any king, that could save us from ourselves? And we looked at the book of Ruth and Ruth and Naomi in the midst of their suffering, they asked the question, is there any man that can save our family? We went to the New Testament, we looked at the Gospel of John and we saw even the disciples look at Jesus and they asked the question, is he really the one that can save us?15:24Church, listen, you are not alone when you ask this question. That in your deepest, in your darkest moments, when you ask, is there anyone that can help? You are not alone. But praise be to the Lord that in the midst of this question that our hearts long for, that all of creation longs for, there is an answer.15:54There is a solution. There is a savior. His name is Jesus. And here he comes in revelation as the lion-like lamb and we are going to see together that he is worthy. So verse five, read with me. John weeps. And then he writes, verse five, then one of the elders said to me, do not weep. Don't weep.16:25Don't weep. Rather look, the lion from the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered so that he is able to open the scroll and its seven seals. So let's make something clear before we move on that the question here is not who is willing. Of course, some may be willing. When we ask the question, is anyone willing to fix our problems,16:53anyone may jump up from the world and say, yeah, I can. But the question here is not who is willing. Rather, the question is who is worthy? And there is only one. And I can only imagine John's emotions and the comfort that follows when he hears these words, don't weep, John. Don't weep, it's okay. And how comforting it is for us,17:24believer, when God says to us, Jared, don't weep. Christian, it's okay. Look at Jesus. Because church, when we fix our eyes on Christ, everything changes. Your life, your circumstances, your problems, your worldview, it all changes. And the reality17:54is that some of us need to stop worrying about tomorrow and we need to fix our eyes on Christ today. Because when you see your life through the lens of Jesus, everything around you will start to look different. And everything on the outside starts to change when we allow the Lord to change us on the inside. So John here is, he's told to look,18:23so he looks and he sees the one who is worthy. and he doesn't only see the one who is worthy, but he sees why he is worthy. And this is important. In our faith, this is where things start to change for us. This is where we start to take this answer that we know to be true,18:51that Jesus is the solution, and we take this truth from our heads to our hearts when we get to the why. Why is Jesus worthy? And the way that we answer this question has eternal ramifications in our lives. So we ask the question together, why is Jesus worthy?19:19So John is told to look and he looks and the image that he sees is the image of a slaughtered lamb. Verse six, he says, then I saw one like a slaughtered lamb standing in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God19:48of God sent into all the earth. And then verse seven, here's the key verse. And he went and he took the scroll out of the right hand of the one seated on the throne. And this is important here. Because this isn't just any lamb who is standing, but this is a lamb that has been slaughtered and is still standing. Praise the Lord. Because anything that is typically slaughtered20:18never lives to see another day. But we know that this lamb is different. This slaughtered lamb in the midst of the elders, he goes before the throne and he takes the scroll. He takes it out of the right hand of the one seated on the throne. But don't miss this, the one on the throne was glad to give it to him. This slaughtered lamb20:47is Jesus Christ. He is our conquering king. Though while he died on a cross for our sin, death did not hold him down. And he conquered death through his resurrection from the dead. And as a lamb he was slaughtered. But now he stands tall over the curse of death and this is why. This is what makes him21:17worthy to open the scroll. And God was happy to hand the scroll over to him because this is the relationship between the father and the son. Paul writes about this relationship in Philippians chapter 2 starting in verse 6. Paul writes this, Jesus who existing21:46who existing in the form of God did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant and taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even to death on a cross. Now before we read verse 9 remember that just as God was happy22:16was happy to hand the scroll over, verse 9, for this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name so that 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 God the Father. Jesus the Son is worthy to open the scroll22:45to the glory of God the Father. Praise the Lord and for us for the believer this lamb that was slain this conquering king he is our savior he is our friend he is our Messiah he's good and we can trust him. Let this truth23:15sink into your hearts let this truth change the way you live that the one who was able to stand in the midst of the elders the one that could go before the throne and take the scroll for the believer he knows us and we know him. this is big this is big stuff I remember a few years23:43ago I was able to go to a concert with some friends and the people that I was with they were able to get us backstage after the show to meet the artists so I was really excited about this so after the show was over we make our way backstage and we're about to go back there and of course I'm the one that they get stopped and they look at me and say excuse me sir what do you think you're doing here and you know it's in this moment where I24:13completely freeze up I don't know what to say and I'll never forget it though my friends who I was with looked back and they said oh yeah that's Jared he's good he can come yeah we know him he can come with us and it's this moment that to be honest I felt a lot cooler than I really was because I I couldn't believe that I had access to go because of the people that I knew but a few years24:42later as I think back on this story what I think was really important was that they knew me that they turned around and they looked at me and said that's Jesus I mean that's Jared I know him not Jesus I'm far from it far from it but they looked back and they said yeah we know him he can come in a much greater sense believer we know the king of kings and he25:12and he knows us he goes before us we are with him and he is with us and I would suggest to you that there's no one greater to know than the king of kings and how I pray for you what we see in Matthew 7 don't stand before the father one day and him look at you and say do we know each other me and you I mean I know that I know that25:42you went to church and you did some bible studies but do I know you church enter into a relationship with Jesus and let it change your life and would we let this text remind us of what he has done for us and let it drive us to our knees in worship and thankfulness verse 8 says when he took the scroll the four living creatures and the 2426:12elders fell down before the lamb and each one had a harp and golden bowls filled with incense which are the prayers of the saints and then verse 9 says they sang a new song that you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals again why is he worthy right here because you were slaughtered and you purchased people for God by your blood from every tribe and language and people and26:41people and nation you made them a kingdom and a priest to our God and they will reign on the earth again we say praise the Lord and then we see this dynamic shift in the worship here because in chapter 4 just one page earlier one chapter earlier the creatures were around the throne they were worshiping the one on the throne saying holy holy holy lord god27:11lord god the almighty who was who is and who is to come revelation 4 8 but now in chapter 5 these same creatures they shift their worship to the son and earlier they asked the question who is worthy they put their eyes on Jesus and they proclaim you are worthy and this is the why this is the wonder of the gospel that we sinners could27:41sinners could do nothing to save ourselves that our situation was hopeless and I just I just want us to understand the why of his worthiness because it is vital to our relationship with him and then this relationship becomes personal for us it's not just some story that we read about once a week but it is personal and it changes every day and every second28:10every second of our lives because when Jesus purchased people by God for his blood believer he is talking about you Ephesians 2 believer you were dead in your sin but God has made you alive in Christ 1st Timothy Paul writes that Jesus came into this world to save sinners of which I am the worst 1st Peter chapter 1 Peter writes blessed be the God28:40God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead so what happens what happens when our hearts truly grasp this in 1st Peter chapter 2 he writes like newborn infants you will desire the pure milk of the word so29:10so that by it you may grow up into your salvation if you have tasted that the Lord is good so what is Peter telling us when our hearts truly grasp what Jesus has done for us when we repent and we put our faith in him we are saved we are sanctified we are justified and we will look forward to the day that we are glorified and it is all because of the work of Christ and Christ29:40Christ alone so when we truly understand what Jesus has done for us something changes in us and our lives will never look the same so so as we look at our lives and in the midst of our suffering when we ask the question that we are prone to ask can anyone fix this let30:09let us open up our eyes to the reality that believer we have seen the worthy one and like first Peter says if you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good you have seen the worthy one so would you give your life to Christ because we have seen the worthy one through his word30:39word praise be to the Lord and then in verse 11 as we round out this passage he writes then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and also the living creatures and other elders and their number was countless thousands plus thousands of thousands and they said with a loud voice worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power31:08power power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing and then he takes it to another level and says I heard every creature in heaven on earth under the earth on the sea and everything in them this is literally every being throughout the entire history of the world saying blessing and honor and glory and power be to the one that31:38that is seated on the throne and to the lamb forever and ever and the four living creatures said amen and the elders fell down and they worshipped him this lamb this is Jesus this is the root of David the lion of Judah the lamb and he was a lamb as32:08as he suffered at the hands of men as he died as he was slaughtered but he was a lion as he reigned in glory as he conquered death and he rose up in triumphant resurrection and now he goes before us he goes on our behalf Hebrews tells us that he is interceding for us before God the father before the32:38the believer when you stand there one day and if you're asked the question sir what are you doing here ma'am what are you doing here Jesus is going to look back at you and say oh yeah I know him I know her they're good they can come and church that's the only answer that we need that he knows us so this is the theme of our worship this is the theme of33:08of our preaching this is the theme of our mission our homes our families worthy worthy is the lamb who was slain because we live in this world in this culture that is trying to tell us that there are so many things that are worthy of our time so many things that are worthy of our thoughts things that are worthy of our worship but church we33:38we know there is only one his name is Jesus and there is no other earlier I told the story of my daughter who she accidentally broke her little craft and she looked up at me and asked me to fix it I tried to fix it with this tape and she looked up and said daddy that's not going to work and I can't tell you that as her father when she looked up34:08up at me with tears in her eyes how badly I wanted to make this perfect for her but I simply could not do it and the greatest thing that I can do for her and my son and my wife my family is point them to a perfect savior savior because even on my best day I can never help them like he can I can never love them like he can and the church the best34:37best thing I can do for you is point you to a perfect savior who is able who is willing and who is worthy and I know that there may be some of you that are walking around trying to put some tape on your life that you are deep in some sin so you are just trying to put tape on it you have broken relationships so you are trying to put tape on your marriage and it is just not working35:07working and I know it looks okay today and it feels okay tomorrow but we know that because of our brokenness we will never be who we're supposed to be without Jesus Christ working in our lives so I would beg you to repent of your sin to put your faith in Jesus 2nd Corinthians 5 17 therefore the old has passed and the new has come when you turn to Jesus he will not just put tape35:37tape on your life but he will make you new and he is the only one that can do it so church will we fix our eyes on Christ because when we do everything changes so if you want to talk today and you want to know what does it mean to set your heart and set your eyes on Christ we would love to pray with you to talk we will be here as long as we need to be to36:07to get this right but church don't leave without getting it right let's pray together← Previous in Hidden RevealedWhat if Jesus really knew (Revelation 1:9-11)Next in Hidden Revealed →Who Can Stand? 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