Revelation 5:9 • The Missing Puzzle Piece
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Let me ask that you would look in your Bibles this morning at the book of Revelation and the fifth chapter.
In the comprehensive calling of this church that we have identified as unlimited grace,
the leadership of this church has said that it is our goal that all generations and all peoples would be by this church prepared to join in the song of Revelation 5.
Well what is that about?
Let's read together Revelation 5 and remind ourselves what this song is as the Apostle John, remember in Revelation chapter 4, has had a door opened to heaven to see what is happening in the eternal plan and he continues the description in Revelation chapter 5. He writes, "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 strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals.
And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. 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 that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.
From between the throne 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.
And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to 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."
Then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, sang with a loud voice, "Worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing."
And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them sang, "To him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever."
And the four living creatures said, "Amen."
And the elders fell down and worshiped.
All right, those of you among us who are the expert jigsaw puzzle putter togethers.
What is the most important piece in putting together a jigsaw puzzle? Those of you who are experts know it's no peace in the middle.
It's not even a piece on the side.
It's not even a piece on the corners.
The most important piece in putting together a jigsaw puzzle is the box top.
Because there you learn what the thing is supposed to look like and seeing the beauty of it you have incentive to continue and seeing the structure of it you have guidance on how to organize your pieces and your priorities.
The book of Revelation and particularly Revelation chapter 5 is the description of the world when the work of mission is done.
So often we think of the book of Revelation as just prediction of future events. But more than that it is the construction of heaven and earth made one by the work of mission completed upon the earth. If we are to consider what our priorities are, how we will organize ourselves and our resources for the work of God, it's important that we know what the box top says.
What after all is God describing to us in this amazing scene of the end of the world when the work of mission is completed?
Some of you already know the scene very well. First we see a king seated upon a throne. That's verses 1 and 2. And in his right hand the king holds a scroll written on both sides and sealed with seven seals the sign of perfection.
And with that sign of perfection comes a question, who is worthy to open the seals?
And no one is found worthy. And so the narrator records that there is weeping in heaven because no one is worthy until a hero is identified. Verse 5 tells us that an elder announces the lion of the tribe of Judah. The root of Jesse has conquered.
And then that one, that lion of Judah appears in the midst of the elders, but he appears as a lamb slain.
The lamb stands among the 24 elders.
And between the throne and four living creatures that are around the throne, living creatures that have six wings like the cherubim of old, but they also have appearance that we don't quite understand in that one looks like a lion, another like an ox, another like a man, another like an eagle.
The four living creatures are around the throne, but it is the lamb who takes the scroll. And when the lamb takes the scroll, the elders that are around the throne and the living creatures that are at its corners all fall down and they begin to sing a new song. And the song that they sing is, "Worthy is the lamb to open the seals, for by his blood he has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation."
And as they sing, they are joined by angels, thousands of thousands, millions of angels who sing to the lamb.
Power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and power are his. And then as the angels sing, they are joined by earth.
Every creature in the sky and on the land and in the sea and in the caves and all of them sing glory and honor and blessing to the lamb until the four living creatures bow down and say, "Amen!"
And the elders fall down and worship.
That is the scene.
What does it mean?
We know as we begin to identify the various pieces and think how they are being assembled by the inspired writer.
Those pieces, some are certain in terms of what they represent, some less so, but all give us a picture that is undeniable.
If you consider the various pieces in the scene, you just have to ask, "Who is the one on the heavenly throne?"
We don't really question that very much because if you back into Revelation 4, the four living creatures are described singing praise to the one who sits upon the throne. In Revelation 4, in verses 8 and 9, the four living creatures around the throne sing day and night, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
The one seated upon the throne is the Lord God Almighty." And he holds in his hand a scroll sealed with seven seals. But what is that?
It is written on the front and on the back.
And those of us who think about what is happening of this scroll being given to the Lamb may naturally think of the Lamb's book of life whereupon are inscribed the names of those who love the Lord and are saved from destruction of hell. Perhaps it is that. It's not said explicitly. What is indicated is that as this scroll is inscribed on front and back, both the writer and the reader are joined as though heaven and earth are being brought together.
Those who study the period say that this scroll written on front and back may be intended to reflect a Roman contract so that what is being done, as you may recall, is the Lamb is purchasing by His blood people from every tribe and language and nation. What may be occurring is this is virtually the receipt for the purchase as God is indicating what has been purchased by the blood of the Lamb.
We can't say that for certain. What we do know is that this scroll written on both sides is first described in the Old Testament in Ezekiel 2 and 3. In that place you may remember God records for Ezekiel the destruction of the unrighteous and the salvation of the righteous and has the prophet eat the scroll until it becomes sweet in his mouth and he becomes the instrument of the proclamation of the judgment and the salvation of God. Whatever this scroll is, it is that which releases to the knowledge of humanity the judgment of God to come and the salvation that is purchased by the Lamb.
We know who the Lamb is also, don't we? Not much question there. Though the strangeness of the description is that this Lamb is first described as the Lion of Judah and the root of David. In the very first book of the Bible in Genesis, the 49th chapter, we get the first prophecy
of the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
The words that Moses says are these, "A ruler whose scepter," that is, whose authority, "will never depart is one who will come with robes that will be dipped in the blood of grapes."
"There is one," says Moses at the beginning as we think of human history, "who has sang to us, there is one who is going to come who will have authority over all things and that authority will not depart, but at some point in that reign of his, he will be robed in robes that look as though they're dipped in blood."
He's also described here in Revelation as the root of David. Again, we don't have to question much of what that is about, for you recognize roughly in the center of covenantal history in the time of David the King, a promise was made to him in 2 Samuel 7 in which God said to David, "I will bring from you offspring who will have an eternal kingdom."
But this offspring we have learned even from Genesis would be one, remember, who would be struck by Satan even as he crushed Satan's head. So that whatever triumph comes is going to come through sacrifice.
And that is why John, the writer of Revelation, but the one we've also been studying in the gospel of John, looks to Jesus and says, "What? Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is going to triumph, but he will triumph by the sacrifice and the sacrifice will be of himself. He will be the one who will be robed in blood in order to save people from every tribe and language and people and nation as God has inscribed his purposes upon the scroll. And he alone is worthy to open the scroll in order that this plan come about."
Twenty-four elders are described.
There we must question, we have ideas and differing opinions on. Who are the twenty-four elders?
I'll tell you my opinion, tell you straight out, people vary. How many tribes of Israel in the Old Testament?
Twelve.
Preparing for the coming of the covenant child who is Christ. How many apostles in the New Testament?
Twelve. Declaring the coming of the covenant child. Twelve and twelve. It's not just something to make up and add to the book of Revelation. If you were to go to the end of the book of Revelation, Revelation 21, verses 12 through 14, we read the heavenly city being described. And as the heavenly city is described, we are told that it has twelve gates of entry.
The twelve gates of entry are named for the tribes of Israel.
Not only does the heavenly city have a wall with gates named for the tribes of Israel, it has a foundation with twelve layers.
And the twelve layers are named according to the apostles of the New Testament. Twelve and twelve. The foundations and the gates of the city into the salvation of God made available by the tribes, the covenant people through whom the Messiah would come, and the apostles, the ones who announced the Messiah has come. The twenty-four elders.
Even though we may have some question there, we'll have even more question about who the four living creatures are.
Remember, there is the throne.
The lamb is among the twenty-four elders who are around the throne, but then beyond them
are four living creatures. Each having different faces, though they have wings like cherubim, the messengers of God in the Old Testament.
And the appearance of these cherubim are described as first like a lion, then like an ox, then like a man, then like an eagle.
It is helpful for us to remember that in the Old Testament, when the people of God were released from slavery and they were given the tabernacle of God in the wilderness, that visible sign of the presence of God among his people to rescue and deliver them, that there were four tribes of Israel that were to camp on the corners of the tabernacle.
They were, in order, first Ephraim, whose banner was a lion.
One Dan, whose banner was an ox.
Then Reuben, whose banner was a man.
Then Judah, whose banner was an eagle. Whatever is being reflected here is reflecting the way in which the people of God were to guard and guide others in the glory of God now among them.
And that is why the church through history has identified these four living creatures as apparently representing the Gospels in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Now, I don't think we can say that with certainty, but we recognize that Matthew often gets represented as the gospel presenting Christ as king, like a lion.
Mark is the one that often represents Jesus as the suffering, sacrificed servant, as the oxen were sacrificed for sin in the Old Testament.
Luke represents Jesus as the man prophesied to come, as the man guarded the tabernacle as well. And finally you have the eagle, the gospel of John, as Jesus as represented as the Son of God, the one from heaven and who would return to heaven.
I cannot say that with definiteness. What we recognize is without question the four living creatures are the proclaimers of the glory of the tabernacle and the guardians of it as the Gospels of the New Testament become the guardians and the declarers of Jesus who tabernacled among his people.
All right, now maybe you know what some of the pieces mean.
But how do we begin to put the pieces together and identify what is this puzzle supposed to be leading us to? What are we to understand from it? If it is the apex, the final box top picture of what the world will be when the work of mission is done, what are we actually seeing with all of these puzzle pieces put together? First we are seeing an amazing purchase plan. Do you remember the words that are being used?
Verse 9 of Revelation 5, "The elders and the four living creatures sing a new song, saying, Worthy you to take the scrolls and to 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." In some of your Bibles it will use the word purchased rather than ransomed. It has the notion of being rescued by a purchase price being made. And we know the purchase price is the blood of Jesus Christ, the one who was sacrificed in order to purchase his people. The one long proclaimed to be the one who had authority over all things, but he would robe himself in blood in order to rescue his people. He would ransom us by his own blood.
It is a measure of the preciousness of the people that God is purchasing for himself,
that they are purchased by the blood of another.
We have friends who a couple of years back adopted a child from China.
And as they went to the orphanage, they found the child wrapped in red in that culture, the sign of favor, of love, to say, "This child, though in an orphanage, is loved."
But as the parents began to handle the child and the red that covered it, they moved the cloth around its face and discovered that this was a child with a terrible cleft palate.
The red had not just shown love, it had been used to cover a flaw and say, "Still this child is loved."
You and I are that child.
As God robed his son in blood in order to rescue us who deserve to shed it so that our flaws would be covered by his work in our behalf, the puzzle is showing us an amazing purchase plan as God would send his own son to purchase us from the guilt of our own sin
by the sacrifice of his son.
But there's not just a purchase plan, there is a people plan to purchase people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. As you hear those words, I hope you hear a plan for people that is both wide and deep. It is wide as you kind of think of the progression of those terms. There is tribe, small group of people, language, more tribes put together but speaking the same language. Then there are people groups. And finally there are nations. And God is saying that what he is doing is he is purchasing for himself by the blood of his son an expansive number of people because he is actually saying it is from every tribe, every language, every people, every nation. You must understand that becomes radical almost in every generation to think what God is actually calling his people to do when they see what the top of the box looks like. Is he really calling people to be a part of his church from every tribe, every language, every people, every nation? Is that really the plan? He is saying that is the plan. And that means we orchestrate and arrange and prioritize what we are doing in order to accomplish that plan which has been laid out for us by the prophecy of what will occur in the end of the ages.
The ones who have sparked missions for the ages have always known that. It is hard for us to recall that after the Reformation the way in which Bible believing religion got established in Western Europe was basically a geopolitical establishment of independent nations who would say we are Roman Catholic, we are Protestant and the nations pretty much took care of themselves until about 1800 a young man under age 30
named William Carey stood in a church meeting and said we are called to go to the nations.
And the famous response of the man in the group who was more mature was simply this, "Sit down, Mr. Carey. The Lord does not need you or us to save the heathen, he can do it himself."
Which launched Carey into a study which became an inquiry into the use of means for the extension of the gospel to the heathen. Not politically correct language today but the language of the time when she said, "Does not God use his people to reach people?" And having said that he began to ignite young people not just in England but in this part of the world too to take the gospel to the nations. In New England at Williams College there was just a small group of college students who began to consider could they really be God's means to reach people beyond their own nation.
Praying about that and studying it one day they were caught in a thunderstorm in a hayfield.
And taking refuge under a haystack they continued their prayer until after the thunderstorm as they came out of the haystack they came with a resolve.
We can, if we will, we can be used of God if we are willing to be used of God. And they dedicated themselves to taking the gospel to the nations though they were young and few. "I have been and worshipped in the church in which commissioned them. I have stood on the dock of the shore of the boat that took them away from this nation's shores as the boat contained not only their belongings but their coffins because they believed they would never return alive again." Why? Because they had heard the song of the ages. He has chosen people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation and that means we are called to be part of that great purpose. It is our priority. In another hundred years by roughly 1900 every major continent that we could identify had the gospel taken to it. And the work of mission started closing down in the developed world. Most people said mission accomplished, it's all done.
And then people like Hudson Taylor began to say, "Now wait a second. The gospel has reached the coastlines. It has reached the seashores of the continents but there are nations and peoples within."
After all it says every tribe and language and people and nation, not just the coastal nations. And so a new missionary movement was spawned and we even know their names today as African inland mission, Sudan interior mission, China inland mission.
And people began to think about how do we take the gospel within to more peoples. And we think about people like Hudson Taylor and we think about people like Edith Shafer's parents and my wife's grandmother who began to consider how they could take the gospel interior to the nations of the world. And believe it or not by about 1970 most people believed that work was done too. All the nations had heard there was some gospel witness in virtually every nation of the world and then people said, "Now wait a second. It just doesn't say nations. It says every tribe and language and people." We have to begin to think about the unreached peoples that are within the nations. The language groups that haven't yet got the language of the Bible, that haven't yet heard. What about those who are just in family groups who don't yet know? And so we had organizations like New Tribes missions, Frontier mission organizations, Wycliffe translators, Mission Aviation Fellowship, people like Cameron Townsend, Ralph Winter who began to talk about unreached people groups and the 1040 window. And all of it was to say there needs to be another great mission movement and it has happened. Probably the apex of it was after the fall of the Soviet Union Empire when 25,000 missionaries gathered all at once in Operation World to go into the former Soviet states. It may help us just to kind of reflect what has happened after these two centuries of modern mission as God by His Spirit has called His people to go to every tribe and language and people and nation. Just a quick rehearsal of the last 100 years.
In 1910, 9% of Africa claimed to be Christian. Only 9% of Africa in 1910.
By 2010, 50% of Africa claims to be Christian. Just so if you were counting, that is 600 million people. That is triple the number of people who claim to be Christian in North America.
In China, in 1910, less than one-tenth of one percent of that nation claimed to be Christian.
In 2010, 7% of China claims to be Christian. Now you think, well, that doesn't sound like very many, but, you know, there's 1.4 billion people.
We are counting somewhere between 120 and 140 million people now in China who are Christians. If you count evangelicals in the United States, that is more than double the number of evangelicals in the United States who are now Bible-believing Christians in China.
If you look at Asia as a whole, not going back to 1910, if you just go back to 1970, 40 roughly years ago, in all of Asia, 4% of the people claimed to be Christian. In 2010, 8% of the people claimed to be Christian. Do you recognize that is more than doubled in 40 years? That is 400 million Christians in the last 40 years.
In our lifetimes, as I think of what this church has done, your banner's permission, your zeal to send people out, the fact that I don't know another church where 85% of the people that you support are out of your own body going to take the gospel to the nations. You have the zeal, you have the heart, you are doing amazing things. What you have to know is God is blessing in tremendous ways.
The reason it's so important to talk about Asia in particular in this congregation today is because what we recognize about the dynamics in Asia. Do you know that 60% of the world's non-believers live in only two nations in Asia? I'll say that again.
60% of the world's non-believers live in only two nations, and both of them are in Asia. What are those two nations?
China and India. Why is that so important? As this church has studied the demographics of our area, within two miles of us, if you say what are the demographic, the people groups around us that are not Anglo, what are the most dominant people groups around this church if they are not Anglo? What are those two groups? Chinese and an Indian.
The world has come to our doorstep.
If we look at what happens by the tremendous engineering companies that are around us, the educational institutions, the medical institutions, what our parents and grandparents would have longed for, the ability to reach the nations so conveniently, so efficiently, is right here among us. Those who study the world of missions now are saying where once the great mission was to the nation, and then it was to the interiors of the nations, and then it was to unreached people groups. Now the great mission movement is to our neighbors, the people who are right here as the world shrinks. And I know you get frustrated sometimes. You call for airline reservations and you talk to somebody in the Philippines, right? And you call for computer help and you're talking to somebody in India. But do you recognize what is happening as the Lord by transportation and technology and communication is bringing this world together. We have unreached peoples in our backyard.
What is the university in the country, do you know, that has more international students than any other that's in your back door?
University of Illinois, second actually. Second most populous international population is at University of Illinois.
Where did the Muslim Brotherhood decide to establish its beachhead for work in the United States?
University of Illinois.
We have opportunities.
And we can say, "Listen, as the leadership of this church has said, it is our goal to have a church that ministers to all generations and peoples." Listen, cynicism will say, "Well, there's just more political correctness." It is biblical faithfulness. God calls us to be a kingdom of priests. What do priests do? They enable other people to know the gospel and to honor God. And God is bringing those people to our community, not to other shores, not far away, right here. So that what we have the opportunity to do is relish and admire the work of the missionaries who are here with us and then go home to our neighborhoods and invite to our church as we will develop this invitational culture, the very people who will return to the nations because they have been here worshiping among us.
If we can invite them, God will do a work. What will make us invite them? It is recognizing this is not just a purchase plan or a people plan. It is ultimately a praise plan. When God does this work of using His people to reach people from every tribe and language and people and nation, what happens? The angels by the millions praise God saying to Him, "Power and wealth and wisdom and might and glory and honor and blessing and praise be to our God." Why? Because He has purchased for Christ and for His own throne's sake people from every tribe and language and people and nation and even the angels bow down and they worship God by the millions if we will but reach others. It's the praise of the Savior that's the reason we reach people. It's because God Himself is bringing honor to His Son by the purchase that we now proclaim in our own neighborhoods.
It's not just the angels that sing. Did you catch it? And then every creature in sky and land and sea and the caves beneath the earth, they all join the praise as though there is this cosmic chorus of every creature that you can imagine praising God.
What does it sound like? So to praise God in glory and honor and blessing, what does it sound like? Well listen to what it sounds like.
[Music]
William Carey heard the song.
Hudson Taylor heard the song.
Kenneth Bae hears the song.
Do you hear the song? It will organize your life. He will help you to speak to your neighbor because you see what you just heard is a dim echo of what will actually happen. Millions of angels, every creature in heaven and on earth and in the sea and under the earth, they will all praise the Lord saying, "Glory and honor and blessing be under the one who sits on the throne and under the Lamb."
And He's our Lamb.
Hear the song and sing His praise.