Summer Playlist: Part 9
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
We are in the end of our series, towards the end, not the very end, we're nearing the end. I wanted to shift gears this week a little bit. So far, we have talked a lot about music and songs, but mostly in the past, how God created it originally, what it's intended for, how Israel used songs to worship God, also for lament. And so, I want to look forward about music in the future. Not like, far future and like techno synth type of future music, but music in eternity, music in heaven. Have you ever wondered what role music plays when we get to heaven? We're going to take a look at that today. We're going to be in the book of Revelation. How many of you are intimidated or just like, Revelation's a little, yeah, I'm putting my hand up there. It's always kind of a book that's like, "What is going on? I'm a little intimidated." Well, we're going to break it down today a little bit. So hopefully that this chapter at least is just more palpable. You're easier to understand. That's the goal afterwards.
So, Revelation, a little bit of background, is written by John. He received divine visions and instruction from the Spirit, and he writes as an authoritative prophet, kind of like a prophet from the Old Testament, giving instruction and calling God's people to follow him in the midst of whatever's going on. The book's genre is a mashup of apocalyptic, prophetic, and an epistle. So it's got futuristic scenes. It's got John calling God's people back, and it's got instruction for the churches at the time. It's a book that helps us remain present in the midst of whatever circumstances we face because of the certainty that we have in Christ and the hope we have of the future with him. Outside of the teachings of Jesus, when Jesus is walking the earth and all the parables that he talks about, outside of that, this is the book that we get to learn most about heaven. So it's got a lot to offer, a lot that makes us think and ponder about what it's saying, but the picture and message are clear. It encourages and strengthens believers to hold fast in their testimony about Jesus, to steadfastly endure trials, and to resiliently hope in God's present and future reign. I want to repeat that because if you want to take anything away, if you're a note-taker, jot this down. Revelations, this is the point. To encourage and strengthen believers to hold fast to their testimony about Jesus, to steadfastly endure trials, and to resiliently hope in God's present and future reign.
Today we're going to look at one of these scenes about Jesus' reign. So we're going to be in Revelation 5. If you turn there, it'll be on the screen, but before we do that, would you pray with me one more time? God, thank you again for your word, for your truth, that we get to study it and learn it, and God, I pray that through your word today that we'd be drawn closer to you, that we'd have a deeper understanding of who you are and what you can do, and the future that we have to look forward to. God, I pray that we would be filled with hope and encouragement and joy. We pray this in your name. Amen. All right, so Revelation 5, this is John's second vision. We skipped all the first. You can read that if you want. Revelations 1, 2, 3, 4, and then we come to John's second vision, and I want to go verse by verse, and I want this to play out like a movie in your head. So if you guys want to, if it's helpful, you can close your eyes as I'm reading or if it helps you imagine, I guess we can say that you get a pass. If you're falling asleep, I won't know. I'm just going to be assuming that you're envisioning the movie of heaven playing out. I'm going to look at you and be like, "Oh my goodness, look at them. They're so into it right now as their head is down. They're complete." No. Just this one Sunday.
We'll start in verse 1. It says this. This is John's vision. It says, "Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals." We'll stop right there. We're going to literally go verse by verse to help us understand. All right, so the sealed scroll is God's plan. It's got seven seals on it. Seals on the scroll mean that it is an ancient document, authentic. It's been unaltered. There's no change to it. Once it was written, nothing compromised it. And then seven, if you see seven in the Bible, in the New Testament, Old Testament, that is the number of completion. So a lot of things that are described as being seven or have seven means it is whole. It is not lacking anything. And so if we're to translate this into words that help us understand, we see in your movie so far that you're envisioning, God sitting on the throne and in his right hand is a scroll that is perfect and it's a plan of judgment and redemption for humanity. Judgment of sin, redemption for humanity. So there he is. We got God sitting on the throne with the perfect plan. Verse two says this, "And I saw a mighty angel," this is John envisioning, "I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?'" So he makes this call out to everyone there, "Who's worthy?" Everyone is needed to open the scroll, to reveal and carry out God's plan. And it's assumed and implied that whoever can open the scroll is the one who will carry out God's plan. So we kind of have a sword in the stone moment. I don't know if you're familiar with sword in the stone. If you've been to Disneyland, there's that sword and you can, I've never been able to do it. I'm not worthy. But in the movie, you know, in all the land of England, you have all these nobles and knights and all these strong people trying to pull out the sword and no one can do it except for pure-hearted, in the movie it's a little boy, little Arthur. Well, we kind of have that. In our passage, there's a similar dilemma.
Verse three, it says, "But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it." So we're made aware of the problem now. No one is worthy to be the mediator of God's plan. And if you're, John, envisioning this of heaven, just imagine how disheartening this might be, getting to understand what's at stake. This is God's plan. And then comprehending that no one can do it. No one can open up this scroll, can carry out God's plan. No one on the earth or under the earth. So what does John do? He cries. Verse four, "I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or to look inside." The opportunity for redemption seemingly right there, but it's impossible in this moment to acquire it. He's weeping like an Old Testament prophet too. These Old Testament prophets oftentimes in their writing, they said, "I cried for Israel." Seeing the answer so close, seeing what had to be done, but then no answer there. It's for no one's doing it in the Old Testament. And here, no one's able to do it, it seems.
We get to verse five, "Then one of the elders said to me, 'Do not weep. See the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.'" The elder tells John to look up, to see that there is someone that can open the scrolls, that can do what God says needs to be done. And he references some prophecies from the Old Testament from Judah and David to help give context as to who this is. Now that word in verse five that says "see," there's other translations use "behold." And I like that a little bit better because I think it conveys what's really happening. But in Revelations, there's often a stark and meaningful difference between what John hears and then what he turns and sees. And so in this moment when the angel said, or the elder said, "Behold," we could also translate that to "hear." Hear the lion. He is able to open the scrolls.
But then when John turns and sees it's not a lion, verse six, "Then I saw a lamb looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth." Now, maybe at this point we're starting to feel overwhelmed because this is getting weird. We have a weird-looking sheep. And let me break it down so it's not going to be so weird. So he turns, and at this point the slain lamb is the conquering lion. The lamb imagery relates to Jesus' death on the cross, the tradition of viewing his death as a sacrifice, like the sheep's sacrifice in the Old Testament. The early church applied the title "Lamb of God" to Jesus, understanding that his death was the substitute for their sin. So the victory spoken about in verse five, it says, "He has triumphed," was brought about, we know that that triumph was brought about through sacrifice. And so imagine being the persecuted church in the early church history, what hope that this would build, knowing that persecution might bring about more victory through sacrifice. Being like Jesus and what he went through would have brought hope to them. And so, okay, back to our movie, there's a lame, slain lamb who is the conquering lion standing at the center of the throne, encircled by four animals. All right, what are these four animals? Well, they are four animals that represent four things. One, the noblest animal, which is the lion, the strongest, which is the ox, the wisest, which is the owl, and the swiftest, which is the eagle. So the best of the best in their regards in this moment. You're saying, "Andre, how do you know that?" Well, I too had a vision last night. No, I'm just kidding. It says in chapter four. You read chapter four, it's there, it explains all the animals. So John's just carrying on saying, "The animals that I talked about earlier, they're there now." So four animals, and then we get to the weird lamb, right? The seven horns, seven eyes. So seven, again, do we know now? The number of completion. So horns, throughout the Bible, they mean power, they represent power. So we know that this is complete, whole, or all-powerful. And eyes represent wisdom. Being able to see everything is this imagery of being wise. And so we have this lamb who is all-powerful and all-wise. See, a lot less creepy. This lamb is not weird. It's just an all-powerful and all-wise lamb, who is Jesus, right? Makes sense. Now we have the seven spirits that are sent out. Well, at the beginning of Revelation, there are seven churches. Seven again, meaning complete. So some scholars believe that this is just another... There were seven specific churches, but it's also just a way of saying that this is all the churches in the area, Asia Minor, that this is written to. And so again, meaning complete, that this is John's way of saying that the spirit, God's spirit, is complete. It's enough for all the churches, for all the believers. All right. In our movie scene, you guys are following along, we have God on the throne with the seal scroll in his right hand, his perfect plan for redemption, and at first, no one on earth could open it. And then you kind of see, like, you can see this in the movie, like, the camera's panning through the crowd and there's no one and everyone's kind of downcast, it's like no one can do it. All of a sudden, there's like a spotlight and it's like working your way through the crowd and there is the lamb. The slain lamb, who sounded like a lion, surrounded by the four animals, and this lamb is special because it's the all-powerful and all-wise lamb.
Verse 7, "He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne." So the lamb approaches, takes it, verse 8, "And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God's people." So a harp is a common temple instrument, so that's kind of clueing us in that this is a very worshipful moment right now. And the incense, like it says, symbolizing the prayer from God's people. And so then the four living creatures and the 24 elders bowed down in worship, and now we get to the good part. It's so good, all right?
Verse 9, "And they sang a new song saying, 'You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.'" This is so good. This is like that hero scene where the hero has entered the movie now. We know that everything's going to be okay, because Jesus is here. Jesus steps forward ready to serve God, to carry out the plans, to open the scroll, and to do what needs to be done. Jesus is the only one who is worthy, the only one who could do it. The Lamb of God steps forward to the explosive praise of heaven, prepares to break the seal and carry out God's redemptive plan. By his sacrifice, with his blood shed on the cross, through Christ's death he redeems. He bought with his blood souls from every tribe, language, people, and nation. He sacrificed himself for us and for a purpose.
Says in verse 10, "You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." Church, this is to you today. You have been made, you have been redeemed for a purpose, to be a kingdom and priests with God, to serve God. I was talking with a pastor friend of mine, and we were talking about this, our role as Christians. And he said, "The human task is one of partnership with God. We continue the work that God was doing back in the garden, Genesis 1 and 2. And that work is to bring order into the world and to bring life. God says to subdue the earth and to fill it. Subdue another way of saying that is to bring order and then to fill it, to bring life. So in our lives, as we are partnering with God, how are we bringing order to the situations we are in? How are we bringing life to the situations that we are in? And that task of doing this is a priestly task. We are doing what God intended us to do. This is the purpose that you have been redeemed for, to be a part of the work that humanity was originally made for, to reign with him. We're going to get to more of that in a little bit. But this is the song that is being sung to Jesus. Jesus is worthy. Jesus has made us to be a kingdom and priests. Can you feel the hope in this moment? Can you feel the joy, the relief, the newfound purpose, the awe and wonder of this heavenly scene? Well, it continues. It gets even better.
Verse 11, "Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands and ten thousands times ten thousand." That's the Bible's way of saying innumerable. "They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. 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.'" So heaven is joining in. "Then all of earth joins in. Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all that is in them saying, 'To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb to be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever.' The four living creatures said, 'Amen,' and the elders fell down and worshiped." Oh man, this is so good. If you're imagining this scene, I mean, it's filled with light, it's filled with the echoing praise of all of creation and all of the angels. It is a glorious, glorious scene. And I wish we could all have been there. I think this would have been the coolest thing for our faith and for our souls to have been present in this moment, to see Jesus step forward, do what he was made to do, give us hope and life. I hope this chapter makes better sense. I hope it's less intimidating. The creepy lamb is no longer creepy. That's Jesus you're talking about, so be careful there. But John directed our attention to God's heavenly throne room where the living creatures and elders declared Jesus the slain Lamb as worthy to execute God's plan of judgment and redemption and to the praise and glory of all of heaven and earth. It's a scene where Jesus is acknowledged and revered and praised and honored as he should be for who he is and what he's done and what he is still doing in our lives today. It's a scene that gives hope and is cause for the biggest rejoicing that we can offer. So now that we've covered this entire passage, I would, by the way, this scene continues if you want to in your week read chapter 6. It just keeps going. And it's, I mean, there's more that you might have questions on and that's okay. Feel free to ask. But hopefully this makes a little bit more sense as to what's happening in this vision. But now that we've covered this entire passage, I want to focus on just a few things, bring them back before us, especially about music and how songs play a role in our lives now and in the future.
So the first thing, first point, is that Jesus is him, as the youths say. Look at my youths in the room. Or for the generation below that, my generation, Jesus is the goat. Except he's a lamb. But he's the goat. He's the greatest of all time. Okay, some people are laughing. But for everyone, Jesus is the only one. That's the point. We should have had that on the slide. Jesus is the only one. In a scene that is a bit mystifying, kind of strange, I think even for John this would have been very different. It is so clear that Jesus is at the center of this scene. That Jesus is at the center of God's plan. That Jesus is the world's only hope. And therefore our only hope. And it reminds us that this plan of God is as good as done. Jesus who is all powerful and all wise is the only one who can carry this out and he does and he will. We don't have to wonder if this will actually happen, if he's going to figure it out. No, it's done. There's no mystery. We know that Jesus has defeated sin and death. Jesus is the only one who can carry out God's perfect plan. He's the only one who can save us from our sin. Jesus is the only one who can give us eternal life. Who can restore us into right relationship with God. Jesus is the only way to heaven. Jesus is him. It's a simple truth yet profoundly deep in its meaning and what it conveys. He's the only one worthy of our praise.
Secondly, is this reminder that you were made to partner with God. We're meant to partner, to be a priesthood. And you might have heard that before, but do you know what that means? To live it out in your everyday life. Do you know what it means to partner with God? This idea of priesthood is throughout Old Testament and New Testament. I think Peter says it best in 1 Peter 2, which says, "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." Church, he called you out of darkness and into his wonderful light and for a purpose. Not just so that you can be out of darkness and be in the light, but so that you can work with him. I mentioned this earlier that our task is to continue the work of God, which again, he says is to bring order to the world, just as God did out of the chaos, he brought order and to bring life to those around us and in the situations that we find ourselves in. Again, just as God did, he brought life into the world. And this task, when we do it, it's always a priestly task. Priests are people who represent God to people and people to God. It's a two-way street there. And so how do we look at what's in front of us in our lives as a way to partner with God, to do one of those things, either to represent those that were around to God or to represent God to the people around us? So if you're a parent, you might be wondering, how do I fulfill my priestly task in bringing order to my life, to my family? Well, as you do that, in whatever way you do that, you are partnering with God. It might be simple as keeping a clean house. If I keep order in my living situation, some of that might be partnering with God. Think of your friendships, your relationships. How do I bring life? Maybe by pushing for peace and unity rather than gossip and division. By doing that, you're fulfilling the task of your priestly duty. The other part of that that Jesus talks about or that God instilled in Genesis is to fill the earth. That's part of our duty. And if you're parents, you're like, "I did my part. I filled the earth. I made more life." Good job. But how do you help them flourish? How do you continue to bring life to them? How do you continue to help and encourage them to have a good life? How do you encourage what God encourages, bringing joy, being a source of goodness and of truth? And again, this doesn't have to be the biggest things in life. It could just be whatever is in front of you that day, what's in front of you with that hour. How do you partner with God in that moment and bring order or bring life? Here at Spring Valley, you can ask the same thing. How do you continue the work of God? By representing God to others and others to God. Well, one way we do that is by praying for each other, bringing others before God, saying, "Hey, I know this person. I've been talking with them. I know what's going on in their life. And I want God on their behalf. I'm coming before you. Can you intervene in what they're going through?" Maybe it's by volunteering in kids' ministry. Thank you to everyone in the room who volunteered. I know there's so many of you who volunteer in kids' ministry. You are representing God to those kids. You are teaching them by the words you say, by the way you act. You are being God to them. I want to say this too. Our time as volunteers and serving the church is not about making the church a better experience for people. I think sometimes we think of, "Oh, we just want more volunteers so that the church can look really good to a newcomer." It's not what it's about. It's not at all what it's about. Everything here at this church is about, it's an opportunity to partner with God and to have spiritual formation take place inside of us, in our hearts, as we serve as Christ served. Again, if you're a note taker, maybe this is the second thing you're writing down. This is important. I want us to make sure that we're not have this jaded heart and thought about why people serve at the church. It's just so that Spring Valley looks really good. No, it's not what it's about. If that happens, that's great. We're very thankful for that. That's not the reason. The reason is we want to provide opportunities to partner with God so that you, the Holy Spirit, is forming within you a heart that is more like Christ's. Because as you serve, you are going to need God. We are going to run out of strength, of patience, of compassion, of grace, of love to have with other people, and so we rely on Him. And as we do that more and more, as we serve and as we rely on God, our hearts are being formed like Christ's. So we want those opportunities here. That's why we encourage. Get involved. Be serving so that you and God can start working together and partnering. You were made to partner with God. You don't have to wonder about what calling that might be, what grand thing that might be. You can just do it in your everyday life and the decisions that are right before you. And you can do it here at this church. So partner with Him and His kingdom work.
Thirdly, respond with worship. When confronted with the truth of Jesus and what He has done for us, we worship. When we feel like it and when we don't feel like it, but in the midst of a scene like this, where Jesus steps forward to carry out and fulfill God's plan, the only right answer, the only thing left to do is to worship Him. To sing our hearts out. To give Him all the praise that we have. A little aside here. I think it's really cool to know that there are going to be new songs in heaven. I think that's awesome. We've made a lot of songs. There are a lot of songs that have been written on earth. A lot that we don't sing anymore. But there's going to be new ones. I think that's just to know that there is opportunities for creativity and for newness in heaven is awesome. I think some of us have this idea that heaven is just like we sing like the one line over and over again for millennia. And it's like, that's kind of boring. But no, there are new songs. There are going to be cool new songs in heaven, new opportunities to be creative, new opportunities to worship God, new ways to respond in worship. And we're going to be in God's full presence like never before. We don't have that down here on earth. We get glimpses of it. We have moments of seeing part of His presence. But we will be in His full presence. And how much more are we going to worship Him? So respond with worship. It's natural and good. We're going to have a chance to do that in just a second.
But this week, you've had multiple encouragements throughout this series of what to do with music. I want to offer you another one. This week, I encourage you to respond in worship, specifically through song. You've already had the encouragement to listen to worship music on your way to work or on Saturday night and Sundays before church to listen to worship music. So let's, another one is when you see God work, when you feel His presence in your life, or when you just have a moment of recognizing Him and how worthy He is to be praised, give praise. Take a moment. Put a song on, sing a cappella, whatever you've got to do, but actually give praise back to God. And then continue to give your whole life as a means of worship to Him. That sound good to anyone in this room? Sound like possibility? Yeah? Okay. If you do it this week, do me a favor. Text the church. Chris and I are going to see this. We're going to praise with you. And we just want to, this is going to be awesome. We're going to rejoice with you. And whatever moment you have where you were like, "Hey, this happened and I just thought of God and I wanted to praise Him really quick and I was on my way home from work, I popped on this worship song and I was just singing." Like, we would love to know that. We'd love to know when God is having a moment with you, we want to share in that moment with you. If we get no text this week, we'll be a little sad, but we'll be okay. Chris and I will just text each other, like, "Hey, I'm worshiping again." Okay. We're going to chance to respond in music here as the team comes up to finish. But before, they're coming up, but before we actually worship, we're going to partake in communion together as a church. So you guys have the elements at your table. You can go ahead and start serving yourselves. I have to serve myself. I'm going to take with you. So go ahead and pour the cup. Make a cracker. You guys can listen as you're doing that. I want to say this, as we see how worthy Jesus is, it's natural to see how unworthy we are with all of our sin, with all of our rebellion, pride and selfishness. And that's humbling to be in the light of Jesus and to see how amazing He is and to see how short we fall. But it's humbling to know that God still loves us, that God still wants us, and there's no better way to come to the table of Jesus than with humility and gratitude. So let's humble our hearts as we recognize what Christ did on the cross for us, taking on our sin and the death that we deserved and shedding His blood to give us eternal life, that by His grace, we might be saved. And let's be grateful for the opportunity to be partners, co-heirs with Christ until He returns and for our lives that we're being redeemed now and we're going to be made perfect in heaven.