Dan Herold | Revelation 5:11-14 | April 10, 2016
(Sermon begins at 27:25)
We talk a lot about heaven. About what it’s going to be like and how great it’s going to be, but the truth is that there’s only one person that we can definitively say has seen heaven and told us about it, and that is a man named John. John saw a vision of what heaven is like and he wrote about it in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, and that is our topic this morning.
To get us thinking about what heaven is like I want you to think about the strangest thing you have ever experienced. Not necessarily a bad thing…just a strange thing. For those of you who go hunting, maybe it was time you were out in the field and the animals just seemed to be acting weird. It’s not that something was wrong, it was just not the way they usually acted. A scene that comes to my mind is being in a crowded shopping mall on either the day after Thanksgiving or the day before Christmas. There’s so much going on that is out of the ordinary that you just feel like you need to stand still and just watch for a couple minutes before you know what to do next. Maybe you’ve had dreams like that before…you might have had a dream that seemed like it was in a familiar place and the faces you saw looked familiar, but they just weren’t acting the way they normally do and you probably felt like you just needed to observe a little bit before you knew what to do.
I’d imagine that is how John felt when he has having the vision or dream that he wrote about in the book of Revelation. Our second lesson this morning from Revelation 5:11-14 picks up sort of in the middle of things so let me remind you how the book of Revelation starts. John, who had been one of the disciples and also the author of the book of John, had grown old and he was exiled to an island to live out the rest of his life. While John was living on this island, one day he had a vision, or a dream, and it started with Jesus talking to him and telling him to write seven letters to seven churches. The first three chapters of Revelation contain those letters. Then, starting in chapter 4, John sees a vision of heaven—and that’s where things start to get really strange. Remember though, it’s not a bad strange…just different.
The vision takes John to the throne room of heaven and he sees someone sitting on a throne in the center of the room. Around that throne there are 24 other smaller thrones where 24 elders wearing golden crowns are sitting. There’s thunder and lightning coming from the big throne in the center and that central throne is surrounded by what looks like a sea of glass. Inside the circle of the 24 thrones, around the middle throne, there are four creatures.
Now the creatures are pretty strange as well. They are a lot like the angels that the Old Testament prophets tell us about. They are covered with eyes, have six wings…and they looked like a lion, an ox, a man, and an eagle. Day and night these four creatures kept saying,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty who was, and is, and is to come.”
Then after the creatures say that, the elders would take their crowns off and lay them down around the throne in the middle and praise God.
How would you feel if you were John looking at that sight? What would you be thinking? Would you be eager to jump right into the mix and sing along? It’s ok to be honest! I’d be confused, probably a little scared, and trying to decide if I should keep watching or if I should be looking for a way out of there. But, the strangest part is still to come… John says that as he looks at the throne in the middle he notices that the one sitting there is holding a scroll with writing on both sides and it was sealed with seven seals. The one on the throne asks who is worthy to open the seals, but no one comes to open them.
Just then, John sees a lamb coming up to the throne—but it isn’t your typical lamb. The lamb looks like it had been killed (picture blood stains around it’s neck), and the lamb had 7 horns and 7 eyes. This lamb walks up to the one sitting on the throne in the center and it takes the scroll, and when he had taken it the 24 elders and those 4 creatures covered with eyes all fell down to worship the lamb and they sang a song. They sang,
“Your are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God 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 earth.”
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John says that he looked around and he saw tens of thousands of angels and they formed another circle around the 24 thrones that the elders had been sitting on. So, we have one throne in the middle and the lamb is there too. Then there’s those four creatures with all the eyes and wings. Then, outside of them, there’s a circle of 24 thrones for the elders who were wearing the golden crowns. Now, John sees more angels than he can count in another circle outside those thrones.
Now, you might be thinking to yourself, “This is a great story, but what’s the point? Why did John write about this, why did we read it this morning, and why is Pastor preaching on it? What does it mean for me?” The song that these thousands of angels are singing answers those questions. The song of the angels tells us why John wrote about it and why we are spending some time thinking about this scene this morning. The angels were singing,
“Worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory.”
These angels are telling us what this lamb did and who this lamb is.
The lamb is our Savior—it’s Jesus! The same one who was crucified and rose from the dead. He is the one who was slain and he is the one who is worthy to receive power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, and glory. These verses are important for us to hear and think about because they tell us about our Savior. These verses from Scripture tell us that our Savior, even though at times he looks beat up and bloody (like he had been violently killed) is still the one who is worthy to go before God’s throne. He’s the one who is worthy of all the rewards in the universe because he died for the sins of the world and he came back to life.
After John had heard the angels sing this song he heard something else. He heard all the creatures in heaven and on earth and under the earth—everything and everyone who has ever lived—and they sang,
“To him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be praise, and honor, and glory for ever and ever!”
All of creation joined in that declaration of praise to the Lord. After that the four creatures simply said, “Amen,” and bowed down to worship God as well.
That’s how John’s vision of heaven begins. It begins with that strange scene that’s full of things that John probably didn’t fully understand and things we might not understand either. But there are two things that come across loud and clear in the midst of all the strangeness. The sins of the world have been paid for and what exists in heaven will be there for eternity. The lamb was slain to purchase men for God from every tribe and nation on earth. The blood of the Lamb of God was shed to buy us back. Now, that lamb who was put to death is most certainly alive and he is worthy of all praise, honor, and glory. He is the one who is worthy to open the scroll that had been sealed. He is the one who has won our salvation.
No matter how strange things may seem and how hard they may be to understand you can rely on those two things to always be true and to always be certain. Jesus has taken away your sins and he will reign victorious for all eternity. No one and no thing can undo what he has done. Your Savior has done all that was needed to ensure that one day you will join him in heaven and nothing can ever take away the joy of knowing that for certain.
Amen.