“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 mighty 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.’ And 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, saying 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, saying, ‘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.”

The Goodness of God – The Justice of Judgement

Something that I’ve talked about before, but merits addressing again is that there is a difference between what we think of as “bad” and what is evil. We understandably cross these words up – the bad guy in the movie is an evil person – evil is most certainly bad, but bad isn’t always evil. Realizing you forgot to get milk while you were at the grocery store is bad, getting a parking ticket is bad, coming down with the flu is bad – none of these things is necessarily evil. Ask any child who has ever gotten a spanking – not beaten or abused, but just physically corrected for wrong action – and see if they think any part of the experience was “good.” Go read Exodus 7-12 – water into blood, frogs, gnats, flies, dead livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and the death of the firstborn. The Egyptians were having a pretty bad time of it, all things considered. And yet none of the ten plagues were evil – in fact they were good, they were just, they were divine acts from the Righteous, Living God, brought about from Pharaoh’s hardness of heart, done so that God’s people might be freed from their bondage. Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities, destroyed by God, sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven – it’s intense, it’s graphic, and yet it’s good. And this is the thing which the world has no real grasp of which the Christian must have at the forefront of our understanding – judgement is good. Or rather, God’s judgement is good. The world’s knowledge of Scripture typically stops at Matthew 7:1,

“Judge not, that you be not judged.”

But this verse alone, ignoring what Jesus goes on to say, doesn’t provide understanding around our relationship with Judgement. In Matthew 7:2–6 Jesus continues by saying,

“For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.”

Understand the nuance here – you cannot judge anything in your flesh, because you, in the fallen nature of your humanity, would be a hypocrite and would only bring condemnation on yourself. We who are stained by sin cannot judge what is good because we have no relationship with what is good. The only way we leave behind our hypocritical nature is through Christ. If I see someone lying, stealing, or committing adultery, I cannot go to them and say with any merit that they should stop doing what they’re doing because I have identified that it’s wrong. Rather my sense of ethics, my knowledge of right and wrong must be based around the Truth – it’s not my judgement that matters, but God’s. This is something that Jesus Himself displays for us in His humanity as He speaks with Nicodemus in John 3:17–19, saying,

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.”

It’s important as Christians that we have the right view of judgement, that we are acting neither as hypocrites, nor as passive spectators when confronted with wickedness, and that we understand the goodness of judgement – as true, righteous judgement comes from God and God alone. This is relevant now because as we look at Revelation 5, we stand on the cusp of a series of judgements the likes of which the world has never seen before, and will never see after. People are killed, suffering abounds, and the world we inhabit is systematically destroyed under the weight of the judgement of Mighty God – and for many people, this is a struggle. Revelation can be a weighty and intimidating book, and the chaos of what unfolds between chapters 6 and 18 can be a challenge to take in if we don’t have the right perspective of judgement. Last week we looked at the glory of the throne room of God, and this perfect, ordered majesty helps prepare us for the rightness of the coming judgement. This week, as we see the introduction of the seven-sealed scroll which will begin the trials upon the earth, we see an assurance that prepares us to know the goodness of the coming judgement. The things that will unfold upon the earth are most certainly bad in an objective sense, but they are in no way evil. They are right and just and from God, and in this they are good beyond measure. We have to read these passages bearing in mind Paul’s words in Philippians 3:20–21,

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

And the manner in which Peter addresses us in 1 Peter 2:11,

“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.”

This world – a world which is destined to burn in its sin, a world which is rightly judged – is not our home. I do not encourage anyone to read with detached callousness, or a lack of compassion for those who suffer, yet I do call your greatest allegiance to be to your family in Christ, and for your greatest joy to be found in the will of God – that we may all know peace and assurance in the perfect goodness of His Judgement.

1. The Comfort of Coming Judgement

“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 mighty 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.’”

Last week as we looked at the inside of the throne room of God, we discussed the many symbolic and literal implications of the glorious and sometimes indescribable things that John bore witness to. We closed with the praise of the twenty-four elders in Revelation 4:11,

“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Immediately after, John’s attention is turned to the right hand of God the Father, seated in unimaginable glory upon the throne, and in it is this scroll, covered in writing and sealed seven times – and then, there’s this question. Something I’ve referenced several times in the past (because I really like it, and it’s incredibly accurate) that I heard pointed out by Jackie Hill Perry is that we always have to remember that God never asks a question because He doesn’t know the answer. Any time we see a question come from God in all of Scripture, it never comes from a place of lacking knowledge. Whether it’s God asking Adam in Genesis 3:9 after the fall,

“… Where are you?”

Or Jesus asking those who have come to arrest Him in John 18:7,

“… Whom do you seek?”

No question from the Lord is ever out of ignorance, rather, whether it’s rhetorical or if it merits an answer, it serves to illustrate. It is what causes confession, it’s what grants insight and understanding of the situation to us as the reader. This is likewise true to the question that is asked by this mighty angel, messenger of God, who so loudly asks across the heavens, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” And what the resounding silence of the answer illustrates is a complete and profound lack. We can see plainly in this one moment, humanity’s complete and total inability to determine righteousness, to seek good, to judge rightly. This is something that was displayed in the fall, it was displayed in the giving of the Law, and God’s people’s repeated failures in adhering to His commands, and we can ultimately see it in the fact that the only one who can open the scroll, who can unleash the good and righteous judgement is God Himself. What we see is that not only can no one open the scroll, no one can even look into it. A scroll, written on front and back, partially exposed and no one can even look upon what is written – this is how far below men and angels find themselves, and just how high Holy God is above all existence. What we can’t open, or read, He can break the seals of, open, and read, and bring to bear in glorious, righteous judgement – and this is an amazing, indescribable comfort to us all. John doesn’t know the details of what’s coming, but here in the spirit, standing in the throne room of God, he knows that it is wrong that this scroll be unopened, he’s distressed that there is no one who is worthy to take the scroll from the right hand of God and to open it, to the point of deep, bitter tears. This is our position without Christ – alone and distraught, with no way to seek justice, no way to gain equilibrium in a world so permanently off kilter. Jesus is the One, the only One who can balance the scales, who can open the scroll, who can bring about the righteous and holy judgement of the Living God, and we cannot miss the comfort that is offered in this. As the elder speaks to John he makes two Old Testament references to Jesus that can help us see the plan God has in motion since before time, visibly trackable across His Word. The first of these is “the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” This pulls from Genesis 49, where Jacob blesses his sons, telling them in verse 1,

“… Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come.”

In Genesis 49:8–12 he says to Judah,

“Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.”

We see Judah called a lion’s cub, compared to a lion that no one dares to rouse, the one to who will dominate his enemies, to whom his brothers will bow down – Jesus is this perfected, the radiant Lion of God, the one to whom every knee shall bow and every tongue confess the truth of His majesty, as Paul wrote of in Philippians 2:9–1,

“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

We also see that the scepter will not depart from Judah, pointing to the eventual kingship of David, but again, a prophecy that is fulfilled in completion through Jesus, the eternal king of Kings. The foal and donkey’s colt bear language reminiscent of the triumphal entry, and the “choice vine,” is manifested in Christ Himself, as He explains in John 15. In regard to the line,

“he has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes.”

Matthew 26:27–28 says, at the institution of the Lord’s Supper,

“And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’”

And in Revelation 19:13, as Jesus arrives to battle on a white horse, we see,

“He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.”

The significance that Jesus arrives to battle in robes already bloodstained is that the blood is His own – His garments are washed with the blood of the True Vine. From Judah’s blessing, to all the ways in which Jesus fulfilled and perfected these words, and can see and draw comfort from the Lion of the tribe of Judah holding the seven-sealed scroll. Next we look at the second title the elder refers to Jesus by when speaking to John, “the Root of David.” This refers back to Isaiah 11:1–5 which says,

“There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.”

This is a bit more straightforward than Judah’s blessing – Jesus being of the line of David (Jesse being David’s father), and the fulfillment of God’s promise to David in 2 Samuel 7:12–13,

“When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”

We can see that, as the elder says to John, Jesus fulfills the roles prophetically laid out in the Old Testament, but the thing we lean on the most, the thing from which we draw the most comfort from is that this One who holds the scroll – the Lion of Judah, the Root of David, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Man, and Son of God has conquered – He has conquered as no one ever has or ever will, and so He holds the authority to open the scroll. Jesus tells the disciples in John 16:33,

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

At the beginning of Revelation, Jesus says to a terrified and collapsed John in 1:17–18,

“… Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”

This is the One who brings the judgement, the One who has conquered, and holds a victory that is our great, single, perfect hope – this is our comfort – the righteous Judge, Jesus Christ.

2. The Completeness of Coming Judgement

“And 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.”

The elder offers his words of comfort to John, and setting aside his weeping, he sees his great Hope. First I think it’s significant to note where Jesus stands. Within the throne room there is God the Father on the throne, the center figure set over a sea like crystal, His glory radiant around him, a rainbow like an emerald. At the fringes, the corners, are the living creatures, constantly seeing, constantly declaring the glory and holiness of the One who is seated on the throne. Between these two, the center and the edge, we see Jesus, standing among the saints. Jesus is God, One with the Father, but this illustrates what Paul wrote in Philippians 2:5–7,

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”

Jesus, who is God, who is Love, does not, as 1 Corinthians 13 tells us, insist on His own way. He holds all authority, but this authority is in unity with God, not as an individual, flesh and blood man. Throughout His earthly ministry we see Jesus give all obedience to God the Father, His will and God’s will are the same will, and so there is no selfishness in the Man Jesus, only perfect submission to the will that is His own. We can see a piece of this obedience, as well as of His servant leadership and love of those He died and rose again for, as he stands among the twenty-four elders – our Great High Priest and intercessor. But as John sees his Lord and Savior, standing and ready to take the Scroll, he doesn’t describe Him in a way that’s anything like what we’ve seen in Revelation so far – “a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain.” This again takes us back to the Old Testament, to Exodus 12:3–13 as God instructs Moses concerning the Passover,

“Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.”

We’re also offered a direct New Testament connection through the words of John the Baptist in John 1:29–30,

“The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, “After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.”’”

In our minds, we may think a lamb bearing the appearance that it’s been killed is an insignificant or tragic thing, but this ignores the entire context given by Scripture. This is the Christ, this is the One who bled, and died, and lived again. It is by His stripes that we are healed, by His sacrifice that we are saved, that the sting of death is defeated, that the shadow of death passes over us. We also see that this is in no way an ordinary lamb – “seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the world.” We talked last week about the Biblical significance of seven, and its indication of perfect completion. The seven horns represent authority – not grasping or presumed, not disproportionate or lacking, but perfect and complete. We would take the eyes to obviously mean sight, and they do, but there’s something more to them than that. The living creatures are full of eyes all around and within – they are blessed to see everything, but this is something more than that. These seven eyes are the seven spirits of God (again, as we talked about last week, showing the completeness of God’s singular but multifaceted Spirit), that go out into the world. God’s sight and comprehension are in an entirely different sphere from the living creatures, and we can see this on display in the true, complete sight of the Lamb of God. We then see the Lamb approach the throne, and what we see echoes key qualities of Daniel 7:13–14,

“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”

There’s another key feature of the judgement of God tied into the instructions around the Passover lamb in Egypt,

“They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.”

The Passover lamb is consumed all at once, in a single meal on a single night. It is not consumed raw, which would be unsanitary and unfitting for the ceremony of the meal. It is not boiled, they’re not making soup, no one’s saving anything for later – there’s no such thing as Passover leftovers. It is eaten in one night, and anything that remains until morning is burned – the lamb is entirely consumed by the sacrifice. This is the same kind of absolute completion that is offered by the blood of Christ, poured out once on the cross, and complete in its victory, as Hebrews 9:25–26 says,

“Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

This is the same kind of completion that is brought to bear in the authority that is held by the Lamb of God, the One who holds the scroll, who stands with the glorious right to judge without error or compromise.

3. The Chorus of Coming Judgement

“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 so Jesus, the Lamb of God holds the scroll, the One with the authority to break the seals and unleash the judgement of God – and the response? It’s not terror, it’s not panic, or tears, or distress – it’s joy. It’s a cascading chorus of praise and worship from heaven and creation itself – but, before we look at the unfolding of that chorus, I want to draw your attention to one thing, “golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints.” With as much as is going on here, it would be easy to blow right past this line, but we would miss a great opportunity to see how much right prayer means before God. The burning of incense was an ordained practice in the tabernacle and later the temple of the Old Testament. It was significant, a part of worship directly instructed by God through Moses. We have two brutal examples of how doing this the wrong way or with the wrong spirit led to disastrous consequences. Once in Leviticus 10, when Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu bring unauthorized fire before God, and fire from the Lord consumes them, and again in Numbers 16, when 250 men who supported Korah in his rebellion against Moses and Aaron are consumed by fire from the Lord while they’re offering incense. If the prayers of the saints are as incense before God, then the Old Testament gives graphic caution against offering this the wrong way. We’re told explicitly how worthless misaligned, hypocritical worship is in Isaiah 1:11–17,

“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates;  they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.”

But if these passages paint a picture of the suffering and destruction that comes from insincere or wrong-hearted prayer, we’re offered great hope and comfort from 2 Chronicles 7:12–14,

“Then the LORD appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: ‘I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

What we can see and appreciate from today’s passage and this image of saintly prayers offered up before God are how significant and meaningful our prayers are before God. This is a unique perspective, and it grants new significance to something already integral to our faith and worship.

“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.’”

One God, one victory, one claimed scroll, three songs of response. The first echoes the promises of Isaiah 56:1–8,

“Thus says the LORD: ‘Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my righteousness be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil. Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely separate me from his people”; and let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” For thus says the LORD: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant—these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.”’”

God is not only the God of the Jews, the blood of Christ was not only poured out for the people of Israel, rather as John 1:12–13 says,

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

The power of the blood of Christ, His worthiness to open the seals of the scroll, the coming righteous judgement of the Living God are all things to be endlessly celebrated by His saints.

“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, saying 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!’”

We see angelic praise in other areas of Scripture, but the only other time we see vast, innumerable angels, and we actually hear their message of praise and joy is in Luke 2:13–14,

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!’”

This helps give us a sense of the gravity of Jesus claiming the scroll – this is a glorious and unprecedented moment as the judgement of God is prepared to be unleashed, and angels beyond number sing out to praise the victory of the Lamb of God.

“And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!’”

Humanity knows a profound sort of blindness in our sin, wrapped up in, and loving the darkness. Creation itself however, from the stars in the sky to the beasts of the field, testify to their Creator. During the triumphal entry, after some of the Pharisees ask Jesus to curb the enthusiasm of the crowd, He replies in Luke 19:40,

“… I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

And Paul, while addressing the lack of excuse humanity has for denying God, writes in Romans 1:19–20,

“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

Creation attests to its creator, and as Jesus claims the scroll, and the mighty judgement of God is set to unfold, every creature in existence gives praise and worship to the One whose hand formed them all.

“And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ and the elders fell down and worshiped.”

In response to this chorus of praise, the living creatures, constantly seeing, constantly praising and testifying to the holiness of God have one thing to say – “Amen!” That is, “let it be.” To the torrent of joyous praise given to the Lamb and to the One seated on the throne the only thing they add is a resounding endorsement, to which the elders add their worship. There is so much joy and celebration in the face of the coming judgement, but something that may help drive home the point of its goodness is to skip ahead and see the response toward the end of things. In Revelation 19:1–3, Babylon, great corrupter on the earth has fallen. The final judgement before the great white throne and the end of the earth has not taken place yet, but we find ourselves on the cusp of the marriage supper of the Lamb, the arrival of Christ, and the thousand-year reign. Most of the events in Revelation that people find disturbing are over, and the seven seals of the scroll we read of today are long since passed. Babylon is destroyed, and John writes,

“After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, ‘Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgements are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.’ Once more they cried out, ‘Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.’”

The response to God’s judgement before it happens is celebration and joy, the response to God’s judgement after it happens is celebration and joy – because the righteous judgement of holy God is good. This is not something that we who are His children should approach with anxiety, fear, or apprehension. Certainly reverence, but not frightened or dismayed. There is great comfort in what God has so rightly prepared, He does not fail or falter, but is complete in His authority, and we have the testimony of our brothers in Christ, of all the heavenly host, and all creation to look to and see the glory of what God has in store, that we might say with great gladness, “Amen.”

Pastor Chris’ sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWrcAPzNJOc