The Book Of Revelation (part 4)

Revelation and kind of bring to a close the first phase with our look this morning at chapters four and five.

And at some point later on this year, we will look at the remainder of the book. But up to now, we have looked at John's vision as John has been instructed to write down things, first of all, things which are, things which have been, things which are in the past, and then things which shall be hereafter, things which are going to occur in the future.

And so up to this point, up to chapter four, you find primarily agreement among what he's talking about.

After all, they're talking to real churches with real messages to real churches and applications to those churches.

But at chapter four is where the fun begins because at this point, he is to start writing down the things which shall be hereafter, as the

King James puts it. And so he is drawn up into heaven. He is drawn up into heaven and he has shown a vision of God's throne room.

And he is going to start recording events which take place in God's throne room. And from this point on, the whole book of Revelation is his attempts to describe the indescribable.

He has actually seen what heaven looks like and he's trying to describe this as best he can.

And his descriptions come out primarily in terms of light and color and brilliance and thunder and lightning and all of these things that he touches on trying to describe what is essentially indescribable to mortal men.

This is also the point at which the controversy all starts in the book because there is a lot of controversy that surrounds the eschatology, the study of future things and particularly the study of Revelation.

How are you going to take the book of Revelation? How are you going to apply it to our lives?

And as we've touched on briefly, some of the approaches that are taken, one of them that is very common is to simply ignore it as if the book isn't there.

And yet, the whole, the very title of the book, The Revelation, it's

God had John write this book to show things to us.

It is a book that is to reveal, not conceal. And it is a book to give us an idea of what is going to happen in the future, how it all comes out so that, you know, just like any other novel that we pick up and read, we can read the last chapter first and find out how everything comes out in the end.

It details the final triumph of God and Jesus Christ and his glorification and all of that is laid out for us.

But there's a great deal of controversy that arises over what these things mean, how we are to apply them, are we to take them as literal events, all of those things.

And there are views and there are variations on those views.

And you will find good, sound men who are coming down on just about every side of this controversy that you can find.

And it's true that this book and the study of eschatology in general is one of those areas where good men, where spiritual men, where Christian men and women can differ.

Because, frankly, your eternal destiny, the eternal destiny of your soul does not depend upon whether you're pre -trib, pre -mill, post -mill, pan -mill, whatever it is.

And so there's controversy here. And this is where it starts. It starts in Chapter 4 because we have discussions over what is the tribulation?

What is the tribulation? Will the church go through the tribulation or not?

What is the nature of the millennial kingdom? You've heard the terms,

I'm sure, that, you know, we are pre -mill and what does that mean? And we believe in we being, it's the official position of BBC for one thing, and those of us who are in the millennial camp believe that Jesus Christ is going to reign here on earth for a literal 1 ,000 years, 1 ,000 real years.

He is going to reign from Jerusalem as the son of David and all of the promises that God gave to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the

Israelites will be fulfilled during that period of time. Now, the other side of that coin, we refer to as the

Amil camp. And Amil literally means no millennium.

But in fairness to those men, they also believe that there's going to be an earthly reign of Christ on earth.

It's just the controversy comes over whether it's a literal 1 ,000 years or not. And so, and I'm not going to try to get, you know, we could spend years off into controversies like that if we wanted to.

So I'm not going to get really into all of that too much. But I do want to state, you've heard me use the term, you've heard others use the term here, that this church is pre -mill and pre -trib.

And you say, fine, what does that mean? Well, first of all, there's the pre -mill part of it.

The pre -millennial position holds that Jesus Christ will return bodily to earth.

He will establish his kingdom on earth. And as I just said, he will reign from Jerusalem, from David's throne for 1 ,000 literal years.

And all of the promises to Israel will be fulfilled during that period of time. Because if you go all the way back to God's promises to Abraham, there are gaps.

God promised things to Abraham. But first, primarily, he promised him land and he promised him descendants.

Well, we see the descendants. But the Israelites have never ruled over all of the land that they were promised in the same time, if you go back and look at that.

And there are things which are still to be fulfilled in the Old Testament prophecies.

And if you go back primarily to the books of Daniel and the books of Ezekiel, they deal in the

Old Testament with a lot of these future things. And Daniel had a clouded view of what was going to happen.

Ezekiel had a clouded view of what was going to happen. And from our viewpoint of several thousand years later, it's more clear.

And we have the book of Revelation to kind of add to that and go back to that. But that is essentially what the premill position means.

When we use that term, that's what we mean. And that the millennial kingdom will be started by Jesus Christ's physical return to earth.

Now, later on in Revelation, we'll get to this where it says his foot will touch the Mount of Olives, the

Mount of Olives will split, and it details out in great detail what's going to happen on the earth.

And he will set up this kingdom. And during the thousand -year reign of Christ on earth,

Satan and his demons will be bound. There will be no demonic activity permitted upon the earth during that period of time.

As I've said, all of the promises to Abraham and Israel will be literally fulfilled during that period of time.

You know, David was promised a son to rule on his throne after him. And, yes, we have

David, we have Solomon, and then very quickly after that, the lion is gone. But that promise still stands, and God is going to fulfill that promise.

And how does this apply to us? We are promised as church -age saints that we will reign with him.

Okay, so what's the pre -trib part? First of all, any questions on that? That's very fast. Okay, what's the pre -trib part of it?

The seven years immediately prior to Jesus' bodily return to earth and setting up his millennial kingdom is referred to as the

Great Tribulation. Now, we'll be studying more and more of that.

In fact, everything from chapter 6 all the way to chapter 19 in Revelation deals with what happens on earth during the

Tribulation, referred to as the Great Tribulation. It will be a time of unparalleled chaos upon the face of the earth.

We just think that Katrina was a bad thing. Katrina was over in a few days.

Imagine a storm the size of Katrina that lasts for seven years. It gives you some feel for what the

Tribulation is going to be like. It's going to be repeated disasters poured out upon the earth, both natural disasters, civil disasters, civil disorder of all kinds, and getting worse and worse and worse until you get to the end of the seven -year period.

One of the arguments that goes on about that is, will the church be here during that period of time?

Now, there will be believers on earth during that period of time, but will they be church -age saints is the issue.

And so the pre -Trib position says this, that Jesus Christ is going to come back in the air and is going to rapture away his church.

And the word that we translate as rapture literally means to snatch up, that Jesus is going to appear in the sky and the church is going to be gone.

Every true believer on the face of the earth at that time is going to disappear.

And depending upon what your view is on infants, you can make a good argument that perhaps all the children under the age of maybe five are also going to suddenly disappear.

I mean, you can argue with that. But the church certainly is going to be gone. This is referred to as the hidden rapture because it occurs completely without warning.

And we are told all through the New Testament that we are to look for this. We are to look for the imminent return of Jesus Christ.

We are to live every day as if Jesus Christ would return this day and take us away to be with him because this is going to occur with no warning.

There's going to be no warning whatsoever that this is going to happen. And this is where we get the doctrine of the imminent return of Jesus Christ, that it could happen any time.

When Paul was writing, he was telling Christians that were alive then, you know,

Jesus could return tomorrow. There's nothing that has to happen before he returns. And so you be ready.

Now, other people argue that, well, no, the church is going to actually go through this.

And so those are mostly the post -trib position, is that the church goes through the tribulation.

We get raptured right at the end of the tribulation. Then we turn around and come back to earth with Jesus Christ when he returns to earth because the second advent of Jesus Christ, the physical returning of Jesus Christ to the earth, is entirely different.

First of all, he comes to earth. He actually touches earth. The second thing is the second advent of Jesus is preceded by all kinds of signs in the heavens and signs on earth that this is going to happen.

The physical bodily return of Jesus Christ to earth has got all kinds of warning in front of it. So this argument goes on.

And the post -trib position says that, no, the church goes through the tribulation and we get raptured right at the end of the tribulation.

And then there is the, I told you it gets complicated, there's the mid -trib position which says, no, the church goes halfway through the tribulation and we get raptured in the middle of it, you know.

And then there's the pan -trib position that says that let's all pan out in the end somehow. I had to get that in.

I will hear about that later today. But, you know, whatever, that's a joke.

So anyway, that's a little bit aside. We use those terms around here, pre -mill and pre -trib.

And, you know, we shouldn't assume that people know what that means. And my conclusion on that, the great tribulation is also referred to as the 70th week of Daniel because if you look in the book of Daniel, there's a whole series of prophecies in there where it says 70 weeks are determined against my people.

And we've accounted for 69 of them. But there's one week left to go that's never taken place yet.

And so the great tribulation has its parallel in the Old Testament as the 70th week of Daniel.

Okay. Again, if you want to look more at the Old Testament, just a second,

Dan. If you want to look more at the Old Testament about this, look in the books of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Joel are the prophets that dealt with this the most.

Daniel, you had a question. The most traditional position, let me put it that way, is that these are weeks of years and they are seven years long, that each week was seven years long.

And there are all kinds of variations of that. But that is the position that we would hold to, is that it's a literal seven years.

Now, you do have to understand that, particularly in the Old Testament, a Jewish year is 360 days long, not 365.

They didn't go by the solar year, which is why from time to time, they had to reshift everything to make the seasons come up at the right time.

But that's what most conservative scholars hold to. Oh, there's definitely a gap.

For example, the 69th week was concluded quite a bit before Christ, and we're still waiting on the 70th week to start.

So, yes, there's definitely gaps in there. The argument there, if you remember,

I also mentioned what we call the preterist position and the futurist position. The futurist position on the book of Revelation says that everything that's recorded, again, from Chapter 6 onward, is future.

It's going to happen in the future. The preterist position says, no, those events are things that have already happened.

And they do. They list off all kinds of historical events that have happened after Jerusalem was sacked in 70

A .D. And they had these various events and kings and one thing or another. And they say, see, these are the fulfillments of that, which means that we're in this millennial reign now.

And there's all kinds of issues with that. But anyway, let's move ahead.

We get to Chapter 4. We get to Chapter 4, and from here on out,

I'm going to be using the English standard because the language, trying to keep up with this vision is hard enough that I have to wade through King James English to do it.

So he says, And after this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice, which

I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.

At once I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven with one seated on the throne.

And he who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and Carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.

Around the throne were 24 thrones, and seated on the thrones were 24 elders, clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their heads.

From the throne came flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God.

And before the throne there was, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal. And so John is transported into heaven, and not just into heaven, but into the throne room of heaven.

And he sees this vision of God's throne. And a throne, now keep in mind, you have to try to put yourself in John's head.

You know, in John's day kings ruled. Kings were absolute monarchs.

There was no such thing as a constitutional monarch in those days. You know, the king ruled, and whatever he said happened.

And so John, first of all, describes this throne, and the throne is symbolic of rule and authority.

It's the place from which the king rules. It's the place from which he gives his edicts.

It's the place from which he hands down his decisions, and his decisions are law.

They're going to happen. And so he sees this, and it's located in heaven, and it's symbolic of God's presence.

Now, we know that God is omnipresent. He is not restricted to any given physical location.

But nonetheless, this is a manifestation, if you will, of God's presence.

When the Israelites were being led through the desert, God manifested his presence physically in the pillar by day, the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night.

And it didn't mean that that's only where God was, but that God was displaying his presence at that point like that.

And here is God displaying his presence in a way that just absolutely overwhelms

John. You know, he's doing his best to describe this, but he says, here's this throne, and it's standing in heaven because God's rule is fixed, and God's rule is permanent, and he is in complete and total control of the situation.

And this is very important for John to establish early on, because what he's going to describe starting in chapter 6 is complete and total chaos on the earth.

It's going to be incredible what's going to be happening on the earth. And there are three rounds of judgments that are going to happen.

There's going to be the seal judgments, and then there's going to be the bowl judgments, and then there are going to be the trumpet judgments.

And we can gather from that that when the trumpets start blowing out of heaven, you are in big trouble.

You know, you want to watch out at that point. And so he also describes the one that's seated on this throne.

He's sitting on the throne, and that's what the king did when he was going to render judgment. This whole vision concerns the glorification, the glory of God, and the fact that judgment is going to happen.

He's describing a scene which would be familiar to all of his readers, as this is what happens when you're hauled in before the presence of the king, and he is going to render judgment on you.

You know, the king is up seated on this throne. He's not down to greet you or anything like that.

He's up there in his position of ruling authority where he's going to hand down judgment.

Judgment is about to take place. We have parallel scenes, for example,

Isaiah chapter 6. This is parallel to what Isaiah saw, and his reaction to that was, you know,

I'm done for. I'm lost. You know, I can do nothing except fall on my face and try to hide my face from the one that's seated on this throne because I can't stand before him.

You see the same thing in Daniel chapter 7. You see it also in Ezekiel. Ezekiel's famous vision at the beginning of the book is not of a flying saucer coming in to land.

It is, in fact, a vision of God in his glory.

And all of the references that he makes there all deal with God in his glory.

And so he describes the one who's seated on this throne. He can only do it in terms of light and color, you know, and brilliance.

You know, they saw these bright lights, and he doesn't go into physical form or anything like that.

He says the colors that stand out are one is the color of jasper, and jasper is probably parallel to a diamond because it's clear.

He says it's crystal clear, and it's very, very bright. And what does a diamond do if you shine light on it?

It refracts it into all the colors of the rainbow as it hits the facets of the diamond.

And he also describes it as a sardius, which is blood red. And there's all kinds of discussion about this, but, you know, red is the color of blood.

And so it's also pointed out by some scholars that the jasper and the sardius are the first and the last stones on the breastplate of the high priest.

If you go back to Exodus where he's describing all of the things that are to be done.

Is it Exodus or Leviticus? The Old Testament where he describes the garments of the high priest, and there are 12 stones on this breastplate that the priest wears that represent the 12 tribes of Israel.

But whatever this is, this is not a vision of peace and comfort. This is not made to give you warm, fuzzy feelings.

This whole thing is to evoke and evokes in John awe and terror.

You know, talk about the fear of God. He is really afraid at this point.

And just to be struck completely dumb, unable to speak by what he is seeing here.

And, you know, judgments coming is the message that he's got. The individual seated on this throne is the consuming fire that Hebrews speaks of.

Judgments coming. And then he describes around the throne that there's a rainbow around the throne.

So that even in the midst of this scene of total judgment, it's not all judgment.

Because what does a rainbow signify? Rainbow signifies promise.

When God had flooded the earth and it was down now to Noah and his sons and their wives, he puts the rainbow in the sky saying, you know, this is my promise that I'm not going to destroy the earth by water again.

And so there's a covenant here and that God is faithful.

God has promised that I'm not going to send a universal flood again. And in the several thousand years that have transpired, he's been as good as his word.

That has not happened. And so faithfulness is there and mercy is there, even in this scene which overall renders that judgments coming.

So there he is. And then around the throne, he describes 24 thrones, smaller thrones, and there are 24 elders seated on them with white robes and gold crowns.

Now, this is where we really start to get into the controversies that surround. The first big controversy is who are these guys?

You know, who are those guys out there? So there are 24 thrones.

Well, first of all, that he calls them thrones, lesser thrones than the great throne, certainly.

But there are 24 thrones. That implies reign. Whoever these individuals are, they're reigning with God.

And so the first idea that we might have is that, well, maybe they're angels.

Are these angels? But there are several things that go against that idea.

First of all, nowhere in Scripture will you find angels seated.

Angels are always on the move. Angels are there to serve, and they serve constantly.

They're always moving. They're always doing something, or at least they're standing.

The angel that spoke to Zacharias, he came and he stood there, and he said,

I'm Gabriel, and I stand in God's presence. But again, he's emphasizing, I don't sit in God's presence. I stand there.

And you're going to have a son. You're going to call him John. And so angels don't sit.

And the next thing that we come across is that angels, the term elder is never used to refer to an angel.

It always refers to a human being, to a man. And finally, the term elder itself is not appropriate to an angel.

Angels don't age. And, you know, elder, the very term, means someone who is older, you know, and hopefully older both in wisdom and experience as well as just chronological age.

And also we deal with what are these men dressed in?

Well, they're in white garments. And white garments, to be clothed in white is a description of believers.

That is applied to believers. We are clothed in white garments. We are clothed in the righteousness of Christ that has been imputed to us.

And all throughout the New Testament in particular, to be clothed in white, and even in the first few chapters of Revelation, to be clothed in white means to be righteous.

And it's descriptive of believers, of Christians. And clothed in Christ imputed righteousness.

And finally, they have gold crowns. And gold is imperishable.

Gold is always used as symbolic of something that is permanent, because gold does not corrode, gold does not rust.

Gold has intrinsic value. Gold has value in and of itself.

It doesn't have to represent something of value. It is a value of its own self.

And so, they're wearing these crowns. And you find gold crowns referred to several places in the

Scripture, among them Revelation 2, verse 10, 1 Corinthians 9, 25, 2

Timothy 4, 8, James 1, 12, and 1 Peter 5, 4, to mention just a few.

And so, our conclusion is that the 24 elders are human beings. Not only are they human beings, they are believing human beings.

So, that gets to the real point of dispute. Who are they? Who do they represent? And there's all kinds of positions on this.

But a few things we can point out. First of all, they cannot represent the tribulation saints.

The tribulation hasn't started yet. And there are no tribulation saints at this point.

So, that's one thing. Second thing is they're not likely to represent Israel because we're not dealing with Israel yet.

The chapters from chapter 6 to chapter 19 deal primarily with Israel.

Up to now, we've been dealing with the church. The first, yeah, Daniel. It is a crown of reward of some sort.

So, yes, you could call it a Stephanos. The question was, was it a Stephanos?

And not to divert too far from our main subject, Christians will stand before Jesus Christ to receive a reward for what we have done with our lives.

You know, we will be rewarded. And he wants to know, what have you done with the life that you were given?

And the rewards that are given in some places are described as the

Stephanos. A Stephanos is what the winner got at the games, at the

Greek games and the Roman games. And, yes, it was just a little wreath. The actual physical thing was just a little wreath of leaves that went on your head, although all kinds of good stuff went with it, not the least of which was that you live tax -free for the rest of your life.

Maybe we could have some games in the United States and get a lot of activity about that.

But, yes, these crowns that these individuals are wearing are crowns of reward that they have had.

And so, but back to why this is probably not Israel, though some think it is.

Chapter 6, Chapter 19 deals primarily with Israel, not the church.

The church is mentioned only peripherally in those chapters. The church, we've dealt with the church in Chapters 2 and 3, where John is delivering

God's message to the churches, to the physical churches. But after Chapter 4, Chapter 4 is the last time we see the church until we get all the way to the end of the book.

And so we come to the conclusion, and, again, this is the pre -mill position, is that the 24 elders represent the raptured and glorified church, the body of Christ.

That's who these guys are. They represent us, in effect. And so they are there in the throne room.

We have been at, the conclusion is that as Chapter 4 begins, the church has been raptured.

We have been taken out. We now reside in heaven. And all of this trouble that's about to start on earth, we are going to be taken out of and shielded away from.

We're not going to be a part of that. So now what happens as John goes on to his description of what's going on in the throne room?

And we've got to move rapidly here. First of all, there's lightning and thunder. And if you go through the

Old Testament, lightning and thunder is often associated with God's presence. Again, it's an indication that God is there.

When the Israelites were gathered around the base of Mount Sinai, what was happening up on Sinai, lightning and thunder.

And that's when they were saying, Moses, you go up there and talk, and we'll stay back here.

You go over there. And so a scary thing, again, the prelude to divine judgment.

And before the throne, we have the seven torches, which are not to be confused with the seven lampstands that we saw in Chapter 2.

This is a representation of the Holy Spirit. Again, the number seven and the torch.

The torch means consuming fire, judgment. And so he also describes as best he can the surroundings of the room, that there's a crystal clear pavement underneath the throne like a sea of glass.

It's not a sea. But you may be seeing things here that remind you of hymns.

Well, this is where the hymn writers got some of that, you know. The term crystal sea that shows up in some of our hymns, this is where it comes from.

And then there are four living creatures in the room that are described. These are divine beings, and they are constantly moving.

Again, if you go back to Ezekiel, if you go back to Isaiah, they are defined as cherubim, particularly in Ezekiel.

They are specifically associated with divine power, and they were symbolic of God's power, and cherubim were carved.

There were carved representations of cherubim on top of the Ark of the Covenant, if you remember the description of how the

Ark goes. And Ezekiel describes them as being full of eyes, that nothing escapes their notice.

And so John describes these individuals, these beings, these angelic beings, in relation to the created world.

He said, one is like a lion, one is like a lion which represents strength, and it's also the symbol of the tribe of Judah.

One is like a calf, domestic animals, service, domestic animals serve mankind.

That is also the symbol of the tribe of Ephraim. One is an eagle, flying creatures, which is speed, and also the representative, the symbol of the tribe of Dan.

And finally, one looks like a man, which is the pinnacle of God's creation, representing also the tribe of Reuben.

And so these beings are always involved with divine judgment, and they're constantly moving.

And angelic beings are going to play an enormous role in the

Great Tribulation, which is about to start. But what's going on right now? The Tribulation, we're almost ready to start the

Tribulation, but we haven't quite gotten there. But the first thing we're going to do is we're going to worship

God. We're going to worship God, which is the function of every creature in heaven and every creature in the universe, is to worship

God, because God is worthy of worship. And so what do we see in chapters 4 and 5?

There are five hymns of praise, or if you will, there's one hymn of praise with five parts to it as it begins to expand.

First of all, in verse 8 of chapter 4, the four living creatures, the four living creature quartet starts in.

And what do they say? Verse 8, and the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes round about and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come.

That's their job. They say that 24 -7 around the clock.

They give this holy, holy, holy, which is the greatest emphasis that Hebrew literature and the scripture can have, is to give something repeated three times.

And then what happens? Well, we keep going. And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor, that's always, and thanks to him who is seated on the throne who lives forever and ever, verse 10, the 24 elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever.

They cast their crowns before the throne saying, 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.

So now the 24 elders, the church, has joined in. And the church is not, we're not concerned with ourselves.

We're not concerned with hanging on to our crowns. We take our crowns off. We cast them before the throne because he's the one that's worthy of worship.

He's the one that's worthy of honor. He's the one that's worthy of praise, not us. And so they join in.

And then when you get down to verse 8 of chapter 5, the harpists get into the act.

And so the harps join in at that point. And then at verse 11 of chapter 5, the remainder of the angelic hosts, and these are without number, when

John says, you know, thousands of thousands and tens of thousands, he's just, that's just an expression meaning more than I can possibly count.

And finally, in verse 13, all created beings in the universe join in to this because if you recall, one of the things that is driven home in the scripture is that sooner or later, everything in the universe is going to worship

God. Everything is going to worship

God. And as human beings, we are going to worship God.

The issue for each of us is are we going to worship voluntarily? Are we going to bow our knee voluntarily?

Are we going to acknowledge Jesus Christ as worthy of worship and bow before him voluntarily?

Or are we going to be forced to our knees? We're going to worship. We're going to worship one way or another, you know.

And so this whole thing, the focus of this whole thing is on God's holiness. And his holiness is going to be exhibited through judgment.

And a rebellious world is about to feel God's wrath poured out. You know, they have been up to now, you know, it's been like, well, everything continues the way it always has.

You know, nothing much changes. And so everything, like the days of Noah, everything has continued the way it always has been.

We marry, we give in marriage, we eat and we drink, and away we go. And, you know, nothing has happened up to now.

And the message here is it's about to change. That is about to change big time.

And so everyone, but right now, everyone is praising. Everyone is praising. And now we really have to speed up what's going to happen.

John says a couple of things happen. First of all, the one seated on the throne has got a scroll in his hand.

Your Bible may say it's a book, but what it really means is a scroll. And what they would do, they would write on the scroll whatever this was, a contract, a deed, a marriage contract, whatever it was.

And then as they would roll it up, they would seal it with wax periodically so that you had to, at each section, you had to break the seal open, you know, as you unrolled this thing.

And so God is seated on the throne, and he's got a scroll in his hand, and that scroll is the title deed to the earth.

And so he's looking for who can come, take this scroll, and open it. And right at the beginning, nobody can come, not one of the four living creatures, not one of the 24 elders, not one of the angels.

Nobody can come and take this scroll. And John begins to weep.

And the context means and the wording means he's weeping bitterly.

And one of the elders comes and says, don't weep, John. There is someone who can take, who is worthy to take the scroll.

And so John describes that this lamb comes, this lamb comes.

And he is described, Jesus Christ is described by two of his messianic titles.

He's described as the lion of the tribe of Judah, which is the tribe of the kings, and the root of David.

He's from the kingly line. And so the king, the one who is worthy to be king and has the right to be king, has come.

And John says, he looks like a little lamb, like a little lamb, a little lamb that's been killed, and yet he's alive.

But besides that, he's got some symbolic things. First of all, he says he has seven horns.

Well, in the New Testament, in the Bible, a horn is symbolic of power. And so Jesus has all power, complete absolute power.

Seven is the number of fulfillment. He also has seven eyes, which is symbolic of complete and total omniscience.

He knows everything. And so the lamb comes and takes the scroll from God's right hand.

And once again, the living creatures and the elders fall down and worship. As you go through the book of Revelation, you will find that the elders are doing that all the time, all through the book.

You know, they're falling down and worshiping, as they should. And so it was interesting.

Donald Gray Barnhouse, who was one of our past saints, was the pastor at one time of 10th

Presbyterian in Philadelphia around the turn of the early part of the 20th century.

He says about this, he says there are four things that are out of place at this time.

First of all, at this time, now. First of all, as a church, we should be in heaven.

Next thing that's out of place is Israel. Israel should be living in peace in the land that God gave them.

Satan is out of place. He should be bound. He should be in the Lake of Fire. That's where he belongs.

And Jesus belongs on his throne, reigning. And all four of these things are about to be set right.

We're right at the beginning of all four of these things happening. And so what do we do?

We have another song of praise before the events of Chapter 6. And so the 24 elders are shown that they have harps, they have bowls of incense, which are identified as the prayers of the saints.

And harps are associated with prophecy in the Old Testament, if you go back there. And the message here is that everything that's ever been prophesied and every prayer that any saint has ever prayed is about to be fulfilled.

God answers our prayers always. He answers them on his timetable, not ours.

But it is all going to come to pass. And he says everything is going to be fulfilled.

And so the elders now sing. The elders are singing. And again, if you notice as you read through the

Bible, with one possible exception, Job Chapter 38, with that possible exception, angels never sing.

Angels say. It's only us that sing, that make music.

And so here are the elders singing a song of redemption that affirms

Jesus Christ is worthy. And the results of this redemption are laid out that you've made us a kingdom.

You've given us a kingdom and you've made us priests, priesthood of the believer. And so that's a very quick review of Chapters 4 and 5.

At some point later, we will go in to start in Chapter 6. Because the things that are going to happen at the end, there's going to be a world government formed.

And something is going to happen which is going to make the entire population of the world rally to this one individual who can, you know, somebody is going to show up and say

I can fix all of our problems, rally to me, and they're going to do it. Now, all you have to do is look around you.

If you know anything at all about history, you know that people, groups of people don't like each other. You know, for all that we talk about European unity,

I can guarantee you as you go over to Europe, the French don't like the Germans who hate the Poles who, you know,

I don't care if they do have one common currency. It's still like that. So something is going to happen that's going to break down all those barriers.

And forget about the Middle East. You go over to the Middle East and that's a whole other ballgame over there. Something is going to happen, whatever it is.

Some scholars speculate that that something is the rapture of the church. And regardless of how big you think the church is, even if you think it's, say, only 10 to 15 percent of the world's population, that's a lot of people.

And if they suddenly all disappear, this is going to strike terror into the world.

I'm speculating here. This is not part of the lesson. But that's one possibility. But you can tell that something is going to happen that makes this take place.

And so for the first three -and -a -half years, everything seems hunky -dory until the last three -and -a -half years the

Great Tribulation kicks in and then it really starts to get bad on the earth. And we'll go through all of these things as the judgments are poured out.

And then when it seems like it can't get any possibly get any worse, Jesus Christ comes again and sets up and does set everything right.

And there is the final great battle that takes place, and then he does.

This time he comes in glory. The last time he came, he was in humiliation. But the next time he comes, he's going to be in glory, and we're going to be with him.

Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we would be quick to worship you,

Father, because you are worthy of worship, and you have condescended to allow us to call you

Father and to come before you as sons and daughters and not as slaves.

And so, Father, we can do nothing but praise you and fall on our faces before you and worship you. We thank you,

Lord, that you have set these things down for us in your Scripture. We would ask that the

Holy Spirit minister to us to make these things clear to us. In Jesus' name, amen.