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Encouragement for the journey from God’s Word.
Today's Scripture: Revelation 5 / Psalm 133
Music credit: "Awaken the Dawn" by Stanton Lanier, https://www.stantonlanier.com/
CCLI #1760549
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- What a good Tuesday morning to you. I hope your week got off to a good start yesterday, and already this morning you're facing the day positively, optimistically, confidently, as you're walking with the
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- Lord today. Today we're in Revelation chapter 5, and this chapter gives us a rich, rich glimpse into the realities of God's heaven, where He dwells, if you will.
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- As the chapter opens up, you have this image of God the
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- Father sitting on the sovereign throne of authority and power, and He's holding in His hand a scroll that has written on it the entire history of the universe.
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- It has the fate of the entire universe, if you will, and He's holding it out, and it's got these seals on it indicating that nobody can just open up those seals and unroll that scroll and read and so forth what is in that scroll and bring it to pass.
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- And so the call goes out, you know, who's worthy to come and open up this scroll? And there's absolutely no one, absolutely no one in the entirety of God's creation who is qualified to open up this scroll of sovereign authority over the entire universe until the
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- Son steps forward. And the Son is portrayed in two different ways in this passage.
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- In verse 5, He is portrayed as the lion of the tribe of Judah.
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- He's also portrayed as a lamb that had been slain, but is alive, obviously.
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- So the Son portrayed as the lamb slain, but alive.
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- And of course, this is referring to Jesus Christ, is it not? He who was the
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- Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, and how did He accomplish that? By being crucified on that wretched cross and being buried, but then being raised again.
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- A lamb that was slain, but alive. And He was the only one worthy to take that scroll.
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- He's also portrayed as the lion of the tribe of Judah, that is, the rightful heir to the eternal kingdom.
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- And then further in this passage, you have described the Spirit enveloping the earth, and He's seeing the
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- Holy Spirit looking over all that is taking place. Verse 6 talks about that.
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- There in the middle of the four living creatures and the elders stood a lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and what are those seven eyes?
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- It's a symbolic representation of the Spirit of God sent out through all the earth. So you have the
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- Father on the throne, the Son as the lion, lamb, and the
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- Spirit, the triune God is involved in all of this that's taking place here in this throne room of heaven.
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- But there's more. There are these elite angels who begin praising
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- God. Read of this in verse 8, the four living creatures and the 24 elders.
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- I believe this is a couple of elite categories of angels, the four living creatures being those closest to the throne.
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- The 24 elders are a group of angels outside of that closest group of the four living creatures, these elite angels.
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- They represent all of the saints from the Old Testament and the New Testament eras, these four living creatures, these 24 elders.
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- But they're involved in praise. They sing a new song in verses 9 and 10, praising the lamb who is worthy to take the scroll to open its seals.
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- Why? Because he has redeemed a people to God by his blood, a people out of every tribe and tongue and nation, and made them kings and priests to God, and a people who will reign upon the earth.
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- They're praising the lamb for his work of redemption. And then it expands, this praise expands in the next couple of verses when it talks about the many angels around the throne, the living creatures, the elders, and the number of them was 10 ,000 times 10 ,000.
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- In other words, an innumerable myriad of angels who then become involved in praising the lamb, worthy as the lamb, they say, who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.
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- But there's more. The praise expands even further to include every creature which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all of them break forth in praise.
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- All of creation joins in to praise the Father and the Son for their worthiness to receive all honor and blessing and glory and might forever and ever.
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- What's taking place in heaven right now? What's going on in the throne room of God right now?
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- There is in the throne room of God just such an exaltation to the lamb that was slain, the
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- Lord Jesus Christ, and all that he has done for us in redeeming us to himself and reconciling us to our
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- God, making us kings and priests who will dwell with him forever and ever. There is ongoing praise and adoration and exaltation of God the
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- Father and of God the Son and even of the Holy Spirit who sees all and knows all that's going on in this world.
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- What a glorious insight to what's going on beyond the veil.
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- I hope you really appreciate that this morning and further have a greater appreciation and love for and worship of the lion of the tribe of Judah, the lamb that was slain in our behalf.
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- Our Father and our God, we do thank you today for the Lord Jesus Christ. We praise him for his work of redemption on the cross.
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- We praise you, Father, for your sovereign authority and power for the gracious gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.
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- We praise you, Holy Spirit, for your working in our lives and working in this world, seeing all that is transpiring and ensuring that all that is the will of God shall indeed be accomplished.
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- And so, Father, we do thank you and praise you today for this glorious passage of Scripture. And we ask it in Jesus' name.
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- Amen. All right, listen, have a good Tuesday. I hope you have a great day. God bless.