Remembering the Slain Lamb — Zac Poonen

Heaven’s Worship Centered on Jesus

I want you to please turn with me to Revelation and chapter 5. The book of Revelation is the only book that gives us some glimpses of heaven, our future home. And one of the things we discover is that in every glimpse of heaven they are falling on their face and worshipping God and proclaiming the worthiness of God our Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So how do we prepare ourselves to go to this place where nobody's bothered about you and me, they're going to sing only about Jesus. So if any of us are used to being respected you're going to be disappointed when you go to heaven because everything's going to be centered around Jesus.

So sometimes I do this myself, I sometimes shut my eyes and imagine that I'm standing with millions as far as the eye can see just lost in that crowd of millions of people and everybody worshipping Jesus and nobody else is important there, not Paul, not Peter, not you, not me.

So many saints and martyrs who've sacrificed so much, denied themselves and done wonderful works for God on the earth but all forgotten, only Jesus. It's a very good exercise. I find it's very good for me to do that so that I can be small in my own eyes all the time.

See, if you remain small in your own eyes there's no limit to the grace of God that can be upon your life. And so these glimpses of heaven are a great help. Jesus is the only center of everything there.

The Book and the Price of Redemption

And so here we read that John had this vision where there was a that God, the one who sat on the throne, had a book sealed up with seals. And I believe that book is representing the price that has to be paid for the redemption of the human race.

The redemption that is to save mankind from eternal hell, from judgment and God doesn't want to judge but he's a just God. He cannot just shut his eyes and say, okay, you're all forgiven. Because sin is a very serious thing and the main sin of man is not adultery.

It's rebellion against the authority of God. Every sin we commit, every sin, is a rebellion against the authority of God. When you yell at your wife you're rebelling against the authority of God which says you must love.

When you yell at your husband you're rebelling against the authority of God. It says you must love. You must be humble. So rebellion against authority, the first sin came in the universe when the devil rebelled against authority and transmitted that rebellion to Eve who rebelled against the authority of God saying, no, I'm going to eat this tree from this tree.

Adam joined in that rebellion and throughout history his first son joined in that rebellion and killed Abel. And all through history and now God's seen this terrible state of affairs. At one time he wiped out the earth in Noah's time.

So let me start again and the new race that started with Noah's went the same way in rebellion. Built the tower of Babel. God said, okay, let me scatter them across the face of the earth through different languages.

Again rebellion. And it's continued like that till now and you see what all is happening in the world today. Men marrying men, women marrying women and saying that's normal and Christian churches accepting it.

All types of perversion. I'm not a prophet. But I'll say the next step is human beings marrying animals. Just wait and see. It'll happen and when it happens, don't be surprised because mankind is on a downward slope and we're pretty close to the bottom now.

It's been rebellion, rebellion against God and it's coming into this Christian Church. The destruction of marriage relationships. I mean divorce was almost unheard of in Christian circles in India. Common in the West, but now it is happening.

So all these are indications of rebelling against God's authority. And God cannot ignore it. In the case of the devil, he was cast out. In the case of man, I've often thought when the devil was cast out, Jesus, I mean God didn't become an angel to redeem Satan.

Humanity Made in God’s Image and the Promise of Redemption

But when man sinned, God said immediately, the seed of the woman will come. Why did God make a difference between when man sinned and when the angel Lucifer sinned? I think part of the reason is, I don't know the full reason, but partly because man was made in God's image, angels were not.

And secondly, because Satan sinned on his own without anybody else prompting him. Whereas Adam and Eve were deceived and prompted by somebody else. So therefore God decided to redeem man. And it's a tremendous thing.

If that did not happen, just think of it, if that did not happen, all of us would be exactly like the devil. 100%. We would be the demons and the devils roaming around. And so, but God didn't want that.

Christ’s Qualification to Open the Sealed Book

He says, who's going to break these seals and pay the price for redemption? And it says in verse 3, Revelation 5, 3, no one in heaven, no one on the earth, under the earth, was able to open the book or even to look at it.

To look at it was frightening. Into it. And it says, John, when he heard, saw that, he began to weep greatly. I think he began to understand a little bit of what it was. And one of the elders said, don't weep.

The Lion of Judah and the Slain Lamb

One has been found. A lion. The lion from the tribe of Judah and the root of David has overcome. He had to overcome in order to open the book. See, nobody had overcome. Nobody in the history of humanity had overcome all sin.

But one overcame. So as to open the book. That's why it says no one was worthy. Thank God there was one who, that's why he had to be tempted in all points as we are. Because he had to overcome to be able to pay the price for man's redemption.

He couldn't just come from heaven and die on the cross. No. He had to overcome every temptation that man had faced. Then go and die on the cross. That is redemption. So it says, yeah, he's qualified because he overcame.

And so he's able to open the books and seven seals. So you see that it is not just because he was a son of God that he could pay the price. It's because he came as a man and overcame. It says here, he overcame so that he's qualified to open the book.

And when he, John, turns to see this roaring lion, a lion of Judah, as it says in verse 5, he doesn't see a lion. He turns around and he sees a lamb, exact opposite of the lion, standing slain. Not even a lamb, but a lamb slain, helpless and weak.

Isn't that interesting? That the one who conquered and qualified to open the book was a lamb that was slain and made weak. Teaching us that in the kingdom of God, the weakest are the strongest. Those who are, the ones who overcome sin are those who absolutely recognize their weakness.

Those are willing to be like a lamb. There are some people who want to be like a lion. They won't conquer. It's the ones who are like a lamb and willing to be slain. They conquer. And this lamb has the Holy Spirit upon him.

That's how he conquered. And he comes so boldly right up to God. Imagine coming boldly up to God and taking the book out of his hand. Everyone is scared even to look at it and he goes and takes it out.

And you know, he's our forerunner. He's our leader. And if you go the way that he went, which is the way of being slain and being like a lamb before people, but being like a lion before the devil and before sin.

Jesus was like a lion towards sin, towards the devil, but towards people he was like a lamb. They could hit him, slap him, kill him, whatever they liked. The devil couldn't do that to him. The devil fled from him, but he allowed people to hurt him.

So there's this lion-lamb combination and it's like that with us too. If you really follow Jesus, when we stand proclaiming God's Word to others, we'll be like lions. Fearless and people should be terrified, should be terrified of a true servant of God.

When he proclaims God's Word, the devil should be terrified because he's like a lion. But once he's not in that position, he's like a lamb, allows other people to hurt him, do anything to him. This is a true servant of God, a lion-lamb combination.

A lion at the right place and a lamb at the right place. A lion towards sin and towards the devil and a lamb towards people. It says here that they all fell down and began to praise him. This is what I want you to see here in verse 9.

Singing a Fresh Song About Calvary

They sang a new song and the song was, Thou art worthy to break the seals and take the book because you were slain and purchased us with your blood from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. They are speaking about Calvary.

They are singing. They are singing a song about Jesus' death on the cross and what we remember in the breaking of bread. It's a new song. So the meaning is fresh. The meaning of new means fresh, like the bread is fresh.

Even though it's the same bread that we've eaten many times, but it's fresh. It's not the same piece of bread we had at the last breaking of bread. No. It's fresh. That's the meaning. A fresh song. The meaning is that I'm, you know, this bread has never been used before.

It's absolutely brand new. And so the meaning here is that we sing about Calvary as if we are hearing for the first time in our life that you don't have to go to hell. God's anger does not have to fall upon you.

Somebody has died for you. It's like a man who's been in prison for years and hears, hey, I'm free. Or a man who's had a debt of millions of rupees being told somebody has paid your debt. That's how we should feel every time we sing about the cross of Jesus.

It doesn't come naturally because I know how for many years I used to sing about the cross and it was old news. I heard that so many times. Christ died for me. But after I read this and began to take it more seriously, I began to pray that I would have a little bit of that taste of heaven in my life now.

Not the full experience, but a little bit of the foretaste of heaven. That even now when I sing about the cross or about Jesus dying for me, I want to sing about it with a freshness. Not an old story.

I know it and I know the tune. I can sing it. I'm washed in the blood of the Lamb. We can sing it so easily. But to sing with Lord, what does it mean that you've shed your blood? And I want to, as if I'm hearing it for the first time, that somebody shed his blood for me.

For an unworthy rotten sinner like me, somebody was willing to think that I'm precious enough for him to die. Wow, I want it to be fresh. And I have personally prayed that I would, that every time I think about the cross and sing about the cross, it'll be fresh.

Sometimes it'll bring tears in my eyes because I'm hearing the first time Jesus died for me. I know I can't reach that perfection till I get to heaven, but I want to get close to it. Press on to where this never becomes old news.

It never becomes stale news. Even though it's the same news, it's like the same bread, but it is fresh. Same bread we had last time, but it is fresh. It's not the same. So must our thinking about the cross and singing about the cross.

Keeping the Cross Fresh in Communion

It's the same message, but it is fresh. And I want to ask all of you, is the death of Jesus fresh to you today? Is the awareness of your sin and how you don't deserve anything but hell fresh to you, or has it become stale news that you're so familiar with that you can hear it and hear it and hear it?

I pray that it'll never. It was like that for me for many years after I was saved, but it's not like that for me now. Breaking of bread has become very real for me. Like it says about Jesus in the house in Emmaus, their eyes were opened when he broke bread.

I pray that your eyes will be opened as you break bread and you see something, something of the cup that Jesus drank on Calvary, which he tried so much to avoid, but he drank it because he knew that if he didn't drink it, you would go to hell.

So for your sake, he said, okay, Father, I'll drink it. Remember that when you break bread today and don't take it lightly. Let's pray.