The Worthiness of Jesus — Sam Caldwell

The Heavenly Vision of the Worthy Lamb

I want to read to you the context. So we'll read verses 11 through 14, so we understand what we're looking at today. And the context is we're looking into heaven this morning, and we're hearing the song that the saints sing in heaven.

Let's read verses 11 through 14. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders. And the number of them was 10 ,000 times 10 ,000, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.

And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the lamb forever and ever.

And the four beasts said, amen. And the four and 20 elders fell down and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever. Amen? Amen. This is a glorious passage. And like I said, we are looking into heaven today, and we're hearing what the saints sing in heaven.

Defining the Worthiness of Jesus

The topic of today's sermon is this, the worthiness of Jesus. The worthiness of Jesus. And I have three simple points for us today. First, what does worthy mean? Second, why is Jesus worthy? And third, what is he worthy of?

So this is, in many ways, a simple sermon. But if you catch a glimpse of this, of the worthiness of Jesus, this will fuel your Christian life. This will really swell your heart with joy, just to follow Jesus with love and compassion.

The worthiness of Jesus. Our first point this morning, what does worthy mean, anyway? Anybody want to brainstorm that with me? What does worthy mean? Can anyone tell me? Amen, deserving. What's that? Good enough.

Amen. Amen. The term worthy means valuable or deserving. Absolutely. Think with me, where do we use that word worthy in our everyday speech? We say that an actor, a really good actor, is worthy of what?

Of an Oscar. We say that a really good musician is worthy of a Grammy. We say that parents are worthy of honor, and grandparents are worthy of honor because of all they've done in their lives. Or just yesterday, my wife and I were driving through Yarmouth, and we saw the Clam Festival happening.

And I said, Kiara, it's worth it. We should really go. And she said, no, it's too many people. And you know, there's one thing that makes the Clam Festival worth it for me. Have you all seen this little drink?

It's tangy. Amen. Who said that? Amen. Just that little lime ricky, that makes it worth it for me. And I was telling Kiara, it's worthy. It's worth it. But alas, she didn't let us go. So you all can talk to her later, OK?

Worthy. We use that word worthy. And why is it so important that today you get a glimpse of Christ's worthiness? Because if you're a Christian and you're in school, you might have someone come up to you and mock you and say, why are you following Jesus?

And what should you remember in that moment? He is worthy. If you find it hard to raise a Christian family and you're trying to bring the Bible into your family, but maybe you have a tough week, what should you remember?

He is worthy. If you're in the workplace and you're trying to uphold Christian principles and you're trying not to swear and you're trying to be good at your job, but it gets hard, what should you remember?

He is worthy. He is worthy. And what about this? When we try to grow in the Christian life, you might say, I know I'm only giving 30 to Jesus. I know I'm only giving 40%. And maybe in this vacation I take in August, I just want to pray 15 more minutes per day.

I want to spend some time in that seat by the beach just giving some prayer and praise to my Lord. What should you remember when you try to make that resolution? He is worthy. He's worthy of it. Do it by all means.

He's worthy of whatever you have to give him. Amen? That's what worthy means. That's our first point. Now with this second point, let's dive into our text together. Look at verse 12. My second question for you is, why is Jesus worthy?

Jesus Is Worthy as the Slain Lamb

Why is Jesus worthy? Let's read verse 12 one more time. Saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was slain. Now notice that this is said with a loud voice. I believe when we get to heaven, we're going to hear this much louder than you're hearing my voice right now through this microphone and these speakers.

We're going to hear choruses of saints saying this with a loud voice. Worthy is the lamb that was slain. Why is he worthy? There's really only two words here that tell us why he's worthy. He is the lamb that was slain.

Let's focus on those two words for one minute. Think about this with me. This is so important. It's so important that we should say it with a loud voice, no? Worthy is the lamb. Would you all be followers of a lamb?

Has anyone here ever had a really mean boss? No? Yes? My first boss, I won't tell you what restaurant it was at, but it was in the middle of Portland, and I was a dishwasher. And that boss, he just was not very nice.

And he would just sort of whip us into shape as we were working. We all knew we had to give him respect. We all knew he was, in a sense, worthy. Why? Because he had our paycheck. But did we want to give him honor?

Did we want to call him worthy? It was pretty hard, pretty hard to respect him. Is our Jesus a harsh boss? Is he a mean guy? No, not at all. What is he called right here in our text? He's called the lamb.

When you remember that your Lord is a lamb, what should you remember? Remember that he's not harsh. Remember that he loves you. Remember that he is meek and lowly. Remember that he is perfect and spotless.

Remember that old hymn that says, Jesus doeth all things well. You know that Jesus is on your side. He's not like some mean boss who's going to flip out at you or get mean at you. We have to remember that at all moments.

We follow the lamb. Amen? We follow the lamb, the meek and lowly one. Now why else is he worthy? Look at our text. Worthy is the lamb that was slain. The literal Greek here says, the lamb who was slaughtered.

And you all might say, I don't want to hear about him being slaughtered. I don't want to hear about Christ being slaughtered. But at the center of our faith, the one thing that makes him so worthy is that he was slaughtered for us.

You know, we tend to like to follow people who are really powerful, right? We want a president who is powerful. We want good public speakers. We want people who are slick and who look good. But the Bible tells us right here, the one reason we all follow Jesus Christ and we give him all worth, all honor, is that he was slaughtered.

Do you remember the cross he bore walking up to Calvary? He did that for you. Do you remember the nails in his hands on that cross? He was slaughtered for you. Do you remember the stripes, the lashes on his back?

He was lashed for you. Do you remember that the Bible says he was marred beyond recognition? He did that for you. That's our Jesus. And I just want to impress that upon you. When you ask yourself, why is he worthy?

Why in the world would I go another month, Lord, when the Christian life can be so hard? Remember those two words. He is the lamb that was slain. I wrote this down here because I want to say this right.

And you could write down this little poem if you like. He had to be slaughtered so that sinners could go free. He had to be slaughtered so that sinners could go free. He was slain to become the savior of the world.

That's our Jesus. That's why he is worthy. Now again, you might all say, that's just too simple. But you've got to take that home. You've got to think of that every day. He's the lamb that was slain. Let me tell you a little story to illustrate this point.

My wife and I were just flying back from Texas. We went to Dallas-Fort Worth to one of the biggest airports in the country. And right as we came in to the terminal, we saw a man right about over there that we recognized.

And I nudged Kiara and said, Kiara, who is that? And she said, that's Bill Gaither. Does anybody know who Bill Gaither is? Amen, yeah, anybody? Amen. Bill Gaither wrote some of the best hymns ever. He's 87 years old right now, but he wrote, Because He Lives.

He wrote, I'm Free. Some of the most incredible hymns. And I said, Kiara, is that really him? And we went walking over to him. We're driving Shiloh in the little carriage there. And we said, Mr. Gaither, you've encouraged us so much.

Can we please get a picture with you? And he said, okay, slow down, slow down. Who are you? And he was so gracious. He wanted to meet me and Kiara. And then we said, I'm Sam, I'm Kiara. And he looked at little Shiloh and he said, oh, your parents are treating you well.

He said, it looks like they feed you ice cream. So he was such a wonderful man, so gracious. He let us take a picture. I can show it to you all if you like. So we leave having met Bill Gaither, really famous hymn writer in the Christian faith.

And the rest of the day, I'm just glowing. And my wife says to me, Sam, why are you glowing? Why are you so happy? And I keep saying, we met Bill Gaither. We met Bill Gaither. And she says, yeah, but why are you so happy?

And eventually all I could say was, look, he wrote, Because He Lives. And when I sing that song, I just get happy down to the bottom of my soul. He wrote, Because He Lives. And that's so simple. But that's what you need to remember with our Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the lamb that was slain. That's all I need to tell you today. He is the lamb that was slain and you have met him. If you've repented of your sins and you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, that's way bigger than meeting Bill Gaither.

You have met the lamb that was slain and he is worthy of all of your affection. Amen? Amen. I wanna give you one final point. What is he worthy of? Look at our text right here, verse 12. Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive.

Jesus Is Worthy to Receive Everything

Now, I want you all to count how many things he's worthy to receive. And we're gonna end with this point. Count it with me. Power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. How many things?

Seven. Amen. Can anyone tell me what does seven represent in scripture? A little louder? Amen. The number of completion or perfection. So what is John the Revelator writing right here when he says that Christ is worthy to receive these seven things?

He's telling us he's worthy to receive everything. Completion, perfection, all that we have, Jesus is worthy of it. I wanna quickly go through these seven things and simply ask you, do you give Jesus these things?

Okay, this is not gonna be a seven-point sermon. I'm not gonna go for another two hours, don't worry. But these seven things, I wanna know, do you give these things to Jesus? Look at our text here. He's worthy to receive.

Let me cover that before I give you these seven things. So many people come to church saying, I wanna receive. What am I gonna get out of church? Am I gonna get blessed here? Does this place have the right ministries for me?

Am I gonna get what I need here? Am I gonna get fed? And some of those questions are okay. But our text tells us right here to switch our way of thinking. It's not about what we receive, is it? It's about what he receives.

Worthy is the lamb to receive. We shouldn't be saying, what can I get out of this church? We should be saying, when I go to church, what can I give to him? He's worthy to receive from me, amen? So let's go through these seven things briefly.

Giving Jesus Power, Riches, and Wisdom

Do you give Jesus these things? First of all, power, power. Do you say, God can, God can do this. God can come through in my family. God can come through in this church. God can come through in this community.

Do you give him power? Has anybody seen the Jesus Revolution, that movie? It's a very good movie. Lonnie Frisbee was the leader of that revival that's described in that movie. And if you all remember, right toward the end of that movie, there's a scene where you see that Lonnie Frisbee gets a little bit prideful.

And he says these words, he says, I did this. I did this revival. Anybody remember that scene? Right in that moment, you see that he got prideful. Let us never get that way. We should never say, I did this.

We should say, God did this. God supplied for this church. God, all power belongs to Jesus. Power, we give him the power. Secondly, riches, we give him riches. Now that doesn't just mean that we tithe or that we give to the church.

It means more than that. It means that with all of our goods, with all of our money, we use them for Jesus. If anybody here is looking for a new apartment, when you make that decision, make it with Jesus in mind.

If anybody ever tries to get a house and take out a mortgage, you do that with Jesus in mind. And that's giving him your riches. Third, wisdom. Do you give him your wisdom? Do you give him your best thoughts?

Are you careful with what you do? Do you give him your wisest plans? You know what wisdom also means? You know when to hold back. You know when to go forward. You know when to go slow. You know when to speed up.

Do you give all of that to Jesus? He's worthy. He's worthy. Number four, strength. This is so beautiful. Do you give Jesus your strength? This is a little bit different from power. Let me just explain to you.

Giving Jesus Strength, Honor, Glory, and Blessing

Strength, literally, in the Greek right here is the ability to hold on. Or tenacity, the ability to hold on. Has anyone felt in the last month that you could say, it's hard for me to hold on? Lord, it's hard for me to work that job with integrity.

Or Lord, it's hard for me to go on in the Christian life. Lord, it's hard for me to hold on. When you feel that way, this is what I want you to remember. He is worthy of your strength. You hold on because he's worthy.

In this church, hold on because he's worthy. As you share the gospel, hold on because he's worthy. Fifth, honor. Everybody see that word in the text? He's worthy of honor. What does honor mean? If you honor your parents, what does it mean?

Well, one of the best things is that you do what they say, right? So if we give Jesus our honor, we do what he says. Why don't people go to church? Because they don't think Jesus is worthy of honor. Why might people skip the prayer meeting or the community dinner?

Or why might people just not give more to their church? Because they don't think he's worthy of honor. If we think he's worthy of honor, then we try to do what he says, amen? I told you I'm not gonna go for two hours on these, so we've just got two more here, okay?

The sixth thing that we must give to our Lord, he's worthy to receive it. Is glory, glory. Glory in the scriptures means weight, weight. If Christ is worthy of weight, then he's worthy of our gravity, of our seriousness.

If you're a true Christian today, then there's something about your life that's serious. Because you know that you're carrying burdens. You know that you have the message that'll get people into heaven and get them out of hell.

You know that your life is weighty. If you think Jesus is worthy, then give him that glory. Give him that weightiness. Seventh and finally, what's the last word? Everybody say it with me. Blessing, amen, blessing.

Blessing, if Christ is worthy, then he is worthy of our blessing. What does this mean? In Greek, literally, it is good words, good words. That means we ought to say, Lord, you are worthy of me never cussing again, of me never gossiping again, of me never saying an angry word to that person again, of me trying the best I can to get along with my spouse and love and honor her.

You are worthy, Lord, that my mouth would be full of kindness, of blessing, of good words, amen, amen. Let's go over those one more time. Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing, amen.

Devoting Ourselves to the Worthy Jesus

Here's a final application for you all. And I hope you've just enjoyed this text. It's so glorious, isn't it? Think that when we get to heaven, we're gonna be singing this. We're gonna be singing this song together.

Here's an application. Devote yourself more to Jesus because he is worthy of everything. Devote yourself more to Jesus because he is worthy of everything. Let's pray. We bless you, Lord Jesus. And we ask you, Lord, to make this text real in our lives.

We need to get a glimpse, Lord, of your worthiness. We need to go home saying he is worthy. He is worthy, he is worthy. Lord, convict each and every one of us in this room that you are worthy of it all.

For you are, Lord. You are the lamb who was slain. We give you all honor, all praise, all blessing, all glory, Lord, today. We say you are worthy. In Christ's mighty name, amen.