Untitled Sermon (2)

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 5

THE LAMB TAKES THE SCROLL

Genesis 49:9 CSB

Judah is a young lion— my son, you return from the kill. He crouches; he lies down like a lion or a lioness—who dares to rouse him?

Micah 5:2 CSB

Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are small among the clans of Judah; one will come from you to be ruler over Israel for me. His origin is from antiquity, from ancient times.

Numbers 24:9 CSB

He crouches, he lies down like a lion or a lioness—who dares to rouse him? Those who bless you will be blessed, and those who curse you will be cursed.

Zechariah 4:1–14 CSB

The angel who was speaking with me then returned and roused me as one awakened out of sleep. He asked me, “What do you see?” I replied, “I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top. The lampstand also has seven lamps at the top with seven spouts for each of the lamps. There are also two olive trees beside it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.” Then I asked the angel who was speaking with me, “What are these, my lord?” “Don’t you know what they are?” replied the angel who was speaking with me. I said, “No, my lord.” So he answered me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by strength or by might, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord of Armies. ‘What are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain. And he will bring out the capstone accompanied by shouts of: Grace, grace to it!’ ” Then the word of the Lord came to me: “Zerubbabel’s hands have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of Armies has sent me to you. For who despises the day of small things? These seven eyes of the Lord, which scan throughout the whole earth, will rejoice when they see the ceremonial stone in Zerubbabel’s hand.” I asked him, “What are the two olive trees on the right and left of the lampstand?” And I questioned him further, “What are the two streams of the olive trees, from which the golden oil is pouring through the two golden conduits?” Then he inquired of me, “Don’t you know what these are?” “No, my lord,” I replied. “These are the two anointed ones,” he said, “who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”

Colossians 1:15–20 CSB

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and by him all things hold together. He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

God(he Father)decree Speaks by delegates the how through God(His Son) and then God acts ( His Spirit).

“May Your will be done on Heaven as it is on Earth”. ( Matt. 6: 5-15)

This is Heaven and Earth coming together in Christ!! ( Rev. 4).

After chapter 4 and seeing Heaven and Earth worshipping in song to God, now we read about Heaven and Earth becoming one through Jesus Christ as He takes the Scroll from Father. Which is the Father’s will to allow Jesus to do so. For nothing happens in Heaven apart from the Father’s will.

Apocalypse : a revealing, meant to give the reader a window into what's really happening in light of the story of Jesus. And it's rooted all in how the story of the Bible opens in the Garden of Eden and with the image of God.

Where

Where does this revelation take place?

John is on Patmos, but also “in the Spirit”. Eze. 3:14 - In the Spirit is a signal that the writer is about have a revelation from Yahweh.

NOTE: our normal state of consciousness is tempting to constantly create a narrative about ourselves in the world that we understand and can help us just get through the day. 

Vs. 1 - John is in the Holy of Holies, a place where only priests are allowed. The creatures in heaven(heavenly priests?) and on earth (Earthly priests)and under the earth( Hellish or dead Priests?) come together in community(church) in the presence of Yahweh, Our Father (Daddy). Upon which all they can do in His presence is give what was given, and do what we call worship. It is in the midst of this adoration and prayer that we see The Father waiting.

Point : God isn’t so much concerned with time as much as timing. (Examples: Th difference between a homerun and a single run is timing of about 2’-0”. THe difference between a cake being done versus under/over cooked)

Vs. 3 - “ in heaven OR on earth OR under the earth ” vs. “heaven AND earth”.

Only the One who has been IN heaven AND ON the earth AND UNDER the earth is qualified to open these scrolls, but no one in these places alone can stand on their own accord as sinless, even the creatures in heaven, to be the High Priest of all creation. For what kind of leader would that be? They are not qualified. Everyone needs a Saviour. For how could a creature in heaven understand of the dirt creatures of earth, and vise-versa?

Heb. 4:14-16 - Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven,[a] Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence(no fear, but respect), so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Notice that the angels, nor the 24 elders, nor Buddha, or Muhammed, or Confusious, Ghandi, or any other leader is worthy on their own accord. Only the Lamb. This is what makes Christianity different. IT’s not about behaviour change even though it will change your behavior, it not is about traditions, although it uses traditions to remind us of the important things, its not about fasting, or praying, or attendance… It’s about a person’s heart. It about a person’s image. It’ about Jesus only.

Not waiting in the sense of one that is powerless for we read this in Genesis 1:1 how His Spirit alone defeats chaos and creates life. In His timing, He waits for the one true high priest that unifies Heaven and Earth because He has lived both as the King of Heaven and the Messiah of Earth. In the Messiah you have the King-Priest of Melchizadek. Making only Jesus worthy of being the High Priest of all creation, and able to open the scrolls of His own accord.

He realizes that he is not worthy to open the scroll and maybe for a moment he is thinking that following Jesus was for nothing because no one seems worthy at first.

Vs. 4 - No one is Worthy

Why did John wept?

Vs. 5-6 - the duality of Christ

Lion of Judah

Scriptures:

Ge 49:9 Judah is a young lion— my son, you return from the kill. He crouches; he lies down like a lion or a lioness—who dares to rouse him? 

Ho 11:10 They will follow the Lord; he will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west. 

Num. 24:9 He crouches, he lies down like a lion or a lioness—who dares to rouse him? .

LION OF JUDAH. An abbreviated form of one of Christ’s Messianic titles found in Rev. 5:5, ‘the Lion of the tribe of Judah’. An obvious allusion to Gn. 49:9, ‘Judah is a lion’s whelp’, this title depicts Christ as the culmination of the courage, might and ferocity of the tribe of Judah. Like a lion Satan stalks the saints (1 Pet. 5:8),Christ is the conquering lion, worthy to open the seven seals of judgment. The use of the the ‘lion’ (*Animals) in connection with judgment may reflect passages like Is. 38:13; La. 3:10; Ho. 5:14; 13:8, where God’s judgment is likened to a lion’s attack. Emperors of Ethiopia, convinced that they stemmed from Judah as descendants of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, proudly appropriated this title (‘Conquering Lion of Judah’) until the overthrow of Haile Selassie’s regime in 1974. - D. A. Hubbard1 1 D. A. Hubbard, “Lion of Judah,” in New Bible Dictionary, ed. D. R. W. Wood et al. (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 692.

You hear the lion of Judah, the root of David. One would expect the grand figure of courage and stability, but what comes is the Lamb. Totally a flip from man's expectation.

With these titles one would expect this bigger than life, Arnold Schwarzenegger like figure to show up, but instead it is the lamb that qualifies Jesus for the scrolls.

Vs. 8 - Lk. 4:17-21

Lamb

The Lamb is more powerful than the lion or Israel greatest king. For it is the Lamb, in whom the lion and the king are apart of, who is worthy of complete power, complete knowledge and awareness, and complete spiritual authority over the Earth now.

For it is by His blood, and His alone, that mankind is purchased back from the slavery of the evil one and the worldly wisdom, and the sentence of death.

Seven Eyes

They scan throughout the whole earth for they are the seven Spirits of God ( Zechariah 4), But now the Lamb has these seven Spirits of God. Thus, equaling the Lamb identity of Christ, not the lion or the king even though the are the same person, to the one who is seated on the throne. The firstborn of many receiving an inheritance from His father. (Col. 1:15) The One who took my moral decay, my acts of evil towards others, and my crooked behaviour in one moment of one day....what mankind cannot do through out all history The Lamb of God did in 24 hours.

The Power of Atonement( At - One - Ment)

Vs. 9 - Spilled blood usually ends with a cry for justice, not only by the family members also by the one who was killed ( Gen. 4:10, Rev. 6:9) only to be concluded by the debt being paid by sentencing the one who caused the blood to spill...aka murder, because the life is the blood. ( Leviticus 17:11) This murder His blood resulted in the possible redemption of the one who spilled the blood, but also of the many who are missing the goal of being the image of God on Earth by distorting what is good and violating trust. Yet the power of atonement is seen to go beyond just covering, but also unifying. For it is by being our atonement that Heaven and Earth and people of every color and region become one as The Father and the Son are one, which is their desire in the first place (John 17) due to the power of the atonement to not only repay our debt to God and mankind, but also purify all creation to where Heaven and Earth become unified ...become one.