Who is Worthy?
Revelation: Unveiling Yeshua • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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And I saw in the right hand of the One seated upon the throne a scroll, written on both the front and the back, sealed with seven seals. I also saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to break its seals?” No one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.
Then one of the elders tells me, “Stop weeping! Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed—He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
And in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, I saw a Lamb standing, as having been slain—having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He came and took the scroll from the right hand of the One seated on the throne. When He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense—which are the prayers of the kedoshim.
And they are singing a new song, saying,
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals.
For You were slain,
and by Your blood
You redeemed for God
those from every tribe and tongue
and people and nation.
You have made them for our God
a kingdom and kohanim,
and they shall reign upon the earth.”
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders—their number was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands. They were chanting with a loud voice,
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and riches
and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!”
And I heard every creature in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea and everything in them, responding,
“To the One seated on the throne
and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor
and glory and power forever and ever!”
And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen!” And the elders fell down and worshiped.
Re-Entering the Vision
Re-Entering the Vision
As we come to Revelation 5, it is important to remember the journey that has brought us here. For seven letters we have been examining the condition of God's people. We have looked at communities that were loved by Messiah, called by Messiah, and redeemed by Messiah, yet every one of them revealed some measure of human limitation. Ephesus had lost its first love. Smyrna suffered under persecution. Pergamum compromised. Thyatira tolerated corruption. Sardis possessed a reputation that exceeded reality. Philadelphia had little strength. Laodicea had forgotten its need for God. Different conditions appeared in different communities, but a common thread connected them all.
They were loved. They were chosen. They were redeemed. But they were not worthy.
That is not a criticism of the churches. It is a revelation of the human condition. The churches are not presented as villains. They are presented as people. They are redeemed people. They are chosen people. They are God's people. Yet they remain dependent upon grace. None of them stand before God on the basis of their own worthiness. Even the most faithful among them remain recipients of mercy.
Then Revelation 4 lifted our eyes away from the churches and fixed them on heaven. After two chapters focused upon the condition of God's people, John saw a throne standing in heaven and One seated upon it. The weaknesses of the churches had not weakened the throne. The failures of God's people had not diminished God's sovereignty. Heaven was not anxious. Heaven was not reacting. Heaven was not scrambling to find a solution. The throne remained occupied. God remained holy. God remained sovereign. God remained worthy.
That chapter answered a question that every generation eventually asks. Who reigns?
The answer was clear.
God reigns.
Yet Revelation 5 introduces another question. If the churches are not worthy, and if God alone is perfectly holy, righteous, and sovereign, then who is worthy to accomplish the purposes of God? That question becomes the heart of the chapter. And as John discovers, the answer is not what anyone expects.
The Question That Echoes Through Heaven
The Question That Echoes Through Heaven
Revelation 5 opens with John seeing a scroll resting in the right hand of the One seated upon the throne.
And I saw in the right hand of the One seated upon the throne a scroll, written on both the front and the back, sealed with seven seals.
The immediate focus of the chapter is not the contents of the scroll. Instead, the attention of heaven is directed toward a challenge that follows.
A mighty angel proclaims with a loud voice:
“Who is worthy to open the scroll and to break its seals?”
The question is not who is powerful enough. The question is not who is wise enough. The question is not who is influential enough. The question is who is worthy.
After everything Revelation has already shown us, the answer seems painfully obvious. Certainly not the communities. The churches have been revealed as beloved, but imperfect. They are recipients of grace. Their standing before God depends entirely upon His mercy.
Yet the search extends beyond the churches.
John writes:
No one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it.
No king. No prophet. No priest. No apostle. No elder. No angel. No created being.
No one.
For four chapters Revelation has been exposing the limits of humanity. The communities revealed them. The throne room magnified them. Now heaven itself confirms them.
No one is worthy.
The Tears of John and the Failure of Human Strength
The Tears of John and the Failure of Human Strength
John's response is immediate and deeply emotional.
I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.
His tears are about far more than a sealed scroll.
John is confronting the dilemma that has existed since humanity's fall. The problem facing humanity is not merely weakness. The problem is unworthiness.
We often assume that if we had enough strength, enough wisdom, enough discipline, enough righteousness, enough organization, enough resources, or enough sincerity, we could somehow bridge the gap ourselves. Scripture repeatedly dismantles that illusion.
Ephesus could not sustain its love. Pergamum could not maintain purity. Sardis could not accurately assess its own condition. Laodicea could not even recognize its need. Even Philadelphia, the most commendable of the communities, is described as possessing little strength.
Every community reveals some measure of human limitation.
That should not surprise us because Scripture has always taught this principle. David understood it when he wrote:
Some have chariots, some have horses,
but we remember the Name
of Adonai our God.
Human beings naturally trust visible strength. We trust armies, resources, institutions, organizations, accomplishments, and power. Yet God continually reminds us that human strength can never accomplish what only God can accomplish.
That is why the Lord declares through the prophet:
“Not by might, nor by power, but by My Ruach!” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
The answer was never going to come through greater human strength. The answer was never going to come through a stronger church. The answer was never going to come through a better system.
The answer would have to come from somewhere else.
And that takes us all the way back to Moriah.
The Question Began on Moriah
The Question Began on Moriah
The question raised in Revelation 5 did not begin in Revelation 5. In many ways, it began in Genesis 22.
When Abraham and Isaac climbed Mount Moriah together, Isaac noticed something troubling.
He said, “Look. Here’s the fire and the wood. But where’s the lamb for a burnt offering?”
At one level, Isaac is asking a practical question. At a much deeper level, he is asking the question of human history.
Where is the lamb?
Where is the sacrifice that can truly reconcile humanity to God?
Where is the offering that can accomplish God's purposes?
Abraham's answer is one of the most important statements in all of Scripture.
Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself a lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”
Notice what Abraham says.
He does not say that humanity will provide the answer. He does not say that Abraham will provide the answer. He does not even say what most of us are tempted to say:
“I’ll figure it out”.
He says that God will provide.
As the story unfolds, Isaac is spared and a substitute is offered in his place. Abraham then names the place:
Abraham named that place, Adonai Yireh,—as it is said today, “On the mountain, Adonai will provide.”
Yet even then the story remains unfinished.
A ram was provided that day. But the promise continued.
The Lord will provide.
The Reminder Given Through Israel's Worship
The Reminder Given Through Israel's Worship
After Moriah, God continually reminded His people of that promise.
Every Passover lamb pointed back to it. Every sacrifice laid upon every altar pointed back to it. Every Day of Atonement pointed back to it.
Again and again God taught His people that sin required atonement and that humanity could not provide its own solution. The sacrificial system was never the destination. It was a signpost.
Each sacrifice pointed backward to Moriah and forward to something greater.
The final answer had not yet arrived.
The Lord will provide.
This theme reaches even further back than Abraham. In Eden, after the fall, God promised that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head. Even in judgment, God spoke of redemption.
From Eden to Moriah. From Moriah to Egypt. From Egypt to the Tabernacle. From the Tabernacle to the Temple.
The same lesson was repeated.
God will provide.
Yet it is remarkably easy to miss.
That is not merely an ancient problem. It is a profoundly human problem.
Human beings naturally look to strength. We look for political solutions. We look for military solutions. We look for economic solutions. We look for worthy leaders, worthy institutions, and worthy movements. We instinctively search for salvation from below.
Even many modern readers approach Revelation looking primarily for prophetic timelines, geopolitical alignments, end-times charts, and speculative details. Yet Revelation keeps directing our attention somewhere else.
The central question is not, "Who is the Beast?"
The central question is, "Who is worthy?"
Everything has been moving toward that question from the beginning.
The Lion and the Lamb
The Lion and the Lamb
Then one of the elders speaks.
Then one of the elders tells me, “Stop weeping! Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed—He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
At last there is hope. At last there is One who is worthy.
John hears about a Lion. Naturally, he expects to see a Lion.
Instead he sees:
I saw a Lamb standing, as having been slain...
This is one of the most astonishing moments in all of Scripture.
John hears Lion. John sees Lamb.
He expects conquest and sees sacrifice. He expects strength and sees suffering. He expects victory through power and instead sees victory through self-giving love.
This is the answer to Isaac's question.
Where is the lamb?
This is the fulfillment of Abraham's declaration.
God will provide for Himself the lamb.
This is the fulfillment of Adonai Yireh.
The Lord has provided.
Not another temporary sacrifice. Not another substitute.
The Lamb.
The One toward whom every sacrifice pointed. The One whom Passover anticipated. The One whom the sacrificial system proclaimed. The One whom humanity could never provide for itself.
John the Immerser recognized Him when he declared:
“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
The signs had become reality. The shadows had become substance. The promise had become a Person.
Why the Lamb Is Worthy
Why the Lamb Is Worthy
The chapter does not leave us wondering why the Lamb is worthy.
Heaven tells us plainly.
And they are singing a new song, saying,
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals.
For You were slain,
and by Your blood
You redeemed for God
those from every tribe and tongue
and people and nation.
The Lamb is worthy because He was slain.
Not despite the cross.
Because of the cross.
The world associates worthiness with power. Heaven associates worthiness with redemption. The world celebrates conquest. Heaven celebrates sacrifice.
The Apostle Paul says the same thing when he writes:
He humbled Himself—
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
For this reason God highly exalted Him
and gave Him the name
that is above every name,
that at the name of Yeshua
every knee should bow,
in heaven and on the earth
and under the earth,
and every tongue profess
that Yeshua the Messiah is Lord—
to the glory of God the Father.
The pathway to exaltation passed through sacrifice. The pathway to glory passed through obedience. The pathway to the throne passed through the cross.
All of history converges there.
The Akedah points there. Passover points there. The sacrificial system points there. The prophets point there. The communities point there. The throne room points there.
Everything converges upon the Lamb.
Putting it All Together
Putting it All Together
The longer we sit with Revelation 5, the more we realize this chapter is not simply answering a question about a scroll.
It is answering the question of human history.
From the moment humanity fell in Eden, the same dilemma has existed. God is holy. Humanity is not. God is worthy. Humanity is not. The question hanging over the entire biblical story is whether God will provide the One who can bridge that gap.
Revelation 5 answers with a resounding yes.
The story was never ultimately about finding a worthy church. The story was never ultimately about producing a worthy people.
The story was always about a worthy Savior.
Humanity's greatest need is not a worthy church.
Humanity's greatest need is a worthy Savior.
And the good news of Revelation 5 is that such a Savior exists.
The Lamb is worthy. The Lamb reigns. The Lamb has redeemed.
And because the Lamb is worthy, there is hope for unworthy people.
There is hope for Ephesus. There is hope for Sardis. There is hope for Laodicea. There is hope for us.
For all of human history intersects at the cross, and at the center of that cross stands the Lamb provided by Adonai Yireh Himself.
The Lord has provided.
And the Lamb is worthy.
Let’s Pray
Avinu Malkeinu,
our Father and our King,
We thank You that from the beginning You have been revealing Your plan of redemption. We thank You for the promise spoken in Eden, the provision on Moriah, the protection of Passover, the witness of the sacrifices, and the fulfillment of every promise in Yeshua the Messiah.
Lord, forgive us for the ways we trust in human strength. Forgive us for looking to ourselves, our accomplishments, our institutions, our leaders, or our abilities as though they could accomplish what only You can accomplish. Forgive us for searching below when You have always pointed us above.
Thank You that when humanity could not provide the sacrifice, You provided it Yourself. Thank You that when no one was found worthy, the Lamb was found worthy. Thank You that through His blood You have redeemed people from every tribe, language, people, and nation.
Help us keep our eyes fixed upon the Lamb. Help us worship Him with grateful hearts. Help us trust Him more deeply. Help us remember that our confidence rests neither in ourselves nor even in the Church, but in the One who loved the Church and gave Himself for her.
And remind us daily that humanity's greatest need is not a worthy church but a worthy Savior.
For the Lamb is worthy because the Lamb was slain.
We ask all these things,
b'shem Yeshua haMashiach, Sar Shalom.
Amen.
Bracha
Bracha
Please allow me to Bless you.
יְבָרֶכְךָ יְהוָה וְיִשְׁמְרֶךָ
יָאֵר יְהוָה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וִיחֻנֶּךָּ
יִשָּׂא יְהוָה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וְיָשֵׂם לְךָ שָׁלוֹם
בְּשֵׁם יֵשׁוּעַ הַמָּשִׁיחַ, שַׂר שָׁלוֹם
Yevarech’cha Adonai v’yish’me’recha
Ya’er Adonai panav eilecha vichuneka
Yisa Adonai panav eilecha v’yasem lecha shalom
B’shem Yeshua haMashiach, Sar Shalom
Numbers 6:24–26
‘Adonai bless you and keep you!
Adonai make His face to shine on you
and be gracious to you!
Adonai turn His face toward you
and grant you shalom!’
