Jesus - The Lamb and the Lion
Notes
Transcript
And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
Attributes of a Lion
Powerful Apex Predator
Fierce Defender
Fierce Protector
Majestic
Few Natural Enemies
Attributes of a Lamp
Powerless
No natural defenses
Defenseless
Helpless / Easily subdued
Prey to many other animals
How Is Jesus the 'Lamb of God' and the 'Lion of Judah'?
And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
Not referring to Jesus demeanor at a particular time, rather
The Lion and the Lamb are two images and names for God used in Scripture that describe aspects of Jesus Christ. The attributes of Jesus are as powerful and majestic as a lion and innocent as a sacrificial lamb.
Significance of the Lion and Judah
Before Jacob died, he blessed his sons
“Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
Jacobs language here is prophetic in nature
This is significant because it heralds the lineage of Judah as that of kings. For out of Judah’s line, King David and his descendants would rule over Israel until the time of the Babylonian captivity (1 Chronicles 2; 2 Kings 24)
Jesus Christ would come as a descendent of David and Judah to forge a new covenant and usher in a new kingdom of heavenly glory (Matthew 1:1-17).
Furthermore, when Jacob says that “the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,” he was also proclaiming the eventual eternal kingdom of Jesus Christ, who will reign forever as king, the scepter being a symbol of his kingly authority and lordship.
All the kingdoms of the “ITES” are gone
Kingdoms of the Assyrians, Persians, Babylon, Greece and Rome ended centuries ago
Significance of Jesus as the Lamb of God
In the Old Testament, prior to the exodus from Egypt, the children of Israel were instructed to take the blood of an unblemished lamb and smear it on the doorposts and lintel of their houses (Exodus 12:1-13).
In Old Testament law, the unblemished lamb was used as a sacrifice as a covering for human sin
In those days, an innocent lamb would take the place of the one who had sinned, as the penalty for sin was death.
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
Jesus Christ, as the Lion, conquered sin and death so that we could share in the glory of his eternal kingdom. This victory was made possible through his work on the cross, in which he stepped in as the innocent Lamb to be sacrificed for our sin once and for all.
In the Lion we discover the power of Christ as an eternal king
In the Lamb we find the grace of Jesus as an eternal savior