Sermon Tone Analysis

11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 singing with full voice,

“Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered

to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might

and honor and glory and blessing!”

13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing,

“To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb

be blessing and honor and glory and might

forever and ever!”

14 And the four living creatures said, “Amen!”

And the elders fell down and worshiped.

Bad news for people who like bad news

What we have here is some bad news for people who like bad news.

This text doesn’t behave like we think it should behave.

Where is the rejoicing at the downfall of our enemies?

Where is the righteous bloodshed of people who are not like us?

Where is the saintly parade of martyrs that show us God is on our side, in life and in death?

Unfortunately, we don’t find those images, those vindications, in this text.

Instead, we find an assembly.

Not just a homogenous, ethnocentric or even human-centric assembly.

But an assembly of ALL creation.

All.

All.

All Creation.

As we go on, this morning, consider how you react to this text.

If you find yourself hopeful, notice it.

If you find yourself uncomfortable, notice it.

Notice what the Spirit of God stirs in you as we explore this text that we rarely attend to.

But who is there?

Let’s talk about who is at this assembly, this party, according to the text.

First, we have the angels surrounding the throne.

Remember, angels are God’s messengers and throughout the book of Revelation, we hear of angels flying around, inviting the seals of God’s message to be broken open.

They gather at the throne with messages for the one who sits on it.

We might consider these are reports back at what they have gone out to say and do.

And then there are the living creatures.

In verse 11, we here they are “the living creatures.”

Which living creatures, you might ask?

Just Christian living creatures?

Or just human living creatures?

Just those of us high enough up the evolutionary ladder to be sentient and able to sing out in unison?

Well, vs. 13 clarifies it — it’s not just the living creatures of the assembly we’re talking about, not just the elect and chosen crew who sing the song, but it is actually every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea…all of them singing.

Let’s pause for a moment to dive in to that part a little deeper.

Every creature in heaven: Ok, birds, angels, pteryodactls?

The saints who have gone on into glory, who have received their reward, who await the final return of Christ?

Sounds like it.

Ok, what about every creature on earth: We’re talking everything up and down the ladder of kingdom, phylum, class, and order.

It’s like the multitude of animals coming two-by-two onto the ark in the book of Genesis: but in this case, they’re bringing their whole families along.

Animals, reptiles, insects.

Algae?

Single celled organisms?

Probably, why not?

Why wouldn’t even the smallest living cell vibrate and dance at the assembly of the Lamb?

And not to mention the people: all the people.

All the people are praising the Lamb on the throne here.

Again, this is bad news for people who like bad news: But think about your enemies, the people who annoy you, think for a moment of what it would be like for them to sing praises to Jesus, the Lamb.

Do you even imagine it’s possible?

And we’re not just talking about the people who look like us, we’re talking people of all colors and races and genders and sexual identities, with all manner of abilities and gifts, all singing to the Lamb.

Now, let’s talk about under the earth, because this one is a little mind-boggling.

First, let’s get practical: what lives under the earth?

Well, for one, worms.

Maggots, bugs.

Creepy crawly things.

Yup, they’re turning up the dirt and singing their praises.

Now, let’s get metaphysical: Everything under the earth…well, for the Hellenistic Greek mind, whom is the audience of this writing, under the earth is where Hades is.

Hell.

So, we’re talking demons, monsters, and even the dead.

And, it sounds like, it’s not just the good dead.

It’s every creature under the ground.

I say this is a little mind-boggling, because we have it so engrained in us this notion that only the good people praise God in the end.

But the text is telling us every creature under the earth is also saying: “to the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and might.”

I’m going to skirt around a big theological topic here because it would take a lot more time to discuss.

Does everyone ultimately return to God? Are all people saved?

There’s a lot of nuance to how and why we answer or don’t answer that question.

We have a lot of historic understandings here that we need to wrestle with, as well as our own hopes and fears.

If you want to talk through some of these concepts, I welcome it, but I don’t want to muddy things up too much for us right now, rather, I want us to see the beauty of this text for what it is: All creation, even under the earth, is praising the Lamb.

This doesn’t account for the ultimate battle or the role of the Antichrist or Satan or evil itself.

But what it does say is that perhaps even those who would be so unlikely to praise the Lamb, they end up doing it — how could you not join in the chorus alongside all of creation?

It’s too good to not!

Oh, and don’t forget the sea, all the creatures of the sea.

The sea is often an image for the roiling chaos of the cosmos.

So, sure, fish are jumping, dolphins are talking, whales are calling — but also, out of the chaos of creation, out of the churning, warlike, storm, we hear a call of praise to the lamb.

Do you think your life is chaotic?

I do sometimes.

What if there is a moment where, like a tuning fork struck, the chaos began to resonate and sing with a new song, a song of hope?

Woooo, this is powerful stuff!

Let’s go back to check our list of who is there: finally, we have the elders.

Back up in chapter 5 vs. 8, we here that there are 24 elders around the throne.

Biblical scholars look to the number 24 as 2 sets of 12. So, elders…who would those two sets of 12 be?

Well…they could be the leaders of the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 disciples.

These people who had been appointed leaders of the church and God’s people.

For the sake of our imagination, let’s remember who all these people are (by the way, they’re all men in this list, but there is also a strong case to be made for them being beyond gender, beyond definition, rather serving as archetypes for people groups): We’ve got Reuben and Simeon and Levi and Judah and Dan and Naphtali and Gad and Asher and Issacher and Zebulun and Manasseh/Ephraim (the tribe of Joseph) and Benjamin.

These represent the people groups of Israel.

So, we have the people of Israel, the chosen line of God’s way from the first testament.

AND then…we have 12 disciples: Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James (son of Alphaeus), Simon, and Matthias (who replaced Judas).

These disciples are representative of the nations of the world, the Gentiles.

Because their ministry was to go out and spread the news to the world — these Jewish men who welcomed all nations into the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Are you imagining this?

Are you having fun yet?

Does it make you feel uncomfortable, hopeful, confused, alive?

Pause a moment and notice how you’re sitting with this text’s description.

Here is what the assembly sings, with full voice: