Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20010506.htm

REVELATION: CALL TO HOLINESS IN VIEW OF PROPHECY
Part III: The Things Hereafter'
"C. Christ's Rescue Of Human History"
(Revelation 5:1-14)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

When we look at the injustices of our human existence or of history as a whole, it is easy to become despondent and find need for encouragement. Consider some facts on the matter:

(1) The April 25, 97 issue of the Republican-American paper out of Waterbury ran a story about a Unitarian minister who was getting into trouble with his parishioners. He made the mistake of twice mentioning "God" in his sermon's closing benediction!

Unitarians like to appear open-minded and tolerant, but referring to "God" in a pastoral benediction goes too far for them! Yes, Unitarians long ago decided there was only one Person in the Godhead, so they do not refer to Jesus or the Holy Spirit, but even mentioning "God" by their pastor in the church is now unacceptable!

(2) The January 30, 1990 issue of the Torrington paper, the Register-Citizen ran a story entitled, "Was alcohol to blame?" It told of a benefit dance held "for the sole survivor of a drunken-driving accident" that attracted not the expected 500, but only 85 people.

The cause for the poor turn out was rumored to be the absence of alcoholic beverages! Though Jose Aguilar, age 20, an employee of the Hunter Ambulance Service in Meridan was the sole survivor of an alcohol-caused accident, and needed cash for bills that had piled up as a result, people stilled failed to turn out because they liked their alcohol more than helping the survivor of an alcohol-induced tragedy!

(3) Cal Thomas wrote a column in the Waterbury paper (Republican-American) a few years back in which he noted how Alexander Solzhenitsin who received the Templeton Prize in 1981 had reached the conclusion that Russia's plunge into totalitarian revolution in 1917 was the result of its having forgotten God.

Thomas then went on to say the irony is that while Bibles and their truths are now being welcomed in previously closed areas of the Soviet Union and Europe, they "continue to be treated as contraband in American public schools and much of [its] public life."



In view of the great and mounting piles of WRONGS in our world, HOW do we remain UPBEAT for living for CHRIST?



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "When I consider all the WRONGS of history, one can get dismayed and quit TRYING to do good! Is there MOTIVATION to stay the course in VIEW of the overwhelming tide of sin?!"
  1. While viewing future events, John became distraught at the inadequacy of humanity to "right" its own wrongs, Rev. 5:1-4:
    1. John beheld a book in God's right hand that dealt with God's plan to judge humanity for sins, Revelation 5:1:
      1. We know the book described in God's hand in the context contained God's judgments from the context: as the seals of the book are broken, judgment fall on the world in Rev. 6:1-2 et al.
      2. Well, this book's seals pictures Roman law in John's day calling for certain documents to be sealed by seven witnesses, and to be opened in the presence of those witnesses, R. Mounce, Revelation, p. 142 citing E. Stauffer, Christ and the Caesars, pp. 182-183.
      3. As the book is written within and on its back, it pictures Ezekiel 2:9-10 where a book of judgments existed for judging sinful Israel!
    2. Since man had been created as God's assigned ruler on earth in Genesis 1:26, God needed seven righteous human rulers to deal out justice on the earth in keeping with His original arrangement!
    3. Yet, not a single mortal worthy enough could be found on earth, in heaven or the place of torment to correct history's imbalances, nor even to know what was to be done about history's wrongs, 5:2-3!
    4. For John who was imprisoned on Patmos for Christ, and who had known of the great suffering of other believers, this was a devastating realization, Rev. 5:4 (1:9)! He thus wept uncontrollably!
  2. Yet, just when all seemed lost, John was told of the VICTORY offered in the Person and Work of the God-man, Jesus Christ!
    1. One of the glorified believers, one of the 24 elders, told John to cease weeping over humanity's failure to function in God's will, Rev. 5:5!
    2. He announced a Champion had prevailed Who ALONE could open all seven seals and administer justice, 5:5b: it was the Hebrew King (lion of Judah) and GOD (Root [Source] of David, cf. Ps. 110)!
    3. This Being is identified as Jesus Christ in heavenly glory as follows:
      1. John beheld within the throne of the Father, amidst all the display of divine power (thunders and lightening, 4:5), and in the midst of the four seraphs, and in the midst of the glorified Church (the 24 elders) a Lamb standing as a slain sacrificial lamb, Rev. 4:6a. This was Jesus, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world, with His post-resurrection, crucifixion scars, John. 1:29; 20:25-27!
      2. This slain Lamb had seven horns, signifying perfect power, and seven eyes, picturing the completeness of the Holy Spirit's power by which Jesus ministered on earth, Revelation 4:6b; Isaiah 11:1-2.
      3. Jesus Christ, in all His heavenly, God-man incarnate glory, came up and boldly took the scroll out of God the Father's right hand of power with authority, grandeur and triumph, Revelation 5:7!
      4. Summary: Jesus, Who is God the Son come in the flesh, overcame sin by His incarnation and substitutionary death for man's sin on the cross, and is thus capable as God and man to open all seven seals to administer justice for all of history's sinful failures!
  3. Christ's assumption of headship for judging human history will evoke a mammoth display of spontaneous heavenly worship, 5:8ff:
    1. The four seraphs and gloried Church members (represented by the 24 elders) will then fall down in worship before Christ, Revelation 5:8.
    2. However, not the SERAPHS, but the CHURCH will INITIATE a NEW song of SALVATION, the song that updates the centuries old angelic words about God's separation from sin (4:8), and will state how Christ has given believers righteous victory OVER sin through the salvation provided by His work on the cross, 5:9-10!
    3. This will evoke the resulting antiphonal praise of Christ by a mass of heavenly angels, joining the elders with the seraphs, Rev. 5:11-12!
    4. Indeed, all the rest of earth's creatures will join in praise to Christ, for the glorification of the sons of God is the key to releasing nature from the curse put on it through Adam's fall, 5:13-14 with Rom. 8:18-23!
Application: If unsettled at human history's seeming sinful lost cause, HANDLE it through (1) siding with history's Overcomer, by believing in Him, Jesus Christ, for forgiveness and personal victory over hell, John 3:16. (2) Then, live in PRACTICAL victory over sin by (a) confession of sin (1 Jn. 1:9) and (b) faith in the Holy Spirit's indwelling power for living (Gal. 5:16-23) to (c) to do God's will, Rom. 12:1-6. (d) We can use the news of Revelation 5 as encouragement to live righteously in the face of this world's mammoth injustices to the contrary, cf. Rev. 22:12!

Lesson: Through the God-man, Jesus Christ, ALL the unjust imbalances of human history WILL be BALANCED after the Church's rapture at the end of history, making siding with Christ NOW very WORTHWHILE! >

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 Peggy Noonan's article in the September 14, 1992 issue of Forbes as cited in the January 1993 issue of Reader's Digest (pp. 33-36) asks, "Why Are We So Unhappy When We Have It So Good?"

The article, written from the secular point of view, is a great piece of insight for us Bible-believing Christians. Peggy noted, and I quote, "The life of people on earth is better now than it has ever been -- certainly much better than it was 500 years ago. This may sound silly, but when I read old fairy tales and see an illustration of a hunchbacked hag with no teeth and bumps on her nose who lives by herself in the forest, I think: People looked like that once. They lived like that. There were no doctors, no phones, and people lived in the dark in a hole in a tree. It was terrible. It's much better now.

But we are not happier. We are just cleaner, more attractive sad people than we used to be." (Ibid., p. 34)

Peggy explores the cause of this unhappiness, and arrives at an interesting, very Biblical conclusion, saying: "Somewhere in the 60s or 70s we started expecting to be happy, and changed our lives--left town, left families, switched jobs--if we were not. And society strained and cracked in the storm.

Why? . . . We are among the first generations of man that actually expected to find happiness here on earth, and our search for it has caused such--unhappiness. The reason: if you do not believe in another, higher world, if you believe that this is your only chance at happiness, then if the world does not give you a good measure of its riches, you despair."



That is where our HOPE in Christ's COMING reign motivates us to live for Christ in the midst of this life's hosts of WRONGS with our earthly experience! We are not living for THIS life, but for the life to COME wherein CHRIST reigns in RIGHTEOUSNESS!

Let us trust in Christ, and then live for HIM and for HIS coming Kingdom for true blessing no matter what this life hand us!