The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse: The Lion, the Lamb, and the Scroll

You're listening to A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.

Visit our website and learn more about Harvest Partners at harvest.org. I believe it is a title deed of the earth. This is what Jesus has come to the earth for. This is his mission to purchase back with his blood that which was lost in the Garden of Eden. Believers don't have to worry about God's end times plan.

We're in his care. Unbelievers have much more to be concerned about. It's a good reason to share our faith. And tell a friend or loved one about Pastor Greg Laurie's evangelistic outreach coming up October 3rd.

SoCal Harvest at Angel Stadium and live across the country online at harvest.org. But today Pastor Greg brings important insight from his compelling series on the last days based in the book of Revelation. I heard a story about two Christians that were standing on a roadside with a sign that said, the end is near, turn around before it's too late. So some guy threw his brakes on, rolled down his window and yelled at the Christians, why don't you religious nuts just leave us alone? And he sped off and there was this screeching of tires and a huge splash and one of the Christians turned to his Christian friend and said, maybe we should just get a sign that says bridge out instead, right?

So here's the question. Is the end really near? Haven't we heard this for a long time? Is Armageddon actually coming? Is the antichrist close to appearing?

Are we going to see the apocalypse in our lifetime? I mean the very word apocalypse is a powerful word. It usually means something catastrophic. If something really bad will say, it's so bad, it's apocalyptic. There's a trend right now, wild theory floating around out in the internet about a zombie apocalypse, right?

So we use this word a lot but actually it's an interesting word. It's an interchangeable word with the word revelation and it simply means the unveiling or another way to translate it, to pull the lid off of something. And that's exactly what we see happening now as we come to this new section of revelation, the lid is being pulled off. And we see a lot of powerful events are happening in rapid succession, not unlike dominoes closely stacked together, one knocking the other one over. We have never been closer to the apocalypse than we are right now. Type the word apocalypse in Google and you will find 100 million pages addressing the topic.

But what does it mean? That's what I want to talk about. A number of years ago Billy Graham wrote a book called Approaching Hoofbeats, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. And here's what Billy wrote and I quote, Some theologians and Bible scholars have thought that these scenes as described by the Apostle John to be a description of past events.

However, most evangelical scholars interpret them as having to do with the future as do I, writes Billy. In my view the shadows of all four horsemen can already be seen galloping through the world at this very moment. Therefore, I want not only to apply these four symbols of events yet to come, but also for us to put our ears lower to the ground and hear their hoofbeats growing louder by the day. Graham concludes, quote, I can hear the hoofbeats of these horses much louder than when I first began writing this book, end quote.

He wrote that book 38 years ago. So if Billy Graham could hear the hoofbeats louder then we certainly can hear them even more right now. These approaching hoofbeats have become thundering hoofbeats. And I want to talk about what the four horsemen of the apocalypse, who they are, what this is all about. But before we get to that in Revelation chapter six, here in Revelation five we're going to go back to heaven for a moment and see what's happening in heaven before the four horsemen are unleashed. So read with me from Revelation chapter five, verse one. John says, I saw on the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll, written inside and on the back sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals. And no one in heaven or under the earth was able to open the scroll or look at it.

John writes, so I wept much. Because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll or look at it, but one of the elders said to me, do not weep. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals. And I looked and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb, as if it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And then he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne. Now when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each having a harp, so we will have harps in heaven, won't we? And golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song saying, you are worthy to take the scroll to open its seals, for you were slain and you've redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

We'll stop there. So here now John is in heaven. A mysterious scroll is produced. It has seven seals on it.

Look at verse one of Revelation five again. I saw on the right hand of him that sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back sealed with seven seals. Now we read this and we have no idea what this even means.

So let me explain it contextually and historically and then apply it for us today. What is a scroll? Well, back in those days, important documents were written down on paper and rolled up in what we would call a scroll. This was something that was used back in this day to record wills, for instance. The will of the Roman emperors Vespasian and Caesar Augustus were on scrolls sealed with seven seals. So what that means is you'd open up this paper, this parchment.

You would write down something, you'd roll it and you would put a wax seal and imprint it with the insignia. Then you would write something else, roll that up, put the seal on it again, roll it a little more, put another seal on it. So when you were opening this document, you would open it and break one seal, read a portion of it, then break another seal. Read a little more of it and break the other seal. So this was reserved for the most important documents. This would sort of be like having an encryption key to a highly classified document today. So it was a seven sealed title deed. So what was it? What is this mysterious scroll?

I believe it is a title deed of the earth. This is what Jesus has come to the earth for. This is why he was born in the manger of Bethlehem. This is why he dies on the cross of Calvary. And this is why he rises again from the dead. This is his mission to buy back, to purchase back with his blood that which was lost way back in the Garden of Eden. When our first parents, Adam and Eve, sinned, there was a curse that came upon humanity.

And we lost paradise. And all of the effects of sin came into the human race. For instance, if Adam and Eve had not sinned, we would have never grown old. If Adam and Eve had not sinned, we would never die. If Adam and Eve had not sinned, I would have hair right now. Right?

So the idea is simply this. That we lost something great in the garden. Jesus has come to purchase it back again. But there is only one way it can be done. And that is if he comes as a lamb to be slain. If he will die for the sin of the world. You know the devil actually offered him a hack on this.

A shortcut. You remember when Christ was beginning his earthly ministry. The devil took him out in the desert and we read that he showed him all the kingdoms of the world. Which is kind of amazing to think about. Like all the kingdoms of the world.

What did he actually see? All these kingdoms maybe of that moment of the present, of the future. And the devil said, all this is mine. And I can give it to whomever I want to give it to. And if you will now worship me, I will give it to you.

Like wow. First of all if that was not true, Jesus would have corrected him and said, it is not yours. You can't give it to whomever you choose. But in fact Christ did not disagree with this statement because it was true. The devil is called the father of lies.

But in this particular instance he is telling the truth. The Bible describes him as the god of this world. The prince of the power of the air.

Who effectively has the title deed of the earth prior to this event. But now he is saying to Jesus, I know what you are here for. I know you want this and I will give it to you on a silver platter. All you have to do is give me the momentary pleasure of worship. And Jesus of course says, it is written you should worship the Lord God. In him only shall you serve. So Jesus knew the only way to reach this objective was by going to the cross. And so when he hangs on the cross of Calvary and he uses one word.

Tetelestai. Which is translated it is finished. That is what he was effectively saying. Finished is a stronghold on humanity. Finished was the miserable bondage that people are held by because of Satan. And finished was Satan's possession of the title deed of the planet earth.

The party is over and the devil knows it. And now back to our study. Revelation chapter 5. The angel holds out a scroll. It says who is worthy to open the scroll. So a massive cosmic recruitment effort is taking place.

Sort of a heavenly Google search. Who can open this scroll and no one is found. Now consider there is a lot of heavy hitters in heaven. We have the great patriarchs like Abraham and Moses and David is there. Prophets like Jeremiah, Isaiah, Elijah, Apostles, Peter, James, and John.

They are all there. But none of them can open this scroll. There are more angels than you can shake a stick at.

Including Michael the archangel and Gabriel and others. But no one is worthy to open the scroll. And John begins to weep. By the way sometimes it is said there are no tears in heaven.

Well there is. Because John is weeping at this point. Because no one is worthy to open the scroll.

No one is found here that can change the condition of the world. That means if it is not open the suffering, pain, sickness, and death that characterize everyday life will not stop. And so John begins to weep.

But suddenly there is an answer. Look at Revelation 5 verse 5. One of the elders said, Do I have to tell you who this is? The lion of the tribe of Judah. It is Jesus himself. Who is coming as a lamb.

It is interesting. He is appearing as both a lion and a lamb. Jesus appears. And he now can open the scroll.

Why? Because he is as a lamb who has been slain. Over in Isaiah speaking of Jesus. It says that he would lay his life down.

And he would not protest. And he would be like a lamb that had been slain. John the Baptist pointed at Jesus and said to his disciples, Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Here is another really interesting thing we find here in Revelation 5. We find out what happens after we pray. Have you ever prayed about something and received no answer? It almost seemed like God wasn't even listening. And you ask did God even hear that prayer? Look at what it says in verse 8.

Listen. Every prayer that you pray is recorded and noted in heaven. Every single prayer. The Bible says he keeps our tears in a bottle.

Which means every tear you shed is known by God. And every prayer you pray is heard by God. And he stores your prayers in heaven.

So we talk about information being in the cloud right? Your prayers are in the cloud. The Lord is aware of them. And some he will answer straight away. Others he will answer in his timing.

Others he will answer later. But will ultimately see his purposes and plans when we get to heaven. So here now is Jesus presented to us as a lamb. You know when Christ walked among us he never set his deity aside. He was God walking this planet. Not a man becoming God.

That's impossible. He was God becoming a man. And at the transfiguration remember he shined like the sun with Moses and Elijah on each side. The miracle is not that Jesus shined like the sun on the Mount of Transfiguration.

The miracle was he didn't do it all the time. Because he was always shining. You know I have a phone and it has a flashlight feature and it always gets turned on randomly. You know and so I get rid of that flashlight.

It's going to drain my battery. Jesus was light walking among us but he shrouded that light. He laid aside the privileges of deity and walked among us as a man or as a lamb. Now lambs are not strong creatures. You cannot find a creature that is more opposite of a lion than a lamb. A lion is ferocious and powerful called the king of the jungle.

A lamb that's dinner on four legs. They might as well just carry mint jelly around with them because they can't run fast. They can't really bite. They can't do much of anything except die.

Right? So it's interesting that he is compared to both. A lamb is weak. Jesus was not weak but he was meek. In fact Jesus said of himself I'm meek and lowly. Meek means power under constraint. So he did not fight back.

He did not strike back when he was hit in the face as he was tried on false charges. He took it meekly as a lamb. And you know it's interesting the word that's used here in Revelation for a lamb means a little pet lamb.

A little pet lamb. So when the Jewish people would celebrate the Passover they were to slay a lamb as you remember. And then they were to take the blood and in the case of the first Passover apply it to the door of their house.

On the top and on the right and on the left and God's judgment would pass over. So they would take that little pet lamb that they had come to love and they would offer it as a sacrifice. And the reason for that is God wanted them to feel the effects of sin. I mean imagine sacrificing your little pet dog or little pet cat how hard that would be. You know because people become so attached to animals these days. You know they have family photos and the dogs in the photo right.

And you push them around in strollers or whatever it is. So it's the idea was to take something that you love and treasure and offer it so you would feel that sense of loss and the ugliness of sin. And so when it's realized that Jesus is the lamb who was slain who can open the scroll there's an outbreak of praise and worship. Revelation 5 9 they sing a new song saying you're worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain. And you've redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe tongue people and nation. Now this is very important out of every tribe tongue people and nation. I bring this up because sometimes the question is asked what about the person who has never heard the gospel.

Listen to this. Ultimately the gospel will be preached in all of the world. Every tribal here every tongue will hear every race will hear.

Yes even the person living in the middle of the jungle as it's sometimes presented or the person out in the middle of a desert. They're all going to hear the gospel. So when we get to heaven everyone is represented from every background.

And I think this is even a celebration of our distinctions of our cultures of our languages of our races. We're all together at the throne of God. Good clarification today from our studies in Revelation with Pastor Greg Laurie. And there's much more to come as you tune in each day here on A New Beginning. Each chapter is a building block to a complete understanding of Revelation. So we hope you'll be along for the Revelation series just as often as you can.

If you missed any part of today's presentation you can get a replay by going to harvest.org. Look for the title The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Now in tandem with our studies of Revelation here on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg has just released a brand new book on Revelation that takes us even further. You know Pastor Greg there's a lot of symbolism in Bible prophecy.

You've studied the subject a great deal. How much of that symbolism do we know for sure what it means? And how much is open to interpretation where godly people do disagree? Well I think it's very important to understand Bible prophecy. There are constant exhortations to understand these things. Jesus when he was speaking of an event called the abomination of desolation said let the reader understand. In the book of Thessalonians Paul writing to the believers there he says, Brothers I would not have you be ignorant. Then he went on to talk about the rapture.

So we don't want to be ignorant we want to understand. And the very word revelation means to unveil. Now there are different ways that we can view these truths.

And I think godly people can and they do frankly disagree on some of these things. Now my position is I believe that there is an event called the rapture that can happen at any moment. I believe in a pre-tribulation rapture. Now the tribulation period is last seven years starts with the emergence of antichrist.

It ends with the return of Jesus Christ. I don't believe we as Christians will go through the tribulation period. I believe we'll be raptured before that time comes.

Now that belief alone will affect you in the way that you live. Because if you believe you could be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and you see the signs of the time showing how close the tribulation period could potentially be. You realize if the tribulation period is close then the rapture of the church is even closer. So I could use the illustration of seeing Christmas decorations up. And you know they go up so early now don't they? What is it August or something? I can't believe Christmas decorations are up.

Well guess what? If I see the decorations for Christmas going up it says this. Thanksgiving is coming. You say no Greg it says Christmas is coming. No I know. But if Christmas is coming Thanksgiving is coming even sooner.

Because Thanksgiving precedes Christmas doesn't it? So the point of it all is if I see signs of the times out there telling me that the tribulation period is coming then that means that Jesus is coming even sooner for his church. That belief alone will affect you in the way that you live. And I talk about that and a lot more in this brand new book that I've just written called Revelation a Book of Promises. It's hard cover.

It's a thick one. This is going to be a resource that you'll keep at home and hopefully you'll consult it again and again. And my prayer and my hope is it will help unlock this great book. The final book of the Bible. The only book of the Bible I might add. It has a special blessing promise to the person who reads, hears, and keeps the words of it. And I want you to get this book I've just written simply called Revelation a Book of Promises.

And we'll send it to you for your gift of any size. And here's Dave to tell you more. Alright, well thank you very much. It's a brand new commentary from Pastor Greg hot off the press.

More than 400 pages in length. If you've been less than clear on your understanding of last day's events, you need to get this resource. So get in touch with your donation today and we'll thank you with a copy of Revelation a Book of Promises. You can write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24-7 phone number 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online to Harvest.org. And then you may have heard something exciting is coming up in less than three weeks. It's SoCal Harvest at Angel Stadium. Pastor Greg's first live evangelistic event since everything stopped for the pandemic. On October 3rd, he welcomes Phil Wickham and For King and Country and presents a powerful gospel message. If you're here in Southern California, be sure to join us and bring someone who needs to meet the Lord. Elsewhere, be sure to tune in online and invite someone who needs to meet the Lord to watch along with you.

You can get all the details at Harvest.org slash SoCal. Next time, more insights from chapters 5 and 6 of Revelation. And what we need to know about the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie. This is the day, the day when life begins. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to A New Beginning. This is a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners. So for more content that can help you know God and equip you to make Him known to others or to learn more about how you can become a Harvest Partner, just go to Harvest.org.