You are wired to stand in awe of and give glory to something far bigger than yourself. You are hardwired for that. You could no more turn off your drive for worship by not being religious than you can turn off your sex drive by remaining single. That's not how it works. You're created for worship.
You will find something in your life to worship. Welcome to the Summit Life podcast with Pastor J.D. Greer. I'm your host, Molly Vitovich. Before we dive into today's message, I want to make sure that you don't miss a couple of resources available this month, both designed to help you engage your faith in a deeper, more personal way.
First, we've created a free Psalms reading plan to guide you through some of the most honest and powerful prayers in scripture. Whether you're feeling joy, fear, doubt, or gratitude, this plan helps you turn those moments into conversation with God and build a steady rhythm of time in His Word. And when you support Summit Life with a gift this month, we'll send you Pastor JD's new digital book, Why Does It Matter? It answers some of the most important questions of the Christian life and shows how they shape the way we live every day. Both of those are available now, but only through May 31st.
Just visit jdgreer.com.
So far in the book of Revelation, we've seen warnings, challenges, and a call to examine our hearts. But today, the focus shifts upward. Pastor J.D. Greer takes us to Revelation 4 and 5, where we get a breathtaking glimpse of heavenly worship and a reminder that we were made to worship too.
So grab your Bible and let's jump right in. 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. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, The four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp.
and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have made them a kingdom and priest to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. Then I looked, and I heard around the throne, and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. Mm-hmm.
Revelation 4 and 5 this morning. As we get deeper into the book of Revelation, it is important for us to remember the context into which John is writing. The church in John's day was struggling, they were confused. And they felt like the world was spinning. They're like, Jesus, when you ascended into heaven, you said that all power and all authority was given unto you.
You told us to ask and you would give us the nations as our inheritance to ask that your joy, that our joy might be full. We're going to let William Wallace here represent John's audience. Actual name, by the way, Q Braveheart Reverence, I know, but he represents John's original audience. Jesus, we prayed for you to deliver us from Nero. And you finally did, but then Domitian came to power.
None of us saw that coming and things have only gotten worse. We kind of wish for the days of Nero. And my friend Mark got sick and asked you to heal him, but you didn't. He died. And then the church that I got saved in, the Jerusalem church, he got totally wiped out by persecution.
And then the new church I go to, Pergamum, we went through this nasty split. And then some of our leaders, some of our leaders actually fell away from the faith. And Jesus, you're telling me to stand for you. There you go. Why don't you try it?
Okay, all right, right. I can't do it. I can't do it. This is the church in John's day. Why don't you take a seat here again?
Your faithful dad will wheel you off, and you can get ready for the next service, okay? Why don't you put your hands together for John's original audience?
Some of you got messed up just watching that for the last couple of minutes there. But what John wants to do is to give these people, these confused, struggling, disoriented churches. He wants to give them a fixed reference point that will restore balance to their lives and to give them power to endure suffering. Pastor Curtis showed us last weekend that Revelation 4 opens up with a door opened in heaven and an invitation to John to come up here.
So John and us are being invited to take a peek at what's going on on earth through heaven's eyes. Remember, we opened up Revelation with this vision of the powerful one who's giving the revelation to John. That was Revelation 1. Then we listened to specific counsel that Jesus had for seven local churches at the time. Counsel we saw that apply to churches in every era.
That's chapters two and three. In chapter four, John is talking. Turning his focus to the things that will soon take place, which was, if you recall, Jesus' purpose for giving us the book of Revelation, to give us a revelation of things that must soon take place. Revelation 1, verse 3. And that revelation starts with the revealing of a mysterious scroll that is sealed with seven judgments.
Before John tells us what those judgments are, however, he wants to show us what is happening in heaven as these judgments are unveiled on earth. And so he invites us to come up to heaven and take a look. And when we walk through heaven's door, we walk in on a worship service. Chapter 4, verse 6, look in your Bible. The participants in this worship service are the 24 elders, which Pastor Curtis told us last weekend most likely represent the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles, symbolizing the totality of the people of God from both the Old and New Testaments.
12 tribes of Israel, that of course would be Old Testament. 12 apostles, that would be New Testament. In other words, John is seeing the whole united, redeemed people of God from both Old and New Testaments worshiping together. And y'all, what a moment that will be, right? I mean, can you imagine what it's like?
Going to be like worshiping with King David and Samson and Ruth on your right hand, and Adoniram Judson and Corey Timboom and Tim Keller on your left hand. The other participants in this worship service, John tells us, are the four living creatures. Also, verse 6, scholars tell us that those four living creatures represent the entirety of the created order: the heavens, the earth, the animal kingdom, and all of humanity united in praise to God. Which I want to use to just make two initial points. Number one, it all ends.
in worship. It all ends in worship. When it's all said and done, and we finally see everything from heaven's perspective. You and I are just going to join with all the redeemed people of God and all of creation. And just worship.
That's going to be John's fixed reference point that's going to make everything else stop spinning. What will overwhelm us when we look at things from there? Is how a good God was in control of all of it, weaving it all together for his good plan. Y'all listen, there are 14 worship songs in the book of Revelation. 14, which is 2 times 7.
7, of course, being the number of perfection. 2 7s is 14. 5 of those 14 worship songs are in chapters 4 and 5. All of those songs are about God's faithfulness to his plan. And they read like this one in chapter 4, verse 8: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was.
And who is? And who is to come? Holy, as Pastor Curtis told us last week, means perfect. It means without flaw. Saying it three times in Hebrew is like saying perfection of whatever qualities.
So this is like saying perfect, perfect, perfect. There is not one spot of breakdown in God's goodness, his character, or in his plan. And sometimes, some at church, it just helps me to go ahead and go there. That's the whole reason the door is open, for you to invite me in, and to see it from there. Because it doesn't always feel.
Like right now, God and all of his ways are perfect. But see, I know. I know that when I finally see things from heaven's perspective, when my faith is finally made sight. I'm gonna see. That God had a good and perfect plan.
and that not one part of his good plan was left unfulfilled. And then I, along with the rest of God's people. When we all finally see it, we'll have no recourse. and no other emotion. except to worship.
It's kind of like when we were studying some of the Psalms this past Christmas, and we looked at a couple of the Psalms where the psalmist was, the only word you can use to describe it is complaining. Almost despairing. You remember this, Psalm 88 and 89? God, where are you? God, I don't understand you.
God, why don't you fix this? And we looked in vain for a resolution in Psalm 88. It doesn't end. Nothing never gets an answer for it in this life. I told you that it's an irony that the book of Psalms is called Psalms because Psalms literally means praises, but the majority of the Psalms feel like complaints.
In fact, Eugene Peterson asked, he's like, hey, is it false advertising to call this book praises when so much of the book contains so much about pain and doubt and trouble? Is this like putting a fake, attractive, smiley face on the cover of a book about sadness? Eugene Peterson then answers his own question. He's like, no, it's not false advertising. Because the last five Psalms, Psalms 146 through 150, are all unbroken praise.
You won't find one word of complaint in those Psalms. Once you get to Psalm 146, all the questions and all the confusion and all the doubt and all the spinning goes away. And everything crescendos into unbroken, unfiltered, unqualified praise. And what that's doing, what those last five chapters of the book of Psalms are doing, is giving you a picture of this Revelation 4 and 5 moment. Eugene Peterson says it like this.
The title of the book, Psalms. Praises is accurate because it accurately describes the end. The finished product after all these psalm prayers complete their long travels through the unmapped back countries of pain and doubt and trouble, otherwise known as your life. With only occasional vistas of the sunlit lands along the way. They finally pull back into the station of praise.
All prayer, he says, pursued far enough. And long enough becomes. Praise. In that good news, Summit Church. All prayer pursued far enough and long enough becomes praise.
And like I said, sometimes, Summit. It just helps me to go ahead and go there. Up there. right now by faith. To remind myself that the song I will sing in heaven, the song I will sing when I look backwards from eternity, is not why, God, or why didn't you, God, or how long, oh Lord?
It's just going to be the song of unbroken praise. Nero wasn't in charge, cancer wasn't in charge, depression wasn't in charge, your unreasonable boss is not in charge, Jesus was in charge. And all those prayers. That I prayed Where I felt like nobody was listening. And you got him too.
God was listening. In fact, there's a great image here, chapter 5, verse 8. Flip over that chapter for just a minute. There's this moment when the 24 elders fall down and worship, and it says they have in their hands, look at it, golden bowls of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. These are all those prayers that Old and New Testament saints, us, have prayed over the years.
Prayers for healing. And for justice. and for revival and for prodigals to come home. And for NC State to win a national championship, that's something, okay? And some of them felt like they never got answered.
And yet God heard every single one. And God has collected every single one of them in a bowl. And there's coming a time when he fulfills all of them in his own way, yes. But not one of them goes unanswered. Not one of them was ignored or unheard.
I can't remember if I've told you this before, so if I have, forgive me. But a couple of years ago, I spoke at one of our church plants, Two Cities Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The church is just a handful of years old now, but it is growing and blowing. It's like a people are getting, there's several thousand people that go to the church now. People are getting saved and baptized all the time.
It's like a New Testament revival there.
Now, some of you might know, I grew up in Winston-Salem. That was my home city from the time I was two to went to college in Winston-Salem. And so I got saved there when I was 16. And I was a brand new Christian, and I was so full of zeal.
Well, the church I was a part of wasn't growing. People were not getting saved at this church. At one time, this church had been like 1,500 people big. It was down to like 300 or 400 people.
So, my best friend and I, when we both became Christians, we decided that we were going to come to church an hour early every week before service on Sunday and just pray for revival.
So, we came to church an hour before Sunday school. Sunday school started at 9:30, and so we got there like 8:15 and we prayed every week, just prayed for revival for that hour before church. And, y'all, I was so full of childlike, expectant faith. Every single week, I got up thinking this is going to be the week. Revival is coming, the fire is going to fall.
Nobody was more excited for the service each week than I was. It's going to happen this week. I knew it. I was more excited about the pastor's sermon than he was. And every week, y'all, every week, nothing.
And I remember being really disappointed. I'm like, God, I don't so understand. I mean, I'm asking for something good, it's not selfish, I'm asking for revival. But y'all every single week business as usual same unresponsive service Eventually, I graduated high school. I went off to college.
It wasn't like a crisis of faith or anything, but I did, I remember wondering, God. I mean, why didn't you hear me? But eventually I just forgot and I kind of moved on. Fast forward 30 years. Standing on the stage at two cities.
Multiple services. People standing wall to wall. I stand up there, open the Bible, and I Start to preach. But before I do, I just kind of look out on all this massive crowd. I see all these young people.
college students, young professionals. There's even people I grew up with from my home church that are in this. Church now. From the front door of that church, you could actually look up and see the area where my home church sits. And y'all, just before I start to preach, the Holy Spirit whispers something in my heart.
No, it was not audible, but it was as clear as if it was audible. The Holy Spirit just said, I heard you. Y'all, I hadn't thought about this in 30 years. But just out of nowhere. The Holy Spirit said, you thought nobody was listening.
I heard every single word. Saints, I'm telling you. There's coming a moment where you're going to see that he did that with everything. All prayer pursued far enough. And long enough becomes praise.
And like I said, y'all, sometimes it just helps me to go there. to by faith, walk through that open door. And join in anticipation of that moment when my faith is made sight and I unite with that heavenly group in eternity, saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. My praise is a weapon, it's more than a sound. My praise is a weapon my enemies drown in.
and the world stopped spinning for me.
So, this scene in heaven shows us that worship is where it's all headed. It also shows us, number two, that worship is what we're created for. That's the whole point of the four living creatures who represent the whole created order being present in this service. It's a picturesque way of saying that the ultimate point of all creation is worship. God created everything He created for worship.
I have told you this before, if the only purpose... For this universe. The only purpose, or even the main purpose, is to create a habitation for man. It's kind of excessive, isn't it? Week before last, Veronica and I were out in Colorado speaking out of marriage retreat.
One of the guys that I got to know at the retreat was a retired NFL running back from the Chicago Bears who'd won all these awards. He held several NFL records. He'd been on the All-American rookie team when he was a rookie. He was kind of built like me, but just a little bit shorter. And I'm just kidding, okay?
If a Sherman Tank could become a human being, that's what this guy would look like. Anyway, we're taking a hike through this thing out there called the Garden of the Gods, which is this place where all these rock formations jut up out of the ground. It's almost like the shelf of the Earth's plate cracked and just sticks up into the sky several hundred feet. And in these gigantic structures, you can see all these layers of rock strata. You're looking at several hundred feet of the Earth's crust.
And this former NFL star that I'm walking beside and just, you know, chit-chatting with, he just looks around and he goes, man, this place just makes you really feel small, doesn't it? And I was like, bro, just standing next to you makes me feel small, okay? You and I had different experiences as human beings as we grew up, but he was right. The biggest people in the world feel small next to something like that. And then it suddenly hits me that what I'm looking at, relatively speaking, is just a few feet of the Earth's crust.
And there are miles and miles and miles more of that kind of rock strata beneath my feet. And we are on one small, rather insignificant planet in a mediocre-sized galaxy. They say that if the Milky Way galaxy were the size of the United States, that our whole solar system would only be the size of a quarter. And there are two trillion other galaxies in our universe, like the Milky Way, each containing billions and billions of stars. The vast majority of energy in the universe put out by those stars is wasted.
Our son, I've told you, puts out the equivalent of a trillion, over a trillion nuclear bombs every single second. And they say that our planet benefits from only 0.000000045% of all the energy that is put out. That means that what, 99.999999955% of the energy coming from our sun is wasted. And there are stars out there putting out millions of times more amount of the energy than our sun does. Like UI Scooty, which I read about this week.
which they say is 1700 times the size of our sun. UI Scooty is a cool name for a star, right? If I was a rapper, I would want that to be my rap name, UI Scooty.
So I'm claiming it right here. They say. That if you, why, Scooty, sat where our son sat. Its outer edge would extend past Jupiter. It puts out millions of times more energy than our sun does, and apparently all to no end.
As far as we can tell. There's no planets that orbit it. There's no life that these stars sustain.
Now, we look at all that and we say, well, if the whole point of creation is to create a habitation for man, well, that seems to be excessive and like a lot of waste. And yeah, if creating a habitation for man is the main point of the universe, there is a lot of waste. But, if creation's real purpose If creation's main purpose is to give us a glimpse of the glory of God, Well then. I'd say it's just about the right size. None of that energy, none of that space is wasted because all of it exists to testify about the greatness of your God.
And see, friend, that's the secret to understanding yourself, too. You were created to worship something that big. You are wired to stand in awe of and give glory to something far bigger than yourself. You are hardwired for that. You could no more turn off your drive for worship by not being religious than you can turn off your sex drive by remaining single.
That's not how it works. You're created for worship. You will find something in your life to worship. The whole tragic history of the human race is basically the story of us trying to find something beside God to make our object of worship. You can explain so much of your own life as a quest for worship.
Some people choose earthly greatness. They want to build a legacy or create a name that will be remembered. They want to have their name hung up in the rafters. Earthly greatness is the bigger thing that they've given their life for.
Some people choose family. Family is everything to them. That's their primary, bigger purpose that they live for. They go through all kinds of sacrifice as long as we can protect family. Even things like sex or other physical pleasures, they can be seen as quests for worship too.
The British philosopher Malcolm Muggerich, who I know sounds like a character from Harry Potter, but he's not. He describes sex. as the mysticism of the materialists. G.K. Chesterton, another British philosopher, said that many men who knock on the door of a brothel.
are really in search of God. Sex, Josh McDowell says, sex is not the answer. If anything, sex is the question. What we are doing when we come in here together on the weekend on a soul level. is what many people are doing through things like that.
You were created with a yearning deep inside of you to live for something greater than yourself. You cannot turn that off. It's how you've been hardwired, and that yearning is an echo of something your creator put into you. And that means your heart will always be unsatisfied until you locate your worship in Him. The question is not.
If you worship, the question is what you worship. As Christian counselor Ed Welch says, spiritual needs are not a part of our humanity. No, spiritual needs are the center of your humanity. That is the secret to understanding yourself. And so, in this opening scene in heaven, What we see is all of God's redeemed people and all of creation.
Consumed. and worship. By the way.
Sometimes people get thrown off by scenes like this one. And they think, well, is this all we're going to do in heaven? Like heaven is one big long choir concert where all we do is stand in a crowd and sing. And you're scared to say it. Because you feel so unspiritual and you don't even want to bring it up.
But you're like, I mean, that sounds like it could get a little boring. Right? You're like, I mean, I love a good worship service, right? But sometimes it just feels like the worship leader just keeps going on and on. I'm like, okay, bro, we're done.
Okay, let's wrap it up. And you're like, is that what heaven's going to be like? Like one never-ending worship service I'm just going to feel guilty about? No. The Bible tells us that there are lots of other things that we do in heaven, lots of other things we do in heaven, and these pictures are metaphors.
They just mean that in all that we do, celebrating and rejoicing in the glory of God. Whether we are singing in worship, which we will do, or whether we're eating and drinking and working. Whatever we do up there. Awe of God and glory of God and enjoyment of God will be the core. Have you ever wondered why certain beliefs in Christianity actually matter?
Not just what we believe, but why it makes a difference in everyday life? This month's featured resource is a brand new digital book from Pastor JD, aptly titled, Why Does It Matter? It walks through some of the most important questions of the Christian faith, topics like prayer, the resurrection, biblical authority, and everyday faithfulness, and shows us how each one shapes the way we live, think, and follow Jesus day by day. When you support Summit Life financially this month, we'll send it over to you as our way of saying thanks. It's a resource designed to help you build a faith that's not only thoughtful and grounded, but deeply personal and lived out in the real world.
Just head to jdgreer.com to learn more. You won't want to miss it. Our May resource is only available through the end of this week.
Now, let's finish up today's teaching and head back to God's Word. Once again, here's Pastor Jake. Yeah.
So in this opening scene in heaven, We see that they are worshiping. But John does more in these chapters than simply show us that they're worshiping. He also shows us why they are worshiping. There are two reasons. The first I'm just going to mention really briefly.
since we've already seen it a couple of times in the book of Revelation. Here it is, letter A, the father's control. The father's control. There are 17 references. To God's throne in Revelation 4 and 5.
Which is significant given that there are only 61 total references to the throne of God in the entirety of the New Testament. 45 of those 61 references are in the book of Revelation, and 17 of those 61 are concentrated in these two chapters. What's my point in showing you that? What characterizes these chapters is God's throne. He's in charge, he's on the throne.
Like I said, I'm not gonna I'm only gonna mention this since Pastor Curtis covered so much of it last week. But rest assured. That even when it feels like life is spinning out of control, God is on the throne. And when you finally see things from his perspective, you will say, with all of creation and all of God's people, perfect, perfect, perfect is the Lord God Almighty. Who was and is and is to come.
Here's the second thing that makes them worship where we'll spend the most of our time, letter B. The sons Salvation. The Son's Salvation. Chapter 5. Opens with a problem.
Verse 1, then John said, I saw on the right hand of him who sat on the throne. A scroll with writing on both sides. and sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice: who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll, but no one in heaven or on earth. or under the earth could open the scrolls or even look inside of it.
And so I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll. or to look inside. Our first question, of course, is what's... Inside this mysterious scroll. John's original audience in the first century would have recognized a scroll described like this.
as a kind of legal document. When a scroll was written on both sides, rolled up and sealed with seals, that meant it was something like a last will and testament. This is The title deed to the earth. The earth as God intended it to be. A world of beauty.
Creation without all of the natural disasters, a world without tornadoes and tsunamis and tarantulas and floods, and most of all, without cats.
Okay, amen. A world of justice. A world where the strong cannot exploit the weak. A world where rights are protected, where there's no abuse or war or racism or prejudice. A world of family and relational harmony, a world without divorce or arguments or estranged children or alienated friendships, a world without addiction, a world without the bondage of sin, a world without death or disease or destruction.
In short, y'all, the world we've always wanted and craved, the world God has wanted to give us. But John weeps, and the reason he weeps is because nobody can be found worthy to open the scroll and gain this inheritance. Nobody can lead us to the world we've always yearned for. Imagine a really wealthy woman. who had died and left behind her massive fortune to her family.
But she stipulates in her will that the only one who can execute the will has to meet a certain set of criteria. They have to be a blood relative. They have to have demonstrated an unquestionable commitment to the family, which means there could be no record of them ever saying anything negative about the family or about her. They also had to have demonstrated no greed. Which means they can never have expressed the slightest desire for her money to anybody else.
They also had to have written, visited, or called this woman faithfully every week leading up to her death. And to boot? They have to have won at least one Nobel Prize and be able to run a four-minute mile. And family sits there listening to all these stipulations being read, and they realize that nobody meets the criteria. And none of the riches will ever be theirs.
That's similar to what's happening. in this chapter. John looks down through the annals of history for somebody, anybody, who meets the criteria to open the scroll and gain this world and finds. No one. Why?
Because the seven seals The seven seals that seal the scroll are God's judgment against sin. And every member of the human race ever born is guilty of sin. and thereby worthy of these judgments. No one ever born can save the human race. They could not even make it through the first seal.
Yo, listen, this won't surprise many of you, but I grew up loving superhero stories, okay? Superman, Spider-Man. Batman, the Shazam. In fact, the old school kind, when they punch somebody in on the screen, it would be like, ow, Chris Flatt. Remember those?
Those were the good old days. But I've noticed that when this little graphic right here died, There's been a recent development in superhero stories. I don't know exactly when this happened. I feel like it started to happen when I was a teenager. But more and more often...
Superheroes or any kind of heroes are presented as flawed characters with demons of their own. They may have superhuman strength, but they also have super blind spots and super dysfunction. They are corruptible. Many have called this the rise of the anti-hero. It's like we have a hard time presenting anybody.
even fictional characters is entirely good. Let me just ask you to put on your social philosopher hat for a minute and ask. Why do you think that is? And what does it say about the culture that produces stories like that? It probably reveals that a lot of us feel let down by those we thought were good.
Those we depended on for help. Seems like every day we're going to hear about some trusted figure.
Some religious leader, some cultural icon, some political figure who turns out not to be what they presented themselves as. We love the concept of royalty. Even in this country, we love it.
Some of you watched The Crown like it was about a story about your in-laws. But we know that any honest history of royalty is filled with tyranny and injustice. I'm not saying there are no trustable leaders in the world. I'm just saying that when you get close to any human leader, You find out they have flaws. And that leaves us with a dilemma.
Any would-be savior in the world cannot overcome the one problem humans most need to overcome, and that is the curse of sin and all the rest of the curses it brings with it. I think I've told you this before, but it's the true story about the grandmother who was left to watch her two-year-old grandson just for a few hours. And somehow he got away from her for just a few minutes. And she looks out the window, trying to figure out where he is, and then she sees him to her horror. Stumble into the deep end of the family pool.
She runs out in desperation to save him. She jumps in after him. And three hours later. The EMTs pull out the bodies of both the grandmother and the grandson because she couldn't swim either. The point is The person doing the saving.
Can't have the same problem as the one who needs to be saved. John looked down through the annals of history. And he saw that there was no one, literally no one who was able to save the human race from its sin. You say, well, wait a minute, what about John? I mean, he's an apostle of Jesus for crying out loud.
He's literally been tortured by being boiled in oil, and yet he remained faithful. He's the one that Jesus loved. He's standing right there. Can't he do it? I imagine John probably realized about himself what I've realized about myself.
That is that nobody has disappointed J.D. Greer more than J.D. Greer. Nobody has lied to. made false promises to, or let down me more than me.
In fact, y'all, the more I know myself, the less impressed I am with me. My wife and I. Celebrate 25 years of marriage tomorrow.
Okay? And she's right over here. And she loves me, and our relationship is better than ever. But I'm sure as I just said that, she just under her breath said, amen, all right? When people are impressed with me, because I stand up here on stage, she's like, oh, you should try living with the fool, okay?
Yo, listen, like you, I want a world of peace and harmony. I want a place with no more tears. But then I just think about how many times in my life I've caused tears through my selfishness. or my thoughtlessness, or even my cruelty. And I think, well, if heaven's going to be a place of no more tears, how can I get in there?
Given how many tears I've caused throughout my life. Is anyone worthy? Is anyone whole? Is anyone able to break the seal and open the scroll? Wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or even to Look inside, but then one of the elders said to me, Do not weep, John.
See the lion of the tribe of Judah, see him? The root of David has triumphed. He is able to open the seal, open the scroll, and its seven seals.
So I looked at where he was pointing, but what I saw was a lamb. Looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne. What John sees is confusing because he hears about a lion, but when he looks, what he sees is a lamb. And don't think mighty ram, okay? Right, like go heels here.
This is not what we're talking about. Think small, helpless lamb. In fact, the normal word for lamb in the New Testament is omnos. But here the word used is arneone, very unique word, hardly ever used at all in the New Testament, but it specifically means a little or a pet lamb. This is a small, weak, helpless looking creature.
And even more than that, this lamb looks as if it had been slain. meaning that the lamb bears the marks of abuse and suffering. The Lord Jesus. Who though he was the Son of God, the very one at the center of the throne, came to earth not as a lion, but as a lamb. lived as a servant and died in weakness under Roman suppression.
Now, John hastens to add. The fact that he suffered as a lamb. Didn't mean he lacked power. In fact, verse 6 of chapter 5 says this, the lamb had seven eyes, seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sitting out into all the earth. By the way, we are not meant to read that literally like it's some kind of grotesque mutant lamb with strange eyes and horns.
No horns in the Bible symbolize power. Seven is the number of completion.
So having seven horns means he has all power. Seven eyes symbolize omniscience. He sees everything and omnipresence. He's present everywhere.
So having seven eyes means that this Lamb is the all-seeing, all-knowing. And through the seven spirits, which is a metaphor for the Holy Spirit, he is the ever-present God on earth. He is the lion of the tribe of Judah, and yet at the center of the throne, and yet what characterizes this mighty lion when he came to earth was tenderness and weakness and humility and suffering. He was a lamb, friend, hear this. Listen.
This is the gospel. Jesus, the lion who sat on the throne of history, came to earth not as a lion, thank God, but as a lamb. Because he was coming not to dispense the judgment of God, but to take it in our place. You see, though Jesus was sinless on the cross, Jesus experienced all seven of these sealed judgments. We're not there yet.
We're going to get more into these in chapter 60 way, but let me just walk you through the sealed judgments really quickly.
So you see in the first two seals are oppression and war. Jesus suffered an unjust imprisonment at the hands of occupying Roman soldiers. Right? So oppression and war. The third seal is famine.
On the cross before Jesus died, Jesus called out, I thirst. The fourth seal is death. Jesus, though he was innocent, died a cruel criminal's death. The fifth seal is the cry of the martyrs, cries of despair, of unanswered prayers, and how long, O Lord? On the cross, Jesus cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
The ultimate prayer of the martyrs. The sixth seal is cosmic disturbances. Specifically, it's gonna talk about earthquakes and the sun turning black. On the cross, when Jesus died, Matthew says the sky went dark and there was a great earthquake. The seventh seal is a great silence in heaven.
When Jesus cried out from the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? There was no response for the first time in his life, no response, only a great silence from heaven, and heaven stayed silent for three days until the resurrection. What you read in that is on the cross, Jesus literally absorbed all seven seals in our place. The key word of the gospel. It's substitution.
A lot of times at the Summit Church, we say you can summarize the gospel in four words. If you're a summoned member, stay with me. You know what they are? Jesus in my place. That's why everybody that gets baptized here is wearing a shirt that says that.
He lived the life we should have lived. Then he died the death we've been condemned to die. He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. The price that brought us peace was put upon him so that by his stripes we could be healed. And because of that, See, he can open the scroll without destroying all of us.
All the curses for all the sins we had committed that brought all of those plagues on the earth. All these things that are contained in those scrolls, they went into him and he put them away forever. My friend, Jesus is the hero that the human race has always yearned for. He's the one who can give us the life we've always wanted. The life that God intended for us.
And that's what sends these 24 elders. who again represent all the people of God. And the four living creatures, which represent all of creation, that's what sends them into raptures and ecstasies of worship. At the end of the day, listen to this. At the end of the day, God's glory was not best demonstrated by his ability to create the heavens.
as awesome as that was. At the end of the day, God's glory was best demonstrated by his willingness to become weak. A servant, a sacrificial lamb, who would let himself be slain so he could rescue a traitorous human race. The early church father, Gregory of Nazianzas. Said that even the weakest flame, even the weakest flame.
A little Biclider here. Right. Even a weak even a weak flame will We'll burn upwards. Right? Miss candle burns upward.
But it won't burn downward. And so we can just put out my fingers. Take a real strong flame though, a true flame. A torch. That'll burn straight down.
I'm not putting my finger under that. He said, the true strength of a flame is shown by its ability to burn downward, not upward. God's true glory. Is shown not by how he created the expanse of the heavens or the brilliance of the stars. His true glory was shown by how he humbled himself.
By his ability to burn downward, how he took upon the form of a servant and suffered the shame and penalty of our sin in our place. because of his love. And so when the elders see this, they fall down, meaning they're undone. And they cast their crowns at Jesus' feet. Crowns, by the way, crowns represent everything else that you and I have ever boasted in throughout life.
That's what a crown is, right? I mean, I'm just asking, what is that for you? Your intelligence is at your crown, your success, your skill, your grit, your goodness. Your incredible build Your family, all of that, whatever it is. in that moment feels worthless.
Because Jesus' salvation, you see, was everything.
So all the elders fall down and they say, worthy is the lamb who was slain. Let him receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. Isn't that what a crown represents? All those things? The crowns, all those things, he says, they don't belong to us, they belong to you.
Because real power, and real wealth, and real wisdom, and real might, and real honor, and real glory, and blessing, and righteousness, and goodness, they all came as gifts from you in grace. The reason I'm here, Jesus, they're all saying, I'm not here because of my goodness. I'm here because of your grace. I'm not here because I had the wisdom or the righteousness or the power or the goodness to seek you. I'm here because you sought me.
I would never have sought you had you not sought me first. You gave me understanding when I was foolish. You gave me sight when I was blind. You gave me righteousness when I was sinful. You gave me strength when I was weak.
You are my righteousness, my hope, my sight, my peace, my strength, my goodness. You're all of it. All these things belong to you. The only thing I boast in is your grace.
So many of our songs focus on this moment, don't they? When I survey The wondrous cross. On which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain, I count but loss, my crown. And I pour contempt on all my pride, all my crowns, all my accomplishments, I cast them at Jesus' feet as worthless. The church I grew, the books I wrote, any name I think I acquired, any righteousness I think I had, any money you've amassed, the company you've built, the kids you've raised, you cast all of those crowns at Jesus' feet as worthless.
at least in terms of accomplishment. Knowing that every truly good thing was a gift of his grace. He was your righteousness when you were sinful, he was your life when you were dead, he was your goodness when you were evil, your sight when you were blind. You all get this. The only purely man-made thing there in this scene around the throne that endures.
are the wounds of Jesus. Think about it. All true blessing and honor and glory and wisdom and righteousness they all came from Him. What we contributed. or the wounds.
But those wounds only increase our worship. Right? Tony Evans tells a story of a man and his wife who were out hiking one afternoon. And they got clawed. in a terrible hailstorm.
They're out in an open field, pretty far away from any of the forests. This is one of those massive hailstorms. Very rare where the hellstones are as large as baseballs. The man realized that if he didn't do something quickly, his wife might get pretty seriously hurt or even killed.
So he draped himself around his wife. covered her with his own body so that the hailstones hit him instead of her. He thought the hailstorm would only last for a few seconds, but the hailstones just seemed to keep getting bigger and bigger and come down harder and harder. After a few minutes, several spots on his head and his back. His arms were bleeding.
He kept trying to make it to cover, to make it to where the trees were, but he was so weakened by the onslaught that he finally just laid his wife down in the field and collapsed over her. only able to cover her body as those hailstones came down. Finally the storm Start. They both survived. But he was left with all these scars from where the hailstones had battered him.
Scars that remain to this day. On a local newscast recounting the story, the man's wife was asked how she. how she felt about their experience. And she said, well, all I can tell you is every time I see the scars. It just makes me love him more.
In heaven, we'll all have perfected bodies. But there will be one body. with scars. And those scars will forever remind us how he stood between the wrath of God and us. And those scars will make us love and worship him even more.
Summit, he is the worthy hero we've always been searching for, the one whose love is perfect, the one we can always depend on, the only one who will never disappoint you or let you down. Because he's the lion of Judah, he's strong enough to save you, strong enough even to overcome death. But because he's the lamb, he was humble and loving enough to do so, to bear our sin and shame.
So, back to our hymn: Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, or joy compose so rich a crown? Has there ever been somebody with that kind of strength and that kind of love united in one person? The flame of his strength was not shown by its ability to burn upward, it's grown by its ability to burn downward. The hero we need is not somebody who could bend steel or stop bullets or have x-ray vision, it's somebody who could face death and bear our sin and was willing to do so. And seeing that savior there at the center of that throne draws forth our deepest love.
And so the songwriter continues, where the whole realm of nature mine, that'd still be a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. Or we fall down, we lay our crowns at the feet of Jesus. The greatness of Not my goodness or my accomplishments, but the greatness of his mercy and love at the feet of Jesus. And we cry, holy, holy, holy.
Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy is the Lamb. Is anyone able? Is anyone holding? Is anyone able to break the seal and open the scroll? The lion of Judah who conquered the grave, he is David's root and the lamb who died to ransom the slave.
Is he worthy? Is he worthy of all blessing and honor and glory? Is he worthy of this? He is. And so friend, John ceases his weeping.
Wife's his eyes. and joins with those around the throne as verse 9, they sang a new song. Saying you are worthy. to take the scroll and open its seals because you were slain. With your blood, you purchase to God persons from every tribe and language.
and people and nation. Not only is there going to be believers from both Old and New Testament there. There's going to be people from every tribe and language and nation, and that means Jews and Greeks and Babylonians and Mexicans and Africans and Americans and people from Sudan and Russia and India and Indonesia and Aborigines and American Indians and people we ain't even ever heard of. These are all going to be represented in those 24 elders, united in worship around one glorious savior. And we say, verse 10, you have made them to be a kingdom, us, kingdom, and priests to serve our God.
And they will reign with you on the earth. And then I looked and I heard around the living, around the throne, and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads, and thousands upon thousands. It's going to be so many angels, so large in number, they're going to seem greater than the number of stars in the sky, saying together with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power, and wealth, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them saying, To him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. And the four living creatures said, Amen.
And the elders fell down and they worship. This is what John sees. That's the vantage point he looks from. And this is what he knows is going to give the church the ability to press on. what they can fixate on when their world feels like it's spinning out of control.
Yo, when I was a kid, one of my favorite things to do. was rub my feet on a carpet. And then shock somebody. Remember that? For Christians, rubbing up on this scene fills us with the power to endure suffering.
It fills you with the power to resist temptation. It fills you with the power to shock the world. May Jesus' glory and generosity. And what a grace. You wanna know?
Want to know how to overcome temptation? You want to know how to resist? suffering or overcome suffering or resist temptation. The scene is it. This is the scene to focus on.
The lamb is slain. The tomb is empty. and the throne is occupied. As you go today, don't forget you can find both the free Psalms reading plan and Pastor JD's book, Why Does It Matter, at jdgreer.com available through May 31st. Thanks for joining us for the Summit Life podcast.
We'll see you next time. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries. Yeah.
