Worthy Champion

About this series

Obviously we are always focussed on Jesus, but in our first series - Just Jesus - we’re going to look, over 13 weeks, at some of the high points in the New Testament that show us who Jesus is, why he’s so wonderful, what he’s done for us and what it means to live in the light of all that.

Sinclair Ferguson wrote, ‘We need to expend our energies admiring, exploring, expositing and extolling Jesus Christ’ - that is precisely our aim in the Just Jesus series. The more we see of Jesus, the more we’ll have to be delighted in and the greater will be our motivation to live for him in our everyday lives.

So, come with great expectation that the Holy Spirit will be powerfully at work leading us to know and love our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

About this talk

Scripture: Revelation 5:1-14

In Revelation 1, John sees a magnificent vision of Jesus. In chapters 2&3 he receives messages from the risen Jesus for seven churches in Asia Minor. Then in chapter 4, John is told, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” He’s being allowed to see the king who reigns and what the king will do to defeat his enemies.

And now in chapter 5 John sees God holding in his right hand an unusual scroll: written on both sides and sealed with seven seals. It contains God’s plans for history and redemption, but it is perfectly secured (seven seals). His anguish, v 4, is because, “because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside.” If God’s redemptive purposes in history for our salvation are to unfold, it must be opened, enacted, fulfilled. Without a Saviour who can open the scroll and bring about God’s redemptive purposes, there is only weeping.

But John is told, to his great relief, v 5, that Christ has triumphed and, “is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” First we’re told that the one who has triumphed is a Lion (v 5) and that he is a Lamb (vs 6-8) who is praised and worshipped by the four living creatures, the 24 elders, many angels and “every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”

He is praised because he is worthy, because of what he has accomplished in his death and because of what he has made his people to be. This chapter presents us with the magnificence of Jesus Christ - the Lion, the Lamb, the one of whom all in heaven and earth forever cry “Worthy.”

We look further into:

• What does it mean that Jesus is, v 5, “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, [who] has triumphed”?

• What does it mean that he is the “Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the centre of the throne”?

• Twice in this passage the Lamb is said to be worthy (cf. the need for one who is worthy in vs 2-5). What steps can we take to live in such a way that our lives declare that he is worthy?

Audio only