Worthy Is the Lamb (Revelation 4–5)
A door standing open in heaven, and behind it a throne that does not move while the churches below are in chaos. Then a scroll sealed with seven seals that no one in heaven or on earth is worthy to open, and John weeps loudly. Then the Lion of the tribe of Judah appears as a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain. "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain." The plan of the ages is in worthy hands. Weep no more, and worship.
There are some things so awe-inspiring that they need no introduction. That was me the first time I saw Niagara Falls. After parking, I began to hear and then feel it. Then I saw the several stories high mist rising out of the water. Finally, I got up to the railing. Most everyone was speechless. How much more so the scene before us? With John we behold the throne and the Lamb in a glimpse of the universe from heaven’s perspective.[1]
Theme
Everything is going according to plan, because the plan is in worthy hands. So weep no more, and worship.
Transition: The seven letters left us at a door (3:20). John now sees another.
The One on the Throne Is Worthy (4:1–11)
After Jesus’s messages to the churches on earth, John looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! Then the first voice he heard speaking…like a trumpet, said, “Come up here.” Whose voice was that? Jesus’s. Those churches needed to hear from him; we need to hear from him.
On entering, John first sees a throne (4:2b). Grasp the importance of seeing this first. θρόνοςoccurs seventeen times for God’s throne in chapters 4–5. What was going on in chapters 2–3? The church’s mess inside and persecution outside. After addressing the chaos on earth, John sees a throne… in heaven. Before it there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal (4:6).[2] In Scripture, the sea is the uproar of the nations (Ps. 46:3). But in God’s presence there’s no turmoil, but tranquility; peace; the eye of the hurricane; tranquilo. This previews the new heavens and earth with “no more sea” (21:1).
The throne also communicates authority. From it come flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder (4:5), just like at Sinai. The throne is the place of God’s presence from where his plans and judgments go forth.
Application: One of the most tragic errors in evangelical end-times thinking goes like this: “If Christ is on the throne, then he isn’t doing a very good job, is he?” “If Christ is King, then why does it seem as if Satan is the king of the world?” John’s vision communicates that everything is going according to plan; nothing is random or out of control in God’s universe. Everything—even the church’s trials and tribulations—goes according to plan, because the plan is in worthy hands.
Children: Who sits on a throne? A king. Without a king, a throne is empty. John sees a throne, but who’s on it? One seated on the throne (4:2c). Even in a vision, God himself is ineffable—indescribable. John’s description is only that he had the appearance of jasper and carnelian and around his throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald (4:3). He’s so glorious that the only way to describe him is to compare him to precious stones and colors. Watch the sunset tonight. See the colors: orange, yellow, red, purple. That’s the glory of the Lord!
Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones on which were twenty-four elders…in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads (4:4) plus four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind (4:6b–7). Whoever the elders are, their purpose is to magnify the one on the central throne.[3] It’s interesting that they’re sitting on their own thrones, in white, and with crowns—exactly what was promised to the overcomers (2:10, 26–27; 3:5, 11, 21). As for the four living creatures, in Ezekiel 10:20 they are cherubim—guardians of the tree of life (Gen. 3:24) and Ark of the Covenant (Ex. 25:20). Like in Isaiah 6, they are heavenly attendants who praise God.
The whole Triune God is depicted at the center of the heavenly temple: the Father on the throne, the Spirit burning before it (4:5), and, the Son in chapter 5. Since he’s at the center, he’s ceaselessly praised: day and night:
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!” (4:8)
And when the four living creatures worship, the twenty-four elders fall down before him…cast[in] their crowns before the throne, saying,
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.” (4:9–11)
God is worthy to be praised because all comes from him and through him and thus all exists for him and his glory alone.
Transition: The One on the throne is worthy. Is anyone else worthy to open what’s in his hand?
No One Is Worthy (5:1–4)
John saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals (5:1). This echoes the imagery of the scrolls in the visions of the prophets (Isa. 29; Ezek. 2). The fact that it’s sealed not with just one seal, but seven, shows that his word and will are complete and perfect. Here’s all God planned for the history of the world.
John also sees a mighty angel proclaiming…“Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” Not “who’s available?” There were thousands upon thousands of angels available. He asks specifically, “Who is worthy?” But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth—meaning, nowhere—was able to open the scroll or to look into it (5:3). Are you worthy? No! You’re not God. You’re a mere, unworthy creature. This is why John began to weep loudly (5:4). An unopened scroll means “no protection for God’s children in the hours of bitter trial; no judgments upon a persecuting world; no ultimate triumph for believers; no new heaven and earth; no future inheritance.”[4]
Transition: Weeping ceases because there is one worthy.
The Lamb Is Worthy (5:5–14)
One of the elders says, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals” (5:5).What makes the Lion able and worthy?
He’s the king Jacob said would come from his son Judah’s tribe (Gen. 49:9–10). If David was Israel’s greatest king, then Jesus is the root that gives him life. He’s conquered. How? 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 (5:6). The Lion is the Lamb. The Victor is the Victim. The Strong One is the Sacrificed One. The One who gives life to all things became One by whose death new life is given. He’s the slain lamb, yet Almighty with seven horns of full authority and power. He’s co-essential and equal in glory and majesty with the Father and Spirit. He’s God, who stooped down from eternity into time and became like us (John 1:14). Jesus alone is worthy! Amen?
He’s worthy because he accomplished God’s will on the cross and in the empty tomb: “for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God” (5:9). As though it had been slain (5:6) is a perfect tense: he remains the sacrificed lamb for our sins. Are you a sinner? There’s a sacrifice for your sins in Jesus!
After his ascension he took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne (5:7). Hendriksen said: “God governs the universe through the Lamb. That is Christ’s reward and our comfort.”[5]
In response, look at what the elders hold: golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints (5:8). Note something wonderful. In 4:8, the four living creatures praise God; in 4:9–11 the twenty-four elders praise; in 5:8 the four and twenty-four praise; in 5:11–12 they’re joined by the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands. The worshippers are increasing! Then in 5:13 John hears every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea praising.
Application: Their praise needs to be ours! Praise Christ for what he’s done: ransom[ing] people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and ma[king] them a kingdom and priests to our God (5:9–10). As Hendriksen said, Christ’s redemption has “nothing narrow or national about” it; it reaches every ethnic, linguistic, political, and social group. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain (5:12). The cross ironically conquered. This must be the theme of our preaching, singing, witnessing, and living.
Praise Christ in every way you can with everything in you with sevenfold ascription: Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing! (5:12)
Verses 13–14 bring us full circle: no one was worthy, but since the Lion-Lamb is, every creature sings: to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!
Conclusion: Weep No More
Beloved, the plan of the ages is in worthy hands. Weep no more.
Look by faith to see the heavenly throne. Whatever chaos you’re going through, the throne is constant. While life seems to control us, God controls our circumstances. In Hendriksen’s words, “The throne rules. The Lamb reigns.”[6]
You are not God. You’re a creature, not the Creator. You’re unworthy, but one is worthy.
Heavenly praise needs to be ours as well. The cross must be the theme of our preaching, singing, witnessing, and living.
In the end, like the hosts of heaven, at such a scene as this all we can do is to say “Amen,” fall down, and worship. And all God’s people say…Amen!
Notes
- William Hendriksen, More Than Conquerors: An Interpretation of the Book of Revelation (1940, 1967; Baker Book House, seventh printing, 1990), 84.↩
- Hendriksen says the sea is the temple laver as “symbolically, the cleansing blood of Christ” (86).↩
- Some say the twenty-four orders of priests in 1 Chronicles 24–25; some the combination of the tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles; some the church in heaven (Hendriksen, 89); some the representatives of the church on earth. Abraham Kuyper, The Revelation of St. John, trans. John Hendrik de Vries (1935; repr., Eerdmans, 1963), 59. Dennis Johnson says these are particular angelic servants of the Lord because they reveal to John, which is something men don’t do. Triumph of the Lamb (P&R Publishing, 2001), 100. Hendriksen answers the angelic view directly: the elder who speaks in 5:5 is “one who himself had experienced the effects of redemption in his own soul” (89–90).↩
- Hendriksen, 89.↩
- Hendriksen, 91.↩
- Hendriksen, 93.↩