God’s grace, peace
and mercy be with you. … My sermon is based on Revelation 5. Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to
me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are
within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit
enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we
pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.
As I mentioned
last week, there are various meaningful symbols throughout John’s Revelation.
One of them is the lamb. A lamb is a young sheep less than one year old or
without permanent teeth. Other young animals are called lambs, such as
antelopes. A gentle or weak person or one easily cheated or deceived especially
in trading securities is sometimes referred to as a lamb because he or she can
be fleeced. The word lamb is German in its origin.
Lamb appears in
the Bible over 275 times. It is first mentioned in Genesis (4:4) when Abel, who
was the keeper of the sheep, brought the firstborn of his flock to the Lord as
an offering. Lamb was the main menu item for the Passover meal. Recall that its
blood was smeared on the doorframes on the first Passover when God delivered
his people from slavery. Unblemished lambs were offered to God as a sin
offering.[1]
Paul says that
Christ is the sacrificed Passover Lamb.[2] In the accounts of the
Passover meal before Christ’s death, there is a connection between Christ’s
body and blood and his impending death, and the Passover lamb whose blood was
shed. Apart from Paul, no other New Testament author explicitly calls Christ
the Passover Lamb, but the fact that Paul does implies that such a connection
was widely known. It was clear in the early Church that people saw in the
Passover lamb a type of the sacrifice of Christ.[3]
The phrase “Lamb
of God” is found in only two places in the New Testament. John the Baptist
speaks the phrase twice in chapter one of John’s Gospel. A verse in 1st
Peter reminds readers that their ransom paid to God “was the precious
blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.”[4]Of
course, the phrase has been used in Christian worship and theology and is
foundational to the message of Christianity.
In Christian art, the
Lamb of God depicts Jesus as a lamb carrying a halo and holding a cross
symbolizing victory. This normally rests on the lamb's shoulder and is held in
its right foreleg. The cross usually has a white banner suspended from it with
a red cross on the banner. Sometimes the lamb is shown lying on top of a book
with seven seals hanging from it. This is a reference to the imagery in today’s
reading. Some artists depict the lamb bleeding from the area of the heart,
symbolizing Jesus' shedding his blood to take away the sins of the world.[5] There is probably no other
symbol or title of Jesus that touches the heart as the Lamb of God, and its
relationship to Jesus calling himself the Good Shepherd.
It is important
for us to remember as we read Revelation that its Christology deals primarily
with the exaltation of Jesus Christ and his glorious reign. The foundation of
this exalted Christology is the theology of the Lamb of God who suffered and
died and rose again. By this he earned the eternal glory of his Father, and now
(in Revelation and in our time) he shares that glory with his people.
Throughout Revelation we are constantly reminded that Christ is the exalted Son
of Man, Lord of lords and King of kings because he was and is the Lamb of God
who was sacrificed for the sins of God’s people.[6]
In today’s
passage, we find three hymns of praise sung by elders, angels and all
creatures. The first hymn is called a new song. Later, in chapter 14, the
church sings a similar song as they follow the Lamb. It indicates that worship
and praise of God’s people on earth is parallel to that of the saints in heaven
before God. In chapter 15, as the church is engaged in battle with the beast,
she sings the song of Moses and the hymn of the Lamb. These are victory songs.
Despite the suffering caused by the beast, the church sings a new song. It is
new because it had never been sung before. The songs of Moses and the Lamb
express God’s rightness and show his anger and judgment on earth towards the
beast and evil forces. This new song (in today’s passage), which has no Old
Testament references, echoes verse 11 in chapter 4, and is a victory song sung
before the battle because the promise has been fulfilled. Christ came and won
the victory for God and his people.[7] This new song exudes the
believers’ confidence.
In verse 11, the
angels join in the cheerful praise of the Lamb, who at the right hand of the
Father is worshipped and adored. Notice in 4:11, that God the Creator is given
glory, honor and worship. Equally, the victorious Christ is given the same in
this song. Note too the additional words of worship and praise given to the
Son: wealth, wisdom, strength and blessing. These are given to Christ because
in his earthly life of humiliation, suffering, death and glorious resurrection,
he earned them. Christians see in Christ the wealth, wisdom, strength and
blessing, and through them receive from God the gift of salvation through the
proclamation of the Gospel.
I encourage you to
read the difference between Christ’s state of humiliation and his state of
exaltation in Luther’s Small Catechism. Questions 126-152, succinctly explain
these two states.
In the third
stanza, every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the
sea sings, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and
honor and glory and might forever and ever!”[8] Every
creature sings this because it is only in Christ that the human race receives
and acknowledges the wealth of God’s saving grace, and it is only in the Lord
Jesus Christ that the wisdom of God is received and acknowledged, especially
that wisdom which leads the human heart in repentance to a saving faith.[9] Then the four living
creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped. Can I
get an “Amen!” to that?
Folks, this
passage is John’s vision of God’s heavenly majesty and the coronation and
enthronement of Jesus Christ. God’s redemption and restoration of the human
race came through his Son. The whole purpose of God’s activity toward all
people and creation is that it would end in worship and praise of God as
Creator and Savior through his Son.
This vision is
Christ’s ascension. This is Jesus’ high priestly prayer for glory for himself,
his disciples and all believers that we read in John 17. In verse 24 of that
chapter we read, “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given
me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because
you loved me before the foundation of the world.” This is what the
three disciples saw on the mountain when Moses and Elijah appeared in glory and
spoke of Jesus’ departure, and what he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
Peter, James and John saw his glory.[10]
This is Martyr
Stephen’s vision. “As he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and
Jesus standing at the right hand of God, he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens
opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’”[11]At the beginning of Acts, we
read of Christ’s ascension from the perspective of those who saw it from earth.
Revelation 4 and 5 are the exaltation of Christ at the Father’s right hand from
the perspective of heaven.
This is the flip
side Good Friday’s mourning when Jesus was crowned with thorns and nailed to a
cross when darkness covered the face of the earth. The crown of thorns gives
way to a crown of many crowns. The glory of the cross is now seen in the glory
of exaltation of Christ at the Father’s right. Heaven is no longer mourning for
the celebration has taken its place.
Friends, as we
read through the rest of Revelation, we interpret everything through this
vision of Christ’s coronation. It gives us hope because it tells us how it all
is going to end. This vision helps us, as Church, to carry out Christ’s mission
for us on earth.
I was thinking
about how this passage applies to our lives, and because the NFL draft is
always a big deal at this time of the year, I thought, “I wonder how Vince
Lombardi would stack up against John if he had to create a vision for his
team?” Most of Lombardi’s quotes dealt with football, but he did have a few
religious quotes. For example, he once said, “When we place our dependence in
God, we are unencumbered, and we have no worry. … This confidence … is both
contagious and an aid to the perfect action. The rest is in the hands of God -
and this is the same God who has won all His battles up to now.” … God has won
all His battles up to now.
Successful people
like Lombardi inspire people. But what if you’re Garth Fritel? The story of Garth
Fritel is how a man wins a war in the soul by crossing into the unknown
territory of pain, isolation and a collapsing body to say one thing: “Yes, God
— I give it all to you.”[12] A group of people pray for
a miracle of physical healing for Fritel, who has not moved a single body part
below his neck in more than a year. For five years, he suffered from ALS — a
disease that often claims lives in less than three years.
The article tells
us that Garth was lying awake at the loneliest hours of the night, where a
shifting kaleidoscope of thoughts came into view. His wife, Adeline, slept like
a stone beside him. She spent each of her days pushing boulders up Mount
Spokane in juggling her work as a pharmacist, caring for their daughters and
handling carpools, meals, cleaning, etc. He never dared to wake her. In total
silence Garth looked at the choice he was faced: A. Quit and die. B. Live.
He chose option B.
He learned that suffering with and for God is the inseparable companion of
union with Christ on the cross. He says, “I can choose to pick up the cross or
I can choose not to. I can choose to give my suffering over to Jesus or I can
choose not to. With God or without? I have the power of choice. … How people
survive ALS without faith is a mystery to me.” Each evening, Garth gathers his
family in the living room where they pray as a family, and a single question is
asked: What was your blessing today?
Friends, what is
your blessing today? For me, it’s God giving me the opportunity to delve into
the Word. It’s Pastor Brighton whose knowledge of Scripture, and Revelation in
particular, blesses me with understanding and insight. Yours might be the
presence of your loved ones or beautiful memories of those now with the Lord.
Whatever your blessing is in health or in suffering, in riches or poverty, in
peace or in persecution, know that your victory has been won. When you sing
your victory song, may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep
your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus the Risen Lord. Amen. Alleluia!
[1]
Leviticus 14.
[2] 1
Corinthians 5:7.
[3] Louis
A. Brighton, Revelation. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House (1999), p. 149.
See Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20.
[4] The
New Living Translation of 1 Peter 1:19.
[5]
Revelation 5:6; John 1:29, 36.
[6]
Brighton, p. 149.
[7]
Brighton, pp. 141-142.
[8]
Revelation 5:13.
[9]
Brighton, pp. 143-144.
[10]
Luke 9:31-32.
[11]
Acts 7:55-56.
[12]
Kevin Wells, “A Man of Heroic Courage, Nailed to the Cross of ALS,” National
Catholic Register, April 21, 2022. See https://www.ncregister.com/
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