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. 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. 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. The cross 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.
As we read
Revelation it is important to remember 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, 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. The
song 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.
At this point, if
you are lost, here’s how to find your way to understanding all this: 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, on earth, 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 (angels, people, earthworms and whales) 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
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 was
recently held in Green Bay, I wondered, “Did Revelation’s victory influence
Vince Lombardi’s confidence?” It’s a debatable question, and I say it did based
on this Lombardi quote. “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 are not Lombardi. What if you are
Garth Fritel? The story of Garth Fritel is how a man won a war in the soul by
crossing into the unknown territory of pain, isolation and a collapsing body to
say only one thing: “Yes, God — I give it all to you.”[12]
Fritel died last
August at age 47 in Spokane, after suffering from ALS for seven years. The disease
claims lives in less than three years. His wife, two daughters and a group of
people prayed for a miracle of physical healing for Fritel, but for the last
three years of his life, Garth did not move a single body part below his neck.
An online article
tells us that Garth laid 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
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 with: 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 said, “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 gathered his
family in the living room where they prayed as a family, and a single question was
asked: What was your blessing today?
Friends, what is
your blessing today? For me, it is God giving me the opportunity to delve into
the Word. It’s Pastor Louis Brighton whose knowledge of Scripture, and
Revelation in particular, which 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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