INTRODUCTION

We, who stay up here, are continuing to work through the book of Revelation, just looking at seven of these specific images that that book gives us, and how those images reform our own understanding of what's true, of what reality is.

And so today we're looking at the very center, the controlling vision of the entire book.

And so I'm not going to give a lot of review from last week, other than to say, if you recall, we looked at chapter 4, and last week we saw this vision of the throne of God, around which is gathered all of creation in worship.

And that was presented to us as the seat of true authority, the centerpiece toward which our own eyes are to be looking.

And yet, I mentioned last week, John doesn't really describe the one seated on the throne.

He leaves something of a blank space there at the very center, leaving us to wonder, who is it?

Who is this one on the throne?

What is he like?

What are we to know him in light of?

And who are we to know him as?

And that's the answer that's going to be given today.

Remember, chapter four and chapter five really are twin chapters.

They're inseparable.

And together, they give us the controlling vision of this entire book.

So if you've got either your Revelation journals or your Bible or your phone, you can look with me at chapter five.

I'm just gonna read the whole thing for us to give us the context for this morning.

So John has just described the throne and the four living creatures worshiping around it, and now he zooms in, presses in more closely to look at that throne and give us more details of it.

And this is what he tells us.

Then I saw in the right hand of him who is seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals.

And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?

And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it.

And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.

And one of the elders said to me, 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.

And in the midst of 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 priests 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.

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 worshiped.

With that vision before us, let me pray for us.

And then we'll look at these words more closely.

Father, we come to you this morning thankful for your word.

Thankful that you're a God who has spoken, who has declared the truth, and that we have that declaration, that revelation held for us here in words that we can read and understand.

And Father, as we come to these words today, I pray that your Spirit would make them what they are to us, cause us to receive them as what they truly are, which is your words, revealers of reality, declarations of the truth.

Lord, let us hear in these words the resonance of your own voice.

Let us see in the image these words put before our eyes the clarity of what is true.

And Father, I pray that for all of us, our lives would be drawn into alignment in light of what we see here, that all of us would be gathered into these orbiting rings of worship around the crucified and risen Jesus, that our whole lives, Father, might be fitted to this truth as we see it here, that Christ would be our center, that Christ would be our all, and in him, you exalted.

So, Father, I know that this is what we all need.

All the burdens, all the practical needs, all the aches and the pains, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, physically, that are here, the single balm for every one of these is Christ exalted as our treasure.

So lift him up before us, Father, and grant us the grace to treasure him as we ought.

And we pray, I pray, for this mercy to be at work even now as we open your word here upstairs and downstairs as Pastor Sean teaches the children the same truths about you from scripture.

So we pray these things, Father, in Jesus' name, amen.

What I wanna look at this morning, three things.

First, the sealed and the open scroll that we find at the beginning, the sealed and the open scroll, then the Lamb himself, and then three meanings that we can draw out of this for ourselves.

So the sealed and the open scroll, the Lamb, and then three meanings for ourselves.

First, the whole episode with the scroll sets the stage for the revelation of the Lamb, sets the stage for unveiling the figure of the one who's on the throne.

So let's take a moment to think about that.

And these are the kind of things we can go much more deeply into tonight, if you have the time.

But for now, this scroll, what is it?

The whole point here is there's a scroll that is invincibly sealed.

It can't be opened by anyone in heaven or on earth or under the earth.

First question would be, what does it represent?

And though there's many answers you can find all through scholarship, the one that's most agreed upon, the one that makes the most sense, the simplest way to say it, is the scroll represents the purposes of God for all things.

It's his designs, it's his purposes for creation, what he intends to bring to pass.

That's what's sealed up in the scroll, the purposes of God for creation.

And what are those purposes?

Well, we see them in the flesh in Jesus Christ.

When Jesus is raised from the dead, the resurrection of the crucified Christ shows us a picture of what God's purposes are for all creation, for everything he intends to do.

The God-opposing world conquered.

Sinners redeemed.

The cosmos reconciled to God.

God himself revealed as the life of his people.

Resurrection, specifically the resurrection of Jesus, and then the union of his people to that risen Christ, and then in them, the union of creation.

That's the goal, resurrection.

Easter morning joy is what's bound up in this scroll.

That's what God intends to bring to pass through Christ.

We see it break into the world in Christ.

But for the moment, it seems as though this purpose may be thwarted.

That's the moment that we're brought into.

It seems as though this may never come to pass.

That's what John's seeing, because no one's able to open that scroll.

No one's able to bring to pass these purposes that God has, so far as we see at the beginning of this text.

So if the scroll is God's purpose for creation, and if God's purpose for creation is to raise up and reconcile all things in Christ, through the Church united to Christ, and if that scroll is never opened, then that would mean that death and not resurrection is the end goal, is what happens.

If that scroll remains unopened, death is telling the truth.

Death is the end, because in that scroll is God's purposes, as revealed in the risen Christ.

But if that scroll stays sealed, then that never comes to pass, and death remains the end.

That's the tragedy, that's the horror of this unopened scroll.

So if this scroll is not opened, then death as the devourer of the beloved, death as the ravager of innocence, death as the defiler of beauty, death as the thing that turns to ash all the beloved and beautiful gifts in this world, death as just the raw, brute fact, death is telling the truth if that scroll is never opened.

And that's why John weeps.

You wonder, why is he weeping?

Why isn't he just confused or disappointed or intrigued that the scroll can't be opened?

Why does he weep?

That the scroll can't be opened.

And if you look at the word, the Greek word here, for weeping is used about death.

It's associated with death and specifically associated with Jesus' death.

There's a whole realm of things we could get into there.

But this is graveside weeping.

This is weeping over loss.

And so John here is seeing a vision of the world where death is the truth.

Death is telling the truth.

That's what would happen if the scroll isn't opened.

So he's weeping over a vision of the world where death is the end.

Because if that scroll stays sealed, then there's no resurrection.

There's no purposes of God brought to pass.

It goes Good Friday, Holy Saturday, the end, if the scroll isn't opened.

And if you've ever felt that, if you've ever felt this kind of sense that death is telling you the truth, the weeping that that has brought about in your own life, that's the weeping John's weeping here.

His tears include in them all the tears of God's people that they have cried over the visceral sense that maybe death is telling the truth.

Maybe hopelessness is actually the reality.

Maybe it really is all meaningless.

Maybe ugliness and not beauty is the more true thing.

Maybe reality is more like a decaying corpse in the grave than a living and laughing loved one in my arms.

If you felt that to be true, the weeping that brings to pass is John's weeping here.

He's crying over this horrific vision of what if reality is more like a corpse than it is like a child, like someone who's alive and laughing in your arms.

And if you felt that, if we've felt that, not only are John's tears ours in this moment, he's saying, look, I'm there, I've felt it, I've been there, but the elders' words to John in verse 5 are spoken to us as well.

Into that weeping, into the weeping that looks into the mouth of the grave and says, maybe that's real, maybe that's the end.

The word spoken into that weeping for John and for us is this in verse 5.

The elder says to him, weep no more.

Weep no more.

So John is brought, you can envision John drowning in the sea of sorrow and with him all creation, because nobody can find anyone to open this scroll.

Everyone is drowning in this icy sea of death.

That's it.

That is really the thing, isn't it?

We finally got to the end and we found out it was all about death anyway.

There was no meaning.

And John's drowning in the weeping sense of this reality.

But then breaking into those waters like a hand thrusting down is this word, weep no more.

Weep no more, John.

Death is lying.

That's what this word says.

Death is lying, says the elder to John.

Weep no more.

And we rightly say, why?

What right, what basis do you have, besides being a heavenly elder, to say, weep no more, into the face of this mortal grief?

Why does he say, weep no more?

Well, look at what he says.

Weep no more, verse 5, behold.

Now, before we get to what he says, behold, I just want you to consider that.

Weep no more, behold.

Weep no more, look at something.

Look at something.

So John's tears, which are our tears over death, John's tears are dried by seeing something.

Weep no more, behold.

Look at this.

Look at what's in front of you.

Look at something.

And so we can take from that one principle, which would be where we are looking makes a difference.

Where what I'm looking at changes how I perceive what's true, what's going on.

As John is looking at the unse-

unopen scroll, he weeps.

And when we're looking at death and its lies and its false promises, we weep.

It's a little bit like Mary Magdalene, Easter morning.

She's looking into the grave of Jesus.

She's weeping because she's looking into death.

But that's not where we're to be looking.

That's not where we're to be fixing our mind.

Where are the eyes of my mind?

Am I looking at the unsealed scroll?

Am I looking at death as the truth?

Am I looking at the promises, the false promises of mortality?

Or am I looking at something else where the elder calls John to look?

Weep no more.

Behold this.

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.

So John looking at the unsealed scroll is said, don't weep.

Look at this.

Look at the lion.

Mary, if you recall, looking into the grave, weeping.

Here's the voice of Jesus that says, Mary, turn.

Look at me.

And we, weeping, as we look at whatever death it is in front of us, whatever promise of death is hanging there in front of us as the truth, we too are called, turn away.

Look.

Look at the truth.

And this isn't a put your fingers in your ears.

No, no, no, I don't want to think about that.

It's too hard.

This is refusing to fixate on the lie and learning to look at the reality, learning to look at the truth.

What is the truth?

What is the truth that the elder says?

Look at this.

Set your eyes here.

The lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered so that he can open the scroll.

The scroll can be opened.

The scroll will be opened.

Death is not telling the truth.

Death is, in fact, a liar.

The lion has conquered.

Now, John turns and he looks.

And what does he see?

The whole, all of creation is straining to see this conquering lion in whom all their hopes are bound up.

And what do they see?

This, what we're about to see here, this is the heart of this whole book, Revelation.

And this is the heart of all of reality.

This is what is revealed when you look into the heart of the throne of God.

What do you see?

John turns and he sees this.

And in the midst, I am saying in the midst, I'll explain that in a moment.

In the midst of 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 he took the scroll from the right hand of him who is seated on the throne.

So he's the one who brings to pass the hopes, the purposes, the designs for all of creation.

So what do we see as we look at the throne?

We see a slaughtered lamb who stands alive with seven horns of perfect power, with seven eyes of perfect knowledge, seated or standing in power in the midst of the throne.

So at the heart of reality is the throne room of God.

At the heart of the throne room of God is the throne of God.

At the heart of the throne of God is the unseen God reigning from the throne.

And at the heart of the unseen God is the lamb, the slaughtered and living lamb of God.

So seeing this image by the spirit-inspired words of the text brings us into the holy of holies, into the most deep and true place of all creation, of all reality.

This figure, this lamb slain and raised up again, who is, of course, Jesus Christ, the crucified and the risen Jesus.

So let's take some time to consider what John sets before our eyes.

First, you heard me read, John says he saw a lamb in the midst of the throne.

If you've got an ESV, it says between, but the language there is in the midst, in midst, and it's translated that way other places.

Most people, the ESV doesn't translate it that way because you see in verse 7, how it says the lamb went and took the scroll.

So the translators assume, okay, if he went and took the scroll, he can't also be on the throne already.

But the NIV, the King James, the CSB, and a number of others, and the commentators that I'm agreeing with, all say, no, he's in the midst, he's in the center of the throne.

The coming and the taking in verse 7 is in past tense.

So the idea is not, I saw him and then he went and did something, it's I saw him and by the way, this is the one who came and took the scroll.

Those things happened in the past and I see him now right there in the midst of the throne.

So see the lamb in the very center of the throne, literally, visually, in the bosom of the father, center of the unseen God, as the face of God turns toward us.

This lamb is standing as slain, which means he looks slaughtered, we're to envision the wound of slaughter across the lamb's throat.

And yet he's alive, he's standing in a position of power, he's not propped up, he's standing powerfully on the throne as the slaughtered one.

So he is holding together in himself the crucifixion of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus.

John is saying, at the very heart of reality, I see the crucified one who is raised up again.

He is the center of reality.

We'll get into that a little bit more in a bit.

He has seven horns.

Seven being this number at least, meaning perfection.

It means more things, but at least it means perfection.

And so you have this picture of a lamb with his perfect power, the horns representing power.

So he has the perfection of power displayed.

What?

In his slaughter.

That's how the lion conquers.

The mouth of the lion that crushes the throat of the serpent is the wound in the throat of the lamb.

The lamb conquers by the power of his death and resurrection.

That's why the lamb has the seven horns.

And those horns also double as a crown visually.

So the lamb is crowned with the power of Christ's passion.

And he has seven eyes, which we talked about last week, the seven eyes representing the Holy Spirit, also having representation in the church.

There's so much here.

We'll just push that into the home group, parenthesis over there.

But at the very least, these eyes are telling us he has perfect knowledge, especially of his people.

He sees, he knows, especially those who belong to him.

So that's the vision.

John says, I saw in the midst of the throne the slain and standing lamb, crowned with the power of the passion of Jesus Christ and his eyes seeing and knowing all things perfectly.

But then, we don't just get the vision of the lamb.

So the lamb there is at the center.

Just have this vision.

If you've got your notes, the picture I drew for this series is of this scene.

So at the center, you've got the lamb, but then it expands out.

This vision expands outward.

We see more than just the lamb.

Look at verse 8.

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.

So you've got the four living creatures and then the 24 elders, and they sing their song of praise.

And then further out from them, verse 11, I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders another ring of worship, another wheel of worship.

Many angels numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands saying, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

And then beyond that, we have more.

Every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them, praising God as he seated on the throne and the lamb in whom he is known.

So, what John pictures for us here is a seven-fold wheel of worship orbiting around the throne of God in the midst of which, at the very center of all things, is the crucified and risen Jesus.

The seven wheels are the four living creatures, the elders, the angels, everything in heaven, everything on earth, everything under the earth, everything in the sea, orbiting in worship the centerpiece, the throne of God upon which is established the slain and risen Jesus.

So hold that picture in your mind.

That's a picture the Holy Spirit gives us to live by, to interpret by, to understand by.

Hold that picture in your mind.

All creation as a seven-fold wheel of worship spinning around the immovable center of the slain and risen Jesus whose glory is the gravity turning all of reality.

That's the image of reality that we're given.

That's the truth.

That's the true picture of the world that we live in.

That's where it's going by the opened scroll of God's purposes achieved through Christ.

And in God's perspective, that's where it is.

That's what he is doing.

That is the truth of reality.

And that's the truth we're called now to live in.

Live in light of this.

Come up into this.

And live in this world, on this dirt, with that glory, with that reality, set before our eyes as our interpretive light, as that by which we understand all things.

Now, this is the truth about the world we live in.

But, you won't see that truth if you take a microscope anywhere.

You won't see this picture John just gave us if you look with a powerful enough telescope out into space.

You'll never see that picture exactly.

Though, some of the things we see in the galaxies are resonant of it.

But we won't ever see exactly this picture.

And here's an example for you.

Imagine you've got the Mona Lisa.

You go up to it with a microscope, and you say, I'm going to study this.

I'm going to figure this out.

And you study it with your microscope, and you find all kinds of chemical compositions, all kinds of insights about the brush strokes, all kinds of insights about what kind of paint and when he probably did this.

All this information, great.

But you know what you'll never see?

Studying it that way?

A face.

You'll never see her face looking at you.

You'll never see the painting itself.

You'll only ever see paint.

Doesn't make the study of paint false.

It's just that that's not the thing.

That shows us, the study with the microscope shows us what the painting is made of, but not what the painting is.

If any of you are reading Narnia, there's some things that CS.

Lewis gets into about that concept.

Science, helpful.

Philosophy, helpful.

Human knowledge, helpful.

But it can only show us what a thing is made of.

It can't show us ultimately what it is.

This image is showing us what reality is.

This image is, as it were, the face looking out.

This is the painting.

This is the reality in which you and I live.

It's the shape.

It's the form.

It's the end.

It's the purpose of all things.

And so our purpose is to be folded into it, to be brought up into this worshipping around the throne of the slain and risen Christ.

So John sees the Crucified and Risen Jesus as the answer to every fear, the healing of every tear, the living hope enthroned as the image of God at the heart of reality.

And this image that he gives us is the one the Spirit gives to the Church in all ages and says, live from that.

Live from that.

So let's try to do that as we move to this secondary part here, this concluding half.

Let's consider then what can we take from this?

Three things.

Three meanings we can take out of the probably literally infinite numbers we could draw.

Three meanings we can draw out of this.

The first one, this vision gives us the truth about God.

In this vision, we see the truth about God, because remember, where is the Lamb standing?

At the center of the throne of God.

He's in the midst of the throne, and he's revealing to us who God is.

He's showing to us the face of the unseen God.

This is like John, the Gospel of John 1–18, where it says, no one has ever seen God, but the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.

That same concept is pictured here.

We don't see the one seated on the throne, but we know him by the one who's in his bosom, by the one who's at the center of him, the slain and the risen Lamb.

Like Jesus says in John 14.9, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

If you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

And when we see Jesus, all right, we see the Lamb who dies in our place, washes us in his blood, gives himself as our soul's food, rises as the invincible anchor of our hope, and lives forever as the perfect portrait of who God is.

That's the Lamb.

That's who we see.

Now, that might sound disconnected.

I'm always aware of this.

I don't want these things to fall on you as disconnected theological concepts.

Great.

Interesting.

Now, I've got to pay some bills.

Now, I've got to go to the doctors.

Now, I've got to deal with sick family members.

Thank you for telling me that.

No, this, I believe this is profoundly and immediately applicable to our lives.

Because to know who God is, not just that God exists, but to know what He's like, who He is, changes everything.

Because if who He is touches on every point of my existence, and so if who He is is clarified for me, everything now is changed.

Everything is clarified.

And what this text is telling us is that God is the one we know in Jesus Christ.

God is like Jesus, perfectly, absolutely.

Because Jesus reveals to us God.

The Lamb reveals to us the one on the throne.

Especially in those three supreme days of His death, when He pours out His life in love from the cross, in His burial, when He is laid in silence in our grave, and in His resurrection, when He's raised up again as the joy that we see here sets the whole cosmos singing.

The one we meet in the Gospels, the one we meet at the cross, the one we meet in our graves, and the one we meet risen in the garden, is the one who declares to us who God is.

And that's practical because if God, no matter where you're from or what you're thinking, your God is the center of your reality.

That's just how it is.

Whether it's you, whether it's an idea, whether it's some other God, whether it's the true God, your God is the center of your reality.

Everything orbits that.

Change who that God is understood to be.

Move the center here, everything changes.

Everything orbiting it changes.

So if I envision God as the angry judge or the distant force or the generally benevolent, kind of senile, grandfatherly figure, if that's who God is to me, well, then I'm going to live a certain way.

But if he is the one known in the slain and risen Jesus, that moves, that changes, and everything now changes with it.

Everything about my life is transformed.

What does power look like?

What does goodness or truth or beauty look like?

What does it look like to love?

What does it look like to suffer?

What does it look like to use my strength or my money?

It's defined by who we know God to be in the Lamb.

More than that, everything we experience is now tinted differently.

Because if this is the one on the throne, if this is the one who controls and commands, if this is the one through whose hands alone anything comes to us and whose hands determine what happens ultimately for us, if this is the one who does that, then my whole experience is dyed red in the love of God displayed in Christ from the cross.

If the slain and risen Lamb reigns on the throne so that he is the authority over my every cell and thought and moment and loved one and the movement of the nations, and the movement of our thoughts, and everything that takes place, and the rising and the setting of suns on worlds we've never imagined, if this is the one, the one I know in Christ, who rules all things, then everything comes to me only dyed in his love, only through his character, only as something that he ordains ultimately to be for us.

And you don't try, if you're saying, how did this come from the throne?

How did this come down from the throne?

What kind of God ordains this?

There are times where you can't and shouldn't try to understand specifically.

But when pain is unbearable, when you can't see the truth through the tears, hear the truth in the beating of this heart, in the beating of the heart that bears our damnation in our place, in the beating of the heart that dies for us so that he might gather us to himself in love.

Hear in the beating of that heart the truth, and hope, hope, hold fast, because this one is on the throne.

This is who God is.

So it shows us the truth about God.

Secondly, it shows us the truth about our wounds.

This vision shows us the truth about our wounds, Christian, because if you're trusting Christ, where Christ's wounds go, your wounds go, because yours are in him.

He's wounded for us.

He's wounded for our transgressions.

He's wounded for our sins.

He's wounded for all of our woundings are in his.

And so where his go, that's where ours go.

That's the truth of our wounds.

So that's one thing we could say here.

The crucifixion is not eclipsed by the resurrection.

The crucifixion is not hidden by the resurrection.

The resurrection declares the truth of the crucifixion.

Jesus isn't wearing some ornate collar.

The lamb isn't wearing some ornate collar so you don't see the wound.

It's on display.

The wounds of his death, the wounds of our sin born, the wounds of our hell absorbed, the wounds of all our suffering carried in love are not hidden, but displayed, proclaimed, shown from the center of the throne as something born in love and so overcome.

These wounds become in the body of the risen Jesus witnesses of God's glory.

Look what he did for me.

Emblems of his love.

Look at the depth of the love in which I live.

How do you know you are loved?

Look at the wounds of God.

Look at that.

They've become declaration of his wounds.

They've become wellsprings of the church's eternal joy.

Why does heaven begin to sing?

Worthy are you to take the scroll for you were slain.

The wounds born in the risen Christ become the wellspring of the church's worship.

So Christian, these wounds also declare to you the truth of your own.

These wounds that declare your forgiveness, these wounds that are your healing, these wounds that name you beloved, these wounds that promise all your sorrow will end in joy and your tears will be harvested in gladness and death will end in resurrection.

These wounds that reveal the identity of God, these are, as it were, an oath etched in the flesh of the incarnate God declaring to you this is where it's going.

What I've done with these, I'm doing with yours.

Your, all your woundedness, if you're trusting me, if you're united to me by faith, yours go here.

Yours are going to be dealt with as mine have been.

If you're trusting him, all our wounds, physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, within or without, dealt by ourselves or dealt by others, all our wounds are in his wounds.

And we'll lead to the same place.

And we'll be made to sing the same song that his do.

The glory of God, the joy of his saints, and love everlasting.

So take heart from the throne of the universe, Christian, the mortal wounds of our risen king, declare into our woundedness, fear not.

Fear not.

I don't have the right to say that.

I don't know your wounds.

I'm not saying it.

The one who's saying it is the one who does know them and does bear them and has completely exhausted them, brought them through into his glory, if you're trusting him.

And into that he says, fear not.

I am the first and the last.

I died bearing this, this very thing.

And behold, I am alive.

Behold, I am alive forevermore.

So this vision shows us the truth about God.

It shows us the truth about our own wounds.

And finally, it shows us the truth about all things.

So the third thing for us to see here, what John is envisioning, what is set before John's eyes by the Holy Spirit, is a vision of all reality as it will be through Christ, and as it now is so far as God is concerned, from his own sovereign perspective.

This vision is what is written on the scroll and what Jesus is going to achieve.

All of reality, all of reconciled reality for the Christian, gathered in union around the throne of God, worshiping in perfect and harmonious orbit around him.

Now, let me pause here and say, that's a symbolic vision.

Eternity isn't necessarily that.

Eternity is a risen experience on a regenerate earth with all things saturated with the beauty of who God is.

Feasting, laughing, running, exploring, making.

Eternity is a thick and deep and embodied reality.

But what this tells us is the truth of it, the picture of it, the reality of what it will be like.

And it will be like, and it is now like, if we have eyes to see, all things orbiting this Christ in worship.

So this image, this image that is given to us in this text, you can think about it like the picture, I've used this example before, but it's helpful, the picture on the puzzle box of reality.

Okay, it's like you're born and the puzzle box is just poured out of your life, but also all things.

And you're like, okay, what do I do with these pieces?

How does this fit here?

How does this piece fit with this piece?

And it's just a mess.

That's what you're given.

But the puzzle box is seen by faith.

The picture is seen by faith.

And the picture that we see when we look at it or write is this one.

The sevenfold worship of all things around the throne of God as he's known in Jesus Christ.

That's the picture.

And so even though we're surrounded by the scattered pieces of our own brokenness, of our own confusion, of the world's madness, when we look at this image, we see the picture on the puzzle box.

We see where all these pieces will be fitted in.

We see where all these pieces are ultimately going.

And what that means is that by this vision, we're able in part to discern the truth of anything.

Pick up a piece of your life and don't consider it in light of this or this or this.

Because consider it in light of the picture on the puzzle box.

Consider it in light of this image.

Pick up the piece, the puzzle piece of your own finances.

Pick up the puzzle piece of your own possessions, of your dreams, of your hopes, of your plans, of this country, of all countries, of your health.

Pick up these puzzle pieces and ask, how does it fit into that image?

What would it look like if I put it into that image?

How would it, where would its place be in this image?

Because that is the truth of the thing.

That's the truth of that puzzle piece, and that's where it's going.

And don't despair if you don't know where to fit it in, because God is working all things together to be fitted into this puzzle piece.

Romans 8.28 with a little bit of a Revelation 5 spin on it.

That's where God is gathering all things together.

This is where it's going.

And finally, then, notice that John sees this vision, John sees this picture, only in the context of worship.

He's not doing an in-depth Bible study, necessarily.

He's not looking at his plummeting finances.

He's not pouring over the doctor's prognosis.

He's not, you know, gossiping on social media.

He is worshiping, and it's from the context of worship that the true picture of reality is revealed to him.

It's in the context of worship that he sees the truth of all things.

So you don't see, Christian, you're not going to see the truth about any area of your life or this world from a place of anxiety.

You're not going to see, I'm not going to see the truth from a place of anger or from a place of fear.

We will see the truth of any particular thing from a place of worship.

Worship is the vantage point from which we see what's true.

Let me give you an example to wrap us up.

Imagine that there's a soldier down in the trenches fighting, and it's nighttime and it's muddy, and he's back and forth, and all he sees is blood and dirt and fire and uniforms so torn up and covered in mud that he doesn't even know which side who's on.

He's just desperately fighting.

That he's down in the midst.

Then imagine that same soldier comes up from the trench, climbs up onto a high mountain, and is able to look out over the whole thing.

And he can see the whole picture, where the troops are moving, which ones belong to which, the picture of how the whole thing is going, and most importantly, he can see the clouds breaking and that there's stars behind it, that there's beauty, that there's truth, that there's goodness, that nothing down here can touch.

Beacons of hope.

See the difference of perspective.

That's analogous to what we see here.

Down in the trenches of life, running on the fuel of our own passions, of our own purposes, of our own priority, consumed with the blood and the dirt of this fallen reality, functioning from a place of anxiety, functioning from a place of desperate fear, we're not going to see truth.

We can't see it.

We can't see.

And the decisions we make in that place, the truth we discern from that place, is confused at best and deadly at worst.

But when we're worshiping, when we ascend, as it were, that mountain of worship, which is supremely Calvary, we see the truth.

Let me say here, I don't mean when we're singing songs.

That's good.

That's good.

That's an expression of worship.

But I mean when our soul is in a posture of worship, when my heart and my mind is set on God in Christ such that I am seeing and savoring him as good, such that I'm tasting him as my supreme good.

From that place is where I see the truth of anything.

Bowed down at the feet of Christ, so the ascent of the mountain of worship is also the bowing down at the feet of Christ.

Bowing down at the feet of Christ is the only vantage point from which you will know anything aright.

You want to understand where the nation's going.

You want to understand the situation of your own family or health or soul.

You want to understand the confusing things.

Fall at the feet of Christ, which is before this throne in heaven, and see and taste and feel the reality of his excellence.

And you may not get the answer you're looking for.

You may not get the clarity you're looking for, but it's from that perspective that truth will be known and seen.

So that's my prayer for us, Kingstree Church, for myself, for my family, for all of us, that we would increasingly live from that place.

That this vision given to us here in these two chapters, and especially in this final one, that it would hang before us as the truth from which we're living, as the reality from which we're living, that we'd live before the throne of God, which is the resurrection, illumined cross of Jesus, and determine from there, act from there, live from there.

So as we go out into this week, Christian, and as the country's raging over the election and trembling over wars and rumors of wars, I pray that we would go out rejoicing, suffering, thinking, voting, loving, hoping from before this throne.

Don't be dragged from before this throne by the shouting of the media or the twittering of social media or just the gaggle of the world we're in.

Don't be dragged from before this throne.

May we live from this place today and this week because we have tasted and seen the truth.

So that's my prayer for us.

And now, now, we move to the Lord's Supper.

And it's, it's the perfect transition.

It's the perfect transition because remember, the Lord's Supper originally was a Passover meal.

The lamb, the Passover lamb was given to bear the punishment of death, do the people, and then give itself as the food that gathered them into covenant, that gathered them into relationship with God.

And we see now that lamb, the true Passover lamb, is on the throne, which means as we come to this table, and we receive by faith these emblems of the flesh and the blood of the true lamb of God, we realize now, this isn't just a table set up in the middle of Sabina, Ohio.

This is a model of the throne of the universe.

This is a model of the throne of reality.

Upon the throne of all things ruling our lives is the one who did this, and who says, know me right there, know me in this act, know me in what I've done.

The gospel declared in these elements, the loved proclaimed in Jesus' broken body and sin-forgiving blood.

The name revealed in this awesome gift of grace is the truth ruling all things, is the truth enthroned at the heart of reality in the slain and risen lamb.

That's awesome to consider.

And we're going to take these elements together.

Let me pray to conclude, and then we'll sing as we come to take the elements.

But let me pray first.

Lord, Father, these are awesome things.

Here we are, little water striders on the top of the Pacific Ocean.

And the weight of our thoughts doesn't even penetrate the surface tension of your beauty, of the depths of your excellence, of the depths of your goodness, of the depths of your love for us in Jesus Christ.

But let what we have seen do its work.

Lord, where conviction is needed, bring it.

Where comfort is needed, bring it.

Where hope is needed, give it, we pray.

And as we come now to this table, which is for us a model of the throne, upon which is enthroned the slain and risen Lamb, may we rejoice afresh not only to see and savor and sing, but even to feast upon the glory of who you are in Jesus Christ.

We pray all these things in his name.

Amen.

Thank you for listening to this message from Kingstree Church in Sabina, Ohio.

To see more of the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, come worship with us on Sundays at 10 a.m.

or visit our website at kingstreechurch.org.