Today we have the pleasure of hearing God's word from Jeff Kreisel.
And Jeff is one of our supportive missionaries here at CMPC.
And Jeff labors at USAPHA or the Air Force Academy with RUF.
We just prayed for RUF at Colorado State.
We support Wes Calton at Colorado State and Jeff at USAPHA.
So please give attention to God's word.
All right, well, good morning, everyone.
As Andy said, my name is Jeff Kreisel.
I serve as the RUF campus minister at the Air Force Academy.
I also serve as a brigade chaplain in the Army Reserves here at Fort Carson.
So kind of I got a foot in both the blue and the green worlds.
My family and I, we've been here for eight years working at the Academy and at Fort Carson.
My wife, where is she?
She's somewhere.
Where is she?
Oh, there she is.
Anyway, my five kids are here.
Get a chance to meet them.
They're all amazing.
We love being here.
We've loved it every moment of these past eight years.
It's kind of a beautiful merging or marrying of the different things that we love.
I'm a military brat, Army brat.
I've never known a day outside of the military.
We love the gospel.
We love college students and we love the mountains.
And so we kind of get to see all four of those things interweave through our time here.
A good example of this would be a couple months ago over MLK weekend, we took about 84 of our
cadets to Crested Butte for our annual winter retreat.
And throughout the weekend, I had several amazing conversations with college students as they were
trapped with me on chairlifts throughout the day.
They couldn't get away.
It's perfect ministry.
They've kind of made a joke of it over the years.
They call it ski chairlift discipleship with Jeff.
And because they know that if you sit on a chairlift with me, you better come prepared to like tell your entire story because I'm just going to keep on asking you questions.
But yeah, it's a beautiful merging of the things that we love.
I love snowboarding.
I love snowboarding with cadets.
But if I'm being honest with y'all, my body hates being above a certain elevation for too long.
Above like 9,000 feet of elevation, my body just kind of falls apart.
I honestly can't remember the last time that I didn't get some degree of altitude sickness when I was up in the mountains for more than a few days.
And I have tried every tip and trick that you can find on the interwebs.
And I'm telling you, nothing works for me.
It doesn't matter how much water I drink or electrolytes I inhale or Advil I take or carbs I take before I go.
My body just doesn't like the higher elevations.
Yes, you can feel me.
I can stand a few days, but there always comes a point when my body says enough is enough and I have to come down, right?
Well, this morning we're going to consider a passage in the book of Revelation, Revelation chapters 4 and 5.
And it is a passage that I would argue will take us into the theological stratosphere.
A passage that takes us to such spiritual heights that it will take your breath away.
Like you don't really know how to cope with the reality of being this high.
You'll feel lightheaded.
You'll feel a little woozy.
This morning, God is inviting us to enter his heavenly throne room.
There is no higher place.
No spiritual reality higher than this.
But the reality is due to our fallen nature, due to our finitude, we can't handle such great spiritual heights.
God is too holy for us.
If we were in his direct presence, we couldn't survive.
It's like trying to fly in an unpressurized cockpit.
Like you have to have something standing between you and him in order to survive.
His unfiltered presence is too much for us to handle.
But out of God's kindness, he has given us apocalyptic literature, like the book of Revelation,
so that we can, in a very real sense, enter the heavenly places while we are still fallen and finite.
I like to compare the book of Revelation with my students to like wearing a VR headset, right?
It's like we naturally can't enter God's throne room.
He is infinitely holy and we are not.
But with this kind of like VR headset on, we are able to like safely like navigate, enter the spiritual stratosphere.
But just because we're safe when we approach God's word in Revelation 4 and 5,
it doesn't mean that it won't take your breath away.
It will.
And so I have a long scripture reading.
It's two chapters, but I'm going to cut a little bit out.
So if you guys have your bulletins, please open those and follow along with me as I read.
Revelation 4.
After this I looked, and behold, a door standing opened in heaven.
And the first voice which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said,
Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.
At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven with one seated on the throne.
And we can jump to verse 6.
And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures.
Each of them with six wings are full of eyes all around and within.
And day and night they never cease to say,
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.
And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne,
who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him,
who lives forever and ever.
They cast 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.
Then I 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.
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 old 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.
In between 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 twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb,
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 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.
This is the word of God for the people of God.
Let me pray for us.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come.
Lord, I pray that you would help us to behold you more clearly this morning,
that we would behold Christ,
the slain lamb who takes away the sins of the world.
We pray all this in his name.
Amen.
All right.
So, the book of Revelation was written by the Apostle John
while he was on this desolate island in the Mediterranean Sea called Patmos.
Nowadays, this island has a reputation of being one of the quietest Greek islands.
It has a booming tourist economy.
It's kind of known for its beautiful beaches.
It's a place that you want to go.
But 2,000 years ago, it was not a place that you wanted to go.
It was a place where criminals were exiled.
I like to think of Patmos kind of like the Alcatraz of the Roman Empire.
So, why was the Apostle John exiled to Alcatraz?
He was an old man at this point in his life.
He was probably around 80 to 90 years old.
So, he wasn't exactly a physical threat,
but John was exiled here because he was deemed a social threat
to the social peace of the Roman Empire
because this man would not shut up about the good news of Jesus Christ.
He wouldn't stop talking about Jesus.
Day after day after day,
John refused to worship Caesar as Lord and God.
And that's a key phrase in this passage.
He refused to worship Caesar as Lord and God
because Jesus alone was his Lord and God.
And as a result of him taking the stand,
refusing to worship Caesar,
many early Christians followed his lead
and also refused to worship Caesar as Lord and God.
And as a result, during this time,
under this emperor,
approximately 40,000 Christians were brutally murdered
for their refusal to worship Caesar just like John.
And so, they're trying to contain John's influence.
Now, I don't know why John was not a martyr
like all of the other apostles.
Why, in God's providence, John survives.
Maybe it was because he was an old man at this point
and they just thought like,
hey, he's going to die soon anyway.
Let's just exile him to Patmos or something.
Or maybe it was because his followers had become so large
that maybe an uprising would result
if they did murder him in a public way.
And so, whatever the case may be,
they chose not to martyr him.
Instead, they exile him
so that they could contain his influence,
so they could stop him from influencing others
in their refusal to worship Caesar.
And so, they send him to Patmos.
Now, I will say that I think that if the Romans
had the gift of hindsight,
John, there's no way John would have survived.
He would not have been exiled to Patmos.
They would have taken care of him
just like they did all of the other apostles.
Because when John was exiled on this deserted island,
God powerfully worked through him
in a way that 2,000 years later,
we will forever feel its ripples.
You see, it didn't matter where John was.
God was going to speak through John.
Whether through his words or through his pen,
God was going to speak through John.
And when God speaks,
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness cannot overcome it.
Those were John's words in his great gospel.
You see, while John was in the darkness of exile,
he receives a vision from God
that would come to be the book of Revelation,
and this book, through this vision,
would light up the world.
It would light everything up.
One scholar put it this way,
John creates for us a new conceptualization of the world.
He is giving us a new set of glasses
by which to make our way through the broken world.
You see, Revelation isn't just a vision of the future.
Revelation is a glimpse into heaven.
And when you get a glimpse into heaven,
you start to long for it.
And when you start to long for heaven,
you start to become a citizen of heaven,
even in the now.
And when you start to become a citizen of heaven,
you start to pull that heavenly reality
into your present tense.
You start to bring heaven here.
One of my favorite TV shows is the show Silo.
It's on Apple TV.
It just came out with its second season,
and it's such a cool show.
If you haven't watched it,
you should totally check it out.
So the show is set in a world
that has just endured some sort of apocalyptic,
like cataclysmic event
that forced all of the human survivors
into this underground shelter.
that they call the Silo.
And it's a self-sufficient city
that inhabits about 10,000 people.
So the show is set hundreds of years
after the cataclysmic, apocalyptic event.
And so you have these 10,000 people
who have been living underground.
They don't have any conception
of what the world looks like
for years and years and years,
generations.
In an effort to prevent
all of these inhabitants
from opening the Silo doors
and exposing the entire population
to some form of toxic radiation,
the leaders of the Silo
decide that it was in the best interest
of the Silo
to destroy every remnant of life
before they entered the Silo.
So the inhabitants
have not only never seen the natural world,
they have like no mental conception of it.
No mental conception.
They have no idea
what a beach looks like.
They have no idea
like what a beautiful mountain backdrop
in Colorado would look like.
Or like a beautiful sunset
or a rainforest
and all the animals of the earth
or like the clear night sky
in which you can see
thousands and thousands of stars.
They had no mental conception
of the world
in which they were actually living.
But then something happens
in the first season.
A little spoiler alert, sorry.
There's a little children's book.
In this children's book,
it predates the Silo.
It predates the cataclysmic event.
And this children's book,
it's a picture book.
And it contains these like vivid images
of what like a healthy world
actually looks like.
And this book starts to circulate
around the Silo
and instantly the inhabitants
by looking at the images in this book
received a new conceptualization
of the world.
The book gives them a vision
of the invisible world
that they were unfamiliar with.
It shows them
how the world should be.
And so the protagonists in the show,
they become evangelists
of this little children's book.
And they just keep,
they keep showing it to other people.
They're like,
see, look.
Behold, like this is the real world.
This is what our world should look like.
Revelation 4 and 5
is kind of like that book.
And John is urging us also
to stop whatever we're doing
and to look at the vivid images
in this book.
He's saying to us,
look,
like this is what the real world
is supposed to look like.
This is the world you were made for.
Behold these images.
They will completely change your life forever.
They will light up the darkness.
They will give you a new conceptualization
of the entire world.
So there's three things in this passage
that John wants us to see.
He doesn't just want us to see.
He actually commands us to see them.
The Greek word for behold is edu.
And he uses it as an imperative.
He's using it as a command.
He's commanding us to see
three vivid imageries
that he believes will change our lives.
So the first thing he wants us to see
is a door.
And it's a door that leads to heaven.
A door that leads
like to the ultimate spiritual reality
that is behind our physical reality.
That explains our physical reality.
Revelation chapter 4 verse 1.
He says,
And after this I looked
and behold.
Look.
Pay attention.
A door standing open in heaven.
John is exiled
on this deserted island
in Patmos, right?
And the door just shows up
where he stands.
Now, I would argue that
throughout human history
everyone has been like
frantically looking for this door.
It's a door into
this deeper spiritual reality
that will explain
why we experience
the things that we experience
on the physical plane.
It's a door that will answer
our deepest questions
like why am I here?
And what is real?
And where did matter come from?
And where did the mind come from?
How should I live in this world?
Where is the door
to a happy, beautiful, flourishing life?
In Genesis 11,
the inhabitants of earth,
they tried to build a tower.
The Tower of Babel.
A stairway to heaven.
Why were they trying
to get to heaven?
Because they're trying
to find this door.
In the New Testament,
we see the Pharisees
and they believe
that strict obedience
to the law,
that's the door to heaven.
That's how we enter
God's presence
is through my own effort,
through my own working
and striving.
You see,
it isn't just
the Old Testament
and New Testament people
that are striving
for this door.
Like literally every religion
and philosophical system
is searching for this door.
Be it existentialism
or like mysticism,
skepticism,
stoicism,
pantheism,
atheism even,
nihilism even,
they're all looking
for a door.
They're looking for
the good life.
They're looking for answers
to their questions.
They're trying to,
in a sense,
get out of this
inhospitable silo
to see the world
for what it's supposed to be.
I love taking my kids
to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.
And my favorite exhibit
goes between like
the gorilla exhibit
or the lion exhibit.
But I'll be honest,
it's like every time I go,
I always feel really bad
for the animals.
They look like they're
kind of going crazy
in there, right?
You know,
zoologists call
this phenomenon
zookosis.
They essentially
lose their minds
because they're not
in a habitat
that is suitable
to their flourishing.
And so they pace
back and forth.
They just lay down
and they just sit there
all day
not knowing
kind of what
the actual habitat
that they were designed
to be in
looks like.
And that is
essentially
a good description
of our world.
We all suffer
from zookosis
to some extent
because we have no idea
how this world
really should be.
But we're all trying
to find the door
that will give us
the answer
to those questions.
Now some people
will look to other people
to be the door, right?
They look to politicians
like they're the door
to a good life.
They're going to bring
heaven to earth.
Or some view
like the wealthy,
the celebrities
as the door.
Like that's what
beautiful looks like.
Some people would view
like technological innovators
like Elon Musk
or something.
Like he is going to lead us
out of the inhospitable,
inhabitable silo,
out of the zoo
and into like the promised land
of like technological innovation
and AI or whatever.
Other people turn
to philosophical minds
like Plato
and Socrates
and Kant
and Hume
and Nietzsche
and Marx
and Albert Camus.
Like all of these
different philosophical people,
we will put our hope
in them
to take us
to the door
that will explain
our existence.
And the reality
is that every single door
that the world
has tried to enter,
it leads to some form
of idolatrous worship.
Because here's the thing,
when you walk through
any door
looking for heaven,
worship is always waiting
on the other side
of that door.
It's always waiting.
Political worship,
celebrity worship,
technological worship,
philosophical worship.
Have you ever walked
through the gates
like to go
to an SEC football game?
Like,
for some people,
you are entering
into their house
of worship.
Heaven on earth.
Have you ever walked
into a Taylor Swift concert?
Have you gone
through those doors?
For many people,
that is a place
of worship.
Ever walked into
a Louis Vuitton store?
For many,
that is a place
of worship.
That's where they believe
heaven meets earth.
But according to Revelation 4,
there's only one door.
And you won't desire
this door
unless you get a vision
of what lies
behind the door.
Until that vision
breaks into your reality
and sets your imagination
free and offers you
a new conceptualization
of what life should be
and could be.
So,
here's what the exiled
John discovered
on this desolate island
in the middle
of the Mediterranean.
He wants us to see
that there's a door.
And it isn't somewhere
like out there
that we have to like
find.
Right?
It's right
there.
It's everywhere.
He's on this island
and this door
is open
right where he stands
right in front
of his face.
It's open.
All he has to do
is walk
right through it.
See,
he doesn't have to
like fly
like,
you know,
like John,
Michael,
Wendy,
and Peter Pan
to go to this
other reality.
He simply
steps into it
right where
he is.
You see,
for the apostle
John,
heaven,
it refers to
this other
reality
that is actually
not so far away
as we may think.
It's actually
right here.
It's close at hand.
It's all around us.
It's a reality
that intersects
and informs
our visible,
tangible
reality.
Yes,
sin separates
us from
this reality.
but it's
not spatially
far away.
Now,
why is this
so important?
It's important
because this
means that it
doesn't matter
like where you
are or what
you're going
through.
God is there.
According to
Revelation 4,
you're never
truly alone.
Through faith
in Christ,
you have heaven
there.
you're never
trapped in a
silo,
even when life
feels like a
dark dungeon,
even in exile
on this
desolate
island,
standing in
God's presence
was just a
doorway for
John.
And the
door is,
in fact,
according to
John in
his gospel,
a person.
It isn't
like a
philosophical
thought or
an ethical
framework.
it's a
person.
The door
is none
other than
Jesus himself.
John writes
in his gospel
in chapter 10
verse 9,
Jesus says,
I am the
door.
If anyone
enters by
me,
he will be
saved and
he will go
in and
out and
he will
find pasture.
So wherever
you are,
like whenever
you pray in
Jesus' name,
you step
through the
door into
the heavenly
throne room
of God.
That's
unbelievable.
Like wherever
you are,
whenever you
gather with
fellow believers
for corporate
worship,
you step
through the
door.
Like church
isn't just
some country
club with
like-minded
people.
It is where
God meets
with his
people,
where God
dwells with
us.
And what
do you call
the place
where God
dwells with
people?
that's
heaven.
We get a
glimpse of
it.
We get to
taste it.
Not in its
fullest sense,
but we get to
experience heaven
even now.
John is
saying that
wherever you
are, like
whenever you
sing Christ
centered songs,
you step
through the
door and
you join this
eternal,
never ending
choir of
worship to
God.
Wherever you
are, whenever
you forgive
other people,
as God has
forgiven you,
you step
through the
door.
Wherever you
are, whenever
you work
with purpose,
with the
purpose of
glorifying God,
like through
your work and
in your work,
you step
through the
door, wherever
you are.
In Acts
16, the
apostle Paul
and Silas,
they're arrested,
they're beaten,
and they're thrown
in jail.
But to their
Philippian jailer's
surprise, the
jail cell was
actually a door
into the
heavenly places.
And therefore,
even in prison
while awaiting
trial, Paul and
Silas can't help
but sing.
They worship,
they're praising
God even in
prison.
Remember, when you
walk through the
door, worship is
always waiting on
the other side.
You see, Paul and
Silas carried this
new conceptualization
of the world
with them wherever
they went, even a
prison cell.
And so when this
earthquake strikes
and it opens
their jail cell,
they don't take
this as an
opportunity to
run away.
Well, why?
Because they were
already free.
Like they may
have been in a
jail cell, but
they were no
longer in the
zoo.
They were freed
from zookosis,
right?
They were already
experiencing the
joys of heaven
even in prison.
And they wanted
to share this
freedom, this
joy.
They wanted to
share this door,
this Jesus, with
the Philippian
jailer who was
now thinking about
taking his own
life because
certainly he would
be punished
greatly if all of
the prisoners
escaped under his
watch.
But that's not
what Paul and
Silas do.
They stay in the
jail in order
to show him
the door.
They're saying,
see, look,
behold, a
door is open,
is standing
open in heaven.
It's right here.
This is the door
to human flourishing.
This is the door
to joy in the
midst of sorrow.
This is the door
to life eternal.
This is the joy
to human flourishing
in an inhabitable
world.
This is the door
to the worship
you were made
for.
All right.
Second thing that
John sees that he
wants us to see
is found in
verse 2.
It says,
at once I was in
the spirit and
behold, there's
that word again,
a throne stood
in heaven and
one seated on
the throne.
You see, as soon
as John goes
through the door
into the heavenly
places, he sees
something.
He sees a
cosmic throne
and someone
is sitting on
the throne.
The throne
isn't empty.
It's not an
unoccupied chair.
Like, you have
to imagine that
with everything
John's gone
through and
everything that
he's going
through, you
have to, like,
think that maybe
at some point
he started to
wonder, is
that throne
in heaven
unoccupied?
Like, he's
watched all of
his closest
friends die.
Like, they've
all died for
their faith and
thousands of
others.
Like, he was,
in a sense,
the last man
standing.
The emperor's
reign of terror
was underway
and he was
feeling the full
weight of it.
Like, how could
God be on the
throne and yet
allow all of
that suffering
to happen?
allow all this
hardship to
happen?
Why was John
starving and
alone and
exile and
pateness if
God was on
a throne?
You know, they
say a picture is
worth a thousand
words.
You know, while
John's particular
questions about
why things were
happening the way
that they were
happening, those
questions weren't
directly answered.
This image of
God sitting on
a throne spoke
well over a
thousand words
to John's
soul.
Like, this
picture, this
image of an
occupied throne,
it tells us that
God is in
control, even
when life feels
out of control.
It tells us that
God is sovereign
and he's good
and he has a
plan, even when
life doesn't make
much sense.
this image tells
us that our God
has the best
sight picture of
human history,
past, present,
future.
He sees how it
all works
together.
I used to be an
air traffic
controller when I
was in the Air
Force and every
now and then I
would get a
pilot that would
think they had a
better idea than
me.
You know, and I
would say, hey,
traffic, three o'clock,
two miles, report
traffic in sight,
they'd be like,
I don't see
anything.
You know, I'd be
like, well, he's
there.
I see things that
you can't see and
God has the best
sight picture of all
human history.
Like, well, things
like death and
injustice and racism
and persecution
grieve God to his
core, he's big
enough to, like,
take, like, these
broken, dark things
and then speak
gospel light into
them.
I'll never forget a
conversation that I
had with one of my
elders when we were
attending a church in
Dallas while I was in
seminary.
And this was a man who
had experienced
unfathomable hardship,
like, immense
suffering throughout his
life, like, more than I
could ever begin to
fathom.
And so he tells me his
story.
And I mean, I hear his
story and then I asked
him, I said, how can any
of these things that
you've been through work
together for good?
And he looked at me and
he said, he said, Jeff,
God uses our hurts to
make us holy reflections
of him.
See, I was asking, are
you sure that God is on
his throne?
And he tells me God
uses our hurts to make
us holy reflections of
him.
In other words, yes, he
is on his throne.
And then he went on to
say this.
He said, God writes pain
into our stories to
redeem our stories so
that we can use our
stories to tell his
story of redemption.
And then he said one of
my favorite lines, our
God makes broken things
beautiful.
Yeah, he's on his
throne.
Listen, it is this truth
of God's sovereignty, of
his reigning and ruling
over all things that
drives these four
creatures in Revelation
to just worship and they
sing unceasingly.
They praise.
Verse 8, holy, holy,
holy is the Lord God
Almighty who was and who
is and who is to come.
Like, I know, like, I
purposely took them this
out of the reading, the
descriptions of these
four creatures, and they
seem really weird, right?
They have different faces
and they got, like, six
wings and, like, eyeballs
are, like, covering them
from top to bottom.
We don't really know what
to do with these creatures,
but don't miss the forest
from the trees, my friends.
A lot of people, when they
read Revelation, they miss
the forest from the trees.
The four creatures aren't,
like, some weird mystical
beast that we will one day
encounter in the new heavens
and new earth.
They simply represent all of
creation.
All of creation.
But that isn't a simple
truth, right?
Like, John is telling us that,
like, everything in creation,
like, from the smallest
molecule to the largest
celestial body, everything
exists in a constant state
of praise to the God on the
throne.
And then the worship service
gets even better, right?
It isn't just creation
singing God's praises, but
all of God's people join into
the song, represented by
these 24 elders.
Like, once again, don't miss
the forest from the trees.
Most likely, the 24 elders,
they simply represent the 12
tribes of Israel in the Old
Testament and the 12
apostles in the New Testament.
In other words, they
represent all of God's
people.
They represent all of those
who looked forward in faith
to Jesus and walked through
the door, and everyone who
looked backwards in faith to
Jesus and walked through the
same door.
They start to sing, chapter 4,
verse 11,
worthy are you, our Lord and
God.
You catch it?
Who did they identify as
Lord and God?
It wasn't Caesar.
To receive glory and honor and
power because you created all
things, and by your will they
existed and were created.
But then something happens
during the worship service in
heaven around the middle of the
song.
An angel stands up, and he has
this booming voice so loud that
every square inch of all
creation can hear his booming
voice.
And he says this.
He says, who was worthy to
open the scroll and break its
seals?
And in response, let's just say
that the crickets join the
song.
Verse 3, and no one in heaven or
on earth or under the earth was
able to open the scroll or to
look into it.
So silence sets in.
Like no one is worthy to open
the scroll.
What is the scroll?
Well, it contains the entirety of
God's plan.
Past, present, future, it
contains the meaning of life.
It contains the answers to our
biggest questions.
It contains the path to a
flourishing life.
It contains God's plan to make
all wrongs right.
God's plan to make all sadness
untrue.
God's plan to bring heaven to
earth, to marry the two for
eternity.
Everyone longs to know what's on
this scroll, but no one can
open it.
No philosopher, no politician,
no celebrity, no innovator, no
athlete, no scientist, no
software engineer.
No one can give a sufficient
explanation for the meaning of
the universe.
And no one can provide a
decisive solution to all the
problems that we see in our
world.
The injustice, the prejudice, the
sickness, the cancer, the war,
the death.
Like no one's able to open the
scroll.
No one is able to get us out of
the zoo.
No one's able to free us from the
silo.
And then weeping breaks in.
Verse 4 of chapter 5 says,
And I began to weep loudly,
because no one was found worthy to
open the scroll or to look into it.
And it's at this point that John
looks at our weeping world, and he
gives us the last command to
behold.
Chapter 5, verse 5.
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 immediately, like, hope sets
in.
Like, both of those terms, the
lion of Judah, the root of David,
they were biblical images, biblical
terms of the messianic expectations
of a warrior king coming to conquer.
The Messiah is going to be strong,
and he's going to be powerful.
He's going to be like Aslan, right?
He's going to overthrow evil, and
he's going to bring justice to the
poor and the oppressed.
But then we have, like, the plot
twists of plot twists.
You see, John is expecting to turn
and see a lion moving towards the
throne of God to take the scroll
from his hand.
But that's not what he sees when he
turns.
The lights went out.
Ooh.
Instead, he turns, and he beholds
a slaughtered little lamb.
He sees a little lamb.
It's like John the Baptist.
Behold the lamb of God who takes
away the sins of the world.
And this, my friends, is when the
oxygen leaves your lungs.
This is like the highest of heights
in the theological stratosphere.
It leaves us speechless.
The one who conquers, the one who is
worthy to open the scroll and give us
the meaning of life, the plan of God,
that one is a little lamb who went to a
cross.
And why did he go to the cross?
Well, he went to the cross because of us.
He went to the cross instead of us, and he
went to the cross for us.
Why?
To open the door to the throne room of God.
To tear down the barrier that stood between
our fallen natures and God's holy presence.
To invite us into that eternal, everlasting
choir of praise.
It's the image that turns the world right
side up.
It's the image that says to a weeping
world, there is a cosmic plan.
And the lamb of God is at the center of
that plan.
Your life is soaked with meaning because
God is on the throne.
But that doesn't mean that your life won't
be easy.
He's saying, look at the lamb.
He's slaughtered.
Just as he suffered, you too will suffer.
But don't lose hope.
Wherever you go and whatever you're going
through, because of Jesus, you carry heaven
with you.
The throne is occupied.
The slain lamb is always there interceding
on your behalf.
And the door into God's presence is always
open.
My friends, these three images, when taken
together, will give you a new conceptualization
of the world.
They'll free you from the zoo.
And they'll drive you to worship.
Amen?
All right.
Let me pray for us.
Heavenly Father, you sit enthroned in the
heavenly places.
And through Jesus, the door, we get to enter.
We get to be in your presence.
We get to dwell with you.
We get a glimpse of heaven now.
And I pray, Lord, that as we leave from this
place, that we would be portals to heaven wherever
we go.
That we would be, in a sense, the wardrobe.
That we are the touchpoint between heaven and earth.
That we would bring heaven into our homes.
That we would pull heaven into our work.
That we would pull heaven into our neighborhoods
and our schools.
We pray that people would see heaven in us.
They would ask us about the hope that we have.
And that we get to tell them about this open door.
Just like Paul and Silas to the Philippian jailer.
A door to freedom, to joy, and to life everlasting.
We pray this in Christ's name.
Amen.