REVELATION Who has the throne? Week 2

Transcription

1 REVELATION Who has the throne? Week 2 Riverview Church February 2012 Page 1 of 8

2 Introduction Faith in Jesus has not brought an end to the believers struggles. At the end of the first century, the churches in Asia Minor are facing the pressure of the imperial cult in their communities, as well as pressure from those within the church who are caving in. Despite Jesus life and death and resurrection, it doesn t look like the world is sorted out yet. Unjust powers continue to oppress God s people, just as they did in Old Testament times. They have even exiled John to Patmos. Has anything changed? Rev 1 3 affirmed that Jesus is present with his church, but what about the wider world? Are things getting better or worse? Sovereign over creation (Rev 4) At several points in the OT, prophets received a vision of God s throne, always emphasising that the earth is the Lord s and he rules it. Many aspects of this vision are like Isa 6, Eze 1, and Dan 7. A door standing open in heaven (4:1) Have we heard anything about keys or doors so far? 1:18 In his resurrection, Jesus unlocked the Death s prison, freeing us into his rule instead (re-joining earth and heaven). 3:7-8 He has the key of David the kingly authority promised in Isa 22:22. Earth is once again connected with heaven s reign. 3:20 Although he has the keys, he does not force the door but waits for his people to respond, to invite him into our community. Now John sees that the door between earth and heaven is open the door Jesus unlocked to the presence of God. So, don t imagine a little door miles away in the sky. In Biblical thinking, God s space (heaven) and our space (earth) are close, overlapping and interacting in significant ways. Eden was like that before the fall (Gen 3:10, 24). The Promised Land was like that (Gen 28:17). Mt Sinai was like that (Ex 19:16-20). The tabernacle was the place where God dwelled among his people, a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst (Ex 25:9). For Israel, the temple was the place where heaven and earth touched. When they went up to Jerusalem on Mount Zion, they experienced heaven touching earth, God among them (Psa 27:4; 48:2). By the end of this book, heaven and earth come together again as God always intended (Rev 21 22). So, Jesus has unlocked the door between heaven and earth, and John is invited to see what God is doing on his side of the door. Everything that happens from now on is from God s point of view. (Note: after this in 4:1 need not imply things that are future for us.) The throne 4:2-3 The first thing John sees is a throne. Don t stress about the details: you can t adequately describe what God looks like, so the language is impressionistic. John was not analysing the details: he was overwhelmed by the Person! The language of translucent, sparkling crystalline stones and rainbows is the best we have. Riverview Church February 2012 Page 2 of 8

3 4:4 This all-powerful King gives his power to 24 elders! He does not rule the world alone: he shares his dominion with people presumably through the 12 tribes of Israel, plus the 12 apostles. 4:5 But John s attention is drawn back immediately to the awesome power of the one who sits on the throne. This vision of God is as frightening as Israel s experience of God at Mt Sinai: Ex On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. 19 And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. 20 The LORD came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. 4:6-7 The four living creatures (lion, ox, man, eagle) combine characteristics of the cherubim (Eze 1, 10) and seraphim (Isa 6). An ancient Jewish tradition says the tribes in wilderness were grouped around the tabernacle in four groups of three, each with an insignia like this, representing the four guardian angels around God s worshipping people. 1 The four creatures represent the animal creation, including humans but at this stage with the human-faced creature being one among the others, alongside the king of the wild beasts (the lion), the massive leader of the tamed animals (the ox), and the undisputed king of the birds (the eagle). The song of these living creatures is simply an act of adoring praise. All creation is dependent on God and worships him in its own way. 2 Worship 4:8-11 The only appropriate response to God s presence is worship. He is given unceasing worship because of: a) His character: he is holy (4:8). He is purity and goodness. b) His works: he is creator (4:11). Everything comes from him. In our broken world, we see many evils and wonder where evil came from. In this vision, there is certainty: the one who was and is and is to come will bring justice and holiness to his creation in the end. The hymns make explicit the main point of the vision and of the whole chapter: God is to be glorified because of his holiness and sovereignty. 3 Behind the complex and messy confusions of the church life in ancient Turkey; behind the challenges of the fake synagogues and threatening rulers; behind the ambiguous struggles and difficulties of ordinary Christians there stands the heavenly 1 G K Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999), Tom Wright, Revelation for Everyone (London: SPCK, 2011), 47 3 G K Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999), 332. Riverview Church February 2012 Page 3 of 8

4 throne room in which the world s creator and lord remains sovereign. 4 Notice how different this is to the way human power operates: The throne room vision of chapter 4 is in deliberate contrast with the glory of Caesar s throne and so is a response to the imperial cult, which was a major source of persecution for the seven churches and one of the key issues in the book as a whole. The details of the scene the acclamation, the crowns, the worship of the sovereign, the rows of officials all were seen in Caesar s court. Here, only God is truly worthy of this. The message to the cult movements alluded to in 2:2, 6, 14 16, 20 23, and to the Christians tempted to succumb to pagan pressure is that Caesar s power and glory are nothing compared to God s. He alone is worthy of allegiance and worship. 5 As you see who God is, how does this shape your worship? The average service so centers on the horizontal life of the Christian that the experience of awe in the worship of God, the feeling that we are in his presence, is all too often lost. The church as the throne of God, the minister as mediating his presence in the same way as the living creatures and elders in this chapter, is one antidote to this paucity of worship. Christians must experience God in his glorious splendor, and few passages are better than this for that purpose. 6 Heaven s problem (Rev 5) God called the prophet Ezekiel by giving him a scroll written on both sides and commanding him to eat it (Eze 2:8 3:4). God s words then come out of his mouth, challenging Israel that their unfaithfulness to God was the reason Jerusalem was destroyed and they were exiled in Babylon. The words on that scroll were therefore lamentation and mourning and woe (Eze 2:10). In Rev 5:1, God has this scroll within his hand. Human history is the tragic story of disobedience, evil, suffering, oppression, and death. After the decimation of humanity in Noah s flood and the curse and division of humanity at Babel, God chose Abraham s family to bring God s blessing to the nations (Gen 12). But instead of bringing the solution, Israel was part of the problem. As Ezekiel says repeatedly, they had failed in their commission. Israel really struggled to grasp what God was saying to them. It s as if God s words were sealed (Isa 29:11-12, possibly with Dan 12:4). This is the tragedy of human existence. It s all very well to say that God is on his throne (Rev 4), but the world is a mess and the people God called to solve it need to be delivered themselves! Heaven calls, but no one can fix it (5:2-3). How can God fix the world? Should he use force to crush the evil powers that crush people? Can force and violence overcome evil and 4 Tom Wright, Revelation for Everyone (London: SPCK, 2011), Grant R. Osborne, Revelation, BECNT (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002), Grant R. Osborne, Revelation, BECNT (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002), 243. Riverview Church February 2012 Page 4 of 8

5 injustice? Can love ever bring peace? Or will the tyrants always win, killing the peace-makers? Heaven has a problem! God the creator committed himself, back in Genesis 1 and 2, to work within his creation through obedient humankind. That is how the world was designed to work. For God then to say, Well, humans have failed, so I ll have to do it some other way, would be to unmake the very structure of his good creation, to turn it into a different sort of world entirely. Someone must be found. 7 Seeing heaven stuck just devastates John: he bursts into tears (5:4). If God has a problem that no one in heaven or on earth can solve, we are all doomed! Then he hears the answer that there is someone who can sort out the mess. He is from Abraham s family the Lion of Judah (Gen 49:9f). Judah is King David s tribe. God had promised that David s son would rule over God s people forever (1 Chron 28:4-7). If you picture David s dynasty as a tree, it had not only withered but the Babylonians had chopped the tree down when they overran Jerusalem. There had been no tree for 600 years, but finally a branch (Jesus) had sprouted from the root of David (5:5, compare Isa 11:1). So, one of the elders tells John that this faithful Israelite has solved heaven s problem. This is staggeringly good news: Jesus has overcome the problem of evil. He has conquered oppression and injustice and death! He can remove the seals. Jesus is the Word of God: the one who completes what God began when he spoke the world into existence (Gen 1, picked up in Isa 55:11-13 etc.). John turns to see this great conquering Lion. But what he sees does not look like a powerful lion: it looks like a slaughtered lamb (5:6). Once again, what they heard through the OT promises turned out to be vastly different when they finally saw it in the person of Jesus. Jesus did not collect an army to drive Rome out of Palestine and free God s people. Instead, he faced Pilate unarmed. He is a king, but his kingdom does not receive its authority from the world where people gain power from political schemes. Jesus is open truth, not conniving power. Pilate sneers, for he knows nothing of that kind of truth (Jn 19:33-38). The truth is that Pilate declares Jesus innocent of any insurrection against Caesar (Jn 19:4). Nevertheless, he does what tyrants always do to retain their power: threaten death (Jn 19:10). Jesus responds that he represents a higher power one above Rome (Jn 19:11). And so injustice wins again. Jesus is killed. The Lion of Judah becomes the dead (apparently defeated) lamb. The curious thing in John s vision is that the slaughtered Lamb is standing again (5:6). In fact, he is standing in the midst of the throne! The resurrected Lamb receives the scroll. It will take some time before he removes the seven seals (not till Rev 8:1), but he has conquered (5:5). Love and truth have defeated murder and lies. Evil and evil powers have lost. 7 Tom Wright, Revelation for Everyone (London: SPCK, 2011), 52. (Emphasis original) Riverview Church February 2012 Page 5 of 8

6 The victory won by the lion is accomplished through the sacrifice of the lamb, and in no other way. But we are also to understand that what has been accomplished by the lamb s sacrifice is not merely the wiping away of sin for a few people here and there. The victory won by the lamb is God s lion-like victory, through his faithful Israel-in-person, through his obedient humanity-in-person, over all the forces of corruption and death, over everything that would destroy and obliterate God s good, powerful and lovely creation. 8 The Lamb therefore approaches the throne (compare Dan 7:13), receives the scroll, and all heaven s creatures fall down in worship (5:7-8). Forty days after the resurrection, Jesus ascended to the Father (Acts 1). Rev 5 is the same ascension scene from the other side of the door: the enthronement of the Lamb. Like the son of man in Dan 7:13-14, he approaches the throne and receives sovereignty over the earth and all its people. Worshipping the Lamb (5:9-14) 5:9 A new song: In the OT a new song is always an expression of praise for God s victory over the enemy, sometimes including thanksgiving for God s work of creation. In this case, the new song celebrates the defeat of the powers of evil and sin. 9 Singing a new song may well have referred to the new interpretation of Christ having become the new David, for the Psalms were now interpreted as having prophesied his advent. 10 5:9-10 He not only ransomed Israel but the Gentiles too. (Compare Isa 55, where all nations are invited to participate in the liberation achieved by the Lamb of Isa 53.) For centuries, Jews had been God s kingdom nation, priests representing God in his world (Ex 19:6). Now the ransomed from every nation receive the same commission. 5:11 The angelic creatures join in to worship the one who solved heaven s problem in the most astounding way. God s self-sacrificial solution is wisdom beyond imagination. 5:13 Ultimately, every created thing joins in the worship: the entire creation singing in harmony! Did you notice how the lamb is being worshipped here as God? The lamb shares the praise which belongs to the one and only God. Jesus the lion-lamb, Israel s Messiah, the true man this Jesus shares the worship which belongs uniquely and only belongs to the one creator God. God has plans and purposes to deliver his world from all that has spoiled it; in other words to re-establish his sovereign rule, his kingdom, on earth as in heaven We discover and 8 Tom Wright, Revelation for Everyone (London: SPCK, 2011), G K Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999), Bruce K. Waltke, James M. Houston and Erika Moore, The Psalms as Christian Worship: A Historical Commentary (Cambridge, U.K.: Eerdmans, 2010), 40. Riverview Church February 2012 Page 6 of 8

7 celebrate the divinity of the lion-lamb Messiah only when we find ourselves caught up to share his work as the royal priesthood, summing up creation s praises before him but also bringing his rescuing rule to bear on the world. 11 Application Are we to be lion-like or lamb-like? There have been, down the years, plenty of lion-christians. Yes, they think, Jesus died for us; but now God s will is to be done in the lion-like fashion, through brute force and violence, to make the world come into line, to enforce God s will. No, replies John; think of the lion, yes, but gaze at the lamb. And there have been plenty of lamb-christians. Yes, they think, Jesus may have been the lion of Judah, but that s a political idea which we should reject because salvation consists of having our sins wiped away so that we can get out of this compromised world and go off to heaven instead. No, replies John; gaze at the lamb, but remember that it is the lion s victory that he has won. 12 Conclusion God is sovereign, reigning on the throne over the entire world (Rev 4). So why doesn t he sort everything out? The answer of Rev 5 is that he will not use violence and injustice to fight the violent and unjust powers that run and ruin the world. Instead, the Lion has come as a Lamb, laying down his life. His wisdom is not to grasp power and enforce it with bloodshed. Instead, he faced the powers unarmed, slaughtered as a lamb. The only blood shed was his own. This is the most astounding wisdom! No one could have guessed that the Creator God would give his life like this to rescue his creation. Worship rises to the Lion-Lamb, the Creator who will break the seals and deliver his creation from all forms of injustice. His followers will share in his management of creation, just as God purposed in the beginning (Gen 1:26), but we cannot do this by force. We will walk the way of the cross, laying down our lives for our Creator-Redeemer. 11 Tom Wright, Revelation for Everyone (London: SPCK, 2011), Tom Wright, Revelation for Everyone (London: SPCK, 2011), 54. Riverview Church February 2012 Page 7 of 8

8 Memory Verse Revelation 5:9-10 (NIV) 9 And they sang a new song, saying: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. 10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth. For further thought Consequently, the Lion conquers initially by suffering as a slain lamb. This juxtaposition implies that, in their struggle against the world, believers should remember that Christ also suffered at the hands of the world but triumphed over it. His destiny is to be theirs, if they persevere. This is why the saints are described as those who follow the Lamb wherever he goes and in 14:4 5 are even likened to the lamb of Isa. 53:7 9. This identification is enhanced by the use of σφάζω ( slaughter ) for the suffering of the saints and of the Lamb (5:6, 12; 6:9; 13:8; 18:24; note the striking similarity of the portrayal of the slain Lamb in Rev. 5:6 and Rom. 8:36b). For the same reason they are said to have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb (7:14) and to have overcome the devil because of the blood of the Lamb (12:11). The Lamb is the one who not only conquered death but will conquer all of the persecutors of his people through historical punishments and the final judgment (6:1, 16; 17:14) G K Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999), 353. Riverview Church February 2012 Page 8 of 8