The Revelation!

Revelation 5:11-14

The heart of the book of Revelation is a box of photographs.  Each photograph is vivid in its detail. Each one tells a story. Each one lets you catch a glimpse of a moment in a person’s life.  But that box of photographs is not very well organized. They have been all gathered together in a box.  We found that box, alone, lost in an ancient attic.  We dusted it off and peeked inside.  The photos are worn and faded, but we can tell, even in the dim light, they are amazing. So, we carried it down the stairs to get a better look at them. But, just before reaching the bottom of the stairs, the box is dropped. All the photos fall out. There they are in a jumbled mess at the bottom of the landing. 

One by one, we pick them up, and examine them. Each one tells a story.  Each one reveals to us a moment in a person’s life. A child standing next to a birthday cake, a graduation, a wedding, a date with future spouse, a crazy bunch of 20 somethings in crowded dorm room, all of the moments jumbled together there on the floor; none of them in any order. The pictures do give a glimpse into a person’s life. We would have a grasp of the scope of the life of a person those pictures portray.  But, we would probably have a hard time knowing much less explaining what happened when.  We could be sure of some things.  A spouse is met before a marriage.  Graduation from high school generally precedes attending college.  We COULD attempt to build a sequence of events of this person’s life, but in many cases, we would never know if they were in the right order.  But, the timeline does not really matter better than an understanding of the timeline of a person’s life we would have an understanding of the person and their life, what was important to them, the life changing events in their life, as well as some very telling mundane ones. 

If we attempted to fit them into a sequence of events we would not do the story the pictures tell any justice, and if what we were trying to understand was the person themselves it would be a pointless measure.  The pictures do not need to be in order for to “uncover” who the person they portray is.  

The vision John receives in book of Revelation is just that it is a photobox, all out of order spilled on the floor and we have inherited that photobox.  We will never know exactly what all the individual pictures mean.  We will never definitively know what happens when, but as we go through the pictures we will come to understand the person who is in those pictures, because the pictures are not telling us about time, they are not telling us about events, what they are really revealing to us is a person.

It is in chapter five when that person is first introduced.  John’s revelation begins with the opening that we covered two weeks ago and then moves into several chapters in which he directly addresses each of the seven churches to whom he is sending this book/letter upon its completion. It is not until chapter four that John begins to actually tell us about the vision God gave to him. The vision begins by describing Heaven, the glory and the splendor. And at the center of it all is the throne and on that throne is The Almighty-One.

Everything in Heaven has one organizational pattern and that is that everything forms concentric rings around the throne. Nothing goes on in the sanctuary of Heaven that is not in some way centered around the throne. Like a pebble dropped in pool, of water, all things ripple out from the center and that center is the Throne on which the Almighty-One is seated. The Almighty-One is seated at the center of everything and everything in all of Heaven is described by its relationship to the throne.

The throne is surrounded by four creatures who seem to represent the quadrants of creation. The Almighty-One, who is the creator of all, is surrounded by four creatures, which symbolically speak of the Almighty-One’s creative power. God is surrounded by creatures symbolizing God’s creative power. Surrounding the four creatures are the twenty-four elders, which are the priests of the heavenly temple they offer up the prayers of all the saints and perform several other priestly tasks in the great sanctuary of Heaven. Outside of the ring of elders are the multitudes and myriads of angels.  Surrounding the angels and emanating out from Almighty-One is the splendor of God which is at one point described as a rainbow surrounding everything and at another as being like an emerald, for the splendor of God is indescribable and incomprehensible. But, the fact that the splendor emanates out from God and in some ways separates us from truly seeing, and comprehending God. 

It is on the other side of this emerald/rainbow ring of splendor, which ALL the creatures of the earth are.  And when John says all, he tells us that all the creatures on the earth, above the earth, as well as under the earth, and all creatures on the sea and in the sea, that is all creatures.  Slugs, and bugs, fish and birds, humans and ants, single celled creatures and the largest whale; all the creatures of the earth are outside the ring of splendor.  It is important to note when it comes to centricity of Heaven humans are on the periphery.  Our perspective is from the outer rim, the edges looking in.  Some will go so far to say that one of the reasons that John’s descriptions of what he sees are so hard to understand is that he is seeing the events of the cosmos from the nosebleed seats.  He can see everything that is going on but he does not have a very good view, his perspective is of one seeing it all but from a considerable distance.

But the event he is about to see is the most important event in all creation.  The event that is described right before our passage this morning, is the most important event in all of history (or a-history because nothing in this book takes place in history so to speak – it is a-historical in that it happens outside of time.  But the events are more real and truer than any historical event that will ever happen within time). 

John sets the stage.  All the creatures (that includes us); the multitude of angels, the twenty-four elders the seven creatures and at the center is the throne on which the Almighty-One is seated.  Everyone is singing. Everyone has a song; it is a song of worship, a song of praise, a song that speaks of the glory and the wonder the honor and power of the Almighty-One. Then everything changes.  There is a scroll; it must be opened.  No one can open it.  Not one of the four creatures, or the elders, or the angels, not one of the creatures of all creation can open it.  The assembly falls into despair.  John weeps.  It is important that the scroll be opened.  And then the Almighty-One speaks.  The Lion of Judah can open it.  All Heaven and Earth breaths a collective sigh.  The Lion will open it.  This is when the most important moment ever happens.  The revealed one enters.  The Lamb, which looks as if it was slain, enters.  And Heaven takes a collective gasp. This is THE moment, the only moment that ever was that ever mattered.  This is the moment when the Lamb that was slain, who is none other than Jesus Christ, is revealed to all creation, to all that is, was, and ever will be. This is the revelation.

The book begins, The Revelation of Jesus Christ.  This is the revelation of Jesus Christ.  The Lamb enters and is seated on the throne with the Almighty-One. If there was ever a visual way describe what it means for Christ to be co-equal with the Father; if there was ever a way to wrap our minds around what it means for Jesus to be God.  Having him step into the great sanctuary of Heaven and take a seat right there on the throne along with the Almighty-One, is it.

And then in case we did not completely understand the place that Jesus holds on the cosmic stage, then all who are there, the creatures and the elders and the angels and creature of the earth join together and sing a song of worship and praise extoling the virtues and gifts the Lamb possesses. Minutes ago, they were worshiping the Almighty-One and now they focus their worshipful attention on the Lamb.  The Lamb is God and because the Lamb is God, co-equal to the Almighty-One, he is worshipped and praised in the same way.  And then when they finish they say, “Amen,” which is a declaration of truth. The ancient way of putting a stamp of authenticity on the words, which were, just sang and then they all bow down and worship the Lamb.

This is the most exciting moment in all the cosmos.  This is the moment when all things great and small, all of Heaven and all of Earth see Jesus Christ, recognize who he is and fall down and worship.  This is a cosmic event, happening on a cosmic stage, all things everywhere bear witness to the divinity of Jesus the Christ and there is only one response worship and praise.

This is what it is all about. When we see the splendor of God, when we see the reality of who Jesus truly is, when we catch a glimpse of the glory of Heaven, there is only one thing to do, to bow down and worship.  And realize who is truly at the center of it all.  The great revelation of John is the person of Jesus Christ. Who he really is, what his purpose is and what his life, death and resurrection mean to the cosmos.  The pictures in the box are pictures of Jesus the Christ the life we see represented in the jumble mess of pictures is the “life” (as much as we can talk of the “life” of one who is and was and every will be).  The events we see, like the one we see described here in chapter five are comic events that we are seeing from the periphery, from a distance.  They are things that happen, or have happened or will happen.  They are events that are filtered through the aura of splendor, see through a glass darkly, so to speak.  But they important thing they are revealing to us, the take away is not the events themselves, but the ONE who is at the center of it all.  The visionary revelation told to us by John is the Revelation of Jesus Christ!  And when Jesus Christ is finally reveled to us, the only thing there is to do is to fall down on our knees and join the four creatures and the twenty-four elders, the angels and all the rest of creation in Worship and Praise.