Then I saw a lamb looking as if it had been slain, standing in the centre of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. Then I saw a lamb The key word of this enthralling book is a single Greek word which means, I saw, because it consists of a great series of visions. And each time John says, I saw, I saw, and I saw. And these visions take John behind the stage Up front on stage in human history there are all kinds of calamities and all kinds of troubles and sorrow and pain and to all appearances disorder and chaos. But then behind the stage, behind the scenes, we have these great visions of chapters 4 and 5. John sees first of all a throne and the one who sits on the throne. And this oneness, God Almighty, God the Father, presented to us in all his majesty and splendor, with all of a paraphernalia of august and eternal deity, in many ways an awesome figure, but he is on the throne, and he is in control. And in this chaotic world of ours, how important that vision is. Before we see our television screens and news bulletins, we need to remind ourselves of this great fact behind the scenes that God reigns and God is in control. And you see too that in this vision there is also a rainbow, that rainbow which is the symbol of God's covenant of peace. And that is so enormously important there in verse 3. A rainbow resembling an emerald encircled the throne. And so this august and awe-inspiring deity is bound by covenant to be gracious and merciful towards our lost world and our human race. And so that's John's first vision before any plagues, before any famines, before war or bloodshed. First of all, this great vision of the God who is in control. And then in chapter five, this second great vision, then I saw In the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. And the symbolism here is, I think, plain enough. In this scroll, which is crammed full of writing, inside and outside, we have God's plan for human history. Everything is in this scroll, in this book. Every episode, every moment, great and small. And yet John sees to his sorrow that although it's held by the one on the throne, the one encircled by the rainbow, it's also sealed with seven seals. It's a perfectly closed book. And he saw a mighty angel asking, who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll? And what drama it is. But nobody, he says, in heaven or earth or under the earth could open the scroll. Or Luke Eve said, look inside it. And I wept and wept. because I so wanted to know, John says, what was in that book and what God's great plan and plans actually were. And so I cried and cried and cried in frustration because I could not get access to that book and to its content, the mystery of God's will. He might have gone back to the word to the Lord himself in the end of John's gospel, what I do you know not now, but you will know hereafter. And often in life that's how it is, the present itself, sometimes so incomprehensible. And John here on Pat was in this dreadful isolation. and the sea all around, and the sun with its burning heat above. And John cut off from all his loved ones and all his Christian friends and wanted to know what the future held for him. And he knew that it was in that book, because it was all in that book. And he would know hereafter, but for the moment that book was sealed. And so he cries and cries and cries. But then one of the elders comes, the elders of the church in glory, and said to John, don't cry, don't cry. See, he says, there's a lion, a lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, and he has triumphed. And he has earned the right to open the scroll and its seven seals. And so John turns to Luke. And it's one of the many amazing paradoxes of this book. He turns to see a lion. Instead he sees a lamb. A lion lamb. We know it's the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, but symbolized by this apparent contradiction, a lion lamb. A Messiah with all the attributes and strength of a lion and all his terrifying majesty, and yet at the same time, this is a lamb. And John wants to emphasize both of those aspects of the majesty of our Savior, because it is this Messiah who in fact is the Almighty, the Alpha and the Omega. And we need to know that this lion, this one who is indeed in sovereign control, that he has strength and the competence to rule and manage this world. And so we have this great word of reassurance, the might of the Messiah. Yes, in many ways he is gentle, Jesus, meek and mild. He is the embodiment of the divine compassion. But that compassion is not weakness, it's also the strength, because he upholds all things by the word of his power. He holds the world in his hand. He holds the church and the churches in his own almighty hand. and he holds us as a church tonight, he holds us in his hand. Remember in chapter one how he walks among the candlesticks, among all his churches on earth, ever present, ever aware of all their needs present in all of their gatherings, but also upholding them by the power of his own right hand. And within that context, remind ourselves that it's not simply a physical power, although it is that, because everything has its movements in Him, in Him all things consist. And every force on earth, all its colossal energies, on all his creation and on all under his administration. You remember those mighty and sometimes terrifying fields, the force of gravity, the force of nuclear energy and power. the whole awesome power of magnetic fields, the biological forces that in such intricate mathematical ways control the basic foundations of life. All of these are of his making and all of these are under his control. In him the whole universe coheres, this mighty, mighty lion, this Jesus Christ our Lord, God omnipotent, and yet also a lamb, with all the gentleness and all the meekness, and in a way, too, all the vulnerability of a lamb, because it is such a vulnerable animal. And John, of course, is remembering here, I'm sure, the words of the Lord himself, this Lamb of God who bears the sin of the world. And there are two or three points I want to linger over in this connection. We notice first of all that this Lamb is standing Sometimes the exalted Lord is portrayed to us as seated at God's right hand, his work finished and himself glorified and hyper-exalted there by God his Father and having entered into his rest. But here he isn't seated. It's not a contradiction but it shows us another aspect of the exalted Christ, that emphasis on his ongoing activity. There is a sense in which the Lord Jesus Christ has Our very finisher's work, and on the cross he cries, exactly that, it is finished. A great, great cry, tetelestai, it's finished. I've done it, it's completed. And yet there is also an ongoing work which demands a standing and an active Messiah, because Jesus is still redemptively active. He has atoned for sin, He has expiated our guilt, redeemed us from the curse of the law, and conquer death in his fife over the grave, and yet there is so much to be done, because you and I are not yet completely saved. And we have this paradox again over against my text of this morning, which did so emphasize the Holy Spirit. But you know, just as during Jesus' earthly life the Spirit was actively involved in the work of Jesus, right up to and on the cross itself, so in the post-resurrection redemptive activity of the Holy Spirit, so Jesus is also involved actively and involved redemptively. There is one great instance of that in Acts chapter 16. the wording we have in the question of Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened. Oh, you would feel, well, that's the Holy Spirit's work, and so it is. But then you wrestle with this marvelous intimacy between the persons of the Godhead. I will not leave you orphans. I will come again. And in the mission of the paraclete, Christ himself is still active redemptively in the world and in the church. And he opens hearts and is still as a shepherd, the great pastor of his own people. And so he is not a retired savior, but he is an active savior. And I do want again to come back to this, that in the ongoing work of redemption, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are all involved together. These glorious persons of the Godhead, they never act independently of each other. At creation, God is there, and His Word is there, and His Spirit is there. And at the cross, there's God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And in your conversion, that is equally true. It's so marvelous that you are so important to God. that the whole triune God covenanted to save you and then came together to cooperate in making that salvation effectual. You will find in the New Testament that first part, it is God the Father who calls. Yes, of course, the Holy Spirit calls. regenerates. And yet God is still, as the Father, a hands-on Savior. You can't emphasize that each is involved, you cannot say that one did this bit, another that bit, because the triune God is fully involved. And so we know that in the New Testament age, the Pilate's come to take the place of Jesus. And that Jesus is still redemptively active and a standing Redeemer. And the second point I wanted to notice is this emphasis on the lamb standing as if it had been slain. And in some ways these words and my explanation of them should almost carry a warning because this is an absolutely brutal image. And I found that sometimes it's given offence because of its brutality and because it also seems to somehow modify and compromise the glory of the exalted Lord. Having been slain. These words are euphemistic because this is a sacrificial lamb and it's one that has been sacrificed and it's a slaughtered lamb and has its throat cut. And that's what John sees, the cost of her redemption, the suffering of the lion lamb, her God-provided Savior. Now this lamb, of course, has taken her nature, and shared all our experiences, our temptations, our trials, our pains, our fears, even those dreadful moments of near panic which we have in our own lives. He has stood, as someone said, in all the floodgates of human tribulation. I read him again in Revelation 7 in another marvellous image of the lamb as the shepherd. The lamb shall shepherd them. The church of God today, tonight, is a flock of sheep shepherded by a lamb. The Lord is my shepherd. Yes, the Lord who is the lamb. and the Lord who is the Lion. And he is the shepherd, the great shepherd of the sheep. But here John sees him, the slaughtered lamb, and he is standing in the very centre of the throne. And part of the glory of this book is that With all the emphasis on visions and views and scenarios, there is a perspective that means that always the eye is drawn towards the throne, the throne of God and of the Lamb. It's as if in heaven you can't take your eyes off that throne. The perspectives the light, the arrangements, all the lines that draw your eyes towards that throne. And there in the very center of the scepter is the Lamb. And it's there standing. And you see again the way all this symbolism works. He's not at this moment at God's right hand, but he is at the very center of the throne. The throne of God and of the Lamb. This great biblical reality of the equality of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit none is greater, none is lesser, none before and none after. But here he is. It's not the great God in the center and the we God to the right and the we are God to the left, but it's the one throne occupied equally by each of them because this is a monarchy. and a monarchy is government by one. And we live under a divine monarchy of the one God, but that one God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And so in this present vision, the Lamb is not at God's right hand, but the Lamb is in the very center of the throne. you can't but see him. And you cannot but see that he's been slaughtered, that his blood has been shed, that he's laid down his life. A reminder to us that throughout eternity that great cost of his love And the wonder of His love will never for a single moment escape our attention. He is the great focal point. So we're drawn in to the throne, and drawn in to the Lamb, and drawn in to those symbols of His blood. And then the cry goes up, He is worthy to open the seals and to read the scroll. In actual fact, I think it's less worthy than he has the strength. He is up to it. He has what it takes to open those seals and to read the scroll. And so he takes a scroll and he will break those seals and he will read those scrolls. And if we take it down to our own level, what it's saying to us surely is this, that history is under his control. not only the God in the center of the throne, God in his eternal majesty, the God of the rainbow, but this Christ who has taken our nature, who has shed his blood because he loved us, and he is the Lord of history, and he will open the scrolls. And John knows that once these seals are opened, terrible things will happen. Genuinely, apocalyptic events will unfold. But there's this word of reassurance. Christ is the one who will turn the pages. And he knows what's on every page. And he knows because, if I can put it this way, he has been consulted on every single page. And I don't mean simply on the great cosmic scale of what God's plan is for the next million years. But God's purpose for you and for me is in the scroll too. and Christ is the one who turns the pages. And sometimes we want to say to God, let's get off this page as quickly as possible. Off this page, turn the page. And sometimes we say to God, Lord, this is a grand page. Let's stay on this page. But the pages turn under the benevolent eye of the love of the Incarnate One. And he will turn and turn and turn to that last page when, by his own decree, he brings us home. I will come again, he says, and receive you there to myself. And it seems to me so absolutely magnificent that this lamb was taken our nature. He was died because he loved us. that this wand will turn the pages. There are some we're glad they're over, they're behind us. There are some we very much miss and wish we were back in that moment of our lives. But God has moved on with his own species of patience and long-suffering. Our times are in his hand. We live in a world of change. But all those changes are under the control and authority of this crucified Lamb. And so it's a vision of a throne, and Him is sat on it. of a scroll and the one who opens it, a vision of a slaughtered lamb. And then, this astonishing fact, we have here a Galilean fisherman of little educational learning. And yet the sheer brilliance of this literature is unsurpassable. And here he breaks forth, or sees in his vision, he sees the universe breaking into song. And the three great moments, when almost like Ravel's Bolero, a portion after portion of this great cosmic orchestra is called, or indeed, It breaks spontaneously into music and adoration of the Lamb. It begins with the elders, with the glorified Church of God. They are the first to break into song there in verse 9. It's a new song. It's a song never sung before. Like this morning we looked at the Holy Spirit who couldn't come until the Lord went away. And he couldn't have sung this song before the birth of Jesus or before his death and crucifixion and resurrection before Pentecost. So it's a new song. not only because it is now being sung for the first time, but because it is perennially fresh. It will always be a new song. God in Psalm 40 put a new song in her mouth for God to magnify, and so they sing this song. You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, this adoration of the Lamb. But see this little detail as it might seem to us in the passing. Because you were slain and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. Why do they praise him for his glorious teaching? for his unforgettable parables, for his sinless life. He has all of these in their place. But it's to this it all comes back. Remember the Lord's death, he comes. You are worthy because you were slain and with your blood you purchased men for God. Men, humans are now free, ransomed from sin and death and the grave and the devil. And at what price? Your blood. the blood of the lamb, the blood of the lion. But in the last analysis, remember the church of God purchased by its own blood. And so the music breaks forth because with your blood. You know, today there is a gentleness of a kind of a church that doesn't want the word blood in our hymnology. Doesn't want William Cooper's great line, There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Emmanuel's veins, And sinners plunge beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty states, No, we're told, grotesque. But it is so utterly biblical, By or with your blood you purchased men for God, And then there's a second great movement here. Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels looked. But it wasn't what he saw, but what he heard that was so impressive. The voice of many angels. And John begins here to pile up the zeros. numbering thousands upon thousands and 10,000 times 10,000. Myriads, myriads of angels, and they are on the throne, and in a loud voice they are singing, world is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and so on. Others shall wander in the heart of that tomb, because there's a kind of glorious unselfishness in it. Because, you see, the Lamb had not redeemed a single angel. Angels too had fallen, but the Lamb's blood had not redeemed them. And yet they're sitting on the slain Lamb. because they are rejoicing in the salvation of this, I may dare say, alien species, the human race. Not their race, but the Lamb who was slain to redeem, to purchase man. That's the emphasis of the earlier doxology. And then the third and final movement, then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all that is in them singing to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever and the whole universe is vibrant with music and song and doxology praise and honor and glory and power how comprehensive it is. Heaven, earth, under the earth, the sea, and all that's in them, and they're all singing. And you'll say, yes, this is a great promise with regard to perhaps a remote future. But I don't think any of this is remote. the throne's not remote, nor is the lamb on its scepter, nor is the scroll. These are present realities, what lies behind the unfolding calamities and chaoses of our history. And this music I want to suggest to you it's being already sung by the elders and by the angels and by the universe because the focal point of it all is the Lamb who was slain and it's been slain already And heaven is amazed. The angels peer into what Christ did on the cross. And the angels are bursting forth with the whole universe in this magnificent doxology. I almost want to say to myself, listen. Listen to the music. listen to heaven singing, listen to those elders and those angels, and listen too to the whole universe, as if somehow it has received intelligence about the Lamb and the throne and the scroll. There is an Afro-American spiritual which I come back to in this connection. It's sung, I think, by Kathleen Battles. I hear music in the air. She also sings, of course, Lord, how come me here? they've taken away my baby Lord. How come me here? And yet from that same community, with all its pain, and I'm sure its frequent moments of hopelessness, I hear music in the air. And that's what this is. I heard the elder sing And I heard the angels sing. And I heard the cosmos sing. I heard the music in the air. And then the closure. The four living creatures said, Amen. And the elders fell down and worshipped. There was no more for the church to say. The cosmos was alive with music. We sometimes feel that we must say something. Indeed, we always feel we must say something. But sometimes there is nothing to say but to fall down and worship. May God grant it so. Let's bow our heads in prayer.