And as we read these verses here in Revelation 5, remember what Revelation is. Revelation is God's picture book. It gives us these pictures of the heavenly spiritual realities of what God is doing and who he is between the first coming of Christ and the end of the age. Here is the truth given to us in pictures. The pictures here begin all the way back in chapter 4, this set of pictures. Chapter 4 describes the scene of God's kingly throne in heaven, the angels gathered around in worship. And then we pick up the picture in chapter 5. This is the vision given to John the Apostle. That's who the eye is. And the one on the throne is God the Father. 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. Then 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 look into it. And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or look into it. And one of the elders said to me, Weep no more. For behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered. And so he can open the scroll and its seven seals. And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as if 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 nation. For they for you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God and they shall reign on earth And then I looked, and I heard around the throne, and the living creatures, and the elders, the voices 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." The reading from God's word this morning. So here we are this morning, we're thinking and praying for little Leo. Here on the day of his baptism, we're praying that the Lord would work out in his life the very things that are symbolized and portrayed in his baptism. We're praying that he will trust in the Lord Jesus to cleanse him from his sin. We're praying that he would follow the Lord Jesus as one marked off, right? All the days of his life, he would follow the Lord Jesus. So what does Leo need to learn? And what does Leo need to embrace to make that happen? What is it that his parents need to teach him? What is it that we need to model before him as his church family? Well, so much of what he needs to learn and what he needs to see is actually embodied in his name. Basically, our message to Leo and our prayer for Leo is this. Leo, live out your name. Live out your name. You might know that Leo is Latin for lion. Lion. Leo, live out your name. Lion. Well, that's what we get in Revelation chapter five. As Revelation chapter five gives us this picture of Jesus and who Jesus is and what Jesus accomplished. The image in God's picture book that we're given is the lion. the royal one, the conquering one, the powerful, the brave, the strong. And here, as we look at Leo's lion, the message to him, and as you probably guessed, the message for all of us, is live out that name. Embrace and follow the great lion. Well, what we want to do this morning is look at this Jesus as he's portrayed here in pictures and talk about who he is and what it means to follow him. And we want to begin with where chapter 5 begins, which is the need, the need for the lion. Why is this so important that we have Jesus the lion? Well, again, Revelation 5, picking up where chapter 4 begins, which is this picture that John receives, this vision he receives of the heavenly throne room. God the Father seated on the throne, worshipped and glorified by myriads of angels. And there, we're told in the beginning of chapter 5, there in the hand of the Father is a scroll. Apparently a very important scroll. We're told it has seven seals. Not just one seven. This is a big deal. This is something important. Whatever is in it is vital You go on in Revelation and you get the the idea what this scroll symbolizes this scroll symbolizes the plan of God The plan of God that will be carried out in history this plan of God to vindicate his own name the plan of God to vindicate his people and To take all that is wrong with the world and through kingly work, through kingly judgment, take all that is wrong with the world and make it right. To right every wrong. That is the plan of God and the scroll is the symbol of that. It is God's battle plan. His blueprint for history that is to be executed. Remember what Revelation is. Revelation is a letter written to a suffering people. a letter written to a suffering people. And so here you have these churches that are oppressed. They're suffering the darkness and the evil out there. It is pressing down upon them. They're hurting. And God's message to them is that your plight has not been forgotten. God has a plan he says in Revelation God has a plan To protect his people. He has a plan to make things right and there is that symbol of the plan It's in the right hand of the father the scroll the scroll but in order to In order to make the plan work, in order to put it into action, in order to execute it, you have to break the seals of the scroll. You can get the picture. There's a scroll. It's sealed up with these seven blobs of wax that harden and close it shut. And in order to execute the plan, you need to break the seals. That was kind of a big symbol in the ancient world. If you had an important document, say a will, this actually happened not too long before the time of Revelation, about the time when Revelation was written, the Roman emperor Vespasian, he died. And Vespasian had a will, and it was written on a scroll, and the scroll had seven seals. And what happened? Well, no doubt all the officials and leaders gathered together and there they broke the seals of the scroll. And it was a very powerful symbolic act. For to break those seals meant you were putting the will into effect. That was the picture. Break the seals, read the scroll that was putting it into action. The will was now enforced. What was in written there and before sealed up now is the law of the land. Now it's reality. So the picture there of taking the plan of God. Plaguing that plan to right all the wrongs. The picture of breaking the seals means now we're going to take God's blueprint, his battle plan, and we're going to execute it. Now it becomes a reality. But as Revelation 5 unfolds, you need someone with the authority to open the seals. Who has that royal authority, that kingly power? Who has the strength and the glory to be able to take God's battle plan and make it a reality? And John looks around. And what do we read? What do we read verse three? And no one, no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll to look into it. And I began, John says, I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or look into it. You see why John is so upset? You see why he's weeping? He looks around. And he doesn't see anyone who has this power, this authority, this kingly authority to be able to take God's battle plan and put it into action, to execute it. There's no one, right? No angel above, no human on earth below, no one from among the dead. No one has the power and the regal authority to do what God has planned out. And he weeps because if the scroll isn't opened, the seals aren't broken, the plan is never executed. All the good things never happen, right? All the evil in the world is never made right. Remember, this is very, very personal for John. I mean, here's John. He is the last of the twelve apostles who lives. All of the other twelve are executed, many of them cruelly and horribly for their faith. And here's John off on this lonely aisle, exiled himself because of his work and his faith. And he has seen his fellow apostles executed. He has seen the church suffering under the Jews, under the Romans. He has seen so much evil. And if there is no one to put God's plan into effect. If there is no one who can do it, then all that evil, all that darkness will never be made right. All the suffering is meaningless. There is no hope. There is no hope. And so he weeps. Darkness wins. Unless, unless there's someone who can be found. But he sees no one. Can you make the connection to where we live, to what this looks like for us, even to parenting? Even to parenting, as we think about that this morning. How many of us as parents are tempted to be fearful? Here we live in this very evil world, and we look outside of ourselves and outside of our homes, and we see the ugliness that's there. We see the darkness that's there. We have but to take a look at our own hearts, and we see the darkness within, and we get fearful for ourselves. We get fearful for our kids. What kind of world are we raising them in? Sooner or later, we know the ugliness and the darkness is going to bear down upon them and come out from within them. And we can get fearful as parents. What is going to happen? How are they going to handle this? It makes us fearful. And in a real sense, we should be fearful, unless there's someone with authority to make it right. If no one can be found, if there is no one to execute God's plan, there is no making things right, there is no kingly authority, then we should be fearful. We should weep with John. We are lost. Our children have no hope. But there's the great news of this passage. There's the power. I love the beginning of verse five, right? Right in the middle of weeping and John wrestling with the darkness of the world and what looks meaningless and hopeless, right? We can plug ourselves in there. Oh, it looks so dark and helpless for us, for our kids. And right in the middle of it, verse five, and one of the elders said to me, weep no more. Behold the lion. Weep no more. Behold the lion. There is one worthy. There is one with kingly authority and power to execute God's plan. It is not hopeless. There's one who can judge and rule and reign and save. Behold the lion. There's what we need ourselves. There's what we need to pass along to our kids more than anything else. behold the lion, behold Jesus, right? As we're thinking about the faith, what Leo needs is not just tips on how to live a good life, right? Leo, here are five ways to be a good kid, right? Or Christians, here are seven steps to a successful career or a fulfilling marriage or a rewarding life. above everything, we need to see the lion. We need to see Jesus, the one who rules and reigns and will carry out God's saving purpose for us and for the world, that it isn't hopeless, it isn't meaningless. We need to behold Jesus. And so there's our task more than anything, beholding Jesus before our eyes. That's why we're in scripture. That's why we teach the scriptures to our kids, not just, here's how to be a good kid. Here's Jesus, behold the lion, behold the king. Okay, so why so much excitement about this lion? What's he like? What makes him so great, so important, so comforting? We'll then talk about the worthiness of the lion. We need him. Why is he so worthy? Why is he so different than anything else in heaven or on earth? Well, Revelation describes him. Let's look at that description there in verse five. Behold the lion of the tribe of Judah. Not just any lion, he's a lion of the tribe of Judah. We read the background this morning, Genesis 49. There is Jacob and Jacob blessing his sons in Genesis. And he comes to Judah and he proclaims there Judah will be a lion. a lion, connecting that image to the image of a king. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet. He's a lion. Therefore, he will rule. He will reign. He will be a king, the Lion of Judah. That's what lions were in the ancient world, a symbol, both in ancient cultures and in Hebrew culture, including, of royalty. someone with strength, right? A lion is strong, fierce, inducing fear, right? You would hear the roar of the lion from miles. He couldn't see his face, but you could hear the roar and you would be afraid because you know that lion could at will be unstoppable, could pick off any from your flock at will, even worse, attack people and ferocious, ruling and reigning. And so this becomes a symbol of kings and their strength. King Solomon, 1 Kings 10, we're told about Solomon's throne, and there's his throne. It's on six steps going up to the throne, and on each of the steps, on either side, is a figure of a lion. And at the very top, he has armrests, and on each side of the armrests, figures of a lion. his power, his authority, his kingship. And Jacob promises his son Judah, yeah, your line, your tribe will be this royal line, this kingly line. A lion is Judah. And of course, you see it, David, Solomon, Jesus. Well, Revelation goes on. He's the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David. If we had time, we could look at where this comes from, from Isaiah 11, the picture of the tree of David that's cut off, the exile, the line of kings ending, but this promise that there's gonna be a branch that's gonna come off, come out of the root, come out of the stump, there's gonna be a son of David who's gonna rule again and conquer, filled with the Spirit, Jesus. the son of David. But the image that's really powerful and really shocking in this Revelation 5 passage is the image of the lamb. So you go from verse 5 to verse 6, and it's really surprising, shocking, and powerful. Because here you have verse 5, the elder saying, weep no more, John. Behold the lion. Maybe he's even pointing. Turn around, John. Look. Behold the lion. And then we're told John looks, and what does he see? Verse six, he sees a lamb. So you might say, where's the lion? Did the lion get lost? No, the elder wasn't lying. There's the lion. It's the lion who is the lamb. Remember, revelation is pictures. pictures. So portraying Jesus as the great king, the one with royal authority, he's a lamp. He's a lamp. And the picture there is not Jesus as having two sides of his personality, kind of a rough, tough side, he's a lion, he's fierce, and kind of a gentle side, he's a lamb. That I don't think is the picture here. In fact, the lamb is portrayed in very royal, powerful terms. The lamb has seven horns. That's a picture of strength and power. No, the point is the lion conquers by being the lamb. The lion conquers by being the lamb. It isn't as much gentleness as sacrifice. That's the idea of the picture of the lamb. Not gentleness, but sacrifice. The lamb, as though it had been slain, but it's standing. It's the lamb that had been sacrificed. It died, but now it's alive, right? Jesus, exactly. right, taking that image from the Old Testament of the sacrificial lamb, right, you might think Passover and the lamb dies so the firstborn can live, or the sin offering, right, the sinner deserves to die, but here the lamb is killed in his place, and here is Jesus, right, the final sacrifice, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and Jesus, or and John as he looks over to the king, the king who is described as having conquered there in verse five. How did he conquer? He looks and it's a lamb who was slain. It's a sacrifice. That's it. The lion is a lion, he conquers, he has authority, he has the ability to execute God's plan, to make every wrong right because he dies and rises, because he lays down his life. The Lord saves, the Lord Jesus saves, he conquers, not with sword, not with spear, not with armies of chariots, but because he goes to the cross and gives up his life, right? And the Lord Jesus will finish the work of God He will fix what's wrong with the world. He will put an end to all evil. Why? Because he died and is now alive. There is his heavenly authority, his heavenly power. And what's the response in Revelation 5? Everyone breaks out in worship. This lion with such ferocity who shows his boldness and power and conquering might by dying and rising. Here is this one, this lion lamb and the heavenly throne room breaks out in worship. Worthy is the lamb. Worthy is the lamb. That's our calling. Where do we fit into the story? We've already said we need to behold the lamb, behold the lion, and now we're beholding the lion lamb. What do we do now? We praise him. We praise him. And we teach our kids and model for our kids what that looks like. Beholding Jesus and worshiping him with the angels above. Here is one who is worthy. All right, he died, he laid down his life, he conquered, he saved for himself. People from every tribe and tongue and nation praise him together. And now finally, we need to talk about following the lion. Praising him, but also following in his footsteps. So you get the picture. Don't weep, John, right? The lion is conquered. He's gonna finish the job, break the seals, execute God's plan. Don't weep. And what are we called to do while we wait for God to, Jesus, the lion, to finish his work? What are we called to do in the meantime, before he's done? Clearly he's not done yet. There's still evil. He's gonna fix it. What do we do in the meantime? We follow in his footsteps. we follow in his footsteps. It's interesting to compare the language here in Revelation 5, verse 5 particularly, with the rest of Revelation. We're told that the lion of the tribe of Judah is the one who has conquered. The one who has conquered. Then you go to other places in Revelation and you find that word conquer as describing believers. Five different times, believers are described as those who conquer. Those who conquer. Can you put the images together there? The ideas together? Right? We are those who follow Jesus. He conquers. The lion conquers. And because of that, and in that, and through that, we conquer too. Jesus overcomes through his royal power. He overcomes evil. He brings about good and righteousness, and now he takes us along with him. He blazes the trail. We follow in his footsteps. Through faith, we're connected to Jesus, and now as those who are connected to him, we as lions ourselves, little lions after Jesus, we follow in his footsteps. The call is to be a lion like Christ. He's lying Capulet. We're lying small. But it brings up the question, what does that look like? What does it look like to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, to overcome and conquer like Jesus? What does that look like? Well, as Christians, we're to be brave and bold, yes. As Christians, we're to overcome evil, yes. How do we do it? We do it like Christ did it. We do it like Christ did it. We are lions like Christ by being lambs like Him. He didn't do it with sword and spear and we don't do it that way either. Not in our spiritual calling. We overcome evil by laying down our lives, by sacrifice. We're bold and brave. in laying down our lives for righteousness and good and the service of others. Let me make one specific application of this principle. And that kind of fits our setting here this morning. Specific application, I trust you can take that and expand it. Here's the specific application. The raising of Christian boys. The raising of Christian boys, right? Many of you are like the birds. You're raising young men and you want them to be godly men. Raising Christian boys to be godly men. Or you're raising daughters and you want them to be attracted and marry a godly man. Or you're a grandparent and you're trying to seek and influence grandsons, or an uncle, or a great uncle, or a friend, or Christians in the church. What does that look like? How do we raise Christian boys? You've probably been around Christian circles to know that there's a whole cottage industry in Christian publishing circles about what it means to be a biblical man, what biblical masculinity is all about, and how that translates to raising boys. And some of the literature is helpful and some of it just isn't. You know, sometimes you read some of these works and you get the idea that biblical masculinity is all wrapped up in taking your 12-gauge out to the woods and killing something. That's what it is. And so if it happens to be that you prefer to sing in a choir versus gut a deer, then somehow you're a little less masculine. That's garbage. But does the Bible? Does the Bible teach that God creates gender? Yes. Does the Bible teach that there's a difference between male and female? Yes. Distinct roles within the church, within the family? Yes. And part of that role for Christian men involves the idea of leadership, involves the idea of having God-given authority. So the question becomes, you know, what does that look like? And we're right to connect because Scripture does connect that leadership to Christ, right? We are to be lions as godly men like Christ was, right? Bold leadership, brave leadership. But how do we do that? What does that look like practically? About a decade ago, I I led a help to put on a men's retreat and we got a speaker to come in and his topic that he had chose was, here's what biblical masculinity was all about. He taught from the scriptures that weekend. And there was one person who was there who just got all charged up, just got all excited and went home and gathered his family together and he said to them, all right, listen up, there's a new sheriff in town. Literally, those were his words. There's a new sheriff in town. Is that what we're talking about here? The kind of brash bravado, a kind of stern authoritarian presence? Is that what we're talking about? This is what it means to be a biblical man, a lion like Jesus. Well, again, take a look at the image again. the image there in Revelation. And then look at how Jesus talks as he describes the pattern he sets for bold leadership within his people. How does the lion conquer? By being a lamb. Not a lamb passively, weakly giving up his life, but boldly, bravely laying down his life for his people. And then Jesus automatically says, this is what you are to do. He says to the apostles, here is what it looks like for you to be leaders in the church. They're going to be the leaders of the church. They're going to have lion-like authority, you could say, within the church of Jesus. And what does he say to them? He says, don't be like the Gentiles, the Gentiles who lorded over. There's a new sheriff in town. No, no, no. He says, you want to be great. You want to be the greatest of all. You become servant. You become slave of all. That's not weakness, because what does he say? This is what I came to do. Not to be served, but to serve and give my life for ransom for many. And Paul talking about husbands. Here's what it's like to be a leader in the home. What does it look like? Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Here's what not passively, but passionately bold leadership, lion-like leadership looks like. What does it look like? It means you're like Jesus and you lay down your life. You build up and sacrifice for good, for righteousness. That's what it looks like. I may have told you this story before, But one of the moments that really sticks in my head, where I got a little picture of what this looks like in practice. Just a quick picture, but 20 years later, it still sticks with me. I was in college, and I was being encouraged and mentored by an elder in the church. And he was a very godly man, loved the Lord, served him, was No wimp at all. Brave guy. A bold guy. Someone I wanted to be like more than anyone else. I want to be like this guy. And one day he invited me over his house and we had a great meal. His wife cooked up this fabulous dinner. If you know me, I remember exactly what we had. It was chicken and stuffing and potatoes. Anyway. Fabulous meal. And then after dinner, his wife went and was putting their daughter to bed. She was young at the time. And so me and the elder were still there at the table chatting a little bit. And he got up from the table and said, come on, let's go talk in the kitchen. Walks over to the kitchen, pulls on the yellow rubber gloves, and proceeds while we're talking to do the dishes. It's naturally like, of course, this is the thing to do. And in some ways a small thing, but in some ways a very powerful thing in my mind. This powerful example. I knew enough about their family that he wasn't doing it because his wife had nagged him into doing it, or he wasn't doing it because he would be in trouble or he'd be in the doghouse if he didn't help out occasionally. But this was him just doing what he did. This was him as a part of his bold leadership in the home. He served. He served in such a way that it involved putting on yellow gloves. He made me promise I wouldn't tell anybody about that, gloves, but oops. But it was in that moment, this powerful picture of, holy, that's something of what it looks like. It's brave. It's bold, but it's simple, profound. It's serving. and setting that example so that as a young guy, I got it. There's more to it, but here's just a little taste of it. And that's really what we are to be about as God's people, as a community, as families. Husbands, are your sons getting that kind of picture in your home? that they see in you, yes, a leader, but one who leads like Jesus, laying down your life, right, in all sorts of profound ways. Little ways like doing dishes, sure, but even more powerful and even more sacrificial ways, right? Husbands, are your daughters seeing that example in you? So they see, ah, that's the kind of person, the guy I need to be attracted to and unite myself to. As grandparents, as friends in the church, men of Emmanuel are the little ones seeing that in us. That's how we think about our role. It's not something we lord over as the tough John Wayne sheriff in town. No, no, no, no. It's those who bravely, boldly sacrifice. Whether people see it or not, that's what we do. That's who we are. And I trust you can then take that idea and apply it, right? This is not just about raising sons or being a man. This is about being a believer, following the lion, right? As he lays down his life for us, as he overcomes and conquers through sacrifice, right? We walk in his footsteps. So as parents, as Christians, there's no need to weep. No need to fear. Yes, we're in a fallen world. Yes, it's ugly. But the lion has come. The lion has conquered. And he will finish the job. He will fix everything that's wrong. You don't need to be afraid. What you need to do is behold the lion. To cast your eyes on Jesus and cast Jesus before your family and other believers to praise him for his greatness. And then walk in his footsteps. Walk in his footsteps. Look around you and lay down your life like Jesus and see God bring about good as you fulfill the law of Christ. Let's pray together. Father, we do pray that you would give much grace and power, Lord, to all of your people as we seek to love and serve Jesus Lord, most of all, what we need to do is we need to see him and know him. Lord, through his words, set him before our eyes and fill us with love and adoration. Worship as the angels do in heaven. And have the grace to walk in his footsteps, to live as he lived. Lord, pray that for us. We pray that for our sons and grandsons. And Lord, every one of us, we pray that we would know him better and look like him more. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, let's sing of Jesus. 295, 295.