So what do we do now? Three weeks ago it was Easter Sunday. We talked about Jesus' resurrection from the dead. We read from Luke 24. We heard about the women at the tomb, the two angels, the unbelievable report to the disciples. We said that because Jesus has been raised from the dead our lives are new, they are different. Our lives are filled with hope and joy. That was three weeks ago. Since then Easter has come and gone. The very next day, despite the celebration within these walls, we went right back out into the world, our noses back to the grindstone. Between Sunday and Monday no too much had changed. Between Easter Sunday and today, three weeks later not too much has changed. For all the Easter hope and for all the Easter glory, everything seems to be about as it was. If Easter has so profoundly effected the world, what has changed? Have we changed? Are we any different? And if so, how? If so, what do we do now?
That question is a big question. It is a question that is bigger than just you and me. That question applies to all believers in Christ. Every Christian is some-how effected by Easter. Every Christian has the hope of new life and glory that has been promised to us. Every Christian is caught in this same suspended place between time and eternity, between the promise of glory and the reality of the day to day grind. Things are supposed to be different, but it doesn't always seem that way. If things are so different, how are they different? What makes them different? And how does that change my life right here and right now?
Our text from St John's Revelation answers this all important question. John is given a vision that provides hope and that provides comfort and that provides assurance for the church as we are caught in this interim period between Christ's Easter victory and his return on the last day to judge the living and the dead. We have, because of our text, the promise of protection as given to us by the Lamb who alone is worthy and who is seated at the right hand of God.
As we ask this question about what has changed because of Easter, there are times in our lives that it seems especially urgent. There are times that we are confronted with the fact that the lives we construct are little more than a fragile house of cards. Things can happen in an instant that can completely rewrite the plans we have for our lives. Take for example the 32 victims whose lives were taken from them at the hand of one college student who had become jaded and disenfranchised from the world around him. There were college professors and researchers. There were students with their whole lives ahead of them. There are the families survived by the victims. There are those whose lives were spared yet who will be forced to relive those horrible moments in their minds for the rest of their lives. Life can change all too quickly We do not know when. We do not know how. But it could happen at any time.
This is frightening. This is urgent. And at those times that evil seems to have it way in the world, to say that we are unsettled is an understatement. And this is only one example of one tragic event. There are countless examples. There are countless possibilities of things that could happen. How do these things effect the promise and the truth of Easter? So what if Jesus has been raised from the dead? How does that effect what happens to me in this world and in this life? What do we do now?
In our reading for today John saw a scroll held in God' right hand. The scroll was written on the front and the back. The book of Revelation is a genre of literature that is referred to as apocalyptic. Apocalyptic literature is characterized by symbolic language that describes the end times. It is cryptic. It is mysterious. It needs to be deciphered and explained. The images are symbols. To interpret the text we need to interpret the images. This is not easy to do, but it is also not impossible. We need not take the book of Revelation as something that is inaccessible to us.
In the previous chapter, John describes his vision of heaven. In heaven he sees the throne of God surrounded by the thrones of the 24 elders. These 24 elders represent the 12 tribes of the Old Testament church and the 12 apostles of the New Testament Church. God was attended by the four living creatures, the four cherubim or a special order angels that serves in the presence of God. All of heaven was falling down before the throne of God to worship him in his glory.
It was then that John saw the scroll in the right hand of God the father. Our text tells us that John saw that the scroll was written on both sides. It was written on the inside and out. In other words, the scroll was complete, it contained the totality of God's message – nothing was left out. But the scroll was sealed shut. It was sealed with 7 seals.
[A seal was a mark of authority that was given to keep unauthorized persons out. For example, the seal that Pontius Pilate placed on the tomb of Jesus was a mark of authority. It made it illegal for anyone to open the tomb. The tomb was opened, however, by one who had a higher authority.. In Roman law, it was customary for a last will and testament to be sealed with 7 seals as was the scroll here in our text]. The message is clear. The scroll is God's last will and testament for his creation. The scroll holds the destiny that God has laid for his people the Church. The future of his people and of all creation is set. In order for the stipulations of a last will and testament to be set in motion, the will must be opened and the will must be read. If the will remains shut then nothing can happen, the will and its stipulations can not be enacted. In order for the destiny of God's church to come about the scroll must be opened. It must be read.
A great and mighty angel called out through all of heaven and earth to find someone who had the authority to open the scroll. No one could be found. John began to weep. The destiny of the church was hanging in the balance. The consequences of the scroll remaining closed were dire.
We have all seen or heard of this happening. Someone dies, the will is not in order or is contested and the settling of the estate falls into turmoil. People come out of the wood work claiming to have a right to a share of the inheritance. Without a clear reading of the will the rights of the heirs are questioned. These questions are easily settled when the will is read and its stipulations are clear.
That is for the settling of one persons estate. One family, one limited group of people. God's last testament involves everyone. Every person for every time in history. As is revealed elsewhere in this book of Revelation there are others who lay claim to the inheritance. The dragon, Satan wants to destroy the estate. He wants to kill everyone of us. If he gets a hold of the will then all is lost. If the will is never opened the dispute is an open question, our fate hangs in the balance. We are at the mercy of any who would lay claim to us. If no one was found in heaven or on earth who was worthy to open the seals and read the scroll, then there would be no one to speak on our behalf, there would be no rule of law to preserve us.
That is what is so unsettling about this question that we have been asking this morning. As we are confronted with the senseless loss of life from limitless tragedies, is there no one to speak on our behalf? Is there no one found to preserve us? Is there no one who will save us? What do we do now?
In our text John was suddenly comforted by one of the elders, one of the 24 who were seated around the throne. In other words, John was comforted by one of the saints who had suffered through the tribulation on earth, that same suffering that we feel pressing down on us at some many times during our lives. And the elder said “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.”
John in his vision of heaven saw a Lamb looking as though it had been slain, standing standing in the midst of elders and the living creatures. The lamb had seven horns and seven eyes. [horns were symbols of power and authority, eyes were symbols of knowledge. Thus the 7 horns and the 7 eyes symbolize complete and total power and complete and total knowledge – the lamb in the midst of the throne is all powerful and all knowing] The Lamb who had been slain took the scroll from the hand of God. And the 24 elders, and the 4 living creatures fell down and worshiped the lamb.
Understanding this image gives us the key to our question. If we were to read on in the book of Revelation we would see that as the seals were opened and the scroll was read, history would unfold in a frightening way. There would be death and destruction. There would be kingdoms that would rise and fall. The world would be unsettled. Even as the world around us is in turmoil, we see that this in only the unfolding of the events that were foretold through the Revelation given to John.
But keep in mind the one who holds all of this in his hand. The one who directs and governs these events is the lamb who was slain. Jesus, the one who died for this sins of the whole world. The one who purchased you for his own paying for you with his flesh and blood, the one who has risen again from the dead is the one who is opening these seals. He is the one who is directing these events. In the book of Revelation, before that last seal is opened, the message of God to John is that there will be 144,000 who are preserved and kept safe for heaven. This is not a literal number. It is a symbolic number. It as promise to us that we are sealed, that we are preserved for the last day and there is nothing that can take us out of his almighty and all powerful hand.
So what do we do now? What we are already doing. Did you notice the new song that is being sung in heaven by the saints and angels. They sang,
"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 people and nation,
[10] and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth."
It is a song that proclaims glory to God for his great acts of mercy and salvation. And then in verse 13 every creature in heaven and on earth sings and ascribes glory and blessing and honor and strength to God and to the Lamb. Do those words sound familiar. Consider the Glory in Excelsis that we sang this morning:
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father's only Son.
You bore for us the load of this world's sin.
O Lamb of God, Your glorious victory won.
Receive our prayer, grant us your peace within.
Or from this is the feast:
This is the feast of victory for our God. Alleluia.
Worthy is Christ the Lamb who was slain,
whose blood set us free to be people of God.
Power riches, and wisdom and strength
and honor and blessing and glory are his.
As we worship, the songs of our liturgy are written to be a deliberate reflection of the songs that are sung in heaven as recorded in the scriptures. We are a part of that heavenly chorus. The Apostle John heard our voices singing in heaven with the saints. We are there. Already, even now, even today we are brought into heaven to sing these same songs in praise to the Lamb of God who was slain and who sits on the throne of heaven in majesty and glory.
As we consider all of the events that take place in our lives from the moment of our birth until our last breath, there are so many possibilities of things that could happen. God offers many blessings, but there are also many sufferings and trials and tribulations that we must pass through. At times we wonder about these events and we wonder if we have the strength to endure them. At times we fear that our strength is lacking. Yet our song plays on. In faith we sing, knowing that we sing to the Lamb who hears our prayer and preserves us for his victory celebration in heaven.
Amen.
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