Truth For Life

Guest (Male): Do you become confused and discouraged when life's circumstances don't seem to align with God's promises? Today on Truth For Life, Alistair Begg examines the apostle John's letter written to encourage the believers in the early church. He described a vision of the lamb on the throne, and today we'll learn what this vision tells us about Jesus and why it's significant for us as believers today.

Alistair Begg: 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 I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, "Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?" But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals."

Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

And they sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!"

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, for ever and ever!" The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped. In turning to the final book of the Bible, we turn to a book that is for some people avoided at all costs, and for other people, a focus of almost their entire preoccupation. By the time this study ends, you will probably have me pegged somewhere in between those two things. If you do, then you will be right.

Let me just say to you though that it is my firm conviction after reading the book of Revelation and studying my Bible over many years, that we ought not to regard the book of Revelation as if it were a book of riddles, as if it were some kind of theological Rubik's Cube that certain people who have fertile imaginations are able to unpack for us and make all the colors turn to the right shade on every side. And the way to ensure that we do not go wrong is to do what we've tried to do on each occasion and to remind ourselves that the Bible was written first of all not to us, but that the Bible was written in this instance to first-century believers who were being buffeted by and persecuted by the authorities of their day.

Therefore, it is imperative that we understand that John is writing to an historic context to a group of people who lived in real places at a real time, and he does so in order to assure them. Goldsworthy, who is one of my favorite Australian theologians, says, "John's first concern is not to minister to armchair prophets in some far-off age, but to the battlers of his own day who struggle to reconcile the fact of their suffering with the fact of Christ's victory over sin and Satan and death."

And he introduces himself in chapter 1 as both their brother and companion in sufferings. If you care to check that either now or later, you will find in verse 9 him doing so: "I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus." He tells them, "This is where I was. I was on the little island of Patmos off the coast of modern-day Turkey." If you go out there into the Aegean Sea, you can find this island.

And why was John on this particular island? Well, he tells us still there in verse 9, that "I was on this island because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus." It would seem that he had been banished there on account of his commitment to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he doesn't write to them as an armchair theologian. He doesn't write to them speculative material that may be of only passing interest to them, but he writes in order that in the circumstances of their day, they might understand who Jesus is as triumphant Lord and King.

Think about it. The gospel had been preached and they had believed. That's why they were the recipients of this letter. The gospel that had been preached to them was the historic data concerning the person and work of Jesus. The apostles had not gone around primarily to give their testimonies, although they were quite free in sharing their own encounters with Jesus, but they had gone to make sure that their congregations and their listeners understood that Jesus Christ as Messiah had to suffer.

In fact, if you trace Paul's preaching throughout Acts, you will find that this is his almost undeniable pattern. He goes into the synagogues and on the Sabbath day, he reasons with them from the Scriptures, showing them that the Messiah had to suffer and die. That's what he did in the first part of his sermon. And after he had worked his way through the Bible, the then-Bible, the Old Testament scriptures, and he had shown them from the Scriptures that the Messiah had to suffer and die, he then said to them, "And this Jesus is that Messiah."

This historical Jesus whom you have seen and many of you have heard is the Messiah God. And it was that which was marking the apostolic proclamation. They were preaching Jesus who was crucified, dead, buried, raised, had appeared, and had ascended. And these first-century believers had been on the receiving end of this and had come to entrust themselves to it. They believed that as the ascended Lord and King, this Jesus was fully in control of all circumstances. They were absolutely convinced that even as he had gone, so he would return.

As they got up to a new day, they looked, as it were, into the future, wondering when he would appear. His will was being established throughout the whole earth. That was their conviction. But when they actually looked at their circumstances, their circumstances were so vastly different from their convictions. The things that they told one another, the things that they affirmed for one another, the things that they told their friends and their neighbors, none of it appeared to be happening.

Scoffers abounded. Remember in 2 Peter, the scoffers will come, Peter says. They appear and they show up and they say the same thing all the time, "Where is the promise of his coming? You say this Jesus is coming. Where is he? Everything continues the way it has been going for ages. I mean, we've been looking around and we don't see any evidence of it at all." And the thing that made it so galling was that in one sense, they were absolutely right, because there was no obvious evidence of the fact that he was about to return.

The church, i.e., the believers who are the recipients of this letter, they were small. There was an addition here and there, but there was nothing of significance happening. And while they were small and beleaguered and persecuted, the empires of man were growing in strength and in significance. As the Roman Empire grew in strength and significance, so the sense of aggravation and persecution that was thrust upon the people of God increased in its intensity.

When they gathered for their little services, it seemed so paltry in contrast to the idol worship that filled their cities. And so if anybody had come in from another part of the world and looked at it and said, "Where do you think the future's going?" anybody would have said, "Well, I think I'll go with the Roman Empire. What do you think about the Christians? They're following Jesus of Nazareth. Apparently, he's raised from the dead, he ascended into heaven, and he's coming back." And someone would have said, "Well, that sounds all fine and well, but I don't see any evidence of it at all."

It's not hard to imagine that at the breakfast table, men and women of average faith would have had occasion to look at one another and wonder, to say to each other, "Is this faith of ours just a private matter after all? Is this faith of ours just sufficient for worshiping in the Methodist Church, hidden away from all the pubs and all the politics and all the mighty influence of the nations of the world? Is our Christian faith up to the demands and challenges that confront us in this Roman Empire with this emperor worship?"

While they affirmed in their testimony the lordship of Jesus and suffered in their life for that same testimony, doubtless the evil one would come and insinuate that they had actually bought into a great delusion, that they were just after all a funny little group of people, that they had hitched their wagon to a strange story about a strange man at a strange moment in time, and if they just held their breath, it would all be finished before too long and they could get back to whatever it was they were doing before.

I always laugh when people tell me, "Oh, I'd love to go back to the church in the first century. That must have been terrific back there, you know." Why? So that you could be persecuted? So you could be thrown to the lions? So you could gather with a small group of people and stand on your tiptoes and look out over the future and wonder about these very things? Now, with all of that by way of background, this is the context in which the great drama—this great theological comic book, this great video game that is here in the book of Revelation—is given to these people.

It's very important that we understand this, because in the majority of cases, most of us have been brought up with a view of Revelation that is entirely distinct from that. It's all about something, it's all about us to begin with, and it's all about then. Well, in actual fact, until we know that it is not about us, but it's about Jesus and it's about the people to whom it was written, we will immediately go completely wrong. Leon Morris, who is an excellent fellow—Anglican, you will remember—says to also an Australian, to a church perplexed by such problems, Revelation was written.

It was sent to a little, persecuted, frustrated church, one which did not know what to make of the situation in which it found itself. And John is taken up and on the Lord's Day, he speaks and prophesies and finally writes. So let me say it for the last time to make the point: we dare not regard the book of Revelation as an intellectual puzzle set to a relaxed church with time on its hands and an inclination for solving mysteries, as if somehow or another the book of Revelation is for sort of people who like theological crossword puzzles.

Well, you say, if this is the case, what possible relevance is there in such a book if these people are a small, beleaguered church, if they are persecuted from without, if there is idol worship, if there is emperor worship and everything else? Here we are in Sidmouth on the south coast. What possible relevance could it have for us then in reading it? Aren't we supposed to read about it and just think about time immemorial? No. Are we both living in the same world?

Could you honestly ask what possible relevance a book written to a small, increasingly insignificant church is in a world that is increasingly oppressive to that church, that is increasingly interested in the worship of everyone and everything except Jesus Christ as Lord of all? No, I suggest to you that the message of the book of Revelation—the main thing and the plain thing of the book of Revelation—is exactly what is needed by the church in Britain in our day.

Because here we are, and what are we facing? Economic gloom, human deprivation, a world at war on multiple fronts, issues of morality and security and personal identity unravel the minds of men and women and threaten to undo them. In the midst of all of that, there are companies of God's people because he has purposed to put us there. And in all of that threatening environment and increasingly in our generation—increasingly secular environment—we then turn to our Bibles.

I don't know how you feel, but it is not uncommon for me to feel as if I were almost a cog in a vast machinery, that the decisions that are made in London or are made in Kabul or are made in Washington or are made in Delhi, India, somehow or another really hold sway and that there's nothing whatsoever that I can possibly do about it. I'm simply caught up in the immensity of it all, and the people who apparently know a lot aren't smart enough to know how much they do not know.

Now, it is in that environment that you and I live. And it is in that environment, to some extent, that those who were the recipients of this letter lived. So perhaps we, like them, would find ourselves saying in circumstances such as this, "If only somehow or another, somebody could go behind the scenes. If only somebody could go back there into the book of destiny. If only somebody could go, as it were, and have a little look at the scroll of human destiny. If only somebody could catch a glimpse into the future and find out really what's going on."

They don't have to tell us everything, but if only they could tell us something, that would be really terrific. And that is exactly what we have. John is exactly in that place. "I turned around," verse 10 on the Lord's Day of chapter 1, "I was in the Spirit and I heard behind me a voice like a trumpet which said, 'Write on a scroll what you see and send it out to the seven churches.'" What we discover when you read these early chapters is that John is picked up and transported, not to a never-never land, but if you like, to the ever-ever land of God's eternal values and judgment.

In chapter 4 and verse 2, here we find him before a throne that is higher than all the thrones that this world has known. There's another great Getty song, "Higher Throne." "At once I was in the Spirit and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it." And then in chapter 5, as we have seen and in verse 4, now we find him confronted by the circumstance which brings him absolutely to tears because he discovers that there is no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth who can open the scroll or look inside it.

There he is depicted as weeping and weeping because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll and look inside. But wait a minute. Just when it seems as if all is lost, he gets a tap on the shoulders. And one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! Look! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed." Genesis 49:10, "The scepter will not depart from Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his."

See, what John needed was not new information, and neither do you. If you constantly think that what you need to keep you stable in your Christian life or to advance you in your Christian life is new information, I want to tell you that the vast majority of occasions when you feel that way, you're looking in the wrong direction. What John needed is what we need: to be reminded of what we know, because we usually go wrong by forgetting the basics. That's why our mothers always said to us, "Did you remember to? Did you remember to?"

When you were over at your auntie's house and you came back, she said, "Did you remember to say thank you?" You didn't need a fresh revelation or something. You didn't need a star up above her garden. You just need to remember. The tap on the shoulder comes: "Don't weep. Look. The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David. He has triumphed and he is able to open the scroll and its seven seals." Well, this is just terrific, isn't it? God has provided in Jesus the solution to the tears that John is crying.

God has provided in Jesus the tears which we cry. The tears of fearfulness, the tears that are represented when we feel as though the whole world presses in against us, when we feel ourselves to be beleaguered and small and ineffectual and somehow or another marginalized by everything else that goes on around us. It's nice when God comes and gives us a tap on the shoulder and turns us to our Bibles and says, "Are you forgetting something? That the Lion of the tribe of Judah has actually triumphed? That he is King?"

In other words, it was impossible for death to keep his hold on him. That's what Peter had said on the day of Pentecost. "I'm here to tell you," he says, "that Jesus is alive and the reason he's alive is because it was impossible for death to keep his hold on him." He has triumphed over death and over Satan and over hell. And so John looks. He's told to look. Don't weep. See. Then look at verse 6: "Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne and encircled by the four living creatures." See the Lion? He looks and sees a Lamb. And we, like him, see the Lion of Judah only as he comes to us as a slain Lamb. We see the Lion enshrined in the Lamb.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Truth For Life with Alistair Begg. We'll hear more about the lamb on the throne tomorrow. As we're learning, even well-established Christians can have their faith challenged, and that's why it's so important for us to constantly be reminded of who Jesus is, what he's accomplished on behalf of all who believe in him, and how much he cares for us.

To help you with that, there's still a couple of more days for you to request a brand-new book titled Christ Our All: Gaze at Him. This is a 14-day devotional that will continually draw your focus back to Jesus, no matter how unstable or insecure your life may feel. Each reading will remind you that everything you truly need is found in Jesus.

In just two weeks going through this book, you'll be redirected to live with joy and gratitude, resting peacefully in all that Christ has done for us. You'll also enjoy a deeper relationship with Jesus, not only as your Savior, but as your light, your assurance, and your friend. Ask for your copy of the book Christ Our All: Gaze at Him when you donate to Truth For Life today.

You can give online at truthforlife.org/donate or call us at 888-588-7884. Thanks for listening today. Tomorrow, we will learn how a lamb on the throne illustrates Jesus' humility as well as his unequivocal power, majesty, omniscience, and triumph. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth For Life, where the learning is for living.