November 20, 2024 • 37 mins
Who is Jesus? People answer that question in various ways, but Scripture gives us the only true answer. Jesus Christ is unlike any other religious leader in history, for he not only knows our greatest problem but he is also able to address it through his life, death, and resurrection. In this message from Revelation 5:1–14, David Platt points us to a Savior who has overcome death in order to give us eternal life freely. He is worthy of our faith, worship, and devotion.
Explore more content from Radical.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to Radical with David Platt, a
weekly podcast with sermons andmessages from pastor, author and
teacher David Platt.
If you have a Bible with you oraround you, let me encourage
you to open with me to the lastbook, the book of Revelation.
If you don't have a Bible withyou, let me encourage you maybe
to find someone around you whodoes.
(00:21):
Maybe they would be willing toshare.
I want you to be able to lookalong as we study God's Word
together.
There's a lot of people in ourculture today talking about
Jesus.
Many of you know that the DaVinci Code is a book that has
ideas about Jesus in there.
It's sold millions and millionsof copies about to be released
(00:43):
in a new movie, so there's a lotof people talking about some of
the issues that go along withthat.
When it comes to Jesus, eventhe news the last couple of
weeks, the gospel of Judas hasbeen pretty prevalent and this
idea is that it's promotingabout Jesus.
There's a lot of people talkingabout Jesus in our culture
today, but somewhere along theway in our culture we get the
idea that we can redefine whoJesus is and we can make Jesus
(01:06):
who we want him to be and kindof throw all the things that we
see in the Bible out and makeJesus to be who we want him to
be, and I think it's a prettydangerous place to be when we
try to redefine who Jesus is.
Let me give you an example.
I want you to imagine thatafter you worship here this
morning you leave and the restof the day you go, you spend
time with your family or withothers.
And imagine somebody who wasn'there at church today come up to
(01:27):
you and asked and said how wasthe service, how was church this
morning?
You begin to tell them aboutthe music and how great the
music was and all the songs, andyou begin to tell about the
cool drawings and how incrediblethat was.
And then just imagine you getto the point and you're saying
there's this guy named DavidPlatt preaching.
And at that point imagine thatperson who has asked you the
question looks at you and saidyou mean, you heard David Platt
(01:50):
preach this morning.
Okay, won't you follow alongwith me, it can happen, all
right.
And you said yeah, and you said, and then they said you mean
the David Platt was preachingthis morning.
You said yeah, and and theysaid you mean the David Platt
was preaching this morning.
You said yeah, and they saidyou mean the David Platt, you're
with him on Easter morning.
And you said, yeah, that's whoI was with.
Okay, it can happen, justfollow along with me here, okay,
(02:10):
and imagine that point.
They say, wow, I mean you meanthe guy, that big, strong guy,
dark skin, looks like he worksout all the time, kind of a
cross between a professionalathlete and a movie star.
That guy, why are you laughingat that?
Huh?
Now, at that point you've gottwo options for how you respond
to their question.
(02:31):
On one hand, you could say thatis definitely not the David
Flat that I saw today.
I saw this skinny kid,bow-legged, looks like he just
got out of high school.
That's the guy I saw.
Or your second option when theysay you mean the big strong guy
, looks like he just got out ofhigh school, that's the guy I
saw.
Or your second option when theysay you mean the big strong guy
, looks like he works out allthe time dark skin, professional
athlete, movie star type, youcould look at them and say, well
(02:54):
, if that's your interpretationof who David Platt is, well,
here's the deal.
I'm not open toreinterpretation.
And if I'm not open toreinterpretation, neither is
Jesus Christ.
We're wrong if we think we cancome on the scene and it's been
done for hundreds and hundredsof years and tried to redefine
who Jesus is.
(03:15):
So what I want to do thismorning is I want to show you,
in a passage of Scripture, aportrait of Jesus, and I want
you to see a picture of who hereally is not who I say he is,
other people say he is.
I want you to see who the Biblesays Jesus is.
And I want you to see thispicture because I'm convinced
I'm convinced with all of myheart that if we in this room
would see a picture and aportrait of Jesus for who he is,
(03:38):
we would find Him irresistibleand we would realize that he is
worthy of more than our churchattendance this morning, is
worthy of more than our casualdevotion, our mediocre
commitment to Him.
He is worthy of our entirelives.
I want you to see that with mein Revelation, chapter 5.
You've got a celebration guidewith you.
(03:58):
Let me encourage you.
There's some notes in therethat you can pull out as well.
That'll help you follow alongduring our time together today.
What I want us to do is.
I want us to think about onemain question what's so unique
about Jesus?
There's a lot of religiousteachers and leaders across the
history of humanity.
What's so unique about Jesus?
And I want to show you in thisportrait four pictures or four
(04:19):
characteristics of Jesus and whohe is.
And I believe when we see thosecharacteristics, we'll also see
four reasons why Jesus isworthy of our ultimate devotion,
worthy of our entire lives.
And I want you to dive into itwith me.
Revelation, chapter 5, why, whatis so unique about Jesus?
Number one I want you to seethat Jesus knows the ultimate
problem.
Jesus knows the ultimateproblem and this sets him apart
(04:42):
from everybody else.
Look with me at Revelation,chapter 5, verse 1.
Now, this is a picture thatJohn gives us of a vision he had
, but it's really a kind of astep back overview of the book
of Revelation and even the Bibleas a whole Kind of gives us a
broad range here.
I want you to look at whathappens.
He says I saw in the right handof him, who sat on the throne,
which is God, a scroll withwriting on both sides and sealed
(05:06):
with seven seals, and I saw amighty angel proclaiming in a
loud voice, voice who is worthyto break the seals and open the
scroll.
Now, in order to.
We got to stop here In order tounderstand what's going on in
this passage.
We've got to realize themagnitude of what is represented
in the scroll.
So I want you to picture withme a scroll from the start of
our time together.
Now, it wouldn't look a lotlike this, because even here in
(05:29):
Scripture we see that it hadwriting on both sides, probably
a larger scroll.
But just to give you a picture,the scroll that looks like this
would be pretty large and itwould have a seal on the outside
of it and basically, whensomeone who was worthy or able
to enact what was written insidethe scroll came and broke that
first seal, then basically theywould unroll the scroll and they
(05:50):
would read what is there, andthat would be the method by
which that is enacted, when itcomes, basically comes to life,
comes to reality.
So obviously somebody prettyimportant has got to be the one
who's going to break the seal.
Now, this says this scroll hadseven seals, and so what you've
got a picture of is somebody whocould break the first seal,
then see that enacted and then,once you unroll that, then
you'll come to a second seal.
(06:10):
You got to be able to breakthat and the third and the
fourth, the fifth, the sixth,all the way to the seventh seal.
In fact, turn over to the onechapter, revelation, chapter six
.
This starts to unfold here, inverse one.
Look what the Bible says Iwashed as the Lamb opened the
first of the seven seals, and ittalks about what happened.
Look in verse 3.
When the Lamb opened the secondseal, verse 5.
(06:33):
When the Lamb opened the thirdseal, Verse 7.
The Lamb opened the fourth seal, verse 9.
The Lamb opened the fifth seal,verse 12.
I washed as he opened the sixthseal.
You turn over to chapter 8,verse 1,.
You see, when he opened theseventh seal, there was silence
in heaven for about half an hour.
So what the question is inverse 5 is who is worthy to
(06:55):
break the seals and open thescroll?
Now, obviously we don't havetime to study the whole book of
Revelation this morning and eventhese chapters that follow, to
see what's unfolding in thisscroll, but I want to give you a
picture, basically to summarizewhat is written on both sides
of the scroll here in Revelation, chapter 5 is God's purposes,
final purposes for all of hiscreation.
(07:16):
We know that way back in thebeginning of this book, genesis,
chapter 3, sin entered theworld and it marred God's
creation.
As a result of sin, which allof us are guilty of I know
there's a lot of people in thisroom, but every single one of us
has sin in our lives andbecause of that, we see the
effects of that in the world, insuffering, in pain, the things
(07:37):
we experience as a result of oursin, or even when we're trying
to do good, we still experiencesuffering.
And so that's the picture we'vegot from Genesis, chapter 3 all
the way to this point.
Now we've got God's finalpurposes how he's going to bring
an end to that, bring an end tosuffering and pain and evil for
his people.
Now he's going to pour out hisblessing on his people in all of
(07:58):
eternity, as well as hisjudgment, and that's what's
contained in this scroll thefinal purposes of God for all of
creation.
So this is a pretty huge dealyour eternity, my eternity,
bound up in what is written onthat scroll in the hands of God.
Now some of you might bethinking well, dave, why didn't
God just open the scroll himself?
Well, I want you to realizewhat that would mean us, what
(08:29):
that would mean If God, who iscompletely holy and has no sin
in him, were to open a scrollthat would unfold the purposes
of his character for all ofcreation.
And if all of us stand beforehim with sin in our lives,
having been disobedient to him,then the only option for us in
all of eternity is what Hisjudgment and condemnation.
That's clear throughout theBible.
As a result of the fact that weall have sin in our lives,
(08:53):
we're separated from a holy God.
And the ultimate problem in theuniverse please don't miss this
the ultimate question in theuniverse is how can sinners like
us be made right with a holyGod?
We talk about heaven almostflippantly, but you got to
realize, in order to spendeternity in the presence of God,
there's a sin problem that hasto be dealt with in order for
(09:16):
that to happen.
So we don't want God to openthe scroll without a mediator
between him and us that takescare of that problem.
So I want you to see thatbecause of our sin it's there in
your notes we stand before aholy God.
Two characteristics I think wesee in this passage.
Number one we stand before God.
Holy God hopeless and numbertwo.
We stand before a holy Godhelpless.
You see, what happens is verse3 says no one in heaven or on
(09:40):
earth or under the earth couldopen the scroll or even look
inside it.
And verse 4 says John wept andhe wept because no one was found
who was worthy to open thescroll or look inside.
Because of our sin.
We stand before a holy Godhopeless, number one.
Now I want you to imagine withme this scroll, if it holds the
end of suffering, the end ofpain, and God fully bringing his
(10:01):
blessing on his creation,restoring it back to what he
created it to be.
Imagine reading this in thefirst century, these were people
who were experiencing somepretty deep persecution because
they were Christians.
They'd experienced a lot ofsuffering in their families.
Some guy's wives had died andtheir husbands had been killed,
been murdered, had been martyred.
They'd seen their childrentaken away from them and they'd
(10:25):
experienced pain.
And at this point John seesthat that which brings an end to
all of this God's blessing andfor restoring things the way
they should be, an end to thesuffering and the pain.
And he sees that at the righthand of God, but nobody is able
to open it.
That's why we see John not justweeping, but he says he wept
and he wept it emphasizes it.
(10:45):
This is huge because the hope ofsomething different is gone in
this picture.
It's the same thing, same kindof questions we ask today.
I'm guessing most, if not allof us in this room at some point
have asked is this really allthere is in the world?
You've experienced pain orsuffering.
I know that across this room,families have experienced the
(11:07):
pain of cancer.
Is that all there is?
Is that it?
Are there diseases, naturaldisasters?
My wife and I, eight months ago, had our house completely
flooded, taken away from usTsunamis, earthquakes, wars.
You ever think is this allthere is?
(11:29):
And there's a hope there thatthere's going to be a difference
one day, that something's goingto change and everything's
going to be made right?
That's the hope we hold on to,but if nobody's able to open the
scroll, it takes hope awaycompletely.
I want you to see the gravity ofthis situation, and not only
hopeless, but I said helplesstoo, because the Bible says we
(11:51):
looked and nobody around us wasable to help out.
In this situation, there'snobody who's able to go into the
presence of God.
Just imagine walking in to thepresence of God boldly, going
out to him, taking the scrollout of his hands and opening the
scroll.
That's a pretty bold move.
Who's got the right, who's gotthe credentials to actually do
that?
This is a big question.
(12:12):
Well, there's been a lot ofpeople throughout the history of
the world that have come onthis religious scene religious
teachers, religious leaders andwho have given teachings, some
that thousands, some thatmillions have followed, to say
this is how you find life.
But if you look through allthose religious history books,
you will find that not one ofthose people says we are able to
(12:34):
get rid of the sin problem thatseparates us from a holy God.
There's a lot of teachers whosay do this or do that or do
this, Follow the Quran, followthe eightfold path, do this in
order to achieve peace withthose around you, but at no
point do you get rid of this sinproblem.
And I want you to see that fromthe very beginning of this
passage, jesus knows theultimate problem here how can we
stand before a holy God, howcould we ever be with a holy God
(12:57):
?
That is the problem that ismore important than any other
problem any of us in this roomwill ever face and it's a pretty
bleak scene because he looksand says nobody answered, no,
nobody's saying anything.
Kind of reminds me of achildhood memory you ever been
to.
You guys have Chuck E Cheesehere in Birmingham.
You know that place.
That place will scar you.
Okay, it will scar you.
(13:19):
I really believe that Chuck ECheese and it's a good place.
I know it's a good place.
Even two weeks ago my wife andI were taking our niece and
nephew there.
We were there with them fortheir birthday and that place
will give you a headache in fiveminutes.
Easy, but even more than that.
As a kid kid you remember whathappens.
You go to that place, you getall these tokens and you go play
(13:40):
a bunch of games.
You put the token in, you playa game all kinds of different
games, ski ball or ski balllineup.
You play ski ball for hours andand you sit there and you do
your best.
If you're a little kid, Iremember my mom or dad.
They'd be there.
They're trying to help me kindof get the ball, because I
couldn't even get it up to wherethe thing is, giving me any
points, but I'd get it up therefinally, and when you play the
game, what comes out?
(14:01):
Tickets.
There's these tickets that kindof come streaming out there,
and so you go around to all thedifferent games trying to get as
many tickets as you can.
You're having a great time,it's so much fun you, your mom
and dad just having a great time.
Well, then comes the bad part.
You're ready to leave, you'vehad a great time.
You're going toward the exitand you go by this one area.
It's called the redemptioncounter.
Okay, you know what I'm talkingabout.
(14:21):
This is the part that scars youAll right, because you walk up
there.
As a little kid you got thesetickets that you worked hard for
, holding them in your hand.
You walk up there and you seebefore you this picture of so
many things that you would loveto have, and immediately your
eyes go up to the very top, andon the top shelf there's some
huge stuffed animal that you canjust picture in your room and
(14:46):
it's worth like 80,000 tickets.
But you don't know that.
So I look at my mom or dad andbe like I want the bear, I want
the big stuffed animal.
I look down and say, son, youdefinitely don't have enough
tickets.
And so my eyes would come downone more level.
Maybe one of those lava lamps?
You know one of those things,those pointless gifts, but
(15:09):
they're really cool looking okay.
So you're like, okay, I'll takethat cool lamp looking thing, I
want that.
It's like 40,000 tickets.
You know how many hours of skeball you have to play to get
40,000 tickets.
Mom and dad look down.
They're just like son, youdon't have enough tickets.
So I come down a little farther.
How about the remote controlcar?
I'll take that, Son, you don'thave enough tickets.
(15:33):
This process goes on until youjust get down to that little
case right in front of you.
And here you are, this littlekid, and you see this
glow-in-the-dark eraser, littlepencil sitting beside him.
You hand your tickets to yourmom or dad, they give the
(15:56):
tickets and it scars you.
You spend hours and you walkout the doors of Chuck E Cheese
With a glow-in-the-dark eraserand pencil in your hand Because
you don't have enough ticketsFor what's on the top shelf.
Now get that picture in yourmind when you come here to
Revelation, chapter 5, becausethe stakes are much, much higher
and the top shelf is youreternity, my eternity, heaven,
(16:25):
forgiveness of sins, joy andends of suffering and pain.
That's on the top shelf.
Now imagine, in this scene,with that on the top shelf,
imagine the roll call that takesplace in Revelation, chapter 5.
Abraham standing over there.
Abraham, you have enoughtickets to go up there and take
the scroll.
You're the father of the peopleof God.
(16:48):
You started this whole thingoff way back in the beginning of
this book.
Abraham, do you have enoughtickets?
Abraham just looks down and hesays I don't have enough tickets
.
Moses, you led the people of God.
You led them through thepromised land.
You led them through that seawhere it split.
You led the people of God insuch an incredible way.
You've got enough tickets?
Surely you do.
(17:08):
Moses just kind of hangs hishead, says I don't have enough
tickets.
What about all the prophets,these guys who literally gave
their lives or killed becausethey proclaimed the word of God?
Isaiah, jeremiah, ezekiel,daniel.
Surely one of you guys hasenough tickets?
You gave your life.
And they look down and say wedon't have enough tickets.
(17:33):
John the Baptist, you preparedthe way for the coming of Jesus.
Jesus spoke so highly of you.
Surely you have enough tickets.
John the Baptist says I don'thave enough.
Peter, on this rock I'll buildmy church.
James, john, any of youdisciples we don't have enough.
(17:54):
Paul, you wrote half the NewTestament.
You're the greatest missionaryto ever live.
Surely you've got enoughtickets.
Paul just hangs his head andsays I don't have enough tickets
.
You're coming into contemporaryday.
Mother Teresa, you did moregood and cared for more people
than millions put together.
(18:15):
Surely you've got enoughtickets.
Mother Teresa looks down andsays I don't have enough.
Billy Graham, you preach to morepeople than anybody else in the
history of the world.
Surely you've got enough.
Billy Graham hangs his head andit goes on and on and on.
Got enough?
Billy Graham hangs his head andit goes on and on and on.
(18:36):
Who's got enough tickets?
Who's really going to approachthe throne of God?
Take the scroll out of his hand, break the seal and open it.
Is Muhammad going to do that?
He doesn't have enough tickets.
The Buddha, is he going to dothat?
He doesn't have enough tickets.
Either your new age psychic, heor she, does not have enough
(18:56):
tickets.
Oprah, dr Phil not enoughtickets.
It's silent in heaven.
Comes back to you and me.
You have enough tickets to openthis scroll and every single
one of us can just hang our headand say we don't, we don't have
enough tickets.
(19:17):
And that's the picture we seehere.
It's pretty despairing.
It kind of reminds me.
You know.
Some of you maybe think well,you're talking about different
religions not having enoughtickets.
Well, I'm I'm an atheist, Idon't.
I don't even believe in in god.
Well, I think what we'retalking about, this hopeless and
helpless, really is summarizedin that idea, and that's from
self-proclaimed atheists.
(19:38):
I remember Bertrand Russell.
He wrote a book called why I'mNot a Christian.
He was a very notable atheistof the 20th century.
At the end of his life, on hisdeathbed, these are the words
that he said.
He said I have nothing to hangon to but grim, unyielding
despair.
Because if there is no God andwe're just a product of our
(19:58):
creation and we're just in thiscycle where we'll be here for a
little while, then we'll go awayand somebody else will move on,
it's just this endless cycle.
Where's the hope of the end ofsuffering or pain?
Where's the hope in that?
It's hopeless and helpless.
That's the picture we've gothere.
Jesus knows the ultimateproblem.
Number two Jesus pays theultimate price.
(20:19):
I want you to see what happensnext.
We've got the stage set withthis problem.
Now look at what happens inverse five.
One of the elders said to me donot weep.
John is just weeping, he's lostit.
He says do not weep.
See the lion of the tribe ofJudah, the root of David.
He has triumphed and he is ableto open the scroll and its
(20:40):
seven seals.
Now we see a pretty extremeparadox at this point and we
can't miss it here.
On one hand, we see aconquering lion.
That's the picture that theBible has given us here of a
lion of the tribe of Judah.
You know, I want to show yousomething really cool.
This is not just a thing thatkind of appears here in
Revelation, chapter 5.
This is something that wastalked about thousands of years
(21:00):
before that.
Hold your place here.
Turn with me back to the veryfirst book in the Bible, genesis
, chapter 49.
Turn with me back there, toGenesis, chapter 49.
I want you to read how thiswhole thing got started, way
back in the first book of theBible.
What we're about to read isJacob speaking prophecy, or
words about the future, to hissons.
(21:21):
One of his sons' name was Judah, which we just saw mentioned
back in verse 5.
Do not weep.
The lion of the tribe of Judah.
What does that mean?
Look back in Genesis, chapter49.
Look with me at verse 8, whenJacob is speaking to Judah.
Now, this is hundreds uponhundreds of years, before
Revelation 5 even is thoughtabout.
Look at this, judah, verse 8,your brothers will praise you,
(21:41):
your hand will be on the neck ofyour enemies, your father's
sons will bow down to you.
You are a lion's cub, o Judah.
You return from the prey my sonLike a lion.
He crouches and lies down Likea lioness who dares to rouse him
.
Is this sounding familiar?
Look at verse 10.
The scepter will not departfrom Judah, nor the ruler's
staff from between his feet,until he comes to whom it
(22:04):
belongs and the obedience of thenations is his.
Don't miss this.
At the very beginning of thisbook, it's talking about one
who's going to come from theline of Judah, and this one is
going to be the one that it allbelongs to.
What we were talking about herein Revelation chapter 5, it's
the one who it belongs, and theobedience of the nations is his,
and he's going to come like alion.
(22:25):
That's what Genesis 49 says.
Revelation 5 gives us a picture.
John looks and he hears thisvoice, and it says see the line
of the tribe of Judah, the rootof David.
Isaiah, chapter 11, verse 1 and10, talks about how Jesus would
come through the line of David,who was also through the line
of Judah, and he would come andbe the root, the offspring of
(22:45):
David.
Revelation, chapter 22, verse16, the very last book here
talks about how Jesus is theroot and the offspring of David.
So Jesus is the lion here.
That's who's being talked about.
I want to show you somethingelse that's really cool back
here in Revelation, chapter 5.
I want to give you a littleGreek lesson this morning.
I know that you didn't come tochurch on Easter morning
expecting some Greek lesson, butI want to give you a picture of
(23:08):
some Greek in this passage thatactually you already know.
There's a Greek word in thispassage that all of you I'm
confident all of you arefamiliar with.
I want you to look with me inverse 5.
It says see the line of thetribe of Judah, the root of
David, has triumphed.
Some translations say prevailed,other translations say
conquered.
Now the Greek word, theoriginal language of the New
Testament that's written righthere, is a word that all of you
(23:30):
are familiar with.
I'm guessing you are familiarwith and I know it'll be a
little tough to see from theback but a slogan.
It's got a swoosh on it and onthe front of these shoes you see
the word what?
Nike?
That's the word here in the NewTestament, nikeo, and it
(23:51):
literally means prevail orconquer, triumph.
That's what this word means.
That's why they chose it as thename for this company, because
in sports, in sports we want toconquer, we want to win.
So they sell this, they putthis label out there buy Nike,
you'll win.
I've worn Nike golf shoesbefore and I've never conquered
(24:12):
in golf.
But it doesn't work completely.
But I want you to see that'sexactly what this word means.
It talks about conquering andprevailing.
I want you to realize that Nikedidn't come up with this word.
God did, and God used it torefer to his son and he said
he's the one who, like a lion,is going to prevail, is going to
conquer.
You see, in order to get thisscroll, you don't just kind of
(24:32):
saunter into the presence of Godand kind of try to slip it out
of his hand.
No, you've got to walk inboldly because you have
conquered.
That's the picture we have tosee first, but don't miss what
happens next.
So John is wiping away thetears from his eyes.
He's heard about the lion ofthe tribe of Judah.
Look at what verse six says.
So I turned and then saw a lamblooking as if it had been slain
(24:55):
, standing in the center of thethrone, encircled by the four
living creatures and the elders.
He had seven horns and seveneyes, which are the seven
spirits of God sent out into allthe earth.
Now, that's a pretty incrediblepicture.
John's expecting to turn andsee a lion.
Instead he turns and he seesthis lamb that looks like it's
been through a meat grinder.
It's a horrible picture of alamb looking as if it had been
(25:17):
slain.
So I want you to see two facetsof this picture of Jesus.
He is the conquering lion, buthe is also the suffering lamb.
Now, in questions that peoplehave had about Jesus over the
last hundreds and hundreds ofyears, many times people either
go to one side or the other ofthis picture.
There's a lot of people whopicture Jesus as a suffering
(25:38):
lamb.
It's kind of a weak, a good man, but who really couldn't.
Didn't have a lot of power,really couldn't get people to
follow him.
All he did was hang out withhis ragtag group.
On the other hand, there's alot of people who say, well,
jesus was a great man, he was agreat religious teacher with
much power, but they deny thefact that he died on a cross.
One example of that, a simpleexample in our world today, is
(26:00):
Islam.
Muslims do not believe thatJesus was crucified on a cross.
In fact, they abhor the idea.
They think it's a horrible ideathat Jesus would die on the
cross.
I've talked with many of them,whether in India, indonesia, and
they will say they've got twomain problems with this picture
of Jesus that we're talkingabout here.
And number one they've got aproblem with the fact that we're
saying that Jesus is God in theflesh.
(26:20):
They say that's crazy.
What makes it even more crazy,they'll say, is, second, that
you would say that God in theflesh would actually be
crucified to a cross, would beassassinated in such a cruel,
inhumane, embarrassing way.
God would not do that.
I read a Muslim scholarrecently who even wrote these
(26:43):
words.
This Muslim scholar said wehonor Jesus more than you
Christians do.
We refuse to believe that Godwould permit him to suffer death
on a cross, to believe that Godwould permit him to suffer
death on a cross.
Ladies and gentlemen, I want youto see this morning, in this
portrait of Jesus, that in orderfor him to be the conquering
(27:03):
lion on the landscape of humanhistory, he had to play the role
of a suffering lamb.
They go together.
In order to conquer and to beable to walk into the presence
of God and take the scroll, hehad to pay the price for your
sins and for my sins.
In order to make a way for usto be united with the Holy God,
(27:26):
he had to play the part of thesuffering lamb.
The cross was not an option forhim and it wasn't plan B
because things didn't work outbetter.
This was the plan of God in theuniverse to become a man and
walk a road to a cross and diethere to pay the price for your
sins and for my sins.
Take them away.
Heather and I, my wife and Iwere in Birmingham here last
(27:49):
night.
We'd come in and I wanted totake her out on kind of a nice,
nice date, take her out to anice restaurant.
So I decided, instead of takingher to McDonald's or something
like that last night, and takeher to a nice place.
So we went over to, uh,brookwood mall, I think is what
it's called over in that area,and went to a restaurant called
Brio uh, real nice restaurant.
So I was like, heather, I'mgoing to treat you tonight,
(28:10):
we're just going to get whateverwe want.
We're going to have a good time.
And so we did.
I got a nice big steak andHeather got lobster bisque.
We got dessert.
We don't usually get dessert,but we got dessert.
We were sitting there eating,finishing up our dessert, just
having enjoyed our time together, and our waiter came up to us
and he said, sir, he said I wantyou to know that there's a man
here in the restaurant who hastaken care of your bill.
(28:32):
He said I can't tell you who heis, he just wants to thank you
for what you've been doing overthe last six or eight weeks and
he wants to take care of yourbill.
You ever feel like you're beingwatched.
We kind of started lookingaround the room.
It's kind of this weird.
We've been watched for a longtime now, I don't know.
It's a weird feeling, by theway, if you're in here and paid
(28:54):
for our dinner last night.
Thank you, I want to thank youfor what you did for us.
I'm actually coming into townnext Friday.
I'll be at Outback.
If anybody else really beenwanting to take Heather to a
Japanese steakhouse, we might goSaturday.
Maybe, if you just happen to bethere, we might go Saturday.
So maybe you know, if you justhappen to be there.
(29:18):
We had this really nice mealand were able to walk away
without having paid a thing forit because our bill had been
taken care of.
I pray that you realize today ina much, much deeper way that on
your tab is your sin and theprice for that sin is death.
(29:41):
The price for that sin issuffering, and the God of the
universe comes to you and to meand he says your bill is taken
care of, it's been paid.
Nobody else in all of historycan say that.
Who else is going to pay thatprice?
(30:06):
Take that time upon themselves.
Nobody else can.
That's what's unique aboutJesus.
He alone pays the ultimateprice.
Number three Jesus fulfills theultimate purpose.
This is where it gets good, whenwe really begin to think about
this, what Jesus has done here.
Because it says in verse sevenhe came and took the scroll from
(30:28):
the right hand of him who saton the throne.
Get the picture.
Jesus walks into his presence,grabs the scroll and takes it
because he is worthy.
It's an incredible picture,particularly when we know the
setup of what we've seen.
Just imagine some have calledthis the saddest day in heaven,
(30:48):
the scene.
That's why John is weeping,because he realizes the gravity
of it, because he's standingthere, he's got tickets in his
hand just like everybody else,but nobody's able to pay.
And here's the scroll eternity,forgiveness of sins, heaven,
joy, eternal life, sitting onthe top shelf, and it's
(31:13):
completely silent because nobody, nobody's able to pay that
price.
And it's an eternity without ahope that we're looking at.
And it's in the middle of thatscene.
Things start to rumble a littlebit and the silence begins to
break.
And when you and I are standingthere at the throne of the
(31:34):
universe with these tickets inour hands, having no ability to
pay the price for them, it's atthat moment that Jesus Christ,
the Lion, who is the Lamb, stepsup and he says I've got enough
tickets.
He says I've got them all.
He says I've paid the price foryou and you don't have to worry
(31:55):
about your tickets and how muchgood you could do or how much
you could earn it, because Ihave it covered.
I've paid the price for yoursins and I am able, I am worthy,
to walk into his presence, takethe scroll and for you to
experience the joy and thesatisfaction and the eternal
life that is held there.
There is no more reason tocelebrate than that right there.
(32:17):
That's why we sing today,that's why we're here today and,
ladies and gentlemen, thatSavior is worthy of more than
our religious attendance andhe's worthy of more than our
(32:40):
casual devotion or our mediocrecommitments or being this thing
on the side that we know about.
He's worthy of our entire lives.
Jesus knows the ultimateproblem.
He probably pays that price.
He fulfills the whole purposehere and I want you to see that
Jesus deserves the ultimatepraise.
(33:01):
He deserves the ultimate praise.
God, help us, god.
Help us in our religioussubculture in the United States
of America not to be casual withthis King, this Savior, this
Lord.
He is worthy of more than usgetting dressed up and coming to
(33:24):
a place and singing some songsand going home.
He is worthy of everything.
What happens after this passagejust unfolds.
Things get really intense.
Look at verse 9.
It says they sang a new song.
They sang a new song and theystart to sing.
You are worthy to take thescroll to open its seals,
because you were slain and withyour blood you purchased men for
God from every tribe andlanguage and people and nations.
(33:46):
Don't miss it.
On that day, our worship willbe new.
It will be new because thissong hadn't been sung in heaven
all the way before this inScripture.
It had never been sung whenJesus takes the scroll because
of what he did on the cross andall of this unfolds, it's a song
that says you purchased ourredemption, our salvation.
(34:08):
Our worship will be new anddon't miss it.
Our worship will be neverending.
What happens after that?
I looked and heard the voice ofmany angels numbering thousands
upon thousands and ten thousandupon ten thousands.
The angels were getting in onthe action.
They encircled the throne, theliving creatures and the elders,
and the loud voice they'resinging.
Worthy is the lamb, who wasslain to receive power and
wealth and wisdom and strengthand honor and glory and praise.
(34:29):
And did we join in Everycreature in heaven and on earth
and under the earth?
That's pretty much all of usunder the sea and all that is in
them, singing to him who sitson the throne and to the lamb be
praised and honor and glory andpower forever and ever.
The four creatures bow down andthey say amen, which means it's
done, it's finished, and theyall worship and it didn't stop
and it's not going to stop.
(34:50):
Ladies and gentlemen, there'scoming a day in history when
every single one of us will bowaround the throne of the lamb
who was slain and the lamb whowon the ultimate battle, and we
will say that he is worthy.
The question is, will we dothat now or will we do it when
it's too late?
Because no matter how hard yourheart is, no matter how many
(35:13):
times you say, well, I'm notgoing to call this Jesus my Lord
, there will be a day, the Biblesays, when every single one of
us will bow the knee and callhim Lord, because he's worthy
and that sets him apart fromevery person in all of history.
(35:36):
See the portrait.
I believe when we see it, we'llsee that he's irresistible.
I believe when we see it, we'llsee that he's irresistible.
Why would we talk about a lamblooking as if it had been slain?
What a horrible picture.
But don't miss it.
If you look in verse 6, you canalmost miss this.
And John says I looked and Isaw a lamb looking as if it had
(36:01):
been slain.
What is the lamb doing?
Underline it in your BibleCircle.
It Put a big explanation pointnext to it.
The lamb is not hunched over.
The lamb is not fallen down,struck down by what it had been
through in that suffering.
What is the lamb doing?
It is standing, the lamblooking as if it had been slain.
What an incredible picture isstanding at the right hand of
(36:21):
God.
You know why.
How does the lamb stand?
Can a lamb who's beenslaughtered stand?
Remember back this way, this way, back in Exodus, chapter 12,
the lamb would be brought into ahousehold on the 10th day of
the month and they would spendfour days with this lamb.
They would grow attached to it,just like we would get attached
to a pet.
They'd grow attached to it.
(36:42):
On the fourth day, the 14th dayof the month, they would
slaughter the lamb.
That lamb's blood would be asymbol of the price that we pay
for our sins.
That's the picture that Godgives in the very beginning of
the Bible.
It transgresses here, it comesover here to the end, and don't
miss it.
The lamb has been slain, he hasdied on a cross, but the lamb
(37:06):
is not laying down there.
The lamb is standing becausehe's not on the cross anymore,
ladies and gentlemen.
He is risen.
I don't know what otherreligions I wonder sometimes
what other religions think onEaster, but all of us are doing
what we're doing and they'rethinking our guy's in the grave,
our guy's still there.
This lamb who's been slain isthe lamb who is the lion who is
conquered, and he is standing atthe throne of God and he is
(37:27):
worthy of all of our praise.
We hope you've enjoyed thisweek's episode of Radical with
David Platt.
For more resources from DavidPlatt, we invite you to visit
radicalnet.
You are listening to Radical with David Platt, a
weekly podcast with sermons andmessages from pastor, author and
teacher David Platt.
If you have a Bible with you oraround you, let me encourage
you to open with me to the lastbook, the book of Revelation.
If you don't have a Bible withyou, let me encourage you maybe
to find someone around you whodoes.
(00:21):
Maybe they would be willing toshare.
I want you to be able to lookalong as we study God's Word
together.
There's a lot of people in ourculture today talking about
Jesus.
Many of you know that the DaVinci Code is a book that has
ideas about Jesus in there.
It's sold millions and millionsof copies about to be released
(00:43):
in a new movie, so there's a lotof people talking about some of
the issues that go along withthat.
When it comes to Jesus, eventhe news the last couple of
weeks, the gospel of Judas hasbeen pretty prevalent and this
idea is that it's promotingabout Jesus.
There's a lot of people talkingabout Jesus in our culture
today, but somewhere along theway in our culture we get the
idea that we can redefine whoJesus is and we can make Jesus
(01:06):
who we want him to be and kindof throw all the things that we
see in the Bible out and makeJesus to be who we want him to
be, and I think it's a prettydangerous place to be when we
try to redefine who Jesus is.
Let me give you an example.
I want you to imagine thatafter you worship here this
morning you leave and the restof the day you go, you spend
time with your family or withothers.
And imagine somebody who wasn'there at church today come up to
(01:27):
you and asked and said how wasthe service, how was church this
morning?
You begin to tell them aboutthe music and how great the
music was and all the songs, andyou begin to tell about the
cool drawings and how incrediblethat was.
And then just imagine you getto the point and you're saying
there's this guy named DavidPlatt preaching.
And at that point imagine thatperson who has asked you the
question looks at you and saidyou mean, you heard David Platt
(01:50):
preach this morning.
Okay, won't you follow alongwith me, it can happen, all
right.
And you said yeah, and you said, and then they said you mean
the David Platt was preachingthis morning.
You said yeah, and and theysaid you mean the David Platt
was preaching this morning.
You said yeah, and they saidyou mean the David Platt, you're
with him on Easter morning.
And you said, yeah, that's whoI was with.
Okay, it can happen, justfollow along with me here, okay,
(02:10):
and imagine that point.
They say, wow, I mean you meanthe guy, that big, strong guy,
dark skin, looks like he worksout all the time, kind of a
cross between a professionalathlete and a movie star.
That guy, why are you laughingat that?
Huh?
Now, at that point you've gottwo options for how you respond
to their question.
(02:31):
On one hand, you could say thatis definitely not the David
Flat that I saw today.
I saw this skinny kid,bow-legged, looks like he just
got out of high school.
That's the guy I saw.
Or your second option when theysay you mean the big strong guy
, looks like he just got out ofhigh school, that's the guy I
saw.
Or your second option when theysay you mean the big strong guy
, looks like he works out allthe time dark skin, professional
athlete, movie star type, youcould look at them and say, well
(02:54):
, if that's your interpretationof who David Platt is, well,
here's the deal.
I'm not open toreinterpretation.
And if I'm not open toreinterpretation, neither is
Jesus Christ.
We're wrong if we think we cancome on the scene and it's been
done for hundreds and hundredsof years and tried to redefine
who Jesus is.
(03:15):
So what I want to do thismorning is I want to show you,
in a passage of Scripture, aportrait of Jesus, and I want
you to see a picture of who hereally is not who I say he is,
other people say he is.
I want you to see who the Biblesays Jesus is.
And I want you to see thispicture because I'm convinced
I'm convinced with all of myheart that if we in this room
would see a picture and aportrait of Jesus for who he is,
(03:38):
we would find Him irresistibleand we would realize that he is
worthy of more than our churchattendance this morning, is
worthy of more than our casualdevotion, our mediocre
commitment to Him.
He is worthy of our entirelives.
I want you to see that with mein Revelation, chapter 5.
You've got a celebration guidewith you.
(03:58):
Let me encourage you.
There's some notes in therethat you can pull out as well.
That'll help you follow alongduring our time together today.
What I want us to do is.
I want us to think about onemain question what's so unique
about Jesus?
There's a lot of religiousteachers and leaders across the
history of humanity.
What's so unique about Jesus?
And I want to show you in thisportrait four pictures or four
(04:19):
characteristics of Jesus and whohe is.
And I believe when we see thosecharacteristics, we'll also see
four reasons why Jesus isworthy of our ultimate devotion,
worthy of our entire lives.
And I want you to dive into itwith me.
Revelation, chapter 5, why, whatis so unique about Jesus?
Number one I want you to seethat Jesus knows the ultimate
problem.
Jesus knows the ultimateproblem and this sets him apart
(04:42):
from everybody else.
Look with me at Revelation,chapter 5, verse 1.
Now, this is a picture thatJohn gives us of a vision he had
, but it's really a kind of astep back overview of the book
of Revelation and even the Bibleas a whole Kind of gives us a
broad range here.
I want you to look at whathappens.
He says I saw in the right handof him, who sat on the throne,
which is God, a scroll withwriting on both sides and sealed
(05:06):
with seven seals, and I saw amighty angel proclaiming in a
loud voice, voice who is worthyto break the seals and open the
scroll.
Now, in order to.
We got to stop here In order tounderstand what's going on in
this passage.
We've got to realize themagnitude of what is represented
in the scroll.
So I want you to picture withme a scroll from the start of
our time together.
Now, it wouldn't look a lotlike this, because even here in
(05:29):
Scripture we see that it hadwriting on both sides, probably
a larger scroll.
But just to give you a picture,the scroll that looks like this
would be pretty large and itwould have a seal on the outside
of it and basically, whensomeone who was worthy or able
to enact what was written insidethe scroll came and broke that
first seal, then basically theywould unroll the scroll and they
(05:50):
would read what is there, andthat would be the method by
which that is enacted, when itcomes, basically comes to life,
comes to reality.
So obviously somebody prettyimportant has got to be the one
who's going to break the seal.
Now, this says this scroll hadseven seals, and so what you've
got a picture of is somebody whocould break the first seal,
then see that enacted and then,once you unroll that, then
you'll come to a second seal.
(06:10):
You got to be able to breakthat and the third and the
fourth, the fifth, the sixth,all the way to the seventh seal.
In fact, turn over to the onechapter, revelation, chapter six
.
This starts to unfold here, inverse one.
Look what the Bible says Iwashed as the Lamb opened the
first of the seven seals, and ittalks about what happened.
Look in verse 3.
When the Lamb opened the secondseal, verse 5.
(06:33):
When the Lamb opened the thirdseal, Verse 7.
The Lamb opened the fourth seal, verse 9.
The Lamb opened the fifth seal,verse 12.
I washed as he opened the sixthseal.
You turn over to chapter 8,verse 1,.
You see, when he opened theseventh seal, there was silence
in heaven for about half an hour.
So what the question is inverse 5 is who is worthy to
(06:55):
break the seals and open thescroll?
Now, obviously we don't havetime to study the whole book of
Revelation this morning and eventhese chapters that follow, to
see what's unfolding in thisscroll, but I want to give you a
picture, basically to summarizewhat is written on both sides
of the scroll here in Revelation, chapter 5 is God's purposes,
final purposes for all of hiscreation.
(07:16):
We know that way back in thebeginning of this book, genesis,
chapter 3, sin entered theworld and it marred God's
creation.
As a result of sin, which allof us are guilty of I know
there's a lot of people in thisroom, but every single one of us
has sin in our lives andbecause of that, we see the
effects of that in the world, insuffering, in pain, the things
(07:37):
we experience as a result of oursin, or even when we're trying
to do good, we still experiencesuffering.
And so that's the picture we'vegot from Genesis, chapter 3 all
the way to this point.
Now we've got God's finalpurposes how he's going to bring
an end to that, bring an end tosuffering and pain and evil for
his people.
Now he's going to pour out hisblessing on his people in all of
(07:58):
eternity, as well as hisjudgment, and that's what's
contained in this scroll thefinal purposes of God for all of
creation.
So this is a pretty huge dealyour eternity, my eternity,
bound up in what is written onthat scroll in the hands of God.
Now some of you might bethinking well, dave, why didn't
God just open the scroll himself?
Well, I want you to realizewhat that would mean us, what
(08:29):
that would mean If God, who iscompletely holy and has no sin
in him, were to open a scrollthat would unfold the purposes
of his character for all ofcreation.
And if all of us stand beforehim with sin in our lives,
having been disobedient to him,then the only option for us in
all of eternity is what Hisjudgment and condemnation.
That's clear throughout theBible.
As a result of the fact that weall have sin in our lives,
(08:53):
we're separated from a holy God.
And the ultimate problem in theuniverse please don't miss this
the ultimate question in theuniverse is how can sinners like
us be made right with a holyGod?
We talk about heaven almostflippantly, but you got to
realize, in order to spendeternity in the presence of God,
there's a sin problem that hasto be dealt with in order for
(09:16):
that to happen.
So we don't want God to openthe scroll without a mediator
between him and us that takescare of that problem.
So I want you to see thatbecause of our sin it's there in
your notes we stand before aholy God.
Two characteristics I think wesee in this passage.
Number one we stand before God.
Holy God hopeless and numbertwo.
We stand before a holy Godhelpless.
You see, what happens is verse3 says no one in heaven or on
(09:40):
earth or under the earth couldopen the scroll or even look
inside it.
And verse 4 says John wept andhe wept because no one was found
who was worthy to open thescroll or look inside.
Because of our sin.
We stand before a holy Godhopeless, number one.
Now I want you to imagine withme this scroll, if it holds the
end of suffering, the end ofpain, and God fully bringing his
(10:01):
blessing on his creation,restoring it back to what he
created it to be.
Imagine reading this in thefirst century, these were people
who were experiencing somepretty deep persecution because
they were Christians.
They'd experienced a lot ofsuffering in their families.
Some guy's wives had died andtheir husbands had been killed,
been murdered, had been martyred.
They'd seen their childrentaken away from them and they'd
(10:25):
experienced pain.
And at this point John seesthat that which brings an end to
all of this God's blessing andfor restoring things the way
they should be, an end to thesuffering and the pain.
And he sees that at the righthand of God, but nobody is able
to open it.
That's why we see John not justweeping, but he says he wept
and he wept it emphasizes it.
(10:45):
This is huge because the hope ofsomething different is gone in
this picture.
It's the same thing, same kindof questions we ask today.
I'm guessing most, if not allof us in this room at some point
have asked is this really allthere is in the world?
You've experienced pain orsuffering.
I know that across this room,families have experienced the
(11:07):
pain of cancer.
Is that all there is?
Is that it?
Are there diseases, naturaldisasters?
My wife and I, eight months ago, had our house completely
flooded, taken away from usTsunamis, earthquakes, wars.
You ever think is this allthere is?
(11:29):
And there's a hope there thatthere's going to be a difference
one day, that something's goingto change and everything's
going to be made right?
That's the hope we hold on to,but if nobody's able to open the
scroll, it takes hope awaycompletely.
I want you to see the gravity ofthis situation, and not only
hopeless, but I said helplesstoo, because the Bible says we
(11:51):
looked and nobody around us wasable to help out.
In this situation, there'snobody who's able to go into the
presence of God.
Just imagine walking in to thepresence of God boldly, going
out to him, taking the scrollout of his hands and opening the
scroll.
That's a pretty bold move.
Who's got the right, who's gotthe credentials to actually do
that?
This is a big question.
(12:12):
Well, there's been a lot ofpeople throughout the history of
the world that have come onthis religious scene religious
teachers, religious leaders andwho have given teachings, some
that thousands, some thatmillions have followed, to say
this is how you find life.
But if you look through allthose religious history books,
you will find that not one ofthose people says we are able to
(12:34):
get rid of the sin problem thatseparates us from a holy God.
There's a lot of teachers whosay do this or do that or do
this, Follow the Quran, followthe eightfold path, do this in
order to achieve peace withthose around you, but at no
point do you get rid of this sinproblem.
And I want you to see that fromthe very beginning of this
passage, jesus knows theultimate problem here how can we
stand before a holy God, howcould we ever be with a holy God
(12:57):
?
That is the problem that ismore important than any other
problem any of us in this roomwill ever face and it's a pretty
bleak scene because he looksand says nobody answered, no,
nobody's saying anything.
Kind of reminds me of achildhood memory you ever been
to.
You guys have Chuck E Cheesehere in Birmingham.
You know that place.
That place will scar you.
Okay, it will scar you.
(13:19):
I really believe that Chuck ECheese and it's a good place.
I know it's a good place.
Even two weeks ago my wife andI were taking our niece and
nephew there.
We were there with them fortheir birthday and that place
will give you a headache in fiveminutes.
Easy, but even more than that.
As a kid kid you remember whathappens.
You go to that place, you getall these tokens and you go play
(13:40):
a bunch of games.
You put the token in, you playa game all kinds of different
games, ski ball or ski balllineup.
You play ski ball for hours andand you sit there and you do
your best.
If you're a little kid, Iremember my mom or dad.
They'd be there.
They're trying to help me kindof get the ball, because I
couldn't even get it up to wherethe thing is, giving me any
points, but I'd get it up therefinally, and when you play the
game, what comes out?
(14:01):
Tickets.
There's these tickets that kindof come streaming out there,
and so you go around to all thedifferent games trying to get as
many tickets as you can.
You're having a great time,it's so much fun you, your mom
and dad just having a great time.
Well, then comes the bad part.
You're ready to leave, you'vehad a great time.
You're going toward the exitand you go by this one area.
It's called the redemptioncounter.
Okay, you know what I'm talkingabout.
(14:21):
This is the part that scars youAll right, because you walk up
there.
As a little kid you got thesetickets that you worked hard for
, holding them in your hand.
You walk up there and you seebefore you this picture of so
many things that you would loveto have, and immediately your
eyes go up to the very top, andon the top shelf there's some
huge stuffed animal that you canjust picture in your room and
(14:46):
it's worth like 80,000 tickets.
But you don't know that.
So I look at my mom or dad andbe like I want the bear, I want
the big stuffed animal.
I look down and say, son, youdefinitely don't have enough
tickets.
And so my eyes would come downone more level.
Maybe one of those lava lamps?
You know one of those things,those pointless gifts, but
(15:09):
they're really cool looking okay.
So you're like, okay, I'll takethat cool lamp looking thing, I
want that.
It's like 40,000 tickets.
You know how many hours of skeball you have to play to get
40,000 tickets.
Mom and dad look down.
They're just like son, youdon't have enough tickets.
So I come down a little farther.
How about the remote controlcar?
I'll take that, Son, you don'thave enough tickets.
(15:33):
This process goes on until youjust get down to that little
case right in front of you.
And here you are, this littlekid, and you see this
glow-in-the-dark eraser, littlepencil sitting beside him.
You hand your tickets to yourmom or dad, they give the
(15:56):
tickets and it scars you.
You spend hours and you walkout the doors of Chuck E Cheese
With a glow-in-the-dark eraserand pencil in your hand Because
you don't have enough ticketsFor what's on the top shelf.
Now get that picture in yourmind when you come here to
Revelation, chapter 5, becausethe stakes are much, much higher
and the top shelf is youreternity, my eternity, heaven,
(16:25):
forgiveness of sins, joy andends of suffering and pain.
That's on the top shelf.
Now imagine, in this scene,with that on the top shelf,
imagine the roll call that takesplace in Revelation, chapter 5.
Abraham standing over there.
Abraham, you have enoughtickets to go up there and take
the scroll.
You're the father of the peopleof God.
(16:48):
You started this whole thingoff way back in the beginning of
this book.
Abraham, do you have enoughtickets?
Abraham just looks down and hesays I don't have enough tickets
.
Moses, you led the people of God.
You led them through thepromised land.
You led them through that seawhere it split.
You led the people of God insuch an incredible way.
You've got enough tickets?
Surely you do.
(17:08):
Moses just kind of hangs hishead, says I don't have enough
tickets.
What about all the prophets,these guys who literally gave
their lives or killed becausethey proclaimed the word of God?
Isaiah, jeremiah, ezekiel,daniel.
Surely one of you guys hasenough tickets?
You gave your life.
And they look down and say wedon't have enough tickets.
(17:33):
John the Baptist, you preparedthe way for the coming of Jesus.
Jesus spoke so highly of you.
Surely you have enough tickets.
John the Baptist says I don'thave enough.
Peter, on this rock I'll buildmy church.
James, john, any of youdisciples we don't have enough.
(17:54):
Paul, you wrote half the NewTestament.
You're the greatest missionaryto ever live.
Surely you've got enoughtickets.
Paul just hangs his head andsays I don't have enough tickets
.
You're coming into contemporaryday.
Mother Teresa, you did moregood and cared for more people
than millions put together.
(18:15):
Surely you've got enoughtickets.
Mother Teresa looks down andsays I don't have enough.
Billy Graham, you preach to morepeople than anybody else in the
history of the world.
Surely you've got enough.
Billy Graham hangs his head andit goes on and on and on.
Got enough?
Billy Graham hangs his head andit goes on and on and on.
(18:36):
Who's got enough tickets?
Who's really going to approachthe throne of God?
Take the scroll out of his hand, break the seal and open it.
Is Muhammad going to do that?
He doesn't have enough tickets.
The Buddha, is he going to dothat?
He doesn't have enough tickets.
Either your new age psychic, heor she, does not have enough
(18:56):
tickets.
Oprah, dr Phil not enoughtickets.
It's silent in heaven.
Comes back to you and me.
You have enough tickets to openthis scroll and every single
one of us can just hang our headand say we don't, we don't have
enough tickets.
(19:17):
And that's the picture we seehere.
It's pretty despairing.
It kind of reminds me.
You know.
Some of you maybe think well,you're talking about different
religions not having enoughtickets.
Well, I'm I'm an atheist, Idon't.
I don't even believe in in god.
Well, I think what we'retalking about, this hopeless and
helpless, really is summarizedin that idea, and that's from
self-proclaimed atheists.
(19:38):
I remember Bertrand Russell.
He wrote a book called why I'mNot a Christian.
He was a very notable atheistof the 20th century.
At the end of his life, on hisdeathbed, these are the words
that he said.
He said I have nothing to hangon to but grim, unyielding
despair.
Because if there is no God andwe're just a product of our
(19:58):
creation and we're just in thiscycle where we'll be here for a
little while, then we'll go awayand somebody else will move on,
it's just this endless cycle.
Where's the hope of the end ofsuffering or pain?
Where's the hope in that?
It's hopeless and helpless.
That's the picture we've gothere.
Jesus knows the ultimateproblem.
Number two Jesus pays theultimate price.
(20:19):
I want you to see what happensnext.
We've got the stage set withthis problem.
Now look at what happens inverse five.
One of the elders said to me donot weep.
John is just weeping, he's lostit.
He says do not weep.
See the lion of the tribe ofJudah, the root of David.
He has triumphed and he is ableto open the scroll and its
(20:40):
seven seals.
Now we see a pretty extremeparadox at this point and we
can't miss it here.
On one hand, we see aconquering lion.
That's the picture that theBible has given us here of a
lion of the tribe of Judah.
You know, I want to show yousomething really cool.
This is not just a thing thatkind of appears here in
Revelation, chapter 5.
This is something that wastalked about thousands of years
(21:00):
before that.
Hold your place here.
Turn with me back to the veryfirst book in the Bible, genesis
, chapter 49.
Turn with me back there, toGenesis, chapter 49.
I want you to read how thiswhole thing got started, way
back in the first book of theBible.
What we're about to read isJacob speaking prophecy, or
words about the future, to hissons.
(21:21):
One of his sons' name was Judah, which we just saw mentioned
back in verse 5.
Do not weep.
The lion of the tribe of Judah.
What does that mean?
Look back in Genesis, chapter49.
Look with me at verse 8, whenJacob is speaking to Judah.
Now, this is hundreds uponhundreds of years, before
Revelation 5 even is thoughtabout.
Look at this, judah, verse 8,your brothers will praise you,
(21:41):
your hand will be on the neck ofyour enemies, your father's
sons will bow down to you.
You are a lion's cub, o Judah.
You return from the prey my sonLike a lion.
He crouches and lies down Likea lioness who dares to rouse him
.
Is this sounding familiar?
Look at verse 10.
The scepter will not departfrom Judah, nor the ruler's
staff from between his feet,until he comes to whom it
(22:04):
belongs and the obedience of thenations is his.
Don't miss this.
At the very beginning of thisbook, it's talking about one
who's going to come from theline of Judah, and this one is
going to be the one that it allbelongs to.
What we were talking about herein Revelation chapter 5, it's
the one who it belongs, and theobedience of the nations is his,
and he's going to come like alion.
(22:25):
That's what Genesis 49 says.
Revelation 5 gives us a picture.
John looks and he hears thisvoice, and it says see the line
of the tribe of Judah, the rootof David.
Isaiah, chapter 11, verse 1 and10, talks about how Jesus would
come through the line of David,who was also through the line
of Judah, and he would come andbe the root, the offspring of
(22:45):
David.
Revelation, chapter 22, verse16, the very last book here
talks about how Jesus is theroot and the offspring of David.
So Jesus is the lion here.
That's who's being talked about.
I want to show you somethingelse that's really cool back
here in Revelation, chapter 5.
I want to give you a littleGreek lesson this morning.
I know that you didn't come tochurch on Easter morning
expecting some Greek lesson, butI want to give you a picture of
(23:08):
some Greek in this passage thatactually you already know.
There's a Greek word in thispassage that all of you I'm
confident all of you arefamiliar with.
I want you to look with me inverse 5.
It says see the line of thetribe of Judah, the root of
David, has triumphed.
Some translations say prevailed,other translations say
conquered.
Now the Greek word, theoriginal language of the New
Testament that's written righthere, is a word that all of you
(23:30):
are familiar with.
I'm guessing you are familiarwith and I know it'll be a
little tough to see from theback but a slogan.
It's got a swoosh on it and onthe front of these shoes you see
the word what?
Nike?
That's the word here in the NewTestament, nikeo, and it
(23:51):
literally means prevail orconquer, triumph.
That's what this word means.
That's why they chose it as thename for this company, because
in sports, in sports we want toconquer, we want to win.
So they sell this, they putthis label out there buy Nike,
you'll win.
I've worn Nike golf shoesbefore and I've never conquered
(24:12):
in golf.
But it doesn't work completely.
But I want you to see that'sexactly what this word means.
It talks about conquering andprevailing.
I want you to realize that Nikedidn't come up with this word.
God did, and God used it torefer to his son and he said
he's the one who, like a lion,is going to prevail, is going to
conquer.
You see, in order to get thisscroll, you don't just kind of
(24:32):
saunter into the presence of Godand kind of try to slip it out
of his hand.
No, you've got to walk inboldly because you have
conquered.
That's the picture we have tosee first, but don't miss what
happens next.
So John is wiping away thetears from his eyes.
He's heard about the lion ofthe tribe of Judah.
Look at what verse six says.
So I turned and then saw a lamblooking as if it had been slain
(24:55):
, standing in the center of thethrone, encircled by the four
living creatures and the elders.
He had seven horns and seveneyes, which are the seven
spirits of God sent out into allthe earth.
Now, that's a pretty incrediblepicture.
John's expecting to turn andsee a lion.
Instead he turns and he seesthis lamb that looks like it's
been through a meat grinder.
It's a horrible picture of alamb looking as if it had been
(25:17):
slain.
So I want you to see two facetsof this picture of Jesus.
He is the conquering lion, buthe is also the suffering lamb.
Now, in questions that peoplehave had about Jesus over the
last hundreds and hundreds ofyears, many times people either
go to one side or the other ofthis picture.
There's a lot of people whopicture Jesus as a suffering
(25:38):
lamb.
It's kind of a weak, a good man, but who really couldn't.
Didn't have a lot of power,really couldn't get people to
follow him.
All he did was hang out withhis ragtag group.
On the other hand, there's alot of people who say, well,
jesus was a great man, he was agreat religious teacher with
much power, but they deny thefact that he died on a cross.
One example of that, a simpleexample in our world today, is
(26:00):
Islam.
Muslims do not believe thatJesus was crucified on a cross.
In fact, they abhor the idea.
They think it's a horrible ideathat Jesus would die on the
cross.
I've talked with many of them,whether in India, indonesia, and
they will say they've got twomain problems with this picture
of Jesus that we're talkingabout here.
And number one they've got aproblem with the fact that we're
saying that Jesus is God in theflesh.
(26:20):
They say that's crazy.
What makes it even more crazy,they'll say, is, second, that
you would say that God in theflesh would actually be
crucified to a cross, would beassassinated in such a cruel,
inhumane, embarrassing way.
God would not do that.
I read a Muslim scholarrecently who even wrote these
(26:43):
words.
This Muslim scholar said wehonor Jesus more than you
Christians do.
We refuse to believe that Godwould permit him to suffer death
on a cross, to believe that Godwould permit him to suffer
death on a cross.
Ladies and gentlemen, I want youto see this morning, in this
portrait of Jesus, that in orderfor him to be the conquering
(27:03):
lion on the landscape of humanhistory, he had to play the role
of a suffering lamb.
They go together.
In order to conquer and to beable to walk into the presence
of God and take the scroll, hehad to pay the price for your
sins and for my sins.
In order to make a way for usto be united with the Holy God,
(27:26):
he had to play the part of thesuffering lamb.
The cross was not an option forhim and it wasn't plan B
because things didn't work outbetter.
This was the plan of God in theuniverse to become a man and
walk a road to a cross and diethere to pay the price for your
sins and for my sins.
Take them away.
Heather and I, my wife and Iwere in Birmingham here last
(27:49):
night.
We'd come in and I wanted totake her out on kind of a nice,
nice date, take her out to anice restaurant.
So I decided, instead of takingher to McDonald's or something
like that last night, and takeher to a nice place.
So we went over to, uh,brookwood mall, I think is what
it's called over in that area,and went to a restaurant called
Brio uh, real nice restaurant.
So I was like, heather, I'mgoing to treat you tonight,
(28:10):
we're just going to get whateverwe want.
We're going to have a good time.
And so we did.
I got a nice big steak andHeather got lobster bisque.
We got dessert.
We don't usually get dessert,but we got dessert.
We were sitting there eating,finishing up our dessert, just
having enjoyed our time together, and our waiter came up to us
and he said, sir, he said I wantyou to know that there's a man
here in the restaurant who hastaken care of your bill.
(28:32):
He said I can't tell you who heis, he just wants to thank you
for what you've been doing overthe last six or eight weeks and
he wants to take care of yourbill.
You ever feel like you're beingwatched.
We kind of started lookingaround the room.
It's kind of this weird.
We've been watched for a longtime now, I don't know.
It's a weird feeling, by theway, if you're in here and paid
(28:54):
for our dinner last night.
Thank you, I want to thank youfor what you did for us.
I'm actually coming into townnext Friday.
I'll be at Outback.
If anybody else really beenwanting to take Heather to a
Japanese steakhouse, we might goSaturday.
Maybe, if you just happen to bethere, we might go Saturday.
So maybe you know, if you justhappen to be there.
(29:18):
We had this really nice mealand were able to walk away
without having paid a thing forit because our bill had been
taken care of.
I pray that you realize today ina much, much deeper way that on
your tab is your sin and theprice for that sin is death.
(29:41):
The price for that sin issuffering, and the God of the
universe comes to you and to meand he says your bill is taken
care of, it's been paid.
Nobody else in all of historycan say that.
Who else is going to pay thatprice?
(30:06):
Take that time upon themselves.
Nobody else can.
That's what's unique aboutJesus.
He alone pays the ultimateprice.
Number three Jesus fulfills theultimate purpose.
This is where it gets good, whenwe really begin to think about
this, what Jesus has done here.
Because it says in verse sevenhe came and took the scroll from
(30:28):
the right hand of him who saton the throne.
Get the picture.
Jesus walks into his presence,grabs the scroll and takes it
because he is worthy.
It's an incredible picture,particularly when we know the
setup of what we've seen.
Just imagine some have calledthis the saddest day in heaven,
(30:48):
the scene.
That's why John is weeping,because he realizes the gravity
of it, because he's standingthere, he's got tickets in his
hand just like everybody else,but nobody's able to pay.
And here's the scroll eternity,forgiveness of sins, heaven,
joy, eternal life, sitting onthe top shelf, and it's
(31:13):
completely silent because nobody, nobody's able to pay that
price.
And it's an eternity without ahope that we're looking at.
And it's in the middle of thatscene.
Things start to rumble a littlebit and the silence begins to
break.
And when you and I are standingthere at the throne of the
(31:34):
universe with these tickets inour hands, having no ability to
pay the price for them, it's atthat moment that Jesus Christ,
the Lion, who is the Lamb, stepsup and he says I've got enough
tickets.
He says I've got them all.
He says I've paid the price foryou and you don't have to worry
(31:55):
about your tickets and how muchgood you could do or how much
you could earn it, because Ihave it covered.
I've paid the price for yoursins and I am able, I am worthy,
to walk into his presence, takethe scroll and for you to
experience the joy and thesatisfaction and the eternal
life that is held there.
There is no more reason tocelebrate than that right there.
(32:17):
That's why we sing today,that's why we're here today and,
ladies and gentlemen, thatSavior is worthy of more than
our religious attendance andhe's worthy of more than our
(32:40):
casual devotion or our mediocrecommitments or being this thing
on the side that we know about.
He's worthy of our entire lives.
Jesus knows the ultimateproblem.
He probably pays that price.
He fulfills the whole purposehere and I want you to see that
Jesus deserves the ultimatepraise.
(33:01):
He deserves the ultimate praise.
God, help us, god.
Help us in our religioussubculture in the United States
of America not to be casual withthis King, this Savior, this
Lord.
He is worthy of more than usgetting dressed up and coming to
(33:24):
a place and singing some songsand going home.
He is worthy of everything.
What happens after this passagejust unfolds.
Things get really intense.
Look at verse 9.
It says they sang a new song.
They sang a new song and theystart to sing.
You are worthy to take thescroll to open its seals,
because you were slain and withyour blood you purchased men for
God from every tribe andlanguage and people and nations.
(33:46):
Don't miss it.
On that day, our worship willbe new.
It will be new because thissong hadn't been sung in heaven
all the way before this inScripture.
It had never been sung whenJesus takes the scroll because
of what he did on the cross andall of this unfolds, it's a song
that says you purchased ourredemption, our salvation.
(34:08):
Our worship will be new anddon't miss it.
Our worship will be neverending.
What happens after that?
I looked and heard the voice ofmany angels numbering thousands
upon thousands and ten thousandupon ten thousands.
The angels were getting in onthe action.
They encircled the throne, theliving creatures and the elders,
and the loud voice they'resinging.
Worthy is the lamb, who wasslain to receive power and
wealth and wisdom and strengthand honor and glory and praise.
(34:29):
And did we join in Everycreature in heaven and on earth
and under the earth?
That's pretty much all of usunder the sea and all that is in
them, singing to him who sitson the throne and to the lamb be
praised and honor and glory andpower forever and ever.
The four creatures bow down andthey say amen, which means it's
done, it's finished, and theyall worship and it didn't stop
and it's not going to stop.
(34:50):
Ladies and gentlemen, there'scoming a day in history when
every single one of us will bowaround the throne of the lamb
who was slain and the lamb whowon the ultimate battle, and we
will say that he is worthy.
The question is, will we dothat now or will we do it when
it's too late?
Because no matter how hard yourheart is, no matter how many
(35:13):
times you say, well, I'm notgoing to call this Jesus my Lord
, there will be a day, the Biblesays, when every single one of
us will bow the knee and callhim Lord, because he's worthy
and that sets him apart fromevery person in all of history.
(35:36):
See the portrait.
I believe when we see it, we'llsee that he's irresistible.
I believe when we see it, we'llsee that he's irresistible.
Why would we talk about a lamblooking as if it had been slain?
What a horrible picture.
But don't miss it.
If you look in verse 6, you canalmost miss this.
And John says I looked and Isaw a lamb looking as if it had
(36:01):
been slain.
What is the lamb doing?
Underline it in your BibleCircle.
It Put a big explanation pointnext to it.
The lamb is not hunched over.
The lamb is not fallen down,struck down by what it had been
through in that suffering.
What is the lamb doing?
It is standing, the lamblooking as if it had been slain.
What an incredible picture isstanding at the right hand of
(36:21):
God.
You know why.
How does the lamb stand?
Can a lamb who's beenslaughtered stand?
Remember back this way, this way, back in Exodus, chapter 12,
the lamb would be brought into ahousehold on the 10th day of
the month and they would spendfour days with this lamb.
They would grow attached to it,just like we would get attached
to a pet.
They'd grow attached to it.
(36:42):
On the fourth day, the 14th dayof the month, they would
slaughter the lamb.
That lamb's blood would be asymbol of the price that we pay
for our sins.
That's the picture that Godgives in the very beginning of
the Bible.
It transgresses here, it comesover here to the end, and don't
miss it.
The lamb has been slain, he hasdied on a cross, but the lamb
(37:06):
is not laying down there.
The lamb is standing becausehe's not on the cross anymore,
ladies and gentlemen.
He is risen.
I don't know what otherreligions I wonder sometimes
what other religions think onEaster, but all of us are doing
what we're doing and they'rethinking our guy's in the grave,
our guy's still there.
This lamb who's been slain isthe lamb who is the lion who is
conquered, and he is standing atthe throne of God and he is
(37:27):
worthy of all of our praise.
We hope you've enjoyed thisweek's episode of Radical with
David Platt.
For more resources from DavidPlatt, we invite you to visit
radicalnet.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.