The Wild Party

For those of you who maybe missed a sermon or series part of the series, here's where we've been. We've done six weeks. We looked at Isaiah's call, from Isaiah chapter six where he's called up into the throne room. We looked at the wild embodiment of prophets, exhibited in the prophet Ezekiel when he laid down on his side outside of the city for a long period of time. We looked at the wild visions that are given to us from the old testament prophets and we saw how all of them point to Christ and how they are our visions that we can use to echo Christ in his work.

We looked at that when we examined Ezekiel one, the famous wheels in the sky, the chariot throne room of God. Then we looked at Amos as an example of some of the wild people that God calls to be prophets. In that sermon, we realized none of us are exempt from this call because God can use anyone. We looked at the wild recipients. We examined Jonah, and we saw the far reaching places that God calls his prophets to go and to prophesy. Jonah unexpectedly, contrary to his expectations, was called to go to Nineveh and call them to repent. And then lastly, we looked at Elijah and Elisha and we examined the wild results of prophecy, which is resurrection. We saw how Elijah and Elisha were the only examples in the old testament of resurrection and how they pointed ultimately to the resurrection of Christ and the fuller resurrection that we have in him.

Key Learnings from the Series

Some things that we've learned along the way that I want to remind you of: Anyone can be a prophet and we're all called to be prophets. If you look at Joel two, Joel predicted that one day men, women, children, and adults and old people, all of them would prophesy with the coming of the spirit.

And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. — Joel 2:28

In Acts two, Peter confirmed that that had happened. When he started speaking after the tongues of fire came upon them and they went out and started speaking and everyone heard them in their own language, he was saying, "We're not drunk. It's just Joel two has become true now." He was essentially saying that now all believers who have the holy spirit are called to be prophets, to share the word of God and we understand that word of course ultimately to be Christ Jesus and the gospel.

We also learned that prophets aren't really fortune tellers. They're more like attorneys. They're not just meant to tell you about the future. They are meant to tell you about the covenant agreements, the covenant promises of God and help to litigate those. In the Old Testament, when they are telling the future, they're predicting covenant blessings or covenant consequences because of God's promises. So we come not as prophets that predict the future necessarily in the sense that we just want to know what's going to happen next, but more that we are covenantally relaying the information—these are the promises of God and these are the implications of what will happen with them.

We also learned that God made a covenant with ancient Israel, but he has not made a covenant with The United States of America nor with modern Israel or any other modern country. His covenant now is with his people, the new covenant people who have placed their faith in him, them and their children, the church. The covenant is for the church, those who are in Christ. But it is a promise that is offered to those who are outside of the covenant and we invite people in. So it's not just a limited people, but our prophetic work as Christians isn't meant to be political in the geopolitical sense of the world around us and being concerned specifically with that. We are concerned with greater realities, greater truths, the gospel, and the implications of it.

We've looked at how prophets speak and live out the truth of God's new covenant in Jesus. We don't just talk. We walk the walk. We live like Ezekiel lived where we are living in ways as though this stuff is true as a sign to those who see our lives. And we learned that old testament prophets foreshadowed Christ, but new testament prophets echo Christ's work.

Looking Ahead to John's Vision

Today, we're going to look at a unique prophet. True prophecy on this side of the cross is rare in the sense that we tend to think of prophecy with new visions and fresh revelation from God. Peter, Paul, Stephen, Cornelius, Ananias—all of them in the New Testament had visions and were recipients of new revelation from God. But there's only one New Testament figure with a long sustained recorded apocalyptic vision and that's John, the revelator. Right? The book of Revelation.

Does it mean, by the way, that we should expect to have revelation since all of these other New Testament Christians did? Actually, John settles that for us at the end of Revelation when he says no one can add to this. He knew that he was receiving the final word, the final covenantal litigation, the final covenantal promise, the final covenantal message for the people. So we don't have new revelation in the sense that it changes things of the covenant, but we do pray and we do receive guidance and wisdom from the Holy Spirit and we do walk through that wisdom in our lives in ways that can seem a little bit like we're getting guidance and direction. But ultimately, none of that guidance or direction will fundamentally change the nature of the covenant the way that revelation did.

This is the last word of the New Testament, the last prophetic message, and it's one that I think we would be remiss if we didn't talk about. This is my last sermon in this series, and it's an important one because I told you that Old Testament prophets foreshadowed Christ coming and his work on the cross. And our current calling certainly involves echoing that, pointing people back to that. But we don't simply proclaim a Christ who died and rose and went to heaven. We proclaim a Christ who will come again.

Revelation 5:1-14

Let's look at Revelation chapter five. That's our text for this morning. We'll read it together.

Then I saw in the right hand of the one seated on the throne, a scroll with writing on the inside and on seven seals. I also saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and break the seals?" But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or even to look at it. I wept and wept because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or even to look in it. Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep. Look, the lion from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered so that he is able to open the scroll and its seven seals."

Then I saw one like a slaughtered lamb standing in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent into all the earth. He went and took the scroll out of the right hand of the one seated on the throne. When he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb. Each one had a harp and golden bowls filled with 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 slaughtered and you purchased people for God by your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation. You made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign on the earth."

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels around the throne and also of the living creatures and of the elders. Their number was countless thousands plus thousands of thousands. They said with a loud voice, "Worthy is the lamb who was slaughtered to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing." I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them say, "Blessing and honor and glory and power be to the one seated on the throne and to the lamb forever and ever." The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped.

— Revelation 5:1-14

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we pray that you would illuminate your scripture to us, that Lord we would be able to discern what you would have us discern this morning. Lord, you fill our hearts with your Spirit. Would you change us by your word? And would you empower us to be messengers for you in this broken and fallen world? We pray all this in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

This is unique in this series. We're now in the New Testament. We've always been in the Old Testament, now we're in the New Testament. And this is kind of interesting. We are looking at a separate prophetic horizon. The Old Testament prophets, they saw the horizon of Jesus coming, and I believe they saw after it. They saw this horizon as well. They talked about this particularly in places like the book of Daniel chapter seven. It absolutely echoes this passage. So the Old Testament prophets, they saw this, but they saw it from further away than we are now. And John's revelation points in greater clarity and with greater detail towards a truth that we as prophets of the New Testament need to proclaim both to one another and to the world.

I want to look at it exegetically. Let's take a moment to just dive into some of the images in this text. One particularly that I want you to look at is the scroll. Did you notice the scroll that was in the hand of the one on the throne?

And then everyone's talking about how it's written on the front and the back of the scroll. It's fully written—totally covered with words, and it's sealed with seven seals. The next subsequent chapters of Revelation will be concerned with those seals and what happens when those seals are opened. We're not gonna spend a lot of time talking about the seals today. We have done an entire series on the book of Revelation, which I would encourage you to look up online if you're interested in that.

But what the whole courtroom is concerned about is who is worthy to take this scroll? Notice what they're not asking. They're not asking who's gonna read it. It's in some sort of foreign language. Nobody can discern it. That's not the issue. The issue is who can take it? Who can take it?

If you think back to when we looked at Isaiah in the throne room—when he went before the throne room of God—he was immediately struck with his unworthiness. He wasn't the one. Clearly, Isaiah was not the one that was worthy. So who is going to be worthy? And notice that one comes and it's obviously Jesus, the lion of Judah who is the lamb. We'll get to that in a second. And he's the one that takes the scroll.

The Meaning of the Scroll

So what is this scroll? What is it meant to represent? The scroll is a symbol of authority, of royal decree. It is, in some sense, the title deed to all of creation. It is the decree that puts in place the authority of the king. It is the statement that basically everything that has happened as a result of the fall—it is the statement that all of the authority that was taken away from mankind would be given back to a man, and that man would take the throne and have the authority and dominion over all of it.

It's not like a letter. It's a proclamation. Perhaps some of you have graduated from something in your life. You know, my kids, some of them have graduated from kindergarten. That is the most ceremonious thing I've ever seen. So even if you've graduated from kindergarten, you understand the nature of this. You're given a piece of paper and on it is a proclamation that you have the authority to say, you made it through kindergarten. Or some of you have gone on to make it out of high school. Some of us have made it out of college. I barely made it out of seminary. And I have all of those pieces of paper hung up on my wall as public decrees. But I had to prove myself worthy to get those things. That's the question here. Who is worthy to get this proclamation, this statement?

And again, the image here is tied directly to Daniel 7. Daniel had a vision of one coming before the throne that looked like a son of man. All of Daniel's visions—we also did a sermon series on Daniel, by the way, if you wanna go back and listen to that—all of Daniel's visions are these animals, and the theme of animals in the book of Daniel is very prevalent, and it is describing the animalistic nature of the fallen world and fallen humans. But one comes like a son of man, a human in the image of God, and takes control and takes authority. That's the picture here. John is seeing what Daniel saw. He's just sitting closer. And Jesus comes. He's the only one that is worthy. He's the only one that deserves to take the scroll.

Also think though that there is something to the scroll that implies there's something mysterious about it. The scroll is never read in the book of Revelation. Like you never get to a point where it's like, okay, and now all the seven seals are done and then an angel gets up and reads the decree or the lamb reads the decree. Nothing is ever done like that. You don't get that. The seventh seal is broken and you know what's in heaven? Silence. It's silence for a long time.

I wonder if there's not something to this scroll that gives the answer to all the questions. You know the questions I mean? Like why did it all have to be this way? Why did it have to go down this way? What was that part of my life necessary for what God wanted to do? I wonder if that's not somehow contained in this scroll that suddenly it answers all of those questions. And Jesus Christ—who's authoritative enough, who's worthy to take it—his authority is given and that somehow makes it all clear that the answer to all those questions are real and they're meaningful.

And that silence I wonder if it's not a moment of heavenly, "Oh. It all makes sense now" in light of the full revelation of what was on that scroll and the authority that was given to Christ in all that he did.

I imagine that there are many of us who are here this morning with questions that are unanswered. I think there are always questions that are unanswered.

Every time I teach, people ask me questions, and I find that there are some that I just don't know the answer to. So I know you have questions that I don't know the answer to. I know you have questions that you don't know the answer to. But a part of our prophetic reality is that we know that one day there will be a time when all of the questions are answered. When all the sorrows are addressed. When all the tears are wiped away from our eyes.

That brings me to the next thing in this passage that you'll notice. Notice that John's in heaven and there he's waiting for someone to take this scroll and he starts crying. Does that strike you as odd? Like, "I really just wish someone would take this scroll and I'm so emotional about it that I have to weep and weep and weep." I think that it's helpful to remember the context in which John receives this vision. Let's take just a moment and remember who John was. He's one of the 12. But when he's writing this, he's the only one that's alive. He'd watched his 11 compatriots die in tragic ways and had lived his life knowing that Jesus had risen from the dead. He saw it. He witnessed the resurrected Christ and he lived that out and proclaimed that message and he and all of his brothers were persecuted for it. And here he is at the end of his life, sitting in prison on Patmos, and he receives this vision and he sees this scroll. And I think he knows what it is. I think he knows that it's the end. It's the thing that's gonna bring about the final consummation of all the things that Jesus has promised, and he just wants it opened. Right? Can't you identify with that?

Can't you, just in this moment sitting here in 2026, sitting here with all of the realities of all the political tension that we have, of all the geopolitical tension that we have, of all the interpersonal tension that we have, of all the sorrow of death and suffering that we have in our life, all the heartbreak? Aren't you ready for somebody to take the scroll and open that thing up and find out what it all means and why it matters? But also bring in the reality of a time with Christ where everything is restored and the curse of the fall is finally broken. Can you wait for that?

Jeff just preached a sermon on contentment. We're not meant to be content in some ways. We have a holy discontentment, and that's what John is doing here when he's weeping. He is a prophet who knows from hearing from the great prophet, the word of God himself, that something greater is coming. That there is a greater consummation than our present reality. The implications of Christ's resurrection have not fully and totally been dispersed throughout the new heavens and the new earth. We're not yet there, and he can't wait for it. He's so close to it. He's in the throne room, and there's the scroll, and he just falls down and weeps.

Some of you know, we weep, and sometimes I've never been in the presence of someone who started crying when they didn't immediately apologize: "I'm sorry. I'm crying. Stop that. Stop that." Your tears are prophetic. Your tears point to a reality that is greater than the one that we are in. Your tears are sacred to the Lord God. Your tears and your discontentment, your longing for him to return in all of his fullness and glory is what you were made to do. That's why we have times of lament as a church. That's why we try to create space for that.

You know, we always talk about this on Mother's Day. We say "happy Mother's Day," but there are some for whom Mother's Day is a really hard time. If that's you, your tears are sacred. They point to a reality and a place where the hard things that you're facing now will no longer be the case. Someone needs to come and open the scroll, and we long for that because we long for this reality of the second coming of Christ.

Some people think weeping is a sign of a lack of faith, but often it's the sign of a deep faith. Don't forget that.

Notice too that while John is weeping, an elder comes to him and says, "Do not weep." That's not a rebuke for you. Right? That's him pointing to: you're here. You're here at the moment when the lamb is coming and taking the scroll. And he says, "The lion of Judah has conquered. The root of David has triumphed. He is able."

And you hear that language—the lion of Judah, the root of David, he is able—and you expect this great conquering king. You expect one like the son of man. You expect a lion. You expect some sort of physical manifestation of regality and greatness. And instead, he turns and he looks and he sees a slaughtered lamb.

There's something I think about the reality of our visual and visceral experience of suffering in this world as a negative thing. But in heaven, suffering and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is viewed as glorious. They describe it differently up there.

They don't describe it as something ugly or messy or terrible. They describe it as something glorious that the Son of God would be willing to sacrifice and suffer and die on behalf of those sinners and to redeem them. That's glory.

You know, there's this—it's one of my favorite parts of the gospel. James and John, this John and his brother James, they come to Jesus at one point because they realize that it's like them and Peter that are the three besties, you know. And they're seeing this and they think this is going to be something political. Like this guy's gonna be a king one day and we want in on the action. But you know Peter might edge one of us out, so we need to kind of form an alliance like on Survivor and go to Jesus and make sure we secure the good stuff.

So they go to Jesus and they say, "Jesus, hey, give us whatever we ask for." And Jesus being the Son of God is too smart for that. He says, "Well, what is it?" And they say, "Well, we wanna sit one on your right and one on your left when you enter into your kingdom."

This is one of the funniest, in an ironic sense, passages of scripture because the next conversation that happens, Jesus is talking about one thing and they think he's talking about another thing. And he says, "Hey, do you know what you're asking?" And they say, "Oh yeah, we know what we're asking." He says, "Are you able to drink the cup that I'm gonna drink? Are you able to endure what I'm gonna endure?" And they think he's talking about enduring like the throne. They think he's talking about being seated on a throne and drinking out of a cup of blessing. He's talking about the cross. He's talking about that as his coronation. "That's when I come into my glory is when I'm on the cross."

And he says, "You know what you're asking?" And they say, "Yeah, we know what you're asking." He says, "It's not for you to sit on my right and my left." Why not? Because Jesus has two thieves on either side of him. That was foretold. But he does tell them, "You will drink the cup I'm drinking. You will suffer like I will suffer"—is what he's saying. But sit on my right and my left, that's not for you.

You see, John was keyed in on geopolitical immediate blessing. He wasn't prepared to see the suffering of Christ on the cross as glorious. But now he does. He's in heaven and the slaughtered lamb coming to take the scroll. He sees him as the one that—this is far greater than any kind of moment of glory that he anticipated with his brother back when they were trying to solicit Jesus to be in on it. It's far greater than that. It's more cosmic. It's more powerful. It's more meaningful. And yet he still looks like a slaughtered lamb.

It's the sacrifice of Christ that is glorious. And I would submit to you that insofar as we share in Christ's sufferings—as the Bible says—and insofar as we, Paul talks about us completing them in some ways, in some sense, our suffering is glorious as well. This glory that Jesus receives, we share in that. And in fact, he takes that scroll and as the passage goes on, you see that he's not just doing that for himself, he's sharing that with all of those who are in him. All of them receive the glory. All of them receive the blessing. All of them rule and reign in heaven.

The Illusion of Control

Sometimes we act like the events of our life are of the greatest consequence, don't we? Sporting events—I've mentioned that before—tend to loom large in our minds. Cocaine's. Political events. Our relationships. The day to day life, the day to day struggles that we have, we think those are really of an ultimate importance. And sometimes I think we wish that we could be prophets that could see the future like immediately, like the way we tend to think about prophecy. Wouldn't it be nice, right?

You ever seen Back to the Future Two where Biff goes back in time, or somebody goes forward in time and gets like the sports book and then he goes back in time and now he knows all of what's gonna happen sports-wise? So he just puts all of his money on sports betting and by the time you get back to the future, he's like a billionaire—except he's miserable. It's awful. It ruins the whole world, right?

But often that's what we think. We wanna be able to see kind of the future that's immediately in front of us. We wanna be able to kind of predict what's gonna happen. Wouldn't it be nice to know how the thing that keeps you up at night—how that's gonna turn out? That would be nice. That's what James and John were doing, and that's what we do.

But here in the book of Revelation, we're given something that's far greater than that kind of foresight. We get to see to the very end, brothers and sisters. I would submit to you that if I could offer all of you the ability to predict lottery numbers, you would all be super excited about that.

But the benefits of that will only last for a short period of time and they probably will be not so much benefits by the time you're done with them as much as curses. Jesus Christ saw fit to, through John, give you a far greater gift, a far greater foresight. He's gonna be worthy and he's gonna take the scroll and he's gonna open it and all the questions are gonna be answered and all the realities that you're facing are gonna be resolved in a positive way. Every tear will be wiped from your eyes and you will immediately celebrate. That's the end of this passage. Right? It's a song. They're singing. They're rejoicing in the fact that Jesus was worthy to do it all.

I could go on and on about the book of Revelation. We could talk about the scrolls and how I think that the scroll is actually in the process of being opened. That's our amillennial PCA view that Jesus is in heaven now. He has the scroll. The seals are being broken. Right? The four horsemen of the apocalypse, those are the things that we're experiencing in this life. It's a part of his divine, sovereignly appointed will that these things happen in order that the scroll can be opened and finally read and the kingdom be ushered in and Jesus come back. All that's happening. We could talk about that. But instead of that, let's do this for this morning to conclude this series. I'm gonna give you a vision. You're gonna close your eyes and it's gonna come into your brain through your ears as I read the passages of scripture. This is the future. This is your prophetic message to each other and to the world. This is the message you're meant to live out and proclaim. Close your eyes and receive this vision. This is selections from the end of Revelation.

The Vision

A rider on a white horse, faithful and true, eyes like flame, crowns on his head, a robe dipped in blood, his name, the word of God. The armies of heaven follow him in white linen. On his thigh is a name. King of kings, lord of lords.

And then a new heaven and also a new earth. The first one's gone. No more sea. And the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.

And a loud voice from the throne. Look, God's dwelling is with humanity. He will live with them. They will be his people. God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more. Grief and crying and pain will be no more because the previous things have passed away. And the one on the throne says, look, I am making all things new and there will be no more curse. The throne of God and of the lamb will be in the city. His servants will worship him. They will see his face. His name will be on their foreheads. There will be no need for sun or lamp. The Lord God will give them light and they will reign forever and ever and ever.

Can you see it? Are you in the throne room? The Lord Jesus has done all that is necessary to make it so and he will come back. He is the one who is worthy. He has suffered and died. He has paid the price. He has earned it. The scroll is his. He has the authority.

And brothers and sisters, this is what our prophetic vocation points to. Not just that Christ died, not just that he rose, not just that he went to heaven, but that he will come again. And he's coming again in power to make all things new, to seat his people on thrones in a renewed creation under God forever. Do you believe it? Can you see it? God has given you this vision in his word.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, you are the living word. Lord, your Bible talks about how in the beginning, light was called into darkness vocally through a statement. And Lord we see this scroll, this proclamation that one do all of the things that are hurtful and harmful and sinful and broken and miserable in this life. And Lord you, who are the living word, you have taken the scroll. You're opening it. Lord we long for it to be fully opened for us to experience the joys that come after it. We know they're coming but Lord we're often distracted and lose sight of them.

Lord help us today to be enamored anew with these images, these pictures of our future. Lord, as your word says, help us to fix our eyes on the things above where you are. Because when we look at you, Lord, as the song says, the things on earth grow strangely dim. There's a lot on this earth that we need to be dimmed. Would you allow your gospel to so thrive in our hearts, your word to be so fresh on our minds that that would be the case for us and that others seeing us live in that way would long to know you and the realities that knowing you affords. Maranatha, come quickly Lord. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.