The Power of a Lamb

Revelation 5

 

            The church seems to be in a position of instability today. We know that things are not going well in many places. We don’t really experience the power or promises of God, and we don’t seem to know why. We look to the leadership methods of the world around us, and adopt their marketing strategies to find direction, but even the ploys that bring numbers do not seem to bring spiritual maturity to a church that is starved of God’s Word.

            Each week meetings take place among leaders of denominations, local congregations, and pastors to discuss direction, and the future of God’s church. We look at the latest sociological studies, and try to stay in touch with the modern times. Many continually grasp at straws hoping that, by some chance, they will stumble on to something that will help people see God’s plan of salvation for their lives, but their gimmicks seldom come to fruition.

            As the early church sought direction from God they were brought face to face with an enduring reality: God is revealed through Jesus Christ! It seems redundant to continually wonder what John was thinking when Jesus began to reveal visions of the victorious church to him, but there is value in the realization that his outlook may have been much like ours. Government opposition and oppression kept the church from fulfilling her potential, but there were many more obstacles that came from within. There were congregations that were legalistic, liberal, lukewarm, and even in danger of death, but there was more to the story. In a day when God seemed to be silent, Jesus Christ burst on to the scene to reveal the mind of God from His throne. When we look at the fifth chapter of Revelation we find that the visions given to John center on one specific thing: the Lamb of God.

            “Revelation’s primary purpose is to tell us the story of Jesus, not to predict end-times events in Europe or the Middle East…As New Testament scholar David Barr notes, ‘Once introduced, the Lamb dominates the rest of the action. It is the Lamb who gathers the 144,000 holy warriors on Mt. Zion (Rev. 14:1); it is the Lamb on whom the armies of evil make war (Rev. 17:14); it is even the Lamb who marries and rules after the war (Rev. 19:7, 22:3).’”[1]

            Revelation reveals God’s purposes through the work of Christ. It reveals what true power and victory over the world are and the action from which they came. It shows us the Lamb who was slain. The One who reveals the work of God and through whose sacrifice this work takes place.

            We can search the world for fulfillment and direction. We can “try out” as many religions as we can find, but there remains one place where we find purpose: God’s throne. And there remains one living being who can reveal that purpose to us: The Lamb of God, Jesus Christ! He has the power to meet even the greatest needs, overcome the greatest obstacles, and deliver us through the most intense trials. Jesus Christ stands at the throne of God to open the scroll that shows us God’s will. One by one, the seals He opens show us what it means for the church to live in victory over this world. We will find triumph from no other source. It comes only from the Lamb.

 

The Lamb Has the Power to Meet the Greatest Human Need

 

            As we seek direction and purpose it would serve us well to ask why we lack those things. Many times we simply forge ahead looking for direction, but if we are God’s church shouldn’t we be able to trust Him for such things? Can any of us really claim to know the mind of God as we sit around a table discussing our ideas? Scripture tells us that we cannot. Verse 3 says, “And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it…” They searched through all of heaven and beyond yet no man was able to reveal the mind of God. It came only from the Lamb.

            Our greatest need is not another man-made vision. It is not another program fabricated to bait the unsuspecting sinner. Our greatest need is the power of the Lamb; it is for Jesus to usher the power of heaven into our lives as we walk with Him. When we need direction, vision, fulfillment, or victory the answer is Jesus Christ. Whether we want to admit it or not, we need Him! We cannot even rightly call ourselves the church without Him. It is from this place of need that we begin to see God’s work revealed through the church. Dennis Kinlaw wrote, “Unless we perceive that we have a need, we cannot experience a relationship with Jesus as the Christ.”[2] And without a relationship with Christ we can never be a part of the fulfillment of the plans of God.

            The scroll of Revelation 5 finds is significance as God’s plans are carried out through the lives of His people. Lillie McCutcheon explained, “The book, which is in God’s right hand of power, symbolizes God’s plan of redemption through all ages. In scroll form, seven pieces of parchment individually sealed express a complete book, completely sealed. Even Gabriel could not bring the world a revelation of God’s plan…Neither could Moses nor the prophets unveil the hidden plan.”[3] Jesus came to meet the need we have to know God. He came so that the love, mercy, and grace of God could be revealed to us even in our greatest weakness. These things come to the fallen world only through Jesus Christ manifested in our lives. It cannot come in any other way. If we want direction what we must seek is Jesus. If we want to know where God is leading us, we must ask how we can know His Lamb more, and walk closer with our Savior. It is in this way that we begin to understand God’s purposes.

            The church today has everything she needs except for the presence of God. It has been said that the Holy Spirit could leave us and many would never know the difference. The presence of Jesus Christ through the manifestation of the Holy Spirit is the greatest need of God’s people today, and the one thing that is lacking. Jesus did not come – as many suppose – to set up a political kingdom on earth, but to give us victory over such things. To provide a spiritual life that transcends the devices of the world that hold us in bondage. He came to show us a better way to live, and a better way to walk with God. “Christ was not primarily the fulfillment of a national dream, but the fulfillment of a universal hope; not primarily the culmination of a divinely ordained process, but the answer to human need.”[4]

            Jesus bridged the gap between man and God so that we might come to God’s throne when we don’t know what else to do. He died so that we could seek God’s help in our weakness and would not have to carry out this divine work alone. Isaiah told the Israelites, “your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear” (Isa. 59:2). There is no other, in heaven or on earth, who can restore our relationship with God. There is no access to God except through Jesus Christ. No other sacrifice will overcome sin. “The blood of animals, being inferior to the blood of infinite man was too weak to redeem him. Man himself could not redeem himself: angels in heaven could not affect this. God gave his only Son. Being both God and man – the Son of God and the Son of man – he could make an atonement that would meet the demands of justice, and redeem the human family.”[5]

            If we are to be a church that walks with proper direction and purpose, it will be only when we do so because the Lamb has revealed it to us.

 

The Lamb Has Been Given All Authority

 

            The Lamb portrayed in John’s throne room vision had seven horns. Horns are used in apocalyptic literature to represent authority. The number seven signifies completeness. The vision of the Lamb reiterates the statement of Jesus, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt. 28:18). We spend countless hours planning and working out our ideas when it comes to direction in the church, but we have forgotten that the authority to carry out God’s work has not been given to us. It was given to Jesus Christ alone. He must be the center of all things as we live as the church. It is under His authority that we walk, and His reign that we testify to His goodness.

            When we walk by our own strength we often find ourselves easily overcome. We face obstacles that we cannot defeat and mountains that we cannot climb. But when Jesus Christ becomes the center of the churches focus we find that there is no earthly power or principality that can contain the power of God’s Lamb. Michael Lodahl asks, “If Jesus’ ministry of self-emptying love, culminating in the crucifixion, brought a halt to the momentum of human sinfulness, how much more does his resurrection let loose a divine power in the world for the aggressive conquering of sin and death?”[6]

            It is through our relationship with Jesus Christ that we find the full power of heaven released into the world. It is through His power – not our programs – that lives are transformed, sinners changed, and societies reformed. It is through His power that we see sins forgiven, families mended, obstacles overcome, and Satan defeated. “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. 15:26).

 

The Lamb Discerns All Things

 

            We also see the Lamb of Revelation portrayed with seven eyes. These, we are told, are the seven spirits of God. Eyes represent vision, or discernment. While we may not be able to see all things, Jesus can see the whole picture. He is aware of the circumstances of our lives, the difficulties we’re facing, our weaknesses and our strengths. It is easy for us to look at the church and try to do the things we think we need to do. We assume there are some things that churches are “supposed to do,” so we make every effort to pursue those things. Maybe we feel like we must have a small group ministry, or a great program for the children in our neighborhood. We don’t know how to do those things, but we know we have to do it because the church down the street grew when they did it. Is it possible that we don’t have those ministries because God has called us to something else?

            Jesus Christ sees the places where we live and the people to whom we minister. He knows what those people need, and how we need to reach them. He is power and authoritative, and is willing to empower His people to succeed, but only in the things to which He has called them. We cannot assume that we are supposed to do a specific ministry because everyone else does it and then expect God to bless it if it is not His will. All too often, however, this is what we do. We do not have the discernment of the Lamb. It is this that will help us to see what God is doing.

 

The Lamb Hears Our Prayers

 

            Make no mistake, there will be days when we don’t know what to do, or where to turn. There will be times when we struggle to find direction and just don’t know what God is calling us to do. But even on those day, the Lamb hears our prayers. The four living creatures around the throne each hold a golden bowl of incense, “which are the prayers of the saints.” It is the prayers of God’s people that are being offered before the Lamb. He works through our prayers.

            We can make all the excuses we want – and we do – but Jesus Christ honors the prayers of His people. Scripture is replete with promises of answered prayer, and power through our prayers. It is difficult to understand why so few Christians take advantage of the ability to converse with God. One of the most humbling things in all the world is that the divine trinity of God allows us to enter into conversation with the Father, Son and Spirit through our prayers. Yet we so seldom do. The church is called to a faith in Christ that requires our prayers. It is from this altar that our sacrifices must continually be made.

            We pray to the Lamb of God because He hears our prayers, and stands before God on our behalf. “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). When we ask God for discernment, direction, mercy, or strength it is Jesus Christ who asks on our behalf. It is for this reason that are prayers are of such great importance.

 

The Lamb Is Worthy of Our Praise

 

            Those who surround God’s throne sing praise because “He [the Lamb] has made us a kingdom and priests to our God.” Can you imagine such a thing? Jesus Christ has revealed God’s mind to us so that we may serve in His presence. He has provided for us a place before the throne of heaven. “In a very important sense the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost all dwell in the spiritual church, or new Jerusalem, and are thus ‘in the midst’ of God’s people, surrounded by the redeemed host who unceasingly worship them, and thy, in turn, have the praise that ‘the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them’ (Psa. 34:7)…”[7]

            Jesus took those who had been victims in this world and turned them into the victors of heaven; those who have overcome every ploy of the enemy. This is the reason God’s people sing around His throne. This is why we sing today as we look forward to the day when we have overcome this world and live eternally victorious in God’s immediate presence.  F.G. Smith commented, “A few gifted voices of earth may possess such power and sweetness as almost to entrance us with their melody of song; but what an oratorio will it be, my brethren, when, released from the narrow limits of mortality, that sublime strain sung by the redeemed of all ages and ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of angels, bursts in upon our ransomed souls!”[8]

 

            We can spend lifetimes searching for direction. We must believe that most Christians want to see God’s work done. In spite of this we spend the bulk of our time trying to do His work our way. But it is not through our own ideas or methods that we see God’s work, or hear His voice.

            “If you want to hear God’s thunderous voice, just read His Word and hear His mighty voice as he speaks like thunder through its sacred pages. If you want to view God’s   footprints, just reflect upon your journey through time and look back at the places where He has carried you through the      hard times and narrow places. But, if you want to see the very heart of God, just look away to Calvary where a lone figure silhouetted against a darkened sky wrestled single-handedly against the enemy of our souls and purchased your salvation and mine with the shedding of His life’s blood. That crimson fountain that flowed from those nail pierced hands and feet and that punctured brow, along with the flood that streamed from His riven side has given life to me and to all who will plunge into its cleansing stream. As I look to Calvary I behold the love of God, the very heart of Him who sits on the throne.”[9]

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[1] Barbara R. Rossing, The Rapture Exposed (109)

[2] Dennis Kinlaw, The Mind of Christ (59)

[3] Lillie McCutcheon, The Symbols Speak (33)

[4] Dennis Kinlaw, The Mind of Christ (58)

[5] D.S. Warner and H.M. Riggle, The Cleansing of the Sanctuary (452)

[6] Michael Lodahl, The Story of God (163)

[7] F.G. Smith, The Revelation Explained (89)

[8] Ibid, (87)

[9] Richard Bradley, Scenes From the Throne (163)