Theme: Worthiness Weighs on the Heart
1) A weight of sorrow from our sins
2) A weight of sufficiency from the Lamb
What’s your greatest fear? Maybe you’ll
find some similarities with the rest of America. According to a 2015 poll, the
top ten greatest fears that Americans hold are:
1) corruption of government officials,
2) cyber-terrorism,
3) corporate tracking of personal information,
4) terrorist attacks,
5) government tracking of personal information,
6) bio-warfare,
7) identity theft,
8) economic collapse,
9) running out of money in the future, and
10) credit card theft.
It’s interesting that each of these fears
involves something outside of the individual, that is, something that the
average person cannot control and does not contribute to.
I don’t argue with anything on this poll.
I understand the legitimate fear of each of these things. But, I also don’t
think this poll gives us the whole story. Very often, the deepest fears that a
person has are in their own hearts. Those are the types of fears that people
are reluctant to open up about. They don’t show up on a public poll precisely
because part of the fear is having them come to light. We typically use the
word insecurities to describe this
type of fear. They involve an inward feeling that keeps us from confidence and
assuredness.
One of the greatest insecurities we have
is the fear of failure. A different study offers these questions as a
determinant for whether or not you have a fear of failure:
·
Do you ever put off
doing something because you’re “not sure how it will turn out”?
·
Do you avoid
situations where you will have to try something new in front of people?
·
Have you ever put
off doing something you know will improve your life, even though you have “no
good reason” not to do it?
No matter who you are, we have all had
these types of fears in certain ways. These things grow in a culture like ours
which is both highly competitive and filled with examples of success. In that
setting, no one wants to fail. There is absolutely a great fear in not meeting
expectations; that itself is part of the competitive situation that drives so
many to success. But, in the back of each of mind, we know that not everyone
succeeds in accomplishing their expectations.
What is really at stake is not so much
failing, but fitting in. The reason we want to succeed is not only to
accomplish what we want but to be accepted by others. To put it bluntly, we
want to be worthy. Worthiness Weighs on the Heart. No one can escape
that feeling. The same is at work in our lives with God. We have a weight on
our hearts that lies heavy, and it’s all about being found worthy of eternal
life. Consider the words of our text today, with those thoughts in mind, as we
read part of John’s vision of heaven:
Revelation 5:8-14 Now when He had taken
the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down
before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which
are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song, saying: "You
are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And
have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people
and nation, 10 And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall
reign on the earth." 11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many
angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number
of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, 12
saying with a loud voice: "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive
power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and
blessing!" 13 And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and
under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard
saying: "Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the
throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!" 14 Then the four living
creatures said, "Amen!" And the twenty-four elders fell down and
worshiped Him who lives forever and ever.
The chief virtue of this section is
worthiness. John pictures that through the chief object of the section – the
scroll. This scroll represents God’s activity for mankind. The one who is able
to open the scroll is the one who can extend God’s blessings to people. Imagine
knowing what the scroll was but not being able to open it. You get a sense why
John tells us in verse 4 that he “wept greatly” at the prospect of no living
creature being able to open the scroll. One translation says that he “cried and
cried.”
What changed between that melancholy
scene and the victorious praise at the end of the chapter? Christ came forward.
John tells us what he saw, And one of
the elders said to me, "Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of
Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its
seven seals." As triumphant a scene as this was, in the end it was not
the Lion of Judah who opened the scroll. Well, it was and it wasn’t at the same
time.
In the very next verse, John saw
something much different. A Lamb, slain, in the midst of the 24 elders rose and
took the scroll from Him who sat on the throne. And at that point, the verses
before us today begin. Let us not miss the significance of this powerful scene.
The elder who commanded John to cease weeping did not lie. It was truly Jesus,
the Lion of Judah, who went forth to claim the scroll. But, it was Jesus as the
crucified and risen sacrifice, as the Lamb of God, once slain but now alive.
Only through His death and resurrection could Jesus open the blessings of God
for mankind. His status as the Lion of Judah remains, He is all-powerful. But,
He was required by the Law of God to humble Himself to the point of death and
the grave in order to be found worthy.
This is why the song of praise exalts the
Lamb who was slain, not the Lion who was powerful. Only in Jesus could such a
humble picture of a slain Lamb take precedent over the power of a Lion. Because
only Jesus was worthy.
The word for worthy in our text literally
means something that is weighed against something else. In the ancient world,
things which were considered valuable were measured their weight. Worth was
determined objectively in the balance of scales. This runs contrary to the
measure of worth in our culture. So often, worthiness is determined
subjectively today. What is valuable to one person may be trash to another. And
so this change has had an effect on faith in Jesus too. Each individual becomes
the sole judge and jury in determining worth. If that is the case, why not
discard one teaching of God’s Word in favor of another? Why not exalt
experience of faith over objective truth. Yet, in God’s Word, worthiness is an
absolute measure that is true regardless of if we feel it or not. Either
you have enough on the scale of righteousness,
or you are found lacking.
What weight has God put on mankind? Acts 17:26-27, 30 "And He has made
from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and
has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
27 "so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope
for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 30 "Truly,
these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to
repent.
As we think about the weights of life
that rest on our shoulders, nothing is heavier than sin. But this is not a
valuable heaviness before God. David wrote of this weight by saying how it
caused his bones to grow old and his vitality to dry up like water in the
scorching sun. Because of his sins, God’s hand was heavy upon David, and it was
a burden he could not bear. Only when David confessed his sins to God was he
restored with forgiveness (Psalm 32). Revelation pictures the same struggle and
the same salvation as John saw it in a vision of the culmination of all
history.
No matter what your greatest fear is, you
can be sure it stems from sin. We might answer with things like: spiders, the
dark, or even the government. But, the things we are most terrified of are the
things we keep hidden. And being found worthy before God and one another is
often kept in deep hiding. Sometimes it’s easy to hide our fear of being unworthy
because life offers so many distractions. We can find plenty of things to
consume our time and energies so that we can continually put off the more
important aspects of life. If someone knew ahead time that Jesus would be
visiting our church today in person, would they ignore it and go do something
else? No one would miss that. Yet, His presence in Word and Sacrament often
isn’t enough to prioritize above other weekend activities or worth rearranging
the schedule for.
Don’t be mistaken, I completely understand
that great drop-off in hearing the Word of God though the filter of my
presentation and being able to see Jesus Himself. But, at the end of the day,
His Word is His Word no matter who speaks it. The weight of sin lies on the
heart, and because of sin that weight means we are unworthy.
Part 2: A weight of
sufficiency from the Lamb
Instead of concealing that sin, or trying
to distract yourself from its eternal consequence, the Lamb offers to bear it
for you. In fact, He’s gone one step further; He has carried it for you. Your sufficiency before the Father has been
met. Your debt has been paid. The scale is balanced. You stand forgiven today.
What joy there is in that sentiment! But, do you read this text and wonder, why
doesn’t my worship feel like this?
Well, perhaps it’s because we don’t have
the thousands of angels and the twenty-four elders among us each weekend. But,
we are still just as forgiven and Christ’s blood was shed just as much for our
sins. What was it about this worship that
was so magnificent? You can sense the expressions of joy and power in
phrases like “You are worthy to take the
scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God
by Your blood,” and “Worthy is the
Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and
honor and glory and blessing!”
Well, to answer, look no further than
those words themselves. For those present, the joy of worship was all about
Jesus. They had His blessings, so they were happy, and so they praised the
Lord. It had nothing to do with all things that are so often associated with
worship today. Feelings, atmosphere, music, Bible translation, cultural
relevancy, or anything else. We aren’t even told that they had any music
present. Yet, what a powerful demonstration of true worship.
Have you ever considered that perhaps we
struggle in our worship lives because we focus on the wrong things? Maybe we’ve
strayed too far from what is most important and that’s why we think we’re not
getting anything out of it. For the four living creatures and the twenty four
elders, which coincidently represented God’s angels and saints, respectively;
the basis of joy was in the slain Lamb.
In Jesus, the Lamb, the weight of our
sins is replaced by His weight of sufficiency. Jesus said, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. 29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am
gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew
11:28-29).” We now carry His weight by faith, but that is not a burdensome
task, it is a joyful blessing and honor. It is beautifully said this way in
Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, “We
are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in
despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed-- 10
always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of
Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 12 So then death is working in us,
but life in you (2 Corinthians 4:8-10, 12).
Everyone carries something around. We all
have a weight that leads us to certain actions, beliefs, and outcomes. The
pressure of that weight shapes who we are, what we believe, and finally where we
reside for eternity. The sorrow of our sins is a heavy weight. The desire for
worthiness and the expectations that come along with that, can be over bearing.
You don’t have to choose that weight, everyone has it because of sin. But you
don’t have to carry it either.
But, on the distant horizon, at God’s
throne, in His right hand is that scroll. All of His blessings and work for
mankind, bound up and just waiting to be loosed. What sorrow there is in seeing
the gift yet not having it within reach. Who will go for us? Who will take our
place? The Lion and the Lamb – Jesus. He who once was dead, but now lives. He
who was slain on account of our burdens. Do not weep for Him or for yourself.
By faith, you carry His death and resurrection with you, every day. Not only
has the scroll been opened, but you have access to it every day. Worthy is the
Lamb who was slain. May we always fall down with reverent humility and joy at
His presence, and be thankful for the opportunity on each occasion. Amen.
The peace of God which surpasses all
understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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