Who Rules

All right, well, good morning and welcome. Glad that you are here with us worshiping the Lord, opening up his word, and joining together with God's people as we praise his name. Most of you know that a presidential election is coming up in the next couple of weeks. You're like, all right. Whoa, you're already getting into it, right? And like, wait, we don't wanna go there, right? But the reality is it's happening. I know things get messy during this time of, well, not just this time of year, once every four years in October, once every four years things get a little messy and we need to talk about it. That's the reality, is that we need to talk about it because we are the people of God who are still living in this world. We are the people of God who are still living in this world and we are called to live in a certain way. And so we are diving in today to a new sermon series that we are calling Revelection. Revelection, okay? What we are going to be doing throughout this sermon series is we're gonna be looking at a couple of key passages in the Book of Revelation. I'm gonna screw that up a couple of times today. But we're gonna look at a couple of key passages in the Book of Revelation that are really trying to hone us in on where we belong as citizens. As people who have trusted in Jesus Christ, we are people who have been bought with his blood, we are people who have been purchased by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and bought out of the kingdom of darkness, out of the kingdom of the world, into the kingdom of God. And we are told that even right now, even in this world, we are citizens of the kingdom of God. We live here in a particular place, in a particular country, under a particular government, yet we are first and foremost citizens of a kingdom and it's the kingdom of God where Jesus Christ is the one who reigns. And so we're looking at this, a couple of passages in Revelation that remind us of that so that as we enter into this season in the life of our nation, where we are also citizens, we know how to live first and foremost as citizens of the kingdom of God. Now, I wanna be clear that the Book of Revelation is not about how you should vote, okay? We're not going to tell you who to vote for, the Book of Revelation does not tell you that. And the passage we're looking at today is not about who you should vote for, but the Book of Revelation does tell us where our hope should ultimately lie. Because in this kind of election season, and when election seasons come around, people's hope tends to slip into a place where it shouldn't be, their ultimate hope tends to slip, to be more in a person or a party rather than in a savior, or we look to a person or a party to be our savior. And what we wanna do is make sure that we are not going there. The Bible calls us back constantly to keep our minds, to keep our eyes, to keep our hearts, to keep our entire lives focused on Jesus and his kingdom. We are to first seek the kingdom of God, and everything else will be added on from there. When we look at the Book of Revelation, we find where our hope should ultimately lie. And as we see that, that should guide our thinking and our actions in what we do, not only in this season, but in every season, because it should mold our hearts and keep them set on Christ. Today, I wanna take you to a passage that I turn back to all the time. I turn back to this passage constantly in order to reset, in order to bring myself back to where I know the Lord wants me to be. I turn to this passage when I am in despair over something and I just need hope. I turn to this passage when I need to reset myself. When I find myself forgetting what my life is ultimately to be about, I turn back to this passage to let it reset me. I turn back to this passage often when I feel myself tempted to take the easy route rather than what God calls me to, because sometimes he calls us to take a difficult route and I need the reminder and the encouragement and the hope in order to take it. And I feel like I turn to this passage in some way every time that I am preparing a sermon, it all comes back here, it all reminds me of this passage. And I need to turn back to this passage to be reminded of what I am ultimately to be speaking about, who I am ultimately to be exalting in everything that I say and I do. And the passage reorients me. It's a passage that if you keep it in your mind and in your heart, I think it will change you in many ways as well, and I would encourage you to come back to it. And I hope that I can communicate just a small part of why it gives me so much hope. That passage today is Revelation 5, Revelation 5. You can go ahead and turn there with me. Revelation 5. The Book of Revelation, it really tells us the story of the time that we live in that a lot of people call the already not yet, the already not yet. From the time that Jesus died and rose from the dead and ascended to heaven until the time he returns, we are living in a time that is already not yet. And this is what I mean by that, it's that we already live in the kingdom of God. We are already citizens of the kingdom of God. Jesus is already the king, sovereign over all of creation, and yet he has not yet returned to fully consummate his reign. He has conquered sin and he has conquered death, but he has not yet returned in order to put sin and death away for good. That's the time that we live in. And Revelation tells the story of this already not yet time and it tells the story of what is to come when he does return. We often think that the Book of Revelation is all about the future, it's all about the end times, it's not, it's about what's happening now and it's about what will happen then. And as we look at Revelation 5, we get a picture of hope because Revelation is telling us a story of things that were happening back in the first century when it was written, things that are continuing to happen today in this already not yet period, and things that will happen in the future. And so we can look to it and we can find our hope as we wonder about what is going to happen in the future, we can put our hope in Christ who holds the future. Revelation gives God's people a reason to have hope and to persevere through it all. And what I want us to see in our passage today is this, that Jesus is sovereign over all creation and worthy of all worship. Jesus is sovereign over all of creation and he is worthy of all worship. So this is what we're gonna do, we're gonna read all the way through Revelation 5 and we'll come back and talk about it. So read along with me, it says, "Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?' But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Then one of the elders said to me, 'Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll in its seven seals.' Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God's people. And they sang a new song, saying, 'You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because you were slain, and with your blood, you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.' Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and 10,000 times 10,000. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying, 'Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise.' Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying, 'To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praised and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever.' And the four living creatures said, 'Amen,' and the elders fell down and worshiped." Now, if you're new to the Book of Revelation, that might have been a little weird for you, okay? There's like elders and creatures and scrolls and seals and all these things. And what we have here is the Apostle John receiving a vision from God. And it's full of symbolism and it's full of all sorts of things that we'll talk about as we get into it, but what we are seeing is that Jesus is sovereign over all of creation and worthy of all worship. And so I wanna break that down into two things. First, I want us to see that Jesus is worthy of ruling over all creation. Jesus is worthy of ruling over all of creation. The vision that John is receiving here, it starts back in chapter four. And he starts off in chapter four, verse one, saying this, "After this," after God has spoken some other things to him, "After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, 'Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.'" So this vision is God showing the Apostle John something that is happening in the heavenly realm. Again, we always think that the Book of Revelation is all about the end times and it's always about the future, it's not. In fact, this vision that's happening that John is seeing here, it's happening somewhat outside of time. It kind of supersedes time and is over the whole span of the time from when Jesus rose from the dead until he returns again. It's one big scene that kind of supersedes time. And in chapter four, John tells us of his vision of God the Father sitting on his throne. He sees God the Father sitting on the throne of God. He sits as Lord over all creation, as sovereign over all creation, and being worshiped by all of creation as he sits on the throne. And there's these four creatures and these 24 elders with thrones and they have crowns, all of these symbolic things, and they're all casting their crowns, all of their glory down before the Lord of glory. They're standing or sitting around God with him at the center, giving him all glory and honor and praise. And they're all singing his praises to the one who is worthy of worship. But then in chapter five, the focus changes a little bit. Somebody shows up on the screen or on the scene and it kind of zooms into this figure. We see in this chapter, Jesus stepping into the scene at the right hand of God the Father and receiving all worship and glory and honor and praise right alongside of his Father. In verse one, we see that in the right hand of the Father is this scroll. He says, "Written within and on the back, and it's sealed with seven seals." The scroll that we see here is God's plan for history, it's God's plan for history. It's God, his plan for redemptive history, both in salvation and in judgment. It is what holds what God is planning to do over time in redemption. And the seals are keeping this plan from coming about. And the seals need to be broken in order for the contents of the scroll to take place, in order for God's plan, his redemptive plan, to unfold. And an angel asks, "Who is worthy to break the seals and open this scroll?" In other words, who is worthy of holding the Father's plan of redemption in his hand? Who is worthy of breaking open the Father's plan of salvation and judgment for the world? Who is worthy of it? Who is worthy of ruling over history? Who is worthy of being entrusted with history? And John tells us that there is no one in all of creation who is found to be worthy of such a thing. There is no one in all of creation that is found to be worthy of holding history in their hands. There is no one in all of creation who is found to be worthy of holding God's plan of redemption, of holding God's salvation for sinners in his judgment for sin, in their hands. That means there is no one on earth, no one in heaven, no one anywhere, none of the creatures or elders that are around the throne, there is no one found worthy of holding history in their hands, of being sovereign over the world, of being sovereign over God's plan of redemption. And friends, if that's the case, that's something to grieve over, and that's exactly what the apostle John did in verse four. He says, he couldn't find anyone, "And I wept and I wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside." You see, John knows the state of the world. John looks around and he sees the sinfulness and the brokenness of this world. He looks around and he sees the great need of the world for salvation. And yet, when someone is asked if anybody is worthy, nobody steps up to the plate, nobody can raise their hand. We have a world who is in need, we have a world who is broken, and John is left weeping over it for the moment. So let me just pause right here and ask you, do you ever weep over the state of our world? Do you ever grieve about the way that our world is? Do you ever grieve over the sinfulness, the rebellion against God? Do you ever grieve over the brokenness? I mean, I know we look at the news and we say, man, this is ridiculous, a lot of times, but do you ever grieve over it? Because as believers who love God, as people who love Jesus, who love righteousness and who love mercy, and who love grace and have experienced those things, we should grieve when we see sin, we should grieve when we see brokenness, and we should grieve when we have need. But here's the thing, we don't grieve as people who have no hope for it, we grieve as people who do have hope. We grieve as people who once walked in all of those things and we have found salvation in a savior, and that's what John is told to look to. When we look at verse five, it says, "Then one of the elders said to me, 'Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.'" You see, if you have put your faith in Jesus, then you know the redemption and the salvation, the new life that comes in Jesus from the moment you believe. But here's the thing, is that we have a savior who is one day going to bring redemption and restoration into all of creation. The brokenness, the sinfulness, the things we grieve over now, we grieve them, but we grieve them with hope, knowing that we have a savior who has come, who has died, who has risen again, who has conquered, who has triumphed, as he says in verse five. And that is the savior who is reigning over everything, even right now in this already not yet, and will one day put all the rest away and his reign will be fully consummated. We see Jesus, look at what he says in verse six. "Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders." The Lamb shows up on the scene. Now, it's a little funny because the elder, the guy who was speaking to John, he said, "Weep no more. Behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah." And who shows up? Someone who looks like a lamb. It's funny because a lion and a lamb, they're very different, right? A lion is something that we think of as having power, the king of the jungle, right, we always talk about. He has power, you don't wanna mess with a lion. A lamb is a weak little creature. It's something you can mess with, right? It's a lamb, who cares? It's not gonna do anything to you. And we have this lion who shows up as a lamb. You see, our savior who holds all power in his hands, "Who upholds the universe by the word of his power," says Hebrews 1:3, that very one is the one who showed up into our world as a sacrificial lamb. Now, he wasn't actually a lamb, right? He was a man, God in the flesh. He took on humanity, remaining 100% God, being 100% man, but he showed up to be a sacrifice for our sin. He showed up to take on human flesh and blood so that he could die as a man in our place as a sacrifice for our sin. And so he shows up as a lamb, looking like a lamb in this vision. But John also says that he shows up as lamb who has been slain standing. He looks as though he's been slain, but he's standing. How many of you have seen something get slain and then stand back up again? Somebody in here is a taxidermist and is like, yeah, me, but I'm not talking about stuffed animals, okay, I'm talking about standing up on his own power. That's not what happens, that's not the way that the world works, right? You are slain or you die, you do not stand back up again. But the lamb who was slain is also the lion who has conquered death. The lamb who was slain is the lion who is victorious over sin and death. And he is the one that the scene is zooming in on. He's a lion because he has conquered all, even in his death when men thought they conquered him, he was conquering death and he was conquering sin and its consequences for people. He has conquered death in his resurrection, and now he stands in both his slain sacrifice and his resurrected conquering. He is the one who stands where his sacrifice remains forever, and yet his conquering resurrection remains forever as well. And friends, this is the savior that we worship. This is the savior who we are called to keep our eyes and our minds and our hearts set on in all things. He is the one who is worthy to open the scroll. He is the one who is worthy of holding God's plan for history in his hand because he was slain and he secured salvation for people from every tribe, tongue, and nation, all who will put their faith in him, he saves. He has done it. He has done it. So what we're seeing here is that Jesus is unique in all of history and for all of eternity, he will be unique. He is the only savior of the world because he is the only one who is both God and man. He's the only savior of the world because he's the only one who is both slain lamb and conquering lion. And he's the only savior because he is the only one whose death could cover the sins of people, the only one who has conquered the grave, the only one who is able to reconcile God and man, which is the great need of our world and is the great need that each one of us have. And therefore, he's the only one worthy of opening the scroll, he's the only one worthy of reigning and ruling over all of creation. But if we're not careful, church, I want you to listen to me here, if we're not careful, we can find ourselves setting all of our hope on someone in creation. We can easily slip into it. We can find ourselves setting our hope on someone in creation where when the angel asked, who is worthy to open the scroll, we tend to put our hope in people who stayed silent, knowing full well not to raise their hand, knowing full well that they are not worthy, knowing full well that they cannot rule and reign over creation. We have a savior who does, but we can easily slip into putting our hope in someone who is found to be unworthy, or, or on the other hand, we might put all of our fears into someone in creation. We might put all of our fears into someone, thinking, man, if this person gets into any kind of power, if this party gets into power, well, then it's all over. And I don't know what we're gonna do, everything's gonna come to an end. And we start thinking these crazy things. But friends, we have a savior who reigns and rules over all of creation. He is the one that we put our hope in and he is the one who casts out fear of anything else as we put our hope in him. e start thinking these crazy things. But friends, we have a savior who reigns and rules over all of creation. He is the one that we put our hope in and he is the one who cast out fear of anything else as we put our hope in him. Now, I say that, but I also wanna say that people, especially people in power, can do really good things and they can do really bad things. People make real decisions that have a real effect on history. I mean, we can look back at history, we can see it, we can look around today, we can see it. We'll walk out today, we'll make decisions that are gonna have effect on people. People make real decisions that have a real effect. They can do things that bring a lot of good for people and things that can bring a lot of harm. People can do things, especially people in power, can do things that can take part in bringing human flourishing or they can take part in crushing it. People and their decisions have a real effect on history. So when you are thinking about the privilege and responsibility that you have as a citizen of a nation where you get to vote, you should take that seriously. It's a great privilege that we get to do that, it's a great responsibility that we do that, and we must take that responsibility seriously, but we must do it knowing that no one else in all of creation is worthy of our hope. They're not worthy of our hope, there's only one person in all of creation who is worthy of that, because the Bible tells us that our hope is eternal and it's beyond temporary things. And because no one else in all of creation is able to bring about the redemptive plan of God, our hope should be found in the one who has done it, in Jesus Christ. He has died for our sin, he is the lamb who was slain, but he is also rose to conquer death, he is the lion who has risen, and therefore Jesus is worthy of ruling over all creation. And because of that, we also see that Jesus is worthy of worship from all creation. Jesus is worthy of ruling over all creation, he's worthy of worship of all creation. We see that all of the songs in chapter five have shifted to Jesus being at the center. And it's interesting because in chapter four, John told us that all these creatures and elders never cease to give glory to God, but now they're giving glory to the Lamb, they're giving glory to Jesus. But both of the things are true, they still don't stop giving glory to God because Jesus is God the Son. Remember, we worship the triune God, three persons, all equally and eternally God, only one God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. And as the focus shifts onto Jesus, God the Father is still glorified. He's still glorified in every song, he's still glorified in all of creation, because he is the one who has sent his one and only son in order that we may be saved. Friends, all of the worship is being centered on God. God the Father has planned redemption. Jesus, God the Son, has accomplished redemption. And God the Spirit is applying redemption into our lives as he continually sanctifies us, continually lives inside of us and changes us and molds us. And we see by the end of this chapter and the last song that we find in verse 13, look at what it says, "Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying, 'To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever.'" And in verse 14 we see everybody, they fall down and they worship, they fall down and they worship. They are worshiping the one who is in control. They are worshiping the one who has conquered. They are worshiping the one who is ruling over creation now and forevermore. They are worshiping him. And when we find ourselves in different situations, and particularly I have found that when we find ourselves in an election cycle, we have to ask ourselves, who are we worshiping and who are we putting our trust in? 'Cause, friends, I'm afraid that a lot of times when politics get involved, it becomes a worship problem, it becomes an idolatry problem. And we can easily slip into it. You can find yourself not meaning to get there, but you can easily slip into it. And I think as we go through this season where we're considering who to vote into leadership, we have to ask ourselves, are we voting or are we worshiping? Because voting is good, worshiping anyone other than Jesus is not, and we can often get the two mixed up. Maybe another way to ask it is, are we participating in our civic responsibilities to put good leadership into place, or are we participating in idol worship where we are lifting someone up too much, where we are lifting someone up higher than they should be? See, emperor worship was a major background of the Book of Revelation. A lot of what the Book of Revelation is talking about is aimed at emperor worship. In first-century Rome where the emperors were beginning to be seen as deities, where they were beginning to expect that people do some form of worship to them, burning incense at an altar for the emperor, bowing down to the emperor, all these sorts of things, this is a big part of the background of the Book of Revelation. And the book is encouraging us to stay away from it, to keep our worship 100% on Christ. But what Roman was saying was, man, if you would just burn just a little bit of incense toward the emperor, it doesn't have to be much, you don't even have to tell anybody else you did it. Just burn a little bit of incense at the altar of the emperor, then we'll let you free, you can go on with your life. You won't lose your property, you won't lose your life, we'll let you continue on. Just burn a little bit of incense, just a slight turning away of faithfulness, a slight turning away, just 1% of your worship turning to the emperor, that's enough for us, that's enough for us. Because here's the subtlety that was in that. The subtlety was that they would not only be worshiping the emperor a little bit, they would be looking to the emperor for his salvation rather than Christ. You see, when they say things like burn the incense or lose your property, then you have an option. Who am I looking to for salvation? Am I looking for Christ that I may lose all my property, but I will still have salvation in him, or am I looking to the emperor to save me and my property? Bow down to the emperor just a little bit, give him just a little bit of worship and you won't lose your life. Now the choice is, do I worship Christ 100% as he calls me to do and I find his salvation not in this life, but in eternity, or do I give in a little to the emperor and look to his salvation to save my life? The Book of Revelation is calling us to be 100% on Jesus, when it comes to worship, to be 100% on Jesus. That doesn't mean that we don't have people that we can vote for, it doesn't mean that we don't have people that we would prefer and we would try to put in place, but the question is, are we bowing down at their feet? Are we bowing down to whatever it is and making sure we throw everything else, we're willing to throw everything else out the window to make sure that this person gets in place? It's a tough question. I think there's a couple of questions we can ask ourselves to see just where we're at. The first one is this, are you giving your full allegiance to a party or a candidate? Are you giving your full allegiance to a party or a candidate? Let me ask you this, are you willing to say or to call out anything wrong about the person you're gonna vote for? Are you willing to say, no, sir, that's wrong, or, no, ma'am, that's wrong? Are you willing to do that? If not, you might be slipping into the idolatry side. Because our hearts and our minds are to be set on Jesus, and Jesus is the righteous one, Jesus is the one who calls for righteousness, for us to walk in righteousness, for us to speak truth and to speak righteousness no matter what. And what I find is so often we're unwilling to call out what is wrong because we don't want to put any negative on the person that we want to win or any negative on the party that we want to win. But friends, we are not citizens of a party, we are citizens of a kingdom, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of righteousness. Are you giving full allegiance to a party or a candidate, or are you giving your full allegiance to the kingdom of God? Question number two, do you vote, but you don't pray? And what I mean is this. First of all, do you even pray about who you should be voting for, or do you just vote along party lines? Do you vote because somebody else told you who you should vote for? Do you just vote because that's your preference, or do you take it to the Lord? Do you pray? But second, even more than that, do you vote for the issues that you wanna see come about, but you never pray, asking God to bring those issues about? Issues that you wanna see come about or issues that you wanna see come to an end, we put all of our trust, if I just put this person in place, they'll do it, but do you ever pray about it? Do you ever go to the Lord over all creation, the Lord who rules and reigns? Do you ever go to him about the issues, or do you just put all of your hope in man? Last question. How are you gonna talk if your candidate loses? How are you gonna talk if your candidate wins? Are you going to speak like Jesus? In fact, how do you talk right now before they even lose or win? How are you speaking to people? What are you saying about people? Is it the same way that Jesus would talk about them? Is it perpetuating truth or is it perpetuating lies so that you can get the outcome that you want? Friends, it can be so easy to slip into idol worship when it comes to politics. The enemy, Satan, he has schemes and they're subtle and they're small, but we are called to look to Jesus and we are called to be like Jesus and we are called to speak like Jesus. What if instead of looking like the rest of the world in this election cycle, what if instead we spoke the gospel into whatever situation we find ourselves in? What if instead of looking like the rest of the world, we spoke with truth and boldness and grace no matter what, no matter who it is that we need to speak against? What if instead of looking like the rest of the world, we were so enraptured by the beauty and the glory and the goodness of the risen savior who is reigning over all things, the one who will one day set all things right no matter how hard they are now? what if we were looking to him in all things? What if we were so enraptured and so enthralled by Jesus that it gave us hope in this world and beyond this world so that we really lived differently in this world? What if we look to him like that? What if we were neither too pessimistic nor too optimistic about whoever wins? What if we could show people to trust in Jesus no matter whoever wins? What if we could speak truth and be a prophetic voice into our culture no matter whoever wins? What if we could show the glory and beauty of Jesus and his salvation above all things no matter who wins? What if we were a people like that? What if that's who God called us to be? Friends, it is, it is who he's called us to be, it is what he has called us to do, it is how he has called us to speak. Friends, when we are captured by the beauty of Jesus Christ and the glory of God in his salvation, then we can live within our civil responsibilities in this world and yet still have our full hope and trust in the king of all creation, but we have to have our eyes and our minds and our hearts set fully on him. That's why I love this passage in Revelation, because in everything, it points us back to Christ as the center. Friend, I wanna ask you, is Christ at the center of your life? Whatever the season may be, election, whether it's you're walking through hardship, whether you're walking through a great time in your life, whatever the season may be, is Christ at the center? Are you focused on him? I would invite you, as I love to do, turn back to this passage often and be recentered on Christ because we live in the already not yet where Christ is already king, but he has not yet fully consummated it, he's not yet put away all sin and evil for good. We live in the midst of it and we need to keep our eyes and our hearts focused on him. Friends, let's be a church who does that, let's be a church who is centered on him.