Now Everybody Sing! Rev, 5:11-14
Revelation 5:11-14 · Vern Peterman · Feb 3, 2002
Revelation (2001-03), No. 19
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262240262952

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Before we begin turning to those last several verses of Revelation 5, I thought it would be a good time for us to take a little bit to gain the right perspective and make sure we're looking at things right. First, I just want to bring up, we've had a few folks ask questions about this or that particular passage as we've been going through the book of Revelation here.

Actually, I'd just like to say that that's a good thing. We want to encourage people to go ahead and ask questions and to think these things through. I wouldn't be afraid to ask a question because, in fact, if you're thinking of a question, there's a good chance that somebody else is thinking of it, too. And even if they haven't thought about it, they might be pleasantly surprised at the question you came up with and be very interested in the answer anyway. So at any rate, just make sure we facilitate that. In your bulletin, you've got a card and the idea is to go ahead and write the questions down. You can put them in the offering box in the back or you can give them directly to me or you can just come up and ask me the question, that's fine. But I'd like to have a chance to bring some of these questions to the fore here just so that if people have those kinds of questions, they get answered.

So at any rate, if you have questions, feel free to go ahead and fire away. If they're really, really difficult questions, ask Hal. He's good at those. But truthfully, there's nothing I can think of that would be better than to have us come away with a good, thorough understanding of the book of Revelations, not with lingering questions in our minds, but fully understanding the Word of God here.

The next thing I'd like to go to is just somebody this last week asked a really good question. And so I'd like to take a look at that. And the question came across like this. Why did the Lord have John write about the 24 elders, those are the ones that represent the glorified church, instead of describing a large crowd of believers? Good question. The answer is, well, we don't know exactly why.

But here are some possibilities that I think are good and biblical. One is the 24 elders being precisely the number of the representatives of the Old Testament priesthood. These are the ones that David appointed. That might have reinforced the idea among the believers then of the priesthood of believers.

That was also talked about in Revelation 1.6 and 5.10 earlier in the same chapter. The other reason is that these representatives of the priesthood were first selected and appointed by David. And perhaps there was some intent to focus on David. As we've already seen in the book of Revelation, he's been mentioned previously and will be mentioned again. And David is an important personage. He's mentioned over 1,100 times in the Bible.

And so perhaps that was one of the reasons. Another reason is maybe the idea of just describing a large crowd might not sound intimate. And perhaps his intention, John's intention of conveying this, symbolizing it with these 24 elders as representatives of the whole church, may have conveyed more intimacy. In truth, in the final analysis, John doesn't say why, and so we have to leave these as speculations. But I pose those to you as possible answers, and it could be that all three are possible as to why John would have selected it, and all three are within the realms of biblical understanding.

But one thing I think may be apparent, as we walk through heaven's gates, we may say, well, of course. That's why. Now it makes perfect sense. And I'm sure there'll be a lot of things that'll be like that, except for one thing. Quite likely, we won't be thinking of our questions as we walk through heaven's gates. Now, there's another thing, too, I think is helpful, because we're coming to kind of a critical juncture here. I think it's helpful also for us to take a look at where we're at in the study of the book. We've been studying, believe it or not, for four and a half months through the book of Revelation.

Does it seem like that long? Anyway, four and a half months we've been going through it, and these sections in red are what we've covered all the rest of the book here is what we have yet to cover. And by the way, if you had a little difficulty reading this, this is like the first handout, so you can catch up to it afterwards. The literature rack in the lobby has more copies of it. But the idea is we're actually less than one quarter of the way done, even at four and a half months. And to me it's taking long enough that it almost assures that the Lord will be coming back before we're done. But we'll proceed with that anyway.

The other thing, just to kind of get a look ahead here, is here's our message schedule, which is going to kind of change from the pace of continuously going through Revelation. Today we're going to be finishing up this chapter 5. Next week we've got a special subject in the works. We're going to take a one-week detour from Revelation. And then we're going to be going the next week after that, taking a look back into the book of Daniel, because Daniel kind of lays out the pattern for the tribulation period, okay? So we'll be examining that two weeks from now. And then at the last Sunday of the month, Steve Dupuis, our missionary to Russia, will be visiting with us.

So we'll have that as the pattern. Just to kind of give you a look ahead at what we'll be doing in the weeks to follow here. Now, one more big picture thing. you have on your handout, the big picture. And I want to go over that, because as we're going through these, I don't want us to get lost in the detail. I want to keep the big picture of what is taking place and what's going to take place.

The first thing, this is where John wrote the book of Revelation. It was just prior to the end of the first century AD. He was, so far as we're aware, the last living apostle, now writing the last book of the New Testament and of all of Scripture. We have been living for the centuries since the time of Christ in what is called the Church Age or the Church Dispensation. We are, and notice I didn't put a time at it, but I would guesstimate we're living towards the end of that Church Age. But this blue arrow there indicates you're living here.

The next event to take place is the rapture of the church, the taking up of the church to be with the Lord. That's the next event. These heavenly scenes that we've been looking at in chapters 4 and 5 are quickly going to turn, as we turn the page into chapter 6, we're going to see the beginning of the tribulation period. That's the seven-year period of time. And one of the things we'll be looking at in Daniel is where they come up with the seven years. We'll be looking at that and seeing how that dovetails with Revelation. The next thing after that will be the Millennium. That's just simply the Latin for a thousand-year period of time. Christ's reign on earth. We, though not earthly beings, will reign with Him. And then following that, the Into Eternity.

And so that's kind of to give us the big picture, right now we're reading right here. We are in terms of the time to come on the brink of the tribulation period. That's the section we're reading in here. And then one more perspective to take a look at, and you've also got this on your handout and we've been looking at it as we go along. Once we complete this passage, we'll be but one verse away from from a change of scene. One of the things we pointed out in the past is that the book of Revelation, written like a musical score, it syncopates between earth and heaven, earth and heaven, earth and heaven, with some minor variations, about eight syncopations back and forth between those. And what we're going to see as we read this morning, as we study it, is we're going to see the very last of the heavenly scene, because chapter 6 verse 1 is going to be the last little bit of the heavenly scene and is going to precipitate things on earth, will be changing into the earthly scene, we will have completed the longest of these heavenly scenes in terms of the length of time and the amount of verses spent on the heavenly scene.

But, I think there's something to keep in mind as we go through this here. Even as we sink into the Tribulation period, because we're going to get there in a few weeks ahead, as we sink into the Tribulation period, during that time Christ is still in the heavenlies, all through the Tribulation.

And during that time we are still and always will be with Christ. While it appears that we'll be aware of earthly things in some way, our focal point will be on Christ Himself. I think that's important to keep in mind. The focal point will be on Christ. It'll be Christ first and foremost. You see, it isn't just I'm going to heaven. We're not really just going to a place. It's who we're going to be with. That's what counts. It isn't a place, it's a person. And it's the person of Jesus Christ.

Now, just a little side note, a number of you may have heard of or even read the Left Behind series, Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. Interesting set of books. My wife read all of them that have come out so far. I read the first one, but I don't have time for it.

At any rate, the one thing I would say about it, and it presents a lot of real interesting things, and some of it is speculative, and obviously you're just kind of filling in the blanks on what isn't stated. The one thing that I would say, and this chart kind of reinforces it, the Left Behind series is almost entirely earthly.

The truth is that what I want us to come away with as we study the book of Revelation, is an understanding of and appreciation for those heavenly scenes. Because that's where we're going to be. You get the difference? The heavenly scenes is where those who have put their trust in Christ for salvation are going to be. We're not going to be where these tribulation events are taking place. So I think that's just a perspective to keep in mind as we proceed through here. It's heaven with Christ where we're going to be, not where these ghastly and horrendous events are taking place. Okay, that having been said, let's proceed.

In Revelation 5.11, John writes, and he says, Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, and the living creatures, and the elders, and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands. Now notice John tells us here both that he saw and that he heard. And that's the sort of thing you'd expect from an eyewitness, which is exactly what John was. But notice something that may be a little bit unexpected.

John describes three categories of creatures, and the number of them is great, and yet John writes that they say this with one voice. Notice that? They say this with one voice, singular. In spite of their great number, they all speak in unity of message and expression. As for the angels, they are initially described as being many in number, and we know about the living creatures that there are four, and we know about the elders that there are twenty-four. And yet, John describes their count here as myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands.

Now, a myriad is not a number we use too often, is it? As a matter of fact, I don't remember Carl Sagan when he was around, he used to say billions and billions. He didn't say myriads and myriads, right? So it's not a number we come up with, but myriads is basically a transliteration of the Greek, coming into plural form.

In the singular, it means 10,000, which is the largest number in the Greek numbering system. But it was frequently used as kind of a figure of speech. If they said myriads, even though it had a specific number, it was like, this is a big number, it's countless. It's just really huge. Lots and lots. We would use, in English, we might say something like, gee, there was a gazillion of them. Something like that. Or there were jillions of them. It's that kind of a statement. It's the idea you're communicating lots of them, a great number, way beyond counting. Then, John doesn't stop there. That's not enough to just say there's myriads and myriads. He adds on to that thousands of thousands. Thousands of thousands.

Then, as human beings, of course, we're impressed and perhaps overwhelmed by these huge numbers, numbers which are beyond our time and our patience for counting. Ever tried counting to high numbers? Oh, drives you nuts after a while. And beyond our ability to grasp, even just after a while we kind of get conceptual, and we don't instantly think, oh, 10,000, I know what that is, and we think in our mind of 10,000. No, we just kind of get conceptual after it gets to be too many. I don't know about you, but, you know, I run out of fingers. Okay?

Both at the astronomical level and at the microscopic level, we can end up with numbers that are just boggling the human mind. When you start talking about how many stars there are in our galaxy, and how many galaxies there are, you end up with numbers that are just way beyond our ability to grasp. Or even at the microscopic level, we can end up looking at how many cells there are in the human body. Looking at how many atoms there are in a cubic foot of ocean water.

Even those kind of numbers kind of boggle our mind. And John's at similar limits. He's looking at this massive number and he's, wow, how do I tell people what this looks like? How do I begin to explain this? You see, his counting meter is pegged. He's gone to his limits. So he's coming up with a way of explaining it. He says, He doesn't just say, this is a myriad. He says, myriads of myriads.

And, on top of that, in case you didn't get the idea, thousands and thousands. Thousands of thousands. A huge number. Probably more than we'll even watch the Super Bowl. But, what's amazing, these kind of numbers boggle our mind, but you know what doesn't boggle God's mind at all? He created these beings. And not only that, He just said it, and it was. He just said it, and it was.

Even when we look at something like Genesis 1.16, Genesis 1.16 explaining the creation of the universe, here's all these incredible stars, and we have astronomers that are still baffled and pondering the significance of all these celestial beings. Genesis 116 says He created the stars also. It's sort of an afterthought. It's a bonus. Just throw it in. The Lord, in a spoken word, can create those. He created these beings as well with His spoken word. And it's done. God is not boggled by this.

Which I think is valuable for us to take a look at. Have you had anything happen in the last year that kind of boggled your mind? Kind of blew your circuits? Maybe go farther back than that if you want to. But things that blow our mind, that cause us to get anxious, that cause us to get to the point where we can't even fathom it, maybe cause us to get concerned, worried, afraid.

God's not afraid. His mind's not blown. He's the one who created them. So God isn't overwhelmed, but John is. Let's take a look at what this overwhelming number of beings is doing. Verse 12. Verse 12 tells us that they were saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. So what John heard, he tells us, he heard with a loud voice. As a matter of fact, the Greek words behind that reverse from where we end up getting our phrase megaphone. Okay? Phone and megalend. Okay? Megaphone.

That shouldn't surprise us, given that there's a huge number of beings that are speaking at one time and with a singular voice. Loud voice, that makes sense. Now, I would suggest to you that it does us good to begin to get accustomed to this scene here. Every believer in Christ during this age will be looking at this scene and be participating. This is not about somebody else, but it's about us. It's about you and me. We'll be a part of that singular loud voice that we're reading about here.

Together, these countless creatures, vast in number, are saying in one voice that the lamb is worthy. The Greek word order here places the emphasis on worthy. That's why a lot of the translations will start out, worthy is the lamb. Notice who is being described as worthy.

It's the lamb. As we noticed last week, John uses the Greek word here, Arneon, which means the little lamb. The little lamb. This one singular little lamb is the one that's worthy. It's his worthiness that is a result of who he is and what he has done. He is the little lamb who was slaughtered for our iniquities. He wasn't just slain accidentally. It was very deliberate and it was very purposeful. It was eternally purposeful.

Revelation 5.19 has already told us why the little lamb is worthy. It's because he was slain. Now, let's make sure we make note of what the Little Lamb is worthy of, because it's spelled out here real clearly. It says, to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. Now, first, let's notice how many things are listed there. Have you noticed that? There's seven. Last week, we said that seven was the number of totality and completeness. As revealed from the very first pages of Scripture, into now the very last book.

And even apart from the specific things that are listed, and we'll certainly take a look at them, the number that he lists here indicates the totality and completeness of his worthiness. He deserves it all. He deserves everything. Get the picture there? Now, as you have on your handout, similarly, These are the words that are spelled out, the seven words. Dunaman is the authority to rule over things. It's due in part to his nature, character and identity, and also in part due to what he has uniquely done.

Riches. Pluton is the wealth and abundance. He's really the originator of all things. He doesn't need it in the sense of We need material things to support us, but everything is due Him. It is due Him because, again, of who He is and what He has done. The next, Sopheon, he is eminently wise.

There are a lot of times when people question, you know, why did God allow this, or why did God do that? I saw a poll recently, and it was taken among both believers and unbelievers. And some 12% of the population that answered this poll, and it was some tens of thousands of people, some 12% said that they frequently or constantly are asking why God allowed this and that. And the point here is the Lord has wisdom.

He knows the beginning from the end. It is He who is able to determine what is ultimately wise because He knows all things. He has the full perspective. The next one. Iskan is the ability to accomplish. He not only has the wisdom, he has the ability to accomplish it and do it. And that is due him for what he has done. And honor. He is highly esteemed. But even beyond that, glory. Doxa. It's the highest attribution of honor because glory is who he is. It is his intrinsic radiance. Glory is something that we as human beings can have. For the Lord, it is about who He is, not just what He has.

And finally, blessing. Eulogion. And that word is actually a compound, and it means good work. Okay? Good work. Giving back to Him in message the very character of who He is. Okay? That's what it's meant by blessing here. Now, having seen this great gathering of heavenly creatures, and seeing what they're saying, what I thought we'd do is let's go ahead and pause and worship the Lord now for what He is. Just with one song, okay? Why don't you stand with me? Now, I'm going to have my wife come up and help me because she keeps me straight on these things.

To the Lamb upon the throne be the praise forevermore, be the power and the glory be the strength and majesty. We worship you, O Lamb of God, the Living Word, We lift up your name and worship you. Ancient of days, we give you praise. O Lamb upon the throne, Son of God, Son of Man, You became this spotless love. Suffering for me, You showed me mercy. Now you reign in majesty. We worship you, O Lamb of God, the Living Word. We lift up your name and worship you. Ancient of days, we give you praise. O Lamb upon the throne.

Then let's take a look here at verse 13. Verse 13 says, And every created thing which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, To him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing, and honor, and glory, and dominion forever and ever. Now there is a lot here. So let's take it one piece at a time.

Now, up to now, all the voices that have been speaking, as we've been reading through Revelation 4 and 5, up to now, all the voices have been heavenly voices, haven't they? It's been the angels, it's been the four living creatures, it's been the 24 elders, and those are the beings we've heard from. Now something changes. Something else is happening, too. We see a widening as we go through these different verses in chapters 4 and 5 of the numbers of creatures and the kinds of creatures, the extent of the creatures that are giving praise to the Lord. And that shows up like this. There's an expanding sequence of praise and adoration.

And the first there is the four living creatures. We see them as we begin in chapter 4. And then in 4.11 we see the 24 elders show up. And then in 5, 9, and 10, there's four living creatures and 24 elders together. We saw that earlier in this very same chapter. Right after that, what we've just read about earlier this morning, we see the four living creatures, 24 elders, and all angels.

And now we have this kind of maximum, this crescendo that's taking place, the ultimate widening of praise from all these creatures We have the four living creatures, the 24 elders, all angels, and the earthly created beings. So we have this widening as we progress through this passage. Now, there is something similar that gives us some insight into this in what Paul wrote in Romans 8, 18-23.

He wrote this, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God." Do you get the idea there? Creation is in anticipation of the revealing of the sons of God.

Verse 20, For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. See, even the creation itself, since the time of Adam, Even the creation itself has been subjected to something that it is looking to be released from. And so these creatures are not just saying this because the Lamb created, but because of what the Lamb has done, creation will be released. And so creation itself has reason, has grounds for expressing joy and giving glory to the Lamb. This redemption of our bodies, is not just something that we're looking forward to. All creation is looking to this and it's looking to us and what God is going to be doing in us as a pivotal point for creation's own release.

Isn't that amazing? And it's expressing that glory and giving the Lord adoration and praise in anticipation of that even at this place we read now. Now, notice the amazing thing that takes place here in the last half of verse 13. It says, "...to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever." Now the most notable thing here is that the worship due to the One sitting on the throne, the Heavenly Father, is also due to the Lamb, to the Little Lamb as well. You see that? There's no differentiation in the praise and honor and glory given to the Father as to what is given, not to the Son, the Lamb. This is, to me, just clear and definite proof. Christ is not just a created being who is somehow being exalted, but He is deity. And that's being just expressly declared here.

We will see in the chapters that lie ahead two places where John, not understanding who people are and what's going on in front of him, begins to worship angels. And the angels say, oh no, not me. I'm not the one that's due the glory. I'm not the one that's due the worship. Worship God. But notice here, the Lamb doesn't say, oh no, don't worship me. Worship God. The Lamb accepts and receives the glory right along with them. Jesus is deity, not something less.

Notice three out of the four expressions of praise in what we just read here, in 13, are identical to what we just read of the seven areas or domains of praise and glory given to the Lamb alone. Now, in fact, there are a great many places in the book of Revelation, and I mean a great many, that speak of the deity of Christ. And John has done this both in his gospel and now is doing it again in the book of Revelation. And here's just a brief sampling, small sampling.

John 10.30 is where Jesus says, I and the Father are one. So what we just saw here, what we just read in verse 13 makes perfect sense, doesn't it? I and the Father are one. As we look ahead in chapters ahead, and we'll be looking at a lot of different places, but here's some for instances. The Father and the Lamb, are the singular temple. The Father and the Lamb are the source of light. The Father and the Lamb are on a single throne. The Father and the Lamb have the same name.

See those? And there are numerous places we'll be looking at as we proceed through Revelation where the deity of our Lord is very apparent. So this is just a small sampling and as we continue on we'll be taking a look at those. In verse 14 says this, And the four living creatures kept saying, Amen, and the elders fell down and worshipped. Now this, we've just completed the longest heavenly scene in the book of Revelation. This description of these scenes ends in 5.14 with the four living creatures saying, Amen. Amen isn't just something that people have come up with.

It is actually a Hebrew word, and that Hebrew word has the root meaning of to be firm, stable, sure, established, and trustworthy. So this word is being used by the four living creatures to acknowledge everything that was said. Everything that was said is true. It was something that was also used because amen, at the end of a legal document in those days, meant this is certified as true.

They would write that at the end of the document. And what is happening, remember as we went through the seven-sealed scroll, that scroll wasn't just something that was invented, it was something that both the Romans and the Jews knew of. Each of them had a practice of seven seals on the scroll. In each case, the scroll was a legal document.

So to have these four living creatures say amen was not just A nice religious thing to say. It was a legal certification by these creatures that Jesus was indeed worthy to take the scroll and open its seals. Okay? So it's legal validity to what is about to take place. Jesus was worthy to open those seals, to open the book, and have everything that followed after take place. And these creatures are testifying to that fact. They're, in a sense, certifying, this is indeed the one who is qualified. This lamb is indeed worthy, in every sense.

And then the pattern that we saw before takes place again. The elders respond. And the sense that comes out of the original language, the Greek here, is that this doesn't just happen once, it keeps on happening. It keeps taking place. And we've seen that already when we see the elders and the four living creatures responding in praise.

So this is a continuation. But something else I think we have to keep coming back to. This isn't somebody else. This is us. We are there. He's describing what you and I are going to be doing and living and experiencing. Because we're there. And so here's the elders, and let's look at what he says they do. They will be continually falling down and worshipping. Without arm twisting and coercion, it's not like, okay you guys, now it's time. None of that. Instead, no. They get this overwhelming sense of this is precisely what is to happen. This makes perfect sense in the context of what what they see.

Here is the Lamb. This is the One that we've been looking for. This is the One who redeemed us. We see His glory and power and honor. It makes perfect sense for us to be falling down and worshiping Him. To worship anew the Lord of glory again and again and again.

And you get the sense as you read through this that the elders just get through praising and they get up and it's just time to fall down again. They just get through, and it just seems overwhelmingly obvious, now it's time to worship again. And again. And again. And again. They worship this glorified little Lamb of God. This little Lamb of God who is about to open seven seals. Let's pray. Lord, as we come before you, we are in awe of this scene. This scene that is not about somebody else, but this is about us. Us, most importantly, with you. Most importantly, adoring you. Most importantly, Lord, worshipping you.

And Lord, as we read this, I just pray that we would not pass on it and let it drift from our minds, but instead would fix it in our minds. As John has told us repeatedly, behold, behold, behold. That we would look at it and take a mental picture. Because while we spend some 70 years, more or less, down here, Lord, we will spend eternity worshiping you. And how much better. We just ask that you would draw our hearts and minds to that. In Jesus' name, Amen.