Seven seals - Revelation 5:1-5
Revelation 5:1-5 · Kurt Katzorke · Apr 12, 2009
Revelation (2009), No. 15
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492613077922

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

Alright, so the verses here are in chapter 5, and we'll go 1-5. He says, I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals? And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it. Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found to be worthy to open the book or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, stop weeping. Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals." All right. Now, in our scheme of where we're at in the book of Revelation, we're in one of our heavenly scenes here. We'll be looking at still far more, about a hundred verses in the heavenly scene.

And for we who believe, this is where we are now positionally seated with Christ, having believed in Christ alone for salvation. And this account that John's giving us is, you know, this is an eyewitness first-hand account that he's given to us. And it's really just a really neat picture of what's going on in the heavenlies. John gets the privilege to go up there and see it. We're going to see some of his humanity come out in these verses for this morning where he's just kind of befuddled by what's going on. But let's jump in and take a look at it here.

He says, I saw at the right hand of him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals. And this first phrase here, I saw, kind of like we were talking about just a moment ago, a really powerful message that John is, this is eyewitness information, first-hand testimony.

We're getting a reliable, first-hand report of what God specifically intended for John to pass on to us. This book of Revelation is the last revelation from the Lord. There will be no other specific revelation from God in our times. This is it. This is the final revelation, and John's telling us about what he's seeing in the heaven he's seen.

And then this phrase, in the right hand, is one that's used about 126 times in Scripture, and this is the fifth of eight times that it's going to be used in Revelation. And any time that this phrase, this right hand, is brought up, it's not incidental, it's important, it's there for a reason. And the right hand is telling us that this document is a document of power, authority, and significance. So the fact that God is holding in His right hand on the throne really gives us an idea of how important this document is. And John is going to understand that. John sees it in the right hand of God and he understands the importance of the document.

And then we know from verses 5 through 7 who the book is being handed to. It's being handed to Jesus Christ the Lord. So God the Father is handing this book to Christ the Lord. And this makes sense because in Acts 1-6-7, Christ told us that it's the Father's place to determine the time for these events to begin.

And what we're seeing now is John's out in the future and he's seeing these future events taking place now. This is his narrative of what he's seeing going on and these things starting to unfold. You know, something, just taking a look at this. In fact, it had to do with your wedding.

Thinking about it, in the Jewish wedding ceremony and how that takes place, the father is the one who tells the groom, go get your bride. And he calls the time. And this is the time just following that. when in the heavenly scenes he passes the sealed scroll. This all fits in with God the Father is the one who calls the time. He's calling the shots and we're getting to see some of it unfold here. God the Father is sitting on the throne because it's rightfully His. It's rightfully God the Father's place. And we're coming up on a point where we're going to see some judgment and God is sitting on His throne getting ready for this.

Now our word here that is translated, book, It would be better translated to scroll. What I have here on the overhead is... This is kind of a book like we would have now. It's bound on one side. You've got multiple pages. I mean, we've all got books here in the pews in front of us. But at the time that John wrote this, books like this didn't exist. Books like this didn't start getting made until just shortly after he wrote the Book of Revelation.

What it's more like is a scroll. This is a Dead Sea Scroll, the Book of Isaiah. And then on this next page, this is a scroll that's bound up and it's got seals on it. So this is more like what John's talking about here, would be a scroll along these lines where the individual page is put together and it just keeps getting rolled up and rolled up and rolled up until the book is finished and then they would seal it up, something like this. But as far as books like this, Not something that would have been around at that point in time wasn't made until, like I said, just shortly after the Book of Revelation was written.

And then it says here that he saw writing on both sides. One-sided writing would typically have typically have the writing bound up inside and the scroll exposed until the seals were open. Two-sided writing inside it and on the back would be showing that a portion of the scroll was visible. This might indicate that the scroll was very full, so it had a load of information in it. And that's why we might see that the writing on both sides is that it's just so full of information that it's just more than the scroll could even hold. So it was like a thick or heavy book in our vernacular.

And then this scroll that we have up on the screen here, this is a sealed document from ancient times, unopened and sealed four times. This particular one happens to be sealed by a few officials who lived during the time of Jeremiah, confirming the accuracy of the scriptures with the right names in the right place. Probably similar to what John would have seen. And then here's some insight into these seven seals.

Making a will included a ceremony involving a testator, one making the will and seven witnesses. A very reliable friend was selected who would, for a coin, purchase the property for the family, and this is in Greek times. The property would then become property of a friend. Upon the death of the testator, a friend would return the property to the rightful heirs.

For such a document, a long scroll of parchment was used. The writer of the document would begin writing and after a period he would stop, roll up the parchment enough to cover his words, then seal the scroll with wax. Then he could resume writing, stop, seal another portion, and so on until the entire scroll was sealed.

And only a worthy person, one with the right credentials, could open the seals and read the inheritance. So this is kind of what we're seeing. That was the Greek tradition with scrolls and wills and things along those lines. And only one who was worthy to open it with the right credentials had the right to do it.

From a Jewish mindset, if a Jewish family were to lose its property or possessions by some kind of misfortune or distress, Their losses were listed in a scroll. And the scroll was then sealed seven times, so familiar to what we've got going on here today. And the conditions necessary for that Jewish family to purchase back the land and their possessions were written on the outside of the scroll. And that's another reference to written inside and on the back.

When a qualified redeemer could be found who could meet the requirements of the reclamation, the one who had the property taken was required to return it to the original owner. So that was part of the Jewish law. The obvious analogy is Lord Jesus is the reliable friend who has purchased the redemption and is is here seen opening the seals which provided the inheritance.

Further, this would produce what was used to keep unauthorized persons from opening the seven-sealed scroll, and only a worthy person, the one with the right credentials, could open the seals, read the inheritance, and give to the inheritors. Both the Greek and the Jewish mindset really match up well with what these scrolls were about. and what Christ was about to do with them as far as doling out inheritance. He was the only one worthy to open them. The only one in the right position to take care of what needed to be taken care of with these scrolls.

This one particular one. Does anybody have any stand? The word worthy, you know, it says here who is fully and uniquely qualified. Do you know exactly what they mean by worthy? I mean, is it because the scroll is in God's hand that somebody equivalent to or equal to or same as needs to open it? Well, someone with the right credentials.

And what we'll see in the rest of these verses, actually, is we see some of the descriptions of Christ. And those are the things that make him worthy to open it. We'll look at here in a minute, the next phrase here is, who is worthy to open the book and break its seals? John's going to look around and nobody.

And then Christ comes on the scene and there's a couple of descriptions of Christ that demonstrate his worthiness, qualify his worthiness as the one who can open the scroll. goes down in three and it says, no one in heaven, on earth, or under earth. So that would be Sheol, that would be earth, and that would be heaven. So Christ has to be somewhere else other than heaven. Is that the third heaven then where he's located with God?

Well I think what you see is John is looking around and he's looking around for someone to be able to open this thing and for whatever reason he just doesn't see Christ initially. And so he's just tossed out of his wits and begins to weep. Yeah, I think what you see is he's not seeing Christ on the scene. And there's also a span of time. And between the time, and I don't see the answer to this, He's gripped to the point where he breaks down into tears. Right.

So he's looking around this heavenly scene and he sees the elders and none of them are qualified. And he sees, you know, he's got the four living creatures and none of them are qualified. And then he's got, in the next verse here, he says, I saw a strong angel. He sees this strong angel. I mean, this angel is mighty even in heavenly comparison.

And he's not even worthy to do it. So John's looking around in all the wrong places, basically. And then it takes somebody to say, hey, hey, over here. Something else, too. At two later points, John begins worshipping Angels the wrong thing right? Yeah, so I part of it is is he's just mentally out of context, right? He doesn't realize who is there he doesn't recognize the beings that are there Who are these people? What kind of beings are they? He doesn't have a good orientation.

Yeah, this is all brand new. I mean, you can imagine we're used to what we've got going on here. And, you know, I can look around and say maybe I had a will or something that was bound up in this Greek mindset, and I could look around and say, let's see, Joe, he's qualified to do this because he was the tester and he set this thing up, or my family member. So we've got, in our mindset, we can look around and understand that. John's in a place where this is all foreign, brand new, crazy stuff. So for him to feel out of context shouldn't be too surprising to us.

But at the same time, we're kind of like, hey, John, wake up. I kind of felt the same way the first time I saw New York City, and I'm sure it was different. Right, yeah. You get out from the sticks. Yeah, I know you've got a real interesting story about New York City. Just out of place. You know, I was thinking we go through culture shock. Imagine what kind of culture shock this. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean this is culture shock for John beyond anything we could imagine.

Yeah like when you went over to Uganda and you're looking around and you're going, this is different than what I thought it would be. Yeah. You know I expected it to be not quite like what all the amenities we have here but you know things like water and you know the basic needs and then the culture of the different things that they do with their church services and the different way that people are treated. So I mean you can just, kind of the same thing going to a brand new place but far beyond that because there's stuff up there that's been prophesied about and you've got one idea about it and then you go up there and it's something different that you see. So John's just out of place. Another thought about the question, who is worthy? I almost wonder if that's a procedural question. Kind of like at your wedding where...

Right. Who gives this woman to be married? It's not like there isn't an answer to it. Right. Yeah, and I mean, this is obviously the time that God has chosen, God the Father has chosen for things to start happening. And so a procedural question would make sense. You know, the angel comes forth with it and asks who's worthy to open the seals. And the obvious answer is no one but Christ.

But John doesn't see it at first. Some things in this second verse here, he says, I saw a strong angel. This strong angel, it's used multiple times in the Bible and in none of the cases are we given a specific name for the angel. A lot of people have made guesses that it could be Gabriel, it could be Michael, it could be whatever, but in none of the cases are we told it's a specific angel and in none of the cases Really does it matter, frankly? The angel is there for a specific purpose. And the purpose of this angel here, we're told that he's a strong angel. And the Greek word conveys that he's forceful or deliberate.

What he's doing is not incidental. It's not just, oh, this is kind of happening. He decided at the spur of the moment he'd do it. Or secondary, it's important and it's happening for a reason. The angel's question about who would be able to open it really, I mean, it shows us that it's important that it does get opened. This is important that it happens.

And we must have the right one, the right qualified person to do it. And then on your sheet there, I mean, the key points here are who is worthy. who is fully and uniquely qualified. The book must be open, that's for certain, and its contents must be revealed, that's imperative. But breaking its seals is only to be done by the one who is worthy. No substitutions or compromises are allowed here.

So that's kind of the important stuff that we gather on that verse. And so the question is asked, who's able to do it? And in verse 3, and no one in heaven and no one on earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it. And we just talked about this a moment ago. But I mean, another thing about the angel is the angel's, he's in a position where he's without sin, but he's still not in a position where he's worthy to open the scroll. Even a very powerful and strong heavenly being is not in the right place to do this.

And really the emphasis of what John's writing here, I mean, he's reflecting on what's happened. He's been there, he's seen it, now he's writing on it. The emphasis of his writing here is really that there's only one that is qualified to do this. That's really the big emphasis that we get out of his writing.

But in his initial reaction, he's up there and there's no one to to open the seals and it says in verse 4, then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it. This word weep is the same word that's used if someone were to pass away in New Testament times. The same like mourning, just great wailing and a sense of loss and just really crying as hard as you can cry. And he's doing it because no one was found worthy to open the book or look into it.

You can just see John, like we were talking about a moment ago, looking around. Who's going to do this? He's looking all over the place and finally he understands the importance of this scroll being opened. He understands it's in God's right hand. This is a powerful document. Some great things are going to happen through this.

And he really wants it to be opened, but there's no one to do it. So he just comes to this point where he breaks down and cries, which is really a pretty interesting picture for you to have in your head. It kind of makes me think of what would be some context for us where great sobbing would be what's the matter with you, you know? Some sort of a, you know, birthday or, you know, some sort of a celebration and all of a sudden you break out into great sobbing. It would be extraordinary. And we would say, well, that's kind of weird, you know? Yeah.

Yeah, I think it's also interesting in Luke, it says Luke 45, verse 45, whatever chapter it is, the last chapter, what is it? Anyway, 24, 24-45, and then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. So John was one of those, and Christ actually taught them, and he told them and unlocked scriptures. So I'm sure this was part of what they were told. of Isaiah and Ezekiel and all the rest of them. A lot of this is already there. And so if Jesus unlocked the scriptures to them, then John is remembering most likely some of these things that he was taught. Yeah, yeah, John's in a position where he definitely understands the importance of what's going on up here. But he's still kind of in that out of context, you know, out of place, culture shock, however you want to phrase that, where he doesn't quite get it.

Well, he may know, is that, do you believe that that's the title deed to the earth, is that what it is? I'm sorry? Is that the title deed to the earth? Title deed to the earth. Well, it's the kingdom, so all this has to happen before Christ takes over the kingdom and, you know, so...

The Jews would have seen it as a redeeming of the land back for Israel. That would be at the center of what that would mean to John. This is the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham in Genesis 12. So it's really, really important to John, being a disciple of Jewish and all the rest of it, that now the land and all the rest of this is going and finally happened.

No wonder he's crying. I mean, I would cry in that circumstance. Yeah, it's almost like he feels like the promise isn't going to come true because there's nobody worthy to do this. Yeah. That would be something, have God promised something. And then somehow this isn't happening because he doesn't see anybody stepping up. Right. That's got to be mind-boggling. Yeah. So he's kind of looking at it in a human mindset of who's going to do this. Yeah. God promise him this isn't going to happen. Yeah. What an awful thing. Right. Yeah. Would you feel let down at that point? Almost. Denied. Well, I mean, to feel like God was not fulfilling His promise would be... I mean, that would be the... You know, that shakes you to your core. That would be the deepest of all patterns.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Like, I mean, in the New Testament, in the Gospels, Christ says that, you know, the Son of Man will have to, you know, be rejected by His people and suffer, and on the third day He will rise again. Well, if the third day He didn't rise again, That's trouble. That's trouble. What we celebrate on Resurrection Sunday is that He did, and that what He promised came true. Maybe not shattered to the same point as if Christ had not risen, because then all of history doesn't make sense.

But for God to not come through on one of His promises, That's something that God can't do. People like to say you can't limit God. God can do anything. Well, there are certain limitations that the Bible says that God does have. He's not going to break a promise. God can't break a promise.

John should have probably known that. But in viewing this, he's saying, you know, he's thinking God's not fulfilling the promise or it's not going to happen because nobody can make it right. But, you know, John's out of context. So next one of the elders is going to get him back into context.

So John's there weeping, just crying, and the elder, you know, stop weeping. And this stop weeping is in the imperative moods, and basically it's a command that he must do. You must stop weeping. You must quit it. And he says, behold, so he's looking, this big important word, look intently. Look intently over here.

Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome, so to open the book and its seven seals. So you put yourself in John's shoes, he's there crying and weeping. And the next thing, he's weeping because nobody's going to be able to do this. And Tahir has overcome so as to open the book and it's seven seals. Well, John must have just gone, huh. Thank goodness.

This phrase, the lion that is from the tribe of from the tribe of Judah. And it's interesting that the elder puts it with the lion. So it's not just anyone, but the lion from the tribe of Judah, the specific one. He uses the definite article in front of the word lion. It's a lion from the tribe of Judah he is speaking about. Not just anyone from the tribe of Judah will be qualified, will work for the situation that we have. And Genesis 49 verses 9 and 10 say, Judah is a lion's welt.

From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He couches, he lies down as a lion. And as a lion who dares rouse him up, The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Sheol comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

So he's the father of the tribe. Verse 10 makes it very clear, rulership is intended for this tribe. In those days, the one who had the scepter had the power. There is a singular man from the tribe of Judah who was to come in the future, and this singular man was to be the king who rules. So this is kind of a fulfillment of this prophecy given in Genesis chapter 49, and Christ is fulfilling it, and he is the lion The Lion, from the tribe of Judah, who is to rule and power.

In verse 10 it says, until Sheol comes. The word Sheol, as it shows in most of your translations, comes across as a proper name. And the proper name is nowhere else mentioned in scripture except as a geographical location, but never as a person. So what probably makes more sense in this verse is what the word Sheol actually means.

And it means he comes to whom it belongs. So the scepter will not depart from Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until he comes to whom it belongs. And the obedience of the nations is his. So this kind of brings further light to the prophecy that's going on here. not a physical land, but kind of this meaning of the word, giving the prophecy of Christ's coming. And what we're seeing in Revelation is Christ the Messiah has now come, and to whom the power and authority and glory belongs.

Now it is very clear who the Lion of Judah is. The one and only singular qualified Lion of Judah is Christ. So there's some of our qualifications for who can, one of the qualifications for who is able to break this seal. And one of them is, you know, we're seeing that Christ is this Lion of Judah. Any questions about that from Lion of Judah?

And then the next phrase we see there is the Root of David. It's interesting, Christ is described as the root David. We know from genealogies in the Gospels that Christ definitely was a descendant of David. The root being a physical descendant of David. There's other places in Scripture where Christ is described as a branch of David. And that branch would be more of our physical descendant of David, and the root, Christ being deity, Christ is also the maker of David, the one who was created. So it's interesting that Christ here is described as the root of David, and in other places as the branch of David, showing both his humanity and his deity in this verse.

You know, the genealogies were kept in the temple. Right. And in Hebrews 7.14 it says, For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah. And so that meant that the time of Hebrews was written, you can still go in and check it out. Right, the temple wasn't destroyed until 70 AD when the Romans came in and sacked Jerusalem and kind of just tore it apart.

And all those genealogies were lost and that's another interesting thing about the timing of Christ is He really came right around the last possible moment that he could have, really, for some of these things to make sense. Because once the genealogies are destroyed, there's nothing to prove Christ's descendant from Judah, from David. So for him to come prior to 70 AD really had to happen in order for some of these prophecies to be fulfilled, because otherwise the genealogies were going to be destroyed. If Christ would have came 30 years later, it would have been too late for some of these prophecies to be fulfilled. Also, wasn't David really the first king that God picked? Saul was the king that the people picked.

So David was the king that God picked. And he was a man after God's heart. So this always goes back to the genealogy of David. Because God made that selection actually in his wisdom. David wasn't the eldest son. And God made promises through and to David about the Messiah. So, I mean, it's neat that God came at a time where it could be evident that the Lord was a descendant from Judah, from David. Yeah, a moment ago I was talking about It's in Jeremiah 33, 15 where Christ is prophetically referred to as the branch of David. And here he's referred to as the root of David. I think it's interesting that those two things bring out something that's important on a Resurrection Sunday, and that's Christ's humanity and his deity. Interesting.

And then the last part of our verse there says, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals. And one of the things that should jump out at you right away there is has overcome. It's in the past tense. Christ has already taken care of it. And this word that is used for overcome, it's a Greek word that in Greek times it was a legal term. And it meant to have a legal victory, to win a case. And that's exactly what Christ has done for us. He's won our legal victory. He's taken our place for the punishment that should have been placed on us. Christ took it on Him.

And now we're in a place where we stand victoriously because of the resurrection, because of our risen Lord. And because of that, and because of our placement into the death, burial, and resurrection, seeding and ascension, we have been declared righteous.

And then Paul, here's how Paul starts off the book of Romans, which was the apex of a legal argument. And he says, Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the son of God by power and by resurrection from the dead, according to the spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord. And in verse 3, we see there he says, concerning his son who is born a descendant of David according to the flesh, thus Christ as the physical descendant is the branch of David. And then there at the end, being a son of God according to his deity and by his deity to root the source of David, which we talked about just moments ago.

These are a couple of the getting into these qualifications of who can open these seals. really bring in light as to, you know, what it takes. This word overcome, that's the same word that they're using in the churches for the people in the churches to overcome, right? Right. But there's a significant difference, right, that I'm seeing here. Christ did it on his own. The people in the churches are going to overcome through him. Right. So basically, he defeated Satan.

Like Matthew 4.4. Absolutely.

So, he did it. through Himself and we do it through Him. So even though it's the same word, technically there is a difference. Yeah, Christ is overcome based upon His merits. And He's overcome for us based upon His merits. Our overcoming is in that, what is it, 1 John, I can't remember the chapter and verse, it's 5, 10 I think. where they say, who is he who overcomes but the one who believes in Jesus Christ. I may be paraphrasing that, but that's the idea. Our overcoming is through faith and belief. His overcoming is based upon action and merit.

So sort of in summary of what we see in these verses here is we have John in the heavenly scene. We have him seeing God holding this scroll with the seals on it. The angel proclaiming, asking who's going to be able to open this thing, and John looking around and seeing that it's nobody. His physical, his mental, humanly body just breaks down and can't understand why this is happening. It takes somebody from the heavenly scene to kind of get him back into sorts and let him see that, John, it's obviously Christ.

He's the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, as was prophesied in Genesis 49. He's the root of David. He's perfectly qualified because of what he's done in his time as a human and because of his deity. He's perfectly qualified to open up these seals. And John clearly needed a reminder of that circumstance.

And it's interesting, as we go forward, we can clearly see that Christ is qualified to break the seals and open the book, but the actual breaking of the seals and opening the book will not happen instantly. We must first see the Father pass the book into the hands of the Lamb, and then we must first hear one great song and two declarations about the Lamb. The song and the two declarations will be read next week by means, and will be the means of confirming by heavenly proclamation of these witnesses, so everyone around witnessing that Christ is indeed qualified. Then its contents will be shown for what they are.

And for those great things, we'll have to wait another week. Does anybody have any questions about what we went over this morning or just comments in general? We've got about 10 minutes here if anybody has anything they'd like to talk about or go over. One of the thoughts that struck me going through this is just how radically different a place this is.

Here's John. He has walked with the Lord. Prior to this, he has seen the risen Lord. when the Lord first rose and even in what we see in chapter one where he gets a vision of the risen Christ and he walks, he is on this heavenly scene supposed to record things and it's so different a place that he can't, he has a rough time getting his bearings and for us to think about that's where we have a seat, that's where we're now seated. Yeah.

This is phenomenal stuff. This is stuff that ought to grab us to ponder. My heart's home is at a place that in my current body and mindset I can hardly fathom. Right. Something else that's pretty interesting, I mean, as we talked about previous weeks, that elder, that elder could be any one of us. Grabbing John and saying, hey, you should get this.

I was going to mention that too, that there was no recognition there. John did not recognize the elder. Supposedly you're supposed to be able to recognize others there that you know, right? So there is no recognition there between John and the elder.

There's no emotion either, which is kind of interesting as well. You know, you would think there would be a little bit of... Well, I don't think recognition isn't revealed, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't there. Something else, John's weeping was definitely out of context. But, as we read through this, do we get a sense of what the sentiment was of the people in the heavenly scene? Not really, yeah.

Aside from the elder, who's like shaking and telling them... I'm just wondering pretty soon, though, if it's going to be this worship and all that. John is looking at this hesitation as moments of desperation, of despair, whereas I get the sense of anticipation out of the elder. Hey, don't worry, God's got the answer. Just wait a heavenly moment.

Well, I mean, John still being a human, still having his flesh and sin nature and things of that in the heavenly scene, I mean, he's really in a different place than where the elders are at. Because they no longer have those things. They don't have the sin nature. They don't have the things getting in the way that John would have from understanding this. They see it face to face as it is.

Also, John hasn't been privy to the whole church age and all the time that has. being only a man up to his particular point in time, having suffered greatly to that point in time, and now he's in this heavenly realm seeing things, and probably a lot of people, a lot of things, a lot of things happening.

And is this not the crescendo of everything that has happened from the beginning of Genesis 1-1? This is the zenith of scripture, right? This is where all the suffering has led to. I mean, this is a pretty miraculous point in time. Would you describe it as the crescendo, or as the apex?

It's still kind of leading up to the apex, I think. It's getting close. It's getting close. Yeah, one of the things we've done is to show that Revelation is sort of this musical score that has this, you know, eight ups and downs. And so this is somewhere in one of these upstrokes, early upstrokes, you know. Right. All right, well I'll wrap up here and grab some coffee, huh? Nord, I thank you for our time together this morning.

It's really these future events that we see John viewing, they're future for us, they're, you know, for you, it's already, it's there. It's just so neat to see who our Savior is in a heavenly scene and the power and authority and significance that you have, the qualifications that only you can meet. It's pretty neat to think of us up there as one of those elders, viewing all of this taking place there with you as servants to help you carry out your will. On this Resurrection Sunday, we know that all that's possible only because of what you've done, only because of your persona and your deeds, what you've done for us. It's always just a great celebration to know that that you have taken our place, you've paid our penalty, and that's only the beginning of it because you've also risen us to newness of life and seated us with you in the heavenlies. Just an amazing, wonderful thing, wonderful day. We praise you on this Resurrection Sunday and thank you for the things that you have done and the things that you are doing in us now and will do in the future. In Jesus' name, amen.