Dig Deeper:
THE BEGINNING OF THE END: Chapter 5 takes place within the scene set in chapter 4, in which God's almighty throne is set in the center of the universe where He's in control of all things. As He's worshipped by the 24 elders representing God's Church in both the Old & New Testaments, He holds a scroll with seven seals, representing His plan to make all things new. Yet no creature is able to open it. John weeps at this (v4), because if God's will remains sealed - that is, unrevealed and unexecuted - then there is no hope for God's people to receive salvation from the peril that lies ahead.
BEHOLD THE LION OF JUDAH... I MEAN THE ROOT OF DAVID... MAKE THAT THE LAMB OF GOD: No one analogy is sufficient to describe our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, so the only way John can explain what he experienced in his vision is to use three analogies. As we go through Mark's gospel on Sunday mornings, make a habit of seeing which of these analogies explains Jesus the best in each of the passages we go through.
HOW MANY EYES AND HORNS DOES A LION-LAMB NEED? The lamb is described as having seven horns and seven eyes. Yesterday we looked at how the genre of this book of Revelation helps us interpret the bizarre and fantastic creatures that John describes. Remember that John is experiencing a vision, so the things he sees do not necessarily have to correspond to reality. The number seven has a massive meaning in Revelation, as it represents wholeness and completion. The lamb has seven horns because all through the Old Testament, horns were a symbol of kingly power and might. It has seven eyes because Jesus is full of the Holy Spirit.
THIS WAS A MULTI-PEPPERMINT SERVICE: Our worship services end with a doxology, a word that literally means 'words of glory.' This scene of the Lamb stepping forward to open the seals ends with the singing of not just one doxology, but three of them, starting with the 24 elders (v9-10), who were then joined by a choir of hundreds of millions of angels, until finally every creature in heaven, earth, and under the earth and under the sea all praising God simultaneously.
Follow the AAA Prayer Pattern:
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise (v12)
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Ask God to strengthen you to serve Him (v10)
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
