Tag Archives: Revelation chapter five

Concluding Thoughts on the Vision of Rev 4 and 5 (Enthronement 9)

Considering the biblical evidence regarding worship, how does the typical worship service in your local church compare? Is it God centered or is it centered on the worshipers? Does it emphasize what God has done or is doing (creation, cross, daily promptings of the Spirit) or what we must do? In the Bible, worship is always centered on what God has done rather than what we must do. And it is that God focus that unleashed the power of God’s original act (creation, Exodus, resurrection of Jesus) in the later situation (Exodus 15, 2 Chronicles 20, Daniel 9). When Israel recounted the mighty acts of God in their past, He acted mightily for them in the present.

Understanding and practicing this truth is the secret of unleashing God’s power in a local church. If worship seems powerless, it is because it is not centered in God. Worship is not about us, it is about God. Worship is not telling each other what we should do, it is reminding each other of what God has done.

What is the relationship between Revelation 4-5 and the Sabbath? In the vision of the heavenly throne room, worship is presented to God and the Lamb on account of creation (Rev. 4:11) and salvation (Rev. 5:9-10). In the Old Testament the Sabbath is the memorial of both creation (Exod. 20:11) and the Exodus, the great act of Israel’s salvation (Deut. 5:15). So the Sabbath points us to the mighty acts of God in creation, the Exodus and the cross.

The Sabbath reminds us that creation is solely God’s work, we had nothing to do with it, yet it affects everything we do. God made us free to live, choose, and create. The Sabbath reminds us of the Exodus, which is the model for our personal salvation. And Sabbath reminds us of the cross, where God demonstrated that He is safe to be in relationship. He does not even strike back at His creatures who are torturing Him and putting Him to death. Keeping the Sabbath is not about earning merit with God, it is a rehearsal of the mighty acts of God in creation, the Exodus and the cross. When we remember the Sabbath we are also remembering the great things God has done for us, and this is the foundation of true worship.

The Unspoken Backdrop to Revelation Four and Five (Enthronement 8)

A striking aspect of Revelation four and five is the total absence of Satan or his influence in the heavenly courts, in spite of the fact that the heavenly crisis of chapter five must have something to do with the cosmic conflict. As a character in the story of Revelation’s vision, Satan makes his first appearance in the context of the fifth trumpet. He is the leader of the demonic hosts in the fifth trumpet (the evidence for calling them “demonic” will appear when we get to chapter nine), the one called Apollyon and Abaddon (Rev. 9:11). But he plays no such direct role in chapters four and five.

But the role of Satan in Rev. 4-5 is clarified in Revelation twelve. The main character of the drama in Revelation twelve is the dragon. The dragon lies in wait for the birth of the male child in order to destroy him (Rev. 12:5). The dragon then makes war in heaven with Michael (another image of Jesus Christ) and loses (Rev 12:7-8). The dragon is then defined as Satan, the ancient serpent and the devil (Rev. 12:9). Then in Revelation 12:10 the dragon is described as the “accuser of the brethren.” He accuses them “day and night.”

Revelation 12:10 summarizes the scene of chapter five in terms of Christ’s coming to power. A loud voice in heaven proclaims “the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ.” But His coming to power is paired with the casting down of Satan, the one who accuses the brothers “day and night.” This is strikingly reminiscent of Revelation 4:8, where the four living creature sing the triple holy song “day and night.” This parallel is not an accident. The constant praise of the four living creatures is not a mindless ritual, as might seem at first to be the case. They do this in order to drown out the constant accusations of Satan, which are no longer heard or seen in the chapter. Chapter twelve actually sets the context for chapters four and five.

Satan is absent from the scene of chapters 4-5 because he has already been cast down on account of the cross. The casting down is not a military or physical matter. Satan is cast down as the accuser of the brothers and sisters. He is no longer welcome in heaven because his accusations are no longer believed there. The cross clarifies both the character of God and the reality of the human race. From that time on the heavenly intelligences fully trust in God and see how Satan is seeking to tear down the human race. So by the time the Lamb arrives in the heavenly court to be enthroned there (fifty days after the cross) the heavenly court is freed of the presence and influence of Satan. The crisis his accusations have caused is now resolved by the Lamb that was slain. Jesus Christ is enthroned because the accuser has been cast down. That is why Satan is totally absent from the vision of Revelation four and five.

The Divinity of the Lamb (Enthronement 7)

We noted in the previous blog that Jesus Christ in the New Testament is included by the apostles in the one God of Judaism. He is not a “second God,” neither is He the Father Himself. He is somehow distinct from the Father, yet in the full sense included in all that monotheism asserts about the distinctions between the one God and everything else (John 1:1-5, 18). This led the church fathers to the traditional formulation of the Trinity, in which God is one, yet in another sense is three. Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully human, one person with two natures. The word trinity does not appear in the Bible, but the traditional doctrine is thoroughly grounded in the evidence of the New Testament text.

One of the strongest biblical evidences for the divinity or deity of Christ is found in the progression of five hymns in the vision of Revelation four and five. The first two hymns are found in chapter four (Rev. 4:8, 11). In them praise is offered to the One sitting on the throne because He created all things. The third and fourth hymns, on the other hand, are offered in praise of the Lamb (Rev 5:9-12) because He was slain and purchased humanity for God. The fifth hymn offers worship to both the One sitting on the throne and to the Lamb (Rev. 5:13). The fifth hymn is the clear climax of the series, in which the Lamb joins the Father on His throne and receives the acclamation of the whole universe.

A second feature of these hymns also highlights the climactic nature of fifth hymn (5:13). The last hymn is the climax of a grand crescendo of singing. Each hymn is offered by a larger and larger group of singers. The first hymn is sung by the four living creatures (Rev. 4:8). The second hymn is sung by the twenty-four elders (4:11). The third hymn is sung by both the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders together (Rev 5:9-10). The fourth hymn is sung by more than a hundred million angels (Rev. 5:11-12). The fifth hymn is sung by every creature in the entire universe (Rev 5:13). So the fifth hymn is the climax of a great crescendo as all attention focuses on the throne, affirming the divinity of the Lamb.

Why does the divinity of Christ matter? Because if Jesus is fully God, then the human life He lived on this earth is the most important event in the history of the human race. God Himself came down and lived among us (Rev 1:1-3, 14). In the humanity of Jesus we see the character of God on full display in a form that we can understand. This means that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the clearest revelation of God that human beings have ever had or ever could have. It means that when we have seen Jesus, we have truly seen the Father as well. If the Father Himself came down to earth and lived a human existence among us, He would be no different than Jesus was. Jesus Christ clarifies the picture of God in a way that nothing else possibly could.

The Worthiness of the Lamb (Enthronement 6)

The Lamb is brought forward as the one who is uniquely worthy to open the scroll (Rev. 5:5-6). The key qualities of the Lamb in the chapter are two-fold. The Lamb is slain, which is a pointer to His human nature. On the other hand, the Lamb is worshiped along with the one sitting on the throne (Rev. 5:13). This points to His divinity. The Lamb is represented as both human and divine, a God-man who is unique in all of history. Of all created beings (see John 1:3, 14, where it is not Jesus the person who is created, but His human nature), only the human Jesus could fully reveal the character of God and atone for human sin, because he was fully equal with God. So embedded in this symbolic vision is a profound Christology, a doctrine of Jesus Christ, who is both fully human and fully divine.

It is unlikely that the earliest Christians had the kind of sophisticated and complicated view of Jesus that the church fathers developed in the fourth and fifth centuries. But one can see the essential elements of that sophisticated view in Revelation five. Jesus is one person with two natures, one fully divine and the other fully human. It is not clear from Revelation five alone whether Jesus’ divinity was inherent to His person or whether it was somehow bestowed upon him at His enthronement. That Jesus’ divine nature was there from eternity and that His person was distinct from the Father is outlined in the opening chapter of John (John 1:1-5, 18).

The earliest Christians were Jews, strict monotheists. How did they come to accommodate a second “person” (the Greek word persona did not originally carry all the weight that the church fathers put on it) into their view of God? It is clear that they did not think in terms of two gods, that would have been a total abandonment of Judaism, something they were clearly not willing to do (Acts 15). But as they became convinced of the two natures of Jesus, they included Him in their understanding of the one God of Judaism.

This is clear the attributes applied to Jesus in the New Testament. The one God of Judaism was distinguished from everything else in the universe by four characteristics. He was the sole Creator, the unique Ruler of the universe, He had a unique name and was the only One worthy of worship. In the New Testament, all four of these characteristics are applied to Jesus. Two of these are clearly described in Revelation five. The Lamb is acclaimed as in the midst of the throne, sharing in the rulership of the universe, and is clearly considered worthy of worship (Rev 5:12-13), something that is appropriate only with God (Rev 19:10). Jesus is seen as distinct from the angels and worthy of the attributes Jews attributed only to God (Rev 19:10; 22:9).