OK, I think it's gone. If you'd like, please open your
Bibles to Revelation, Chapter five. Revelation, Chapter five. I'd like to speak this afternoon
on the lion and the lamb. I think we all recognize these
names being attributed to our Lord Jesus Christ, but I thought
it would be neat to bring these together in a sermon. So let's start with Revelation
5, verses 1-7. 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 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. And I saw between the
throne, with the four living creatures, and the elders, a
lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which
are the seven spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.
And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him
who sat on the throne." Now, I'm starting in Revelation, but
I'm absolutely not here to teach you prophecy, so I'm going to
steer clear of prophecy. But I wanted to start here because
John saw a vision, and because of the vision, he began to weep.
There did not appear to be anyone who would open this book of seven
seals or the scroll of seven seals. Now, what exactly caused
John to weep, we're not specifically told in the text. However, I
think we can assume that John understood that contained within
this book was matters of heavenly providence and necessity and
that the book needed to be opened. Therefore, he wept because there
was nobody worthy. There must be one worthy who
could open this book to fulfill the things inside. Then one of
the elders said to John, you know, stop weeping. There is
no need to weep, for there is actually one who is worthy to
open the book. The Lord Jesus Christ is above
all men and above all angels in heaven and on earth. He alone
is worthy to open this book. Now, the worthiness of our Lord
is important. He derives his worthiness from many things.
One in particular is named here, though. His worthiness is from
his ability that he has overcome the world. Not only is he God
incarnate, not only is he righteous and impeccable, not only is he
all-knowing and all-powerful, not only did he spawn all of
creation, but he is worthy to open this book because he has
overcome. The verb overcome here in the
NASV, that's the translation I prefer to read out of, is translated
half prevailed in the King James Version, triumphed in the NIV,
and conquered in the ESV. The root of the word is the noun
Nikei in the Greek, and it means victory. I think it's important
that this word overcome. It's the reason he's worthy.
And the root of that is victory. The Lord Jesus Christ is victorious.
He may open the book because he has conquered his foes and
six victorious in the heavenlies. We in the Lord also overcome
the world because of his work and because of the faith delivered
to the saints. The Lord says in John 16, 33,
Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Verse 9 in Revelation 5 here,
if we continued on reading, says that the Lord is worthy because
He was slain and He purchased the saints with His own blood.
This is how He has overcome the world. His incarnation, His obedience
unto death, and finally His resurrection from the dead. The elder in John's
vision refers to the worthy one as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. In the very next verse, John
observes the same ones who appear as a lamb, as if it had been
slain. Are John and the elder referring
to the same individual? Is the lion of the tribe of Judah
and the lamb of God, are they the same person? They must be. For if we continue reading, we
will see that the lamb of John's vision is the very same one who
is worthy to open the book, just as the lion from the tribe of
Judah is worthy to open the book. They're one and the same person.
Remember, the elder said that there was only one worthy of
this, and it is the lion of the tribe of Judah. Therefore, the
Lord Jesus Christ is both the lion and the lamb, even though
these these names, these ideas seem to be mutually exclusive.
One would not at first think that the lion and the lamb were
the same individual. I'd like to examine some ways
in which the Lord fulfills his role as the lion and some ways
in which he fulfills his role as the lamb. I'd like to begin
with the Lord Jesus Christ as the lamb. First, How are we sure
here that Christ is actually the Lamb? John doesn't actually
call out the Lord Jesus here. He just talks about the Lion
of Judah and the Lamb. So I think it's prudent to first
prove that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God, even though
I'm sure we all already know that. So what about the time
when Peter met the Ethiopian eunuch on the road from Jerusalem
to Gaza? Peter overheard the eunuch reading
from Isaiah, and asked if he understood what he read. The
eunuch had been reading from Isaiah 53. This is what he was
reading. Quote, he was led as a sheep
to slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he
does not open his mouth. The eunuch asked Peter to whom
this was referring. He wanted to know if it was the
prophet or if it was somebody else that the Prophet was talking
about. Peter went on to preach the Lord Jesus to him and explain
that the Lamb of God is the Messiah of God, that He is Jesus. Furthermore, the Lord Jesus is
specifically called a lamb by proper name by John the Baptist
in the Gospel of John chapter 1. Quote, The next day he, John
the Baptist, saw Jesus coming to him and said, Behold, the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And again,
a few verses later, he says, John says he looked at Jesus
as he walked and said, Behold, the Lamb of God. So knowing for
sure that Jesus is the Lamb spoken of, we ask, to what party does
he own his name? In other words, to whom is Jesus
the Lamb? The Lord Jesus is the Lamb of
God. He is not the Lamb of man, nor
the Lamb of creation. The particular nature of this
name is important, because when we consider the attributes the
Lamb possesses, such as submission, humility, obedience and docility. I believe it's important to understand
to whom he is these things. The Lord was submissive to the
men who were pursuing him only because he was submissive to
the father. His submissiveness to men was
preconditioned on his submissiveness to the father. Remember what
he told Peter when he was being taken by Judas and the crowd.
Do you think that I cannot appeal to my father and he will at once
put at my disposal more than 12 legions of angels? Christ
did not make such an appeal when they took him, nor did he before
the high council, because it was not the father's will that
he would be spared this great suffering and mockery he experienced.
The gospel described in painful detail some of the afflictions
our Lord suffered. at the hands of men during the
lead up to his death on the cross. During these moments, the Lord
did not make use of his immense power at his fingertips that
he possessed. One particular example after
the Lord confirmed the high priest's accusation that he claimed to
be the son of God. He was before the high priest.
The high priest asked him if he was claiming this, and he
said he was claiming to be the son of God. Matthew records,
they spat in his face and beat him with their fists and others
slapped him and said, prophesy to us, you Christ, who is the
one who hit you? This was no ordinary man they
spit on and hit. This is very God himself incarnate
in the flesh. Yet what was his response to
their attacks? He took all of their violence and mocking and
silence. in silence, in agreement with
Isaiah's prophecy, I gave my back to those who strike me,
and my cheeks to those who pluck out my beard. I did not cover
my face from humiliation and spitting." You know, the spit in somebody's
face is an ultimate insult. There are many different gestures
that men can show to one another to disparage each other. But
very few of these gestures are the same across cultures and
across regions and across time. A hand gesture in one country
might not mean the same thing in another country. A hand gesture
that meant something at the turn of the century might not mean
the same thing today. Yet no matter what one's geological
location or century in which they live, spitting on another
person is recognized as an ultimate insult. We all recognize that
it doesn't matter what time you're in, what country you're in. You
recognize that as an insult. This insult of insults was done
many times to our Lord during his travail. These evil, depraved
men spit upon the Lord of the universe. This was just one of
Christ's humiliations. Yet because the Father willed
this treatment of his Messiah, the Lord did not so much as even
cover his face. This is the very real representation
of humility and submission. Christ was as a lamb before his
pursuers. So in what way does this make
Christ the lamb of God as opposed to the lamb of men? The Lord
is being subjected to violent men here. He offers no powerful
answer. One might conclude then that
he is their lamb. He's being submissive to them.
He's docile to these men. Why, then, wouldn't we conclude
that he is the lamb of these men? We know better, though. We understand
that the Lord was submissive to these men only because he
allowed himself to be humiliated because this was the Father's
will. As he said in the Garden of Gethsemane,
My father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, your
will be done. In fact, all of this was predetermined
to happen by God. Acts 4, verse 28 makes that very
clear. Isaiah 53, 10 says that the Lord
was pleased to crush the Messiah. He was pleased to put him to
grief. Quote, But the Lord was pleased
to crush him, putting him to grief. The Lord was pleased to
crush him. In the Gospel of John, Pilate
says to Jesus, Do you not speak to me? Do you not know that I
have authority to release you and I have authority to crucify
you? What was the Lord's response
to Pilate? You have no authority over me unless it had been given
you from above. So the idea of submission implies
that there is one in authority being submitted to. The marriage
relationship, for instance, the wife has the authority of the
husband, she is submissive to him. The church relationship,
the younger is submissive to the elder. The government relationship,
the citizen is submissive to the government, to the rulers. Each of these authorities requires
submissiveness due to their position above and superior to that of
the subject. This relationship does not exist
between men and God. The Lord Jesus is not submissive
to men because they hold over Him their own worth or power. Only because the Father's will
was such did the Lord submit to men. In this way, the Lord
Jesus is the Lamb of God, not man. Even though He was submissive
in the face of men, He was submissive because the Father willed it.
Neither is He the Lamb of creation. Creation is subject to God in
every way. There is nothing that was created
except that was created through the Lord Jesus Christ. Quote,
all things came into being through him and apart from him, nothing
came into being that has come into being. John 1 3. Furthermore,
the writer of Hebrews states that God has spoken to us in
his son through whom he made the world. Hebrews 1 2. Christ
was there when the world was set in motion. He was also there
when the world was subjected unwillingly to futility, as Paul
records in Romans 8. Creation groans and suffers as
a slave to corruption, awaiting its deliverance. One additional point. Abraham
told his son, after having to sacrifice him on the altar, that
God would provide for himself a lamb of offering. Once again,
it can be said that the Lamb is God's own Lamb. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Lamb of God alone. I'd like to now consider when
the Lord Jesus was the Lamb of God, when he was the Lamb. If you'd like, let's turn to
Revelation 13.8. Now I'm going to read from the
NASB. If you have the King James Version, this will be an interesting
difference. And that's kind of what I want
to call attention to. All who dwell on the earth will
worship him. Speaking about the beast. Everyone whose name has
not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life
of the lamb who has been slain. If you have the King James Version,
you'll notice it is very much different. The order of from
the foundation of the world is very different. The King James
Version reads, and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship
the beast or him whose names are not written in the book of
life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. So in
the NASB, it is the book that is written from the foundation
of the world. And the King James Version, it
is the lamb that is slain from the foundation of the world.
Notice that the descriptor words from the foundation of the world
are ascribed to do two different things in the two renderings.
In one, it is the lamb who was slain from the foundation of
the world. And the other, it is the names that have not been
written in the book from the foundation of the world. This
obviously has much bearing on the question of when the Lord
Jesus Christ was the lamb of God, which is the correct rendering. The literal word order in the
Greek favors the King James Version, which ascribes the phrase from
the foundation of the world to the Lamb slain. There's a translation
on the Internet that I like to check sometimes. It's called
the Net Bible. One of the neat things about
the Net Bible is that for a lot of these verses, they have translator's
notes, transcriber's notes. And unfortunately, we don't have
a lot of that with with some of our translations. But I enjoy
reading some of these notes for some of these harder verses.
And I'm going to quote from that quote, the prepositional phrase
since the foundation of the world is traditionally translated as
a modifier of the immediately preceding phrase in the Greek
text, the lamb who was killed. But it is more likely that the
phrase, since the foundation of the world, modifies the verb
written. Confirmation of this can be found
in Revelation 17, 8, where the phrase, written in the book of
life since the foundation of the world, occurs with no ambiguity. So if we flip over to Revelation
17, 8, you will see that the lamb is actually not mentioned.
But we have the same idea here. that the book of life was written
from the foundation of the world. This seems to give credence to
the translation that ascribes from the foundation of the world
to the book. So an examination of this verse
doesn't necessarily tell us what we're asking when the lamb, when
the Lord Jesus Christ was the lamb of God. So I ask you to
turn to 1 Peter 1 with me. 1 Peter 1, starting in verse 18. Knowing that you were not redeemed
with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way
of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of
a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For he was
foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared
in these last times for the sake of you." The Apostle Peter makes
it unnecessary to delve too deeply in examining the ambiguity of
Revelation 13.8. Christ was foreknown as the slain
lamb before the foundation of the world. He was God's Lamb
even before the world was created. Christ is again most explicitly
the Lamb slain in time on the cross. The culminating point
of His submission was when He was humble before depraved men
unto His death. Isaiah 53.7 records, He was oppressed,
and He was afflicted. Yet He did not open His mouth,
like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent
before its shearers, So he did not open his mouth." In reading
this verse, like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like
a sheep that is silent before its shearers, with the great
technology that we have these days, I went out in search of
some information on how sheeps are sheared. And you may be familiar
with the video website called YouTube.com. I searched for lamb
sheared. And I came across some very interesting
videos. They had some demonstrations
of shearing a lamb. And it was fascinating to see
that the lambs were completely silent when they were being sheared.
The sheep were completely silent. They had this technique of laying
the lamb down on its rump, kind of laying on the person shearing
it. And the sheep would just lay
there and they'd shear it completely silent. It takes about two minutes
to do for a professional. And that's done. It's done. I
thought that a sheep wouldn't just lay there and be sheared.
The shears are loud. You're intruding on the sheep's
personal space. I thought, there's no way that
it's going to just sit there and let this happen. But just
as the text says here, sheep that is silent before it shears.
That's exactly what I saw. And that was our Lord Jesus Christ.
being humiliated and he was silent. Most importantly for us, Christ
fulfills the office of our sin bearer on the cross. The shadow
of this was put into effect in the Old Testament when you had
the sheep, laid your hand on the sheep and transferred the
sin. Our Messiah was a sacrificial
lamb. when our sins were laid upon Him, when our sins were
imputed to Him, when God made Him who knew no sin to be sin
on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God
in Him." 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. So Christ was the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world, and He was the Lamb while
He was on the cross. What of now and in the future?
I'll reiterate that I'm not trying to teach prophecy, but in Revelation,
the Lamb of God is mentioned multiple times. If you search
the Bible for Lamb of God, he is mostly mentioned as that name
in Revelation. In Revelation 19.9, there is
mentioned the marriage supper of the Lamb. And especially telling
scene is observed by John in Revelation. that I think deserves
mention. It's in Revelation chapter 14,
10 and 11. He's speaking about the reprobate
here. He will also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which
is mixed in full strength in the cup of his anger. And he
will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of
the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of
their torment goes up forever and ever. So the Lamb of God
does not cease to be the Lamb at some point. Even when the
wicked are being tormented in hellfire, they are in the presence
of the Lamb. We can look forward to an eternity
of worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ as God's Lamb who shed
his blood for our redemption. So the Lamb of God is shown to
be submissive to the Father and also to men but only because
that is the Father's will. He is silent before his shears.
He did not fight back when taken to his death. He is impeccable,
an unblemished male of perfection and righteousness. He is the
Lamb eternally from the foundation of the world at his death now
and forever. The Lamb of God is worthy of
all praise because of his person and work on behalf of God the
Father and the Saints, and because he has overcome. Such a brief
look at the Lamb of God does him little justice, I believe. But now I'd like to look shortly
at the Lion. I said that I was fascinated
by the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is both the Lamb and the
Lion. So what about the Lion? Using
the same text we read earlier from Revelation, we can establish
that the Lion of Judah is one and the same as the Lamb of God. So reading again from Revelation
5, So how can the Lord Jesus be described both as lamb and as lion. Let's look at some of the attributes
of Jesus the lion. As we showed before, the lion
of the tribe of Judah is worthy of honor and privilege because
he has overcome the world by his work on behalf of the saints,
his righteous attributes, and of course, being truly God and
truly man. Lions are spoken of throughout
scripture as strong creatures. Lions are the leaders. Lions
are the predators. They are most certainly not submissive,
nor are they weak. This disagrees with the idea
of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb. Solomon has a few things
to say about lions in his Proverbs. He says that the lion is stately
and mighty. Proverbs 30, 29 and 30. There
are three things that are stately in their march, even four which
are stately in their walk. The lion which is mighty among
beasts and does not retreat before any. He compares the king's wrath
of the lion in Proverbs 19. The king's wrath is like the
roaring of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass. Proverbs
20. The terror of a king is like
the growling of a lion. He who provokes him to anger
forfeits his own life. Solomon is not writing necessarily
in particular about the Lord Jesus Christ, of course, yet
these attributes of the Lion can be associated with the Lord
when he occupies his position as the Lion of Judah. We showed
that the Lion is, or the Lord, is the Lamb of God. In relation
to God, he is submissive and weak. However, in relation to
the nations, he is strong and to be feared. The Lord meted
out much judgment to the nation of Israel during her days of
apostasy. Through Hosea, the Lord recounts
how he had been their god since the lands of Egypt. He brought
them out of Egypt. And he cared for them in the
wilderness, giving them pasture and satisfying their needs. Yet
they forgot him. What was his answer in Hosea? I will be like a lion to them.
Like a leopard, I will lie in wait by the wayside. I will encounter
them like a bear robbed of her cubs, and I will tear open their
chests. There I will devour them like
a lioness, as a wild beast would tear them." That's the Lord speaking
about himself. The Lion of Judah is fearful
in judgment toward the wicked. He is fearful in his wrath and
great strength. The Lion is also protective of
his own. This is from Isaiah chapter 32. As the lion or the
young lion growls over his prey, against which a band of shepherds
is called out, he will not be terrified at their voice, nor
disturbed at their noise. So will the Lord of Hosts come
down to wage war on Mount Zion and on its hill, like flying
birds, so the Lord of Hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will protect
and deliver it. He will pass over and rescue
it. The obvious first application of this passage is to the nation
of Israel when it looked to Egypt for help. The Lord reprimanded
them many times, saying that he was their strength in time
of need. Egypt's power was nothing in relation to God's own power. The Israelites should have known
and remembered this from their own history. In the same way, God jealously
defended Israel over and over as a lion. over his praise. So too does the Lord jealously
protect the people of God, the elect people of God throughout
the nations. Notice the contrast, though. A lion can tear its enemy
to pieces. A lion can also protect its friends
from those who pursue them. To one camp, that of the wicked,
the Lord Jesus is a lion of judgment without mercy. He is an enemy
warrior to them. To the other camp, he loves them.
He protects them. As if we've all seen lions protect
their pack. He protects us. He protects the
elect people of God. I find it fascinating the Lord
has given so many different names and offices throughout scripture,
and especially that of the lion and the lamb interested me, and
I thought it would be I thought it'd be interesting to study
how the lion, how the Lord is the lion and how he is the lamb
and how these two offices interact with one another. The Lord Jesus fulfilled his
role as God's sinless lamb who took away our sins through submissiveness
and weakness. Yet he also fulfills his role
as the Lion of Judah who is severe toward those he judges to be
wicked and protective of those he loves. I believe we have a
wonderful multifaceted God, one who has many roles, many offices,
and the offices that he fulfills are in relation to who he's fulfilling
them for. And the line of Judah is severe.
He's strong. He protects his own. And he will
judge those who are wicked. The Lamb of God was weak, was
submissive. And he was that for his elect.
And he was that to God his father for our sakes. You know, I think many view Christ
as a lamb these days. They don't They don't recognize
him as anything other than a submissive God who is waiting to be asked
into people's lives, waiting to be accepted. They don't recognize him as strength.
They don't recognize him as sovereignty. They don't recognize him as a
lion. To wrap this up, there were some
other scriptures that I kind of wanted to handle, but I didn't
get a chance to. In the Old Testament, there's
discussion of the lion roaring and his people following him. And I read some commentaries
on those verses, and they all seem to agree that the roaring
of the lion was the gospel. And when his people heard his
roaring, when they heard his gospel, they followed him. And
I think that's, I hope that's what all of us have done is we've
heard the roaring of our lion, our Lord Jesus, and all that
he's done for us and how strong he is. And we follow him. Thank
God for that. And thank you all for listening.